2023-2024 Reviews

Our reviews section examines the latest mystery offerings, covering books, anthologies, audio books, and DVDs.

GOING ZERO

By Anthony McCarten

New York: HarperCollins, 2023. $30.00

It’s not always easy to move between media, especially after enjoying tremendous success in one. That’s why the truly stellar Going Zero—four-time Oscar-nominated screenwriter Anthony McCarten’s debut thriller and his first novel in more than ten years—is such a pleasant surprise.

Going Zero is a high-stakes contest, pitting ten specially selected individuals—five security professionals and five everyday citizens—against the combined might of a social-media giant and the intelligence apparatus of the U.S. government. In a real-world beta test for cyber-firm FUSION’s revolutionary spyware technology, participants, called “Zeroes,” are given two hours to disappear off the grid. FUSION then has thirty days to track down the Zeroes. After the deadline passes, any Zero still at large wins three million dollars, tax-free. But if FUSION can prove the efficacy of its tracking capabilities by capturing all ten Zeroes before the deadline, the firm wins a twelve-figure government contract, plus access to a trove of classified info on millions of Americans.

To give away too much about the characters would spoil some of the many great twists in the book’s second half but suffice it to say they are all wonderfully depicted. FUSION founder and CEO Cy Baxter is a mash-up of Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk on steroids, a billionaire tech bro with a vision for the future and more than a few skeletons in his closet. His partner, Erica Coogan, is the yin to his yang, the two of them tied together by the loss of her brother and his friend in a mass shooting years earlier that inspired their dream of a world free from such crimes. The Zeroes are well realized, with their backgrounds and strategies unique and compelling. But it’s Zero 10, the underestimated Kaitlyn Day, who proves to be a formidable opponent for Cy and his big-data behemoth. Their respective quests grow far more personal and desperate by the contest’s end.

The short chapters and the ticking clock accompanying each one make for a breezy pace, despite the monthlong time frame. And the steadily increasing stakes, with crosses and double crosses abounding in the second half especially, ratchet up the tension to the breaking point.

One warning I can give about Going Zero is that it’s going to stick with you on a deeper level than most books. Prepare for more than a few sleepless nights pondering how close we may be to the wide-ranging secret surveillance state described in the novel and the raft of potential abuses it opens up for those on the inside. Perhaps we’re already there.

With McCarten working on a screenplay for Going Zero and, we hope, penning a sequel, expect to see more very soon from this fictional world that feels all too real for comfort. With sky-high stakes, a gripping narrative, and bone-chilling insights about big data and our vanishing privacy, Going Zero is an auspicious return to book-length fiction for this lauded storyteller and one readers absolutely should not miss.

 

—Jeremy Burns

 

 

WHY DIDN’T THEY ASK EVANS?

Now Streaming on BritBox

The twenty-first century has been both the best of times and the worst of times for Agatha Christie adaptations. Some have been utter sludge that have gutted and twisted some of her finest books, and others have been brilliant and sparkling productions that have been glorious tributes to Christie’s legacy and deserved a spot on the awards and nominations lists. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? is one of the good ones.

BritBox, the streaming service specializing in U.K. content, has commissioned a trio of Christie adaptations offering a fresh take on the classic stories. BritBox says these will be “steered by a distinctive voice—a director, a writer or auteur—bringing an entirely new perspective and style to Agatha Christie’s novels.” While these words might make some Christie purists (such as myself) nervous, the results for Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? are a delight. (At present, there is no news on what the next two adaptations will be or who is behind them.)

This adaptation is remarkably faithful to the 1934 book, aside from an additional murder at one point, a few changed settings that make for cinematic set pieces, and some altered dialogue. The ultimate fate of a villain has also been changed, but overall, I’d estimate this adaptation is 95 percent loyal to the source material.

The man behind Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? is Hugh Laurie, who not only wrote and directed the mystery but also played a supporting role as an ominous doctor overseeing an asylum. Laurie clearly has a genuine affection for the material, and he manages to make the story—two young people investigating a series of odd events beginning with the mysterious death of a man who falls off a cliff next to a golf course—seem fresh and fun and lively, even for people who have read the book and/or seen both previous adaptations.

Laurie hits the right notes, putting an emphasis on comedy without turning it into broad farce and never forgetting to keep up the suspense. Things never get too dark, but there’s always a sense of danger that keeps the stakes high. The young leads (Will Poulter and Lucy Boynton) are quite likable and have great chemistry as a team, and the other members of the cast all give strong character portrayals. The 1980 adaptation of similar length dragged a bit here and there, but this version flows pretty smoothly. It also looks terrific, and there are a few Easter eggs here and there, such as when Laurie slips a line from P. G. Wodehouse’s The Code of the Woosters (1938) into the dialogue.

This new production is good-natured entertainment, living up to Christie’s own description of the story as a “light-hearted thriller.” Laurie also deserves credit for making sure that clues critical to the viewer solving the mystery are clearly integrated into the script, not so obviously as to draw attention to them but organically enough to be both fair and not too blatant. Christie fans should look forward to watching this new adaptation.

—Chris Chan

 

 

 

PARTICLES IN THE AIR

By Jenna Podjasek, MD

Baltimore: Bancroft Press, 2023. $25.00

Dr. Jenna Podjasek draws on her experience as an allergist and immunologist for her first novel, Particles in the Air. This bio-terror thriller launches a series featuring Dr. Mallory Hayes, a medical investigator for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A massive tsunami has hit San Diego, leading to the establishment of a resettlement camp for tens of thousands of survivors rendered homeless. The timing is perfect for a terrorist cell based in Sweden. The terrorists have obtained a deadly, highly contagious virus and have introduced it into the camp. At this time, Hayes and her coworkers are sent to San Diego to study the water at the camp and try to prevent the spread of disease. As the deadly virus starts to make itself known, Hayes manages to piece together enough of a common thread to get the resources she needs for investigating her theories, including her National Guard bodyguard and her CDC teammates.

Podjasek splits the novel’s focus with chapters alternating between Hayes and the terrorists, allowing readers to understand the development and delivery of the virus. The novel’s short chapters keep the pace moving quickly, and Podjasek ensures there aren’t any dull passages, while her science background anchors the story in realism. With a strong plot and interesting characters whose relationships develop over the course of the book, Particles in the Air makes for an excellent read.

—Neal Alhadeff

 

WHAT HAVE WE DONE

By Alex Finlay

New York: Minotaur Books, 2023. $27.99

The pseudonymous Alex Finlay—a prominent Washington, D.C., attorney with an extensive history of appearing before the U.S. Supreme Court—has quickly established himself as a master of the high-concept suspense novel. He made his debut with 2021’s Every Last Fear, now in development as a streaming series, which was followed by The Night Shift in 2021. March saw the release of Finlay’s third standalone, What Have We Done.

 

The story opens with a brief prologue in which a group of teenagers take turns firing a gun into a shallow grave, one of them lamenting, “What have we done?” Twenty-five years later, readers meet these characters as adults. Jenna, a onetime assassin who thought she was out of the business, is now a recently married stepmom to two girls and has learned to enjoy the pleasures (and pains) of domesticity. Donnie is an aging musician whose inability to stay sober has gotten him kicked out of the band he co-founded. Nico, the producer of a popular reality show, has gambling debts that keep him on the brink of financial ruin. They have all survived recent attempts on their lives by an assailant who seems able to be in two places at once.

Circumstances eventually lead them all back to Chestertown, Pennsylvania, where they were once residents of a group home ironically named Savior House. Bonded by their childhood trauma, they share a link (and a crime) that time and distance can’t quite erase. And while they’ve since lost touch, the murder of Ben Wood—their book-loving friend who became a federal judge—necessitates a homecoming of sorts. Despite an arrest having been made in Ben’s case, they still have questions (especially considering their own recent brushes with mortality). Somebody knows their secret and is determined to silence them. But who could it be—and why now, after all these years?

Finlay rotates headspace among Jenna, Donnie, and Nico. And he chooses a more straightforward approach for this novel than he used in his earlier ones such as Every Last Fear, which incorporated dual timelines and script excerpts. With What Have We Done, he only alternates between past and present in the book’s prologue and instead has his characters reminisce about their histories as they navigate current converging crises. Having said that, this approach is by no means simplistic. Given the characters’ unique backgrounds and skill sets, Finlay touches on everything from fashion, gambling, mining, and music to literature, reality TV, tactical maneuvering, and technology. The author’s lengthy acknowledgments hint at a level of research that might otherwise be taken for granted, given the seeming command and ease with which he writes.

What Have We Done is ingenious and intricately plotted, if occasionally improbable. Finlay’s reputation alone will ensure that plenty of people pick up the book—but he also knows how to keep them from putting it down. Minor quibbles aside, you can’t help but feel for his characters and their plight. Abundant action, emotional depth, high stakes, and short chapters keep the pages turning. Where exactly this one ranks in relation to the author’s previous offerings is a matter of personal preference, but there’s no denying it’s a worthy and wildly entertaining addition to the collection.

 

—John B. Valeri

 

 

THE CRIMINAL WORLD

OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, VOLS. 1 & 2

By Kelvin I. Jones

London: MX Publishing, 2022 and 2023. $16.95 each

MX Publishing continues to release not only new pastiches featuring Sherlock Holmes, but reference works on the Great Detective as well.

In the two volumes of The Criminal World of Sherlock Holmes, Kelvin Jones produces a pair of reference works that should have a place on the shelves of every Sherlockian.

Volume 1 provides a detailed look at the various crimes Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about in the Holmes canon. Volume 2 takes a sharp look at real-life crimes during the time of Holmes, with a special focus on Jack the Ripper, criminal tactics, investigative techniques, and other aspects of the seedier side of Victorian and Edwardian life. There’s a bit on drug addiction, including Holmes’s, and profiles of the forensic science of the age.

While much of the books’ content is excellent reading, some is simply lists of facts, stories, and dates—essentially a Who’s Who of characters, major and minor figures, killers and victims, making it an invaluable resource for Holmes scholars. At times, Jones adds a few details that have no basis in the original source material, such as Mary Morstan Watson’s tattoo. This may throw casual fans, so readers should be prepared for the occasional flourish of artistic license. However, the vast majority of the books’ information is factual, and they include a plethora of rare and interesting photographs of people, places, and things that make the criminal world of Holmes come alive. These include everything from pictures of various criminals and assorted real-world locations featured in the stories to weapons, handcuffs, and other police equipment. The images do a lot to connect the reader to the books. There are, however, a few NSFW pictures, including some grisly crime photos and a few works by Victorian pornographers. The books shouldn’t be left where young children could find them.

Overall, this is a very strong set of reference works that will delight adult Holmes fans and scholars alike.

Chris Chan

 

A DEADLY GAME

A Reggie Da Costa Mystery

By Laraine Stephens

Olney, MD: Level Best Books, 2023. $16.95

Laraine Stephens’s A Deadly Game is the third book in her very successful Reggie da Costa series, about a newspaper reporter covering the crime beat in Melbourne who has a habit of getting involved in the cases he reports on. Readers not familiar with the first two entries of the series need not worry, as Stephens deftly provides enough to introduce newcomers to the character and the world, without spoilers.

The series takes place in the same era and place as the TV drama Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (itself based on a book series by Kerry Greenwood), namely 1920s Australia, with Stephens even referencing St. Kilda, Miss Fisher’s hometown. And while Jazz Age novels might give the impression that the time period was just one big party, Stephens injects a certain amount of seediness, sordidness, and violence underneath the glitz of her Jazz Age.

Even though da Costa’s name is on the cover of this novel, he’s really the costar of the story, often overshadowed by Ruby Rhodes, a young woman who’s drawn into a web of mystery against her will. Ruby’s long-estranged identical twin sister has recently died under mysterious circumstances. She had a very different personality from her staid sister and was very likely involved in some shady, probably illegal goings-on. Ruby has a choice: she can keep living her quiet life alongside her brother, or she can find out what happened to her sister. And to find out the truth, she may have to cave to the pressure of a bullying, potentially corrupt figure and assume her late sister’s identity.

A Deadly Game is a fun historical mystery, where the twists keep coming. Toward the end, after adopting her sister’s personality and style, Ruby wonders more about who she is, who she wants to be, and who she has to be in order to survive in a hard and dangerous world. If there’s one point I would like to have seen further developed, it would be Ruby’s character.

Fans of historical mysteries in interesting settings are sure to enjoy this latest offering from Stephens.

—Chris Chan

 

DROWNING

The Rescue of Flight 1421

By T. J. Newman

New York: Avid Reader Press, 2023. $28.00

Two years ago, former flight attendant T. J. Newman took the world by storm with her debut thriller, Falling. Lauded by press, peers, and fans alike, the book leveraged Newman’s extensive behind-the-scenes knowledge of the high-stakes world of commercial aviation and brought readers into a harrowing world of terrorism and family drama at 30,000 feet. Now, in Drowning, Newman seeks to recapture the magic of her debut in a familiar yet entirely different setting. But does lightning strike twice for this fresh new thriller voice, or does this sophomore effort sink under the weight of its own expectations?

When a nightmare scenario unfolds just minutes after takeoff, a commercial airliner finds itself plunging into the unforgiving waters of the Pacific. Miraculously, most of the passengers survive the water landing, but the fiery inferno that greets those who escape the ruined plane forces the remaining passengers, including brilliant engineer Will Kent, who is traveling with his eleven-year-old daughter, Shannon, to seal up the plane and await rescue from within. The plane begins to sink, sending the unlucky dozen to the inky depths. The all-hands rescue effort, led by the Coast Guard and the Navy, commandeers civilian boaters and divers, including industrial diver Chris Kent, Shannon’s mother and Will’s estranged wife. Confronting the ghosts of their pasts, resistance from the authorities and fellow passengers, and a steadily decreasing supply of air, Will and Chris must fight from opposite ends of an impossible scenario to save the life of their child—all before the precariously perched plane plunges from the edge of an undersea cliff into the abyss forever.

The story starts off with a literal bang as an engine explodes. The first several chapters are perhaps the toughest to get through, as the author keeps switching between points of view, introducing new characters amid the growing chaos of the unfolding disaster. This makes it difficult to get a grasp on who is who and what exactly is going on. That said, this device will create an unsettling feeling for the reader that will ultimately feed into the chaotic nature of the scene and the mindsets of the characters, so it does serve a thematic purpose. Once those opening scenes are finished, the characters begin to take shape, the narrative is off to the races, and it doesn’t let up.

Most of the main characters are solid, and the central trio, in addition to pilot Kit and Coast Guard commander Fitz, are standouts. Newman does a fantastic job of fleshing out Chris and Will Kent’s characters and their relationship, paying particular attention to the way love, loss, family, and the concept of moving on have shaped their lives. She adds an extra layer of conflict to the plot with their estrangement, eventually revealing the reasons for it and how this disaster makes them consider their lives in a new light, all of which serves to strengthen readers’ investment in the story. Some of the minor characters and broad-based story beats feel a little predictable for the genre, but in a story this briskly paced, it’s hardly noticeable.

Long story short, Newman is the real deal. While her debut proved she could write a compelling story in a mostly familiar setting, Drowning showcases her imaginative skills at turning the familiar on its head in an all-new way. Whether her inevitable third book will take place on another plane in another desperate situation or in a wholly new setting remains to be seen, but if her short but impressive record is anything to go by, it’ll be worth keeping an eye out for whatever she has coming our way. Recommended.

—Jeremy Burns

 

 

THE GHOST GOES TO THE DOGS

By Cleo Coyle

New York: Berkley, 2023. $8.99

Cleo Coyle—the collective pseudonym of New York Times bestselling authors and spouses Alice Alfonsi and Marc Cerasini—has been delighting readers with cozy crime capers for decades. Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mysteries are now celebrating twenty years in print. In 2018, following a nearly ten-year hiatus, Cleo Coyle also resurrected the Haunted Bookshop Mysteries (previously published under the pseudonym Alice Kimberly). The series follows the exploits of Rhode Island amateur sleuth and owner of Buy the Book bookstore Penelope (“Pen”) Thornton-McClure. In the first installment, Pen discovers that the bookstore is, in fact, haunted by the ghost of a 1940s New York City PI who was murdered where the bookstore now stands. The saga’s ninth entry (the fourth since its resurrection), The Ghost Goes to the Dogs, involves dual mysteries that take place in two different time periods: the present day and the late 1940s.

In the present day, Pen has her preparations for Pet Mystery Week interrupted by a four-legged visitor. Sparky, a visibly distressed, floppy-eared chocolate brown pooch, leads Pen and her young son, Spencer, to the gravely injured Jane Cunningham, who’s been shot by persons (and for reasons) unknown. With Jane’s recovery uncertain, Pen agrees to take temporary custody of Sparky—and soon finds herself not only investigating the crime but also keeping the peace between Sparky and the store’s resident cat, Bookmark.

In 1947’s New York City, irascible PI Jack Shepard is surprised to discover a dog at his door, its collar adorned with a cryptic message detailing a job to be done and a C-note for payment in advance. With no idea who’s hired him (or for what, even) and under threat of retaliation from a recently paroled foe, Jack is uncharacteristically stymied. Fortunately, he has the ability to draw Pen into his realm through a dreamlike state that grants her passage to an ephemeral 1940s New York where glamour and grit coexist. Together, the two must decipher the clues before another murder happens.

Throughout the series, the authors deftly alternate between past and present events, a device that works on multiple levels. It allows Jack, often the voice of wisdom and wisecracks in Pen’s head as she navigates contemporary crime, to serve as mentor as she hones her investigative skills. It also juxtaposes the relative coziness of Pen’s contemporary life in small-town New England with the edgier noir elements of Jack’s exploits in the Big Apple. The commingling of their worlds enhances the core mystery by using the nuances of Jack’s case to help shed light on Penny’s. That the two share a paranormal flirtation (dare I say Jack is Pen’s “Boo”?) adds a touch of romance to offset the inherent dangers of detection.

Cleo Coyle once again delights with The Ghost Goes to the Dog, which not only serves up a head-scratching (or is it ear-scratching?) double mystery but also celebrates the unparalleled joys of canine companionship. Further, Pen and Jack bring both sweetness and sass to the proceedings, ensuring that the human company is equally welcoming, while the melding of modernity and nostalgia will appeal to a wide range of readers. This one gets two thumbsand two paws—up.

—John B. Valeri

 

MURDER YOUR EMPLOYER

By Rupert Holmes

New York: Avid Reader Press, 2023. $28.00

Novelist, playwright, singer-songwriter Rupert Holmes is, at the very least, a triple threat in the realm of popular entertainment. His first novel (Where the Truth Lies, 2003) was made into a feature film, his plays have received Edgar Awards, his mystery musicals have been recognized with Tonys and Drama Desk Awards, and his songs (think “If you like piña coladas . . .”) have cracked Billboard’s Top 10. Holmes’s new novel, Murder Your Employer, subtitled The McMasters Guide to Homicide, is a master class in the criminally entertaining world of 1950s academia.

The book—a pseudo-how-to manual—begins with a foreword: “So you’ve decided to commit a murder. Congratulations. Simply by purchasing this volume, you’ve already taken the all-important first step toward a successful homicide of which you can be proud, one that would gain you the admiration of your peers, were they ever to learn of it. This book will see to it that they don’t. . ..” Dean Harbinger Harrow (“HH”), who also serves as the manual’s “editor,” uses the book’s foreword to share the “basic tenets” of the McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts, an institution that specializes in the art of murder. He outlines the Four Enquiries that each student at McMasters must answer before embarking on a “deletion.” Assuming the proposed crime meets the requirements, students then develop and refine a thesis under the careful watch of uniquely qualified faculty. To illustrate the finer points of education and (ahem) execution, Harbinger offers three case studies for consideration.

Enter young Cliff Iverson, recently detained after making a failed attempt on the life of his former boss, Fiedler, whose reckless disregard for others’ well-being has been fatal.  Cliff has been taken into custody and then deposited inside the academy’s secure walls, where he will enter high-stakes tutelage in the art of causing death and avoiding detection; an anonymous sponsor,“X”, covers all his expenses. Should Cliff pass his studies, he’ll be returned to his former life, where he’ll have the opportunity to make good on his thesis: the deletion of the truly detestable Fiedler. But if he fails, he himself will face deletion to minimize the school’s potential exposure and/or liability. (Talk about pressure to perform.)

Beyond Dean Harrow’s witty foreword and editorial commentary, the story is told primarily through Cliff’s journal entries (which are mandatory and submitted to his sponsor as proof of his progress) and an omniscient narration that follows the exploits of Cliff and two female classmates. The first half of the book chronicles their individualized yet interconnected educations, and the second half details what happens when they graduate from the program and attempt to carry out their painstakingly orchestrated theses, with mixed results. As Harrow forewarns, not all will succeed, as even the best-laid plans (and best-taught pupils) can go awry. Who will prevail, who will fail, and what will the consequences be? One thing is certain: you’ll have a devilishly good time finding out.

Holmes’s Murder Your Employer is a cunningly comedic (and ingeniously “insider”) crime novel that defies easy definition to memorable effect. Think Hogwarts but for homicide—and with adult students and a curriculum that’s firmly grounded in more earthly means of murder and manipulation. While you may not be able to apply for your own McMasters education, you can enjoy the vicarious satisfaction that comes with a good revenge fantasy (or three). The author gets high marks, as this one more than makes the grade.

—John B. Valeri

WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN NOW?

By Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke

New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023. $27.99

Prior to her death in 2020, Mary Higgins Clark wrote nearly sixty books (more than 100 million copies of which are in print in the United States alone), affirming her status as a perennial New York Times and internationally bestselling author—and America’s undisputed queen of suspense. Her first mystery novel, Where Are the Children? (1975), remains her most successful offering to date; forty-eight years later, Alafair Burke—Higgins Clark’s collaborator on the Under Suspicion series and an accomplished scribe in her own right—offers a sequel that asks the question Where Are the Children Now?

Melissa—who, along with her brother, Mike, survived a near-deadly kidnapping four decades ago—is on the precipice of a new life. After a failed engagement, she is now married to someone else, Charlie, a widower and father of nearly three-year-old Riley. Coupled with having a hit true-crime podcast, she seems to be making a fantastic fresh start. But her dream becomes a nightmare when, shortly after the wedding, Riley goes missing while in Melissa’s care. As history eerily repeats itself (only this time with Melissa as the suspected villain rather than a victim), she begins to wonder if she did the unthinkable and completely blanked out with no memory of her actions. The evidence seems to suggest so.

With the clock ticking and having fallen under suspicion, Melissa is determined to find Riley and bring her home, even as Charlie begins to pull away from her. This distance is further encouraged by his attorney, who also happens to be Melissa’s dear friend and podcast partner. Fortunately, she has help from her brother and her mother, Nancy, who was framed for the murders of her first two children and later revictimized when Melissa and Mike were taken away. With the authorities spending more time investigating the family instead of looking for Riley, the question is whether the trio’s shared trauma will bind them or break them.

As Higgins Clark did before her, Burke uses third-person multiple POVs to tell the story, with perspectives ranging from major characters to minor ones. Each adds a piece to a puzzle that’s shaped by horror, hope, and happenstance—replete with the fraught nature of family and friendships, cleverly developed red herrings, and the redemptive power of love. The author does an admirable job of exploring the insidious nature of transgenerational trauma through Melissa, who has always wanted to bury the past, and Mike, who needs to let it breathe, while both kids treat Nancy as if she’s too fragile to revisit it.

While posthumous releases are often met with skepticism, Burke leaves no room for doubt, as Where Are the Children Now? fits firmly within Higgins Clark’s tradition of excellence. A plucky heroine, chilling crimes, and a clever twist at the end make for stellar suspense—and all without the gratuity of explicit violence, sex, or language. The story more than satisfies as a sequel to the classic (and carries just enough backstory to orient new readers and serve as a refresher), proving yet again that Higgins Clark’s style—echoed through the caring, capable hands of Burke—remains timeless.

—John B. Valeri

 

THE WILD ADVENTURES

OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, VOL. 2

By Will Murray

Independently Published, 2023. $19.95

If you’re a fan of the bloody pulps and/or action and adventure, you’ll probably enjoy the work of Will Murray, who has played in several fictional sandboxes over the course of his illustrious career, having penned novels featuring Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, the Destroyer, Doc Savage, the Spider, and the Shadow. He continued in this vein with his first collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories, The Wild Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, published back in June 2020. He returns to that milieu in The Wild Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Volume 2, published earlier this year.

The ten stories within hit all the expected grace notes, with Murray’s admiration of Holmes and Watson providing ample energy in every story. Although Murray’s respect for Holmes’s creator is palpable, he’s not reluctant to expand the boundaries of Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional territory a bit, especially in the three narratives that find the consulting detective and his skeptical colleague Dr. Watson crossing paths with Algernon Blackwood’s “physician extraordinary,” Dr. John Silence. These are the supernaturally tinged tales “The Adventure of the Abominable Adder,” “The Adventure of the Sorrowing Mudlark,” and “The Adventure of the Emerald Urchin.” Aficionados of both Doyle and Blackwood should enjoy the not-always-easy evolution of Holmes and Silence’s professional relationship as it moves from wariness to respect, with each coming to recognize the other’s formidable talents.

According to the author’s notes at the end of this winning volume, Murray has produced more than forty Sherlock Holmes stories over the past several years. This should bode well for future installments of Holmes’s so-called wild adventures. Knowing that more than twenty tales remain uncollected makes this reader anxious; I don’t want to wait another three years for the next volume.

—Hank Wagner

 

 

FATAL FUDGE SWIRL

By Meri Allen

New York: St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 2023. $8.99

There’s nothing quite like a pseudonym to add to an author’s mystique, and yet Meri Allen’s true identity isn’t much of a secret within the reading world. Under her real name, Shari Randall, she wrote the popular Lobster Shack Mysteries—including Curses, Boiled Again! (2018), which won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Now, as Meri Allen, she pens the deliciously devious Ice Cream Shop Mysteries. Fatal Fudge Swirl marks the series’ third entry, following The Rocky Road to Ruin (2021) and Mint Chocolate Murder (2022).

It’s Halloween time in the quaint fictional town of Penniman, Connecticut, and Riley Rhodes—a former CIA librarian turned manager of Udderly Delicious—is looking forward to scooping up her signature seasonal flavors as the leaves turn, the nights grow longer, and mischief reigns. Adding to the excitement is the filming of a Hallmark-like rom-com that brings onetime child star Cooper Collins and his crew to town, where they’re staying at the charming Inn on the Green, owned by Cooper’s mother, Diantha who is engaged to the inn’s longtime chef, Dominic Dominello. But then, the night before their nuptials, murder fells the bride-to-be, and Riley vows to serve up some just desserts.

Not only is Riley a friend of the primary person of interest, Mary Ann Dumas—Dominic’s ex-wife and the wedding’s caterer—but Riley created a custom ice cream cake for the occasion, which is later defaced. So the stakes are personal, particularly when the police seem to exclude all other suspects and instead home in on Mary Ann. Having been asked to cover shifts at the inn when off the clock from Udderly Delicious, Riley uses the unassuming guise of “the help” as a cover for sleuthing—and soon turns up a plethora of potential suspects, not all of whom are outsiders. With a killer in their midst, Riley must work quickly to exonerate the innocent and identify the guilty before a miscarriage of justice can occur.

A single thirty-something who values family and friendships, Riley makes for a compassionate, intelligent, and mature narrator. Firmly entrenched in the community that welcomed her home following a personal indiscretion in Rome—that had dire professional consequences—Riley finds that these ties both motivate and sustain her, even as they occasionally put her at odds with the local authorities. But this relative sense of contentment is threatened when a figure from her bygone days of international intrigue makes contact. Can she solve a murder and salvage the peaceful life she’s made in Penniman, or will the past spoil her sanctuary?

Fatal Fudge Swirl is a sweetly sinister murder mystery. Beyond the cleverly crafted confections and crimes, Allen dishes up heaping portions of autumnal ambience, feline farce, and movie mayhem, creating a welcome world of (mostly) cozy delights. Simply put, you’ll eat it all up—and then scream for more.

—John B. Valeri

 

I DID IT FOR YOU

By Amy Engel

New York: Dutton, 2023. $28.00

Amy Engel may not be a household name just yet, but she has the potential to become one. Having grown up in the Midwest (and, for a brief time, Iran), she later attended law school at Georgetown University. After completing her studies, Engel returned to Kansas City and spent the next decade practicing criminal defense. Following marriage and motherhood, she decided to pursue a career in writing, which resulted in the publication of the award-winning YA novel The Book of Ivy (2014) and its sequel, The Revolution of Ivy (2015). Then Engel shifted her focus to adult thrillers with The Roanoke Girls (2017) and The Familiar Dark (2020). I Did It for You is her third standalone.

Fourteen years ago, Greer Dunning’s older sister, Eliza, and her boyfriend, Travis, were gunned down under cover of darkness as they sat entwined in his vehicle. Their killer, Roy Matthews, was later executed for the crime. And while Greer never doubted Roy’s guilt, she always felt a second person had influenced his actions that night—a claim family, friends, and local law enforcement all dismissed as a manifestation of grief. Now Greer lives in Chicago, where she works as a guidance counselor and keeps as much distance from her Kansas roots as possible. Until the night her father calls her and drunkenly professes: “It’s happened again . . . he did it again.”

Despite her misgivings, Greer can’t resist the inner voice telling her to return home to the small town of Ludlow, where you can’t go anywhere without knowing somebody and their business. This new crime—the shooting deaths of an eighteen-year-old couple—has been deemed the work of a copycat. But Greer knows better; it’s really an invitation to finish what was started all those years ago. As she reunites with her estranged parents, her two best friends, and other old acquaintances and lovers, it’s with the knowledge that she’s been keeping secrets that might just have some bearing on the case(s). And she finds an unlikely ally: Roy Matthews’s older, guilt-ridden brother, Dean.

Bonded by their shared belief that Roy had an accomplice (and tormented by the opposite-sidedness of their proximity to the crime), the two begin their own investigation into the past, knowing that’s where they’re most likely to find the answers to the present-day killings. Their association is met with disapproval from the community—even Greer and Dean themselves can’t help suspecting each other’s motives. But what choice do they have?

With the exception of four short chapters that develop the victims as individuals, Engel limits her focus to Greer’s point of view, amplifying her feelings of isolation and claustrophobia and her ever-growing sense of fear and paranoia. But Greer’s need to know what really happened is greater than her fear or any desire to forget, even if the truth devastates her all over again.

I Did It for You is both an absorbing mystery and a nuanced portrait of a place (and people) haunted by its own history. While the premise of a killer reemerging from obscurity is a creepy hook, the author largely forgoes gratuitous thrills for subtler, more impactful scares that concentrate on her characters’ conflicted inner lives. She takes a hard look at how grief can bond or break relationships, how poking around in the past can produce unimaginable answers, and how doing the right thing can feel entirely wrong. This is a memorable and moody must-read from a true up-and-comer.

—John B. Valeri

OSCAR SLATER: A KILLER EXPOSED

By Brenda Rossini

London: MX Publishing, 2023. $36.95

Arthur Conan Doyle was an amateur detective in real life. His most famous investigation, in which he strove mightily to clear the name of George Edalji—a man accused of a series of attacks—has been fictionalized and adapted for radio, screen, and stage many times. Another prominent but less-discussed investigation of Conan Doyle’s is the case of Oscar Slater, who was convicted of the 1908 murder of Marion Gilchrist, an affluent Scotch woman. Slater was accused of beating her to death and stealing her jewelry, but from the outset, he had a strong support base.

As the years passed, many prominent people spoke up for Slater, proclaiming his innocence. Conan Doyle got involved and eventually wrote The Case of Oscar Slater, a defense of the convicted man. Eventually, public opinion led to Slater’s release, and for years, all the crime historians covering the case portrayed Slater as a wrongly accused man.

As the title indicates, Brenda Rossini has taken a different view. Her book Oscar Slater: A Killer Exposed contends that he really was responsible for Gilchrist’s murder and that he conspired with two other people, Helen Lambie and Patrick Nugent, to commit the crime. Rossini goes into great detail tracing the prejudices and culture of the time that might have both turned people against Slater and also led others to take his side. Rossini sifts through all the evidence, including a missing brooch, and sorts through various clues to explain mistakes that the authorities might have made, as well as how prominent people such as Conan Doyle were won over to Slater’s cause.

It’s a complex story, and at times it requires close, focused reading to follow the narrative and retain all the critical points, but any effort readers put into this book will be well worth it. The ending, which discusses how Conan Doyle’s opinion of Slater soured after the latter’s release, is particularly interesting, as we see Rossini’s take on Slater’s true character emerging.

Was Slater truly guilty? Rossini has deeply shaken up my thoughts on the case, but I’ll wait for further responses, rebuttals, and research before I form a solid opinion. For a while during the twentieth century, it was trendy to conclude, based on a couple of reports and comments of people connected to the Edalji case, that Conan Doyle got it wrong and that Edalji was guilty after all, but more recent studies have contradicted this view, and now the prevailing consensus leans in Edalji’s favor again. It will be fascinating to see how Rossini’s book shakes up the general perception of the Slater case in the decades to come.

—Chris Chan

 

THE RUNNING GRAVE

By Robert Galbraith

New York: Mulholland Books, 2023. $32.50

The Running Grave is the seventh book in the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith (aka J. K. Rowling). The main focus of the novel is religious cults. Strike and his business partner Robin Ellacott are approached by a retired civil servant, Sir Colin Edensor, to try to rescue his neurodivergent son, Will, from the Universal Humanitarian Church (UHC). Will has cut off all communication with his family, he seems to be distressed and ill, and he is gradually handing over his considerable trust fund to the UHC.

The UHC itself is a highly successful international organization with thousands of followers, a charismatic leader called Papa J, and several influential members. People within the cult appear closely controlled and unwilling to talk, and ex-members are too terrified of attracting the revenge of the “drowned prophet,” thought to be the reincarnation of Papa J’s daughter Daiyu, who drowned in the North Sea as a young child. They have experienced supernatural manifestations while in the cult, and several former members have died after leaving.

Robin and Cormoran decide the only way they can undertake this commission is by putting someone into the cult undercover. Cormoran is too well known, so, against his wishes, it must be Robin. Her only means of communication with the outside world is by notes left near the fence of the compound for members of the agency to collect.

One of Galbraith/Rowling’s greatest strengths is the ability to tell a story, and this is a gripping one. The book is tense and dark, with a close look at the way cults work: the systematic brainwashing, the abuse disguised as routes to spiritual development that weaken the will, and punishments that mirror torture techniques. Galbraith/Rowling’s depiction of Robin’s slow decline while undercover is powerfully written and disturbing.

As with the other books in the series, the narrative also focuses on the complicated private lives of Robin and Cormoran. Robin now has a policeman boyfriend who is starting to show signs of wanting to control her, and Cormoran, following a pattern from previous books, gets involved with a neurotic and manipulative woman (with the unlikely name of Bijou), who comes close to dragging Cormoran and the agency through the courts. This part of the narrative is less complex than in previous books, and there is a slight indication that Galbraith/Rowling’s heart isn’t really in it, that she, like most of her readers, would like to see the Cormoran and Robin narrative resolved.

This was starting to become contrived in the otherwise excellent The Ink Black Heart (2022). In The Running Grave, Galbraith/Rowling keeps her two main protagonists apart for much of the narrative. This allows for some soul searching and developing self-awareness which moves the relationship on a bit but could well leave the author in a quandary about how to convincingly stop them from coming together in the next book. Readers will probably not accept yet another misunderstanding as two adults who are good friends and close colleagues manage not to talk to each other about the thing that is central to their thoughts for 900-plus pages.

The Strike novels have been criticized for being overlong. This is very much a matter of readers’ taste. The Running Grave might have benefited from some trimming, but there is very little padding. The book follows the narratives of the other cases the agency is dealing with and touches on the lives and personalities of the other members of the agency. Strike’s complicated family life is also explored, with the developing illness of his uncle in Cornwall, his relationship with his half sister, Lucy, and a number of siblings he has only recently discovered. This leads to a rounded world, but it slows down the narrative. The ending is perhaps too drawn out. Galbraith/Rowling gives us the expected conclusion the narrative has been leading up to but adds a whodunit element that is probably unnecessary.

Overall, The Running Grave is an excellent addition to a series that has been moving from strength to strength, as the characters and the fictional world Galbraith/Rowling has created are becoming more rounded and more engaging with each book. The big question for the next book is about the Cormoran-Robin relationship. Surely it can only go one way.

On the other hand, don’t forget this is the writer who killed Dumbledore. Expect the unexpected, and watch this space!

—Danuta Reah

 

THE SANDBOX

By Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson

Ashland, OR: Blackstone Publishing, 2023. $27.99

The writing duo of Brian Andrews and Jeffrey Wilson (the team behind the Tier One and Sons of Valor book series) kick off a planned series of thrillers with The Sandbox, a fortuitously timed novel that opens with the brutal murder of Platform Cognition CEO Brit Norris and, not long after that, a mass-shooting incident at the same tech company.

The ensuing investigation into both crimes leads to the formation of a task force through which readers are introduced to Valerie Marks, a former Army CID investigator, haunted by her past, and Heath Garrett, a former Green Beret now working as a government agent specializing in tech research. While Garrett has his own agenda, he and Marks form a tentative partnership to find out the truth. When they receive a damning video of Abe Winter, Norris’s former business partner turned anti-AI protester, committing the murder, things seem to be neatly falling into place.

However, Detective Marks soon discovers a kink in this all too neat investigation. Platform Cognition was working on a far more sentient AI program than anyone knew. Think Skynet from the Terminator film franchise but on an even scarier level. This is where readers meet Charlie, the sentient AI that has somehow worked its way around all the measures in place to keep it contained. And Charlie, well, Charlie’s not happy. Imagine an AI that can go anywhere, can do pretty much anything, and has a disturbing sense of admiration for Jack the Ripper. The future is suddenly rushing headlong toward Marks, Garrett, and Winter as they race against an all-knowing enemy that can outthink them at every turn but has the moral compass and impulse control of a toddler. They’ll have to marshal every resource they have to stop Charlie from unleashing chaos on a worldwide level, while somehow managing to stay alive themselves.

Andrews and Wilson have clearly done their homework, which makes the world they create in The Sandbox that much more interesting. The authors flesh out all the characters so well—especially Marks, Garrett, Winter, and even Marks’s boss, Sergeant Land—that readers will be left still thinking about them long after the book ends. And what they do in bringing Charlie to life is rather incredible, if scary as hell at the same time.

The Sandbox is structured in three acts, and while the tech babble runs throughout the book, the authors maintain the growing tension and explosive actions all the way through to the book’s crescendo and denouement.

Andrews and Wilson have crafted a thriller that not only will give readers more than their fair share of thrills, chills, and some small measure of technophobia but will simultaneously whet their appetites for more books in their new series of tech-based mysterious thrillers.

—Jay Roberts

 

SUMMER PEOPLE

By Sara Hosey

Fort Collins, CO: CamCat Publishing, 2023. $19.99

Summer People, Sara Hosey’s third young adult mystery, takes readers to Upstate New York and a town called Sweet Lake. Christmas Miller, who has just graduated from high school, is looking forward to the annual summertime arrival of her best friend, Lexi. The two young women have been fast friends since they were young children, and Christmas can’t wait to spend the summer sunbathing and hanging out on her beloved lake.

The town of Sweet Lake has given Christmas an almost idyllic life since her family moved to the town full-time. Even though she’s had to deal with a learning disorder and ADHD, she has found her way through her problems and is looking forward to college. But when Lexi arrives, she’s distant and dismissive about spending the summer. The two girls end up in an argument, something that has seemingly never happened before, and the gap between them grows wider.

Soon Christmas has a lot more to deal with. A contentious town meeting about the future of the lake and its algae problem makes Christmas’s world suddenly seem less idyllic than she’d imagined. And when she and Lexi happen upon their friend Lemy assaulted and left for dead in the water, Sweet Lake starts to take on a sinister feel.

Who could have beaten Lemy and dumped him in the lake, and why? Does it stem from what is going on with the algae problem, or is it something else entirely? Meanwhile, Christmas has to try to figure out what’s going on with the people in her life—Lexi is still avoiding her, her parents are keeping secrets, and she’s suddenly dealing with the attentions of two boys. All these distractions force Christmas to take a step back and focus herself before she can move forward.

But as she starts to ask questions, events take an even more evil turn, and soon Christmas is faced with the dark underbelly of small-town life. She’ll need all her courage and convictions to see justice done and to survive without her own life imploding—or worse.

While the first chapters of Summer People definitely have the young adult plot devices down pat—friendships changing, the distance between parents and children, and a host of other themes that would seem to come from practically any teen TV drama—the mystery seemed a little lacking. Even after the body in the lake is discovered, it takes a bit to rev up the “investigation.” Nevertheless, Hosey’s writing keeps the pages turning. And once she combined the young adult drama with the more traditional trappings of a mystery novel, the intensity of the plot takes off like a rocket.

The characters in the story are well developed. Christmas has a host of issues that coincide with her ADHD, but the way she pushes forward and faces them head-on will make readers root for her pretty quickly. Also, Christmas’s feelings of both repulsion and attraction for town bad boy Cash Ford are explored in a compelling side plot. Lexi’s reasons for being distant from Christmas are somewhat easy to figure out, but the two have to dance around the matter for a while before truths are finally revealed, which adds an extra dose of intrigue to their bond of friendship.

Hosey does a great job of ramping up the intensity as the book nears its dramatic conclusion. Christmas ultimately has to figure out how to prevent the truth she is uncovering from destroying her life while simultaneously surviving the machinations of those who will do anything to keep their dark secrets.

Summer People is a compelling tale that uncovers the flip side of the idyllic picture of small-town life.

—Jay Roberts

 

TRIAL

By Richard North Patterson

Nashville: Post Hill Press, 2023. $30.00

In recent years, Richard North Patterson’s name has been overshadowed by another Patterson (you know the one). Having topped the New York Times bestsellers list and published twenty-two critically acclaimed novels, he stepped away from fiction following 2014’s Eden in Winter to explore pressing political and social issues. Patterson wrote more than 300 pieces in that vein between 2015 and 2021, which were published in outlets ranging from HuffPost and the Boston Globe to The Atlantic and USA Today. Now, after nearly a decade away, he has returned with Trial—a socially conscious standalone suspense story rooted in those aforementioned topics.

In the dark hours of night, on a desolate road in Cade County, Georgia, 18-year-old Malcolm Hill—the African American son of prominent voting rights activist Allie Hill—is pulled over by white sheriff’s deputy George Bullock. With fear in his heart, and under the influence of alcohol, Malcolm makes an error in judgment: he removes his Glock 19 from the glove compartment (instead of retrieving his registration) and conceals it under a stack of absentee ballot applications on his passenger seat. When Bullock—who fails to call in the stop or activate his body cam—struggles with Malcolm over the weapon, the gun goes off, killing him. And in the aftermath, the promise of Malcolm’s athletic scholarship to Morehouse is replaced by the possibility of capital punishment.

Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, Chase Bancroft Brevard, the state’s Democratic congressman and a former prosecutor, catches a news story about the case and is compelled to travel to Georgia. He and Allie—now a controversial figure due to her equal rights activism—were classmates and unlikely lovers at Harvard until she abruptly broke things off and returned home without explanation. Their reunion is bittersweet and rife with consequences. Chase’s involvement with Allie could have implications for his reelection and his senatorial aspirations. But he can’t bring himself to abandon Allie or Malcolm and ultimately joins the defense team as second chair to prominent African American attorney Jabari Ford. Can the two find common ground—or, at the very least, create reasonable doubt? Malcolm’s life depends on it.

Patterson’s authorial talents are on full display as he skillfully navigates Malcolm’s, Allie’s, and Chase’s perspectives and the different timelines. The novel begins in 2022—as post-election conspiracy theories and resultant violence abound—and then detours to the past, where we meet Allie and Chase as their younger (but no less ambitious) selves. While this results in a temporary shift of pace and tone, the background is necessary to appreciate the nuances of the characters’ present-day circumstances, particularly as the trial unfolds. Patterson also uses the timeline to foreshadow some of the plot twists, which makes them less surprising but more satisfying. The question isn’t so much if these things will come to pass but when—and how the timing will impact Malcolm’s fate.

Trial is an ambitious and unabashedly earnest offering from one of America’s great storytellers. More than an edge-of-your-seat legal thriller, it’s a thought-provoking meditation on race, justice, politics, and other complexities of American life. Despite its subject matter, the narrative is grounded in the intimate bonds of family and friendship—and the idea of an uncertain (but ostensibly hopeful) future. A triumphant return for Patterson, whose conviction shines through on every page.

—John B. Valeri

 

 

0 Comments

  1. Still thinking about this book after reading it. We’ve all experienced at least one of Amy’s personnas in another person, and some people are one or more of her personnas. Whether you like or hate her, the fact remains she is brilliant at what she does. Nobody gets over on her and if your brave enough to try it, you best have good game. Psychologically she’s up there with Hannibal Lector, but in a different style.

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