Author

Brian Kenney

Review

Love You to Death

by Brian Kenney

Zorie and Kayla, best friends since third grade, work as house cleaners in a so-so hotel, a position that allows them to engage in a bit of light stealing but not enough to keep them afloat. Which is how the two get involved in crashing weddings where they can pick up some major hauls (steal the money and pawn the goods) while not knowing a soul. Until one weekend they head off to work a rural wedding that they promise each other will be their last gig (“best friend’s honor” is their motto), only to discover that they are the only two Black women at an antebellum-themed wedding. Heading out of town as fast as they can, they are involved in an accident that sends them into temporary hiding as the news blares forth the story of the “Wedding Crash Killers.” Without any support from family, and no friends that can help, things start to escalate and the two head to New Orleans, leaving a trail of blood and bodies in their wake. Zorie and Kayla are forced to make tough decisions about their future and their friendship in this brilliant depiction of two young women who can barely keep alive financially. Completely compelling, full of dark humor, and providing a deep investigation into the nature of friendship, this book is high on my list for book discussions.

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Review

French Windows

by Brian Kenney

A delightful, quirky, and comic foray into Parisian life that’s a clear homage to Hitchcock’s Rear Window (and the even earlier short story of the same name by Cornell Woolrich). Here, the dynamics include Nathalia Guitry, a successful photographer who, having witnessed a murder while taking pictures, is unable to work. She seeks help from Doctor Faber, who assigns her a creative task: to record the lives of the people in the apartment building across from her. Nathalia sends the stories to Doctor Faber via mail (she claims she can’t bear to watch him read them), vignettes that many readers will find to be the most fascinating parts of the novel. Eccentricity abounds as we encounter a lyricist, a life coach, and a well-known cartoonist; in its own surprising way, the Parisian building is reminiscent of Whitter, Alaska, where all residents live in one building, keeping a watchful eye on one another. Even the doctor has his own odd interests, from smoking to collecting keys. But what about that murder? Readers will appreciate racing through this brief novel to get to the other—very rewarding—side.

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Review

6:40 to Montreal

by Brian Kenney

Kudos to Jurczyk (The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, That Night in the Library) for providing a closed circle mystery that avoids the tropes of the subgenre while still offering some charming nods to closed trains of the past. Here, bestselling author Agatha (albeit suffering a bit from writer’s block) is sent off by her husband on a roundtrip from Toronto to Montreal for the sole purpose of finishing her new novel. With a first class ticket in hand, and only a few residents in her car, Agatha is slightly optimistic, imagining the train as a writers’ retreat and with the hope of turning out a few pages. But then she discovers a woman lurking about the train—someone, it turns out, whom she knows all too well—who believes that Agatha stole her success. As the snow thickens, the train slides to a halt somewhere in the Canadian wilderness, and then the passengers discover the horrifying news: one of their own has died. It’s brilliant how much Jurczyk packs into the book, moving back and forth between the present and Agatha’s personal history, while always sustaining a steady pace. But by the time the 6:40 makes it to the Montreal area hours later, it’s pure carnage.

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Review

Kill Your Darlings

by Brian Kenney

Here are two people I certainly will never invite to Thanksgiving. Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over 25 years. Academics, they’ve long been settled in Updike territory along the North Shore of Boston with a cat and a nearly full-grown kid. She’s barely published as a poet while he is an English professor and full-on drunkard. The two might seem a bit dull were it not for how sinister we slowly come to realize they actually are. Swanson (The Kind Worth Saving, Nine Lives) gradually unveils their marriage by going backwards, all the way back to the tragic incident the two plotted and committed in their early twenties. But years of secrecy have taken their toll, and not everyone is willing to keep up the original bargain. Swanson can always be trusted to deliver novels that are rich in intellectual suspense and provide a narrative that is refreshingly new. Here he delivers on both.

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Review

A Case of Mice and Murder

by Brian Kenney

Attention anglophiles, lovers of dazzling historical fiction, and fans of a good draught of droll humor. This book is for you. Set in the Inner Temple, the heart of legal London for centuries, with its own degree of independence (not unlike the Vatican), the novel features Gabriel Ward KC, a brilliant legal mind who moves each day at the same measured pace between his chambers, which are crammed with books on nearly all topics; his office; and the dining hall. But on May 21, 1901, he emerges from his room only to discover a body on his doorstep. In fact, Ward is quick to identify it as the corpse of the Lord Chief Justice, who now has a Temple carving knife in his chest. But what is even more shocking isn’t that he is clad in evening wear, but that his feet are bare. How delicious is this plot? Appointed by the Temple’s Treasurer to investigate the murderer, Ward is paired with the eager and charming young Constable Wright, whose street knowledge turns out to be quite an asset, gaining Ward’s respect. The investigation drags the pair from the upper classes to the homeless, with an entirely separate court case—in children’s publishing, no less—providing some entertainment of its own. Quite simply, this is one of the very best debuts I’ve read in a long time; it’s sure to delight the Osman and Thorogood crews and readers of Sarah Caldwell’s legal murder mysteries as well.

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Review

Death in the Dressing Room

by Brian Kenney

One of the great pleasures of reading any of Simon Brett’s (A Messy Murder, Death and the Decorator) four series is that you can just pick a volume and get going. No need to worry about which book comes first. Brett’s a strong enough writer that he knows to provide just a bit of earlier information, but never so much as to overload the reader with backstory. Death in the Dressing Room is in the Fethering series, which means that readers will meet (or be reintroduced to) Carole and Jude. The former is an uptight, former Home Office type now retired, and Jude is a professional “healer” and every bit the former hippie. The two would never have hit it off if they weren’t neighbors in the lovely town of Fethering. In this story, the women are investigating the murder of one of the leading stars, Drake Purslow, whose body was found in the theater. While she’s no friend of actors, it’s nevertheless Carole who becomes a volunteer at the theater, if only to unearth the most salient facts about Drake and the whole crew. Fun, fast, and totally credible.

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Review

All the Words We Know

by Brian Kenney

Nash offers the wonderfully unique perspective of 80-something Rose, who has dementia yet wrestles for clarity as she careens around her senior care home. Words and people are fluid in Rose’s mind. Incontinence pants become incongruence pads. Care Manager becomes Scare Manager. Management provides lengthy presentations, discussing “Duty of Care” and “Best Practice.” Then he uses the terms “Person Centered,” and “Facilitating a Holistic Therapeutic Environment.” Rose is adept at identifying lies, and liars, and she keeps returning to the room where her friend lived before she was found dead after a fall—or was it really a push out of the window? This sets Rose off on an investigation that annoys the staff and upsets her children, who only wish that their mother were more docile. Instead, she fears the Angry Nurse, who enters her room carrying a pillow…for smothering? As the book draws to a close, we see many of Rose’s deepest fears being exposed, as police cars surround the building, escorting some of the staff away. Could Rose’s campaign have finally freed the patients?

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Review

Plays Well With Others

by Brian Kenney

You won’t find any members of organized crime here. Nor are the characters locked on a Scottish island or seeking a cozy murderer who has their community petrified. In fact, men have practically no roles in this book. And who needs them? The small group of suburban women who populate this novel are terrifying enough. Let’s start out with Jake, who a year ago endured her then-bestie posting their most intimate correspondence on social media. The result? Jake lost everything: job, house, and, most importantly, her husband. After a bit of sulking and trying to live down her past, Jake is back—she settles into a charming bungalow—and gets ready to retaliate. But this time she has a new friend with her, Mabel, who has her own set of problems. The two join up to seek revenge, although the real victims turn out to be the kids, who find themselves in the cross-fires (for real!). Is anyone in this terrifying community without a grievance? A compulsive domestic thriller that is as dark as it is dangerous.

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Review

The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective

by Brian Kenney

With its seven eccentric residents, charming historic bungalows, and a beautiful Santa Barbara setting just minutes from the beach, this novel will remind readers of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of a City series, although the latter lacks a mystery element. But they do both share an aging, somewhat hippy matriarch who owns and governs her own complex, and Mrs. B., the landlady of the Santa Barbara Marigold Cottages, only rents to those who need a leg up. Mrs. B.’s latest acquisition is Anthony, a reserved hulk with a prison background and the tats to prove it. Anthony makes the other tenants anxious, and when a dead body is found on the grounds of the cottages, the tenants, with the exception of Mrs. B, all point to Anthony. But Mrs. B. remains certain of his innocence, and heads down to the police station to turn herself in. Wonderfully eccentric with deep dives into many of the characters’ lives, this quickly paced read provides the perfect summer mystery.

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Review

10 Marchfield Square

by Brian Kenney

Yes, the comparison to Only Murders in the Building is inevitable (as it is to The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective, above, not to mention The Thursday Murder Club). All are narratives of place, in which the residents of a building, or buildings, are deeply involved in the story as amateur detectives, suspects, or both. Marchfield Square inhabits the smallest block of squares in London, with many of the units—Rear Window-like—facing internally, providing residents with a great deal of information about one another, but with little opportunity for actual conversation, at least without hollering across the courtyard. Remarkably, the elderly heiress who owns the complex, Celeste van Duren, is not just still alive, but actively engaged in running it. So when one of the residents is murdered (he totally deserved it), Celeste appoints two of the tenants—Audrey, a young woman who works as Celeste’s cleaner, and Lewis, a somewhat failed novelist—to a team responsible for investigating the murder. Because as we all know, the real police can’t be trusted to do anything right. Audrey and Lewis have to work out their own difficulties, but eventually the two are seen together snooping about the Square tracking the activities of their neighbors and friends. And guess what? Everyone has something to hide. This is loaded with humor and packed with punch, and cozy readers will be sure to keep a look out for more from this Audrey/Lewis duo.

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