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click on links for buying info Tears of Pearl by Tasha Alexander Publisher: Minotaur Publisher: Minotaur Books Reviewed by Bonnye Busbice Good, New Mystery Reader Lady Emily Hargreaves savors her exotic honeymoon with her wonderful husband, Colin. Yet, when a party-goer discovers an English-born member of the Sultan’s harem murdered during a party in Constantinople, Emily happily returns to her detecting work after the British and Ottoman governments request her unique skills as an English female detective. Colin, as an investigating representative for the Crown, and Emily make a bet on who will solve the crime first. Although not entirely welcome, Emily has the advantage of being allowed to enter the harem to question the other members and the more powerful women in the hierarchy. Her explorations add a matter-of-fact description of the restrictive but sumptuous lifestyle of these kept women with plenty of details about the Victorian-era Turkish society. Fellow intrepid travelers include Sir Richard St. Clare, who works in the British embassy and bears the tragedy of losing his young daughter to slave traders years before. When his diplomatic papers disappear, Sir Richard’s mental health deteriorates and Emily and Colin must help him as well, especially after his remaining child Benjamin becomes the leading suspect for the harem member’s death. Emily, also seen in A Fatal Waltz, makes a confident, assertive protagonist who routinely steps out of bounds as a wealthy noblewoman in a foreign land might. No ingénue, Emily’s marriage is her second and she intends to maintain her independence and adventurous lifestyle. Colin, devoted as a like-minded newlywed, encourages her efforts when not trying to return her to their quarters for romantic afternoons. While the honeymooning couple clearly has sex whenever possible, Alexander alludes to it without details so that book clubs will be able to avoid graphic discussions of their spirited relations. Although Lady Emily’s a clearly fictional character, there are references to real female travelers of the age, which might entice readers to learn more about this inherently interesting group of women who left comfortable society behind in order to lead a life with fewer restrictions and unending adventure.
The Tale of Applebeck Orchard by Susan Wittig Albert Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime ISBN-10: 0425229777 Reviewed by Bonnye Busbice Good, New Mystery Reader With echoes of Beatrix Potter’s magical world of talking rabbits and tiny clothes, Susan Wittig Albert slips into Miss Potter’s life on Hilltop Farm in 1910. Juxtaposing the villagers’ views with the conversations of the neighboring badgers, cats and dogs, the quiet villages of Near Sawrey and Far Sawrey become active with the mysteries of who would burn the Applebeck Orchard’s haystack, causing great financial harm to Mr. and Mrs. Harmsworth, the rough landowner and his miserable wife. When Mr. Harmsworth responds by blocking the centuries-old footpath linking Near Sawrey to Far Sawrey, the villages erupt with hot tempers. By removing access to the footpath, farm dwellers must travel much further to church and school, therefore detrimentally affecting nearly everyone—including the tired old horses and the smaller animals who find it impossible to get through the tar-covered blockade. Fortunately, level-headed Miss Potter and well-respected Captain Woodcock, who also serves as the local magistrate, will attempt to soothe ill will and uncover the dual mysteries of who started the fire and why—which leads to the discovery of much more in the way of tightly-held secrets. As a periodic visitor, Miss Potter pops in and out of the story but the real main characters remain the year-round villagers and the animals who supply missing bits of the puzzle. While enmeshed in their own hierarchies and traditions, the animals witness the strange human behaviour both before and after the fire with shrewd observations. Notable characters include Max, the tailless Manx who bravely meets the incomparable ferret by the bridge and Bosworth, the esteemed badger who maintains the animal history and frets over the line of succession for the post. Rounding out the tale are the accounts of past supernatural mysteries as well the very modern (for the slightly post-Victorian England) progressive dilemma regarding women’s rights to work, vote and to choose spouses, issues gripping the more populated areas at the time. The narrator speaks from the 21st century, periodically explaining the social difficulties but maintaining the gentle tone used throughout the book. The Tale of Applebeck Orchard is a lovely book, especially enjoyed during a quiet stretch of time when the reader can be fully immersed in Miss Potter’s treasured community.
Drawn in Blood by Andrea Kane Publisher: Publisher: William Morrow ISBN-10: 0061236802 Reviewed by Carol Reid, New Mystery Reader Drawn in Blood is the second in a series of romantic thrillers featuring former FBI agent Sloane Burbank and her lover, Special Agent Derek Parker. These characters burst onto the scene in Twisted (2008) which was widely praised as explosive, nail-biting, read-at-one-sitting suspense featuring a bizarre serial killer who has Burbank marked as victim. No such fireworks here. This sequel, which focuses on the world of art crime, turns out to be a dud. The tension between Burbank and Parker, based here on a difference of opinion on “who needs to know what” about the level of Sloane’s father’s involvement in a deadly art theft, never goes beyond the level of pouts , stilted conversation and the occasional locking of the bedroom door. If there was steam and passion in the first book’s sex scenes, here their physical relationship comes across as mechanical at best. These lead characters may have been fleshed out in the first installment, but to the reader first encountering them here, they don’t come across as credible or engaging. As in Twisted, psychotic Asian criminals provide much of the villainy but countless pages of back story stall the action without bringing the characters to life. Throw in some Albanians and you still have only a couple of the many and equally unconvincing subplots which make Drawn In Blood little more than a rough sketch. The main, insurmountable flaw in this novel is a slapdash style of writing which rarely lifts characters and events off the page and often relies on lifeless, inauthentic dialog to convey information. There is one promising plot thread involving the untimely death of a secondary character’s young daughter and his grief and vulnerability, which would have been worth focusing and building on, but it comes as too little, too late. Fans of Kane’s Burbank and Parker will have to look forward to book three of this series to get a more satisfying helping of the characters they enjoy. Drawn in Blood is unfortunately neither romantic nor thrilling.
Peace, Love and Murder by Nancy Holzner Publisher: Gale Publishing ISBN-10: 1594147752 Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader If your hippie parents had named you “Rainbow Windsong Forrester”, you’d probably change your name to Bo and run off to join the army, too. Bo Forrester has spent 20 years not being what his parents wanted—now he’s come home to try and reconcile his past, only to find it gone. The hippie parents aren’t there, and the old commune has been subsumed by a housing development. Bo gets a job as a cab driver while he’s assessing his options, but life soon gets very complicated when a dead man turns up in the trunk of his cab. Of course, this has to be the day he gets stopped for speeding by a cute little deputy sheriff with the instincts of a rat terrier. Despite having no connection at all to the dead man, Bo is suspected of his murder. Everywhere he goes, Deputy Trudy seems to be there, lurking behind lamp-posts and hanging out in his favourite bar. Just because he’s a stubborn cuss, Bo attends the dead man’s funeral, which adds to the suspicion that he knows something about the murder. The dead man’s wife gets friendly, which adds more suspicion. And then a fellow cabbie turns out to be a drug dealer, which focuses attention on the cab company yet again. It looks as if Bo’s only way out of the mess is to do some detecting himself. This could be difficult, given his shadow, Trudy. Can he trust her? Should he? This is a fast, amusing read that won’t upset your stomach or mental equilibrium. I’m sure there will be future adventures for Bo and Trudy, and I look forward to reading them.
Red Bones by Ann Cleeves Publisher: Minotaur Books ISBN-10: 0312384343 Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader Ann Cleeves has a particular skill in depicting the cold northern seas, no doubt a by-product of her time as a coastguard auxiliary. Her latest foray into crime takes us to the windswept and bleakly beautiful Shetland Islands, where the seemingly accidental death of an old woman uncovers other, older, crimes, and precipitates another new one. Detective Jimmy Perez, whose roots in Shetland go back to the Armada, is initially unsure how much involvement his young assistant Sandy Wilson should have in the case of Mima Wilson’s death by shotgun. Mima was Sandy’s grandmother, and the accidental killer is his cousin Andrew. On the one hand, Sandy’s local knowledge of the island of Whalsay might be useful—on the other hand, Sandy tends to bumble around a bit and blurt out information that might better be kept quiet. The Procurator Fiscal (a peculiarly Scottish institution that apparently combines coroner and district attorney) wants the case tidied up and sorted out, but Jimmy smells something a bit off. Then one of the young archaeologists at the dig near Mima’s house is found dead, an apparent suicide. Initially it appears her previous mental illness may be the cause, but that doesn’t seem plausible to Jimmy and Sandy, who knew how excited the young woman was about the finds she’d made at the dig. On the threshold of her first major breakthrough, why would she have killed herself? Could she have uncovered something that the local people would prefer left buried? Does it involve the anomalous age of one of the bone fragments? Meanwhile, the more Sandy pokes around Whalsay, the more uneasy he becomes about what’s going on with his parents. A totally horrifying suspicion begins to grow in his mind, and he resorts to some underhanded investigating away from the official police case to find out more. The truth when he finds it is bad enough, but there may be more to come, something that will make living in the close-knit community impossible. For the first time, Sandy’s choice of career and his family responsibilities pull him in opposite directions. He tries temporarily hiding in the bottle, but quickly discovers that’s no solution. Whether you like a classic mystery of the old school, a murder in an exotic location, or a character study in crime, this book will satisfy.
Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely Publisher: Minotaur Books ISBN-10: 0312537565 Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader Elizabeth Parker, a recently dumped (depending how you look at it) woman, has had it with the big city and so takes up her Aunt’s invitation to spend the New Year’s celebration at her recently opened Cape Cod’s Bed and Breakfast, an invitation she’ll soon regret. Sure, the evening’s festivities sound enticing with a murder/dinner mystery set-up in the historic renovated inn, but when someone actually ends up dead when the lights go out, fun turns to stun, and with Beth’s aunt being the number one suspect, she naturally feels a dire need to solve the crime. Kiely’s debut novel may seem familiar, but maybe it’s that familiarity that makes this a perfect book to read on a rainy day when thinking of the true aspects of crime seems just too much. Her asides to Jane Austin via her amateur detective who shares the love of Austin with her aunt are sweet and warming, and the crime and clues that follow are bloodless and cozily non-offending. Sometimes, this is just what is needed for a lover of mystery: a crime played out with clues cleverly displayed, characters that are unassuming, and the smell of just baked bread lingering in the background. This is a charming read and a fun who-done-it that manages to hit the mark in a delightful manner, and we look forward to more in this very promising series.
Skull Duggery by Aaron Elkins Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime ISBN-10: 0425227979 Reviewed by Bonnye Busbice Good, New Mystery Reader Fans of the Gideon Oliver series will rejoice with the return of the famous Skeleton Detective in a mystery that unfolds as Gideon and his wife Julie vacation on a Mexican tourist ranch that has special meaning for Julie. Julie rejoices in seeing her cousin Annie, Uncle Carl, adopted Uncle Tony and the rest of her relatives who run the ranch. As a young woman, Julie worked on the family ranch and has been called to help out many years later after an extreme personnel shortage leaves the family in temporarily dire need of accounting and hospitality services. Gideon, expecting long hours of contemplation and relaxation, has left his forensic tools at home although the itch to commune with bones appears quickly as his relaxation turns into boredom. Fortunately for Gideon, the very quiet town residents recently discovered mummified remains—and the local police request Gideon’s expertise in order to prevent the national police from returning and wreaking havoc on the small department as they did in a murder investigation just the year before. While Julie keeps busy with the ranch, Gideon renews his friendship with an intellectually entertaining old friend and immerses himself in the mummy’s remains and previous year’s bones. He also manages to continue his habit of making friends in unlikely places but primarily works this mystery by himself, creating new problems in need of solutions in the process, making this an ideal vacation for the inherently interesting character of Gideon Oliver. As usual, Elkins ties all the loose ends together in a satisfying conclusion, including some ends no one knew were problematic. In a rare misstep early in Skull Duggery, readers will wonder what horrific experience Elkins has had with feminists although he does finally drop an irrelevant angle on a women’s conference partway through the book. This particular book also proves relatively bloodless in the traditional sense, so squeamish mystery readers shouldn’t worry about too much gory description. Fans of forensic mysteries and TV shows like Bones will definitely want to pick up this welcome addition to the Skeleton Detective series.
Sheer Folly by Carola Dunn Publisher: Minotaur Books ISBN-10: 031238775X Reviewed by Bonnye Busbice Good, New Mystery Reader Daisy Dalrymple may have lowered her social status by marrying a commoner—and policeman!—but she and her best friend Lucy are making the most of 1926 and its new freedoms for women. As part of her free-lance writing projects, Daisy has decided to cover a folly, or unique money-draining project, for an article and a book, both of which will utilize Lucy’s professional photographs. This particular folly is of a recently restored grotto made from three caves and adorned with statues and gas fixtures (although lacking a good place to sit down) on the former Appsworth estate, now owned by a non-royal plumbing company owner, whose respectability hinges more on his purchase of Appsworth Hall rather than his cheerful manner. While Daisy and Lucy work, they meet the obnoxious Lord Rydal, known as Rhino for his boorish behavior; Julia Beaufort, whom her accompanying and impoverished mother is desperately trying to marry off to a suitable gentleman; the secretive Canadian professor Charles Armitage; and other characters whose presence has little to do with the plumber who serves as their underappreciated host. After a fatal accident occurs at the grotto, the local police join Daisy’s husband in delicately investigating the privileged guests. Featuring romance, danger, and an engrossing atmospheric depiction of the time period, Sheer Folly works well as a light read for historical mystery fans in this latest of the Daisy Dalrymple series. Dunn has definitely done her research with the interests and class bias of the pre-Depression English well-to-do and her tale romps along with Daisy and Lucy as their quip-filled working weekend turns into a serious police investigation which threatens to expose the embarrassing secrets of the titled guests.
The Night Monster by James Swain Publisher: Ballantine Books ISBN-10: 0345515463 Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader When Florida PI Jack Carpenter is asked by his daughter to look into a peculiar man who has been stalking her college basketball team, what first seems like a simple case of weirdness turns into much more when one of the women is abducted. An abduction that Jack actually witnesses and ends up in the hospital as a result of when his rescue attempt falls short. What’s more is that Jack recognizes one of the abductors - a “giant” that looks much like the man who got away 18 years before doing the same thing in a case that Jack worked on as a rookie cop on the force. But this time Jack is determined not to let the culprit slip through his hands, even when nobody believes him and he finds out he’s on his own to rescue the young woman from a couple of bad guys who have had years to refine their deadly deeds. Where to start on what’s wrong here is simply from the beginning. In chapter one Jack wrestles an alligator while rescuing an autistic child from drowning - just another day in the life. Another day and a few chapters later Jack spots a group of casino cheaters that have evaded the professionals on the case in a sting operation, saving the day yet again. But somehow when it comes to saving the abducted girl, Jack can’t seem to make the right moves. Aborted shoot-outs, waiting for back-up, not waiting for back-up, going fishing, and walking the dog seem to take precedence more often than not. Mentioning more mishaps might ruin the “suspense.” In a plot that starts out with more drama than sense, Swain continues to solidify his decision that logic and reality are not needed as he proceeds down a very slippery slope full of events that get more preposterous by the page. From Jack putting crime scene evidence in his pocket (to protect it from the unseen evidence stealers roaming about?), to going undercover as a guy out fishing who actually goes fishing as the clock is ticking on a young girl’s life, to shooting at the bad guy who is holding said victim as a shield and thinking “it’s her life not mine,” are just a few examples that could lead to a head injury for not only the reader but for those in close range who might get hit when the book is thrown in frustration. A little research, a bit more editing, and a whole lot more conscious deliberation might have saved this one. Instead, even the most loyal mystery buffs will find their time better spent watching bad reality TV.
The Hidden Man by David Ellis Publisher: Putnam Adult ISBN-10: 0399155791 Reviewed by Joseph Obermaier, New Mystery Reader Every good trial lawyer knows how to tell a story. Perhaps that is why so many have tried their hand at fiction. David Ellis has made it a second career. In addition to having written five other novels, including the Edgar Award winning Line of Vision, Ellis is still Counsel to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives and served as the impeachment prosecutor in the trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich. His latest novel is The Hidden Man, a legal mystery introducing a new series lead, Jason Kolarich. Jason Kolarich has issues. After blaming himself for his wife and child’s death in a car accident, he’s turned his back on a promising career at a big law firm to hang up a shingle as a solo practitioner. He is hired by a stranger named Smith (not his real name) to defend someone Jason once knew well, an old boyhood friend, Sammy Cutler. In the summer of 1980, Sammy’s two-year-old sister Audrey was kidnapped from her bedroom in the middle of the night and never seen again. A sex offender in the neighborhood, Griffin Perlini, was arrested, but never convicted. Sammy is accused of killing Perlini now, almost thirty years later. Though few would blame him for the death of a pedophile responsible for the disappearance of his sister, Sammy has never admitted to the crime. Smith represents an undisclosed “third party” who wants Sammy acquitted of the murder, and is willing to go to great lengths to see that it happens, even supplying witnesses and a patsy for the defense. When Kolarich starts receiving violent threats from Mr. Smith, he realizes that discovering the identity of this unknown third party is somehow involved with the mystery of Audrey’s disappearance and may be the key to winning Sammy’s freedom. The Hidden Man has an original plot, with lots of twists and turns, and a surprising but logical twist at the end. The story jumps around in time, occasionally shifting the point of view, but never in a way that is difficult to follow and always to help flesh out the rich history of the characters. I want to see more of Jason, and look forward to the next entry in a hopefully long-lived series. David Ellis is a remarkably talented writer. His prose is in a traditionally “literary” vein, but the additional attention demanded from the reader quickly pays off as the story progresses. His sentences seem as intricately constructed as his plotting, relying as much on inference and suggestion as plain prose. It is a richer experience than most mysteries, and ought to be savored and enjoyed. If all this seems more than a little reminiscent of Scott Turow’s work, I’m sure that’s intentional. Ellis once described Turow as inspiration. Like Turow’s Kindle County, The Hidden Man is set in a fictitious Midwestern city that bears a remarkable resemblance to Chicago. All the other typically Turow elements are there: crisply drawn characters, themes of loyalty and trust, and the tension between the law in theory and the dirtier side of the law in practice. And like Turow, Ellis is a master of misdirection. What you see is never simply what you get. Much has been said about imitation and flattery; Ellis’s work is not so much imitation as emulation. And Scott Turow should be very flattered indeed.
Hardball by Sara Paretsky Reviewed by R.J. Brown (Memories and Mysteries), New Mystery Reader Two elderly sisters in a terminal care home on Chicago’s South Side hire V. I. Warshawski to find their son & nephew, missing for forty years after a murder at a Civil Rights event in Marquette Park to which Martin Luther King had come. Eventually the police bagged their man: he confessed & was convicted. Case closed. Then came the Blizzard of ‘67. Fast-forward to the present: Warshawski returns from a frustrating visit with an old fearsome client in Stateville penitentiary to find her office trashed & on her security tape three strangers, with carefully hidden faces, at her front door. When she shows the stills to family members, she’s shocked when they tell her the one punching in her keypad code is her newly-met cousin fresh in from Kansas City, Petra, who should have been at the election HQ for a local candidate with whom her wealthy father & Warshawski’s uncle Peter grew up. Instead, Petra is missing. As VI hunts down clues, treading into neighborhoods she probably shouldn’t have, speaking with people who were there, unearthing newspaper reports of that long ago murder & its court transcripts, skeletons from Chicago’s past & its modern day politics as well as her own family history, come throwing fire bombs, killing anew & scratching at the same racial wounds. Paretsky’s style is as scattered as buckshot. Sometimes I had to reread a passage cuz she’d wrapped the present around the past too quickly; sometimes her heroine thought & did things she couldn’t have known or was too injured to have done, & sometimes the recapitulations were too many, however, as I got used to the lope of this author’s language I was fascinated by the frenetic ride through a community’s history & attitudes & how little they seemed to have changed, under that PC veneer. I landed in the Windy City as a raw immigrant in the middle of that decade & put my secretarial skills to work for a mover & shaker in those tumultuous Civil Rights years. I remember walking arm-in-arm on a couple of those scary marches & learning about the social tides of neighborhoods. I also remember that almighty snowstorm & how it brought everything to a standstill. HARBALL is a rousing, memorable urban adventure filled with old & new deadly deeds & shameful behavior relieved by the occasional redeeming gesture.
The Brutal Telling by Louise Penny Publisher: Minotaur Books ISBN-10: 0312377037 Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader Penny returns with her 4th outing featuring the idyllic Canadian village of Three Pines and the delightful characters that inhabit it. This time out, once again the close-knit group will discover that all is not as it seems when one of their own is linked to the brutal murder of an unidentified old man who lived deep in the forest, a man who was unknown to the small community until his murder. And hot on the case is once again the wise and savvy Chief Inspector Gamache and his hand-picked crew of investigators. It all begins when the victim’s body is discovered in the town’s popular bistro, a shocking discovery that leaves most of the villagers stunned and some of them increasingly suspicious of the new owners of the Hadley House, a once decrepit old wreck that has now been gloriously restored into an upscale spa resort. But when the victim’s cabin is found deep in the forest, the possible list of suspects grows when several million dollars worth of historical treasures are found inside, along with some mysterious carvings that seem to hold the clues to the entire puzzle. And as the trail leads closer and closer to Olivier, one of the Bistro’s owners and a beloved friend to all, this tiny village will find that once again, behind the most tranquil of settings lies deep and dark secrets that can be deadly. Like before, Penny once again provides a tale that is so richly developed, so unassumingly complex, and so emotionally satisfying that readers will find themselves wishing beyond all hope that they could spend just one moment in the world she’s created. The mystery, the characters, the setting, all combine in what is just about a perfect read. Penny manages to at once create what seems to be an idyllic place and time, while simultaneously showing the faults that lie just beneath the surface, making both somehow coexist in a believable way that just makes a wonderfully human sort of sense. This is not done with moments of “ah hah,” but instead with realistic, lovingly lingering glances at the frailties and imperfections that dispel the notion of flawlessness being the sole identifier of beauty and rightness. Penny’s novels are pure magic, with their greatest surprises being in not how bad people can be, or by revealing “who done it,” but by revealing the imperfections that somehow make us all so glorious, sorrowful, meaningful, and down-right human.
Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon Publisher: Ballantine Books ISBN-10: 0345476026 Reviewed by Carol Reid, New Mystery Reader "But imagine yourself in pieces. Imagine all the people who have known you only for a year or a month or a single encounter, imagine those people in a room together trying to assemble a portrait of you, the way an archaeologist puts together the fragments of a ruined façade, or the bones of a caveman. Do you remember the fable of the seven blind men and the elephant? It's not that easy, after all, to know what you're made up of."
More a novel of mysteries than a mystery novel, Await Your Reply explores the fragile illusion of personal identity, the lucidity of madness and the sticky web of kinship which both drives and destroys the characters' senses of self. Miles Cheshire searches for his brilliant, chameleon-like twin brother, Hayden, who years earlier may or may not have been responsible for the house fire which took the lives of their mother and stepfather. Now in his mid-twenties, Miles's search for his twin takes him on a parallel journey through his own memories of their childhood and each's perceptions of reality. Eighteen year-old orphan Lucy Lattimer and her former history teacher George Orson are lovers on the lam from the tiny nowheresville where they met and formed an alliance. After a period spent in the abandoned motel Orson presents as having been his childhood home, he persuades Lucy that in order to go on together, they must cast off George and Lucy and emerge as other people. What do they have to lose? University student Ryan Schuyler is dead- at least, that's the plan. His black sheep "Uncle Jay" has recently revealed to Ryan that he is in fact Ryan's father and that Ryan's life so far is an utter falsehood, that his "parents" are the sister and brother in law of Ryan's deceased mother. So why not fake his own death and fall in with Jay, an online scamming entrepreneur? The story bounces unapologetically among these three plotlines which begin as very distinct, separate entities. As the novel hurtles to its conclusion, the distinctions become muddled and even more mesmerizing. This is a dazzling, dark, beautifully rendered novel which is well worth several reads. Highly recommended.
The Spire by Richard North Patterson Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. ISBN-10: 0805087737 Reviewed by Dana King, New Mystery Reader A lot of books claim to tell how to write a best-seller. Most are descriptions of formulae intended to ensure critics know you checked the boxes and readers will be pleasantly puzzled without being overly challenged. Originality is encouraged, but not so much the reader leaves the comfort zone. Good writing is nice—it won’t disqualify you—but well down the list of requirements. Suspension of disbelief can be dispensed with if necessary. There are other elements, not mandatory but still helpful. The protagonist should be a man young enough to be vigorous, old enough to have experience. He will meet a beautiful, younger (but not inappropriately so) woman who is haunted by some aspect of her life or this case, preferably both. There will be a handful of supporting characters from which the villain may be found, a small enough number to keep easy track of. If this means people are incongruously kept in proximity for extended periods of time or through convoluted circumstances, so be it. Language must be safe, but not sterile. No one wants to horrify those who don’t mind murder, rape, sadomasochism, or other forms of gruesome violence, but are offended by too many of George Carlin’s Seven Words. Grammar, including dialog, will be impeccable. No one wants to disappoint seventh-grade teacher Betsy Puregrammar so she won’t buy the next installment. External events may distract readers, so each speaker will refer to his listener by name as often as 800 numbers are repeated in late night TV ads. (“I’m glad to see you’re safe, John.” “As am I, Marsha.” “Hold me, John.” “Yes, Marsha, I’ll never leave you alone again.”) Exposition is always helpful; there can’t be enough of it. Obscure facts about each characters should be paraded before the reader as possible clues or red herrings, or just to get the word count up around 100,000. Characters are always willing—eager—to share their innermost tragedies and malforming psychic events, often prefaced with, “I’ve never told this to anyone before.” So goes Richard North Patterson’s latest thriller, The Spire. A student is strangled, her body left at the base of Caldwell College’s most notable landmark, a bell tower referred to by all as the Spire. Football hero Mark Darrow’s best friend is convicted of the murder. Darrow goes on to become the John Edwards of financial fraud lawyers (sans the infidelity), and is asked by Caldwell provost—and Darrow’s mentor—Lionel Farr to return to Caldwell as president in the aftermath of a financial scandal. Darrow comes back to find everything reminds him of the murder, and of his friend in prison, which seems odd, since Darrow hasn’t even written the guy for years. Darrow, of course falls for the beautiful—but haunted—younger woman, Farr’s daughter. He also must work through the current scandal and accommodate his suddenly urgent interest in the murder with a cast of supporting players who are the same people he knew in college and high school. The book’s other salient points have been described above. The killer can be determined in the first third of the book; the only real suspense is in wondering what clue will be found, or what previous clue will be discovered to have a different meaning, so that the story can come around to him. It’ll sell a million.
206 Bones by Kathy Reichs Publisher: Scribner ISBN-10: 0743294394 Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader Could Temperance Brennan be losing her edge? Clearly there’s something wrong when the new girl at the forensic lab in Quebec keeps finding errors that Temperance has made, or important facts that she’s overlooked. The acting head of the LSJML, the oleaginous coroner Hubert, has had Tempe on the carpet almost every day since Dr Briel has begun poking her nose into Tempe’s cases. Hubert has been running things since Tempe’s old mentor, LaManche, has been on sick leave, and he is all too willing to accept Dr Briel’s evidence of Tempe’s incompetence. How could she leave finger bones at an excavation, or miss tell-tale medical staining on a dead child’s teeth? On top of her other problems, Tempe also has a new lab assistant who takes offense at the smallest things and has to be coddled in order to get any work out of him. Her off-again-on-again relationship with Detective Andrew Ryan is making her emotions somewhat less than stable. There’s been a death in her former husband’s family and they are counting on her to answer their questions, despite the killing having happened outside her jurisdiction. And Tempe’s nasty neighbour Sparky Monteil is again making threats against her cat, Birdy. Tired, overworked, jet-lagged and cold, Tempe then comes down with an Olympic-class dose of food poisoning. Could anything else go wrong, Tempe wonders. Yes, of course it could: she could wake up in a cold, dark underground vault with a thumping headache, surrounded by dead people, trussed up like a slaughter lamb. That could spoil anyone’s day. Somehow Kathy Reichs manages to find new themes for each of her Temperance Brennan novels which keeps the series from falling into a rut. This tale of professional jealousy and murder for gain is as involving and intricate as any of the previous Brennan/Ryan adventures.
Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain Publisher: Minotaur Books ISBN-10: 0312368488 Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader In her third outing featuring the violent and unresolved saga between serial killer Gretchen Lowell and detective Artie Sheridan, Cain continues her propensity for graphically designed suspense that shows no mercy for the faint at heart. Taking up where she left off in her second in the series, with detective Sheridan still voluntarily residing in a mental institution recovering from his tortuous, near-death experience at the hands of the alluring serial killer Gretchen, who has successfully escaped from prison, Cain takes it up a notch by introducing Gretchen’s fan club. It seems that the nation has become entranced with Gretchen, otherwise known as the Beauty Killer, and with Gretchen still out there nobody feels safe, especially when a new set of grisly killings are discovered bearing her signature. But is Gretchen the culprit, or is it the work of someone from one of her many fan clubs merely duplicating her fine art of killing? This is the question that will bring Artie out of his retirement and his mental vacation within the white, blank walls of the safe institution and back into the very heart of the evil that drove him there. While it’s recommended that the more thoughtful reader start from the beginning of the series in order to understand the psychological obsessions and dimensions that are really the heart of this saga, those who are seeking pure gore can easily pick up the series at anytime and be satisfied. But do heed the warning that Cain’s idea of madness is a lot more graphic than most, and new readers might just find this latest to be mostly a gratuitous display of violence that without that meaningful context used in her first two novels lacks the validation previously supplied. However, she does make a salient point about our nation’s obsession with, and tendency to, glorify such madness, and maybe that alone is enough to justify her unabashed approach to this latest feast of gore.
Evidence of Murder by Lisa Black Publisher: William Morrow ISBN-10: 0061544485 Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader After dealing with the death of her fiancée in a failed hostage negotiation, forensic investigator Theresa MacLean has spent the last 8 months in a fog of grief and sorrow. So when she's called to the scene of a missing beautiful, young woman, a woman who was once an escort and who used her beauty to marry a rich and upcoming technogamer creator, her empathy for the possible victim is pretty much nonexistent. But once the woman's body is found she begins to feel a bit of compassion for not only the dead young woman, but for the infant child she left behind. While all clues point to suicide, Theresa is one of the few who feels there is something more insidious behind her death. And when the evidence and her instincts begin to suggest that the beautiful child left behind might be the next victim, Theresa finds herself emotionally immersed in a case that everyone else has written off and one that will put her in the same danger as the next possible victim she's trying to protect. Having read more than one or two "forensic" mysteries, what immediately became clear about this second in Black's new series is her refreshingly truthful approach about the function of the scientist in investigations. More than once her character admits that her role is in the lab, not out interrogating suspects as a well-dressed CSI wannabe detective. Naturally, this doesn't stop her from becoming just that, but still, it helps that it's admitted with a bit of irony and self-deprecation. Personally, I liked this character, and I liked the sometimes awkwardness she displays, it feels real and honest. And for forensic buffs, hey, there's plenty of that too. This is a series that shows a lot of promise, and I look forward to the next.
In Their Blood by Sharon Potts Publisher: Oceanview Press ISBN 978 1 933515 62 5 Reviewed by Karen Treanor, New Mystery Reader Whatever Sharon Potts is doing for a day job, she can probably consider giving it up pretty soon, if this book is a measure of her ability as a thriller writer. Most writers can make you turn the pages by creating a protagonist whose well-being you care about, but it takes real skill to create a fairly unlikeable leading character and then convince the reader to want to know what happens to him. Jeremy Stroeb is a spoiled brat who’s never had to worry where his next meal was coming from. A disappointment to his parents, he has run off to bum around Europe and live a life of no pressure or responsibility. That all changes when his parents are murdered and he comes home too late for the funeral. Jeremy’s first instinct is to return to the beach-bum life, but the plight of his teenage sister Elise slows his departure. If Jeremy leaves, their nasty uncle gets custody of her and the family home. Then he is convinced that the police are taking the line of least resistance and not really digging into the motive for the murders. For starters, who was the target, his mother or his father? It’s obvious that this wasn’t a burglary gone wrong, which means the real motivation must be hidden in something his parents did or knew. Was it his university professor activist father, or his high-powered CPA mother? Helped by his father’s sexy graduate assistant, who turns out to have hidden motives of her own, Jeremy begins digging into his parents’ past. The more he finds out, the more he’s puzzled: like most of us, he never knew a great deal about who his parents really were, what they did, what they knew, what they dreamed. He’s partly appalled and partly fascinated, and totally confused. As he learns more about the people who made him, Jeremy begins to gain some insight into himself, and there’s a glimmer of hope that he may, after all, become a functioning adult one day. Let down by one ally, Jeremy reluctantly accepts the help of another, but as the two of them come closer to learning what’s behind the smoke and mirrors, the chances of becoming the murderer’s target themselves increases. Potts has produced a well-constructed novel, with one clue leading to another and the fear factor increasing bit by bit as the story progresses. Starting with a feeling of vague unease, she screws up the tension, especially for Elise, who knows something but can’t remember what it is until suddenly she’s in mortal danger. This is a very solid start for what’s bound to be a profitable new career for author Potts.
Crime Always Pays by Declan Burke Publishing info: Kindle Edition (Coming soon from Amazon.com) Reviewed by Dana King, New Mystery Reader Few books in recent memory have been as much fun to read as Declan Burke’s The Big O. The sequel, Crime Always Pays, is a worthy successor. The whole cast is back. Ray, the “retired’ kidnapper; Karen, the armed robber with the empty gun, and her one-eyed wolf-dog, Anna; Rossi, on parole, still working his idea for a charity for criminals; Doyle, the cop; Sleeps, Rossi’s narcoleptic driver; Terry, Ray’s old boss; Madge, the kidnap “victim;” and Melody. The book starts a few hours after The Big O lets off, with Karen determined to get Anna to a safe place. She—Anna, not Karen—almost bit Rossi’s head off, and the authorities will put her to sleep if they catch her. Greece looks promising. Her plan is complicated because she has the €200,000 scammed in Madge’s kidnapping and just about everyone wants a piece. The book is an extended chase scene reminiscent of the 1963 film, It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. The players break into increasingly fluid teams as allegiances shift and plans change. The reader knows more than any of the characters—not difficult, considering some of the characters—but still not quite enough to expect what comes next. The end result is a little like what might be expected if Elmore Leonard wrote from an outline by Carl Hiaasen. Don’t worry too much about where everyone is all the time; they’ll get there in the end. Hell, one character thinks he’s on his way to Sicily while his “team” is driving along the Adriatic toward Greece. If he’s off that much, it won’t kill you not to know exactly where everyone else is. The fun here is in the trip. Trying to track too closely everyone’s precise whereabouts would be like going down a water slide slowly enough to know where you were at all times. It can be done, but how much fun would it be? Devotees of strictly laid-out police procedurals or cozies may find Crime Always Pays a bit pell-mell for their taste; Burke’s not writing for them, anyway. Crime Always Pays is about the flow, the feel, the dialog, the interactions among characters, not knowing who’s working with—or against—who, the feeling that anything might happen at any moment. It’s as close to watching an action movie as a reading experience can be. The best news may be the surprise Burke saves for the very end, which deftly sets up a possible third volume if he wants to write one. Let’s hope he does.
Heaven’s Keep by William Kent Krueger Publisher: Atria ISBN-10: 1416556761 Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader Cork O’Connor, former Minnesota sheriff who also spent many years as a PI, is trying to get hired back with the Tamarack County Sherriff’s Department when his wife goes missing along with several Tribal officials during a flight to a conference on Indian gaming. All anyone knows is that the plane suddenly disappeared while traveling over the desolate, snow-swept plains of Wyoming. Cork is quick to head there to join the search, bringing along his 19 year old son, a boy who has always been haunted by dreams of his mother in danger and lost forever. And as the days turn into weeks, and then months, it seems clear that the boy’s portent of danger has at last come true. And when at last the search is called off, Cork and his son head back home, knowing the time has come to let go and get on with their lives. But when several months later two women show up, one the wife of the pilot of the plane, asking for Cork’s help to find out the truth behind the plane’s disappearance, their doubts about what happened that fateful day begin to raise warning flags in Cork’s mind as well. So he sets off to find answers in a search that will lead him down dangerous trails where he’ll encounter drug runners, greedy developers, and tribal members with questionable intent who will do just about anything to keep their secrets undiscovered. But along with all these questions comes the biggest one of all, is it possible that his wife survived the crash, and if she did, is she still out there waiting to be found? This latest from Krueger comes with a diverse set of themes which include loyalty, greed, the importance of family, friends, and tradition, and perhaps most importantly, the consequences of holding dear and without corruption the values closest to one’s heart versus letting them go for a price. While raising some of the many questions that rage between those supporting unchecked development and those who oppose it, as well as those raised between Native Americans who support the financial advancements that gaming could bring and those who feel it is just as capable as bringing ruin to tradition and pride, Krueger manages to present both sides with a fair sense of reasoning. And amidst all this, he also brings to the table a story of loss and letting go set in beautifully vivid backdrops filled with an ambience that is just as sorrowful as what takes place within them. This latest is worth reading, and is one that both fans and newcomers will find holds enough creditable sentiments worth considering long after it’s over.
The Silent Spirit by Margaret Coel Publisher: Berkley Hardcover ISBN-10: 0425229769 Reviewed by Stephanie Padilla, New Mystery Reader Vicky Holden, a Wyoming Arapahoe Indian lawyer, has been doing the best she can to settle into her relatively new partnership of love and law with her handsome Lakota partner Adam. But while she understands logically that fighting for the bigger picture for her people is all good and fine, she still misses the close-up and personal cases that were her bread and butter before the new arrangement. So when she begins to be receive mysterious phone calls from another Arapaho who claims to have killed a fellow member of the tribe, she can’t help but feel a duty to help the sobbing voice on the phone. Initially unaware that the victim is a known drug addict just released from prison, she is undeterred to find the truth. But when she discovers that the murdered victim is a young man who was seeking answers to the mysterious disappearance of his great-grandfather years before, a search shared by Father John, the mission priest on the reservation who she unadmittedly holds feelings for, she can’t help but get overly involved even while knowing it might ruin all she’s built. And as the search leads these two seekers to the same place, Hollywood’s “moving pictures” in the early 1920s, they’ll find their answers becoming one and the same as they reach back into that past and its deadly secrets that have been waiting to be revealed. Both history buffs and the uninitiated of Hollywood folklore and the roles Indians played in the first true Westerns will find some pretty interesting stuff in this latest. Coel offers up some fascinating facts mixed with fiction in her flashbacks to the early 1920s methods of making Westerns that provide some interesting surprises. All the while, of course, highlighted by her insightful look into the repercussions that continue to linger from America’s past history with Native Americans. And for fans of the series who hope to see both Vicky and Father John end up where they belong, doing what they love, she continues to offer up a sliver of hope that they might just have arrived, or if not, they might get there soon.
A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd Publisher: William Morrow ISBN-10: 0061791768 Reviewed by Joseph Obermaier, New Mystery Reader There is a thrill that comes with losing yourself in a well-crafted English mystery. The elements are all well-known. Set the story in one of those dark, brooding hamlets filled with schemes, family secrets, and murder that seem to cover the English landscape. Fill it with authentic, vibrant characters from a different time and place and brought to life through beautiful, inspired descriptions. Make sure the plot is silky smooth, flowing effortlessly from one twist to the next, never revealing too much, but always luring the reader deeper into the tale. And the language that ties it all together has to evoke a charm that lasts until you reluctantly, unhappily reach the end of the book. So it is with Charles Todd’s A Duty to the Dead. A Duty to the Dead is the superb start of a new historical series from the mother and son writing team Charles Todd, author of the Inspector Rutledge mysteries. It is 1916. Our heroine, Bess Crawford, is a World War I nurse who has served in the field and is now serving on the hospital ship Britannic. She grew particularly close to one of her patients, Arthur Graham, and just before he passed away, she promised to deliver a final message to his brother back home: “Tell Jonathan I lied. I did it for Mother’s sake. But it has to be set right.” When the Britannic is sunk by a mine, she breaks her arm and is sent home to England to recover and await her next orders. Believing strongly that “a duty to the dead is a sacred thing,” and despite having delayed in doing it, Bess sets off to Arthur’s family home in Owlhurst, Kent to deliver the cryptic message. Although she doesn’t understand the message, Bess is sure that Arthur was bothered by some family issue that he anxiously wanted made right. Arriving at the Graham house, she is troubled that neither the brother Jonathan, nor any of the other family members gives the message any import. When it looks as if that the family may not honor Arthur’s wishes, Bess can’t help but poke around to see if she can ensure that whatever it was that must be “set right” will be. Bess’s sense of duty leads her to probe too deeply and she is soon swept up in a long buried family secret. She must discover the truth, though that may prove even more dangerous than the war. Bess Crawford is an intriguing heroine. Spirited and gutsy, she is not the usual upper-middle-class young woman, but not so much that she comes across as anachronistic. While she admits the unresolved feelings she has for the late Arthur may be affecting her judgment, she isn’t a woman in search of romance. It is her sense of duty that leads her to get involved in the problems of others. She is a trained nurse in wartime, trying to cure not only physical wounds, but also alleviate mental suffering as well. We believe she has seen the horrors she describes. And because of that, we accept that she would insert herself into this mystery, to help end suffering and to set things “right.” Through her, we get to experience life in World War I England. While the war is largely in the background in this book, its presence weighs heavily over all the characters. The mystery never gets lost in all the history, though. The War and its effects never smother the intrigue. The solution is smartly conceived, and will keep you guessing until the end. Simply put, this novel works. A Duty to the Dead is a welcome old-fashioned mystery and a brilliant start to a character with plenty more to discover in future books in the series. I, for one, can’t wait. |
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