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Review

Dead & Breakfast

by Brian Kenney

Have you ever noticed that vampires (not to mention werewolves, elves, and others) always get the short end of the stick? Take Arthur and his husband, Salvatore (Sal), for example. Two vampires in love, they have recently opened a bed & breakfast in rural Oregon. Life is sweet, but while vampires are sometimes accepted, there are plenty of not-so-paranormal-friendly attitudes to go around, and much of their time is devoted to educating their new neighbors (garlic is O.K., they don’t bite—really!—and they go out in the sun, but use plenty of sunblock not because of a reaction, but to stay young looking). So when the mayor is found dead in their garden, with two puncture rooms in his neck, Arthur and Sal end up accused of the mayor’s murder, to the point where Sal is jailed. How will the two of them—along with a few friends—manage to find the real murderer, exonerating themselves? A pleasure to read from beginning to end, with plenty of humor, Dead & Breakfast should find an audience from young adults through retirees.

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Review

The Dark Library

by Danise Hoover

This old-fashioned gothic thriller (appropriate since our lead character has a PhD specializing in that genre) is set in WWII-era academia in New York’s Hudson Valley. Estella, or E as she prefers to be called, has been summoned home by Annie, the family retainer, because E’s mother has gone missing. In the time it takes E to pack up her life in Boston and return, her father has a stroke, can no longer communicate, and dies within days. Despite her Yale degree, the fusty local college where her father held sway employs E as a research assistant, typing for the male faculty members. The tiny salary requires E and Annie to live in penury in E’s parents’ elaborate house, all the while searching for clues to her mother’s whereabouts. Dragging the river finds a body of a missing student from years before, and persistence eventually finds a clue that leads to finding E’s mother. A suicide, unexpected allies, false and true friends, and bitter revelations about the past and present all lead to the dramatic “act of God” ending that such a story requires. Great fun!

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Review

The List

by Jeff Ayers

Berry delivers a novel unlike anything he’s ever done before. Rather than exploring history, this one takes pieces of John Grisham’s The Firm and mixes them with the business aspects of a Joseph Finder novel and storytelling elements from David Baldacci. Brent Walker left his hometown and the woman he loved ten years ago, and now he’s come back to help his sick mom. He takes a job at the small-town paper mill in a legal role beneath his level of expertise to oversee their negotiations with the local union. The company’s management is not trustworthy, and more than doctoring the financials, they have created a list, and the purpose of the names on it is beyond reprehensible. Brent and his lifelong friend and co-worker, Hank, are given a series of what appear to be random numbers, but research reveals to them the horrendous nature of what the numbers mean. They are not random at all, but to say anything more would spoil the fun. Someone given the pages without knowing the author’s identity would never identify Berry as this book’s writer, and his going outside his comfort zone to resurrect one of his early, desk-drawer novels is beneficial to him, his fans, and thriller readers alike. The List would be a perfect story to be turned into an Alfred Hitchcock film, and this should only add to Berry’s fanbase.

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Review

The Gallery Assistant

by Brian Kenney

A powerful, sophisticated novel of suspense that follows the life—and losses—of Chloe Harlow. A denizen of New York’s latest up-and-coming trendy enclave, Williamsburg, Chloe lives a boho-ish lifestyle while working in an art gallery. Having dropped out of several endeavors—such as college—Chloe finds herself fascinated by gallery work, despite the punitive salary and relentless snobbery. Then September 11, 2001 comes along. Chloe was delivering a drawing to the North Tower right when it was hit. Miraculously, she escapes, although she’s much changed: drinking to excess, always late for work, anxious. Until the night when she parties so hard, celebrating a new artist the gallery signed on, that the next day she can’t remember a thing. Then the NYPD stops by to interrogate her. From there, Chloe’s life begins to spin out of control: her best friend is missing, their apartment is broken into, her boss is fired and disappears, the cops won’t let up, she’s pursued by several thugs. Then she comes across information that, if all the pieces fall into the right place, could totally scandalize the art world. A fast narrative, this novel is as emotionally moving as it is incredibly suspenseful, and with one of the most sensitive depictions of New York during and after 9/11 I’ve ever read. For fans of Katy Hays and Elizabeth Kaufman.

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Review

If the Dead Belong Here

by Willy Williams

Between 1830 and 1850, the U.S. government’s forced displacement known as the Trail of Tears removed thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral lands in the Southeastern United States. But according to Native folklore, some Indigenous people evaded the Removal, sheltered by supernatural Little People. Faust’s atmospheric debut focuses on a family descended from those survivors and the generational trauma they have endured. When six-year-old Laurel Taylor vanishes from her Wisconsin home early one morning in 1996, her devastated mother, Ayita, believes her abusive ex-husband Barron kidnapped their daughter, even though Barron had abandoned the family before Ayita realized she was pregnant. But as weeks pass by and Laurel remains missing, Nadine, her older sister, begins experiencing nightmares and hearing whispers, especially in the tree house where Laurel always played. Have the Little People taken Lauren or are other family ghosts responsible? To find answers, Nadine travels with her Aunt Rosebud to South Carolina, where her fractured family has deep roots. Faust, an enrolled member of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina, draws on his family history and Indigenous mythology to weave a haunting tale of loss and redemption that may remind some readers of Keith Donohue’s The Stolen Child with a touch of Poltergeist.

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Review

Bitterfrost

by Henrietta Thornton

Bitterfrost, Michigan, is a town that revolves around hockey—a rich local family, the Paynes, owns the adored IceKings team and the rink they play at—and nights frittered away at the Lost Loon, a dismal watering hole. Jimmy Baker works at the rink driving the Zamboni, which keeps him in the sport he loves even after his minor league career stalled. Jimmy was the guy the manager could rely on to take out members of the opposition, but it went too far and now he drives Zelda, enjoying small-town celebrity and missing the daughter his ex keeps from him. Then he wakes up sore all over and with a bloody face, black eyes, and drag marks in the snow outside his house. With no idea what happened—didn’t he have only one drink at the Loon?—he tells others he slipped on his porch, knowing it’s likely a lie and that his history means it was much worse. When a body is found in a burned car outside town, he fears the worst and is soon sitting in court. Defending him is Devyn Payne, daughter of the rink owner, who has a past of her own—a notorious court case that the town can’t forgive her work on. The defendant and attorney find themselves in the crosshairs of both town gossip and further violence, with all ending in an engrossing courtroom scene. This is the first in a series, thankfully, as readers will want to visit this chilly-in-every-way community again.

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Review

The Cul-de-sac

by Henrietta Thornton

Only-child Eliza is not thrilled her parents are moving them from San Francisco to the suburbs, and meeting the intriguing, decidedly odd residents of their new cul-de-sac, readers will hardly blame her. There’s Klaus, a German computer scientist who keeps to himself, except when he’s killing women and burying them in his garden. Then Alex, who’s physically disabled by kidney disease and socially by DIY haircuts, and who’s reluctantly roped into tutoring Eliza in algebra—he explains that he’s independently wealthy and doesn’t need or want the job, but her mom insists. Their neighbor Peggy tries to be friendly but is just off. Then there’s a house that’s burned and remains empty, apparently for years. This lonely street is made sinister by its silence, but there’s activity behind closed doors. A fledgling romance—or are they just friends?—sets off the central problem of the book: one neighbor is killed, others are involved in the aftermath, and the police are not letting it go, with the investigation revealing Klaus’s garden of horrors. A closing twist when a neighbor does something most unexpected caps this quirky, often amusing suburban jaunt that’s a must for fans of domestic suspense.

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Review

King Sorrow

by Jeff Ayers

Gwen Underfoot is a senior in high school, and her closest friends are all in college, including twins Donna and Donavan; Allie; Colin; and the young man Gwen has feelings for, Arthur, who works at the college library. An act of kindness ends up with him being blackmailed to ensure his mom stays alive: forced to steal first-edition books from the collection, Arthur wants a way out before he gets caught. The others devise a solution involving an ancient ritual and a journal bound by human skin that conjures up the dragon King Sorrow. The beast promises to help Arthur with his problem, but he and the others are now bound to the dragon, who will demand a sacrifice from each of them every year for the rest of their lives. Hill has crafted a brilliant story with well-rounded characters readers will love and hate, a terrifying spin on everyone’s worst fears, and a tale of six people bound together by a bad decision as they journey through life with that weight on their shoulders. There is even a blink-and-you-miss-it spin on the Greg Stillson campaign from Hill’s father, Stephen King’s, classic The Dead Zone. Don’t let the size of this book sway you from reading it. Joe Hill has another classic on his hands.

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Review

Solid Gold Murder

by Brian Kenney

My fear of woodland creatures (read “bears”) is so great I could never imagine hanging out in the California forests. Especially overnight. In a tent. But I sure do love reading about life in Foundgold, CA and Dee Stern, the proprietor and part-owner of Motel-of-the-Mountains. It’s early in the season, and Dee is developing family-friendly activities to attract new visitors. But when her socials start to blow up, and it is reported that someone found a gold nugget in Foundgold, Dee realizes that she has a problem on her hands. Or an opportunity? That problem/opportunity is none other than Sylvan Burr—a retired tech industry billionaire, under 30—who suddenly shows up with his entourage; he’s managed to bribe his way into several motel rooms. He’s so rich, how could he be seeking even more money? This all makes for a wonderful cozy. Dee, a former Hollywood sitcom writer, brings sophistication to Byron’s (A Very Woodsy Murder) story, along with plenty of humor, while tiny Foundgold, with its mash-up of crazy residents, provides plenty of entertainment. Sure to appeal to all who love cozies or traditional mysteries.

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Review

The Hidden City

by Danise Hoover

Charles Lenox, detective in Victorian London, has been with readers now through 15 adventures, starting as a rank beginner but gaining a stable family life and a thriving agency with a range of detectives covering all sorts of cases. He is set to meet his cousin’s daughter, who’s arriving from India after her father’s death, as he has been named her guardian. He is drawn out of recovery from his last perilous case by his old housekeeper and a strange connection to an unsolved murder from years ago, with the “why” far more important than the “who.” As in the previous novels, the mystery is important, but it is the setting of Victorian society and mores that makes it all come alive. Times are changing though: Charles’s wife, Lady Jane, is demonstrating in public for women’s suffrage and his niece wants to study economics, but as yet class and status rule over all. Traveling through London with Charles and his cohorts is a treat, and the next excursion is likely to be as well.

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