THE NINTH CIRCLE, New Billy Boyle World War II Mystery from James Benn

 Released today (Sept. 1, Soho Press), THE NINTH CIRCLE is a fast-moving wartime thriller that takes Captain Billy Boyle, Boston Irish cop chasing criminals for General Eisenhower, into the wildest parts of Cuban life during the Second World War. Thank goodness for his long-time investigative partner, Lieut. Piotr Kazimierz: The two are assigned to figure out the funny business behind the murder of a naval intelligence officer.

But Billy and Kaz quickly discover they'll need local allies too, and in this case, the offer from the British Legation in Havana isn't enough -- considering that part of the network of nasties involves action at the Gran Casino Nacional, what could be the peril of accepting backup from gangster Meyer Lansky?

With this strange collection of allies (strange might be an understatement for Lansky), life gets even more complicated for the team when Kaz clearly develops an understanding of passion with one of the locals, the lovely and intelligent Solana. Although this leaves Billy as a third wheel at times, it also nudges him into deep reflection:

I thought about all the guajiro [good friends] in other lands, their peaceable meals and traditions shattered and destroyed by war. A war that was still being waged, even here in this land of sun and palm trees. It was fought in hidden rooms and dark alleys, but it was war all the same. A war of spies, betrayals, and deceit.

These moments deepen Benn's page-turner, which spins crisis and conflict at a quick pace. The clever writing allows enough of these diversions to keep the body count in perspective. There's also the peril of becoming pals with a gangster who's got to protect his own investment first. Billy sees it:

I sort of trusted Lansky. Trusted him to act in his own interests, which coincided with ours in that he clearly didn't wish Hitler and his goods well.

Brace for battle, explosions, a touch of love and plenty of loss. This is book 21 in the series, and we readers can assume Billy will survive to the end of the war, as Benn keeps unearthing fascinating twists of history to enliven Billy's assignments. But there are no guarantees for his friends, are there?

Need a reminder of Dante's ninth circle of hell? It's the one for traitors. 

[For more reviews of the books in this enjoyable series, click here.] 

 

Cuban-American Romantic Suspense from Chanel Cleeton, THE CUBAN HEIRESS

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“A tenderness for Cuban life and the way the island draws people back to their roots colors the determined women of this novel and the men who assist them. Cleeton’s characters offer a beautiful pairing of tenderness and passion, anger and revenge, courage and resolution.”

 

This lively and twisty suspense novel from Chanel Cleeton pairs the glamour and desperation of women’s survival in the Great Depression, highlighted with a delicious Cuban American flair. Occupying different parts of the magnificent luxury liner S.S. Morro Castle are two women whose secrets intertwine, and two determined thieves, one charming, and the other a clear menace. Cruise-ship entertainment may hide the dangers during daylight, but on the night decks, murder knows few bounds.

 

Elena Reyes, say one woman’s false documents. Her first mission on the boat is to retrieve a pistol that’s been smuggled aboard for her, thanks to other Cuban American allies. Her justofied rage is more than sufficient for the pistol’s use—but are her other skills enough to protect her?

 

New York heiress Catherine Dohan can flash emerald earrings and a massive diamond engagement ring while traveling with her wealthy fiancé and his small child from an earlier marriage, with whom she’s not supposed to interact. But when the earrings turn out to be as false as her persona, that’s another revelation about the supposedly wealthy man she’s engaged to.

 

When the charming and insightful Harry pays too much attention to Catherine, her hunger for romance and real affection flares into an uncontrollable response. And even though she can see the hard-scrabble career of seduction and theft that Harry juggles, the complications of the deception she is working mean she needs an alliance with this mysterious rogue.

 

She’s done her best to size him up: “Perhaps he’s hunting for a wealthy spouse as well … While I shouldn’t fault him, given my own ambitions, I won’t countenance anyone jeopardizing mine.” Prodded, though, she spits out her reality: “I like seeing people get what’s coming to them.” With Harry’s widened eyes, she instantly knows she’s made a mistake and revealed that she’s not the spoiled and pampered heiress she’s working so hard to portray.

 

Cleeton deftly alternates points of view between these two crafty, scheming women, and only gradually is the connection between them revealed: a fire, an abusive man, an escape. A false death certificate. And something about Raymond, the man Catherine’s engaged to.

 

As Harry becomes a more trusted ally, he shares his criminal insight with her: “There’s something about Raymond—a disregard for others, disdain for anyone he views as beneath him. … Whatever your game is, don’t think he doesn’t have one of his own.”

 

Cleeton, a Florida native with Cuban roots of her own, shows the skills she’s honed in four earlier romantic historical novels as she whips between the two women’s deceptions and risks. A tenderness for Cuban life and the way the island draws people back to their roots colors the determined women of this novel and the men who assist them. Cleeton’s characters offer a beautiful pairing of tenderness and passion, anger and revenge, courage and resolution. Not until the poignant final chapters will all the twists be satisfyingly revealed, with Catherine’s wish fulfilled: that people “get what’s coming to them.” And that includes the possibility of love, after all.

 

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

New Cuban Mystery from Teresa Dovalpage, DEATH UNDER THE PERSEIDS

There's something very worrying about a free lunch: It could be provided with a dangerous ulterior motive. 

That's what Cuban-born Mercedes Spivey and her American professor husband ignore for far too long, when the couple receives a free pair of cruise tickets to the Spanish-speaking island that each one needs to revisit, for a different reason. Sweepstake winning? Accidental lottery reward? Who knows -- but the timing is so perfect that they don't question it, and jump onto a cruise boat, ready to enjoy the ride.

Within the first minutes on the cruise on the Narwhal, Mercedes spots someone from her own past ... and then perhaps a glimpse of a second person. It's a creepy coincidence, right? A chance to make things better with people she'd cut in the past? 

Teresa Dovalpage's previous Cuban mysteries are much sweeter than DEATH UNDER THE PERSEIDS, because this time we know right from the start — since Mercedes is sharing her viewpoint all along — that this "pretty woman" with her older husband has a lot to feel guilty about, and a lot left unresolved, as she's climbed her way, one affair at a time, to some sort of Floridian middle class. Soon it looks like she's surrounded by others with mixed motives. (Maybe the only truly nice person is her aging grandmother who still does the laundry by hand in the back yard of her Havana home.)

Mercedes begs us, as readers and witnesses, to believe there is one saint in her life: Lorenzo, whom she loved and left, and who then died in a fire. (Fire and blades and other threats abound!) Meanwhile, if she's the chief sinner here, are all the threats deserved? Does she still have the ability to dodge and weave, and come out ahead? Even as she disembarks in Havana, she's questioning her safety:

Two men approached the counter. One was a skinny, gray-bearded guy in a tie-dyed shirt who looked like a hippie—or at least my idea of what a hippie was. He went first. The other, who walked with a slight limp, carried a burgundy European Union passport. Our eyes met for a second, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I had seen him before. Maybe the other guy too. They both seemed sort of familiar. My throat closed and my heart pounded faster.

Dovalpage takes quite a risk herself, in presenting such an unpleasant protagonist, whose greed and self-centeredness are not really balanced by her endless chest-thumping guilt. Yet the net of threats and complications and the Cuban setting pull the story faster and faster, until it can't be set aside: The Perseids, the meteor shower that's taking place as revelations cascade, is that too somehow a message to Mercedes that her own crimes are known and she's about to lose at last?

DEATH UNDER THE PERSEIDS is much darker than Dovalpage's three earlier mysteries. Whether you collect it for the Cuban setting or for the ongoing suspense of how this maturing author will continue to develop, it's a must for the shelf. Kudos to Soho Crime (an imprint of Soho Press) for encouraging Dovalpage to move forward so fiercely.

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

Tasting Cuba Through a New Mystery, Teresa Dovalpage's DEATH COMES IN THROUGH THE KITCHEN

Exploring another place and culture through an enjoyable mystery in that setting has a long tradition -- readers have long appreciated vintage English village life through Agatha Christie's books, and many who will never reach Italy treasure Donna Leon's Venice. Scandinavian noir takes us to Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland; the Brazilian series by the late Leighton Gage showed us a tender love of place and people coupled with the horror of crime driven by poverty and corruption.

Now it's a delight to be able to look inside Cuba in 2003 in DEATH COMES IN THROUGH THE KITCHEN, the first mystery from accomplished Havana-born author Teresa Dovalpage (Soho Crime). Dovalpage calls her book a literary mystery -- I'd rather liken it to the classic "recipe" mysteries, including the current Maine series by Barbara Ross and two food-focused series that Massachusetts author Edith Maxwell (aka Maddie Day) provides.

DEATH COMES IN THROUGH THE KITCHEN opens with the arrival of totally inexperienced, unskilled tourist Matt Sullivan, who hasn't really thought out how complicated his situation is -- but he's coming through customs with a slightly used wedding dress, a gorgeous one, that he plans to give to his Cuban sweetheart Yarmila in hopes of gaining a loving commitment from him.

The problem is, Matt really doesn't know Yarmi all that well -- she writes a cooking blog that describes delicious Cuban dishes and he's been following her via the Internet, in his role as a San Diego journalist trying to promote Latin cuisine. And his arrival during the height of Fidel Castro's police-maintained power means he'll be an under-the-table guest at a fiercely proletarian guest house, and an illicit suitor.

But by the end of the second chapter, we readers know that Yarmi has been murdered -- and Matt, the ambitious American who thought he'd found his lifeetime sweetheart, is now both bereaved, and a murder suspect ... to both the police and Yarmi's, ahem, other connections.

In fact, he's even imprisoned for a bit, and of course his passport is seized:

"Let's see. You meet this citizen, spend ten days with her, don't see her face to face again, send her tons of money," Lieutenant Martínez paused here for effect, "and come back ready to marry her. Is that correct?"

"Yes, compañera," Matt let the reference to "tons of money" slip "That's correct."

Soon Matt's desperation leads him to accepting help from a former police detective turned Santeria practitioner. But will the assistance be enough? And could there be too much benefit for all involved, by tagging Matt with the crime?

I thoroughly enjoyed this romp through Cuba via Matt's naive perceptions, and look forward to the next in this series from Dovalpage -- because there's sure to be more about this set of wild and eccentric characters. New from Soho Crime (Soho Press), released today.

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