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!

 

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. 

Adventure, Murder, and Twists of Bookstore Merriment from Tamara Berry, in MURDER OFF THE BOOKS

Tamara Berry's wicked sense of humor is a great match for her neatly twisted plots in her "By the Book Mysteries," set in the Big Woods country of the Northwest. Crime novelist Tess Harrow's family legacy in this timber-centric town isn't as wild as her best-selling status, but it does include a former hardware stores (see the earlier books of the series) that she's turning into a bookshop of her own, with of course a stack of her newest release on the counter.

But Grand Opening plans run awry when (of course!) murder sweeps into town once again. This time, a top-selling podcaster arrives at the same time, and starts to paint Tess's recurring corpse discoveries as possible indications that she herself is a criminal!

Perish the thought, or even better, perish the podcaster. Except that's not going to happen. Tess's daughter is thrilled by the visitor. Her definitely difficult mother sweeps into town at the same time -- and the corpse turns out to be Tess's mother's boyfriend of the moment, the notorious Levi Parker, who might have tried something deadly if he hadn't been killed first. And oh yes, Tess and the sheriff may or may not be an item. Complications.

Is your head spinning yet? Jump into this lively bibliomystery laden with smart sassy women and to-die-for dialogue, as well as a plot that gets more crazy and more likely at the same time, page by page. MURDER OFF THE BOOKS is the fun mystery your summer reading stack has been waiting for. 

[The earlier books in the series are Buried in a Good Book and On Spine of Death -- treat yourself!]

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

Fresh Updated LA Noir from Daniel Weizmann, THE LAST SONGBIRD

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Weizmann’s updated LA noir storytelling is pitch perfect, so this quirky investigator stands in for each of us, committing in a fumbling fashion to doing what’s right even though we’re not equipped for the journey.”

 

Pull up that poignant song about driving a beautiful woman in your taxi cab and never forgetting her. Hold onto the emotion—now, pin the story to Los Angeles, to the brutal competitiveness of performance and production, and to the significance of small and persistent acts of kindness.

 

Too saccharine? Fear not. Daniel Weizmann roughs up the story of a Lyft-driving songwriter on the night streets as he hard-boils affection, friendship, loyalty. That means grit, lots of it, from drug-fueled disasters to twisted personal secrets.

 

Yet The Last Songbird, personified here by aging yet still famous folksinger Annie Linden, never quite loses the heartache and beauty of the old songs. By the time driver Adam Zantz trusts Annie Linden enough to share his own songs with her (he writes both the lyrics and the melodies) in the strange privacy of his hired car, she’s also won his faithfulness. When she and her bodyguard are brutally murdered (with Adam a suspect, of course), there’s only one mission possible: find the killer and bring them to justice. Even though that won’t bring Annie back, it will let Adam keep hearing and feeling the support of her voice.

 

“She was a songwriter’s songwriter, a taker of lyrical chances,” Adam clarifies. Annie’s become his antidote to despair, too: “Annie Linden, my Annie Linden, never had any place to hide. Because she believed in love, like a religious devotee. She said as much to me on the road when I asked her where her songs came from.”

 

Extra horseradish on the side for this dish of neo-noir, please, since Adam (Addy to his friends) presents a Jewish flavor to all his choices. His friends twist toking and Torah, like Ephraim Freiberger, aka Double Fry, who explains that his paparazzi work is bounded by not selling any photos that could embarrass someone. Addy checks this: “Embarrassing someone is strictly forbidden?” Double Fry responds, “By the Torah, it’s like murder.”  Tough boundary for a photo career in LA, though!

 

Adam’s songwriting future may be dead in the water with Annie’s murder—she was the first and only significant person who’d believed in his work—and the darkness of his nights, with its long ugly driving shifts through LA’s special brand of despair and denial, threatens his inner life as well. But under Double Fry’s pressure, he nails his urge to solve the crime: “I owe her—for giving me hope when I had zero. And I’m pissed. ‘Cause if I don’t find out who—If I don’t find out who [killed her], maybe nobody will.”

 

The clumsy but persistent efforts of this spur-of-the-heartache amateur sleuth pull him into danger, of course, as well as waves of anguish over his past and over his desperation to “make good” to Annie’s memory. Weizmann’s updated LA noir storytelling is pitch perfect, so this quirky investigator stands in for each of us, committing in a fumbling fashion to doing what’s right even though we’re not equipped for the journey.

 

Of course, classic noir would spit Adam back out in misery at the end. Case solved, or not? Annie still an inspiration to him, or lost in the clutter of her own revealed mistakes? Things change: An author who creates a Torah-hugging buddy for his protagonist can’t be consigning the case, or Adam’s songs, or hope itself to the dumpster. Best of all, in a new twist on noir (but a definite plug for those taxi-now-Lyft drivers), a playlist of the book’s songs wraps up this irresistible tale, putting all the half-spoken secrets back into active memory. Van Morrison, anyone? Mick Jagger? Dylan? Who is the “last songbird” that you’ll hear bringing you home?

 

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

Genre-Busting Irish Crime Fiction from John Banville, THE LOCK-UP

 

[Originally posted at New York Journal of Books]

“What neither can say aloud is, Strafford failed to save Quirke’s wife in a shooting the year before, and there’s no forgiveness on the table.”

 

Crime may be impulsive, launched by a forgotten set of car keys dangling from a sports car’s ignition or an easily hacked online account. On the other hand, it can root deep in the history of grievance, violence, prejudice, and war—which makes a far more complex narrative and is, of course, how John Banville situates The Lock-Up. War and its profits, going back to an escape from Germany during the Second World War, mean an excuse for a twisted soul to take revenge via markets and manipulation. 

 

The death of youthful historian Rosa Jacobs, found murdered in her car in Dublin, provides the entryway for investigating both the “not yet past” past and today’s market rewards. It will take dedicated research (and a bit of provocation) to untangle the threads of motive for this crime, and in the process, two of Banville’s noted characters of previous novels, Detective Inspector St John Strafford and police pathologist Quirke, collude. This isn’t new to Banville’s work—the pair, originally introduced in separate books to probe different Irish issues, appeared together in April in Spain (2021)—but because each is enduring a personal crisis, their conversations cut deeper this time around.

 

For instance, Quirke (gulping whiskey, of course) abruptly offers an awful description of an autopsy on a child, to which Strafford struggles to make a sympathetic response. Quirke next asks Strafford, “What was your first death?” Strafford takes the question as meant, and briefly tells of shooting an IRA man who’d pointed a tommy gun at him. And what neither can say aloud is, Strafford failed to save Quirke’s wife in a shooting the year before, and there’s no forgiveness on the table.

 

“Do you dream about him, the IRA man?” Quirke asked.

 

“No. Do you? Dream about the child?”

 

“I remember him, that’s all … All that, and the plume of steam coming off the child’s brain.”

 

The novel won’t get much more graphic than that, although the clumsy dance of intimacy between these two aging men continues painfully throughout. As is the case for the Troubles that background the book, and the Second World War yet further back, there seems to be no calm resolution for the long-term effects of trauma when nurtured today.

 

Still, with Banville’s Irish home terrain in mind, it’s startling as the action begins to tilt toward distant Israel. Perhaps the ongoing presence of war and violence there provides an apt counter to the fumbled efforts to make peace in Ireland. Or between Quirke and Strafford, a matter that becomes increasingly urgent as the walls separating their private lives are pierced. Loneliness followed by attraction may force the stones of resentment to move, like water that’s been frozen, then thaws, leaving gaps where it’s been.

 

For some years, Banville separated his literary fiction from his genre work in crime by using the pen name Benjamin Black for the genre books. But The Lock-Up comes out under his own name, and stitches together the two forms of narrative, the way Quirke and Strafford also become painfully connected. The death of Rosa Jacobs? Yes, of course, the investigation brings a solution, even resolution.

 

But what about the pain of Ireland and its besetting illnesses, alcohol abuse and divisive religion?

 

“We know a great deal,” Strafford lied. “We have all the pieces, we just need to put them together. You can help us.”

“Why should I?” one likely murderer replies to him. Which is, when you think about it, a very sensible response, one that pierces the walls of genre and makes reading this crime novel a haunting and memorable experience.

 

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

 

Terrific Welsh Thriller from Clare Mackintosh, THE LAST PARTY

British author Clare Mackintosh exceeds high thriller expectations in THE LAST PARTY, a pulse-pounding investigation of the harsh effects of class and abuse that whips up an emotional storm of strong women and conflicting loyalties.

When a New Year's eve swimming event involving "everyone" from a small Welsh town results in the death of a local real estate developer, Detective Constable Ffion Morgan of the North Wales Police leaps into the investigation. But the death, soon likely to be called murder, took place in a lake that straddles the border between Wales and England, which means she'll have to work the case with Detective Constable Leo Brady of Cheshire Constabulary. And that's a huge problem: not so much because of the rivalry and resentments of that border area, but because the two DC's have met before ... for no-strings sex, both under assumed names. That's the trouble with online dating, isn't it?

But there's worse to come, because Ffion Morgan's small town is so very small that she knows almost everyone involved in the swim event, and as she and her unwanted partner begin to select suspects, some of them include people she know well ... very well. Family, even, whether by blood or by choice.

Mackintosh spins an expert high-risk investigation, with spicy inserts of lively humor. As the DCs struggle to place new names on each other, they're still spilling the earlier false names, to the confusion of the pathologist:

"Who the hell is Marcus?" the pathologist says. "I was told there were only the two of you coming—it's a morgue, not a séance."

"Sorry," Leo says on behalf of both of them, although Ffion doesn't look remotely sorry. Her expression is amused—a little quizzical—as though waiting for Leo to expand.

As Izzy Weaver ushers them into the depths of the mortuary, Leo feels a sense of misgiving come over him. He hopes to hell this turns out to be an accidental drowning, because Ffion Morgan looks like trouble.

The dead man is easily recognized as Rhys Lloyd, who owns the high-end resort on the English side of the lake and has made a fortune already in his maneuvers to bring in posh property owners. When Ffion and Leo split up the witness interviews, Leo finds Clemmie Northcote, an anomaly in the owners crowd: She and her son share a one-bedroom apartment in London where she sleeps on the couch, and she's financed her resort property through a private mortgage. "Although the others don't know I didn't buy it outright, so I'd be grateful if you'd keep that to yourself."

Leo's sympathy leads to Clemmie spilling more about the victim: "He looked down on us," she admits. "Me and Caleb. Because I don't wear the right clothes or drink the right wine. I didn't fit with his vision of The Shore." Leo notes the bitterness under her calm explanation. He hasn't yet said publicly that the death is actually murder, but Clemmie is already making a guess:

"If it were, I think you'd have your hands full."

"Why's that?"

Clemmie looks at him, her expression unguarded and resigned. "Because I've been at The Shore for six months, and I've yet to meet a single person who liked him."

Ffion too is finding disturbing currents in her part of the investigation. But the darkest of them are her own, and when the hunt for the murderer turns out to threaten her sister and even her mother, Ffion takes actions that she won't be able to admit to Leo, no matter how much she finds herself liking him. Envy and lust and abuse have flourished here—prying open the crime will reveal things that Ffion may not be able to withstand.

At a chunky 400 pages, this British crime novel takes time to unpack class, loyalty, and the desperate choices that desperate people make. Packed with a perfect balance of twists and layered revelation, it's a powerful novel well worth adding to the winter reading stack—and keeping on hand for later re-reading. Mackintosh already has five best-sellers under her belt (including last year's air highjacking drama HOSTAGE); THE LAST PARTY certainly deserves to be number six.

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

"Cursed Mansion" Mystery with Great Legal Updates, in MURDER AT BLACK OAKS by Phillip Margolin

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“This skillfully written and well-polished ‘new classic’ mystery is a perfect winter read, ideal for an armchair journey that’s a page-turner without forcing you to check the locks on the windows and doors.”

 

It’s not likely that you’ll find a new Agatha Christie mystery to read—but Phillip Margolin makes up for that with his sixth Robin Lockwood novel, Murder at Black Oaks. In fact, the author declares at the opening that this highly enjoyable and suspenseful tale is an homage to the Golden Age of mysteries, with “an impossible murder, a haunted mansion, secret passages, a werewolf curse.” And all this comes with the adroit and intelligent Robin Lockwood, a prominent defense attorney with finely honed skills that apply to accused murderers.

 

Called to Black Oaks, a monstrous rural manor that’s become a memorial to both death and English history, Robin’s warned by her staff that a werewolf curse could be involved. She’s a natural skeptic. But what crimes could be entangled with the dark myth? 

 

The man summoning her out of her urban comfort zone of Portland, OR, to the isolation of Solitude Mountain, has also been a district attorney. But for 30 years, Frank Melville’s suffered under the knowledge that his skills placed an innocent man onto Death Row. Burdened with the actual murderer’s confession but unable to act on it because of client confidentiality, he’s retreated from public life and suffered both the death of his wife and debilitating injuries that keep him in a wheelchair.

 

His request to Robin Lockwood comes from learning that the actual criminal is now dead. Can Robin find a legal way for Melville to finally reveal the truth, and perhaps get Jose Alvarez—no longer a promising young man, but a bitter one trapped in prison—justice at last? Even this question roots in tragedy and suspicion, as the fragile and aging man explains:

 

“There is a curse on anyone who lives in Black Oaks, and God visited that curse on me when he took my Katherine away and left me like this. To atone for letting Jose Alvarez rot in prison while I knew he was innocent. I’ve tried to save other innocent defendants, but even my few victories haven’t brought me peace. … I want you to do what I can’t. I want you to save Jose’s life.”

 

Lockwood and her team may be up to that part of the assignment. But when murder and added threats arrive at the mansion, in the midst of a storm that traps Robin there without phone or drivable road, surrounded by people whose motives and opportunities mesh with the new death, Robin’s in personal danger.

 

The moment the storm cuts off the roadway, of course, Agatha Christie’s country-house murder mysteries echo into this one. Margolin’s also aiming to honor Ellery Queen and John Dickson Carr in his plot, and fans of these early mysteries can ease contentedly into harness, knowing the kinds of twists that must like ahead and confident that Robin will find the right allies to bring her—and any other “good guys” on the scene—to a relieved resolution of crime past and present.

 

This skillfully written and well-polished “new classic” mystery is a perfect winter read, ideal for an armchair journey that’s a page-turner without forcing you to check the locks on the windows and doors. No need to have read others in this series beforehand—Margolin’s neat brushing in of details gives plenty of grounding. But of course, you may want to collect the entire series, to get you through the rest of the darker season ahead.

 

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.

New Crime Fiction (Paranormal Threads, Of Course!) from John Connolly, THE FURIES

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“The story of the story—the remarkable production and author–reader loyalty during a global pandemic—makes the book a must-have for Connolly readers and fans of New England paranormal twists.”

 

The cover of The Furies announces a thriller—and the title page presents “Two Charlie Parker Novels.” To find the reality of this pair of short novels, turn to the Acknowledgments: John Connolly wrote The Furies out in public, five days a week, as the Covid pandemic gripped the lives of his readers. Starting with a notion of vengeance and a pair of sisters (it’s called The Sisters Strange, and for Connolly, “strange” is a keyword for dark and dangerous), this writer of the macabre and historically haunted added a mystic rune. And then, like a gambler dealt a hand she can’t discard, Connolly resolutely attached one short chapter after another in devotion to entertaining and distracting his readers.

 

The author explains: Whatever plot items he’d quickly inserted on one day (and these chapters circulated in five languages!), he had to live with and build from. No going back for changes, when each chapter launched as soon as it had been written. Fortunately, this is Connolly’s 22nd Charlie Parker novel or novella, so in that sense, the deepest ground work already existed.  

 

Focused in the classic Parker locale of Portland, Maine, The Sisters Strange offers a returned-to-town criminal, the sisters he’s romanced, and a hoard of valuable old coins that at one point all belonged to a single aging collector. The menace and evil of that collector, named Kepler, should have prevented anyone from stealing his goods. But some thieves don’t know what’s good for them.

 

Parker get called into the hunt for the thieves: A man he likes and respects is in love with one of those sisters, and can’t bear to see her threatened. Seeing women as victims needing rescue, Charlie Parker is as likely as anyone else to fall for the call.

 

By the time the strands are painfully untwisted, Parker’s recognition of who’s masterminding both the crimes and the brutality is running a bit too late to prevent damage.

 

The second novella in this package, The Furies, invites Charlie Parker to rescue another damsel in distress. He’s overloaded; he tells his buddy Dave, the local bar owner, to tell the woman to leave a number and he’ll get back to her.

 

“I heard a woman’s voice in the background. Dave spoke again, repeating what had been said. ‘She asked me to tell you that it’s urgent,’ he said. ‘Also, she says her name is Sarah Abelli, but she used to be Sarah Sawyer. She’s Nate Sawyer’s widow.’”

 

When Dave asks Parker about that name, Nate Sawyer, Parker warns him away from the Mob connection. But for the sake of both Dave and that mythical woman in distress, Charlie Parker will take the case.

 

This time, as in many other Connolly tales, there’s a dead child involved, and perhaps a ghost, not a very nice one. That should be an opening for Charlie Parker’s dead daughter, who haunts him, to make an appearance. But she doesn’t. And although Parker’s fascinating and complex friends Angel and Louis, well known to series readers, do appear, they’re not essential and they don’t reveal more about themselves—niggling disappointments for those who always hope for more from these “familiar faces.”

 

Neither novella on its own would compel re-reading: Go once through and head toward a deeper Connolly novel in other covers. But the story of the story—the remarkable production and author–reader loyalty during a global pandemic—makes the book a must-have for Connolly readers and fans of New England paranormal twists.

 

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

Intriguing "Meta" Crime Fiction by Joël Dicker, THE ENIGMA OF ROOM 622

 [Originally published at new York Journal of Books]

“The Enigma of Room 622 can’t be read quickly, but it provides humor and insight throughout the long journey—and many elegant twists of crime and detection, with plenty of surprises.”

Crime fiction often claims love as its own, using it as the most potent motive for murder. Reversing the trope, Joël Dicker offers murder investigation as a balm for unrequited love, in a clever and intriguing novel-within-a-novel tinted with heartbreak, then made far more vivid with flames of desire and threats of harm and loss.

The entire book is a prolonged teasing of the reader. Because it’s turned into an amateur sleuth investigation of blood, fraud, and darkness, there’s no time to push aside the author’s manipulation—instead, in this massive page-turner (577 pages; a good fit for the double novel enclosed!), an author, also named Joël, retreats to a Swiss Alps luxury hotel to lick his wounds from “two small personal traumas”: the death of his mentor, and being forsaken by a woman he’s achingly drawn to.

In the hotel, he discovers a mystery: On the sixth floor, the room numbers go 621, 621a, 623. Where is Room 622? Obviously it’s been re-labeled. Why? What’s the hotel hiding? Joël might not press beyond his wave of curiosity on his own (he’s in 621A, and feels an understandable reluctance to open a box of trouble), but his neighbor on the hotel floor can’t leave this alone. She is Scarlett, a name that at once calls up Scarlett O’Hara of Gone with the Wind, and the “scarlet woman” who’s available and appealing.

She pressed Joël into becoming an accomplice in tracking what took place in the room. Confirming it was a crime scene is simple enough (a little extra tip money to the staff); why does Scarlett then insist that they investigate and solve the unsolved murder? Joël meant his weekend in the hotel to be a break from writing, but Scarlett calls him (due to his slight fame) “the Writer” and tells him this sleuthing will result in his own next book.

Book within book, and now perhaps a third “meta” layer—and all this is revealed in a tone that echoes the great fairy tales of Europe, where magical reality is the norm. Soon the forces within the fiction challenge Joël to decide what Scarlett’s nature is, good and beautiful, or seductive and menacing. Yet even this puzzle is quickly overwhelmed by the discoveries unfolding within the investigation.

For instance, when they go to visit a bank manager to sort out issues related to the murder, the man assumes that the Writer is trying to make the mess public ins ome new book, and is furious and refuses to provide details: “After the murder, the bank had to climb back out of a hole. Our clients were unhappy; the banks was on shaky ground … I’m going to inform my lawyers immediately. I’m warning you, if you persist in this, you’ll never get that book printed.” But when Joël and Scarlett are dumped out of the office, a teller approaches and slips a piece of paper into Scarlett’s hand. A new clue!

The “meta” nature of the story rarely interferes, and the translation from the original French by Robert Bononno is skillful, with only the slightest stilting of language, an aspect that adds to the magical nature of the telling. A final exchange between Joël and Scarlett, before the last threads are drawn together, is revealing:

“Are you heartbroken? Is that why you write?” “Maybe. And you, are you heartbroken?” “Well, if you are, I am as well, since I’m one of your characters.”

The Enigma of Room 622 can’t be read quickly, but it provides humor and insight throughout the long journey—and many elegant twists of crime and detection, with plenty of surprises.

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

New Tuscan Mystery from Camilla Trinchieri, MURDER ON THE VINE

What a pleasure to ride through an Italian crime novel in the hands of a gifted storyteller! Camilla Trinchieri's new addition to the escapades and investigations of widower Nico Doyle, an appreciative American transplant to Tuscany, weaves among the complications of life in the town of Gravigna, when an 80-year-old bartender is murdered and the loves and lusts of several families must be explored to get to the motive of the crime.

Nico is not exactly an amateur sleuth—he worked for the New York Police Department in America, but he has left that career behind and has no official standing in his adopted land. Yet his good friend the local maresciallo (officer) of the carabinieri, Perillo, depends on Nico to add more professional expertise and experience to the local investigation. 

Whether the crime was motivated by love, money, lust, or revenge, Nico is drawn to finding justice for the old man and the people who've loved him, including the lovely Laura Benati, the sorrow-haunted manager of the hotel where the bartender worked for half his life. Under Nico's efforts is a sorrow of his own: He's turned away a woman he's come to love in the town, because he hasn't resolved his issues about his own dead wife and whether he can love again fully. This mystery of life becomes as significant as the one of death he's digging into.

In the long run, rather than forensics, it's Nico's passion for this place and his friends that leads him through the tangled relationships and motivations. His friend Luciana begs Nico to talk to her husband:

"He knows something about the murder," Luciana said. "Ever since we heard about it on the local news last night, he's been odd, fidgety. Usually, he's so quiet I can't even tell he's in the room. After the news, he was picking up things, putting them down again, changing channels every minute. Going to the kitchen, coming back empty-handed. I kept asking him to talk to me. He yelled at me. Nico, he has never yelled at me. The man has always had the patience of a saint. Talk to him. He trusts you."

Smoothly written by a bilingual author and braided with neatly woven clues and red herrings, Murder on the Vine is a delightful transport into community and culture, and provides just enough risk to make the final exposure and wrap-up highly satisfying to all—even to Nico's dog OneWag.

Series readers will appreciate meeting their old friends again; newcomers to Trinchieri's mysteries can slide right into the novel and can catch up on the earlier ones in the series afterward. Published by Soho Crime, an imprint of Soho Press, and just released, in time for enjoyable armchair travel.

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

Brief Mention: Laurie R. King, BACK TO THE GARDEN

If you've been asking yourself whether the communes of the 1970s really were what you recall (or reall learning)--passionate about freedom, love, and justice, as well as drenched in music and hormones and surviving on the strength of good gardening and skilled planning--the new crime novel from Laurie R. King will be deeply reassuring!

Sidelined police inspector Raquel Laing tackles identifying a set of bones discovered at a long-ago California commune, now a serious historic and art attraction. She's racing the clock, because the suspected killer (highly psychopathic) is close to death and playing games with not revealing the names of the (gasp) seventeen women he admits to have slaughtered and buried in the state.

Readers will either love or hate King's choice of alternating time periods between the commune's heyday and Laing's investigation. I found it tolerable, for the sake of the acute insight into "those days" and the fervent beliefs that impelled decisions and lifestyles. The police procedural aspect of the novel, as Laing interviews one commune leader after another, reflects what a long and often unrewarding process this can be in real life. But Laing's own passions and her skills in reading emotions, lies, and truths are fascinating and highly believable. 

King has described this as a standalone. If so, that's a shame -- Laing as an investigator, with her quirks and questions, would make a great foundation for an enjoyable series, and King is expert at crafting long-term pathways of detective work and personal growth. She's accessible via social media; if you feel the same way after reading BACK TO THE GARDEN, drop her a note to encourage a sequel (I will).

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

Outrageously Fun Summer Reading: BURIED IN A GOOD BOOK, Tamara Berry

It's such a great feeling: plunging into a really good mystery that also makes me choke with laughter, then looking up the author for the first time and realizing: She's written other books that I can order up! There's going to be more fun in my summer of reading, thanks to discovering Tamara Berry.

BURIED IN A GOOD BOOK starts with a delightful premise: Tess Harrow, a bestselling thriller author, has inherited a rustic cabin in the woods, one in shabby enough shape that it could hide a few bodies, for an imagination like hers. But how Tess is going to make time for writing, when she's also brought along her (rightfully) bitter and resentful teen daughter, will demand true creativity. 

Fortunately for Tess, there's no time to worry about that -- within minutes of their arrival at the cabin, an explosion shakes the mother and daughter, followed by fish parts and (gulp) human body parts landing on their vacation shelter. 

Thanks to the setting in the big woods of the Northwest, Tamara Berry can toss in sightings of Bigfoot and an active logging culture. But the discovery that both the traveling librarian and the local sheriff have read all Tess's books -- and have ideas about whether or not an author belongs in their real crime scene -- turns the plot into a madcap escapade.

You know the author rule about pushing your character to cope with more threat, more danger? Berry pushes Tess to cope with the ridiculous yet real, as exotic animals trample the scene and Tess attempts to climb to the cabin roof in hopes of getting enough cell signal to demand investigation of the tangled but necessarily connected events:

There were times when having a brilliant, observant, hard-edged child was a source of inordinate pride for Tess. This was not one of those times.

She threw up her hands. "You win. I want to call the sheriff and see if he's checked on those toucans for me. This is getting ridiculous. It's been two days, and no one has said a word. I can't be the only one who's bothered by them." ...

Nothing she tried to do made any sense. No twist of the plot, no turn of the screw fit the complexities of the story—particularly now that it included flamingos. A daring escape from the zoo occurred to her only to be immediately cast aside ... Detective Gonzalez was on the hunt for a killer, not a PETA vigilante.

In addition to the wacky caper aspect and the smart conversations Tess gets into (when she can get someone besides her daughter to listen), BURIED IN A GOOD BOOK embraces another pleasure: When Tess takes risks, they're intentional and part of unraveling the crime(s) at hand -- not because of stupid mistakes. So this book is head and shoulders above many cozies. In fact, if it weren't for the itch of potential romance threaded through, the book would barely fit into the cozy category at all.

Let's see, if Donald Westlake set a book in the Northwest woods and made his protagonists into smart women, and then embedded his trademark capers and humor -- no, that might be taking the possibilities a bit far. 

Besides, I enjoy Tess Harrow so much as written:

"Now, you see here, young man," she said. The steely note in her voice remained. "I don't know how you're tangled up in this dead body business, or why you're stalking me outside a grocery store, but let's get one thing straight. You don't approach me when I'm with my daughter, understand? She's a minor, and if you say one thing that's even remotely threatenig in her earshot, I'll have the sheriff on your doorstep faster than you can say harassment. ... You might have a hundred alibis, but it still wouldn't matter to me."

Put this into the summer TBR stack. (Release date is May 24 from Poisoned Pen Press.) Be a super good friend to someone else and order or buy an extra copy while you're at it. Might as well share the laughter.

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