Outstanding British Crime Fiction from Michael Robotham: WHEN SHE WAS GOOD

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“When She Was Good makes a desperate plea for the forces of love and justice to prevail. And with each tense additional revelation, it’s clear there’s only disaster ahead. The question is, whose lives will be sacrificed?”

MichaelRobotham’s second crime novel to feature forensic psychiatrist Cyrus Haven (his 15th overall) pits two good people and one abused teenager against a possible network of pedophiles in Britain with unlimited power. When She Was Good is a page-turner from the start, and only in part due to the rapid and terrifying action taking place. The really compelling aspect is, these three people deserve so much better.

Take Evie Cormac, being hidden in a secure children’s home—except the place has few homelike characteristics, is run by grim people without humor or affection whose main role seems a cross between a school principal and a jailer, and the only friend she’s got is a younger girl unable to remember the insults and rebellions that pattern Evie’s life with others. It’s not just that Evie’s blunt to the point of rudeness most of the time. It’s that she knows if someone’s lying to her, and won’t put up with it. So who’d want to be her friend or share power with her?

Actually, Cyrus Haven is desperate to find the keys to freedom for Evie. Dodging the police departments and national security team with which he’s supposed to collaborate, he’s set himself a mission of finding out what really happened to Evie before she was rescued. And then corralling the perpetrators, so she can have a life.

But when he locates and tries to recruit Sacha Hopewell, the woman who rescued Evie, Sacha’s not optimistic. After Cyrus does his best to convince her that Evie needs the help that only openness and revelation can provide, Sacha admits to Cyrus that she’d tried to reassure the child herself:

Sacha looks up from her empty bowl. ‘Do you know what she did?’

I shook my head.

‘She gave me this look that laid me to waste inside. It was so full of despair, so bereft of hope. It was like dropping a stone ito a dark well, waiting for it to hit bottom, but it never does, it just keeps falling. That’s what frightened me. That and her voice, which came out all raspy and hoarse. She said, “Nobody can protect me.”’

Alternating voices, between Cyrus and Evie, Robotham lays out terrifying experiences and threats, one on top of another, like a fearsomely tall stack of misaligned playing cards. Any touch or breath could send the whole stack toppling. And although Cyrus won’t realize it for a while, his own connections and careful inquiry into Evie’s past are the triggers that lead the deadly forces who can’t afford to have the teen survive and speak.

While Cyrus tumbles over and over into the self-deception that he’ll be able to protect this battered child to whom he’s given his heart—for her courage, her honesty, her disarmingly dangerous refusal to collude with liars—Evie’s correct when she denies his ability to save her. Even the police force can be corrupted by the politically potent and wealthy circles that Cyrus has pried open.

When She Was Good makes a desperate plea for the forces of love and justice to prevail. And with each tense additional revelation, it’s clear there’s only disaster ahead. The question is, whose lives will be sacrificed—beyond that of Evie’s only friend Ruby, whom she discovers dead in her own bed:

“Poor Ruby. Dumb Ruby. Deep as a puddle. Thick as a plank. As friendly as a puppy. She’s dead because of me. … Ruby’s eyes were open and one arm lay across her waist, another on the pillow. My pillow. … They expected to find me. They thought they killed me.”

Word of Evie’s survival is all it takes to launch further attacks. Don’t try to get anything else done; just keep reading. The only way this book will let you go is if you walk, or run, with Evie, Cyrus, and Sacha to the last page.

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

British Crime Fiction by Michael J. Malone, IN THE ABSENCE OF MIRACLES

Families. They have their noisy dysfunctions and their quiet secrets, but for the most part, they manage to get along. Until something in that managing snaps, with devastating consequences.

That's the situation in John Docherty's family, in the new crime novel from British/Scottish author Michael J. Malone, IN THE ABSENCE OF MIRACLES. John's mother's stroke won't let her go home again from nursing care, and John, clearing the house in order to put it on the market, discovers enough evidence to realize that his mother and father -- a police detective -- have hidden something he had every right to know: He is not the oldest child in his family, after all.

How much should he dig into this secret, with his mother so ill, and his father already dead? Will it only cause pain? His father's old friend, also in a nursing home, suggests as much:

"If you'll excuse an old man for speaking out of turn ..." He paused while another cough wracked his frail form. "I loved your old dad like a brother. He was a fine, fine man," he said as if he was keen to offer me something, without breaking any promises. "You need to go, son, before I say too much. But think on this: only an eejit runs away from the present by burying himself in the past."

Malone tips the point of view occasionally to that of John's own good friend Paul, who cautiously asks whether John ever suffered abuse as a child. John's answer is a firm "no" and he has no doubts. It's only Paul's odd question that unsettles him.

But John's a broken-winged creature in life, unable to keep his own promises to an important girlfriend and uneasy in his teaching career. In order to discover whether he really once had an older brother who has vanished, and to confront the long-buried demons of his soul, he and his allies will have to pull off the covers of terrible crimes, proving emphatically that the past isn't even past -- it's what shapes us now. And, short of a miracle, opening up the dark passages can be deadly.

Malone's far better known in Britain than in the US, but thanks to Orenda Books, readers can now access his award-winning crime fiction. When you visit this website, be sure to dig down a layer and sample the powerful range of his work.

Best of all, despite the horrific crimes that Docherty discovers (fair warning: some are sexual, but the book's so well written that it's bearable), IN THE ABSENCE OF MIRACLES is equally a tale of heart and friendship. Near the end of the book, John Docherty's painful realizations also generate this thought: "It's kindness that brings us back to ourselves."

Highly recommended, and released for publication in the US today.

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

Swedish Noir Trilogy Concludes, SLOWLY WE DIE from Emelie Schepp

Special prosecutor Jana Berzelius tackles a traumatically gruesome set of serial killings in this third and final book in this noted Swedish crime fiction trilogy from Emelie Schepp. SLOWLY WE DIE pits Berzelius against what looks like a group of revenge murders. But who's doing them, and why? At first, all Berzelius knows is that the victims are people who usually get thanked, not murdered: they're first responders and other medically trained experts.

But then again, considering the murder weapon is a skillfully used scalpel, the murderer may also belong inside that world where life and death are negotiated daily.

The two earlier books in this series are Marked for Life  and Marked for Revenge. Although I read a lot of noir, this series gave me chills at a level that I didn't choose to put into detail in reviews, because of the underlying crime of child sexual abuse, graphically shown in the other two books, that drives Berzelius in her work. So yes, you'll get more of the haunting horror that Berzelius faces in this third book if you read the other two first.

Then again -- the situation this time is so terrifying ... Berzelius winds up sharing her home with a terrifying person from her past, who's blackmailing her into letting him stay:

When she'd left the apartment, Danilo had been standing in the hall, looking at her. His arms had been crossed and something resembling a sneer had been on his lips. But he hadn't said anything, and she hadn't, either. She had simply met his gaze and fantasized about putting her hands around his neck and squeezing until he was gasping for breath.

She would gladly break every bone in his body and would more than gladly erase him from the face of the earth. But killing him was not an option -- not yet.

Right, maybe you don't need to take it any darker than this third book already presents. And it gets more frightening -- although the finely tuned and paced writing may well drag you though this book at a very high speed. (It did, for me.)

Blurbs for the book, because it's "Scandinavian noir," compare it to Jo Nesbø's writing. But I'd pick Karin Fossum as the most comparable. Prepare to shudder.

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

Classic Thriller, Brilliant in Its Twists, WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT by Sandra Block

Take all the horror stories you've read in the "real news" about sexual molesting at frat houses and other university clubs. Add to it the humiliation and shock of a gang-rape victim who can't remember what happened, thanks to being drugged -- but who arrives at a hospital wounded and damaged in every part of her body, and who eventually finds her office mates watching a video of her assault.

That's the baseline of WHAT HAPPENED NEXT, one of the best classic thrillers I've read this year. But author Sandra Block goes way beyond the suspense and desperate desire for crime solving that this situation inspires when she provides for Dahlia, barely functioning as a paralegal, to find the support she needs from a shy "IT" guy (programmer) named James -- whose "differentness" is captured in the term "Asperger's syndrome." Except for the highly pertinent fact that the term misses out on both his persistence and his tender ability to care for Dahlia. Which is, of course, an astounding situation for both of them, but especially for Dahlia, whose effort to kill herself some time ago made complete sense.

The video's arrival online marks the moment Dahlia chooses to move from ultimate victim to a force for justice. Not necessarily legal justice -- but a fierce and furious balancing of the scales against at least four of the men who raped her and made fun of her painful abasement.

No wonder James seems like an amazing answer to her needs: On his body, unlike the tattoos on Dahlia's, is a string of Japanese characters spelling the word for "revenge."

I could not put this book down. The twists, the suspense, the emotional connections building against the odds between Dahlia and James -- it stunned me. There are also interludes of flashback to the year of the rape, like this one in Dahlia's voice:

It is a bit shocking, but I love my tattoo.

It's the one thing I've managed to accomplish over the last couple of months in Cambridge. Ink. It was like therapy. My tattoo artist, Claire, asked why I wanted a tattoo. I told her that I wanted to take my body back. And she said "Cool" quite simply, and that was that.

We talked. Well, I talked, and she listened. It hurt, sure, but I really didn't mind. It was my idea. My pain. And while she etched survivor on my arm and surrounded it with darkness turning into lightness, I felt better. Tattoo therapy, maybe. It was better than that Rae-Ann woman anyway, who just drank tea the whole time.

I don't try to explain any of this to my mom.

What intrigues me most about WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT is the way it shatters the genre conventions so successfully. Face it, a gang-rape victim turning to revenge -- that should be darkness all the way. But Block commands a rising and wakening from her plot and characters, and the ending is almost too tender to bear -- but not really. It fits, as inevitable as it is surprising.

Don't let the brutal crime involved keep you away from grabbing a copy of this book (new from Sourcebooks Landmark). It's a compelling read, a memorable one, and, dare I say, a lifesaver. Or so I mean light-saver? Yeah, like that. (By the way, it's blurbed by Lisa Scottoline, and deserves it.)

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

Heads Up: Emelie Schepp, MARKED FOR REVENGE, and Bill Pronzini, THE VIOLATED

I won't be posting full reviews of these two books coming out in the next week or so, but want to mention them -- and the reasons for my choices.

Emelie Schepp lives in Sweden, and her "Marked" trilogy is being adeptly translated -- the second book, MARKED FOR REVENGE, was moved into English seamlessly by Suzanne Martin Cheadle (it's hard to even tell it was translated). It's suspense, with high stakes; the protagonist, prosecutor Jana Berzelius, is investigating the international drug trade and child trafficking in Sweden.

My problem with it is really my own ... I find graphic child abuse really hard to read. I read all of the first book in this series, Marked for Life, and couldn't bear to reframe it as a review. As soon as I started reading the second book, MARKED FOR REVENGE (release date February 28), all the emotions from the first book rolled back at me. I've skimmed book 2, and it's brilliantly plotted and tightly written. But again, the level of abuse and violence is so far outside my comfort zone (which is pretty wide really ... I have read and enjoyed most of Andrew Vachss and Carol O'Connell, for example, as well as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series) that I'm not going to spell it all out. If you're into it, you can see reviews elsewhere. Sorry.

For a very different reason, I'm not going to present THE VIOLATED, the March 7 release from Grand Master of Mystery Bill Pronzini. This one's an audacious attempt at narrating the investigation of a serial rapist's career and murder from multiple points of view. I thought the technique took the book into being very flat, and the tension never rose the way a good work of suspense should. Not did the character acquire enough depth. Even the California setting didn't quite come to life. I can't recommend it -- but that said, Pronzini is generally marvelous, and if you haven't yet read any of his books, do try some of the others. I'll be watching for his next book, figuring that he too knows this one didn't work out as well as he'd hoped ... so he'll create a major winner on the next round.

Obviously, if you're a Pronzini collector, you'll pick up a copy of THE VIOLATED anyway. Go for it.

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

Risk, Danger, and Love, in THE HOT COUNTRIES, Timothy Hallinan, Thailand

The seventh Poke Rafferty Bangkok thriller is out -- and it's a fantastic wrap-up to this part of the series. THE HOT COUNTRIES tackles crime in one of the world's most notorious cities for crime, but from the point of view of a travel writer who's fallen hopelessly and forever in love ... with Bangkok, with his wife Rose (who knows the sex trade from the inside), and with his firmly adopted daughter Miaow. The trouble is, love may have put its rose-colored lenses in front of some other parts of Poke's life, where it's not a wise idea to feel mushy and warm about what's going on.

The action opens with a moody and sweet scene at the Expat Bar, a local men's hangout where Poke's wandered more often than usual lately, escaping the surge of British TV watching that Rose and Miaow (or Mia, in her new teen persona) are indulging in. The oldtimers at the bar have made him welcome for years. So in Poke's mellow evening, there's no reason to worry about the presence of a new fellow in the line-up at the bar, Arthur Varney. At least, not until Poke realizes that Varney is the mover-and-shaker behind some very threatening messages coming his way, messages that threaten his family (and by the way, Rose is pregnant) and also his friends. Especially at risk is Treasure, a street waif who's seen horrendous abuse and is recovering very slowly after Poke's managed to settle her into a group home for kids who share her past experience. And the threat is being delivered via messages to Poke himself.

Treasure says, "I'm frightened."

"I know," Poke says. "But we're not just going to keep you away from him. We're going after him, and when we find him, you'll never have to think about him again."

A rash promise.

Here's where that highly technical term "part of a series" come into play. Yes, this is number 7 in Timothy Hallinan's Bangkok series, but it's also the third -- and completing title -- of a set of the Rafferty books that focus on how and whether Treasure can actually be saved from both the horrors of her past life and the overwhelming power and wealth of her abuser(s). As he did with number 6 (For the Dead), Hallinan is playing Poke Rafferty's almost naive drive to save the people he cares about, against the sweaty tropical weight of a culture that's almost given up on its vulnerable members.

Although Poke is highly motivated to fight the criminals battering his life, he's truly an "amateur sleuth" in the sense of the genre definition: no martial arts skills, no amazing weapons, not even a trained sniper on his side. But there are those old men from the Expat Bar ... a police officer who's a friend, even if a disgraced one ... and some women and "ladyboys" who recognize that Poke himself is worth saving.

The people who come through for Poke do so because he's earned their loyalty. Most of all, this time, the heroes include his own daughter, who's been through a lot herself. Astute readers will notice Miaow's steady progress toward taking responsibility for resisting evil and asserting her own amazing future -- so the book's ending is especially satisfying, as well as surprising in the best of ways.

I do hope this isn't the "final" Poke Rafferty book, because this stretch of intense and suspenseful thrillers set in a wickedly complex and dangerous Thai city has given me a really good ride! Keep them rolling, Tim Hallinan and Soho Crime ... please.

[PS - if you're a reader who stays WAY away from thrillers that include sexual abuse, you have my sympathy ... and my assurance that even though that's a major crime in the Poke Rafferty series, it's portrayed as a justice issue, not as porn. Safe to read these, truly.]

New From Eric Rickstad, Releasing Sept 1 -- as an E-Book!

It's a Brave New World in book publishing, and here's one more item of proof: HarperCollins is reversing the "accepted" publication routine, and issuing Eric Rickstad's new Vermont mystery as an e-book before the print version!

LIE IN WAIT is already available for pre-order, and will launch on September 1. A classic police investigation mystery with a few twists, it's set in the fictional town of Canaan (ignore any idea that this matches the real Canaan, Vermont -- it doesn't, as mentioned for his previous Gothic thriller The Silent Girls) and takes place in 2010, during the height of the "Take Back Vermont" campaign (this too is a slight twist of "real" history, as the campaign happened in 2000; here's a link to a Wikipedia explanation). Some naive visitors to the Green Mountain State at that time misunderstood the lawn signs with the phrase, thinking it referred to a tourism effort (as in, buy Vermont products and take them back home with you). Actually it was a very bitter time in Vermont community life, as factions wrestled over whether the law creating "civil unions" for same-sex couples was a courteous and appropriate recognition of an established family form, or blasphemous and disgusting enabling of a sexuality that many considered "wrong," or at least "abnormal."

In real life, although the time was contentious and led to many public spats (and tears), the effort to keep conversations civil won out, and eventually, nine years later, Vermont made possible same-sex marriage as a legal entity. Tourism and same-sex weddings changed the minds of some who'd opposed the new law; others became quieter in their dissent; and many rejoiced.

Rickstad's fictional Vermont, however, is a dangerous place for a lawyer defending a civil suit brought by two men who want their union legalized. And as LIE IN WAIT opens, we find the entire town of Canaan up in arms over The Case that attorney Jon Merryfield is representing. Soon the domestic scene of the Merryfield home is marred by a brutal murder of the babysitter -- and the action rapidly intensifies.

At the heart of the book is Sonja Test, a detective on the town police force (Vermont residents, here's your cue again to recall that this is fiction). Eager to solve the crime and ensure justice, she's stymied right away by her position as a newbie and as a town detective -- because the state police, in the person of senior detective Richard North, rightfully takes ownership of the case. Test is so new at her job that she trips over her own feet, antagonizing both North and the witnesses.

As Test approached, North averted his eyes to the cellar stairs. Test could tell from the creases carved in his face by his scowl that whatever was down in that cellar was nasty. She'd not worked a murder scene. They were few and far between in Canaan.

She prepared herself by taking a slow deep breath through her nose; a technique she employed when running half marathons.

Her fist homicide and she would work it -- or support it, rather -- alone.

"It's not pretty," North said to Test without saying hello or shaking her hand. Had he thought she'd think it would be pretty? Was he patronizing her? She was uncertain.

Sonja Test is someone easy to identify with. She's passionate about her job, wants to stake out her turf, longs to make a reputation as an effective detective. At the same time, she has two small children and a husband, none of whom are getting much attention as she repeatedly puts the investigation first. Risks to her kids arise; soon she's afraid her job's on the line, too.

Rickstad chooses to display the minds of several other people as the case goes along -- from the babysitter on the evening of her death, to three or four possible suspects, all of whom are linked in a crime from years ago that was never prosecuted. (Note: If you can't abide reading plots that involve sexual abuse, let this one pass.) And there's serious confusion for some of the townspeople, who confuse gay sex of adults, with the abuse of sexual power over children.

Test is a compelling character, so painfully human that her stumbles along the way are almost endearing. Her persistence and determination and willingness to risk being wrong add up to the capacity to get close to the solution of the crime. But as it becomes clear that someone is being framed, will Sonja Test be able to spot the real hand behind the evil actions taking place?

If I could change one thing about the way Rickstad wraps up this crime novel, it would be in terms of how Sonja Test puts together the facts at last; I like to see a plucky protagonist make worthwhile choices when it counts, and maybe this fictional investigator doesn't yet have the skills to pull off the final surge of detection. See what you think -- and whether you feel she's earned her way here.

What a treat to have this come out as an inexpensive e-book first -- if you have a device for reading an e-book, or are willing to use the software available to read it on your computer, it's an easy pick for a Vermont thriller. Purchase directly from the publisher with this link, or use other e-book routes that work for you.

Just remember -- it's fiction! (We Green Mountain folks want you to feel safe to come visit us!)