Reviews

Peter Robinson: Watching the Dark

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Ostensibly refreshed after last year’s standalone novel, Before the Poison, Peter Robinson returns to his much loved Inspector Banks series, slipping back into his familiar character like a comfortable old shoe. Banks has mellowed, gotten used to his divorce, resolved his love life issues for the time being, and is enjoying his red wine and his music. The case he’s called in to handle involves the death of a colleague at a police rehab center, where the unfortunate Bill Quinn had gone to recuperate. read more

Michael Robotham: Bleed for Me

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Bleed for Me is an interesting mix of very early Jonathan Kellerman (the good stuff) and Tana French.  Robotham has French’s writing chops and a way with prose – but he has Kellerman’s knack for suspense, some of it down and dirty. His central character is Joseph O’Loughlin, a psychologist and sometime police confidant and consultant. While Kellerman’s Alex Deleware is always specifically called in on a case, O’Loughlin’s ties seem more tenuous, though he certainly has friends on the force. read more

William Kent Krueger: Ordinary Grace

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Krueger has long been one of my favorite writers – and he’s a favorite of many of our customers as well, who are often annoyed when another Cork O’Connor book doesn’t appear quickly enough. From the very beginning I’ve been captivated by this writer’s prose and the depth of character he’s is able to convey.  And of course, he’s a wonderful mystery writer, good with suspense, action, and plot twists. That’s a rare enough combination that Krueger is one of the best in the contemporary mystery field. read more

Sam Thomas: The Midwife’s Tale

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This fascinating little volume, set during England’s Civil War in 1644, is surprisingly zippy. I love historical novels but I have to say “zippy” is not always the applicable word. It’s unusual also in that it’s written by a man but features a female protagonist, and not just any female, but a midwife, the most female of all professions.

Any concerns you might have about not being very knowledgeable about Oliver Cromwell’s revolution to understand the story can be set aside – while this setting is the book’s backdrop, Thomas’ main concern is character and plot, just like any other able novelist. His central character, Bridget Hodgeson, is a wealthy and well known midwife in the city of York, a city being besieged by rebels but still in the hands of the King’s forces. read more

Julie Hyzy: Fonduing Fathers

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Julie Hyzy has quickly become one of the big kahunas in the cozy universe, with her delightful and sparkling Olivia Parras White House chef mysteries being more and more eagerly snapped up with each installment. She’s established herself as not only a very capable cozy writer, but she’s also quite good with suspense and plot, sometimes surprisingly good. The ending of her last Olivia novel, Affairs of Steak, had an extremely skillful action sequence – one that sits comfortably alongside anything Robert Crais or Michael Connelly might dish out. read more

Jo Bannister: Deadly Virtues

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Jo Bannister has had a spotty publishing career stateside – she was a steady seller for us when she was published in paperback by Worldwide. She’s since been picked up by Minotaur and published exclusively in hardcover, but the cash outlay is well worth it. She’s one of the quiet secrets of mystery writing – not that well known, but incredibly talented and multi-faceted. Her closest “kin” as a writer may be Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, as she shares Harrod-Eagles’ mix of dry wit and gritty realism as well as her splendid plotting skills. read more

Jenny Milchman: Cover of Snow

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Jenny Milchman’s atmospheric debut novel would probably make you feel a chill even in August. Set in a tiny Adirondack town, main character Nora Hamilton wakes up one morning to find her whole world blown apart. She’d been happily married to a police officer – one terrible morning she finds he’s hanged himself in the attic.

From there, it’s almost as you are with Nora on her confusing journey of grief and revelation as she tries to figure out why her apparently happy and loving husband would have done something like this. Of no help are her cold, stand-offish mother-in-law; any cop in town, most of whom tell her to stay home and get better; or her own parents, who are whisked off canvas almost immediately. read more

Michael Palmer: Political Suicide

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I’m immune to John Sandford and James Patterson, but I’m a sucker for Michael Palmer, a medical thriller writer whose books are a complete guilty pleasure.  Usually I get an advance copy in December, right about the time I’m fried by Christmas, and it’s just the ticket for relaxing at the end of a busy day.

Palmer has written a long string of medical “stand alones,” but it seems like he now may be tackling a series, beginning with his most recent paperback, Oath of Office. In that book he introduces Dr. Lou Welcome, an ER doc, recovering drug addict, and divorced father who also works in the Physician Wellness Office (PWO) where he mentors physicians with substance abuse issues. read more

A.D. Scott: Beneath the Abbey Wall

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There’s a popular nostalgic myth concerning the idyllic nature of small town life in the fifties, back when everybody knew their place and civility and godliness ruled. Of course the truth is considerably more complicated – it’s not always a great thing when everybody knows everybody, and hatred and passion seem to grow more virulently in enclosed places.

Nobody knows better that there are secrets festering behind even the most proper façade of their small Scottish town than the staff of the local newspaper The Highland Gazette, but even they are shocked when one of their own, quiet, efficient, reserved office manager Mrs. Smart, is murdered, that shock compounded when another staff member, well liked editor Don McLeod, is arrested for the crime, which was evidently motived by a long standing relationship their co-workers knew nothing about. read more

Jussi Adler-Olsen: The Keeper of Lost Causes

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Adler-Olsen joins a long line of wildly popular (and actually wildly different from each other) Scandanavian crime writers who started with Henning Mankell and were really ramped up by the popularity of Steig Larssen.  I haven’t been a huge fan of some of the other Scandinavians (including Jo Nesbo), but I love Karin Fossum’s lovely prose and her Ruth Rendell-ish manner of telling a searing and concise story.  Adler-Olsen may prove to be a favorite for me – I couldn’t put this book down. read more