Author

Danise Hoover

Review

And the Lake Will Take Them

by Danise Hoover

This is not an easy time for Sheriff Red Hammergren. She’s a widow in the job her husband once held, with the purse strings held by a toxically masculine board. It’s January in Minnesota, snowing with more predicted, serious drug problems in the town, and the comic relief of an insulting new webpage done by a leading citizen’s nephew. An elderly man with dementia has wandered off without his coat, there is a missing teenage girl, and the snowplows can’t keep up with what’s coming down. Red locates the man, but Missy, the teen, has reasons for running that are unclear. The danger Missy is in comes not only from the weather but from some really bad individuals. Red has to connect all the pieces—information from cold cases of the past, secrets in the present—while trying to keep everyone safe from the weather and from the danger she senses but can’t define. Red is a wonderful character, fighting to save her town with loyal deputies and a group of retired nurses. She succeeds in the end by her ability to listen. It seems we will see more of Red, one would hope in a more pleasant season.

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Review

Murder Takes a Vacation

by Danise Hoover

Readers of this author’s Tess Monaghan series might remember Muriel Blossom as a minor character. She’s plump and elderly, which gives her the ability to disappear into the background, making her effective at surveillance. But life is very different now. For one thing, a found lottery ticket has made her wealthy. She is on her way to France to meet an old friend for a cruise on the Seine, and arrives so early for her flight that she is upgraded to business class. Allan, gray-haired, attractive, also early, takes her under his wing, giving her a melatonin gummy to help her sleep. When they arrive in London too late for her connecting flight to Paris, he shepherds her through the unexpected day. This is not what our Muriel is used to, and though she is flattered and intrigued, her natural skepticism and self-awareness are ever-present. In Paris, she is confronted with murder, art theft, and an FBI agent (or is he?) and a newer, stronger, more outspoken version of herself. The river cruise offers more interests, but also more dangers, and ultimate solutions. Overarching all are Muriel’s memories of her dead husband and a lifetime of shame for her weight, which she finally confronts. The story is complicated, but the character of Muriel is so compelling and wonderful that it’s more important than any crime. Here’s a woman who has found her rhythm and style along with the culprits. Readers cannot fail to love her.

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Review

One Sharp Stitch

by Danise Hoover

Shelby is returning home, not by choice. Her career managing a graphic-arts company is over as the company was sold, taking with it her hopes for romance with her boss. She’s had a pretty soft landing, though. Her parents are taking a month-long road trip, leaving her to manage the family needlework shop with the free apartment above. Why isn’t she happier? She feels the judgment of nearly everyone around her, from her practically perfect older sister to her old high school mate Kat who has been vying to take over the shop herself. Kat runs her own business, sharpening knives and scissors and designing and selling needlepoint canvases and high-end scissors. The first weekend that Shelby will be in charge, the shop will hold a trunk show of Kat’s merchandise. When Kat doesn’t show up to help prepare, Shelby goes looking for her, finding her in her mobile sharpening van with a knife in her chest. The police and all others rule this a terrible accident, but not our Shelby. Her unauthorized sleuthing isn’t the only tension in the story. She needs to run the business, maintain the proper position in the community and deal with her sister’s tacit criticism of whatever she does. To assist her, Shelby starts building a community of needlepointers of her own age group, men included, and of course adopts a stray cat. The charming town, Shelby’s renewed love of needlework, and her growing group of friends will have readers eagerly awaiting the next installment. Just as many cozy mysteries include recipes, this one ends with needlepoint patterns.

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Review

Glitter in the Dark

by Danise Hoover

We are taken back to the roaring ’20s, to speakeasys and the Ziegfeld Follies, in this gritty noir with Ginny Dugan as our main character and sleuth. She and her dancer sister have come to New York from Kansas. Dottie, the sister, dances for the Follies, and is engaged to Charlie, a financial guy from home; Ginny writes an advice column for Photoplay, though keeps angling for real, hard-nosed reporting. Ginny is out partying at a speakeasy when she’s a witness to the kidnapping of Josephine, a headliner who is Black, but her story is not believed. People are dying of heart attacks in Harlem dance clubs, and dancers are reporting ghosts in the dressing rooms of the Follies, young women who have been murdered. There are drug stashes and secret crime bosses. Ginny partners with Jack, a detective, but it is Gloria, a Follies star, who calls to her heart. The level and complexity of the crime speaks to a mastermind: the Eagle, whose identity is unknown until the end. This debut turns back the clock with authentic detail and sharply drawn characters and a strong sense of violence and lawlessness. A challenging book.

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Review

A Bird in the Hand: The First George and Molly Palmer-Jones Novel

by Danise Hoover

Cleeves, well noted for Vera, Shetland, and others, first wrote a very different series of mysteries that are soon to be newly available in the United States. George and Molly Palmer-Jones are our amateur sleuths. George, retired from the Home Office (we don’t really know what he did while working), and Molly, a retired social worker, make a wonderful team. Steady, trustworthy, George, with authority; warm, sweet, Molly with the ability to get people to talk to her, make an excellent alternative to the police that no one seems to value. Tom French, a young and seemingly popular leader of the local “twitching” community, a group that travels to find rare birds, is found murdered. The father of a local asks George to look into it. The body has been moved and it is not apparent how or why. George, a birdwatcher himself, can maintain a connection to the astonishing rivalries and intrigues involved in this rabidly passionate community, the members of which travel great distances and endure privations at the merest hint of a rare-bird sighting. The lives and personalities of Cleeves’s characters are complicated and unexpectedly overlapping, and while Molly quietly seeks to understand the human aspect of the crime, George travels for information. This is a wonderful example of the genre. The characters are strong and beautifully drawn, and the landscape integral to the story. Best of all, there is a message from the author discussing her circumstances when writing this and critiquing a work that she obviously loves. Happy to say, there will be more to come.

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Review

Shot Through the Book

by Danise Hoover

In this latest visit to the lighthouse library on the outer banks of North Carolina, locals await a YA book festival featuring a recently local and very popular author of a fantasy series. Our librarian and amateur sleuth, Lucy MacNeil, is surprised to find this gentleman on her doorstep wanting to talk. She escorts him to the deck, goes to retrieve refreshments, and returns to find him dead of an arrow shot. To say that chaos ensues is an understatement. The new widow has political ambitions and intends to use this to launch her campaign, local teen ultrafans of the author set up a shrine invading Lucy and her husband’s privacy, and two lesser local authors battle it out for the now vacant top spot on the festival program. The clever policing by the local force is, of course vital, but, as usual, the little details that our research-minded librarian provides begin to tie things together, though the culprit may come as a surprise. The local color and community spirit shine, and the quirky personalities are never more so. While this is certainly a cozy, it is never dull. The ending leaves clues promising changes, so readers will look forward eagerly to the next installment.

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Review

Molten Death

by Danise Hoover

Kristen and Valerie, long a couple, are in Hawaii on vacation, partly to help Valerie come to terms with her brother’s death. They are staying with Isaac, who’s a surfer buddy of Leslie’s, a high-school science teacher, and a lifelong resident of the islands. During an early morning excursion to see the glowing lava rolling down the landscape, Valerie sees a boot in the lava and realizes that there is a leg attached. It is quickly consumed by the lava, and as she is the only witness, all doubt the truth of what she has seen. The police report goes nowhere, so Valerie takes on the task of finding the identity of both the victim and the killer herself. With the luck and determination of the amateur, and the friendly and open nature of Hawaiians, allowing for a few glitches, she succeeds. This is a Hawaii we seldom see in TV police dramas. The locals speak a pidgin dialect, the importance of which is carefully explained by Isaac, and the customs and practices date back centuries. The landscape is of course dramatic and beautiful and the descriptions of food and produce mouthwatering. There are recipes for some of the dishes at the end, and a glossary of words and phrases. This is billed as the first in a series, so expect more to come from our interesting characters.

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Review

Deep Beneath Us

by Danise Hoover

Tabitha is compelled by the spiteful actions of her ex-husband to move back to her childhood home. This is not a cozy, safe space as one might hope. It is a sort of compound: two schoolhouses on different sides of a reservoir, one occupied by her family, the other by her uncle’s family. In the past, four cousins, Tabitha the youngest, ran and played like a pack. But her mother is an unstable artist, her father and uncle killed themselves, and her sister and cousin married each other at age 16. Now, cousin Davey purportedly dies by suicide as well, leaving his property to Tabitha. But is that what really happened? Davey’s two cronies, along with three smart teens, use skills learned from TV crime dramas and DNA analysis to get to the bottom of it all. The characters are captivating, the atmosphere is dark and dour, and the wretched weather contributes to the overall tone of the book. The novel is set in Scotland and the use of Scottish dialect and expressions is sometimes daunting, but never gets in the way of the telling. To say that the plot here is a tangled mess may be an understatement, but the untangling is a treat.

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Review

Deep Dark Blue

by Danise Hoover

The city of Zurich, surrounded by water, offers scenery, culture, scientific innovation, and activism to its citizenry. Rosa, a member of the maritime police, usually swims or rows daily, but takes a morning off to have her eggs harvested and frozen. The body found in a fisherman’s net days later turns out to be that of the doctor who performed the procedure. Despite her personal involvement, Rosa is assigned to work the case with the regular police department, awkwardly partnering with a former love interest. Multiple crimes, seemingly unconnected, ultimately come together. Cutting-edge genetics, not usually mystery fodder, is the key. Rosa and her friends and colleagues are engaging, and unlike her American counterparts, Rosa has time for an active social life. The translation is smooth but still carries a cadence and flavor that keeps its context. Intrigue, corporate greed, runaway science, and sexual infidelity come together in a complicated story that may send readers to a map of Zurich for the bigger picture.

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Review

The Dark Hours

by Danise Hoover

Julia Harte, retired from the Irish police, has effectively hidden herself away from her infamous past in a sleepy village. As a young Garda, she was instrumental in solving the most notorious serial-killer case of the day, with both emotional and physical scars to show for it. After her successful police career, she writes what is intended to be a textbook for police training, only to have it become a bestseller for true-crime aficionados. Thirty years later and days after Cox, the serial killer, dies of natural causes, there is another frighteningly identical killing, drawing Julia and her former mentor into the case as consultants. The author artfully intertwines the stories from the past and present, creating a palpable sense of dread and foreboding. While we know Julia solved the past crime, we don’t know how. The gradual revelation of the past informs the solutions of the present, and while the situation is similar, Julia is not the raw beginner she once was. The characters are well drawn, the landscape is integral to the telling, and while this is a debut novel, it doesn’t read like a practice run.

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