Nantucket Counterfeit: A Henry Kennis Mystery

Fans of traditional mysteries will welcome Axelrod’s entertaining fifth outing for Nantucket police chief Henry Kennis (after 2017’s Nantucket Red Tickets). Despite having lived on Nantucket for a decade, Henry is still considered an outsider by island residents, many of whom are frightfully rich and tend to treat the police as they would a particularly dim-witted member of their household staff. Called to the home of Horst Refn, the artistic director of the Nantucket Theater Lab, Henry finds the man’s strangled body stuffed in the basement meat freezer. Who would want to kill Refn? Just about everyone, it turns out. “Suspects and motives—they’re everywhere, like ticks in the moors,” muses the wryly observant Henry. The narrative flows along at a good clip, with eddies of philosophy and humor. The witty dialogue perfectly matches the multifaceted characters. That Henry believes in an “old school low-tech version of police work” allows the reader to readily follow the clues. Those fond of CSI gadgetry will have to look elsewhere. (Oct.)