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Death Without Tenure by Joanne Dobson

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press  ISBN-10: 159058709X

Reviewed by Pam Voisey, New Mystery Reader 

Karen Pelletier, has worked her way from a single mother to daughter, Amanda, putting herself through college as a waitress, to a professor of English at the tony Enfield College. Now after six years she is up for a sole tenure position the, which would provide her a permanent position on the college staff. Her competition for the spot is a Native American professor, Joe Lone Wolf, who is being championed by the department chairman. As Karen assembles her tenure materials for presentation to the tenure committee, Joe Lone Wolf dies from an overdose of peyote buttons and Karen becomes the prime suspect on a very short list.

That her boyfriend, Charles Pitrowski, a State Police investigator, has been deployed to Iraq, Amanda is backpacking her way through Nepal and she has recently and unwillingly become the caregiver of her elderly mother who is experiencing health issues, complicates her life even more. While trying to clear herself, Karen is faced with a slew of odd characters; a visiting professor who by turns is creepy and suggestive, star-crossed students, a homicide detective with a grudge against Charlie and a bumbling, drug addled department chair while sorting through accusations of plagiarism, false credentials, petty squabbles and in fighting between faculty members. 

While I did miss some of my favorite characters from her previous mysteries, Dobson introduces several new characters and reacquaints the reader a few of her family members. With help from a colleague of Charlie’s from the State Police, Karen works to untangle the snake’s nest of clues.

Death Without Tenure is a clever and quick mystery, sure to delight fans of this series.

False Convictions by Tim Green

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing  ISBN 978 0 446 401524

Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader

If you know anything about the real world ‘Innocence Project’, you’ll know that there are an unknown number of people in prisons around the world who are incarcerated unjustly.  How fortunate it would be if all of them had an attorney working for them who’s as smart and determined as Casey Jordan.

Casey’s been hired by The Freedom Project to reopen the case of a poor black man who may have been convicted of a rape-murder unjustly—no surprises here.  (Echoes of “To Kill a Mockingbird’ can be heard.)  Unlike Atticus Finch, Casey has modern science to call on, and she expects a straight-forward solution and the imminent freeing of Dwayne Hubbard. 

Casey is somewhat hampered by her fling with fame: a movie was made of one of her previous cases, and some people can’t or won’t take her seriously.  Lawmen particularly are leery of her—especially those with something to hide.  Casey gets an unexpected ally in Jake Carlson, a TV reporter assigned to do a warm and cosy profile of Robert Graham, millionaire founder of The Freedom Project.  Jake rapidly discovers there’s something nasty going on with Graham and that this may tie in with the stone walls that Casey keeps hitting as she tries to collect the evidence to clear Dwayne.  Casey doesn’t want to believe there’s anything ‘off ‘about Graham—he’s promised to help fund her legal service in California, one which helps poor and marginalised women—but she begins to wonder.

Things go from bad to worse as evidence vanishes, Jake’s nearly killed, Casey’s arrested, and the only way out of the mess seems to be to compound a few felonies.

If you like a book that moves really fast, has all its loose threads tied up by the end of the story, and has a bit of snappy patter to lighten the serious premise, this new offering from Tim Green should suit you down to the ground.

Last Snow by Eric Van Lustbader

Publisher: Forge Books  ISBN-10: 0765325152

Reviewed by Robin Thomas, New Mystery Reader

Put your “…this would never happen in real life” button on pause, open Last Snow by Eric Van Lustbader and take a ride with this thriller. You may wish that your favorite place to read was equipped with seatbelts, because this fast paced book is full of twists and turns.  Jack McClure is the Special Advisor to President Edward Carson and the only person that he trusts without question. Carson earned this special relationship with the President by saving his daughter Alli who was abducted by a seriously deranged person. Carson asks Jack to investigate the mysterious death of minority whip Sen. Lloyd Berns and find out why he traveled to the Ukraine and who was the last person to see him alive.  Jack accepts the task and is heading to the Ukraine only to find that the First Daughter is going to accompany him against his better judgment. 

Alli is still dealing with the mental distress of the abduction and Jack is the only person who can reach her. Additionally they share an even deeper emotional bond due to the loss of someone that was very special to both of them.  Not only is the First Daughter accompanying Jack but he is also traveling with Annika, a beautiful Russian agent who befriends Jack and complicates his mission. Jack now has to keep both the First Daughter and a Russian spy safe while finding out what Senator Berns was really doing and there are a number of people both American and Russian who will do anything to ensure that Jack fails in his mission

Lustbader has crafted an international spy thriller in which the reader questions every character, be they Russian spies, civilians or U.S. government personnel part of the President’s “inner circle.” As the sequel to First Daughter, Lustbader provides enough detail in this book for the reader to understand what happened to Alli and the impact the abduction has had on her. Eric Van Lustbader is also writing the new novels in the Jason Bourne series.  His novels based around Jack McClure are exciting with intricate plotlines.  They are a welcome addition to the international spy thriller genre and readers of the Jason Bourne series will also want to read Lustbader’s Jack McClure books as well.

Requiem in Vienna by J. Sydney Jones

Publisher: Minotaur  ISBN-10: 0312383908

Reviewed by Bonnye Busbice Good, New Mystery Reader

Returning to nineteenth century Austria, Karl Werthen and his wife Berthe have settled into married life and to concentrate on building his legal practice in Vienna.  Karl has expanded his practice to include the dangerous but controversial job of investigations much to his landlady’s dismay and Berthe’s delight.  Werthen and Berthe became hooked on sleuthing after satisfactorily solving a case for famed painter Gustav Klimt, who, true to form, has yet to settle his bill.

Werthen is soon hired by a determined young woman who secures his services to protect a moody but popular composer.  The lovely and very wealthy Fraulein Schindler admires Herr Mahler’s compositions and hopes to protect him from several near-misses that threaten to give Mahler a very messy curtain call.  After a young soprano dies in a stage accident, Werthen steps up his investigation and plunges into the highly competitive worlds of high society and popular music.

Werthen’s partner in The Empty Mirror, Dr. Hans Gross, returns to conduct inquiries whether or not the Werthens want his help.  Gross, the nonfiction father of criminology, has an insatiable curiosity to match his unending appetite for the housekeeper’s traditional and substantial meals.  The eminently self-assured Gross and maturing Werthen make an entertaining pair who alternately inspire and irritate one another while Berthe quietly becomes an invaluable addition to their inquiries.

Gross’ observations help the investigation but his character has lost its centrality that it had in the first book of the series.  With Werthen and Berthe under his initial tutelage, the Viennese husband and wife could make a formidable team even without his direct guidance.

While The Empty Mirror was saturated in the Vienna art scene, Requiem in Vienna immerses itself in the musical realm where compositional styles were heatedly debated and the greatness of Brahms and other contemporaries were still recalled by Austrians.

The tone of the books remains more reserved than the intimate coziness of many contemporary American mysteries and more in keeping with the style of Sherlock Holmes stories, especially those reimagined by Laurie King, allowing for some Victorian-era stodginess with a modern wink to marital equality.

Shield of Duty by Scarlett Dean

Publisher: Five Star/Gale ISBN 13 978 1 59414 855 2

Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader

Police officer Kate Frost is off with her galpals for a winter holiday in the woods, a holiday that comes to a fast and nasty end when the missing member of the party turns up dead and in pieces in Kate’s car.

There’s something personal about this murder: the killer had already sent one of the victim’s fingers to Kate.  Her partner (in both senses) Gerard Alvarez would prefer Kate to let others solve the murder, but he knows she’s not likely to sit quietly by.  What he doesn’t know is that Kate has a secret helper, her sister Lindsay.  Lindsay was a cop, too, before her death.  Somehow held to the real world, for what reason she isn’t sure, Lindsay has been rather at loose ends in the afterlife, until it occurs to her that perhaps she’s meant to carry on being an investigator.  Her first case makes her even more certain of this, when she helps the ghost of a mobster discover how he died and frees him to go—wherever it is people like that go once released from their bodies.

Kate’s willing to accept any help to discover who killed Evelyn Jakes, and doesn’t give Lindsay the argument she expected, but instead recruits her to find out what she can from the autopsy.  Aided by a dead coroner, Lindsay does that, as well as some other investigating that uncovers a lot of clues, but not quite enough to pin down the murderer. 

Kate has to take time out of her career for a spot of surgery to remove a tumour, and it’s while she’s doped up post-operative that a stranger enters her room and leaves a noose in a box.  Lindsay has seen the man, but can’t do anything physical to restrain him. Very frustrating to be a cop without any powers of arrest!  It’s even more frustrating when Kate is kidnapped and Lindsay loses touch with her.  Help comes from an unexpected source, but will it be in time?

This is one of those books that  could have been a lot better, but  isn’t a bad read.   I wouldn‘t have chosen it for myself, but I suspect a number of people who like a fast read with a dash of supernatural stuff will find it worth their while.   

A Night Too Dark by Dana Stabenow

Publisher: Minotaur Books  ISBN-10: 0312559097

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

Stabenow continues the saga of the Suultauq mine full of gold that has been discovered in the nether land’s of Alaska’s wilderness.  And Kate Shugak, private investigator, and now the head leader of the Park’s local tribal citizens, is trying to balance the old ways with the new money that is poring in. But even she can’t stop the greed and destruction that results when gold, pure gold, is reshaping the future of everyone and everything she loves.

As with the last book, bodies are found, all seemingly deaths resulting in one way or another from the new gold mine.  Kate, however, seems to want nothing to do with the mine or any fallout from the resulting greed.  But, of course, her intentions don’t last for long when her Alaskan Trooper lover asks her to help investigate not one, but two, unexpected minors’ deaths.    

At first all seems as it should be, single men commit suicide often in these parts; at times Alaska seems like the last frontier in that aspect as well as what it’s known for.  But Kate knows instinctively that something is wrong, that the young men’s bodies that are found did not die the way everyone claims. 

Stabenow has kept a series of Alaska’s most wild environs going for years, and she’s done it well.  And while her latest novels delve deep into the subject of greed that results from the new gold mine, one can’t help but wish she would take a breather from that particular plotline.  Yes, greed is a subject that can be mined for many plots but, unfortunately, it can also get old and tired (as can my unintentional puns).  This is one mine that has been dug to its bear bones, and I hope Stabenow goes in a different direction in her next.  But with that all that being said, as always, the beautiful Alaska environs and the engaging characters still make this a worthwhile read.

Let It Ride by John McFetridge

Publisher: Minotaur Books ISBN-10: 031259948X

Reviewed by Dana King, New Mystery Reader
(Interview with John McFetridge)

The acclaimed HBO series, The Wire, with its season long story arcs, is often referred to as a televised novel. If novels were like The Wire, they’d be a lot like John McFetridge’s books; his newest, Let It Ride, would be Season Three.

Vernard “Get” McGetty is an Afghanistan veteran from Detroit, in Toronto to see about new supply lines for his mother’s drug operation. J.T., a friend from Afghanistan, is connected to The Saints of Hell, a biker gang in the process of bringing all the gangs in Canada under their umbrella by whatever means are necessary. Sunitha has graduated from working in massage parlors to robbing them. Richard Tremblay was a major player in the Saints’ takeover, who then took over himself and wonders what comes next. Throw in the vestiges of the Mafia, some good cops, some crooked cops, and discontent from some of the annexed gangs, let them simmer, and you have Let It Ride.

McFetridge isn’t writing a series so much as he’s writing an epic. Let It Ride extends the main story lines that have carried through Dirty Sweet and Everybody Knows This is Nowhere from different perspectives. Each book brings different characters to the fore, using others as necessary. Past events are recalled when needed, but reading the books in order is not required; each works fine as a standalone.

Relationships are key here. Not the Lifetime, “Tell me how you really feel,” type of relationships.  Most are relationships of convenience, everyone playing an angle with whoever seems to best fit their purposes. All are fully developed; Get likes JT and Sunitha, but neither will be allowed to stand between him and what he decides to do. Richard’s girlfriend, Kristina, says, “Business is relationships,” and Richard immediately thinks, “Relationships are business.” There are no lone wolves in McFetridge’s world, though no individual is indispensible to any other.

There’s an homage to Elmore Leonard early in the book, so it’s not likely McFetridge is tired of being compared to him yet. (Frankly, I think it would take a long time for anyone to tire of being compared to Elmore Leonard.) McFetridge’s voice is not the hip and funny patter found in Get Shorty or Mr. Paradise. Plenty of Leonard-esque humor, with people saying funny things they don’t mean to be funny, but the atmosphere is darker, more like Leonard as he moved from Westerns to crime, in books like City Primeval and Split Images.

Another writer whose influence is felt in Let It Ride is George V. Higgins. Pivotal events are allowed to happen off camera, to be discussed by the characters later. The lack of set piece action sequences not only keeps the character relationships moving along, using dialog to describe events that occurred during this book—but were not seen—allows McFetridge to slip in backstory as needed without a flashing sign going off in the reader’s mind: EXPOSITION AHEAD. This is done deftly enough that no one but another writer is likely to notice, providing another treat included in the price of the book: it can be read on multiple levels without sacrificing entertainment.

McFetridge writes the way people think. What needs to be considered is never left out, but energy Is not wasted on superfluous thought. Things are described because they need to be. Key features are pointed out. The reader’s conception of the characters will evolve over the course of the story, just as you learn about the real people in your life. The pace isn’t car chase and shootout frantic, but it never stops moving.

One caveat when reading Let It Ride: Pay attention. There’s a lot going on. Relationships intermingle, objectives change, partnerships are in flux. This is not a book to be enjoyed while watching television and discussing events of the day, reading as background noise. Let It Ride demands your attention; it also rewards it.

(Note: Let It Ride was released in Canada in 2009 with the title of Swap.)

Split Image—A Jesse Stone Novel by Robert B. Parker

Publisher: Putnam ISBN 978-0-399-15623-6

Reviewed by Don Crouch, New Mystery Reader

So let’s deal with the elephant in the room right away: how does one review a book when the author unexpectedly dies while it’s being read?

The death of Dr. Parker was a shock to the genre community, to be sure. Eulogies steeped in eloquence can be found with just a few clicks.  The eloquence is deserved, Parker saved the PI genre. That is not debatable. So we will leave those eulogies for you to find (we recommend the one from the NY Times), and say, going forward, this review takes that sad fact into account not one bit.

Split Image is more accurately described as a Jesse Stone/Sunny Randall Novel, both characters are present, together and apart.

Our story begins as Sunny visits Jesse for professional consult. She’s been hired to look into an “eccentric” religious organization based in Paradise known as The Renewal. Her clients are parents whose daughter has moved into their house in Paradise.  Sunny isn’t quite sure if her clients are worried about their daughter or their reputation, and she starts her investigation by getting a briefing from the Paradise Police Chief, with whom she has an interesting romantic relationship.  This briefing is filled with the banter that Parker is most famous for, and we immediately feel at home with these two. We like the fact that they are each others’ refuge from bad situations in their own lives—Jesse’s, the near-constant disappointment brought by his ex-wife, Jenn; Sunny, the irresolvable distance between her and her ex-husband, Richie.

During their chat, a body is discovered in Paradise, that of Mob Enforcer Petrov Ognowski. Jesse leaves Sunny to her business, and start digging. He finds that Petrov was a soldier for Reggie Galen, who lives in a very fashionable house, next door to a nearly-identical house where resides Knocko Moynihan, another “colorful” fella. He then finds out that both gentlemen are married to....wait for it....IDENTICAL TWINS. Rebecca and Robbie, the Bang Bang Twins.

Let your minds get busy, because Parker clearly did the same thing. Two women, growing up separate but the same. Dressing with the same clothes. Making every effort to be indistinguishable. Sleeping with each others’ boyfriends, etc.

Parker has big fun exploring the psychosis of all this, from Jesse interviewing the parents, to being a temporary object of the twins’ affection during an interview.

Sunny works her way through The Renewal, and her first impression is fairly benign. A little kooky, but her client’s daughter seems both happy and healthy. She reports this to her clients, then learns the daughter has disappeared from The Renewal residence. Vetting the usual suspects, Sunny moves her focus back to the cult, and things get pretty interesting at that point. Along the way, Parker shares Sunny’s therapy session with Boston’s Greatest Shrink, Susan Silverman. We always enjoy these interludes, as they provide a strictly empirical look at Susan, something we definitely don’t get from the Spenser books.

Don’t wait too long for these two cases to intersect, because they don’t. They simply give us the joy of watching Jesse and Sunny, together and apart, do what they do and then ruminate on it. Sound familiar? It should.

And that’s the key to why Parker’s books are so effective. He lets his characters tell the story. He puts them on the path, and then more or less gets out of the way.

Split Image moves the stories of both Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall, together and apart, forward.  Parker weaves in the great supporting cast in Paradise, primarily Molly Crane and Suitcase Simpson, with his usual skill.

At its core, it’s a story of what happens when a childhood psychosis is untreated, perhaps encouraged, and manifests itself in adult behavior. Parker excels at this kind of superficial examination (we’re not interested in clinical, are we?) to tell his story, and it’s the main strength of Split Image.

Slow Fire by Ken Mercer

Publisher: Minotaur Books  ISBN-10: 031255835X

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

Will Magowan, once an LA undercover narc, has spent the past few months living a life of quiet grief and shame after the death of his only child led to his release from the force when he became a little too involved with playing his role as a drug dealer and drug taker.  And though he’s completed his days at rehab, the future is still looking bleak with his marriage in shambles and his career in ruins. 

So when he gets an offer from a small mountain town in Oregon offering him the job of sheriff, he’s more than happy to pack it all up and move north with the hope of making a fresh start.  But, Haydenville, while once upon a time an idyllic small town full of beauty and charm, is anything but now that a gang of criminals have moved in and set up a meth lab of epic proportions, turning more than a few residents into burnt-out, violent shells of who they once were.  So, not only will Magowan have to battle larger than life enemies who seem to have the law on their side, but also his continuing grief and his addiction to the self-medication that comes with it.

It’s always exciting when first cracking a book open that comes from a brand new author.  Before the first page is turned, there’s a hopeful anticipation that this one will surely be the one to offer up something refreshingly innovative.  But in this case, that hope is quickly dashed.  And while there is more than one unpleasant distraction, the main one that readers will find themselves unable to move past is the simple lack of research into police procedures and the ensuing lack of credibility and even astonishment at how this investigation is handled that result. 

Not only does this town seem to be living in an invisible bubble without oversight, but even the powers that be within the town have no idea what the other is doing.  And as the bodies begin to stack up, and then are quickly forgotten, the lack of follow-up soon becomes almost comical, if only it wasn’t so disappointing.  Magowan’s propensity to leave his gun, cell phone, back-up, and anything else necessary for stopping and or processing criminals behind is one thing, but readers will be shocked at how he handles shootings, crime-scenes, stake-outs, and all the other events that come standard in this kind of read. 

One can only hope that before the next in the series, Mercer spends a bit more time doing some research into the ins and outs that are basic to police procedures and the genre itself.  This doesn’t require a PhD, merely reading something by Ian Rankin or Deborah Crombie should do the trick and would be well advised.           

Money to Burn by James Grippando

Publisher: Harper  ISBN-10: 0061556300

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

Wall Street wunderkind Michael Cantella’s career was just starting to take off when after a whirlwind romance he married another Wall Street whiz, Ivy Layton.  But when she disappears off their rented yacht only hours after their impromptu wedding in the Bahamas, Michael’s gold-touched world comes to a temporary halt.  And when eventually her DNA is discovered in the belly of a captured shark, Michael somehow manages to continue his mostly uninterrupted ride to the top of Wall Street’s highest peaks, becoming even wealthier than his wildest dreams.

But now, less than five years later, Michael’s career, wealth, and his marriage to his second wife is about to come crashing down.  It first begins when his identity and the money that goes with it, is stolen from all his accounts, followed by his wife’s demand for a divorce, and culminates with the disastrous rumor that he schemed to defraud investors of his company millions of dollars.  And, just like in real life, before you can say “Wall Street did what?” Michael finds himself on the run from an enemy he can’t identify, leaving behind a trail of ruin in the financial world that he is blamed for, but of which he is innocent.

While this book is definitely focusing on a timely subject - the near collapse of Wall Street as we know it - one can’t help but wish that Grippando would’ve kept it to only that premise.  Heaven knows there’s enough drama and villains to write dozens of thrillers based on that fact alone when it comes to this subject.  Instead, he takes us down trails of personal vendettas, wild supposition, and the inconceivable events that result.  Double, triple, quadruple crosses ensue, with each page putting forth a tale that becomes more and more unlikely. 

And it’s too bad.  Had Grippando just gone with the basic plot initially put forth, he might’ve had something great.  He’s done it before with such timely themes.  But this time readers might find he goes a step too far by attributing most of the bad guys’ motivations in making millions to personal vendettas instead of the all-consuming greed that we have seen lately over and over again. But, that being said, Grippando does make his point of how easily it can all fall down.  And, who knows, maybe that’s why he told the story as he did.  All in all, Grippando provides enough Wall Street insider info and glimpses behind the soiled curtains to make this worth the read.             

The Last Surgeon by Michael Palmer

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press   ISBN: 978-0-312-58749-9

Reviewed by Ray Palen, New Mystery Reader

Michael Palmer has long been the fore-runner in medical thrillers having firmly taken that mantle from Robin Cook and, to some extent, the late Michael Crichton.  His upcoming novel, “The Last Surgeon,” marks his 15th effort and follows a string of best-sellers that began with the release of his first novel, “The Sisterhood”, in 1994.

“The Last Surgeon” is a non-stop thrill ride of a novel that follows the parallel narratives of three principal characters:  Dr. Nick “Fury” Garrity, a former military medic who runs a mobile medical unit from an RV and provides free treatment for the needy; Jillian Coates, in pursuit of answers following her sister Belle’s alleged suicide and, the mysterious killer-for-hire, Franz Koller.   

Koller claims to be most infamous for his ‘painless kills’ and the fact that he has mastered the art of leaving no trace at his crime scenes and arranging his kills in such a way that it appears his victims claimed their own lives.  The string that ties these three characters together is the mystery at the heart of “The Last Surgeon” and Palmer masterfully reveals a little piece at a time as the story races forward.Nick and Jillian are brought together by the shared investigation into both the suspicious suicide of Jillian’s sister and also the mysterious disappearance of Nick’s old military buddy, Lt. Umberto Vasquez.  Their search brings them to a well-known site for plastic surgery --- the Singh Medical Spa and Cosmetic Surgery Center.  Belle Coates was a Nurse here and there are indications that Lt. Umberto Vasquez may have been a recipient of a top-secret surgery to change his appearance.  Why this surgery took place and the fact that nearly everyone involved in that procedure has been eliminated in suspicious fashion is the burning question that drives Nick and Jillian’s efforts.

Meanwhile, Franz Koller has been lurking in the shadows and tailing Nick and Jillian --- adopting various guises along the way.  It appears Koller has been hired by a group/person known simply as “Jericho”.  When the actual identity and purpose of Jericho is revealed to the reader --- what you thought you understood up to that point will be turned on its head.  Could the U.S. Government actually be behind these mysterious surgeries and murders and, if so, for what purpose?  How far might a secret faction of the Government go to maintain National Security? 

What Michael Palmer has accomplished in answering these questions is to take his novel way beyond the ‘medical thriller’ genre and directly into territory normally found in the novels of Brad Thor or David Baldacci.  I can only hope that this will open “The Last Surgeon” up to a far wider audience as there is plenty here to appeal to all fans of high-octane thrillers.

In 1999, a film version of one of Palmer’s more successful novels – “Extreme Measures” – was made starring Hugh Grant and Gene Hackman.  I often wonder why more of his material has not been utilized by Hollywood – especially when the film industry seems so starved for original material.  Hopefully, “The Last Surgeon” can make that leap because its wide scope and broad understanding of current issues would make for engaging film entertainment.  A must-read for the new year!

Gator A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey

Publisher: William Morrow  ISBN: 978-0-06-143271-2

Reviewed by Jim Sells, New Mystery Reader

Florida Spring Break is wild enough without the characters present in this book. Serge and his sidekick, Coleman, are roaming the length and breadth of the state. Serge – video camera ever ready – is making a documentary of the history of spring break. As the pair travel, an entourage forms for them thanks to Serge’s messiah-like influence on the easily influenced and Coleman’s mastery of mind-altering substances ranging from smuggling alcohol in oranges to maximizing the potency of pot brownies. As if the frequent disturbances brought on the over-aged frat boys weren’t enough, Serge has one other major quirk. He’s a serial killer leaving bodies across the state as a result of his macabre booby-traps.

One pair of psychopaths isn’t sufficient for this novel. There is another group of killers lead by Guillermo who are leaving another path of bodies in their wake as they look for a boy kept in witness protection. As chance would have it, the boy has ended up with Serge and company.

Dorsey has created an odd and thoroughly entertaining mix. Be warned, the violence is plenty, but done tastefully as is the sex. Despite the number of characters, the plot is easy to follow. The biggest problem is that Serge is a very likable serial killer.

Rescuing Olivia by Julie Compton

Publisher: Minotaur Books  ISBN-10: 0312378769

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

Anders Erickson has lived most of his adult life as a laid-back Floridian guy with little more on his plate than tending the local country club’s golf course.  But when Olivia, the wealthy daughter of a prominent business man, crosses his path, he finds himself shockingly and irrefutably in love for the first time. And soon the feeling is mutual, leading the two to set up house in a cozy bungalow by the sea. 

But, when six months later while on a motorcycle trip in which Anders was considering proposing the couple is sideswiped by a car that leaves the scene, everything changes – everything.  Anders is devastated when after waking up in the hospital he’s told that the woman he loves died in the crash and, even worse, her father blames him for the death.  Yet after the initial grief subsides, Anders begins to suspect that Olivia is in fact alive and someone has taken her far beyond his reach with evil intentions, and so begins his search for the truth behind his sudden loss. 

And as his search takes him across the country and then to Africa, he’ll discover that not only did Olivia have secrets that might prove deadly, but that those secrets and the journey to uncover them will lead him to face his own past that has been hidden for far too long.

As told, there is in fact a decent plot here, but some readers might find themselves too exasperated to follow it all the way through to its satisfying ending.  Anders, for a good part of the read, spends most of his time getting drunk, driving drunk, and pretty much wallowing in self-pity.  The event that finally inspires him to get off his ass and into gear to actually look for his beloved is so unconvincing and self-serving that the reader might wonder if it's even worth the bother to see if this guy succeeds in his quest.

There are some clever twists to this story, but one can’t help but feel much more could have been done with what was eventually laid bare.  All in all, however, some well-lit settings and a few unique twists make this more than less worth the read.    

The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd

Publisher: Publisher: William Morrow  ISBN-10: 0061827010

Reviewed by Carol Reid, New Mystery Reader

Brisk and action-packed, this first installment in a promising series featuring maverick former FBI Steve Vail is strong on authentic detail, studded with weaponry and dizzying feats of reckless bravado.

A domestic terrorist group is conducting a bloody vendetta against the Bureau and making away with millions in payoff money. With their standard strategy ineffective against this threat, the FBI calls in former agent Steve Vail as secret weapon.

Author Noah Boyd (pseudonym of a real life former maverick FBI agent) knows how to build an action hero. Steve Vail satisfies the checklist - fearless, stubborn, iconoclastic, sharp-witted and sharp-tongued, ruled only by his own internal code of honor.

Since being expelled from the Bureau for insubordination, he makes a modest living as a bricklayer and in the closely guarded confines of his apartment, he sculpts works or art. Irresistible, especially to United States Attorney Tye Delson, whose advances he infuriatingly resists.  An appealing foil to Vail’s character is newly promoted Deputy Assistant Director Kate Bannon who proves to be a near match in courage, intellect and repartee.  As mutual respect and attraction develop between these two, so does the reader’s awareness that their flaws and weaknesses will make any attempt at a serious relationship a rocky road indeed.

The bad guys in this book are kept too far back in the shadows to form a detailed picture of who they are and why they are doing what they do, which lessens any effective sense of malevolence. The threat is there to be vanquished and there is never any question that Vail will prevail.

However, a mounting body count, growing antipathy between Vail and his reluctant FBI bosses and a plethora of plot twists engineered by the unstoppable hero shove this story forward to a satisfying conclusion.  A solid action thriller.

The Things That Keep Us Here by Carla Buckley

Publisher: Delacorte Press  ISBN-10: 0440245095

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

It seems that each new era brings with it a new danger to fear that will wipe out all of mankind.  Be it asteroids, terrorists, nuclear war, pollution, corporate greed…etc.  Or as in the case of first time author Buckley, a threat that is not so new – one that has been seen before and one that could easily happen again – a pandemic virus that spreads without recourse and is capable of bringing down society as we know it.

And so this is how the tale begins when a strain of the avian flu begins to slowly infect at first just a few, but then quickly takes flight, so to speak, and spreads its deadly wings over the entire globe.  And as societies begin to crumble, it’ll be each person for themselves in order to survive, forcing all to not only protect themselves from the virus, but from each other, at any cost.

If you’re thinking yeah, yeah, yeah, this has been done before, you’re right.  However, in the midst of the several world-wide panic theory books, Buckley manages to stand out by keeping a steady and heartfelt focus on one family in particular.  And as we get to know this family - a couple finalizing their divorce and their two young daughters, this fictional threat becomes that more personal and all too real. But it’s also her depiction of how such a thing can lead to the break down of not only the systems and institutions we rely on, and how that break-down can eventually lead to the downfall of cities, communities and, eventually, neighbors, friends, and even our own selves that makes this a terrifyingly immediate read.  

This isn’t an easy book to get through, but it’s both timely and worthwhile; a reminder of how delicate our world systems are, our relationships with others, and our taken-for-granted duty towards civilization, and how easily they can all be put aside when push comes to shove. This is a book that will leave you asking yourself just how far you would go in the same circumstances to protect what you love. And, most likely, as with these characters, the answer will be an uncomfortable one.     

Buckley easily scores with her first novel; one of nonstop suspense that while posing the harder questions of survival, balances out the uglier answers by keeping in mind the better ones of compassion and hope.      

Wild Penance by Sandi Ault

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover  ISBN-10: 0425232328

Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader

When taking an early morning jog in New Mexico’s high desert near Taos, NM, BLM (Bureau of Land Management) ranger Jamaica Wild is shocked to witness two shadowy figures tossing a body over the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.  After calling in the authorities, with the rising sun giving more light to the broken figure lying deep below in the rushing river, Jamaica is even more shocked to see that the body is tied to a huge cross - a tableau that immediately strikes a chord of recognition. 

For the past few months Jamaica has been researching a splintered Catholic religious sect that has been in New Mexico for ages known as Los Penitentes.  This very private and secretive group is renowned for the legends of self-flagellation, intense sacrifice, and even supposed crucifixion that surrounds it.  But except for those who are involved, what really goes on has always remained shrouded in myth and mystery.  And it’s this very mystery that ultimately connects this murder and Jamaica’s research in even deadlier ways when Jamaica becomes the next target.  But just who is targeting her - the gentle hermanos of the brotherhood, or someone who wants to see them, and her, silenced forever?

Being from the area myself, and being somewhat familiar with the topics in Wild’s novel, I have to give Ault her due.  She does a fantastic job of taking this particular subject and infusing it with just enough myth and fact to make it both convincing and mesmerizingly mysterious - of which in fact it always has been, and always will be.  Many might be tempted to treat this subject with an ignorant disdain, yet Ault shows respect and restraint as needed and treats the subject with a delicacy that both is extraordinary and compassionate.

As for the mystery itself, that’s there too in abundance, along with her well-drawn character of Wild - a strong and independent heroine who is not afraid of midnight fence checking on a horse’s back or tiny Hispanic witches who appear out of nowhere - as well as her affectionate and vivid depictions of New Mexico’s more unusual and beautiful charms.  And those who have read previous outings in the series will find delight in the suggestion that this latest is one that “is before that other time.” 

Full of ambience and spirit (both natural and otherworldly), this one comes highly recommended. 

The Fourth Assassin by Matt Beynon Rees

Publisher: Soho Press Inc. ISBN: 978-1-56947-619-2

Reviewed by Jim Sells, New Mystery Reader

Palestinian schoolteacher Omar Yussef arrives in New York to for a conference on the UN school system in the refuge camp that is his home. He also wants to visit his son Ala who is living in ‘Little Palestinian’ as the immigrant area of Bay Ridge has become known. 

Upon arrival at his son’s apartment, Yussef makes a gruesome discovery – a headless corpse. While waiting for the police and wondering if the body is his son, he sees a figure in a black coat depart the building.

Ala comes home while Yessef waits. By looking at the way the body is dressed, Ala decides it is Nazar – one of his roommates and boyhood friends. This leaves the other roommate, Rashid, as a possible suspect. However, when Ala refuses to give police an alibi, they take him as a suspect for questioning.

Yessef finds out that Ala was with a girl – Rania. He would not risk dishonoring her. Unfortunately, Nazar was interested in her too. Next Rania’s father -  involved in drug dealing - is murdered Then Yussef finds Nazar alive and that the body was Rashid. During this time, there are several attempts on Yussef’s life. The murders could be related to politics, drugs, or jealousy.

Mr. Rees has combined culture clash with several other themes to make a believable mystery. His long residence in the Middle East lends depth and insight to the story.