The 22 Murders of Madison May

I was not familiar with any of Max Barry's earlier works but was intrigued by the premise of this one. When we first meet Madison May, she is a real estate agent trying to sell a run-down house in Queens to a potential buyer--a reasonably attractive guy if a little unkempt. But then he proceeds to tell her that he's not from this world, that they have met before, and that he loves her--and then he kills her. Political reporter Felicity Staples get assigned to cover the story since the crime reporter is off having a nooner with one of his co-workers. There is a strange symbol left on the wall of the room where Maddie was murdered and Felicity notices the same symbol on the hat of a bystander who appears in one of the photos taken at the crime scene. With help from a colleague, the symbol is traced to a juice company. No one thinks this strange except Felicity. On her way home, this same bystander appears on the platform, hands her a gray egg-shaped object and pushes her off the platform. She survives by hiding in a cavity beside the tracks, but when she emerges, the world is slightly different than the one she left. Her long-time boyfriend now cooks, she has only one cat instead of two, the clock hanging annoyingly over her desk in the news room is gone, etc. But in this slightly altered world, Maddie May gets murdered again, only this time she's a TV weather reporter. Her killer is pursuing her across parallel universes trying to find the Maddie he fell in love with and killing all the ones who don't quite meet his expectations. Felicity is determined to stop him. This is definitely a mind-bending read and I have to admit that it took me a while to engage with the characters, but half-way through, I knew I had to finish. 

Kirkus calls this a "...very clever, unpredictable little murder mystery with some bittersweet tones about the things we do for love."Publishers Weekly has a somewhat lower opinion of what they describe as a "middling SF thriller" and they conclude "Barry fails to make Felicity’s response to her mind-bending situation psychologically plausible." I guess I would agree that the idea was better than the execution.

Olympus, Texas

 This debut novel by Stacey Swann takes place in the small town of Olympus, not too far from Houston. The Briscoe family is well-known there, both as one of the wealthiest families and because o the patriarch's (Peter's) many affairs. Wife June has reconciled herself to an extent but has also accumulated a well of resentment that sours her relationships with two of her three children, March and Thea. Two of Peter's illegitimate children, twins Arlo and Artie, have actually become loosely connected members of the family. When March had an affair with Vera, his brother Hap's wife two and a half years ago, it ruptured not only his relationship with Hap but with his family and he left town for self-imposed exile with no communication about his whereabouts. Now he has returned and a chain of events is ignited that will include broken marriages and a tragic accidental death. Publishers Weekly notes that "Swann's luminous debut" is "Rife with allusions to mythology (March's dogs are named Remus and Romulus, portending the explosive and deadly flashpoint in Arlo and Artie's conflict), this epic makes the most of its vivid Texan setting, becoming as well a love letter to the state's rugged beauty and homegrown familiarity..." The action takes place over just six days, but the occasional flashbacks provide "rich portraits of a character’s history" according to The New York Times.  Kirkus concludes, "Swann's debut is rich in Texas flavor and full of nods to classical mythology—quotes from Ovid, twins human and canine, and the kind of relentless bad luck that usually means you've offended a deity. A total page-turner." I also consumed this one in a single day.

Eight Perfect Murders

This book by Peter Swanson is my mystery book group's choice for July. I finished it in one day. I read some reviews that found it lagged toward the end or that the ending was predictable, but I have to say, that was not my experience. I had no idea who the murderer was. The premise is that widower Malcolm Kershaw is co-owner of the Old Devils bookstore in Boston. Years ago, when he was just an employee, he posted an article on the store's blog called "Eight Perfect Murders" which described those mysteries in which "the murderer comes closest to realizing that platonic ideal of a perfect murder." They were Agatha Christie's A. B. C. Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train, Ira Levin's Death Trap, A. A. Milne's Red House Mystery, Anthony Berkeley Cox's Malice Aforethought, James M. Cain's Double Indemnity, John D. Macdonald's The Drowner, and Donna Tartt's A Secret History. Years later, Malcom is contacted by FBI agent Gwen Mulvey who feels someone is imitating--at least in spirit--the murders in this list of books, and she is hoping Malcolm can shed light on who it might be. Both Gwen and Mal have secrets from each other and neither entirely trusts the other initially. Malcolm reveals one of his secrets to the reader fairly early on, and it quickly becomes clear that, not only is the killer using his list, but the victims are connected to Malcolm as well and Mal needs to find out who it is before anyone else dies and before his remaining secrets are revealed. 

The Library Journal concludes, "The wintry New England setting and eerily cool narration, together with trust-no-one twists and garish murders, will satisfy thriller readers..." And Publishers Weekly agrees that "Classic whodunit fans will be in heaven." Kirkus notes that "the pleasures of following, and trying to anticipate, a narrator who’s constantly second- and third-guessing himself and everyone around him are authentic and intense.....The perfect gift for well-read mystery mavens who complain that they don’t write them like they used to."

Where the Crawdads Sing

I have now read this best selller by Delia Owens twice, most recently for my book group, and am astounded at my failure to have posted about it. This is Owens first novel (written at age 70) although she has co-authored--with her former husband-- several non-fiction accounts of her work as a wildlife scientist in Africa. The biography on her website describes her childhood as follows: "Her mother, also an outside-girl, encouraged Delia to explore far into the oak forests, saying 'Go way out yonder where the crawdads sing.' Her mother taught her how to hike without stepping on rattle snakes, and most important not to be afraid of critters of any kind. Delia went on to spend most of her life in or near true wilderness, and since childhood has thought of Nature as a true companion. One of her best friends." Hence we have the basis for the main character Kya and for the title of the book. 

When she is five years old, Kya watches her mother walk away from their rough shack in the North Carolina marshes and Kya doesn't stop looking for her until well into adulthood. Within the next few months, the older siblings all drift away, leaving the now 6-year old to fend for herself with periodic appearances by a drunken and abusive father. Over the next few years, Kya throws herself into learning to survive and even tames her father for a few months by cleaning and cooking to the best of her ability. In that short time span, he teaches her how to fish but then eventually leaves her as well. At one point, the truant officer comes out to take her to school but one day of bullying is all Kya can handle, and afterwards she successfully eludes any attempts to find her in the marshes. She becomes known in town as the "Marsh Girl" and local boys make a sport of coming to her shack to taunt her. And then one day, Tate, a former friend of her youngest brother, comes into her life and he befriends her and eventually teaches her how to read and count. Her curiosity about the natural world around her is limitless and she gradually develops the artistic skills inherited from her mother to start drawing and even painting the creatures and environment she so closely observes. Her only friends are the Black man who runs a small gas dock, Jumpin, and his wife Mabel. Of course, the inhabitants of Colored Town are also outcasts and so are more sympathetic and supportive of Kya, collecting clothes for her and buying the mussels she collects,  thus giving her some small amount of money to buy staples.

When Tate leaves for college, Kya once again experiences her desolate loneliness and is vulnerable to the charms of the town's former high school football star, Chase. He courts Kya until she gives in to his sexual advances, which he brags about in town and then goes off to marry someone else. Chase is eventually found dead out near an abandoned fire tower and Kya is blamed and put on trial. This is a coming of age narrative, a love story, a mystery, and a paean to nature--all rolled up in lyrical language that reflects Owens' passion for nature and her appreciation of humans' (and animals') basest and best instincts. Although set in the 50's and 60's the issues of prejudice, poverty, and longing for belonging still resonate today. The book holds several surprises at the end, but every reader will agree with the NYT's assessment that whatever rewards come to Kya, she has earned the hard way. Read about the book's remarkable trajectory to sell more print copies than any other adult title in 2019.

The Religious Body

I had never heard of Catherine Aird until I joined a British Mysteries group on FB. Turns out this author has been writing for over 50 years and has been awarded lifetime achievement awards for her work, including the British Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger Award.  Aird is the pseudonym for Kinn Hamilton McIntosh and she wrote the first of two dozen "Calleshire (a stand in for the county of Kent, where she lives) Chronicles" in 1966. This is that book. Before I start on the plot, I will share some of the accolades I found on the Crime Reads website: The New Yorker considered her “the very best in British mystery;’ The Times of London called her “never less than elegant and mischievously sharp;” the Washington Post said, “Aird’s intelligence shines through every sentence.”

Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Berebury Division of the Calleshire Constabulary is called to a suspicious death, along with D. C. William Crosby, in the village of Cullingoak. Inspector Sloane had never been inside a convent, but the local doctor who was called by the Mother Superior, astutely determined that this was not an accidental fall down the stairs as it initially appeared. It's clear that the woman's head had been bashed in, the body concealed, and later thrown down the stairs to try and cover up the murder. Trying to collect information inside a convent, where the nuns are encouraged to keep their eyes ("custody of the eyes") and ears on their own business, presents real challenges. The two nuns who sat on either side of the deceased Sister Anne say she was at the evening service, but the post-mortem reveals she would have been dead a couple of hours by then. Two days later, the inspector gets a call to investigate the Guy Fawkes bonfire at the nearby agricultural institute which abuts the convent's grounds. The "guy" that was being burned turns out to be wearing an old habit stolen from the convent and the eyeglasses of the deceased nun. the Principal of the institute, Mr. Ranby, is more than happy to identify the culprits but interviewing the 3 young men leads the police no closer to identifying the killer. And then one of the 3 students who stole the habit from the convent is found murdered. Sloan keeps gathering information, even seemingly irrelevant facts, and finally formulates a theory. The inspector, with the cooperation of the Mother Superior and the priest who looks after the nuns, sets a trap that nabs their killer and I never saw it coming.

The book is filled with details about life in a convent and a small village and the details of a police investigation, constrained, as so often happens, by the micromanagement of their superior. Several reviewers have noted that Aird brings in elements of both English cozies and police procedurals. The article about Aird and her body of work at Crime Reads is a masterful overview and will entice you to read her books better than anything I can say. Sloan's wife does not appear in this book but apparently becomes a worthy character in her own right in later installments. And it appears that D.C. Crosby never gets any smarter nor does Superintendent Leeyes get any less annoying. And several other characters get more fully developed as well. Lots to look forward to! Moving on to the next in the series, Henrietta Who? (1968).

A Double Death on the Black Isle

This is the sequel to A Small Death in the Great Glen by A.D. Scott in the "Joanne Ross/ Highland Gazette" series. I've also read A Kind of Grief, which comes later in the series (#6) and was a bit of a spoiler for reading this one but....still worth the read. As with her other books, she does a wonderful job of conveying a sense of place for a small town in the Highlands of Scotland 10 years or so after WWII has ended. In this book, Joanne is being given the opportunity to spread her wings and do real reporting for the regional newspaper, which the editor, McAllister, is attempting to revamp and expand. They get a golden opportunity when someone firebombs a fishing boat in the town's canal and sinks it to the bottom, providing lots of fodder for front page news. Joann and friend/ colleague Rob are assigned the story and race to the scene where "wee Hector" is taking photos left and right, aggravating the boat's crew members, but hoping to get himself hired onto the paper as the official photographer. The British class system is fully on display when Joanne's best friend from boarding school, Patricia, reveals that she is pregnant and getting married to the owner of the destroyed boat, Sandy Skinner. Patricia's mother, who is the lady of the manse on the Black Isle (which is really a peninsula) is outraged that her daughter would marry a common fisherman, and many suspect he was only after Patricia's land and money. Then, on the same day, Fraser, the elder son of the manse's farm manager and Patricia's new husband die. Are they accidents or murder? There are plenty of people who didn't like both men, but the prejudiced town policeman immediately seizes upon two McPhee brothers as likely culprits in the murder of Fraser because there had been a shoving match between them outside a bar the evening before he died. The McPhees are Tinkers or Travelers, itinerant laborers, who are looked down upon by settled folk. Joanne and colleagues are, of course, trying to get to the bottom of things but she also has to deal with the challenges of being "a single mother working to support her two girls after leaving her abusive husband" (Kirkus). The abusive husband puts in a couple of appearances. Her colleagues (all men) don't fully understand why she doesn't divorce him, but the culture looks down on divorced women and Joann fears it would taint her daughters' lives as well. Richly drawn characters and settings as well as colorful dialog, interesting relationships, and "a fine mystery" (Kirkus) make this a worthwhile series.