Author

Brian Kenney

Review

Daisy Darker

by Brian Kenney

An homage to Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None that is both wryly humorous and deadly serious. The setting: a Victorian gothic house, named Seaglass, located on a tiny island off the Cornwall coast, accessible only during low tide. The cast: matriarch Nana, her son and ex-daughter-in-law, three adult nieces, a grandniece, and a family friend. The occasion: Nana’s 80th birthday, predicated to be her last. As the sun goes down, the tide rushes in, dinner is served, and then it’s time for Nana to read her will. Our narrator, and very much the center of the book, is Daisy, Nana’s youngest and favorite niece, who was born, in Daisy’s word, “broken,” with a heart condition she could die from at any moment. Nana—a wonder of a character—is a famous children’s book author, and Seaglass overflows with her designs and eerie, Edward Gorey-esque poems. The novel shifts between the family’s painful past and the nerve-wracking present, and as the night grows longer, and the revelations unfold, the carnage increases. The ending manages to shock, and while some readers may feel cheated by the turn of events, others will enjoy having to rethink the whole book. This book isn’t twisty, it’s demonic.

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Review

Murder in Westminster

by Brian Kenney

Vanessa Riley is known for her several series—both historical fiction and regency romances—often featuring diverse casts; her deep research into 18th-century communities of color; and her strong storytelling skills. Roll it all up, add a criminal element, and you have a delightful murder mystery—a first, for Riley— that entertains but also educates. Young Lady Abigail Worthing, of African and Scottish descent, is one strong leading lady, and when her next door neighbor is murdered while Abigail is on her way to an pro-abolitionist meeting, Abigail decides she had better take on the search for the killer—before being accused of the murder herself. Because Abigail, with her skin tone and family history, is all too easy to blame. Abigail’s complex world, a mix of family, Caribbean immigrants, and the ton, is exactly the world readers today are eager to discover—and to return to. Calling all regency enthusiasts, historical mystery fans, and Bridgerton devotees—this one’s for you.

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Review

All the Queen’s Men

by Brian Kenney

When you hear that a mystery features Queen Elizabeth II as the detective, you probably think it is going to be a frothy, frivolous affair. Indeed, S.J. Bennett’s follow-up to The Windsor Knot is at times droll, humorous, and laugh-aloud funny. But it also takes on some tough topics, including racism and sexual harassment among the Household staff, while the Brexit referendum and the rowdy U.S. elections simmer in the background. Here we have two mysteries, the disappearance of one of the Queen’s favorite paintings and the shocking death of an older member of the Household, found near the Buckingham Palace swimming pool. As in the first book, it’s the Queen’s young assistant private secretary, Rozie Oshodi, who digs deep into the criminal activities, while the Queen ultimately fits all the pieces together—allowing three male members of the Household to believe they have everything under control. From the naughty corgis to the delightful appearances by Prince Philip, and from the tacit feminism to the interior musings of the Queen, this book is an absolute delight.

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Review

Fifty-Four Pigs

by Brian Kenney

Tired of mysteries set in Paris and Los Angeles, southern Italy and Glasgow? Then head to rural Manitoba in the depth of winter for a meet-up with Dr. Peter Bannerman, veterinarian extraordinaire. We join Peter as he is off to make a house call, when he notices smoke in the distance and realizes it’s coming from his buddy Tom’s pig farm. He arrives too late to save the pigs, while Tom is nowhere to be found. An eccentric, introverted geek, Peter loves nothing more than spending a quiet evening with his equally geeked-out wife Laura, as she knits Star Wars-themed sweaters to sell on Etsy. But Peter has a secret side: a fascination for solving crimes, putting his highly logical mind to good use. Yet as another murder and more crimes follow, Peter finds himself in a place where his reasoning skills can no longer save him, and his judgement of others turns out to be terribly flawed. This book takes a risk with a large amount of backstory—about Peter’s life and the history of the town—but it works because both are so compelling and it is clear that Schott is setting us up for what could be a most satisfying series. Bring on book two!

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Review

The Couple at Number 9

by Brian Kenney

A richly layered novel—part mystery, part suspense—but completely satisfying. Saffron and her boyfriend are renovating their dreamy Cotswold cottage to make room for a baby, as Saffy is pregnant. Her grandmother, Rose, once lived here, although no one in the family even knew of the cottage’s existence until a few years back. But when the contractors tear up the back garden to expand the kitchen, they discover not one but two corpses. Questions lead back to Rose, now in a nursing home with dementia, and soon enough Lorna, Saffy’s delightful mom, flies in from the south of Spain—tan, oversized earrings, skinny jeans, Spanish boy-toy—to help sort out what has blown up into a murder inquiry. This novel is overflowing with narrators and stories—we have documents from the past, Lorna’s memories, Rose’s memories, another storyline from a different family—and that’s just the start. But Douglas manages to keep all the balls in the air, the pace brisk, and the ending a total head-spinner. A classic slow burn, this novel will appeal to fans of Catherine Steadman and Lucy Foley.

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Review

The Murder Rule

by Brian Kenney

This standalone novel, a break from McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly series, is proof of the extraordinary depth and breadth she possesses as a writer. Hannah, a third year law student at the University of Maine, manages to bulldoze her way into spending a semester at the University of Virginia School of Law’s Innocence Project, a true-to-life initiative that seeks exoneration for wrongfully convicted people in Virginia. She leaves behind her mother—a fragile alcoholic—as she attempts to thwart one of the Project’s high profile cases: the release of Michael Dandridge, who’s serving life imprisonment for rape and murder. Why does Hannah care? The secret lies in her mother’s 1994 diary, passages of which are interspersed throughout the present-day narrative. Hannah’s efforts to sabotage the case—and the shocking facts she unearths in the process—are the stuff of a classic thriller. But the emotional connections forged throughout the book give it added meaning. For a writer who has seemingly never lived in the United States, the locations, diction, and class signifiers are flawless. This novel can appeal to a wide range of readers, from suspense seekers to fans of legal thrillers to those who just want, as the British say, a cracking great read.

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Review

A Tidy Ending

by Brian Kenney

A quirky, droll, and completely captivating novel about Linda, whose sad-sack suburban life slowly falls apart, only to reveal something far better. Linda’s passions are few, namely housecleaning—she’s a bit obsessive compulsive—and her part-time job in a thrift shop. Her contacts are equally meager, mainly her mother, who’s skilled in finding new and creative ways to put down her daughter, and husband Terry, best ignored, which Linda does. When she and Terry move into a new home in their housing estate, Linda becomes fascinated with the advertising catalogs—think West Elm—that are still being delivered to the previous occupant, Rebecca. Linda decides the best way to achieve this lifestyle is by tracking down Rebecca and ingratiating herself, and in some of the funniest yet most cringe-worthy scenes in the book, she succeeds in doing just that. Meanwhile, a serial killer is loose in the estate while Terry’s work hours suddenly become extremely erratic. Cause for concern? Not for Linda, who’s more taken in by BFF Rebecca than anything nefarious that Terry might be up to. A wonderful novel that reminds us that life is rarely what it seems, and outcomes can seldom be predicted.

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Review

Fadeout

by Brian Kenney

First published 50 years ago, Fadeout introduced David Brandstetter, a ground-breaking detective—he works as an insurance claims investigator—who is openly and unapologetically gay. This was at a time, as Michael Nava reminds us in his introduction, when “49 out of 50 states criminalized gay sex between consenting adults and the American Psychiatric Association deemed homosexuality a mental disorder.” One of the great contributors to California noir, Hansen went on to redefine the private eye through 11 more Brandstetter novels (all being republished in print and as ebooks by Syndicate Books), stretching from 1965 and the rising counterculture to the late ‘80s and AIDS. Throughout, Brandstetter regularly touched on hypocrisy and homophobia, while managing to attract the largest readership queer crime fiction had ever received. Fadeout focuses on the disappearance of Fox Olson, a country singer and radio star whose car was driven off a bridge during a storm and the body never found. Brandstetter doesn’t buy it. In prose so lean and evocative you want to stop and read it aloud, we follow Brandstetter as he goes deep into Olson’s life as well as his own, each achingly sad in its own way.

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Review

The Lies I Tell

by Brian Kenney

Ingenious grifter. Con-artist extraordinaire. Feminist Robin Hood. Add to this just plain old brilliant and you have the incredible character of Meg Williams. When her mother gets conned out of the family home by a sleazeball boyfriend—then dies shortly afterwards—18-year-old Meg vows this will never happen to her, and she flips the narrative and figures out how to steal from men. She begins small—seducing a high-school principal—but slowly works her way up the food chain as she deftly separates men, one more despicable than the last, from their money. When enough of their assets are in her accounts, she suddenly disappears, off to another city, another persona, another man. While Meg thinks she’s getting away with it all, one woman, journalist Kat Roberts, is watching her. Kate has her own reasons to expose Meg, and the two of them dance around each other as Meg lays the groundwork for her biggest con yet, worth millions of dollars and putting a political career at risk. With two super-strong characters, a remarkably credible and terrifying depiction of high-level scamming, and a pace that’s relentless, Julie Clark has given fans of the domestic thriller a real treat.

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Review

Miss Aldridge Regrets

by Brian Kenney

We’re in 1936 London and Lena Aldridge has had her share of troubles. Alfie, her beloved father and only parent, has recently died. Alfie was a gifted musician, and Lena has followed in his footsteps, eking out a living as a nightclub singer. Until a gig in a worn down Soho nightclub, when her best friend’s husband, also the club owner, is poisoned and dies right in front of her. Time to get out of town! Fortuitously, Lena has been approached by a stranger, who claims to represent an old friend of Alfie’s, with a remarkable offer: come to New York and headline in a Broadway musical. With nothing to lose, days later Lena’s traveling first class on the Queen Mary. But she hasn’t left all her troubles behind. As a mixed-race woman (Alfie was African American, unknown Mom was white) who passes as white, Lena is anxious about her reception in the U.S., and when there’s another murder on the boat that’s all too similar to the nightclub homicide, her anxiety really ramps up. Hare does a wonderful job of depicting the era, including the big themes—like the rise of Nazism and the pervasiveness of institutionalized racism—as well as the small details, like Lena’s wardrobe. And in Lena, she has created a compelling and empathetic hero whom I would love to follow as she disembarks in NYC. Readers of female-led, historical mysteries from Rhys Bowen, Victoria Thompson, and Mariah Fredericks will be pleased to meet Lena Aldridge.

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