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Review

Same Difference

by Brian Kenney

It’s tempting with some books to say “just read it,” and the second in Copperman’s Fran and Ken Stein (get it?) series is that type of book: quite unbelievable but totally seductive. Twins Fran and Ken were created by two scientists who played around with the twins’ genetics; they’re super tall, super strong, and a bit superhero-like. Their parents had to skip town when the two were babies, leaving them in the hands of a trusted friend. Today, the twins are all grown up and run their own Manhattan detective agency; in this episode, they are hired to track down a young trans woman, Eliza, who has disappeared, and who very much may not want to be found. The search for Eliza takes the duo through most of the City’s boroughs, entangles them in a handful of characters, and presents a plot that keeps growing more and more complex. But it’s the personal lives of the siblings that interest me the most, such as Fran’s on-again, off-again relationship with an NYPD detective and the rare communication she has with their parents. Will they ever be reunited?

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Review

The Best Lies

by Jeff Ayers

Leo Balanoff’s skills as an attorney are assisted by his tendency to pathologically lie every chance he can. His unscrupulous methods caused the love of his life to walk away, and his horrific family background has him seeking revenge. When the target of his retribution is killed, and Leo’s DNA is found at the scene, he finds himself on the verge of losing everything. So when an FBI agent offers a chance to go undercover to avoid prison, the attorney jumps at the opportunity, not realizing it will put him in the crosshairs of his ex. Twist after shocking twist comes nonstop in this engaging and fun thriller. The story is not just like a twisty pretzel, it’s like an entire pretzel factory. Ellis has written one of those rare books in which every single word cannot be trusted, resulting in an ending that no reader will see coming. Paranoia, chaos, and shocks await.

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Review

Gaslight

by Henrietta Thornton

Life inside a cult, and the uncertainty after escape, are chillingly chronicled in Shepard’s latest psychological suspense. At first, high schooler Danny is scornful of Infinite Spiritual Being, or ISB, the self-help group that her friends are so enamored of. But its narcissistic leader, Ben, knows just the right ways to manipulate a lonely teen into joining his band of acolytes. The young women, and some men, who are gaslit by Ben into eating very little—so as to gain more control over themselves—are over time convinced to leave their families and join Ben in a rural Oregon compound. Accounts of that life alternate with looks at the current day, nine years later, when Danny shows up at her ISB friend Rebecca’s house unannounced. Rebecca’s now living with her husband, Tom, and children in much more pleasant circumstances and is stricken to see Danny, as Tom knows nothing of her old life. Danny’s appearance puts Rebecca and her family in terrible danger, and as readers move back and forth in time, and secrets and terrible abuse, including of pregnant women, are revealed, the story ramps up to a tense-as-can-be ending. The legions of fans of Shepard’s Pretty Little Liars will read anything by her and will be well rewarded here; those new to the author will also race through this riveting tale.

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Review

A Very Woodsy Murder

by Brian Kenney

Hooray for a new series that is fresh and funny, sophisticated and country. Dee Stern has had better years. Her Mom died unexpectedly. Her second marriage went kaput. And her career—she’s a sitcom writer in LA—is petering out. On a drive through the country to escape from it all, she discovers the Golden Motel, a mid-century-modern motel nestled in the foothills of the Sierras. And best of all, it’s FOR SALE. It doesn’t take much for Dee to convince Jeff—husband #1—to join her in this “lifestyle change” and become co-owner of the Golden Motel, Findgold, CA. In no time, they attract their first customer, one Michael Adam Baker who—freakishly enough—Dee knew as a frenemy from the sitcom world. What are the chances of that? Zero to none, it turns out. By the time she discovers what Michael is really up to, it’s too late, and their first guest is also their first victim. Agatha Award-winning author Byron has taken a fascinating community, great characters, the tension between city and country people, and the indomitable Dee to create a high-energy and hilarious series that readers won’t be quick to forget.

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Review

Look in the Mirror

by Brian Kenney

Relatives: you never know what they might be up to. Until you read the will. For Nina—whose beloved father recently died—it’s the discovery of a lavish home in the British Virgin Islands that he left her. Her father was a civil engineer and the home he created—where did he get the money?—is modern and marble, cool and glass. But there’s something a bit off about the house, which slowly begins to come alive. Like some massive escape room, it engages Nina in a game that starts playful but soon becomes terrifying. Then there’s the concurrent story of Maria, a former medical student who now works as a nanny for the immensely rich. She’s able to sock away thousands of dollars while living in gorgeous resort-like mansions. But at her most recent job, the children never show up; in fact, days go by and no one appears, just an electrician to fix a malfunction in the system. The only rule? Don’t enter a room in the basement, which Maria, naturally—after days of boredom—can’t help but do, setting off a life or death struggle that spreads over days. Steadman gets a 10 for creating a puzzle/pawn like novel of terror that starts fast, only to gain even more speed as the reader inevitably rips through the short, action-packed chapters. Prepare yourself for something very new and very disturbing.

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Review

The Whitewashed Tombs

by Henrietta Thornton

This piercingly written tale of modern life in Ghana is preceded by a warning in Quartey’s heartfelt prologue that his novel includes scenes of violence against gay characters and should be approached with “caution and mindfulness.” That’s fair to say, but it must also be noted that the violence is in keeping with the story and not gratuitous, except on the part of the criminals. The effects of white-supremacist missionary work in Africa also loom large in the story, which centers around the murderous homophobia stoked in Ghana by an American evangelical Christian, Chris Cortland. His bigoted ways have brought him to Africa where he finds a home among those who believe that “homosexuality isn’t indigenous to Ghana.” The tale features many well-drawn characters, all presented in an opening character list (don’t be put off by the full to bursting cast here!). They fall into three main groups: trans women who are being murdered, with famous Ghanaian pop singer Henrietta Blay the focus; Emma Djan and the other private investigators who who make this police-procedural-esque, employed because “the police might not give the case high priority”; and the smarmy, self-righteous circle of Americans and Ghanaians around Cortland, whose behavior means the book could also come with a domestic violence warning. The murder mystery is compelling here, but readers will also be absorbed by the politics and religious machinations and the emotional brutality the mixing of the two creates.

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Review

The Rose Arbor

by Brian Kenney

A richly depicted, absolutely haunting, and totally compelling novel from the consummate historical crime novelist Rhys Bowen. It’s 1968, and Liz Houghton is writing obituaries when she really wants to be a reporter. The disappearance of a young girl prompts her to go rogue and take on the investigation—with help from her roommate, Marisa, a police detective. Liz finds echoes of 1968 in the disappearance of three girls during World War II, lost while being evacuated to avoid the bombings. She eventually discovers the village of Tydeham, abandoned since it was taken over by the military during the War. Mysteriously drawn to the village—and with the help of a young man she meets there—Liz begins to make connections between what happened in the past and what lives on in the present. Parentage, great country estates, elderly and vulnerable parents, romance, and young women elbowing their way into the professions are all part of the tale. Perfect for book groups, purchase extra copies.

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Review

I Need You to Read This

by Brian Kenney

Like a lot of New Yorkers before her, Alex Marks came to the city to escape her past and forge a new identity. She finds work as a copy editor, but remains withdrawn, no dating!, with her only friends the staff at her neighborhood coffee shop. But when her hero, Francis Keen, the famous editor of the advice column, “Dear Constance,” doesn’t just die, but is murdered, Alex finds herself applying for her job—surprising herself at her ambition. Alex adored Francis, and even though they never met, she was beholden to Francis’ advice over the years. Miraculously, the paper’s editor in chief recognizes the kinship they share and gives Alex the job. But then she starts to receive sinister, vaguely threatening letters that motivate her to find Francis’s murderer. Fast, frightening, and ultimately fulfilling, the narrative takes a full 180 degree flip. Anticipate several brutal episodes of domestic violence.

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Review

Squeaky Clean

by Henrietta Thornton

Davey Burnet’s life is boring, tough drudgery, made no easier by his shame and frustration over having caused a lot of his own problems. He works at a Glasgow car wash where the work is both boring and freezing and the annoying customers bested only the even more draining pothead boss. But Davey wishes for the boredom back when an impulse decision brings a world of trouble down on him and the business. After nouveau-criminal-riche Paulo McGuinn takes to bringing his ostentatious vehicles to be cleaned and Davey “borrows” one of them to make it to a custody hearing for the daughter he desperately wants to see, the car is wrecked and suddenly Paulo is the de facto owner of the car wash and of Davey’s grim future. Paolo’s just-one-of-the-lads bonhomie is a wafer-thin veneer over viciousness; not taken in by it is DI Alison McCoist, whose pecking away at the car wash’s goings on are Davey’s only hope. While this fast-moving tale is dark and has moments of real terror, it’s also grimly hilarious, especially in McSorley’s skewering of Paolo’s inflated self regard. The dialog takes some getting used to, with the character’s thicker than thick Glasgow accents faithfully reproduced, but once readers acclimatize they’re in for a rollicking, satisfying read.

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Review

The Noh Mask Murder

by Willy Williams

First published in 1949 and now elegantly translated into English for the first time, this award-winning atmospheric puzzler by a celebrated author from Japan’s golden age of detective fiction is both an intricate locked-room mystery and a metafictional take on how to write such a crime novel. In the summer of 1946 at a bathing resort, Akimitsu Takagi, a devotee of mystery fiction and an aspiring amateur sleuth, runs into Koichi Yanagi, an old school friend who has just returned to Japan after serving in Burma. Koichi now works for the respected Chizui family, whose members appear to be as cursed as Edgar Allen Poe’s Usher siblings. Ten years earlier, the patriarch, Professor Chizui, died of an apparent heart attack, although Koichi suspects foul play; his wife was institutionalized in an asylum; and recently their daughter also lost her sanity. One night, an eerie figure wearing a demonic hannya Noh mask is spotted in the upstairs window of the Chizui mansion; Taijiro, the professor’s brother, asks Akimitsu to investigate. By the time the sleuth arrives on the scene, Taijiro has been found dead in an armchair in his locked bedroom, with the mask on the floor beside him and the scent of jasmine lingering in the air. When Akimitsu learns that someone has ordered three coffins, he fears that the worst is yet to come. The author cleverly structures his plot like a Russian nesting doll, with one puzzle embedded within another puzzle inside another puzzle, until it is resolved in a surprising and satisfying conclusion. Agatha Christie and S.S. Van Dine fans will enjoy this twisty tale.

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