It's a Tough World, but PI Willa Pennington Steps Up, in DARK STREETS, COLD SUBURBS from Aimee Hix

About the only thing I didn't like about the second Willa Pennington investigation, DARK STREETS, COLD SUBURBS, was the title -- for all the rest, from the conflicted protagonist to the neatly twisted and well-paced plotting, I couldn't put the book down.

Willa Pennington is a former law enforcement officer, and in her own thinking, she's wimped out of the job. Now studying -- both on paper and in practice drills -- to pass the exams for a private investigator (PI) license, to work in her dad's business. It's home based, which means that if the bad guys catch on to where the Penningtons live, violence and threat can easily come home with them.

Not that Willa's mom would let "bad guys" get very far. Defensive of her family and wickedly insightful, she's Willa's other mentor in a deep sense. And Willa needs all the back-up she can find: At the mixed martial arts dojo where she's working past her (very reasonable) fear load, there's a teenager who's in extreme danger. A classic "poor little rich girl," the teen, Aja, is struggling to navigate death and destruction while her parents leave her alone in a house where the locks and alarms aren't enough to keep out the crazies. The thing is, they're not acting like the presumed teenaged druggies or house thieves Willa had in mind:

Instead of deflating like expected, like any scared, stupid kid would he kicked back hard and caught me on the jaw. He nailed me in just the right spot and I saw the proverbial stars.

I heard him scrambling up and running off while I shook my head like a cartoon and tried to remember how to count all my teeth, especially the back ones. When I was finally back in the land of the fully cognizant with a wet ass, ripped jeans, and scuffed Chucks, I listened for the sound of a vehicle. The only thing I heard was a very optimistic mourning dove cooing and the chirp of a text alert.

I NEED YOU AT A SCENE.

Either Jan's cold case had just gotten super-hot or she had a second case for me. That made three I was juggling, in case anyone was counting.

The rain began coming down in earnest as I limped back to my truck, my knee competing with my pride to see which smarted more.

Most of us don't work out as intensely as Willa, or plan our attacks and defenses in her ways -- but otherwise, this all-too-believable crime novel of suburban danger could be taking place practically next door, and the risks Willa decides to take make sense ... but only good teamwork will get her through.

This one's a keeper, and that means the entire series -- the preceding title (What Doesn't Kill You) and the ones we can expect in the future from Aimee Hix, a northern Virginia author -- need space on the shelves, ASAP. A good pick from Midnight Ink.

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

With Secrets and Revelation: DREAMING SPIES, Laurie R. King

If you're a Laurie R. King fan -- and I am -- you probably had DREAMING SPIES on your list earlier this year, and purchased it soon after its release in mid February. I did, too, but I knew there was no rush to review it, so I tucked it away to enjoy later.

So, a few reasons to read (and collect) this 13th "novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes":

* For anyone who's followed Laurie R. King's writing, from the Kate Martinelli (San Francisco) homicide series to the eerie and compelling Stuyvesant & Grey books to the very popular Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes sequence, reading DREAMING SPIES is the best way to discover which direction King's creativity has taken this time, and how she's tying together her many interests. Plus, is her storytelling changing with time? My own answer to this: Yes, she's separating the thread of violent crime from the thread of puzzle solving. Although her 2006 release, The Art of Detection, was a deliberate (and entertaining) effort to tie the Martinelli series to the Russell/Holmes books, it left out some of the dark threat of the early Martinelli books. That darkness now prowls in the Stuyvesant & Gray books instead (so far, just two of them: Touchstone in 2007 and The Bones of Paris in 2013).

* Holmes fans who are not deadly serious in their passions can enjoy the notion of Holmes as a much older man, married to his young student Mary Russell -- and in DREAMING SPIES, Russell asserts her equality to Holmes in terms of deftness with disguise, quick planning, even martial arts. In fact, the premise of the story, which takes the pair into Japan in 1924 to assist a ninja (or more than one ninja!) and other politically significant Japanese figures, is that neither Russell nor Holmes speaks Japanese or has expertise in the "customs of the country." Hence their decision to explore, and then assist, puts them on a level playing field. Actually that means Russell will dominate a bit more than usual, since she's younger and by gender better adapted to the schemes involved this time.

*King is such a good storyteller that this, like her earlier books, is an entertaining diversion with page-turner appeal. She's also a top-notch researcher, so don't let the unexpected appearance of, say, a woman who is a ninja turn up any doubts: Sure enough, there's history to back the concept, with an early Japanese woman becoming an espionage-oriented ninja in the 16th century, running her own network. Russell is a bit too much of a loner to adapt to a network, but she's not going to let a spy who's younger than herself take over the scene! (Or is she?)

*If you've been reading any of the half dozen intriguing series of English mysteries racing into print on the World War I years and the years between the wars -- or even James Benn's World War II series with Billy Boyle -- this 1924/1925 setup will enhance what you're already consuming, adding details of Europe, the United States, and Asia, particularly Japan. It's a time-honored way to enjoy adding history to your plate.

These Russell/Holmes books don't feel like the original Sherlock Holmes tales -- they leave a very different taste in the mind -- and that's the drawback to reading them. The depressed genius of the Conan Doyle character wouldn't balance all that well with Russell's animation and enthusiasms, I think. So, as with the earlier books in the series, enter lightly, for the fun of it. (My one regret for DREAMING SPIES was the near-absence of Holmes's usual remarkable insights ... and with it, I thought, a bit less insight on Russell's part, too. But perhaps they were both overwhelmed with learning that new language, and all that comes with it.)

Best of all, I came away from the book relaxed, taking joy in the twists and resolution of the story, and more attentive to the history and cultures on display. Fun! I recommend reading it -- provided the "reasons" above fit your state of mind as you open the book.