Next from Mick Herron, THE SECRET HOURS, in September

I generally review books pretty close to the publication date -- so if the review intrigues you, you'll be able to get the book soon afterward. As a result, I won't post a full review of THE SECRET HOURS  until later this summer.

But not only are there exceptions to waiting for the right moment. There are reasons for exceptions to self-imposed rules like this one. 

Mick Herron's new book, THE SECRET HOURS, will be released in September. Layered, rich, flavored with political insight, wry humor, espionage of course, and above all, love and loyalty, it's being promoted as a stand-alone spy thriller.

However, this book unfolds many of the secrets that have been lurking in Herron's Slough House series. And it's going to resonate more deeply for you if you've already devoured and at least partly remember what happens to which characters in the series.

So this is your book alert: Buy Mick Herron's series now, or borrow it, or dust off your own copies and spend the summer refreshing your attention to the quirkiest, bravest, most ordinary, most-difficult-to-share-an-office-with spies of Herron's disastrous failure side of MI5. 

You will thus guarantee yourself an astonishingly good time in September.

Which in turn causes me to suggest: Get your spouse and/or best friend reading these, too. Then you'll have the ultimate pleasure of sharing a fantastic book with the person you most like. Couldn't get much better than that.

Oh yes, the books you are about to buy, borrow, or dust off (lucky you!) are:

1. Slow Horses (2010)
2. Deal Lions (2013)
3. Real Tigers (2016)
4. Spook Street (2017)
5. London Rules (2018)
6. Joe Country (2019)
7. Slough House (2021) 
8. Bad Actors (2022) 

And you can see a lot of them reviewed on this site by clicking here. 

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Victorian Mystery/Thriller from Tim Mason, THE NIGHTINGALE AFFAIR

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Because Mason places the killer and his excuses openly among his protagonists, and the threats to Field and his family are menacing and time-linked, The Nightingale Affair is at least as much of a thriller as it is a historical novel.”

 

Tim Mason’s earlier historical mystery, The Darwin Affair, brought Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field into investigating the attempted London murder of Queen Victoria. In a clever twist of expectations, The Nightingale Affair offers a sequel in which Charles Field no longer holds a position with the police, and has sunk to investigating cheating spouses to earn a living. Other aspects of his life seem well in order, though, with his foster son a newly approved mounted policeman, his foster daughter no longer a thief but a clean and cheerful young woman eager to study nursing, and his wife Jane managing the household happily.

 

Then, in a matter of hours, it’s all upside down, as Field discovers a murder with the unmistakable “calling card” of a killer he thought he’d finished off during his career, in a stint with Florence Nightingale’s British nurses during the Crimean War in the 1850s. At the same time, his son Tom loses his new job through making a morally right choice that counters his superior officer, his daughter Belinda comes under threat, and his wife is summoned once again to the support of now ailing and aging Miss Nightingale.

 

The book dances back and forth in time, with the heroic Miss Nightingale at the focus of each scenario, and Field himself endlessly struggling to catch up with the nobility and self-denial that the nursing leader models. Mason shifts points of view often, including indulging the killer himself with a podium that allows vicious revenge to justify all sorts of violence.

 

Mason’s background includes the stage, and there are abundant Shakespearean moments scattered through almost 400 pages of this lively Victorian thriller. Cameo appearances by Benjamin Disraeli and Wilkie Collins and the involvement of the most noted novelist of the time, Charles Dickens, add twists of interest and humor. But death itself is treated solemnly, a fitting counterpart to the woman Mason presents as a guardian of the lives of young men at war and postwar hospitals: a woman of “breathless speed” and irresistible commitment, Florence Nightingale herself:

 

“There were fully a dozen people, almost all female, rushing in and out of Nightingale’s tower headquarters when Charles Field first saw her. He knew it had to be Nightingale; she was the calm eye of a whirling storm, standing at her desk, answering questions and asking them, issuing orders, and occasionally making entries in a ledger as she stood. Her voice was quiet but had a reedy strength that cut through the seeming chaos around her.”

 

Because Mason places the killer and his excuses openly among his protagonists, and the threats to Field and his family are menacing and time-linked, The Nightingale Affair is at least as much of a thriller (think: ticking clock) as it is a historical novel. Yet the portrait of Nightingale both in her prime and as an aging yet still effective advocate is strong and memorable, giving the book its lively flavor that hints at all the shifts in women’s rights and health care about to unfold. Don’t expect an extraordinary police investigation here; read the book instead for the colorful storytelling around this classic “change agent” and her insistence on respect, honor, and care.

 

 

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Dr Ruth Galloway (Archaeologist) Mystery 15, THE LAST REMAINS by Elly Griffiths—Oh Yes!!

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“By positioning a vital threat to Cathbad, the most mysterious and loyal and honorable person in the series, Griffiths creates heart-wrenching power within what might otherwise be a relatively routine investigation for Ruth Galloway.”

 

The Golden Age of British crime fiction is marked with authors Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers,  John Dickson Carr, and Josephine Tey, among others. Today, American readers benefit from quick cross-Atlantic publication of British work, as well as masterful translation of Nordic, French, German, and Spanish work, and from authors in African and Asian nations.

 

The “special relationship” of America and Britain reinforces the power of top-notch British mysteries and espionage today. With the fifteenth title in the Dr. Ruth Galloway series from Elly Griffiths, the continued growth and deepening of both Griffiths and her characters enhance a thoroughly satisfying mystery: The Last Remains.

 

Ruth Galloway is an archaeologist who’s developed a forensic side-specialty, thanks in part to being the primary researcher in the field for her area of Britain, one rich with artifacts from the ever-fascinating Druids. Her efforts for the police have also grown in significance because of her personal relationship with the local investigator, DCI Nelson.

 

So when builders renovating a café find a skeleton hidden behind a wall of bricks, Dr. Ruth Galloway gets an immediate summons to the scene—and it only takes her a few minutes to declare it a crime scene and don her forensics hat, along with involving Nelson and his team.

 

At the core of this series, beyond Ruth’s complicated relationship with DCI Nelson, has been her friend and ally Cathbad, a modern Druid opening up ancient ways and bringing both tenderness and wisdom into the circle of friendship that includes Ruth and Nelson. Cathbad’s allegiance to both the pagan past and the children he and Ruth nurture parallels his dual nature of ferocity and caregiving.

 

The Last Remains amps up the tension when Cathbad becomes a person of interest in the teen’s death, then vanishes without warning. However, he has written a farewell and a will, a terrifying aspect that suggests the time to find and save him could be very short, or even nonexistent. His life partner Judy is a police officer but can’t investigate because she’s too close. Desperately she suggests, “Maybe he decided to go on a pilgrimage? The only things is …” her face crumbles, “why wouldn’t he tell me?” DCI Nelson hopes Cathbad, suffering the blurring effects of “Long Covid,” may have amnesia and will turn up. Ruth, however, has increasing reason to doubt such a happy result.

 

By positioning a vital threat to Cathbad, the most mysterious and loyal and honorable person in the series, Griffiths creates heart-wrenching power within what might otherwise be a relatively routine investigation for Ruth Galloway. There will be no putting down this compelling mystery until Cathbad’s disappearance can be solved. And in classic heroic manner, to get to that point will require Ruth to risk her own life, even as she struggles to define her future nd her daughter’s.

 

It's remarkable to realize that The Last Remains is the fifteenth book in this series, which began with The Crossing Places. Where Griffiths’ early books offered quirky and lightly twisted plots, this latest one suggests that, a century after the original Golden Age, British crime fiction exhibits a second surge of development underway.

 

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 
 

Brief Mention: Light-Hearted French-Countryside Cozy, DEATH AND CROISSANTS by Ian Moore

Did you seriously consider turning part of your home into an Air-type bed-and-breakfast right before the pandemic? Are you still longing to jump into the short-term rental market to make some cash on the side? Or (confess now) have you always pictured yourself baking marvelous muffins and serving them to international guests who leave glowing comments on your Yelp listing?

DEATH AND CROISSANTS by Ian Moore will save you a lot of trouble (and apron laundry). Set in France and written with a clever and light touch by British stand-up comedian Ian Moore, it offers all the complications of running a bed & breakfast, complete with complaints, crabby clients, fraud and failed payments, and most of all, apparent murder.

Richard Aisworth is still not sure what's going on with his marriage, since both his wife and his daughter have left him to manage the B&B, and both seem to cordially despise him and his passion for old films. At least his chickens (their fresh eggs are a feature of his inn) don't disappoint ... until  they begin to vanish, and one is clearly killed as a message.

His personal complications with his guest Valérie, well-intentioned though they may be, tangle quickly with the bloody handprints, mysterious messages, and multi-village chase scenes. So if you're ready for a fun and deliciously French addition to your summer TBR stack, fix yourself a pitcher of something fresh and cold, open up the hammock or lawn chair, and settle in with your copy. 

[This is Moore's American debut, but there are more titles in his series; cross your fingers that they will soon come "across the pond."]

PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

The Living, Lasting Legacy of Author Anne Perry (1938-2023)

(Author Anne Perry in 2012. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.)

Dave and I met one of the great mystery authors of our lifetime at a reader/writer conference, Bouchercon, when it was held in Albany, New York. We'd prepared for months —even years—for this, collecting the books written by Anne Perry. Others in line around us clutched to their chests one or two books to be signed; some, like us, had more. We toted ours in big canvas book bags.

I recall how awestruck I felt when I reached the front of the line and stood in front of this British author. There wasn't time for conversation: Maybe another hundred people waited behind us. Briskly, in our practiced rhythm, Dave and I opened each lovely hardcover book to the title page for this author's bold signature, then the next, and the next, as one of us put away signed copies and the other lifted more books to the table.

In minutes, it was over; I felt breathless, truly amazed that life could include such a moment.

Historical mystery author author Charles Fergus, however, made much different use of his time with Anne Perry. I love his story of that moment and its lasting legacy in his writing. Here you are (the original is published on his blog, https://charlesfergus.com/blog-posts):

Anne Perry's Advice to Me: Make True a Major Character

Anne Perry, who died recently at age 84, wrote dozens of popular mysteries set in Victorian-era England. According to her website, more than 26 million copies of her novels have been sold since the first one was published in 1979.

 

Perry wrote 32 William and Charlotte Pitt mysteries; they feature a police officer in late 19th-century London and his wife, an unconventional aristocrat. Perry also wrote a 24-book series about a detective named William Monk, who loses his memory after a carriage crash, and Hester Latterly, a former Crimean War nurse who ultimately becomes William’s wife and helps him adjust to his brain injury and solve crimes. 

 

I met Anne Perry in 2013 at a conference of the Historical Novel Society, which was held in an old hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida. I had completed a manuscript for the first Gideon Stoltz mystery, A Stranger Here Below, and was looking for a literary agent. I’d also signed up for a course on how to craft effective pitches – both a longish description of a novel, and a shorter one, sometimes called an “elevator pitch” from the notion that you can deliver this near-breathless summary during a brief elevator ride. 

 

Perry gave the keynote speech on the conference’s first evening. The next morning when I came down to breakfast, I saw her sitting there by herself. I asked if she wanted company, expecting her to say no, but she was delighted to share the meal and some conversation. 

 

She asked where I was from and what I was writing about. I said with a laugh that I’d just give her my brand-new elevator pitch: “In 1835 in the Pennsylvania backcountry, a young sheriff unearths disturbing links among a judge’s suicide, a trial and hanging 30 years ago, and a recent murder. To conduct his investigation, he must relive his own mother’s murder, a crime that remains unsolved.” 

 

I also mentioned that one reason I’d written a murder mystery was because I had lost my own mother to a murder, and I wanted to write a story that did not trivialize the horrific, life-swerving effects that a murder leaves in its wake. 

 

Years later, I would find out that Anne Perry had committed murder herself. In 1954, in Christchurch, New Zealand, at the age of 15, she and a pathologically close 16-year-old female friend killed the friend’s mother by bludgeoning her using a sock with half a brick in it. They somehow thought that killing the woman would prevent the friend’s parents from leaving New Zealand, which would have forced the two adolescent girls to separate.

 

Ms. Perry’s criminal past had been revealed in 1994 when Peter Jackson told her story in his film Heavenly Creatures, starring Kate Winslet as the confident, conniving teenager Juliet Hulme – who, after serving five years in prison, would be given a new name and ultimately would become the bestselling mystery author Anne Perry.

 

That morning in St. Petersburg, after hearing about my planned mystery series, Perry urged me to develop Gideon’s wife, True Burns Stoltz, into a major character. Perry said that in writing her novels, she felt that having both male and female main characters helped her examine situations, relationships, and crimes from two very different perspectives. She felt that readers liked that approach. And she said that writing from those differing viewpoints was fun. 

 

By then I’d begun working on my second mystery, Nighthawk’s Wing. In it, True hauls herself out of a deep and nearly suicidal depression brought on by the death of her and Gideon’s infant son. And in the third mystery, Lay This Body Down, True blossoms into a quirky, tough, determined heroine whose way of looking at the world differs from – and complements in an important way – that of her rational, thoughtful, sometimes almost plodding sheriff husband. 

 

Perry’s obituary in the New York Times noted that she never married; friends felt she ended romantic relationships because she didn’t know what to say about her past. It also quoted some things she’d said in a 2017 documentary film about her life: “In a sense it’s not a matter – at the end – of judging,” she said. “I did this much good and that much bad. Which is the greater?” 

 

She continued: “In the end, Who am I? Am I somebody that can be trusted? Am I someone that is compassionate, gentle, patient, strong?” She mentioned other traits, including bravery, honesty, and caring. “If you’re that kind of person,” she said, “if you’ve done something bad in the past, you’ve obviously changed.”

 

Anne Perry offered me encouragement and spot-on writing advice. I’m glad to think of my character True as one of the things she gave to the world.

 PS:  Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

Delightful Peter Diamond (British) Mystery from Peter Lovesey, SHOWSTOPPER

A good traditional British mystery is a great gift to a reader in this genre, and Peter Lovesey provides yet another in his December 2022 offering, SHOWSTOPPER. The premise is clear and clever: A popular TV show called Swift began six years earlier, after the awkwardness of its star actress dropping out before filming -- and a quick and workable replacement. But when multiple injuries make it into the media, the notion of a curse on this show heightens attention.

This coincides with the production moving to Bath, where Peter Diamond is Chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad. At least, he hopes he still has the job -- his peculiarly unpleasant boss Georgina is once again working on ejecting him, this time as a forced retirement on the excuse that he's lost his ability to solve cases. So there's only one obvious solution: Discover the all-too-human source of the "curse" and stop the cascade of crimes. Even though, of course, he's been told not to bother.

By evening, the seriousness of what he had done caught up to Diamond. Georgina was sure to hear about the van called out to Claverton Down, the scene of crime unit at work on the airfield and the tramp and his dog in the custody cell. She'd be livid. He'd ignored her instruction to drop all interest in the jinx story, go into virtual lockdown and get the team applying for refresher courses. If his future as a police officer had looked doubtful then, it was in free fall now.

Beset by self-doubt but determined to get his crew cracking the case, Diamond retains the skills that have brought him so far -- including when to listen to his instinct and do a solo grilling of one of the "riggers" for the TV set. "Fergus clenched his fists and the serpent tattoos wriggled. Baiting him was a dangerous game, but Diamond wasn't stopping now."

This is a must-read for any dedicated reader of this genre, because it's tightly plotted, neatly twisted from clue to clue, salted with humor, and, as the publisher crows, a "meticulous mystery." And all this from an 86-year-old author who's been named a Grandmaster in both America and Britain. The conclusion is clear: There's no excuse for shabby writing, when Peter Lovesey demonstrates time and again that a well-applied mind and creative spirit are well up to the task. 

You might as well order or purchase two copies; you'll want to share it, but you won't want to chance losing your own copy, right? Hat tip to this author who teaches us all that aging might only make you better at your work. (And for more of our Lovesey reviews, click here.)

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

New Espionage Fiction in the Top Tier, JUDAS 62 from Charles Cumming

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Cumming effectively ramps up suspense, in this hefty page-turner revelatory of modern espionage’s methods. “

 

If the arc of history is long and bends toward justice, what about the arc of espionage? Is there an inevitable personal price to pay for the lies and wounds of a past career deceiving others politically across the globe? For lifelong spy Lachlan Kite, now director of a secret counterintelligence unit in the United Kingdom, the dead enemies of the past seem to rise up and walk again, when he finds his name on a Russian kill list. But do the enemies who have put his long-ago alias onto the JUDAS 62 list know who he really is?

 

British author Charles Cumming is reliably accurate in assigning capacities for data gathering, manipulation, and plotting to his teams, whether Western or Russian; writing from his own brief experience in the UK’s MI6 and abundant research since then, he adds a fine sense of human frailty and predictable betrayal to his plots. In JUDAS 62, Lachlan Kite’s early attachments and struggles from his first foreign assignment demonstrate how close he, or any such operative, comes to failing. For Kite, this is due to his underestimation of the enemy and naive willingness to defy authority. Though his overall mission at the time may succeed, the death of a scientist linked to the one he brought out from Russian control signals that almost all may now be laid bare—and Kite may pay with his life.

 

Much of the action takes place in Russia, caught up in complications of mixed loyalties. Taking time to paint all the details, with an overall novel length of about 500 pages, Cumming leads Kite to create a potential trap for his enemy. First, of course, he has to come to terms with his new vulnerability:

 

“The Aranov operation had cost Kite a great deal, personally and professionally. Peter Galvin was an almost-forgotten name from his past. Now the legend was again in circulation. It had taken him twenty-seven years, but Mikhail Gromik was finally ready to come after him. … ‘I’m perfectly safe,’ Kite replied, though he did not believe this. The idea that he was vulnerable to Gromik and to the scum who had murdered Evgeny was abohorrent to him. ‘They’re not going to come knocking on my door.’ Mahsood looked as unconvinced by this as Kite might have expected. They both knew he was on shaky ground.”

 

When the plot to trap the hunters and remove the target from Kite’s back—and from the backs of his colleagues—develops, it requires delicate manipulation of viewpoints of the former rescued scientist, the Russians on the hunt, and Kite’s own colleagues. Most dangerously, the trap must be executed in Dubai. So many things can, and do, go wrong.

 

Cumming effectively ramps up suspense in this hefty page-turner revelatory of modern espionage’s methods. Every move must be successfully choreographed … or countered. Lock your door, set the phone on “silent,” and prioritize: Keep reading, and watch for the moment when a very sophisticated “honey trap” clicks into place, and Aranov thanks a thoughtful man in a restaurant who pumps his hand and says, “This is my girlfriend, Sally Tarshish, and our good friend, Natalia. Are you hear in Dubai for business or pleasure?”

 

This is the second in a series from Cumming; the first was BOX 88. No need to read it before JUDAS 62, but the two are firmly linked. Contemporary and tightly plotted, this new pair makes an excellent addition to the espionage fiction collection. 

 

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

 

A Guide to London from Christopher Fowler's Peculiar Crimes Unit—So Much Fun!

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Fowler reports that his literary agent said (with delight) ‘Oh, it’s a Bryant & May book, just without the murder plot!’”

 

After 18 books full of the London detection adventures of 80-year-old Arthur Bryant and his partner John May (not as elderly and far more modern), Christopher Fowler allows his eccentric pair to lay out their very unusual knowledge of London for readers ready for a distinctively different travel guide.

 

Most importantly, this volume does not attach to specific investigations of the Peculiar Crimes Unit—a “venerable specialist police team … founded during the Second World War to investigate cases that could cause national scandal or public unrest” (Fowler’s website). Instead, it’s a delightfully ridiculous and historically rich set of explorations of the aspects of London that might be missed by a conventional tour guide: specifics of many, many pubs. Reading the book takes far longer if you pause to look up, say, the Lamb & Flag public house in Covent Garden; the pub’s very real website even shows the narrow passageway at the entrance described by Arthur Bryant. The menu includes buffalo-milk ice cream. (It’s shocking that Bryant misses this detail on his tour, but then again, the point of a public house for the PCU members involves an alcoholic beverage and British traditional dishes, right?)

 

DCI John May interrupts on occasion to remind Arthur of details like how to record on a cassette tape and what a mobile cell phone is called (Arthur calls it a walkie-phone), and sometimes to lend an air of almost normality among the 475 pages. Others making cameo appearances include co-workers and of course Raymond Land, head of the PCU. Land’s introduction includes such snarky comments as “If you’re still planning to read this volume of rambling conversations with half-mad friends, good luck to you. I reckon it’s your last chance to dodge a bullet but what do I know, I’m only the Unit chief. You’re big enough to look after yourselves. Don’t come complaining to me.”

 

Fowler reports that his literary agent said (with delight) “Oh, it’s a Bryant & May book, just without the murder plot!” Contrariwise, consider it a murder mystery that’s expanded its setting details to a highly realistic 475 pages (yes, that’s the second time mentioning the book size; how long was the last travel guide you carried? not the one on your walkie-phone, please). And where else can you find a page of “Bryantisms” all put together as a resource?

 

By now it should be clear that this book will be quite confusing to those who haven’t read at least one PCU mystery in the past. But there’s nothing wrong with a good factual compilation of London guided tour detail, heavy on the history, and wryly confusing, is there?

 

After all, where else can you find Arthur Bryant explaining London’s (non-pub-related) strength: “For every Terence Rattigan, Elizabeth Bower or George Eliot, there’s always a disreputable, struggling rebel writer seeking like-minded individuals. … For a bookish chap like me, Great Britain is a paradise.”

 

Besides, who else but Arthur Bryant is going to list for you the notables cremated at the Golders Green Crematorium? Fear not, he claims he’s not about to vanish into retirement or leave his city: “London is like a greedy old landlady. She didn’t ask me to come, didn’t invite me to stay, and won’t miss me when I’ve left. And that suits me fine.”

 

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here. 

 

Terrific Welsh Thriller from Clare Mackintosh, THE LAST PARTY

British author Clare Mackintosh exceeds high thriller expectations in THE LAST PARTY, a pulse-pounding investigation of the harsh effects of class and abuse that whips up an emotional storm of strong women and conflicting loyalties.

When a New Year's eve swimming event involving "everyone" from a small Welsh town results in the death of a local real estate developer, Detective Constable Ffion Morgan of the North Wales Police leaps into the investigation. But the death, soon likely to be called murder, took place in a lake that straddles the border between Wales and England, which means she'll have to work the case with Detective Constable Leo Brady of Cheshire Constabulary. And that's a huge problem: not so much because of the rivalry and resentments of that border area, but because the two DC's have met before ... for no-strings sex, both under assumed names. That's the trouble with online dating, isn't it?

But there's worse to come, because Ffion Morgan's small town is so very small that she knows almost everyone involved in the swim event, and as she and her unwanted partner begin to select suspects, some of them include people she know well ... very well. Family, even, whether by blood or by choice.

Mackintosh spins an expert high-risk investigation, with spicy inserts of lively humor. As the DCs struggle to place new names on each other, they're still spilling the earlier false names, to the confusion of the pathologist:

"Who the hell is Marcus?" the pathologist says. "I was told there were only the two of you coming—it's a morgue, not a séance."

"Sorry," Leo says on behalf of both of them, although Ffion doesn't look remotely sorry. Her expression is amused—a little quizzical—as though waiting for Leo to expand.

As Izzy Weaver ushers them into the depths of the mortuary, Leo feels a sense of misgiving come over him. He hopes to hell this turns out to be an accidental drowning, because Ffion Morgan looks like trouble.

The dead man is easily recognized as Rhys Lloyd, who owns the high-end resort on the English side of the lake and has made a fortune already in his maneuvers to bring in posh property owners. When Ffion and Leo split up the witness interviews, Leo finds Clemmie Northcote, an anomaly in the owners crowd: She and her son share a one-bedroom apartment in London where she sleeps on the couch, and she's financed her resort property through a private mortgage. "Although the others don't know I didn't buy it outright, so I'd be grateful if you'd keep that to yourself."

Leo's sympathy leads to Clemmie spilling more about the victim: "He looked down on us," she admits. "Me and Caleb. Because I don't wear the right clothes or drink the right wine. I didn't fit with his vision of The Shore." Leo notes the bitterness under her calm explanation. He hasn't yet said publicly that the death is actually murder, but Clemmie is already making a guess:

"If it were, I think you'd have your hands full."

"Why's that?"

Clemmie looks at him, her expression unguarded and resigned. "Because I've been at The Shore for six months, and I've yet to meet a single person who liked him."

Ffion too is finding disturbing currents in her part of the investigation. But the darkest of them are her own, and when the hunt for the murderer turns out to threaten her sister and even her mother, Ffion takes actions that she won't be able to admit to Leo, no matter how much she finds herself liking him. Envy and lust and abuse have flourished here—prying open the crime will reveal things that Ffion may not be able to withstand.

At a chunky 400 pages, this British crime novel takes time to unpack class, loyalty, and the desperate choices that desperate people make. Packed with a perfect balance of twists and layered revelation, it's a powerful novel well worth adding to the winter reading stack—and keeping on hand for later re-reading. Mackintosh already has five best-sellers under her belt (including last year's air highjacking drama HOSTAGE); THE LAST PARTY certainly deserves to be number six.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

Brief Mention: THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB, Agatha Christie-Style Update from Robert Thorogood

It's time to build up the summer reading stack -- and if you savor a good traditional British mystery with neat clues and a somewhat eccentric sleuth, then the newest from Robert Thorogood should top that heap of books by the hammock. THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB offers 67-year-old widow Judith Potts, who likes to skinny dip in the Thames at night and who hears an outcry and gunshot that signal the death of her riverside neighbor.

Potts is a regular creator of crossword puzzles, so she's good at puzzling out a clue. (She's also fond of a shot of whisky for any reason that comes to mind.) To sort out what's actually taken place next door, though, in her town of Marlow (UK), she recruits a local dog walker who knows a little about everyone who owns a dog in town and a few who don't. When she adds a third to this team, the careful but also very knowledgeable wife of the local clergyman, there's no stopping their investigation. Fortunately, unlike the situation in "cozy" mysteries, none of them need to marry, date, or seduce a police officer to hear them and collaborate -- because DS Malik, the investigating officer, is also female and swamped with three murder cases, and she definitely needs all the help she can call in.

Thorogood has a tidy track record of previous mysteries and is credited with creating the BBC TV show "Death in Paradise" (now running on PBS). He has a gift for the gently absurd, a comfortable pace, and a nice armful of clues and red herrings. Most of all, in THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB, it's the dialogue that adds delight, as with this interchange between DS Malik and Judith Potts. Malik is trying (without success) to shoo Judith off the case, and she begins:

"We don't know Mr. Dunwoody was murdered."

"Are you saying the bullet hole appeared in his forehead as if by magic?"

"Well, no, but we can't rule out that his death was a terrible accident. Or what if he did this to himself?"

"You think he committed suicide?"

"It's a possibility."

"Poppycock!"

DS Malik blinked in surprise. Had the woman in front of her just used the word "poppycock"?

For light entertainment in an updated traditional British mystery, THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB is a great choice. Just released by Poisoned Pen Press in America, a year after its British debut.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

BAD ACTORS, Sardonic and Delightful Espionage from Mick Herron

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

 “Herron’s plot is packed with twists and delightfully sardonic conversations, and the book’s only major flaw is that at some point it ends, and one must resume normal life.”

It’s hard to miss the promotion on television and online for “Slow Horses,” as the earliest in Mick Herron’s Slough House spy novels jumps genre into an Apple TV+ show featuring Gary Oldman. But Bad Actors, eighth in the series, has no connection to performance, despite the title that might immediately pop a stage into the back of an American reader’s mind.

It turns out that the British term “bad actor” means a person who’s done things that are harmful, illegal, or immoral. Herron’s Slough House is a discard group for MI5 spies who’ve messed up and now get tedious assignments sorting through social media or phone books or worse. Every spy assigned there—dustbinned might be a good term to add—knows they’ve made a mess somewhere in their recent past, and they won’t be allowed back into the Park, the office of really performing agents, ever again.

Well, unless you count Ashley Khan. Quite young and still deluding herself that the infamous Diana Taverner will take her back into important operations, Ashley is also obsessed with the source of her demotion: Jackson Lamb, head of Slough House. On a recent assignment, Lamb caught her following one of his spies. They may be (they are) all failures, but still, they are his, and he doesn’t allow anyone to mess with them (much). So he’d broken Ashley’s arm and sent her back to Taverner, whose acid response was, “You broke her, you own her.” Back to Slough House she went.

Since Ashley is as paranoid as any other spy, and clueless as well, she’s baffled by the interactions around her in Slough House. While she obsesses on punishing Lamb, the team is actually in crisis mode. Cokehead Shirley Dander’s been send to a sanitarium to dry out; narcissist Roddy Ho is creating avatar girlfriends for himself as a distraction; River Cartwright, the most potentially sane of the Slough House discards, isn’t even around, presumed dead or permanently missing.

And like Ashley, most readers will rush a third of the way into the book, at least, before confirming that almost all the machinations taking place have Jackson Lamb behind them. One could certainly be excused for not looking at Lamb—between his predictably terrible farts, his smoking and spitting, and his disgustingly soiled clothing and office, he’s both camouflaged and repellent. But he’s also brilliant, and much sharper, it turns out, than Diana Taverner herself.

Thanks to adept storytelling, readers are aware before Lamb (or is that impossible?) that ex-spy Claude Whelan, a tool in use by Taverner, is muddying all possible waters with a notion of payback on Lamb, and he’s more effective than young Ashley:

Where did Whelan’s loyalties lie? Not with either side. Not with any bad actor, whether in the Service he’s led or the government he’d served. … It still rankled, his fall from grace, and why shouldn’t he take some matter of revenge? It wasn’t really him, he knew that. He was nobody’s idea of an avenging knight. But wasn’t it time for a change.

Soon dominoes are tumbling in various directions, only Lamb really knows their triggers, and as a savior of anyone or anything, Lamb’s even less likely than Claude Whelan. The fun (and poignant bonding) of Bad Actors lies in watching all the others, at Slough House and beyond, gradually realize that only Lamb’s irreverent demands and plans are likely to get them out of a mess that’s so absurd, so wracked with capers and collapses, then even Claude Whelan will say he can’t tear his eyes away.

Herron’s plot is packed with twists and delightfully sardonic conversations, and the book’s only major flaw is that at some point it ends, and one must resume normal life. But there may be a flavor of wicked humor remaining in what one does afterward—along with great satisfaction at what Lamb and the “Slow Horses” pull out of their grubby, out-of-fashion hats.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

New Lynley Investigation from Elizabeth George, SOMETHING TO HIDE

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Elizabeth George can really spin a great investigation when she’s not trying so hard to teach the shocking discoveries she has made in her own explorations.”

Elizabeth George’s mysteries featuring Scotland Yard investigators Barbara Havers and Thomas Lynley began with A Great Deliverance in 1988. Now her 21st book in the series, Something to Hide, probes life and death in the Nigerian community of North London, along with the custom of female genital mutilation (FGM).

For those new to George’s work, the 687-page book isn’t likely to carry them into loving the series, because the noted Scotland Yard investigators don’t come into the action until page 119. And for readers who treasure Lynsley and Havers, that’s also a problem—chapters cascading about people who are in emotional and physical pain, in the midst of a socioeconomic disaster.

George clearly has done massive amounts of research for this book. Unfortunately, that message keeps coming back, when instead it might have been far more effective to simplify the plot a bit, and let the research take a backstage role.

The meeting in which Lynsley comes onto the case sums up the positioning of his investigation, in a politically challenging time:

“In [Lynley’s] morning meeting with Assistant Commissioner Sir David Hiller and the head of the Press Office, Stephen Deacon, the political concerns of both men had been writ large enough and dark enough for a mole in sunlight to read them. … Teo Bontempi was not only a police detective, she was a Black police detective. The last thing the Metropolitan Police needed to have hurled at them was an accusation that not enough was being thrown into the investigation because the office in question was Black or female or both. Racism, sexism, misogyny … There could not be a whisper of any of this during the investigation and did the Acting Detective Chief Superintendent understand what was being said?”

Even after this, the book is plagued by too many points of view and not enough agency. Series readers, who’ll want to tackle this anyway, may do best to skip “Part I” in order to leap into the investigation. Newcomers to the Lynsley books should probably try an earlier title.

That said, if this weren’t a “genre” book – that is, a Scotland Yard investigation – it might stand as an imposing literary probe of Nigerian/North London culture. Perhaps that’s how it should instead be shelved. But then the author would need to take out the endless attempts at Black language, wouldn’t she?

There are better books to stack on the bedside table or take to a desert island. Which is a shame, because Elizabeth George can really spin a great investigation when she’s not trying so hard to teach the shocking discoveries she has made in her own explorations.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.

New and Needed! Peter Lovesey's Story Collection, READER, I BURIED THEM

Peter Lovesey's British police procedurals have stacked up enjoyably over the past 50 years, without growing stale. If you're already a fan, the new collection of his stories, READER, I BURIED THEM, AND OTHER STORIES is a must for the shelf.

But there are a lot of great mystery authors in the world, so if you aren't yet familiar with Lovesey's tales, don't blush -- just go pick up this volume. Because in addition to marking his continuing career, the collection offers a fine introduction to his wry sense of humor and adept story twists.

The flavors of the stories make up more than a wide menu. "Formidophobia" (defined as a fear of scarecrows) has the enjoyable feel of a G. K. Chesterton mystery; "Remaindered" manages to combine a gangland spoof with a used bookstore; and "Agony Column" (British term for a Dear Abby sort of pursuit) is funny enough to make anyone in the room with you get exasperated as you giggle or snort.

There are also some clever homages, like "The Deadliest Tale of All," which pictures Edgar Allan Poe suffering through a visit from a journalist, and "A Three Pie Problem" (come on, you know the title this spoofs on), bringing in Peter Diamond's Bath, England.

For the serious collector, this volume is also a must because it offers 17 pages of a "Peter Lovesey Checklist." The author foreword also offers revelations and delight.

The release date from Soho Press is February 1 -- do pre-order, to be sure of snagging a first edition for your shelf, and for much pleasure in both reading and re-reading. Also, if you were about to take a course in how to write short mysteries, just think of all the money you'll save by getting this 384-page volume.

PS: Looking for more mystery reviews, from cozy to very dark? Browse the Kingdom Books mysteries review blog here.