Reviews

Ann Cleeves: The Heron’s Cry

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This novel will be published on September 7.

The second in Ann Cleeves’ Detective Mathew Venn series finds Matthew investigating a case on the grounds of an artist’s colony and farm.  The book opens with a party attended by a very drunk Detective Jen Rafferty, who meets the victim at the party, but didn’t talk to him for long because of her condition – something she comes to regret.

The dead man, Nigel Yeo, was a doctor who worked with people who had complaints about National Health.  He is discovered with a huge shard of glass in his neck, glass created by his glassblower daughter, Eve.  This incredibly fabulist method of death is carried forward. Ann Cleeves, the most careful and meticulous of writers, nevertheless includes this almost gothic flight of fancy as a murder method.  It suits her updated golden age style of storytelling. read more

Anna Lee Huber: Murder Most Fair

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This book will be published on August 31.

The fifth novel in Anna Lee Huber’s Verity Kent series finds Verity surprised by the appearance of her German great aunt, Ilse.  She’s surprised for one thing because it’s 1919, and in England, Germans weren’t especially beloved; and for another, she knows her aunt is elderly and fragile and wonders why she’s made the arduous journey to her niece’s side.

The two have always been close, and during the war, when Verity worked for British Intelligence, she even placed a German deserter at her aunt’s home for a time.  Verity is still wracked with guilt over this.  Her aunt has appeared with a new and beautiful young maid, as her long time maid has died of the Spanish flu. read more

Hannah Dennison: Danger at the Cove

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This is the second installment in the charming Island Sisters series, set in Britain’s Scilly Isles.  Sisters Evie and Margot have taken over an old hotel and are managing it for the owner, though they are on the hook for repairs, which are turning out to be massive.  As the book opens, they are a few days out from their grand re-opening, and they are working full tilt to get everything ready in time.

Because the books are set on the tiny island of Treggarick Rock, accessible only by boat and at certain times because of high or low tide, every story is going to be essentially a locked room mystery.  Because the décor of the hotel calls back to the 30’s, this adds a decidedly golden age feel to the proceedings. read more

Chevy Stevens: Dark Roads

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If you know Chevy Stevens you know Dark Roads will be a great read because, well, all her books are great reads. No one does the kind of contemporary suspense, rooted in the fabric of the way we live now (pre-covid anyway) like Chevy. She’s kind of a female Harlan Coben, but to me she writes with more compassion and greater depth.

The titular dark road is Cold Creek Highway, a lonely, desolate stretch where many women have disappeared over the years and not quite as many bodies have been found. Hailey McBride moves into the town of Cold Creek to live with her aunt after her father dies, only to find that this refuge has a decided drawback in the form of her aunt’s new husband, the menacing cop Vaughn. read more

David Bell: Kill All Your Darlings

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Nobody does a great set-up for a thriller like David Bell, which is not to say he’s shabby at the execution either. His latest, Kill All Your Darlings, is no exception, starting with an irresistible premise — English professor Connor Nye is on the wrong side of publish or perish when a great novel lands in his lap. It was written by one of his students who turned it in as her thesis and then promptly disappeared. He polishes it up and publishes it under his own name. Unfortunately, it contains details about an unsolved murder that only the murderer would know. And then the student shows up in disguise at one of his readings. read more

Naomi Hirahara: Clark and Division

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This book is a knockout.  Hirahara, author of three different series set in contemporary Los Angeles and Hawaii, has turned her eye to 1944 and the plight of American born Japanese, as well as first generation immigrants, right after Pearl Harbor.  It is still shocking to me that we created internment camps for Japanese citizens who were simply going about their daily lives.  Hirahara brings it home by focusing intimately on one family, the Itos.

The Itos – parents and daughters Rose and Aki – are hardworking, successful citizens.  Mr. Ito manages a produce market and Rose and eventually Aki work there too.  Rose is the star, the center of the family.  Aki looks up to her and wishes she had her strength.  This book could simply be the story of Aki discovering that strength in herself, but it is so much more. read more

Dianne Freeman: A Fiancée’s Guide to First Wives and Murder

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This novel will be published on July 27.

The sparkling fourth installment to Dianne Freeman’s insanely enjoyable Frances, Lady Harleigh series finds the intrepid Frances on the verge of marriage to her beloved George, only to discover, practically on the eve of her wedding, that George’s wife has appeared. Of course, it’s a misunderstanding, but the social damage is done.  Irena, the woman making the claim, appears not only demented but in danger, as she’s been receiving threatening letters. read more

Caroline B. Cooney: The Grandmother Plot

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This was a blast of a read, akin to the kind of great caper novels written in the past by Donald Westlake, and more recently by talented writers like Jeff Cohen and Catriona McPherson.  This is a caper novel with a broken heart at the center.  While Westlake stuck pretty strictly to the caper element, Cooney brings the reader in emotionally as well.

The story centers on sweet, stoner Freddy, who makes glass beads and pipes for a living, and who has ended up caring for his grandmother who has dementia.  Freddy is a regular visitor to his grandmother’s memory care home and knows the staff and patients well.  He slips in the back door of the facility and doesn’t sign in, doing this, like everything in his life, just off the grid. read more

Linda Castillo: Fallen

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It’s amazing to me that Linda Castillo can work within such a tight construct and still, every time, produce an original and thoughtful book.  Her set up: Chief of Police Kate Burkholder, who has grown up Amish, is the insider/outsider head of law enforcement in tiny, Amish centric Painter’s Mill, Ohio.  She has connections with the Amish but they don’t fully trust her as she’s left the faith, but she still has insider knowledge of the culture that help her to solve the crimes that occur in her community. read more

Carol Goodman: The Stranger Behind You

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I loved Goodman’s novel last year, The Sea of Lost Girls, and I love this one even more.  It’s very of the moment, as it involves a powerful newspaper magnate who has been sexually harassing his female employees.  Like last year’s novel, Goodman’s concern is the shame the women feel for something that is not their fault.  She expands these horizons, making the book specific (an element in every successful novel, to my mind, is specificity) by tying the shame element to her two main characters as well. read more