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A HOLIDAY YARN
SALLY GOLDENBAUM
Berkley Prime Crime Trade pb 11/11
It is the Christmas season in Sea Harbor, and the smell of snow and salt is in the air. At Izzy Chambers' studio, the Seaside Knitters group feast on cookies, knit their gifts and plan their holiday parties. At the Thursday night meeting of the group the one thing that stood out in Nell's and everyone else's mind was the statement Pamela Pisano made about her cousin Mary. She said Mary was crazy -- certifiably crazy.
The Pisanos were meeting in the home of the deceased family patriarch, Enzo, for their annual board meeting. Mary had already gotten the family estate and made the family home into a bed and breakfast that was to open in time for Christmas. The family was not happy with this turn of events, especially Mary's cousin Pamela.
Sea Harbor is a magical place at Christmas and everyone is in high spirits for the coming celebrations, with all the stores open and decorated. But things at the Pisano estate are not going well, and their mood is not festive. It only gets worse when Pamela is found dead on the back porch of the B & B. The seaside knitters' thoughts go back to Pamela's words at the meeting on Thursday night, even though they know Mary would not murder her cousin. Then the lady who lives next door to the B & B starts putting up signs all over town telling everyone that murder happens at the B & B and it isn't safe to stay there. Mary is afraid, after all the bad publicity, she won't be able to open the B&B in time for Christmas.
A heavy cloud has grown over the town and dampened the spirits of everyone's holiday plans. This is when Izzy, Nell and the other knitters in the group decide it's time for them to solve the murder and let the town of Sea Harbor get back to enjoying Christmas.
I really enjoyed A HOLIDAY YARN, the fourth book in this series. This is a great mystery to read by the Christmas tree with a cup of hot chocolate and a cozy blanket keeping you warm, while you visit with friends from Sea Harbor.
Sally Goldenbaum is a sometimes philosophy teacher, editor, knitter and author of over twenty-four published novels -- including her popular Queen Bee Mystery series. Sally's knitting took a more serious turn with the birth of her first grandchild and the creation of the Seaside Knitter Mystery series. Her fictional knitting friends are teaching her the intricacies of women's friendship and the mysteries of small town living.
Sally lives in Prairie Village, Kansas.
THREATS AT THREE
ANN PURSER
Berkley Prime Crime pb 11/11
Newcomers tend to be a disruptive influence, but in few places more so than in the peaceful English village of Long Farnden. At first, Paula Hickson seems a very unlikely threat to the community's comfortable atmosphere. A mother of four, Paula quickly fits into the village routine, and finds a part-time job to help her and her children, now that her abusive husband has deserted her. But Paula really isn't the problem; rather, it's Jack Hickson Jr., the rebellious thirteen-year-old who resented his father when he was at home, and resents him even more now that he's taken off for parts unknown. Lois Meade, owner and manager of a house-cleaning establishment where Paula is now employed, becomes more and more involved in her employee's personal life. When the body of a tramp is found floating in the river of a nearby town, Lois thinks it may well be that of the absent husband. In the meantime, the villagers need to raise money to refurbish the decaying town hall, and they settle on having a soapbox race down the town's main street... an event which, surprisingly, goes a long way toward resolving the various mysteries that have suddenly plagued the community: Jack Jr.'s disappearance; the similar disappearance of his father, who had been working incognito in the village; the arrival of a man who appears to be a dope peddler trying to make new customers out of some of the local school children. With the help of her friend Inspector Cowgill, Lois puts her wits, and those of her employees, to work in clearing up these mysteries. THREATS AT THREE is an English cozy in its finest sense. The reading is as comfortable as the community, the pace of the narrative matches the local ambience, the residents are gentle people with understandable flaws, as well as generous natures. Purser has come up with a believable mystery, an enjoyable portrait of Long Farnden, and a likeable and persistent sleuth in the form of Lois Meade.
BAD BOY
PETER ROBINSON
Harper pb 11/11
What is it about "bad boys" that is so attractive to "good girls"?
This is my first Inspector Banks novel and I found it absolutely fascinating!
Author Peter Robinson uses an unusual technique in this book, as readers do not meet Banks until well into chapter five. In the meantime, we become acquainted with his slightly wild daughter, Tracy, and her roommates, Rose and Erin. Tracy and her friends live life on the wild side and are attracted to "bad boys". Drugs and club life are high on their list of social activities. "bad boys" seem to be cocksure, ambitious, greedy, daring and have a tendency toward violence. Laws seem to be made for others and not for them.
Erin's father becomes the focus at the beginning of this story. Police mishandling of a case of gun possession and use of a taser gun grab the reader's attention immediately.
The taser incident is only the beginning of this grand police procedural. The focus in Robinson's BAD BOY is on Inspector Banks and his daughter Tracy. Bad Boy Jaff McReady kidnaps Tracy and takes her on a dangerous odyssey. Inspector Banks and the other police in his section are probed and developed in detail. Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot becomes a victim of Jaff's evil ways. Tracy, who feels slighted by her father, becomes Jaff's dupe and finds drugs, money and a gun in her kidnapper's suitcase.
Inspector Banks' personal life and connection with a mysterious Asian woman while on vacation in America seem to foretell the subject of future Inspector Banks novels.
Banks' relationship with Annie Cabbot also promises new subject material for the next in this fine series.
BAD BOY is Robinson's 19th novel featuring Inspector Alan Banks. There are repeated references to past adventures throughout BAD BOY.
I personally found this an excellent story. I read it aloud to my husband and he kept handing it to me when we got into the car for long drives. He liked it too!
EVERY BITTER THING
LEIGHTON GAGE
Soho Press Trade pb 12/11
When the body of Juan Rivas, son of a prominent politician in Venezuela, is found murdered in his apartment, Mario Silva of the Brasilia's Federal Police is called in. The main officer in charge has already figured out who the killer could be, but Silva has an inkling something else happened. As it turns out, there have been several other murders throughout Brazil using the same method.
As Silva's investigation takes shape, it appears the victims were all in business class on TAB Flight #8101 from Miami to Sao Paulo. What connects the victims has Silva confused, until he learns about another death, that of a teenager in prison, who was arrested for carrying drugs into Sao Paulo. Then the body count starts rising more, as other people from the flight are murdered. Silva has to race to find the killer before other victims die.
EVERY BITTER THING is one of those true mysteries. The police investigation is interesting to follow as Mario and his team tries to piece the puzzle together to prevent more murders and to bring a killer to justice. This is one of the best books I've read this year. The pace starts fast, the characters come to life, and the ending is a real surprise. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- Steven Sill
RED JADE
HENRY CHANG
Soho Crime Trade pb 11/11
ISBN: 978-1-56947-997-1
Detective Jack Yu works New York's Chinatown and this book takes the lid off a less familiar slice of New York City life, even if the crimes are the same.
Yu is called to an apartment in the Bloody Angel in the old Tong battleground, where a man has shot his wife before shooting himself. But he is also dealing with the case of gangster Johnny Wong, banged up in a cell for the murder of Hip Ching's gangleader, Uncle Four. Johnny swears he was framed by Mona, Fat Uncle's mistress. A Chinese dwarf called Eddie Ng might have been the killer.
Jack sets off on the trail of Mona and Eddie which leads him to the Chinatowns in Seattle and Vancouver.
The story moves at a fast pace and the dialogue sounds authentic, but I began to get confused by the proliferation of Chinese names that all sounded alike (try Gee Sim, Lee Chow, Bang Sing, Chow Yun Fat and the Fuk kid, Jing Zang for example) and I also found the constant inclusion of italicised translations irritating after a while (e,g, 'but bok bok, jeng jeng, with light skin and pretty'). If I'd wanted to learn another language, I'd have bought a dictionary.
On the other hand, I was impressed by the philosophical insights that permeated the text, often based on Oriental principals like ying and yang, which are rarely found in noir novels.
But, best of all is the way it recreates the ambiance of Chinatown. This is the third book in the series featuring Jack Wu and I am sure there will be many more.
- Ron Ellis
CAT COMING HOME
SHIRLEY ROUSSEAU MURPHY
Avon pb 11/11
CAT COMING HOME is an excellent addition to the mystery series featuring feline Joe Grey and his pals in a small town nestled among the hills next to the sea. Molena Point, California, is home to a unique breed of cat, one that is capable of reading and speaking the human language. Please don't jump to the conclusion that this must then be some implausible, cutesy tale of talking cats; it is not. The ability of Joe Grey, his lady love Dulcie, and their young friend Kit to speak is kept private and hidden from all but a few chosen humans. The cats choose to anonymously help the local police department using their unique skills and instincts.
The Joe Grey series focuses on a different individual or family in Molena Point in each book. However, the community is still very much involved with their own set of skills. Each entry can stand alone, yet the reader's enjoyment is so much richer when the books are read in sequence. Even though this is the sixteenth in the series, none of the charm has been lost with longevity, rather it has been enhanced as we watch how the people and cats interact and grow.
Maudie Toola has just returned to Molena Point along with her orphaned grandson Benny. They are trying to start life anew following the horrible shooting deaths of Benny's father and new stepmother. It is almost Christmas, but Molena Point is having troubles of its own: isolated individuals are being attacked in their homes. The lone women are then roughed up and their homes ransacked with the perpetrators fleeing just as quickly as they arrived. With nothing of substance stolen, Chief of Police Max Harper and his men can't seem to get a handle on how to catch these criminals or get a clue on where they might strike next. They have determined that the attackers plan a diversionary break-in which captures the police's attention while the invaders go on to attack their chosen victim. Trying to cover the entire town for both possibilities is stretching the small police force very thin.
Joe Grey and Dulcie are as frustrated as the police. After all, how can two cats survey the entire town at once? Kit is helping but is distracted by a large yellow tomcat who seems to know more about these crimes. Could he be another speaking cat? Where did he come from and why is he here?
Ryan Flannery is building a studio addition onto Maudie's home where she can make her award-winning quilts. Ryan isn't the only one worried about Maudie being alone with all those new windows through which she is so visible. Maudie has a secret, one that only reveals itself at sly moments when she thinks no one is looking. Maudie and Benny both admit that they did not see the killer in those brief flashes of gunfire yet, if the killer thinks otherwise, he could have followed them from Los Angeles, putting them at great risk.
Maudie is unclear who she can trust. Her sister and nephews live just up the street but they haven't offered any assistance or support. Maudie has become fond of young teenager Lori, who helps Ryan in construction. Yet Lori's father is in prison for murder and one of Maudie's nephews has just stabbed him in jail. Perhaps Lori is in just as much danger as Maudie.
Who is behind the vicious newspaper attacks against Police Chief Max Harper and the entire department? Ownership of the paper recently switched hands and what used to be news coverage has become twisted and opinionated quasi-editorials. Most residents read the paper, and some actually believe the drivel printed every day. Max needs to calm everyone down and prove he is still capable of doing his job. There is a particularly amusing scene when Ryan sneaks Joe Grey into town hall.
Shirley Rousseau Murphy's writing has taken a step forward with her agility in twisting many storylines together. Plot lines that seem unrelated come together effortlessly. Mrs. Murphy has a way of weaving all the events together with strings of friendship. I suppose one of Maudie's award-winning quilts could represent the various factions and plot lines patched together so seamlessly. I am certain that CAT COMING HOME will be an award-winning addition to this heart-warming series. It absolutely deserves to be on everyone's "TBR" pile this fall; just in time to celebrate the holidays along with Molena Point, once Joe and pals help Max and his crew put the violence to rest. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
- Sandie Herron
BUTTONS AND BONES
MONICA FERRIS
Berkley Prime Crime pb 12/11
Romance is fraught with pitfalls at any age. For Betsy Devonshire, middle-aged owner of the Crewel World needlepoint shop in Excelsior, Minnesota, and a successful amateur sleuth, her relationship with Connor Sullivan is pleasantly romantic and stress free until he arranges for her to meet his adult daughter, Peg. Connor is divorced and Peg, unlike her brothers, has stayed close to her Da. This may be why she gives Betsy such a hard time. Subsequently, Connor is suddenly very busy. Which is why Betsy, urged by her good friend and store manager, Godwin, goes off to Thunder Lake in upstate Minnesota with her friends Lars and Jill Larson to visit the log cabin they are working on. And why Betsy is on hand when Jill, an ex-cop, uncovers a trap door under some old linoleum revealing a root cellar. And a skeleton.
The skeleton turns out to date from the 1940s. Lars, a cop on the Excelsior force, is kept up to date on the investigation. Jill and Betsy both want to follow up on the discovery, especially when the local cops seem to draw some quick, cost conscious, conclusions about the skeleton's identity.
From there it's a lot of internet searching and talks with anyone with any connection to the log cabin, the area around Thunder Lake and anyone who remembers or has heard anything about the POW camp that was located nearby. And who knew the way to Peg's regard would be through forensics?
Monica Ferris is an excellent cozy mystery writer who has developed Betsy Devonshire and all the Excelsior characters through fourteen books. I enjoy listening to the Monday bunch as they offer Betsy their take on her latest case. And Goddy is always good for a chuckle whether it's his over-the-top dramatics about his golf game or his commentary on life in general and Betsy's life in particular.
BUTTONS AND BONES is an excellent addition to this fine series and is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS
IMOGEN ROBERTSON
Penguin Trade pb 12/11
Harriet Westerman, a naval commander's wife, finds a corpse on her property in Sussex. She summons Gabriel Crowther, a man who, as gossip has it, eats children. He is an anatomist who prefers to be left alone with skeletons and specimens, but that won't happen if Harriet has her way. In a parallel story, another murder in London leads two orphaned children and their guardian to discover a great secret about the victim's past. This entire novel is a backdrop to the American Revolutionary War as seen from the point of view of the English -- there are survivors from those battles in the village, it is talked about and there are flashback scenes set there.
Harriet and Gabriel's investigation leads them to Thornleigh Castle and to speculation that the dead man is a long lost heir. Harriet is in many ways a believable woman of the times, still in love with her absent captain husband, a mother to her own children as well as to her beautiful spirited sister. The current Lord of Thornleigh Castle is sick and incapacitated, his second son has taken to drink leaving the running of the property to the current lord's second wife and an unscrupulous steward.
What I liked most about this book were the sleuths; they are so different in temperament and outlook and yet find common ground in their quest for justice. It's a relationship the reader knows doesn't have a conventional ending as Mrs. Westerman is married and Crowther avoids social interactions, yet I kept wondering and imagining something I knew wouldn't happen might occur. It gave the book another dimension. They are both intelligent knowledgeable people in a time of enlightenment and at the same time ignorance. I found the scientific details and world view of the time fascinating.
This is a well written book where each character is introduced with just enough description to hold the spell of another time and place while the narration never bogs down. An excellent first novel from Imogen Robertson. I can't wait for her next one.
THE HOLY THIEF
WILLIAM RYAN
Minotaur Books Trade pb 11/11
It helps to be tough when you are a homicide detective. It also helps to be lucky. In the end though, what helps most is to believe in the importance of your work. In 1936 Moscow, the practical point of homicide investigations is called into question as neighbors denounce each other for minor political infractions and trips to the Gulag become almost an accepted norm.
Captain Alexei Korolev of the Moscow Militia's Criminal Investigation Division is tough. A proletarian kid from the slums of Moscow, Korolev used his physical size to earn a place as a defensive back on Spartak, one of Moscow's professional soccer teams. When the Civil War came to Russia, he joined the Red Army and has the scars to prove that he's also lucky. A Polish officer's saber scarred his face but failed to kill him. Korolev now uses the dead Pole's Walther as his personal sidearm. It's the belief thing that presents Korolev with some problems.
As THE HOLY THIEF opens, one of Korolev's squad mates is on his way to Siberia for a poorly thought out political joke. A strange murder has been reported in a deconsecrated church turned Komsomol community center and the statue of the Minister for State Security is being removed from the station lobby with sledgehammers. Unjust exile, a sacrilegious murder and ominous shifts in party politics all cast doubt on what should be fixed points in Korolev's world. When he's warned that his investigation might be intruding on an NKVD operation, nothing remains certain.
William Ryan has captured Stalinist Moscow immediately prior to the great purges with an artist's eye. We see the grimy, hungry world of the proletariat, willing to sacrifice for the future Workers' Paradise. We smell the cheap tobacco, taste the street vendor's blini wrapped in pages torn from Slavonic religious texts and share a shot of medical alcohol with an overworked medical examiner. Moscow suffers in the hope of a better future.
Ryan has the paranoia and exhaustion play off the deductive facts Korolev develops and it becomes unclear what the real crimes are. Along the way he introduces memorable characters: Valentina Nikolaevna, the widow of an engineer crushed in a subway tunnel collapse; Isaac Babel, an Odessa Jew who rode in the Civil War with Budenny's Red Cossacks; and Count Kolya, head of Moscow's Thieves Guild.
This is an amazing first novel, full of the sights and sounds of the Soviet Union being born, the brutal crimes of both the State and individual criminals, and the steady determination of one man to do his job because it is what he does and defines who he is.
- W. J. H. Reed
VOYEUR
DANIEL JUDSON
Minotaur Books Trade pb 12/11
When a private investigator is shadowing his quarry, it behooves him to make sure he isn't himself being followed. Remer made the mistake of not looking back when he zeroed in on an errant husband out on a tryst with his lover. The price he pays is having the word "voyeur" burnt into his chest as he is restrained by a couple of the torturer's assistants. That marks the end of his career as a licensed sleuth. He moves out of Manhattan, opens up a small liquor-store business and settles for a much quieter and less painful life that lasts almost six years, sweetened by an occasional girlfriend and the regular use of a homemade narcotic. But the idyll is broken when he's approached by a woman who wants him to find her grown daughter, Mia, who she insists is not only missing but also intends to kill her. The case is especially tempting, since Mia had been Remer's lover for almost a year and had finally absconded with his hard-earned cache of eighty grand. Going back to investigating has its price, however. When he uncovers a scheme to collect a hefty insurance payout on Mia after the faking of her death, he finds that the perpetrators of the scheme are every bit as intolerant of his sleuthing as was his tormentor back in his licensed days. Consequently, he spends much of his Christmas holidays in the hospital recovering from a variety of inflicted wounds. VOYEUR is a PI mystery centering mainly on the insurance scam, but it will appeal to those who enjoy seeing villains get their comeuppance. Judson does a creditable job of knitting up and then unraveling the complex plot, which involves several perpetrators, much double-crossing, and plans that go awry more often than not.
- John A. Broussard
CHILD 44
TOM ROB SMITH
Grand Central Publishing Trade pb 12/11
There is no crime. Not in Stalin's USSR of 1953. The Soviet society is so perfect, so ideal, that there is no reason for crime and therefore it follows that crime does not exist. Which makes it very hard to catch criminals.
Leo Demidov is an officer of the MGB, the State Security Police; a prestigious job that requires him to hunt down and arrest traitors and spies. And while there might not be crime in the Soviet Union, there are lots and lots of traitors to the Revolution. They can be anyone, anywhere, and treason may be nothing more than a momentary lapse in revolutionary zeal, a thought, a doubt, that betrays independent thought that works against the common good. Protecting the state from such deadly internal enemies is Leo's job, and Leo is very, very good at his job. Too good, as it turns out.
Two vignettes, seemingly unrelated to the following plot, should not be ignored. A boy disappears in the forest while chasing a cat during the years of collectivization, when millions of Russian citizens were intentionally starved to death. The cat isn't his pet, it's to be his dinner. Later, in Moscow, two brothers have a snowball fight that turns ugly.
Like all truly great thrillers, the place and time are as much a character as Leo, or his wife Raisa, or his commander. The paranoia of the times pervades all. A mis-spoken word isn't necessary to condemn a person; a glance at the wrong moment at the wrong person is plenty to bring a death sentence. Life is lived knowing that no one has rights and at any moment a sinister knock may bring twenty years in the gulag. There is no color here, only gray -- bleak and cheerless.
And the criminal that does not exist, the one Leo becomes obsessed with catching, is a serial killer of children. Unless this man is a spy, or perhaps unbalanced or homosexual and therefore outside the norms of Soviet society, unless there is a reason for his actions, then having a criminal in their midst contravenes the rules of the state. In turn, that means the state can be wrong, which is not possible. So it must be subversion.
CHILD 44 is a riveting story in itself, but it is also a story that teaches while keeping the reader glued to their seat. There is very little dialogue here, and at first it can be annoying. But as the pages turn the reader realizes that in Soviet Russia the spoken word was precious, people never spoke their mind and so speech was innocuous, meaningless. What dialogue there is becomes special, cherished. A neat trick by a new author, from whom one can only expect great things.
- Bill Webb