Goldberg (the Gangsterland quartet) presents a winning anthology of 11 Hanukkah-themed crime stories. Stefanie Leder is perhaps the brightest candle in this menorah: her entry, “Not a Dinner Party Person,” centers on pharmaceutical sales rep Rachel, a proud sociopath whose fraught relationship with her family (“My mother? In an ideal world, the next time I see her would be at her funeral”) leads to an eventful final night of Hanukkah. David L. Ulin is a close second; in his defiantly dark “Shamash,” a New York City man who’s grown weary of caring for his ailing 90-year-old father uses the family menorah to carry out some drastic action. Gabino Iglesias’s “Lighting the Remora,” a tongue-in-cheek caper carried out by small-time crooks who converse in punchy, Pulp Fiction–style banter, also impresses. With their dark hearts and memorable antiheroes, these stories make an entertaining complement to Soho Crime’s Christmas anthology, The Usual Santas. Agent: Jamie Dunham, Dunham Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

South Korea is rotten to the core in this disturbing short story collection from Shirley Jackson Award winner Pyun (The Law of Lines). Each of the eight tales teems with images of decay and neglect, including maggots feasting on a bloated corpse and emaciated, constantly barking canines. It’s a dog-eat-dog world for Pyun’s human characters, too, including the protagonist of “Night Work,” who ekes out a living by day as the watchman for the ancient tombs beneath his village, then spends nights shoring up his family home against an onslaught of insects, rodents, and feral cats. Other motifs include headaches and highways. Both appear in the opener, “The Trip,” which finds an ill-matched couple setting off for a weekend getaway that turns into a marathon trek through unrelenting fog: “If not for the taillights of the car ahead, she would have believed they were driving through hell.” While Pyun delivers some delightful turns of phrase and absurdist humor (as in “Parade,” in which six stampeding elephants escape from a third-rate amusement park), the unrelenting grimness of these stories grows wearying fast. Even strong-stomached readers may be exhausted by this queasy house of horrors. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

Rosen’s immersive third mystery featuring gay San Francisco ex-cop Andy Mills (after The Bell in the Fog) captures the joys and fears of being queer in 1950s America. When bookshop owners Howard Salzberger and DeeDee Lamb disappear, Andy worries not only for their safety but also that the subscriber list for their mail-order gay book service could fall into the wrong hands. To help prevent that, Andy forms an alliance with gossip reporter Rose Rainmeyer, hoping to gain access to some of Rose’s leads and ensure she doesn’t out him. Meanwhile, Andy’s protective urges cause conflict with his partner, Gene, who manages a local gay club. Rosen buttresses his solid suspense plot with a rendering of midcentury San Francisco that feels realistic in its depiction of the dangers facing the city’s gay residents but refreshingly optimistic about their ability to lead fulfilled lives. Readers interested in queer history will be especially delighted. Agent: Joy Tutela, David Black Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

Emerson’s riveting second paranormal thriller featuring Rita Todacheene (after Shutter) finds the Navajo forensic photographer laying low following the traumatic events of the previous novel. Long viewed with suspicion because of her ability to see ghosts, Rita has become a pariah among her law enforcement colleagues after exposing corruption in the department. Her medical leave ends early when she’s called to a gruesome crime scene where teenager Jude Montaño—the eldest son of a retired Albuquerque detective—appears to have killed his entire family. At the scene, the ghosts of Jude’s young siblings appear to Rita. One of them leads her to evidence suggesting that their father was sexually abusing them, and that Jude is innocent. Unable to toe the thin blue line of silence, Rita resigns and returns to her family on the reservation near Gallup, N.Mex. Her peace is short-lived, however, as the ghosts of indigent Native people who died at the hands of a clergy-affiliated serial killer begin to haunt her, and she’s forced to launch an under-the-radar investigation that she suspects could connect to the Montaño case. Visceral prose (a young ghost’s breath “smelled of blood and gunpowder”) elevates Emerson’s impressive blend of crime fiction and supernatural horror. This series deserves a long life. Agent: Nancy Stauffer, Nancy Stauffer Assoc. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

Mathematician Gerhardssen’s intricately plotted if slightly undercooked latest Hammarby murder squad mystery (after Black Ice) finds Stockholm DCI Conny Sjøberg and his team investigating the killing of a man with a spotless reputation. After soccer coach Sven-Gunnar Erlendsson is shot in the neck, execution-style, while returning home from a poker club meeting, Sjøberg and his cohorts pursue a school of red herrings, before most of the investigators conclude that Erlendsson, who spent his free time handing out clothes and food to Stockholm’s homeless population, had no real enemies. That changes when math whiz Hedvig “Walleye” Wallin, an underestimated widow who regularly clashes with Sjøberg, starts to see through Erlendsson’s supposed sainthood while reviewing video evidence, then links him to the recent disappearance of two young girls. Gerhardssen gives each of her investigators room to shine, but her decision to reveal the killer two-thirds of the way through the novel doesn’t pay off, resulting in a somewhat flimsy finale. On a brighter note, the ending leaves plenty of intriguing loose ends for Gerhardssen to pick up in future installments. Series fans will enjoy themselves. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

Personal and professional mysteries collide in Jance’s gripping 26th outing for J.P. Beaumont (after Nothing to Lose). The private investigator’s life is upended when his grandson, Kyle Cartwright, shows up at his home in Bellingham, Wash., and asks to finish high school there. Kyle’s father, Jeremy—J.P.’s son-in-law—has been having an affair, throwing their family into turmoil. When J.P. runs a background check on Jeremy’s girlfriend, he discovers she’s been living under a false identity. Meanwhile, as a favor to a former colleague on the Seattle PD, J.P. takes on a pro bono cold case: two years earlier, Darius Jackson’s death was ruled an accidental fentanyl overdose, but his grandmother insisted he was drug-free at the time of his death—a claim possibly supported by an inconclusive autopsy. Soon after J.P. unearths evidence that Darius may have been murdered, he links the case with a string of other suspicious, supposedly fentanyl-related deaths, and starts to fear he has a serial killer on his hands. Jance’s balance of pathos and plot, and the effortless way she intertwines the novel’s central story lines, proves she’s as sharp as ever. Newcomers and longtime series fans alike will be thrilled. Agent: Alice Volpe, Northwest Literary. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

New York City book editor-turned-detective Agnes Nielson investigates the death of her new neighbor in Schultz’s witty sequel to Sleeping with Friends. After gaining notoriety when her first murder case was written up in New York magazine, Agnes has moved to a ritzy condo in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Shortly after unpacking, she meets her alluring, slightly intimidating neighbor, gallery owner Charlotte Bond, who invites Agnes to a party she’s throwing that promises to be packed with artsy singles. During the festivities, Charlotte falls from her balcony to the street 20 floors below. Authorities quickly rule her death an accident, but Agnes—despite having only a hazy recollection of the soirée—smells a rat. With assistance from her friend, Ethan, she plunges into Charlotte’s glamorous milieu, interrogating playwrights, painters, politicians, journalists, musicians, and fashion editors to piece together what happened at the party. Along the way, Schultz lands some delightful jabs at Brooklyn’s self-appointed tastemakers, while never taking her eye off the clever fair-play mystery at the center of the action. This series has legs. Agent: Chris Bucci, Aevitas Creative Management. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

Conklin (An End to Etcetera) delivers a riveting thriller about a guilt-stricken man who investigates the suspicious death of a young jazz musician. After causing a car accident that killed a woman and her child, Will Archer moved to the tiny town of East Orange, W.Va., to begin a new life. When the action kicks off, Will has just taken a job curating a museum dedicated to late saxophonist Jamaal Waxman, which was established by Jamaal’s mother, Sybil. Though his death more than 20 years earlier was ruled an overdose, Sybil maintains that Jamaal was murdered, and she wants Will to investigate. Meanwhile, Will strikes up a romance with Essence Warner, the daughter of a woman who died of an apparent suicide just before Jamaal’s death. Conklin shifts seamlessly between Will and Essence’s budding relationship, the murder investigation, and Will’s past, doling out cliff-hangers as Will and Essence uncover frightening truths about Jamaal’s death. With evocative prose (“New Bloomfield was the kind of small town even a dog might run away from if it had the chance”) and palpable empathy for his wounded characters, Conklin hits all the right notes. A sequel would be welcome. (Self-published)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

After the death of her novelist husband, Anna Williams-Bonner fights to protect his legacy—and her’s—in Korelitz’s powerhouse sequel to The Plot. Pushed by the agent she inherited from her late husband, Jacob Bonner, to write a book inspired by Jacob’s death, Anna publishes a weepy debut novel called The Afterword. It’s a hit, but at a book signing, she receives an anonymous note indicating someone knows about the dirty truths her manuscript is masking. Certain she’s being stalked, Anna turns the tables and begins to pursue her pursuers, working tirelessly to keep her past hidden as the death toll mounts. Korelitz makes hay with her satirical depiction of the publishing industry’s ego parade—untended slush piles play a pivotal role—and she brilliantly ushers the action toward a shocking conclusion. She also offers satisfying glimpses into what makes Anna tick, placing her alongside Tom Ripley in the pantheon of amoral antiheroes. It’s another taut and compulsively readable spellbinder from Korelitz. Agent: Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

Benedict stumbles with her disappointing third yuletide whodunit (after Murder on the Christmas Express). Octogenarian Edie O’Sullivan, known as the “Pension Puzzler” for her work making crosswords for British newspapers, has hated the holidays ever since her mother died giving birth to her younger brother on Christmas Day in 1946. Now, she receives an anonymous package on December 1 with a half-assembled jigsaw puzzle and a note threatening to kill four people by Christmas Eve unless Edie finishes it (“You are known for your crosswords, but can you set your sights on a murderer?”). She takes the evidence to her grand-nephew, Sean, a detective inspector Edie raised after the death of his parents. He warns Edie to stay out of the official inquiry, but after one of her neighbors is nearly bludgeoned to death and left with a jigsaw piece in his hand, she can’t help putting her puzzle-solving skills to the test. Benedict squanders the intriguing setup with an overreliance on boilerplate mystery beats. Readers seeking a sturdier execution of a similar concept should check out Nero Blanc’s Crossword Mystery series. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink