Author

Brian Kenney

Review

Puzzle Me a Murder

by Brian Kenney

Call me old-fashioned, but when I’m reading a cozy, I like a corpse to make an appearance in the first quarter of the book. Puzzle Me a Murder delivers not just a corpse, but the body of George Milliner, the husband of Ruby, who just happens to be best friends with Alice Pepper. And Alice is totally at the center of this book. Director of the local public library (job and library are portrayed 100 percent accurately), Alice rules from her huge, old Craftsman house, her settlement in the divorce, surrounded by friends and family. So when George is murdered—he was last seen in his house chasing a young, scantily clad, blonde-haired woman—Alice, Ruby, and others spring into action, and having a granddaughter on the police force certainly helps. While cooking, eating, and working on puzzles provide the crew with some down time, Alice and Ruby are more often out and about ferreting information to help determine George’s murderer. What they find is shocking: corruption in local government, blackmail from vendors, and the harassment of some of West Hazel, Oregon’s leading citizens. There’s a buoyancy to this book that makes it a delight to read, while still capturing the evil that dwells among us. I am so looking forward to another Alice adventure.

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Review

Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain

by Brian Kenney

In the first book in the series, Kalmann, we were introduced to our hero, a young man who’s neurodivergent—although he uses many terms to describe himself—and who works as the self-appointed sheriff of Raufarhöfn, a fishing village in northern Iceland. His world is contained—he lives with his mother, his best friend he sees only online—but his life is still fraught with dangers, from fishing on the Greenland Sea to encounters with polar bears. Kalmann remains well regarded in his village, and it is his sense of humor that often helps him survive. But in Kalmann and the Sleeping Mountain, we are stunned to find Kalmann in West Virginia, visiting his Dad, whom he has never met before, and getting swept up, along with his Dad and his MAGA buddies, in the January 6, 2021 riots in the Capitol Building. Incredible! While he is soon put on a plane back to Iceland by a kindly FBI agent, Kalmann’s world is changing. His beloved grandfather has recently died, and, Kalmann learns, he may well have been a Russian spy. Could he have been murdered in his nursing home? Another possible murder in the village, and a risky trip to an abandoned U.S. radar station with an aunt, forces Kalmann to rethink his family and village and his role in both. Both heart-rendering and hilarious, “there is no need to worry” as Kalmann famously declares. “Kalmann is in charge.”

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Review

We Used to Live Here

by Brian Kenney

Hands down the creepiest book we’ve reviewed this year, if not in several years. Charlie and Eve are a gay couple who make their living buying and flipping old houses. Their current project is in the rural Pacific Northwest, far from their roots on the East Coast. A family drops by one afternoon
—Eve is all alone while Charlie is running errands—and the father says he grew up in the house and could he show the kids around? It takes a bit of cajoling, but Eve eventually gives in—huge mistake—because once they’re in the house, the weird and the worrisome begin to present themselves. The youngest daughter disappears. The basement is home to supernatural presences. Objects vanish. Charlie returns, although she doesn’t offer the support Eve needs. As the day goes on, it becomes clear that the family can’t leave—a winter storm has descended on them—but it gradually becomes even clearer that they have no intention of leaving. Crazily suspenseful, but a tad more horror than mystery, the story moves at a fast clip as the reader slips from one reality to another in this accomplished debut. To be released as a Netflix original film starring Blake Lively.

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Review

After Oz

by Brian Kenney

A wonderful addition to the literature of The Wizard of Oz, this novel focuses on 11-year-old Dorothy Gale, “dreamy, distant, difficult,” and her eventual return to Kansas via a pumpkin field, where she is found sleeping. Poor Dorothy didn’t know the drill—she was insistent on the reality of the fantastic land she had left, with “talking beasts, flying monkeys, and a wizard”—when she should have been accusing the Oz citizenry as being ungodly pagans. But it’s Dorothy’s admission that she murdered (actually melted) the witch, and the discovery that a leading, witch-like townswoman, Alvina, has also been murdered (melted by lye), that sends Dorothy off to the Topeka Insane Asylum. Fortunately for Dorothy, the town is visited by Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford, a student of William James, who faces the misogyny and Christianity of the townspeople to learn the truth of what really happened to Dorothy Gale. A delight from start to finish.

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Review

The Unwedding

by Brian Kenney

Things couldn’t get much worse for Ellery. She’s all alone at a super-expensive resort in Big Sur where she and her husband were meant to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, except his mid-life crisis blossomed into a full blown decision to divorce (new girlfriend and motorcycle), and, well, the reservations aren’t refundable. Then it turns out that most of the other guests are there to celebrate a wedding. How annoying is that? Ellery misses her kids terribly. And when she decides to take an evening dip in the infinity pool, she finds the groom beat her to it, except he’s floating face down, fully dressed, with a huge gash in the back of his head. Time to call the cops, but a huge storm has moved through, triggering a mudslide that completely isolates the hotel, cutting off cell service. Yup, we are in a closed-resort novel. But, fortunately for Ellery, she makes some friends, and together they set out to investigate what’s really going on in this Christie-like setting. This is Condie’s adult debut (she is author of the YA “Matched” series) and she does a magnificent job of balancing the search for a murderer with exploring Ellery’s rich internal life. A gift to readers who enjoy closed environments and unsettling outcomes.

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Review

It’s Elementary

by Brian Kenney

Mavis is one busy single mom. Pearl, her seven-year-old, is smart, funny, and chatty. Her ex, who tries to be a good dad, is a musician who is regularly on tour across the country. The non-profit Mavis works for has the bad habit of skipping her over for promotions. And Trish, the incredibly bossy head of the PTA—when will a house fall on her?—tricks Mavis, as one of only a handful of Black moms at the school, to head its DEI committee. “DEI means diversity, equity, and inclusion, sure,” Mavis says. “But it also means free labor to be given willingly to fix problems we didn’t create.” The novel is barely underway when the new school principal suddenly disappears while Mavis, while walking her dog late at night, passes the school, only to see Trish loading up her car with cleaning supplies and heavy plastic bags…filled with the remains of Principal Smith? Joining forces with Jack, the “superhot” school psychologist, Mavis sets off to find the lost principal. Beautifully written and well-paced, this delightful novel explores the many friends and family who surround Mavis, the struggles she experiences, and the love that flows throughout. Elise Bryant is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of the young adult novels Happily Ever Afters, One True Loves, and Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling.

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Review

Close to Death

by Brian Kenney

This fifth in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series is a delightful homage to the classic crime fiction of Agatha Christie’s era, complete with a “locked room” episode and a tight little community. With just six homes, nestled among beautiful gardens, it’s hard to imagine that Riverside Close is actually located in London. But then the Kentworthy family moves into the Close with their noisy, brutish children, four cars that block the neighbors from parking, and plans to replace a garden with—shudder—a pool, changing room, and bar. Compromise would not seem to be in finance-bro Charles Kentworthy’s make-up, and his oafish behavior provokes the remaining five occupants—each odder than the one before—to swear that they could kill him. Which one of them does. In the very dramatic method of shooting him with a crossbow. Here things really take off as Detective Daniel Hawthorne takes up the case, with Horowitz more of a background player than in previous books, authoring a third-person narrative. Newcomers should not feel intimidated by the series and feel free to jump in here. The compelling plot, wonderful location, and marvelous shots of humor will be sure to pick up the reader and buoy them along.

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Review

Red River Road

by Brian Kenney

Do you love books that take you to new places, especially if it’s unlikely you will ever visit them in person? Me too. And Downes’s thriller does exactly that, bringing us to the dramatic coastal highways of Western Australia and setting us down among the “vanlifers,” who are exploring the coast while living out of their souped-up vehicles. But this isn’t a Fodor’s Travel Guide. We’re following Katy Sweeney, who’s hit the road in hopes of finding her sister, Phoebe, a sort of solo travel influencer, who disappeared a year ago. The case has grown cold and the cops have all but given up when Katy meets Beth, another young woman who has her own reasons for disappearing into the anonymous van world, a world often hostile to women. The two pair up—Beth is pretty destitute—and use Phoebe’s social-media posts to retrace her steps along the coast. Documenting a true road trip from hell, this fast-moving suspense novel eventually arrives at a resolution that is both terrifying and shocking, turning everything we have come to believe inside out and upside down.

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Review

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco

by Brian Kenney

Readers in search of a classic mystery need look no further, and if you have a fascination with San Francisco, as I do, then you’re doubly in luck. Capri Sanzio is the granddaughter of one of the City’s most famous serial killers: William “Overkill Bill” Sanzio, who’s now deceased. So named because “he bashed his three victims on the head, stabbed them to death, then sliced their throats after the fact.” A thorough kind of guy. Capri’s parents are shamed by their relationship to Bill, but Capri—who believes he was innocent—has a far more complicated response: she runs a highly successful business providing tours related to San Francisco’s serial killers (with herself, as Bill’s granddaughter, one of the prime attractions). But suddenly there’s a copycat of Bill murdering San Francisco women—one of whom is closely related to Capri—and the cops have made it clear that Capri or her daughter (herself a doctoral student in criminology) are their two prime suspects. With excursions from high society to the working class, and richly detailed portraits of San Francisco, this fascinating, fast-paced novel should find a broad readership. More, please?

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Review

A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death

by Brian Kenney

Invincible is the adjective that comes most readily to mind when describing Maddy Montgomery, the hero in Valerie Burns’ Baker Street series. She’s relocated to the tiny, lake-front, Michigan town of New Bison, which is hundreds of miles from the closest Jimmy Choo boutique. Her nemesis in love has suddenly made an appearance, trashing Maddy all over social media. And while the bakery she inherited from her great-aunt is turning into a rip-roaring success, it attracts more dead bodies than the city morgue. Yes, there is a lot going on in this series, and we can’t forget the role of Baby, Maddy’s English Mastiff, who’s as expressive as any human. But one murder is rarely enough, and when a body washes ashore, it becomes clear that someone is out to suppress some important information. Once again Maddy needs to draw on the expertise of her great-aunt’s friends, the Baker Street Irregulars. This series has it all: fun, fashion, and friendship.

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