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PING-PONG HEART

Limón’s 11th Americans-in-Korea procedural has grit, pace, and an authentic feel.

A pair of veteran two-fisted Army investigators probe the murder of an American officer who had recently tangled in and out of the sheets with a South Korean bar girl.

Itaewon, South Korea, 1974. Maj. Frederick Schultz storms into the 8th Army Provost Marshal’s Office, claiming that a bar girl named Miss Jo robbed him. CID sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom (The Ville Rat, 2015, etc.) catch the case, which George snappily recounts. From the way Schultz has upset CID secretary Miss Kim, George suspects that he may share some culpability. His view gains traction when somebody roughs up Miss Jo and Schultz chooses to withdraw his complaint. Everything changes when Schultz is found dead two days later at the Dragon King Nightclub. Multiple stab wounds, perhaps from more than one knife, are the cause. When George and Ernie begin asking questions at the clubs, reprisals are quick and violent. Rather than getting them thrown off the case, this incident leads “Mr. Kill,” the chief homicide detective of the Korean National Police, with which the CID works, to prioritize the investigation. Miss Jo, meanwhile, takes a powder, and Mr. Kill’s minions give chase, leaving Ernie and George to dig deeper into Schultz’s activities. Their discovery that he was working on a special classified project widens the pool of suspects considerably but complicates the case. Mr. Kill, meanwhile, is determined to catch and frame Miss Jo for the sake of international relations. Can Ernie and George find the perp in time?

Limón’s 11th Americans-in-Korea procedural has grit, pace, and an authentic feel.

Pub Date: March 18, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-61695-713-1

Page Count: 368

Publisher: Soho Crime

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

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MURDER MAKES SCENTS

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

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MURDER ON PLEASANT AVENUE

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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