4 Scintillating New Mysteries

The Mayors of New York: A Bill Smith/Lydia Chin Mystery

PIs Smith and Chin tackle a pair of hot potato mysteries in Edgar winner Rozan’s excellent 15th outing for the duo (after 2021’s Family Business). Bree Hamilton, who handles PR for Carole McCann, the city’s first female mayor, enlists Smith to help her boss: McCann’s 15-year-old son, Mark, has apparently run away, taking money, clothes, and a backpack with him. The mayor is hoping to keep his disappearance from the NYPD, out of concern that involving them could cost her at the bargaining table during sensitive salary negotiations with the Detectives’ Endowment Association. Despite his personal distaste for McCann (“I’m a New Yorker. I have a God-given right to dislike politicians”), Smith, who frequently ran away from home himself as a child, agrees to take the case. He soon discovers it might connect with the apparent suicide of a teenage overachiever that Chin has been asked investigate. Rozan has never been better at quip-filled dialogue that Rex Stout would be proud of, and once again excels at evoking the tangled power dynamics of contemporary New York City. This superior series shows no sign of losing steam. Agent: Josh Getzler, H.G. Literary. (Dec.)

Murder in the Mist

With the excellent fifth outing for amateur detectives Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins (after 2021’s Spring of Hope), Harrison approaches the level of ingenuity that’s been a hallmark of her Reverend Mother and Burren series. Collins, who feels his best-known works have been eclipsed by Dickens’s literary success, is still delighted to get an invitation to spend Christmas with the Tale of Two Cities author’s family at their country home in Kent. The other guests include Timmy O’Connor, an Irish raconteur whom Dickens met in Cork on a recent reading tour, and three of O’Connor’s nephews. Collins’s hopes for a stress-free holiday are dashed when a guest is found beaten to death near the local church. The violent nature of the murder leads Dickens to suspect the killer is a convict from the prison ship docked near his home, but Collins wonders if a less obvious suspect is responsible for the fatal bludgeoning. He eventually turns the inquiry toward Dickens’s guests. Harrison never lets her cheeky premise distract from her heroes’ exhilarating detective work, and the ingenious solution to the mystery makes this the series’ best entry yet. Victorian whodunit fans are in for a treat. Agent: Peter Buckman, Ampersand. (Dec.)

Lost Hours

Shelton’s enticing fifth Alaska Wild mystery (after 2022’s Winter’s End) begins with thriller writer Beth Rivers embarking on a day trip to see the coastal glaciers near her home in Benedict, Alaska. As the tour boat approaches Lilybrook Island, Beth spots a bloodied woman standing on the shore. The woman—Sadie—claims to have been kidnapped and held prisoner, and to have escaped when her captor was killed by a bear. Beth befriends Sadie, who soon confesses that she came to Alaska as part of the witness protection program, though she won’t share why. A second kidnapping in the area leads Beth to believe that the two cases are connected, and she begins investigating alongside local police chief Gril Samuels. As the investigation unfolds, Shelton deepens Beth’s relationships to her boyfriend, Tex, and her estranged father, Eddy. While readers may wish Beth reached a few obvious conclusions more quickly, Shelton wraps up the central mystery with a satisfying and surprising conclusion. Series fans will find much to enjoy. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Dec.)

Murder Wears a Hidden Face: A Gilded Age Mystery

New York City’s Chinatown in the late 19th century provides a fascinating backdrop for Simpson’s outstanding eighth Gilded Age Mystery (after 2022’s Death at the Falls). Attorney Prudence McKenzie and former Pinkerton detective Geoffrey Hunter join Manhattan’s elite at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the February 1891 unveiling of an exhibition of Chinese artifacts to accompany the arrival in America of Chinese cultural attaché Lord Peng Tha Mah and his family. While the museum guests watch in shock, a man steps out of the crowd, stabs Lord Peng to death, and flees. McKenzie and Hunter are swiftly hired to investigate. Meanwhile, the Chinese government tries to force the Peng family to return home by revoking their diplomatic standing, though official communications make it clear that violence would await them back in China. McKenzie and Hunter help the Pengs escape into the anonymity of Chinatown—but the family is soon wrapped up in the neighborhood’s criminal affairs while Tha Mah’s killer remains at large. Simpson’s historical research pays off in spades, resulting in a captivating depiction of the ethnic enclave that never distracts from the plot’s high tension. By eschewing the expected focus on the Gilded Age’s Robber Barons, this mystery takes readers on a fresh and exciting ride. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Nov.)