A well-done crime yarn but not for the straight-laced or those prone to fantods.
Book 8 in DeMille’s John Corey series unlocks a complex murder mystery set on Fire Island.
The jokes start right away: “You can’t drink all day unless you start in the morning.” Corey is a former NYPD homicide detective, and he's currently "NYU—New York Unemployed." He has plenty of enemies, like the Russian SVR intelligence service, which wants him dead—but waiting for that plotline to develop is like waiting for Godot. Ex-lover Det. Beth Penrose conveys an offer that he become a consultant to Security Solutions Investigative Services, “a very tacky private investigative agency” located on Suffolk County farmland with a giant hedge maze as a neighbor. Though Beth doesn't say so, the plan seems to be that Corey will be her confidential informant, getting inside Security Solutions to learn if it has any connection to the killings of nine young Long Island women. Security Solutions is a fun-loving outfit, with after-hours parties like Thirsty Thursdays. You’ve got your booze, your broads with names like Tiffany, your cops both present and ex, your politicians, a disbarred lawyer—fertile and dangerous grounds for Corey’s snooping. Like the maze, the plot has “twisting paths with lots of dead ends,” but “you have to wake up real early to pull one over on John Corey.” But before the guns start blasting, he fires his “pocket rocket” into a willing woman, a suspect named Amy. “Emission accomplished,” he later muses. Ah yes, Corey has a million sex jokes that would have teenagers TikTok-ing “ROFLMAO.” Are there nude beaches in Bermuda? He’d love to check out the Bermuda triangles. Is tonight “poker night? Or poke her night?” And why do strippers have names like Tiffany and not Best Buy? Anyway, Corey hasn’t settled down with a woman: “Ospreys mate for life,” he states. “But are they happy?” Oh yes, again with the plot: There’s a tough, unsolved murder case with interlocking crimes and suspects that ends in a fiery finish.
A well-done crime yarn but not for the straight-laced or those prone to fantods.Pub Date: Oct. 11, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5011-0178-6
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
A melding of Amish culture with a traditional cozy, with a cute goat to boot.
Amish and English worlds collide when the murder of a quilt competition judge places a possible witness in danger.
Millie Fisher and her closest friend, Lois Henry, are like chalk and cheese. But somehow the pairing of the Amish matchmaker and her purple-spiked-haired best friend works, maybe because the two share the same sense of justice in a sometimes troubled world. Though Millie is close to God and her Amish community, her penchant for solving mysteries means that she’s allowed certain modern affordances, like a phone line, that help keep her safe in her informal investigations. And investigations always seem to find Millie and Lois. The latest is the murder of Tara Barron, the difficult head judge of the local fair’s quilt competition, a competition in which Millie has entered a beautiful wedding-ring quilt. Millie knows that murder doesn’t discriminate among communities, so she and Lois use their separate connections to find a potential motive, while Lois tries not to get sidetracked by her own potential love matches. Being 68 makes Lois even more keenly aware of her desire for a partner, whereas Millie’s age and experience as a widow makes her nervous about finding a new man, even though Lois keeps pointing out that their longtime friend Uriah Schrock is interested in Millie as a match. As the investigation into Tara’s death intensifies, Millie meets Zach Troyer, a young Amish boy, and his beloved Pygmy goat, Scooter, whose presence at the fair may make them valuable witnesses to the crime—so long as Millie can keep them safe long enough for Zach to tell his story.
A melding of Amish culture with a traditional cozy, with a cute goat to boot.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781496737489
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
Checks all the boxes on the way to the happiest of endings.
An amateur detective is approaching happily-ever-after with her beau, but she’s committed to one last case as a way to support a murdered man she let down in life.
While some might picture the life of a librarian for Mayville Heights Free Public Library to be normcore, Kathleen Paulson’s is anything but. Not only has she had a hand in solving a string of mysteries in her small Minnesota suburb, but the helpers she’s relied on in doing this work have ranged from her fiance, Det. Marcus Gordon, to her two magical cats, Owen and Hercules. Owen, originally from an unusual cat colony on Wisteria Hill, has the ability to disappear and reappear seemingly at will, and Hercules can walk through walls and other solid objects. Both are pretty handy to have around when mystery calls, as it does once again when Kathleen finds that Will Redfern has broken into the library and been killed mid-burglary. A fighter for the underdog, Kathleen vows to solve Will’s murder as a way of caring for someone society had given up on. She also continues her mentorship of Riley Hollister, a bright young girl whose family hasn’t been there for her time and again. With Kathleen’s wedding to Marcus just two months away, her schedule is full of cake tastings and bridesmaid dress approvals, but she can’t help but try to solve Will’s murder, maybe this time with Riley’s help.
Checks all the boxes on the way to the happiest of endings.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2024
ISBN: 9780593548738
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: July 4, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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