Bryant impresses in her suspenseful debut about a bloody land rights battle in Sedona, Ariz. Disgraced reporter Del Cooper has returned home after being fired from a Boston newspaper for mishandling a murder case. Hoping to settle down and sidetrack her journalistic ambitions, Del sets out to become a local tour guide, but her plan takes a turn when she discovers a corpse during a job interview. The body belongs to Franklin Johnson, a homeless man who’s been shot and left on the side of a rocky canyon. Del soon learns that Johnson was a vocal opponent of a proposed land exchange in which the wealthy Lee family would give 100 acres for public use in exchange for a new golf resort on Forest Service property. Suspecting a link between the proposal and Johnson’s murder, Del probes the Lee family’s long history of shady dealings. When her sources start disappearing, she doubles down, and begins to wonder if old enemies from Boston have somehow tracked her down. Bryant constructs an appealing, well-rounded lead in Del, and makes expert use of her Southwest setting. Tony Hillerman fans, take note. Agent: Dawn Dowdle, Blue Ridge Literary. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Freeman’s superbly plotted seventh Victorian cozy (after A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder) finds Frances Hazelton and her husband, George, tracking down a killer in the City of Light. The action kicks off when George’s aunt Julia requests that he and Frances come to Paris from England to investigate the suspicious death of her former lover and fellow artist, Paul Ducasse. After they arrive during the 1900 Paris World’s Fair, Frances learns that George has kept several secrets for his aunt, including the existence of Julia and Paul’s illegitimate daughter, Lissette. When Julia dies in an apparent accident at the fair, George inherits her estate. Overwhelmed, he and Frances head to Julia’s farm outside the city, where they meet Lissette and launch an investigation into Paul’s death. As the couple digs, they uncover tensions between Julia and Paul and two artists they shared a studio with in Montmartre. Paul’s icy wife, Gabrielle, also comes under suspicion. Freeman keeps the pace brisk and the suspects plentiful, giving even seasoned armchair sleuths a run for their money. Historical mystery fans are in for a treat. Agent: Melissa Edwards, Stonesong. (July)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this overambitious saga, Edgar winner Wishnia (The Glass Factory) intertwines a retelling of the biblical book of Ruth with a hardboiled contemporary P.I. story. The scriptural sections find the recently widowed Ruth—the first recorded convert to Judaism—returning from exile in Moab with her mother-in-law, Naomi, to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Meanwhile, in the 21st century, New York City detective Felicity Ortega Pérez is hired by military contractor Cadmium Solutions to find their employee Kristel Santos, who disappeared after a bloody incident in Iraq and may be in possession of stolen artifacts. Wishnia starts strong, drawing shrewd links between the sexism Ruth and Felicity face in their respective eras, but his plotting grows unwieldy by the novel’s second half. As Ruth and her fellow exiles face challenges, the action grinds to a halt and Wishnia’s dull religious theorizing takes over; as Felicity uncovers clues that Kristel may be more hero than villain, detours into familial and romantic troubles detract from her investigation. By the time both heroines arrive at their final acts, a series of heavy-handed plot twists have extinguished the good will Wishnia began with. The author’s reach exceeds his grasp. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

A pair of potential murders give way to two baffling real ones in Mead’s ingenious third whodunit featuring retired magician Joseph Spector (after The Murder Wheel). In 1938 England, Lady Elspeth Drury summons Spector to help prevent her husband’s murder. Sir Giles Drury has been receiving threatening letters that Lady Elspeth believes are the work of Victor Silvius, who was confined to a sanitorium nine years earlier after he tried to stab Sir Giles. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard inspector George Flint has been approached by Silvius’s sister, Caroline, who fears the exact opposite—that Sir Giles is conspiring to have her brother killed. Spector’s and Flint’s inquiries inevitably intersect, and after the two travel together to the Drurys’ country estate, they end up investigating two seemingly impossible murders connected to the family. In one, they discover a frozen body in the middle of a pond with no evidence suggesting how it got there; in another, the victim is gunned down in broad daylight by an apparently invisible killer. As in previous Spector cases, Mead hides all the clues in plain sight, constructing a fair-play puzzle that will delight and challenge readers who love pitting their own wits against the author’s. It’s another crackerjack entry in an exceptional series. Agent: Lorella Belli, Lorella Belli

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

The violence and greed of Restoration-era England animate Lloyd’s riveting third Hunt & Hooke historical mystery (after The Poison Machine). When a prestigious crowd including King Charles II assembles to observe the dissection of a young woman’s body at the Royal Society of London, Harry Hunt, the society’s former observator, halts the proceedings. Though the cadaver has been presented as a recent suicide from Bethlehem Hospital (a psychiatric facility better-known as “Bedlam”), Hunt claims it’s actually the corpse of his neighbor, Diana Cantley. He joins forces with justice of the peace Sir John Reresby to determine why the two bodies were switched. As they collect information about each woman, a third disappears: 14-year-old Lady Elizabeth Percy, the richest heiress in England. When someone dumps one of the corpses in Hunt’s home, he comes under suspicion, and goes into hiding until he can clear his name. Meanwhile, tensions simmer as one of Charles II’s illegitimate sons vies to become heir to the British throne. Lloyd expertly weaves political and social history—including harrowing passages about the conditions at Bedlam—into a jaw-dropping mystery that grips from the first page and doesn’t let go. This continues the author’s winning streak. Agent: Gaia Banks, Sheil Land Assoc. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Pulitzer-winning reporter Ricks (Waging a Good War) delivers a crackling procedural about a grieving FBI agent who sets out to solve a murder in Maine. Though Ryan Tapia is still recovering from his wife’s and children’s deaths in an auto accident, he’s assigned to investigate the killing of Ricky Cutts, a lobsterman whose body has washed up on the shores of Liberty Island near Acadia National Park. Renting a cottage on the outskirts of Bangor, Tapia attempts to piece together Ricky’s fate. Over breakfast at a diner, a group of locals explain that Ricky was widely disliked—even by his own teenage daughters—and school Tapia on the ins and outs of the fisherman’s code. Then Tapia learns that Ricky’s boat was found in waters controlled by a Native American tribe, and realizes that he’ll have to dig into the fraught relations between white Mainers and their Indigenous neighbors to get the answers he seeks. The sturdy whodunit plot is enriched by the author’s firm grasp of his setting and a colorful cast of New Englanders who never veer into caricature. A sequel would be welcome. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bad on Paper podcaster Muenter’s wildly entertaining first novel sounds the murky depths of social media fame. From the moment Evie Davis was born, she’s been prominently featured on her family’s YouTube channel. With her zealous mother, Erin, guiding her career, Evie, who’s now a teenager, has amassed more than four million followers and enough money for the family to move into a McMansion in Phoenix, Ariz. Things have turned out much differently for her older sister, Hazel, who rejected their mother’s pursuit of internet stardom. Recently fired from her job as a digital editor at a newspaper and facing a mountain of student loan debt, Hazel lives alone in a Las Vegas studio apartment. When Evie suddenly stops posting on her social media accounts and disappears, Hazel returns to Phoenix to aid the police in tracking her down. The more Hazel learns, however, the less sure she is that Evie wants to be found. Muenter augments Hazel’s dryly humorous first-person narration with transcripts of podcast interviews and forum posts that speculate about what happened to Evie. Packed with trenchant critiques of internet celebrity and topped off by a satisfyingly nasty finale, this leaves readers wanting more from Muenter. Agent: Dana Murphy, Trellis Literary Management. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Berenson’s bewitching third Senior Sleuths mystery (after Peg and Rose Stir Up Trouble) finds septuagenarian sisters-in-law Peg Turnbull and Rose Donovan heading from Connecticut to Kentucky to check in on Peg’s mare, Lucky Luna. Luna’s latest colt is slated for auction at the local yearling sale, which Peg has roped Rose into attending. It’s a straightforward-enough proposition until Peg and Rose arrive at Six Oaks Farm, where Luna is being stabled, and encounter angry yearling manager Jim Grable. Though they sense tension on the premises, Peg and Rose turn a blind eye until Rose reads, in a news bulletin, that Jim has been found dead on the farm. The police pin his murder on Six Oaks employee Lucia Alvarez, but Rose doubts Lucia’s guilt, so she enlists Peg to help her clear the young woman’s name. Together, they unearth deep-seated corruption on the farm. Though Berenson has moved the setting from dog shows to horse stables, series fans will get exactly what they came for: lively banter, a breezy mystery, and plenty of amusing animal antics. This is good fun. Agent: Meg Ruley, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

A heinous crime tests a freshly minted deputy sheriff’s allegiances in Wise’s stylish debut. When Will Seems’s mother died 13 years ago, he fled rural Euphoria County, Va., for the “holy city” of Richmond. Now, he’s returned to take a job with Euphoria County’s police department, and he finds that his old neighborhood remains mired in poverty and crime. Soon after Will dons his badge, his childhood friend, Tom Janders, is murdered in an arson. Zeke Hathom, father of another of Will’s boyhood friends, is spotted running from the burning building, and authorities swiftly place him in custody. Substantial evidence implicates Zeke in Tom’s death, and Will’s boss wants to send Zeke to prison. Will, however, owes a deep adolescent debt to Zeke’s son and sets out to prove the older man’s innocence. When Zeke’s friends and family hire PI Bennico Watts to help exonerate him, she and Will enter into an uneasy alliance and plunge together into Euphoria County’s underworld. Wise propels the plot forward with flashbacks to the violence of Will’s past and the shame that motivates his return. Bold characters and splendid prose further enhance the proceedings. Wise knocks it out of the park his first time up to bat. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Edgar winner Cranor (Ozark Dogs) delivers another top-notch Southern noir, this time centered on two families who cross paths at an Arkansas chicken processing plant. Luke Jackson hopes his successful efforts to increase productivity at Demter Foods’ largest poultry facility will land him a promotion. His ambition comes at the expense of his overworked employees, who aren’t allowed overtime pay or bathroom breaks. After Gabriela Menchaca becomes so dehydrated it causes her to miscarry, her partner, Edwin Saucedo, organizes a strike and files complaints with the company against Luke. When Luke fires Edwin in retaliation, putting his and Gabriela’s already fragile finances in further jeopardy, Edwin devises a desperate plan to win his job back and pay his rent. Before long, that scheme—which targets Luke’s wife and young son—leads to devastating violence. Cranor depicts the inhumane conditions of America’s industrial food system with a vividness worthy of Upton Sinclair, and he matches the novel’s gritty realism with an anguishing and suspenseful revenge plot. Cranor continues to impress. Agent: David Hale Smith, InkWell Management. (July)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink