Author

Brian Kenney

Review

Death by Demo: A Home Renovation Mystery

by Brian Kenney

In cozies, we often meet our hero when they are in a state of flux, and Death by Demo is a classic example. Jaime is recently divorced—her husband was having an affair—and the prenuptial she signed without reading has left her nearly broke. She and her ne’er-do-well ex-husband ran a highly successful construction and interior design firm in Charlotte, NC, but now all she’s left with is a dilapidated Queen Anne style house and her best friend’s couch. While everyone expects Jaime to sell the house, she takes a certain liking to it and decides to renovate it on her own. That’s part of what makes this book so interesting, watching Jamie—who’s a real carpenter—put the historic home back together while she ruminates on how her life fell apart. But in the midst of some serious demolition, she comes across a body walled up in her new home. Tragic, for sure. But also annoying, as the house is now declared a crime scene and Jaime is forced to abandon the one thing that’s keeping her sane. Until it dawns on her that maybe law enforcement needs a little help. Well-written, nicely plotted, with great insights into the renovation industry and a cute and sensitive next door neighbor. Cozy readers will delight in this discovery.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The City of the Living

by Brian Kenney

A deep, dark descent into one of Italy’s most disturbing true crimes, drawing on actual documents, news reports, and interviews to tell the story. Billed by the publisher as a “spellbinding literary thriller”—it’s certainly spellbinding, but no one’s definition of a thriller—this is a slow, methodical, layered journey into the murder of 23-year-old Luca Varani. The method? Torture. The perpetrators? Manuel Foffo, who confesses to his father, while driving to a family funeral, that he killed someone—three, four, five days ago?—he’s too drugged out to know. And Marco Prato, also from a “good family,” a nightclub promoter, gay and considering transitioning. Manuel and Marco barely know each other, although after several drug-and-alcohol fueled days holed up in Manuel’s apartment they develop an intimacy that’s somewhat sexual but more a twisted sort of friendship. “So-called psychic contagion, like a racing engine, brought the two young men close to the point of fusion.” What do they share, besides a love of drugs and alcohol? For starters, an inability to mature, jealousy of the rich, and complete irresponsibility. Lagioia intertwines the descent of Manuel and Marco with the descent of Rome itself—drug filled, rat-infested, garbage strewn, home to wild animals, yet ultimately, he claims, freeing. This story begs for comparison with the Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murder of Bobby Franks in 1924 Chicago. Brilliantly translated.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Who to Believe

by Brian Kenney

Kudos to Edwin Hill for a book so sophisticated, suspenseful, and shocking. It’s set in Monreith, a small, coastal suburb south of Boston where everyone knows, and oftentimes loathes, everyone else. It’s also where restaurateur Laurel Thibodeau is brutally murdered and her husband—it’s always the spouse, right?—is the prime suspect. Especially when his massive gambling debts, the type that need an insurance policy to offset, become public. But while Laurel’s murder sets things in motion, the novel is really centered on six friends whose lives are intertwined in the most disturbing of ways. This includes super-wealthy shrink Farley Drake, who loves to blur the friend/client line. Georgia Fitzhugh, a Unitarian minister, also privy to many personal lives, and whose husband, Ritchie, has moved out and is now living with Farley. And Max Barbosa, the handsome chief of police, Ritchie’s childhood best friend, who leaks information like the proverbial sieve while lusting after Georgia. And that’s just for starters! The novel takes place in one late summer day, culminating in a birthday dinner for one of the six that yields yet more tragedy. Hill takes some big risks here—he moves the narration among the group, playing with time as well—and we often get to see the same scene from different points of view. But what could have been a bore works wonderfully, thanks to the tightness of the prose, the tension of the story, and the credibility of the characters. Mute that cell phone and curl up for several hours of great suspenseful reading.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Jenny Lund Madson. Thirty Days of Darkness

by Brian Kenney

How often do you hear the phrase “comic Nordic Noir”? I’m guessing not often. Yet that’s exactly what Madson delivers in this delightful/terrifying novel that parodies the publishing industry while also taking on a real, live murder case. Hannah is one of Denmark’s most successful literary authors, even if no one actually reads her. Forced by her editor to attend a book convention—snobbish Hannah abhors these sorts of things—she manages to get into an argument with crime writer Jørn Jensen, Denmark’s James Patterson. In the end, she agrees to Jensen’s challenge to write a crime novel in one month. Why not? All she’s doing is facing a nasty case of writer’s block while day drinking. To keep her focused, her editor bundles her off to the rural, coastal Icelandic town of Húsafjörður, where Hannah lives with an older woman, Ella. Hannah’s take on life in Húsafjörður is wonderfully droll—indeed, the town and its cast of characters would make the perfect setting for a cozy. But things take a more violent turn when Ella’s nephew Thor drowns, likely murdered. Faced with a completely incompetent police officer, Hannah can’t help but take on the investigation herself. And best of all, the sleuthing will let her gather all the information she needs to write her mystery. If, of course, she survives. For fans of Anthony Horowitz.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Sniffing out Murder

by Brian Kenney

A classic—but in no way cliched—cozy that features a great lead, a best friend, murder(s), two uniformed love interests, a good dollop of gossip, and a bloodhound that pretty much steals the story. Priscilla (aka Pris) is a former teacher who just published her first children’s book, The Adventures of Bailey the Bloodhound, which has landed on the bestseller list. She’s now in the process of moving back to her hometown of Crosbyville, Indiana to finish the series when she comes across the mean girl to end all mean girls, Louboutin- and Givenchy-clad Whitney Kelley. Whitney is on the school board, and she can’t help but mouth off about everything she’s planning to cut—like social programs and art—and Paris’s favorite: a pet-assisted reading program (guess who stars in that?). Have no doubt, words are exchanged! Flip to the next morning, when Bailey and Pris are off on their walk, although Bailey won’t stop pulling Pris over to the begonia bed…and a very dead Whitney, face-down in the plantings. Readers will love this down-to-earth lead, big-time problems in a small town world, and the consistently fast pace of the narrative. Cozy fans may know Kallie E. Benjamin as V. M. Burns, the author of the Mystery Bookshop Mystery, Dog Club Mystery, RJ Franklin Mystery, and Baker Street Mystery series.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Daughter of Ashes

by Brian Kenney

This is the final book in Tuti’s stunning and disturbing trilogy starring police detective Teresa Battaglia and set in the Dolomite mountains of northern Italy. Teresa has always been an extraordinary character, a woman who fought her way up the police ladder—while suffering the ridicule of her male peers—and at the same time found herself caught in an abusive marriage that nearly killed her. Now in her early sixties, she has slowly acknowledged that she has Alzheimer’s, and in this book we see it beginning to dominate her life. But just as she is about to retire, Teresa is brought back to work on a case featuring Giacomo Mainardi, a serial killer she confronted 27 years ago, whose mind she has come to understand and whose soul she has come to respect. While very much the tale of a serial killer, this final volume finds Teresa finally accepting the love and support of her colleagues, putting aside the “thick and steely…armor she wore every day,” and acknowledging that she has paved “the way for all the other women who would follow, and for anybody—regardless of their sex—who might be vulnerable to being victimized by people in position of power.” Best to read this brilliant series in order, beginning with Flowers over the Inferno.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

A Furry Little Christmas

by Brian Kenney

The perfect introduction to the delightful Berenson, this volume brings together two previously published novellas—and five standard poodles!—set during Christmas in Connecticut. Narrated by the funny yet tough Melanie Travis, the first novella, Wagging Through the Snow, features Melanie’s brother, who spontaneously purchases a deserted Christmas tree farm without discussing the sale with anyone, including his business partner. When the family goes to check out the farm, they stumble across a corpse tucked into a drift of snow. Could things get any worse? Yes, and when Melanie, assisted by the ever-present curmudgeon Aunt Peg, starts to ask questions, motives abound. In Here Comes Santa Paws, Melanie gets a call from Claire, her good friend (and wife of Melanie’s ex-husband…it’s complicated), asking her to meet up at a client’s house. Melanie arrives at the home only to find the client, dead, lying in a pool of blood, and Claire waiting to be interrogated by the cops. Claire is acting weird—not that she doesn’t have every right to be upset—but once the cops are done with her she jumps in her car and races away without a word to Melanie. What’s going on? Leave it to Melanie and Aunt Peg to get to the bottom of the mystery. Lucky readers just discovering Melanie, her dogs, and her family have several armfuls of books to enjoy.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Have Yourself a Deadly Little Christmas

by Brian Kenney

Rudolph, New York is one of those unique places where the holidays are celebrated 24/7/365. In fact, the town has branded itself as America’s Christmas town, and nearly every shop in the bustling downtown caters to some type of holiday need, including Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, the gift shop owned by our narrator, Merry Wilkinson. This holiday season, the town is in a lather over the local amateur production of the musical version of “A Christmas Carol,” with Aline, Merry’s mom, a retired opera singer, taking the lead role. From the leadership down to the cast and crew, rivalries abound and nearly everyone has an ax to grind. But when one of the cast members is found dead in Merry’s shop, everyone starts to look guilty, including Aline. This is an expansive cozy—with quite a number of characters floating about—but Delany never allows the reader to become overwhelmed. Fans of Donna Andrews will love this sixth installment in the series.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Baking Spirits Bright

by Brian Kenney

Yes, I would happily move to Larch Haven, Vermont—and after 20 pages in this book, you would too. Except, perhaps, for the slight issue with murder. Former actress Becca Ransom has taken up a new career as a chocolatier and moved back to hometown Larch Haven. All is going super—relatives are actually helpful, she has a best friend she can rely on—until she is cajoled into entering the Baking Spirits Bright holiday baking competition. Turns out this annual event isn’t just popular, it’s a beacon for the seriously anxious and unpleasant…one of whom ends up murdered, killed with Becca’s own chocolate chipper (ouch! It’s a six-pronged device used to break up chocolate or ice. Look it up.) We know the drill: Becca needs to solve the mystery to clear her record. But with a cute cop in her court, I wasn’t too worried. A fun, classic holiday cozy that features a great cast of characters.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Final Curtain

by Brian Kenney

Keigo Higashino makes the unbelievable become credible in this expansive novel that takes an extremely personal turn. After leaving her husband and son behind a decade ago, the mother of Tokyo Police Detective Kyoichiro Kaga lived out a quiet life in remote Sendai. Kaga only learned of her location after her death, and while sorting through her meager possessions and interviewing her one friend, he gains no answers to the many questions he has about his mother’s disappearance and life. Today, sixteen years later, Kaga is investigating the murder of Michiko Oshitani, a resident of Sendai who is found strangled to death in Tokyo—a place where she has no known connections. Why was Oshitani in Tokyo? With the help of his cousin, also a police detective, Kaga follows a series of twists and turns to finally arrive at a connection between Oshitani’s murder and the death of his mother that is absolutely staggering. Beautifully written and superbly translated, this is the concluding volume to a brilliant four-part series, and the plunge into Kaga’s personal life makes this title especially satisfying.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail