Mystery

Taking the lead this month are cross-genre books that blend elements of mystery with other fictional genres. William Manchee writes legal thrillers with a science fiction twist; his attorney, Stan Turner (Act Normal), must not only handle a legal case but also cope with aliens who interfere with life on Earth. The queen of paranormal mysteries, Charlaine Harris imbues her sleuth, Harper Connelly (An Ice Cold Grave), with psychic abilities to find the dead. Another popular trend is the incorporation of recent U.S. history into the plot. Martin Limón, for instance, sets his gripping military mysteries (The Wandering Ghost) in the Korean demilitarized zone in the 1970s; Robert Greer offers a new theory behind the assassination of JFK in his latest C.J. Floyd mystery (The Mongoose Deception).

Detective Superintendent Jack Deacon is asked to help out on a case involving a childhood friend who is thought to be a major criminal. At the same time, Brodie Farrell (Requiem for a Dealer), who is now pregnant with Deacon's second child, has turned to her old friend Daniel Hood for help in running her private investigation agency, a move that adds tension to her already strained relationship with Deacon. The couple's inability to share an honest conversation places Brodie in a precarious situation; Deacon needs his deducing skills to ferret out political mine traps and the hidden agendas of others in the police force. The ending is shocking and unexpected. Bannister creates great characters and, much like John Harvey and Deborah Crombie, spins emotionally charged plots. She lives in Northern Ireland. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 5/1/07.]

Last year, Church made his impressive debut with A Corpse in the Koryo; his follow-up is nothing short of brilliant. A man wearing a silk-stocking mask is run over by a bus after he has robbed a bank in Pyongyang, North Korea. The case is given to Inspector O. There is no paperwork, no evidence gathered at the scene, no autopsy, and soon no body. The political machinations within the police department and the incredible bureaucracy that intrudes in every part of life in North Korea give Inspector O the opportunity to prove what an incredibly adroit officer he is. Church is the pseudonym of a former Western intelligence officer who has traveled through North Korea. His tale twists and turns and leaves the reader gasping for more. Highly recommended. [See Mystery Prepub, LJ 7/07; for another view of Korea, see the review of Martin Limón's The Wandering Ghost, p. 115.]

In her 14th adventure, caterer Goldy Schulz is preparing a holiday breakfast for the staff and volunteers of the Aspen Meadow Public Library when the head librarian finds the body of a man in the stacks. A rare map that he had for sale is missing. Adding spice to this story line are sightings of Sandee Brisbane, the woman who murdered Goldy's ex-husband and who supposedly died in a forest fire, in the stacks and near the body of another map dealer. Of course, Goldy starts nosing around and causing much trouble for her police detective husband. If you have not read Davidson's culinary cozies in a while, try this one. With an entertaining plot and out-of-this-world recipes, it proves that the author is in top-notch form. The author lives in Colorado. [See Mystery Prepub, LJ 5/1/07.]

Molly Smith, the daughter of two American peaceniks who fled to Canada in the 1970s, is a rookie police officer in the small town of Trafalgar, B.C. When she finds a dead man in an alley, her investigation leads to a group committed to dedicating a memorial to U.S. draft dodgers; Molly's mother happens to be the group's leader. Writing in the quiet voice of a 26-year-old woman striving to succeed in a job of which her parents disapprove, Delany (Burden of Memory) launches a new traditional series about Canadian small-town life that may appeal to fans of Louise Penny's Quebec cozies. [See Mystery Prepub, LJ 6/1/07.]

Fourteen-year-old Gemma Kramer falls to her death from the gallery above the altar in St. Sebastian's Church. What appears to be suicide soon sparks a murder investigation when a witness claims to have seen Gemma kissing a man before her body was found. Detective Chief Inspector Carolyn Steele is brought in to supervise the team led by Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia. But friction with the new chief leads to miscommunication and a difficult work environment. Despite some familiar plot elements (e.g., serial killers who go after the female police officer; a cold, misunderstood female chief inspector), debut novelist Forbes has written an engrossing police procedural that fans of Jill McGown and Ian Rankin will place on their reserve list. Highly recommended. Forbes lives in London.

On the first night of her job as a reporter for a gossip tabloid, Simone Glass is sent to pick the trash of a female star. What she discovers is the work of a serial killer preying on the young and beautiful in Hollywood. Tapping into her own experiences as a journalist for In Touch magazine, Gaylin (Hide Your Eyes; You Kill Me) has written an action-packed tale of suspense that will appeal to fans of Mary Jane Clark and Lisa Gardner. Gaylin's hardcover debut is the first title in NAL's new Obsidian Mysteries imprint.

African American investigator and bail bondsman C.J. Floyd (The Fourth Perspective) and his cohorts get caught up in a series of murders that may be linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. First, an earthquake in a tunnel in the Rocky Mountains uncovers the tattooed arm of a miner who has been missing for more than 30 years; then, the tunnel attendant who found the body part is blown away in an affluent area of Denver. When someone tries to kill Mario Santori, C.J.'s mentor and a former Mafia don with connections to the dead miner, C.J. gets involved. Greer gives the JFK killing a newish spin in a riveting story that will make conspiracy buffs and fans of African American mysteries pleased that they stayed the course.

In the third installment (after Grave Surprise) of her supernatural series featuring psychic Harper Connelly and her partner and stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, Harper is hired to find the bodies of six teenage boys who went missing over a two-year period. She discovers them buried in the frozen ground just outside of Doreville, NC, a good place to live until the community realizes that one of its own is a serial killer. Harris's greatest strength is creating realistic, fully rounded characters with just a sentence or two; her depiction of gruesome crimes is such that this work is not for the faint of heart. But fans of paranormal mysteries, especially of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books, will snap this book up. Harris also writes the Sookie Stackhouse vampire series and lives in Arkansas. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 6/1/07.]

After the only female military police officer assigned to a U.S. base in the Korean DMZ disappears and another officer dies in what is ruled an accident, Eighth Army cops Ernie Bascom and George Sueño (The Door to Bitterness) are sent from army headquarters in Seoul to investigate. But someone tries to kill them, and the officers in charge of C Division are sabotaging all efforts to find the missing soldier. Setting the standard for military crime fiction, Limón's compelling stories of murder, greed, and abuse of power are set off by the Korean culture and the 1970s atmosphere. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/07; for another view of Korea, see the review of James Church's Hidden Moon, p. 112.—Ed.]

When human bones dating from a riot 20 years ago are found in a poor section of London, Detective Chief Inspector David Brock and Detective Sargeant Kathy Kolla (No Trace) are called in to investigate and get drawn into the West Indian community. Then their old nemesis, Spider Roach, returns, and the duo faces an onslaught of danger that culminates in the nerve-wracking final pages. For readers of Quintin Jardine and those who remember J.J. Marric (aka John Creasey). Maitland lives in Australia. [See Mystery Prepub, LJ 6/1/07.]

Undercover cop Craig McHugh is in way over his head trying to bring down a crime lord in Chicago's Chinatown. His wife, Leslie, who is drinking too much, suspects that he has a mistress, and his 17-year-old daughter hangs out with the wrong crowd. When $1000 vanishes from the McHughs' bank account and Craig can't explain where it went, Leslie is determined to find the answer. Schwegel's third book is not so much about police officers solving crimes as it is about a cop's family having lost its way. In Schwegel's capable hands (she won an Edgar Award for Officer Down), her story never falters, and the surprise ending both satisfies and allows the reader to hope that the McHughs will be alright. This is noir fiction at its best; for all mystery collections.

The hit-and-run death of the owner of Manhattan's luxurious Universe Hotel in the parking garage is just the first of many emergencies that Trevor Lambert, director of rooms, must handle. An entertaining insider's look at the hotel business by a first timer.

Honey Driver, who runs a hotel in the English city of Bath, is appointed by the hotel association to be the police liaison. When an American tourist is murdered, Honey is on the case. Although the police are a tad too undisciplined and Honey is a bit of a know-it-all, this is a charming series debut.

Readers who like to mix their legal thrillers with a bit of science fiction will enjoy Manchee's (Cactus Island) latest Stan Turner mystery, in which the Dallas attorney, grief-stricken by the kidnapping of his son by aliens, is asked by the CIA to defend a woman accused of killing her husband and children.

Chimney sweep Tom Wasp and his eight-year-old apprentice look for the killer of their friend Bessie Barton among the painters in Victorian London. Myers, also author of the March and Daughter series (Murder and the Golden Goblet), lives in Kent, England.

Though written strictly as cheap entertainment, pulp detective stories have found a new respectability, both as serious literature and as golden nuggets of Americana. Collected by noted mystery aficionado Penzler, this Black Lizard bruiser offers the cream of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, more than 45 stories in all, from Olympians like Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardner, Cornell Woolrich, and James M. Cain to the long-forgotten penny-a-word boys. The book is divided into three sections: "The Crimefighters," "The Villains," and "The Dames," each with its own introduction (Penzler on the crimefighters; Harlan Ellison, who talks as much about himself as he does the villains; and Laura Lippman on the dames). Many of the stories share both the pessimism of their time—the good guys don't always win and the bad guys aren't always punished—and the optimism to fight the good fight. The stories are presented in two columns per page, the way they first appeared in Black Mask, Dime Detective, and other hack-fests of yesteryear, and include the original art, typically a thug with an automatic threatening the PI or a slinky babe in her lingerie. Though other similar collections exist, this noirasaurus will appeal to the genre's many fans. If pulps are your cup, it will runneth over with Black Lizard's gangbusters collection.—Michael Rogers, Library Journal

A little boy is kidnapped while waiting for a ride to school in Hill's second mystery featuring Detective Inspector Simon Serailler (after The Various Haunts of Men) and his bucolic English cathedral town of Lafferton. Few leads exist. Crime reconstruction and interviews with local pedophiles, ex-cons, transients, and the boy's family turn up no clues. The community is gripped by fear, and the boy's family unravels. Simon's personal life is also turbulent—his institutionalized sister has suddenly died, his other sibling is about to give birth to her third child and her medical practice is suffering, and his sometime girlfriend is in desperate need of attention and stalking him. Simon is clearly not functioning at his best in the face of this truly baffling and tragic case. Thanks to Hill's deft prose, his character gains both depth and humanity. This novel showcases the author's exceptional skill at complex plot development and the creation of a community of thoroughly engaging and believable characters. Fans of English mysteries will be delighted. Strongly recommended.—Susan Clifford Braun,Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA

A new Icelandic mystery invites comparison with Arnaldur Indridason's crime fiction (Voices), but this title bears little resemblance. Thóra is a thirtysomething divorcée, mother of two, and a partner in a small law firm. She is reluctantly drawn into a murder investigation when approached by the Guntlieb family, whose son, Harald, was killed at the university. With the pay at twice her usual rate and the assistance of Matthew Reich, the Guntlieb family representative, Thóra can't refuse, even though the gruesome murder appalls her. To find the murderer, Thóra and Matthew must delve into Harald's interests in witchcraft and witch burnings and investigate his university friends. Scudder provides such a smooth translation, right down to the slang used by Harald's college friends, that an engaged reader can easily forget this was originally written in Icelandic. Featuring two fleshed-out, involving lead characters and unusual witchcraft details, this is recommended for all public libraries, and readers' advisors can suggest this title to patrons who enjoy Scandinavian mysteries by Helene Tursten and Åsa Larsson. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 6/1/07; for more recent crime fiction from Scandinavia, see "Murder, Nordic Style," LJ 8/07, p. 57.—Ed.]—Jessica E. Moyer, Univ. of Minnesota, Coll. of Education & Human Development, Minneapolis

Nothing boosts some writers' productivity so much as their deaths. Best-selling author (I, the Jury; Kiss Me Deadly) and star of a famous series of Miller Lite commercials, Spillane died in July 2006, but no fewer than four new books he was working on at that time are scheduled to appear. This paperback standalone crime novel with a suitably lurid cover deals with Jack Stang, a retired New York detective, who discovers that Bettie, his beloved fiancée of 20 years ago, didn't really die then but had lost her memory, gone blind, and is currently living in a Florida retirement community. Trying to help the still-ravishing Bettie regain her memory leads Stang into unraveling a skein of dirty tricks long thought dead and buried that involves everything from nuclear fission to computer conglomerates and terrorists. Reading this is a bit like attending a meeting of the Policemen's Benevolent Association—full of piss and vinegar, but those old guys (even with one foot, or possibly both, in the grave) can still tell a good story. The many Spillane fans out there have a lot to look forward to. For all larger public libraries.—Bob Lunn, Kansas City P.L., MO