Tag:

Mystery & Detective

Review

Silent Parade

by Brian Kenney

This big, complex, sprawling, novel—complete with a large cast and plenty of backstory—is perfect for when you need to lose yourself for a few days. At the center of the book is the murder of Saori Namiki, a talented young woman who is about to launch her musical career. Jump three years to the present, when her remains are discovered in the rubble of a burnt-out shanty. Finding her murderer would seem impossible, but a similar death over 20 years ago helps Chief Inspector Kusanagi identify the killer, only to see him released for lack of solid evidence. But if the legal system won’t punish the murderer, Saori’s friends, family, and fiancé are more than willing to step up, and an immensely complex scheme is created to do away with the man. As the story unfolds, we are privy to the same information Kusanagi has, keeping the reader in an ongoing state of anxiety. But the real fun in this book is the return of Detective Galileo, last seen in the first book in the series, The Devotion of Suspect X. Physics professor by day, police consultant by night, Galileo enters near the book’s conclusion to upend everything we have come to believe, creating a new narrative that is oh so very satisfying

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Review

Something’s Guava Give

by Brian Kenney

Right on the heels of the first book in the series, It Takes Two to Mango, ex-New Yorker Plum Lockhart is trying to make a go of life on the Caribbean island of Paraiso. Having set up her own agency to rent vacation homes, she’s struggling to succeed, when she gets a call from Gerald, a former publishing buddy in New York. He wants her to look after an heiress, Arielle, his boss’s daughter, who’s vacationing on the island and gotten into a scrape with the law. Plum doesn’t have a choice, as she owes Gerald for a major profile he published about her new company. But just 24 hours after she saves Arielle—who’s accused of stealing from other guests—the poor little rich girl is found murdered. There’s a lot for readers to appreciate here, from a wonderful cast including a Keith Richards-like rock star, a reclusive billionaire, and a couple of B-list celebrities to Plum’s in-your-face, confrontative, New York City style. Add a budding romance with the dishy Juan Kevin Munoz, head of security at the nearby resort, and you have a series that cozy readers will want to return to again and again.

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Review

April in Spain

by Henrietta Thornton

John Banville invites us into the inner lives of Irish people and, through their loves and struggles, creates a composite view of modern Ireland. This eighth in the series named for retired medical examiner Quirke sees him reluctantly vacationing in Spain with his wife, Evelyn, a psychiatrist whose quiet love for Quirke is a highlight of the book. When an injured Quirke visits an ER, the Irish doctor who treats him is strangely familiar and later, at a thank-you meal she obviously loathes attending, behaves bizarrely. Back in Ireland, Quirke’s daughter, Phoebe, will frustrate readers through her relationship with superior-acting, controlling Paul. When Phoebe joins Quirke to tackle the mystery surrounding the Irish doctor, she sidesteps Paul and his aloofness only to face something much more sinister (warning: sexual abuse is involved though not graphically described). Love and fear are wonderfully juxtaposed here, and those who enjoy reading the former should try Irish author Donal Ryan’s The Spinning Heart. Fans of the more dangerous elements should be steered toward the Sean Duffy novels by Northern Ireland’s Adrian McKinty.

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Review

Where There’s a Will

by Henrietta Thornton

Rowland “Rowly” Sinclair and his wealthy Australian artist friends live a life of leisure except for solving crime; in this 11th outing (after A Testament of Character, 2020), they’re taking a languid trip through Asia, stopping at British Colonial outposts that allow them to remain of the empire even on the road. Their frivolities are ended when Rowly’s friend Danny Cartwright is murdered in Boston and Rowly announced as the surprise executor of Danny’s will. What they find stateside is a greedy family waiting for the will to be read and long-simmering anger that Danny, who was gay, had any say in their family’s fortune. The will doesn’t go the Cartwrights’ way, causing danger for Rowly and friends as well as some of the best writing of the book as Gentill portrays the loyalty and love—some of it less unrequited than previously—among this gang of affable eccentrics. Be aware that a past attempt at gay conversion therapy is described “off stage.” Gentill’s fans will be delighted with this latest installment; it’s also a great readalike for Amanda Allen’s Santa Fe Revival Mystery series, which too features an artist sleuth

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Review

The Day He Left

by Henrietta Thornton

The straight and not-so-straight lines connecting people and events, thoughts and dreams, form the framework of Weisel’s second book, after The Silenced Women (2021). The story starts with the disappearance of Paul Behrens, a staid middle-school teacher who leaves a message stating that allegations about him and a student aren’t to be believed. When a parent who shouldn’t be at the school is seen leaving Paul’s classroom, and the teacher’s brain-damaged veteran brother tells police that Paul is in the ocean, things rapidly turn scary. While puzzling over the head-scratching case, which enmeshes multiple families, betrayals, and secrets, police officer Eden Somers learns that a serial killer she pursued in the past has her home address and other personal details. Both cases, and the related victims, perpetrators, and investigators—especially the melancholy, philosophical Lieutenant Mahler—will keep readers wondering why love so often goes wrong and how split-second decisions can reverberate far beyond their origins. Philosophy gives way to a lengthy, gripping chase that leaves questions open for the next installment. Mahler will remind Donna Leon’s fans of Detective Brunetti, and those readers should try Weisel’s thoughtful series.

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Review

A Line to Kill

by Brian Kenney

The third in the series featuring the former detective Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, Anthony Horowitz—yes, he’s written himself into the series—sees our duo heading off to a literary festival on Alderney, the northernmost of the Channel Islands off England’s south coast. Joined by a best-selling children’s writer, a well-known chef who’s now a cookbook author, a psychic, a French poet, and more, they expect a weekend of literary chit-chat and bookselling. But the residents of Alderney are up in arms over a power line that will cross the island, threatening to wreak havoc. Things have reached such a pitch that the island’s leading citizen, a proponent of the power line, is found murdered, and the island is locked down. Inevitably, Hawthorne and Horowitz are drawn into the case. From the array of characters to the relationship between Hawthorne and Horowitz, from the many riddles and clues to the denouement, this novel is sure to delight fans of the traditional mystery, especially lovers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.

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Review

Jane Austen’s Lost Letters

by Brian Kenney

Here’s a conundrum. Series readers love returning to the familiar: the nosy next-door neighbor, the long-term fiancé, the super intelligent dachshund, and, above all else, our detective. At the same time, readers expect the newest book to shake things up, presenting our hero with changes and challenges. Authors looking to pull this off would do well to consult Jane Austen’s Lost Letters—the 14th book in the Josie Prescott series—a textbook on how to balance the old and the new. Josie, an extremely successful antiques dealer, meets an elegant older woman who presents her with a box, then disappears. The box, from Josie’s father, dead these twenty years, contains two of Jane Austen’s letters. The missives set off a series of events that pulls us into the worlds of academia, rare manuscripts, television production, historical-autograph authentication, and Josie’s relationship with her dad. At a point, the book shifts, and Josie is no longer just investigating, she’s fighting for her life. A traditional mystery with a soupçon of the thriller, this book will appeal to a large swath of mystery readers. And despite the many previous volumes, it works beautifully as a stand-alone

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Review

Gone for Good

by Henrietta Thornton

At first it seems some well-worn police procedural tropes will dominate the latest novel by bestselling Schaffhausen (Ellery Hathaway series). Our protagonist, a detective, is determined to find the serial killer that eluded her cop father, while wondering if she’ll ever find love in this relationship-destroying career. But some twists make the author’s turbulent latest different. The detective in question, Annalisa Vega, dated the son of one of the victims as a teen; the connection to her first heartbreak drives Vega to uncover the truth—and sometimes to go too far. Adding intrigue is that one of the killer’s last victims, Grace Harper, is an avid, insightful member of an amateur cold-case investigation club, the Grave Diggers, which at the time of Harper’s death was focusing on her killer. “Grace Notes,” journal entries on her investigative findings, will give readers the feeling of turning the case around in their hands as the narrative shifts back and forth in time and between Harper and Vega’s differing knowledge and motivations. Schaffhausen’s writing brings readers right into shadowy Chicago streets and family secrets from page one. This first in a new series is a must for readers of innovative police procedurals as well as fans of true crime shows.

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Review

The Hawthorne School

by Henrietta Thornton

Since Claudia Vera’s mom died, it’s just Claudia and her four-year-old son, Henry. She struggles to pay for the cheapest daycare in her Illinois town and is overjoyed when the exclusive Hawthorne School gives Henry a full scholarship, asking the awestruck mom only to volunteer at Hawthorne in return. Things soon turn decidedly odd. Claudia never sees any other parents, and the principal is increasingly insistent on Hawthorne’s unorthodox ways and on Claudia spending hours at the school doing unnecessary tasks. Oddness soon turns to a frightening effort to control—as the publisher’s discussion questions note, this book can be read as an allegory on narcissistic abuse—and Claudia finds herself in the most confusing and terrifying situation of her life. Scary, gothic schools are often found in mysteries, but this one differs in only featuring psychological horror (author Perry is a psychologist), no ghostly terrors. It also differs in presenting a Latinx mom and the use of Spanish (which you don’t need to understand to read the book) to both propel the narrative and help the protagonist. Perry excels in getting inside the head of an unsure mom and has written one of the most unusual and best mysteries of 2021. Fans of psychological mysteries and of the movie Get Out are the audience for this.

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Review

Deadly Summer Nights

by Brian Kenney

A midsize Catskill resort in the 1950s provides a rich setting for Delany’s latest series. Elizabeth Grady manages the resort, while her mother, Olivia—a retired theater and film star who inherited the venue—loafs about, deigning to occasionally show up at cocktail hour to dazzle the guests. Keeping the Haggerman’s Resort profitable is serious work, and Grady doesn’t think things can get any busier, when the body of one of the guests—loner Harold Westenham, a former college professor—is found floating in the lake. If that doesn’t cause enough of a ruckus, the police find a copy of The Communist Manifesto in Westenham’s cabin, bringing in the FBI and fueling a red scare among the guests. Faced with a hostile police force, Grady ends up taking on the investigation herself. While the detective work is low-key, and the resolution falls pretty much in Elizabeth’s lap, the real pleasures of this book lie in its setting, period, and characters, all of which are wonderfully realized. Cozy readers will be happy to return to Haggerman’s Catskill Resort any time.

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