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Mystery & Detective

Review

Crown City

by Brian Kenney

Set in 1903 Pasadena and told through the eyes of 18-year-old Ryunosuke “Ryui” Wada, who has recently arrived from Yokohama, Japan, this novel is rich in dualities. An orphan, Ryui is fascinated by the world around himself—including Jack, his talented roommate and photographer and Gigi, a beautiful seamstress. Trained as an artist, Jack manages to find work in Pasadena’s art community as an apprentice, a job that takes him all over town. “In America, or perhaps especially in California, people could be transformed into anyone they dreamed of being.” Pasadena is rife with cultural appropriation; one of the personas Ryui encounters involves young white women re-creating Japanese culture, “which made me feel uneasy and confused,” Ryui notes. But when he and Jack are hired by Toshio Aoki, Pasadena’s best-known Japanese artist, to recover a missing painting (“I could be the first Nipponese detective in this country,” crows Jack) they willingly enter a world where danger abounds and real historical figures have a role. Poignant, marvellously well imagined, and deeply moving, this latest from Hirahara, author of the Edgar Award-winning Mas Arai series, and more recently the writer of Clark and Division and Evergreen, is sure to engage fans of historical fiction.

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Review

The Pines Were Watching

by Danise Hoover

Life in a small town in Minnesota is not supposed to involve complex crimes in the middle of a heat wave, at least that’s how Sheriff Red Hammergren feels, but when missing public-health nurse Joanie Crea’s body is found on the run-down estate of the formerly wealthy Grandgeorge family, tensions and suspicions run away with the locals. There is little help coming from Joanie’s rigid, bureaucratic robot of a boss or her glad-handing, church deacon of a husband. The body of a second woman is found and information from her abused and recently beaten young son may hold a key. A mystery man with a green jacket, missing funds, and long-held secrets all play with Red’s sixth sense, making her feel that the solution is just beyond her grasp. Help comes from Red’s poker-playing buddies and Waltz, a crime scene tech, but her indomitable need to solve the crime is primary. This is a deeply atmospheric and compelling read. We can only hope for more from the series.

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Review

In the Bones

by Jeff Ayers

Beautiful, upstate New York, small town Cape Vincent is a place where everybody knows one another. When famous retired hockey player Mikko Helle buys a waterfront house and completely renovates it, he hires Nicole Durham, a local woman, to clean before he moves in. She finds a young woman secretly living inside the house, then the police investigate and discover the remains of another young woman in the basement. With a string of bizarre thefts of items that seem to have no value, the squatter in Helle’s house appears to be the perfect suspect for both the break-ins and the murder. Suspicions mount and trust disappears when Nicole learns about her husband’s surprising connection to the unexpected house guest, the dead body, and Helle’s secret business dealings. How do you discover the truth when everything is built on lies? Wegert creates a vivid town and realistic inhabitants with this taut and compelling mystery. Comparisons to Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects and books by Jane Harper and Lucy Foley are warranted

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Review

Best Little Motel in Texas

by Brian Kenney

Cordelia West lives a pretty simple life. A devoted young Dallas Public librarian, she likes to keep her past just that: in the past. This includes her mother, a former alcoholic, who pretty much wrecked her childhood (they’re now on better terms). But when she receives a letter from great-aunt Penelope—a relative she has never heard of—Cordelia can’t ignore it. She’s been named sole heir to Penelope’s estate back in their hometown of Sarsaparilla Falls, Texas, a place she has assiduously avoided the past few decades. Turns out her inheritance pretty much consists of the Chickadee Motel, which the will stipulates can’t be sold until all residents leave or pass away. So off she goes to Sarsaparilla to see how she can rid herself of these tenants. Cordelia is savvy, and soon after arriving, she figures out the motel is a brothel, with three over-60 sex workers—Daisy, Arline, and Belinda Sue—AKA the Chicks, all eager for Cordelia to sign on as madam. This is the backstory, which is absolutely delightful, but it’s just a launching pad for the rest of the novel, which features extortion, accidental murder, poisoning, blackmail, corrupt developers, a beguiling romantic subplot, and so much more. Lane has created a fascinating world populated with extraordinary characters. Here’s hoping we all meet again.

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Review

Killer Flock

by Danise Hoover

While this is the 11th in a long-running series, readers can ignore all the threads of the ongoing story and only attend to the current bizarreness of a birdwatching tour occurring in wintry Nebraska, and immediate family drama. Kate Fox is preparing for an incoming blizzard when the sheriff calls to tell her that a van of birdwatchers has run off the road and needs rescuing. All local first responders are otherwise occupied, so Kate, sister Louise, and friend Deenie marshal forces in true midwestern fashion and take the stranded group to the local high school to ride out the storm. Louise, a miracle worker of sorts, arrives with enough food, equipment, and know-how to feed and provide beds for the group, though perhaps not to the visitors’ snobby standards. This is a record storm, and they are truly stuck, but however prepared they are, murder is not something that is expected. With homage to Agatha Christie and old-fashioned library books, the ordeal is survived, and the crime is solved in this oddly retro and engaging locked-room mystery.

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Review

The Glass Man

by Willy Williams

Opening shortly after the traumatic events of The Mountain King, the second entry in de la Motte’s Asker series finds Leo Asker settling back into her job as head of the Malmö police’s obscure Resources Department (aka The Department of Lost Souls) when the estranged survivalist father she calls “Prepper Per” contacts her after 15 years of silence. A body has been found near his farm, and he will be arrested shortly as the primary suspect. Claiming a frame-up, Per threatens violence if Leo refuses to help him. Having survived her father’s attempt to kill her years ago, she knows Per means business. Meanwhile, childhood friend Martin Hill, recovering from injuries sustained from helping Leo on her last case, has moved to the remote and eerie lakeside estate of the Irving family to write the history of the medical technology company founded by paterfamilias Gunnar Irving. Long obsessed with the rumors (UFOs, red-eyed aliens) behind the Irvings’ success, Martin is thrilled at the chance to investigate further. But he soon discovers dark secrets that might be connected to Leo’s probe. Once again, the author has penned an atmospheric, fast-paced thriller that features a creepy serial killer and provides plenty of chills for the dog days of summer. Leo and Martin make a great sleuthing team, and Scandinavian noir readers will eagerly await their next adventure.

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Review

The Dancing Face

by Henrietta Thornton

The darkness of this novel—which was published in 1997 in Britian but is now seeing its first U.S. publication—is paired with an urgency: things must be made right. The England-based Committee for Reparations to Africa has been “veering between sycophancy and rage according to the circumstances” in persuading the British that African artworks stolen during Colonial rule must be returned. The only result is undisturbed exhibits in British museums, so now Gus, a university professor, has decided to make a statement. In partnership with a steel-willed, rich Nigerian man, Dr. Okigbo, he will steal a mask (one that causes “an aura around his nerves” and “The taste of a smell. A ghost in the mouth”) from a renowned collection. He’ll hold it for a ransom to be paid to Africa, but more to stir political fallout. (It’s better than bombing the museum, his initial idea.) Of course, nothing goes to plan, and while the aftermath gets more twisted and scarier, confounding issues are introduced. The mask should eventually be given up, but not to “some bunch of evil dictators.” It might never be possible to persuade the British to do anything (“Nothing to do with us, old boy”). And are Black English people, such as Gus, authentic enough to be involved in this effort? There’s lots to think about here with characters who shake up assumptions and stereotypes along the way.

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Review

Illusion of Truth

by Jeff Ayers

Detective Emily Hunter of the Sacramento police department must stop someone targeting fellow officers, and it’s personal, in L’Etoile’s latest thriller. Her boyfriend, Brian Conner, is one of several officers sent to stop a riot near a church, but when they arrive, they see nobody around. Shortly after inspecting the area, the silence is pierced by two explosions, one under a police vehicle and the other from a donation box near the church entrance. Conner saves the life of one of the officers but takes the brunt of the blast. Hunter vows to find out who’s responsible for putting Conner on death’s door. Her pursuit of justice will entangle her with her boss, the mayor, and other fellow officers, while she constantly worries that Conner, if he lives, will never be the same. There’s a reason L’Etoile has been winning awards for his writing, and this series highlights why. Like the best of Michael Connelly, L’Etoile has created characters readers care about while also crafting a twisty and compelling story. Fans of police procedurals and heart-stopping thrillers should consider L’Etoile an essential addition to their reading pile.

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Review

All My Bones

by Brian Kenney

Quirky and quick-witted, this second mystery in the Old Juniper series manages to be both action packed and full of the rich details that make up small-town life. Madeline Brimley is back in her hometown of Enigma, Georgia (“A little do-nothing town in the worst part of the third-worst state in the country”). A former actor, Madeline inherited her aunt’s home/bookstore and has no problem making new friends, although her bestie would be Gloria Coleman, the Episcopal priest who lives right across the street. When a corpse is found in the front yard of the bookstore, of all places, it turns out to be that of the rich and nasty Bea Glassie. And while no one in town can stand Bea, it’s Gloria who takes the heat for killing her and ends up in the slammer—while Madeline and friends are cavorting about town, interviewing suspects, cooking dinner, and in general living it up. Madeline even manages to get herself a boyfriend (a poet and horticulturalist. How cute is that?) Gradually the mystery starts to fall in place, characters step up to their roles, and the world eventually settles back into a familiar place.

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Review

At Death’s Dough

by Danise Hoover

As Geneva Bay, WI is mostly a summer resort, making ends meet for the town’s small businesses in the winter is no easy task. Delilah and Son, gourmet pizza establishment, is no exception. The history of the place as a vacation spot for the Chicago mob is a mixed blessing, but when the Chamber of Commerce comes up with a “Gangsters of Geneva Bay” map and self-guided tour, Delilah is sort of obliged to sign on, even though it upsets cop boyfriend Calvin Capone, who does his best to play down his nominal connection to the mob. That she and her Aunt Biz discover frozen human remains while ice fishing only makes things worse. We have local and mob history combined with the overflow of ugly divorces, bad police work, family feuds, and a juicy bit of danger to liven the plot, along with trying to make sure that Valentines Day reservations will make up for the rest of the slow month to make this a fun addition to an entertaining series. And of course there are recipes at the end.

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