Keen, absorbing crime novel with likable amateur detectives.
A recently fired soon-to-be divorcée stumbles upon a famous, decades-old cold case in Smith’s debut mystery.
Henry Lysyk’s new life starts in a small Vancouver apartment. His wife’s affair ended their marriage, and he lost his job as a risk manager at a bank, his former bosses declaring him a “fraudster.” But it’s not all bad. His beloved 13-year-old niece, Frieda, is staying with him for a week. Her bubbly personality easily earns her friends among Henry’s fellow tenants. Frieda is also the first to notice a stranger creeping around the apartment building; she astutely dubs him “Mr. Creepy.” Henry is convinced that someone has been stealing crosswords from his daily newspapers, and he thinks not only is Mr. Creepy the culprit, but he’s possibly been casing the area. When various shenanigans occur at the apartment building, Henry, Frieda, and comic-book-artist neighbor Tess Honma take a closer look at Mr. Creepy. It seems this stranger is part of an online forum—amateur sleuths trying to solve cold cases. He’s investigating a well-known robbery from 50 years ago, certain that someone in Vancouver has answers. As Henry, Frieda, and Tess try to put a real name to Mr. Creepy, they gradually piece together details on the unsolved robbery. While only readers know Mr. Creepy has blood on his hands, Henry and the others soon learn he’s mentally ill. There’s a chance they may actually solve a noted cold case, but that won’t mean much if they can’t find evidence to point cops toward Mr. Creepy, who’s now on their tails.
Readers will quickly warm up to Henry, who headlines this opening installment of a prospective series. His ex-employers’ fraud accusations, for one, stem from Henry’s saving numerous businesses from foreclosure. The book spotlights several wonderful characters as Smith gradually introduces the building’s tenants. These early scenes are lighthearted but affecting. For example, during an outing with Tess and Frieda, Henry imagines them as his wife and daughter—the family he feels he may never have. Henry’s niece is surely the best character. In one scene, Frieda stealthily follows Mr. Creepy on her own, which ultimately necessitates a taxi ride with a cabbie who, like everyone else, is instantly fond of the teen. In the same vein, the villain isn’t one-dimensional; his dark family history is integral to the main plot. Prose is concise and indelible: “They…weaved past numbered offices, unlabeled metal filing cabinets, and open workspaces equipped with printers and computer monitors due for upgrades. They rode the elevator to the fifth floor in silence and followed [the constable] deeper into the labyrinth. The doors here were nicer, unpainted, wood instead of metal. The corridor opened up into a waiting area the size of Henry’s bedroom.” The cold case of the novel is a real-life unsolved crime that Smith skillfully weaves into the narrative—just enough particulars to entice readers unfamiliar with it and not decelerate the story. The author clearly leaves room for a sequel, which Frieda will hopefully join.
Keen, absorbing crime novel with likable amateur detectives.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-77532-262-7
Page Count: 326
Publisher: Shima Kun Press
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The story is sadly familiar, the treatment claustrophobically intense.
Twenty years after Chloe Davis’ father was convicted of killing half a dozen young women, someone seems to be celebrating the anniversary by extending the list.
No one in little Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, was left untouched by Richard Davis’ confession, least of all his family members. His wife, Mona, tried to kill herself and has been incapacitated ever since. His son, Cooper, became so suspicious that even now it’s hard for him to accept pharmaceutical salesman Daniel Briggs, whose sister, Sophie, also vanished 20 years ago, as Chloe’s fiance. And Chloe’s own nightmares, which lead her to rebuff New York Times reporter Aaron Jansen, who wants to interview her for an anniversary story, are redoubled when her newest psychiatric patient, Lacey Deckler, follows the path of high school student Aubrey Gravino by disappearing and then turning up dead. The good news is that Dick Davis, whom Chloe has had no contact with ever since he was imprisoned after his confession, obviously didn’t commit these new crimes. The bad news is that someone else did, someone who knows a great deal about the earlier cases, someone who could be very close to Chloe indeed. First-timer Willingham laces her first-person narrative with a stifling sense of victimhood that extends even to the survivors and a series of climactic revelations, at least some of which are guaranteed to surprise the most hard-bitten readers.
The story is sadly familiar, the treatment claustrophobically intense.Pub Date: Jan. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-2508-0382-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Smart, edgy, and entertaining as heck.
Against her better judgment, Lucy Chase returns to her hometown of Plumpton, Texas, for her grandmother’s birthday, knowing full well that almost everyone in town still believes she murdered her best friend five years ago, when they were in their early 20s.
Coincidentally—or is it?—Ben Owens, a true-crime podcaster, is also in town, interviewing Lucy’s family and former friends about the murder of Savannah Harper, “just the sweetest girl you ever met,” who died from several violent blows to the head. Lucy was found hours later covered in blood, with no memory of what happened. She was—and is—a woman with secrets, which has not endeared her to the people of Plumpton; their narrative is that she was always violent, secretive, difficult. But Ben wants to tell Lucy’s story; attractive and relentless, he uncovers new evidence and coaxes new interviews, and people slowly begin to question whether Lucy is truly guilty. Lucy, meanwhile, lets down her guard, and as she and Ben draw closer together, she has to finally face the truth of her past and unmask the murderer of her complicated, gorgeous, protective friend. Most of the novel is told from Lucy’s point of view, which allows for a natural unspooling of the layers of her life and her story. She’s strong, she’s prickly, and we gradually begin to understand just how wronged she has been. The story is a striking commentary on the insular and harmful nature of small-town prejudice and how women who don’t fit a certain mold are often considered outliers, if not straight-up villains. Tintera is smart to capitalize on how the true-crime podcast boom informs and infuses the current fictional thriller scene; she’s also effective at writing action that transcends the podcast structure.
Smart, edgy, and entertaining as heck.Pub Date: March 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781250880314
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
SEEN & HEARD
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