Mystery
-- Publishers Weekly, 3/19/2007
Boxed and starred reviews indicate books of outstanding quality.
Boxed, unstarred reviews indicate books of special interest.
Susan Kandel. Morrow, $23.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-088369-0
Kandel's entertaining but thin fourth puzzler (after 2006's Shamus in the Green Room) finds sleuthing biographer and vintage fashion hound Cece Caruso putting the finishing touches on her account of Agatha Christie's life. But her editor's demands for rewrites are an unwelcome distraction from the baby shower she's throwing for her pregnant daughter, Annie, and the wedding plans she's making with her fiancé, L.A. detective Peter Gambino. Cece is also directing a Miss Marple–themed play for the opening ceremonies of a housing development called Christietown, a "Cotswaldsesque cozyland" built by ex-circus huckster Ian Christie, who claims to be a distant relative of the queen of crime. But when the lead actress goes missing on opening night and later turns up dead, Cece once again turns sleuth. As with previous installments in this stylish series, Kandel deftly contrasts clever excerpts from Cece's biographies with her personal dilemmas, but the contrived mystery plot disappoints. (June)
Kept: A Victorian Mystery D.J. Taylor. HarperCollins, $24.95 (480p) ISBN 978-0-06-114608-4
This richly textured tour de force from British author Taylor (The Comedy Man) centers on the abduction of disturbed heiress Isabel Ireland, whose husband, Henry, died in a fall from his horse (or a blow to the head) near their estate in Suffolk. Through intriguing letters, diaries and compelling narratives by characters from all levels of 1860s English society, Taylor follows Isabel's determined cousins to remote Easton Hall, where she's being kept by sinister James Dixey, a purported naturalist with initially murky motives. Dixey's henchmen destroy eggs of endangered bird species and maintain vicious dogs that distress his servants, especially precocious Esther Spalding, an endearing young maid who cares for Isabel in the manor's lonely west wing. In squalid, crime-ridden London, police captain McTurk shrewdly links a shady debt collection service and dramatic train robbery to Isabel's abduction. The many facets of this absorbing, multilayered tale come together in an understated but fulfilling resolution. (May)
Yesterday's FatalJan Brogan. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (336p) ISBN 978-0-312-35997-3
In Brogan's solid third Hallie Ahern mystery (after 2005's A Confidential Source), the Providence, R.I., newspaper reporter homes in on an insurance scam after happening on a late-night auto accident. Hallie tries to rescue the victim from a car about to go up in flames, but the woman is already dead after crashing into a tree—"twice," according to the elderly woman who witnessed the accident. At the funeral for the victim—Lizzette Gorda, a 33-year-old mother of three boys—her husband, Manuel, says that the witness reported another car speeding away from the scene (a fishy change of tune), and Hallie notices mobster Tito Manaforte hulking among the mourners. Hallie smells an insurance scam that her addictive personality compels her to pursue. On the romantic front, a suave attorney distracts Hallie from her upstanding but undemonstrative new boyfriend, prosecutor Matt Cavanaugh. Intelligent but with her fair share of imperfections, Hallie makes a credible heroine. (May)
Fools Rush In: A Sam McCain MysteryEd Gorman. Pegasus (Consortium, dist.), $24 (240p) ISBN 978-1-933648-32-3
At the start of Gorman's engaging seventh civil rights–era whodunit (after 2004's Breaking Up Is Hard to Do), PI Sam McCain goes looking for a blackmailer and finds him dead alongside one of his blackmail victims, dynamic black college student David Leeds. David had been dating the white daughter of a senator, a major scandal in 1963 Black River Falls, Iowa. Given the pervasive climate of racial strife, there's no shortage of suspects, including a racist biker gang and the daughter's bully of an ex-boyfriend. McCain discovers other compromising photographs and a wad of cash indicating further blackmail victims, one of whom may have been driven to murder. The town's inept police chief warns McCain off the case, but the new district attorney, a young, attractive no-nonsense woman, lends invaluable support. While evoking the quiet ordinariness of the time with nostalgia, Gorman realistically portrays the small town's mixed response to the exploding national demand for long overdue justice. (May)
Saturnalia: A Marcus Didius Falco NovelLindsey Davis. St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-312-36129-7
As the festive holiday of Saturnalia approaches in Davis's well-crafted 18th Roman historical (after 2006's See Delphi and Die), informer Marcus Didius Falco receives an imperial commission from Emperor Vespasian to solve the murder of nobleman Sextus Gratianus Scaeva. The victim's brother-in-law was holding a valued captive, Veleda, a female German rebel leader who had caused plenty of problems for the Roman Empire. She somehow escaped at the same time the crime occurred, becoming the prime suspect in the process. Unconvinced that the mystery can be wrapped up neatly with the capture of the fugitive, Falco, aided as always by his astute and independent wife, Helena Justina, pursues other leads even as he hopes to find Veleda and prevent further political turmoil. The occasional anachronistic colloquial phrase jars a bit, but overall Davis does her usual sound job of bringing first-century Rome to life. (May)
Scott FreeMarijane Meaker writing as Vin Packer. Carroll & Graf, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-78671-867-2
This convoluted novel starring a transgendered insurance investigator, Scotti House, falls short of Meaker's better work, such as the sizzling lesbian pulp thriller Spring Fire (1952) that she wrote as Vin Packer and the young adult novel If I Love You, Am I Trapped Forever? (1973), published under the pen name M.E. Kerr. Set in the Hamptons, the mystery revolves around the kidnapping plot of the daughter of dying socialite Len Lasher and his wife, Lara. The trans- elements are sweet and real: Scotti's mother, ex-wife and daughter try to accept her new life while acknowledging their own distress and confusion. But clichés such the vituperative conflicts between the super-rich snobs and their hired help riddle the novel, and the crime elements fall flat. (May)
A Stranger Lies ThereStephen Santogrossi. St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95 (304p) ISBN 978-0-312-36441-0
In Santogrossi's engrossing, dark debut (winner of the St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic contest for Best First Traditional Mystery Novel), the curiously endearing protagonist, Tim Ryder, wakes up one morning to find a dead body on his Palm Springs, Calif., lawn. Ryder, a carpenter, wonders if the murder is connected to testimony he gave against a co-conspirator in a criminal case 30 years earlier, when he did time for a bungled robbery, a misguided attempt to raise money for anti–Vietnam War protests. With the next current-day casualty, the matter becomes more urgent, and even more personal, and Tim is determined to find the killer. On occasion, Santogrossi veers off into preachy description, breaking the cardinal show-don't-tell rule, but his well-drawn characters, unexpected resolution and sharp casual insights make for an energizing read. (May)
A Killing in ComicsMax Allan Collins. Berkley Prime Crime, $14 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-425-21365-0
Fans who admire Collins's superb Nate Heller series for its ingenious, innovative and well-researched solutions to historical mysteries like the Black Dahlia murder (Angel in Black) and Amelia Earhart's disappearance (Flying Blind) will find this bland, broadly sketched whodunit several notches below the author's best work. The action takes place in 1948 Manhattan, where Donny Harrison, publisher of Americana Comics, gets impaled on a huge cake knife at his 50th birthday party, and Jack Starr, troubleshooter for a newspaper syndicate, investigates the many who wished Harrison dead. The premise—setting a murder mystery among the legends who created the first iconic comic book heroes, represented here as Wonder Guy and Batwing (thinly disguised versions of Superman and Batman)—is promising, but instead of a thoughtful and insightful exploration of that idea, Collins settles for near parody. Terry Beatty (Batman) contributes tongue-in-cheek, retro comic art throughout. (May)
Cruel ChoicesCharles O'Brien. Severn, $27.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-7278-6463-5
O'Brien's imperfect but entertaining sixth mystery set in revolutionary France (after 2006's Fatal Carnival) finds sleuth Anne Cartier, wife of Col. Paul de Saint-Martin, tracking down a missing country girl in Paris. Anne uncovers a prostitution ring run out of a millinery shop and links the illicit trade to the sexually deviant Marquis de Bresse, a disciple of the Marquis de Sade. Indeed, Anne determines that more than one naïve country girl has come to the city and disappeared; the question remains, have they been murdered? The heroine (occasionally dressed as a charwoman) skillfully maneuvers among syphilitic prostitutes, sneaky servants and deceitful shopkeepers as she tries to get to the bottom of things. Fans who have come to expect O'Brien's well-pitched historical details will not be disappointed—the journey into the underworld of the 18th-century sex trade is fascinating if grim. Readers new to the series, however, will struggle to piece together Anne's background and get a handle on her relationship to the police. (May)
