A solid historical mystery that will change its hero’s mind about life and death.
In 1878, a famous detective is encouraged to leave England for the good of the government.
After former MP Charles Lenox uncovers corruption at Scotland Yard, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli asks him to leave the country so he'll be able to give written testimony rather than testify in open court, which would surely embarrass some important people, throwing in a knighthood to sweeten the deal. Lenox’s well-connected wife, Lady Jane, has recently given birth to their second child, and, unimpressed by honors, he’s loath to leave home. But acting on his wife’s advice, he sets off for New York, where he meets snobbish members of established families and nouveaux riches, all ruled over by Caroline Astor. Theodore Blaine, the scion of an immensely wealthy family with a desire to emulate Lenox as a detective, accompanies him on a trip to Boston that’s cut short by a request from William Stuyvesant Schermerhorn, who invites Lenox to Newport to solve a murder. At length he’s persuaded to take up the case of Lily Allingham, the season’s reigning beauty, who’s been found dead on the beach below the magnificent so-called cottages of the wealthy. The suspects are all of the highest pedigree. Lily was at the point of deciding between two well-heeled suitors, Schermerhorn’s son and one of the Vanderbilts. Lady Jane’s contacts allow him entree into the highest echelons of Newport society, including an invitation to Caroline Astor’s exclusive ball, where money and power may shield a murderer from justice.
A solid historical mystery that will change its hero’s mind about life and death.Pub Date: Feb. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-2507-6713-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2020
Not the best of Connelly’s procedurals, but nobody else does them better than his second-best.
A snap of the yo-yo string yanks Harry Bosch out of retirement yet again.
Los Angeles Councilman Jake Pearlman has resurrected the LAPD’s Open-Unsolved Unit in order to reopen the case of his kid sister, Sarah, whose 1994 murder was instantly eclipsed in the press by the O.J. Simpson case when it broke a day later. Since not even a councilor can reconstitute a police unit for a single favored case, Det. Renée Ballard and her mostly volunteer (read: unpaid) crew are expected to reopen some other cold cases as well, giving Bosch a fresh opportunity to gather evidence against Finbar McShane, the crooked manager he’s convinced executed industrial contractor Stephen Gallagher, his wife, and their two children in 2013 and buried them in a single desert grave. The case has haunted Bosch more than any other he failed to close, and he’s fine to work the Pearlman homicide if it’ll give him another crack at McShane. As it turns out, the Pearlman case is considerably more interesting—partly because the break that leads the unit to a surprising new suspect turns out to be both fraught and misleading, partly because identifying the killer is only the beginning of Bosch’s problems. The windup of the Gallagher murders, a testament to sweating every detail and following every lead wherever it goes, is more heartfelt but less wily and dramatic. Fans of the aging detective who fear that he might be mellowing will be happy to hear that “putting him on a team did not make him a team player.”
Not the best of Connelly’s procedurals, but nobody else does them better than his second-best.Pub Date: Nov. 8, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-48565-4
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2022
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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