New Novel from Paul Theroux, THE BAD ANGEL BROTHERS

 

[Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“The book’s suspense rests on whether and when Cal will finally turn to face his lifelong attacker. What will he lose, in what sequence? How humiliated and abased will he become? Is there any moment when he can say enough? As it turns out, there may indeed be such a point. And, as the saying goes, what will happen when the worm turns?”

It’s impossible to read a novel by Paul Theroux without thinking of, and even longing for, his unforgettable books of travel, from The Great Railway Bazaar onward. But although The Bad Angel Brothers opens in a small city somewhere in the cluster between southern New Hampshire and Boston, and Cal Belanger’s parents were middle-class Québecois (French Canadian) immigrants, Cal is outward bound as soon as possible. His reason: to make as much space as he can between his daily life and that of his horrible brother Frank, whom he initially labels (only to himself) “a high-functioning ass****.” Not only does Frank invert and manipulate all the stories of the lives of the two brothers—he does it with malice and intent to degrade Cal in as many ways as possible.

Somewhere along the way, mostly through his gentle father, Cal absorbed the message that he should treat his older brother as, well, a brother. But Frank either missed the message or decided bluntly that it only applied in one direction. He’s out to humiliate. And as he reaches maturity, he spreads his malevolent impact over the impoverished clients of his law practice, too.

Through one episode after another, Cal is battered and belittled. He admits the high school nickname for the two of them, the Bad Angel brothers, pins them together in an odd way. In addition, as long as he’s within Frank’s easy reach, he seems helpless to protect himself. So it’s a huge relief to protagonist and reader alike when Cal takes his geological expertise on the road, makes some quiet gold discoveries and a few very good friends, and develops a pattern of travel that includes half the globe, thus putting Theroux’s other side to work in swiftly and evocatively sketching the people and lifeways with which Cal can readily connect. He is actually a nice person. He just seems captive, like the protypical victim of a cobra, unwilling to run.

When Cal’s lovely and adoring Columbian wife insists on living in the New England neighborhood where Cal grew up, in close proximity to Frank, anyone but Cal can tell what will happen next. At first, his brother’s manipulations only make him more grateful for Vita,  the “beautiful woman, to town, alone, innocent, not knowing that Frank was saying with assurance, ‘Vita,’ summoning her for evaluation. The vision made me love her more and vow to protect her; it made me despise Frank.”

After this, the book’s suspense rests on whether and when Cal will finally turn to face his lifelong attacker. What will he lose, in what sequence? How humiliated and abased will he become? Is there any moment when he can say enough? As it turns out, there may indeed be such a point. And, as the saying goes, what will happen when the worm turns?

That’s when The  Bad Angel Brothers becomes crime fiction. And the reader, having maintained connection with Cal this long, may well be hoping some effective violence finally takes place.

Watch the magician’s hands: Theroux has some powerful twists in his hat, and the language and compelling prose with which to offer them into the spotlight. He may yet pull a coin from your ear. Or from Cal’s.

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.

New Veterinarian Mystery from Eileen Brady, LAST BUT UNLEASHED

What fun to have a new mystery from Eileen Brady, featuring "Dr. Kate" Turner and her busy animal care practice in upstate New York -- and the winter holiday setting of LAST BUT UNLEASHED is a great way to "make friends" with the snowy season ahead of us. After all, there's are plenty of reasons that New Year's Eve parties get wild, and one of them is sure to be the need to warm things up during the shortest days of the year.

For "Dr. Kate" the approach to the end of the year means trying to make a lasting decision about her boyfriend Luke, whose law-school journey has increasingly separated him from caring about her—even for their New Year's Eve date, he's not paying her much attention. In some ways, that's helpful, as Kate gets confirmation that this isn't the relationship she wants. She's actually getting much more affection from her dog ... her team at the veterinary practice ... her steady women friends ... and even the torn-up pitbull dumped on her snowy doorstep.

Unlike in many other "cozy" mysteries, Kate's approach to solving crimes doesn't depend on a close relationship with a police officer (even the local police chief can't make up his mind whether she's helpful or a terrible nuisance). But every now and then, like after the murder of an "organize-your-house" pro when Kate's found the body, she feels the need to give some extra invitation and calls Chief Garcia:

"Did I tell you I spoke to the janitor?"

"Yes. We've already interviewed him. He confirmed your statement." Now the chief sounded as if I'd interrupted his nap.

"Did I tell you about seeing the other janitor cleaning one of the meeting rooms? All I saw was their back, so it slipped my mind."

 ... "Do you remember anything about this other janitor? Height? Build? Did you catch a look at his face or even his profile?" Garcia asked in an urgent way.

I reminded him the whole thing was over in four or five seconds. "I'm not even sure it was a man. Why not interview them yourself?"

"Because, Dr. Turner, the community center only employs one janitor. That second person you saw might be the murderer."

After that, though, Kate keeps her observations to herself and her close friends—which of course is why she eventually needs to borrow an attack-trained Rottweiler to spend the night.

Brady is a pro, pacing her chapters briskly and weaving in the frustrations of adult romance with the puzzles of perpetrators. Although the book runs long for this subgenre -- about 400 pages -- all the threads come together for a very satisfying set of endings. Put this one on the winter TBR list, and pick up an extra for any dog-loving fellow reader. (The only non-charismatic critter in the whole story is an iguana.)

Note for those who always look at the author's website: Brady's is seriously out of date. Meanwhile, though, Poisoned Pen Press is doing a great job re-igniting her delightful series.

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.

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.

Teen Crime Fiction from Francesca Padilla, WHAT'S COMING TO ME

Drugs, crime, poverty, and a dying mother—17-year-old Minerva Guitiérrez has a job at an ice cream shop that comes with off-the-books payments, a creepy boss, and, as this fast-paced thriller opens, a terrifying attack by violent thieves attacking the cash business. So how can she possibly cope with all the lousy cards that life has dealt her?

Francesca Padilla's writing arrives with enormous integrity and realism: There are no easy solutions to Min's problems. Just as her mother is definitely going to die, Min is definitely going to suffer from the bad choices she makes, typical at first of any other teen, then increasingly dangerous. 

Yet Min's strikingly clear-sighted about how she's boxed herself in:

If I'd told Mom about the hiring process and the cameras back when I first started at Duke's and she was still home, she would've stormed Anthony's office and dragged him into the street. She and Nicole always swore the women in our family have a secret brute strength in times of great distress.

But I have never told her how messed up my job or Anthony truly is. I was too relieved to have found a job at all—and even though she never said it out loud, Mom was relieved, too.

So she can't risk losing her job, can she? You already know, even if she doesn't, that the only solutions available will need her to collaborate with her friends and allies. But for a prickly teen, that's going to be almost as dark and risky as the crimes surrounding her.

Teens tend to "read older" than they are, so go ahead and share this or buy it specifically for the teen in your life. Then make sure to fit in some discussion time. We need less nightmares in our lives as we grow up—Min needs to open up, and so do the young readers of this well-written and challenging novel.

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

Michael Stanley, A DEADLY COVENANT, A Detective Kubu Mystery

The mysteries by Michael Stanley—a pen name for the team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip—have a somewhat muddled publishing history. A DEADLY COVENANT is the seventh in the team's Detective Kubu series, and is published by White Sun Books, which only publishes this author ... so is probably best defined as self-publishing. Still, it's worth taking a look at this title to add it to the shelf if you've started a collection of the series, or have an interest in Sub-Saharan Africa as a locale for mysteries.

"Kubu" is a nickname that means hippopotamus, for Detective Sergeant David Bengu of the Bostwana Criminal Investigation Department. It's an unfortunate nickname, prone to disrespect, but this detective usually feels he's made a connection with people when they start using it. (Glass half full.) Being sent on a five-day trip to distant Shakawe with the department's pathologist, Ian MacGregor, looks likely to expose all of Kubu's insecurities and inexperience. But MacGregor is genial and supportive, and at first it looks like they just need to identify a long-buried skeleton as human, so an irrigation project can continue.

However, the crime scene quickly grows complicated, with multiple Bushman bodies suggesting a long-ago massacre; then a local counsellor gets murdered, and Kubu finds himself in the minority in believing that the lone Bushman is the area might not be responsible. Not only is he swimming upstream against prejudice against the Bushman, but there's some sort of collusion going on in the settlement's government and those pressing the water project forward. 

Eventually, Kubu learns some ways to keep the investigation going, like telling a local leader, "We don't want some civil-rights lawyer getting the Bushman off on the grounds that we did a bad job, do we?"

The mystery moves briskly and has an intriguing plot. It does, however, feel a bit dated, in both the clumsiness of the investigation and the local real estate corruption, and in Detective Kubu's unsophisticated approach. Those who prefer ethnic portrayals to be written by members of those ethnic groups will find this an uncomfortable narrative. This again suggests that the series is no longer timely. Like Arthur Upfield's "Bony" series set in Australia, Michael Stanley's books represent a very different time with different expectations of both authors and characters.

Despite this caution, the books have support from Ghanaian-American author Kwei Quartey. So, go ahead a pick up the latest in the series—then let your thoughts engage with our changing cultures, while you watch Kubu solve the multiplying crimes around him.

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

Key West Food Critic Mystery #12, A DISH TO DIE FOR by Lucy Burdette

Key West newspaper writer Hayley Snow, foodie and food critic for the island's Key Zest magazine, is back from her Scotland honeymoon, settling in with her police detective husband and at peace with her assorted in-laws. So things should be calm and serene, right? Somehow that's never the case for Hayley, although it's hard to say she had any responsibility for her husband Nathan's dog finding a body. Still, most people would then back off and "let the police handle it"—but that's never been Hayley's style.

Even her husband realizes this, as she spills out the discovery on the phone to him. "Is it someone you know? Is there anyone else around? How recently do you think this happened? You could be in danger." Hayley hears his panic, does her best to reassure Nathan, then in spite of herself begins to cry.

And that's what makes Lucy Burdette's mysteries so engaging: Even if the murders-found-per-protagonist is a high number, the emotions involved are fiercely real, and Hayley's determination to protect Nathan from her own side investigation rings totally true: Naturally, she'd want to protect him. And it's not just so he'll try to prevent her from investigating (well, yes, but not entirely for that reason). This couple is realistically in love, working their way into a new marriage, and half the pleasure of reading A DISH TO DIE FOR is watching them solve their own issues while hunting for a murderer.

An author note at the back of the book sheds light on how the case then becomes tangled with both recipes and the Key West Woman's Club. IRL (in real life), Burdette picked up a copy of a 1949 collection of recipes from the club, and used both the food suggestions and the potential characters to generate a set of fictional frictions.

Burdette's "cozy" series goes beyond foodie themes to include that other favorite of this relaxing subgenre, pets. After all, it's a much-loved dog that found the body. And Hayley's involvement with pets of family and friends includes watching the animals for clues:

I repeated the snippets of conversation I'd heard and my reactions to the various characters I summed it up by saying that while GG Garcia wasn't well liked, he seemed to be admired for his ruthlessness, adding that I couldn't be sure I'd gotten a murderous vibe from Mr. Entwistle. "I didn't like him, though, even though some of the dogs did."

Who's picking up the relevant vibes—the dogs, or Hayley?

Burdette's plot threads are clever and make good sense, and when the case resolves—after, of course, some element of risk, because this is a murderer we're dealing with—the book offers a highly satisfying conclusion.

Summer may be half over, but the summer reading stack will sustain you through the next few weeks of heat, humidity, and the kids being home and bored. A DISH TO DIE FOR releases on August 9; if you pre-order, you'll have it ready for those muggy days when staying in a beach chair or hammock makes much more sense than mowing the lawn.

And yes, there are recipes at the end!

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

From Larry Beinhart ("Wag the Dog"), THE DEAL GOES DOWN

Tony Casella's dream life may be a lot more satisfying than the awake part. He's just been pitched a job as a hit man, while riding a train to a funeral. It's got him confused, but also tempted, because his finances have never been worse. But his thinking is pretty messed up, even in a dream about someone he's sure is dead:

I meanwhile had an ordinary, pleasant, live person's conversation with Owen. He said business was good, but not as good as it had been, big companies largely created through national security money were moving in and everything was going digital. By then, some of my own ghosts were sneaking in, some to taunt, some to make me mourn ... my wife and my son ... to tear my heart out if I'd still had one.

Part New York noir, part unexpected hero, and a big part dark caper novel, this satirical thriller is a lively return to publication for both Larry Beinhart (his previous book was in 2013) and his long-time private eye, Tony Casella. Despite a solid series of detective fiction, Beinhart's probably best known for the film adaptation of his book Wag the Dog (with an all-star cast). So it's good to see THE DEAL GOES DOWN as a solid book-on-paper, with an August 9 release date (time to pre-order it).

This will especially suit Donald Westlake and Walter Moseley fans, as well as readers who've discovered Rory Flynn. Restoring Manhattan Noir is well worth the effort! Brace for a quirky ending ... but then again, why not?

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

Brief Mention: SHUTTER, a Haunted Crime Novel by Ramona Emerson

Fans of Tony Hillerman's Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee Navajo crime novels have a new direction for their reading, as Diné writer and filmmaker Ramona Emerson offers SHUTTER, a thriller set in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The book offers a forensic photographer, Rita Todacheene, whose childhood with her grandmother on the Navajo reservation included a gift that nobody around her wanted her to have: She's an access portal for the dead. When contributing to an investigation, that gives Rita an occasional lift toward what's important in the crime evidence that she captures with her beloved cameras. But in her personal life, it's a harrowing experience, one that puts her at risk and even distances her from her grandmother and other support.

Consider  Rita's grandmother's explanation:

"But what always confused me was that death was so evil. It was as if when we died, we went to hell. I didn't want my mom to go there, so I cried and cried to keep her here. I watched in the moonlight as my mom parted this world in the summer night."

As a crime novel, SHUTTER is first rate: effective trains of evidence, rapid twists of the plot, and highly believable motivations and process. As a replacement for the Hillerman series, Emerson's work has the very necessary plus of being written from within tribal experience, rather than alongside it. The Leaphorn/Chee mysteries conveyed a maturing serenity that Rita Todacheene can't yet reach, although the intergenerational affection displayed is potent. Some readers may also feel torn between accepting the haunting here as a cultural reality, versus questioning whether Emerson is trying to build a set of metaphors to help non-Native listeners into her narrative. 

SHUTTER is well worth reading as both crime novel and cultural exploration. It's good to see this kind of writing skill applied to the tangled history and present grief of the American West.

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

New Tapei Night Market Mystery from Ed Lin, DEATH DOESN'T FORGET

After a four-year wait, Ed Lin is back with the fourth in his humorous and atmospheric "Taipei Night Market" mystery series. Drenched in delicious details of Taiwan food and food preparation, for Jing-nan's popular stall in Taipei's tourist-dependent Night Market, DEATH DOESN'T FORGET opens with a sweepstakes win for a minor thief named Boxer. When Boxer behaves (predictably) stupidly with the money he's won (200,000 New Taiwan dollars in cash (about US $670), Jing-nan gets roped in -- because Boxer is the boyfriend of the mother of Jing-nan's girlfriend (almost his fiancée), and Boxer's girlfriend Siu-lien wants to know where he's gone to and what he'd done with the money they were supposed to be sharing.

But no good deed goes unpunished, as they say. Jing-nan sets his own needs briefly aside to locate and check on Boxer, who's suffering a painful morning after. Not long afterward, Boxer is murdered ... and police captain Huang, who'd love to see Jing-nan suffer, tries to pin the murder on the hard-working entrepreneur.

Jing-nan shifted his stance as he tried to read Captain Huang's poker face. At the mention of murder both Frankie and Dwayne [Jing-nan's assistants] laid aside their [cooking] instruments and crossed their arms. The line of 10 people at Unknown Pleasures turned to the right to see what exactly was happening. Captain Huang recognized that these tourists understood only rudimentary Mandarin, so to help them out, he pointed at Jing-nan and said in English, "That man is a murderer!" They gasped.

Though the frame doesn't stick, it's quickly clear that Jing-nan's life and business can't be reclaimed until the crime is solved. That's the entry for a tangled plot of motives and opportunities flying around like trapeze artists, swinging past each other in midair, and incidentally featuring several persons of aboriginal descent and a public circus performance.

This mystery has the same big pluses and small minus as the earlier ones by Ed Lin: The plot is lively, the characters unusual and well motivated, and the scenes are intriguing and unusual. On the other hand, the language reads like a translation (which it isn't), perhaps an effort by Lin to add more Taiwanese feel to his storytelling. It may not bother readers who are more interested in how the threads tangle and untangle (and less in the mouth feel, so to speak).

For any shelf of Taiwan or international crime fiction, Ed Lin's books are a must. They hold up to re-reading, too. (Actually, to save on decision making, just collect all of Soho Crime's international mysteries.) Special treats are moments like Jing-nan's reply to Captain Huang, who declines to arrest him (based on evidence): "Well, to hell with that, then. I'm staying here. I have a business to run."

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

Sixth Jeremy Logan Speculative Crime Fiction from Lincoln Child, CHRYSALIS

 [Originally published at New York Journal of Books]

“Fans of this series will enjoy the extended romp with Logan and his demands for revelation; newcomers can relax into Lincoln Child’s lively narrative.”

It’s not unusual for crime suspense to incorporate cutting-edge technology—from DNA to facial recognition to global databases, many a novel has hung its plot on a radical change that hasn’t quite come into real use. In Chrysalis, the sixth Jeremy Logan thriller, Lincoln Child pushes this cutting edge into a whole new dimension, as he spins together media, medicine, and moguls. Buckle in, because the warp speed of this ticking-clock plot gives no relaxing interludes.

Jeremy Logan isn’t a conventional crime solver. He’s an enigmalogist, a nearly psychic investigator of inexplicable phenomena. His ability to make unexpected connections in data, including among human motivations, makes him particularly valuable.

So when Chrysalis, a technology and advanced science company embedded in its own city-like compound in western New England, falls victim to a blackmailer and significant individuals among the company’s projects suddenly die, the pressure’s on Jeremy to move swiftly. Even aided by Chrysalis’s own outstanding virtual reality, it doesn’t look like he’ll be able to outmaneuver the demand for a billion dollars in cryptocurrency. Because if the blackmailer’s not paid, thousands more lives and the company’s entire future are at stake.

But payment alone couldn’t persuade Logan to immerse himself and risk his life on such a mission. It’s who’s asking him—a living phantom of entrepreneurship, John Christie IV himself, who tells Logan, “The work being done here is precious. It’s the future of technology—the future of man. We have our own people looking into this tragedy, but the time element is critical. … You’re the only person in the world I felt comfortable contacting. You’re our Hail Mary, Jeremy. You’re our just in case.”

The pressure to solve both the technical and the human forces arrayed against the company is enormous, and Child maintains the race against time for all of Logan’s efforts. That said, there’s little room for character development, and as the mechanics of the threat are gradually unraveled, they lead to a shorter fuse and more compressed action. Perhaps it’s not a surprise that the ending falls a bit flat—nobody’s sacrificed anything of value (other than a couple of quickly ended lives) and there’s no growth or deep resolution that will light up a reader’s energies afterward. Yet Child is adept at tying together all his threads by the finale, with a neat and not expected solution.

Watch for quirky scraps of humor, like the moment when the “Alexa” figure in the programming absorbs Jeremy Logan’s orders quickly so he can take action. As he rises, he tells the voice of the software, “Grace, you’re a peach.” Her reply: “No, Jeremy. I am a virtual assistant.”

Fans of this series will enjoy the extended romp with Logan and his demands for revelation; newcomers can relax into Lincoln Child’s lively narrative and marvel at how a little stretch of current technology can create a scary world of possibilities.

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

Scottish Crime Fiction With Art/Heart, THE GOLDENACRE by Philip Miller

In a collaboration with Penguin, Soho Crime has now brought out an American printing of THE GOLDENACRE, a deeply mournful novel of art crime and greed, set in today's Edinburgh, Scotland. Denise Mina, the doyen of "tartan noir," calls the book a riveting, brutal journey into the high stakes world of inherited art and wealth, and it can certainly be read that way. But if your season allows time to enter Philip Miller's novel slowly, there is a wealth of literary depth to savor as well.

Two principal points of view dominate: that of sardonic reporter Shona Sandison, seeing her lifelong career at the Edinburgh Post melting away as digital platforms take over the news business, and that of the rather ineffective Thomas Tallis, designated to authenticate the provenance of a work of art called "The Goldenacre." The painting, fabulously valuable, is being donated to the Scottish government in lieu of back taxes owed by the mansion-rich, cash-poor family that owns it. Thomas needs to verify that it's really "the last precious work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the artist and architect" -- and sign off on the deal.

But Thomas is hesitant, uncertain, a weak reed in many ways. Which makes him almost the total opposite of his father, Sir Raymond T. Tallis, former deputy director of MI6. 

Thomas Tallis hasn't had much of his father's attention, and he's not getting family support right now, either. In fact, despite a small son in common, his wife seems to be divorcing him and taking the boy, and Thomas is doing nothing about it, despite enormous pain and grief. Slowly this comes into focus as a parallel to the wistfulness of the painting -- which portrays a pastoral area of Edinburgh still known as the Goldenacre. So when a hint of impropriety reaches him about the painting, this too is something he fails to take much action on.

Shona Sandison, though, is already linking the pieces, including the death (murder?) of a local artist, and the mysterious circumstances behind Thomas's recent change of jobs.

And then poor Thomas receives a very threatening message in the form of a human body part.

His collapse comes amid shimmering descriptions of Edinburgh, where he'd lived as a child. When he finds himself needing a drink, he knows to abandon the modern commercial part of the city:

There had been a place he had gone to as a boy. He would go there: the bend in the river. In the town where he had been sent to school, there were woods that followed the river up to its source A mile outside the town, the river—wide and slow—slowly turned. There was a beach on the slow side of the bend, and a broken viaduct. There, the shadows of the trees plunged into moving water and oaks grew. There was cool shade in the summer, and in winter the river ran swollen, and covered the shingle beach. He dreamt of it often.

Stepping back into his dreams, Thomas loses his grasp on the threats around him, and what to do about them. It's just as well, considering what takes place when the paired movements of this art investigator and the investigative journalist put pressure onto the major crime being organized around them.

There are several strands to the book's conclusion, and one might quibble with the forcing of some aspects. Yet it's undeniably a powerful and enjoyable read, and places Miller among the must-read authors who bind the tragedy of their crimes to Scotland's cities and feudal history.

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

Brief Mention: Deluxe Edition of THE THIEF by Fuminoro Nakamura

THE THIEF is a remarkable work of crime fiction built on postmodern narrative, issued by Soho Crime as a powerful translation from the Japanese by Satoko Izumo and Stephen Coates. Our review from 2012 is here.

Now Soho Crime (an imprint of Soho Press) has reissued THE THIEF in a deluxe edition that includes a new introduction by Duane Swierczynski to put this thriller into perspective. There's also an afterword by the author to mark this 10-year retrospective.

If you're intrigued by how crime fiction maneuvers across language and culture, this edition definitely belongs on your shelf.

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

High-Stakes Summer Thriller, THE LIES I TELL by Julie Clark

Most of the great confidence men (con artists) of mystery and thriller fiction are exactly that -- men. In THE LIES I TELL, Julie Clark establishes two powerful and compelling women willing to play any necessary game to achieve their goals, and turns the tables on the classic form. Moreover, Clark lets these women address us in alternating first person, telling their own stories. Yet she still manages to hide her final twists until they become startling and irredeemable.

Meg Upton is obviously out to manipulate situations and set up her targeted men for pain and loss. She's blunt  about her methods:

I spend hundreds of hours on observation and research. Profiling the different people in your life, finding the one I can befriend, the one who will lead me to you. When I'm done, I know everything I possibly can about you, and most of the people around you. By the time you're saying nice to meet you, I've already known you for months.

Does this worry you? It should.

Kat Roberts, an investigative reporter, has been watching for traces of Meg's operations, and hopes to save her finances through an exposé of the high-rolling criminal. But Kat's life has stresses that make her career increasingly difficult, even hazardous. The closer she gets to Meg -- who knows herself well enough to say "I was born to be a grifter" -- the more Kat's got to face her own mistakes and the way she's allowed life to run another sort of con on her.

Still, it's the conniving Meg who most often puts it all on the line:

I'm not a fool. I know Kat plans to write about me, exposing who I am and what I do. I see beneath her soft sympathy ... I have a plan too, and Kat will be a useful part of it. It's easy to pull her in and feed her the pieces I need her to have.

Does Kat guess this? Her boyfriend warns her: "A con artist isn't going to just let you walk away. She's going to want to make you pay."

Clark's gift lies in holding each character's needs so close to the surface that a surge of empathy for either is immediately countered by a wave of concern over what threat each of these women will impose on the other. As with her earlier suspense, The Last Flight, this author pulls the threads of tension tighter with each new action and revelation, until, like a deck of cards cut and arched upward against the fingers, the patterns suddenly rearrange in a shattering set of revelations.

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