A diligent and appealing detective enhances this tense mystery.
A private eye’s investigation into the assault of a 70-year-old woman leads to murder and a political conspiracy in this thriller sequel.
Boston entrepreneur Ben Johnson is shaken by the news that Acadia LaFleur is comatose following an attack. He’s had business dealings with the LaFleurs, an affluent Louisiana family that Acadia married into. As Ben has loved her since the two had an affair decades ago, he asks his private investigator friend Dimase Augustin to find out what happened. Dimase makes little headway until he learns of a striking similarity between Acadia and an escort who recently turned up as a homicide victim in a nearby Louisiana town. They both have the same name. Not only are the crimes likely connected, but there’s another potential link to a political power move that involves an imminent assassination. Since the culprits are desperate to cover their tracks, they target others for murder as well, including Acadia, who may eventually be able to identify her assailant. A vague clue points Dimase and Ben to an unknown senator’s nickname. They’ll need to identify this senator to unravel a growing conspiracy while ensuring Acadia—and the two friends themselves—stays safe. Bruneau’s novel is concise and absorbing. The mystery is relatively simple, and most readers will have worked it out well before the ending. But suspense is ample in the latter half, particularly as escalating distrust among the villains makes them more unpredictable and dangerous. The story offers minimal insights into Dimase aside from his brief personal history beginning in Haiti. He’s generally by the book, even respectfully coordinating with authorities in the two places in which he operates. Still, his professional nature underscores his intelligence and tenacity while Ben and Acadia’s convincing love story provides the bulk of the tale’s strong emotional context.
A diligent and appealing detective enhances this tense mystery. (dedication)Pub Date: May 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-66320-200-0
Page Count: 244
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A novel hook introduces an otherwise standard cozy.
The risks mount as the oddball business venture Emma Westlake launched in A Plus One for Murder (2021) picks up steam.
It took a lot of guts, some ingenuity, and a little bit of prodding from her octogenarian pal, Dottie Adler, but it looks like A Friend for Hire, Emma’s service for folks who need someone to offer unconditional support in their hour of need, is going to be a decent earner after all. In addition to Dottie, who still pays Emma for having tea with her once a week, there are three other clients and a fourth in the works. But Kim Felder, Emma’s newest paying friend, comes with a lot of baggage. She’s sad and lonely because now that her kids are grown, she has no one who needs her. But she’s also really, really angry because her husband dumped her for his thin, blond secretary. Emma encourages Kim to vent her frustrations on paper, writing down all the things she’d like to do to her ex. Which might be good psychology but turns out to be terrible advice from a legal standpoint, since once someone actually does strangle that old cheat Roger, the list provides Deputy Jack Riordan ample evidence to arrest Kim. Now Emma has two problems: First, her client is in the hoosegow, and second, she’s fighting with Jack just as their relationship is moving from the “friends” to the “dating” column. There’s only one way to fix this mess, and it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who has to crack this case.
A novel hook introduces an otherwise standard cozy.Pub Date: July 5, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-59333-478-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A lovingly evoked postwar idyll that could just as well have been titled A Christmas Miracle.
Newly promoted Chief Inspector Ian Rutledge’s latest case echoes A Christmas Carol in ways that only begin with the season.
Rutledge’s plan to spend the 1921 holiday with his sister’s family are briskly dismissed by a summons from Chief Superintendent Markum, who reports that Lord Braxton, aka Col. Edward Braxton, has been struck down by a mounted horseman who left him for dead. Braxton, who’s demanding at the best of times, wants to keep the details of this event as private as possible, and he’s decided from Rutledge’s wartime service that he’s the ideal choice to investigate and keep under Braxton’s thumb. Traveling to Cottams House, in the Kentish village of Hartsham, Rutledge finds Braxton every bit as imperious and short-tempered as he expected. But although Braxton is such an obvious candidate for murder that he assures Rutledge he’ll never live to see Christmas, his neighbors and household staff seem attached to him; only Henry White, who constantly blames Braxton for military orders that led to the death of White’s only son in France, seems to have a motive to kill him. Readers acquainted with the franchise will appreciate from the beginning that Rutledge’s inquiries here are much more invested in exploring the natural, social, and seasonal qualities of Braxton’s world than in identifying the guilty party; others will have to adjust their expectations in order to accept a climactic revelation that seems more clearly borrowed from Dickens or the Gospels than from any of the evidence Rutledge has uncovered.
A lovingly evoked postwar idyll that could just as well have been titled A Christmas Miracle.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781613166895
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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