Land of Shadows

This is another first read for a previously unknown author, Rachel Howzell Hall, but I will definitely look for subsequent books; this is the first of a series featuring Black female detective Elouise Norton, known as Lou to her colleagues in the south L.A. homicide squad. There are 3 further installments featuring this character as well as several other thrillers with different protagonists in Howzell Hall's body of work, many of which have received notable mystery prize nominations.

Library Journal says this about the book: "Lou Norton's life changed irrevocably the day her older sister went missing from their Los Angeles ghetto neighborhood. Decades have passed, but Norton, now a homicide detective with the LAPD, is still haunted by and fixated on the unsolved crime. When Lou is called to her old neighborhood to investigate the death of a young girl, she becomes convinced that the crime was committed by the same person who took her sister so long ago... Hall's ... promising series debut introduces a black, female lead in the male-dominated world of the LAPD. The author has fun playing with stereotypes and has developed a strong and likable protagonist. The story shines during Lou's flashbacks to her childhood, which are filled with heart-wrenching memories that make the wisecracking detective more accessible." 

Publishers Weekly praises, "A racially explosive Los Angeles provides the backdrop for this exceptional crime novel from Hall (A Quiet Storm). Elouise "Lou" Norton, an LAPD homicide detective known on the street as "Lockjaw," has solved 90% of the cases she's led. She's a smart, sassy black woman, "sweet as apple pie... laced with arsenic and rusty razor blades," bedeviled by the 25-year-old disappearance of her sister, Tori, and torn asunder emotionally by her straying husband, Greg. Lou is also saddled with a brash newbie partner, Colin Taggert, in a case involving a murdered Jane Doe that Lou suspects is tied to her sister's fate. Dead-on dialogue and atmospheric details help propel a tale full of tormenting moral issues. If the bad grow so close to the good, how do the cops weed them out? And how do we right all these wrongs? Lou, a brave lady in a brave book, does the best she can."

Booklist describes the protagonist this way: "Lou is a good cop and fun to watch great instincts, a no-nonsense interviewing style, and uncompromising in her efforts to catch the bad guy. She's a well-rounded character who can keep her sense of humor even when her work hits painfully close to home. As she tells her partner, I'm sassy, but not Florence-the-Jeffersons'-maid sassy. ...here she moves easily into the suspense genre where hopefully she... will stay for a long time to come."

Kirkus concludes their brief review, "This first procedural from Hall (A Quiet Storm, 2002, etc.) combines a conflicted, gutsy heroine and a complex, many-layered mystery." 

Two Times Murder: A Quiet Teacher Mystery

Never read anything by Adam Oyebanji, but who can resist a book where the author description on the back cover says, "was born in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire. He recently took the big step of moving east to Edinburgh by way of Birmingham, London, Lagos, Chicago, Pittsburgh and New York: a necessary detour, because the traffic otherwise is really, really bad. A graduate of Birmingham University and Harvard Law School, Adam works in the field of counter-terrorist financing, helping banks choke off the money supply to rogue states, narcotics empires, and human trafficking networks."

Moreover, the cover description of the protagonist is this, "Greg Abimbola is many things. He's Black, British and fluent in Russian. He's a snappy dresser, a reasonable teacher, and an unenthusiastic sports fan. But most of all, he's exceptional at keeping secrets. Like, who he really is, and the things he's done." Abimbola is a Russian--and occasionally French--language teacher at a private boys' school in Pittsburgh. He has been relocated there under the Witness Protection Program, but he has recently been found by a Russian agent and who knows where that will lead--probably to hell, he figures, given his background. This is the 2nd book in his "A Quiet Teacher" series and previously he defended an assistant janitor at the school in a murder case by finding the actual culprit. She is a computer whiz and forever in his debt, which is good, because he's a total Luddite when it comes to anything technical. When the police come calling to ask for his assistance in identifying a murdered man pulled out of the river, he is reluctant as he may actually know too much about the victim. But his discovery by Russian agents and then a seemingly unrelated 2nd murder pull him inexorably into the investigations.

Publishers Weekly offers these observations: "Oyebanji...serves up a fun if far-fetched second thriller featuring spy--turned... teacher Greg Abimbola. ...Greg remains a unique and appealing protagonist--a Black Russian with a keen eye for detail and conflicted feelings about his homosexuality--and Oyebanji utilizes him well, especially when Greg explains his deductions like a 21st-century Miss Marple. The plot's locked-room mystery and espionage thriller elements make uneasy bedfellows, however..."

Kirkus is more unreservedly praiseworthy: "as in Abimbola’s first foray into detection proved in A Quiet Teacher (2022), his code of honor makes it impossible for him turn his back on those who need him. Oyebanji makes the unimaginable not only credible but compelling by exposing Abimbola’s rich inner life and setting it against the struggles of those who rely on him for help, most of whom can’t get out of their own way, but nevertheless command readers’ sympathy for their challenges. Oyebanji’s puzzles are well-crafted and his solutions ingenious, leaving readers with both a sense of satisfaction and an appetite for more. Not to be missed."

Booklist says, "It's a pleasure to watch the deductive razzmatazz, but readers can't forget that dying can hurt: amidst the drama is a solemn moment of discovery where we get to see the heart's behavior during the fall, impact, and death. The first novel of the series was presented, and received, as a mix of John le Carré and Agatha Christie, and now Oyebanji adds some Arthur Conan Doyle into the mix."

Extinction

This book by Douglas Preston takes place in an exclusive private enclave deep in the Colorado mountains, where scientists are working to bring back to life extinct species such as mammoths and sloths. Only the uber-rich can afford to vacation there and watch the animals come down to the lake at feeding time. Then a young couple of newlyweds is savagely killed on an overnight outing, but their bodies have disappeared. 

Booklist summarizes, saying that the book has "echoes of Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. In a resort park, extinct animals are brought back to life using cutting-edge science, but in no way is this a retread. In fact, for quite a while, it's a murder mystery. A billionaire's son and wife are murdered inside the resort by ecoterrorists, or so it seems. But, as Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Frances Cash and sheriff James Colcord will discover, there may be other, frighteningly nonhuman forces at work."

Kirkus concludes their review: "The action seldom lets up, and readers will feel the mounting tension and excitement. The setting itself is a scientific wonder, and it must tie into the murders somehow. Meanwhile, Hollywood is filming an action movie in the park, and the pièce de résistance will be the spectacular explosion of a train. But wouldn’t you know, Preston has other plans. Imagine Jurassic Park with the timeline brought forward to the Pleistocene, and you have the Erebus Resort. Science, imagination, storytelling, and action are all here. Fast-moving fun and a highly creative plot."

Publishers Weekly also weighs in with a favorable review: "Preston tweaks the “resurrected species go haywire” trope with a series of ingenious plot twists, and his well-rounded characters make this more than a knowing genre exercise. The results are as smart and spine-chilling as the best of Michael Crichton."

Interference

Although I was unfamiliar with author Brad Parks, he has written a dozen books and won the prestigious Nero and Shamus awards. This was a book I had a hard time putting down. In spite of being baffled by the quantum mechanics that are the plotline thread here, I was willingly led down a couple of red herring paths, only to be surprised at the ending. From the book jacket: "When her husband, a quantum physicist, goes missing in the midst of a strange, violent seizure, Brigid Bronik discovers that his research had gained unwanted attention and wonders if the very same physics that endangered him could actually be used to save his life."

Reviews are positive including from Library Journal, which calls this a "tightly bound thriller" and provides this summary, "...Matthew Bronik, a renowned Dartmouth physicist with a specialty in quantum mechanics, has been suffering from mysterious seizures. His groundbreaking research has drawn the attention of many, including foreign governments and a young millionaire entrepreneur who sees the work as the next step in humanity itself. But when Matthew disappears on the way to the hospital after another seizure, Brigid, his librarian wife, battles sinister forces to track him down. She enlists the help of Matthew's Dartmouth assistant, Sheera, herself entangled with the research, and a gruff local police detective to help provide answers and to bring him home...Parks, better known for character-driven mysteries, ventures into Michael Crichton and Blake Crouch territory with a procedural thriller with an sf edge and a ton of heart that leads to an explosive (and emotional) finale." Publishers Weekly similarly lauds Parks' "intelligent, fast-paced thriller" and concludes "Readers will fully engage with the well-drawn characters as Parks convincingly reveals the science that buttresses the suspenseful plot." Kirkus promises "Parks’ suspenseful novel will beguile, entrance, and fool the sharpest readers." Finally, the New York Journal of Books offers this thought, "Most of that stuff about quantum physics and particles is really about the emotional connections between human beings. It all leads to a finale that’s both thrilling and heartfelt, and a good reason to trust the science of Parks’ fine storytelling." I encourage you to read their entire review for a really good summary.

Death at the Château Bremont

This is the first of the "Provençal Mystery Series" by author M.L. Longworth. Any of you who watched the all-too-short TV series, "Murder in Provence"--starring Roger Allam-- will recognize the main characters, chief magistrate of Aix-en-Provence Antoine Verlaque and law professor Marine Bonnet. There are 9 books in the series and I am ready to dig into these. When documentary film director Étienne de Bremont dies after falling from a window in the attic of the family Château, the police are quick to call it an accident or perhaps even suicide. But investigating magistrate Verlaque is not so sure. Étienne was universally admired and liked and he'd grown up in the Château, often playing for hours in the attic. When it turns out that Marine had been childhood friends with the de Bremont brothers, Verlaque brings her into the investigation while, at the same time, trying in his dogged way to rekindle the romantic relationship he had previously with Bonnet. The the other brother, ne'er-do-well François, is found dead at the Château, only this time it's clearly murder. The resolution of these two deaths causes everyone to re-evaluate their beliefs about the de Bremont brothers. 

Booklist's starred review says, "This first novel in a projected series has charm, wit, and Aix-en-Provence all going for it. Longworth's voice is like a rich concoction of sparkling Dorothy Sayers and grounded Donna Leon. Its blending of aristocratic mystery and guide to Provencal wines, foods, habits, and Aix itself is delightful, and the old-fashioned plotline, with enticing clues nicely planted for the reader, returns refreshingly to the values of the genre's golden age." Library Journal concludes their review, " A beloved home turns sinister in this evocative romantic suspense debut from veteran travel and food writer Longworth. Via great sights and a strong sense of place, readers can leisurely follow Verlaque and Bonnet as they uncover a complicated backstory." Publishers Weekly was less favorable, calling this a "disappointing debut...Despite the appeal of the intelligent Marine and her refreshingly opinionated friend, Sylvie..." Nevertheless, Kirkus calls this "A promising debut for Longworth, who shows there’s more to France than Paris and more to mystery than Maigret."

The First Lie Wins

This is the debut adult novel from YA author Ashley Elston. "Evie Porter is a sweet, southern girl from a small Alabama town. At least, that's the story she tells. In reality, she's a professional con artist whose specialty is insinuating herself into people's lives, gaining their trust so she can expose their secrets" (Booklist). But her current assignment takes a few unexpected twists. First, she is falling in love with her "mark," handsome financial advisor Ryan Sumner. This leads her to try and protect him from her boss by supplying inaccurate information about Ryan's not-so-legitimate side business. And then an old friend of Ryan's shows up with his new woman friend, Lucca Marino, who is a near look-alike to Evie. Except that Lucca Marino is Evie's real name and only her boss, Mr. Smith, knows that. Then "Lucca" and Ryan's friend mysteriously die in a car crash. Evie feels like she's being set up, expecially when the police show up and take her in for questioning about the death of her mark in an earlier assignment. Now it's clear that Mr. Smith is pulling strings to make Evie jump, but to what purpose. Along with her silent tech-wizard partner Devon, Evie must figure out what is going on and try to out-maneuver Mr. Smith before she ends up in jail for murder. There are a lot of flashbacks to Evie's earlier life and her former assignments, so some may find that distracting, but they are essential to understanding Evie's character and the surprising final twists of the plot.

Booklist says of the characters and the plot, "Everyone in Elston's fast-paced adult debut has a secret, and none of the characters are trustworthy or reliable. Evie is a delightfully morally ambiguous antiheroine whose ability to think on her feet results in a relentless array of shocking twists that lead to a satisfying ending." And Publishers Weekly concludes, "Elston whips up plenty of suspense and delivers a satisfyingly serpentine finale." Similarly, Kirkus praises, "Elston’s adult debut announces itself as a savvy thriller with intrigue and momentum from the first twist of Lucca’s arrival right up until the final showdowns. Evie is a smart and engaging protagonist, and her time on the run is anything but predictable."

Holmes, Marple, and Poe

This engaging read by James Patterson and Brian Sitts clearly draws some of the characters' idiosyncrasies from their namesakes. Brandon Holmes has a bit of a drug problem, Margaret Marple is British, and Auguste Poe has a haunted relationship with women and alcohol. Still the characters are distinct and fully developed in their own right and will be remembered as such. There are multiple mysteries here to be solved, some of them inter-related and some just puzzlingly unnecessary.  I tend to agree with Booklist's complaint that the book's "... biggest problem is the mysteries: there are too many of them. The investigators are juggling a bunch of cases, from a missing person to stolen art to a cold-case murder. The result? It's difficult for them and, unfortunately, the reader to focus on any individual case."

Three PI's renovate a warehouse in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn and with the help of "friends in high and low places" (Publishers Weekly), quickly solve the case of a missing high-profile attorney. This garners a lot of press and a certain amount of enmity among the police who have failed where "Holmes, Marple & Poe. Private Investigations" so quickly succeeded. Only one detective, Helene Grey, seems to appreciate their innovative and unorthodox methods of crime solving, and she becomes both an ally and a political target. 

Publishers Weekly calls this a "breezy thriller" with "short chapters and brisk prose [that] make for diverting-enough entertainment. This satisfies." I listened to the audio version and enjoyed 

The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club

A cozy historical novel set in the seaside town of Hazelbourne, England during the summer immediately after WWI. Throughout the war years, Constance Haverhill was seen as competent enough to keep the large estate of her dead mother's friends running in good order. And Poppy Wirrall, daughter of a retired actress, along with the other women who drove the ambulances on the battlefields and carried messages on their motorcycles are all finding themselves shoved to the back of the line. Now the government is creating new laws to prohibit the hiring of women instead of men for any job openings. But these smart, resourceful women are not so easily reduced to the limited traditionally gender-appropriate roles. Poppy has responded by starting her own business with like-minded women motorcycle drivers to provide private transportation to Hazelbourne's women in snazzily decorated sidecars. Constance is about to be turned out on her ear after years of serving the family who are upper class and expect her to go to a respectable placement as a governess--a fate worse than death in Constance's eyes. She has achieved her certificate in bookkeeping through a correspondence course and wants to find a more challenging job. There is a slow-burning affection growing between Poppy's returned fighter pilot brother Harris, who lost a leg in the war, and Constance that is complicated by class expectations. The nation and the world are in transition and this is an inspiring story of women who want to grab the brass ring and be a part of that change.

Publishers Weekly comments that "Simonson ...delivers a thoughtful and witty tale of British men and women adjusting to a new normal after WWI....While Constance's bumpy romantic adventures with Harris form the spine of the book, Simonson neatly interweaves multiple plotlines involving the chauvinistic and condescending local gentry, the travails of a German waiter scorned because of his nationality, and the bad behavior of visiting Americans. Readers are in for a treat."

Booklist offers this encouragement: "Simonson...brilliantly captures the pains of a generation of young people at a crossroads in an England ravaged by war and a flu epidemic, especially of the women who kept the home front going only to be tossed aside when the men came home. Constance is a quietly lovable heroine, a woman who longs for independence but is stifled by society's expectations. The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is, by turns, heartwarming and heartbreaking, and readers will be entranced."

Another happy ending book I read and enjoyed was Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand.

Hum

 Helen Phillips "is the author of six books, including the novel The Need , a National Book Award nominee and a New York Times Notable Book. She is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award. Her collection Some Possible Solutions received the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A professor at Brooklyn College, she lives in Brooklyn with artist/cartoonist Adam Douglas Thompson and their children" (book jacket). This is her most recent speculative fiction novel. Although this book has received numerous laudatory reviews, I didn't much care for it... maybe because I never had kids. I found the children's behavior obnoxious on many occasions and their mother's mostly passive acceptance of same distressing as well. In other words, I didn't like any of the human characters and couldn't identify with much of the stress in the storyline. Which isn't to say that the story lacks relevance. As the New York Times notes in their review, "Along the way, the story raises many unsettling questions. What is the right role for A.I. in our lives? In a world of so much artifice, what counts as authentic experience? How do we usher our children into a future that we find frightening to imagine?"They provide this opener of the general plotline: "In Helen Phillips’s near-future novel, “Hum,” a family’s dream vacation away from technology devolves into a misadventure with major consequences." The review goes on to provide a much more detailed explanation of the settings, actions, and characters' interactions--with other members of the family as well as with one significant "Hum." They conclude by praising the author, "This sleek ride of a novel further cements Phillips’s position as one of our most profound writers of speculative fiction."

The Los Angeles Times gushes, "“Phillips has given us a lot to chew on, but there is also something comforting embedded in this cautionary tale: an homage to our adaptability, our capacity to love and our willingness, however reluctantly, to embrace the new … Here she urges us not to surrender our power to choose and to resist, but to be thoughtful warriors, deciding for ourselves how we will dwell on our imperiled planet.” 

Here is Kirkus' review and summary: "What happens when the forests are gone, surveillance cameras are ubiquitous, and AI-programmed robots do the work? Set in a future altered by climate change and technology that may feel uncomfortably close at hand, Phillips’ new novel again shows her talent for finding warmth, humanity, and connection within an all-too-conceivable dystopian landscape. The action begins with May Webb, an unemployed mother of two elementary school students, undergoing a procedure designed to alter her features just enough to confound facial-recognition software. (The procedure is performed, as are many tasks in the world of the novel, by a robot with a soothing demeanor called a hum.) For surrendering her face to this experiment, May—whose AI-communication job has recently rendered itself obsolete and whose husband, Jem, has been laboring to keep the family financially afloat working gig-app-facilitated odd jobs—is paid the equivalent of 10 months of her previous salary. She immediately splurges on a three-night stay for the family in the idyllic Botanical Gardens, an accessible-only-to-the-rich paradise of greenery, frolicking animals, and fresh air walled off to shut out the city’s grit, graffiti, litter, and soot. But the family’s perfect vacation takes an unfortunate turn when the children wander off and get lost, setting in motion a string of events that endangers the family’s power to stay together. Writing with precision, insight, sensitivity, and compassion, Phillips renders the way love and family bonds—between partners, parents and children, and siblings—can act as a balm and an anchor amid the buffeting winds of a fast-changing, out-of-control world. A perceptive page-turner with a generous perspective on motherhood, identity, and the pitfalls of 'progress.'”

The Best Lies

This is the 2nd book I have read by David Ellis and it is equally as twisty as the previous book, Look Closer, which won an Edgar Award. I'll start with the cast of characters: Leo Balanoff is a criminal defense lawyer who has crossed the lines more than once in his efforts to see real justice done. When his DNA and fingerprints show up at the murder scene of a notorious and sadistic human trafficker, it looks like he's finally crossed one line too many; Andi Piotrowski, Leo's ex, who is working in the security department of a high tech drug company; Trace, former alcoholic and Leo's brother who is now living and working in Mexico; Chris, an FBI agent struggling to get back in the game by taking down the kingpin of the trafficking syndicate after being sidelined for 2 years while getting treatment for cancer; and finally is Mary, Chris' sister and a detective with the local police department who is anxious to arrest Leo for the murder. Leo maintains his innocence in the murder but has a lifetime of secrets that he is hiding--and he is not the only one living a lie.

Publishers Weekly was less than complimentary in their review of the book, saying the "storytelling gets too tangled, and his characters are too implausible, for this to cohere."