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Review

Beach Wedding

by Henrietta Thornton

Having moved from Hamptons townie to hedge-fund millionaire, Tom Rourke spares no expense for his wedding; the mansion where it is held rents for “five” a month—that’s five hundred thousand dollars. Tom’s brother Terry, a Philly police officer, and his family are a bit exhausted by it all but doing their best to relax into the pampering. Those plans are upended when Terry is drawn back into a past injustice. The father of the Rourke clan was the head assistant DA for the county when Noah Sutton, a member of the local elite, was murdered. The man’s wife, Hailey, was brought to trial, a case that drew even international attention and ended with the Rourkes as local outcasts. Terry seeks to make locals eat their words and to find justice for the murdered man, a mission that puts him and his family in danger and takes twists that will keep readers puzzled till the satisfying, unexpected conclusion. Ledwidge (coauthor with James Patterson of Now You See Her and The Quickie) shines in portraying the simmering culture clash that is life in rich towns as well as the best parts—love, humor, protectiveness—of life in close clans. The Patterson connection sells this, but it’s also good for fans of Jane Harper’s The Survivors, which features a long-ago killing in a Tasmanian beach town.

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Review

Dark Circles

by Brian Kenney

A foray into the wacky world of wellness led by my favorite character of the year, Olivia (Liv) Reed. Thirty-something Liv, an actor starring in a long-running TV series, is a bit down on her luck. The paparazzi caught her making out with a man who is not her boyfriend, and photos of her ensuing meltdown on the streets of Manhattan were published everywhere. Liv’s also a bit too hands-on with the booze and pills, and her relationship with her one friend, also her publicist/handler, is on the ropes. Begrudgingly, she agrees to check in to the House of Light—don’t call it rehab!—in upstate New York, which bills itself as a spiritual center. But before you can say namaste, the body of a young woman turns up in the adjoining lake—she had ties to House of Light—and when Liv learns she’s just the latest in a series of what are being called suicides, she’s off and running. Smartly, Liv uses her celebrityhood to start a podcast that becomes wildly successful and allows her to present the investigation in nearly real time. Comparisons to Nine Perfect Strangers, the Liane Moriarty book/Hulu series starring Nicole Kidman, are inevitable—and should be helpful in promoting this book—but Dark Circles is even better. After all, it’s got the sarcastic, sophisticated, completely credible, and even sometimes vulnerable voice of Liv Reed.

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Review

Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride

by Brian Kenney

What the world needs now is more of the delightful Nonna Maria, an elderly widow who’s lived her whole life on the beautiful island of Ischia—18 miles from Naples—and is a bit of a legend. As famous for the espresso she brews as the advice she dispenses, she’s known throughout the island and, in turn, seems to know every native. When trouble comes calling, it’s Nonna Maria people turn to for help, trusting her instead of the local carabinieri. More of a “fixer” than your traditional detective, Nonna Maria takes on two cases in this book. In one, a young woman is worried that her fiancée isn’t what he seems, and Nonna Maria discretely moves her into hiding while she investigates. In the other, the old captain of a tour boat—and life-long friend of our investigator —is found dead, and Nonna Maria won’t accept that the death of this born sailor was an accident. To fix these problems, the intrepid widow calls on old friends, her parish priest, a nephew, a grandson, and even the head of a Neapolitan crime family, all while sharing with readers the delights of Ischia. Never too cutesy and plenty tough, Nonna Maria will delight fans of Italian mysteries and cozy enthusiasts who love a good armchair trip.

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Review

Long Gone

by Henrietta Thornton

Annalisa Vega is back in the second of Schaffhausen’s series, looking at the inner life of a troubled Chicago PD detective. In the first book, Gone for Good, Annalisa pursued the killer of a family friend, ultimately finding uncomfortable truths far too close to home. (No spoilers!—you don’t have to read the first book to enjoy this one, but it’s well worth the read while you wait for book 2). Now, the detective is still partnered at work with her ex-husband-with-benefits, Nick, and doing her own sort of time as other cops give her the cold shoulder for fighting against crookedness within the force. The book opens with a headscratcher for Annalisa and Nick. Not only is a successful officer (who has perhaps too nice a home and car for his salary) shot dead in his bed while his wife is untouched, she claims that the killer was “a frogman,” a murderer wearing a scuba-diving suit. What follows is a look at Annalisa’s life as someone who can’t let things go—bad enough when it’s Nick, much worse when she’s ordered off cases and still won’t stop. Schaffhausen again weaves family dynamics, terrible decisions, and long-festering secrets with love and bitter regret to create a riveting story. The delightfully exasperating main character and cast are a bonus.

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Review

One of Us Is Dead

by Henrietta Thornton

Rose (The Perfect Marriage) brings to life the rich, overly botoxed women of Buckhead, GA. Mainly showpieces for their uber-wealthy husbands, they spend their passive-aggressive days at Glow, a membership-only beauty salon where the women commit to several treatments per week. Jenny, Glow’s owner, is stuck being nice to Olivia, the queen bitch of Buckhead, who has mastered the “kinsult,” or kind insult (“your skin is glowing…I can barely notice the lack of elasticity today”). Olivia’s abused minions include Shannon, the saddest woman in the book, whose politician ex-husband, Bryce, left her for a younger woman. The “girls,” and perhaps readers, want to hate Crystal, “Bryce’s midlife crisis,” but Rose doesn’t take the easy way out, creating in Crystal a more layered character than at first expected. Then there’s Karen, a luxury-real-estate lawyer who keeps the book and the “friends” as grounded as they can be. Chapters narrated by each of the women alternate with ones in which Jenny is being questioned by police about what exactly happened at Bryce and Crystal’s housewarming, an opulent event that featured a murder. Rose’s writing is pitch perfect when it comes to both keeping readers gripped and making them want to tear Olivia’s (beautifully done) hair out. If you enjoyed Clueless and other mean girls movies and books, this is for you.

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Review

Can’t Look Away

by Brian Kenney

Not really crime fiction—unless stealing someone’s boyfriend is now considered a crime?—this book is a brilliant portrayal of obsessive love. We start out deep in hipsterville: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 2013. Would-be-writer Molly is at a concert where she connects with the lead singer, the super-gorgeous Jake Danner. They fall in love, he writes a song about her that becomes a huge hit, things fall apart, they try to patch things up, he’s off touring, trust is an issue, they break up. Jump ahead 10 years and Molly is living in Flynn Cove, CT, married to the infinitely reliable Hunter, with the two parents to a daughter, Stella. Things are O.K.—Molly’s pretty lonely and is a whole lot more boho than the uptight, preppy women in town—then she meets Sabrina, a new arrival from NYC who shares a lot of her interests, and they quickly become friends. Until it turns out that Sabrina and Molly are sharing more than Molly would ever have imagined, and their many secrets come tumbling out. Lovering does a fantastic job at shifting the point of view from character to character and back and forth in time, managing never to confuse the reader and all the while keeping her foot on the accelerator. A super fun and fast read.

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Review

It Dies with You

by Brian Kenney

A straightforward mystery that is brought to life by three wonderful characters. Thirty-something Hudson Miller is down on his luck. His boxing career is over, he’s working as a bouncer, and he’s couch surfing with friends. To make matters worse, Hudson’s estranged father is murdered, shot in the back of the head while sitting at his desk at his salvage yard in deeply rural Flint Creek, North Carolina. To Hudson’s surprise, he inherits the business, and—with no other options apparent—goes home to run Miller’s Pull-a-Part. He also takes on the job of finding his father’s murderer, helped out by Charlie Shoaf, a Vietnam vet who more or less comes with the salvage shop. When a corpse is found in the trunk of a salvaged vehicle, and a cache of firearms is discovered as well, Hudson realizes that his father’s life was a whole lot different than it appeared. Add to the mix the self-assured, brilliant teenager Lucy Reyes—who is seeking answers to her own family tragedy—and you’ve got a great threesome. I have no idea of the author’s intent, but I’d love to hear more from Hudson, Charlie, and Lucy—their chemistry is dynamite. Fans of the TV series Ozark will love this book.

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Review

Two Nights in Lisbon

by Brian Kenney

One of the best books I’ve read this year and a brilliant example of how sophisticated and meaningful a thriller can be while still ratcheting up the suspense and anxiety. Imagine you are accompanying your partner on a business trip to Lisbon. After a night of great food and even better sex, you wake up to find that they are gone—no note, laptop and belongings left behind, phone calls going straight to voicemail. What would you do? For Ariel Price, it’s time to mobilize. She starts by quizzing the hotel employees, eventually goading the staff in the American Embassy to help her search for John, her newish husband. But it turns out that to save John, Ariel needs to go far into her past. This novel delves deeply into sexual violence and its life-long ramifications—a rape is graphically described—while continuously upending what the reader believes to be the truth. Hold on to your hat, your head will be spinning. Librarians: purchase multiple copies.

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Review

The Woman in the Library

by Brian Kenney

Four strangers—two men, two women, all twenty-somethings—are sharing a table in the grand reading room of the Boston Public Library when a woman screams. They have no idea who she is, where she is, or why she screamed, but it does break down the barriers among the four, and by the time they leave the library, they are fast becoming friends. The crew includes a novelist; a law student; a psychology grad student; and our protagonist, Winifred, known as Freddie, a novelist who hails from Australia. It turns out a woman was murdered in the library, and the fab four take it upon themselves to investigate. But when one of the four is attacked, they begin to realize that there may be a connection between them and the murdered woman. And that one of them may be the murderer. Meanwhile, each chapter ends with correspondence to the author of The Woman in the Library, who lives in Australia, from a Boston-based friend who’s helping her with language and locale—until his communiques take a sinister turn. Readers who enjoy a playfulness in their fiction will be delighted by this book-within-a-book. For fans of Anthony Horowitz.

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Review

I’ll Be You

by Henrietta Thornton

The number of all-caps texts I sent about THE TWISTS IN THIS BOOK!!! were…many. Those twists concern the misdeeds of identical twin sisters Elli and Sam Logan, who are estranged because of a shocking betrayal. They’re former child TV stars, with Sam back then enthralled by their minor fame while Elli hated every moment. As adults, Elli is a mom while Sam sees reproduction as “a monetizable bodily function.” While Ellie explores empowerment in a self-help group, Sam is a barely sober alcoholic and drug addict whose possessions consist “primarily of emotional baggage.” The twins’ paths have diverged, but when their dysfunctional parents call Sam for help looking after a child–one she didn’t know her sister had–she drops everything. The first part of the book looks at the past and present from Sam’s perspective, and the second at the same events from the point of view of her sister. This reveals that identical events can be experienced through a gulf of misunderstanding, hurt, and fear and that damage and love will find ways out. Brown’s insightful language and the emotional brutality and fortitude shown as Elli and Sam are forced to see themselves and each other anew will stay with readers. If twins in fiction are of interest, also try Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half.

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