Stacey seems ready to merge his dog and horse franchises in a pleasing puzzler. Will Shinju and Yasu join in, as rivals to...
An ex-cop finds himself in the soup when he helps an old friend protect his fiancee.
In the years since Daniel Whelan (No Holds Barred, 2012, etc.) left the Bristol police, he’s remained friends with Jo-Ji Matsuki, who took over Dan’s post as dog-wrangler. So when Jo-Ji asks him to help him play bodyguard to his partner, Tamiko, who’s being followed by a mysterious guy in a hoodie, Dan once again asks his boss, Fred Bowden, for leave from his job as a lorry driver. Fred assents grudgingly, and Dan heads off with Taz, his German shepherd, for Maiden Ashton, the village where Jo-Ji and Tamiko live. Their small house is busy and crowded, since massage therapist Tamiko and beautician Karen both see clients there. Siamese cats Shinju and Yasu resent Taz’s intrusion into their territory. And while they live outdoors, Babs and Rolo, Tamiko’s horses, add to the general commotion because they need their stalls mucked out and their coats brushed. Things get even more hectic when Tamiko’s sister, Hana, on the run from her abusive boyfriend, Samir Jafari, shows up with her 4-year-old son, Jahan. Tamiko distracts them by taking them to a horse show, where they meet other breeders like Boo Travers. But their idyll is cut short when Hana is killed in a hit-and-run accident while driving Tamiko’s car. Tamiko is so preoccupied with grief over her sister and concern for Jahan that Dan and Jo-Ji are left to wonder whether Tami was the real target all along.
Stacey seems ready to merge his dog and horse franchises in a pleasing puzzler. Will Shinju and Yasu join in, as rivals to Midnight Louie and Joe Grey?Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-7278-8400-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2014
Utter non-scents.
Die-hard Yankee candle maker Stella Wright (Murder’s No Votive Confidence, 2018) gets caught up in a trans-Atlantic murder plot.
Stella thoroughly enjoys her trip to Paris even though her mother, perfume expert Millie Wright, who’s scheduled to speak on a panel entitled “The Art of Scent Extractions” at the World Perfumery Conference, gets preempted by a murder. Sadly, once they’re back home in Nantucket, things get even weirder. Stella receives an anonymous note threatening her mom if Stella doesn’t turn over a secret formula hidden in Millie’s bag. Her mom can’t help because she’s in the hospital courtesy of an overenthusiastic attempt by Stella’s cat, Tinker, to befriend her. While trespassing on a suspicious sailboat, Stella meets U.S. Agent Sarah Hill, who warns her that well-known anarchist Rex Laruam plans to disrupt the upcoming Peace Jubilee using a stolen formula he secreted in Millie’s bag after he stabbed the agent guarding it back in Paris. Ignoring the advice of her friend Andy Southerland, a Nantucket cop, to leave detection to the professionals, Stella tries to unmask the elusive Laruam. As she spies on a bevy of unlikely suspects, the plot spirals further and further out of control: There’s a Canadian couple staying at an Airbnb run by Stella’s cousin Chris who whisper sweet but suspicious nothings in the dark, a shovel-wielding schoolmarm, a gang of old geezers who have a collective crush on Millie, a surprise 30th-birthday party planned by Stella’s beau, Peter Bailey, and an even more surprising impromptu airplane ride.
Utter non-scents.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2141-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A middling mystery with telling historical details and the usual pleasures provided by the regulars’ interpersonal dynamics.
A plucky group of early-20th-century detectives (Murder on Trinity Place, 2019, etc.) takes on the Black Hand.
The leads include Frank Malloy and Gino Donatelli, former police officers who started a detective agency after an unexpected legacy made Malloy a wealthy man; Malloy’s wife, Sarah, the daughter of a wealthy society family who runs a maternity clinic for the poor; and their nanny, Maeve, a budding sleuth who works in Malloy’s office. All of them leap to attention when Gino’s sister-in-law Teodora reports that Jane Harding, a worker at the settlement house where Teo volunteers, has been kidnapped by the Black Hand, who are notorious for abducting the wives and children of anyone who can afford to pay ransom. The New York Police Department is corrupt, and the local Italian immigrants never report crimes. Mr. McWilliam, who runs the settlement house, had asked Jane to marry him, but she’d asked him to allow her to experience more of the single life before deciding. Seeking clues, Sarah visits Mrs. Cassidi, an earlier kidnapping victim who’s refused to talk to anyone, in hopes that her nursing experience and sympathetic manner will get results. Mrs. Cassidi admits to being raped but knows little about where she was held captive, a quiet place in a house where she could hear children. Soon after Nunzio Esposito, a leader of the Black Hand, tells Malloy that no one’s been taken from the settlement house, Jane suddenly reappears but refuses to discuss where she’s been. Lisa Prince, Jane’s well-to-do cousin, reluctantly agrees to take her in even though Jane’s jealous of her wealth and can be unpleasant to deal with. When Esposito’s found murdered in a flat he rented for his mistress, Gino, who’s just arrived on the scene, is arrested. Now the clever sleuths must solve both the murder and the abductions to clear Gino’s name.
A middling mystery with telling historical details and the usual pleasures provided by the regulars’ interpersonal dynamics.Pub Date: April 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0574-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
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