Byron lets the good times roll, and then some.
Her first Mardi Gras after her return to New Orleans is filled with surprises for Los Angeles transplant Ricki James-Diaz.
Although her cousin Olivia Felice is this year’s queen of the legendary Krewe of Gaia, Ricki’s chosen to ride with the more contemporary Krewe of Chew, whose members include chefs, cooks, waitstaff, and others who contribute to the city’s fabulous food scene. If running Miss Vee’s Vintage Cookbook and Kitchenware Shop at the Bon Vee historic mansion didn’t qualify Ricki for Chew membership, her romance with “cooking world hottie” Virgil Morel certainly would. Unfortunately, on their way home from Olivia’s Krewe of Gaia ball, Ricki and Virgil stumble across the body of Chew co-captain Jax Fortier. The police zero in on Jax’s widow, Jessica, as their main suspect. Knowing Ricki’s record of success solving murders, Jessica reaches out to her new friend for help. In the process, Ricki is ensnared in a web of crimes with deep roots in the past. Though her path to the truth is a bit convoluted for fans of clean, well-clued puzzles, that’s largely beside the point, for the main pleasure of this entry in Byron’s New Orleans–based series is its vivid description of Mardi Gras season in the Big Easy. Her lavish detail about Fat Tuesday customs and lore, from king cakes to costume design to the wild variety of “throws” krewe members lavish on the public as their floats make their way down the street to the construction of the floats themselves, gives readers an insiders’ view of the Crescent City’s best known but perhaps least understood traditions.
Byron lets the good times roll, and then some.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9781448320011
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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