A well-paced and well-plotted mystery-series entry.
Stander returns with his 11th novel featuring respected Michigan sheriff Ray Elkins, who investigates a beachside mystery while recovering from a recent trauma.
Ray, the sheriff of Cedar County, is back home after a lengthy hospital stay for a gunshot wound. Detective Sgt. Sue Lawrence has been keeping an eye on things in his absence, but he’s anxious to get back in the game, if only to distract himself from his memories of the altercation that caused his injury and the fact that his personal life is in flux. Fortunately for him, there’s plenty going on in Cedar County, especially on the massive private estate at Gull Point. Its owner, art-world bigwig Alice Ingersolle, is hosting a Memorial Day wedding for her daughter, just a few weeks after a severed human foot washes up on the property’s beach: “Small shoe,” as Sue calmly describes it. “Men’s size eight….Let’s get it into the cooler.” Meanwhile, unbeknown to anyone, the bride is carrying on an affair with Gull Point’s property manager,Scott Nelson,who, in turn, is sleeping with wedding planner Jennifer Bidwell;he also recently cooked Sue a romantic dinner of spaghetti carbonara. The bride receives a special gift from her grandfather, painter Gerhard Talmadge, before the wedding: a collection of priceless sketchesthat may have been stolen from Alice’s gallery during World War II. Then, on the day of the nuptials, a powerful storm hits Gull Point, which results in injuries to many of the guests. During the chaos, Gerhard is found dead in the woods. It’s a case that will provide Ray with a much-needed challenge.
Over the course of the novel, Stander employs prose that’s vivid and sharp, as when Jennifer realizes that a tornado has landed in the midst of the reception: “She could see that the people around her were screaming, too, but the sound of their voices was lost in the maelstrom. And then the protective canopy of canvas vaulted upward and away, flying through the air and crashing to the ground.” Equally impressive is the way in which the author unveils important bits of information by slipping, unexpectedly, into different characters’ third-person points of view. The book does take its time to get started, but there’s a reason for the slow accumulation of personalities and odd happenings, as it gives the author plenty of useful material for the murder investigation, once it begins. Ray and Sue, as character types, are fairly standard for the genre: a grizzled lawman and his younger female partner, each harboring an unspoken desire for the other. However, the author intriguingly delves into the psychologies of the various wedding attendees, whose messy lives and conniving ways add darkness and scandal to the plot. Fans of previous series entries will surely enjoy this installment’s classic, mansion-set storyline, but it will also satisfy newcomers to the Ray Elkins universe, as the tangled family history of the Ingersolles does put his and Sue’s skills to the test.
A well-paced and well-plotted mystery-series entry.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9975701-6-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Writers & Editors, LLC
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Hair-raising fun!
Two strange deaths in the desert pose tough questions in this fifth Nora Kelly adventure.
In a remote section of New Mexico, a woman walks alone into the blistering desert heat. In a trance, she ignores her horrific thirst and discards her clothing, piece by piece, until she lies down and dies. Five years later, a video crew with a drone discovers her skeletal remains, which they promptly report. Agent Corrie Swanson is part of an FBI team that heads out into the bleak badlands to investigate. She shares a photo with anthropologist Nora Kelly, who is especially intrigued by the pair of rare green lightning stones found under the skeleton. The woman died with perfect health, yet no one had reported her missing. DNA confirms the 40-ish woman was Molly Vine, an apparently vibrant person who “wouldn’t just throw her life away.” Then the FBI finds another body, another woman, same trail of clothing and pair of green lightning stones, but her death is much more recent. And that’s just the beginning of a tale that gets curiouser and curiouser with discoveries of ancient mass murders and modern mind control. Corrie and Nora are a perfect pair: smart and professional, and with bravery they will need in abundance. At one point, they compare approaches: As an anthropologist, Nora is trained not to judge; as an FBI agent, Corrie is trained to judge. As they delve into the investigation, Nora’s younger brother, Skip, and his billionaire buddy, Edison Nash, complicate matters immensely. They decide to go camping and investigate on their own, and Skip reminds Nash that taking ancient artifacts like an obsidian arrowhead is a felony. But as strange shadows lurk around their faded campfire at night, they learn that getting in trouble with the law is the least of their worries. The landscape imbues a special flavor to this engrossing yarn—the adobe kivas with signs of thousand-year-old murders, the slot canyons, the changing terrain as desert yields to ponderosa pine—and the sandstorms that can abort a rescue. In this setting, an unknown enemy causes cringeworthy violence that the heroes may have to face alone. But as Corrie tells Nora, “We’ve got a gun. We’ve got a knife. Now we need a plan.”
Hair-raising fun!Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781538765821
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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