Author

Brian Kenney

Review

Peril in Pink

by Brian Kenney

We’re in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley where Jess and her business partner, Kat, are opening the Pearl, a B&B in their hometown that they’ve been working on, and investing in, for months. Headlining the opening is Lars, an ex-boyfriend of Jess’s who went on to win an American Idol-like reality competition and has morphed into a full-blown celebrity (and a bit of a jerk). He’s back home to help kick the celebrations into high gear, and generate plenty of press. Except when Lars’ stepdad-now-manager is found drowned, Lars becomes the prime suspect, the press starts acting more like TMZ than E! News, and the guests quickly get sick of being under lockdown. To save the weekend, their reputation, and keep Lars out of jail, Jess goes into overdrive, investigating every possible lead. Featuring a whole lot of twenty-somethings, plenty of integration with technology, lots of lovemaking, and a very busy bartender, this is a cozy for and about a new generation of readers—but appealing to most everyone. A charming town, quirky friendships, and plenty of intrigue will keep readers on their toes.

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Review

Kill for Me, Kill for You

by Brian Kenney

Amanda and Wendy meet on Manhattan’s west side at a bereavement group for parents. They’ve both lost young daughters to horrific deaths, and believe that the cops, who have identified the perpetrators but lack the evidence to arrest them, are moving way too slowly. Primed for revenge—no mother should go through what they’ve experienced—they’re ready to take matters into their own hands. But if they kill their perps, they know the cops will be all over them, viewing them as prime suspects. What if they help each other out and switch murderers—I’ll kill yours, you kill mine—a plan that will provide them with air-tight alibis? Just as I was ready to sit back and enjoy a new take on Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train (and the subsequent Hitchcock film), the narrative suddenly veers off-road—way off-road—introducing another character whose story helps catapult the novel into something even darker, more terrifying, and totally gripping. Thriller fans will absolutely love being taken on this wild ride, where nothing is what it seems and no one can be trusted. Brilliant and sharp, ingenious and disturbing. For fans of The Silent Patient and The Girl Who Was Taken.

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Review

The Last Word

by Brian Kenney

Thirty-something Winter Snow—yes, that’s her real name—is self-employed as an obituary writer, a pretty genius career for a cozy hero and a nice break from bakeries, cafes, and fromageries. Based in posh Ridgefield, Connecticut, Winter is no stranger to loss, and believes that her obituaries “facilitate acceptance for the grief-stricken.” But when Leocadia Arlington—one of Ridgefield’s grand dames, and very much alive—asks Winter to compose her obituary by the week’s end, Winter is surprised but agrees to take her on. But surprise turns to horror when Winter finds Mrs. Arlington dead, and Winter, naturally, is the prime suspect. When reading a new cozy, I’m on the lookout for two things: character and community. I’m happy to report that Winter is a wonderful leading character: quirky, disarmingly frank, with a touch of irony. The delightful community includes Winter’s foodie Uncle Richard; journalist Scoop; Officer Kip, “tall, good-looking in a brooding way, with dark wavy hair and a trim fit body”; Mrs. Arlington’s family members; a corrupt book club (it happens!); along with neighbors and friends. Lewis has created a fun, playful world—despite a murder—that many cozy readers will love to return to. And did I mention Diva, the Great Pyrenees puppy? Totally adorable.

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Review

Owning Up

by Brian Kenney

George Pelecanos is such a wonderful writer—word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph—that you can finish any of these stories only to wonder: how did I get here so fast? In these four novellas, Pelecanos mines familiar territory—Washington D.C. and Baltimore—areas he has explored in his 20-plus novels and as a film and television producer and writer who has worked on the HBO series The Wire, Treme, and more. In the first story, “The Amusement Machine,” two men—one white, Ira; and one Black, Jerrod—meet at a book group in jail and form a tentative friendship that extends beyond prison. Until a foolhardy act on Ira’s part, which nearly implicates Jerrod, seemingly destroys whatever relationship they might have. In “The No-Knock,” a family’s home is invaded by the police operating under a no-knock warrant, which allows the cops to force entry without identifying themselves. They are seeking one of the teenage sons, Vince, who eventually turns himself in, guilty of robbing a marijuana dealer. But while the son never again engages in criminal activities, the violence and disruption of the home invasion is something the father can never get past, with it haunting him for the rest of his life. Novellas are great for book groups, especially today when people are often intimidated by a 300-page novel, but crime fiction offers few novella choices. This collection is one of the very best.

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Review

The Excitements

by Brian Kenney

Clear your calendar, shut off all the devices, and order in some take-out. This lovely, witty story about the two, nearly 100-year-old, Wilson sisters and their many escapades—they call them “excitements”—is that captivating. And it succeeds without an ounce of the treacly cuteness so often encountered in crime fiction featuring female nonagenarians. The sisters are well-known as World War II veterans—Josephine served in the Women’s Royal Navy and Penny in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry—and their wartime efforts seem innocent enough. But the truth is far more complicated, and each woman has a complex history that lives on into the present. As they head off to Paris to receive the Légion d’honneur with their beloved great-nephew, Archie (why can’t he find a nice husband, they wonder?), the story moves between the present and the war years, revealing the double lives of the sisters. While the novel takes several serious turns—even if their motto is toujours gai!, cheerful under all circumstances!—it always returns to its essence: a joyous, uplifting tale that looks forward fearlessly. For readers who enjoyed Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, Killers of a Certain Age, and The Thursday Murder Club.

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Review

Missing White Woman

by Brian Kenney

This is one wild, suspense-driven tale, equally rich in characterization and plot. Breanna is on a mini-vacation with her new boyfriend, Ty, staying in a beautiful brownstone in Jersey City while touring Manhattan. Ty’s thought of everything, and the long weekend is 95 percent perfect, except for that five percent when Ty won’t stop with the work calls. But when Bree wakes up on their final morning, she can’t find Ty anywhere. What she does discover, strewn in the foyer, is the bloody corpse of a young woman that turns out to be Janelle, who has been missing for days. From here, things really take off, with Bree’s best friend—they’ve been estranged since college—arriving on the scene (she’s a take-charge criminal attorney), while Billie, a super-successful makeup influencer, rallies her thousands of followers into seeking #Justice4Janelle. Garrett does a great job of tracking the racism Bree experiences, from the neighbors’ microaggressions to the stereotypes purported about Ty to the national frenzy that only a white woman’s disappearance could generate (and thus the book’s title). A great cast, a wide-reaching narrative, and a resolution that will leave readers ruminating for days. Can’t wait to introduce this to a book group

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Review

Trouble in Queenstown

by Brian Kenney

This new title from Delia Pitts—author of the Ross Agency series—offers everything that fans of detective fiction are looking for. Vandy Myrick, a former cop—she joined the force to impress her cop dad—is now a detective in Queenstown, New Jersey, her hometown, where she sets up a firm with BFF and trial lawyer Elissa. They’re two Black women in a town where racism, “casual like flip flops down the Jersey shore,” is always bubbling right under the surface. Vandy’s work is mainly divorce cases, and when she gets a call from the Mayor’s nephew—Queenstown royalty—asking her to track his wife, she just assumes that one more “Q-Town” marriage has hit the rocks. Except this gig quickly spins out of control when Vandy walks in on a double homicide, one that the powers that be are all too eager to shut down. Pitts has written a strong narrative that ricochets from Vandy’s tragic past to her gutsy present, keeping readers totally engaged to the very last page…and eager for more. Fans of Robyn Gigl’s thrillers will enjoy visiting New Jersey with Vandy.

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Review

How to Solve Your Own Murder.

by Brian Kenney

Very British, very country, and a whole lot of fun. Back in 1965, when she was 17, Frances was told by a fortune teller that her future “contains dry bones. Your slow demise begins when you hold the queen in the palm of one hand. Beware the bird…But daughters are the key to justice.” While most teens would shrug it off, Frances became obsessed with the prediction, and devoted much of her life to warding off the prophecy. Jump to today—the story flips back and forth—and meet 25-year-old Annie, an aspiring mystery writer and Frances’s great niece. She’s been summoned to the village of Castle Knoll for a meeting with Great Aunt Frances and a discussion about “the responsibilities that will come with being sole benefactor of her estate and assets.” So off Annie heads to Castle Knoll, meets up with a motley crew of relatives, and quickly manages to arm herself with Great Aunt Frances’s extensive diaries that she discovers in the library. This novel is marvelously well-balanced, humorous, and lighthearted while at the same time dark and macabre, with two great characters—Frances and Annie—who share the narrative from opposite ends. Fans of Anthony Horowitz and Richard Osman will find much to enjoy here

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Review

Ways and Means

by Brian Kenney

It’s thrilling to discover a debut this brilliant, full of wonderment, humor, and above all, love. Alistair McCabe, gay and handsome, smart and funny, arrives at New York University from upstate to pursue his destiny as a financial whiz kid. He’s got the talent, the obsessiveness, the drive—and the desire to help his Mom, who has done so much for him. Sweet, right? But being a brainiac isn’t quite enough—you need to fit in with the finance bros—and a much coveted banking internship leads to, well, nothing. Except for more debt. Fortunately, there’s Mark and Elijah, a couple ten years or so older who take him in as their third paramour (we’re spared “throuple”). Mark, a sort of small-time trust funder, and Elijah have their own set of troubles, which they’re happy to cast aside whenever Alistair visits. Alistair is eventually offered an opportunity to work for an elusive, sinister billionaire and he jumps at it while continuing to investigate the mogul’s wealth. What he discovers catapults him out of the life he had come to know into one both terrifying and wildly anxiety producing. Lefferts moves around the narrative with ease, visiting family and friends, picking up a character or two then setting them down. Slowly these scenes fall together and this expansive novel becomes far greater than the sum of its parts. Comparisons to Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life are inevitable, and in both books there is plenty that horrifies. But also, like A Little Life, it’s ultimately friendship that saves the characters. And us as well.

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Review

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023

by Brian Kenney

It wasn’t until I began reviewing for firstCLUE that I read mystery anthologies. Now I’m a firm believer that everyone needs an anthology such as this one on their bedside table. The many stories collected here provide the perfect opportunity to relax, unwind, and travel near and far. As Unger writes in the introduction: “…this form [short fiction] has a special kind of magic, the ability to transport you quickly, intensely, to capture character, time, place, and story with immediacy and deliver it all with a punch.” And where our expectation of crime novels is that everything will be resolved in the end, short stories often finish more enigmatically, giving readers something to ruminate about. Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier, for example, transports us, in “Ripen,” to the Virgin Islands, where a politician’s arrogance leads to his dramatic downfall. A. J. Jacono’s “When We Remember Zion” tells the intensely chilling tale of a mentally ill abductor who delivers his hostage’s baby. We accompany an older veteran—now a professional criminal—who tries to escape from a botched job by returning to his childhood cabin in James A. Hearn’s “Home is the Hunter.” “New York Blues Redux,” by William Boyle, depicts a Brooklyn dive bar that becomes the setting for a night of tragedy. Congratulations to editors Unger and Cha for producing a volume as rich in diversity as it is compelling in its narratives.

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