A well-plotted mystery involving old coins and older grudges.
A crime reporter accidentally revitalizes a long-dormant criminal in LeValley’s fifth novel in a series.
It all starts with a coin—a silver quarter minted in 1961. Tony Harrington, a crime reporter for Orney, Iowa’s Town Crier, comes across it while embedded with a cop friend on a meth-lab stakeout. Tony realizes he’s seen a couple of these coins lately—more than he’d expect, since they’ve long been out of circulation. Tony smells a story, and his investigation leads him to a 60-year-old cold case involving a bank president killed during a robbery. The things that were stolen on that fateful day decades ago have been showing up all over town, and it’s not just quarters; for instance, Tony finds out a teenager bought a comic book for $1,700 in silver certificates. Tony and the cops go looking for the teen, Travis Finley, but as soon as he realizes the authorities are after him, he disappears. Not long afterward, a new murder occurs that appears to be connected to that bank job from long ago. Tony’s investigation turns out to be a much bigger deal than he bargained for, particularly when he finds himself on the business end of a gun—all because of a shiny quarter. The case at the center of this novel is a fun ride, beginning innocently and building slowly to an unexpected conclusion. LeValley’s prose has an earnestness to it that sometimes comes across as callow, as when he describes a movie-star friend of Tony’s: “She was talented, funny, and well-read, with college degrees in both theater and history. She also was blonde and beautiful, making her a favorite of movie directors and fans, as well as the paparazzi.” Tony isn’t the most electrifying crime solver, but this outing is right in his wheelhouse: slightly goofy, slightly bloody, and very Midwestern. It’s perhaps the strongest installment of LeValley’s series so far.
A well-plotted mystery involving old coins and older grudges.Pub Date: March 3, 2023
ISBN: 9781947305496
Page Count: 328
Publisher: BookPress Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.
A 16-year-old savant uses his Groundhog Day gift to solve his grandfather’s murder.
Nishizawa’s compulsively readable puzzle opens with the discovery of the victim, patriarch Reijiro Fuchigami, sprawled on a futon in the attic of his elegant mansion, where his family has gathered for a consequential announcement about his estate. The weapon seems to be a copper vase lying nearby. Given this setup, the novel might have proceeded as a traditional whodunit but for two delightful features. The first is the ebullient narration of Fuchigami’s youngest grandson, Hisataro, thrust into the role of an investigator with more dedication than finesse. The second is Nishizawa’s clever premise: The 16-year-old Hisataro has lived ever since birth with a condition that occasionally has him falling into a time loop that he calls "the Trap," replaying the same 24 hours of his life exactly nine times before moving on. And, of course, the murder takes place on the first day of one of these loops. Can he solve the murder before the cycle is played out? His initial strategies—never leaving his grandfather’s side, focusing on specific suspects, hiding in order to observe them all—fall frustratingly short. Hisataro’s comical anxiety rises with every failed attempt to identify the culprit. It’s only when he steps back and examines all the evidence that he discovers the solution. First published in 1995, this is the first of Nishizawa’s novels to be translated into English. As for Hisataro, he ultimately concludes that his condition is not a burden but a gift: “Time’s spiral never ends.”
A fresh and clever whodunit with an engaging twist.Pub Date: July 29, 2025
ISBN: 9781805335436
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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