Short Story Collection from James R. Benn, THE REFUSAL CAMP

Crime and war. Unfortunately, they go well together. Especially in the hands of James R. Benn, whose 17 Billy Boyle mysteries place an Irish-American cop at various sites and trenches of World War II, investigating the dark side of moneyed warfare on behalf of his distant cousin General Dwight Eisenhower.

THE REFUSAL CAMP gives Benn the space to air tales of other wars, other time periods, and of course other motivated protagonists (although there is a gem of a Billy Boyle story tucked among these). The collection opens during the years when Connecticut settlers still enslaved Africans, and unfolds from the point of view of an enslaved teen. It swiftly becomes a crime story, one where the most disadvantaged person on the scene must summon both courage and insight, as well as a clever riposte, if he's to escape hanging.

There are eight more stories—one published in an earlier Soho Crime Collection, The Usual Santas. Billy Boyle fans will especially enjoy the Boston investigation "Irish Tommy," featuring police lieutenant Daniel Boyle, as well as "Billy Boyle: The Lost Prologue," a tale removed from the first Billy Boyle mystery before publication. The cleverest may well be "The Secret of Hemlock Hill," a haunted Civil War tale brought into the present. "The Refusal Camp" offers a concentration-camp possibility that reminds us that "victims" often found effective ways to hold their own.

Seasoned Benn/Boyle fans need this collection for their shelves featuring the youthful, loyal, and often rash wartime detective; those new to Benn's work may find the character-focused and neatly plotted and twisted stories so satisfying that they'll wish to dip into the full Boyle series.

Best of all, this nicely balanced collection can temper the rest of the Northern Hemisphere winter season, providing good reading for the last of the fireside evenings and lazy weekends before the yard, gardens, and outdoor sports reassert their siren calls.

Soho Crime/Soho Press will release the collection on March 14; this is a good time to place a pre-order to be sure to get a copy "hot off the press," as Billy Boyle would have said.

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

Engaging Mystery from J. D. Robb, ENCORE IN DEATH

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“It’s unusual to find a crime page-turner that’s this compelling while also probing affection and loyalty, without gore or grotesque maneuvers. Motive, means, opportunity—Encore in Death is classic crime fiction at its best.”

 

Setting the Eve Dallas crime thrillers ahead in time, with a few more technological advances, doesn’t really give this homicide detective any more of an edge than today’s savvy sleuths. After all, even if test results come more quickly and communication is fine-tuned, solving a crime still comes down to getting inside the minds and emotions of potential suspects.

 

So when theatrical stars Eliza Lane and her husband Brant Fitzhugh throw an A-lister gala for patrons of their work, just as Eliza’s new Broadway show is about to open in the year 2036, it turns out that Brant’s sudden death is from cyanide, that well-known almond-scented poison. And the roster of suspects is no different than today’s would be: friends true or false, family, lovers, and competitors for the spotlight and awards.

 

But really, who could want to hurt Brant? His wife, a much edgier and sharp-tongued person, can’t imagine any reason. “Brant didn’t like conflict, and found ways to avoid it,” Eliza sums him up. Generous as an actor, a friend, a spouse, and even philanthropist, his death comes from toasting his wife with a sip from her specially prepared champagne cocktail. So who was the intended victim—husband or wife?

 

J. D. Robb’s polished and well-paced writing, honed in more than 200 novels so far, keeps the narrative on the move. Its second line of action takes place between Eve and her own husband, the wealthy Irish entrepreneur Roarke—who, whether by contagion or interest, is starting to “think like a cop” and lending a hand to Eve and her investigation. Eve spots this even before Roarke’s willing to admit he’s caught up in puzzle and how to solve it, as she outlines the need to follow the money here, and says she’ll take a look. Roarke steps right into her trap:

 

“I could do that for you while you dig down on the cast and crew. You may find it’s not the person who didn’t get the part, but a friend—as you were looking at Sylvie—a relative, a lover. Someone who’d do the deed for someone else.”

 

Roarke’s ability to quickly deep-dive into financials adds power to the investigation; his deft and determined efforts to support Eve’s work and the couple’s gentle jockeying in support of each other add charm and passion (and some lovely teasing) to the story, too.

 

As Robb lays out the plot with her quick professional skills, she paints solid marriages just as effectively. It’s unusual to find a crime page-turner that’s this compelling while also probing affection and loyalty, without gore or grotesque maneuvers. Motive, means, opportunity—Encore in Death is classic crime fiction at its best.

 

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

Tis the Season for Classic Detection Stories, in A SURPRISE FOR CHRISTMAS AND OTHER CHRISTMAS MYSTERIES

Martin  Edwards has a marvelous mystery series of his own, featuring Rachel Savernake, set in the Golden Age. A perfect transformation has turned him into the editor of several collections of detective stories brought out by British Library Crime Classics (Poisoned Pen Press, a Sourcebooks imprint). 

A SURPRISE FOR CHRISTMAS, released last week, is the fourth anthology in this series of "classic crime stories with a wintry theme" -- or, as Edwards also calls them, "detective stories in the classic vein." Scanning the author names for the dozen tales gave me shivers: among them Ngaio Marsh, G.K. Chesterton, Carter Dickson, Ernest Dudley, and Margery Allingham. Some of their stories may be almost unknown, even to those who have read the full-length crime novels from this pantheon of writers. As a Chesterton fanatic, I know I'd read "The Hole in the Wall," but so long ago that I'd forgotten the critical twist until I was several pages in. Cyril Hare's "A Surprise for Christmas" is morbidly funny; "Give Me a Ring" from Anthony Gilbert, one of the longer stories in the collection, has a sweet air of old-fashioned threat, from the days before risk and danger had to be garbed in gore or psychosis.

Adding to the delight of this collection are short forwards to the stories, recapping each author's presence in the Golden Age and noted sleuths. But often the stories presented come from outside the commonly known work of these authors. For example, the one from Ngaio Marsh does not feature Roderick Alleyn — but for "Death on the Air," which was published just three years later than Alleyn's first exposure in print, Marsh presents a classic "closed-circle detective story of the period," says the story's introduction. 

The tales also vary enormously in length, adding to the feel of opening a range of holiday gifts. With, of course, the advantage of no torn paper or ribbons to clear away afterward.

There is perhaps one drawback to A SURPRISE FOR CHRISTMAS: Any passionate reader of the authors collected here will need to purchase two copies ... one to savor as the days grow shorter, and one to give to the very best of friends.

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

Billy Boyle World War II Mystery #15, THE RED HORSE, from James R. Benn

How long can a mystery series about six years of warfare last? How complicated can the plots become, when we all "know the ending" -- our side won?

The answer that James R. Benn makes me think of is, how many people have complicated stories of the war? (Hint: Many thousands.) Well then, that's how many mysteries there may be room for along the way.

THE RED HORSE takes two enthralling facets of the British side of the war -- the use of an asylum as a recovery center for people whose information and importance shouldn't be risked in ordinary medical care, and the espionage teams playing back and forth between the Allies and the Axis -- to spin a risky and highly suspenseful tale of detection that our investigator, Captain Billy Boyle, feels compelled to sort out. Not only is the conduct of the war at stake, but so are his friends. And in every James Benn mystery, those friendships forged in mutual risk are the vital threads of the action.

In the preceding Billy Boyle mystery, Boyle raced around occupied Paris confronting crime and trying to liberate his beloved Diana. Reaching the end of When Hell Struck Twelve didn't resolve all of Boyle's issues, and the new book opens with his struggles to get hold of himself again, as he's locked away in an asylum where doctors may be trying to wipe out his memories, as he sees it: He's witnessing extensive forces of guards, and terrifying maneuvers around him. On the way to an appointment with the psychologist in charge, he admits to himself that he's "scared as hell." And against his own inner rules, he admits out loud:

"Everything's wrong. Shattered. I don't know how to get back. It feels like it's going to be like this forever."

"When you were brought here, you were severely exhausted, in a state of profound confusion," Robinson said. "It takes a while to come back from that. You were physically and emotionally spent. Add to that the effects of the drugs you'd taken, and anyone would have a hard time."

"It was only a few pep pills, Doc, come on."

"You continue to minimize the seriousness of the drugs you took. It was methamphetamine, and from what you said, you took enough to win the Kentucky Derby without a horse. Just because the Germans gave them to their troops doesn't mean they're safe. We're talking about Nazis, remember."

All of Billy's instincts for self-preservation argue against letting the doctor try the rest cure suggested, a medically induced sleep for some 40 hours, to reset his mind. But there are two vitally important things Billy needs to do: find a way to help his very close friend Kaz recover from a heart ailment, and resume the effort to rescue his beloved. When it looks like he can't do those without taking the cure, he yields—and for a while, even the reader won't know whether he's made the right choice.

As it turns out, some things go well from that cure. But not everything he's "witnesssed" while his mind was malfunctioning was a delusion: He's seen a death that looks increasingly like murder, and even for the sake of helping his friends, Billy can't let go of his hunt for the criminal and justice:

So far, there was nothing anyone had said about [the victim] Holland that hinted at a motive. Or even a relationship with a single person at Saint Albans.

Except for Doc Robinson, and he wasn't talking. From what I'd learned, Holland was likely to have been as uncommunicative with him in his sessions as he was the rest of the time. Maybe the files would tell the real story.

Maybe not. After all, the SOE and the OSS were not known for their fidelity to the truth.

Of course, Billy recognizes the kinds of trade-offs being made around him. And he's honest about his own limitations: "In a place so far down in my heart and soul that I might never find my way back from it, I could sacrifice hundreds of people, maybe thousands, to get Diana back ... they could all vanish in a flash if it would bring Diana safely home from Ravensbrück."

Fortunately, he won't have to go that far. But he will have to convince his superiors that a crime (or more than one) has been committed, that he's recovered enough to be the investigator, and that he's willing to put himself into the hands of the asylum staff again, to get to the truth.

James R. Benn is in no hurry to "finish" Billy Boyle's war; there are many marvelous quirks and twists of real history for him to braid into the investigative adventures that Boyle undertakes on behalf, in the long run, of his "uncle" General Eisenhower and staff, and the Allies. In the process, readers get more than the breath-taking risks and close-shave escapes of Captain Boyle and his friends: They get to witness a brash young American growing up in the theater of war, and see the groundwork that will in turn, after the work of many more men and women, lay a basis for a lasting peace.

Benn's writing is well polished, paced with suspense and surprises, and historically trustworthy. As he lays out the war, on multiple fronts, he also lays out the strength of friendship and loyalty. His books are a smooth blend of both facets, and worth every minute of exhilarating reading. You won't need to devour the other Billy Boyle titles before this one, but give yourself the great pleasure of catching up with them afterward. 

Publication date is September 1, from Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press.

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

Crime Reporter in Detroit? Great Setup, Now in Its Fourth Title, from Jane Haseldine

[originally published by the New York Journal of Books]

“Fans of Karen Slaughter will find Haseldine’s crime fiction rewarding, and it’s also a good balance to another excellent Detroit series from Stephen Mack Jones; of course there’s also a hint of Loren D. Estleman’s Motor City mysteries here, too.”

The fourth in Jane Haseldine’s Julia Gooden mystery series, You Fit the Pattern, resumes after her major scoop of discovering the truths in her own family: her much-loved brother’s childhood abduction, his killer (found by Julia 30 years after the crime), and the devastating role their father played in the crimes. 

Meanwhile, active crimes in Detroit have spun out of control while Julia was swamped in her own detection. There’s a killer seizing woman joggers, creating a pattern of highly planned and horrific deaths for them. When Julia realizes the serial killer is picking out women who resemble her, enacting over and over a both a passion for her and a deadly obsession, she can’t help feeling responsible—and so, driven to take risks to bring the murderer out of hiding.

Also at stake, of course, is the safety of Julia’s young sons, already traumatized enough by the threats that her career has brought into their lives. Thank goodness for her motherly housekeeper Helen and for Julia’s increasing closeness to Detective Raymond Navarro, both doing their best to keep her safe.

But when the killer’s routine turns out to include a voodoo symbol, as well as items that make it clear he’s stalking Julia and her family, things rapidly get very creepy. Soon the killer even has a nickname: the Magic Man Killer.

The one plus to this escalating mode of threat is, it pulls Julia and Navarro closer:

“Navarro sighed and ran his fingers in frustration through his thick shock of dark hair.

“’You need to do something for me. I’m not going to let you and your boys hang solo with all this going down. I checked with my apartment manager. He has a vacant unit next to mine … And I’ll be right there. I’m not going to discount that the killer knows where you live. … please think about it.’

“’Okay. We’ll do it.’

“’Just like that? I don’t have to fight you on this?’

“’Not this time. The Magic Man Killer has got a direct line to me. I don’t know how close it is, but I need to make sure he doesn’t get anywhere near my family.’”

But of course, safety’s not that simple, especially when Julia’s own drive to investigate and get the story become tangled with the creeps tracking her and trying to lure her in. Yes, that’s creeps, plural. When the nasty part of the world opens up, there’s way too much evil in there.

Haseldine’s narrative is strong and direct, a good fit for her protagonist. With this fourth in the series, Haseldine has clearly grown more adept at holding all the cards in her hands, from threats to red herrings to cop-shop interference and the loyalties that make live worth living. Fans of Karen Slaughter will find Haseldine’s crime fiction rewarding, and it’s also a good balance to another excellent Detroit series from Stephen Mack Jones; of course there’s also a hint of Loren D. Estleman’s Motor City mysteries here, too.

There’s no need to read the preceding titles first (The Last Time She Saw Him; Duplicity; Worth Killing For). But the satisfaction of seeing this sometimes gritty and always fast-paced series maturing makes it worth gathering all four titles on the shelf, and watching for the next one. 

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

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Stone Barrington Tackles the "Five Families" in New Suspense from Stuart Woods

[Originally published in the New York Journal of Books]

Clearly, Stuart Woods never runs out of ideas. Among his more than 75 titles, the Stone Barrington books make up the largest share: A Delicate Touch looks like the 48th featuring this New Yorker and his circle of employees, friends, informants, and most importantly, police detective Dino Bacchetti. He’ll need all of them to protect his life, as the contents of a hidden safe place him into direct conflict with the most powerful crime families of the region.

Dino’s ex-wife Mary Ann is the daughter of a reputed Mafia leader, Eduardo Bianchi; about to let go of her deceased father’s house to a museum, Mary Ann’s discovered a massive safe—and of course she doesn’t have the combination. Stone Barrington’s immediate assignment is to locate a safecracker to handle the pre-war German mechanism. Hence the need for “a delicate touch”: mess up the combination and the safe becomes even more impossible to ever open.

The safecracker recruited, Sol Fink, is one of the early delights of this entertaining mystery. About a century old, Sol’s the only person in America who can handle the challenge, and he’ll need to be “sprung” from the assisted living home in order to tackle it.

His voice was strong, and he was ramrod straight in his posture. Stone hadn’t expected that.

‘Before you ask,’ Sol said, ‘I’m a hundred and four years old … It’s not my fault,’ Sol replied, climbing into the rear seat. ‘I did everything that’s supposed to kill you, except smoking, so I should have been dead fifty years ago.’

Stone got up front with Fred. ‘Then from now on, Sol,’ he said over his shoulder, ‘I will adopt you as my personal example.’

Opening the safe puts Stone and his crew into enormous danger. Written testimonies in it, probably once “insurance” to protect Bianchi from blackmail, reveal federal crimes committed by members of the notorious “Five Families” of the Italian mob of New York City and beyond. Stone’s happy to turn the records over to Dino and his police squad for investigation, but unfortunately the “owner” of the documents, Mary Ann, can’t resist talking about the contents to a descendant of one of those implicated—a man about to run for President, and whose past and present probably connect to a massive and deadly criminal enterprise.

Wisely, Stone gets out of town, with a few others at risk. But he’s got to return at some point, and nobody crosses Jack Thomas and his political dream boy Hank without violent consequences.

The plot’s clever and involves the owners and top journalists of the city’s premier newspaper. Woods, a pro at keeping the plates spinning, creates a stellar performance of risk, intrigue, and hard-won escapes for his very experienced protagonist, so the big question is, what will Stone have to trade to ensure his and his family’s long-term safety?

This is a classic “Mafia crime” mystery, told in a chatty and delightful way. Don’t count on memorable tropes or depth, as they are not the point of Woods’s efforts. But go ahead and bet on Stone Barrington to work things out. And if you’re going along for the ride, as Dino will be from time to time, be sure to bring a dinner jacket. Stone solves crimes in style.

New this week from Putnam.

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

Forensics and Detection, 1768 Style, in SAVAGE LIBERTY from Eliot Pattison

Available this week, the newest "Mystery of Revolutionary America" is the fifth in Eliot Pattison's series that was originally called the Bone Rattler books, after the first title in it. An international attorney (still practicing) and master of three vastly different series with three entirely separate cultures -- the other two are Chinese-occupied Tibet, and a post-apocalyptic version of a nuclear frontier -- Pattison crafts an immersion experience of hardships, crime, investigation, and dramatic changes. And SAVAGE LIBERTY perches at a fierce point in history, as colonists with diverse background and motives began to realize that rejecting the British king's power over them could be possible.

Most compelling in Pattison's books are his wounded heroes: here, the Scottish medically trained Duncan McCallum, bound under a punitive indenture contract that prevents him from committing to the love of his life, Sarah Ramsey. Ramsey is herself an outrageous figure for the time, trying to craft a peaceable community of Judeo-Christians, frontier folk, and Native Americans at the edge of the East Coast's strip of "civilization." But by binding McCallum for long-ago "criminality" and a few recent misjudgments, Ramsey's father effectively prevents the couple from a balanced and equal relationship.

This is part of McCallum's motive for taking off into the wilderness in search of a rogue collaboration of British and Abenaki warmongers -- they've pushed his bonding further and put a bounty on his head. But as always in Pattison's books, the emotional depth comes with McCallum's identification with members of a threatened culture: in this case, the Native Americans being brutally evicted from their lands. One of the most moving scenes in the book involves McCallum witnessing a heartbreaking farewell to the trees and forest, by his Nipmuc friend and ally, Conawago. Pattison's strongly drawn parallel of the outlawed Scottish Highland clans and the Native American tribes provides McCallum with some of his passion for the Nipmuc and his allies. Yet, as in Pattison's Tibet series, it's the underlying spiritual commitment that most deeply connects these men.

McCallum's usual care in decision making goes off track in SAVAGE LIBERTY. With the unsettling of his belief in the king's right to rule the colonies also comes an unsettling of some of his loyalties and convictions. And his beloved isn't pleased, telling him, "Stealing muskets from the king! Bribing army guards. This is how you will prove yourself innocent of treason! I beg you, Duncan, leave this behind before it is too late."

But Duncan McCallum is forming a new commitment, to the Sons of Liberty, a group that's clearly fomenting revolution. It's troubling him:

He lay on a comforter beside Sarah's bed, listening to the slow, quiet breathing of Sarah and Will, recalling prior conversations in Boston. The arguments with the king would never come to violence, Hancock and Sam Adams always insisted. King George would soon recognize that the inhabitants of his most valuable colonies had to be given the same respect as Englishmen in the home country, and all would then rally around the monarch. But the terrible visions of the innkeeper's dying wife now visited him, vivid images of ill-trained colonists being massacred by British regulars, the massed bullets of their. Brown Besses mowing down farmers and shopkeepers like the blade of a bloody scythe. Whenever a colonist fell, an Abenaki materialized to rip away his scalp.

Pattison's choice of Abenaki for the most dangerous criminal in this book (in a revenge motif based on the massacre of the St. Francis group of the tribe) disturbed me, as it seemed a choice that could tar an entire group of people with a label of irrational and uncontained violence. I kept pausing to check details, finding that small parts that rubbed me wrong -- scalping, displays of scalps -- had ample historical backup, but still ill at ease. I also missed the more deliberate investigative direction of earlier titles in the series.

That said, Pattison does a masterful job of keeping his red herrings afloat and his competing rationales for crime and violence well sorted out. Most vitally, he illustrates the slow and irreversible turn from an angry but heartfelt loyalty to the monarch, toward the possibility of independence. I look forward to how he'll carry Duncan McCallum into the very forces of liberty in the next book of the series. And, of course, to how this deep-probing author will illustrate the ongoing death of tribal occupation of the new America. "Savage" liberty, indeed.

Publication is by Counterpoint, and the book's release date is May 22.

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

Long Effects of Evil in BLOCK 46, Johana Gustawsson

US cover

Sometimes the movement of a good (or great) crime novel from Europe to the United States takes a while. Then again, some of them never come across the ocean. Still, the three-year transit for BLOCK 46 from French crime writer Johana Gustawsson was too long a wait for such a blockbuster of a novel.

UK cover

Like the generation-long effects of abuse and murder in the Irish "Troubles" so hauntingly portrayed by Stuart Neville, Gustawsson's terrain of Nazi terror creates people and events steeped in evil. But this author doesn't simplify in any sense -- while the serial killer in BLOCK 46 seems to reenact some trauma of Buchenwald's killings, the novel is told from three voices: his, and those of two women.

Emily Roy, a top-tier Canadian criminal profiler who works for the British police force, demands detailed support services and instant access to crime scenes and information. Considering that she's working on a killer who has already piled up three bodies in two nations when the book begins, she needs every crumb of information and insight possible.

Alexis Castells, a close friend of the first adult that the serial killer tackles, can't walk away from the murder of jewelry designer Linnéa, who at first is the lone victim in Sweden. Haunted by an earlier crime she's been unable to finalize emotionally, Alexis determines to tag along with Emily -- who, surprisingly, allows her into the pursuit process.

The book's three-voice construction is brilliantly balanced by Gustawsson. Her details of torment at Buchenwald -- the "camp" where her own grandfather suffered -- are acute and perceptive, but also rapidly exchanged for the more civilized scenes in London and Sweden as the investigation takes place. As reader, I found myself eager to return to Emily and Alexis and the assorted police officers they're teamed with. And yet after a few pages in their company, I was also ready to look again at the cold, bitter, twisted landscape and events in the concentration camp, wanting to know how (or whether) Erich Ebler, a medical student imprisoned and debased in the camp, was surviving.

BLOCK 46 was a huge hit in Europe; the author's website exposes interviews and background that fascinate almost as much as the book. Like this:

These places define me as a woman and writer: I'm not only Marseillaise and French, but I am also a Londoner and an aspiring Swede! I arrived in London in 2009, after seven years in Paris. At the time, I was a journalist, freelancing for French magazines. I immediately felt at home in this city of various villages steeped in history, great parks and ancient pubs, all mixed with a cosmopolitan culture that inspires you. Hampstead is my favourite part of town. It is truly a haven that feels just like Miss Marple’s St. Mary Mead. As for Sweden, it was my husband who brought the Scandinavian influence to our family. He introduced me to the rough beauty of the west coast, the Nordic folklore and the divine  chokladbollar !

Well done, Orenda Books, in bringing this debut crime novel across "the Pond." I will be watching for the next installment.

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

British Mystery to Grab Right Away, ALL OF A WINTER'S NIGHT, Phil Rickman

If you already know the Merrily Watkins mysteries and enjoy them, don't hesitate -- go out and get a copy of ALL OF A WINTER'S NIGHT right away. And clear your schedule for page-turning reading from Wales-connected author Phil Rickman.

If, like me, you're new to this British series, let me fill you in. Merrily Watkins is the vicar of a community church in a mostly rural section of England, Hereford, on the border of Wales. She's also what in the States we would call an "exorcist" -- but in a very quiet way, with a group of others religious leaders who've found themselves called to relieve the troubles of those who experience paranormal events. They call their field of effort "deliverance" and it has a lot to do with letting people get things of their chests, and then following up with prayer and related church services.

But Merrily's position is under attack from the new bishop and it's not clear how far he'll go to restrict her out-of-pulpit activities. She's also concerned about her daughter Jane, taking a gap year before university and somehow unmoored from expectations.

Both Jane and Merrily find support from a neighboring musician -- who in turn collaborates with local Detective Inspector Frannie Bliss as a shooting and a vehicular death turn out to reveal the powerful strands of organized crime in the region, with international ties and a lot of money.

When the two plot lines cross, the action and risks multiply exponentially. So do the ties to a much earlier form of spirituality in the region, expressed in part through the concept and character of the ancient "Green Man," but also in the rituals of a very private, very disturbing group of folk dancers recreating "Border morris" dances with strange undertones.

I saw parallels in many of the characters to the landowners, farmers, and ambitious developers of my own northern Vermont region. And if we don't yet have a Merrily Watkins among us, I'm willing to believe there's an opening for her American counterpart (in fact, John Connolly's Maine paranormal series evokes the same sense of timeless power and faith).

Don't let the "haunting" aspect of ALL OF A WINTER'S NIGHT keep you away from this crime novel -- because it is in the long run all about human greed and passion, and following the benefits of the crime. But getting to the solution takes a long, lovely time, nearly 500 pages in which each chapter provides a powerful impulse forward, and the Big Questions get intelligent and passionate attention.

Here's the author's own take on what Merrily is up to:

It's a real job; there's at least one in every diocese in the UK. They work with psychiatrists, social workers ... and also the police. Inevitably, in this series, this is the aspect of the job that predominates.

And their own beliefs are often tested. There are few certainties. The borderline between psychology and the unexplained is often laid out in barbed wire.

A keeper. And I'm going to have to find the preceding 13 Merrily Watkins mysteries, ASAP. 

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

All About the Plot -- New Thriller from Jassy Mackenzie, BAD SEEDS

South Africa's recent past, like Ireland's, sets it up as an ideal setting for intense conflict and heightened suspense. Jassy Mackenzie grabs it all and packs an impressively twisted plot with massive danger in her BAD SEEDS, her fifth thriller set in her homeland. I'm hooked on her Jade de Jong series, I confess. Jade is a private investigator with connections to the underworld of crime that she tries to ignore -- but when risks keep mounting, it's tempting to call on those old friends for help, right?

As Jade steps into what ought to be an ordinary investigation of a killing at a cheap motel, she finds herself drawn to a man she's supposed to be following and reporting on -- she's been hired by Ryan Gillespie, who works at a nuclear research station where there's been a sabotage attempt, with more to follow. In classic South African layering, Jade soon realizes there are at least two views of the research station: those of the powerful men who manipulate it, and those of the workers, some of whom are poisoned by their labors. Sbusiso and his cousin Shadrack are among the victims of the business, and Shadrack is dying -- but clinging to life through the virtue of a traditional remedy, a plant whose seeds he values highly.

So it is that we have both bad seeds -- those of crime and power -- and good ones. As Jade struggles to sort out which of the people in the case belong with which side, she's also grieving for a personal loss, that of her married boyfriend who had seemed about to bind himself to Jade instead:

One mistake on David's part was all it had taken.

He'd been planning to leave his wife, Naisha, but hadn't stopped sleeping with her. Now she was pregnant, and Jade was one of the few people who knew that the baby probably wasn't David's. ... Worst of all, despite the promises she'd made herself, she couldn't tell him.

Because -- and this hurt her the most -- he would be happier if he never knew.

Jade's interior struggles can't distract her from pursuing the tangled case in front of her, though. Who really benefits from sabotage when nuclear materials are involved? Who faces the worst risks?

I enjoyed every page of this tangled and twisting plot. No need to read the earlier books, although you may want to catch up -- this one stands well on its own. (This is Mackenzie's fifth, via Soho Crime; I especially liked The Fallen.) Good to explore South African life through Mackenzie's stories and insight, one of the big pluses of international crime fiction.

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

Extraordinary Storytelling, Randall Silvis, TWO DAYS GONE

Randall Silvis's books have rolled along since 1984. Not all of them are crime fiction, but enough of them are so that I'm bewildered that I haven't ready any of his earlier titles. I'll be making up for that now -- because TWO DAYS GONE, one of three books of his coming out this year (!), is a marvelous read.

In some ways it's the perfect book for anyone who loves to speculate on the author behind the story. Police Sergeant Ryan DeMarco has his own deep sorrows, but he's always thought local resident Thomas Huston -- a college professor in their Pennsylvania town -- has the perfect life. Wife and children who thrive on Huston's love, a well-respected teaching job with mostly wonderful students, colleagues who ... again, mostly ... respect him. And the next book already underway, no issues with writer's block at all. DeMarco needs Huston's warm friendship, and he's deeply curious about how the novelist works. So the last thing he expects is Huston's family to be slaughtered. Huston himself is missing and is the presumed murderer. What happened? What could make this man snap? And if Huston, with so much going right, could descend into criminal madness, could DeMarco himself be at risk?

Of course, there are complications as DeMarco investigates. For instance, one young man who'd seen Huston as his life-changing mentor calls Tom Huston "perfection," and DeMarco realizes suddenly what the subtext is:

Softly he said, "Did he know how you felt about him?"

A tiny movement flitted at the corner of Briessen's eye, a twitch, a wince. Then he shrugged. "It was never expressed, never talked about. But I'm sure he knew."

DeMarco waited for the rest of it.

"The thing about Tom is, right from the start, he treated me like an equal. I mean I might never publish a single word. But he respected my ... intent, you know? He respected the dream. More than anything else, that's what made him so special to me."

De Marco allowed half a minute to pass in silence. "You have any idea where he might be, Nathan?"

"I wish like h*ll I did. Imagine what he must be going through right now."

"I've been doing my best to image just that. Where would he go? What would he do?"

"I think he's looking for the killer."

And just like that, DeMarco knows he'd not alone in wanting desperately to believe that Thomas Huston didn't slaughter his wife and children. But where is he? And why won't he come in to the police, if there's a chance he's innocent after all?

The more DeMarco investigates, the more he realizes that Huston's authorial research put him at risk, involving young prostitutes and their pimps. But the pieces won't fit with the crime.

Tender exploration of how stories emerge for writers takes place, and the plot gently twists, then twists again, until the final events in TWO DAYS LOST are stunning -- but totally fitting.

A highly recommended book. Author material at the end gives added insight to Silvis's own authorial dreams -- making the book even more of a gem. Published by Sourcebooks Landmark, and as I mentioned at the start, I'll be looking for other Silvis books to enjoy later.

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

World War II Suspense, in BLUE MADONNA, James R. Benn

With this 11th in the Billy Boyle World War II mystery series, author James R. Benn crafts a tight and un-put-downable suspense novel and proves that the past is crammed with surprises -- and danger.

Fans of the series know that Billy Boyle's Irish-American cop family thought they were getting him out of wartime danger by helping him get assigned as a crimesolver for a slightly related U.S. officer, Dwight Eisenhower -- but when "Uncle Ike" took over running the European part of American operations in World War II, Boyle's investigations moved global. Wherever Eisenhower and his top leaders need Boyle to solve a crime, he's there.

As BLUE MADONNA opens, Billy Boyle looks like he's lost his stripes as punishment for taking part in running a black-market scam. Even though he knows his actions were part of successfully solving a crime earlier in the war, Boyle realizes he can't fight the court martial system; he's headed for prison and humiliation.

So it's a great relief to discover the whole trial is a setup to infiltrate Billy into a massive criminal operation that's snagging shipments of necessary supplies from the Army and speeding them out into England's hungry black market. With eventual backup from his colleague Kaz, and the possibility of seeing his beloved Diana in her undercover role in occupied France, Billy leaps into the infiltration operation -- which lands him in France on June 5, 1944, the night before the Allies invade at Normandy.

And that's the pin that James Benn provides to move us one notch further along in the global war that engaged so many combatants for so many years. Checking a "World War II timeline," I realized Anne Frank and her family were still hidden when Billy Boyle dropped from an airplane, to tackle this mission behind enemy lines.

You might think knowing the "history" would lower the suspense. But Benn's gift of walking the timeline in short bursts of action also involves tapping into little-known events and connections of the action -- this time, into the French Resistance with fresh intimacy. The "Blue Madonna" turns out to be a painting, in a mansion-turned-fortress that once hid a very different kind of resistance. Tunnels, diverse enemies, and the oncoming force of the war raise the ante, and when Billy and Kaz finally land, they're in huge danger:

Silence.

Cold sweat dripped down the small of my back.

Slowly sounds from the woods overcame the silence. A rustling of leaves. A scurry in the underbrush, a small creature on the prowl.

A boom echoed in the distance. An explosion miles away. We duck-walked to Kaz, who held a finger to his lips as his gaze flitted about. . . "I thought I heard voices," he whispered. "What do you think that explosion was?"

"The Resistance," Topper said quietly. ...

"Of course," I said, trying not to betray my nervousness. It was eerie being out here, alone on a hilltop in enemy territory, not knowing who might be closing in or what was going to happen next.

Billy must pass himself off as crooked -- which is what the fake court martial should have established -- and figure out who in France is connected with the biggest criminal gang in England, and how. Meanwhile, his surroundings include a multiple murderer (if he can just figure out which of the dangerous men around him that might be), as well as the Germans, whose motives are both war-related and criminal, and not easy to sort out.

This is a fast-paced tale of action and risk, and Billy Boyle works hard to gain enough facts to get close to resolving his investigation. Just as we know World War II goes on beyond BLUE MADONNA, we know Billy must survive also ... but who could he lose from his close friends and loved ones long the way?

I especially enjoyed learning from the author's notes of all the "real" components woven into this exciting crime-and-war novel. It's getting harder with each book of the series to remember that Billy Boyle is a fictional sleuth. Of course you can read BLUE MADONNA without having read any of the earlier titles -- Benn's skill as a series author makes that easy -- but series fans will shiver with even more feeling as Diana and Billy and their team plunge once more into necessary dangers.

From Soho Press, with release on September 13. When you've read BLUE MADONNA, you may have a list of people you want to share this with, and they absolutely don't need to read the "usual" war fiction -- this series is rich with friendship, puzzle-solving, and adventure, and lots of intriguing twists. I'm adding it to my holiday giving list, for sure.

[PS - More Billy Boyle/James R. Benn reviews here, or browse the entire review blog here.]

CID Sergeants in Korea, Where Love and Murder Mingle, PING PONG HEART, Martin Limón

Hard to believe Martin Limón has reached the 11th already in his superb Sueño and Bascom series, set in American-occupied Korea in 1974. In PING PONG HEART, Limón proves again that for a pair of Army CID (Criminal Investigation Division) sergeants with heart, even a war zone can be a place where justice is served -- which is not exactly the same as keeping the letter of the law, is it?

George Sueño and Ernie Bascom don't think much of the case that comes there way at the opening of the book. It sounds like a classic low-life "he-said, she-said," with the Provost Marshal sending them to check out an irate major's claim that a prostitute downtown, Miss Jo, took his money and ran off, without providing any, umm, services. Major Schultz has "connections," which is why Sueño and Bascom have the assignment, instead of ordinary military police. Plus, the two of them get along with the Koreans better than most ... George studies the language and can carry on a conversation pretty well (although he's not yet reading the characters), and Ernie, well, all the girls seem to love him -- both the bar girls and their colleagues the (not always willing) prostitutes, and the secretary in the office on base. Which really should be another thing altogether, except somehow Miss Kim turns out to have her own complications that cross over into the not-so-small-after-all case.

Within the first 24 hours of the case, Sueño and Bascom find themselves tripping over people they really ought to stay away from: the power brokers in military intelligence. But as always, since they're on the side of the disadvantaged (in this case, the Korean bar girls) and being pushed by their dangerous-to-resist Korean counterpart investigator, Mr. Kill, the pair have plenty of reasons to move forward (against orders, of course). This time, each one's heart is also at risk: Ernie because Miss Kim means more to him than he's admitted so far, and George because a sudden chance to see his half-Korean son (readers of the earlier books, are you coming to attention?) during the investigation could capsize the easier relationship he's had working for him lately.

There's also a lot of fun here, in spite of the stakes. For instance, Ernie's been telling George that speaking in Korean to the girls being investigated in losing respect for them. George doesn't buy it -- but a mama-san who owns the bar where they're looking for a lead is more blunt:

"You talk," she said. "Pretty soon I busy."

I asked her again to sit, this time in Korean. She thought it over, stepped forward, and keeping her butt toward the edge of the chair, sat down. "You speaky Korean pretty good," she said. "Who teach you?"

"I study it," I said. "On compound." ...

She shook her head. "Number hucking ten." No good. There's no "f" sound in the Korean alphabet so often it's replaced with "h." And in GI slang, number one -- or hana -- is best and, reasonably enough, number ten in worst.

"Why number ten?" I asked.

"GI speak Korean, all girl lose respect for GI."

Ernie grinned and sipped on his beer,

I took the bait. "Why lose respect?"

Her eyes widened. "Talk like baby. All girl laugh at them."

Ernie glugged even more of his beer down, trying to keep from bursting into laughter.

"Okay," I said. "No more Korean. Only English." ... Then I asked her about Jo Kyong-Ja.

PING PONG HEART is full of action, twists, and good moments -- a classic Martin Limón book, satisfying, enjoyable, and almost impossible to put down. No need to read the others in the series first, but you may want them all, after reading this one.

From Soho Press, whose Soho Crime imprint continues to bring great international (and American) crime fiction to the table.

Excellent Boston Investigation, DARK HORSE, Rory Flynn

Rory Flynn's second Boston crime novel was released today, DARK HORSE -- and it is at least as good as his amazing debut book Third Rail, which came out two years ago. What a delight! And the great impressario of Boston-based crime lit, Dennis Lehane, has even added his "hurrah" to the promotions.

If you missed Third Rail, don't feel too bad; not many people realized at first what a gem it was. The buzz built very slowly. And you have time to still pick up a hardcover copy, which I definitely recommend. It's a twisty, semi-noir, Boston-drenched tale of Detective Eddy Harkness, who at the book's opening has lost his premier position among the big-city drug police, banished to emptying parking meters in his fractured but still very "historic" hometown of Nagog. Eddy's issues with substance abuse and bad choices in "dating" have really messed up his life, and for most of the book, it's anybody's guess how he'll end up.

So in a sense, if you go directly into DARK HORSE, you've already spoiled some of the suspense of the first book, because you know Eddy's lived to tell the tale, and is working back in Boston. But it's OK -- go ahead and read DARK HORSE now, and then catch up with the earlier book. The flavors of the pair are so different that you'll still be surprised at almost every situation Eddy falls (or climbs) into.

At any rate, as DARK HORSE opens, Eddy -- more often called Harkness, by himself as the point-of-view character and by many of the cops and criminals in his life -- is making a real difference in Boston, working in the Narco-Intel team of the Boston Police Department with a pair of, hmm, let's say eccentric partners. He lives with Candace and her little daughter May, and he stays out of trouble. Mostly. In fact, an unpredicted hurricane's just swamped the Lower South End of Boston and the extra push that Harkness gives to doing his job turns him into an instant hero for one of the rescues he manages. The trouble is, he's a good enough cop (with trained nose for drug traffic) that he realizes he's stumbled across the influence of a rash of drug marketing in a single region of the city -- with a really strange form of heroin called Dark Horse, where the packets even include nifty labeling that includes the horse image.

Tracking the unusual pattern of the drug's spread, as well as its puzzling composition, takes Harkness into a confrontation with a secretive cabal that's manipulating real estate in the wake of the storm. At the same time, a bunch of displaced residents from the Lower South End are invading Eddy Harkness's home town of Nagog and the situation smells of advance planning and coordination. Plus an old colleague from the town phones him with bad news:

"Eddy, it's me." It's the voice of Captain Watt out at Nagog police headquarters. "Got a big problem out here."

"What's going on?"

"Got a pissed-off guy cuffed and screaming in the back of my squad car."

"What'd he do?"

"Attempted B and E."

"Sound like you got your man. What's the problem?"

"It's your brother, Eddy. It's George."

If you're a Boston fan, you'll get extra enjoyment from DARK HORSE, because you'll know the streets, the significant buildings, the feel of that downtown rush of energy contrasted with the leafy suburbs that think they're better off somehow. And if you don't know Boston at all, the version of it that Eddy Harkness knows -- from his "bad-boy" past, to his passion for unraveling criminality, to his dream of living peacefully (even as a cop) with Candace and May -- is so convincing, you'll probably feel at home when you finally visit "Beantown."

Buckle up for a fast ride through complications, fistfights, a few (not too gory) murders, and an inside look at urban power brokers versus Occupy-type activists. It's the world of Eddy Harkness. And it's a great, great read.

WHEN BUNNIES GO BAD, Clea Simon -- Animal Talker Pru Marlowe Fights Crime

The sixth book in Clea Simon's "pet noir" series, WHEN BUNNIES GO BAD, hits bookstores on March 1, and from the wild humor of the title, to the wry conversations between animal behaviorist Pru Marlowe and her cat Wallis, every chapter of this new mystery is jammed with surprises and suspense.

Of course, you'll have to put up with setting aside any skepticism about horse whisperers and people who "get" what a dog or cat is saying to them. It shouldn't be too hard. Pru herself is at pains to point out that her midlife ability to "hear" the thoughts of animals in words is actually not what it seems. Her cat Wallis, the mature adult in all of this, reminds her often that the "words" are simply Pru's own mind imposing a framework on the information and emotions coming her way from, say, Growler the (gay) dog she walks regularly, Frank the ferret, and a not-so-talkative rabbit whose owner is hiding some secrets of her own.

And as someone whose four nearest neighbors all have dogs living with them and running their lives, I'm inclined to ride with Pru's take on the situation in her small, western Massachusetts town.

This time she's worked up right away abotu what looks like a "moneyed older man" manipulating a beautiful young woman, a ski bunny in town to enjoy the nearby snowy slopes while also collaborating in an affaire. But if you're reading this, you pay attention to crime, both fictional and non, right? So if I say, "Think Whitey Bulger and his girlfriend," you'll see things differently from Pru's line of vision. Of course, all the clues are in front of Pru. But she's a bit stubborn, and the fact that her pet wrangling's being demanded by a woman she sees as weak, and another (the rabbit owner) who's somehow afraid, doesn't make for clear insight.

Take this scene, for instance, when a human corpse has already been discovered (this is noir, remember?) and Pru is searching the nearby woods alone for a dog she's sure she heard barking before the death was revealed. Of course, the nearby birds and squirrels are making their own sort of racket in Pru's mind.

"Where is she? Where?" A new voice had joined the cacophony -- and this one I did understand. What I heard as a question was the sharp bark of a little dog, racing toward the development -- and me. ... "Where? Where?" The barking was growing louder, and I turned. It would be a sad circumstance if the little dog were hit by a car just as he emerged from the woods. ...

The car -- a silver Honda -- braked and a redhead -- Cheryl Ginger -- stepped out. ... "Did you hear him?" she asked. "Is he here?"...

The woman beside me knelt as the dog -- a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, from the size and silky coat -- leaped into her arms. "I've been looking for you everywhere." She was talking to the dog, but I saw her glance at me as he reached up to lick her cheek. When she caught me looking, she turned to work a small twig out of her pet's jeweled collar. "Where have you been?"

The dog didn't answer. Then again, I had the feeling her line of questioning had actually been for me. I wasn't sure what the pretty ski bunny was about but I knew a staged scene when I was placed in one.

Readers of the earlier books in the series (Dogs Don't Lie, Cats Can't Shoot, Parrots Prove Deadly, Panthers Play for Keeps, and Kittens Can Kill) will get extra pleasure from the appearances in the book of Pru's held-at-a-little-distance police officer lover, and know right away that Pru's efforts to keep both her animal insight and her crime-solving out of Jim's focus are in trouble. There's also a criminal figure from earlier books, the very dangerous Gregor Benazi. Well, this is noir, right? Some evil, plenty of danger, collaboration with people you know aren't trustworthy?

No, you don't need to read the other books first. Clea Simon (who writes three or four mystery series) is adept at inserting just enough background so you can steam through these chapters, chasing the killer and his or her motives along with Pru. And yes, I understand being a bit reluctant to trust the narrator about animal communication -- but trust me on this one, Simon's ingenious in how she outlines Pru's talent and its costs. Set the issue aside and focus on the clues and twists. Above all, this is a fiercely traditional crime novel, with red herrings (not fish, but four-legged and two-legged) and a relentless trail of risk and discovery.

Grab a copy while the book's in its first printing -- you can make time later to collect the entire batch if you get hooked. And please check out this evening's OTHER Clea Simon review. This prolific author has two mysteries releasing on March 1, and the other one's the start of an even darker set.

WHEN BUNNIES GO BAD is in the hands of Poisoned Pen Press -- more proof that this specialty mystery publisher knows when to carry on with an intriguing and successful series.

FOGGED INN, New Maine Mystery from Barbara Ross

Julia Snowden, the amateur sleuth of Barbara Ross's "Maine Clambake Mysteries," came across as smart, intriguing, and savvy in the first three books of this already classic New England series -- and now, in the fourth title, FOGGED INN, she's under more pressure than ever. As a result, as the best people do, she reveals more of herself and faces her life more courageously. While, of course, working to save her friends and capture the criminal!

The opening of FOGGED INN is especially intriguing, as Julia and her boyfriend Chris roll slowly awake, hearing their friend and landlord Gus bellowing up to their bedroom, just a few hours after they've finally gotten to sleep. And what Gus is saying isn't going to start the day all that well: "There's a dead guy in my walk-in refrigerator. You leave him there?"

No, neither Julia nor Chris knew about a dead man in the downstairs restaurant. But considering the night they just had -- which we'll only find out about gradually -- it all seems to fit together, in a creepy way.

Because actually, as Julia is just starting to realize, the dinner guests she and Chris had served the night before were all very uncomfortable about being at the newly opened dinner spot on the same evening. Trapped in place by an accident outside, in the seacoast fog, the guests still revealed little of why they stayed so firmly spaced apart in the little dining area. And soon it's apparent that someone else wanted those couples to show up on this night, maneuvering them through clever use of gift certificates with an added expiration date.

Julia has the same problem facing many another amateur sleuth: The local police are getting annoyed with the way murder seems to prod her into doing her own investigating. At least this time Chris and Gus are behind her, though:

"I keep thinking about that guy in the walk-in, going over and over what everyone said and did that night. I'm convinced the couples in the restaurant were brought there that night for a reason, even though they all said they didn't know the dead guy or each other when they talked to the cops. While [the local police] are in Augusta today, I want to check a few things out," I said.

"That's the spirit," Gus shouted from the other side of the room. "Solve this mystery, get rid of that damn yellow tape." He gestured toward the walk-in. "Life goes back to normal."

Chris didn't repeat his caution about leaving things to the professionals.

Readers of the series already know that Julia and Chris might be meant for each other, but had a lot of trouble getting to the love-and-live-together stage. The friction of another murder in their lives and of the secrets each keeps "protecting" ramps the pressure up  on their relationship. Luckily, the murder itself isn't related to Julia's family this time, or to Chris's past -- but the more that Julia tugs on the threads of evidence and connection, the more it seems to involve a lot of the town of Busman's Harbor, Maine. And her actions incite further threats and risk.

Ross's writing reaches far beyond the casual level you might expect in a "cozy" mystery with a cat on the cover. Her clever structure for gradual revelations at the start intrigued me, the pace is excellent, and when the twists arrive -- and oh wow, do they! -- they fit the perfect combination of being unexpected but, in hindsight, an excellent match with how the plot and characters pull against each other.

By all means, read the preceding titles if you have a chance -- they're enjoyable, and well plotted. But if you only have time for one Barbara Ross mystery this month, grab a copy of FOGGED INN next week (publisher release date is Feb. 23). It's solid evidence of an author who's advancing her strength as a mystery author through seasoned understanding of the worst people can do ... and of the good ways in which others grow, to see justice served and make sure there's more good in the world.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that the setting -- the Maine seacoast -- turns each of Ross's books into a mini-vacation for those of us outside Maine! Thanks also to Barb Ross and her white-aproned husband for the enjoyable recipes at the back of the book, and to Kensington Books for giving this series room to grow.

Cara Black, MURDER ON THE CHAMP DE MARS (March Publication)

I love this image of Cara Black with her newest Aimée Leduc investigation: MURDER ON THE CHAMP DE MARS. This is the 15th in the well-liked series, and Aimée is at a critical point in her career and her personal life: She's a single mom to a six-month-old, struggling to keep her detection and security business profitable, while sleep-deprived and always late for everything (for those who don't have kids, here's the thing about it -- with each addition to the household, it's harder and harder to get somewhere on time).

MURDER ON THE CHAMP DE MARS open in Paris (of course!) with the detective once again racing the clock, trying to complete a surveillance task and still get home in time for her own darling baby's christening. But what should be a sweet (and brief) event with little Chloé and a few friends turns personally menacing, with the unexpected arrival of her ex-lover, father of her baby -- and he's not there to reconcile with her, but to introduce his newly acquired wife, as well as a hunger to take custody of the baby.

Small wonder that the arrival of an important clue to Aimée's own past, in the form of a boy who is a French Gypsy, one of the Romany people known in Paris as les manouches. The boy needs immediate help for his mother, who's in a hospital, on her deathbed, insisting on revealing only to Aimée a secret about Aimée's own (long-dead) father. It's a dangerous secret, one with roots in the Second World War, the concentration camps, and people still living who have betrayed each other.

Black does a masterful job of keeping the threads of suspense pulled taut, and braiding this complex investigation that puts Aimée Leduc and her family, friends, and career at risk in two directions at once. No, you don't need to read the others in the series before this one, although it would help you grasp why this detective wears Louboutin heels while on stake-out and considers a vintage Courreges dress to be part of her surveillance uniform -- so you may want to indulge in the others after devouring this latest title. The series is cleverly set in the 1990s, so technology has almost no role in the detection, and a quick mind and open heart and a team of allies are the essentials of the job. From Soho Crime, of course! (March 3 release.)

THE CURSE OF THE HOUSE OF FOSKETT, M. R. C. Kasasian: Victorian Dark Humor and Crime

THE CURSE OF THE HOUSE OF FOSKETT is the second in the Victorian England crime-solving series of detective Sidney Grice and his ward -- and although reading the first book, Murder in Mangle Street, isn't actually necessary, it would save you from the errors that dogged my reading of the first few chapters. Grasping right away that the novel resembled a grim Sherlock Holmes reality show (dirt, spoiled food, discomfort), I assumed Grice's ward was male, like Watson. It wasn't until the third chapter that I realized this "March Middleton" narrator was female. As you can tell, it shook the universe my "reader's eye" had been constructing.

But I kept thinking I was in the midst of a Sherlock Holmes pastiche -- recognizing phrases like the "engineer's thumb" for example -- for a few more chapters. In fact, I felt as though I were on the far side of a train window, trying to make sense out of lip-reading half of a conversation. The stunningly nasty comments that detective Sidney Grice makes, his often-described infected eye socket with glass eye, the grotesque conditions and bluntly described dirt and stench of this "world," and March Middleton's unfortunate slowness to catch on to the plot twists (Grice isn't a lot faster) kept me dog-paddling in a lake of misunderstanding for a long time.

And yet ... I couldn't stop reading. A reviewer of the first book said it hadn't appealed much to the heart, and that's probably just as true for this one -- trust me, you don't want to identify with anyone in these pages! -- yet March Middleton has a stubborn persistent courage, even though she has little other choice, and I liked her gradual assertion of her own worth and her outreach for some kindness in her gray, grim life. She rarely pauses to feel sorry for herself -- there is too much going on. Grice is being paid to step into a "death club" where he cannot stop the deaths from taking place, and he quickly decides the whole disaster is actually all an attack on him -- which March can clearly see fits his vanity.

Kasasian's writing is fluid and his images and plot twists are vivid and surprising. Once I'd managed to let go of all Holmesian expectations, I found the rather shocking scenes to be freshly surprising:

The moment we appeared our visitor jumped up and grasped my guardian's hand.

"Mr Grice. It is such a thrill to meet you. I have read so much about you in the newspapers."

"You will have been hard pressed to find an accurate fact then," Sidney Grice told him.

"And you must be Miss Middleton." Mr. Green compressed my hand in his. "I believe you helped Mr. Grice solve the Ashby stabbing case."

My guardian adjusted his eye. "She may have accompanied me on that case," he said, "but I can assure you she was nothing but a hindrance. Ring for tea, Miss Middleton."

"I shall try my idiotic best." I pulled the bell rope twice as the two of them sat facing each other, then got myself an upright chair. ... "I can smell something," I said, but both men ignored me.

The further I read, the more parallels I found to having fallen down a rabbit hole, or having met a very dark version of Jasper Fforde -- literary allusions, outrageous metaphors, symbols and clues that mean something far different from first impression. If you've read the original Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you know it's far more vicious than the cartoon visions. So is the gruesome Victorian England in which Grice and March Middleton investigate.

And that, finally, makes this one of the more original and surprising mysteries I've read recently! Recommended for those who want to move beyond the Holmes we've known, to the brute necessities of his time and place -- but not for the faint of heart, and definitely not (despite the attractive cover) for any young impressionable readers who might carry the book's nightmare qualities into their sleep.

[No author website at present, but an insightful interview with the author here.]

Top Summer Suspense: THE GOOD GIRL, Mary Kubica

THE GOOD GIRL is a debut thriller from Mary Kubica, a married mom of two who lives outside Chicago and has a degree in history and American literature. Now, forget the author details and focus on the book -- because this is one of the summer's big winners.

When wealthy but unhappy Chicago socialite Eve Dennett gets a phone call from one of her daughter's colleagues at an inner-city school, she brushes off the caller's concern about Mia Dennett not showing up for work. As far as Eve and her judge husband are concerned, Mia is a disappointing daughter, confused about her role in the world, unwilling to meet her parents' expectations, and a bit of a flake. If she's not at her art-teaching do-gooder job, well, maybe she forgot.

Detective Gabe Hoffman's main concern at first is meeting his sergeant's demands on a maybe-missing-person report that involves such powerful people; "Don't f** this one up," was the order from above. Not that Gabe would do so deliberately. But balancing the unpleasant emotions of the two Dennett parents with their reluctant and partial information is a challenge, for sure.

And then there's Mia herself: We meet her early in the book, through her mother's eyes, in a jump of the timeline as the two of them head out of a post-trauma psych appointment, with Mia's impatient and abrasive father ready to drive them home. Clearly, Mia's badly damaged by whatever it was, and whoever it was, who caused her abduction. Where has she been? How did she get there? Who is responsible for this?

Kubica uses a highly unusual framework to pry open the story in all its emotions and facts, alternating not only the narrators and points of view, but also the time at which they are communicating: "Before" Mia's return, and "After." Each chapter is neatly labeled with speaker and time zone -- and tightly packed with tension, shock, anger, and mixed motives. It's clear that only discovering what really happened is likely to free up Mia, whose amnesia includes a new name for herself, as well as multiple levels of fear, even to as small a thing as the radio being too loud.

But getting to the truth requires opening the layers of Mia and her life, and Kubica holds these layers tightly in suspense, even as winter's ravages push the urgency of the discovery process. It isn't until the final chapters that all of the details so painstakingly assembled build to "what happened."

There are two minor drawbacks to the book -- the sometimes challenging before/after framing (you have to pay close attention), and the present-tense narration, which is coupled with each character missing a lot of information that the others have. Yet those become gradually part of its power as a narrative. And the book's positives -- its relentless pace, its flawless peeling back of the psyche, its sometimes shocking but always acutely portrayed versions of what love is and what love does -- make this an amazing debut, and a mystery I expect that I'll always remember and compare others to.

The publication release date is July 29 (two days from when I'm writing this); that's enough time to place your own pre-order, or, if you want to think about things a bit further first, to explore the author's website, here. THE GOOD GIRL reveals a lot of pain, and a comparable amount of love and loyalty. Definitely worth reading, whether you get to it within the summer reading season or let it linger on the shelf until the long evenings of autumn or even the fierce windy winter in which its memorable chain of actions is set. Published by Harlequin's mystery arm, MIRA -- another example of how this imprint is bring out some of today's best mysteries.

Victoria Houston's New Loon Lake Mystery: DEAD INSIDER

Rain clouds are moving across the valley as I write; we are in for another drenched afternoon, and it's becoming "ordinary" to see flood warnings ticking across the TV screen in the evening. What a great season to dip into the newest in Victoria Houston's Loon Lake mystery series, though: DEAD INSIDER, where a catastrophic August rainstorm in northern Wisconsin includes the revelation that, neatly wrapped like butchered meat, parts of a human are floating through the Loon Lake run-off.

Loon Lake Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris knows how to recruit her friends and colleagues to assist her crew in coping with the threat to health, tourism, and safety -- but the media circus that erupts when the victim's identity is revealed goes way beyond her expectations. After all, not only was the murdered woman running for the U.S. Senate, but someone is going to inherit her fortune. Along with the money comes a family heritage that's darker than most, and the possibility of multiple motives.

"Lew" makes a good choice pulling into the case retired dentist "Doc" Osborne. In many ways he's already involved -- much of the action unfolds from his own point of view -- and he's a low-key Watson to her investigation:

During Osborne's first stint as the deputy coroner for the Loon Lake Police Department, Lew had discovered he could be an unexpected asset during the questioning of suspects. The reason? Men and women hear differently. Depending on the listener -- emotions, facts, even words can have ambiguous meanings.

More than once each had surprised the other with an interpretation of a response that changed the direction of the investigation.

Stakes are high, financial, political, powerful, and by pushing into the flood of events and desires around her, Lew raises the risk level as well.

Houston weaves a neat traditional mystery with up-to-the-minute recognition of how small-town life has changed in an era of global politics. This one goes on the "keep it" stack for summer reading (flyfishing! suspense!), regional interest (northern Wisconsin), and well-crafted female police chief (still a rarity). I can already see I'll be watching for the earlier books in the series, which is:

Dead Angler
Dead Creek
Dead Water
Dead Frenzy
Dead Hot Mama
Dead Jitterbug
Dead Boogie
Dead Madonna
Dead Hot Shot
Dead Renegade
Dead Deceiver
Dead Tease
Dead Insider 

The official release date for DEAD INSIDER is June 18. Luckily, there's no need to read the other titles beforehand ... but, like me, you may decide you'd like to gather a few more for the shelf.