by Fay Sampson ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2019
The second (The Wounded Thorn, 2015) in a new series could benefit from some pruning but offers plenty of suspects and does...
A master class in crime writing unintentionally offers a real murder to solve.
Gavin Standforth is using his reputation, based on one highly successful mystery novel, The Long Crippler, to run a weekendlong class at historic Morland Abbey in Devon, England, now a posh hotel. Hilary Masters, a retired teacher with a love for history, and her recently widowed friend, Veronica Taylor, have signed up. As an added attraction, there is an opening session with 92-year-old Dinah Halsgrove, the reigning queen of crime writing. A mixed bag of attendees enjoys Halsgrove’s lecture and the next day’s boat trip on the River Dart, which Halsgrove does not attend for the very good reason that she has been found collapsed. That night, Hilary is disturbed by someone attempting to enter her room; it turns out to be Gavin’s helper, Melissa, who he claims was sleepwalking. Gavin has divided the wannabe authors into three groups—the Toads, the Snakes, and the Slowworms—and he offers a prize to the person who can explain the derivation. He challenges the group to start off their stories with a strong sense of place, and, to that end, they scatter, looking for inspiration. Hilary visits nearby Totnes and follows the mysterious Leechwell Street to three basins served by three springs that a passer-by tells her have healing powers and are called the Toad, the Snake, and the Long Crippler—which is another name for a slowworm. Some students think Halsgrove’s illness is part of a stunt to make the class more interesting, but that idea is quashed when the police arrive asking questions. Hilary and Veronica walk to Totnes to see the well only to find Melissa, who it turns out is Gavin’s wife, lying in the Long Crippler. Hilary’s CPR attempts fail, and this time the police have no doubts it was murder but are not interested in Hilary and Veronica’s theories. Hilary is quite determined to solve the case, but how can she know what might motivate anyone in the disparate group of mystery mavens to kill?
The second (The Wounded Thorn, 2015) in a new series could benefit from some pruning but offers plenty of suspects and does not make it easy to winkle out the killer.Pub Date: June 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8930-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2019
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by Kathy Reichs ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2020
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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by C.J. Box ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 28, 2015
A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be...
Box takes another break from his highly successful Joe Pickett series (Stone Cold, 2014, etc.) for a stand-alone about a police detective, a developmentally delayed boy, and a package everyone in North Dakota wants to grab.
Cassandra Dewell can’t leave Montana’s Lewis and Clark County fast enough for her new job as chief investigator for Jon Kirkbride, sheriff of Bakken County. She leaves behind no memories worth keeping: her husband is dead, her boss has made no bones about disliking her, and she’s looking forward to new responsibilities and the higher salary underwritten by North Dakota’s sudden oil boom. But Bakken County has its own issues. For one thing, it’s cold—a whole lot colder than the coldest weather Cassie’s ever imagined. For another, the job she turns out to have been hired for—leading an investigation her new boss doesn’t feel he can entrust to his own force—makes her queasy. The biggest problem, though, is one she doesn’t know about until it slaps her in the face. A fatal car accident that was anything but accidental has jarred loose a stash of methamphetamines and cash that’s become the center of a battle between the Sons of Freedom, Bakken County’s traditional drug sellers, and MS-13, the Salvadorian upstarts who are muscling in on their territory. It’s a setup that leaves scant room for law enforcement officers or for Kyle Westergaard, the 12-year-old paperboy damaged since birth by fetal alcohol syndrome, who’s walked away from the wreck with a prize all too many people would kill for.
A suspenseful, professional-grade north country procedural whose heroine, a deft mix of compassion and attitude, would be welcome to return and tie up the gaping loose end Box leaves. The unrelenting cold makes this the perfect beach read.Pub Date: July 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-58321-7
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: April 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
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