The Detective Up Late

Adrian McKinty is a new author to me. He grew up in a Belfast housing project (Northern Ireland) during the worst years of the Troubles. With the aid of a full scholarship, he attended Oxford and studied philosophy. He began writing full time when he emigrated to Australia in the early 2000's and has published both gritty crime novels and young adult fantasy. His Detective "Sean Duffy" series has received numerous "best of" and award mentions and this is the 7th in that series. Crunching through his final days as head of the Carrickfergus CID, now Detective Inspector Duffy gets a case of a missing 15-year-old girl who no one seems to care about. She is a Traveler (gypsy) and even her mother can't be bothered. But the further Duffy investigates, the more complicated her back story becomes and the more potential killers come to light. As a Catholic cop in a Protestant community, Duffy has always had a target on his back and now that he and his girlfriend have a child, he wants to get them away from all the violence. The ending was a surprise to me. I did like the protagonist, a complicated fellow, and McKinty does a great job creating a dark and atmospheric setting.

Kirkus says in a review of his previous book that "McKinty’s hero is irreverent, charming, and mordantly, laugh-out-loud funny, and his eclectic personal soundtrack and bitter, pragmatic politics make for vivid period detail."

Sunburn

Although I have not read any other of Laura Lippman's books, she is a prolific writer, notably of the "Tess Monaghan" series, as well as several stand-alone thrillers. She routinely gets positive reviews for everything she writes and this book is certainly worth the read. It is a modern-day take on the noir genre, with a "bad girl"--maybe-- meets "good boy" plot line. Polly has recently abandoned her second husband and their daughter while on a beach vacation, with plans to head to Reno and get a quickie divorce. She gets as far as a small town called Belleville, Delaware. At the High-Ho diner, a handsome man sits a couple of stools away from her at the bar and initiates a conversaation, but this is not a chance encounter. They both play it cool, claiming that each is just passing through. But Adam is attracted to beautiful sunburned shoulders and red hair, so when she gets a waitressing job at the bar/diner, he applies for the vacant cook's position. Over the course of that miserably hot summer, after a lot of calculated dancing around on both their parts, they realize that the passionate affair they began is turning into real love--something neither of them wanted to happen. Polly and Adam can't seem to walk away from one another, even though Polly wants to settle down and Adam want to continue exploring the world. Throughout, Polly and Adam lie to each other, and throughout they each know that. Adam is actually a PI hired to investigate Polly and she is running a long game, the extent of which the reader will not know until the last chapter. Lippman parcels out the secrets and the solutions a piece at a time, keeping the suspense level high.

Library Journal says of Lippman's characters that "Lippman's complicated femme fatale heroine and conflicted hero are more layered than one would expect from noir protagonists, and her nuanced characterizations extend beyond the couple at the center of the story. With an economy of words, she creates three--dimensional characters... Lippman's minute observations about modern life, human foibles, and the many faces of love are lagniappes to this tasty feast of a novel." Publishers Weekly effuses, "Lippman ratchets up the suspense the way the mercury in a thermometer creeps up on a hot August day, until everything-Polly's carefully laid plans of revenge and redemption, Adam's part in her potential downfall-comes to a boiling point. This is Lippman at her observant, fiercest best, a force to be reckoned with in crime fiction." I also love this review from Kirkus which begins, "A redheaded waitress, a good-looking private eye, insurance fraud, arson, rough sex, and a long hot summer: some like it noir." And their conclusion, "Plotty, page-turning pleasure plus instructions on how to make a perfect grilled cheese sandwich and how to stab a man in the heart."

Night Will Find You

This novel by Julia Heaberlin has an unusual female protagonist. Her regular job is as a research scientist in astrophysics, but occasionally, the police call on her for her abilities to see and hear things that other cannot. 

Publishers Weekly presents a solid summary of the story line as part of their glowing review: "This gripping page-turner from Heaberlin ... conceals its secrets from even the cleverest readers. Twenty-eight-year-old astrophysicist Vivian Bouchet takes leave from her research in the Chihuahuan desert to return home to Fort Worth, Tex., after her mother dies. She is approached by her childhood friend Mike Romano, now a cop, who believes Vivian has psychic abilities like the ones her fortune-telling mother claimed to possess. He asks her to look into the cold case of three-year-old Lizzie Solomon, who disappeared from her home a decade earlier. The girl’s mother, Nicolette, is serving time for her murder, even though no body was ever found. Before her death, Vivian’s mother made calls to the city claiming one of her clients—not Nicolette—was involved with the abduction... Vivian agrees to investigate, which makes her a target for the rabid fans of an influential podcast that peddles conspiracy theories,.... Vivian is an intelligent, perceptive character who’s a pleasure to spend time with, and when the plot kicks into gear, it’s nearly impossible to stop reading."

Kirkus fills us in on another detective interested in Lizzie's case, "Jesse Sharp, a skeptical, magnetic detective [who] is soon following her [Vivvy] all over town..." and it's not clear whether he seeks to expose her as a fake or  ... "to protect her from the fallout when a local conspiracy theorist gets her in his sights. Vivvy’s not sure, but she can’t deny the attraction between them even as she knows Jesse has secrets related to another case. Heaberlin’s evocation of the dusty, insular Texas town is the perfect backdrop, and both Jesse and Vivvy are appealingly prickly characters... Vivvy’s role as a scientist sets her apart from many fictional psychics and makes her a formidable heroine—there are rational layers to this supernatural thriller. Mysterious, sexy, and smart."

Killers of a Certain Age

My sister sent me this book written by Deanna Raybourn and I really liked it. Booklist says "Imagine if the Golden Girls were trained as elite assassins and you'll have some idea of the delights and thrills filling the pages of Raybourn's latest...a fun, exciting romp that celebrates the everlasting bonds of sisterhood." Billie, Mary Alice, Helen, and Natalie were all recruited in their early 20's to train at the Museum, an elite network of assassins originally created to hunt down Nazis. They were the first women recruits and they worked effectively--sometimes with others, but often alone--for forty years, ridding the world of bad people. They are ready to retire and their employers have graciously offered them an all-expenses-paid cruise to honor them. Or, as they soon figure out, to get them permanently out of the way. But apparently the powers that be have significantly under estimated just what effective assassins they are as they begin to hunt down the members of the Board that issued the termination orders.

Publishers Weekly calls it an "uproarious contemporary thriller...Colorful regional details and vividly portrayed secondary characters flesh out this rollicking tale. Fans of Helen Tursten and Richard Osman will relish watching these badass women in their 60s (“no one notices you unless you want them to,” Billie observes) swing into action. Raybourn has outdone herself." I have been a fan of Richard Osman's "Thursday Murder Club" series set in an English retirement community, and I just finished reading Helen Tursten's two books featuring 88-year old Maud, a very appealing anti-heroine. Being of a certain age myself, I enjoy seeing all these elderly characters taking charge of things, when those around them are prone to dismiss them. The introductory "Author's Note" sets the tone of what is to follow. "Some of the dates are misleading; some of the names are lies. I'm not trying to protect the innocent. I'm trying to protect the guilty. You'll understand soon enough." Many reviewers found the book to be "smart," "witty," "original," and "delightful" with "sophisticated story lines," high-flying action," and "sharp dialogue." Kirkus concludes it is "a compelling, complex mystery."

Since We Fell

I have been a fan of Dennis Lehane for some years, reading several of his books (e.g., World Gone By), but barely scratching the surface of his body of work, many of which have become movies (e.g., Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone).

There are many positive reviews of this book: Library Journal ("Readers will enjoy going along for the ride in this engrossing story about love, deception, and marital commitment"), Booklist ("...this narrative vehicle never veers out of control, and when Lehane hits the afterburners in the last 50 pages, he produces one of crime fiction's most exciting and well-orchestrated finales rife with dramatic tension and buttressed by rich psychological interplay between the characters), and Publishers Weekly ("Set in contemporary Boston, this expertly wrought character study masquerading as a thriller from Edgar-winner Lehane ...features his first-ever female protagonist.)

But the review that came closest to my reaction was the review from the New York Times. They write "The novel begins with a string of joltingly different episodes from an author whose usual style is much more propulsively linear. The sequences are all parts of Rachel’s life, but that doesn’t initially glue them together; she is struggling to figure out who she is, and so are we. Only over time does the larger trajectory of “Since We Fell” become clear.It all makes much more sense in retrospect than it does as the book’s first chapters unfold. Here are some of its early developments: Rachel devotes herself to solving the mystery of her father. It’s complicated, and it leads the book into such unlikely areas as Luminism, the 19th-century style of American landscape painting....The father question is answered, and not in ways likely to improve Rachel’s mental state. Strong and smart as she is, Rachel needs a man in her life. She marries a producer named Sebastian, who works at the Boston TV station where she is a rising star. He’s irritable when Rachel endangers her career, since he cares mostly about her status....One on-air meltdown later, Rachel has been fired and is a public pariah.

Already subject to panic attacks, which are exacerbated by the horrors she saw in Haiti, Rachel stays in her apartment for 18 months. Sebastian drops out of her life. And it leads to Rachel becoming reacquainted with Mr. Right, Brian Delacroix, who she’d known casually and now looks at with new interest...Rachel falls gratefully into his arms, and they are married.Their marriage ushers in a string of wall-to-wall spoiler alerts. Suffice it to say that this second part of “Since We Fell” is sharply different from the first. Suddenly, he begins delivering nonstop suspense only loosely rooted in Rachel’s story and its foundations."

This very long and torturous journey left me largely unmoved, although the last part of the book does speed up and become more engaging. Kirkus, like many other reviewers had only positive things to say. "Don’t zoom through this latest entry in Lehane’s illustrious body of work. You’ll miss plenty of intrigue, intricacies, and emotional subtleties....What seems at the start to be an edgy psychological mystery seamlessly transforms into a crafty, ingenious tale of murder and deception—and a deeply resonant account of one woman’s effort to heal deep wounds that don’t easily show."

A Snicker of Magic

This book by Natalie Lloyd is actually an award winning children's book, all the more remarkably given that this is Lloyd's first book. Here are some of the honors awarded:

• An ALA Notable Book
• An Odyssey Honor Award
• An E.B. White Read Aloud Honor Book
• A SIBA Children’s Book Award Finalist
• A Nerdy Book Club Award Winner
• NCTE Charlotte Huck Award for Outstanding Fiction for Children, Recommended Book
• A Junior Library Guild Selection
• A Siba Okra Pick
• 2015 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Winner for Children’s Literature 

Twelve-year-old Felicity Juniper Pickle, along with younger sister Frannie Jo and their dog Biscuit, have come to live in the town where her mother grew up, Midnight Gulch, TN. The town has a magical history which came to an end when two musician/magical brothers had a duel that ended with a curse, leaving the town without magic--maybe. Felicity has her own magic; she is able to see words that others can't--words that reveal people's secret hopes and sorrows. Felicity is befriended by wheelchair traveler Jonah who fills her in on the town's history and has a magical secret of his own. Felicity has a magical vocabulary as well that floats through the text and "spins a web around the story that touches on helping others, budding friendships, and strength of family. (Booklist)" With Jonah's help, Felicity hopes to break the curse and solve the riddle of her mother's sadness that keeps the family moving from town to town. 

Publishers Weekly effuses, "spins a web around the story that touches on helping others, budding friendships, and strength of family..." and concludes "Lloyd offers a reassuring, homespun story about self-expression and the magic that resides in one's mind and heart." And the New York Times is equally enthralled, claiming the book "covers wholesome, warm-fuzzy territory in a quirky, cheerful way. It should be read aloud for maximum enjoyment, with a pen handy to jot down new words, preferably not on your sneakers. Young spelling enthusiasts, Scrabble lovers, Boggle big leaguers and word people of the world — hang on for the ride! Felicity Pickle will take you places, and that, fellow logophiles, is spindiddly, indeed."

 

Glory Be: A Glory Broussard Mystery

This debut novel by Danielle Arceneaux is intended to be the first in her "Glory Broussard" series. Set in contemporary Layfayette, Louisiana, Glory is not a typical detective story protagonist. Not that other detectives aren't outspoken and out for justice--just as Glory is--, or that we haven't encountered black detectives, or women sleuths, or investigators "of a certain age," but Glory is all of these. She has not had an easy life, growing up in the racially segregated South, and it has recently been made even harder because her husband left her for a younger woman. Then she learns that her closest friend from childhood, Sister Amity Gay, is dead. Glory will NOT be kept away from the crime scene and is shocked to see Amity with a rope around her neck and to hear that the police are calling it suicide and will not be pursuing further investigation. Glory knows Amity would never have killed herself and she aims to find the murderer. Glory's daughter, Delphine, a successful lawyer in New York City, has come home to help her mother sort out the divorce, and for reasons of her own that she's not sharing. She is shocked to find her mother has become a hoarder and that Glory has taken over the bookie business of her unfaithful husband.

The Washington Post offers: "Danielle Arceneaux offers a remarkable debut novel that blends a character study with a tightly woven mystery that delves into dark corners of racism and corruption." Publishers Weekly also likes this book: "Arceneaux successfully avoids a mountain of cozy clichés—no bookshops, baked goods, or love interest for Glory—and works potent critiques of Southern racism into her well-oiled plot."

The setting is richly drawn, the characters are well developed and the plot is complex and tricky enough to keep you guessing. I will watch for the future adventures of Glory Broussard.

Past Tense

In this 23rd novel of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series, Reacher has just begun his corner-to-corner travels across the United States (Maine to San Diego) when his ride gets an emergency phone call and has to turn around, leaving Reacher on a small highway in the woods of Maine. When he sees a small sign for the town of Laconia, NH, ostensibly his father's birthplace. He decides to stop over and see if he can find out more about his father's past. "Not far from Reacher, Canadian travelers Shorty and Patty pull into a remote motel, their car on its last legs. They're the only guests and the proprietors seem a little odd. Of course things get worse for them and for Reacher, who pummels a local, well-connected bully when he's not poring over census records and playing matchmaker for two government workers" (Library Journal). Publishers Weekly continues, "Reacher uncovers few traces of his father's existence, other than a 75-year-old assault case in which Stan Reacher is named. ...While Reacher is dealing with a revenge posse, the Canadian couple discover just how strange their motel is. Child neatly interweaves multiple narratives, ratchets up the suspense (the reveal of the motel plot is delicious), and delivers a powerful, satisfying denouement." Booklist praises "As always, the prose is lean and efficient, the action scenes are well designed, and Reacher is as formidable an opponent as one could imagine..."

Small Pleasures

This bittersweet novel by Clare Chambers was sent to me by a friend in England for my birthday; it was longlisted for the Womens Prize for Fiction (1921). For this book, I chose Publishers Weekly summary of the storyline:

"In Chambers’ affecting latest ... the year is 1957 and Jean Swinney is a single Englishwoman approaching 40 who cares for her demanding mother and lives for the small pleasures in life—like pottering in her vegetable patch or loosening her girdle at the end of the day. Jean works as features editor for the North Kent Echo. Her new assignment is to interview Gretchen Tilbury, who claims to have delivered a child through virgin birth. Wanting to keep an open mind, Jean meets with the no-nonsense Gretchen, who was confined to an all-female nursing home, St. Cecilia’s, with rheumatoid arthritis at the time of conception. Jean also meets Gretchen’s charming 10-year-old daughter, Margaret, and her dedicated husband, Howard. Jean arranges for Gretchen and Margaret to undergo medical tests at Charing Cross Hospital to prove if parthenogenesis actually took place. As the months pass, Jean becomes more and more enmeshed in the lives of the Tilbury family even as her friendship with Howard threatens to turn into something more. Chambers does an excellent job of recreating the austere texture of post-WWII England. In Jean, the author creates a character who strives admirably to escape her cloistered existence. Chambers plays fair with Gretchen’s mystery, tenderly illuminating the hidden yearnings of small lives."

Reviews are positive from both the English and American press. Booklist offers, "...Chambers penetrates the secret hopes and passionate inner lives of ordinary working people throughout her gripping novel..." According to the New York Times' excellent review, "All the characters in “Small Pleasures” seem to be struggling...Again and again, however, characters choose duty ... over happiness, as Chambers examines, sympathetically and incisively, how much self-sacrifice people should bear at the expense of their personal freedom...Chambers reproduces the everyday minutiae of postwar British suburbia, from a dust-colored wool skirt to a pudding made of tinned pears and evaporated milk. Her language is beautiful, achieving what only the most skilled writers can: big pleasure wrought from small details." Kirkus says that "An awareness of the high cost of that potential happiness weighs heavily on Jean, and a bittersweet aura pervades Chambers’ gentle sketch of an unassuming, highly intelligent woman daring to contravene convention. ... Chambers acknowledges a broad range of human experience. Jean’s foibles, along with those of her irksome mother and other characters, are presented with sympathy, but readers in search of comfortable solutions will have to reassess their need to tie everything up with a vintage-style bow." The Evening Standard calls it "quietly perfect;" The Sunday Telegraph says it is a "quietly compelling novel of duty and desire;" and The Times (London) concludes the book is "remarkable."

A Line to Kill

As well as being a fan of  his "Foyle's War" and "Midsomer Murders" TV series, I have read 5 other stand-alone mysteries from Anthony Horowitz. In several, we get to see the author himself as a character in the story; this book is the 3rd entry in the "Hawthorne and Horowitz" series, following The Word is Murder and The Sentence is Death. In other books, we get a complete story within a story, e.g., Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. Beyond that, he has been a prolific writer with over a dozen books in his teen-targeted "Alex Rider" series alone.

Since I have tired of writing book summaries for now, I chose that offered by Booklist as a reasonable alternative:

"Great Agatha Christie's ghost! PI Hawthorne and novelist Horowitz (the fictional version) are trapped on an island with an eccentric group of writers. The oddly dynamic duo return for their third adventure (after The Sentence Is Death, 2019), and this time they travel together to Alderney, in the Channel Islands, for what is billed as an exclusive literary festival. Turns out, not all that exclusive. A popular blind psychic, a TV chef, an aging children's author, a somewhat tedious historian, and a suspiciously behaved (and plagiaristic) poet round out the talent, along with Horowitz and PI Hawthorne, about whom Horowitz is writing a true-crime book. They find a grim welcome from a place riddled with reminders of its WWII occupation by the Nazis, and also in turmoil over a hotly contested power line that will boost the island's economy but ruin the landscape. The man behind the development is the "uniquely offensive" Charles le Mesurier. When he turns up dead, no one is surprised. Or sorry. Horowitz is a master of misdirection, and his brilliant self-portrayal, wittily self-deprecating, carries the reader through a jolly satire on the publishing world." 

Publishers Weekly called this 3rd installment a "superior" mystery and concludes, "The often prickly relationship between the Watson-like Horowitz and the Holmes-like Hawthorne complements the intricate detective work worthy of a classic golden age whodunit. The author's fans will hope this series has a long run." And Kirkus says the book "reads like a golden-age whodunit on steroids."