4 minute read
THE FINAL BEAT OF THE DRUM by Sally Spencer
THE LAST GRUDGE
Seeck, Max Trans. by Kristian London Berkley (448 pp.) $17.00 paper | Feb. 7, 2023 9780593438848
When a wealthy industrialist is murdered, the Helsinki Police Violent Crimes Unit revisits the past to find a motive. There are literally thousands of people who might want Eliel Zetterborg dead after he closed a plumbing-materials factory, but there aren’t many who could access his apartment. Soon after Joonas Lamberg, his driver and bodyguard, delivers him to his locked and alarmed apartment, Zetterborg calls for help for chest pain, and soon after that, he’s found stabbed to death. Since brilliant DS Jessica Niemi is out on leave after having barely survived an attack by a witches’ cabal, Superintendent Helena Lappi gives the case to her partner, DS Yusuf Pepple, the only one who knows of Jessica’s own wealth. As Yusuf follows all the obvious leads, Jessica, who’s still haunted by cabal members who escaped, is privately investigating a ritual murder. Among the suspects in Zetterborg’s death are Joonas, a disgraced SWAT officer, and even Zetterborg’s son, Axel, who may be tired of waiting in the wings. The apartment contains hidden clues in the form of a puzzle and ultraviolet light trails that, once decoded, lead to more puzzles. Yusuf finds that his new authority offers a better relationship with his diverse and clever team but still calls on Jessica for her magical insight. In the end the answer may lie in a hunting party that started a chain of odious events years ago.
An intricate, beautifully written, character-driven pageturner with some shocking twists.
EVERY MISSING GIRL
Sparks, Leanne Kale Crooked Lane (272 pp.) $28.99 | Feb. 7, 2023 9781639102303
The investigation of a child trafficking case is put on the back burner when a detective’s niece goes missing in what he can only hope is a coincidence. FBI Special Agent Kendall Beck and Denver Homicide Detective Adam Taylor cross paths once again after working the murder of Kendall’s best friend. This time, their two specializations (Adam: dead guys; Kendall: kids) dovetail when a shooting at a Colorado minimart leaves several bodies behind and a child vanishes into thin air. It doesn’t seem like there’s much to learn except that a good Samaritan believes the missing girl may have been the victim of trafficking. As he explains to Kendall, the previously notdead guy at the minimart didn’t exactly look like the fatherly type. But the trafficking suspects close ranks before Kendall and Adam can get started, and the two are still trying to figure out what to do next when the unthinkable happens: Adam’s niece, Frankie, goes into the locker room after a hockey game and never comes out. The hours counting down at the beginning of each chapter indicate a limited amount of time for the investigating duo to find Frankie still alive, and that time dwindles as they keep hitting dead ends. Though the case is close to home, Adam’s brother, Mark, and sister-in-law, Poppy, have no information to share. But Poppy’s evasiveness puts Adam on edge, particularly when Mark reveals similar concerns about his wife. Surely Frankie’s absence couldn’t be related to the broader child trafficking Kendall and Adam are investigating—because, if it were, the danger could be worse than anyone imagines.
The characters’ amiability and competence make the final act sting, though seasoned readers may be expecting it.
THE FINAL BEAT OF THE DRUM
Spencer, Sally Severn House (240 pp.) $29.99 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-7278-5064-5
Spencer bids farewell to her bestknown franchise. It’s been years since retired DCI Monika Paniatowski has assembled her team in the public bar of the Drum and Monkey, and time has treated each member with a characteristically heavy hand. Jack Crane, rendered unfit for service when a suspect he was subduing gouged out his eye, teaches literature at the University of Central Lancashire. Colin Beresford, father of five, works a gentleman’s farm with his wife. Monika spends her days keeping company with Zubrowka Polish vodka, having given up her dream of becoming a grandmother. Her daughter, Louisa, has become Chief Superintendent Rutter, wildly successful but childless; her son Thomas is a Catholic priest; and his twin brother, Philip, is in a detention center awaiting trial for assault. Only Kate Meadows has done something noteworthy, leaving the force to become director of Overcroft House, a shelter for battered women. After years of finding pleasure in pain as Zelda, mistress of the night, she now protects women whose pain is anything but consensual. The murder of the husband of one of the shelter’s residents by someone skilled in the art of S&M presents one of the knottiest of Spencer’s patented heads-I-win, tails-you-lose dilemmas. If Kate’s alter ego is discovered, she’ll lose her post, but if the crime goes unsolved, the shelter may close. Spencer’s dialogue is crisp as ever: Monika notes wryly that Beresford’s home-brewed beer “tastes like a diabetic tomcat has peed on a dead hedgehog.” But readers will most likely anticipate missing Monika’s matchless gift for solving the unsolvable by means unimaginable even as they cheer her final victory.
