“Lou” Thatcher runs a ghost-tour company in New Orleans, and it’s popular with both the residents and tourists. The tours are so in demand that Lou is contemplating hiring help to run two per night. Lou has the perfect resume for the job, since she can see ghosts. A competitor who consistently clashes with Lou, Adam Brandt, declares her a fraud and wants nothing more than to shut her down and steal her clients. When he’s found murdered, she’s not surprised, but that’s when her life turns upside down. The cute cop considers her the prime suspect, and the ghosts she can see are not very talkative. You would think that Adam would steer her in the right direction of the person responsible for killing him, but he didn’t see who it was, and he also thinks Lou is responsible. The backdrop of New Orleans shines in this fun and chaotic tale of Lou, her gift, and her efforts to prove her innocence without looking like she needs to be hospitalized for talking to folks who are “not there.” This reviewer is dead serious that this haunting and homicide is a terrific series start.
Women Sleuths
Fans of Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum and of unsettling fiction are ideal audiences for Fixsen’s “STEMinist” latest. The author introduces Isobel Tait, a desperate nineteenth-century Edinburgh mother. Her only child, a sweet boy named Thomas, is sickly, out of breath at the least exertion. When Isobel finally gets him to see an expert, the renowned Dr. Burnett, the boy’s condition is confirmed to be dire: his heart has a damaged valve and his life will be short. Then Thomas disappears. Frantic Isobel tries everything to find him, but it’s all futile and the police have no leads. When she gives in to a ladies excursion to Dr. Burnett’s display of medical oddities, a tiny, preserved human heart emits—to Isobel’s hearing only—the distinct rhythm that Thomas’s did (the music teacher in Isobel would know it anywhere). What follows is an absorbing and expanding mystery around what happened to Thomas and others like him, as well as an in-depth look at the work of resurrectionists—those who procured and used dead bodies to teach and learn anatomy, with competition for bodies fierce and lucrative. The story is based on real events detailed in an afterword by the author. This is ripe for a bookclub discussion on medical ethics.
Having left behind her life in Baltimore, 20-year-old Ruby Young has settled in a so-so apartment in a so-so Boston neighborhood. The previous tenant who rented her apartment, Cordelia Graves, died just a few months ago, reportedly by suicide. But now another neighbor has died, murdered in an apparent mugging, and Cordelia—she’s become the building’s ghost-in-residence—is determined to keep Ruby safe. But Ruby is one tough cookie herself, with zero fear of the supernatural, and as much as they may be opposites, eventually the two women settle on refrigerator magnets to (sort of) communicate. Hearing each woman’s interior monologue is a hoot, as their relationship as roommates grows and they head out into the world to investigate if Jake was actually murdered…and did Cordelia really die of suicide? Droll, a touch maudlin, and featuring two outstanding characters. Readers are going to be eager for a sequel to this story.
Benedict’s many fans know that her Christmas mysteries (The Christmas Murder Game and Murder on the Christmas Express, both 2022) offer layers: they’re great cozy-adjacent mysteries (a bit more violent than many cozies) that involve word and jigsaw puzzles, and they include puzzles that the reader can solve along the way (or not; the stories are complete without the “side” activities). In this title, Benedict tells readers to look for the titles of Fleetwood Mac songs sprinkled throughout the text (in honor of bandmember Christine McVie’s 2002 death). Despite its lovable-grump protagonist, Edie O’Sullivan, being a “Christmisanthropist,” the author has also tucked anagrams of Dickens’ novels and Christmas stories into her family tale. The family is crossword setter and jigsaw enthusiast Edie’s—her current family, police-officer great-nephew, Sean, and his husband, who throughout the book are interviewing to be adoptive parents; Edie’s former partner, Sky, around whom she has great regrets; and family from the past, whose loss has paralyzed Edie’s Christmas spirit ever since. This year, she’s forced out of her Scrooge zone when six jigsaw puzzle pieces are delivered to her home with a warning that “Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.” Our heroine is on her toes as killings and more pieces ensue, as is Benedict’s clever plotting and her writing’s emotional heft. A great story for any time of year.
South Cove, the number one tourist trap on the Pacific Coast Highway, becomes a haven again for mystery and intrigue. Jill learns that the venue where she and her police detective boyfriend, Greg, will get married, is unavailable, and she begins to sweat. Another wedding between local antique dealer Josh and his younger girlfriend, Mandy, goes awry when she vanishes without a trace. Was she kidnapped, or did she bail on the wedding and run away, like most of the locals think? An old journal that Josh discovers proves problematic when a professor he was conferring with dies under mysterious circumstances that appear to be related to the journal, which just might contain a treasure map. Jill wants to solve both the disappearance of Mandy and who killed the professor, but she’ll have to do it behind her fiancé’s back. Cahoon juggles a lot of details, but it all works with her charming town and compelling characters. The multi-layered mysteries keep the reader both guessing and turning the pages. Even 16 books in, the series still seems fresh and engaging. Whether your first visit to South Cove or your 16th, it’s a town where you will want to stay for a while.
Before heading to her evening shift as an investigator for Phoenix Seven, an Italian liaison unit that works with the U.S. military in Naples, Nikki Serafino is relaxing on the sailboat she co-owns with her friend, undercover cop Valerio Alfieri, when they rescue a woman who has been abandoned in the bay by her abusive boyfriend. As they head back to port, the Calypso’s keel strikes a decomposing body; Nikki notes the ligature marks on the man’s neck. The next day, while assisting a U.S. serviceman and his family in the wake of a traffic accident, she discovers another murder victim, this time one who’s been shot to death. After the bodies are identified as American naval officers, Nikki must conduct a tricky balancing act of partnering with both NCIS Special Agent Durant Cole and the Italian police in the investigation of possible links between the killings. Could the Camorra Mafia be involved? At the same time, Nikki’s intense family drama, involving the recent loss of her American mother, a loser brother in deep debt to local gangsters, and a tumultuous relationship with her controlling boyfriend, Enzo, threaten to derail her probe. Heider, who lived in Naples for several years and deployed as a civilian analyst aboard U.S. and European naval ships, makes an impressive debut with this engrossing thriller that captures both the baroque beauty and gritty danger of Italy’s third-largest city. It also introduces a tattooed, kick-ass female protagonist (“Nikki was short and compact and muscular with a dynamic, interesting face”) who may remind some readers of Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander but without that character’s severe asocial tendencies. If there is a minor flaw, it’s that the Heider’s vividly drawn Italian characters far outshine her dull American counterparts. An enjoyable summer read.
Hang on to your hats, this is quite the ride. Three writers—Kat De Noir (writer of erotica), Cassie Pringle (a Southern mom and writer of multiple cozies), and Emma Endicott (uptight New England author of historical fiction)—meet up at Bouchercon, the leading crime writers’ conference. The three women have lots in common: same editor and same obsession with the leading literary hot shot, Brett Saffron Presley (BSP). BSP is currently living on a remote island off the Hebrides, basically as a recluse, and the three women head off to the island to work on their joint novel. Or is that really their intent? Turns out that they each know BSP, and loathe him equally—for pretty much the same reasons—and BSP-stalking takes precedence over any writing. Castle Kinloch, an over-the-top Gothic castle full of hidden passages, provides the background, while the sordid history of a 19th-century laird lends a contemporary creepiness. Enjoy plenty of humor among the women and the native Scots, lots of insider jokes about the publishing industry, and a great big helping of Scottish Romance. Williams, Willig, and White have delivered one fabulous ride that’s sure to leave readers hungry for more.
Addison, author of the Enchanted Bay series, brings her lively voice to a series debut featuring a heroine to remember. Historian Sidney Taylor, a young Black woman, is on furlough from the Smithsonian when she gets a mysterious offer to go on a quest in her hometown, Robbinsville, VA, the heart of which is the Josiah Willoughby museum. Sidney’s parents are rich—her father is the Speaker of the House of Representatives—but they believe in the young woman making her own way, so when she receives a wax-sealed envelope with an invitation inside to find something historically significant in Robbinsville, and the prize is a million dollars, she’s in. There’s danger and intrigue in store though, with Sidney receiving threatening messages and increasing pressure on the museum to give in to virtual reality as the future, a government program that seems more sinister by the minute, headed as it is by a woman who will remind readers of scary real-life tech-exec Elizabeth Holmes. The small-town scene, loving family members, and history-tinged puzzles keep the pages turning fast; there are plenty of real historical details packed in, too, surrounding a long-running conspiracy about the U.S. presidents. A winning series starter.
Silly me. I’ve long held a bias against novels written from the grave (sorry V. C. Andrews!), where the author has died and someone else has taken up the series. Can these books really be any good? Well I’m happy to report that the forthcoming Agatha Raisin novel, Killing Time, written “with R. W. Green,” is a whole load of fun. Beaton was astoundingly prolific, writing multiple series under a handful of names. She died in 2019, the same year she published the 30th Agatha Raisin book (the series, now written by R. W. Green, is up to 35). With several plots in action—Agatha’s detective agency is pursuing shop burglars, an antiques dealer/neighbor is murdered, Agatha creates a promotional day to launch a new wine, a love affair takes her to Mallorca—fans get to meet again all their favorite characters from Raisin-world in action, from Mrs. Bloxby, the vicar’s wife, to several of Agatha’s paramours. But at the heart is Agatha herself, as curmudgeonly and cantankerous, tough and tender as ever. Agatha, it’s great to have you back.
Any cozy reader will assure you that there are few places more dangerous than the community garden. And Maggie Walker—who helped create the garden in Marlowe, her small Berkshire town—is reminded of this fact when opening day arrives and she discovers a boot jutting out of the garden. Attached to a foot. Which is attached to a body. Yikes! To make matters worse, Violet, whose idea the garden was, has seemingly disappeared. Maggie has only recently returned to Marlowe, smarting after the death of her “not-quite ex-husband,” and taking over the home of her recently deceased grandmother. But one thing keeps happening after another, from threatening telephone calls to harassment from a cousin as Maggie tries to find out what happened to Violet. An engaging look at small town life and death, this book was the recipient of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of American First Crime Novel Award.