In the entertaining sequel to The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, Miller once again explores the dark underbelly of the antiques trade. Spunky 47-year-old Freya Lockwood and her vivacious aunt Carole have recently inherited Crockleford Antiques from the late Arthur Crockleford in the English village of Little Meddington. In addition to running Arthur’s shop, Freya and Carole carry on Arthur’s work exposing the black-market trade in art and antiquities. To that end, Freya accepts an invitation to serve as an in-house expert for an antiques-themed cruise from Cyprus to Jordan—an engagement she assumes Arthur had agreed to before his unexpected death. While onboard, her true mission is to ferret out the identity of a mysterious dealer known only as The Collector, who heads an international thieving syndicate. It proves a difficult task, considering that the ship is awash with double-dealers, fraudsters, and at least one killer, the latter of whom raises the stakes of Freya’s sleuthing from securing stolen goods to preventing murder. Readers steeped in the antiques world will be delighted by Miller’s robust knowledge of the trade, and Freya remains an appealing protagonist. This series continues to deliver. Agent: Hannah Todd, Madeleine Milburn Agency. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Brutality and secrets animate MWA Grandmaster Crais’s solid latest case for L.A. private eye Elvis Cole and ex-Marine Joe Pike (after Racing the Light). Traci Beller, a 23-year-old influencer with 8.2 million followers, remains unwilling to accept that her father, Thomas Jacob Beller, abandoned his family 10 years earlier, so she hires Elvis to look into it. Thomas owned a heating and air-conditioning company with Traci’s uncle and disappeared while making service calls near Calabasas, Calif. Respected PI Jessica Byers—a former investigator for the L.A. County DA’s Office—has already tried and failed to find Thomas, but Traci has faith in Elvis’s methods. True to form, the strong-willed investigator examines overlooked witness statements and visits the hamburger stand where Thomas was last spotted, setting him on a trail that leads to Sadie Given, an ex-con with an emotionally disturbed daughter. Elvis taps Joe for help, and the more they uncover, the deeper they’re drawn into a complicated conspiracy that, on top of possibly explaining Thomas’s disappearance, poses an immediate threat to everyone they love. While the pace occasionally flags, unexpected twists and a high-voltage finale save the day. This will leave series fans eager for more. Agent: Aaron Priest, Aaron M. Priest Literary. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Donovan’s second whodunit featuring a ghostwriter turned sleuth (after The Busy Body) is a mixed bag. Crime novelist Belle Currer, who ghostwrites celebrity memoirs on the side, finds herself dealing with a real-life closed-circle murder mystery when she accepts an invitation to teach a writing class aboard a luxury cruise. Superstar author Payton Garrett, who first met Belle when they attended the same MFA program, has organized the Get Lit Cruise for wealthy “fans of literature” to attend lectures during a one-week trip across the Atlantic. Flora Fortescue, another MFA classmate, who believes Payton stole her idea for a novel about Lord Byron’s half sister, is among the passengers. As Belle promises in the prologue, three murders occur over the course of the trip, allowing her to flex her knowledge of detective fiction as she solves them one by one. Donovan’s attempts at humor frequently fall flat (Belle prefers white wine because it “sums me up so well: I’m white, and I have a tendency to whine”), and his heavy-handed foreshadowing drains the narrative of tension. While the plot delivers occasional jolts of fun, readers intrigued by the premise would be better off with Benjamin Stevenson’s Ernest Cunningham series. Agent: Abby Saul, Lark Group. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

The charming latest collaboration between Beaton, who died in 2019, and Green (after Death of a Spy) finds Scottish police sergeant Hamish Macbeth dreaming of a peaceful winter with his sweetheart, Claire, in the tiny village of Lochdubh. Those dreams are quickly dashed, however. After Davey Forbes, an old friend of Hamish’s, returns to the village from Edinburgh to work as Hamish’s constable, the men attend the reopening of the local pub. There, they learn that a man named Mick Gallagher has gone missing, and soon catch wind that Gallagher may have been involved in whiskey smuggling. When a local woman turns up dead shortly after Gallagher’s disappearance, Hamish and Davey assume it’s no coincidence, and eventually uncover a sinister smuggling operation with much more than liquor on its mind. Beaton and Green stuff the novel with vivid side characters, high-speed chases, cozy visits to the pub, and fair-play clues, never letting the pace flag even as they work in plenty of amiable chats between the sergeant and his constable. Series fans will be well pleased. Agent: Barbara Lowenstein, Lowenstein Assoc. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

A reality TV couple falls apart in Kenitz’s wickedly entertaining debut. Wyatt Decker is the charming star of Nashville-set home renovation show The Perfect Home. A consummate professional on set, Wyatt hopes to match his sterling work reputation with a picture-perfect home life. After the network hires Dawn Fremont to join him in front of the camera, the two fall in love, leading to a sharp ratings boost, and eventually a wedding. When the couple learns that Wyatt has fertility issues, he quietly turns to black market treatments. The good news: the drugs work, and Dawn gets pregnant with twins. The bad news: Wyatt becomes sullen, surly, and unpredictable, causing Dawn to question whether the drugs have permanently altered his personality. After Dawn gives birth and discovers evidence that Wyatt is drawing up a plan to put the family in danger for another ratings boost, she attempts to disappear with the twins. Wyatt, however, goes straight to the press, framing Dawn as an unstable threat to the children. Soon, the entire country is against her, and she has to turn to unexpected allies for help. Sharp, unpredictable, and chock-full of suspense, this domestic thriller expertly toys with readers’ sympathies. Agent: Ronald Gerber, Lowenstein Assoc. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Pliego’s tongue-in-cheek debut puts a postmodern spin on the classic locked-room mystery. Six thriller authors are invited to a retreat on a private island off the coast of Maine organized by the mysterious J.R. Alastor, a pseudonymous bestseller who has never been seen in public and whose real identity remains unknown. At dinner on the first evening, each guest is invited to play a game that exposes some wrongdoing they’ve buried in their past. The next morning, the writers discover that their elusive benefactor has cut off all communication between the island and the mainland. Then one of the writers turns up dead, his mutilated corpse displayed above a gravestone with his name on it. Mila del Angél, a once-aspiring author whom Alastor has recruited to host the retreat, is stunned—mostly because she’s planning a murder of her own, and she never accounted for a second killer in her midst. Pliego gleefully toys with genre tropes while delivering a slick, satisfying mystery all her own. Seasoned Agatha Christie fans may have quibbles about mechanics and motives once the dust settles, but those issues are too minor to detract from the fun. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable ride. Agent: Hannah Schofield, LBA Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

In his ho-hum latest, Porter (the Paul Samson series) strands a winning protagonist in a saggy spy story. MI5 undercover agent Slim Parsons has been accused by her handlers of recklessness and nearly revealing her true identity during an investigation into master money launderer Ivan Guest. Knowing Guest will likely seek revenge for the disfiguring injuries he suffered at her hands, Parsons contemplates retiring so she can pursue her passion for archeology and take care of her aging mother. She’s shocked when she’s asked to go undercover again, this time to investigate how an online news operation called Middle Kingdom has been able to reveal public corruption and the misuse of taxpayer funds. Posing as a reporter, Parsons chases down unrelated scoops, pleasing her newsroom bosses but irritating her handlers at MI5. One of her stories puts her back in the crosshairs of Guest, who launches a violent campaign to hunt her down. Parsons leaps off the page, with cool intelligence and a flinty personality, but the action drags amid a tangle of subplots. Porter has done better before. Agent: Rebecca Wearmouth, Peters, Fraser, and Dunlop Literary. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Meade (the Tish Tarragon mysteries) delivers a charming, well-plotted series launch set in 1939 Hollywood. Evelyn Galloway, freshly arrived in Los Angeles from New York, is eager to start her new job as script supervisor for Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. During her first day on set, she meets silent film star John Margrave. Now 46, Margrave has settled comfortably into secondary roles and won the universal respect of his peers—making his murder a considerable shock to Hollywood’s elite. Evelyn witnesses someone leaving Margrave’s bungalow on the night he’s killed and goes to the LAPD with the information. But with reporters parroting studio-approved versions of the truth, and LAPD detectives content to follow suit, Evelyn has no choice but to take things into her own hands. She proves a quick study, drawing on her East Coast grit to see her through treacherous conversations with Tinseltown’s power brokers. Meade weaves delightful on-set scenes between Evelyn and Hitchcock into the brisk action, and each red herring feels entirely plausible until it’s neatly discredited. Evelyn is off to a strong start. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

Benedict follows The Mystery of Mrs. Christie with a shrewd speculative whodunit that imagines Agatha Christie’s peers joining her to investigate a murder in 1931 London. Crime writer Dorothy Sayers has just founded the Detection Club, “the preeminent organization of mystery writers” in England. After successfully recruiting Christie, Sayers becomes determined to add more female crime writers to the club’s ranks, and eventually enlists Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and Baroness Emma Orczy. Once that cohort, who call themselves the “Queens of Crime,” swear on a skull to play fair with their readers, Sayers suggests they get their male colleagues to treat them with respect by solving a real murder. The group then crosses the Channel to probe the case of May Daniels, an English nurse who vanished in France seven months earlier, and whose corpse just turned up near the site of her disappearance. Benedict easily brings each of her five distinct writer/sleuths to life, and honors their literary legacies by providing plenty of ingenious, fair-play clues to help careful readers follow along and solve the central mystery. This is a treat for fans of golden age whodunits. Agent: Laura Dail, Laura Dail Literary. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink

The lively fifth installment in Spotswood’s historical mystery series (after Murder Crossed Her Mind) finds bisexual sleuth Willowjean “Will” Parker trying to clear her boss, Lillian Pentecost, of a phony murder charge in 1940s New York City. After returning from an idyllic vacation with her girlfriend, Parker finds Pentecost being led from her home in handcuffs. The senior detective has been charged with killing wealthy eccentric Jessup Quincannon, a collector of memorabilia connected with infamous murders. Quincannon died during one of his notorious Black Museum soirées, where his crime-obsessed acquaintances gather to discuss the art of murder; Pentecost was invited to the event and feared the topic of conversation would be the brutal murder of her own mother. Motive and opportunity point to Pentecost as Quincannon’s killer, and she’s sent to the New York City Women’s House of Detention to await trial. Will, meanwhile, is certain of her mentor’s innocence, and pokes around some of Manhattan’s most unsavory upper-crust circles to prove it. As always, Spotswood pairs voicey narration (especially in Will’s chapters) with a briskly satisfying fair-play whodunit. Series fans will be satisfied. Agent: Darley Anderson, Darley Anderson Agency & Assoc. (Feb.)

Correction: A previous version of this review incorrectly referred to protagonist Will Parker as a lesbian.

Reviewed on 11/29/2024 | Details & Permalink