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.] 

 

Sujata Massey Provides Fifth India Mystery, A STAR FROM CALCUTTA, with Perveen Mistry

For the only female lawyer in Bombay in 1922, it seems every situation offers a new challenge. Can Perveen maintain her dignity in a culture that's suspicious of women in new roles? Will her father allow her to tackle important cases, or will his natural tendency to protect her always diminish her role? 

And, for those who've been following this Soho Press series that began with The Widows of Malabar Hill, will Perveen and her (very much forbidden) European heartthrob be able to keep their relationship adequately hidden?

On the monsoon-soaked morning that opens A STAR FROM CALCUTTA, Perveen's father announces that their day is already committed to a new client: Champa Films, owned by Subhas Ghoshal and his actress wife from Calcutta. Perveen quickly says, "No introduction needed! I'm familiar with his films and the Calcutta star he's married."

And it's the star that has caught Perveen's attention -- "Rochana's involved in sword fights and riding runaway horses and car chases. She's quite famous for being the best at it."

This isn't reassuring for her father, who prefers the formality of Parsi theater. But to Perveen's surprise, he already has a plan to place her as lead counsel in the case, which is about Rochana the actress. At the film studio Jamshedji tells the producer, "I will always be available, but I believe it would be more appropriate for my eminently qualified daughter to be your chief counsel."

Soon the case takes on fresh complications -- a death, a disappearance, roaming film animals (all too real), and a labor strike. Is the film company too broke to pay properly? Why has Rochana vanished? And where is the girlfriend Perveen's brought with her, who should be helping to maintain propriety in this wild compound of scantily garbed and possibly cocaine-high performers?

How will Perveen handle a court appearance, a coroner's results, and the complications of culture classes? With Massey's smooth writing and clever plot twists, this is a delightful page-turner rich with details of a nation entering global modernity ... and with the often difficult changes in expectations for women and the people who care about them.

Well paced and satisfying, with nearly 400 pages, this sequel shows Massey taking firm hold of her material and well aware of the expectations of the genre. It's a good change from the standard American legal thriller, a comfortable "read," and offers insight into the divided cultural landscape of one of today's Great Powers. More on the author, here: sujatamassey.com.  And for reviews of earlier titles in the series, click here.

 

Buckle Up for a Wild Ride of Murder and Snort-Your-Coffee Humor with Karsten Dusse, MURDER MINDFULLY

The classics of darkly funny crime fiction are feeling a bit dated -- who reads Donald Westlake's caper mysteries now? Of course, there are a lot of murder clubs and sleuth clubs overlapping into public television, but a lot of the humor there comes from the slightly worn-out trope of elderly ladies snooping around (hello, Miss Marple) and younger ones tumbling into chaos.

So hurrah for German lawyer and TV writer Karsten Dusse, whose 2019 book Achtsam Morden arrived on the US market this year, thanks to translator Florian Duijsens and Soho Press. Even the title is a very funny tease: MURDER MINDFULLY.

Björn Diemel is a very harassed attorney. Working for a big firm where he's responsible for successful criminal defense of violent offenders and psychopaths (sociopaths? both??), he's clear-eyed about his career: "Even my wife occasionally found my work rather questionable. But explaining our legal system to other people wasn't my job. My job was to exploit that system using every trick in the book. I made my money doing good for bad people."

Even though he knows he's doing exactly the work he's supposed to, and excellently, Diemel gets stressed by all this. Now his wife's fed up, but giving him one last chance -- which he'll grab, because he's desperate to have time with the little daughter he adores (and who he rarely sees already, due to Work).  

Which puts him into sessions with a mindfulness expert, for the sake of all that. Because even when he can spend time with his daughter, his mind is racing for work issues.

Joschka Breitner is more than willing to teach Diemel to pull himself back together through intention, focus, true mindfulness. But you know that thing about unintended consequences? It probably applies. After his first lesson, which even eases the tension in his neck, Diemel is fully appreciative:

"It was to be several weeks, however, before I realized that what Breitner revealed next would become the mantra for my first murder."

After all, when you're responsible for a shady criminal who sees accidental murders along the way as your problem to solve -- and he's "not only a brutal pimp, but also a big drug and arms dealer" -- and Dragan Sergowicz starts interfering with all the commitments to mindfully parenting and being courteous to the menacing mother of your child -- well, what tools are at hand for resolving things? 

It turns out that mindfulness coaching can lead to some very effective solutions! Of course, they might not be legal. Or morally great. But if they work?

Half the fun of this European farce of almost 400 pages is realizing, just a second ahead of Diemel, how he's going to apply his latest mindfulness lesson. Clear the calendar for the weekend, for this very entertaining page turner.

BIG NEWS: MURDER MINDFULLY is a debut, but Soho Press has clearly been working hard at catching up -- and the translation of the next book in this Mindful Murder series,  MY INNER CHILD WANTS TO KILL, will release in August. By then, you may be ready to apply more of the lessons that you and Diemel are painstakingly learning!

 

New Taipei Night Market Crime Novel from Ed Lin, THE DEAD CAN'T MAKE A LIVING

 

If you are an American or a European, you may feel like "immigrants" is a fighting word where you live -- the kind of issue that lures people into strong positions and sometimes regrettable statements. Your region's not the only one struggling with issues of migration, migrant workers, and immigration, though.

Ed Lin's newest Taipei Night Market novel (I reviewed Incensed, 99 Ways to Die, and Death Doesn't Forget - click on those) releases from Soho Crime on April 7, but of course you can pre-order it if you like. And THE DEAD CAN'T MAKE A LIVING is so packed with humor, peril, and plot twists that you might as well line up a copy to get you through whatever crises you feel like you are just barely handling.

 It helps if you know what the night market is in Taiwan, but Lin is expert at pulling you into the action with deft strokes of explanation. During his first class session at the night college that Jing-nan recently signed up for, to improve his life options, he's ready with a self-intro: "I want to tell you about my daily life, what it's like at the Shilin Night Market, where I have a stand called Unknown Pleasures. Visitors from every continent around the world love our skewers."

 But his very nasty teacher would rather tell the class about all the crimes Jing-nan's been involved with, calling them "stunts" and saying Jing-nan is associated with figures from Taiwan's underworld.

 Well, that last part is true, but it's not something Jing-nan would talk about --  he does have family members who carry clout in the criminal world. With such a nasty teacher, he's glad to know others will back him up, even though there's always a price to pay for that kind of support, isn't there?

The crux of this crime novel begins to unfold just a few pages in, as a group of Filipino customers are taking up a lot of the seats when Jing-nan gets back to his food stand. His quick math indicates they've spent a lot of money on his food, and he's glad to encourage them.

"We're happy to have generous customers like you. Thank you all so much." I meant it sincerely. These weren't tourists from the Philippines. They were migrant workers, and some had been taking the government Mandarin classes. Maybe they were from the nearby food-processing plant. ... they streamed into the night market, which offered a lot of food and entertainment for relatively cheap. I put my hands together and bowed my head slightly to my customers, a universal sign of humility and appreciation for their business. 

For Jing-nan, that amounts to a commitment to see even these migrant workers treated well. So when one of them is clearly murdered, and another asks him for help finding out what happened, this chef and "adult student" agrees to look into the death.

Soon he's in too deep to back out, and even his uncle Big Eye can't stop bad things from happening to him. Ever the entrepreneur, he speculates on the value of adding a crime blog to his food blog:

My crime posts wouldn't be journalistic and dry. They would start on a visceral note: "Two hours in, blood from my loosened molar continued to drip down my throat. I asked for a drink of water to wash away the metallic taste, but my kidnapper refused. It was going to be a long night."

Will Jing-nan ever make it back to class? Actually, with his relatives interfering on his behalf, will his nasty teacher make it back?? And how will all of this affect his bottom line, his de facto marriage to Nancy, and his ability to staff his food stand?

Admit it. You have to know what happens next. I did ... I couldn't put this one down. 

Two Memorable Crime Novels for Winter Reading: Con Lehane's THE RED SCARE and Cara Black's HUGUETTE (December Releases)

New York City in 1950 held neighborhoods far more separate than they are today: From Hell's Kitchen, where Mick Mulligan is starting his new chapter as a private investigator (PI), to the neighborhood where a black cab driver's family lives, means Mick's white Irish self steps into danger, threat, and abuse. But this isn't just his first case—it's his only case, dangled in front of him by organized labor leaders, which Mick's already aware means just a doorway away from organized crime. 

Besides, Mick can't work his own trade any longer, thanks to the anti-Communist rage sweeping the nation:

This was the reasoning—I went to meetings with Communists, I ate lunch with Communists, I agreed with Communists on certain things—that got me fired from my job as a cartoonist (we liked to call ourselves animators) at the Disney studio, won me a place on the Hollywood blacklist, and brought me back to New York City, where I hung out my shingle as a private investigator.

Mick's investigation and his own safety are tangled with union politics and high-powered maneuvering by men ready for serious power. He's not a serious "Red" himself, although he believes every working person should get a fair deal. But that's enough to paint a label on him, leading into what author Con Lehane calls THE RED SCARE MURDERS (release delayed to Dec. 16). 

And the label can swipe in all directions, as his taxi driver, an old friend of the man on death row that Mick's trying to exonerate, makes clear:

"You one of them fellas who go out and save the guy the cops thought done it? ... That's what Harold needs. Harold didn't kill no one. ... Maybe it was them Communists he got himself mixed up with."

Lehane's language is perfect for this page-turner crime novel, with phrases like "his tone as sincere as a priest in a pulpit," and plenty of Irish immigrant heritage tossed in.  One of Mick's helpful allies even mentions Hollywood detective fiction author Dashiell Hammett, in an effort to encourage the would-be PI: "I guess he told me this because Hammett had been Red-baited too."

Swing along for the smart and sometimes devious women, the men puzzling out the politics of the time, the darkness of urban angers and the gentle efforts of friendship. THE RED SCARE is a classic of the urban noir genre, with plenty of quick twists and not much gore. Besides, there are such strong parallels in the social politics of Lehane's 1950s and our own 2025 that you could imagine this feisty crime novel was just written last month. Great fun and good reading.

THE RED SCARE is one of the November releases from Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press, and definitely has a place on the winter to-be-read (TBR) stack, for both nostalgia and good feelings.

Another December release from Soho Crime, HUGUETTE by Cara Black (Dec. 2), might qualify for some "trigger warnings." Set in Paris at the end of World War II, it's jammed with rape, everyday sexual and physical abuse, and messy violent deaths of nice people. 

But for any reader of Black's excellent Aimée Leduc Paris PI series, this is a must-read. The first few chapters flip back and forth between 1947 and 1945, not always smoothly. About a third of the way into this 300-page historical police and crime novel, the name Leduc comes up, and Cara Black fans know we're on our way into a significant "back-story" to the popular series. How much trust can Huguette Faure place in the "flic" (cop) who offers to help her? Who murdered her father and stole the family business? What are the secrets behind the grown children who now surround her, and who don't know what was stolen -- or, more poignantly, WHO was stolen -- from this attractive, determined, and impoverished young woman who'd been given such a bad hand by history and crime as a pair?

"These cocky soldiers needed to be shown they couldn't treat her like a kid," Huguette thinks as she puts herself in fresh danger with more questions. "Establish authority, her father would say, when dealing with black marketers."

But Black's double epigraph to the book includes a quote from Benito Mussolini's foreign minister Count Galeazzo Ciano, and it's one Huguette should keep in mind: "Victory finds a hundred fathers but defeat is an orphan."

If you can keep reading, with hope, through Huguette's grievous losses, Black's portrait of postwar Paris and her backstory to Aimée Leduc will be a gift to your mystery-loving soul. Buy two copies: one for a friend's holiday gift, and one to treat yourself to some willing Parisian distraction as you keep checking your lists. 

Three Kinds of Crime Fiction/Mystery, 3 Settings: Hamburg, Fiji, Maine

Catching up a bit ...

I picked up HAMBURG NOIR over the summer, as it had an August release date. Part of the top-notch and provocative Akashic Noir series, it's edited by Jan Karsten and mostly translated -- 11 out of the 14 stories -- by Noah Harley. The book's presented in three sections: Water & Schnapps, Dream & Reality, Power & Oblivion. The 10-page introduction is extraordinary in itself, an introduction to the German city from a lover's lips.

When I opened the book, I expected to taste something of the city where my father was born, in 1925, to parents "just Jewish enough" to need to leave their homeland. But that Hamburg is not in the book, and the reason's clear in looking at the author biographies: Most of the authors were born in the 1960s, long after war had changed their landscape. I was eager to read what Zoë Beck would contribute ("Abreast Schwartzonnensand"), as I'd read some of her other fiction. Hers turned out to be a courtroom scene shaped as a play, all dialogue, one of the most interesting works of crime fiction I've read. Other stories, more conventional in form, range from a handful of pages to a story of almost 30 pages by Matthias Wittekindt. And all of them, as expected, are dark, often twisted, even malicious.

I liked this passage from Katrin Seddig's tale, set in the Altona district:

I wasn't Miles Davis. The world wasn't a film noir, the world was gloomy and foolish, it had no beauty. That was the difficulty: to track down the beauty in it all. Wasn't that the essence? Everything always looked like something else to me—that, or I was left searching for it something that I already knew and hoped to find in what I was seeing.

If Hamburg is one of your love languages, pull this onto your bookshelf. If noir is how you wrestle with the world, ditto. And if you just want to play tourist -- well, this book will prevent you from going to Hamburg. So maybe take a pass, unless perhaps you're longing to feel better about New York by contrast.

Nilima Rao's second Fiji mystery featuring Sergeant Akal Singh came out in June. SHIPWRECK IN FIJI (Soho Crime), set in 1915, with the Great War echoing from the other side of the world, is indeed (as its press release claims) "brimming with warmth and humor." The Indian-born police officer is way out of his comfort zone, still struggling to grasp the culture in which he's been pinned. Chasing down possible Germans on a nearby island should seem familiar, but instead Akal lands in more confusion as he meets native villagers whose tribal customs may prevent pursuit of the criminals he's after. For the sake of his friend Taviti, ready to translate the local customs, Akal takes on a mentor's role in policing, and learns a great deal about the "true stories" that men tell each other. I couldn't put this one down. (And you don't need to have read the first in the series, A Disappearance in Fiji, but you'll probably want to catch up with it after Akal has you applauding his efforts.)

I didn't realize at first that Scott Carson was the pseudonym of Michael Koryta --  if I'd known, I might not have tried the new title under the Carson authorship, DEPARTURE 37, for fear it would be "too terrifying" for my taste. That would have been my loss! It's rare that an author can provide underpinnings to time travel as part of a crime novel or thriller and have it all make sense. This book, set in coastal northern Maine, takes 16-year-old Charlie through a naval experiment that tears open her life, starting with the moment when her deceased mother's voice speaks to her from the cockpit of a wrecked plane, saying what hundreds of pilots across the country are also hearing in the voices of people they love: Don't fly today. I refuse to offer any spoilers ... that should be enough to let you know whether this is your kind of good read. To my delight, it was one of my best treats of the season, and goes onto my "let's read this again" shelf, for sure, with its attachment to "the most famous moment in the history of artificial intelligence."

More reviews soon, as I'm now writing them for two other publications, just figuring out my footing. Or pagination.

 

Scottish Noir, THE DIARY OF LIES by Philip Miller (3rd Shona Sandison Book)

Beach reading is wrapping up -- it's time for substantial and satisfying crime fiction to go with the hints of autumn rolling in. And the newest investigative reporter novel from Edinburgh's Philip Miller is perfect for the task.

THE DIARY OF LIES picks up with Shona Sandison, whose necessary walking cane (an injury sustained in The Golden Acre; more about it in The Hollow Tree) disguises her determination to get the scoop for her newspaper, no matter the risks. The promotional material for the book calls it a "paranoid political thriller." That would almost qualify it for nonfiction at this point, wouldn't it? Shona takes the situation seriously and angrily (a good definition of Shona herself), making it frustrating when her investigation takes her into what feels briefly like some adult-level fairy-tale crossover between Britain's "Green Man" and the mythic Robin Hood. Yet violence keeps erupting around her, and her narrow escapes are far from amusing. 

When a sketchy woman armed with a shotgun opts to let Shona past the gateway to a hidden Internet guru, she's still stunned from her sudden morning tumble into blood and threat. "Her path had been disarranged. Now, she barely knew her way forward." Plus, she's a city worker — how can she handle a situation that's taking her away from paved roads and GPS and all? Her abrupt passage comes with instructions from a rough woman leading her further off road:

"Over the stile and through the trees," the woman said. "Keep going straight ahead ... you'll come to a large house. The manor. The curtains will be drawn. You'll find Robin in there."

"Robin?"

"Loxley.  You'll be entering the back of the house. Wait at the curtained window — you'll hear the radio. Don't go in, love—he's armed. Wait to be let in."

Shona looked at the woman, calmly exhaling smoke. She was warning of deadly violence, yes she seemed serene.

"Okay. This way?" Shona pointed to the fence.

"I'm not repeating myself, sunshine."

What she discovers at the crumbling old mansion is a far cry from an upscale data farm, yet it offers access to the information she needs to make sense of the political corruption she's discovered. 

Shona looked at the data loading, the entwined wires, the blinking lights. This was not the journalism she'd grown up with, in which she had made her way. This was about systems, codes, data and access. Arcane technologies. ... She felt uneasy. Aware of how afraid she might be. 

It won't be easy to run, when the time comes. Not with her cane, and not without it. But bullets will soon fly.

One of the delights of this dark and well-twisted novel is the steady echo of Britain's older cultures beneath the action. There's no need to read the two preceding novels, but those who have will notice right away that the sense of ancient mythos and of a universe that's not automatically friendly is still throbbing in Miller's version of Edinburgh and its surroundings. 

Watch for the threads that tie Shona, however reluctantly, to her uncertain allies. If she's going to both survive the threats and provide a top-notch and substantiated journalistic exposé, she'll need every connection she can summon.

Soho Press describes this new release as a good fit for "for fans of Ian Rankin, John le Carré, and Denise Mina." I'd extend the list to work by Paul Doiron, Lee Child, Ruth Rendell, Jaqueline Winspear, and Charles Todd. If "political paranoia" is getting to you, racing against it with Shona Sandison may bring a sense of relief and capability, as well as the satisfaction of a soundly constructed and resonant crime novel.

New Billy Boyle World War II Mystery, A BITTER WIND, by James Benn

About six weeks from now, the latest World War II mystery featuring Captain Billy Boyle comes out. That seems like a long time in terms of what's happening in my garden in the meantime ... but this may also be a perfect moment for a heads-up about an enthralling new adventure that you could want to pre-order, or at least place on your autumn reading list, or even reserve at the local library.

A BITTER WIND (the title's from a Sherlock Holmes quote) is the 20th in this lively series. James R. Benn adeptly reintroduces Boyle and his allies for those new to the group: Billy works in a special task force for General Eisenhower, solving crimes in the Allied forces and behind the lines of battle. Who would guess that on Christmas Day 1944, as the war seems closer to ending and Germany is in retreat in many locations, England's own shores would be unsafe?

Yet Billy and his girlfriend Diana, a leader in the Special Operations Executive ("dangerous work in occupied Europe"), literally stumble upon a murdered officer on a seacoast cliff on one of their few days off together. When Billy locates top-secret documents in the dead man's pocket, it's clear that espionage is underway. Unexpectedly, Diana is the senior officer in the investigation. So a pressing question is, can Billy and his own best friend Kaz, short for Lieutenant Piotr Kazimierz, keep to an agreement that Diana and the other women in this coastal secret base will take the lead?

Like Billy and Diana, readers will find almost no quiet time in this rapid-action adventure. Deaths multiply, and savvy women hold many of the threads of information that Billy needs to pull. Series fans who bonded with Kaz's sister Angelika, a recovering concentration camp victim, will see her come into her own in this book: How could she not be of value to the British, with her many languages, analytical skills, and determination to defeat the Germans?

What fun it is to discover the daughter of Sherlock Holmes author Arthur Conan Doyle as a character in this history-hugging novel! As Billy agrees not to ask officer Jean Conan Doyle about her father and she offers not to quiz him about Eisenhower, she admits, "So it seems we are bound by our more famous relatives, are we not?"

Conan Doyle decides to send Billy into occupied Yugoslavia, to connect with partisans there and track down the strands of espionage and murder, as well as prisoners who've escaped the Germans. It will be dangerous. She explains:

The north is crawling with armed bands, some young men seeking to avoid conscription by Mussolini's army or forced labor for the Germans. I imagine the SOE is actively aiding them, but that's not my department. Our job is to intercept the information and pass it on. ... While the Croatian fascists are savage, they understand how to obey their masters. The German transmissions make it clear they want the escapees captured and returned.

Billy's already aware that Yugoslavians are a conflicted bunch:

I was aware that Josip Broz Tito led the Partisans, and that they were giving the Germans a run for their money. Tito's bunch were Communists, which didn't seem to trouble anyone as long as they kept killing Germans. The Serbian Chetniks supported the former king and didn't like Communism.

Confused yet? So is Billy, but the bottom line is, once he's back in an active war area, all of those forces are coming after him. Whether he and his team can rescue the witness they need for their British murder investigation will depend on being able to dodge ammo, ride horses, and forge alliances with the "right" people.

Ties to an earlier European murder investigation will take series readers back to "the criminal who got away," with Benn supplying enough reminders or quick explanations for old and new fans to realize how the danger to Billy Boyle swiftly ramps up. We know it's a series—he's got to survive—but for a while, the outcome looks chancy.

Crime solvers won't get a full workout in A BITTER WIND because the explanations for the murder twists tumble together near the end in a set of hasty connections. But maybe Billy's got no other way to absorb them, considering the risky and challenging adventure underway. 

This is a true page-turner. Watch especially for Angelika's actions. Benn's sleight of hand reveals wartime as a season of heroes of all genders. That's part of the results of his consistently solid and astounding research, once again.

Football? FBI? Woman Taking Risks? and Southern! Dip Into MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42, by Eli Cranor

Eli Cranor moves toward the middle of the field, away from some of the gore and violence of Don't Know Tough, Ozark Dogs, and Broiler, to spin an entertaining crime novel in MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42, available August 5. 

Set, of course, in Mississippi, the plot tests how a college football team can excel and make it to the top tier -- when the money pushing it forward is unquestionably dirty. FBI rookie Rae Johnson, whose life as a top coach's daughter makes her a pro at analyzing the sport, doesn't yet have field experience in her new career. Six days of crawling through documents about team performance and the thriving success of its hometown hasn't thrilled her, but it's made her certain that no bunch of college players could possibly be as clean as the records show. No DWI? No speeding? No partner issues? Someone's cleaning things up.

Her partner Frank agrees. But unless they can find the threads to the man manipulating the situation, and fast, they'll have to wrap it all up and go back to the office.

Rae's determined to do better than that. 

A month ago, the FBI Director had been handing Quantico's Leadership Award to Rae, top of her class again, but where had that gotten her? Stuck with a past-his-prime field agent investigating a possible NCAA fraud case in Compson, Mississippi. The White-Collar Crime division of the FBI wasn't exactly the trajectory Rae had imagined for her career. A Joint Terrorism Take Force would've been more her speed. More contact. More action. A badass in a black jacket with JTTF stamped across the back, chasing down leads, collecting counterintelligence, and nullifying national security threats. Then again, how many agents' daddies were college football coaches? Rae knew why she was in Compson; she was there because of her father.

The death of rising star quarterback Matt Talley pushes Rae into overdrive, determined to solve a murder as well as track down the stink of dirty money. Her father's maxims are her go-to wisdom: at this point, "In case of doubt, attack." Is it wise for her to pursue the bad guys (hint: a noose is involved) or to fake a background in order to get close to the replacement quarterback? Will her pursuit of an "inside man" break the case, or break out in naked moments? (Come to think of it, how did her field-agent partner stay calm when Rae accidentally answered her door without pants on?)

Under the great action and the quick shots of humor, there's a beguiling protagonist here whose choices may not be wise, but are still smart, strong, and very understandable. The ultimate disaster for Rae comes with a stunning twist, and her ability to save herself -- and the case -- will depend directly on what kind of FBI agent she really is.

You don't have to know a field goal from a touchdown to love this one. And diving into it could be the best break of your summer vacation. Thanks, Eli Cranor and Soho Crime.

PS - Cranor is an Edgar winner. And Soho Crime/Soho Press calls this a series debut! I'm in. 

Book Reviews Continue -- Over at the Writing Blog

The reviews are shorter now, and less formal, but with fresh energy. Don't miss the recommendations for new books, especially Chris McKinney's Eventide, Water City. Here you go: https://bethkanell.blogspot.com

Brief Mention: Dark Revenge Crime Fiction from Eli Cranor, OZARK DOGS

My home-grown measure of a good crime novel is the number of people I'd like to give a copy to. On that scale, alas, OZARK DOGS by Eli Cranor scored really low. 

And it's not because of the violence. Anyone reading dark stuff, "noir," knows how to handle that. Plus I really appreciated Cranor's earlier crime novel, Don't Know Tough.

Partly it's because nothing turns out right for anyone in this Southern thriller with a missing teen and her secretive granddaughter.

But the bigger part is because it paints a compelling image of "country folk" as violent, menacing, and ready to hold deadly grudges across generations (the pre-publication publicity even mentioned Hatfield–McCoy blood feud). Cranor is such a convincing writer that readers run a risk of thinking this Southern Gothic shows the real world.

Sure, you can put menace and despair into fiction, and maybe some readers won't take it personally. But give me a choice and I'll take the way Randall Silvis handles the theme instead, where courage and loyalty have as much of a presence as the junkyard dogs and the weapons.

Get a copy if you want to go really, really bleak. Just don't blame me if you drop into a week of depression or waste the grocery money on chocolate, to recover.

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

Terrific Sniper Thriller from Cara Black, NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS

[Originally posted at New York Journal of Books] 

“Black's work is leaping ahead in power and energy, and Night Flight to Paris is one of the notable thrillers of the season.”

Cara Black, well known for her long Parisian series featuring PI Aimée Leduc, has come into her own. Her new series features a woman sniper who, in last year’s first book of the series, Three Hours in Paris, faced nightmares of capture and death as she works undercover for the British, on multiple assassination targets.

In the second book in this dramatic and fast-paced new approach, Night Flight to Paris, American Kate Rees thinks her failed mission (as she sees it) from 1940 will keep her in Britain as a sharpshooting instructor for the rest of the war. But in 1942 her former handler, Colonel Stepney, has pressing reasons to send her back to the occupied City of Light on a triple mission: a delivery, an assassination, and the exfiltration of one of her close friends, Margo, who's specifically demanded Kate's assistance.

But nothing's very clear in the rushed briefing to the mission, as Colonel Stepney seems to be more than a bit obscure, telling Kate: "‘A good undercover legend is like a diamond. Crafted to meet the four Cs—the carat, cut, clarity, and color. They sparkle so brightly you can't look past them.’ Diamonds were hard. Was Stepney saying something else here? ‘Much of your mission depends on what happens on the ground after you land, and how Margo plays it. We can't know anything for sure.’ Plan. Pivot. And re-plan. Hadn't Wilkes drilled that into the trainees? Or as her pa would say, ya gotta be ready to turn on a dime, Katie.”

When Stepney issues Kate a cyanide suicide pill, that confirms how risky this mission will be. And it's complicated by the mess Kate left behind two years earlier since there is a warrant out for her arrest in Paris, and she'll have to be in heavy disguise as a result.

Black ramps up the tension in every plot twist, and offers an unforgettable experience of both wartime Paris and the sheer guts and creativity needed for undercover work. 

“She'd walked into a setup. Her own damn fault. ... Under her Red Cross Cape, she slid her 9mm Welrod's 12-inch cylinder, containing its bolt, barrel and baffle, down her sleeve. It took seconds, during which she never broke eye contact with the Nazi.”

In contrast to Black’s Leduc books, this new series avoids swaddling the action in romantic questions, which in turn leaves Kate Rees clearer about her own capacity, able to plan swiftly, and incisive in questioning what’s coming at her and responding from strength, despite some obvious flaws in her preparation:

“In the garage, Kate opened her bag in the creaking cabinet, ready to change into the Wehrmachthelferinnen uniform. Sickening Nazi symbols decorated the sleeves. Would it fit her big-boned frame? With this uniform and the stolen ID, she’d have credentials and blend in unnoticed. But the few phrases of German she’d picked up left a lot to be desired. Face it: the moment she opened her mouth she’d be dead.”

Overall, Black shows that her transition from the Leduc detective series to this thriller format is an excellent choice. Although there are a few inconsistencies at chapter jumps—maybe from all the adrenaline in crafting this high-suspense, high-threat adventure—Black's work is leaping ahead in power and energy, and Night Flight to Paris is one of the notable thrillers of the season.

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

TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER, Striking New Sicilian Crime Fiction from Maria Rosa Cutrufelli

The opening chapters of TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER go very slowly, as the narrator—would-be author of a biography of Cettina, now Tina, a Mafia youth—renews her acquaintance with Gela, a city in Sicily. This harsh frontier-like city, once a coveted location in ancient history, is now a battered orphan of the petrochemical industry. Its historic face has vanished; instead, the narrator sees it as "Young and cruel. It's a cruel landscape that I find hard to recognize and doesn't correspond to the map of my memory anymore."

The city itself reeks of masculine violence and brutality. But embedded in it today is Tina, a' masculidda, Tina the little tomboy, documented in a folder the narrator carries with her. Recently imprisoned, Tina isn't yet 20 years old, but her leadership of her small teen gang within the Mafia culture has brought her strength and notoriety.

The quest for Tina herself begins with interview upon interview of relatives and friends of this "Mafia soldier" in hopes of gaining a visit with the prisoner, who can choose whether or not to admit someone, almost a bizarre form of royalty. And in fact, Tina is a figure worth admiring, even worshiping, with her motorbike, her weapons, the loyalty she's demanded and inspired.

Bear with this narrator and the translation (by Robin Pickering-Jazzi), because the discomfort of the chapters builds toward an awkward yet compelling understanding of Tina herself and the "cruel" city that has brought her into being. A sexual intermediate, neither muscled male nor seductive female, Tina is a quintessential "other," trans in every aspect of her being.

Here is a taste of Tina, struggling to outwait the customers at the beauty salon operated by her cousin Giovanna:

The roots of her bad mood sank down into embedded realities that were different and deeper than dissatisfaction or unfulfilled needs. She would have liked to make a spectacular entrance that day. She dreamed of the splendor of an entrance worthy of her. The Alfa 164 and black leather jacket. ... "Did you all see her? Rambo." Constraining her to give tough answers, always poised on a razor's edge.

Then there's Tina's friend Graziella, who works for a production company and represents another side of the muddled sexuality and violence of the place:

Graziella is a nervous brunette who's going back and forth between a printer and a video, extricating herself from snarls of wires that are hanging down and getting entangled between stools and tables, obviously hindering her movements. But more than her exuberant nature, I think it's her still very young age that makes her easily confront a job whose dangers she doesn't see, even though she knows perfectly well what they are, and complain about the job just being temporary.

Though men are interviewed too, it's the women who love Tina for herself and would do anything for her. Giovanna, for instance, "raises the cigarette to her mouth, a darting little snake with a pointed tip, and says as she exhales the smoke, 'She's a warrior.' A reverential fear that gradually dissolves in veiled disapproval."

By the time our narrator finally forms a connection with Tina herself, the grim, assaultive, and sexually confusing journey into the teenager's life, into the Cosa Nostra, into Sicily and its asphyxiative presence, has changed her irretrievably. What she will facilitate at last for Tina will tear apart the fabric she has spent so much time and effort crafting, as she calls Tina out of the cell and into compelling pages.

TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER is complex, with seductive metaphors and a grimly poisonous atmosphere that daunts the emergence of any necessary self-love. Once it picks up speed, it's compelling and potent. There can be no return to any mythic Sicily after this fictive immersion in reality provided by Sicilian-born Maria Rosa Cutrufelli.

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

Brief Mention: LAST SEEN IN LAPAZ, by Kwei Quartey

Collecting international crime fiction? Ghana-born physician and author Kwei Quartey's Darko Dawson series, set mostly in Ghana, has been a pleasure; Quartey's current series is a spinoff that features Emma Djan, a private detective always alert to gender discrimination as she works her way up in a local agency (the police force dumped her, early in the series).

LAST SEE IN LAPAZ opens with the disappearance of a young Nigerian woman, daughter of a friend of the agency owner. (Lapaz is a town in the Accra Metropolitan District -- not related at all to La Paz, New Mexico.)  The attractive and hard-working Ngozi seems to have run away from home, across the national border, and might be in Accra. If, that is, she's alive.

Emma Djan isn't yet authorized to do a lot of investigation on her own, but she has an advantage here, because she can perform a flirtatious role with the greedy (in every sense) hotel owners who seem linked to the disappearance. When one hotel turns out to be supplying female companions, perhaps forced into this upscale prostitution, Emma's both horrified and fascinated. Anything to avoid the boredom of routine PI work!

Her insight into women's lives also gives her an advantage as she investigates with Boateng, the local DI (inspector on the police force):

Boateng grunted. "You seem to be studying this room closely, Djan. What do you see?"

"No disorder, no chaos. It has a controlled feeling. Someone who has been in this room was trying to gain control over the other, but couldn't quite do it. ... This entire house is a clue."

Despite his California location, Quartey's writing continues to have the choppy feel of translated material, possibly an intentional effect to suggest the movement among local languages and dialects. The book suffers somewhat from quick changes in point of view, among investigators and criminals. But it's still a revelatory experience of urban life in Ghana, and neatly plotted, with caste and related attitudes deftly portrayed. 

Collect it for your African mystery shelf, as well as for the diverse spread of Soho Crime's continued global outreach.

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

Dark Longings and Dork Disasters, in THE MOTION PICTURE TELLER from Colin Cotterill

 Is it crime fiction or is it magical realism? Colin Cotterill's Dr. Siri Paiboun forensic tales, set in the collapsed corruption and congenial community of working Laos, have already shown this author must blend the two. 

In THE MOTION PICTURE TELLER, Cotterill leaps to 1996 Bangkok and the run-down but almost cute -- in a very dorky way -- lives of two unambitious men running a video rental store. Pay attention to Supot, who delivers mail for the Royal Thai Postal Service. (Cut to a view of his uniform, shabby perhaps but worn with some muddled pride as he dodges unpleasant dogs with his pack of letters and parcels.) Supot's "real life" begins after work each day, assisting in a video shop and watching films with Ali, the official owner. (Ali can be quite mischievous to his customers, but he makes ends meet.)

When these two nerdy, film-obsessed guys discover a film called "Bangkok 2010" that could be the greatest ever -- the kind that makes Supot's almost girlfriend consider, for a moment, actually fooling around with him, before opting to watch the film again -- they tumble into a bottomless mystery: The actors are unknown. The production company has vanished. How could they be holding a copy of the greatest film ever, and be unable to find out anything about who made it and when it's going to be released? Wait -- is this the only copy ever made?

When Supot finally reaches someone connected with the mysterious film, mystery readers will know the tale has just taken on danger (beyond that posed by dogs to mail carriers), as the letter offers a strong of urgent questions:

Where did you find 2010? Is it a copy, or is it the original film? Has anyone else seen it apart from you? If your answer is yes, how many people have seen it? ... I want you to promise me that nobody else will watch it, and that no copies are made of it.

From here, the story threads get wilder and Supot is soon way out of his comfort zone. The charm of Cotterill's writing is that this video fanatic, in love with a vision of an actress, is so believable, so close to the dork in each of us, that the pages must keep turning. 

THE MOTION PICTURE TELLER could be the strangest mystery you read this year, or even this decade. And you absolutely won't forget it.

Releasing January 17 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.

Outrageous Alaska Adventure from John Straley, BLOWN BY THE SAME WIND

The town of Cold Storage, Alaska, is John Straley's best invention: a place where almost any sort of humane criminal activity can and does happen, with a steady twang of Alaskan country music in the background and a slew of strong women enjoying cash-poor life as much as the men around them. The minute you aim for this locale, you give up control of what makes sense -- and ride with a mix of wild characters for the duration. Earlier Cold Storage novels began with The Big Both Ways, then Cold Storage, Alaska, and What Is Time to a Pig? 

It's crime fiction ... sorta. Remember the scene in The Godfather with the horse's head? That could happen in Cold Storage, on the chilly and salty coast. Except it could be a grizzly head. Still attached. And the person who held the door for the bear to come in would still be standing nearby, tipping back a beer (not the "craft" kind).

There was still no road into or out of Cold Storage, but somehow, in 1968, the world had arrived. In March, Lyndon Johnson announced that he had decided not to rub for president. Some said it was because of the Tet Offensive in the first part of the year. Boys from Cold Storage had gone to the war and three of them had died ... All of the boys had fished with their families and were memorialized on a hill off the road to the dump.

But the tale gets into gear with one of the boys who made it home, Glen Andre, with long hair, a tendency to not speak much, and an army jacket "with a bronze star pinned on the front." Because this is, after all, Cold Storage, you should simply nod hello with the rest of the crowd when the Kentucky anti-war monk Thomas Merton also arrives in town ... followed by a couple of obviously nasty criminals, and a probable FBI agent.

Still, even in Cold Storage, if a person wants privacy he can sort of get it, and if Thomas Merton wants to call himself Brother Louis, and teach something about God, that's up to him. The trouble is, he's explaining it to a striking young woman named Venus, who never met a boundary she didn't want to cross. Or a man who wasn't fascinated by her.

[The brother] began to see Venus not as an American teenager, but as a sprite from A Midsummer Night's Dream. On that night he followed Venus and the lights on her helmet up the hill, where at the summit he would try to reveal the mystery of both God's omniscience and His absence as Louis's heart beat like a steam engine in his chest.

By this point, either you devoutly want to read this novel, or you wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot bookmark. If you've embraced Donald Westlake, Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series, or the Junior Bender books from Timothy Hallinan, I hope you're already ordering a copy of BLOWN BY THE SAME WIND. You're going to have a lot of fun and an occasional moment of thinking maybe you just figured out something you care about, a lot. 

Published, of course, by the boundary-challenging 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nantucket at Christmas? Terrific Setting for Francine Mathews, DEATH ON A WINTER STROLL

Maybe you read about the way Nantucket, the island enclave off the coast of Massachusetts, protected its residents (seasonal and year-round) from COVID. But Nantucket Police Chief Meredith (Merry) Folger can't use the same strategies to keep out death.

Actually she's still reeling from the death of her grandfather Ralph, who'd held the post before her and whose love and guidance always surrounded her. Under the stresses of the job, she's more bereft than ever, missing his mentoring. Thanksgiving week included all the extra challenges of working with the federal teams that protected the President of the United States, too, with three generations of his family, snuggling into that island and historic ambience.

She gave way to wistfulness.

"Why didn't the Pres just go to Martha's Vineyard this year?" she moaned. "It was good enough for the Clinton and Obamas."

"He's not a Vineyard guy," [her husband] Peter said simply. Which was, of course, unanswerable. It was accepted fact that you were either a Vineyard person or a Nantucket one. The loyalties were fierce, utterly distinct, cultivated over generations, and immune to criticism. No one could be both.

Which made it a little easier to put up with the security craziness, Merry reflected. It was kind of cool to know that the President cherished exactly the same place she did.

What she couldn't know, in that brief unwinding once the Turkey Day festivities ended, was the stresses building within a film production enterprise at another part of the large island. And the political maneuvers aren't over, either — the Secretary of State brings her family for Christmas and Nantucket's famously colorful and playful "Christmas Stroll," with its festival atmosphere that enables two teens to connect across the social and political gaps, and hides the maneuvers of "persons unknown" toward murder. When two bodies burden Merry's holiday, it's no vacation at all. Not that she expected one.

Francine Mathews is a smooth and expert crafter of murder investigations that honor the warmth of affection, love, and friendship, even as they showcase tight plots with well-built twists. DEATH ON A WINTER STROLL continues her excellent series. Mystery readers will value the careful revelations of means, motives, and opportunities, with a fair chance to finger the criminal(s) just before or as Merry does. 

Best of all, despite the harsh reality of crime and especially murder, Mathews highlights the warmth of community and family, as well as the awkwardly won joys of creative arts and growing into one's own best hopes. 

So this book from Soho Crime (an imprint of Soho Press) does multiple duty for the season: Get a copy for yourself, to sink into for stress relief (your holiday is never going to be as stressful as Merry's!); get another for credit as the "best holiday gift giver" when you hand it to a good friend or family member; and know that you'll get great value from your own copy, because this is one to read and savor multiple times. As Merry's grandfather used to remind her, when "her" song played: "Have yourself a Merry (Folger) little Christmas."

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

Brief Mention: Volume Two of LADY JOKER from Kaoru Takamura Has Released

Were you (are you still?) a Godfather fan as all the books came out? Do you love long novels that probe history, culture, and crime? Have a special interest in Japan, with its sharp differences from Western life?

Great! LADY JOKER by Kaoru Takamura is meant for you ... and will keep your bedside table occupied for months ahead.

The first volume of this sprawling epic, which Takamura builds from a real unsolved kidnapping case that took over Japanese news for two years, was released in the US by Soho Press in May 2021 under its Soho Crime imprint. At 576 pages, in small type with narrow page margins, it marked a return to "long publishing" intended for committed readers. The characters and plot twists are compelling -- so Volume 2, which came out a couple of weeks ago (588 pages!), provides the delight and relief of bringing the story to its cynical and thrilling conclusion.

Here's a sample from Goda's investigation in Volume 2:

He didn't feel like hearing Hirase's voice, so Goda jotted down on a blank report—Attn: Sergeant Hirase. Anonymous tip-off call to my residence at 11:50 p.m. Male caller. "I'm giving you the telephone number being used for contact between Hinode and LJ." The number reported is as follows: 3751-921 ... Signed, Goda—and faxed it to Special Investigation Headquarters.

Only after he looked back at the page that he had just sent did Goda realize that he recognized the 3751 exchange because it fell within his precinct's jurisdiction.

Or this, from the viewpoint of Monoi:

He gazed at the girl's peaceful face muscles relaxed in sleep. The fiend was still murmuring inside his belly, but even that gradually came to sound more like the meaningless chant of a sutra, and Monoi tried convincing himself at last—I no longer need an escape. Now I would rather stay a fiend until I die. I must remain a fiend.

As you can see, translators Marie Iida and Allison Markin Powell do a masterful job of bringing the novel into English, without losing the flavor of Japan. Mark off time to read this pair ... or spend your entire winter walking with the crime and investigation in all their haunting flavor.

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

FROM THE SHADOWS by James R. Benn, Intriguing Billy Boyle World War II Mystery

As the 17th Billy Boyle investigation opens, it's October 1944, and the long-hoped-for end to World War II is still a long way off in terms of daily life. Sure, the Germans are retreating from France—but what permanent changes have they left behind among the people who stay? Who's been and remains a traitor (and France has flip-flopped some ... it's been hard to tell what was right), and who's still destroying humans and landscape on behalf of "the Boche"? 

Forms of violent payback flourish. So for Billy Boyle, a criminal investigator in General Eisenhower's special staff, every step forward holds peril from two sides at once. Delivered by boat to occupied Crete, on a "simple" pickup assignment to bring a Special Operations Executive officer to France, Billy finds his blunt American assessment of good guys and bad ones under challenge right away. And he'll have to test each ally as he goes along, because nobody's telling him much that he can rely on:

The brass wanted him for some SOE business in the south of France. That's all I was told because that's all I needed to know. Need to know is a big thing in this war, a concept I never much liked. As I gazed out over the unwelcoming shore while we rolled on the dying swells, I would have preferred to know why I was risking my neck.

Series fans and new readers alike will appreciate Billy's relief when he finds his trustworthy and intriguing Polish friend Kaz joining the mission in France. But on their way up the steps to their first joint meeting with the brass, shots ring out,. "I instinctively turned to look," Billy describes, "and heard a sharp sound, followed by a sting at the back of my neck." Nicked by a bullet, Billy's wound isn't bad, although another has pierced the top of Kaz's pierced military cap. Either there are some might casual shooters on the base, or a really accurate sniper has just delivered a warning.

Part of the intense interest of James R. Benn's Billy Boyle mysteries is the way Benn assembles details of the war that aren't often taught in the American classroom. This time, in addition to a failed uprising in the French resistance, and all the friction among passionate groups, there's a remarkable addition to the armed forces at hand: the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit of Nisei (men of Japanese descent born in America and eager to enlist). 

FROM THE SHADOWS refreshes the feel of a more raw America where national origins and ethic differences had high significance. From Billy Boyle's American-Irish background, it's an unusual reach to men whose Japanese families may even be suffering internment in California. Every chapter ends with a clif-hanger, and offers historical and human revelation, along with solving the conundrum of who's taken up crime in the ranks.

The book has a September 6 release date from Soho Press. Cushion the onslaught of back-to-school calendars, ends of vacation, and autumn changeable weather by ordering a copy for your reading stack. Every twist is well knotted, and Benn pulls off another satisfying investigation into the human reality of war, crime, friendship, and honor.

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