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Review

The Watchmaker’s Hand

by Jeff Ayers

Paraplegic forensic Captain Lincoln Rhyme; his wife, Detective Amelia Sachs; and their team of NYPD officers race against the clock in Deaver’s terrifying thriller. A construction crane collapses, and without a last-second move by the operator, it would have done extensive damage. The crash ends up only killing several people rather than hundreds. It was sabotage, and the crash is only the beginning, as those claiming responsibility will conduct another act in 24 hours unless their demands are met. One by one, the team members experience accidents designed to eliminate Rhyme’s trustworthy colleagues and those he truly cares about. Rhyme learns that the mastermind is someone he has been unable to capture, The Watchmaker. The Captain’s nemesis seeks revenge, his end goal to murder Rhyme. Deaver is the master of manipulation and telling a story quickly, and he is at the top of his game here. Readers should not be intimidated by the 15 previous entries in the series, as this one can be read as a standalone. The Watchmaker’s Hand is a fantastic thriller with great characters and jaw-dropping surprises.

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Review

No One Can Know

by Brian Kenney

What starts out as a simple story of marital discord grows into something so much richer and more terrifying. Emma and her husband are in a bad way. They’re broke—he’s lost his job, a fact he has been hiding from her—and she’s pregnant, although he’s pressuring her to have an abortion. The one asset Emma has is her share in the family home. But neither Emma nor her two sisters, whom she is estranged from, have stepped foot in the house in 14 years. And for a good reason: their parents were murdered there, leaving behind a horrible, bloody mess and years of psychological damage. But Emma’s husband insists that moving back in is their only option, despite Emma’s belief that their taking up residence in the house will unseal secrets that have been kept buried for years. The story moves artfully between the past, especially the night of the murders, and the present, when Emma’s sisters show up on the scene, and law enforcement reinforces the 14-year-old belief that Emma was the murderer. We end far from where we started, in a novel that is both tremendously complex and wonderfully readable. A remarkable achievement.

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Review

The Mystery Guest

by Brian Kenney

Millions of fans of Molly—“the maid”—Gray will be delighted with this wonderful second installation, which features returning characters (such as Mr. Preston, the congenial doorman, and Detective Stark, the grouchy cop) along with a handful of new characters. But most important is J.D. Grimthorpe, renowned mystery author, who chooses Molly’s five-star Regency Grand Hotel to make a most important announcement. No sooner does he mount the stage in the perfectly appointed tea room (expect nothing less from Molly, the head maid) than he suddenly drops dead. Very, very dead. And not from a medical condition. J.D. Grimthorpe was murdered. The path to finding the murderer is a long and twisted one, taking Molly back into her childhood and her early days working alongside her beloved Gran. But as guests and employees start looking at each other with accusation in their eyes, the pressure for Molly to solve the case mounts. In the first volume, The Maid, there was much discussion about Molly being autistic or otherwise neurodivergent. Not qualified to make such an assessment myself, I prefer to think of Molly as eccentric. As this tale draws to a close, several secrets are most satisfyingly revealed, and one major opportunity presents itself, which will leave me in a state of wonder until the next Molly mystery. Pronto, please.

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Review

Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead

by Brian Kenney

This book just picks you up and catapults you into five or so hours of unrelenting suspense and anxiety. British-born Charlie came to New York City to attend a prestigious journalism school—much like Columbia’s—and just months into the program, she witnessed a horrific mass murder, quickly dubbed “Scarlet Christmas.” Since then, Charlie has built a life that largely leaves those nightmarish events behind her. Today, she’s engaged to a super-rich scion of a publishing house and is herself editor in chief of a leading magazine. But she still struggles in wanting to know her past, although even intensive work with a therapist won’t unlock the events of that fateful Christmas eve and what her role in them may have been. Then Charlie learns that a documentary film is in development—it’s the tenth anniversary of the murders—that promises to tell the whole truth. But what is the truth? Whatever it might be, Charlie is terrified of the revelations that might come tumbling out and fears that her oh-so-perfect Manhattan life will collapse on itself like a house of cards. How far will Charlie go to keep the lid on the pressure cooker? A brilliant debut that isn’t promising—it completely delivers.—

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Review

Jane and the Final Mystery

by Willy Williams

In March of 1817, Jane Austen is struggling to complete her latest manuscript, The Brothers, in spite of her declining health: “I, who enjoyed a riotous constitution throughout my four decades, had felt so little like myself in the previous twelvemonth that I found it hard to remember being free of pain.” But when the 15-year-old son of her widowed friend Elizabeth Heathcote (whose brother once proposed to Jane) is accused of the drowning death of a senior classmate at the prestigious Winchester College boys’ boarding school, she summons the energy to travel to Winchester with her beloved 19-year-old nephew, Edward, to investigate. There, she learns from Elizabeth that for the past three years, William had been the “subject of relentless attacks on his spirit, his mind, and his standing in the world.” He had been especially bullied by the sadistic late Arthur Prendergast, who enjoyed hazing the younger boys. Is there a connection between Prendergast’s murder, the malicious campaign against William, and an entailed inheritance that would benefit William? Jane is determined to clear William’s name before she succumbs to her illness. Over the course of 14 books, the multitalented Barron, who also pens spy thrillers as Francine Matthews, has brilliantly combined authentic historical and biographical details with skillful plotting and a credible evocation of Austen’s wry, distinctive voice. She brings the English author’s final investigation to a poignant, unforgettable close. Fans of this historical series will not be disappointed, and kudos to Barron’s excellent double-entendre title. While the earthly crime may be solved, the final mystery is one that we all will face.

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Review

The Mayor of Maxwell Street

by Henrietta Thornton

Nelly Sawyer’s father is a Kentucky horse breeder and the richest Black man in America. The family is in prohibition-era Chicago for Nelly’s coming out, when she’s expected to meet the country’s most eligible young Black men and find one to marry. She doesn’t fit in at the events, disdains the whole charade, and just wants to be alone to grieve the recent death of her brother. She’s also eager to pursue a career in journalism, not easy for a woman, let alone a Black woman who’s been raised in genteel isolation. Outside the cotillion and other events are no better, as white Chicagoans take the young woman for a servant. Nelly is soon distracted, though, when she’s surprised by potential love interests: Jay Shorey, a mysterious, beautifully dressed speakeasy manager, and the more suitable, at least in society’s view, Tomás Escalante y Roche, a Marquis who is this season’s catch. When Nelly is challenged to find and identify the dangerous Mayor of Maxwell Street to keep the newspaper job she’s threatened with losing, both men and Nelly herself are thrown into a vicious game of deceit that adds high suspense and sometimes terrible danger to the politics-laden season. An evocative and thought-provoking debut, and just look at that cover!

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Review

Deep Freeze

by Jeff Ayers

A bus ride becomes a nightmare when John Reiff wakes up to see the bus plunge into a freezing river, and he and several others are trapped. But that is not the end for him. He then wakes up in what appears to his confused mind to be a mix of a hospital and a laboratory. The doctors there tell him that he was cryogenically frozen due to the accident conditions, and with the experimental equipment on site, they could revive him. As John gathers his strength, he realizes that the doctors are not as forthcoming with him as they should be. He has secrets of his own, as he begins to have terrifying visions of flames mixed in with the pain from his resurrection. The truth and its ramifications will jeopardize the lives of John and the doctors who brought him back to life. Robin Cook meets Blake Crouch in this intense thriller that will appeal to fans of mysteries that feature paranoid conspiracies and a hint of science fiction. While not a cliffhanger, the ending will still have readers demanding the next book right away.

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Review

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels

by Brian Kenney

This doozy of a thriller centers on true-crime author Amanda Bailey, who is working on a book about the Alperton Angels, a suicide cult that 18 years ago mostly killed itself off. Survivors were few: Gabriel, the now-jailed leader; a teen boy and girl, long disappeared; and their newborn baby, also gone missing. Finding the baby, now that he or she is reaching maturity, is central to the story—and the success of Amanda’s book. Like Hallett’s previous novels (The Appeal and The Twyford Code), this book is immensely clever, written in a dossier style that serves up Amanda’s research, communication, and discoveries, from emails to texts, from film treatments to transcripts, and from casual phone calls with her assistant to historical news stories. Another author, and sort of frenemy, Oliver Menzies, is also writing a book about the Angels, and eventually he and Amanda are forced to share their information, descending together into the deep, dark world of the Angels. Some will find the book’s reliance on multiple texts too artificial, but most readers will be dazzled by Hallett’s creativity, will enjoy their engagement in solving the book’s many puzzles, and will love the dynamite conclusion.

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Review

The Darkness Surrounds Us

by Henrietta Thornton

Can a house hold evil? Can it hold memories? Nellie Lester fears the worst when she accepts a nursing job in New Harmony, Michigan, an island town where she spent her early life. But she’s desperate to get out of the flu pandemic that hit her Chicago hospital and everywhere else, in the aftermath of the Great War. Perhaps even more compelling is her need to find out who her father was. The only remnant of the man is a photograph that might show Nellie and her parents years ago in New Harmony. Arriving, the nurse finds that Ravenwood Manor and its owner, William Thiery, hold forbidding reputations in the area—the house is haunted, they say, and William is a frightening man who cares little for his wife and the baby that Nellie is there to deliver. Then a body is found with a fatal head wound, and Nellie doesn’t accept that the death was an accident. She’s not there to be a detective, her boss is quick to point out, but the danger is mounting. Nellie must solve mysteries from the past and in the present to save herself and, she hopes, get out of New Harmony. Supernatural elements —scariest is a death portrait of a child in which the subject seems to progressively rot—add to the domestic drama and historical wrongs, creating a gothic suspense and a feisty protagonist to remember.

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Review

Listen for the Lie

by Brian Kenney

One of the darkest, but funniest, novels I’ve read in a long time—largely thanks to the wonderful narrator, Lucy Chase. Lucy is taking a break from Los Angeles and heading back to her hometown of Plumpton, Texas. It’s been five years since she’s been in Plumpton, where nearly everyone, including her parents, is convinced she murdered Savvy, her best friend. After all, she was found leaving the scene of the crime, covered in Savvy’s blood, Savvy’s DNA under her nails, and suffering from amnesia. Kind of a downer, right? The one exception is her Grandma, who believes Lucy’s innocence and uses her 80th birthday party to lure Lucy home. It also seems like Ben Owens, the editor of the hugely popular true crime podcast “Listen for the Lie” is in town, with Lucy in his cross-hairs. Grandma is convinced that the handsome Ben will end up exonerating Lucy—and Lucy ends up sort of working with, and sleeping with, Ben, while also fooling around with a few other potential witnesses, like her ex-husband. The prose snaps and the plot speeds along in Tintera’s portrayal of small town, alcohol-addled, smiling-to-your-face-while-trashing-you-behind-your-back Texas. This would make a perfect series—and what fun to cast! For those who enjoyed Jennifer Hillier’s Things We Do in the Dark and Bella Mackie’s How to Kill Your Family.

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