On Hallowed Ground: A Willie Cuesta Mystery
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John Lantigua, Arte Público, $16.95 trade paper (272p) ISBN 978-1-55885-695-0 9781558856950
In Lantigua's gripping fourth novel featuring Miami PI Willie Cuesta (after 2007's The Lady from Buenos Aires), Carmen Vickers de Estrada, who moved to Miami from Medellín, Colombia, to escape the threat of kidnapping, asks Cuesta, who's been serving as security chief for his brother's nightclub, to protect her son, José, and his girlfriend, Catalina Cordero. Two years earlier in Colombia, Carmen's husband was killed resisting abduction, and a year later, José was held captive for seven months even after the ransom was paid. After only a few days on the job, Cuesta witnesses a team of men snatch Carmen from a car blocked on a Key Biscayne road. Cuesta's quest to rescue Catalina, whose relationship with her captors is unclear, takes him to Colombia. The fast-paced action is well matched by concise prose, making this a treat for Elmore Leonard devotees. (Mar.)
Antiques Knock-Off: A Trash 'n' Treasures Mystery
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Barbara Allan, Kensington, $22 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7582-3423-0 9780758234230
Brandy Borne, seven months pregnant as a surrogate mom, dutifully monitors her own bipolar mother, Vivian, in Allan's quirky fifth Trash 'n' Treasures mystery set in the Midwestern Mississippi River town of Serenity (after 2010's Antiques Bizarre). Despite these obligations, Brandy manages to maintain an innocent romance with Tony Cassato, the Serenity police chief, as well as do a little antiquing and crime solving. When unlikable Connie Grimes, who once worked for Brandy's biological U.S. senator father, turns up dead with a knife in her chest, dotty Vivian confesses to the murder and goes to the slammer, where she meets a jailmate and potential witness to the real killer. And that's just one of the highlights. Throw in a touch of Mafia menace, a New Age hypnotist with a herd of cats, a very tasty recipe, and some smart tips on antique collecting, and you've got yourself a sure-fire winner. (Mar.)
Blowback: The Fifth of the Enzo Files
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Peter May, Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 978-1-59058-841-3; $14.95 trade paper ISBN 978-1-59058-843-7
Culinary heights, human depths, and a surprise romance await Enzo Macleod in the remote reaches of central France in May's fifth mystery to feature the Scottish forensics expert (after 2010's Freeze Frame). Scant evidence and apparent lack of motive stymied the initial investigation into the murder of celebrity chef Mark Fraysse seven years earlier, but Macleod soon discovers less than savory secrets, from the late chef's in-house adultery and gambling addiction to his troubled relationship with older brother Guy, the current patron of Chez Fraysse along with Fraysse's widow. The familial dysfunction resonates strongly with Macleod for reasons he's long repressed, prompting him to take a painful look at his own life—including his estrangement from the mother of the infant son he has yet to see. While the action sequences can come across as forced in this introspective entry, it offers subtle, complex pleasures to the discerning palate. (Mar.)
Where Shadows Dance: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery
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C.S. Harris, NAL/Obsidian, $24.95 (384p) ISBN 978-0-451-23223-6 9780451232236
An overly convoluted plot mars this otherwise solid historical set in 1812, Harris's sixth featuring aristocratic London detective Sebastian St. Cyr (after 2009's What Remains of Heaven). When surgeon Paul Gibson finds a cadaver that he bought for anatomical study with a stab wound at the base of the skull, Gibson brings the matter to St. Cyr's attention. The corpse is identified as that of Alexander Ross, who worked for the Foreign Office. Several other murders follow, at least some of which may be linked with the political turmoil roiling the Continent in the wake of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. Meanwhile, Hero Jarvis, the independent daughter of St. Cyr's archenemy, accepts his marriage proposal, but this dramatic personal development compensates only in part for the failure of the disparate narrative threads to come together neatly enough. Series fans will hope the intriguing lead character will return to form in the next installment. (Mar.)
Murder in Passy
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Cara Black, Soho Crime, $25 (288p) ISBN 978-1-56947-882-0 9781569478820
Full of French political intrigue, Black's atmospheric 11th Aimée Leduc investigation (after 2010's Murder in the Palais Royal) finds the Paris PI's world turned upside down with the arrest of her godfather and longtime mentor, Commissaire Morbier, for murder. Worse yet, the victim—Morbier's inamorata, Xavierre d'Eslay—was with Aimée minutes before her death by strangulation. To clear Morbier, Aimée must dig deep as his fellow officers close rank and refuse to cooperate. Helping Aimée are her detective agency partner, René; her cousin, Sebastian; and her former policeman lover, Melac, who may or may not have an agenda of his own during the investigation. Though Xavierre lived a life of privilege in the posh suburb of Passy, Aimée discovers her past is shrouded in secrecy, linked to Basque separatists and terrorist acts. While the characters and their motivations can sometimes be hard to follow, the plot builds to a satisfying conclusion. (Mar.)
A Shortcut to Paradise
Teresa Solana, trans. from the Catalan by Peter Bush, Bitter Lemon, $14.95 trade paper (310p) ISBN 978-1-904738-55-8 9781904738558
The murder of popular novelist Marina Dolç on the very evening she receives the coveted Golden Apple Fiction Prize in Barcelona sets the stage for Solana's outstanding second mystery featuring unlicensed (and untrained) nonidentical twin detectives, Borja Masdéu and Eduard Martínez (after 2008's A Not So Perfect Crime). The arrest of Dolç's bitter rival, Amadeu Cabestany, quickly follows. Cabestany's literary agent hires Masdéu and Martínez to either prove Cabestany innocent or find the real killer. Solana brilliantly skewers the authors, agents, and critics who compose most of the suspects as well as the literary prizes they fight over. The odd but innocent Cabestany finds unexpected notoriety in prison while the detectives try various ploys, including a gathering of suspects à la Agatha Christie. A delightfully droll double-barreled denouement provides a perfect ending to this romp, which should earn its author consideration for the kind of award she so cleverly lampoons. (Mar.)
Miss Julia Rocks the Cradle
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Ann B. Ross, Viking, $25.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-670-02255-7 9780670022557
At the start of Ross's slow-moving 12th Miss Julia mystery set in Abbotsville, N.C. (after 2010's Miss Julia Renews Her Vows), Miss Julia's stepson, Lloyd, a student in Miss Petty's social studies class, breathlessly tells Julia, "They found a body in Miss Petty's outhouse" (actually, the teacher's toolshed). Embezzler and ex-con Richard Stroud appears to have died of natural causes while spying on his former business partner, Thurlow Jones. Miss Julia never recovered the money Richard once stole from her, and Richard had again been forging checks on her account. In one exciting development in an otherwise placid plot, Hazel Marie Pickens gives birth to twins during a blizzard attended by, among others, Miss Julia, home health care professional Etta Mae Wiggins, and Lloyd, whose dad was Miss Julia's late two-timing husband, Wesley Lloyd Springer. The sweet down-home humor only partly redeems a thin and far-fetched mystery. 5-city author tour. (Apr.)
So Close the Hand of Death
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J.T. Ellison, Mira, $7.99 mass market (416p) ISBN 978-0-7783-2943-5 9780778329435
Those who like plots about a desperate effort to catch multiple serial killers before they can add to their body count will welcome Ellison's sixth Taylor Jackson thriller (after The Immortals). A Nashville homicide lieutenant, Jackson has no time to breathe between psychopaths. Having foiled the savage killer known as Snow White, she must now contend with Snow White's protégé, the Pretender, who's arranged for several murderers to commit crimes around the country patterned on those of the Boston Strangler, Son of Sam, and the Zodiac Killer. As so often happens in such books, Jackson and her team get a handle on the Pretender's likely true identity early on, then try to figure out what mask he's been hiding behind to escape detection. Ellison offers few genuine surprises and little depth, but airport readers seeking to kill a few hours could do worse. (Mar.)
The Breath of God
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Jeffrey Small, West Hills (PGW, dist.), $15.95 trade paper (418p) ISBN 978-1-933512-86-0 9781933512860
In his first novel, Small (God as the Ground of Being: Tillich and Buddhism in Dialogue) puts an interesting spin on the age-old secret that could undermine Christianity theme, but he relies too much on stock characters and plot devices familiar from countless Dan Brown clones. Grant Matthews, a religious studies grad student at Atlanta's Emory University "interested in the early development of Christianity during the first century"—in particular, "how contact with other cultures might have influenced this development"—hopes to find answers in Bhutan. In the Himalayas, he looks into the legend of Issa, a boy who made a spiritual journey through India some 2,000 years ago, and meets an attractive American woman who's part Asian. After discovering ancient texts chronicling Issa's travels, Matthews becomes the target of right-wing fundamentalists. Back in the U.S., a fanatical assassin with skin problems destroys the only photographic evidence of his find. The usual abductions, murders, and betrayals follow. (Mar.)
In Which Brief Stories Are Told: Stories
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Phillip Sterling, Wayne State Univ., $18.95 trade paper (152p) ISBN 978-0-8143-3507-9 9780814335079
Sterling (Mutual Shores) gives a light touch to these tales of unremarkable people confronted by grotesque moments in the everyday. "One Version of the Story" pursues a sleazy car salesman knocked for a loop by a customer who walks in one day with a story of a hit-and-run accident he believes he was involved in while driving blind drunk. Similarly, in "What We Don't Know," a female gas station attendant contends with a sobbing male customer in the middle of the night, evoking memories of a romantic breakup, an abortion, and the car accident that has left her disfigured. Sterling sets up these curious yarns as if to delight in the reader's growing horror: a husband reluctantly attends a party given by his wife's boss in "Impaired" and is forced to listen to the boss's cavalier anecdote about hitting someone while driving drunk. Sterling proves to be adept at mining smalltown angst in these enigmatic and quirky stories, though they too often come to abrupt conclusions that tend to leave the reader just short of content. (Mar.)
