Despite the Neapolitan setting, the crew of mismatched cops may remind you of similar teams in Sweden, New York, or...
Sent off to help rebuild a shattered police precinct, Lt. Giuseppe Lojacono finds a surprising degree of cohesion with the other misfits who share the station.
Even in Naples, some crimes are too bold to wink at, and when four police officers in the Pizzofalcone precinct report only half a rich drug haul and set up shop to sell the rest of it themselves, they’re booted off the force and replaced with four cops whose bosses particularly want to get rid of them. The lucky candidates are Officer Alessandra Di Nardo, a lesbian who likes guns so much she accidentally fired at a colleague at work; Cpl. Marco Aragona, a nepotistic hire who drives like a maniac when he’s not relaxing in a tanning bed; Warrant Officer Francesco Romano, who’s equally ready to get violent with suspects and his wife; and Lojacono himself, who’s been persona non grata ever since his striking debut (The Crocodile, 2013). Not even genial Commissario Luigi Palma expects the quartet to make beautiful music together, but their peccadilloes miraculously complement rather than reinforce each other. And a good thing too, because their first case is no joke: the murder of wealthy, much-loved Cecilia De Santis, bashed to death by one of the dozens of souvenir glass globes she collected. Her philandering husband, notary Arturo Festa, is the obvious suspect, but he was disporting himself in Sorrento with his current inamorata, sexy accountant Iolanda Russo. When the victim’s missing silver, which provides an alternative motive, is discovered in a nearby dumpster, Lojacono and his new mates know they’re in for the long haul. The wide-ranging investigation will bring them up against an apparent case of sexual slavery and a rash of suicides, but de Giovanni (The Bottom of Your Heart, 2015, etc.) provides satisfyingly logical answers to every riddle.
Despite the Neapolitan setting, the crew of mismatched cops may remind you of similar teams in Sweden, New York, or Hollywood. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-60945-314-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: Feb. 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2016
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This superb series (The Dark Angel, 2018, etc.) never disappoints. Its patented combination of mysterious circumstances,...
An anonymous letter brings DCI Harry Nelson memories of past sorrows and present dangers.
The letter mentions a stone circle that harks back to the 20-year-old case of a missing child. Ten years later, another missing child introduced Harry to archaeologist Ruth Galloway when he asked her to examine some bones. That case began a working relationship that turned out to be equally productive in personal terms: A short-lived affair between the two produced a child, Kate, though Harry is married and has two grown daughters. His wife, Michelle, who accepts Kate in their lives, is about to give birth to a baby who may or may not be Harry’s. A new archaeological team working near the site of the original henge finds a stone coffin containing bones. The head of the dig is Leif Anderssen, whose father, Erik, was Ruth’s mentor all those years ago. As Harry continues to receive cryptic messages, the bones of what Ruth thinks is a young girl are found near the new dig, opening up yet another old case. The police think the body is that of Margaret Lacey, who vanished from a street party in 1981. The focus at the time was on her parents; her older siblings, Annie and Luke; and John Mostyn, a neighbor and odd duck who collected stones. But nothing was ever proven, and Margaret’s body was never found. The birth of George, Michelle’s son, puts more pressure on Harry, who loves his wife and Ruth in different ways, to stay in his marriage. Nelson’s team and some friends of Ruth’s use their own areas of expertise to search for clues from the past, but when the child of Annie’s daughter, Star, is kidnapped, the present-day crisis takes center stage.
This superb series (The Dark Angel, 2018, etc.) never disappoints. Its patented combination of mysterious circumstances, police procedure, and agonizing relationship problems will keep you reading, and feeling, all night.Pub Date: May 7, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-328-97464-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.
Notch another corpse for Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree (Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, 2019, etc.).
After slowly working its way out of the red, Jake’s sweet shop is now one of the linchpins of the revitalized business district of Eastport, Maine. But she and her partner, Ellie White, are less than thrilled when Henry Hadlyme, star of the food tourism show Eat This! offers to include The Chocolate Moose on his podcast Eating on the Edge! which highlights off-the-beaten-track purveyors of New England fare. Hadlyme seems a little slimy to Jake and Ellie, and his interest in their treats seems less than sincere. But when he calls Jake “missy,” that’s it; the two chocolateers boot him out of their shop. He comes back with a vengeance—or at least, his corpse does. It turns up in the basement of the Moose with a stuffed parrot pinned to its shoulder and a cutlass jabbed through its chest in a gruesome nod to the ongoing Eastport Pirate Festival. Jake would love to present police chief Bob Arnold with a convenient alternative to charging her with Hadlyme’s murder. And there’s no dearth of suspects: A surreptitious trip to the Eat This! production trailer lets Jake know that pretty much everyone involved with the show hated Hadlyme. But finding out exactly who croaked the curmudgeon—and offering the chief some proof—proves to be a challenge to Jake’s and Ellie’s ingenuity, health, and welfare.
A treat for aficionados of shopkeeper-sleuth cozies.Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1134-2
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2019
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BOOK REVIEW
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