AN EGGNOG TO DIE FOR
with his wealth of knowledge as a forensic semiotician. After all, the University of Chicago doesn’t hire just anyone, and Evan’s expertise is so impressive that it sometimes makes Addie consider giving up her penchant for bad boys to pursue something with him. Although Evan and his research assistant can figure out the symbols are runes associated with the Viking Age, their discovery doesn’t shed much light on the murder. So Addie’s colleagues consult Ralph Rhinehart, a specialist in cultural anthropology and dark magic who wastes no time developing a profile of the perp. But Evan hesitates to adopt Rhinehart’s easy answers, and the rivals’ verbal one-upmanship does little to help the department catch a killer whose body count is rising. Well-researched enough to satisfy those up for a deep dive. Casual readers may look elsewhere.
Pershing, Amy Berkley (320 pp.) $7.99 paper | Nov. 2, 2021 978-0-593199-16-9 An amateur sleuth must juggle entirely too many suspects in the death of a self-righteous prig. Samantha Barnes is the perfect cozy sleuth. Neither supercilious nor improbably ditzy, she has a sarcastic tongue and a passion for life, especially food. She’s settled into the house on Cape Cod she inherited from an aunt and rekindled her romance with her high school crush, harbor patrol officer Jason Captiva. Sam makes do writing food reviews and producing videos on the same subject for the newspaper her parents owned for many years. In the lead-up to Christmas, she’s extra busy preparing for her parents’ visit by planning a special five-fish dinner and wrapping the thoughtful, inexpensive presents she’s bought or made for family and the many friends she’s collected since her return. One of her favorite restaurants is run by the Brunis, a brother and sister whose enemy, selectman Caleb Mayo, is an alcoholic’s son who can’t abide any place that serves spirits. When Sam mistakes the Brunis’ office for the ladies’ room, she finds Mayo dead from a blow to the head and can’t stop herself from investigating. She discovers that Mayo used his power to threaten many people over past misdeeds that could ruin their current lives. Sam’s memories of her high school physics class provide the clue she needs to separate the innocent from the guilty. A delightful sleuth, a complex mystery, and lovingly described cuisine: a winner for both foodies and mystery mavens.
DOWN A DARK RIVER
Odden, Karen Crooked Lane (336 pp.) $26.99 | Nov. 9, 2021 978-1-64385-869-2
The Victorian setting remains the same, but Odden exchanges refined Inspector Hallam, last seen in A Trace of Deceit (2019), for conflicted, determined Inspector Mickey Corravan. Corravan was a poor Irish orphan who worked as a stevedore and bare-knuckle fighter before signing on with the River Police and then Scotland Yard. So he seems the perfect choice for a murder most likely committed on the Thames. The body of a young woman is found floating in a small boat. Her only jewelry, a locket with initials and a picture, soon identifies her as the missing daughter of a wealthy judge. Although Corravan’s boss orders him to make the case his chief concern, he continues his search for a missing woman, the wife of a shipping magnate, whom he finds in an insane asylum for the poor. She’s speechless and so terrified of returning home that she attacks Corravan, who takes her to Dr. Everett, a medical friend who treats mentally disturbed patients kindly, while he investigates her husband. When a second young woman is found murdered in a rowboat, Corravan starts looking for suspects who may have hated their loved ones. The upper classes close ranks, and only maids and friends of the dead women give him any information. As the body count grows, Corravan’s temper threatens to get the best of him, while Scotland Yard is relentlessly criticized in the newspapers and his job hangs in the balance. A harrowing tale of unbridled vice that exposes the dark underbelly of Victorian society.
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15 september 2021
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fiction
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kirkus.com
INTO THE SOUND
Reinard, Cara Thomas & Mercer (349 pp.) $15.95 paper | Dec. 1, 2021 978-1-5420-2974-2 Her sister’s disappearance forces an alcoholic ex-journalist into a reckoning with their troubled past. “Please come get me; I need to talk…. There’s somebody coming,” Vivian Eddy tells her sister, Holly Boswell, just before the phone call from Bay Shore Marina is cut off. Defying her protective husband, nuclear energy project manager Mark Boswell, Holly leaves their sons, Otto and Tyler, with him and races out in a storm to meet the sister who begged for help. But she’s too late: Viv has vanished, leaving behind a bevy of secrets. As SassyVivi38, she’s been carrying on a sexy online chat with somebody calling himself TomKat45. The struggles of her husband, criminal defense attorney Clayton Eddy, to keep his |
