Not the Real Jupiter: A Cassandra Reilly Mystery

Wilson’s superior fifth Cassandra Reilly mystery (after 2000’s The Case of the Orphaned Bassoonists) plunges Cassandra, a translator of Spanish literature who loves “making words from other words,” into a homicide investigation. Uruguayan author Luisa Montiflores is furious that her American publisher, Entre Editions, is retitling her forthcoming speculative fiction novel and planning to use garish cover art. Luisa irrationally blames her translator, Cassandra, who agrees to make the author’s case to the leadership of Entre Editions. But when Reilly arrives at the Oregon home of publisher Giselle Richard to hash things out, no one is there. With the weather foul and a door unlocked, Cassandra enters the house and pokes around, actions that make her a person of interest when Giselle’s corpse is found nearby, the apparent victim of an accidental fall from a cliff. That gives Cassandra a reason to probe the suspicious death herself. Wilson’s knowledge of the publishing business enables her to get the details right. Readers will want to see a lot more of her nuanced lead, a self-described vagabond who keeps others at arm’s length. (Self-published)