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August Killer Books, edited by Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha’s, Ann Arbor, MI, www.auntagathas.com :
 Billy Boyle is able to meet with his love, Diana, because he is owed a favor by Kim Philby. Sadly, Diana has to spread the news about the gas the Germans are using in their concentration camps. Billy also has a mission. He's sent to Italy to investigate a serial killer. The killer's calling card is a playing card, Starting with the ten of Hearts, it is obvious the killer is working toward a Royal Flush. It's hard enough to find a serial killer, without being on or near the front line of combat. Billy has his friend Kaz, of Polish royalty, to help him with his investigation. Kaz's help is valuable when dealing with an Italian woman who formerly worked for the King of Italy. Despite Billy's best efforts, the killer is near to completing his hand, when matters are further complicated by Billy's brother Danny being sent to the front lines. Billy is used to having Danny's back, and during wartime, that isn't possible. Though the killer is found, there is a cliff hanger of an ending. I think this is the strongest book in a remarkable series. Set during the Anzio invasion, the feel of war is very well drawn. There were so many details about combat, IE: the need for dry socks, that made it very realistic. And the scene showing Billy's confrontation with the killer was chilling. Billy made a decision that had to have been the hardest of his life. I look forward to the next in the series, though I'm a pacifist.   Much like the camps in Germany, the British camp is filled with exiled intellectuals and artists, one of whom, Dr. Bruno Beck, is a psychoanalyst who studied with Freud. His expertise lies in the criminal mind, something the local policeman, Tom Tyler, is reluctant to utilize or believe in, though the case at hand so stumps him he is desperate enough to give anything a try. With an entire other series under her belt, Jennings is truly a master at complex plotting, well drawn characters, and a way of making a particular slice of history come absolutely alive to the reader. She doesn’t inundate you with research or facts, but the atmosphere is complete and convincing. The details are all there, but they are in the background. To me what she’s particularly gifted at are the subtle interactions between characters, catching a moment that’s a wispy as a thread, and making it strong and memorable. The book is filled with character subtleties and the story itself is a knockout. Like all good writers, she opens with an indelible character, and then, like even better writers, she kills this character. As a reader you are then completely invested in the story. Lost to the world in the beginning of the book is Elsie, a Land Girl. Land Girls came from all over Britain to the countryside to help with farming as most young men had signed up. Elsie is from London, and feels a fish out of water. Jennings quickly establishes her as feisty, smart and a bit sneaky and then finishes her off. When Elsie’s body is discovered with a bunch of white poppies laying nearby, Inspector Tom Tyler is puzzled, and as he finds out more about Elsie, angered. Tom is dealing with all kinds of family troubles - a traumatized son back from the front; a teenage daughter who appears to be hiding something; a wife he’s somewhat estranged from, and the reappearance of an old lover, Clare. Jennings’ skill at portraying an entire town is extremely deft. There are many different kinds of characters in this novel, yet it never seems crowded or overwhelming. It’s like you’re along with Tom Tyler on his travels, discovering the tiny Shropshire town for yourself, as well as the relationships Tom has with the people who live there. The mystery part of the story is layered and complicated, though never needlessly so, and when another body is discovered, the suspense really kicks in. Jennings’ book will likely remind readers of Charles Todd’s fine WWI series, though, if I may say so, she moves the action along a bit faster than Todd. It’s also refreshing to read about WWII, as more mysteries are set during the first war than the second. The parts about the Land Girls were truly fascinating, as were the believable attitudes, hopes and fears of the characters in the story. Tom Tyler won’t soon be forgotten, nor will this wonderful, heartbreaking and illuminating novel.  Then the unthinkable happens. A cantankerous neighbor is found face down in the luau pit and the most likely suspects seem to be Uncle Louise, bartender Sophie and Em herself. Sophie has a past that puts a target on her back and Uncle Louis had a longstanding feud with the victim. Em doesn’t appear to have much of a motive but she finds herself in compromising circumstances more than once, leading the detective to be a bit suspicious. The bar’s free entertainment is the Hula Maidens, a group of, shall we say, well-aged ladies who will perform whenever they get the opportunity and they’re not about to let the Goddess be out of business by such a thing as murder. The wheeling and dealing by the murdered man’s high powered realtor niece who has inherited his house and wants to put up a high-value mansion isn’t going to endanger their beloved bar either so they swing into action to help Em solve the case. Before their sleuthing gets very far, there’s another murder and he disappears. In this a sign of her guilt or is something more sinister going on? Throw in a handsome fire dancing detective, a Liberace-like celerity, a 95-year-old hula dancer in a mobility scooter and a parrot named David Letterman who frequently has to sleep off a hangover and the reader is in for a treat. The descriptions of this less-commercialized part of Hawaii are enticing, reminding me of why I wished I lived on a tropical island. The mystery itself is a bit lightweight – O identified the murderer early on – but there is plenty of humor and a bit of romance, making this an ideal beach read, and I’m looking forward to the next book in this new series. I do wish, though, that Ms. Landis would indicate on her website that her books are available in independent brick-and-mortar stores as well as the chains and online.  Of course, Dewey Decimal is not his real name. He doesn't or won't remember what his real name is. He talks sporadically of events in his lifetime, or they could be episodes implanted in his brain. He lives in the devastated New York Public Library and is working, compulsively, to organize the books. He is currently still on the 000s. But that's his passion. His livelihood is as muscle for a corrupt New York City D.A., in whatever form that occupation still exists. There are still police and FBI agents, but they are warped shadows of what used to be. In this post-apocalyptic New York, decimated by both the bombs of 2/14 and a subsequent super-flu, the rules of play are written behind the scenes and under the table. Gangsters of every stripe, especially of Eastern European and Russian origin, run the game. It's hard to know where everyone's loyalties lie. And that is Dewey Decimal's world. Nathan Larson's book is a rocket ride through this world. His hero is charming but ruthless, quirky with his own moral code. Dead bodies virtually fling themselves all over the pages of the book, mounting in increasing numbers as the book reaches its denouement. (Does Larson have Quentin Tarantino on his speed dial?) Bring on the Purell (™). I'm ready for the next installment.  Martin Anderson is a 44-year-old adolescent. He’s married to a good woman, father of two appealing kids, and owner of a business which buys and sells used private airplanes, and he’s a really nice guy, but he has never grown up. It’s 1974, and times are not as tough as in 2011, but surprisingly similar: oil is scarce and the economy is in the doldrums. Anderson Aircrafts is what we’d call today "under water." Martin’s biggest problem, though, is that he’s an habitual liar – lying to himself as well as to everyone else. His idea of an explanation is to come up with a "cover story." And as a liar himself, he suspects everyone else of lying, which complicates his life significantly. You would not believe the lengths he goes to when driven by infatuation with his neighbor’s wife. When he’s offered big money to make a few quick flights to Mexico to pick up illicit drugs, what’s a guy who has never learned to make responsible decisions going to do? How else can he hold onto his upscale home, Cadillac, private boat, race horse (!), etc.? In 300+ pages we get pretty deeply inside this guy’s head, and I think most readers will, like me, recognize some common decency in Martin, and a little residual adolescence in ourselves, and somehow hope for a happy ending here. We come to understand why Publishers Weekly calls Martin Anderson "the most lovable drug smuggler in ages." A brilliant debut novel.  Thomas Cook is one of my favorite authors, but when I tell people that their reaction is often who? He’s been nominated for the Edgar seven times in five different categories, won for best novel, and yet, perhaps because he doesn’t write a series, remains criminally underappreciated. To me, fine prose in an essential part of any really excellent book, and Cook is one of the greatest living stylists in any genre, but he also has mastery of the other essential elements like character, setting and a special gift for the unexpected plot twist that seems obvious only after its happened. In many ways his latest book The Quest For Anna Klein has all the ingredients of an ultimate Cook book. He’s always been fascinated by the corrosive nature of evil, and what fallible humanity can do to combat it, often considered from the point of view of someone trying to come to terms with a tragic past, and here his characters are faced with the ultimate villain of our time, Adolph Hitler. His naive protagonist Thomas Danforth is slowly drawn into a plot to thwart and then kill the dictator, more by his fascination with the conspiracy’s mysterious, still center, Anna Klein, than by any great sense of idealism. Cook manages to maintain compelling suspense even though we know full well that Hitler only gets assassinated in Quentin Tarantino movies. Adding to the depth and resonance is a structure Cook has used often, as evidenced in the titles of books like The Interrogation and The Last Talk With Lola Faye, that of a conversation between two unsympathetic people, a dialogue that slowly wipes clean the dark glass of the past. In this case the post 9/11 exigencies of the present are a factor too, as a now aged Danforth is interviewed in 2001 about the events of 1939 by the narrator Paul Crane, a rather callow young think tank member, who has called for a passionate, almost irrational response to the terrorist attack. Danforth methodically teases him, and the reader, into the much more complicated world of historical reality, where there’s more than one evil, many of them masquerading as good. As usuual Cook manages to stay a few steps ahead without sacrificing either verisimilitude or a final, sustained emotional wallop. The titular character Anna is revealed kaleidoscopically, from many angles, and the pursuit of her true nature animates the book, finally suggesting how hard it is to really know anyone at all, even someone we feel passionately about. In the end we are left to ponder the fruitlessness of blind revenge and the abiding vitality of that crazy thing called love. But it would also be a tragedy if our increasingly shrinking literary world were to obscure or marginalize as talented an artist as Thomas Cook. His fans, many of them other writers, will definitely want to pick up a copy of The Quest For Anna Klein, as will any fan of well written mysteries.  I was knocked out by Quartey’s debut, Wife of the Gods, and I’m happy to report that this second novel is just as excellent. Quartey’s series character, Darko Dawson, is really a classic who seems as though he’s been solving mysteries "between the covers" for decades, not just two novels. He’s such a completely realized and compelling character that he’s a wonderful lynchpin for the books, though there is more to them even than Darko himself. Darko works for the CID in Ghana in the capitol city of Accra, where he lives with his wife and his son Hosiah, who suffers from a heart defect. There is surgery to cure it, but the Dawsons cannot afford it. Darko’s worry for his son is an underlying thread of anxiety that Quartey skillfully pulls through the novel. The core of the novel concerns the street children of Accra - there are (according to Quartey, and I have no reason to doubt him) - 60,000 children living on the streets of Accra. When they start turning up dead, the cases, by the second or third body appear to be linked, though Darko’s boss allows his nephew, who works under Dawson, to head on a wild goose chase as far as the possible culprit is concerned. It’s a good sidebar as it’s a way for the book to highlight the workings of the Ghanian police force, as well as one of Darko’s weaknesses. The story of the street children is heartbreaking, and Quartey spares us no horrible detail as we learn about 13 year old girls forced to work as prostitutes, young boys who stake out a piece of sidewalk to sleep on while taking turns keeping watch, and the difficulty that all of the children have finding any kind of work or something to eat. Though it’s lightly touched on, much of the western world’s electronic garbage turns up in Africa, and one of the things the kids do for money is strip computer wires for the copper inside. Of course burning the outer part of the wire is toxic, and there’s a cloud of black smoke hanging over the garbage dump where they scrounge for electronics. The plight of the boys only makes the parade of teen-aged corpses more heartbreaking. I admire any writer who can take a tired trope like the serial killer novel and make it absolutely fresh, which is the case here. Quartey is also a pure mystery writer with an obvious love for the genre - he makes use of red herrings, clues and tricky characters that succeed in fooling the reader. I was very surprised by the killer’s identity, even though there was a clue in the narrative. So this is a serial killer book, yes, but it’s not a thriller, it’s a mystery. Darko’s heart carries you through the story and enriches your reading experience. I shed a tear on the last page and you probably will too, and like me, you’ll probably be looking forward to the next book already. More, please, Dr. Quartey!  During the initial planning stages, Deke is killed, possibly the victim of a setup. Carr assumes leadership of the group, but the participants’ loyalties are divided and trust is in short supply. Carr realizes that Valerie, a gang member and sometimes relationship, may be a traitor. In fact, all of the gang members have their own agendas that threaten to undermine the plan. The plot is meticulous and tracks the characters between Miami and the Caymans. Shifting points of view effectively reveal the character’s motives. Mr. Spiegelman’s financial and computer software background make the story credible. The action is non-stop and filled with snappy dialogue. THICK AS THIEVES takes the reader along on the heist. The reward is a well-written suspenseful ride with a good twist at the end. ENJOY IT.  Chicago P.I. Joe Kozmarski's story is a throwback to classic tough-guy private eye novels. Kozmarski is hard-drinking and hard-headed. It's him versus the world. With a little help from a couple of requisite women-who-love-the-bad-boys. June Killer Books, edited by Beth Kanell, Kingdom Books, Waterford, VT, www.kingdombks.com:
 I have already hand-sold this book to two of my neighbors with the guarantee that they will love it and have a hard time putting it down. Lisa Gardner had them hooked on the first chapter. State police officer Tessa Leoni appears to have shot her husband with her service issue Sig Sauer after an apparent domestic violence incident resulted in her suffering a concussion and bruised ribs. The complication of her six-year-old daughter being missing from her bed and nowhere to be found adds to the troubling crime scene. Homicide detective D.D. Warren is covering the case and is at first convinced that it is a typical domestic violence case in which one of the parents has harmed the child. When the autopsy reveals that the dead husband has evidence of frostbite on his fingers and toes, D.D. and her partner, Bobby Dodge, begin to view Tessa as more of a cold-blooded killer than she first appeared. But Tessa seems to have really loved her little girl and no one who knew Brian, her dead husband, can believe that he would ever harm his wife or daughter. The contradictions mount up as Tessa reveals herself to be a conniving and ruthless person. Or is she? Maybe she just loves her daughter more than anything and anyone. You will find out at the stunning ending.
 Marcus Sakey’s strengths as a writer are many, and all are on display here. This may be the strongest entry yet from this gifted suspense writer. His ability to set a hook is first up. In this book, the main character finds himself almost drowned on a Maine beach, freezing, alone, and without his memory. Luckily he climbs into a nearby BMW, cranks it up to get warm, finds some clothes that seem to fit, and he takes it from there. Much like Anne Perry’s great creation, William Monk, who has amnesia but whose memory comes back only in flashes, Daniel Hayes is in the same boat, though the memories that return to him are far more pleasant than Monk’s. For the most part, anyway. Perry’s Monk is a policeman, and it’s his skills as a detective that help pull him through life. Sakey’s Hayes turns out to be a writer, and the author brilliantly uses this skill to help his character figure out what to do next. There’s nothing better than when an author uses the character’s actual strengths in a believable way. I’m sure this was a tricky book to write, but Sakey sure makes it look easy. He frequently shifts points of view, and the memories that come back to Daniel are frustratingly close—both for him and for the reader. It makes for a real mind bender of a read. As a reader you’re trying to evaluate the people and situations he encounters with only the information given to Daniel himself. As Daniel finds money in the BMW he decides it must be his, and he checks into a motel, but eventually he’s somehow drawn back across the country. He ends up in Los Angeles, which feels like home to him. Unfortunately when he gets home it also becomes apparent that he was married, but that his wife is dead, and he is suspected of killing her. His wife had been a fairly well known television star, so her death is receiving a lot of scrutiny. Sakey’s strengths—the hook, the cool main character, and the narrative that just won’t stop being a surprise—are matched by his prose. It’s the best kind of clean, muscular American prose that not every suspense writer is capable of. It certainly sets him apart. It would be almost criminal to give away much more of this clever plot, because you really should discover the twists and turns for yourself as you read. But it’s not giving anything away to say that Daniel is one of Sakey’s better characters. He’s well drawn and believable, and the emotional depth the author is able to give him makes the book a very moving one.  BREAKING SILENCE is the third in the Amish murder/thriller series by Linda Castillo -- preceded by Sworn to Silence in 2009 and Pray for Silence in 2010. Chief of Police Kate Burkholder grew up in Amish country and survived—barely—an attack on her family by a serial killer. With her survival came a personal departure from the Amish, and from their countryside. Twenty years later, she's back in the region she still cares about, working with people whose way of life can appear fiercely obstinate, backward, even cruel. She's no longer part of the community's most fervent segment. But she's passionate about standing up for them, especially when crime—or the hierarchies of policing—take aim against them. But after a heartbreakingly difficult rescue operation, watched by the victims' children, there are no survivors after all. And slowly, Kate comes to realize that the deaths—or what led up to them—may have been part of a string of vicious hate crimes in the area, aimed at the Amish in general.  Vincent Ruiz used to be a detective with the London police force. He is a private investigator but doesn't appear to be enthusiastic about it. As a matter of fact, very little seems to move him to enthusiasm, certainly not the upcoming wedding of his daughter, Miranda. Although "[t]he father of the bride just has to turn up, walk down the aisle, and hand his daughter over like she's part of a prisoner swap," Vincent manages to bungle his initial involvement in the wedding preparations. He meant to do things right, but hey, stuff happens. Like playing good Samaritan to a young girl who proceeds to rob him of his late wife's jewelry, things Vincent had meant to give to Miranda before her wedding. Like the girl's boyfriend being brutally murdered. Like being stalked, bribed, and finding an international crisis on his doorstep. Stuff like that. There are actually two more stories being told at the same time. One takes place in Baghdad and involves a freelance journalist, Luca, and a UN auditor, Daniela. They meet, they fall in like, people try to kill them. Is it just what happens to people in Iraq, or have them stumbled on something more? The third story involves a mother-to-be whose husband is missing. Elizabeth North's husband works for her family's banking business in London. He's a bean counter and a steady, somewhat boring man. If he's so ordinary, then what has happened to him? Where is the notebook some suspicious types claim he has? As readers, we assume that these stories are indeed related, but it isn't until two-thirds of the way into the book that the characters in the three stories begin to stumble over each other and the stories seek their mutual conclusion. After they collide, the spotlight remains on Vincent, about whom Robotham writes: "He's an intelligent man but not a complicated one." His intelligence, too, is sometimes undercut by his uppercut. He's aided about halfway through the book by psychologist Joe O'Loughlin, the main or equal character in other Robotham books. In an afterword, Robotham explains that the idea for his book is based upon real events. My reaction: scary. I will forbear discussing what brings the stories together. Robotham does too good a job drawing everything out for me to tip his hand prematurely. Robotham delivers the kind of complexity I like. Kate Atkinson does the same thing. They develop separate story lines that ultimately converge. The stories are usually so divergent, it's a healthy challenge to the authors to bring them together at the end, and both handle the challenge exceptionally well.
As I recently watched with growing fascination the televised events in Cairo, I was reminded that I knew quite a lot about the earlier history of Egypt of a century ago, thanks to the wonderful crime novels of Michael Pearce. Pearce is a British writer who grew up in the Sudan. He has a real eye for local color, and between 1988 and 2008 he wrote sixteen novels set in Cairo just before and just after the First World War. His detective was a young Welshman named Captain Gareth Owen, who began his career in the Indian Army and somehow got transferred to the Egypt being governed as a protectorate by the British, acquiring an appointment as head of Cairo’s secret service and the title of the “Mamur Zapt.” There apparently really was somebody called the “Mamur Zapt,” but Pearce uses the post as an entrée into the Egyptian world of the early twentieth century. In the process he manages, among other things, to explain how “indirect rule” worked for the British in Egypt and other places around the world, and why Egypt was (and is) such a fascinating place. The Mamur Zapt’s Cairo is a cosmopolitan city with a Muslim majority, a Christian (Coptic) minority, and a variety of other cultures as well. Its government is complex, since it is technically part of the Ottoman Empire and is ruled by a local Khedive who has unfortunately gone so deeply into debt that his government has in effect been taken over by its creditors, first the French and latterly the British. There are more than faint stirrings of Egyptian nationalism, with one of the major conflicts between the Nationalists and the British. There is also an ongoing love story in the novels, an on-and-off romance between Owen and the illegitimate daughter of a Pasha and one of his harem slave girls. Zeinab is a very modern and liberated young lady. The stories are exciting, often amusing, and highly informative. Unfortunately, many of the sixteen novels in the series have become difficult to get. Titles: The Mamur Zapt and the Return of the Carpet (1988), The Mamur Zapt and the Night of the Dog (1989), The Donkey-Vous (1990), The Mamur Zapt and the Men Behind (1991), The Girl in the Nile (1992), The Spoils of Egypt (1992), The Camel of Destruction (1993), The Snake Catcher’s Daughter (1994), The Mingrelian Conspiracy (1995), The Fig Tree Murder (1996), The Last Cut (1998), Death of an Effendi (1999), A Cold Touch of Ice (2000), The Face in the Cemetery (2001), The Point in the Market (2005), The Mark of the Pasha (2008). NOW YOU SEE ME, by S. J. Bolton ( Minotaur Book, hardcover, $25.99), recommended by Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha’s, Ann Arbor, MI, www.auntagathas.com: S.J. Bolton goes from strength to strength, with all of her novels being entirely original. This one is a departure from the other three in several ways, a large factor being that’s she’s moved the action to the big city of London instead of far flung areas like the Shetland Islands that she’s utilized in previous books. It gives this book a very different flavor, as does the fact that it’s more or less a straight up police procedural, but this writer puts her own stamp on anything she writes, and this novel is no different. A series of gruesome killings begins with a woman dying in the arms of police woman Lacey Flint, they quickly appear to be copy cat killings based on Jack the Ripper. Tying in bits of Ripper lore and history throughout the novel, it helps that the main character is herself something of a Ripperologist. Despite the fact that Lacey’s from another station and is working on a case that’s important to her personally, she’s pulled onto the Ripper squad at the request of the squad leader, Dana Tulloch, who Bolton readers may remember from her last book, Blood Harvest. The twist in this novel is not of course either the serial killer or the police slant, but the fact that the killer seems to be focused on Lacey and that the entire book is grounded in a look at crime from a woman’s point of view, detailing rapes and the way women simply are slotted into the world according to gender. While far from a polemic in that regard, it’s still a slant throughout the book, one that’s not left out of the denouement. While the psychological detail and accuracy may remind you of Minette Walters or Ruth Rendell, the narrative drive and detailed look at any setting she writes about is entirely her own. You won’t forget the Camden Stables Market anytime soon. If you’re new to Bolton, enjoy – if you’re a fan, this is probably already a book you’ve been looking forward to.  Jimm Juree had a great life, in Thailand. She was a respected journalist, who had hopes of taking over the top spot at her paper when her aging mother put a damper on her plans, as she did for others in her family.
Her mother is having challenging mental issues, and she sold the family home and attached business, and bought a rundown resort on the Southern Thailand coast. Jimm, her retired-police-officer grandfather, and her body-builder brother move with her mother. Jimm's brother, who is now her sister Sissi, didn't move with the family. She isn't the rural type and runs a successful computer business. When two bodies are found buried in an old Volkswagen van, Jimm is the first reporter on the scene and is able to file a story with her paper. Soon this peaceful area has another murder happen. An abbot visiting one of the local Buddhist temples is murdered, and a nun is a suspect. Jimm is sure the nun is innocent, and her reporting skills are called upon to help a friendly cop solve the cases. Full of local flavor and characters, this is a modern companion to Cotterill's historical series. I'd be hard pressed to pick which series is my favorite, as they both have so much to offer. I really like Jimm, and how she adjusts to all the weirdness her family life throws at her. She is a likable, resilient woman whom I look forward to reading about further.  In 1939 Berlin, World War II has not yet begun, but Europe is on the edge of madness. Hitler and his Nazis are terrorizing the Jews and other "imperfect" groups. Their influence is felt not just in Germany but also in Poland and Czechoslovakia. It is almost January 1, 1939,
and Hitler has been in power for about five years when the book opens. Within a few months, Germany will invade Poland, and Great Britain will begin its war with Germany. Kristallnacht, the destruction of Jewish homes and businesses, the beating of Jewish people, the theft of Jewish property, is only a couple of months old. It is into this setting that David Downing places his protagonist, British journalist John Russell.
Russell will not leave Berlin, although he easily could. In better times, he met and married Ilsa, a German woman, and they have a son, Paul. Russell is determined to stay in Paul's life, although he and Ilsa have divorced. Russell's girlfriend, actress Effi Koenen, is another anchor to Berlin.
Russell does mostly freelance work for various publications, so it is not unusual for him to be approached by an organization that wishes to hire his writing skills. However, it is the Russians who want a series of articles, for which they will pay well. Although his impecunious existence is a burden, Russell hesitates, but then he acquiesces, not without stipulations. He will most emphatically not be a spy for them. He will not be a spy for Great Britain or the U.S. either. Germany? Nein. It would be a less interesting book if eventually Russell didn't find himself tossed about by all these secretive forces. Jews line up daily at the British embassy, and the line stretches further each day. As a way to supplement his income, Russell teaches Germans to speak English. As a result of a reference from a friend, he teaches the daughters of a Jewish family and gets to know the family well. They are trying desperately to emigrate, but before they can get anywhere, the father, a doctor, is accused of a crime. The 18-year-old son is on the run. The daughters and the mother cannot get visas. Russell could simply shake his head, sympathize, and go on with his work. Times are tough for everyone. Despite the danger to himself, however, Russell knows he cannot avoid the inevitable. His conscience says that he must do what he can to save this family, save himself, avenge the mysterious death of a colleague, and try to stay in Berlin with Paul and Effi. It's a tall order. David Downing describes a complex situation with clarity and without over-explaining the mutable geography and politics of the time. The story does not lose pacing as it focuses on the many groups affected by Hitler's march to war. Sometimes with just a single sentence, Downing can capture the essence of an issue. His smart and ironic observations are thought-provoking and entertaining. For instance: "The film had been made on the sort of budget which would feed a small country, but was mercifully devoid of consciousness-raising pretensions. The consciousness-lowering effect was presumably accidental." Downing has written three more books, all named after train/subway stations. In fact, the important Zoo Station stop in Berlin represents the turning point in the journeys of Russell and others.  I know that when I drag a book around with me everywhere (and I mean everywhere) so that I can read it at every free moment, it is a great book. Murder One was that type of book for me. Great character development, a thrilling plot that keeps you guessing until the end, and a likeable main character all come together for an unbeatable combination.
A year has passed and attorney Robert Sloan is still grieving the death of his wife at the hands of a killer. At a black tieevent he meets someone who understands his grief and isn't expecting him to “move on.” Although he has had previous contact with Barclay Reid as opposing counsel in a previous case they both worked on, Sloan did not know that Barclay Reid was suffering a grief of her own. Barclay's daughter died of a drug overdose. Barclay has channeled her grief into a crusade against the Russian drug traffickers that brought the drugs into the city. Barclay asks for Sloan's advice and then his help as her attorney when she is accused of murdering a Russian drug dealer. Robert Sloan is irresistibly drawn to Barclay's tenacity, beauty and intelligence, the first time he has felt any interest in female companionship since his wife's death. But something is just not right ... there are too many coincidences. Bestselling author Robert Dugoni will keep you in suspense and guessing until the very end. Loved it!  In her new book we meet Claire Dewitt. A wonderful name combining Latin and Greek to translate roughly as "clear sighted". As with all of Gran's books this is a book about books, by books, and with books. Ostensibly a detective story, she includes all the classic Mike Hammer elements: Dark dangerous streets, subtle and overt threats, punch-ups, odd characters, etc. The core mystery is lain out and solved as in any crime novel, and can, at its simplest, be read that way. Gran, however, despite her claims to the contrary, has created a multi-layered novel about the very nature of "mystery". While there is a solution to a mystery in the book, other mysteries abound and act as background and catalysts in themselves. She creates a very subtle and disconcerting aura that defies easy description. Her setting in post-Katrina New Orleans gives us an off-kilter world with a wobbly axis. As with the best of art careful parsing of its elements can easily remove the magic, and believe me, this book is magic. Often the things we understand the least have the strongest effect on us. I found the book to be rife with metaphorical riches. From the physical book itself, its color scheme, its flashbacks, and its hundred year perspective on New Orleans, Sara Gran lays line after line of clues to mysteries both seen and unseen. Like a peeled onion the layers of clues appear in linked succession. Gran also has musical elements in her novel. In addition to the music that permeates the city, certain elements of the stories of her main characters, both alive and dead, weave in and out and are repeated. This pattern is very much like a recurring rondo theme in the final movement of a sonata. Her presentation of the city is totally enthralling. It encompasses all the good, bad, and in between that New Orleans holds. The duality of its citizens: The noble and the base writhe like cottonmouths in the flood waters. I have enjoyed all of Sara Gran's books but this time out she has taken a quantum leap forward. This is a unique and elegantly structured piece of writing. This book begins a new series and is, by far, the best out this year. Do not miss it. April Killer Books, edited by Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha’s, Ann Arbor, Mich., www.auntagathas.com: THE FIFTH WITNESS, Michael Connelly (Little, Brown hardcover, $27.99, e-book available), recommended by Barbara Tom, Murder by the Book, Portland, OR, www.mbtb.com: I liked everything about this book, including the surprising explanation of the title. Michael Connelly, I never tire of saying, is one of the best storytellers around. He meticulously populates his stories with details but doesn't drown out the main story with them. In this case, Connelly has returned to the adventures of Mickey Haller, the "Lincoln Lawyer." When last we saw Mickey he had done a turn as a special prosecutor at the behest of his half-brother, Harry Bosch, star of Connelly's most famous series. Now Mickey's back is to the wall because criminal defense work has dried up, and he mostly represents people who are fighting foreclosure. In these days of economic depression and the fall-out of unscrupulous mortgage lending, the potential for clients is sadly large. THESE THINGS HIDDEN , by Heather Gudenkauf (Mira $15.95, e-book available) recommended by Lou, I Love a Mystery, Mission, KS, www.iloveamystery.com: Seventeen year old Allison Glenn is the popular, smart, athletic one in high school, her parent’s dream child. She can do no wrong. That is, until she has a baby. Now twenty two years old, Allison is released from prison to a halfway house. Her sister, Brynn, one year younger, is the quiet, reserved type, always being compared to her older sister and never living up to her image. When Allison was sent to prison for her newborn’s death, Brynn was subjected to the taunts and ridicule of classmates. Having erased that tragic night from memory, Brynn is forced to relive the night of the baby’s death when Allison is released. Allison, hoping to make amends, can’t seem to stop destroying lives--lives that, upon first glance, have nothing to do with her. A compelling read—the author slowly gives the reader information, building suspense until the truth unfolds. This will be an excellent book for a reading group for the variety of topics for discussion: parent expectations, motherhood, difficult choices, mistakes and how we deal with them and how they affect the rest of our lives—it’s endless. SLUGFEST, Rosemary Harris (Minotaur hardcover, $24.99 e-book available), recommended by Robin Agnew. Aunt Agatha’s, Ann Arbor, Mich., www.auntagathas.com: Rosemary Harris has quietly become one of the more accomplished and entertaining cozy writers around. In this outing, her best so far, she takes gardening sleuth Paula Holliday to a big flower show in New York city, where she’s manning a garden art booth for a friend back home. Harris cleverly makes excellent use of this setting which supplies her with all kinds of new characters, as well as gently skewering the “show” atmosphere, one which is strained by a series of pranks that begin small and end big. Of course there’s a couple of bodies sprinkled through the proceedings, the main one belonging to a young man Paula collides with on the way into the show and who leaves a bag of his with her for safe keeping. Meanwhile, Paula treks home every night to her friend Lucy’s borrowed apartment. She’s also borrowing Lucy’s clothes, one red dress in particular becoming an especial plot point. This sounds frothy and it is, but like the best soufflés this kind of thing needs a special touch and a light hand to make it all work. The denouement, with its echoes of French bedroom farce, is funny and satisfying at the same time. Managing to incorporate the atmosphere of NYC living, the feeling of the flower show, and injecting some real emotion into the proceedings with her sharp characterizations, Harris is now a cozy author you really shouldn’t miss. This book is a pure blast. SO MUCH PRETTY, Cara Hoffman, (Simon & Schuster hardcover, $25, e-book available), recommended by Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen, www.poisonedpen.com: Some critics compare this unnerving debut to the work of Joyce Carol Oates and Joan Didion: a kind of rural American Gothic wrapped around a whodunit, plus a meditation on our culture’s ongoing acceptance of violence against women. The parents of a young girl accused of blowing away a group of her school’s male athletes narrate part of the novel, as does the young accused and other characters in the small town. Unlike a Jodi Picoult where the twists in the plot dominate the emotions, here both a despairing tenderness and an unflinching rage power right through the unfolding events and leave you tangling with the issues on your own. OUTSOURCED, by Dave Zeltserman (Serpent's Tail, trade paper, $14.95) ,recommended by Beth Kannell, Waterford, Vermont, Kingdom Books, kingdombooks.com It's tempting, isn't it -- to contemplate solving a family problem via murder, or replacing lost income through a bank robbery. But you wouldn't really do it, right? In Dave Zeltserman's hands, the slide into actually planning a bank robbery seems like the only solution for a handful of aging computer whizzes whose jobs have been "outsourced" to India, or simply reserved for younger, quicker minds trained in the newest programming languages and platforms. And in Dan Wilson, Boston-area software pro, Dave Zeltserman has written a classic character whose woes multiply with every further step into crime-as-solution. Dan's desperation matches those of several friends, whose resumes look "too old," too dated, for the current marketplace. And he knows something about a local bank's security that leaves it vulnerable to a well-timed, neatly executed robbery. Why not his? If you're a Westlake fan, you know some of what comes next: The perfect foursome Dan envisions for the task expands to five, then six; the loot taken from the bank turns out to involve a vicious mob personality; people who aren't supposed to shoot, do it anyway. And Dan's "intuitive" wife Carol, for whom he'd do anything -- even rob a bank -- gets suspicious. Very suspicious. Uh-oh. In addition to Zeltserman's lively pace and immaculately timed dark comic twists, the prolific Boston writer -- a former software pro himself -- continues to craft both vivid scenes and unique turns of phrase. I love the opening of chapter 2, when over-aged-and-out-of-work Gordon Carmichael struggles to suck in his gut, and to stand so his jowls don't sag, while imagining how he could conquer the job market if he could just afford plastic surgery. And when the very disturbed Eric Hoffer becomes part of the gang, Dan's take on his appearance is a warning in graphic red flags: "He looked pretty much how Dan remembered him. Small eyes that seemed almost buried in a pig-like face and skin the color of boiled ham." Oh yeah, got it! This book is a must for any collection of caper crime fiction, that time-honored genre that inspires snorts of laughter tucked between groans of disgust and the urge to call out, "No, don't do it!" Dan Wilson and his ill-timed venture into crime are totally engrossing, totally memorable, and oh, so very unfortunate ... even when Dan gets what he thinks he wants, he's headed for more losses. Gotta love it. March Killer Books, edited by Jill Hinckley, IMBA Secretary, www.mysterybooksellers.com
GHOST COUNTRY, by Patrick Lee (Harper, mass market paperback, $7.99), recommended by Leila Taylor, Creatures 'n' Crooks, www.cncbooks.com/blog : Paige Campbell has just left the White House when she and her Tangent colleagues are attacked and everyone is killed, everyone except Paige. She has been kidnapped but, before being taken, she manages to make a desperate call to Bethany Stewart, another colleague, for help. Paige directs Bethany where to find the "entity", a duplicate of the one which has now been stolen, and tells her to seek out Travis Chase for help. Bethany and Travis will need to use the device, the entity, and will then see the horrible future awaiting mankind in just four short months. They must go public with the facts but they can’t go to the authorities…not even the president. Travis is from Paige’s past, a past that included a destiny for Travis that forced him to leave Paige behind despite the great love they had for each other. Since then, he has lived under a false identity and has had no contact with anyone from his past. Now, a strange girl has come to his door and spoken his name, Travis, the first time he’d heard it in more than two years. She tells him that her name is Bethany and they must race to find Paige and to somehow stop Doomsday. Lee meets my demands for a very good writer, technically speaking, meaning his prose is to the point yet leaves no doubt as to intent, and his work is generally free of spelling and grammatical errors. That in itself is an accomplishment these days when so many books are riddled with mistakes and appear to have skipped the copyediting process. He also has a masterful way of blending suspense and science fiction so that readers of both genres can enjoy his novels and they are thrillers in the best sense of the word. You know a book is good, really good, when you simply must keep reading through mealtimes and into the night to find out what is going to happen next.
HEADS YOU LOSE, by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward (Putnam hardcover, available 4/5, $24.95), recommended by Terry Gilman, Mysterious Galaxy, www.mystgalaxy.com : First I want to apologize to all of my other favorite authors. Then I have to say that none of you know how to put a smile on my face the way that Lisa Lutz does. And that was just in the introduction, to another hilarious "crime" novel by an author who deserves to be a household name!
While the multiple murders and other suspicious activity create the components of a typical crime novel, typical is of course not Lutz’s MO. And this collaborative effort with ex-boyfriend and poet David Hayward is no exception. Instead, they explore new territory by writing alternate chapters and exposing each other’s foibles and their shared history in notes to each other between chapters. The result is hilarious, despite a looming conviction that together they will never write the solution to the mystery of the headless corpse found by siblings Paul and Lacey Hansen, before they come to actual blows off-page. Another fun and genre-bending experience from Lisa Lutz.
ONE WAS A SOLDIER, by Julia Spencer-Fleming (Minotaur hardcover, available 4/12, $24.99), recommended by Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha's,
Ann Arbor, MI, www.auntagathas.com: Early on in this book, there's a scene where Clare Fergusson has just returns to her church after a long absense. She’s greeted with a joyful clamor - much like Julia Spencer-Fleming herself should be; her books have been very much missed It’s been a few years since the last book in this series, I Shall Not Want, so I don’t think it’s giving anything away when I say that book dealt with the aftermath of police chief Russ Van Alstyne’s wife’s death. While it freed the long-pining Clare and Russ to finally be together, they were both dealing with guilt, and in Russ’ case, grief. As that book ended, Clare had left to fly helicopters in Iraq. This one opens with her return to Miller's Kill, New York. While these novels have always been slotted into the "cozy" or "traditional" category, really they are neither. The issues are pretty dark; what’s traditional is the mystery structure. Spencer-Fleming has managed to brilliantly combine her amateur sleuth (Clare) with a real professional (Russ) in an entirely believable way. Russ is often fed up with her interference and frequently warns her off, upping the believability quotient.
This is a wonderful return for this series. It has all the elements readers have come to love from this author - nice prose, great story, and most of all wonderful characters - and it deepens and shades them further. The little revelation in the last sentence of the book should change things up next time around; but it’s a greedy and ungrateful reader who looks forward to the next book moments after finishing the last one. Nevertheless, Clare and Russ can’t return too soon for me. THE INFORMATIONIST, by Taylor Stevens (Crown Publishing Group, hardcover, $23.00, e-book available), recommended by Lou at I Love a Mystery, www.iloveamystery.net : This is the first in a new series. Vanessa Munroe (Michael) is an informationist. Her job is to extract information from people and she’s not afraid to employ any means to do it. She completely immerses herself in the task by learning everything possible: the language, the culture, combat training, anything necessary to obtain the required information. She always gets the job done and it’s not cheap! When approached by a Texas oil billionaire to find his daughter who has been missing for four years in Central Africa, she accepts, negotiating a large fee for her services. The job takes her to the dangerous Africa of her childhood, where her reputation precedes her. Here she is reunited with a haunted past of brutality where she was once a part of the gunrunning business. Now she must seek out her past friends and brutal enemies to help her find the missing girl and figure an escape route for both of them. This is a gripping, sometimes violent, debut thriller with intense action-- engages immediately and maintains until the end. Michael is a strong, extremely capable female protagonist, who, for this reason, reminded me of Lisbeth Salander of The Dragon Tattoo. It is set in the jungles of Central Africa (get your map out) where violence and corruption is widespread. Excellent plot, protagonist, supporting characters, and setting! You really don’t want to miss this one!
NAMING THE BONES, by Louise Welsh (Felony and Mayhem trade paperback $14.95, hardcover available 5/16, $24), recommended by Barbara Tom, Murder by the Book, www.mbtb.com: There's not much action -- in a mystery/thriller sense -- until the very end, but British author Louise Welsh gives us a good dose of suspense throughout the book. There's a sustained note of dread overlying her tale of a young-ish academic whose projected biography of a long-dead poet is at a standstill. Professor Murray Watson has the job he has always wanted in Glasgow, Scotland, but he remains discontented. His frustration has led him into a dead-end affair with a fellow academic, who also happens to be married to the head of his department. His brother, Jack, is an artist, and when Murray attends Jack's opening exhibition for his current work, he discovers that Jack has used a family tragedy as his inspiration. Although he's angry at his lover for dumping him, at his brother for exposing his family's low point, at each block in the road to discovering more about poet Archie Lunan, instead of throwing in the towel on all counts, Murray doggedly seeks to pull in the threads of Archie's life. Of course, he has to accomplish this around frequent drinking bouts. When he was still a young man, having achieved some success with a book of poetry in the 1970s, Archie sailed onto a stormy sea one night and was never seen again. Murray's prize interview would be with Archie's former girlfriend, Christie Graves, who lives on a remote Scottish island, but she's not interested in talking with him. In the process of conducting his research, Murray brings to light some hidden relationships and mysteries but, with the exception of Archie, there's nary a dead body in sight. Then Murray learns that another researcher, who was looking into suicidal patterns, died in a car accident on the little island where Christie lives. Unlike Murray, he had managed somehow to secure an interview with Christie. Was Archie murdered? Was the other researcher murdered after uncovering something unsavory? At the risk of his life, should Murray pursue an interview with Christie? In his academic world, who are his friends and who are his enemies? In the end, we discover that nothing is as it first seemed, and this is where Welsh excels. She slowly teases out the real story of a poet and his group of friends, and the madness that sometimes grips people when joy should be there instead. Louise Welsh tells a finely twisted tale, creates a stunningly ominous setting, and makes Murray Watson a sympathetic and very human character. February's Killer Books, edited by Beth Kanell, Kingdom Books, Waterford, Vermont, www.KingdomBks.com:
ANTIQUES KNOCK-OFF, by Barbara Allen (Kensington, $22.00), recommended by Beth Kanell, Kingdom Books, Waterford, Vermont, www.KingdomBks.com:
The new mystery from "Barbara Allan" -- the husband-and-wife team of Max Allan Collins and Barbara Collins -- is a fitting antidote to any seasonal blues, putting life into perspective as more than a little crazy and well worth laughing about. Antiques Knock-Off, the fifth in the madcap series featuring Brandy Borne, self-described as "thirty-one, bottle blonde, divorced, who came running home last year to live with her bipolar mother," poses one quandary after another. Brandy reveals all, with layers of parenthetical remarks (should we call this meta-fiction?), and plenty of understandable resentments of her unexpected family situation. Not only is she carrying a baby for a friend (yep, surrogate mom), but she has a newly discovered "birth mother" of her own, swimming in money and uninterested in having Brandy damage her social standing. Add an antiques business to the mother-daughter antics, a bit of hanky-panky over some clocks, and reputations on the line, and the Barbara Allan team has a bubbling stew of mishaps, murders, and motherhood. Here's a short sample from Brandy: "Mother and I exchanged sickened looks. This type of scam was one of the vilest, preying upon the sentiments of the bereaved at a vulnerable time. Usually, however, the merchandise -- often diamonds or other valuable jewelry -- was authentic, to keep the seller out of trouble. But the scam perpetrated on Mrs. Vancamp had taken another, nasty twist: the merchandise was fake. ... Mother's manner softened. ... 'Luckily, since her eyesight is so bad, I doubt she'll ever be the wiser.' "Unless she tries to sell it," I pointed out." Uh-oh. Here come's the caper. A visit to the author website at http://www.maxallancollins.com/blog is also a good way to lighten up in midwinter, whether you're watching the city snow melt, preparing to shovel more white wonder in the snowbelts, or thanking your lucky stars you only have a few weeks until it's time to plant your peas. DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE MURDER, by Joanna Fluke (Kensington, $24.00), recommended by Beth Kanell, Kingdom Books, Waterford, VT, www.KingdomBks.com:
When the investigator owns a bakery, recipes have a major role in her life -- so it makes perfect sense that Joanne Fluke's newest Hannah Swenson mystery, Devil's Food Cake Murder, is packed with sweet treats. My count is 25 recipes, with their own index! And each one includes suggestions from the character who provides the recipe during the course of Hannah's investigation labors, and from Hannah, and often from her partners and friends who've experimented with it. The murder mystery presenting all these goodies is also yummy. Readers of the series -- and you don't have to have read any of the others before this one, although it will add some color and some explanations to the quandaries -- already know that Hannah is an independent woman, a good businessperson, an adept creator and changer of recipes, and ... torn between two wonderful men in her life. DEVIL'S FOOD MURDER puts that problem front and center, when Hannah begins to realize that both of her swains are also dating the far too adorable "Dr. Bev," a former fiancée of one of the men (Norman). They're blunt about it: When Hannah isn't out with Norman, he's with Bev, and the same thing holds for her police-force date, Mike. It's an odd way for Hannah to finally have to make up her own mind about commitment. All strands come together in the book's finale ... but not everything gets resolved, and it's clear there will be another Hannah Swenson investigation in the near future. It's a quirky way to add to your recipe collection ... but with gems like Death by Caffeine Mocha Trifle, Sally's Apricot Bread, and Chocolate-Covered Raisin Cookies, this book definitely belongs in the kitchen, among all the other tools and weapons available there. Last but not least, this is probably the only mystery author who dares to include a recipe for the cat to enjoy! RED WOLF, by Liza Marklund (Atria, $25.99, e-book available) -- two different takes Review #1, by David Wilson, Mystery on Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, www.mysteryonmain.com:
With the rise of Henning Mankell and the emergence of powerhouse Steig Larsson, we've entered an ice age of Nordic nights. Jo Nesbo's popularity increases while Karin Fossum hits American bestseller lists and readers discover just what they've missed in Kjell Ericksson, Asa Larsson and Helene Tursten. There is even a new imprint, Ice Cold Crime, which specializes in Finnish mysteries. Which brings us to Liza Marklund and her Annika Bengtzon series. Her books have been bestsellers in the Nordic countries, where two have been filmed with another six optioned for future production. So, why haven't you heard about her? Marklund is not any easy author to pin down; her series has been written out of chronological order and her other novels are currently not in print here in the States (a situation, we hope, that will change). Red Wolf picks up where The Bomber leaves off, with journalist Annika Bengtzon fighting post-traumatic stress as she investigates the death of a fellow journalist. As the bodies pile up, Annika finds herself on the trail of a political psychopath. And amid the terror and violence, Annika struggles to hold her disintegrating marriage together. Originally published in Sweden in 2003 (and translated by Neil Smith), Red Wolf demonstrates why Marklund is held in such high regard in the frozen north: Characters are fully developed, the plot is tightly woven and the book pulses with emotion. With her last U.S. book (The Postcard Killers with James Patterson), Marklund hit U.S. bestsellers lists. As a solo act, Marklund is definitely worth seeking out. Review #2, by Barbara Tom, Mystery by the Book, Portland, OR, www.mbtb.com: U.S. author James Patterson gave Swedish writer Liza Marklund a leg up in the U.S. market by co-authoring The Postcard Killers with her. Red Wolf marks her first big-time release in the United States. Unfortunately, it is the fifth book in the Annika Bengtzon series. Annika has been through a lot by the time the action in Red Wolf happens. When we meet Annika, she has panic attacks, the world sways and rolls in times of stress, she hears angels singing to her, and her emotions are described as solid things crouching inside her, waiting to shatter, grow heavy, or burn. She is a psychological mess. It takes a long time to get used to the combination of her fragility and iron strength without knowing what issues she has faced in the past. Eventually we learn that she was trapped in a tunnel with a bomber -- the previous book in the series, unfortunately not available in the U.S. -- and suffers from claustrophobia as a result. Her best friend, Anne Snapphane, an executive with a start-up communications company, is no better. She, too, sways and slumps with emotional baggage. Annika's husband, Thomas, is egocentric and contemplates wandering off into marital infidelity with a colleague. Annika's young children are her bright spot, and they are the recipients of her few bright thoughts and gestures. This much angst covers the interesting plot of the book for quite some time. Buried under the tears, sobs, heartbreak, and dizziness is the story of murders in the cold area of Sweden that lies within the Arctic Circle. A newspaper reporter in one of the towns in that cold swatch of land has been murdered. Annika, herself a respected investigative reporter for a large newspaper in Stockholm, had been contacted by the reporter before he died. He had some information about the destruction of a fighter jet at a military base and the death of one of the military personnel during the 1960s. The incident had been attributed to a terrorist group, but the perpetrators were never caught. Although the reporter has died without leaving Annika any clues, she begins investigation by herself and uncovers a series of deaths that may be related to the group. Annika meticulously and inventively discovers information that eventually winds up linking several aspects of her life together. When the story finally got going, it was a page-turner. The resolution was exciting but kept at a fairly human level -- as opposed to a car chase/bomb-throwing/cliff-jumping cinematic denouement, although there was a little of that thrown in. Annika doesn't appear to be much of a prize herself, but why did she want the inconstant Thomas? The story, I'm sure, is buried in one of the books in the series that we may not see for a long time. Wade through the soap opera to get to an intriguing story of an incipient 1960s Maoist revolution in Sweden and the very human faces behind that revolution many years later. ON BORROWED TIME, by David Rosenfelt (St. Martins, $24.99, e-book available), recommended by Maggie Mason, Lookin' for Books, San Diego, CA, maggiemary@yahoo.com: In a departure from his Andy Carpenter series, Rosenfelt takes us on a quest. Richard Kilmer is a writer who is ready to make a real commitment. He has fallen in love with Jennifer and while on a visit to her parents in upstate New York, she accepts his proposal. On the way to view a local attraction, they have a car accident. Richard is banged up, but not seriously. What is serious is that Jen has disappeared. Rich goes to her parents' house to see whether she returned there, and is stunned to find no one knows what he is talking about. When he returns to New York City, he finds his friends don't know Jen. None of the people that he knows met Jen will admit to her existence. He writes a column about it, and gets the best ratings of his life. His publisher is agreeable to continue the search as a series. Rich gets him to pay for a detective to help with the search. The publicity results in many crank calls, but also a woman who claims Jen was her sister, though not with the same name. The woman is Jen's identical twin. Something is going on, and Rich is determined to get the truth. I'm not going to reveal more, as the book is about more than just Rich's discovery, it is about a conspiracy of sorts. It looks at technology and its strengths and dangers. I confess to feeling frustrated when reading this. You want to know now what is going on, and that lets the reader feel a small part of what Rich is going through. That to me was very powerful, and I felt rewarded that I read the book in full, not skipping to the end, as I was tempted to do to get to the truth. SATORI, by Don Winslow (Grand Central Publishing, $25.99), recommended by Linda Tonneson, Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, San Diego, CA, www.mystgalaxy.com: Way back in 1979, I read Trevanian’s Shibumi. I loved the adventure and intrigue, the almost supernatural skills displayed by assassin Nicholai Hel, along with Trevanian’s snarky sense of humor. Hel is fluent in seven languages, a master of a form of martial arts called "naked kill," has a deep knowledge of Eastern cultures, including the ancient Japanese game of Go and in possession of "proximity sense" that enables him not only to know when someone approaches him but to sense how that person is feeling. Who better to continue Hel’s story than Don Winslow? He has written a prequel, so you can start here if you haven’t read Trevanian. Satori takes place in the early 1950s, with Hel just released from jail for the murder of his mentor. The CIA offers him a deal he can’t refuse: in return for freedom, money and a neutral passport, go to Beijing and kill the Soviet Union's Commissioner to China. Pretty much a suicide mission. But, of course, things are much, much more complicated than Hel is lead to believe, including his involvement with the lovely and mysterious Solange, his trainer in Western ways. Will our superspy survive this insane assignment and achieve his life goal of Satori, understanding and harmony with the world? January: Special Edition of Killer Books – featuring the 2010 Dilys Award Nominees,
compiled by Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha’s, Ann Arbor, Mich, www.auntagathas.com
For links to member stores where you can purchase the current edition of each title, or the e-book or a signed first when available, please visit www.mysterybooksellers.com/dilys-award. LOVE SONGS FROM A SHALLOW GRAVE, by Colin Cotterill (Soho, $25), recommended by Barbara Tom, Murder by the Book, Portland, OR, www.mbtb.com: Each year we search for books on which to stick our "I loved it" star. For me, a starred book has to have at least some humor, a story with heart, and great writing. Whoopee! I've found my first MBTB star of 2010. THE LOCK ARTIST , by Steve Hamilton -- see our earlier review (advance reader's copy reviewed in Dec. 2009 for 1/5/10 publication) MOONLIGHT MILE, by Dennis Lehane (William Morrow, $26.99) recommended by Sue Wilder, Murder on the Beach Bookstore, Delray Beach, FL, www.murderonthebeach.com: PIs Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro are contacted by Amanda McCready's aunt who is seeking their help in finding the missing 16-year old Amanda. The request is problematical on many levels. Twelve years earlier, Patrick and Angie were enlisted to find Amanda. Although they were successful in finding her, Patrick returned Amanda to her neglectful mother over Angie's objections. Although Patrick and Angie are still together, they never resolved their differences regarding Amanda.
Fast forward twelve years. Patrick and Angie are married and have a four year old daughter. Angie is finishing school and they are financially strapped, dependent on Patrick's PI business. The search for Amanda is non-paying and will delay Patrick's decision to work a well-paying day job. Plus the old conflict still exists: when Patrick finds Amanda, should he return her to the environment that she keeps running away from? Despite these misgivings, Patrick takes the case. The investigation takes him to dark places involving drug dealers and crazy gangsters. Danger lurks for Patrick and Angie as well as Amanda. The characters operate from different motives and struggle with their past sins. Mr. Lehane is an excellent writer providing a story full of action without sacrificing the psychological side of the story. He is a master at examining moral issues, particularly the not= black-and white distinctions between right and wrong. Moonlight Mile is the sixth installment in the Kenzie and Gennaro series and is a continuation of the story so expertly told in Gone, Baby, Gone (1998). Although Mr. Lehane has written a few stand-alone novels in the past ten years, it has been over ten years since Prayers for Rain (1999), the previous book in the series. Although it is possible to read Moonlight Mile without having read the previous books in the series, it would be more enjoyable to read Gone, Baby, Gone first. Actually, the best would be to read all of the entries in this award-winning series, starting with A Drink Before the War. Hopefully, it will not be another decade before the next Kenzie and Gennaro tale. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
BURY YOUR DEAD , by Louise Penny (Minotaur, $24.99) recommended by Robin Agnew, Aunt Agatha’s, Ann Arbor, Mich, www.auntagathas.com: As with many gifted writers, Louise Penny has certain themes she tends to come back to and examine, and one of her major themes, through all the books, is the danger of being paralyzed by the past and refusing to change. This latest novel feels the most Canadian of all of them. While most of the books are set in Three Pines – or in one case, at an isolated resort – this one is set almost completely in Quebec, and Penny makes excellent use of her lovely setting and it’s history, which is a key part of the story. However, it has a different feel to it. While Three Pines is sort of its own country – a part of Penny’s and her reader’s imaginations – Quebec is, of course, a very real place. Three Pines, make no mistake, is still the heart of this novel, but the action is elsewhere. The main setting is the Literary and Historical Society Library, run by the English segment of the Quebec population. When one of the more controversial Quebec citizens is found dead in their basement, all sorts of issues are raised and begin to boil to the surface. The dead man had one passion: finding the body of Samuel de Champlain, the explorer and the founder of Quebec. Little is actually known about Champlain – his date of birth, or what he even looked like (the one known portrait of him is apparently a false one), and one of the bigger questions is where he was buried. For Americans, this would be like not knowing where Washington or Lincoln ended up - a more that disconcerting loose end. While Champlain and the men who study him form a central part of the story, from a pure mystery standpoint, he’s a McGuffin. Just like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, it’s hard to fictionally discover where a precious object might be. Positing a likely theory is good enough, and the main point is to give the characters a narrative impetus, which this does, while at the same time providing the book with texture and background. Champlain’s is the main story, but there are several overlapping story arcs. One of them, naturally, concerns the series hero, Armand Gamache, who is suffering and recovering from an injury, both mental and physical. He has come to Quebec to stay with his old mentor, Emile Comreau, now retired and giving Gamache a non-judgmental safe haven in which to recover. Gamache is mostly communicating with his dog, however, so when he’s drawn into the case at the Library, where he’d been spending his days, it’s almost a welcome diversion from the other thoughts crowding his brain. Meanwhile Gamache sends the similarly damaged Inspector Beauvoir back to Three Pines to look into another case. It’s fascinating how Beauvoir selects the acerbic Ruth Zardo as his eventual ally and confidante, but that thread I will leave for readers to discover on their own. The unraveling of the incident that left both Gamache and Beauvoir injured is the third thread of the book, and it really becomes the central part. Both Gamache and Beauvoir are held captive by bad memories; just as the volunteers at the Literary and Historical Society Library are held captive by their own past, trying to hold the advancing present at bay. Life in Three Pines remains the ideal: the citizens there accept change, but life moves slowly. They can perhaps adapt more easily than most of us who have to live in the faster pace of the real world, and I think it’s part of what makes Three Pines so appealing to so many readers. By the end of the novel, as Penny has balanced her love of Quebec’s beauty, her classic mystery setting in a beautiful library, and her exploration of the theories about where Champlain’s corpse might lie, her essential story comes back, as it always does, to Gamache. He’s imprisoned by his recent past; her question is, can he escape it? This many installments in, there won’t be a reader who doesn’t want an answer to that question, and I finished the book, as I do many of this author’s, in a flood of tears. This is another beautiful, well written book from one of the most gifted novelists at work in our genre today. ONCE A SPY by Keith Thomson -- see our earlier review
This edition of Killer Books is dedicated to the memory of David Thompson, who wrote this review, and who died suddenly this fall.
SAVAGES, by Don Winslow (Simon & Schuster, $28.99), recommended by J.D. Singh, The Sleuth of Baker Street, http://sleuthofbakerstreet.ca/: Love Don Winslow. He’s long been a favourite of mine. Indeed, the first of the five Neal Carey novels, A Cool Breeze on the Underground alas long out of print although scheduled to be reprinted [in March], would be on my personal "top twenty", no problem. Recently published was Savages, a stand alone, and it, too, I could add to that list. Just, great, great fun. Read it. It’s more of that California speak—somewhat like English, only not entirely—that is a little unsettling and annoying at first, then oh-so-appropriate as you get the rhythm of it. The story deals with three friends who make a nice little living growing and selling custom-made marijuana. Let them know the effect you are after and they’ll design it for you. All is fun and games, life’s fab, until a Mexican cartel decides that they want the business and they’ll destroy anything and everything until they get what they want. Sexy, funny, stylish, and, then, dark. Totally entertaining.
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2011 Reviews |
