Tag:

Mystery & Detective

Review

The Unwedding

by Brian Kenney

Things couldn’t get much worse for Ellery. She’s all alone at a super-expensive resort in Big Sur where she and her husband were meant to celebrate their twentieth anniversary, except his mid-life crisis blossomed into a full blown decision to divorce (new girlfriend and motorcycle), and, well, the reservations aren’t refundable. Then it turns out that most of the other guests are there to celebrate a wedding. How annoying is that? Ellery misses her kids terribly. And when she decides to take an evening dip in the infinity pool, she finds the groom beat her to it, except he’s floating face down, fully dressed, with a huge gash in the back of his head. Time to call the cops, but a huge storm has moved through, triggering a mudslide that completely isolates the hotel, cutting off cell service. Yup, we are in a closed-resort novel. But, fortunately for Ellery, she makes some friends, and together they set out to investigate what’s really going on in this Christie-like setting. This is Condie’s adult debut (she is author of the YA “Matched” series) and she does a magnificent job of balancing the search for a murderer with exploring Ellery’s rich internal life. A gift to readers who enjoy closed environments and unsettling outcomes.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

It’s Elementary

by Brian Kenney

Mavis is one busy single mom. Pearl, her seven-year-old, is smart, funny, and chatty. Her ex, who tries to be a good dad, is a musician who is regularly on tour across the country. The non-profit Mavis works for has the bad habit of skipping her over for promotions. And Trish, the incredibly bossy head of the PTA—when will a house fall on her?—tricks Mavis, as one of only a handful of Black moms at the school, to head its DEI committee. “DEI means diversity, equity, and inclusion, sure,” Mavis says. “But it also means free labor to be given willingly to fix problems we didn’t create.” The novel is barely underway when the new school principal suddenly disappears while Mavis, while walking her dog late at night, passes the school, only to see Trish loading up her car with cleaning supplies and heavy plastic bags…filled with the remains of Principal Smith? Joining forces with Jack, the “superhot” school psychologist, Mavis sets off to find the lost principal. Beautifully written and well-paced, this delightful novel explores the many friends and family who surround Mavis, the struggles she experiences, and the love that flows throughout. Elise Bryant is the NAACP Image Award-nominated author of the young adult novels Happily Ever Afters, One True Loves, and Reggie and Delilah’s Year of Falling.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Close to Death

by Brian Kenney

This fifth in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series is a delightful homage to the classic crime fiction of Agatha Christie’s era, complete with a “locked room” episode and a tight little community. With just six homes, nestled among beautiful gardens, it’s hard to imagine that Riverside Close is actually located in London. But then the Kentworthy family moves into the Close with their noisy, brutish children, four cars that block the neighbors from parking, and plans to replace a garden with—shudder—a pool, changing room, and bar. Compromise would not seem to be in finance-bro Charles Kentworthy’s make-up, and his oafish behavior provokes the remaining five occupants—each odder than the one before—to swear that they could kill him. Which one of them does. In the very dramatic method of shooting him with a crossbow. Here things really take off as Detective Daniel Hawthorne takes up the case, with Horowitz more of a background player than in previous books, authoring a third-person narrative. Newcomers should not feel intimidated by the series and feel free to jump in here. The compelling plot, wonderful location, and marvelous shots of humor will be sure to pick up the reader and buoy them along.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco

by Brian Kenney

Readers in search of a classic mystery need look no further, and if you have a fascination with San Francisco, as I do, then you’re doubly in luck. Capri Sanzio is the granddaughter of one of the City’s most famous serial killers: William “Overkill Bill” Sanzio, who’s now deceased. So named because “he bashed his three victims on the head, stabbed them to death, then sliced their throats after the fact.” A thorough kind of guy. Capri’s parents are shamed by their relationship to Bill, but Capri—who believes he was innocent—has a far more complicated response: she runs a highly successful business providing tours related to San Francisco’s serial killers (with herself, as Bill’s granddaughter, one of the prime attractions). But suddenly there’s a copycat of Bill murdering San Francisco women—one of whom is closely related to Capri—and the cops have made it clear that Capri or her daughter (herself a doctoral student in criminology) are their two prime suspects. With excursions from high society to the working class, and richly detailed portraits of San Francisco, this fascinating, fast-paced novel should find a broad readership. More, please?

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

A Calamity of Souls

by Jeff Ayers

In a small Virginia town in 1968, a Black man named Jerome works for an elderly white couple. On Friday, when he expects to get his weekly salary, he walks into their house and finds their dead bodies. The police arrive and accuse him of resisting arrest and beat him. In jail with a head wound and bruises, the innocent man has already been convicted. A white lawyer named Jack Lee takes the case and immediately finds himself in the crosshairs of hate. Working with a female Black lawyer from Chicago, Jack struggles for justice in a town and environment where the verdict is already a foregone conclusion, and there is no lifeline for him or the case. Baldacci is one of the great storytellers, and he channels John Grisham in this compelling and harsh story that explores racism, the criminal justice system, and family dynamics. Half legal thriller and half an examination of the South at one of its most tumultuous times, this will be yet another bestseller for Baldacci and a novel destined for book club discussions.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

A Cup of Flour, A Pinch of Death

by Brian Kenney

Invincible is the adjective that comes most readily to mind when describing Maddy Montgomery, the hero in Valerie Burns’ Baker Street series. She’s relocated to the tiny, lake-front, Michigan town of New Bison, which is hundreds of miles from the closest Jimmy Choo boutique. Her nemesis in love has suddenly made an appearance, trashing Maddy all over social media. And while the bakery she inherited from her great-aunt is turning into a rip-roaring success, it attracts more dead bodies than the city morgue. Yes, there is a lot going on in this series, and we can’t forget the role of Baby, Maddy’s English Mastiff, who’s as expressive as any human. But one murder is rarely enough, and when a body washes ashore, it becomes clear that someone is out to suppress some important information. Once again Maddy needs to draw on the expertise of her great-aunt’s friends, the Baker Street Irregulars. This series has it all: fun, fashion, and friendship.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Return to Blood

by Willy Williams

Following his acclaimed debut, Better the Blood, Michael Bennett’s compelling sophomore outing in his crime series starring Māori detective Hana Westerman proves the New Zealand screenwriter and author is no one-hit wonder as a mystery writer. In the wake of the traumatic events recounted in the first book, Hana has resigned from the Auckland CIB (Criminal Investigation Branch) and returned to her hometown of Tātā Bay, where she helps her father, Eru, prepare local Māori teens to get their driver’s licenses. But the calm Hana is trying to rebuild is shattered when her 18-year-old daughter, Addison, discovers the skeleton of a young woman in the sand dunes. Investigators suspect the bones may be those of Kiri Thomas, a Māori teenager who disappeared four years earlier. Although Hana is no longer in the police force, she begins to probe the possibility that Kiri’s death may be connected to the 21-year-old unsolved murder of Paige Meadows, whose body was found in the same dunes. Likewise, Addison becomes obsessed with Kiri’s fate, threatening her friendship with her non-binary flatmate and musical partner, Plus 1. In a nod to Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, the storyline is interspersed with the dead Kiri’s haunting first-person narrative. Bennett, who is Māori, immerses readers deeper into Māori culture and traditions as he expands on Hana’s loving relationship with her father and tense interactions with her chilly second cousin, Eyes. An atmospheric thriller that will have readers booking flights to New Zealand. Bennett is adapting Better the Blood into a six-part TV series for Taika Waititi’s production company.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Blessed Water

by Henrietta Thornton

Perhaps only in New Orleans can there be a gay novice nun who is also a novice private detective and who offers up prayers like, “Hail Mary, share with me your divine vision, because I can’t see a fucking thing.” The nun in question is Sister Holiday, who teaches in a private school, runs a support group for survivors of Catholic Church sexual abuse, and on the side partners with a former cop to run Redemption Detective Agency. When the two hit the banks of the Mississippi to meet a new client, Holiday finds herself wading into the water to catch a body before it floats away. It’s her parish priest, and that awful discovery isn’t the last. Returning to school, the nun finds that another priest is missing. He seemed a kind young man, not one of the priests that Holiday loathes for their fake piety and fondness for their parishioners’ money. While a storm rages, Holiday must face the contradictions that are her life and life in New Orleans as well as help her brother and others face their demons, all while trying desperately to solve the mystery of the missing priest. Douaihy’s first in the series, Scorched Grace, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, among other accolades. Fans of that book, as well as all who love an irreverent and smart lead, will happily join Sister Holiday for her second outing.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Miss Austen Investigates: The Hapless Milliner

by Henrietta Thornton

Jane Austen’s throngs of fans will adore this series starter that introduces the writer as a lively amateur sleuth; a treasured member of a large, loving family; and as a woman of her time—feisty but too often kept from her potential. The marriage market among Jane’s circle looms large, of course, with Jane hoping for a proposal any day from a young Irishman while those around her assess one another in terms of their potential as financial insurance. When an alliance is about to be announced by a local family, their façade of gentility is threatened when a young woman is found murdered in their home. Jane recognizes her as a milliner she’s bought from lately. The local magistrate seems content to blame “gypsies” for the crime, an accusation Jane disputes as no traveling people have been seen in the area lately, but she’s soon sorry when another is accused: her mentally disabled brother, George. It’s now up to our literary hero to find the real killer and bring George home. The large cast of characters here keeps things lively; there’s often humor too, both in Jane’s wry comments throughout and in her witty letters to her sister about the case’s progression.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Agony Hill

by Brian Kenney

A classic mystery that pulls the reader in and doesn’t let go until there’s a resolution. It’s the mid-1960s, and Franklin Warren arrives in small-town Bethany, Vermont to join the state troopers as a detective. It’s a time of change: as young men head to Canada to escape the draft, the state is developing highways that, many fear, will change Vermont irrevocably, while the echoes of the Cold War continue to reverberate. Warren is also escaping his own demons, a tragic occurrence he left behind in Boston but is unable to forget. But before he can unpack—literally!—he’s called to investigate a fire; Hugh Weber, a hippie farmer, has burnt down his barn and likely killed himself, although evidence of suicide is scant. Warren digs deep into the community, from Weber’s widow to Warren’s elderly next-door-neighbor, a retired intelligence agent. Secrets abound, but which one will unveil the murderer? Fans of Kay Jennings and Jeff Carson will appreciate this new series by the author of The Drowning Sea.

0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail