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Women Sleuths

Review

Trouble

by Henrietta Thornton

Hella Mauzer, 29, is both very much of Finland—she’s a dour private investigator who seems made from her country’s six-months of darkness —but completely not what her fellow 1950s Finns want her to be. Put flowers under your pillow on midsummer night and you’ll dream of your future fiancé, they hint, with marriage and motherhood then all but guaranteed. Hella wants none of it. She keeps both her ex-boyfriend, who can’t grasp that things are over, and her new, interested neighbor at arm’s length while immersed in two investigations. One is a favor to her father’s former secret-police colleague: a background check on the prospective head of Helsinki’s homicide squad. The other is more personal. Hella is desperate to find out who killed her parents, sister, and nephew, all of whom died when hit by a truck when Hella was a teen. Getting the courage to read the police file on her family’s deaths is a big step, and one that immediately leads her to suspect that there was much more to the tragedy than an accident. The background check is far from straightforward either, adding up to a tale that brings to mind Game of Thrones, with all that story’s evil and power-hungry machinations. If Scandinavian mysteries are your thing, try this, as well as Ann-Helén Laestadius’s Stolen, and Joachim B. Schmidt’s Kalman for great stories that take place outside the more common urban settings in Sweden and Denmark.

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Review

Flat White Fatality

by Brian Kenney

While I love an old-fashioned cozy as much as anyone—the guest everyone loathes is found dead on the library floor, a fatal slash across a carotid artery, or perhaps a touch too much monkshood in the afternoon tea?—I especially enjoy mysteries located in the present, with settings and characters that are fresh and idiosyncratic. This Portland (OR) based series, Ground Rules, fits the bill perfectly. In the first volume, barista and total hipster Sage Caplin just opens her new coffee cart when, as luck would have it, a corpse is found dead by her wheels. In Double Shot Death, the coffee cart is at a sustainable music festival—how PDX is that?—when a body is found in the woods clutching one of her coffee mugs. In Flat White Fatality, Sage has a side gig modeling as a character for her boyfriend’s game development company, Grumpy Sasquatch Studio. But then, during a team-building event, the most annoying of the company’s coders is murdered, in Sage’s own roastery no less. When another employee is almost killed, Sage realizes she needs to step it up and find the murderer before she becomes suspect number one. Plenty of satire, lots of fascinating local detail, excellent friends and family, and an insider look at the world of special coffees.

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Review

What Remains

by Henrietta Thornton

A particular type of horror needs nothing supernatural: It’s when a mundane task suddenly requires every ounce of will and wits to survive. Police officer Elise Sutton is shopping for towels—her kids have been hinting that the threadbare affairs they’ve been using are not the world’s only towels, but who has the time?—when her training kicks into gear: there’s a shooter in the store. The scene that unfolds is a highlight of the book, though far from the only tense moment, and a meticulous portrait of human nature under pressure. Elise gets the gunman in her sight as he takes aim at a tall man who then escapes; the gunman is killed by Elise and the clothing racks come alive with shoppers who were hiding, terrified. Elise must now deal with her own trauma, having killed a man, and with the doubt that plagues her: did she need to kill him? Just as readers settle in for a tale about survivor’s guilt and PTSD, the story takes a turn: the tall man shows up, way too grateful for being saved, and by the time Elise realizes that he’s acting oddly, he’s become her obsessed stalker. Alternating with this inward-focused tale of one woman’s turmoil and peril is the saga of a burned body that’s found in the Connecticut woods, in an oven used by hunters. Finding out how these stories are related, and whether Elise’s marriage and career can survive the terror she faces, makes the pages turn quickly. Ideal for those who enjoyed Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, another tale of obsession.

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Review

Invitation to a Killer

by Brian Kenney

Love a good locked-room mystery? Well, here’s a book with two, sort of. Augusta Hawke, crime writer with a developing side gig as an amateur detective, has been invited to a dinner party at the home of Callie Moore, wife of one of Washington, DC’s biggest lobbyists, making Callie herself a sort of demi-goddess. Turns out Callie is eyeing Augusta to ghostwrite her memoirs; in fact, everyone at the dinner has some sort of publishing aspiration. And it’s quite the assemblage, including a congressman and his wife; a CIA couple; and Doc Burke, a famous humanitarian. Augusta may have little interest in ghostwriting, but the menu is delectable, the libations lavish—until the doctor seems to fall asleep. Except you, me, and Augusta all know he’s not sleeping. He’s dead, likely, it turns out, from his heart condition. O.K., it’s not a locked-room mystery if everyone Ubers home, but certainly it has the makings of one. Over the next several months, Augusta researches and ruminates, deciding that indeed the good Doc was murdered, likely poisoned. But how to find the murderer? Augusta decides to host a writers’ retreat, in the Shenandoah Mountain, just for the dinner guests. This crazy/fun plan—yes, it snows abundantly—provides the true locked-room experience. For all who love Augusta’s wit, insights into DC and the publishing industry, and a little bit of Agatha.

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Review

Nonna Maria and the Case of the Stolen Necklace

by Brian Kenney

Having loved Nonna Maria and the Runaway Bride, I started Carcaterra’s second in the series with some trepidation. Would it hold up to the first? But I’m happy to report that the newest Nonna book provides all the pleasures of the earlier title—and then some. If you aren’t familiar with Nonna Maria, then make it a point to remedy that. A widowed grandmother, Nonna Maria, in an oh-so-subtle way, runs the island of Ischia, just 20 miles from Naples. Through her myriad connections, which include the carabinieri, members of organized crime, the clergy, and of course family, Nonna rights many wrongs—all while cooking the most delectable meals. In this installment, Nonna Maria’s goddaughter, who works as a maid, is accused of stealing a necklace while a woman, who was once a native, returns to the island, only to be murdered. Through Nonna’s investigations, we learn more about how the island, and its economy, is changing, while the conservative social mores that are such a part of island life live on. Cozy readers will love this book both for the indomitable character of Nonna Maria and the chance to travel to this paradise in the Bay of Naples.

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Review

A Cryptic Clue

by Henrietta Thornton

A former university librarian, forced into early retirement, takes on a new job cataloging a book collection, only to find herself spending more time solving a crime than applying the Library of Congress subject headings. Jane Hunter is making lots of changes in her life. She’s downsized her home, is living alone—her actress daughter is off on a national tour—and is about to bring in some much-needed funds by cataloging 33-year-old Cameron “Cam” Clewe’s vast crime fiction collection. But on the first day at the job, at Cam’s sprawling mansion, she discovers—wouldn’t you know it?—a corpse on the floor of the library. And not just any corpse. Cam’s latest ex-girlfriend. To make matters worse, several people saw the couple arguing the night before. With handsome Cam the number one suspect, if Jane wants to keep her job, she’s got to keep her boss out of jail, so the two team up to find the real perp. The fun here is in what an odd couple they make. Sherlock Cam has “anxiety, OCD, occasional depression, and a general lack of social awareness.” And while Watson Jane may not have been diagnosed with anything listed in the DSM-5, she’s darn nosey, quite pushy, a bit of a rumor monger, and has some dubious professional ethics (she brings items home, and shows them to a neighbor, without Cam’s permission.) Everything is in place here for a successful series sure to delight traditional cozy readers for years to come. Now let these two go at each other.

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Review

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

by Henrietta Thornton

A wonderful, moving stand-alone in which Sutanto, author of the Aunties series, is at the absolute top of her game. Sixty-year-old Vera Wong is lonely, although she’d never admit it. A widower, she’s the mother of a lawyer consumed by work—he rarely returns her texts, even though she offers such good advice!— and her days consist of a 6 am brisk walk through San Francisco’s Chinatown—she needs to get her steps in!—then opening her tea shop which, on the best of days, has only one customer. Extraordinarily opinionated, quite a bit eccentric, yet utterly charming, Vera’s voice is captivating. But readers will be completely beguiled after she comes downstairs one morning (she lives above the shop) and discovers a young man lying on the floor. She does call the cops, and tries her very, very best not to disturb the crime scene, but not before prying a flash drive out of the man’s very dead hands. Then the novel takes off as Vera—believing the cops are incapable of solving the crime—assumes the role of detective. In the process, she befriends several young people, including both the victim’s wife and his brother, and while Vera still considers them all to be prime suspects, she can’t help but care for them. Initially this protagonist may seem like the cliché of the dominating Chinese mom. But Vera, it turns out, is pretty damaged herself, much like her new, thirty-something friends. Come for the mystery, but stay for the healing. One of the best cozies I’ve read this year.

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Review

Murder in Times Square

by Henrietta Thornton

his series debut features a woman who’s so glamorous and strong she has a superhero persona, complete with the superhero’s inner conflict. Deirdre Flanagan is a model, a beautiful 19-year-old who purposely makes herself uglier in daily life so she can pass unnoticed. While she loves clothes and the drama of a professional fashion shoot, modeling is very much her nine to five. In her spare time, she works with her doting father and his brother—they’re a former world-champion boxer and an NYC police captain, respectively, and the only parents she has known—to solve crimes against young women. When a woman in a striking red dress falls to her death from the roof of 1 Times Square, Deirdre hits the scene, finding another body as well as unexpected emotions upon viewing the remains. Why this case has hit her so hard and whether she can escape the escalating danger facing those involved with the victim and the case is a mystery that will keep readers rapt—although they’ll also enjoy being dropped into the world of New York City haute couture. Baer, who worked briefly in that world and is the author of the successful Jack Colt series, also offers a gritty contrast to the ritziness of fashion in his protagonist’s personal life: home is her father’s boxing gym, and between that setting and her life as an NYPD sidekick, the sarcasm and bullets keep flying. A fast, absorbing introduction to a daring star.

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Review

Murder at an Irish Bakery

by Henrietta Thornton

We don’t normally review the 11th book in a series, because typically after a few titles the series needs no further introduction. But I grabbed this one from the (virtual) pile because 1. It’s set in Ireland, my former home; 2. It’s set in a bakery, my spiritual home; 3. Murder. The Ireland here is a thoroughly modern one, with the tale set around a baking-competition reality show. Famous cookbook author Aoife McBride is the one to beat, as the contestants vie to impress the judges with elaborate chocolate constructions, fancy layered creations, and to-die-for tea cakes, all to win twenty-thousand Euro and a boost to their baking-career ambitions. The producers throw in reality-show-required conflict, of course, but get more drama than they bargained for when a protester (“Sugar kills! Stop the show!”) outside the studio mysteriously drops dead. His is not the last face to fall in the flour, so to speak. Gardaí (police officers) Siobhán O’Sullivan and Aretta Dabiri and Siobhán’s new husband, Detective Sergeant Macdara Flannery, must solve the mystery while the cameras roll and the baking puns fly. This has more than the contestants’ groan-worthy puns, though, with O’Connor (No Strangers Here) giving readers a healthy balance of whodunit and bitchy competition, not to mention a cute relationship in still-in-the-honeymoon-phase Siobhán and Macdara. The closing recipe for Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Guinness Cake alone is worth the book price.

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Review

Waste of a Life

by Brian Kenney

What do you remember most about a Simon Brett novel? The characters. Brett, a genius at writing traditional mysteries, has created several series over the years, all based on personalities that draw readers back again and again. These days, Brett has two series in the works, the long-standing Fethering mysteries—featuring two sort-of best friends in a very English village—and a newer series featuring professional declutterer Ellen Curtis. Having a declutterer as your protagonist is inspired: they allow for easy access into other people’s lives—through their stuff—whether those people are dead or alive. Here, Ellen has been hired to work with Cedric Waites, an octogenarian who hasn’t left the house since his wife died years ago. Yes, there are mountains of empty frozen-dinner containers, but Ellen is slowly making headway with Cedric. Only to find him, one day, dead. And not just dead, but likely murdered, with Ellen one of the suspects. The novel goes deeply into Cedric’s past, marriage, and his dealings with his awful son and even worse daughter-in-law. But more compelling is Ellen and her relationships with her two adult children, both of whom are deeply troubled, and both of whom end up moving home at some point. The publisher describes this as a light-hearted mystery. It’s not. It’s actually a darn good novel about families—the good, the bad, and the ugly—set against a murder inquiry.

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