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Amateur Sleuth

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 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

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

A Murder Most French

by Brian Kenney

Hard to imagine, but this sophomore offering in the American in Paris series, set in 1950, is even better than the debut (Mastering the Art of French Murder). It is wonderfully detailed in its description of Paris during the Occupation and subsequent Liberation; rich in characterization, especially of the larger-than-life Julia Child (Les oeufés brouilles with fresh tarragon! Magnifique!) and her buddy, the intrepid expat and amateur investigator Tabitha Knight; and driven by a strong mystery that takes us from L‘Ecole de Cordon Bleu to the unsettling world of the Paris catacombs. Did I forget the suave Inspecteur Merveille of the ocean-gray eyes, whom Tabitha is, I assure you, in no way attracted to? In this volume, the crime comes in the form of rare and expensive bottles of wine that have been poisoned with cyanide then delivered as presents to unwitting recipients. To unearth the criminal, Tabitha must learn about France’s wine industry and the efforts to hide the best vintages from looting by the Germans, all while managing to work with Merveille, who has little more than disdain for Mademoiselle Knight. The end comes as a quick surprise. A perfect match for fans of cozies, traditional mysteries, or fiction set in the post-war years.

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Review

What Cannot be Said

by Henrietta Thornton

Atonement and The Secret Garden float to mind as children in an isolated English idyll come upon a frightening scene. Out for a walk, two young brothers find a mother and daughter dead, posed in a way that’s so peaceful it’s sinister. Magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy, a friend of the series’ main character, Sebastian St. Cyr, is called, and the scene is all too familiar to him: it’s how his wife and daughter were found murdered years before. A man was hanged for that crime. As more killings occur with frightening speed over the coming days, others speculate that a “copyist” is at work while Lovejoy fears that the wrong man was executed. Lady McInnis, the current day’s victim, was politically active, lending an intriguing angle to the story. She lobbied the government to improve the conditions of working children, some of whose sad lives are featured here; a side plot regarding workhouse babies being unscrupulously fostered for pay paints a grim portrait of early 19th-century England. In the end, the social elements and the murder mysteries knit well together to create a satisfying whodunit with a dash of historical fact.

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Review

On the Horns of Death

by Brian Kenney

A wonderful sojourn into Ancient Crete of 1450 BC, told through the life of 16-year-old bull leaper Martis. In many ways, Martis is a classic teen, trying to understand the world around her and what her place in it will be. She’s also fiercely independent—training to be a bull leaper without initially telling her mother, for example—and resists many of the traditional female roles, like marriage and motherhood, that her peers are taking up. In this second novel in the series, Martis discovers the corpse of Duzi, one of her fellow bull leapers. He was murdered to look like he was gouged by a bull, when in fact he was knifed and left to die in a bullpen. Martis rebels against the wishes of her mother, as well as those of Tinos, the administrator of Knossos and the High Priestess’s consort, and takes on the investigation into Duzi’s death, a death that is followed by others, all related to the world of the bull leapers. Martis has to move quickly, with little help from the adults around her, to stop the growing violence. Kuhns does a great job of weaving Minoan civilization throughout the book, from religious practices to food preparation, from clothes and make-up to day-to-day life. Young adults will find much to enjoy in this novel as well.

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Review

Public Anchovy #1

by Brian Kenney

Delilah and the crew from her restaurant, the upscale pizzeria Delilah & Son (Son is short for Sonya, Delilah’s best friend and sous chef), are at Bluff Point, an opulent, old mansion on Wisconsin’s Geneva Bay. They’re catering the Friends of the Library’s fundraising gala—an opportunity to show off their skills and bolster the declining winter business—and the menu does look fantastic. Too bad that the guests hardly get to sample anything more than the appetizers when Edgar Clemmons, outgoing board chair—and quite bitter about his departure—falls down the staircase, landing at the bottom like a broken marionette. Murder or accident? It’s hard to say, since Edgar shared a number of vague secrets with several people before he took his tumble. The man’s demise sends many scurrying home, although a powerful storm has moved in—downed trees, exposed power lines—prohibiting law enforcement from reaching Bluff Point and keeping a dozen or so attendees, including Delilah and her staff, in the mansion for the night. Here the mystery morphs into a closed circle, with an assemblage that includes Delilah’s crush, police detective Calvin Capone; and Butterball, her cat, who takes on quite the active role in this title. As with the other books in the series, Quigley balances wonderful character development and plenty of low-key humor with the search for a killer. It’s hard to imagine a cozy fan who wouldn’t find this book to be a total delight.

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Review

A Midnight Puzzle

by Jeff Ayers

Tempest Raj, a former magician, now runs Secret Staircase Construction, which, among other things, creates elaborate hidden passages behind bookcases. The more complex and baffling the construction the better. One of the company’s jobs is scrutinized when a woman falls down a secret staircase and almost dies. Tempest knows that the victim’s husband, Julian, set up the fall so he could sue Tempest’s company and avoid liability. One night, Julian calls Tempest to visit him at the historic Whispering Creek Theater, a venue recently purchased and upgraded by Tempest. She arrives to find Julian dead, with a sword through his chest. When a paramedic stumbles upon another blade that pops out one of the entrance doors, Tempest realizes the theater has been set with booby traps. Demanding answers, especially since the clues lead to questions about her past, Tempest will risk everything for the truth. Pandian creates a cast of characters that is straight out of the best cozy mysteries, and even though this is the third book in the series, the story is a perfect launch point for newcomers. The pacing and writing elevate A Midnight Puzzle to a must-read for the cozy mystery fan.

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