Serge Storms, everybody s favorite psychopathic killer, is back, along with his perennially drugged-out sidekick Coleman. Gator A-Go-Go is Dorsey s 12th wild adventure featuring Floridians you mostly don' t want to meet. Tired out from his long struggle to rid his beloved state of the low-lifes that he thinks are polluting Florida, Serge is on vacation in March, when hundreds of students from around the country gather in various beach communities to party around the clock. Serge has taken up filmmaking and plans to do a history of spring break, going backwards in time from today' s festivities in Panama City Beach, back to Daytona Beach, and finishing in Fort Lauderdale where it all started. Coleman immediately becomes a hero to the party animals when he teaches them to cool their beer to perfection, to hide booze in an orange, and 101 ways to open a beer bottle without an opener. Although in previous adventures he has been diagnosed with various mental illnesses, in this one Serge seems more grounded than many of the other characters except when he is practicing his peculiar version of pest control. One case involves a creep who plans to kill an elderly tourist for his money, but instead meets his end in one of Serge' s famous Rube Goldberg death traps (a garage door made into a guillotine). A truly vicious Miami gang, headed by a woman the others call Madre, are out to eliminate the college student son of one of their enemies, and Serge vows to protect him. The gang kills anyone in the way, creating plenty of collateral damage. Dorsey presents the craziness and excess of spring break with all the humor and wackiness his readers have come to expect. He is often compared to Carl Hiaasen, another Florida newspaperman turned comic crime novelist. For readers who appreciate Dorsey' s brand of humor, this makes a perfect winter (or Springbrook) getaway.
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Martin Edwards writes some of the finest traditional English mysteries being published today. The Serpent Pool is the fourth in his Lake District series. Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett, her romantic partner bookseller Marc Amos, and former Oxford historian and author Daniel Kind, as well as various other series characters get involved in a case that has peculiar similarities to the writings of Thomas de Quincey, author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater and On Murder, Considered as One of the Fine Arts.
Historian Daniel has returned from several months in America to write a book on de Quincey, a Lake District writer, and has agreed to be keynote speaker for an upcoming de Quincey festival. Meanwhile Hannah, as head of the Cold Case unit is investigating the murder of a young girl who was bound and drowned in the Serpent Pool six years earlier. When two book collectors are murdered, both good customers of Marc's used and rare book business, Hannah begins to see connections. Edwards develops memorable, complex characters who come to life in his novels. This makes his antagonists much more terrifying than the one-dimensional villains of the typical crime novel. He also makes the most of his chosen settings in the Lake District, using its geographical and historical features to excellent advantage. Lonely landscapes and literary lore enrich his stories. The personal relationships and neighbors knowledge of everyone' s business are as important as they are in Golden Age English villages. Even though aspects of Edwards plot would suit de Quincey better than Agatha Christie, wit and humor keep the tale from becoming too grim. The Serpent Pool is a first-rate psychological mystery.
As though running a cleaning business weren' t a dirty enough job, Charlotte LaRue, New Orleans owner of A Maid for a Day, has an uncanny knack for stumbling upon murder scenes and for conducting her own investigations. Dusted to Death begins innocuously enough with a tantalizing job offer for Charlotte. One of her clients has agreed to rent her house out to a movie film production company, and recommended Charlotte' s cleaning services to the producers. How could Charlotte resist the opportunity to meet a favorite film star and to work on an actual film set? Indeed, she accepts the job, but her grievous error becomes immediately evident when she witnesses the temper tantrums of prima donna star Angel Martinique and her violent quarrels with her boyfriend, Nick. Things become even messier, though, when Charlotte discovers Nick's bloody body in Angel s dressing room. While Charlotte knows that Angel is no angel, is the young star really devil enough to have done away with vile Nick? Charlotte thinks not, and Angel hires her to prove her innocence.
Colley' s A Maid for a Day mysteries are always entertaining. Charlotte, a mother and grandmother, is likable and clever, a character one would love to know personally. Her practical perspective on the operations of the world and her intimate knowledge of New Orleans render her an informative tour guide for the armchair sleuth. Also, she's no slouch in the romance department, as indicated by her burgeoning attraction to neighbor Louis. A clean sweep!
The action in Long Time Coming unfolds along two timelines. In the year 1976, Stephen Swan learns that his uncle Eldritch has just been released from an Irish prison. The news is surprising, not least because Stephen has always been told that his uncle died in the London Blitz during WWII. When the two finally meet, Eldritch won' t say much about his past, claiming that his silence is a condition of his parole.
It's not long before the revelations and action heat up, however, as the novel jumps back to 1940 and Eldritch' s activities as a young man are slowly revealed. What connects the dots between past and present are a disputed collection of Picasso masterpieces and the family of an Antwerp diamond dealer desperate to prove their rightful inheritance. Eldritch had been an assistant to the now-deceased Isaac Meridor, and the dealer's granddaughter Rachel Banner is justifiably suspicious of Eldritch's role in the disappearance of the paintings.
Now that he s been released, someone has hired Eldritch to help prove that the paintings are fakes. Stephen accompanies him on the mission, and manages to convince Rachel they are on the same team. Goddard's historical suspense novel twists and turns in order to hit as many key notes as possible. An uncertain prewar Europe for Jews, art world intrigue, British/Irish relations, class conflict, and a little bit of romance are all in the mix. Alternating chapters between 1976 and 1940 help to keep the complex plot straight, but sometimes at the expense of the flow of action.
Courtroom drama, murder, recent history, family secrets, romance McMahon' s new novel has it all. In 1924 London, Evelyn Gifford mourns her brother James, killed in the Great War. She lives with her mother, grandmother and aunt, all of whom she supports as an apprentice lawyer. A Canadian nurse, Meredith, lands on their doorstep with her young son in tow, claiming that James was the boy's father, although she wears no wedding ring. Seemingly unrelated are Meredith' s two current cases: a woman whose children have been placed in a home and who wants them back, and an old friend of her boss who stands accused of murdering his newlywed wife. As Evelyn investigates her cases, battles chauvinism from all sides at her job, and copes with her attraction towards a male colleague, she realizes all is not as it seems about Meredith.
The author keeps several balls in the air for a long time, although the separate threads do eventually all merge. The Crimson Rooms is at its heart an examination of the lives of women after WWI as breadwinner; destitute mother; unwed mother; murder victim; and as grieving family members. However, the language is not always authentic. It is very strange to see an English attorney repeatedly using the word lawyer solicitor and barrister are completely absent.
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