Author

Brian Kenney

Review

The It Girl

by Brian Kenney

Talk about a slow burn. If you’re a reader, like myself, who delights in a deep, deep character dive, then you’ll enjoy Ware’s latest. Oxford fresher April Clarke-Cliveden is the ultimate “It girl”—beautiful, fashionable, rich, loving but mean, a party girl yet super-smart, a staple in the pages of the Tatler. In no time she gathers around herself a constellation of friends, with her roommate Hannah Jones at the center. Life couldn’t be more delightful in their privileged, Oxbridge fantasy world, until that night when Hannah comes home to their medieval digs and finds April strangled to death. But ultimately this is Hannah’s story, and the chapters alternate between Hannah in college—building up to the murder—and her life today, ten years later. Despite a move to Edinburgh, marriage, and now pregnant, Hannah has never been able to forget April’s death and move on. When new facts emerge about April’s murder, and Hannah’s interest blossoms into full-blown obsession, she heads off to question members of their friendship circle and even to revisit Oxford and the murder scene. As the final piece of the puzzle falls into place, readers will be rewarded by a whirlwind of suspense.

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Review

Privacy

by Brian Kenney

Dr. Laina Landers is the sort of shrink anyone would want. She’s super smart, wonderfully compassionate, and completely devoted to her patients. So when the husband of a couple she is working with holds his wife hostage at gunpoint—an incident broadcast on live TV—Laina quickly gets to the scene. She saves them both, while also meeting investigative journalist Cal Murray. Empathetic? Check. Handsome? Oh, yes. Reliable? Totally. Which comes in handy, as Laina really needs a friend/lover she can depend on as her patients are receiving deeply unsettling “presents,” like a plastic fetus in a bottle of fluid, each with the same message: Watching you. More disturbing, the gift giver is relying on knowledge about the patients that can only be found in Laina’s notes from her sessions. But who would want to destroy Laina and kill her practice in the process? As Laina and Cal search for the possible culprit, the stakes get higher as the therapist herself is targeted. The I-didn’t-see-that-coming conclusion is guaranteed to make your head explode.

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Review

Cheddar Off Dead

by Brian Kenney

There’s something comforting about a mystery that opens with the still-warm body of the victim. So when cheesemonger Willa Bauer discovers Sonoma food critic Guy Lippinger slumped over in his car, a knife from Curds & Whey—her new cheese shop—sticking out of his neck, we know we can relax and enjoy the ride. Guy passed by the store earlier in the evening to review it, and the review was clearly going to be a pan, which leaves Willa pretty much the number-one suspect. Willa is new to town, and in her efforts to clear her name and find the killer she gets to know both her colleagues at Curds & Whey and the other food entrepreneurs in town. Moss develops a great sense of community for Willa, filled with some stand-out characters and the potential for at least one love interest. While plenty of cozies have a food or drink focus—from coffee bars to bakeries—Moss does an excellent job of integrating cheese into the story, subtly teaching the reader while pairing cheese with plot developments. This all adds up to a series that readers will be eager to revisit.

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Review

The Ghosts of Paris

by Brian Kenney

Part historical fiction, part mystery, this sweeping novel picks up the reader and transports them on a whirlwind trip from Sydney to London to Paris, where the long and compelling search finally comes to an end. It’s 1947, and the Second World War has been over for two years, although its impact remains enormous. Detective Billie Walker is hired by a well-to-do woman to find her husband, who’s been missing in Europe these past two years, and before you can say Qantas, Billie is up in the air, accompanied by Sam, her handsome assistant. Funny thing is, Billie also has a husband lost in Europe—a wartime photographer—providing the story with a double plot. But the greatest pleasure in this book comes from all the rich history and social commentary: the experiences of the Australian Aboriginal peoples with the police, the legal persecution of Australia’s gay men, Dior’s new look, London as it climbs out of from the Blitz, Paris as it tries to recoup, and so much more. The author has done her research, and it shows—in the best possible way. Moss does slam on the brakes, and the book rattles to a quick close, but that’s O.K. We’re happy where we’ve landed, and would follow Billie Walker anywhere.

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Review

The Girl They All Forgot

by Brian Kenney

Life is certainly nasty, brutish, and short—at least for most of the characters in Edwards’s much-awaited new installment, set on the edge of England’s Lake District. DVI Hannah Scarlett is in charge of cold cases, and she’s actually been funded well enough to put together a small team. Here she’s investigating the disappearance of a young woman, Ramona Smith, who is presumed to have been murdered 21 years ago. The case gets noticed when a young man commits suicide by running into quicksand—at the exact location and date that his father, who was acquitted of Ramona’s murder, took his life. The search for Ramona takes Hannah and colleagues through quite a number of plot lines with quite an assortment of characters, one creepier than the last: a sexually repressed antiques dealer, an over-the-top toy boy, a sexy—but completely plastic—middle-aged woman, and so many more. What’s remarkable is how intertwined the characters are; even Hannah’s personal life comes into play. As Hannah digs deeper into the evidence of the past, and confronts the present, readers have the pleasure of seeing such a complex narrative effortlessly resolve itself. For readers of Ann Cleeves, Mark Billingham, and Clare Donoghue.

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Review

The Self-Made Widow

by Brian Kenney

After Andie Stern’s debut in Suburban Dicks—in which she solved a shocking murder in her New Jersey town—you’d think the former FBI employee would be ready for a little R&R. Or at least as much relaxation as a mother of five can get. But when the husband of Molly, a member of her mom’s group—which Andie secretly calls The Cellulitists—unexpectedly dies, Andie strongly suspects Molly is to blame. The hard part, but also the fun part, is proving it. Helped out by disgraced journalist Kenny Lee, a buddy from Suburban Dicks and the only man in the book who isn’t a complete, well, dick, along with new friend Sathwika, Andie follows the many leads, which eventually bring her and Kenny far too close to home. Nicieza, the co-creator of Deadpool, is a wonderful satirist, and the friction brought about his women characters’ multiple lives as mothers, wives, professionals, and even criminals is pure pleasure and more than just a little bit realistic. Towards the end there’s the hint that Andie and Sathwika may set up their own detective agency. Pray God this is so.

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Review

Death Doesn’t Forget

by Brian Kenney

We’re back on the streets of Taipei with Jing-nan, the owner of Unknown Pleasures, a night market food stall. Taipei native Jing-nan spent a couple of years at UCLA only to be called home when his parents died, leaving him to run the take-out—a bittersweet turn of events. Here he’s initially accused of two murders: of a small-time criminal who dates his girlfriend’s mother, and of a police captain. With little effort, Jing-nan manages to worm his way out of the accusations, only—along with girlfriend Nancy, her mom, and his food-stall employees—to get sucked into the search for the real criminals. While the mystery, such as it is, chugs along on the back burner, we’re treated to Lin’s always wonderful array of characters, bits of Taiwanese history, and explanations of the current political scene—all without feeling like we’re in school. Lin is definitely a satirist, but this novel is deeply poignant at the same time. While this book can be read on its own, Lin’s books benefit from reading them in series, as so much of the writing is focused on character development.

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Review

Overboard

by Brian Kenney

We need a V. I. (Vic) Warshawski novel every year or two to remind us of how good crime fiction can be. This title—Paretsky’s 22nd in the series—is one of her very best: taut yet complex, fast-paced yet thoughtful. The novel begins as Vic’s dogs, off the leash and exploring Lake Michigan, discover an injured teenage girl tucked between two boulders, barely alive. Through Vic’s efforts she makes it to the hospital, only to disappear soon afterwards. The search for the girl brings us into a classic Paretsky world of Chicago mobsters and lowlifes, some extending back to Vic’s childhood. Just when you think there are too many characters, too much plot, the story falls beautifully into place. Few crime novels seem more of the moment than Overboard, with its depiction of police brutality and of a city chaotically emerging from the pandemic. Longtime fans will enjoy catching up with Vic’s friends, especially her neighbor, the delightful Mr. Contreras. Powerful.

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Review

Sinkhole

by Brian Kenney

Michelle Miller finally got herself out of Lorida, Florida on a swimming scholarship and never looked back. Now, 15 years later, she’s returning to see her dying mother, and, unavoidably, confront her painful past. Back then, she was poor—she shared a bedroom in a trailer with her brother—and reclusive; she didn’t come alive until she met Sissy, a rich and rambunctious classmate. They were soon joined by Morrison, a queer punk rock kid, and their dysfunctional little family was complete. From shoplifting in department stores to hanging out in gay bars, Sissy offers fun in technicolor, but it comes at a price: possessiveness, dramatic mood swings, and ultimately violence. But it isn’t until she’s at college in Georgia that Michelle begins to understand how much of her youth Sissy destroyed, and how little of it she’ll ever get back. The surprising ending—with some extraordinary revelations—is downright healing. And while there is criminal behavior, it’s on the sidelines of the story, never at the center. A wonderful tale about the power of friendship to transcend evil that young adults should also appreciate.

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Review

The Patient

by Brian Kenney

A richly imagined novel in which the elements of suspense grow organically from the characters’ lives. Fifty-something Rachel, a doctor, has a tidy, if dull, life with her husband of many years, a medical practice she enjoys, and a beautiful home in the cathedral town of Salisbury. Her one regret is adult daughter Lizzie, who is totally over her mother (“Take a break Mum, stop texting me!”). When French painter Luc walks into Rachel’s office—he and his family are new to town and he’s experiencing psychological issues—the attraction is immediate, although left unfulfilled. Meanwhile, Rachel suspects she is being followed, her husband is acting weirdly, and Lizzie is keeping something from her. Eventually she and Luc reunite and—professional ethics be damned!—initiate their affair while in the south of France. Affairs can peter out, some manage to live on in secrecy, while others are exposed, creating scandal. But Rachel and Luc’s relationship razes their world—leading to murder, incarceration, and abandonment. Way to throw away those middle-class inhibitions! Readers will be seduced by Shemilt’s ability to gradually build a story, leading us from the mundane to the miraculous.

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