Two interlinked novellas share a single binding in this knotty and stimulating tête-bêche book from journalist and novelist Rubin (The Winter Agent). The gothic-tinted first tale is set in 1881 England and “written” by fictional bestselling author Oliver Tooke. In it, idealistic but impoverished London doctor Simeon Lee visits a remote island in Essex to care for his father’s cousin, Oliver Hawes, who claims he’s being poisoned—possibly by his sister-in-law, Florence. The second story, set in 1939 Los Angeles, follows young actor Ken Kourian as he befriends famous author Oliver Tooke and meets his eccentric extended family, including his femme fatale sister; his father, the eugenicist governor of California vying for the U.S. presidency; and his grandfather, an esteemed doctor. After Oliver dies of an apparent suicide, Ken discovers a manuscript of the book’s first story and draws startling real-life parallels, setting him on a journey to England, where he uncovers a scandal that threatens to derail Governor Tooke’s political bid. At times, Rubin’s incessant doubling (Florence, for example, occupies herself with reading tête-bêche novels) can feel overworked, as can his reliance on stock elements, including a hyperbrutal police force and a beautiful, unavailable heiress. Still, the book’s ambitious structure offers plenty of thrilling surprises for readers willing to roll with it. Adventurous mystery fans will be rewarded. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

And Then There Were None meets Saw in the deliciously demented latest collaboration between Murray and Wearmouth (after The Stowaway). Hoping to make some easy money just before Christmas, small-time crook Eddie Parker follows an elderly man in a wheelchair and his wife into an upstate New York grocery store after seeing them brandish a large wad of cash. Instead, as he’s pretending to help them load their bags into their minivan, he’s knocked out and awakens in an old, abandoned home without his wallet or cell phone. Soon, he learns that five others have been imprisoned with him inside a ghost town rimmed by an electric fence. While Eddie and his fellow captives—including fraudster Greg Fisher, convicted rapist Damien Hurst, drug dealer Tank, and two young women named Trinity Jackson and Jess Kane, whose pasts remain elusive—scramble to determine what’s going on, they start dying one by one, in spectacularly gruesome fashion. Murray and Wearmouth have plenty of impish fun with their well-worn premise, delivering a slick slasher that’s easy to wolf down in a single sitting. It may lack staying power, but it will satisfy readers who like their holiday fare bitter. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Osman (the Thursday Murder Club mysteries) launches a promising new series with this sprightly tale of a father- and daughter-in-law who join forces to take down a shadowy killer. At the outset, bodyguard Amy Wheeler is on an island off the coast of South Carolina shielding bestselling novelist Rosie D’Antonio from a Russian oligarch who threatened to kill her after she used his real name in her latest book. While Amy and Rosie discuss the recent deaths of two popular influencers, someone takes a shot at them, and they narrowly escape. Meanwhile, private detective Steve Wheeler—father to Amy’s husband, Adam—is in the Hampshire village of Axley searching for a client’s lost dog when Amy calls to ask for his backup. He agrees, and as he helps Amy try to determine who tried to kill her (and why), more influencer bodies start piling up, the crime scenes strewn with evidence framing Amy for the murders. Steve and Amy then embark on a globetrotting quest to pin down their adversary that takes them from Ireland to Dubai. Osman pulls off the tricky task of making his leads both zany and human, with a sufficiently brain-teasing mystery to boot. This series is sure to garner a loyal following. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this accomplished if underheated series launch from Graves (a pseudonym for Welcome Home, Stranger author Kate Christensen), Arizona private eye Justine “Jo” Bailen navigates a looming midlife crisis while digging into the disappearance of her estranged childhood best friend, Rose Delaney. While staking out an infidelity case brought to her all-female detective agency, Jo learns that Rose has gone missing; soon, Rose’s mother, Laura, hires Jo to investigate. The inquiry takes Jo back to Delphi, the artists’ colony north of Tucson where she and Rose grew up. Returning home brings Jo face to face with decades-old traumas, including her distant relationship with her mother and the love triangle involving Jo’s high school boyfriend, Tyler, that destroyed her and Rose’s friendship—which becomes especially pertinent when Tyler, now a police officer, gets assigned to Rose’s case. Graves skillfully depicts the flawed utopia of her desert setting and wrings affecting insights from Jo’s struggles with aging, but the core mystery never totally takes flight. For genre readers more interested in character and atmosphere than plot, however, Graves’s dazzling prose and well-drawn heroine make this well worth seeking out. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

Roberts’s superb third whodunit featuring Stephen Robbins (after My Mistress’ Eyes are Raven Black) finds the PI investigating the mysterious death of a college girl at the hotel where he used to work. In 1924, Robbins, 44, has retired from detective work and is living as a recluse after his wife died in childbirth. He’s drawn out of his shell when Benjamin Loftis, current owner of the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, N.C.—a swanky hotel that Robbins once managed—asks Robbins to help solve a murder: 20-something college student Rosalind Caldwell was found, naked and shot twice, in an expensive Grove Park room where she wasn’t staying. With the sheriff’s inquiry stalled two weeks after the killing, Loftis fears continued damage to his business if things aren’t resolved quickly. Robbins agrees to help, but finds that, once he starts poking around, Asheville’s elites are working very hard to throw him off their scent. Roberts matches evocative historical detail and genuinely surprising twists with top-shelf character work, cementing Robbins’s spot in the troubled PI hall of fame. Fans of Ray Celestin’s City Blues Quartet will adore this. Agent: Margaret Sutherland Brown, Folio Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

In Falco’s delightful second cozy featuring Bria Bartolucci (after Murder in an Italian Village), the widowed Amalfi coast B&B owner investigates the death of a celebrity chef. Famous Italian food personality Lugo Gordonato is planning to launch a new TV show with an episode shot on the Amalfi coast. Lugo’s manager has selected a café run by Bria’s friend, Annamaria Antonelli, as the setting for the pilot, but when Annamaria is late to the first day of shooting, he ropes in Bria as Lugo’s cohost instead. Starstruck, Bria chats with Lugo just before the show’s main segment, and he confides that he’s planning to go off-script. Moments later, with cameras rolling, Lugo clutches his throat and dies in front of Bria and the entire production crew. Horrified, Bria springs into investigation mode with the help of her best friend, Rosalie, and Bria’s budding romantic interest, police chief Luca Vivaldi. After parsing a surprisingly long list of suspects, a well-hidden piece of Lugo’s past points the crew toward the surprising killer. In an improvement on the previous entry, Falco matches his lush descriptions of the glittering Italian coast with top-shelf fair-play sleuthing. Armchair detectives and armchair travelers: rejoice. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

Suspicions of a Russian mole circulating in the upper ranks of the CIA lie at the center of McCloskey’s middling sequel to Damascus Station, which reunites former spy Artemis Aphrodite Proctor with her onetime subordinate, Sam Joseph. Proctor, whose impulsive behavior has long alarmed her bosses, has just been fired, in part for engineering a foiled mission that led to Joseph’s capture and torture by the Russians. Now freed in a spy swap but sidelined by the CIA as damaged goods, Joseph approaches Proctor with his worry that a Russian spy has infiltrated the agency’s C-suite. Currently working as a wrangler at an alligator amusement park outside Orlando, Fla., Proctor examines the list of possible moles and agrees to help. Motivated by both patriotism and revenge, Proctor and Joseph set out to unmask the spy in a raucous search that stretches from the Las Vegas Strip to the French countryside. McCloskey, a former CIA analyst, layers the novel with the inside details of tradecraft that only a writer of his background could provide. The plot, however, feels more labored than in previous Proctor adventures, with long, saggy diversions that dilute the suspense. Though not without its charms, this is a marked step down from its predecessors. Agent: Lisa Erbach Vance, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

Bestseller Rekulak (Hidden Pictures) impresses with this engrossing tale of a widowed father who starts to sense darkness beneath his daughter’s impending marriage. When Poconos-based UPS driver Frank Szatowski receives a call from his estranged daughter, Maggie, he’s overjoyed to learn that she’s engaged to artist Aidan Gardner, the son of tech billionaires Catherine and Errol Gardner, and wants Frank to attend the wedding. With the ceremony scheduled at the Gardners’ New Hampshire estate in just three months, Frank attempts to develop a rapport with his future son-in-law, but Aidan withdraws. Soon, Frank receives an anonymous piece of mail that suggests Aidan was involved with the disappearance of a young woman named Dawn Taggart. When he arrives in New Hampshire for the wedding, Frank feels immediately suspicious—all guests must sign NDAs, and much of the event staff is ex-military. When the body of Aidan’s art school friend, Gwen, is found under the dock on the estate, Frank decides to investigate the Gardners’ tangled web before it ensnares his daughter—but what he finds recasts ideas about his own family. Certain twists are a touch predictable, but Rekulak’s characters feel real, and the unwavering pace will keep readers up all night. This should please the author’s existing fans and win him new ones. Agent: Douglas Stewart, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/09/2024 | Details & Permalink

Archer’s underwhelming seventh crime thriller featuring Scotland Yard detective William Warwick (after Traitors Gate) shakily braids together a case of national importance with one closer to Warwick’s home life. Near the turn of the 21st century, Prime Minister Tony Blair dispatches banker Simon Hartley—the son of an esteemed Lord—to Saudi Arabia to negotiate a deal exchanging British arms for Saudi oil. Soon after Hartley arrives in Riyadh, he attends a reception alongside Prince Ahmed bin Majid and his favorite female companion, Avril Dubois. During the gathering, the prince stabs an Italian guest to death after he puts his hand on Avril’s thigh. Though plenty of people saw what actually happened, Hartley is arrested for the crime and confined in a Saudi prison. Meanwhile, Warwick’s family is targeted by his nemesis, Miles Faulkner, who seeks, from behind bars, to both sabotage Warwick’s wife’s career as an art museum director and steal an original version of the Declaration of Independence. While Warwick and other British officials work to free Hartley, Warwick starts to realize that the distance between Hartley’s case and his own struggles with Faulkner may be shorter than he thought. Archer tanks his intriguing setup with disappointing twists and too many contrivances. It’s a misfire. (Sept.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink

In Cornwell’s diverting if overstuffed latest mystery for Kay Scarpetta (after Unnatural Death), Virginia’s chief medical examiner investigates two bizarre, potentially linked crimes. First, Kay is called to examine the body of seven-year-old Luna Briley, daughter of billionaire Ryder and his wife, Piper, who claim Luna accidentally shot herself. After conducting an autopsy, however, Kay comes to believe the Brileys are guilty of child abuse—and likely murder. Meanwhile, Kay gets word that her former lover, Nobel-winning physicist Sal Giordano, has been killed and left on the grounds of Oz, an abandoned theme park founded by none other than Ryder Briley. When Kay and her friend, former detective Pete Marino, helicopter to Oz to recover Sal’s remains, they find strange crop circles surrounding his corpse. Questions abound, including what Sal was working on at the time of his death, whether UFOs might be involved, and the uncomfortable possibility that his murder is linked to Luna Briley’s untimely death. Cornwell gives each one their due, but an excess of subplots stifles the plot’s momentum. This one’s best-suited for devoted series fans. Agent: Esther Newberg, CAA. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 08/02/2024 | Details & Permalink