Naughty and Nice: Three Diverse Crime Novels for Your December List

Three crime fiction treats for your reading pleasure, now that the evenings are so long:

• Barbara Cleverly, INVITATION TO DIE.
• Martin Edwards, GALLOWS COURT.
• Gerry Boyle, RANDOM ACT.

Crime fiction fans are fortunate readers: They can dip deeply into a series, or explore a wide range, and either way, there's some great reading among the 2019 titles!

Let's start close to this reviewer's Vermont location with Gerry Boyle's 2019 title, RANDOM ACT. The 12th in Boyle's highly enjoyable dark crime series featuring Maine journalist Jack McMorrow, this is a gem of action, risk, and vicious crime. Most dangerous in this title is the romantic passion that Jack's Special Forces neighbor Louis drops into ... with a mysterious blond who brings Russian crime attention to the neighborhood. The only risk on this one is that you may need two copies, so you can give one to a friend as a holiday gift and keep the other for your own shelf. Well worth it! (We've been fans of all Boyle's work, always a good read. And Islandport Press does a nice job.)

Can't figure out why I haven't reviewed more of the crime fiction by Martin Edwards. GALLOWS COURT comes via Poisoned Pen Press, which is now a Sourcebooks imprint. Set in London, 1930, it's an astonishing classic sleuth novel featuring a woman detective clearly operating outside the law, Rachel Savernake. Double points of view keep the twists spinning, and the finale meets the quintessential criterion for a good novel: a perfect fit with what's happened, and yet an intense surprise. Reading Jacqueline Winspear, Charles Todd, Barbara Cleverly? Try Martin Edwards and put a pillow over the phone for the duration.

Classic English detective (inspector) fiction, Roaring Twenties, Cambridge, and romance: What a divine mix! This second in Barbara Cleverly's John Redfyre series (the first was Fall of Angels last year) has a delightful set of treats, along with a series of mysterious crimes that involve multiple murders and insight into a "dark and bloody war." A gem of a comment to Detective Inspector Redfyre from a medical examiner in here:

"They say death's a leveller," the doctor murmured, "but I don't know. It's hardly a scientific view, but it always seems to my jaundiced eye to accentuate differences. And sometimes it distorts. Subjects take on a deceptively saintly aspect—and the reverse. Looking at our bloke, I'd say 'saintly,' wouldn't you? He may have been an utter blackguard in life, of course. That's up to you to discover, my friend."

You don't need to read the first in the series, but Cleverly, published by Soho Crime/Soho Press, is a consistently agile and entertaining storyteller; grab this one, and the odds suggest you'll want some or all of the others. (The Joe Sandilands series, her earlier one, is highly satisfying.)

Good luck with your list ... hope this gives you a boost into the season, whether for gifts or for self-spoiling stress relief and delight.

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

How to Risk It All, in STRAW MAN, Gerry Boyle

Ten Jack McMorrow crime novels came out over the years before Mainer Gerry Boyle's just-released STRAW MAN. Through those ten, Jack has rescued his family from threats brought by his career as a freelance crime reporter (think New York Times and more) and also from some creeps that his wife Roxanne's career antagonized (social workers meet a tough crowd). So you'd think his cred at home would be pretty good, especially considering what a great parent he is to their daughter Sophie. Plus Jack's combat-trained (but peace-loving) neighbor Claire and his wife Mary life next door, close friends with Jack and Roxanne and their charming six-year-old.

You'd be wrong this time, though.

Some of the problem came from Jack -- walking into the house bloody and battered isn't a great example for your little daughter, right? Of course, with Jack, the fight was for someone else's sake, and for the balance of good in the universe, or at least his region of rural Maine. And it won't get in the way of the next two stories he plans to explore for the newspaper, either, especially since one of them is on indie gun sales. But this time, Roxanne doesn't see things that way.

Roxanne took a deep breath, looked up from the mug, and said, "I'm worried about Sophie."

"Why? She seemed fine." ...

"Did you look in the mirror, Jack? Your face, your hands. What the hell happened?"

"There were some guys poaching wood off the Hoddings' land."

... "You had a brawl in the woods? ... My God, Jack. You can't do this anymore. You have a daughter."

"That's why we made sure we won."

Roxanne isn't buying into Jack's reasoning -- at all. The new factor in the equation that used to balance the two of them (and their little daughter) is named Welt, and he disapproves of male violence. Roxanne thinks that's heroic: "Welt is a really nice guy. What he's doing is good. He wants to make the world a better place."

So does Jack McMorrow, when you come right down to it. That's why he got into that "brawl" in the woods, defending the assets of a vulnerable elderly couple. It's also what will pull him so deep into his two cross-pollinating stories of gun sales and local Mennonites that he'll keep telling himself -- and Roxanne -- that he has to take action to save others.

The trouble is, Roxanne doesn't believe him any longer. And Jack isn't sure whether she's already considering leaving him, for this Welt guy. In fact, each added scrap of evidence says she's almost on her way.

There's never been a situation before for Jack McMorrow that his friendship with Claire couldn't solve. Until now.

Gerry Boyle's action-packed storytelling never slows down in STRAW MAN. Every couple of pages there's a new twist, and the suspense keeps twisting tighter. When the threats in his work life angle sideways toward Roxanne and little Sophie, Jack's own risks turn almost unbearable.

Here's a plus: You don't need to read any of the other Jack McMorrow books before this one -- you can ride the fast-paced plot and feel yourself twist and agonize with Jack all the way through, without needing to know what came before this. (You might want to collect the others afterward, though, to catch up!) On the other hand, if you've been reading them all along -- and most especially the most recent, Once Burned -- the stakes will feel even higher, the danger more inescapable.

Way to go, Gerry Boyle (and Islandport Press). And Jack McMorrow.

Maine Crime Fiction from Gerry Boyle, ONCE BURNED

In the 10th title in his Jack McMorrow series, ONCE BURNED, Gerry Boyle evokes primal terror: the sum of those consuming and compelling emotions when someone threatens the life of your family, especially your child. Piling on plot threads and sharp twists, this page-turner is both a powerful work of crime fiction, and a fine New England example of what trouble a job with high stakes, some deep friendships, and determination to "do the right thing" can get a person into.

Jack McMorrow is a news writer, a journalist, living in Maine. At home, he's an active dad of Sophie, the preschool daughter he and his wife Roxanne are raising. But every now and then, and this is one of those months, he's got to step back into his work shoes and develop a long story that the New York Times will pay big bucks for, complete with sidebars and insight. His wife Roxanne's newly done with her career slot -- or at least she's supposed to be -- but one of her last actions as a social worker for the State of Maine has just turned into a blame-fest of a child's death and a furious mom, and there are newspaper reporters -- not Jack -- calling the house for comment.

One of my favorite things about reading Gerry Boyle's mysteries is that even when his protagonist is an "amateur sleuth" like Jack McMorrow, stepping over the line into pursuing the truth about a crime himself instead of just watching and recording it, the decisions up front are smart, not stupid. Jack's not the kind of person to neglect to lock a door when he knows there's a criminal around, and he's a loyal more-than-friend to his neighbor and ex-military operator Clair and Clair's wife Mary. Strong and savvy in the ways of violent criminals -- from his Vietnam war past -- Clair is even more protective of Jack's family than Jack is.

Which makes ONCE BURNED an extra scary book, because there are three people -- at least -- trying to force Jack and Roxanne to back away from their work and integrity, and all are threatening not just Jack, not just Roxanne, but little Sophie. And even Clair is getting challenged, trying to keep up the defense.

The book races into action from the start: There's an arsonist tearing apart the magazine-glow image of the little town of Sanctuary, Maine, far enough from Jack's home to make him out of reach if he's on the story, but close enough for him to keep racing over there as tragedies multiply. Meanwhile, Roxanne's former client, mom of a child who's died in foster care --- in a home that Roxane provided -- is clearly "off her meds" and setting records in stalking and threatening. And even the "good guys" out in Sanctuary and looking pretty strange by now.

"Jack," Tory said. "Somebody is threatening your property, even our family. What do you do?"

"Call the police?" I said.

"Sure, but what if the police are a half-hour away? What if by the time you see the fire, it's been burning for at least that long? What if the person doing this has free run of the town because at three a.m., everyone is asleep?"

"I don't know," I said. "You tell me."

"In a situation like this you have to take back the night, Jack," Tory said.

Jack will have to use all his skills, investigative, writing, and parental, to keep his family safe this time, and to get the massive story that will provide the paycheck his family needs.

Boyle proves once again that a really good mystery must be much more than an intricate and believable plot: It requires characters who speak to us, and echo our own loves and doubts. With Jack McMorrow and his extended family, Boyle has constructed a powerful frame of love and struggle where his storytelling consistently lays out the memorable, the involved, the must-read caring for people "like us" who rely on each other in tough and frightening situations. Jack and Roxanne -- and Sophie -- may not come through this one unscathed. But they will come through it with us, the readers, increasingly committed to their journey.