Brief Mentions: Mysteries from Kelly Irvin, Carrie Doyle, Cate Quinn

Trust Kelly Irvin for intense plotting that highlights the suspense in "romantic suspense." Her February release, HER EVERY MOVE (Thomas Nelson), pushes together a librarian and a detective when a bomb explodes during a climate change debate. Among deft red herrings and page-turning pressure, and with compelling attraction between them, Jackie Santoro and Detective Avery Wick turn the library's next event into an effective trap for a killer -- and a test run for their irrepressible need for each other's deep and intelligent attention. "Wick had an intensity that reminded her of sticking a bobby pin in a socket." Looking for a lively beach read? Grab this one.

There's something about a cozy mystery set at a rural inn that's hard to resist, especially when the innkeeper, Antonia Bingham, is an outstanding chef with abundant comments about the best gourmet delights. With DEATH ON BULL PATH (Poisoned Pen Press), the prolific Carrie Doyle expands her "Hamptons Murder Mystery" series. Antonia's forced collaboration with an obnoxious local journalist keeps her relatively safe and helps track down the killer in a pair of summerhouse murders ... but only a very last-minute discovery salvages her own romance with her movie-star crush, Nick Darrow. "You have a proclivity for danger," says her best friend.

If you look up author Cate Quinn online, you can get quickly confused, since her hefty thriller BLACK WIDOWS (Sourcebooks) gets labeled a debut, or a US debut, or her first thriller -- but actually she's an established historical fiction author in Europe. Thus, her plunge into Mormon polygamy for this thriller is an outsider's view of Utah and the American-origin religion with its powerful traditions. Telling a murder story from the points of view of three wives is a novel approach, but doesn't allow readers to follow the time-honored crime fiction task of assembling clues and working out the killer. So the book's a lively read (and hefty!), but won't satisfy genre fans.

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

Brief Mention: CLOSER THAN SHE KNOWS, Romantic Suspense from Kelly Irvin

Kelly Irvin is best known for her Amish romance books, but she also has a set of romantic suspense thrillers, and her latest is CLOSER THAN SHE KNOWS. In a clever introduction of a career rarely featured in crime fiction, protagonist Teagan O'Rourke is a court reporter who writes the official records, and we meet her at a moment when her task is far different from the desk work -- she's been in a terrible accident and must protect the evidence traveling with her. Soon the book's revealed to be stalker suspense, with Teagan as the victim and her potential beloved, Max Kennedy, as a sometimes fumbling but determined ally.

Irvin's drive to forward the romance for the couple sometimes pushes scenes a bit off kilter -- when Max gets wounded, it's not the crime that's elucidated, but his passion for Teagan, as he whispers from his gurney, "All I could think about was you. ... Life is short." And Teagan's own inner dialogue about the crime is, "Not being able to take people at face value sucked the life from a person."

Readers of romantic suspense as a subgenre will find CLOSER THAN SHE KNOWS to work familiar ground; make sure the doors are all locked, though, because the stalker aspect is pretty creepy, and the number of victims escalates rapidly. Those looking for Christian-themed fiction may also want to pick this up, although the religious aspects are a bit basic and blunt. If we ever get to beach reading this year (six feet apart for those towels?), this book will fit into the beach bag nicely. Publication date is May 13.

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