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Women Sleuths

Review

City Under One Roof

by Brian Kenney

How’s this for a setting: a 205 unit high-rise building in rural Alaska that houses the entire town’s population as well as stores, offices, and more. Welcome to Point Mettier, a pretty creepy village to begin with that only gets worse when body parts—a foot, a hand—wash up on the frozen shore. The local cops seem ready to shrug off the remains—lots of tourists fall off those cruise ships!—when they’re joined by Anchorage detective Cara Kennedy, who takes the matter a whole lot more seriously. What was meant to be a quick visit becomes a much longer excursion as the first brutal storm of the season moves in, closing off the tunnel, the one way in and out of town during winter. With time to spare, Cara digs deeper into the community, only to discover that almost everyone in Point Mettier has a secret to hide. A simmering romance with one of the other officers provides Cara with much needed distraction, but soon enough a violent gang, hanging out in a nearby Native village, takes center stage. This is a successful, well-paced first novel that juggles a range of cultures, a handful of strong characters, and a nuanced protagonist, delivering a very satisfying ending. And get this: Point Mettier pretty much actually exists. Check out Whittier, Alaska.

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Review

Blackwater Falls

by Henrietta Thornton

Inaya Rahman is stuck between two worlds. She’s a detective with the Community Response Unit of the Denver police department, which was created after 2020’s protests against police brutality. When she’s called to a horrific scene —a little girl, Razan Elkader, has been murdered and nailed to the door of the mosque where Rahman worships—she knows she can help, but she’s facing her usual problem: “too brown for the badge, too blue for her co-religionists.” She forges on, in private dealing with her family’s worries that the police force is too dangerous and her mother’s fretting that Inaya isn’t married yet. Outside forces are far less gentle: a biker gang affiliated with a local Evangelical church is far from happy that Syrian refugees have settled in the town and none too worried about bringing Razan’s murderer to light. Khan’s (Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty Mysteries, Khoran Archives Fantasy Novels) fast-moving but thoughtful series debut goes far beyond newcomers-vs.-racists tropes to look at real life in a changing town. Rahman is a tough, lovable and often funny protagonist who will appeal to fans of Joanna Schaffhausen’s Annalisa Vega.

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Review

That Summer in Berlin

by Henrietta Thornton

Hopes and fears are nested within secrets and lies in this historical romance/spy novel that moves from English drawing rooms to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. The same fraught layers form the novel, which sees pensive Viviane Alden travel to Germany with her flighty stepsister, Julia, to visit eligible distant acquaintances. The author’s note from Canadian author Cornwall (The Woman at the Front) explains that right up till 1939, intermarriage of English and German aristocracy was encouraged as a way to avoid a repeat of the Great War. The young women are matched with Otto and Felix, sons of the house, who, like Viviane and Julia, show how different siblings can be. Otto is a devoted Nazi who’s rising in the ranks, while his brother, a chemist who flaunts his family’s expectations by working with a Jewish Nobel prize winner, wants none of his brother’s fascist displays. Berlin during Hitler’s reign, and the fawning of international celebrities who thought the dictator a buffoon who’d soon disappear, are chillingly portrayed here. They form an ever more sinister backdrop to Viviane’s clandestine photography of wartime activities in partnership with a dashing journalist/spy. This has an air of Ian McEwan’s Atonement, with its sweeping vistas and wartime romance; fans of the debutante politics of Bridgerton will find intrigue here too.

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Review

Marple: Twelve New Mysteries

by Brian Kenney

A dozen terrifically talented and diverse authors—including Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Val McDermid, and Dreda Say Mitchell—reimagine that most iconic of amateur sleuths: Miss Jane Marple. Billed by the publisher as a way to introduce a new generation to Miss Marple—likely best done by Christie’s books, actually—this collection reads more like fanfiction and is sure to delight Marple enthusiasts, who comprise a great swath of mystery fiction’s readership. Miss Marple is no stranger to the short story, having been first introduced to readers in a 1927 magazine. But here we see her in some extraordinary circumstances, while never losing sight of who she really is. A formal dinner at one of the Oxford colleges descends into sexual harassment and Quaalude popping—to tragic ends. A brief stop-over to visit an old school friend in a country village results in the sort of complex murder we expect only Miss Marple to decipher. When a young woman keels over dead at a wedding, Miss Marple teams up with her Caribbean-born friend, Miss Bella. But not all the stories involve murder; stolen pearls ruin a Christmas dinner, until Miss Marple slowly drops the pieces into place, to the surprise of the other guests. Fun to read in print, this collection would make a great audiobook.

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Review

A Dreadful Splendor

by Brian Kenney

Is it a gothic romance? Yes, indeed. Is it a mystery? That, too. In fact, A Dreadful Splendor uses nearly all the tropes of the gothic, adding a bit of humor to the mix. Genevieve Timmons, all of 19 years old, is a spiritualist, a conjurer, adept at calling forth the dead to assuage the grief of the living—and lining her own pocket. Trained by her mother, who is recently deceased, Genevieve has hit a bad patch and is in jail until she’s approached by a gentleman who wants her to summon the dead bride of his boss, Mr. Pemberton. Except when Genevieve arrives at Somerset Park, Mr. Pemberton’s estate, she discovers that the widower believes his bride was murdered, and he wants Genevieve to stage a session so powerful it will reveal the killer. (As for Mr. Pemberton, he’s one part Mr. Darcy, one part Heathcliff, and one part Maxim de Winter. Brooding and beautiful.) With days to go before the séance, there’s plenty of time for Genevieve to rattle around the estate, research the past, and become terrified of a ghost who may well be the real thing. Lots of fun for readers who enjoy historical mysteries with a double serving of atmosphere.

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Review

Augusta Hawke

by Brian Kenney

Best known for her cozy British series, here Malliet abandons the country vicarages and Oxbridge colleges for Old Town Alexandria, Virginia directly across the Potomac from the District of Columbia, and home to the witty Augusta Hawke. Hawke, herself a mystery author, is a bit of a recluse, a state brought on by the pandemic and the recent death of her husband. Fortunately, her four-story townhouse provides plenty of distractions, including—with a nod to Hitchcock’s “Rear Window”—casually observing the neighbors. So when the Normans, the young couple across the way, go missing, Hawke has plenty to tell the cops, including details of a fight she witnessed between the couple. When their car is found abandoned in a marsh, Hawke decides it’s time to take on the case, so to speak, and heads off to investigate. Perhaps the story has the making of a true-crime bestseller? The pleasure in this book lies in the arch and humorous Augusta, her interior musings as well as her interactions with others, her caustic take on the publishing industry, and the ridiculous situations she gets caught up in. May this be the introduction to many more outings with Augusta.

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Review

Death and the Decorator

by Brian Kenney

Having a rough week? Then take a break and head to the posh town of Fethering, the setting for Simon Brett’s many traditional mysteries featuring the unusual duo of neighbors Jude and Carole. Jude’s the outgoing one, who loves her curves—as well as an occasional lover—works as a healer, and gives off some serious hippy vibes. Carol, retired from the Home Office, is anxious, uptight, and suspicious of all that’s trendy (like healing!). Despite their differences, the two manage to maintain a friendship—a bottle or two of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc help—and regularly pair up to investigate the many murders of Fethering. Planning her own home improvements, Jude meets with interior decorator Pete, who is in the process of renovating a large Victorian building that’s had a checkered history. When Peter knocks down a wall panel, they are both surprised to find a woman’s handbag. Turns out it belongs to a young woman who disappeared decades ago, under suspicious circumstances, and Jude and Carole are off and running in pursuit of the lost woman. Brett skillfully has the duo work both apart and together, allowing us to enjoy their personalities while moving the story along at a nice clip. As always, what lies beneath Fethering isn’t always pretty. Perfect for reading in series, or as a stand-alone, this is one of Brett’s very best.

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Review

The Christmas Murder Game

by Henrietta Thornton

The backbiting Armitage family has a Christmas tradition at their country mansion, Endgame House: the matriarch of the family creates cryptic riddles for them to solve. Lily was best at the game in the past, until her cousins were so mean to her that she let them win. Now Lily is returning from London to Endgame for the first time since she found her mother dead in the house’s garden maze years before. The family is gathering for a final game, one that’s stipulated in their Aunt Liliana’s will: they’re competing to win the house, and must solve one riddle per day over the 12 days of Christmas. Liliana’s letter to Lily enticed the young designer—known for making exquisite corsets—to the showdown by promising that she would find out who killed her mother. That’s not to be the last grisly death at Endgame, because as soon as the play is on, so is the killing, with Yorkshire’s worst snow in years keeping the miserable contestants trapped. Paralleling the corsetry details are many other kinds of entrapment—in the house, in childhood-throwback behavior that emerges when the cousins get together, and in Lily’s feeling that she can never escape that moment in the maze. But there’s love trapped in this house too, and the word puzzles posed to the family (and anagrams listed in the foreword for readers to solve as they read the book) provide an intriguing and engrossing way to get to that warmth. Just the ticket for next winter, alongside Mark Dunn’s wordgame novel Ella Minnow Pea.

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Review

Light on Bone

by Henrietta Thornton

In real life, artist Georgia O’Keeffe began in 1929 to spend part of each year at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiú, New Mexico, and eventually moved there. When we join her at the ranch in 1934, she’s settled into an artistic rhythm in the desert landscape that so inspired her. O’Keeffe regularly drives into the desert to paint, enjoying a life that’s much looser than she lived with her rich, philandering husband back in New York. (In an amusing scene, the beat-of-her-own-drum-living O’Keeffe must genuinely have explained to her what a speed limit is.) On one of her excursions, the artist finds the vulture-attacked body of a priest, and the mystery only deepens when the man’s luggage contains decidedly unholy objects; it also has a map of the area with O’Keeffe’s house marked. As she investigates the strange man’s death, outsiders who visit Ghost Ranch, including Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne, add to the puzzles facing O’Keeffe. Neighbors’ lives, with their own difficulties, also feature prominently in the artist’s day-to-day life, with Lasky unobtrusively showing the twistedness of the Native’s subjugation. For example, white visitors who have spent their lives in this country have unfamiliar Native myths explained to them by reference to more familiar Greek myths and must be told not to take notes at a Native ceremony because “we are not museum artifacts.” While it’s apt for the time, the n-word features twice, and child sexual abuse is also a theme. Readers who enjoy this intriguing, emotional series debut could try another featuring celebrities: Erin Lindsey’s A Golden Grave, in which Nikola Tesla is a character; or for more New Mexico-set mysteries with a female sleuth, pick up Amanda Allen’s Santa Fe Revival series.

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Review

Two Parts Sugar, One Part Murder

by Brian Kenney

Maddy Montgomery is in need of a major reset. Spoiled rotten—Daddy’s an admiral—the recent Stanford grad and social-media-marketing maven loves her Laboutins and Jimmy Choos, as well as her doctor fiancé . Until he abandons her at the altar. And the ceremony was being livestreamed. Time for #FreshStarts #NoLookingBack. As luck would have it, Maddy has just inherited her great-aunt Octavia’s estate in New Bison, Michigan, a quaint town on Lake Michigan. The catch? She needs to live in the town, run her aunt’s bakery, and care for Babe, a 250-pound English mastiff—I defy any reader not to fall in love with him—for one year. Octavia was one smart, independent woman, and it seems like she also knew that Maddy needed a reset. Maddy’s willing—does she really have a choice?—and before you can say Hicksville, she’s making new friends, learning to crack open an egg, and even dating. Until the much-maligned Mayor gets killed, and Maddy’s fingerprints are found on the murder weapon. Help comes from the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of her great-aunt’s friends, who help her navigate the treacherous waters of Great Bison and present a different set of values, values that Maddy finds herself adopting. A great start to a series that is part poignant, part humorous, and part suspenseful while introducing a wonderful, new, African American heroine.

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