Bloody Martini

Kotzwinkle’s exceptional sequel to 2021’s Felonious Monk takes Benedictine monk and killer Tommy Martini back to his birthplace of Coalville, to honor the final request of his best friend, Finn Sweeney. Finn’s plea—in a frantic voicemail message cut off by a gun shot—is for Martini to find and take care of his wife, Bridget Breen, an old crush of Martini’s from their high school days when Martini was captain of the football team. In Coalville, Martini fends off local goons, bought-off cops, and politicians who want him dead—in particular, Brian Fury, the sadistic district attorney who couldn’t pin Martini for murder eight years earlier. The trail Martini pursues leads to a child prostitution conspiracy that seems to involve everyone in town. Queenie O’Malley, who admired Martini in high school and drew a cartoon of the football team for the school paper, provides some romantic distraction, even though she’s engaged to be married and he’s a monk. This wry, extremely funny, character-driven novel will remind readers of classic L.A. noir, though its treatment of relations between men and women has been updated for modern sensibilities. Kotzwinkle is sure to win new fans with this one. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Assoc. (Feb.)