At first it seems some well-worn police procedural tropes will dominate the latest novel by bestselling Schaffhausen (Ellery Hathaway series). Our protagonist, a detective, is determined to find the serial killer that eluded her cop father, while wondering if she’ll ever find love in this relationship-destroying career. But some twists make the author’s turbulent latest different. The detective in question, Annalisa Vega, dated the son of one of the victims as a teen; the connection to her first heartbreak drives Vega to uncover the truth—and sometimes to go too far. Adding intrigue is that one of the killer’s last victims, Grace Harper, is an avid, insightful member of an amateur cold-case investigation club, the Grave Diggers, which at the time of Harper’s death was focusing on her killer. “Grace Notes,” journal entries on her investigative findings, will give readers the feeling of turning the case around in their hands as the narrative shifts back and forth in time and between Harper and Vega’s differing knowledge and motivations. Schaffhausen’s writing brings readers right into shadowy Chicago streets and family secrets from page one. This first in a new series is a must for readers of innovative police procedurals as well as fans of true crime shows.
Women Sleuths
A midsize Catskill resort in the 1950s provides a rich setting for Delany’s latest series. Elizabeth Grady manages the resort, while her mother, Olivia—a retired theater and film star who inherited the venue—loafs about, deigning to occasionally show up at cocktail hour to dazzle the guests. Keeping the Haggerman’s Resort profitable is serious work, and Grady doesn’t think things can get any busier, when the body of one of the guests—loner Harold Westenham, a former college professor—is found floating in the lake. If that doesn’t cause enough of a ruckus, the police find a copy of The Communist Manifesto in Westenham’s cabin, bringing in the FBI and fueling a red scare among the guests. Faced with a hostile police force, Grady ends up taking on the investigation herself. While the detective work is low-key, and the resolution falls pretty much in Elizabeth’s lap, the real pleasures of this book lie in its setting, period, and characters, all of which are wonderfully realized. Cozy readers will be happy to return to Haggerman’s Catskill Resort any time.
Ellice Littlejohn’s Atlanta corporate-lawyer wardrobe of Louboutins and luxury dresses hides a background in down-and-out Chillicothe, GA, with her addict mother and the mother’s sleazy boyfriend. Also a secret is Ellice’s affair with married lawyer Michael at Houghton, the fancy firm where she’s almost the only Black employee. As this fast-moving novel opens, Ellice shows up to work early for a meeting with Michael, only to find him dead, a discovery that becomes her newest secret. Houghton’s boss likes to refer to the company as a family, but after Ellice is promoted to Michael’s job, racism, always an undercurrent among the pompous colleagues, becomes overt, and it grows obvious that the board is up to no good. As Ellice investigates both her lover’s death and goings on at Houghton, yet more secrets are revealed to readers, both about Ellice’s past and about the cutthroat world she endures. Debut author Morris, herself a corporate lawyer, masterfully layers family struggles, racism, and corporate greed to create an exciting legal thriller that’s tempered by a hint of romance.