“A mysterious adventure that spotlights the horrific experiences of Native women whose abuse is often unseen and unreported.” daughter of the morning star
THE CORPSE FLOWER
Hancock, Anne Mette Trans. by Chace, Tara Crooked Lane (336 pp.) $26.99 | Oct. 12, 2021 978-1-64385-828-9
Hancock’s striking debut rips the lid off a 3-year-old murder case and reveals even uglier secrets beneath. DS Erik Schäfer, of the Copenhagen police’s Violent Crimes Unit, is perfectly satisfied that he knows who cut attorney Christoffer Mossing’s throat and left him to bleed out in his own bed. Minutes after the murder, the security camera in Mossing’s driveway captured an image of Anna Kiel leaving the house without making the slightest effort to conceal herself. But that was the last anyone saw of Anna—until now, when she’s begun to send insinuating notes to Demokratisk Dagblad business reporter Heloise Kaldan that are unsettling in their reference to amorphophallus titanum, the so-called corpse flower native to Sumatra, and their ritualistic closing lines and disturbingly detailed knowledge about the scant details of Heloise’s private life. Already treading on thin ice ever since the confidential information her lover, Martin Duvall, the communications chief to the commerce secretary, provided for her exposé of a fashion mogul’s investment in a textile factory in Bangalore didn’t quite pan out, Heloise strains to avoid any contact with the presumptive killer. The deeper she digs into the cold case, however, the closer its nightmarish details seem to impinge on her own past. Schäfer, meanwhile, is brusquely brushed off by real estate tycoon Johannes Mossing, who seems actively opposed to getting justice for his son’s murder. The highly suspicious hanging of Ulrich Andersson, the ex-reporter who covered the case for the Dagblad, kicks the investigation into high gear. But it won’t be laid to rest until Heloise comes face to face with Anna and hears why she was so indifferent to that security camera three years ago. Scandinavian noir at its noirest. It’s hard, maybe unthinkable, to imagine how Hancock will follow it up.
WREATHING HAVOC
Henry, Julia Kensington (304 pp.) $8.99 paper | Sep. 28, 2021 978-1-4967-3309-2
The murder rate continues to rise in historic Goosebush, Massachusetts. Lilly Jayne shares her lovely Victorian home with researcher Delia Greenway and, at the moment, a few other friends who need temporary quarters. All are mourning the loss of Leon Tompkin, who was deeply involved in the Goosebush Players as both an actor and a financial backer. His sudden death has exposed a number of cracks in the relationships among competing theater groups, and his son, Fred, who 34
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1 august 2021
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fiction
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kirkus.com
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lives in California, has asked the organized and knowledgeable Lilly to help settle his estate, which includes masses of disorganized paperwork generated by Leon’s constant second thoughts about bequests. Movie stars Jeremy Nolan and Annabelle Keys, former spouses who started their careers in Goosebush, agree to do readings for a special production honoring Leon. Police Chief Bash Haywood, who’s counted on Lilly and her Garden Squad friends in the past, is a bit suspicious of Leon’s supposed heart attack, and his suspicions harden into certainty when Jeremy drops dead while eating a mini cupcake at a post-play party. The state police take over the high-profile case but ignore the many leads unearthed by Lilly’s work on the estate’s problems. Because the answer to the mystery seems to lie in the past, Delia’s skills searching through papers and archives are especially welcome. The complex past and argumentative present take a back seat to the delightful members of the sleuthing Garden Squad.
DAUGHTER OF THE MORNING STAR
Johnson, Craig Viking (336 pp.) $28.00 | Sep. 21, 2021 978-0-59-329725-4
The sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, has solved many an odd case, but none so odd as his search for a missing girl. Native American women have experienced extreme violence for years, many of them vanishing without a trace. So Walt Longmire isn’t entirely surprised when a favor he’s doing for Chief Lolo Long of the Cheyenne police leads him to a search for a missing teen. Jaya, Long’s niece, is a star basketball player for Montana’s Lame Deer Morning Stars high school who’s gotten more than 20 notes threatening her life; her sister, Jeanie, is among the missing. Along with his friend Henry Standing Bear, Longmire realizes he must investigate Jeanie’s disappearance to have any chance of helping Jaya, who has prodigious athletic talent but no team spirit. Jaya’s mother is an alcoholic who’s currently in the county jail, and her father, only recently out of jail, is involved with a White supremacy group that provides plenty of suspects. “It is not as unusual as you might think,” Henry says. “Half-Natives go into the prison in Deer Lodge and come out indoctrinated.” Longmire interviews the people who were with Jeanie when she vanished from a van that was stopped for repairs as well as others who might be connected to the case; the most surprising and useful information comes from Lyndon Iron Bull, a farmer who claims to have seen Jeanie some time later singing in a snowstorm. He introduces Longmire to the concept of the Wandering Without, a spiritual black hole that devours souls. Finding the concept fascinating, Longmire has his own encounter with something dangerous that can’t be seen. A mysterious adventure that spotlights the horrific experiences of Native women whose abuse is often unseen and unreported.
