Harrison’s riveting fifth adventure for Montana PI Jules Clement (after 2000’s Blue Deer Thaw) is worth the wait. In 1972, when Jules was a child, his father, the sheriff of Blue Deer, Mont., was gunned down during a traffic stop. Patrick Bell was convicted of the murder—he claimed he’d been on the way home to kill his unfaithful wife and the sheriff “was in the way”—but the precise circumstances of the crime were never made clear. Now, in 2001, Jules’s mother urges him to learn as much as he can about his father’s final moments. While Jules reluctantly revisits that case, he juggles others: his meddlesome neighbors separately hire him to spy on one another; a priest’s suicide starts to look like it may have been a murder; and Absaroka County hires him to determine where, exactly, the bodies are buried in an abandoned graveyard that officials want to build a road over. Eventually, most of the plot’s individual strands come together, with the death of Jules’s father as a linchpin. The episodic structure works wonders, with each vignette highlighting Jules’s damage as well as his brilliance. Here’s hoping the PI’s next case arrives sooner than this one did. Agent: Dara Hyde, Hill Nadel Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

A biracial PI unearths political corruption in this witty and insightful mystery from Wright (American Pop). In 1985 Meridian, Miss., Clementine “Clem” Baldwin and her associate, Dixon Hicks, are approached by Lenora Coogan, whose son, Turnip, has died trying to escape from the county jail where he was being held for the murder of real estate developer Randall Hubbard. Though witnesses saw Turnip fall off the jail’s roof, Lenora is convinced he was murdered; she also believes he was wrongly imprisoned, despite strong evidence that he carried out the hit on behalf of Hubbard’s wife. Lenora’s case is thin, but Clem and Dixon take it anyway, heading to the mansions of Hubbard’s associates and the trailer parks of Turnip’s peers as they slowly unravel a deadly conspiracy being perpetrated by the Dixie Mafia, whose members sit in the highest ranks of local government. Wright elevates his premise with wry humor (“Meridian, Mississippi... billed itself as the state’s ‘Queen City,’ but had, in recent decades, become more of a countess or a baronet”) and a keen awareness of the South’s racial dynamics. This has series potential. Agent: Eve Atterman, WME. (Aug.)

Correction: A previous version of this review incorrectly identified the author as a journalist.

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

At the start of this disappointing standalone from McKeegan (The Wild One), 33-year-old Kimmy Devine quits her finance job in London to take over her ailing father’s hardware store in Rocky Cape, N.J. Though Kimmy vowed 15 years ago that she’d never return to her hometown, she’s delighted to see her younger sister, Erin, who has come home to cope with fertility issues and her impending divorce. The sisters’ parents host a homecoming party at their yacht club, which quickly turns tense as former friends and exes show up and poke at old wounds. The next morning, the Devines learn that Erin’s teenage crush, Peter Cameron, has been found dead in an apparent suicide. Shifting between the past and the present, McKeegan gradually doles out details about the disturbing reason why Kimmy left Rocky Cape and how her past and Peter’s death are intertwined. Though McKeegan establishes a vivid sense of place, the drawn-out plot is bogged down by a cast of vapid, largely interchangeable characters, and the mystery’s resolution is too far-fetched. This fails to leave a mark. Agent: Michelle Brower, Trellis Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

Iandoli (God Save the Queens) stumbles with this limp saga of a mafia heir’s quest for revenge. Jimmy Martello lacks grit, but his math skills have made him a “human calculator” for the New York City crime family run by his father, Italo Martello Jr. For Jimmy’s 25th birthday, Italo and his cohorts throw an extravagant party, complete with Jimmy’s induction into “the business.” When the festivities are in full swing, hit men infiltrate the party, killing Jimmy’s father and grandfather. Jimmy manages to wound one of the attackers before fleeing to safety. Suddenly, he’s top dog, and he soon learns that his uncle, Salvatore, has been released from prison with hopes of taking over New York City’s drug trade. Coming to believe Salvatore ordered the hit, Jimmy swears revenge, and attempts to make allegiances with other crime bosses who can teach him to become a killer. Though the novel is set in the present, Iandoli’s depiction of the mafia is dated and unconvincing, rarely rising above cliché. Mario Puzo this is not. (May)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

A throbbing disco beat powers screenwriter Croft’s stunning sophomore effort (after Stone Cold Fox), which centers on a pair of vampires ensnared in a toxic partnership. In 1979, wily vampire Nicola Claughton spots 23-year-old Amber Wells on a London dance floor. Instant attraction moves Nicola to “turn” (read: bite) Amber and bring her back to her ancestral manse in Hampstead. Fast-forward 50 years and Amber has begun to feel stifled, so she plots an escape, hoping to spend her eternal youth elsewhere. Nicola can feel Amber pulling away, and makes an alluring proposition: they’ll open their own nightclub and recapture their glory days. Amber agrees, but both women are keeping their cards close to their vests—Nicola has never taken kindly to attempted abandonment, and Amber plans to use the club’s opening to make a grand gesture and end their relationship. Concealed family histories, betrayals, and carefully parceled flashbacks usher the narrative toward an incendiary climax, and Croft’s devilish plotting pays heed to classic vampire tropes without succumbing to them. Readers should rush to sink their teeth into this. Agent: Hillary Jacobson, CAA. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

An actor turned psychic stumbles into the center of an LAPD murder investigation in Richter’s winningly offbeat debut. Twenty-five years ago, Jenny St. John starred in The Divide, a never-released movie directed by first-timer Serge Grumet. Despite the film’s failure, Serge went on to become a major Hollywood player. In the meantime, Jenny’s star faded, and she rebranded as an “intuitive counselor” who uses her talent for reading people to provide life advice. When Serge turns up dead, the prime suspect is his ex-wife, painter Genevieve Santos, who flees Los Angeles. The problem? Genevieve and Jenny look exactly alike, and authorities come to believe they’re the same person. To clear her name, Jenny interviews friends, family, and associates of Serge and Genevieve, applying tricks she’s learned in the psychic trade to ferret out the truth, only to unwittingly make herself a target for Serge’s killer. Though the case of mistaken identity that jump-starts the plot feels far-fetched, Richter comes through with sparkling prose, a consistently surprising mystery, and an engrossing portrait of contemporary Los Angeles. Fans of Hollywood neo-noir will relish this fresh update on an old formula. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

Film editor Brown sets her sights on the lily-white world of Ivy League secret societies in her underheated debut. Naomi, the younger sister of New York City art dealer Maya, who is half-Asian, half-Black, is preparing to follow in Maya’s footsteps and graduate from Princeton University. Naomi’s commencement ceremony lines up with Maya’s 10-year reunion, so Maya prepares to reconnect with old classmates as she heads to New Jersey for the weekend. Not long after she arrives, authorities pull Naomi’s body from a river near campus. Though her death is ruled an accident, Maya fears her sister was murdered. From there, the perspectives and timelines split: Naomi recounts the months leading up to her death, while Maya conducts an investigation and reflects on her own time at Princeton. When Maya learns that Naomi ignored her advice and joined the same secret society Maya belonged to—one mostly populated by the white children of well-connected families—she revisits a decade-old campus death and worries she neglected to sufficiently warn her sister about the nasty games played by Princeton’s elite. Brown has a knack for atmosphere, but her pacing drags, and it’s difficult to differentiate between the voices of her protagonists. This struggles to stand out from the pack of campus thrillers. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, CAA. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

A honeymoon turns into a grisly locked-room mystery in Slaughter’s harrowing 12th outing for Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Will Trent (following After That Night). Will and his bride, medical examiner Sara Linton, plan to celebrate at McAlpine Lodge in northwest Georgia, but on the night they arrive, hotel manager Mercy McAlpine is murdered in one of the property’s cabins. Will and Sara jump into action, first turning their suspicion toward Mercy’s abusive ex-husband, whom Will knows from the time they spent together in an Atlanta boy’s home. As Will and Sarah continue to poke around, however, other suspects come into focus, including Mercy’s hot-tempered father and ice-cold mother, who hope to force a sale of the lodge, and a guest who has intimate knowledge of Mercy’s criminal past. After Will’s Bureau of Investigation colleagues show up, the body count rises, and Will unearths some unspeakable secrets within the McAlpine clan. The subject matter gets almost operatically bleak, but Slaughter saves the day with her gifts for suspense and characterization—Mercy, in particular, makes an impression. This long-running series still has gas in the tank. Agent: Victoria Sanders, Victoria Sanders & Assoc. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

For the nerve-shredding sequel to To Catch a Storm, Mejia shifts her focus from psychic PI Jonah Kendrick to his college friend, Iowa City cop Max Summerlin, and Kara Johnson, the lover of Kendrick’s late niece, Celina. Summerlin is eager to get back in the field after recovering from gunshot wounds he sustained while breaking up an opioid ring run by Sam Olson. The officer gets his chance when he’s tapped to join a task force looking for a hit man who’s been killing people connected to Olson’s operation. Summerlin is deflated, however, when he learns he’s been recruited as a liaison for Johnson, who ran drugs for Olson before becoming an informant. Johnson, who was born with a condition that makes her unable to feel physical pain, is grieving the loss of Celina, whom Olson killed after she took the fall for Johnson’s informing. Neither Johnson nor Summerlin is thrilled about their partnership, but each learns from the other as they make a run at Olson and the hit man targeting him. Mejia maintains breathless suspense as she fleshes out the combative dynamic between her captivating leads. For crime fiction fans, it’s a must-read. Agent: Stephanie Cabot, Susan Lea Assoc. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/31/2024 | Details & Permalink

Brazier (Girls and Their Horses) elevates a familiar Mr. and Mrs. Smith–style premise to frenzied heights in this entertaining spy romance. Contract assassins Eva and Jonathan meet in the sleeper car of a train headed from Florence to Paris, and in no time, they’re having sex in the luggage compartment. Though both feel far more than a physical connection, they repress the romantic spark and go their separate ways. Six months later, they run into each other in Versailles, only to realize that each has been hired to kill the other. After much conversation (and a lot more sex), they set out to find their respective handlers and shake them down for answers, traveling from Versailles to the Cotswolds to an abandoned mansion in Bordeaux, all while battling hit men who’ve been sent to carry out the jobs they’ve refused to execute. Who wants them dead? Can they really trust each other? Alternating between the often-unreliable viewpoints of Eva and Jonathan, Brazier delivers exhilarating action, steamy romance, and enough twists to keep the pages flying. It’s a blast. Agent: Sarah Bedingfield, Levine Greenberg Rostan Literary. (July)

Reviewed on 05/24/2024 | Details & Permalink