Mysteries Recent Picks

June 2010

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This body of death, Elizabeth George. (2010)
" Elizabeth George has long been one of the most prolific of crime writers, and this American practitioner (who chooses to set her fiction in Great Britain, a country of which she is inordinately fond) has managed to finesse her already considerable sales by cracking the lucrative television market. Her uppercrust copper, Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley, is a firm TV favourite (as incarnated by the actor Nathaniel Parker in the long-running Inspector Lynley Mysteries). But as her new novel, This Body of Death, comprehensively proves, Elizabeth George aficionados need to pick up one of her books to get the real flavour of her achievement. The latest book is something of an epic in terms of George's oeuvre, weighing in at nearly 600 pages, but George manages to justify the book's considerable length. Thomas Lynley is on compassionate leave after the savage murder of his wife, and his replacement at the Met is Isabelle Ardery. A body has been discovered in an Islington Cemetery, and it is up to Isabelle to crack the case. She is particularly keen to do so, discerning that results in this area would be very good for her career. But the Met has been going through a very bad patch, and a series of well-publicised disasters have left the force in very bad odour. The media is studying the Met with forensic attention, and Isabelle cannot afford to fail. She realises that she needs Lynley's team (fiercely loyal to their boss, notably the highly capable Barbara Havers), and -- most of all -- she needs the still-grieving Thomas Lynley himself. But can he be persuaded to break off from his compassionate leave?" (Amazon.co.uk)

The whisperers, by John Connolly. (2010)
"'Oh, little one', he whispered, as he gently stroked her cheek, the first time he had touched her in fifteen years. 'What have they done to you? What have they done to us all?' In his latest dark and chilling Charlie Parker thriller, New York Times bestselling author John Connolly takes us to the border between Maine and Canada. It is there, in the vast and porous Great North Woods, that a dangerous smuggling operation is taking place, run by a group of disenchanted former soldiers, newly returned from Iraq. Illicit goods - drugs, cash, weapons, even people - are changing hands. And something else has changed hands. Something ancient and powerful and evil.The authorities suspect something is amiss, but what they can't know is that it is infinitely stranger and more terrifying than anyone can imagine. Anyone, that is, except private detective Charlie Parker, who has his own intimate knowledge of the darkness in men's hearts. As the smugglers begin to die one after another in apparent suicides, Parker is called in to stop the bloodletting. The soldiers' actions and the objects they have smuggled have attracted the attention of the reclusive Herod, a man with a taste for the strange. And where Herod goes, so too does the shadowy figure that he calls the Captain. To defeat them, Parker must form an uneasy alliance with a man he fears more than any other, the killer known as the Collector...." (Amazon.com)

Apple turnover murder, Joanne Fluke. (2010)
"Cozy fans will welcome bestseller Fluke's charming 13th Hannah Swensen mystery (after 2009's Plum Pudding Murder). Hannah is working long hours at her bakery, the Cookie Jar, in Lake Eden, Minn., as well as dating two men, dentist Norman Rhodes and local sheriff Mike Kingston. Her personal life gets more complicated with the reappearance of Bradford Ramsey, a college professor with whom Hannah had a brief fling when she was a naive graduate student. Hannah hopes ladies' man Bradford has forgotten the embarrassing episode. When Hannah winds up serving as a magician's assistant for a charity show, she has the misfortune to find Bradford, the show's host, backstage stone cold dead. With her usual wit and flair, amateur sleuth Hannah narrows down the list of suspects in Bradford's murder, but can she catch the culprit before she becomes the next victim? Scrumptious recipes include mocha nut butterballs and chocolate marshmallow cookie bars." (Publishers Weekly)

Drink the tea : a mystery, Thomas Kaufman. (2010)
"Starred Review. Kaufman, the winner of the PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition, introduces an unusual PI, a former foster child, in his impressive debut. Too often in mystery fiction a character's difficult upbringing is tacked on, but Willis Gidney bears emotional scars from being abandoned that are both convincing and relevant to the story line. Jazz great Steps Jackson, a friend of the D.C. gumshoe, hires Gidney to locate his long-lost daughter. Gidney, who normally serves subpoenas, attracts the interest of a creepy private security firm and an ambitious right-wing politician. After a lead takes him to Colette Andrews, the wife of the former Virginia state attorney general, Colette turns up shot to death, and the police suspect Gidney of having pulled the trigger. While one coincidental development will raise eyebrows, Kaufman, a director and cameraman who twice won the Gordon Parks Award for cinematography, pulls off a taut, compelling tale of violence and corruption." (Publishers Weekly)

A question of belief, Donna Leon. (2010)
"*Starred Review* Leon's many fans love this series for the Venetian setting, the complex family dynamics, and the hero's mix of melancholy and compassion, and in this nineteenth installment, they get all of the above. It's summer in the city for Commissario Guido Brunetti, whose family and colleagues are sweating out the heat wave in largely non-air-conditioned Venice. (Leon does weather as well as any contemporary crime novelist: from Acqua Alta (1996), in which rain-soaked streets became a vivid metaphor for the city's corruption-drenched politics, to this novel, in which the inescapable heat evokes that same corruption and the way its stench pervades all aspects of society.) Working multiple cases, Brunetti is struggling to find an opportunity to escape with his family to the cool of the mountains, where he dreams of sleeping under an eiderdown quilt. One case involves an aunt's colleague, who appears to be giving great amounts of cash to a religious charlatan, while another pits Brunetti against his usual adversaries: corrupt politicians (this time it's a judge who delays trials for a hefty price). As always, Brunetti finds and agonizes over the human tragedies that lurk beneath the creases of criminal activity. He is in the business of assuaging pain rather than solving crimes, especially when the criminals are corrupt officials, who are as unstoppable as the heat is inescapable. Yes, they can be embarrassed, but if embarrassment were a bar to advancement, there would be no government and no Church. A unique combination of bedrock cynicism and warm humanity ." (Booklist).

City of lies, by Alafair Burke. (2010)
"The new fast-paced thriller from rising star Alafair Burke, where no-one in Manhattan is safe. And no-one is innocent. In New York City nights are dangerous. Days are numbered. When New York University student Megan Gunther is murdered in a vicious attack after receiving threats posted on a campus website, NYPD Detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced there is a link. With straight-talking partner J. J. Rogan at her side, Ellie tries to identify Megan's enemies, but she begins to wonder if the girl's murder was more than just the culmination of a cyber obsession. Then phone records reveal a link between Megan and a murdered real-estate agent who was living a dangerous double life. Even more suspiciously, the detectives also learn that the dead real-estate agent shared a secret connection to a celebrity mogul whose bodyguard was mysteriously killed a few months earlier. And when Megan's roommate suddenly disappears, they know they have to find her before it's too late! With fans including everyone from Michael Connelly, Harlan Coben, and Lee Child to Tess Gerritsen, Lisa Gardner and Kathy Reichs, Alafair Burke gives us another nail-biting thriller to keep us on the edge of our seats." (Amazon.co.uk)

American devil, by Oliver Stark. (2010)
"A brilliant debut thriller from new talent Oliver Stark. The American Devil is stalking New York's streets. Will a cop and a psychiatrist be able to stop him? Detective Tom Harper, one of the New York Police Department's star homicide detectives, is on administrative leave for striking a superior officer when the city is left reeling by a series of brutal murders. Young socialites are being targeted by one of the most gruesome killers New York has ever seen and the top brass know that Harper is the only detective who has a chance of stopping the newly dubbed 'American Devil' before he strikes again. With Harper already living on the edge, they have no choice but to appoint psychiatrist, and new profiler, Denise Levene, to oversee his return. But as the murders escalate Harper and Levene find that they must work together if they are to find the killer. The American Devil is in their city and he wants to play... the only question is do Harper and Levene have what it takes to bring him down?" (Amazon.co.uk)

Wicked craving, G.A. McKevett. (2010)
"Savannah Reid is back for her fifteenth enjoyable adventure in San Carmelita, California. The voluptuous private detective is once again asked to help her friend Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter with a case. As in the recent series entries, the focus is on the diet industry, this time on therapist Dr. Robert Wellman, who claims amazing weight-loss success using his popular hypnosis program. Is that true or, more likely, a fraud? Either way, Wellman seems to be wildly successful, but all that is jeopardized when his wife, Maria, is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. Investigating the murder, Reid and Coulter soon discover that Dr. Wellman is not exactly what he claims, nor was he where he claimed at the time of his wife's death. As usual, Savannah's family and friends make appearances and help solve the mystery. With romance between Dirk and Savannah apparently heating up, readers will wonder about Dirk's preoccupation with diet and exercise and Savannah's inexplicable jealousy. A nice mix of cozy relationships and mystery." (Booklist)

Ticket to ride, Ed Gorman.(2009)
"In the eighth entry in the Sam McCain series, set in 1965 and following Fools Rush In (2007), the small-town Iowa lawyer becomes a lightning rod for animosity when he helps to organize an antiwar rally. Retired army colonel Lee Bennett is outraged at what he perceives to be the demonstrators' disrespect for the many young dead soldiers, among them his own son. When Bennett turns up murdered, suspicion falls on the rally's leader, Doran. Although McCain regards Doran as a poseur, he agrees to represent him because he knows none of the town's other lawyers will step up. When Bennett's business partner is also murdered, McCain realizes there's a lot more to the case than politics. Gorman casts a sardonic eye on characters from both sides of the political aisle even as he astutely captures the fractious era's divisiveness. Meanwhile, McCain is unafraid to go toe to toe with the town's leading citizens, many of whom he grew up with, as he digs for information. An absorbing mystery that offers an insightful portrait of small-town dynamics and plenty of deadpan humor." (Booklist)

No sleep till wonderland : a novel, Paul Tremblay.(2010)
"While somewhat derivative of Hitchcock, Tremblay's second novel featuring South Boston PI Mark Genevich improves enough on the first, The Little Sleep (2009), to suggest that the unusual hero - a narcoleptic sleuth subject to unpredictable blackouts - can sustain a series. Genevich is scraping the bottom of the barrel after one of his frequent screwups leads to his following the wrong woman on what should have been a straightforward investigation of marital infidelity, a goof that leads his client, an investment company CEO, to consider suing him. Genevich gets another opportunity from a fellow member of the group therapy sessions his mother forces him to attend, who asks him to protect a female bartender from a stalker. That assignment winds up placing Genevich on the police radar as an arson suspect. The plot twists satisfy more than surprise, but the clever writing will keep readers turning the pages." (Publishers Weekly)

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