Mystery

What would you do to save someone in mortal danger? As demonstrated here, this is a recurring theme in modern crime fiction. In Eric Stone's Flight of the Hornbill, hero Ray Sharp discovers that he is powerless to protect his female acquaintances in Indonesia, where women have little value. Zoë Sharp's Third Strike presents professional bodyguard Charlie Fox and her partner teaming up against well-trained killers who are terrorizing her parents. In Robin Burcell's The Face of a Killer, FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick must acknowledge 20 years later that she could do nothing to save her murdered father. And there is Kate Flora's homicide detective, Joe Burgess, who in The Angel of Knowlton Park seeks justice for a dead child who never had a chance in life. These mysteries will wring your heart and stir your sensibilities.

What should have been an easy job of setting up a small exhibition of three Caravaggio paintings of St. Cecilia and the Angel for London's National Gallery becomes a nightmare of intrigue and danger for curator Reggie Lee when a fourth copy of the painting emerges. Is this one a fake? And then people start to die. As Reggie investigates why someone wants to stop her show, she becomes entangled in French politics and art museum machinations. In her mystery debut, historian Brandon (Surreal Lives: The Surrealists, 1917–1945) ties it all up at the end in a neat package but devotes so much of the book to a rehashing of facts that she may lose a few readers along the way. For larger collections where art mysteries are popular.

On the 20th anniversary of FBI forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick's father's murder, a rape victim describes an attacker who resembles Sydney's father's killer, now on death row. Sydney interviews the convicted man; other clues turn up that lead Sydney to believe that he is innocent. As she digs into her father's life, she realizes that she never really knew him and certainly does not understand the motive behind his death. An FBI-trained forensic artist and the author of the Kate Gillespie series (Every Move She Makes; Fatal Truth; Deadly Legacy; Cold Case), Burcell brings her own experience to the fore in creating her protagonist. With a dramatic, gasp-inducing finale, this is a terrific new police procedural series. It might also appeal to readers who enjoy Jonathan Santlofer's thrillers about an NYPD forensic artist. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 8/08.]

The Camden Town Halloween bonfire reveals a horrifying surprise when the body of a man is found in the burning embers. In his ninth case, Detective Inspector Christy Kennedy (I Love the Sound of Breaking Glass; Last Boat to Camden Town) leads his team in a full-blown investigation of the life and career of retired CID Superintendent David Peters, the dead man. What begins as an impossible task slowly unwinds as the Kennedy team digs for answers. A slightly off-kilter but nonetheless satisfying solution comes of their work. Charles's British cop is a man who knows how to solve a crime but can't save his personal relationships. This is sure to appeal to Ian Rankin fans, especially now that his Inspector Rebus (Exit Music) has retired. For all collections, especially where British procedurals circulate.

In this hardcover debut of the popular "Coffeehouse Mystery" series (French Pressed; Decaffeinated Corpse), New York City coffeehouse manager Clare Cosi's ex-husband and business partner is marrying the editor of a scandal magazine. But someone has decided to kill the obnoxious Breanne Summour before the wedding. Having been hired to create a gourmet coffee and dessert bar for the nuptials at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Clare is dragged into protecting the bridezilla. Coyle's "Coffeehouse" books are superb examples of the cozy genre because of their intelligent cast of characters, their subtle wit, and their knowledge of the coffee industry used to add depth and flavor to the stories. Recipes and coffee-making tips are nice pluses. Coyle, a pen name for a married writing team who grew up in Pittsburgh with Italian parents, brings to the series a love of New York City. Highly recommended for all mystery collections.

When the body of eight-year-old Timothy Watts is found wrapped in a blue blanket in a Portland, ME, park, homicide detective Joe Burgess (introduced in Playing God) vows to find the killer. Everyone in the neighborhood loved Timmy except his abusive family, but people are unwilling to talk. Even Iris, Timmy's deaf sister, will not share what she knows and soon goes missing. Then things get ugly when the press begins a personal attack on Burgess using information that could have come only from someone in the police department. Author of the Thea Kozak series and a true-crime writer (her Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine, cowritten with a career police officer, was nominated for an Edgar Award in 2007), Flora excels at portraying the police as real people with strengths and weaknesses who unite to bring some measure of justice to the dead and living alike. Flora's thought-provoking second police procedural marks her as one of the best in the genre.

Hurley's (Blood and Honey) seventh police procedural begins with a jolt as a commuter train rolls over a man chained to the tracks. Handling the case is the Portsmouth Major Crimes Squad, headed by Detective Inspector Joe Faraday. Identifying the man is only part of their problem; Faraday and Detective Constable Paul Winter must also face their own personal demons and fears. Hurley never writes a simple story, and here the dense, layered plotting, complex character development, and thought-provoking details and motives add depth to an engrossing tale of twisted motivation behind a murder. Fans of P.D. James, John Harvey, and Jill McGown will appreciate this solid British crime novel.

Get set for a roller-coaster ride with Sharp's third Charlie Fox thriller (after First Drop and Second Shot). The British bodyguard, now living in New York City, has recovered from the life-threatening injuries she sustained in Second Shot and finds herself watching her father on television admitting that he was negligent in the death of another physician and that he has a drinking problem. Charlie, estranged from her parents, wants to know what is happening to her much-acclaimed surgeon father. She and boss (and lover) Sean Meyer must save her family from a mysterious threat that remains undisclosed until the horrifying denouement. Sharp, a Barry Award finalist for her two previous Fox books, captures readers on the first page and doesn't let go. Charlie is something of a reincarnation of Modesty Blaise, showing the same determination and purpose. Highly recommended for all collections.

After the fourth oil truck driver on Long Island, NY, is robbed and murdered, Joe Serpe and Bob Healy, former cops-turned-home oil business partners first introduced in Hose Monkey, get involved because the latest victim is a former New York City police officer who saved Serpe's life. The bits and pieces of information that Serpe and Healy uncover make no sense. In the end, there is no winning, but the partners find a measure of peace. This gritty crime novel will suit readers who like Reggie Nadelson's street savvy and Michael Connelly's sense of hard justice. Spinosa is the pseudonym of Edgar Award nominee Reed Farrel Coleman, author of the award-winning Moe Prager series (Soul Patch).

In his third outing (after Grave Imports and The Living Room of the Dead), Ray Sharp is investigating a company involved in the funding of a major gold strike in Sumatra. When his estranged wife asks him to find her boyfriend who has disappeared, he acquiesces, thinking she will finally agree to a divorce. The two cases lead Ray into Indonesia's dangerous underworld. Brilliantly capturing the lone-man-on-a-mission archetype that has been Dick Francis's forte for so many years, Stone puts to good use his knowledge of the horrifying treatment of women in a violently male-dominated society and turns out a heart-stopping ending. Not for the easily frightened.

Intrepid Boston lawyer Brady Coyne (Nervous Water; Muscle Memory) is asked by his ex-girlfriend to represent her brother, Gus Sinclair, in his divorce. Gus, a well-known photojournalist, has returned from Iraq, where he lost his right hand in a bombing. Then the case takes a sinister turn when Gus is found dead from an apparent suicide, and his photos are missing. At the same time, Coyne is trying to bring peace of mind to an elderly couple whose furniture was damaged by movers. At the top of the legal thriller genre, Tapply brings refreshing solutions to these cases. Sure to appeal to fans of Lisa Scottoline and Jeremiah Healy. Recommended.

Serenity, IA, is anything but, while the Borne females (mother Vivian and daughter Brandy) stick their noses into the death of an old classmate of Vivian's and look for a missing first edition of Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. A fast-paced plot, plenty of tongue-in-cheek humor, and tips on antiques collecting will keep readers of this third entry in Allan's charming cozy series (Antiques Roadkill; Antiques Maul) engaged. Allan is the pseudonym of Barbara Collins, best known for her excellent short stories, and best-selling mystery novelist Max Allan Collins.

Finding the head of a neighbor in her garbage tarnishes the peace and quiet that failed mystery writer Emily Kincaid had sought in the north Michigan woods. Emily strikes a bargain with local police representative Deputy Dolly, and the two immediately plunge into danger as they investigate a controversial local cult called Women of the Moon. Although this series launch is a bit wordy and slow in getting to the point, debut author Buzzelli is notable as one of the growing number of women writers who use female protagonists trying to make a life for themselves, such as Sue Henry.

Complex and convoluted plotting is the hallmark of the prolific Curzon's writing (Last To Leave; A Meeting of Minds). She interweaves several ongoing investigations and a number of points of view in this tale of a mistaken hit-and-run murder attempt that targets two half-brothers. Yeadings's team must work nonstop to make sense of yet another murder. Curzon can be favorably compared with Jo Bannister and Marjorie Eccles.

What a tangled web Hart weaves for Bailey Ruth, an emissary from Heaven on a mission to help people in trouble. The body of a man is found at the rectory in Adelaide, OK. The pastor is a suspect, and his wife is Bailey Ruth's great niece. Hart, the prolific, award-winning author of the popular "Death on Demand" and Henrie O. series, launches a new paranormal cozy series. Her ghostly heroine glides through walls yet also eats solid food and solves problems for living folks. Sure to appeal to readers who enjoy gentle mysteries in the style of Elizabeth Fackler and Nancy Atherton. Here it is all too cute for words. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/08.]

The Abbott Agency, first introduced in False Charity, does not investigate murder, yet Bea Abbott finds herself doing just that. She has Maggie (her housekeeper) and Oliver (her resident computer geek) going undercover while she poses as a cleaning lady. They go up against a deadly killer who leaves no witnesses. Heley, author of the Ellie Quick mysteries, has returned with a second engrossing tale featuring ample British humor.

Bella Kowalski, a former nun now married and working as the obituary editor of the local Los Lobos newspaper, finds the body of one of the leading members of the community. Since her husband is one of the primary suspects, she becomes embroiled in the case. McGinty, a former technical writer, makes her debut with this first in a series.

Driving through Kent brings Peter Marsh and daughter Georgia to a mysterious cottage where a member of the Fernbourne Five, a 1930s group of artists, hanged himself in 1949. Sensing a book in the making, the two authors delve into the history of the Five but soon encounter hostility. Myers (The Wickenham Murders; Murder on Friday Street) always turns out a polished tale. For collections where British cozies are popular.

Looking for answers in the murder of Harry Janus, a man he had been hired to find, skip tracer Henry Swann goes to Los Angeles and finds a world of hurt. With no proven record of success in anything, Henry reveals his limited knowledge of detective work, but in this unusual debut mystery, he salvages his self-esteem by solving a crime.

This combo volume mates Block's 2001 short story volume One Night Stands with 1999's Lost Weekends novelettes, which collect his earliest published works (written in a single night or over a weekend, respectively). Most of the 25 shorts quite frankly are amateurish, but considering Block was still an undergrad when writing them, you have to cut the guy a break. The novelettes trio featuring Manhattan private eye Ed London are better. It's interesting to observe his skills progressing and no doubt inspiring to would-be writers to see that a mystery deity's early stuff is as bad as their's. The stories, published in tawdry men's magazines during the late 1950s and early 1960s, are formulaic—all feature a tough guy and a stacked blonde robobabe whose clothes can barely contain her centerfold goodies. There's gratuitous sex, violence, and often hilarious breast descriptions galore, along with booze, smokes, gunplay, and murder. This collection must be viewed as a thing of its politically incorrect time, but if your taste runs to cheap detectives, cheaper crooks, and D-cup damsels, One Night Stands and Lost Weekends is for you. Recommended.—Mike Rogers, LJXpress/Library Journal

Mystery writer and sometime professional thief Charlie Howard (introduced in Ewan's debut, A Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam) foolishly agrees to show one of his fans how to break into an apartment after a book signing event in Paris—simple, no problem. The next day, his fence calls and orders the theft of a painting from the very same address. Charlie is perplexed but not worried, and the job goes well. However, he returns home to find a dead body in his flat, which presents a real problem. Calling the police would reveal the hot painting as well as the corpse. Moreover, his prickly agent is due to arrive at any moment, and they've never met face to face. His fence is now curiously unavailable to receive the painting, and Charlie thinks he's being tailed by a suspicious guy in a Jaguar. Once again, Charlie finds himself in a convoluted set of circumstances worthy of one of his own book plots. Filled with mistaken identities, hot Picassos, mysterious hit men, and a tricky bit of art swapping at the Pompidou Center, this novel features wonderful descriptions of locale, engaging and wacky characters, and an entertaining plot that will leave readers eager for the next book. Highly recommended for all mystery collections. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 7/08.]—Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA

Detective Inspector Mark Tartaglia and his partner, Detective Sergeant Sam(antha) Donovan, pull a homicide in the midst of a wretchedly cold London winter. Beautiful art dealer Rachel Tenison is found dead in Holland Park, naked, bound, and arranged in a ritualistic pose that could be linked to an old case. Tartaglia and Donovan, each struggling with their private torments (Tartaglia's failed romance and Donovan's attack by a perp in a previous homicide), work the murders with their motley, quirky team. Their methodical investigation, hampered by the relentlessly bad weather, digs into the dark underbelly of London's S&M scene. As the case unravels, it is muddied by the messy personal lives of a few of their colleagues with too-close ties to the victim. Forbes draws her readers in with rich atmosphere and meticulous detail. Despite an improbable confrontation and some loose ends that could have been tied up, Forbes's sequel to Die with Me will find plenty of fans who savor British procedurals. Strongly recommended.—Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI

This new father-and-son collaboration (after Dead Heat) is another page-turner. When barrister and amateur jockey Geoffrey Mason finds fellow jockey Scott Barlow badly beaten in the jockey changing room and is told to "sod off," he dismisses the incident, not realizing it will come back to haunt him. In the meantime, one of Mason's clients, a spoiled young man named Julian Trent who had been convicted of assault and attempted murder, is mysteriously released on appeal. When Barlow is found murdered with a pitchfork belonging to a rival jockey driven through his chest, Trent makes threatening phone calls to Mason, ordering him to defend the accused jockey and lose the case. Mason works to discover the connection between Trent and the murder, even though doing so will endanger himself and his loved ones. Recommended for all public libraries.—Patsy Gray, Huntsville, AL

Since On Beulah Height, each entry in Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe series has illustrated the British author's ever-growing creativity with language and genre. In this 23rd entry, Dalziel is recovering from injuries sustained in a bombing (Death Comes for the Fat Man) at a convalescent home in the seaside resort of Sandytown. Hill begins the story by having sections narrated by Dalziel, who has been given a voice recorder by his doctor, along with instructions to talk about his feelings and memories of the previous events. Email messages from a woman called Charley to her sister alternate with those passages. Circumstances bring Dalziel and Charley together, and in addition to a number of strange events and questionable characters, murder pays a visit, cueing the arrival of Pascoe and the others to investigate. The plot twists and turns at a dizzying pace. The blend of Dalziel's voice, Charley's grammatically challenged emails, and Hill's familiar, graceful prose and witty dialog all add to the effect. Someone new to the series will want to start with an earlier volume, but fans of Hill's work will certainly enjoy this latest ride.—Beth Lindsay, Washington State Univ. Libs., Pullman

Missing persons particularly pique the interest of Reykjavík police inspector Erlendur, still haunted by the loss of his younger brother in a blizzard that he survived as a child. When the mysteriously draining Lake Kleifarvatn reveals a skeleton tied to an old Russian radio transmitter, Erlendur and colleagues Elinborg and Sigurdur Oli delve into the cold war era, when promising young Icelandic socialists were sent to Leipzig to study, and one of them lost the woman he loved in the atmosphere of "interactive surveillance." Considering himself a failure in family relationships, the introspective and dogged Erlendur is motivated to bring closure to a 70-year-old woman still waiting for her long-vanished lover; even a missing hubcap is a key to this case. Erlendur's developing relationship with a married woman, Elinborg's newfound success as a cookbook author, and Sigurdur Oli's phone calls from a troubled man add depth and texture to the fourth in Indridason's award-winning Nordic series (after Voices). This is exceptional fiction that transcends its genre.—Michele Leber, Arlington, VA

Crime writer and ladies' man Hector Lassiter (Head Games) makes a return appearance in McDonald's outstanding second series effort. Spanning over a quarter-century and moving from Miami to Hollywood with stops in Spain and Cuba for a civil war and a revolution, respectively, this novel displays McDonald's storytelling and writing skills. The novel begins during the great Florida hurricane of 1935, when Hec comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress. Quickly falling for her, he is devastated when she turns up as the latest victim of an apparent serial killer. But this is not the end of the story: McDonald is only getting started with a tale involving a serial killer, a dysfunctional family, the world of abstract art, and a supporting cast that includes Ernest Hemingway and Orson Welles. McDonald wows with his writing, which seems effortless despite using many voices, and his book will keep readers rapt. Highly recommended for all public libraries.—Craig Shufelt, Fort McMurray P.L., Alta.