A welcome series kickoff from a seasoned veteran.
Is an ex-con ex-cop being framed for murder a second time?
Mark’s gritty crime yarn unfolds at first in splintered pieces, lurching slowly forward in time, beginning with the morning in 1995 when Cumbrian Police Constable Wulfric Hagman wakes up in a drunken stupor, calling for his wife, Trina. His subsequent discovery of Trina’s savaged corpse is followed in short order by his arrest for her murder. The transcript of a juicy radio broadcast from the following year fills in the details of the case and describes Wulf’s conviction and lengthy prison sentence. A rambling 2001 letter from Trina’s eldest daughter, young adult Salome Delaney, presents a more sympathetic view of Wulf, who strove to block Trina’s abusiveness and act as a responsible stepfather to Sal and her several siblings. Praise is also showered on Wulf’s solicitor, Dagmara Scrowther, who fought for him and became a surrogate mother to the abandoned Delaney brood. Much more recently, an unidentified man is tortured and killed, and the killer’s final words implicate Wulf, who’s now out of prison. Unfortunately for Wulf, this victim turns out to be Barry Ford, the man Trina left him for decades ago. The story ultimately settles on Sal, now a police officer, her equally scarred brother Jarod, and their efforts to exonerate their stepfather. The first installment in a new series from the prolific author of the DS Aector McAvoy novels is masterfully plotted, teasing armchair detectives with pieces of the full murder puzzle.
A welcome series kickoff from a seasoned veteran.Pub Date: June 4, 2024
ISBN: 9781448311996
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2024
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.
Lt. Eve Dallas’ 63rd futuristic case is less a whodunit than a manhunt for an unusually sympathetic killer.
Thirteen years ago, way back in 2048, scientific genius Steve Redman—father of the Banner-Wyst corporation’s Rainmaker Project—narrowly escaped death in a gas explosion that killed his pregnant wife and infant son and 200 other residents of their New York City apartment building the night before he planned to report his suspicions about the company to the FBI. Now the bill is coming due for Banner-Wyst. The first death to be discovered is that of Lawrence Chu, Redman’s colleague and trusted friend, whose tenure as director of bioengineering science ends when he’s beaten to death. For quite a while, Dallas and her partner, Det. Delia Peabody, know less about this mystery than their readers do. But when Ezra Dent, a consultant to Banner-Wyst who worked with Redman and Chu back in the day, is murdered in exactly the same ferocious way, Dallas and Peabody, with help from Roarke, Dallas’ tech-billionaire husband, promptly put the pieces together and determine who they’re looking for. The search for Redman, who went AWOL from his hospital bed without a trace six years ago, has its own challenges. So does Dallas’ attempt to get cooperation from partners Calvin Banner and Jacob Wyst, who are clearly in the crosshairs of a killer who seems a lot less monstrous than they are. If the breaks in the case are suspiciously convenient in arriving, readers can pride themselves on taking sides against a mega-corporation whose self-avowed ecological saintliness is undermined by its leaders’ underhanded dealing.
A satisfying thriller that will warm the hearts of fans who already take comfort in hating the forces of evil.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2026
ISBN: 9781250414564
Page Count: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.
It takes a quirky sleuth to solve a baffling closed-door murder.
The author himself or, more accurately, some version of him, walks the reader through a “gruesome murder” that occurred in a rural farming village. At the center of the crime is the wealthy Ichiyanagi family, including the widow Itoko and her five children. The “heinous crime” occurs in the evening after the festive wedding of eldest son Kenzo to schoolteacher Katsuko. Yokomizo, part narrator and part raconteur, liberally shares digressions such as the fact that his favorite British author is A.A. Milne, who wrote The Red House Mystery as well as the books about Winnie-the-Pooh. Written in 1946 but set in 1937 before the devastation of World War II, this is the first novel featuring Kosuke Kindaichi, the legendary detective who appeared in more than 70 stories by Yokomizo. If Yokomizo is the Japanese Agatha Christie, Kindaichi may seem the Japanese Hercule Poirot—although actually, given his unkempt hair and apparently distracted manner, he’s more a cross between Poirot and Columbo. Shrewdly, his entrance is delayed until midway through the novel, after the police have stalled and both the family and the reader are anxious for a solution. The narrator’s garrulous charm, in a mystery long on logistics and forensic clues but short on detailed character portraits or extended interactions, is a key to the novel’s success, leavening the more intricate pieces of the puzzle. Armchair detectives will welcome the helpful character list that precedes the story.
The delightful debut of a classic, prolific detective.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781805336549
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 20, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2026
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