13 minute read
MYSTERY
on spine of death
McGill, convinces Timothy to turn her into a socialite, asserting that they can both get what they want from the deal. With Anya’s help—and her wardrobe—Socialite Samantha Song is born. Things go swimmingly at first, but no one will be surprised by the complications that come with her continued success, including jealous friends, a burgeoning romance, and an evil ex. The real pathos comes from Samantha’s mother, a manicurist who works long, exploitive hours to pay off the immense debt left by her late husband. The book seems unsure how to reconcile this subplot with a more urgent question: Will Samantha make it to the famous S Gala and complete her transformation?
There is sweetness to this story of glitz and glam despite some missed opportunities.
ON SPINE OF DEATH
Berry, Tamara Poisoned Pen (384 pp.) $8.99 paper | Nov. 29, 2022 978-1-72824-863-9
A prospective bookstore owner learns that renovations can be murder. In the cozy world, everyone has a plan until she discovers a set of bones under the floorboards. But mystery author Tess Harrow, who’s always been an overachiever, unearths two complete human skeletons while turning her grandad’s old hardware store into The Paper Trail, a bookshop she plans to open in her new Wild West–kitsch–filled hometown of Winthrop, Washington. A police investigation of the premises, even one led by handsome Sheriff Victor Boyd, is the last thing Tess needs right now, especially since she’s just hired even handsomer handyman Jared Wilson to help complete the project. Fortunately, Jared isn’t really a handyman—he’s an undercover FBI agent sent to help Nicki Nickerson, a fellow fed working undercover as the town’s librarian—so he doesn’t have to actually do any manual labor. Unfortunately, Jared’s so dumb that he can’t even remember that his cover name is Jared Wright, and he threatens to blow the entire operation every time he introduces himself. Boyd’s inquiry stalls until a friend shows Tess a copy of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, a mystery she blurbed but never read, which describes a set of murders in the fictional town of Heythrop that mirror her current puzzle with disturbing accuracy—except that in Heythrop, there were three sets of bones. Is there a third corpse yet to be disinterred? Will Jared’s doglike devotion to her, along with his hot bod, destabilize the relationship Tess is just beginning to build with sarcastic Victor? One never knows, does one?
Juggling one snarky sheriff, one junior G-man, and three skeletons proves a bit much even for Berry’s seasoned heroine.
GONE BUT NOT FOR GARDEN
Collins, Kate Kensington (336 pp.) $8.99 paper | Jan. 24, 2023 978-1-4967-4002-1
An Indiana private eye’s first paying case draws on her personal connections but threatens her perspective on her placid small-town community. Athena Spencer is working at Bloomers Flower Shop, her family’s floral business in Sequoia, a town near Lake Michigan, when she’s approached by a stranger looking for help. Abby Knight Salvare and her husband, Marco, run a private detective agency in New Chapel, Indiana, and they’ve got a case for the Goddess of Greene Street, which is what local papers have dubbed Athena based on her sleuthing abilities. Abby wants to hire Athena’s Greene Street Detective Agency to look into a murder during the final night of the Small Business Association’s fashion
show. Carly Blackburn, one of the locals acting as a model in the show, was poisoned, and the accused, Abby’s cousin, Jillian Ophelia Knight Osborne, is adamant she had nothing to do with the crime. Because of the fundraising nature of the event, the other attendees—that is, suspects—are also Sequoia movers and shakers, from Fran Decker, owner of Fabulous Fashions, to Mayor Charles E. Sloan himself. Abby is sure that Athena’s personal connections could help push the investigation beyond the limited information she’s been able to collect. And Athena’s thrilled to be working her first official investigation with Case Donnelly, her partner in and out of the office. But her ability to get people talking gives her an unwelcome, unflattering view of her town friends, and she’s not sure she’ll be able to go back even after the killer’s identified.
A middling mystery that does what it should but not much more.
STEEPED IN SECRETS
Elliott, Lauren Kensington (304 pp.) $26.00 | Nov. 29, 2022 978-1-4967-3520-1
Opening a tea shop brings surprises welcome and unwelcome for a recent divorcée. Elliott’s first page amounts almost to a parody of a shopkeeper cozy. Having shed her faithless husband, Brad, Shayleigh Myers gazes at the quaint Victorian houses lining the main street of picturesque Bray Harbor, California, “finding it hard to believe she was actually back in the small town she thought she had left behind forever.” But this series opener has a twist. Instead of a coffee shop, bakery, or candle outlet with a preciously punning name, the emporium Shay inherits from Bridget Early, a woman she barely knew, is Crystals & CuriosiTEAS, specializing in herbs, teas, and objects of the occult. In life, Bridget read tea leaves and was rumored to possess special healing powers that Shay’s beginning to believe she may share. So instead of selling the shop, as the pushy realtor presses her to do, she refurbishes the dusty old place with the help of Tassi, the niece of her old friend Joanne, who owns Cuppa-Jo, Main Street’s coffee shop. Since every cozy needs a murder, Shay’s renovations are soon halted by the discovery of a corpse on her roof. Her obligatory romantic interest is Liam Madigan, owner of the pub next door to CuriosiTEAS. If all this sounds pretty formulaic, the discovery of an amulet with mystical powers, a box of mysterious old photos, and the lingering presence of Spirit, a mongrel with uncanny intuition, take Shay along a road less traveled.
A promising series debut.
MURDER, SHE WROTE Death on the Emerald Isle
Fletcher, Jessica & Terrie Farley Moran Berkley (288 pp.) $27.00 | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-593-33368-6
It’s true: Jessica Fletcher can’t go anywhere without finding a dead body. Jessica’s friend and fellow author Lorna Winters has broken her leg and can’t go to Northern Ireland to pick up the American Author Guest of Honor Award, which also involves several interviews and panels, so Jessica has agreed to fill in for her. When her Cabot Cove neighbor Maeve O’Bannon asks Jessica to deliver some paintings made by her grandfather to her relatives in the village of Bushmills, near Belfast, and offers to arrange her stay in a lovely hotel, Jessica agrees even though Maeve’s relatives, who are involved in the family beauty product business, don’t always get along. After a lovely time at the book festival in Belfast, where she meets Maeve’s cousin Dr. Michael O’Bannon, the company’s figurehead, she’s picked up by Owen Mullen, another family member, and driven to the River Bush Hotel. Dougal Nolan is the charming host whose daughter, Maggie, is Owen’s intended. During a dinner at Jane Mullen’s mansion, tensions among the relatives threaten to boil over even in front of two Frenchmen who are visiting to discuss a merger. The next morning, Jessica sets off on a bike ride and finds Michael O’Bannon dead in his car. Of course, she can’t resist investigating. With help from an eager Maggie, she delves into several possible motives for murder, some of them very close to home.
The delightful descriptions of the history and beauties of the Irish island seriously overshadow the mystery.
RUM AND CHOKE
Harris, Sherry Kensington (336 pp.) $8.99 paper | Dec. 27, 2022 978-1-4967-3438-9
A Florida bartender’s sense of obligation and adventurous spirit lead her into danger. Chloe Jackson, part owner of the Sea Glass Saloon in Emerald Cove, knows she’s in trouble when her partner, Vivi Slidell, and head bartender Joaquín Diaz greet her with a done deal she’s certain to dislike: They’ve signed her up to represent the Sea Glass in the Florida Panhandle Barback Games, an obstacle-course race involving drinks. It’ll be a piece of cake, they claim, even though her competition includes ringers like Olympic athlete Jean Claude LaPierre and Hollywood stuntwoman Lisa Kelley. All this information comes from Ann Williams, a friend and local fixer who’s about to get Chloe in big trouble. Ann’s right-hand man, Dex, helpfully takes Chloe on
the last resort
a tour of local bars to see the competition, which also includes champion surfer Enrique Laurier, a chick magnet who may have roofied Chloe’s drink while she was talking to him. Meanwhile, Ann confides in Chloe that she’s found a treasure map and needs someone to accompany her while she does some exploratory diving. Unfortunately, the only treasure Ann finds is Enrique’s dead body, making them suspects in his murder. Vivi gets Chloe a lawyer who tells her to keep quiet despite the good relationship she’s always enjoyed with the police. When Ann announces her intent to continue her treasure hunt, Chloe agrees to help despite her misgivings and the need to hide things from her boyfriend, Rip Barnett. The partnership will put them both in danger from people willing to kill to seize the treasure.
A fun read whose adventure and romance outshine the mystery.
THE LAST RESORT
Kaufman, Michael Crooked Lane (261 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-63910-207-5
An offbeat police team probes a series of high-profile murders. In the 2030s, Washington, D.C., police detective Jen B. Lu catches the weird case of celebrity lawyer Patty Garcia, killed on the Viridian Green golf course, presumably by a flying ball. Jen’s sidekick and amanuensis is in her head, a synth implant named Chandler who calls Jen “boss.” Chandler crisply tracks specific dates and times and often presents data in detail-heavy paragraphs. Providing welcome contrast is Jen’s banter with her significant other, Zach, whose new job as a climate activist has put a strain on their relationship. Jen’s gut instinct that Garcia’s death was no accident meets so much resistance from her superiors that she begins to doubt herself. But a second victim tips the doubters in her direction, and an investigation begins in earnest. Given Chandler’s expertise, forensics plays a big role in the probe. Garcia’s high-profile career made her a compelling target. Her championing of climate activists attracted enemies among big oil companies and angered right-wing militias as well. Could one of these groups include the culprit(s)? A continuing subplot concerns squad-room tension between Jen and her colleagues Les and Christopher, husbands as well as co-workers, that dates back to obliquely recalled incidents from The Last Exit (2021). Kaufman has a gift for snappy dialogue and relies on it heavily in Jen’s interviews with persons of interest and squabbles with Zach. A third murder accelerates the inquiry to a solution.
A quirky, fast-paced whodunit with a provocative take on the near future.
FATAL FASCINATOR
McKinlay, Jenn Berkley (288 pp.) $8.99 paper | Jan. 3, 2023 978-0-593-54677-2
An invitation to a wedding at an ancient castle lures two London hatshop owners into a dangerous adventure. Scarlett Parker—the business half of Mim’s Whims, where her cousin Vivian Tremont is the creative genius—and her photographer friend Andre Eisel have a chance meeting with “Bridus horribilis” Piper May, who’s desperate to have Viv make the fascinators for her bridesmaids. Neither Viv nor Andre wants to leave London, but Scarlett, who’s planning her own wedding to Harrison Wentworth, can’t resist the beauties and amenities of Waverly Castle when Piper invites them all to the wedding. Viv and Andre reluctantly agree after Viv’s tempted by the presence of legendary hatmaker
winter’s end
Dominick Falco. The castle and grounds are stunning, the company not so much. Dooney Portis, the obnoxious groom who bullied Andre when they were schoolmates, is marrying for money; Piper’s looking to improve her social status. Bridesmaid Sunny is pregnant by Dooney, which may or may not be the reason Scarlett finds Dooney dead in the library. It all seems like a game of Clue, and at least one of the staff attributes the death to a curse, though the cause turns out to be cyanide poisoning. Histrionics and vitriol abound, but Scarlett and her friends are determined to solve a mystery marked by past and present secrets, hidden passages, and even a maze.
A cast of unlikable suspects makes it easy to enjoy this amusing murder hunt without getting overinvested in anyone.
RIVER OF FALLEN ANGELS
Rowland, Laura Joh Crooked Lane (293 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 10, 2023 978-1-63910-151-1
A shutterbug sleuth pursues a brutal serial killer on the loose in Victorian London. April 1891. Sarah Barrett, a photographer for the Daily World, is shooting a construction worker who dangles precariously from London’s Tower Bridge when she and a crowd of onlookers spot some body parts floating in the Thames below— remnants of what appears to be the latest of the Torso Murders. Having already solved the mystery of Jack the Ripper, Sarah finds herself drawn to the challenge of untangling this series of crimes as well. Her probe triggers the first threat to her posthoneymoon bliss with DS Thomas Barrett, her husband of less than a year. Thomas is clearly troubled but unwilling to share the reason why. Over the course of Sarah’s previous cases, Rowland developed an engaging cast of supporting characters whom she introduces incrementally here so that new readers won’t feel left behind. Sarah’s flanked by Mick O’Reilly, who began as a Holmes-ian street urchin and has evolved into a mature, if impetuous, sidekick, and Lord Hugh Staunton, her longtime friend and confidant, exiled by his family because of his homosexuality. Sir Gerald Mariner, owner of the Daily World, seems always on the brink of firing Sarah because of her sleuthing; Inspector Edmund Reid of Scotland Yard is the perpetual rival whom she regularly beats to the solution. Sarah’s investigative trail takes her through the city’s Tenderloin, which is home to more victims and an array of flamboyant suspects.
A brisk, atmospheric whodunit that continues the development of Rowland’s core cast.
WINTER’S END
Shelton, Paige Minotaur (272 pp.) $26.99 | Dec. 6, 2022 978-1-2508-4659-4
A remote Alaskan town is a good place to hide, but no place is safe forever. After being attacked and kidnapped by a deranged fan, novelist Beth Rivers is sheltering in Benedict, where only a few people know her real identity. While waiting for the St. Louis police to catch her assailant, Beth has put down roots. She runs the local paper and has helped the local law solve several murders. During the town’s annual springtime Death Walk, designed to check up on everyone in the area at the end of the long winter, she and her friend Orin discover an elderly man in dire straits whom they get to the doctor in town. Beth lives in a halfway house usually reserved for women with nonviolent felony convictions and run by Viola, a source of knowledge on all things Benedict. The only other person living there now, however, is Chaz, a cocky male embezzler with prodigious cooking skills and little interest in reforming. Beth’s dog-walking companion, Kaye Miller, comes from a family whose long-simmering feud with another local family, the Oliphants, occasionally spirals into violence. Kaye’s husband, Warren, hasn’t been seen for a while, so when Kaye’s found murdered, he’s a leading suspect. In addition, Beth is worried about Orin, who’s gone missing, perhaps for reasons concerning his hush-hush government job. She’s also concerned about her mother, who’s busy tracking her abductor, and her father, who never returns her calls. Could Kaye have been romantically involved with an Oliphant? Beth, who won’t rest till she discovers her friend’s killer, puts herself in grave danger.
An excellent adventure tale set against the stunning backdrop of Alaska.
EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE
Stevenson, Benjamin Mariner Books (384 pp.) $28.99 | Jan. 17, 2023 978-0-06-327902-5
In this mystery, the narrator constantly adds commentary on how the story is constructed. In 1929, during the golden age of mysteries, a (real-life) writer named Ronald Knox published the “10 Commandments of Detective Fiction,” 10 rules that mystery writers should obey in order to “play fair.” When faced with his own mystery story, our narrator, an author named Ernest Cunningham who “write[s] books about how to write books,” feels like he must follow these rules himself. The story seemingly begins on the night his brother Michael calls to ask him to help bury a body—and shows up with the body
