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Review

The Perfect Sister

by Henrietta Thornton

I love the kind of us-and-them stories set in places like the Hamptons, and the latest by DeCarolis (The Guilty Husband, Deadly Little Lies) is packed with twists. Alex and Maddie Walker are sisters who look so alike and are so close in age that people think they’re twins. Their mother referred to them that way, a glimpse of love amid her boozy, selfish ways. Now Mom’s long gone, and the sisters, who are now in their twenties, are distant after an argument that followed her funeral. But when Alex doesn’t hear from Maddie, who has been in the Hamptons for the summer, she heads to that tony town to get to the bottom of things. What she finds is very strange—Maddie had been living at one of the swankiest houses in the area, Blackwell Manor. Alex stays with the Blackwells herself, keeping a safe distance from their rich but miserable lives—until things take a turn when another young woman goes missing. As Alex becomes a thorn in the police’s side, she uncovers secrets about the present and the distant past. Dark sexual themes feature amid the absorbing suburban suspense that’s told from multiple, tantalizing viewpoints.

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Review

We Used to Live Here

by Brian Kenney

Hands down the creepiest book we’ve reviewed this year, if not in several years. Charlie and Eve are a gay couple who make their living buying and flipping old houses. Their current project is in the rural Pacific Northwest, far from their roots on the East Coast. A family drops by one afternoon
—Eve is all alone while Charlie is running errands—and the father says he grew up in the house and could he show the kids around? It takes a bit of cajoling, but Eve eventually gives in—huge mistake—because once they’re in the house, the weird and the worrisome begin to present themselves. The youngest daughter disappears. The basement is home to supernatural presences. Objects vanish. Charlie returns, although she doesn’t offer the support Eve needs. As the day goes on, it becomes clear that the family can’t leave—a winter storm has descended on them—but it gradually becomes even clearer that they have no intention of leaving. Crazily suspenseful, but a tad more horror than mystery, the story moves at a fast clip as the reader slips from one reality to another in this accomplished debut. To be released as a Netflix original film starring Blake Lively.

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Review

The Drowned

by Willy Williams

Spotting a sleek Mercedes SL sports car parked in a sloping field below a house, its engine still running and the driver’s door left open, Denton Wymes, on his way home from fishing, pauses to investigate. It’s a moment that the isolated loner will soon regret as he becomes caught up in a missing-person case that will turn his life upside down. Before Wymes can retreat, a man named Armitage approaches, claiming his wife has thrown herself into the sea. Together they walk up to the house to telephone for help. Armitage’s behavior is odd (“he seemed more excited than distressed’) and Wymes senses that the tenant answering the door, Charles Rudduck, recognizes Armitage. Called in from Dublin to investigate is Detective Inspector St. John (pronounced “Sinjun”) Strafford, who is also juggling a complicated personal life (an estranged wife and a lover who is the daughter of his colleague, state pathologist Quirke). In late 1950s Ireland, divorce is illegal, and Anglo-Irish social tensions remain strong. Banville deftly captures the prejudices and suspicions between the groups. “You’re not a Paddy, then” says Armitage to Wymes, who stiffly corrects him that he is Irish, but not “bog Irish.” In a mostly Catholic police force, Strafford stands out as the rare Protestant. His investigation gradually uncovers secrets that go back years and into previous series installments, but enough back information easily guides new readers through the complex plot. Banville ends his fourth Strafford/Quirke crime novel (after The Lock-Up) on a haunting, ambiguous note. With its complicated, not always likable protagonists, this beautifully written book will appeal to fans of literary mysteries in the vein of Kate Atkinson’s and Tana French’s works.

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Review

Fatal Intrusion

by Jeff Ayers

Two of my favorite writers have teamed up, and the pairing exceeds expectations. A nature photographer is killed, and a young woman named Selina narrowly avoids the same fate. Selina’s older sister, Carmen Sanchez, works for Homeland Security and wants answers. The attacker is methodical, ruthless, and seems to know every trick not to be seen or caught, though Selina did see he had a tattoo of a black widow spider on his wrist. With no motive and a heavily encrypted cell phone recovered at a crime scene, Carmen seeks the assistance of Professor Jake Heron, a teacher and security expert. Though they share a troubled past and probably should not be assisting each other, Carmen feels she has no alternative. Jake’s curiosity draws him directly into the case, and the reluctant duo is slowly drawn into the perpetrator’s web. This book reads like a great episode of Monk or Elementary, with law enforcement working closely with an expert consultant. Carmen and Jake have great chemistry, and the story reads like the best of Maldonado’s crime novels and Deaver’s thrillers. Fatal Intrusion is a must-read, and everyone will be dying for the next book.

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Review

The Bedlam Cadaver

by Henrietta Thornton

Harry Hunt, former right hand to Robert Hooke, from whom he’s now estranged, is back in his third 17th-century London mystery, after The Bloodless Boy and The Poison Machine. He’s still immersed in a life of the mind and courting Hooke’’s daughter, Grace. Otherwise, though, his circumstances have changed markedly, with new prosperity sitting increasingly uncomfortably on him as events, and a surprising relationship, remind him where his roots lie. He’s also reminded from whence he came when the King takes him down a peg during an investigation (“Your use to me outweighs your impertinence”). The case starts when Harry attends the planned dissection of the corpse of a suicide from Bethlehem Hospital, the notorious insitution nicknamed Bedlam, which is halted quickly when Harry sees that the cadaver is that of no Bedlam pauper but his neighbor. How her body got to a hospital where she wasn’t a patient is a puzzle. Adding to the horror, another woman shortly goes missing and Harry is charged. He’s soon on the run, offering Lloyd the opportunity to show what London in 1681 was like outside its gilded halls and to keep readers on edge as the law and other malevolent forces close in. With its rich language, gory details of an era that was an attack on the senses, tidbits on Popish vs. Protestant politics, and shocking facts about early medical training, this is another immersive winner from Lloyd.

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Review

After Oz

by Brian Kenney

A wonderful addition to the literature of The Wizard of Oz, this novel focuses on 11-year-old Dorothy Gale, “dreamy, distant, difficult,” and her eventual return to Kansas via a pumpkin field, where she is found sleeping. Poor Dorothy didn’t know the drill—she was insistent on the reality of the fantastic land she had left, with “talking beasts, flying monkeys, and a wizard”—when she should have been accusing the Oz citizenry as being ungodly pagans. But it’s Dorothy’s admission that she murdered (actually melted) the witch, and the discovery that a leading, witch-like townswoman, Alvina, has also been murdered (melted by lye), that sends Dorothy off to the Topeka Insane Asylum. Fortunately for Dorothy, the town is visited by Dr. Evelyn Grace Wilford, a student of William James, who faces the misogyny and Christianity of the townspeople to learn the truth of what really happened to Dorothy Gale. A delight from start to finish.

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Review

Think Twice

by Jeff Ayers

Sports agent and former attorney Myron Bolitar works closely with his best friend, Win, in a lavish office in New York City. FBI agents visit one day and demand answers. One of Myron’s former clients, Greg Downing, is the prime suspect in a couple of murders, as his DNA was found under a victim’s fingernails. The only problem? Greg died three years ago, and Myron last saw him at his funeral. Myron and Greg had a history, and being curious how a dead man could murder someone, Myron asks Win for help, and they start digging for answers. Mobsters, false identities, and a string of murders committed by innocent people are only the tip of the iceberg in Coben’s latest. Myron and Win’s stories are personal favorites, and their relationship, banter, and puzzle-solving skills make for a great series. Think Twice is a classic story with a favorite duo and another great Coben thriller full of surprises and misdirection. Here’s hoping we meet these partners in action again soon.

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Review

The Unwedding

by Brian Kenney

Things couldn’t get much worse for Ellery. She’s all alone at a super-expensive resort in Big Sur where she and her husband were meant to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, except his mid-life crisis blossomed into a full blown decision to divorce (new girlfriend and motorcycle), and, well, the reservations aren’t refundable. Then it turns out that most of the other guests are there to celebrate a wedding. How annoying is that? Ellery misses her kids terribly. And when she decides to take an evening dip in the infinity pool, she finds the groom beat her to it, except he’s floating face down, fully dressed, with a huge gash in the back of his head. Time to call the cops, but a huge storm has moved through, triggering a mudslide that completely isolates the hotel, cutting off cell service. Yup, we are in a closed-resort novel. But, fortunately for Ellery, she makes some friends, and together they set out to investigate what’s really going on in this Christie-like setting. This is Condie’s adult debut (she is author of the YA “Matched” series) and she does a magnificent job of balancing the search for a murderer with exploring Ellery’s rich internal life. A gift to readers who enjoy closed environments and unsettling outcomes.

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Review

The Puzzle Box

by Henrietta Thornton

This sequel to Trussoni’s 2023 The Puzzle Master (my favorite book of all time!) finds savant Mike Brink once more faced with a puzzle that others have found unsolvable. This time his help is requested by the Japanese imperial family, who dispatch another puzzle genius, Sakura Nakamoto, to whisk him from New York to Tokyo. Mike is well known for his work creating puzzles and taking part in competitions in which participants recite the string of numbers that form pi, his synesthesia allowing the numbers to appear “as a scale of color at the edge of his vision.” These are the upsides of the accident that left him an affable genius. But there are drawbacks. He’s so far been unable to form any romantic relationship and struggles to understand himself. So when Sakura tells him that the beautiful Dragon Puzzle Box, a puzzle that’s uber-famous in Mike’s world, is available for him to try, and that it will help him to understand his gift, he jumps at it. This is no ordinary box—others who have tried to open it have had fingers amputated or been poisoned by the puzzle’s booby traps. Work on it takes Mike on thrilling journeys not only to fascinating Japanese locales but further into the recesses of his mind than he thought possible. Engrossed readers will happily make the trips with him. While you’re waiting for this wonderful follow-up, get The Puzzle Master and read our interview with Trussoni when that book was published.

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Review

It’s Elementary

by Brian Kenney

Mavis is one busy single mom. Pearl, her seven-year-old, is smart, funny, and chatty. Her ex, who tries to be a good dad, is a musician who is regularly on tour across the country. The non-profit Mavis works for has the bad habit of skipping her over for promotions. And Trish, the incredibly bossy head of the PTA—when will a house fall on her?—tricks Mavis, as one of only a handful of Black moms at the school, to head its DEI committee. “DEI means diversity, equity, and inclusion, sure,” Mavis says. “But it also means free labor to be given willingly to fix problems we didn’t create.” The novel is barely underway when the new school principal suddenly disappears while Mavis, while walking her dog late at night, passes the school, only to see Trish loading up her car with cleaning supplies and heavy plastic bags…filled with the remains of Principal Smith? Joining forces with Jack, the “superhot” school psychologist, Mavis sets off to find the lost principal. Beautifully written and well-paced, this delightful novel explores the many friends and family who surround Mavis, the struggles she experiences, and the love that flows throughout. Elise Bryant is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of the young adult novels Happily Ever Afters, One True Loves, and Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling.

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