Oranges and Lemons
Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

This is the latest in the long-running Peculiar Crimes Unit series featuring the aging, but still amazing, crime-solving duo of detectives Arthur Bryant and John May. Although it’s one of their most complex mysteries, it’s also one of their most enjoyable.

In this case, a near-fatal accident, where cartons of oranges and lemons fall from a truck just as a member of Parliament is crossing the street, sets off a chain of weird murders involving prominent London citizens. The Peculiar Crimes Unit, which had recently been disbanded due to some unwise activities in its last case, is re-established in what is left of its offices which were in the process of being turned into a tapas bar. To make matters worse, John May is recovering from a near-fatal bullet wound suffered in the last case, and Bryant is initially nowhere to be found.

Somehow, the unit manages to pull itself together and, although getting closer and closer to the solution, still finds itself one step behind the strangely ingenious killer. Why are the victims selected and how does the killer manage to avoid capture, even when the detectives begin to figure out where the next murder will take place? And who is Sidney, the newest member of the Peculiar Crimes Unit, a young woman who seems to be more capable than many of the long-time detectives?

There are surprises galore in this intriguing mystery as Bryant and May, who complement each other in unique ways, solve one of their most baffling and intriguing cases.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 19:37:34
Waiting for the Night Song
Vanessa Orr

Haunted by memories of a crime that took place when she was a young girl, Cadie Kessler has avoided returning to her childhood home in the New Hampshire woods for years. But when her best friend needs her help, she goes back to the people and the place that she once loved—and now must protect from long-buried secrets.

Cadie works as an entomologist, studying insects as a way to predict possible fire danger. But her attachment to the land is far stronger than just her vocation. The landscape becomes just as important a character in this novel as the people who live in Cadie’s hometown. Waiting for the Night Song is part coming-of-age story, part murder mystery, part political commentary, and part environmental thriller, and will especially strike a chord with readers who love the outdoors as much as Cadie and the book’s author clearly do.

Told in alternating chapters that shift between the present and the past, the reader gets to see how Cadie’s upbringing has influenced not only her choice of career, but her character. Brave, resourceful, and caring, her loyalty extends to her friend Daniella and her family, who are at risk of being deported as a crime comes to light. Touching upon themes including immigration and the political pressure directed at scientists to deny climate change, the story is topical as well as touching, and puts a human face on the decisions that politicians often make without ever understanding how these choices affect real people.

Sweet, honest, and often melancholy, this novel is full of life lessons, from taking care of the land to the harm that can result from not taking responsibility for the people and the planet we are supposed to protect. While technically a mystery, it also serves as a modern-day cautionary tale.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 19:42:29
Someone to Watch Over Me
Nathan Nance

It all starts with a backpack. A young woman, lured to an exclusive gentlemen’s club by a promise of five hundred dollars, flees in terror and leaves behind her backpack after privately massaging a Boston billionaire socialite. Mattie Sullivan, a friend of the young girl, promises to retrieve the backpack but is refused entry to the elite club. Finally, she turns to her new employer for help—Boston PI Spenser. But the billionaire has an old enemy of Spenser’s on speed dial: the Gray Man, Spenser’s would-be killer.

Someone to Watch Over Me is Ace Atkins’ ninth installment in Robert B. Parker’s bestselling and iconic Spenser series, but it has lost none of the action, wisecracks, or poignancy that made Atkins a more-than-worthy successor to the late Parker. Spenser may be a classic character, but Atkins continues to bring him and his Boston neighborhood to life in fresh, invigorating ways that mirror world events and continue Spenser’s tradition as a knight errant, dispensing justice for those the law has abandoned.

Mattie Sullivan, who first appeared in Lullaby, Atkins’ first Spenser novel, returns as a more mature—but just as passionate—college student, working as Spenser’s protégé and secretary. Once Spenser is on the enemy’s trail, the billionaire escapes to his private island, the hub of a child-trafficking ring that stretches from Boston to Jamaica, with a kidnapped child in tow. While Mattie arranges a class-action lawsuit against the billionaire, Spenser and Hawk must stage a rescue operation.

Ever since Parker introduced the Gray Man, he has been Spenser’s nemesis and perhaps the one adversary Spenser fears. To rescue the child, Spenser’s reckoning with his shooter has come.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 19:46:59
The Windsor Knot
Jean Gazis

The new mystery series Her Majesty the Queen Investigates is off to a promising start with this charming and original first installment. It’s April 2016 and 89-year-old Queen Elizabeth II is at her favorite residence, Windsor Castle, with the usual full schedule of events in progress. A talented young Russian pianist who performed at the previous evening’s “dine and sleep” has just been found dead in his room, of what seems at first to be accidental strangulation. The official investigation soon reveals it was no accident and MI5 suspects that there may be a Russian spy among the castle’s legion of personnel.

The queen, an astute judge of character who is as loyal to her people as they are to her, is dismayed by the direction the authorities are taking and decides to make a few discreet inquiries herself. To ensure absolute secrecy, she entrusts some rather unorthodox assignments to her new assistant private secretary, Rozie Oshodi, a British Nigerian military veteran who shares the queen’s sharp intellect, impeccable discretion, and love of horses.

SJ Bennett’s portrayal of the monarch’s hectic official activities, her affectionate humor in private life, and her stalwart, kind, and insightful personality is vivid, engaging, and believable. The queen is irritated—and a little amused—by those who don’t see more than “a little old lady in a hat”—but also savvy enough to take advantage of their obtuseness when it suits her purpose. Drawing on her deep understanding of diplomacy, bureaucracy, and human nature, the queen unravels the tangled connections among seemingly unrelated events to ensure that justice will be done, all the while conducting royal duties—hosting the Obamas, attending Privy Council meetings, christening post offices, and overseeing preparations for the official celebrations of her upcoming 90th birthday and the annual Royal Horse Show.

You don’t need to be an anglophile or follower of “the royals” to enjoy The Windsor Knot, but you may find yourself tempted to become one by the time you finish the last chapter.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 19:58:48
The Survivors
Craig Sisterson

After enchanting readers (and awards judges) around the world with a couple of outstanding, sweat-inducing mysteries set in Outback Australia (The Dry and The Lost Man), Jane Harper takes us deep into the surging seas and swirling secrets of a Tasmanian beach town in her new novel The Survivors.

Kieran Elliot is reluctantly back in tiny Evelyn Bay. A new father, he’s returned to the hometown he’s largely avoided for so many years to help his elderly parents pack up their house. His own father has early onset dementia and is heading into care and family tensions are higher than usual—high enough to renew the blame game all have quietly played over the loss of Kieran’s brother in a violent storm years before.

Past tragedies mean Evelyn Bay, a close-knit community that draws lines between locals and summer visitors, contains old foes as well as old friends for its native son. And when the body of a young woman is found on the beach, the investigation threatens to unearth long-held secrets and widen fissures within the community. Echoes of another young woman who vanished during the same massive storm that took Kieran’s brother years before have everyone on edge. Kieran and his family and friends have to confront their pasts as well as try to survive and find justice in the present.

Harper once again showcases her magnificent storytelling skills with The Survivors. It’s an absorbing tale rich in character and setting that seems like a slow burn, but like a campfire being slowly stoked by twigs then sticks then bigger branches, it builds into a storytelling heat that reaches deep into you. There’s a subtle power to Harper’s prose, and her evocation of the small beach town and its citizens. Magnificent.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:03:51
The Dark Heart of Florence
Dori Saltzman

Lady Emily Hargreaves knows the trip to Florence her husband proposes is more than a casual getaway. He is a spy for the British Crown, after all. But when someone tosses a dead body off of the roof of the palazzo they’re staying at, any thoughts of a relaxing holiday go out the door.

Accompanied by her feisty Parisian friend Cecile, and prohibited from the confidential details her husband and his partner have access to, Lady Emily begins her own investigation. It’s not long before she suspects the young man’s death is connected to the fabled treasure of the Palazzo di Vieri, a treasure the locals say is cursed—those who seek it, end up dead.

Set during the early 20th century—with alternating chapters set in the mid-15th century—The Dark Heart of Florence shows what women, chafing against the constraints of their time, can do when given the freedom to be themselves. Lady Emily and Cecile out-investigate the men, and still have time for sightseeing, shopping, and romance.

A woman ahead of her time, Lady Emily is eclipsed in this story by Mina Portinari, the 15th-century protagonist in The Dark Heart of Florence’s parallel story. Curious, free-spirited, and, at first, devastatingly naïve, Mina sets the stage for the mystery in which Lady Emily also finds herself.

Though the killer isn’t hard to figure out, seeing the pieces of both stories fall into place at the end is thoroughly rewarding.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:08:29
Before She Disappeared
Pat. H. Broeske

Frankie Elkin is a self-described “average, middle-aged white woman with more regrets than belongings, more sad stories than happy ones.” One of those sad stories propels her to right wrongs, by locating missing persons long forgotten— especially those of color. As Elkin notes, too many kids who’ve disappeared “will never be found, often based solely on the color of their skin.”

In Before She Disappeared, author Lisa Gardner, who’s known for her FBI profiler series (featuring investigators Rainie Conner and Pierce Quincy) and the D.D. Warren books (about a tough-talking Boston female homicide detective), has come up with another compelling crime solver.

Before She Disappeared opens with Elkin’s arrival in Boston’s densely populated Mattapan neighborhood, home to a large immigrant population, primarily Haitian. Eleven months earlier, a teenager named Angelique (Angel to her friends, LiLi to family) was last seen exiting her high school. There have since been no leads, no sightings. What happened to Angelique? Elkin sets out to find out, and to bring the 16-year-old home.

A recovering alcoholic—who has been sober for nine years-plus—Elkin is nonetheless a bartender whose ability to pour drinks and listen to customers proves an in-demand skill as she travels from case to case, town to town. In Mattapan, she not only quickly scores a bar gig, but also a room right upstairs—a nifty deal, save for the roommate, a formidable mouse murdering feline named Piper.

Gardner’s works are distinguished by the author’s research, and it shows in her use of settings in and around Mattapan. We get a sense of the streets, the houses, even the eateries; at Simco’s, home of the world’s largest hot dog, Elkin is introduced to the lime rickey.

When she uncovers links to another unsolved case involving elaborate forgeries, Gardner brings us up-to-date on the latest technologies involving sham documents, including visas and ID cards, which are in demand among immigrants,

Fiercely focused on the missing Angelique, Elkin talks her way into homes where she’s clearly not wanted—and where hers is the only white face. Armed with only a red rape whistle and stainless steel “tactical clips” worn in her hair, she displays plenty of moxie. But, she’s got her secrets—and pain. As the story progresses, Gardner slowly reveals the skeletons in her amateur sleuth’s closet.

Before She Disappeared is being touted as Gardner’s first standalone in 20 years. But given Frankie Elkin’s obsession with the many missing persons cases out there, this could be the debut of a promising new series.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:13:18
The Breaker
Nathan Nance

With his trademark lean prose, three-dimensional characters, and snappy dialogue, Nick Petrie is back with another smash hit in his Peter Ash series. The Breaker, the sixth novel following war veteran Peter Ash, sees Ash living with his girlfriend June in Milwaukee and repairing houses with his friend and compatriot Lewis. When Peter and Lewis intervene to stop a marketplace shooting, they are drawn into a high-tech cat-and-mouse mystery.

Peter is a wanted man. Since his adventures in Iceland in the previous novel, Peter has been running from the FBI and a charge of international murder. When Peter, Lewis, and June discover that the shooting was a cover for the theft of a radical new technology with terrifying artificial intelligence implications, an old enemy appears and offers Peter a lifeline. Find the technology by whatever means necessary and Peter’s record will disappear. Lewis and June will be safe.

Fortunately, Peter Ash is an expert at getting things done by any means necessary. To find Spark, the brilliant inventor and thief, Peter and June will have to survive Mr. Cheerful (an assassin with a double-bladed axe and a perennial smile), find a hidden Silicon Valley investor, and stay out of jail until Peter’s record can be cleared.

Ash has been compared to Jack Reacher by none other than Lee Child. While Ash is a similar wandering veteran, over the course of the series, he has become a character to rival or even surpass Reacher. The supporting cast only continues to develop, and Peter and June’s relationship feels realistic and engaging. Relationships with a thriller hero might be hard, but June is as strong a character as Peter in her own right, and the two of them lead the novel and keep the reader turning the pages. Petrie has never failed in leaving his readers wanting more, and The Breaker is no exception.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:18:52
Murder at Wedgefield Manor
Robin Agnew

In her first novel, Golden Age devotee Erica Ruth Neubauer took her heroine Jane Wunderly to Mena House in Cairo, where Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile. In this novel, Jane heads to England with her Aunt Millie to stay at Wedgefield Manor, setting the stage for another classic Golden Age tradition, the British country house mystery.

Wedgefield Manor is the home of Lord Hughes, Aunt Millie’s “special friend,” and Jane is lucky enough to be taking flying lessons during her stay, learning in a little two-seater biplane. (If the resemblance to Phyrne Fisher was pronounced in the first novel, it’s even more pronounced here, as Jane heads into the skies.) For those new to the series, it should be noted here that Jane is a war widow, though she feels more freedom than grief at the loss of her husband.

The action speeds away with the car crash death of Simon, one of the manor’s mechanics and a man who seemed sweet on Lord Hughes’ daughter, Lillian. A cut brake cable seems to point the finger at Lord Hughes, though the police are reluctant to question, much less arrest, him.

A fellow named Redvers, who helped Jane with her investigations in the last novel, returns to help once again. And while the men are off investigating (often, to Jane’s frustration, without her), Jane is left to her parallel investigations at the manor, surrounded by women.

In addition to Aunt Millie and Lillian, there’s Lillian’s friend Marie, Lord Hughes’ flighty niece Poppy, and the cook, Martha—who most importantly, keeps Jane supplied with coffee. Being stuck at home soon becomes a bit more interesting though, after a poisoning and another attempted murder happen within the domestic sphere.

Like all good country house mysteries, the suspect pool is tight. And because most of them are related to each other, it’s hard to winkle out a suspect. Neubauer mines a host of other Golden Age tropes, including a dandy of a red herring, some unexplained parentage, and a relative who is a bit of a black sheep.

The pace in this novel is gentle, but ultimately deadly, as Jane does uncover a killer. And because Jane is a modern woman, she uses her own smarts and her own skills to eventually solve the crime and nab the culprit. Jane is faced with starting to come to terms with her own past and beginning to look ahead to a future. She’s also American, so this reader is wondering if she’s headed back stateside in the next installment. I can’t wait to find out.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:23:54
Every Vow You Break
Pat H. Broeske

Abigail Baskin isn’t the smartest heroine we’ve ever encountered. Imagine marrying a multimillionaire and not bothering to find out where his money comes from. Hasn’t she ever heard of Google? And she makes a major blooper the night of her bachelorette party. It takes place at a swanky Northern California winery where, upon meeting a handsome stranger, she not only indulges in a one-nighter with him, but blabs about her sexual history. C’mon! Still, Peter Swanson’s Every Vow You Break is diverting, with a wild plot twist.

Readers may also enjoy figuring things out before Abigail does. As a devotee of 1970s horror films, she ought to have suspected things were amiss when various characters— including the man she made love to at the bachelorette do, and a young woman who, like herself, was unfaithful to her partner—show up at the island resort where she’s spending her honeymoon. The lavish nuptials end with the bride and groom dancing to a bossa nova version of “Every Breath You Take.” And Abigail’s new hubby, the wealthy Bruce Lamb, turns out to be one of the owners of the resort. (Hmm.)

Swanson, author of last year’s intricate puzzler, Eight Perfect Murders, which was infused with references to classic crime fiction, here utilizes myriad pop culture nods. Some resonate. For her wedding, Abigail gives the hairdresser photos of Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Others, not so much. Then there are those that prove to be harbingers. As a wedding gift, Bruce gives Abigail the poster to a classic film they once enjoyed. It’s Midnight Lace, a thriller starring Doris Day and Rex Harrison. Abigail should have paid more attention to the plot of that one (spoiler alert: Doris’ seemingly perfect hubby is gaslighting her).

Readers may enjoy this book for the same reason some folks enjoy a quick, none-too-challenging carnival ride. Wanna visit an exclusive resort with a pair of supposed lovebirds, both of whom shield secrets? Then climb aboard. It’s a twisty thrill.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:28:29
Never Far Away
Margaret Agnew

In his latest standalone, Never Far Away, Michael Koryta tells the story of a woman on the run from her past. Nina Morgan, now known as Leah Trenton, used to be a pilot, wife, and mother before she saw something she wasn’t supposed to see. Nina did what she thought was right to keep her family safe, faking her own death and fleeing her old life. Unable to give up the idea of never seeing her children again, she leaves behind a phone number in case anything should happen to her former husband. Naturally, it does.

With her children now left without a father and someone dangerous still looking for her, Leah is left with another difficult choice—stay in hiding or go to her kids? It’s not long until a desperate call for help from her eldest tips the scales.

Extracting herself from hiding to become “Aunt Leah,” she sets off a chain of events that will force her to reckon with her past once and for all. Leah reaches out to the one remaining contact from her old life, a former mob associate and the person who helped arrange her fake death, Doc Lambkin. Guilty about not coming forward against his dangerous boss all those years ago, he has always felt partially responsible for what happened to Nina. Doc makes a call for help on her behalf, but he warns help will not be coming from a “white hat”—but instead from Dax Blackwell.

Dax is most certainly no saint. Yes, he will help Nina, but he makes clear it is only to settle an old score against the man pursuing her. He has his work cut out for him though, since Nina and Dax’s mutual enemy has just sent two of his most brutal associates after her.

Set in beautiful Camden, Maine, the book treats us to lush descriptions of forests, lakes, and the idyllic town, a setting in stark contrast to the ugly people and ugly crimes at the center of Never Far Away. As the bad guys close in, it becomes increasingly clear that the line separating good from the bad isn’t just narrowing, but also blurring. The impulsive Dax’s motives and morals are a moving target.

Those looking for a black-and-white story will not find one in this book. It’s written in shades of gray. With compelling, and very human characters alongside dangerous, unpredictable sociopaths, the tension builds and builds as the narrative unfolds against a stunning wilderness setting. A solid thriller from a gifted writer, the prose is lovely and the questions it poses are worth thinking about. Foremost, what would a mother do to save her children? The answer is, very clearly, anything.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:32:18
Inherit the Shoes
Debbie Haupt

With car chases and gun battles mixed with laugh-out-loud humor, an eclectic unforgettable cast of characters, and a rock-solid plot, E.J. Copperman’s mystery series debut is an absolute joy. In it, Jersey girl and former prosecuting attorney Sandy Moss leaves New Jersey and criminal law in her rearview mirror and sets out in search of a fresh start amidst the glitz and glam of L.A., where she plans to practice family law.

On the first day of her new job with a prestigious L.A. firm, she’s embroiled in the high-profile divorce of TV star Patrick McNabb and his recording artist wife, Patsy DeNunzio. In their very first meeting, Sandy hears McNabb (a huge Hollywood memorabilia collector) threaten to kill his wife after she says she wants his prized pair of James Cagney tap shoes in the settlement. When McNabb is found over the bloody corpse of his soon-to-be ex-wife, the former prosecutor finds herself out of her element and over her head defending him after he convinces her he’s innocent.

Series’ star Sandy Moss is a refreshingly creative mix of Calamity Jane and Perry Mason. Add to this an ending with a few jaw-dropping OMGs and master storyteller Copperman delivers a must-read that is equal parts thought-provoking courtroom drama and rollicking cozy. Inherit the Shoes will have readers eating out of Copperman’s hand and impatiently waiting for more Sandy Moss antics.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:36:41
Nighthawk’s Wing
Margaret Agnew

Charles Fergus’ Pennsylvania Dutch sheriff protagonist returns for a second outing in The Nighthawk’s Wing, a historical mystery set in 1836. When the story joins Gideon Stoltz, he’s recently suffered a blow to the head after falling from his horse and isn’t quite himself. Gideon is experiencing memory lapses, distracting amounts of pain, and is not quite performing up to his usual sheriff standards. Normally a man dedicated to finding the truth no matter the cost, Gideon knows himself to be a kind, reasonable man of god. Or, at least, he is fairly sure he is.

Gideon is called to the site of a murder deep in the heart of a quickly growing new German settlement over the mountains, only to realize he knows the victim, Rebecca—and saw her on the night of her murder. As the story unfolds and a memory-addled Gideon recalls more and more of that lost night, it starts looking like he may be his own strongest suspect. With people soon to vote on whether or not he will stay as sheriff, he is running out of time to prove his own innocence—or guilt. All he really wants is to know the truth, one way or the other.

The murdered woman has a complicated past. Rebecca killed her husband in self-defense and was living with the family of her conservative sister-in-law someplace where she never truly fit in. After refusing to accept the ways of the church and remaining true to her own calling as an herbalist, Rebecca was labeled a witch. In a community precariously fighting to survive, she was viewed as an outsider and a threat to their way of life. With so many possible suspects, who made the decision to end her life?

It should be noted the most disturbing aspect of this book is the casual violence against women. There are two prominent female characters, one living and one dead, and both of them were sexually assaulted in their pasts. This clear and present danger looms throughout the book. Gideon’s estranged wife, True, contends with it at just about every moment when she finally leaves the house in an attempt to help her husband. The last person she meets on the road is notable because he doesn’t attempt to harass her verbally or physically. The narrative acknowledges how few assailants pay for their actions and how unfair and terrifying this is. For too many women, the danger never really goes away.

Nighthawk’s Wing is a lightly written and fast-paced story recommended for fans of historical mysteries. Though the puzzle is engaging, it’s the rural Pennsylvania setting that Fergus’ love is poured into. Every step of the journey to solve the crime feels real—as the reader is there beside Gideon and True, stepping on the same rocks and experiencing the same saddle sores. If ever anyone desired to tame the wild frontier, here is their chance to vicariously saddle up.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:41:08
The Silenced Women
Hank Wagner

When a young woman is found dead on a Santa Rosa, California, park bench, her death immediately brings to mind a pair of unsolved homicides some two years prior. As in the current instance, those women, victims of strangulation, were also found in the park. Although suspects were identified, the cases remain open.

The previous murders have had a profound effect on investigating officer Detective Eddie Mahler, causing him physical (migraines) and mental (his ongoing conversations with spectral manifestations of the victims) anguish. Troubled by his failure, Mahler throws himself into the current investigation, obsessing over every detail, driving his Violent Crime Investigations Team mercilessly.

Unknown to them, a madman is simultaneously stalking them electronically, having gained access to the files contained within their network. The madman uses his knowledge of their identities and doings to target members of the team and hinder their work.

As the publicity for this novel asserts, it’s always a joy to discover a new author with a “crackerjack” debut. Frederick Weisel certainly deserves this praise, delivering a satisfying procedural that touches all the bases: good writing, a compelling mystery, and equally compelling characters squaring off against worthy adversaries.

The author clearly loves his cast and is careful to clearly render each of its members in significant detail, seasoning the dark goings on with generous dollops of humor and giving each player time in the spotlight, on both sides of the law. It will be interesting to see where Weisel takes his characters in future installments.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:44:47
Smoke
Kevin Burton Smith

Joe Ide’s acclaimed series about Isaiah Quintabe, and his evolution from the Sherlock Junior from the Hood, trading his services for goods, to a full-grown (if awkward and unlicensed) private investigator, has been one wild and entertaining ride. This fifth entry, enjoyable as it is, signals what seems like a sea change.

It catches the young sleuth stressed out and on the run, his comfort zone of East Long Beach in the rearview, as he distances himself from Grace, his one true love; Juanell Dodson, his best friend and comrade; and (hopefully) the assorted local criminal gangs who wouldn’t mind seeing his head on a stick. He’s hiding out in a rented house in Coronado Springs, a small town in Northern California where nobody knows his name, licking his wounds and taking stock of his life.

But all the smarts in the world can’t change the fact that the man formerly known as IQ is a trouble magnet, and Isaiah’s barely settled in when Billy Sorensen, a troubled young man on the lam from a state mental health facility, breaks into his new digs.

Apparently Billy’s on a mission. He’s convinced that he (and he alone) can bring AMSAK, California’s most notorious serial killer, to justice. Complicating matters, he’s enabled and encouraged by Ava, his would-be girlfriend, whose twin sister was one of AMSAK’s early victims. Isaiah, being Isaiah, recognizes something of himself in the young man, and realizing the star-crossed couple are in way over their heads, steps in.

The author handles this tense and deadly hunt well enough (although Isaiah’s customary flashes of genius are few and far between this time), but shoots himself in the foot with too many over-developed and unconnected subplots, revolving around the personal crises of the series’ ever-expanding cast of supporting characters.

Alas, we didn’t come here for The Days of Our Lives—we came for murder, mayhem, and IQ, darn it! According to the front cover, he’s still the star of the show, right?

Smoke is never less than engaging, but maybe it’s time to put IQ back in the spotlight.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:49:13
Exit
Vanessa Orr

Felix Pink helps people die—as an Exiteer, he sits with terminally ill individuals as they commit suicide, providing moral support and removing the evidence—cans of nitrous oxide—so that their families can grieve what they believe is a natural death. And while witnessing these deaths is not a crime in Britain, physically helping someone pass away is—even if it’s done by mistake.

While working with a new Exiteer partner, the unthinkable happens, and soon Felix finds himself on the run from police. The official reports of the death and his experience don’t match up, and he soon begins to believe that he’s been set up, though he doesn’t know by whom, or why.

While Felix considers his life boring, following his adventures through this novel is anything but. Though he gives himself little credit for his abilities to react to new situations, he responds admirably to every twist and turn of the plot—and there are many. A rather rigid widower and somewhat of a recluse, he is forced to interact with people in entirely unpredictable ways, and he amazes himself, and the reader, with his adaptability.

Having experienced too much pain and death in his own life, part of the joy of this book is watching Felix come back to life as he pursues justice for the man who died. Just like Felix, this story is anything but predictable, and is at turns funny, sad, bittersweet, and beautiful. While never shying away from the fact that Felix is helping people die, somehow the reader comes away being reminded of what it means to truly embrace life.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:53:00
Gathering Dark
Craig Sisterson

Australian author Candice Fox certainly hit the ground running after first getting published in 2014. Her debut Hades won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, and its sequel Eden won the Best Fiction prize. She’s a prolific storyteller with a great touch for offbeat, memorable crime fiction characters. In a few short years, Fox’s resume already includes her original Sydney-set Archer and Bennett trilogy, the superb Crimson Lake trilogy set among the crocodile-infested landscapes of North Queensland, and several collaborations with James Patterson that have earned her #1 New York Times bestseller status.

Her latest novel, Gathering Dark, sees Fox bring her knack for clever, dark crime tales swirling around unusual team-ups to Los Angeles. Blair Harbour is a down-on-her-luck ex-con who rings strangers for conversation and is struggling to regain custody of her son after a massive fall from grace. Once a highly respected, wealthy pediatric surgeon, Blair spent years in prison for killing a neighbor and is now reduced to night shifts at a dodgy gas station.

She’s determined to stay on the straight and narrow, but when the daughter of her former cellmate “Sneak” Lawlor disappears, Blair finds herself risking everything to try to help. Together the pair turn to two other unlikely allies: powerful crime boss Ava Maverick and LAPD Detective Jessica Sanchez, the cop who put Blair in prison years before. Sanchez has her own problems, being ostracized and worse by her colleagues after she’s gifted a house in a will.

Fox delivers a strong sense of humanity as the at-times helter-skelter action unfolds. Gathering Dark is an alluring read, with the interplay between the convicted killer and the cop adding extra layers of intrigue and interest.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 20:59:05
An Unexpected Peril
Robin Agnew

This is a delectable entry in the Veronica Speedwell series, with the added bonus of a feminist bite. The cast, the victim, and the resolution to the crime are all female-centric.

Veronica and Stoker are ensconced in London preparing for an exhibit honoring a lately deceased female mountain climber, Alice Baker-Greene. While Alice perished in a mountain climbing accident, a cut rope discovered by Veronica and Stoker as they set up the exhibit makes them think it was no accident.

The exhibit is sponsored by the tiny country of Alpenwald, wedged between France and Germany. It sounds very much like Switzerland, with Alpenwald children learning to mountain climb almost as soon as they can walk. Opening the exhibit will be the Princess of Alpenwald, Giselda. The whole exhibit is taking place at the Curiosity Club where Veronica is a member.

This book supplies a neat later-Victorian history lesson, illuminating some of the connections of the royal families of Europe who were, at the time, almost all cousins, many of them Victoria’s daughters. One of the cousins is Veronica herself, an illegitimate daughter of the Prince of Wales (though they’ve never met).

So when Princess Giselda disappears and Veronica is asked to step in and take her place—the two women apparently look very much alike—she agrees, mainly because she’s convinced Alice was murdered and she wants to get a line on the killer.

What follows is a delicious setup that very much resembles Meg Cabot’s equally yummy Princess Diaries series. It’s a backstage look at what goes into being royal. Veronica thinks, as the lady’s maid slips a light silk chemise over her head, that it’s not so bad, but then she’s corseted, bejeweled, and bewigged to within an inch of her life. It sounds (and I’m sure was) extremely uncomfortable.

As she heads to the theater where there’s an Alpenwalder-penned opera premiering, she realizes that being a princess is, in fact, incredibly restrictive. She’s amazed at the deference she’s granted and is made a little uncomfortable by it.

While this is a slightly less adventurous story than the usual Veronica tale, it’s nevertheless an adventure for Veronica as she impersonates the princess, and as she and Stoker become clearer in their intentions toward one another.

Thanks to Veronica’s detective work, there’s an excellent twist to the proceedings that helps her solve the case, but not before there is an actual bit of derring-do toward the end of the story.

Meanwhile, as readers, we get to visit Windsor Castle for a state dinner and read about some truly delectable foods, many of them desserts. If you can swoon simply from reading a book, this one might do the trick. It’s pure enjoyment, cover to cover.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 21:02:56
A Tip for the Hangman
Benjamin Boulden

A Tip for the Hangman, by first-time novelist Allison Epstein, is an enticing and fun mystery featuring Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe.

Marlowe, who finds little time to write in this dashing tale, is on assignment from Queen Elizabeth I to infiltrate and spy in Mary, Queen of Scots’ household. Mary’s ménage is a hotbed of Catholic conspiracies. Kit, as Marlowe is called, uncovers the Babington Plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, which leads to Mary’s execution.

Later, Kit is caught spying by the Catholics, and he saves himself from a cruel death by claiming he is a double agent spying for the Catholics. Kit then travels to the Netherlands to assist in a Catholic plot to counterfeit coinage. The counterfeiters, inexplicably excluding Marlowe, are arrested by Protestant Englanders.

A Tip for the Hangman is an enjoyable, somewhat over-the-top, tale that takes Marlowe’s historical life and melds it nicely with rumor and conspiracy; most notably the circumstances of Marlowe’s mysterious and untimely death, and where his allegiance actually was. The tale would have benefited from a higher development of Kit’s relationship with his lover, Tom, but the swashbuckling adventure and the fast-paced plotting more than make up for any of its deficiencies.

This debut novel, as enjoyable as it is, gives hope that Epstein’s next outing will be even better.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 21:06:03
Girl A
Sarah Prindle

When Alexandra “Lex” Gracie was 15, she escaped the home where her parents held her and her six siblings prisoner, bringing their plight to the attention of the police and the media and altering their lives forever. Lex’s father committed suicide, her mother was arrested, and the brothers and sisters were split up and sent to different foster families.

Fifteen years later, Lex’s mother dies in prison, leaving the house—which was called “The House of Horrors” in the news—to her children. Lex and one of her sisters plan to turn it into a community center, but they need to get the rest of their siblings to sign off on it first. Lex contacts them one by one, some of whom she hasn’t spoken to in years, dredging up dark memories and complicated relationships in the process. As the reader learns more about Lex’s past and how it affected her and her siblings, a heartbreaking psychological drama unfolds about the brutality of child abuse and the repercussions that are felt into adulthood.

Girl A alternates between Lex’s adulthood and her childhood. The reader sees her family’s tragic story progress from the time they were a more “normal,” though very poor family, to the Chaining Days when their father, in a downward spiral of worsening mental health, forces the family to endure abuse, fear, and starvation. Author Abigail Dean doesn’t shy away from the painful realities of living through such an ordeal, and Girl A is as emotionally intense as it is psychologically challenging.

At the core of Girl A are family dynamics: the siblings’ relationships with their parents and with each other, as well as with the families who later adopt them. The Gracie siblings are diverse characters and have different roles they played in their past—from Noah, who was only a baby when they were rescued, to Delilah, the sister Lex never got along with, and Ethan, who is engaged to be married but still running from unsettled trauma in his past. Each was affected by their parents’ abuse in different ways; each copes with it in different ways as adults.

Dean’s Girl A is ultimately a survival story as well as a psychological thriller that expertly portrays Lex’s brave and lonely struggle to come to terms with her past. A strong, character-driven tale, Girl A is a tribute to resilience and, ultimately, hope.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 21:11:14
The Captive
Pat H. Broeske

I confess that I’m not exactly sure how to classify The Captive. Rural noir? Speculative noir? Dystopian noir? The debut novel by Fiona King Foster is decidedly unique. For readers willing to go off the beaten path, it’s an intriguing journey—a character study that scrutinizes the grit, guilt, and pain that multigenerational crime inflicts on both its perpetrators and its victims.

Set in a rural, unnamed state that has seceded from the country—opting for “freedom” over federal oversight—the plot centers around a woman named Brooke, who lives with her “exotic” husband (olive-skinned, he has a “foreign” mother), and their two children on an isolated farm, working cranberry bogs. It’s a satisfying but hardscrabble existence that is shattered by the arrival of a wanted criminal.

Brooke knows this man from a past life she’s kept hidden from her family, and convinced he’s come to do her harm, she captures and restrains him—resisting a primal urge to kill him. Together with her husband and children, Brooke sets out to turn him over to the nearest officer of the law.

They’re all on foot, having just sold their only horse. (The only motorized vehicles in this state are few and far between and appear to be mostly owned by the feds.) It’s winter; the landscape is harsh. With little time to prepare, their rations and supplies are meager.

The author, who lives in a rural Ontario community, infuses the terrain with both majesty and menace, as Brooke and her family—and the criminal, Stephen Cawley—trudge and stumble along. En route, new characters appear, not all of them friendly. And Brooke relives the secret life that she left 15 years and 100 miles ago.

Foster adroitly weaves together the “then” and “now,” as well as a brief, otherworldly interlude that’s up for interpretation between Brooke and a deceased family member. She doesn’t go into detail about the movement that led to secession and what’s followed. There are references to suburban shopping centers that have given way to pasture and an interstate that leads to federal properties and “the city.” And we’re told that to get the internet requires leaving the countryside. Same for a pirated TV signal.

In The Captive the details are devoted to a portrait of the lead character, relationships she has fought to forget, and those she’s struggling to keep—and the crimes that bind them.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-03 21:16:18
The Girls Are All So Nice Here
Sarah Prindle

When Ambrosia “Amb” Wellington graduated from Wesleyan College, she hoped to leave behind a dark chapter in her life, and to forget the role she played in a shocking tragedy that stunned the entire campus during her freshman year. Amb got married, changed her name, and settled into a peaceful life where her many secrets remained hidden from everyone, including her husband.

Then an invitation to Wesleyan’s ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, as well as a note that says, “We need to talk about what we did that night.” Against her better judgment, Amb goes to the reunion, thinking the note must be from Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, the enigmatic and seductive girl who was once her best friend—as well as the only other person who knows the full truth of what happened freshman year. But when Amb and Sully come face to face, each with the exact same note to lure them to the reunion, they realize their return to campus has been orchestrated by someone who knows what they did…and wants them to pay dearly for it.

As the story switches back and forth between Amb’s freshman year and the reunion, the reader is drawn in by the array of questions: What did Amb and Sully do? What are they lying about? Who has lured them here, and why now, after almost 14 years?

The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a disturbing yet engaging story with complex characters, many of whom make the mean girls in movies look like Cinderella. The author shines a spotlight on the cruelty, bullying, manipulation, and deception that can poison female friendships (and even an entire college community).

Through Amb and Sully’s actions, Laurie Elizabeth Flynn explores what can motivates someone to treat another person terribly and raises uncomfortable questions about accountability, justice, and the dark side of human nature. Ultimately, readers will likely come away uncertain of who the villains and the heroes in this story truly are, but will no doubt be hooked by the plotline and the suspense in Flynn’s suspenseful adult fiction debut.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-04 15:47:48
Poppy Harmon and the Pillow Talk Killer
Deb Haupt

In the third book of the Desert Flowers Mystery series by Lee Hollis (the brother-sister writing team Rick Kopp and Holly Simason), protagonist Poppy Harmon and her fledgling Desert Flower detectives score a prime gig providing protection for Danika Delgado, star of the upcoming Netflix remake of Palm Springs Weekend. As part of the job, though, former actor Poppy is asked to step back in front of the camera for the first time in decades—and she’s more than a little nervous.

When Danika is found dead in her trailer the apparent victim of asphyxiation by pillow, it bears a haunting resemblance to the Pillow Talk Murders, a series of killings that occurred in Hollywood in the ’80s, and for which the killer was never caught. Poppy and her team dive into the investigation, following clues that lead them to a sexual predator/producer and a disgruntled leading man who was fired from the show.

Then another murder occurs, putting them back to square one.

Hollis delivers a gripping and sometimes creepy cozy that will keep readers engaged from page one until the final cut. The story is a standout with a puzzling crime and a plethora of suspects. The winning cast stars the delightful Desert Flowers, sixty-somethings Poppy, Iris, Violet, and Matt, plus Violet’s preteen, tech wiz grandson Wyatt. Poppy’s blossoming romance with a past aquaintance, former cop Sam Emerson, who resurfaces in her life is sweet, and the antics of the Flowers (who work out of Iris’ garage) adds comic relief. This case stands on its own, but for deeper character and series background, readers may want to start with the first book.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-04 15:52:28
The Lightseekers

The Lightseekers is the bumpy, but intriguing, debut novel by Nigerian writer Femi Kayode. Dr. Philip Taiwo is an American-educated investigative psychologist specializing in the motives behind mob violence. Taiwo reluctantly agrees, after being pressured by his father, to investigate why a violent mob in Okriki, Nigeria, murdered three college-age men accused of theft. The incident, popularly known as the Okriki Three, and the disturbing footage of the killings polarized Nigeria’s populace between those seeking justice for the men’s deaths and those believing the mob administered that justice.

When Taiwo arrives in Okriki he is confronted with suspicion, and at times, open hostility to his investigation. Those in authority point to the handful of convictions related to the violence as evidence that the murders were taken seriously, but Taiwo—undeterred by threats and insults—uncovers a network of secret societies that resemble college fraternities, but with much darker intentions and broader cultural powers.

The Lightseekers offers tepid pacing, a clunky plot, and a frustrating amount of repetition. There are several instances where Taiwo has a nearly identical conversation with two or three characters while revealing nothing new from the first to the last. But, as sociology, The Lightseekers is rich and interesting. Taiwo makes thoughtful connections between the Okriki Three and the lynching of Black men in the American South.

The detailed and atmospheric Nigerian setting and the well-drawn characters create a powerful sense of place. The Lightseekers should appeal to armchair travelers interested in Nigeria, the geography and culture, but will disappoint anyone looking for a spirited crime novel.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-04 15:58:42
Sleep Well, My Lady
Kevin Burton Smith

The title of this easygoing whodunit begs Chandler comparisons (What’s next? The High Window in the Lake?), but Kwei Quartey’s series sleuth Emma Djan is no mopey, lone wolf private eye prone to office bottles, cracking wise, or shoot-’em-ups.

Nope, this rookie PI is a continent and an ocean or two away; just another clean and sober operative in the tightly knit Sowah Private Investigators Agency based in Accra, Ghana. She’s everything the well-dressed, private detective should be: a former police officer, pragmatic, professional, smart, and determined. Her biggest vice is a weakness for pricey handbags. And while she gets top billing, the entire agency works the case here.

Eventually.

It takes 60 or so pages before Emma and the rest of the agency even show up. First, we’re treated to an almost Christie-like series of meandering introductions, spotlighting a large cast of mostly upper-class characters, doled out with a tad more explicit and sordid detail than Dame Agatha ever penned.

It seems one of the elite, celebrated fashionista Lady Araba, was murdered in the bedroom of her ritzy mansion in the gated community of Trasacco Valley (the “Beverly Hills of Accra”) over a year earlier, and the prime suspect, former lover Augustus Seeza, still hasn’t been charged. Frustrated and convinced Seeza is guilty, Lady Araba’s beloved Aunt Dele decides the case has grown cold enough.

She hires the Sowah Agency and Emma and her four fellow ops go to work knocking on doors, grilling suspects, and even going undercover—all under the sturdy guidance of “old man” Yemo Sowah. But the case proves to be more complicated than expected, involving a brain-clogging array of suspects and motives, both professional and exceedingly personal. Fortunately, Yemo’s regular staff meetings, where the detectives compare notes (and swap banter), move things along nicely.

Quartey strikes a unique and refreshing tone here—a sort of point-by-point private eye procedural, grafted onto a traditional, Golden Age-style mystery, set in modernday Africa. The result is a surprisingly satisfying comfort read that’s both exotic and about as familiar as your own slippers. Or a rerun of The Office—with murder.

Teri Duerr
2021-08-04 16:11:44