Although Durgin’s debut mystery is slow-paced and not all that mysterious, the characters, especially Sully, have a certain...
A breathing-impaired veterinarian and his keen-nosed beagle combine their complementary skills to catch a killer.
Dale Kinsall has moved from Ohio to the Flagstaff area to help his severe asthma problem, exacerbated by a fire at his clinic. While the clinic is being refurbished, Dale is forced to work part time to avoid the dust. But he gets caught up in a possible murder case when strange notes start to appear at the clinic, challenging him to solve a puzzle. Dale’s girlfriend Laura is housing her cousin, whose son is fighting for his life after developing the deadly Hanta virus. Although the virus is endemic to the Southwest, it hasn’t appeared recently, and they have no idea how he got it. The investigator who shows the most promise is Sully Beagle, whom Dale is training as a show dog. Sully’s newly revealed talents as a mouser cause considerable excitement, since mice carry Hanta. When Laura starts feeling ill, Sully sniffs out a mouse nest in her air conditioner. After rushing her to the hospital, Dale sets out to track down the culprit who’s apparently using Hanta as a murder weapon.
Although Durgin’s debut mystery is slow-paced and not all that mysterious, the characters, especially Sully, have a certain charm that will appeal to canine fanciers.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59414-675-6
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Five Star/Gale Cengage
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2008
Koryta has never been better than with this knuckle-biting thriller.
Slowly emerging from the coma she's been in since a black cargo van rammed the car she was using to transport a visiting professor, killing him, Maine college senior Tara Beckley is targeted by a ruthless young hit man.
After the driver of the van admits his guilt, police rule the collision a simple wreck. But it doesn't take long for insurance investigator Abby Kaplan, a former racer and stunt driver who knows how cars behave at high speeds, to determine that this was no accident. She responds emotionally to Tara and her family; Abby's boyfriend in Los Angeles was left in a coma after a reckless joy ride she took him on ended badly. The bad news for the bad guys, who are desperate to get their hands on a device that was in the professor's possession, is that Tara is now conscious and alert and able to communicate by moving her eyes. Dax Blackwell, the boyish, creepily calm gunman (whose father, Jack, an Australian assassin, died in Koryta's Those Who Wish Me Dead), must not only get past Abby to get to Tara, he also has to contend with Tara's fiercely protective sister, Shannon. It's a measure of how good this book is that the chilling, masterfully sustained suspense is only one of its standout achievements. Koryta never brushes off anyone's death; he makes you feel for the victims. The relationship between Tara and her sibling is beautifully nuanced, full of revealing details going back to their childhood. And Koryta’s (How It Happened, 2018, etc.) fans will surely appreciate the suggestion of a sequel.
Koryta has never been better than with this knuckle-biting thriller.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-316-29400-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
All three tales offer a dash of detection, but their strong suit is hometown charm.
Veteran Maine crime writers Meier, Hollis, and Ross (Yule Log Murder, 2018, etc.) team up once more for a trio of holiday-themed treats.
Haunted houses, a holiday staple, are an especially good fit for the authors’ folksy Down East setting. When the decrepit house at 66 School St. in Meier’s “Haunted House Murder” is purchased by a young couple, the good citizens of Tinker’s Cove have high hopes for its renovation—at least until the spooky lights and eerie noises emanating from the tower of the home make the local residents fear for the safety of their new neighbors. In “Death by Haunted House,” Hollis ups the ante. Not only does the couple that buys the creaky old place next door to Hayley and Danny Powell look and act peculiar, but Wendi Jo Willis, the real estate agent who sold them the house, disappears shortly after closing the sale. And in "Hallowed Out," Ross casts her net wide, offering a whole bundle of haunted houses for the price of one. To draw off-season tourists to Busman’s Harbor, Harley Prendergast, owner of the Lobsterman’s Wharf Motel, starts up a haunted house trolley tour. Some of his ghosts are questionable at best. But in the venue offering the best-documented of the local legends—the shooting of bootlegger Ned Calhoun—Prendergast’s guests get to witness a real-life shooting that leaves Spencer Jones, the actor who portrays Calhoun, undeniably dead.
All three tales offer a dash of detection, but their strong suit is hometown charm.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1996-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
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