Fast-paced and quirky fare for literary sleuths and those who love them.
Murder seriously complicates a librarian’s life.
Things have been going rather well for the First Edition Society library. With Hayley Burke in charge, the small private collection, once the sole province of its late owner, Lady Georgiana Fowling, has become a regular part of Bath’s literary life. Buoyed by the success of her monthly meet-the-author evenings, Hayley manages to persuade Glynis Woolgar, the society’s stubborn, conservative secretary, to open Middlebank House, the society’s home, to the general public from 1:00 to 5:00 every Wednesday afternoon. Their first Wednesday brings a guest whose interest is both more abstract and more urgent than that expressed by other visitors’ most frequent query: “Is there a tea room?” John Aubrey has come to bask in the atmosphere of the society and its home. After all, as the unacknowledged grandchild of Lady Georgiana, abandoned in Brittany during his grandmama’s sojourn in France, John feels it’s his birthright to connect with his British family. That family, embodied in Charles Henry Dill, whose claim to fame has always been that he’s the last surviving relative of Lady Fowling, feels otherwise, greeting Aubrey’s news with a sock in the kisser. Refereeing between pro-Aubrey and anti-Aubrey factions at Middlebank House is only part of Hayley’s latest challenge. When a murder on the streets of Bath is traced irrefutably to Aubrey’s connection to the society, she feels that she must take an active role in helping the police solve the crime or risk losing the goodwill she’s built up in the community.
Fast-paced and quirky fare for literary sleuths and those who love them.Pub Date: Jan. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-984804-16-7
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2021
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.
The dramatic conclusion to the trilogy about two New England crime families begun in City on Fire (2022) and City of Dreams (2023).
Near the end of his journey, multimillionaire Danny Ryan watches a casino implode in a mushroom cloud of dust and muses about his life’s implosions: “The cancer that killed his wife, the depression that destroyed his love, the moral rot that took his soul.” Danny is from Providence, Rhode Island, and desperately tried to leave his criminal life behind him. But using a ton of ill-gotten gains, he invests heavily in Las Vegas properties. Congress is conducting an investigation into gambling that could destroy his casino business and even land him in jail. An FBI agent plans to take Danny down for major sins he’d like to repent for. Meanwhile, can he make peace with his enemies? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Even if the parties involved want to put the past behind them, the trouble is that they don’t trust each other. Is Vern Winegard setting Dan up? Is Dan setting Vern up? “Trust? Trust is children waiting for Santa Claus.” So what could have been a “Kumbaya,” nobody-wants-to-read-this story turns into a grisly bloodletting filled with language that would set Sister Mary Margaret’s wimple on fire—figuratively speaking, as she’s not in the book. But the Catholic reference is appropriate: Two of the many colorful characters of ill repute are known as the Altar Boys, serving “Last Communion” to their victims. On the law-abiding side and out of the line of fire is an ex-nun-turned-prosecutor nicknamed Attila the Nun, who’s determined to bring justice for a gory matricide. (Rhode Island really had such a person, by the way.) Finally, the prose is just fun: A friend warns Dan about Allie Licata: “In a world of sick fucks, even the sick fucks think Licata’s a sick fuck.” A couple of things to note: This not only ends the trilogy, but it also closes out the author’s career, as he has said he’ll write no more novels.
If you love good crime writing but aren’t familiar with Winslow’s work, read this trilogy in order.Pub Date: April 2, 2024
ISBN: 9780063079472
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024
PROFILES
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.
A bear is hunting prey in Wyoming’s Bighorns. And not just any bear.
It’s bad enough that Clay Hutmacher, who manages the Double Diamond Ranch, has lost his son, Clay Jr., to a vicious attack by a grizzly bear. What’s much worse is that Clay Jr.—who’d been about to pop the question to game warden Joe Pickett’s daughter, Sheridan—is only the first of the victims over an exceptionally broad geographical area. Marshal Marvin Bertignolli is clawed and bitten to death over in Hanna. Sgt. Ryan Winner is found bleeding out north of Rawlins. Former Twelve Sleep County prosecutor Dulcie Schalk, one of two survivors of an ambush, doesn’t survive her final encounter. The four experts chosen to kill the grizzly rope Joe into their expedition, but since their quarry keeps turning up far from the last sighting, the most meaningful confrontation the Predator Attack Team has is with a pair of Mama Bears, animal rights activists who demand due process for Tisiphone, as they’ve dubbed the presumed killer. Box, who’s far too canny to leave Tisiphone alone on center stage, follows Joe’s old antagonist Dallas Cates as the ex–rodeo star is released from prison and embarks on his revenge tour, which takes him to Lee Ogburn-Russell, an inventor whose life Dallas saved, and Axel Soledad, a correspondent who shares so many enemies with Dallas that he suggests they go after them together. Franchise fans will appreciate new details about Joe’s complicated family, the obligatory high-country landscapes, and yet another corrupt law enforcer.
A tale that’s hard to believe but easy to swallow in a single gulp.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2024
ISBN: 9780593331347
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2024
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