A bonanza for fans of psychological suspense but a dud for devotees of detection.
This year’s look at what Penzler calls the “extremes of human behavior caused by despair, hate, greed, fear, envy, insanity, or love—sometimes in combination.”
Although their behavior may be extreme, most of the stories’ characters are pretty ordinary folk. A museum worker forms an attachment to a prisoner in Rebecca McKanna’s “Interpreting American Gothic.” Teachers behave badly in Joyce Carol Oates’ “The Archivist” and Robert Hinderliter’s “Coach O.” A real estate agent has evil intentions in Mark Mayer’s “The Clown.” A dog walker learns the consequences of punching above his weight in Suzanne Proulx’s “If You Say So.” One runaway bride flees to Ireland in Anne Therese Macdonald’s “That Donnelly Crowd,” and a second is shaken by finding an abducted child in Amanda Rea’s “Faint of Heart.” Family conflict remains popular. A father and daughter learn the consequences of spending custodial visits pretending to be home buyers in Reed Johnson’s “Open House.” A divorced mother struggles to control her teenage daughter in Jennifer McMahon’s “Hannah-Beast.” A family of Europeans has a bad habit of drowning in Sharon Hunt’s “The Keeper of All Sins.” A black-sheep uncle attempts to console his grieving nephew in Brian Panowich’s “A Box of Hope.” And a widow tries to save her family from an invading army in Ron Rash’s “Neighbors.” No cops (one ex-cop haunts the subway in Arthur Klepchukov’s “A Damn Fine Town”), one robber (the hero of Robb T. White’s “Inside Man”). Leaning more on Freud than Conan Doyle, Lethem’s 20 selections highlight the angst of the everyday.
A bonanza for fans of psychological suspense but a dud for devotees of detection.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-63609-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.
In Archie Goodwin's 15th adventure since the death of his creator, Rex Stout, his gossipy Aunt Edna Wainwright lures him from 34th Street to his carefully unnamed hometown in Ohio to investigate the death of a well-hated bank president.
Tom Blankenship, the local police chief, thinks there’s no case since Logan Mulgrew shot himself. But Archie’s mother, Marjorie Goodwin, and Aunt Edna know lots of people with reason to have killed him. Mulgrew drove rival banker Charles Purcell out of business, forcing Purcell to get work as an auto mechanic, and foreclosed on dairy farmer Harold Mapes’ spread. Lester Newman is convinced that Mulgrew murdered his ailing wife, Lester’s sister, so that he could romance her nurse, Carrie Yeager. And Donna Newman, Lester’s granddaughter, might have had an eye on her great-uncle’s substantial estate. Nor is Archie limited to mulling over his relatives’ gossip, for Trumpet reporter Verna Kay Padgett, whose apartment window was shot out the night her column raised questions about the alleged suicide, is perfectly willing to publish a floridly actionable summary of the leading suspects that delights her editor, shocks Archie, and infuriates everyone else. The one person missing is Archie’s boss, Nero Wolfe (Death of an Art Collector, 2019, etc.), and fans will breathe a sigh of relief when he appears at Marjorie’s door, debriefs Archie, notices a telltale clue, prepares dinner for everyone, sleeps on his discovery, and arranges a meeting of all parties in Marjorie’s living room in which he names the killer.
The parts with Nero Wolfe, the only character Goldsborough brings to life, are almost worth waiting for.Pub Date: May 19, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5040-5988-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.
An Arizona accountant with a penchant for solving murders lands a fishy case.
Sophie "Phee" Kimball might lead a dull life if it weren’t for her mother, Harriet Plunkett, and Harriet’s neurotic Chiweenie, Streetman. As it is, Harriet lives near her daughter in Sun City West and has a wide circle of zany friends who’ve helped Phee solve several mysteries (Molded 4 Murder, 2019, etc.) while she’s been working for Williams Investigations along with her boyfriend, Marshall, a former police officer. While Phee’s visiting Harriet one day, Streetman dashes over to the neighbors’ barbecue grill and unearths a dead body under a tarp. As usual, the overwhelmed local police ask Williams Investigations to help—er, consult. Harriet’s main concern is getting costumes made for the reluctant Streetman, whom she’s entered in a series of contests starting with Halloween and progressing through Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hannukah, and St. Patrick’s Day. One of her friends is an accomplished seamstress who goes all out making gorgeous costumes that will beat an obnoxious lady who looks down on mutts. The dead man is identified as Cameron Tully, a seafood distributor, who was poisoned by the locally ubiquitous sago pine. At the first dog contest, Elaine Meschow has to be rushed to the hospital after she gets a dose of the same thing. The owner of a gourmet dog food company, Elaine is lucky enough to recover. After Streetman takes second place, Harriet’s team redoubles its efforts for the next contest while Phee and Marshall, who are moving into a new place together, continue to hunt for clues. A restaurant holdup and a scheme to use empty houses for hookups for high school kids add to the confusion.
You can’t help but chuckle over all the disasters, but in the end the heroine catches her prey.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2455-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 24, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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