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Review

Review

The New Neighbor

by Henrietta Thornton

Aidan Marlowe—an Irish immigrant to the U.S. who is known by his last name—is lost in a life he never planned. At his young wife’s funeral, he finds out that he won millions in the lottery, and he can’t adjust to life without Holly and with the money. He and his seven-year-old twins move to a huge and forbidding house in Bury, New Hampshire, a move prompted by a voice in his head repeating “bury,” just one of the psychological oddnesses he endures. People in affluent Bury soon let him know that his decision was a bad one: the house was formerly home to a family that’s now missing four members who simply disappeared. And soon after Marlowe and his children move in, he begins receiving threatening letters that make his neighbors’ misgivings seem right but also force him to investigate the neighbors themselves. Marlowe is an unreliable narrator, so that even as readers feel for his turmoil, they are left wondering what’s really going on with this troubled character. Some truly frightening scenes lead to a gripping and satisfying conclusion, but not before a twist that will leave readers’ heads spinning. Marlowe is memorable —single dads in thrillers aren’t that common—but mainly he will stay with readers because of his offbeat vulnerability and the determination that shines through his grief. Wilson’s (The Dead Girl in 2A) unusual psychological thriller is one for fans of Stephen King who are open to reading mysteries.

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Review

The Bone Track

by Henrietta Thornton

Alexa Glock’s latest adventure (the third in a trilogy, after Molten Mud Murder and The Bones Remember) is reminiscent of the recent crop of books in which people are thrown together, or reunited, often on vacation, with a killer in their midst. But this book stands out from its plot-mates due to its unusual location and forensic-science focus. The setting is New Zealand’s (very) remote Milford Track, a real hiking trail that dispels all images of the country as hobbit-filled and quaint. Fiordland, where the Track is located, is treacherous, and the travelers face additional peril from rain-caused landslides and creeks that now have rapids. Alexa, an American who lives in New Zealand, realizes that there’s even more to fear when she finds a skeleton hidden on the trail; then a hiker is found dead and suddenly everyone looks suspicious. Vacationing with Alexa is her brother, Charlie. Their childhood misunderstandings and pain persist and are echoed in troubles revealed in the other hikers’ lives. This makes for a compelling thriller but also a thought-provoking look at how to move past hurt and find what’s important. A bonus: Johnson unobtrusively shares many details about Maori culture, New Zealand’s volcanic landscapes, and forensic science, especially involving Alexa’s fascinating specialty: dead people’s teeth.

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Review

The Harbor

by Brian Kenney

When 15-year-old Oscar Dreyer-Hoff goes missing on his way home from school, the Copenhagen police assume he’s yet another teenager who’s run off and is likely at a friend’s house. But his well-connected, affluent family thinks otherwise. They’re art dealers with a somewhat shady past and a history of receiving threats. In fact, they receive an ambiguous message the day after young Dreyer-Hoff disappears. Time to bring in detectives Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner, who pursue Oscar’s disappearance as though it were a kidnapping. Kørner and Werner encounter a wonderful range of characters—from pouty, insolent teens to engineers in a recycling plant and the caretaker of an island in the harbor—and we learn about Copenhagen in the process. Engberg is a genius at balance, going deep into the lives of Kørner and Werner, as well as some of the suspects, while never forgetting that this is a murder mystery, and the clock is ticking. The third in a series that just keeps getting better, this book also succeeds as a standalone. For wherever Nordic noir is appreciated.

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Review

The Houseboat

by Brian Kenney

A lyrical, moody crime novel—there’s no mystery and just a smidgen of suspense—set in small-town Oscar, Iowa in 1960, a town “as plain as a white wall.” When a young couple, spending the night on the banks of the Mississippi River, are attacked—and the young man is murdered—local sheriff Amos Fielding knows he needs help, so he calls for regional backup. He’s rewarded with Edward Ness from Minnesota, a stylish detective who hasn’t put down the bottle since his wife and young son were murdered seven years earlier. We follow Ness as he discovers and flirts his way through Oscar. But soon enough the narrative turns to Rigby Sellers, a terrifying, angry recluse—with coke-bottle glasses and a “jutting brow and a bent nose, a patchy beard and an incomplete set of long jaundiced teeth”—who lives on a decrepit houseboat moored on the river. Still not convinced of Sellers’s creepiness? His lovers are mannequins that he dresses and paints for their date nights. Days go by without a confirmed suspect but with plenty of rain, and a long-standing drought gives way to a swollen Mississippi that rips through the town, upending it. When more bodies are found, the townspeople are, literally, up in arms, and Sellers is directly in their cross-hairs. Hard to put down and even harder to forget, The Houseboat is a poignant rendering of a place and time.

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Review

A Flicker in the Dark

by Brian Kenney

A brilliant debut, as well written as it is well-conceived. No one should have 12-year-old Chloe Davis’s childhood. In the course of one summer in her small Louisiana town, six teen girls go missing. As terrifying as that is, it gets worse: the murderer, it turns out, is her father, who is promptly tried and sent to prison. Two decades later, Chloe is an adolescent psychologist in Baton Rouge, living with Daniel, her handsome and loving fiancé. The horror of the past seems to be behind her, happiness is in her grasp, when a teen girl goes missing. And then another. These are no random killings. They bear an uncanny resemblance to the murders of 20 years ago, and it turns out that both girls have a connection to Chloe—in fact, one is her patient. Willingham’s genius is the ability to keep so many balls in the air. From Chloe’s intense relationships with Daniel, her brother Cooper, her institutionalized Mom, a New York Times reporter, to ricocheting between the past and the present yet still keeping the narrative moving briskly ahead, this book is so much more than your typical serial-killer novel. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Harlan Coben and Gillian Flynn will love this novel, which has been optioned by actress Emma Stone for a limited series.

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Review

The Wrong Woman

by Henrietta Thornton

This book could just as well be titled The Wrong Man, as it’s a master class in how the police can trudge through the investigation of numerous other suspects before finding the right one. The book stars a dogged FBI agent, Kendall Beck, who reports her car stolen when she can’t get the Denver police to take seriously the disappearance of her roommate, Gwen, who borrowed the car. Professional courtesy means that Kendall is allowed inside details as the hunt for Gwen gathers steam. At the same time, she’s investigating a case of her own: a missing little girl, whose neighbor seems odd and too friendly. Given that a stolen car doesn’t seem like it will take much work, the Denver detective who’s looking for Gwen also has another case of his own, that of a woman who may be the victim of a serial killer who’s been working the area for years. Friendships, love, and the grief when those connections end add a personal touch to the legal and police procedural details shared by Sparks, who formerly had a law career. For fans of Tana French and other authors who shine a light on relationships in policing.

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Review

A Deadly Bone to Pick

by Brian Kenney

Live in Massachusetts and need to reinvent your life? Move to a small seaside town on the California coast. Molly Madison, ex-cop, former PI, and dog wrangler, does just that, wanting to put behind her the murder of her husband, for which she was never fully exonerated. Fortunately, Pier Point is a welcoming community that is perfect for Molly; her golden retriever, Harlow; and Noodle, a neighbor’s enormous, slobbering Saint Berdoodle that Molly semi-adopts. On a morning beach walk, Noodle digs up a woman’s hand, setting in motion a search for the victim and the murderer that again has Molly on the police’s radar. Rothschild has created the first in what could be a wonderful series. Molly is quirky and totally believable. The community is engaging. And Harlow and Noodle, rooted in real-dog behavior, make great co-stars who lend a great deal to the story. I’m hooked.

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Review

Autopsy: A Scarpetta Novel

by Henrietta Thornton

A familiar author is a great choice for vacation, as there’s no need to learn about their characters or world. But even if you haven’t tried Patricia Cornwell before, this 25th in the series is a cracking read. The author’s long-running medical examiner character, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, is back, but a lot has changed in her life. The COVID-19 pandemic is over and it has devastated Scarpetta’s family; her always-tense relationship with sister Dorothy has been complicated by Dorothy’s marriage to Scarpetta’s sidekick, Marino; and the doctor has moved from Miami to a Virginia job that’s turning out to be a nightmare. Very unusual for Scarpetta and for forensic science-related novels is the site of an early case in this book: space, from where one astronaut has returned, abandoning his colleagues. When Scarpetta is called in to observe the opening of the capsule they inhabit, in case an autopsy is needed, it pulls her away from investigating the death of a young woman who was recently found by the railway tracks, with the tantalizing clue—or is it just a coincidence?—of train-flattened pennies nearby. The doctor herself even has a scrape with death this time, all adding up to what readers have come to love from Cornwell: puzzling cases that star both science and family (and found family) love.

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Review

The Stalker

by Brian Kenney

nitially, this novel seems weighed down by clichés: the weak, timid wife; the macho, type-A husband; the island rumored to be haunted. But keep going and you will be rewarded with a top-rate thriller which is nothing as it seems. Liam and Laura chose to spend their honeymoon on a remote Scottish island, empty except for the two of them. Their lovely cottage is stuffed with a week’s worth of fine foods and wine, and all they plan to do is explore the island’s ancient burial sites and ruined castle. Until things start to get weird—is someone in the bushes watching them?—and they wake to find a message scratched into the window. Clearly they aren’t alone, and their one way of contact with the mainland, a satellite phone, is missing its charger. Then the electricity goes out. From there, it’s clear that their stalker isn’t playing trick or treat, he’s out to murder them. You would expect this book to end with a face-off between the newlyweds and the villain, but a 180-degree twist ends up rewriting the whole book, leaving readers absolutely stunned.

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Review

Deep Sleep

by Henrietta Thornton

Konkoly, Steven. Deep Sleep. January 2022. Thomas & Mercer.
Fans of espionage and breakneck action are the audience for this political thriller from Konkoly (Black Flagged series). Unusually, the catalyst for the action is a dead woman: former CIA agent Helen Grey meets her end early in the book on a mysterious solo mission to kidnap a man from a retirement home. Her son, Devin, is not surprised to hear that his mother is behind this bizarre crime; she’s been paranoid about a government conspiracy for years. But carefully coded messages she left in anticipation of her death lead Devin to the truth of the old saying that just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you. Devin and his former-Marine friend Marnie (will they or won’t they get together by book’s end?) realize that long-swirling rumors about Russian agents infiltrating the U.S. government, working to sabotage the country from within, might be true. While the premise here is interesting, the action makes the book; it’s almost one long fight scene, and those who are nerdy for specs on drones, weapons, and surveillance tech will eat it up. A must for Tom Clancy devotees.

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