Hill continues to split her focus between exploring procedural conventions and showing her hero as he builds a family,...
A long-serving procedural hero faces health challenges that make him question his future with the police.
In a surprising and dark series turn, Hill opens with DCI Simon Serrailler (The Soul of Discretion, 2015, etc.) hospitalized from his latest case and trying desperately to recover. True to her emphasis on realistic consequences, Hill doesn’t make Simon’s convalescence easy: His world is forever changed. Unsure about his future with the Lafferton police department in spite of the passage of a significant period of time and the encouraging words of his supervisor, Chief Kieron Bright, Simon goes to mull and heal on the remote Scottish island of Taransay. While he’s there, he agrees to do some cold-case work for Kieron, who’s not just his chief, but now also his brother-in-law, having married Simon’s sister, Dr. Cat Deerbon, during Simon’s hospitalization and recovery. Kieron asks Simon to investigate the murder of Kimberley, the daughter of Marion Still, who was likely killed by a repeat offender imprisoned for life. Doing administrative work doesn’t restore Simon to his old self but does help remind him of his unique skill set, which comes in handy when a member of the small island community suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances. Back in Lafferton, Cat and Kieron adjust to married life while Cat considers relieving the stress of her job by doing private health work, a tempting move her deceased first husband would certainly have objected to. The honeymoon ends with a crash when Cat and Simon’s irascible father, Richard, shows up with a health scare of his own.
Hill continues to split her focus between exploring procedural conventions and showing her hero as he builds a family, emphasizing his development over his caseload.Pub Date: Nov. 20, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4683-0146-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Overlook
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2018
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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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