The Spy Coast is the first book in the Martini Club series by award-winning, best-selling American author, Tess Gerritsen. When someone is asking about her at the post office in Purity on the Maine coast, Maggie Bird is on immediate alert. She has had Blackberry Farm for two years and is happy raising chickens and warding off foxes. She has nice neighbours and regularly gets together with some other villagers for book club martinis and a meal.

The young woman she finds in her kitchen when she returns home is a CIA operative who brings news of a data breach, and wants to know if Maggie can point them to a former operative who has disappeared. It stirs up unwanted memories of an earlier operation that saw her quitting the CIA and trying to find a place under the radar to exist peacefully. Until now, that place was Purity.

When that same young woman then turns up in Maggie’s driveway with marks of torture and two bullets in her brain, Acting Police Chief Jo Thibodeau gets involved. But so do Maggie’s book club friends, who pretend an amateur interest in crime solving, but whose knowledge, contacts and talents belie that pretence.

Jo has to hand the case over to State Police, but gets to see Maggie’s CCTV footage of the drop, and keeps tabs on their progress. She is as puzzled as the local ME when the body is whisked off to Boston mid-autopsy, now under another agency’s control.

But when an attempt is made on Maggie’s life, her really friends spring into action, and Jo is frustrated at how much they know about the attack before she does. Maggie reluctantly reveals the details of Operation Cyrano, something that went down in Malta sixteen years ago, successful for the Agency, less so for her personally.

Once they determine from where the threat is coming, some are hopping on planes while others hold the fort and provide back-up. Before matters are resolved, there are more assassinations, a kidnap, and quite a bit of action.

Gerritsen’s plot takes a few unexpected turns, the dialogue is often blackly funny, and the settings are well-rendered. More of her clever and quirky cast “five old spies with five lifetimes’ worth of experience. Retired does not mean useless. Everyone here has brought their individual tricks of the trade”, of the acting chief of police, and of others in small town Maine will be most welcome. Martini Club #2 is eagerly anticipated.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer.

4.5

“People around here seemed to live in a cloud of defeat, self-wrought and inherited. Whites had the lost cause; Blacks had slavery.”

Holy City is the first novel by American poet, photographer and author, Henry Wise. After a decade in Virginia’s Holy City, Richmond, Will Seems returns to his hometown of Dawn and works as a Deputy with the Euphoria County Sheriff’s Department. He doesn’t share his reason for returning although some make educated guesses.

When he spots a fire at the Turkey Creek home of former high school football star, Tom Janders, he risks his life to drag Tom out of the burning house. When Sheriff Jefferson Mills arrives, he immediately rules it murder: Tom has been stabbed in the back. Sawmill worker, Zeke Hathom is spotted fleeing the scene, and Will reluctantly arrests him. The Sheriff has soon charged Zeke with Tom’s murder, but neither Will, nor the victim’s mother, nor many of the town folk, are convinced that Zeke could kill his neighbour.

Will finds Zeke’s story plausible and, while prints on the murder weapon implicate him, Will feels he owes Zeke and his family, so he decides to properly investigate despite the Sheriff’s lukewarm response. Zeke’s wife, Floressa has no confidence that justice will be served. She engages disgraced Richmond cop, Bennico Watts to solve the murder and exonerate her husband. And she insists that Bennico, a woman who always works alone, teams up with Will.

Will has a problem with the idea too: he’s harbouring a fugitive in his dilapidated old family home. And his opposition to the Sheriff’s attitude threatens his access to information about the case. There’s talk of a cash debt, and some disgruntled gamblers who lost big to Tom on the night he died. Will (and Bennico) are thorough in their enquiries, becoming steadily more certain that Zeke is innocent and someone else deserves their scrutiny.

The astute reader will wonder early on about the Sheriff’s motivation and, while the murderer is revealed to the reader at the halfway mark, the journey to this being generally acknowledged, and the aftermath, definitely keep the pages turning. Readers may appreciate a trigger warning: there are several explicit descriptions of deviant sexual behaviour, and the ambiguous ending may not be to everyone’s liking.

Wise’s characters are complex, and he certainly challenges them with difficult dilemmas. His protagonist is plagued with a long-standing guilt that affects his reasoning. Bennico has Will summed up fairly quickly: “wearing that badge just to carry out a personal vendetta you haven’t had the courage to complete.”

He does give them some wise words: “You have to ask yourself if you really want to solve a problem or if you’ve learned to use it as a crutch. Sometimes, we learn to savor our pain. Ask yourself if this is more about some guilt you feel than it is about bringing them to justice. No act undoes the past” and insightful observations “Things that don’t get said are just as true as those that do.”

He fills his debut novel with gorgeous descriptive prose: “They could hear, beyond the roar of wind through the open windows, the life buzzing and skittering out over the wide openness of the fields, ending in trees and vines thick and tall over the road, the sound of cicadas and other insects ebbing and searing, subsiding again when the land opened up to new fields where tall trees like explosions broke the sky” and “They drove, the sun long gone, the glowing headlights scanning the cowled land for whatever might emerge, the gradual highway undulating in serpentine curves and straightaways where you could see, far ahead, the gleaming road like a blade under the moon” are examples.

Atmospheric, haunting and beautifully written, this is literary crime fiction at its best. More of Henry Wise will be eagerly anticipated.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Grove Atlantic.

A Talent For Murder is the third book in the Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner series by award-winning American author, Peter Swanson. When Martha Ratliff begins to suspect that Alan Peralta, her husband of barely a year, might be a serial killer, her options seem equally unsatisfactory: whether she confronts him or tells the police, her marriage will likely be over, even if he’s innocent.

That’s when she thinks of Lily Kintner. When they were in grad school at Birkbeck, Lily helped her out of a disturbing relationship with a charismatic adjunct professor. They lost touch, but Martha is a librarian, and knows how to research; she has soon tracked Lily down to her parents’ home in Shepaug.

As she’s explaining to Lily how her husband is often away at conferences, selling his wares to school teachers, and that she has found at least five unsolved murders at times when Alan was at those locations, she’s hoping that Lily will tell her she’s crazy, that it’s just her imagination: “Honestly, I think I’m here with you just hoping you’ll say I’m being silly and that I should just forget the whole thing.”

But Lily doesn’t. she considers carefully, tells Martha they need more information, and they each try to find out more. Martha uncovers something that definitely puts Alan in the frame for one of the murders, and Lily decides she’ll attend his next conference to observe. But there’s an unexpected development and, a bit later, she decides to ask her friend, PI Henry Kimball for his help.

And much more can’t be said without massive spoilers, but Swanson does manage to throw in a brilliant twist, a shock, a kidnap and a nail-biting climax. He also gives the reader a good dose of black humour. And then, just when you think the twists are all done, another, and it’s a doozy! More of this addictive series will be most welcome.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Faber & Faber.

Death In The Details is the first novel by American author, Katie Tietjen. It’s October 1946 and, eight weeks after losing the husband who volunteered as a doctor in France, Maple Bishop learns that, despite the Government life insurance cheque, she is virtually penniless. And she may be the first woman to graduate from the Boston City Law School, but in Elderberry, Vermont, no-one will employ her in that capacity. If she doesn’t make the soon-due mortgage payment, she’ll be homeless.

Her one solace is making her miniatures: fully fitted, furnished and populated dollhouses. She has quite a lot of them, but can’t resist making more. When she’s at Ben Crenshaw’s hardware store picking up bits and pieces for a new one, he makes a suggestion that might benefit them both: display her houses in his window, and set up a work table in the store so customers can watch them being made. Maple’s rejection of the gossipy sewing group led by Elderberry’s self-appointed social chair, Ginger Comstock, makes her an outsider just as Ben's mixed race does.

When delivering one of her finished works, Maple stumbles on a grisly scene: the much-disliked husband of Angela Wallace is hanging from a noose in his barn, quite dead. She goes into the deserted house to call the Sheriff, but back in the barn, takes in various odd details. Maple is shocked when the Sheriff deems it a suicide not requiring investigation, and her troubled mind won’t rest until she has rendered each detail her photographic memory recorded into a miniature death scene complete with victim.

Not only does the Sheriff dismiss her ideas, he throws her out of the station. But when officer-in-training, Kenny Quirk returns her “death scene in a nutshell” he wants her to join him in a covert investigation. Perhaps not the wisest move, but his intentions are pure, and Maple finds it difficult to resist…

Tietjen offers an original plot with several twists and turns to keep the reader guessing and the pages turning right up to the exciting climax. She renders her setting and era well, deftly illustrating some of the hardships faced by communities in the early post-war years.

Her protagonist is a gutsy, no-nonsense woman describe by one friend as hard to like. She admits to using vinegar when honey would work better in interpersonal relations, finds people exhausting, prefers her stray orange cat’s straightforwardness and emotional transparency.

The story is inspired by the real-life Frances Lee Glessner, who made crafted miniature crime scenes, and the Author’s Note makes interesting background reading. The blurb describes this as a series debut, and more of this cast is most definitely welcome. Excellent historical crime fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books.

Lucy By The Sea is the fourth book in the Amgash series by best-selling, Pulitzer Prize winning American author, Elizabeth Strout. In early 2020, Lucy Barton’s ex-husband, parasitologist William Gerhardt is deeply concerned about the new virus spreading around the world. He urges his daughters to leave New York City for somewhere safer. Chrissie and her asthmatic husband, Michael readily take his advice, heading to his parents’ house in Connecticut.

Becka and Trey are resistant, opting to stay. Lucy feels sure he’s overreacting, but allows him to sweep her up and drive them both to a vacant house his friend, Bob Burgess is managing in the little town of Crosby in coastal Maine. They self-isolate for two weeks. Initially, Lucy isn’t impressed by the house or the town, where out-of-towners, especially New Yorkers, are not welcome.

Gradually, the idea of working from home, masks and social distancing is accepted. They spend their time walking, and have books, games and puzzles at their disposal. Lucy starts off rather petulant, her priorities a bit skewed, and is often vocal about it to William: “I hate this kind of thing” to which he calmly replies “Lucy, we’re in lockdown, stop hating everything.” But she does find herself worrying about those friends and acquaintances left behind in NYC, and those essential and emergency workers she sees on the TV news who are exposed daily to the virus.

Lucy observes “Even as all of this went on, even with the knowledge that my doctor had said it would be a year, I still did not… I don’t know how to say it, but my mind was having trouble taking things in. it was as though each day was like a huge stretch of ice I had to walk over. And in the ice were small trees stuck there and twigs, this is the only way I can describe it, as though the world had become a different landscape and I had to make it through each day without knowing when it would stop, and it seemed it would not stop, so I felt a great uneasiness”, something that will resonate with many who experienced the pandemic.

After a while, Lucy finds herself taking pleasure in nature: sunsets, a robin’s egg, dandelions, the view of the islands, thunderstorms, sea creatures, autumn colours. Separated from their former lives, it’s a time of reflection, connection and reconnection: they get to know some neighbours, volunteers, and Bob and his wife. They share worries over their daughters, and discover things about themselves.

Initially blocked, when she observes some teens and a policeman while they are out on a jaunt, “I wondered, What is it like to be a policeman, especially now, these days? What is it like to be you? This is the question that has made me a writer; always a deep desire to know what it feels like to be a different person.” She begins writing again.

And Lucy finds some empathy for certain reviled protestors: “I suddenly felt that I saw what these people were feeling. They had been made to feel poorly about themselves, they were looked at with disdain, and they could no longer stand it.”

Strout gives her characters palpable emotions, wise words and insightful observations. While Lucy admits to self-interest leading her to do something of which she’s not proud, she also details the compassion she encounters. And of the many kindnesses Lucy mentions, some from unexpected quarters, outstanding for her is William, infinitely kind, perceptive and resourceful. Olive Kitteridge gets a mention as an acquaintance of someone she meets.

Strout’s writing, its quality, style and subject matter, is reminiscent of Sebastian Barry with shades of Anne Tyler. Strout writes about ordinary people leading what they believe are ordinary lives (although there are definitely some quirky ones doing strange things amongst them, and life in a pandemic is far from ordinary) and she does it with exquisite yet succinct prose. Such a moving, powerful read.

A Room Full Of Bones is the fourth book in the Ruth Galloway series by award-winning British author, Elly Griffiths. Curator of the Smith Museum in Kings Lynn, Neil Topham is excited to receive the coffin of a fourteenth Century ancestor, Bishop Augustine Smith, due to be opened later in the day to great fanfare and media attention. When archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway arrives, a little early for the opening, she’s shocked to find Neil, fatally injured, on the floor beside the coffin.

While it’s not clear if Neil has expired naturally or been murdered, DCI Harry Nelson attends the scene and questions the only witness, his first encounter with Ruth since his wife discovered that he is the father of Kate, Ruth’s now-one-year-old daughter. He finds it very distracting, as does Ruth.

In Neil’s desk, he discovers a bag of white powder, and threatening letters. It seems someone wants their ancestors’ remains, taken by museum founder, Percival Lord Smith, and held by the museum, returned. When he mentions the threats to current owner of the museum, wealthy horse trainer, Danforth Lord Smith, the peer admits to ignoring similar correspondence from a group calling themselves The Elginists: his ancestor brought the bones here, and they belong in the museum.

Meanwhile, Ruth finds she has a new neighbour: Bob Woonunga is an indigenous Australian poet and author currently lecturing at the University of East Anglia, and a friend of local druid, Cathbad. Her cat Flint seems taken with him, and Kate is fascinated when he plays the didgeridoo. But does he have a hidden agenda?

When the Bishop’s coffin is eventually opened, there’s quite a surprise inside, and after they meet, Danforth asks Ruth if she will examine the bones Lord Percival collected to determine if they are all human bones. He’s especially proud of the four Australian Aborigine skulls, which he has no intention of relinquishing. Ruth is appalled to find that Percival’s haul is kept, unlabelled, in boxes that fill a forgotten basement room of the museum.

As he makes little progress with the drug trafficking case occupying the team, Nelson is a little concerned at how uncharacteristically quiet his best DS, Judy Johnson is, but then his attention must go to the second death associated with the museum. It surely can’t be coincidence?

In this instalment: Nelson’s difficulty with political correctness has him biting his tongue multiple times; Cathbad performs a ritual to remove a curse he’s convinced has been put on someone important to them all; Judy is having trouble with her marriage vows; Nelson’s wife, Michelle makes a surprising request from Ruth; and Clough has a closer encounter with horseflesh that he ever desired. There’s an excellent twist, and Judy is both very smart and very dumb when she’s put in charge.

The question of where excavated bones belong is explored, and Ruth tentatively reconnects with U of Sussex archaeologist, Max Grey. Horses feature, and snakes play a large part, although archaeology takes a bit of a back seat. The Aboriginal mysticism won’t appeal to all, and while some relationship issues are (sort of) resolved, others seem to be getting more complicated. The free filler short story that follows this, Ruth’s First Christmas Tree, is lots of fun, and #5, The Dying Fall is eagerly awaited. An addictive series.

How To Solve Your Own Murder is the first adult novel by British author, Kristen Perrin. The audio version is narrated by Alexandra Dowling and Jaye Jacobs. Recently jobless, aspiring murder mystery writer Annabelle Adams is living with her mother in her great aunt Frances’s Chelsea house when she receives a summons from the woman’s lawyers.

Annie has been made the sole benefactor of her great aunt’s estate and assets, a woman she’s never met, and is attend her at Gravesdown Hall in the Dorset village of Castle Knoll to learn what responsibilities this entails. But when she arrives there, in the company of the lawyer and other interested parties, they find Frances Adams quite dead.

Since she had been told a fortune predicting her murder at a summer fair at age sixteen, Frances had always been wary of certain items, and had made it her business to know everything about everyone, in case they might end up trying to kill her. It didn’t increase her popularity in Castle Knoll.

The special conditions of her will require potential beneficiaries to reside at Gravesdown Hall and pits them against one another to solve her murder, for it is indeed murder, within a week, or the place will be sold off to developers, a premise that really is rather contrived. There’s a large cast so many of them lack depth and appeal.

The story is told over dual timelines, with the 1960’s narrative in the form of diary entries whose dating is a little confusing. It turns out that Frances Adams has the dirt on most of the people around her, giving them ample motive to kill her off. But Annie is distracted from her investigations by the unsolved disappearance back in 1966 of one of two teenaged friends with whom Frances had a toxic closeness.

The plot is quite convoluted and several aspects require the reader to don their disbelief suspenders. There are some twists and surprises, a dramatic climax, and a sequel that some readers may be interested to read. An adequate debut.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Quercus Books.

Where The Crawdads Sing is the first novel by award-winning, best-selling American wildlife scientist and author, Delia Owens. In 1952, when she is almost seven, Miss Catherine Daniella Clark, known to everyone as Kya, watches her mother leave. She doesn’t return, and her older siblings, fed up with their abusive, alcoholic father, quietly slip away, one by one, leaving her to deal with her Pa, Jake Clark in their North Carolina marsh shack on her own.

They form an uneasy alliance: Pa is often gone for days at a time, and Kya learns to look after herself, conceal her mother’s absence from nosy Barkley Cove shopkeepers, hide from truant officers, and appreciate the beauty of the marsh and its creatures. Things get more difficult when she’s ten: Pa goes off and doesn’t return, meaning the sporadic cash he gives her from his disability cheques dries up and she has to fend for herself if she doesn’t want to give herself up to the authorities. Which she doesn’t.

She does have Pa’s boat, can travel the marsh waters to the estuary, pick mussels and oysters to trade. She covers the fact that Pa is gone, trying to stay under the radar, but there is a boy for whom she keeps an eye out: Tate Walker was kind to her once, shares her love of the marsh, and doesn’t feel dangerous like some do. She’s unaware that some others are looking out for her, concerned about her welfare and surreptitiously providing some of what she needs.

By the time she’s fourteen, she’s adept at fending for herself and staying under the radar. Her interest in marsh flora and fauna is boundless; she collects and sketches specimens, and when Tate offers to teach her to read and write, she’s able to record what she knows and observes. Abandoned by everyone in her family, she’s wary of giving her love, but takes a chance with Tate. Then he goes off to college to study the thing they’re both interested in, and breaks his promise to return.

Kya is absorbed in her study of the marsh, but still lonely, until Chase Andrews begins to take an interest in her…

In late October 1969, Sheriff Ed Jackson is alerted of the death of a local by two young boys who have caught sight of the corpse near an abandoned fire tower. Chase Andrews, star quarterback, town hotshot and favourite son of Barkley Cove, has been dead some ten hours, and when the Sheriff and Deputy Joe Purdue examine the scene, they are mystified: there are no tyre tracks or foot prints anywhere near the body. It looks like Chase fell from the tower, but neither are there fingerprints.

There’s plenty of speculation in the town: despite being married to Pearl, Chase was known for his tomcatting, so perhaps he fell foul of a jealous husband? But Barkley Cove is a small town, and enough people knew of his regular visits to the Marsh Girl that suspicion falls on Kya.

Owens gives the reader a dual-timeline coming-of-age tale, a love story, a murder mystery and a courtroom drama, all enclosed in some gorgeous lyrical prose. Her vivid descriptions really evoke the setting, the peace and beauty of the marsh, and the era, while there is enough intrigue to keep most readers guessing about the young man’s fate until the final reveal. Moving, heart-breaking and beautifully written, this is an outstanding debut.

The Lost Man is a stand-alone novel by award-winning, best-selling Australian author, Jane Harper. In outback Queensland, Nathan Bright and his teenaged son, Xander abandon the fence-mending chore on his own property to return to the family’s holding when they learn that Nathan’s younger brother is dead.

Cameron Bright was meant to meet the youngest Bright brother, Bub, at Lehmann’s Hill for a repair job on Wednesday. Instead, he lies dead against a remote gravestone in the blistering mid-December heat, his car, replete with food and water, parked nine kilometers away. His brothers are mystified.

Sergeant Ladlow, a city-trained stand-in for their local cop, Sergeant Glenn McKenna, asks about Cameron’s mood over the previous weeks: it’s clear he believes Cam walked away from his car intending to end his life, although how he could have attained that distance in the heat is a puzzle.

With just days until what will be a very subdued Christmas, the family gathers at the homestead, stunned at the news, incredulous, asking each other when they last saw Cam and was there any sign that this was in his mind.

A few things niggle at Nathan: that the two British backpackers employed as hands seem wary of police; the very particular way Cam’s car keys were placed in his car; that their farm manager, Harry Bledsoe located the car so easily; and Bub’s light mood in the face of such a grave situation. And Xander draws Nathan’s attention to the thorough preparations Cam made for the planned repair, hardly the actions of a man intending suicide.

The presence of Cam’s wife (now widow), Ilse is also distracting: there is a history between them, and despite his avoidance, the attraction is still there. Nathan’s self-imposed exile, born of the same incident that saw him ostracised by the entire community of Balamara, means that he has missed a lot of what has transpired at his family’s home. Over the next few days, the funeral and Christmas, what he sees and hears gradually reveals exactly what has happened.

Harper easily evokes the outback setting and the prevalent community attitudes. She gives the reader a tale that features isolation, loneliness and suicide risk, as well as domestic violence, coercive control and sexual harassment. Fans may note that the events of Harper’s first novel in KIewarra, The Dry, intersect with the story at a certain point. Brilliant Aussie slow-burn crime fiction.

A Lonesome Place For Dying is the first book to feature Ethan Brand by award-winning Canadian-born author, Sam Wiebe, writing as Nolan Chase. On the morning he’s due to take over from Police Chief Frank Keogh in the Washington State border town of Blaine, someone has left on Ethan Brand’s doorstep a heart (too large to be human) and a printed note telling him to leave. Ethan is not inclined to leave his home town: he heads off to work.

Before he can even be sworn in by the mayor, he’s out by the railway line near Mo’s scrapyard, examining the body of a young woman. She has been stabbed, but there’s nothing to identify her, nor any sign of how she got there.

There are quite a few candidates potentially responsible for the gory warning (which soon escalates to a death threat), including a disgruntled suspended cop, rivals for the position of chief, criminals whose activities he has curtailed, and a romantic indiscretion, but Ethan has to put that aside to focus on solving the murder (and proving his suitability as chief).

While he has a handful of conscientious and competent officers who between them manage to give the Jane Doe a name and find other evidence, Ethan is frustrated that his two senior officers are squabbling rather than working as a team.

Diligent investigation uncovers an impersonation, another murder and a missing person. As well, there’s a white-suited character in town who looks and acts very much like a hit-man: who is paying him and who might be his target? Ethan is convinced the local drug smugglers, the McCandless family must be involved.

Ethan is an interesting protagonist, a lawman with integrity, insight and intelligence, and a few quirks (his chess game with the diner waitress, his fondness for the blue-eyed coyote, his rapport with various locals, his naivete with the non-binary journalist) that will endear him to the reader.

Chase gives the reader cleverly-plotted crime fiction with a few twists and surprises, a dramatic climax and a very satisfactory resolution. He easily evokes his setting, and Jerry Todd’s cover is striking. Chase has set up the town and its inhabitants with plenty of scope for further books in this location, and more of this cast would be most welcome.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Crooked Lane Books.

The House At Sea’s End is the third book in the Ruth Galloway series by award-winning British author, Elly Griffiths. Trace and Irish Ted lead a team of archaeologists conducting a survey on coastal erosion when one of them stumbles across what turns out to be a mass grave in a ravine under the cliff below the home of MEP Jack Hastings: six skeletons with bullet wounds, hands bound behind their backs.

Dr Ruth Galloway, back at work now that Kate is five months old, helps with the rush job to remove them before the tide takes them. The autopsies determine that the men were likely executed; Ruth estimated the remains are less than a century old, aged between 21 and 40; her tests reveal they were probably from Germany. A German journalist turns up on Ruth’s doorstep and gives them names.

DCI Harry Nelson has a historic multiple murder case on his hands, and something that the Hastings matriarch says sends him looking for members of the local Home Guard, one of whom is the grandfather of his Superintendent, Gerald Whitcliffe. These men would be his best chance for information about the deaths. It turns out, though, that of these old men, High Anselm, who alerted the journalist to the murders, has died recently, apparently of a stroke.

Archie Whitcliffe, when Nelson talks to him, says a few cryptic things, including something about a blood oath, things that cannot be later clarified when the man dies that night. His carer says his enigmatic last word was Lucifer, and Nelson is not convinced he died a natural death, which has him also wondering about Hugh Anselm’s demise.

As Nelson and the soon-to-be-married DS Judy Johnson search for elderly Broughton residents who might recall the events of almost seventy years previous, as they page through old parish bulletins and sort through Hugh Anselm’s papers, a body washes up on the beach, and it isn’t an accidental drowning or a fall from the cliff. It is beginning to look like someone wants the circumstances of the deaths to remain secret.

In this instalment, as well as digging up bones and lecturing students, Ruth endures (rather than enjoys) a hen party, solves a secret code, attends a wedding, irretrievably loses her mobile phone, is criticised for her mothering, and almost drowns. There’s both a naming ceremony and a baptism for baby Kate, a Bosnian archaeologist comes for a short stay, and Nelson gets the kiss of life. The final body count, if a historical suicide is included, runs to an even ten. And with lots of speculation going on, the secret of Kate’s paternity looks to be on thin ice. The fourth book, A Room Full Of Bones, is eagerly anticipated.

Tell Me Who You Are is the fourth stand-alone novel by award-winning American author, Louisa Luna. During the twenty years she has been a psychiatrist, Dr Carolne Strange’s patients have confided many unusual things in the safe space she provides in the basement of her Brooklyn Brownstone, but what her newest patient, Nelson Schack tells her is certainly unique: in virtually the same breath, he says that he is going to kill someone, and that he knows who Caroline really is.

It's not until Detective Makeda Marks and her sidekick, Detective Miguel Jiminez come to her door to question her about the disappearance of journalist Ellen Garcia that she decides it merits breaking patient confidentiality to mention part of Nelson’s statement. Ellen Garcia included Dr Caroline in a highly critical article on doctors, and any of those targeted might hold a grudge. Some days after putting out her recycling on the kerb, Ellen is very surprised to come to in a dark basement, thirsty, hungry and afraid.

Dr Caroline (as she likes patients to call her) doesn’t reveal the extent of her communication with Ellen. Nor does she mention a well-publicised incident from her youth: Caroline really wants the police to focus on Nelson, rather than looking at her, as they seem to want to do…

In 1993 in Glen Grove, Wisconsin, Gordon Strong has just lost his brewery job, something that contributes to a downward spiral that involves drinking to excess and a paranoid delusion that his wife is having an affair with their neighbour, Chuck Strange. When his control finally breaks, and he murders his family with a pair of garden shears, then hangs himself, the only survivor is the neighbour’s teenaged daughter, on a sleep-over with her best friend.

Luna easily evokes her era and setting, and the reason that her main protagonist seems initially to live up to her name becomes clear as the story progresses. It is told over two timelines and from three perspectives: Caroline Strange, Ellen Garcia and Gordon Strong.

None of the characters are particularly nice people: Caroline’s nicknames for her patients seem to contradict the care she professes to feel for them; Gordon is clearly a lazy, entitled chauvinist, a toxic male; and, while she’s an innocent victim who in no way deserves what happens to her, Ellen does lack journalistic integrity. It gradually becomes clear that the reliability of at least two of the narratives is questionable, which serves to keep the reader thoroughly invested in the outcome. Often blackly funny, Luna’s latest is a cleverly-plotted page-turner.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss & Giroux.

The Janus Stone is the second book in the Ruth Galloway series by award-winning British author, Elly Griffiths. The audio version is narrated by Jane McDowell. As Head of Forensic Archaeology at the University of North Norfolk, Ruth Galloway is called in by U of Sussex’s Dr Max Grey when a dig at Swaffham produces a small skeleton minus its skull, buried under a doorway: an offering to one of the Roman gods, Janus or Terminus?

She’s surprised when DCI Harry Nelson turns up there: she hasn’t yet told him she’s three months pregnant with his child. Ruth knows she will have to reveal her pregnancy before it becomes too obvious, and justifiably dreads the reaction of some.

Soon after, Ruth attends a demolition site at the request of the field archaeologist, when another small skeleton is found, again minus skull, again buried under a doorway, where a children’s home existed more than thirty years previous. Ruth calls in DCI Harry Nelson in case the bones prove to be more recent than Iron Age, as the burial looks more modern. The developer, Edward Spens is building seventy-five modern units, and is displeased when Nelson puts the work on hold citing a possible murder investigation.

Nelson’s sidekick, Sergeant Clough is convinced that in any home run by Catholic nuns and priests, there’s bound to be abuse, possibly foul play, but interviews with former staff and residents show no evidence of this. What might be significant is the mysterious disappearance of siblings Martin and Elizabeth Black, in 1973.

But post-mortem evidence eventually proves the bones too old to be children’s home residents, and Nelson’s investigation heads in a direction that is uncomfortable for some, not that that will stop him probing where he sees fit. He is distracted, though, when he learns that he is to be a father for the third time, and not quite sure how he feels about that.

Meanwhile, Ruth has the decidedly uncomfortable sensation that someone is watching, someone apparently fixated on her, who starts leaving vaguely sinister messages and objects both at the digs and on her doorstep. Nelson’s reaction is to assign DC Judy Johnson to watch over her. But after she has done some research into the former residents of the Woolmarket house, Judy needs to revisit her interview with Sister Immaculata: the ageing nun must know more than she’s told so far…

Griffiths uses Ruth and Harry as her main narrators, with occasional passages from the perspective of an anonymous person apparently making blood sacrifices to appease the gods. The plot is believable, the archaeology interesting and the characters, not all of whom are what they seem, are quite convincing for all their flaws and quirks.

It is certainly refreshing to read a female protagonist who is not slim and gorgeous. There are twists and red herrings to keep the reader guessing right up to the final chapters, and a nail-biting climax in which Ruth fires a gun. Returning to this cast in The House At Seas End is eagerly anticipated.

And Then She Fell is the first novel by award-winning, best-selling Canadian Mohawk editor and author, Alicia Elliott. At twenty-six, Haudenosaunee woman Alice Dostator is married to Steve Macdonald, a white man, has a six-week-old daughter, Dawn, is living off reservation in the city of Toronto, and is still grieving the loss of her mother, when she once again begins hearing voices. It’s not the first time, but as a teen, she blocked them out with alcohol and pot.

Now, she’s having difficulty connecting with her baby, is getting very little sleep, and is expected to behave in a manner that makes her an asset to Steve’s attempt to get tenure in the anthropology department. She’s getting nowhere with her writing, a retelling of the Haudenosaunee Creation Story that she now regrets telling Steve about, regrets telling anyone about.

What she’s hearing, and seeing, has her worried: her mom said her grandma was crazy; but her Aunt Rachel assures her that Grandma was a medicine woman, spoke to spirits and saw the future. And this respected elder said that Alice has the gifts to see what others can’t. Her cousin Tanya talks about portals and gatekeepers, and the voices are telling her it’s important to complete her writing, although other voices aren’t so positive.

It's quickly clear from her auditory and visual hallucinations, her out-of-body experiences, her delusions, and her paranoia, that Alice is not a reliable narrator. She second-guesses her own thoughts and reactions, is increasingly unsure whom she can trust, and feels the need to keep her thoughts secret even from those closest to her. Or is what she’s seeing, hearing and feeling, real?

Elliott’s depiction of post-partum mental illness is highly credible and, informed as it is by her own experience, brims with authenticity. The novel explores white attitudes to Natives, the racism that is often unconscious or unintentional, motherhood, and Mohawk myth and legend. While more likely to resonate with Canadian readers, this is a cleverly written, interesting and thought-provoking read.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Allen & Unwin.

“The wrinkles around his eyes and on his forehead spoke more of wear than years and I felt his presence to be dramatic and theatrical and magnetic: as though my eyes couldn’t help but fall on him and when they did—like being drawn to a performer under a spotlight onstage—I was unable to break away because of the promise of some inexplicable drama yet to come.”

The Curse of Pietro Houdini is the fourth stand-alone novel by award-winning American-born author, Derek B. Miller. It’s August, 1943, and the fourteen-year-old, determined to reach family in Naples after being orphaned by an Allied bomb dropped in Rome, is rescued from a beating at the foot of Montecassino by a man calling himself Pietro Houdini, with the same destination.

This “opinionated but charming polar bear with a big personality and a beautiful accent” somehow exudes trustworthiness, and seems to have a plan for the teen, who takes the name Massimo. They climb up to the Benedictine monastery founded in 529AD where Pietro identifies himself as the Vatican-endorsed Master of Art Restoration and Conservation from the University of Bologna, and declares Massimo his assistant. Massimo has been told his role is to ““Keep cleaning the brushes, especially if you hear someone coming. And listen to me talk. You don’t have to pay attention. There will be no test. But you must feign interest at all times.”

But as Maestro Houdini pretends to work on the frescos, and Massimo pretends to clean brushes while listening, around them the monks are negotiating with the Germans. Montecassino is, just then, one of the greatest repositories of culture on earth, a storehouse for treasure and history and art. And while Fridolin von Senger is assuring the Archabbot Gregorio Diamare that the monastery will remain neutral, safe from attack, Lieutenant Colonel Julius Schlegel is insisting that the irreplaceable artworks and manuscripts be loaded onto German trucks and taken to the Vatican for safe-keeping, just in case.

Brother Tobias, torn between St. Benedict’s admonition for silence and a peasant’s unstoppable need to gossip, shares the gist of the discussions with Pietro and Massimo. Pietro is unconvinced about the supposed sincerity of the Nazis: he believes that Truman Konig is shopping for Hitler, and that not all the loot will make it to Rome.

“It was hot and his body was perfectly still. His mind, I felt, was building a plan as big as a cathedral” Pietro hatches a scheme to deprive the Germans of a few pieces that will also serve an important personal purpose: his intentions aren’t wholly altruistic either. Keeping this under the radar takes a bit of cleverness with the monks’ meticulous inventory, and Massimo observes “Pietro’s actions seemed like those of an alchemist and his ramblings part of an incantation.” Everything done with flair.

Once their pieces of art are ready for travel, a few incidents delay their departure and, ultimately their sudden flight in the face of Allied bombs resembles a radical nativity scene that includes a wounded German soldier on a mule, a nurse, a monk, a fourteen-year-old, an Italian soldier, a flautist, and a limping art restorer. Pietro tells them “We will need to lie, cheat, steal, fight, kill, and sin our way to Naples. We will hold our own lives as precious above all others. We will trust no one but each other, and we will try and remember that in this country, at this time, there is no way to tell friend from foe.” Do they make it to some sort of safety?

Miller effortlessly evokes his era and setting, and his descriptive prose is marvellous: “Pietro Houdini had the sorted mind of a scientist but the spirit of a shaman who had seen too much and expected to see much more of it, a thinker and a storyteller and a liar who had as little reverence for the facts as P.T. Barnum. And yet, his dedication to truth—to God’s own truth, a truth Pietro claimed to know and I now believe he did—was bottomless.”

He gives his cast insightful observations: “My father was dismissive because he thought that things that don’t make sense don’t matter, when in fact they are the things that matter most” and “Secrets and lies are illusions and one must commit to the illusion if it is to work!” are examples. Based on certain actual events, Miller’s glimpse into war and its myriad effects is a moving, sometimes blackly funny, and thought-provoking page-turner.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Avid Reader Press/ Random House UK Transworld.

After some two years fixing up his dilapidated house near Ardnakelty in the west of Ireland, ex-Chicago cop, Cal Hooper is settling in, happy with the contrast to city life: “being boring is among Cal’s main goals. For most of his life, one or more elements always insisted on being interesting, to the point where dullness took on an unattainable end-of-the-rainbow glow. Ever since he finally got his hands on it, he’s savoured every second.”

His renovation is coming along, the villagers seem to tolerate him, Lena Dunne regularly shares his bed, and Trey, now fifteen, is building her furniture-restoring skills under his watch. His discreet, low-key care has a positive effect on her academic performance and her social acuity. For Trey, Cal’s place has peace, while at home “Their mam is silent, but it’s not a silence with peace in it. It takes up space, like some heavy thing made of rusted iron built around her”

Then her four-year-absent father, Johnny Reddy turns up. Cal sizes him up: “a type he’s encountered before: the guy who operates by sauntering into a new place, announcing himself as whatever seems likely to come in handy, and seeing how much he can get out of that costume before it wears too thin to cover him up any longer.”

Johnny invites a select few farmers to hear about a scheme guaranteed to put money in their pockets: a wealthy Londoner they are soon referring to as a Plastic Paddy, who claims a connection to the village, has a tale from his granny of gold in the ground. The Reddy family’s poor reputation ensures that many start out sceptical, but meeting the very posh Cillian Rushborough convinces them they can pull it off.

The likelihood of actual gold being low, Cal is quickly convinced there’s more to it all than what Reddy is saying: just who is scamming whom?

“The main talent Cal has discovered in himself, since coming to Ardnakelty, is a broad and restful capacity for letting things be. At first this sat uneasily alongside his ingrained instinct to fix things, but over time they’ve fallen into a balance: he keeps the fixing instinct mainly turned towards solid objects, like his house and people’s furniture, and leaves other things the room to fix themselves.”

Against his usual instincts, Cal gets involved, if just to keep an eye on where things are going, to make sure there’s no backlash on Trey when things go pear-shaped, as they inevitably will.

Each processing events in their own way, Trey and Cal and Lena aren’t sharing all they know, out of misguided concern or uncertainty, each trying to protect or not worry the other. Each acts according to their own agenda, sometimes at crossed purposes. Trey sees the opportunity for a kind of justice she’s longed for to be served. And then, one of the new arrivals is murdered…

Once again, French provides a slow burn tale in which readers can immerse themselves in gorgeous descriptive prose such as: “the fields sprawl out, a mosaic of varying greens in oddangled shapes that Trey knows as well as the cracks on her bedroom ceiling” and “Summer air wanders in and out of the window, bringing the smells of silage and clover, picking up sawdust motes and twirling them idly in the wide bars of sunlight” and “This barely even feels like a conversation, just a series of stone walls and briar patches.”

Also: “The house got a fresh coat of butter-coloured paint and some patches to the roof a couple of years back, but nothing can paper over its air of exhaustion. Its spine sags, and the lines of the window frames splay off-kilter. The yard is weeds and dust, blurring into the mountainside at the edges”

The dialogue as written easily evokes the Irish brogue, while the banter is often blackly funny: at one stage, Cal is surprised to find himself engaged, and the pub scene is very entertaining. The quirky cast from the first book, including those smart and amusing rooks, still appeal, and the reader’s investment in the main protagonists is amply rewarded.

This instalment is cleverly plotted with enough turns in the story to keep the reader thoroughly intrigued. While this sequel can be read as a stand-alone, there are some spoilers for the first book, and why would one deny themselves the pleasure of reading that one first? Brilliant Irish crime fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Penguin UK.

Exiles is the third book in the Aaron Falk series by award-winning Australian journalist and author, Jane Harper. A year after he was meant to become godfather to Greg and Rita Raco’s baby son, Henry, Aaron Falk is returning to the Marralee Valley Annual Food And Wine Festival, the scene of a disappearance that postponed the baby’s christening.

On the first day of the Festival, a year earlier, thirty-nine-year-old Kim Gillespie went missing, leaving behind a husband, a teenaged daughter, and a six-week-old baby. Now, there’s an appeal from seventeen-year-old Zara, Kim’s husband Rohan and ex-boyfriend Charlie, to any who were present twelve months earlier, for even the most insignificant scrap of information that might help to reveal what happened to the beloved wife and mother.

As he and KIewarra cop Greg wander the venue before the appeal, Aaron gets a feel for who was where, including himself, although he is a little distracted by a potential encounter with a certain woman, as he was a year earlier. Many of those they speak to express regret at not having said or done something at the time while, strangely, those who knew Kim deny speaking to her on the evening she vanished.

While local sergeant, Rob Dwyer, absent at the time, along with others, wonder if Kim might have left voluntarily, Zara is convinced that her mother would never have chosen to leave her husband and daughters, and especially would never have left baby Zoe alone in the Festival’s pram bay. Some believe she may have drowned in the nearby reservoir, but Zara’s friend, Joel is certain that she did not come to the reservoir via the route where he was stationed.

Greg Raco shows Aaron the comprehensive file he has made on Kim’s disappearance, having quietly checked for himself the alibis of everyone who knew Kim, and feels in his gut that something is amiss, but what? He and Aaron walk the perimeter, suggest theories, but come up blank.

For young Joel, the Festival stirs different unhappy memories: his father, Dean, accountant for many Marralee businesses, was killed in a hit-and-run at a dangerous reservoir spot known as The Drop, six years earlier. The driver was never found. Aaron reluctantly agrees to look over footage of the scene.

Having chatted more than once to most people who knew Kim, Aaron is left wondering if this depressed woman ran away, took her own life in the reservoir, or if her fate was a more sinister one. It’s Greg Raco’s five-year-old daughter, Eva who finally, unwittingly, crystallizes the niggling thought that has danced in Aaron’s subconscious.

Harper effortlessly evokes the small Australian country town, and her characters are typical of those one might encounter there. Her clever plot has enough intrigue and distraction to keep the reader guessing right up to the final reveals. Falk’s inner monologue and his dialogue with various characters cement his appeal, and reinforce his integrity. This is another excellent example of Aussie Crime Fiction and, whether or not it features Aaron Falk, more from Jane Harper will be eagerly anticipated.

No One Is Talking About This is a genre-defying book by American editor and author, Patricia Lockwood. Part One, which comprises over half the book, seems to be the stream-of-consciousness thoughts of an unnamed protagonist, a social media poster whose followers avidly latch onto “Can a dog be twins?”, and includes a generous helping of sips from social media, but it reads like the unedited, unarranged author’s notes for a work-in-progress. It is so disjointed that connecting with characters or events is difficult.

While there are plenty of pleasing turns of phrase and descriptive prose, and phrases like “Something in the back of her head hurt. It was her new class consciousness” may appeal to net-savvy millennials, to readers of the baby boomer generation it likely resembles pretentious drivel that lacks much substance.

Making sense of “The comforting thing about movies was that she could watch bodies that were not feeling they were bodies. Moving effortlessly through graveyards, even uphill, wearing clothing whose tags did not itch, there was never a stray hair caught in the lip gloss, the frictionlessness of bodies in heaven. Sliding over each other like transparencies, riding love as picturesquely as prairie horses, the sex scenes like blouses brushing against slacks in a closet, not feeling and not feeling all the things she would miss in the clear blue space” is a challenge.

Only that it is mercifully short may prompt readers of a certain vintage to reach part two, which actually has some substance, although by then, many will have lost interest, be resenting time spent, or become apathetic about the protagonist’s fate. This Man Booker prize and Womens' Prize for Fiction nominee is not for everyone.

1.5 stars

Once There Were Wolves is the second adult literary fiction novel by award-winning Australian author, Charlotte McConaghy. After an unconventional upbringing by parents who could not have been a more unlikely couple, twins Inti and Aggie Flynn are in Scotland. Inti, a biologist, is the leader of the Cairngorms Wolf Project, while Aggie is there because, after what happened in Alaska, the sisters are always together.

Even though the Scottish Parliament has approved the release of fourteen wolves into Cairngorms National Park, the local farmers, gamekeepers and hill walkers are all very resistant, all convinced that their livelihoods will be adversely affected, and either dubious or apathetic about the positive environmental effects the wolves will bring.

As Inti and her team observe, the wolves gradually leave the caged areas, begin mating, and a litter is produced. But the largest of the wolves is shot by a farmer, who claims he mistook it for a wild dog. The Chief Superintendent of the local police, Duncan MacTavish is treading a fine line, trying to keep the locals happy and uphold the law: the farmer is not charged.

But the attraction, the connection between Duncan and Inti, from the moment she helps him rescue a runaway mare, is electric. They succumb, but Inti also resists, not wanting the distraction from her work, or any involvement, and a good reason to resist would be Duncan’s ambivalence about the whole Wolf Project. Easier said than done.

Then a farmer dies, and his injuries might be due to a wolf attack: Inti doesn’t want to believe it. But if not a wolf, then who? Surely no one would kill a man just to see the wolves blamed? The victim, though, as well as showing how strongly opposed he was to the rewilding in several heated interactions with Inti, was more predator than prey, and others might have reason to want him gone.

Inti is an interesting character, passionate about wolves, strongly bonded to her twin, and afflicted with mirror-touch synaesthesia, an unusual condition that cause her to feel what she sees. Her passion results from time spent with their naturalist father, while her police detective mother’s exhortations to “toughen up” likely contributed to her later attitude and actions.

Flashbacks in Inti’s narrative gradually reveal what occurred to alter the twins: Aggie, strong and fierce, a leader and protector, eventually a linguistics teacher; Inti, living by her father’s code, all care and kindness, much in Aggie’s shadow; until they almost reverse roles, with Aggie mute and crippled by agoraphobia, a shadow to Inti, now angry and impulsive. “I think most of me got left behind in Dad’s forest. And now I’m all the things I hate.”

As well as including a wealth of information about wolves, McConaghy’s story also features quite a few toxic males, and their opposites. The murder-mystery element has enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing right up to the final reveal. Moving and hopeful, this is a fascinating page-turner.

The Mystery Writer is the third stand-alone novel by award-winning, best-selling Australian author, Sulari Gentill. When Theodosia Benton arrives at her older brother, Gus’s home in Lawrence, Kansas, having abandoned her law course in Canberra, she’s not sure of the reception she’ll get. But Gus doesn’t let her down: he’s thoroughly understanding and happy for her to stay.

They will, together, decide what and when to tell their feral parents but, meanwhile, Theo finds Benders Bar/Café, an accommodating and friendly spot where she can pursue her dream: to write a novel. She’s not the only writer taking advantage of the indulgent staff, and eventually she and Dan begin chatting about writing, with the older man offering much appreciated feedback and advice.

Only after some months does she learn that Dan Murdoch is an internationally acclaimed bestselling author, and the attractive, expensively-tailored woman who occasionally joins him is his agent with the coveted Day, Delos and Associates. Just as her manuscript is nearing completion, their mentor/mentee relationship takes a turn, one Theo cautiously welcomes, but which is unfortunately short-lived.

That Gus Benton is a junior partner in a respected law firm when Theo finds Dan is his kitchen with his throat slashed is fortunate for her, but less so for him. His partners are none too pleased with the publicity that results when Theo seems to be the only suspect on whom the police are focussing. When Gus’s house is besieged by press and Dan Murdoch fans, they are lucky to have a bolt hole with a friend.

An unexpected development after Dan’s death is the approach by his agent, who tells her that Day, Delos & Associates is interested in Theo’s novel. Veronica Cole explains their exclusivity requirements, should Theo sign with them, and Theo is a little taken aback by the level of control they insist on having. Is a writer not entitled to a private life?

Theo later observes: “The public’s interest in the lives of writers had increased with the accessibly afforded by social media and the web in general, but that very accessibility was dangerous. Online friendship was a fickle thing. Loose comments, failed jokes, or simple flares of temper could unleash a contagion of outrage and condemnation. It was no longer enough to write a good book; authors had to be photogenic, witty saints as well.”

While she remains under suspicion, and the whereabouts of Dan’s last manuscript are a mystery, and the killer remains at large, a flash of inspiration has Theo planning out a new novel, the concept of which she shares with a select few, something that might later turn out to be very important.

Several chapters are prefaced by the observations of a doomsday prepper, or comments on a forum that seem to come from conspiracy theorists, and Theo’s later close encounters with some of them are rather alarming. Before matters are finally, and very satisfactorily, resolved, Theo is stalked, there are two more murders, Theo, Gus and his friend are interrogated multiple times, evidence is planted, and there’s a police shooting that ends quite badly for one of them.

Once again, Gentill gives the reader a cleverly plotted tale with some excellent twists before the final reveal. Her characters have depth and appeal, and several aspects of her protagonist give this novel somewhat of an autobiographical feel. Another page-turner!
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press.