Johnny Careless

Kevin Wade--playwright, film and TV screenwriter and producer--has turned his hand to the death of a life-long friend, Johnny Chambliss. Though they were from wildly differeent social classes, they bonded over playing la crosse and remained friends through thick and thin. Protagonist, "Jeep" Mullane is the new police chief for his home town on the North Shore of Long Island, is unable to accept the verdict of accidental death when his friend is pulled from the water, obviously the victim of being hit by a skidoo. 

Library Journal summarizes the book by saying "Mullane juggles commitment to Johnny's family, complicated feelings for Johnny's ex-wife, Niven, and pressure from local mayors to stop a car theft ring, while seeking the truth about Johnny's death... " and concluding "the central characters are rich and the plot propulsive.... Wade delivers a complicated police drama of the Don Winslow variety, written in the neo-noir style of Robert B. Parker's Spenser books."  Publishers Weekly offers this:  "Wade smoothly toggles between Jeep's present-day investigation and his friendship with Johnny, shedding light on their class differences and the events that led them to lose touch in adulthood. Wade's gift for suspense is as well honed as one would expect from his film and TV credits--the real surprise is his character work, which goes deep enough that readers will find themselves thinking about Jeep and Johnny long after they've turned the final page. Haunting and heartbreaking, this is a winner."

The Change

Kirsten Miller is the author of a popular feminist YA series with Kiki Strike as the protagonist. This is her first book written for adults and, in fact, the three protagonists are all women of a certain age. Here is the summary and effusive review from Publishers Weekly:

"Miller... triumphs with her adult debut about three women who discover supernatural abilities during menopause, which they use to avenge murdered teenage girls in the New York beach town of Mattuck. Just as retired nurse Nessa James becomes fast friends with gym owner Jo Levison, Nessa realizes she can see ghosts again. When she was a child, her grandmother told her she had a gift, and that she'd be called upon later in life to use it, along with other similarly gifted women. Nessa intuitively seeks out unapologetic Harriett Osborne, a former ad executive who was pushed out of her career and now cultivates toxic plants like wolfsbane. Along with Jo, who can summon her fury and channel it into fiery strength, the trio attempt to bring peace to three ghosts Nessa encounters on the beach near Culling Pointe, where the billionaires live. After a client at Jo's gym starts leaving clues about one of the ghosts, the trio is let down by police detectives who make their own motives clear... Miller's book is that rare treat: a suspenseful story with great pacing, memorable characters, and an engaging voice. Fantastic in every way, this fierce anthem against misogyny is a smash."

Kirkus' version offers a slightly different perspective. "Menopause brings more gains than losses for three women in this entertaining thriller. When menopause arrives ... they don’t bother with estrogen therapy or worry about chin hairs. They develop superpowers. Harriett Osborne kicks her high-powered advertising career and her dweeby husband to the curb and lets her gift for botany flourish, growing plants for pleasure and for poison (and to really annoy the head of her homeowners association). Jo Levison is first alarmed by the rage that literally sets fire flowing from her hands—hot flashes with a vengeance—but she learns to channel it and starts a successful fitness and self-defense business. Nessa James’ emerging gift is a somber one that’s been handed down by the women in her family: The dead speak to her, but only the dead who need help...The response from local police is barely apathetic; the cops seem to be protecting someone, or all the someones who live behind gates at the high-priced end of the island. That just makes the trio push harder to find out what’s going on. What they uncover echoes the Jeffrey Epstein case and too many other cases of powerful men exploiting women and getting away with it—or maybe not. The novel takes on serious issues but doesn’t take itself too seriously; there’s plenty of mordant humor, a suspenseful plot, and mostly brisk pacing. Crime fiction, superpower fantasy, and sharp satire about sexism and ageism mesh for a satisfying read."

Booklist raves, “The Change is wry and clever, serious and exacting, and masterfully suspenseful in its conveyance of a deeply profound and feminist message.” The Guardian (U.K) seems to agree. “With a propulsive plot and characters that roar off the page, this is a novel that’s unafraid to take on societal misogyny while being satirical and even funny at the same time.”

If you enjoy this book, you might also consider When Women Were Dragons, Killers of a Certain Age, and/or The Bandit Queens.

Inherit the Dead

I have read serial novels/ mysteries before and found them entertaining, but this one failed. This was an absolutely stellar cast of contributors including Dana Stabenow, Lawrence Block, C.J. Box, Charlaine Harris, etc. but it just fell flat. The authors, to their credit--and I am sure to the credit of the editor Jonathan Santlofer--did present a consistent storyline, effectively building on each previous chapter. And they also sustained a sense of suspense, so that I kept reading. But the characters never felt fully developed and the ending left me with more questions than answers--and not in a good way. There simply is not enough information provided about characters or their motivation to make the plot believable. Felt like a waste of my time.