Rotstein’s stale latest (after The Out-of-Town Lawyer) dramatizes a wrongful termination lawsuit from more than 10 different perspectives. Through court transcripts and flashbacks, Rotstein spins a familiar tale of medical malpractice: after receiving FDA approval for Sophrosyne, a drug designed to end opiate addiction, pharmaceutical company MediMiracle is poised to dominate the market. Then researcher Ellison Ricard makes an alarming discovery during a trial study: Sophrosyne appears to increase the risk of stroke and fatal skin disorders among Black patients. After Ricard reports his findings and threatens to blow the whistle if they aren’t addressed, he’s fired by MediMiracle CEO Peyton Burke. Ricard files a civil suit against Burke and the company, throwing Sophrosyne’s future into question and putting the matter before an eight-person jury. Rotstein cycles through the well-rendered viewpoints of the jurors—an editor, a furniture magnate, a teacher, and a scientist among them—as well as those of the attorneys on both sides of the case, but the narrative structure does little to enhance the story’s themes, and it certainly doesn’t make the absurd denouement any easier to swallow. Even the author’s fans will struggle with this one. Agent: Jill Marr, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

A long-forgotten CIA mission comes back to sting former agent Teddy Fay, now disguised as a Hollywood star, in Battles’s disappointing latest entry in Woods’s series (after Obsession). While on a European tour to promote his latest film, Fay receives word that CIA agents, both current and retired, are being killed. All of the victims are connected to Operation Golden Hour, a decade-old mission focused on taking down the shadowy Trust organization, which funded terrorism worldwide. Current CIA director Lance Cabot warns Fay that he could be next, but Fay believes his mastery of disguise will keep him safe as he figures out who’s behind the killings. The narrative flits across Europe, from Venice to Budapest to Berlin, with Fay and his entourage repeatedly charming movie crowds, then dodging trouble. Along the way, readers learn little about Golden Hour or the Trust, and are subjected instead to stale showbiz satire and anemic action. The finale arrives suddenly and makes little impact. Series readers may appreciate the brief appearance of fan favorite Stone Barrington, but it’s not enough to save the day. This misses the mark. Agent: Anne Sibald, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

Three passengers face unnerving uncertainties on a train ride through Sweden in this lyrical if overwrought psychological thriller from Schulman (The Survivors). Reeling from an ugly divorce, Harriet grapples with her desirability as she travels to Malma with her elderly father. Aboard the same train, meticulous, controlling Oskar struggles to save his foundering marriage, while young Yana sets out to discover the truth about her missing mother after finding a mysterious photo album among her deceased father’s possessions. Through flashbacks, Schulman gradually reveals the points of connection between these characters, linking them in consistently surprising ways as the suspense mounts. Shrewd misdirection and sinewy prose (“She moves briskly through the narrow aisle, and he observes the gazes of those who catch sight of her for the first time. He always does that, even now he does it”) set the novel up for success, but Schulman’s ambition eventually outstrips his ability, and the plot devolves into a tangle of far-fetched misery. Though not without its virtues, this fails to stick the landing. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

Fledgling showrunner Eden Bennett faces challenges too real for reality TV in this breezy whodunit from Dahl (a pseudonym for Perfume and Pain author Anna Dorn). Eden is taking over the reins of the New Jersey–set megahit Garden State Goddesses as it enters its third season. To shake things up, she introduces an outsider to the show’s insular Sicilian American cast: her Californian cousin, Hope, who has married into Garden State’s central family, the Fontanas, after Eden introduced her to her now-husband. But Eden may have underestimated the passions that hippie-ish Hope would arouse in everyone from her sharp-tongued new sister-in-law, Carmela, to fan favorite Renee, a jewelry designer who’s recently been outed as bisexual and nurtures a crush on Hope. At first, the new conflicts make for great TV; then someone gets killed, forcing Eden to add “gumshoe” to her job description. Dahl, like her protagonist, proves to be an adept ringleader of this comedic circus, but readers will wish her players were slightly less stereotypical—for a novel so sympathetic to sapphic romance, for example, the lone gay male character is a surprisingly flat camp cartoon. Still, mystery fans with a taste for the absurd will have a frothy good time. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenberger Assoc. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

A 20-something man struggles with dissociative identity disorder in this preposterous standalone from Rosenberg (Embers on the Wind). In 1993, a hysterical Eddie Asher checks himself into the Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital, fearing that one of his alternate identities pushed his brother’s fiancée, Lucy Rivkin, to her death on subway tracks in N.Y.C. During his interview with Dr. Richard Montgomery, who specializes in dissociative identity disorder, Eddie loses the ability to speak and begins communicating only through writing. His alter, Pär, steps in to recount Eddie’s lifelong struggles to square his identity as a half-Swedish, half-Black man adopted by a Jewish family. Beginning in childhood, Eddie suffered frequent blackouts. Support from his brother, Robert, helped prevent them, but the blackouts begin again after Robert moves to Washington State. When Robert invites Eddie to meet Lucy, a mutual attraction develops. Then Eddie is introduced to Lucy’s father, a renowned artistic director who mistakes him for a well-known Chicago dancer. Rosenberg alternates between Eddie’s and Pär’s perspectives while Dr. Montgomery gradually gets to the root of Eddie’s disorder. Unfortunately, jumbled timelines and far-fetched reveals tank the proceedings. Melodramatic prose (“He is fearless. She is freedom. They are water”) doesn’t help matters. This misses the mark. Agent: Uwe Stender, Triada US. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

Nelson debuts with an anemic cozy centered on Georgia bookstore owner Madeline Brimley. After her acting career stalls because she’s “too old for the ingenue, too young for character parts,” Madeline returns to her hometown of Enigma, Ga., to run her late aunt Rose’s bookshop. The Old Juniper Bookstore, located in Rose’s mansion, provides Madeline with welcome direction until someone sets fire to the gazebo in the backyard. Not long afterward, an anonymous caller tells Madeline to “clear out” or risk being burned to death along with the rest of the mansion. Madeline ignores the threat, but the caller appears to make good, setting the Old Juniper ablaze; in the aftermath, Madeline uncovers the corpse of a friend who’s been stabbed to death inside the house. The police first suspect the killer was going after Madeline, but soon rumors spread that she herself might be to blame. Unfortunately, Nelson fails to make Madeline a convincing sleuth, and he wraps things up with a groan-worthy deus ex machina. It’s a letdown. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

Café owner Lila Macapagal attempts to clear her best friend and business partner’s name in Manansala’s diverting fifth cozy set in Shady Pines, Ill. (after Murder and Mamon). The town’s annual harvest festival takes a chilling turn when Yvonne Reyes, wife of the mayor of nearby Shelbyville, winds up dead in the corn maze. Suspect number one is Lila’s bestie, Adeena Awan, who wakes up next to Yvonne’s corpse with a bloody knife and a case of amnesia. Lila, convinced of Adeena’s innocence, investigates alongside her boyfriend, hunky dentist Dr. Jae Park, and Jae’s older brother, a former cop. The trio’s chief suspects include the mayor’s jealous assistant, a crooked state politician, and even the mayor herself. While the mystery plot is a bit paint-by-numbers, Manansala brightens the proceedings with mouthwatering Filipino recipes and winsome check-ins with Lila’s extended network of aunts, grandmothers, and female mentors. It’s a good bet for fireside reading on a fall night. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

Artist Hazel Matthews and wealthy heir Nathaniel Foxton “Fox” Cabot, the married protagonists of Mackay’s wildly entertaining latest (after The Nursery), have spent the last few years traveling across Europe, murdering men who prey on women. Their exploits have earned them the Interpol nickname “the Backpacking Butcher.” When Hazel becomes pregnant, Fox decides it’s time to settle down, and the couple decamps to the London suburbs to raise their daughter. Fox takes a job in an office; Hazel sees her artistic inspiration buried beneath a mountain of diapers and playdates. Restless, she kills a man on her own—one who she believes deserved to die. Soon, however, Hazel learns that one of the mothers from her toddler’s playgroup is a cop who’s been investigating the case of the Backpacking Butcher, and that this latest kill has put her on Hazel’s trail. Mackay brilliantly exaggerates the stifling aspects of parenthood through the eyes of her charismatic killers, wringing both laughs and pathos from her deliciously outlandish premise. This is sensational. Agent: Alice Luytens, Curtis Brown U.K. (Jan.)

Correction: A previous version of this review incorrectly identified the cop who is investigating the case of the Backpacking Butcher.

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

MasterChef semifinalist Murrin puts his culinary expertise to good use in this charming debut mystery featuring London chef Paul Delamere. After culinary celebrity Christian Wagner breaks his arm, he asks Delamere to substitute for him at a posh Westminster cooking school. Delamere agrees, happy both for the extra cash and for the distraction from mourning the recent death of his partner. Delamere’s eight students, each of whom will board at the school for the duration of the weeklong course, include an aristocrat, her daughter, a pharmacist, and a last-minute sign-up who knows the school’s administrator. At first, Delamere’s charges are disappointed that the hunky Wagner won’t be teaching them, but gradually, he wins them over. His good fortune runs out, though, when he finds a corpse in the kitchen, its head nearly severed by a meat cleaver Delamere had used to chop up pigeon carcasses earlier the same day. Delamere becomes the obvious suspect, forcing him to ferret out which of his students is the real killer before he winds up in prison. Murrin delivers a brisk, funny variation on the classic closed-circle formula. A sequel would be welcome. Agent: Oli Munson, A.M. Heath Literary. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

Wisconsin cryptozoologist Morgan Carter returns in Ryan’s delightful third Monster Hunter mystery (after Death in the Dark Woods). Rita Bosworth, an employee at Morgan’s Door County gift shop, comes to her one morning with a desperate request: Rita’s nephew, Andrew, is the prime suspect in the murder of a young man named Brandon Kluver, who was killed in Wisconsin’s north woods. The two men had a history of antagonism, and Andrew’s account—that Brandon was butchered by the Hodag, a legendary beast with a froglike face, tusks, and clawed feet—is ridiculed by the police. Rita begs a skeptical Morgan to look into it, and she agrees, recalling a recent, unrelated sighting of a creature that resembled the Hodag in the same region. As Morgan prepares to go trudging through the north woods in pursuit of the amphibious menace, she receives anonymous threats attempting to dissuade her from pressing any further, which only increase her sense of urgency. Ryan once again delivers the goods, serving up a cheeky, atmospheric investigation that goes down as smoothly as an episode of Scooby-Doo but with far more narrative intricacy. This series continues to impress. Agent: Adam Chromy, Movable Type Management. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink