Tag:

Mystery & Detective

Review

Rhythm and Clues

by Brian Kenney

As always, Blacke (Vinyl Resting Place, 2022) does a fabulous job of keeping several balls in the air, from romances to murder, from seeking likely perpetrators to fighting off a pair of predatory investors. Small-town Cedar River, where gossip spreads like warm butter, provides the setting, while the three Jessup sisters—the youngest, Juni, is our narrator—are still struggling to keep their cafe/vinyl record store alive. When a crazy storm rips through town—this is Texas, after all—it washes out the roads, knocks out the electricity, and leaves a corpse in a parked car near their shop. He turns out to be one of the predatory investors—Juni knew him from college—who was hoping to make a deal with the sisters. But more importantly, with the town now isolated, where is the murderer hiding? The characters are wonderful, with Juni’s voice and sense of humor especially fresh, and the storyline is completely absorbing. A real treat for cozy fans.

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Review

The Stranger in the Library

by Jeff Ayers

Recently married, Lucy McNeil runs the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library. When a traveling art-history exhibit arrives in town, Lucy works with family and friends to create a unique display in the library that showcases local, national, and international artists. The morning after the library celebration, the librarian is surprised to discover one of the reproductions of a famous local artist is no longer on the wall. Who would want to steal a worthless copy of a famous painting? The grand opening of the exhibit leads to drama and the murder of one of the organizers, and the prime suspect for both the theft and the death is Tom Reilly, an art dealer with a shady past. Gates, who also writes mysteries under the name Vicki Delany (Deadly Summer Nights, 2021; Have yourself a Deadly Little Christmas, 2023), is a master of cozy settings and telling a compelling story. Her vast cast of characters is realistic, and the puzzle is challenging and surprising. While the actual lighthouse at Cape Hatteras does not have enough space for a library, readers will still want to visit. Whether this is the first dive or the eleventh, this series is a lot of fun.

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Review

The Last Note of Warning

by Henrietta Thornton

Fans of Schellman’s previous two books in this exciting series, Last Call at the Nightingale (2022) and The Last Drop of Hemlock (2023), will find this trilogy closer a satisfying end to the roller coaster of Vivian Kelly’s life as a seamstress by day, flapper at a queer-friendly speakeasy by night. Vivian now delivers dresses to her boss’s wealthy clients, waiting around mansions until the clients deign to join her for a last check on their new dresses’ fit. On one such visit, Vivian is invited by the gentleman of the house to sit a while and warm up, during which time he’s called away. She then finds him dead, and as she’s the only person around, she’s on the hook for the killing. She’s given a week to find the real killer, with the police seemingly aware that she probably didn’t do the crime but happy to have a handy suspect to charge. The tumultuous week forms the bulk of the book, and sees our hero display her signature moxie, smarts, and the love she hides for her family and her police-officer paramour, their relationship troubled by his family ties to the commissioner who’s happy to put Vivian away. Life among the haves and have nots of the Roaring Twenties is a heady setting and Vivian a character well worth getting to know—you can enjoy this without having read the previous two books, but do yourself a favor and add them to your library’s hold list anyway!

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Review

The Marlow Club Murder

by Brian Kenney

What the world needs now is more Robert Thorogood and the three heroes of the Marlow Murder Club: Judith the crossword-puzzle author, Suzie the dogwalker, and Becks the vicar’s wife. This romp starts off with the Mayor keeling over at a planning meeting—lucky for us, Suzie happens to be attending—and the cause of death is soon determined to be poison in his coffee. Aconite, to be specific, the queen of all poisons. But who would kill the beloved Mayor? Before the ladies can begin their investigation, Tanika—a police officer in the earlier books and now detective inspector—appoints them as “civilian advisors,” a clear case of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” While traversing Marlow in search of the murderer is loads of fun, the real joy in this series is the dialog, wit, and friendships of the women. This is nothing less than the ultimate in cozies.

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Review

Eleven Huskies

by Brian Kenney

It’s great when a series keeps getting better and better, and this latest in the “Vet Mystery” series does exactly that. Veterinarian Peter Bannerman is on vacation with his family in northern Manitoba—lots of hiking and canoeing, mosquitos and dogs. But things quickly go wrong. The gorgeous sled huskies owned by the proprietor of the lodge are poisoned. Then a floatplane crashes into the lake; the pilot, it turns out, has been shot from the ground on the plane’s descent. And if human misbehavior weren’t enough, nature provides a terrifying forest fire that nearly kills the Bannerman family. They seek safety in the lodge along with the other tourists and staff. Here Schott’s (Fifty-Four Pigs) book turns into a locked-room tale as the outside world grows more fearsome while it becomes clearer that the murderer is likely in their midst. Wonderful, unique characters (including Peter’s sniffer dog, Pippin), a dramatic setting, and a brisk plot all make for an excellent mystery.

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Review

Three-Inch Teeth

by Jeff Ayers

Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett learns of a tragedy that hits home. It appears that a grizzly bear has attacked and killed his daughter’s potential fiancée. A search ensues to capture this rogue animal, and meanwhile, Dallas Cates, a man who blames Pickett for imprisoning him and destroying his family, is released. Cates has an agenda: to kill the people who wronged him, and at the top of the list is Pickett and Pickett’s friend, Nate Romanowski. Inspired by the bear attack, Cates creates a mechanical device that leaves victims looking as though a bear mauled them. The prison officials promised to alert Pickett when Cates was released, but in the wake of the carnage, they forget. Can the warden figure out his nemesis’s plan before it’s too late? Box has created a series with rich and diverse characters whom readers have grown to love, and his latest is one of his best. At times brutal and shocking, and with an ending that will have readers demanding the next one immediately, Three-Inch Teeth will top bestseller lists.

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Review

The Witless Protection Program

by Brian Kenney

Mia Carina is living her best life, as the kids say. Her family’s catering hall in Queens, NY is both hugely successful and, with her acumen, now a fully legitimate business (the Family hasn’t always played above board). Shane, the love of her life, has finally proposed (Mia’s one tough lady, although when it comes to Shane, her knees get weak). But then she catches sight of a man who very much looks like Adam Grosso, her presumed-dead husband. Could she be wrong? Possibly, but a second sighting of the no-good SOB confirms he’s alive, which means Mia and Shane will have to delay their wedding—which they refuse to do. Mia calls an emergency meeting of family and Family—capisce?—to remove Adam, just not kill him (“My goal is to be a divorcee, not a widow. Ya got it?”). While finding Adam takes up a good chunk of the book, there are several fun subplots, not to mention an incredible cast of characters. Normally I’d worry about telling them apart, but DiRico manages to give each a strong identity, starting with our lead, Mia the Magnificent. Yes, it’s the fifth book in the series, but feel free to jump in. You won’t regret it.

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Review

The Atlas Maneuver

by Jeff Ayers

Berry’s talent for mixing nonstop action with history is in full swing in his latest. Cotton receives what seems like a simple assignment: protect a woman named Kelly Austin. When he rescues her from a kidnapping attempt, he learns that Kelly is not her real name, and before plastic surgery that was necessary due to an accident, she had a torrid past with Cotton. The truth of her background and why she is being hunted will separately take Cotton and his lady love, Cassiopeia, on a global chase that will make them unable to trust anyone but themselves. How does the creation of cryptocurrency tie in with the plundering of a vast treasure by Japan near the end of WWII? The answers will surprise and even shock even die-hard Berry fans. The truth of the Atlas Maneuver, if it comes to pass, will change the world’s economic future forever. One of the best features of Berry’s novels is the writer’s note, in which he breaks down the facts behind the fiction, and it’s essential reading since everything in this thriller seems all too real. Whether you are a long-time reader of Cotton’s adventures or a newcomer, this book is terrific.

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Review

Smoke Kings

by Henrietta Thornton

When cousins Joshua and Nate view Joshua’s brother lying in the morgue, having been beaten, they swear that Darius won’t be “just another dead black boy.” Two years later, grief has solidified into a plan: Nate, Joshua, and friends Rachel and Isiah have taken Scott York, a white man, captive. They confront him about when his grandfather and three other white men threw a Black man off a bridge to his death. “Pawpaw? Impossible,” is the reaction, but the verdict is the same: Scott must each week deposit $311.54 into an account the group provides. They’re enacting a reparations program, and Scott’s nonchalance about the crime and incredulousness that the group would care about the dead man spur them on. Tensions caused by colorism and racial differences—Rachel is Black but often taken for Latina and Isiah is Korean American–and disagreements about whom to target introduce interesting ambiguities as the audacious plan unfolds and leads to mayhem. Mayfield’s foreword explains that he was inspired by Kimberly Jones’s video How Can We Win?. Readers can learn more about reparations and the history that makes them necessary by reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’sThe Case for Reparations and Bryan Stevenson’s (an author and activist who’s mentioned in the book) searing Just Mercy. A compelling and exciting debut.

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Review

Death of a Master Chef

by Willy Williams

In his ninth outing, Commissaire Georges Dupin is reluctantly attending a team-building police seminar with his officious boss in the Breton port city of Saint-Malo, in France’s northwest. The packed four-day schedule, however, offers the consolation of a restaurant visit every evening, and Dupin uses his lunch hour to explore “the culinary heart of Brittany.” As he samples cheeses and sausages in the market hall of Saint Servain, bloodcurdling screams capture his attention. A woman has been stabbed to death in one of the stalls. Dupin quickly gives chase to the fleeing culprit, even “borrowing” a car from a local resident before losing the object of his pursuit. When he returns to the police station, Dupin learns that both the victim and the murderer have been identified: Blanche Trouin, a well-known chef and owner of a Michelin-starred restaurant, was killed by her younger sister, Lucille, also a successful chef. The two had engaged in a sibling rivalry that could outshine the famous Joan Fontaine-Olivia de Havilland feud in its vicious bitterness. When Lucille is quickly arrested, she refuses to confess or discuss a motive. Although Dupin’s colleagues back in Concarneau advise him to stay out of the case, the murder of Blanche’s husband indicates a second killer is at work, and the seminar participants are quickly organized into investigative teams. As Dupin probes with his teammates, the caffeine-addicted sleuth makes time to enjoy petit cafés and savor the beauty of the Emerald Coast. Once again Bannalec (the pen name of German-born Jörg Bong) has written an intriguing and tasty mystery with surprising twists in a beautiful, charming setting that will appeal to Louise Penny fans. It is also a good starter for readers new to the series. Do not read the mouthwatering descriptions of Breton delicacies on an empty stomach!

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