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Women Sleuths

Review

Vinyl Resting Place

by Brian Kenney

More than most other kinds of mysteries, successful cozies rely on a strong community that we would like to return to and a cast of characters we would like to know more about—and Blacke’s first in this new series succeeds delightfully at both. Juni Jessup is back in Cedar River, Texas after six years in the Pacific Northwest. Laid off from her tech job and a bit homesick, she’s returned mainly to join her two sisters as partners in Sip & Spin, a record store and cafe. But at their blow-out opening party, the body of a young woman is found in the supply closet. Very dead. That’s bad enough, but she’s also clutching Uncle Calvin’s card. Calvin is arrested, the sisters put their shop up for collateral, then Calvin skips bail and disappears. This leaves the sisters with a double-headed mystery: who killed the victim and where in the world did Calvin get to? This is your sort of poke-around mystery, in which Juni bikes around town asking questions, although the way gossip flies in Cedar River, all you really need to do is stand in one place long enough and listen. But Juni’s a great storyteller, the small-town Texas-ness of it all is lots of fun, and there’s not one but two possible romances. What else could you ask for?

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Review

Death at the Savoy

by Brian Kenney

We’re in the mad, mod, mini-skirted world of London, 1968—the height of the swinging sixties. Where better to catch all the action than from a perch at the world-famous Savoy Hotel? Nowhere, unless you are young Priscilla Tempest, head of the Savoy’s press office, and arrive at work only to discover that your date from the previous night—Mr. Room 705—has been found quite dead. Odd, since when you left him he was a little too alive. Plus, it turns out that he’s a bit of an arms dealer, and not the caviar dealer he claimed. So begins Prudence’s crusade to clear her name, if not her reputation, keep her job, and maybe even stay alive. This book is outrageously funny, peppered throughout with all-too-realistic cameo appearances from the likes of Noël Coward, Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and even a member of the royal family. Add to the mix a Soviet spy, a louche but handsome reporter, a fanatical monarchist from Scotland Yard, a Spanish gigolo, and serve it all accompanied by a nice flute of Bucks Fizz—that’s what the British call a Mimosa. And who said you don’t learn from fiction? Anglophiles, lovers of comic crime fiction, and anyone in need of a break from the present day will adore this book. I’m off to The Carlyle for a Fizz myself, don’t bother ringing until Book 2 is out.

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Review

Secret Lives

by Brian Kenney

A high energy foray into cryptocurrency and government corruption. At the center of the novel is petite, running-suit clad, 75-year-old Ethel Crestwater, a former FBI agent who operates a boarding house in Arlington, VA for law enforcement folk who need a temporary home in the DC area. Never married and with no kids, Ethel starts every morning in her basement with a round of RBG’s exercises. The latest addition to her clan is Jesse, a remote relative, but her only relation, who’s moved to DC for graduate work in computing. When one of “her” agents is gunned down in front of her house, Ethel, assisted by double-first-cousin-twice-removed Jesse, catapults into action. It helps that Ethel knows—and is owed favors by—a range of characters, from the director of the FBI to the Secret Service to the local Arlington detective; part of the fun of the book is watching the territorial struggles among the different agencies. Yes, wise-cracking Ethel is highly entertaining, but to de Castrique’s credit, she’s no cutesy stereotype of a gun-wielding grandma. She’s got her own story, and it’s a complex one. Ethel and sidekick Jesse make a great team; how about Jesse drops out of school and they take up sleuthing full time? Bonus: this book is a helpful primer for the uninitiated on cryptocurrency and how it works. Readers who enjoy this novel will also appreciate Deanna Raybourn’s Killers of a Certain Age.

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Review

Killer Story

by Brian Kenney

It’s great to have Matt Witten publishing crime fiction again. The author of one of my favorite series, the Jacob Burns mysteries, he returned to crime fiction last year with the riveting thriller The Necklace. Killer Story is in the thriller vein, and like The Necklace it provides the reader with plenty to dwell on instead of just rushing to the end—not that there’s anything wrong with that. Petra Kovach is a bright young journalist in a contracting industry. No sooner does she land a job than a year later she’s out the door, a victim of downsizing. It’s happening again, this time at the “Boston Clarion,” and to bide two more weeks she pitches her boss a true-crime podcast that would reopen the violent murder of super right-wing Olivia, a Harvard undergrad—and YouTuber—who had an enormous following. For Petra, this is personal. She was Olivia’s counselor at summer camp, and the two remained tight ever since, despite their political differences. But as Petra tracks down possible murderers, and as her audience grows by the thousands then the millions, she sheds first any journalistic ethics, then any ethics at all. Witten sustains the suspense, with the narrative just leaping ahead, chapter by chapter, while at the same time most readers will be wondering: does the end justify the means? And how far can Petra go? Perfect for fans of Dervla McTiernan and Hank Phillippi Ryan.

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Review

Misfire

by Henrietta Thornton

Romance? Check. Medical thriller? Check. Cozy? Mmm…sort of. This book has something for a range of readers, from those who like a second-chance romance to fans of Michael Crichton’s medical thrillers as well as readers who get a kick out of elderly relatives as sleuthing sidekicks. It stars Dr. Kate Downey, a young, widowed anesthesiologist (same profession as the author) who lives with her opinionated Aunt Irm. Irm has recently had an AICD implanted, an internal defibrillator that can shock the heart back to the right rhythm if necessary. (An author’s note explains that Dick Cheney had his AICD’s wireless capability disabled while he was Vice President so that nobody could control it and kill him.) At work, Kate sees a frightening pattern developing over a matter of days. Several AICD users have “misfires,” meaning that their device shocks them at just the wrong moment in a heartbeat, greatly endangering their lives. The suddenness and frequency of these issues seem suspect. As Kate rushes to protect Aunt Irm, she gains the help of a man she’s interested in, but is it too soon since her husband’s death, and what about her new love’s involvement in the business that makes the aberrant AICDs? Get ready for realistic and emotionally intertwined characters throughout this fast-moving tech puzzle; the shocking ending leaves much to ponder, making this a great choice for book clubs (discussion guide included)

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Review

Photo Finished

by Brian Kenney

A struggling photographer, twenty-something Liv Spyer is gifted with the powerful abilities to both observe and remember the world around her, gifts she needs if she ever wants to get out of her grandparent’s Greenwich Village brownstone, where she helps out in their key shop while carving out a tiny photography studio for herself in the basement. Finances are at an all time low—the holidays are approaching—when Liv crosses paths with Regina Montague, a prominent events photographer. After a little coercion, Liv convinces Regina to hire her and before you know it, she’s helping to photograph the social event of the season: the Holiday Debutante Ball. This is Liv’s big chance, until socially prominent Charlie Archibald interrupts the evening by being found dead in a pool of his blood, killed by a knife through an eyeball (yikes!). It doesn’t take much for Liv to decide to take on the case, and it’s a delight to follow her over Manhattan as she tries to piece together the puzzle, trusted camera in hand. While the plot can get super complicated, Brecher has done some great world building here—from Liv’s warm and loving Italian family to a possible boyfriend who may be an FBI agent—creating a world we’d be all too happy to return to again.

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Review

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

by Brian Kenney

From Sir Francis Bacon and Eleanor Roosevelt to Walt Whitman and Queen Elizabeth, famous people often make excellent amateur detectives. This volume introduces Emily Dickinson as sleuth. Enigmatic and reclusive, an iconoclast and a feminist, Emily lived in America during a time of enormous change and unrest. One of this country’s greatest poets, Emily has fascinated generations—and Flower does a wonderful job of introducing the 25-year-old Emily, years before she withdraws from most social contact. Here we enter Emily’s world through her family’s new maid, Willa Noble, who soon strikes up a cautious friendship with the unusual Emily. When Willa’s brother Henry is killed in the town stables, Willa turns to her new friend for solace, and eventually help. She believes that Henry was murdered, and Emily is quick to join the investigation as the two are drawn out of women’s traditional spheres and into the dark underbelly of Amherst. The book is rife with references to class and race, abolition and the Underground Railroad, yet the author manages to avoid tropes such as that of the white savior. Flower is an accomplished mystery author who moves the story along at a perfect pace while immersing us in the complexities of Emily and her time. A gem for historical-mystery fans.

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Review

Flight Risk

by Brian Kenney

They’re back! The quirky duo of sort-of psychic Leda Foley—she’s also a travel agent and sometime chanteuse—and Seattle P.D. detective Grady Merritt reunites to find two missing people. Leda is approached by a man whose sister has gone missing for a month—driving a bright-orange antique Volvo and with $30,000 in cash—and hopes that Leda can use her psychic powers to locate the woman. Has she been murdered, or has she finally given up on her adulterous husband and run off? Meanwhile, Grady’s dog has gone missing on Mount Rainier, only to pop up with a limb in his mouth. A leg, to be precise. A human leg. Unfortunately, it’s a male leg, so not from Leda’s missing person, but DNA proves that there is a relationship between the two. But where’s the rest of the body? With help from a delightful circle of friends, including Grady’s police partner and Leda’s best friend, the two develop plenty of hypotheses but nothing that will hold water. Fortunately, Leda’s psychic skills kick in, providing some much-needed clues to help resolve the mysteries. As in the first book, Grave Reservations, readers will delight in the banter between Leda and Grady while enjoying Leda’s struggle with her psychic gift. For cozy fans who can tolerate a bit of the macabre.

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Review

A Death in Door County

by Henrietta Thornton

Morgan Carter is one unusual woman. A trained cryptozoologist—someone who searches for animals that haven’t been proven to actually exist, like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster—she also owns the Odds and Ends bookstore in Door County, Wisconsin. Don’t expect to find any Jane Austen at Odds and Ends, but it has plenty of esoteric books about the natural world, jars filled with formaldehyde and weird specimens, not to mention mummified human remains. So when a few human corpses wash ashore on Lake Michigan with mysterious bite marks, who are you going to call? Morgan Carter! Thirty-something Morgan—accompanied by her lovely rescue dog, Newt—is at her happiest when seeking out cryptids. But Morgan has her own share of problems. Her parents, also cryptozoologists, were murdered just two years ago, and Carter feels a nagging responsibility for their deaths. Those deaths also left her hugely rich, which has created its own issues, especially in dating. This is full of local color, with a delightful cast, and has a completely unique premise; I can’t wait to introduce Morgan to readers, especially those seeking the unusual, the surprising, the off-beat.

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Review

There Are No Happy Loves

by Brian Kenney

What a wild ride this book is. The third in Olguin’s series set in Buenos Aires, it features the tough-hitting, brazen, flawed, but brilliant journalist Verónica Rosenthal, who loves her whiskey, her lapdog, her ex-boyfriend, and great sex, preferably with strangers. As the novel opens, there is a horrific car crash followed by an explosion, leaving one survivor, Darío, who becomes convinced that his wife and child didn’t die in the conflagration but survived and ran away. Is it possible? Later, a truck is pulled over in Buenos Aires, thought to contain drugs. But the cache is far more gruesome: a load of human body parts. Verónica pursues the missing wife and child, ultimately publishing a feature about a right-wing Catholic organization, the Christian Home Movement, which took young children from poor or single mothers and placed them in well-off Catholic families. At the same time, and unknown to Verónica, her ex-boyfriend is after the body smugglers, and eventually the two storylines converge, as do the lovers. But don’t for one minute think this is some linear thriller. This book ricochets from family drama to Argentinian history to the picaresque (Verónica in nun’s garb, infiltrating a convent) to the deeply emotional. While this can be read as a stand-alone, this series builds on itself wonderfully.

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