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Review

Good Half Gone.

by Henrietta Thornton

For me, the best kind of thriller is one with high emotional stakes, and this fits the bill, featuring a family that’s been torn apart by addiction and an unsolved crime. When they were 15, Iris and her twin sister, Piper, were tricked into meeting older boys, a tryst at which Piper was abducted. The police believed that Piper ran away, the trail went cold, and today lris is a bereft adult, living with her son and grandmother and still wondering what happened to her sister. The twins’ mother, an addict, gave up on finding Piper long ago. But, clinging to hope, Iris has landed an internship at Shoal Island Hospital, a facility in Seattle’s San Juan Islands whose sign has a space where the words “…for the Criminally Insane” used to be. Readers are gradually let in on who she’s there to meet, and along the way, flashbacks return to the time of the abduction as Iris sleuths and grieves in the present day. A closing twist adds fear and drama, but those are present in spades along the way too. This fast read will be a hit with those who enjoy a female-led thriller that features an at-first-powerless protagonist who must seize the reins.

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Review

The Stranger in the Library

by Jeff Ayers

Recently married, Lucy McNeil runs the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library. When a traveling art-history exhibit arrives in town, Lucy works with family and friends to create a unique display in the library that showcases local, national, and international artists. The morning after the library celebration, the librarian is surprised to discover one of the reproductions of a famous local artist is no longer on the wall. Who would want to steal a worthless copy of a famous painting? The grand opening of the exhibit leads to drama and the murder of one of the organizers, and the prime suspect for both the theft and the death is Tom Reilly, an art dealer with a shady past. Gates, who also writes mysteries under the name Vicki Delany (Deadly Summer Nights, 2021; Have yourself a Deadly Little Christmas, 2023), is a master of cozy settings and telling a compelling story. Her vast cast of characters is realistic, and the puzzle is challenging and surprising. While the actual lighthouse at Cape Hatteras does not have enough space for a library, readers will still want to visit. Whether this is the first dive or the eleventh, this series is a lot of fun.

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Review

The Switch

by Brian Kenney

Sexy and perverse, deceitful and disturbing, this is one domestic thriller that doesn’t hold back. Elena and Adam are house sitting in South London when they come across the beautiful painter Sophia and her equally handsome husband, Finn. Sophia and Finn are suave and sophisticated, and dinner with the four soon evolves into casual meetings between the two women, and eventually friendship. Despite this, Elena can’t stop herself from becoming obsessed with Finn—sex with Adam leaves a lot to be desired—and Sophia recognizes Elena’s infatuation. But instead of being threatened, Sophia has a plan. Why don’t they exchange partners, with the men never the wiser? The women, physically very similar, will switch places during the night, when the men are asleep, making every possible effort—from hair to perfume—to trick their partners. Plausible? Barely. (Pro-tip: use blackout curtains). But while “switching” increases Elena’s fervor for Finn, for Sophia it opens up a whole world, one that she has been planning for ages. A fast and effortless read that never stops surprising.

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Review

Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder

by Brian Kenney

A masterpiece, this is the dazzling tale of a gourmand and con-woman whose life opens up because of an intrepid, brilliant reporter. Manako Kajii is behind bars thanks to her multiple murders of forlorn businessmen whom she seduced with her cooking and promises of a traditional life together. As she famously states: “There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine.” And you can add a third: journalists, as she refuses to ever give any interviews. Until reporter Rika Machida comes along, herself a bit forlorn, and writes to Manako requesting her beef bourguignon recipe—just don’t call it beef stew!—without any reference to Manako’s lurid and extravagant past. Soon, Rika is visiting Manako in prison, where they cook and devour imaginary meals together, becoming totally immersed in gastronomic fantasies until we can only wonder: who is changing whom? While Manako provides the novel’s spine, we also delve deep into Rika’s world, the misogyny of her workplace, the loneliness of both men and women, her troubled family, the challenge of aging parents. Remarkably enough, this novel is based on a true story, “The Konkatsu Killer;” check out more information on Murderpedia. I cannot wait to discuss this in a book group.

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Review

The Last Note of Warning

by Henrietta Thornton

Fans of Schellman’s previous two books in this exciting series, Last Call at the Nightingale (2022) and The Last Drop of Hemlock (2023), will find this trilogy closer a satisfying end to the roller coaster of Vivian Kelly’s life as a seamstress by day, flapper at a queer-friendly speakeasy by night. Vivian now delivers dresses to her boss’s wealthy clients, waiting around mansions until the clients deign to join her for a last check on their new dresses’ fit. On one such visit, Vivian is invited by the gentleman of the house to sit a while and warm up, during which time he’s called away. She then finds him dead, and as she’s the only person around, she’s on the hook for the killing. She’s given a week to find the real killer, with the police seemingly aware that she probably didn’t do the crime but happy to have a handy suspect to charge. The tumultuous week forms the bulk of the book, and sees our hero display her signature moxie, smarts, and the love she hides for her family and her police-officer paramour, their relationship troubled by his family ties to the commissioner who’s happy to put Vivian away. Life among the haves and have nots of the Roaring Twenties is a heady setting and Vivian a character well worth getting to know—you can enjoy this without having read the previous two books, but do yourself a favor and add them to your library’s hold list anyway!

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Review

Out For Blood

by Jeff Ayers

An attack at an airport near Oklahoma City of a federal government prisoner transfer turns into the most deadly game for Matthew Redd and his family. The team responsible for the massacre has another name on its hit list, and already has their target on surveillance: Redd. As the team heads to Montana to take him out, a massive winter storm has settled over the region. Receiving a warning with minutes to spare, Redd has his family leave while he heads to high ground to make a last stand against an unstoppable army. But the snow is relentless, just like his enemies, and his initial confrontation invites more dangerous elements into his life. Steck brings the Western genre to the modern age with this nonstop action thriller. The writing delivers a cinematic experience as the forces have a last stand, and the small town and its citizens will be lucky to come out unscathed. This series is terrific, and Steck does a great job getting newcomers up to speed while delivering results fans have been waiting to see.

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Review

Fire Exit

by Henrietta Thornton

In his debut novel, prizewinning short-story author Talty (a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation) brings us to just outside the border of the Penobscot reservation in Maine. Charles Lamosway lives within sight of the reservation, also within sight of a house where his daughter, Ellie, lives. Most people, including Ellie, think that her mother’s husband is Ellie’s father. Charles knows “what it [is] like to feel invisible inside the great, great dream of being,” with Talty succeeding beautifully in portraying a man who’s cut off from his own life and from the world around him, even as he cares for his mother, who is slowly slipping into dementia—a situation that brings Charles and readers some moments of dark comedy—and faces his stepfather’s violent death. Then—it seems almost inevitable, given Charles’ lot in life—his daughter goes missing, and secrets can no longer hold. The beauty of this book lies in following Charles as he tries to pierce the barriers that keep his love from mattering, a relentless struggle often mirrored in long phrases with repeated words (“and only then did the man leave and only then did the doctor come to the heavy wooden door”). There’s a satisfying ending here, and sure to be further prizes ahead for Talty.

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Review

The Marlow Club Murder

by Brian Kenney

What the world needs now is more Robert Thorogood and the three heroes of the Marlow Murder Club: Judith the crossword-puzzle author, Suzie the dogwalker, and Becks the vicar’s wife. This romp starts off with the Mayor keeling over at a planning meeting—lucky for us, Suzie happens to be attending—and the cause of death is soon determined to be poison in his coffee. Aconite, to be specific, the queen of all poisons. But who would kill the beloved Mayor? Before the ladies can begin their investigation, Tanika—a police officer in the earlier books and now detective inspector—appoints them as “civilian advisors,” a clear case of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” While traversing Marlow in search of the murderer is loads of fun, the real joy in this series is the dialog, wit, and friendships of the women. This is nothing less than the ultimate in cozies.

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Review

Eleven Huskies

by Brian Kenney

It’s great when a series keeps getting better and better, and this latest in the “Vet Mystery” series does exactly that. Veterinarian Peter Bannerman is on vacation with his family in northern Manitoba—lots of hiking and canoeing, mosquitos and dogs. But things quickly go wrong. The gorgeous sled huskies owned by the proprietor of the lodge are poisoned. Then a floatplane crashes into the lake; the pilot, it turns out, has been shot from the ground on the plane’s descent. And if human misbehavior weren’t enough, nature provides a terrifying forest fire that nearly kills the Bannerman family. They seek safety in the lodge along with the other tourists and staff. Here Schott’s (Fifty-Four Pigs) book turns into a locked-room tale as the outside world grows more fearsome while it becomes clearer that the murderer is likely in their midst. Wonderful, unique characters (including Peter’s sniffer dog, Pippin), a dramatic setting, and a brisk plot all make for an excellent mystery.

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Review

Finding Mr. Write

by Henrietta Thornton

At first, Finding Mr. Write reads like hearty rom-com fare: Daphne McFadden, a struggling writer who can’t get an agent, hires a dishy man to pose as the author of her book. She wants to hate “Zane Remington” but can’t, and complications ensue, not to mention increasingly lingering looks. While the enjoyable rom-com type misunderstandings and drama continue throughout the book, there’s also more here. Crime and mystery come into play when Daphne’s publisher and the book’s rabid fans get ever closer to finding out that Zane isn’t really the author of the wildly popular “dark zombie thriller with a teen girl protagonist,” and Daphne worries about her legal future. There’s also a lot to absorb about the economics, biases, and general messed-up-edness of the publishing industry, with an overworked publicist, one in a long string of underpaid young women, one of the tale’s quiet heroes. This well-plotted look at a maybe-romance and the bizarro world writers inhabit is a fun mix of mystery and romance, and well worth a read.

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