Littlejohn revisits beloved characters without the bittersweet voice and depth of her series debut, but she indicates clear...
The murder of a famous author seeking refuge in a small town may be connected to bullying at the local high school.
On her first day back from maternity leave, Cedar Valley police officer Gemma Monroe and her partner, Finn, are sent to investigate reports of a prowler at Valley Academy, the local high school. There’s been talk that one of the students has imitated Banksy by getting a tad too artistic on school property. In spite of near-whiteout conditions, the two officers arrive at the school to find a man in the woods, evidently murdered, with a foreboding message stuffed in his mouth. Finn identifies the victim as famous writer Delaware Fuente, someone neither Gemma nor Finn knew was present in their small town. On investigating further, it appears Delaware arrived incognito months before to stay with his lifelong friend Lila Conway, a loner cat lady—though in this case the cat is a bird named Kojak. Lila housed Delaware while he acted as a writing mentor at Valley Academy, and the school is Gemma and Finn’s first stop in their investigation. Although no one claims to have guessed Delaware’s identity, students describe some unusual goings-on to the officers. Apparently someone using the moniker “Grimm” has been manipulating students to act out against one another. Is this simply a case of interstudent bullying gone too far, or is it somehow connected to Delaware’s visit? Group dynamics are already on Gemma’s mind because her former colleague Sam Birdshead, who was wounded in their most recent case (Inherit the Bones, 2016), has decided that he no longer fits in with the police department and intends to leave for employ with unsavory mobster types who may have their own connection to Delaware’s death.
Littlejohn revisits beloved characters without the bittersweet voice and depth of her series debut, but she indicates clear potential for further development in Cedar Valley.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-08941-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2017
An overly anodyne attempt at Southern gothic.
A series of unfortunate errors consigns a Baltimore nurse to a loveless marriage in the South.
It’s 1943, and Tess, from Baltimore’s Little Italy, is eagerly anticipating her upcoming nuptials. Her frustration grows, though, when her physician fiance, Vincent, accepts an extended out-of-town assignment to treat polio patients. On an impromptu excursion to Washington, D.C., Tess has too many martinis, resulting in a one-night stand with a chance acquaintance, a furniture manufacturer from North Carolina named Henry. Back in Baltimore, Tess’ extreme Catholic guilt over her indiscretion is compounded by the discovery that she’s pregnant. Eschewing a back-street abortion, she seeks out Henry in hopes of arranging child support—but to her shock, he proposes marriage instead. Once married to Henry and ensconced in his family mansion in Hickory, North Carolina, Tess gets a frosty reception from Henry’s mother, Miss Ruth, and his sister, Lucy, not to mention the other ladies of Hickory, especially Violet, who thought she was Henry’s fiancee. Tess’ isolation worsens after Lucy dies in a freak car accident, and Tess, the driver, is blamed. Her only friends are the African-American servants of the household and an African-American medium who helps her make peace with a growing number of unquiet spirits, including her mother, who expired of shock over Tess’ predicament, and Lucy, not to mention the baby, who did not make it to full term. The marriage is passionless but benign. Although Henry tries to be domineering, he always relents, letting Tess take the nurses' licensing exam and, later, go to work in Hickory’s historic polio hospital. Strangely, despite the pregnancy’s end, he refuses to divorce Tess. There are hints throughout that Henry has secrets; Lucy herself intimates as much shortly before her death. Once the polio hospital story takes over, the accident is largely forgotten, leading readers to suspect that Lucy’s death was a convenient way of postponing crucial revelations about Henry. Things develop predictably until, suddenly and belatedly, the plot heats up in an unpredictable but also unconvincing way.
An overly anodyne attempt at Southern gothic.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-250-08727-0
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Middling for this fine series, which automatically makes it one of the season’s highlights.
Fired from his job as Game and Fish Warden after wrapping up his colorful sixth case (In Plain Sight, 2006), Joe Pickett returns to nab the perpetrator of the perfect crime.
According to his own confession, small-time lawyer Clay McCann, feeling bullied and insulted by four campers he encountered in Yellowstone Park, shot them dead. A ingenious technicality he’s discovered, however, prevents him from being tried and convicted. Wyoming Governor Spencer Rulon, a former prosecutor, can only slap McCann’s wrist, but he’s determined to figure out what Rick Hoening, one of the victims, meant by an email that hinted at secrets that could have a major impact on the state’s financial health. So he asks Joe, now working as foreman at his father-in-law’s ranch, to poke around the park while maintaining full deniability for the Governor. The situation stinks, but Joe’s so eager to get away from his wife’s poisonous mother and go back to his old job that he agrees, and in short order there’s a spate of new killings to deal with—some committed by McCann, some not. As usual, there’s little mystery about which of the sketchy suspects is behind the skullduggery. But, as usual, the central situation is so strong, the continuing characters so appealing and the spectacular landscape so lovingly evoked that it doesn’t matter.
Middling for this fine series, which automatically makes it one of the season’s highlights.Pub Date: May 10, 2007
ISBN: 0-399-15427-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2007
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