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Review

Review

The Dinner Guest

by Brian Kenney

I’m hard pressed to recall a crime novel with a more despicable group of characters yet a more compelling premise. Matthew and his husband, Charlie, lead the perfect life. Rich, well-connected, with a fabulous London flat, access to a wonderful country home, and an absolutely charming tween son, Titus, adopted by the couple after the death of Matthew’s sister. But slowly, things start to fray. Nearly always, the problems stem from Rachel, a stranger the couple met in a bookstore and whom Matthew befriended against Charlie’s instincts. Matthew invites Rachel to join their book group, giving her a wedge that she could drive into their personal life. So when the police are called and arrive to find Matthew at the dinner table stabbed to death, Charlie in shock, and Rachel holding the murder weapon—this isn’t a spoiler, trust me—we aren’t exactly surprised. What is shocking is the complex but gripping backstory that gets us to this point. This novel is very, very British. Class issues abound, class signifiers—schools, stores, real estate, and the like—are everywhere, and some things inevitably get lost in translation. But one thing remains certain: this plot will leave you twisted, and quite a bit disturbed.

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Review

Dirt Creek

by Henrietta Thornton

Searing heat and searing pain pulse off the pages of Scrivenor’s debut novel, which brings to mind the colonially forged dysfunction described by her Australian countryman David Malouf. The sad tale, in which awful events take on an air of near-inevitability, is narrated by Ronnie, a 12-year-old girl whose best friend, Esther, vanishes one day after school. Esther wears her name “like a queen wearing her crown at a jaunty angle” and even on a normal day exudes a kind of magic, says Ronnie; it’s impossible to her that anything bad could have happened. Still, nighttime comes and Estie’s not home, and the search is on. While the girls’ movements take center stage in Ronnie’s mind, to the reader, there are three centers of gravity here. Yes, there’s Ronnie and Estie. But also starring are their mothers and other weary, disappointed women of the dilapidated town. Finally, there’s a Greek chorus of disembodied children’s voices whose chillingly detached versions of what happened alternate with the more conventionally delivered story. Brace yourself, this is something.

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Review

No Strangers Here

by Henrietta Thornton

In too many circles in rural Ireland, doing anything fancier than, say, living in a cave is just asking for the accusation that you have “notions’‘ about yourself. The O’Reillys, racehorse owners in Dingle, Co. Kerry have embraced their notions, going as far as to have a butler (A BUTLER!) and marble floors, but their shady ways keep them immune from (open) ridicule. Dr. Dimpna Wilde, a native of Dingle who hit the road years before, is forced back into the O’Reilly’s grimy orbit when the clan’s patriarch is found dead on Dingle’s famously beautiful beach. Dimpna’s father, a vet, is accused of killing Johnny O’Reilly with an animal euthanasia drug. Dimpna, also a vet, steps right into work in her father’s practice; her new base serves as a way for O’Connor to humanize this kind, smart protagonist and as a means for the character to reacquaint herself with the townspeople and their complicated relationships. Some tense and emotional (but never cruel or gory) scenes await as Dimpna helps Dingle’s pets and farm animals; similar emotions are engendered by the murder mystery, which sees our protagonist revisiting painful scenes from decades past, including a rape. With an almost anthropological exploration of rural entanglements paired with a perplexing mystery, O’Connor’s series debut is a winner.

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Review

Death by Bubble Tea

by Brian Kenney

A delicious exploration into family, culture, and above all, food. We meet early twenties Yale Yee as she is let go from her job in a bookstore—no business—and is thinking of returning to work in her father’s dim sum restaurant. Yale’s a bit of an eccentric: no cellphone, no car (we’re in West Los Angeles), few friends, and still mourning her mother’s death. When Ba, her father, informs her that her rich, spoiled cousin, who she hasn’t seen in 20 years, is arriving from Hong Kong, Yale would rather hide in her apartment with Jane Austen. But instead, at Ba’s suggestion, she and cousin Celine end up running a food stall at the pop-up night market. Celine is everything you’d imagine: beautiful, vain, fashion obsessed, an influencer and foodstagrammer. But these polar opposites end up finding some common ground—at least enough to make the food stall a roaring success. If only there weren’t that dead customer Yale discovers, making the cousins the leading suspects. Off we head into the foodie world of West L.A.–Taiwanese breakfasts and Salvadorean pupusas as Yale and Celine try to clear their names. Chow gets so much right in this book, from the exploration of Asian cultures in L.A. to the growing relationship between the cousins. A fun start to a wonderful new series.

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Review

Reputation

by Henrietta Thornton

Reputation is so valued that one way of damaging it, bearing false witness against your neighbor, is one of the 10 commandments. It certainly commands the life of Emma Webster, a member of Britain’s parliament who puts up with abuse online, and sometimes in person, after she takes a stand for women’s rights. Despite gaining a menacing stalker, she maintains a stiff façade and moves on with work. Then two events threaten to explode not just Emma’s reputation but her life: her teenage daughter commits a crime when seeking revenge on a bully, and a man who knows about that event is found by Emma inside her home, with injuries that see the last part of the book portraying a murder case. Underneath Vaughan’s nuanced look at the performances necessary to create and maintain a reputation, there is much to explore: the pressure that social media adds to our lives, what family members owe each other, and what women in the public eye endure. The murder trial is tense and reader opinion will vacillate numerous times among those who could have set up the crime, but they still likely won’t settle on the answer before the satisfying, surprising ending. The many fans of Vaughan’s Anatomy of a Scandal and Little Disasters won’t be disappointed.

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Review

Six Feet Deep Dish

by Brian Kenney

If you read deeply in crime fiction—from psychological thrillers to locked room mysteries—you’ll notice that each subgenre shares some similarities, like types of characters, settings, and narrative devices. This is especially true of cozies, whose readers like a good balance between the familiar and the new. But every now and again a cozy comes along in which the author not only checks off all of the boxes but does such an excellent job in the process that the book totally stands out from the crowd. This is the case with Six Feet Deep Dish, which stars chef Delilah O’Leary, whose larger-than-life personality takes hold of the narrative and never lets go. We’re in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin—a resort town a couple of hours north of Chicago—and Delilah is about to fulfill a lifelong ambition and open her own restaurant featuring gourmet, deep-dish pizza. But as opening night rolls around, she hits a few speed bumps: her uber-rich fiancé, who was bankrolling the endeavor, dumps her and disappears. Then a murder takes place during the opening, and her elderly aunt is found over the dead body, clutching the murder weapon. Delilah realizes that to save her aunt—and her restaurant—she needs to step it up and, with the help of the restaurant staff, find the killer. Droll and witty, sophisticated and credible, this is a series to watch out for.

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Review

Vera Kelly: Lost and Found

by Brian Kenney

A wonderful story—if barely a mystery—this third in the Vera Kelly series has Vera and Max, her girlfriend, heading off to sunny southern California. But the trip is no vacation. Max, who comes from serious wealth, learns that her parents are divorcing. And even though her homophobic dad threw her out of the house—think of the Hearst Castle—when she was twenty-one, Max still feels the need to intercede. Turns out dad is about to marry a much younger woman while allowing a kooky occultist to get his hands on his funds. When Max suggests over dinner that she’ll inform her mother of the financial shenanigans, all hell breaks loose. And when Vera wakes up the next morning, it’s to find Max missing. Finally, Vera gets to put her detective skills to use! Knecht excels in creating character and setting. Her depiction of the lesbian and gay world of 1971—oppressed and discrete, yes, but also a strong community undergoing change—is fascinating, as is how Vera and Max navigate straight society. The resolution is both poignant and hopeful.

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Review

Outside

by Henrietta Thornton

With friends like this, who needs enemies? Four buddies from college, now into early middle age, decide to get together for a mini-reunion and hike. They choose remote east Iceland—in the winter—not perhaps the most sensible decision. But Ármann, one of the group, owns a tourist company and seems to know his way around. So when they head off on the hike, with little food and no other supplies, then get caught in a blinding storm, it’s Ármann who is able to lead them to an emergency hut. But what greets them when they open up the hut is shocking, unsettling the small group. As they shelter in place and secrets are revealed, one old friend turns against another. This standalone from the best-known author of Icelandic noir makes for a fast read with as many terrifying twists and turns as the luge

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Review

Cougar Claw

by Henrietta Thornton

This is one of those thrillers that opens with a full view of the crime—in this case, two men ambushing a Savage, Minnesota CEO and attacking him with real cougar claws and teeth. There was recently a sighting of one of the big cats in the area, so it’s easy for investigators to believe the businessman became a meal. The local sheriff who’s running for re-election has no objection to chalking the death up to wildlife rather than crime stats….but then Sam Rivers shows up to complicate his life. Sam, special agent for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, doesn’t care for bureaucracy or the sheriff, and persists in finding out what’s behind this event that looks suspicious to his expert eye. Just what looks off to Sam will teach readers about things like the structure of all cats’ paws, which parts of a person a cougar would eat, what one of the creature’s teeth embedded in a person’s spine should look like, and other juicy tidbits. In the human world that Sam deals with somewhat reluctantly, things are more complicated, as his investigation is a tangled web of an about-to-be-very-rich widow, her nosy neighbor, a journalist who’s also Sam’s love interest, and always that blustery sheriff. Sam Rivers is akin to Emily Littlejohn’s character Gemma Monroe—a likable, steadfast investigator whose work takes readers into the outdoors and the crimes it hides. He’s a character worth getting to know.

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Review

The It Girl

by Brian Kenney

Talk about a slow burn. If you’re a reader, like myself, who delights in a deep, deep character dive, then you’ll enjoy Ware’s latest. Oxford fresher April Clarke-Cliveden is the ultimate “It girl”—beautiful, fashionable, rich, loving but mean, a party girl yet super-smart, a staple in the pages of the Tatler. In no time she gathers around herself a constellation of friends, with her roommate Hannah Jones at the center. Life couldn’t be more delightful in their privileged, Oxbridge fantasy world, until that night when Hannah comes home to their medieval digs and finds April strangled to death. But ultimately this is Hannah’s story, and the chapters alternate between Hannah in college—building up to the murder—and her life today, ten years later. Despite a move to Edinburgh, marriage, and now pregnant, Hannah has never been able to forget April’s death and move on. When new facts emerge about April’s murder, and Hannah’s interest blossoms into full-blown obsession, she heads off to question members of their friendship circle and even to revisit Oxford and the murder scene. As the final piece of the puzzle falls into place, readers will be rewarded by a whirlwind of suspense.

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