Even though Fields (Firebreak, 2015, etc.) still includes indiscriminate details about hair color and fashion choices, she’s...
A small-town police chief follows the evidence where it takes her, even at the risk of her career.
Josie Gray heads a three-officer police force in the one-stoplight west Texas town of Artemis. But she likes the open spaces and the quiet of the road that she shares with only one other neighbor. When a car drives slowly past her house for the second night in a row, it’s not enough to frighten her, but it does make her wish her lover, Nick Santos, weren’t off negotiating with a kidnapper in Mexico. Josie thinks it unlikely that anyone would be foolish or desperate enough to ford the Rio Grande so close to her house when there are better, safer places to enter the country illegally. After the car comes back a third time, Josie takes action but not fast enough: she finds the body of a young woman shot in the back in her neighbor’s pasture. A second girl is alive but cowering on Josie’s porch and too traumatized to speak. With the help of Nick and her dedicated fellow cops, Josie, though distracted by her mother’s unexpected visit, pieces together the story of the surviving girl. Isabella Dagati was lured from Guatemala along with four other girls by the promise of a better life in the U.S. Escaping captivity with one of the others just before leaving Mexico, she crossed the border with her fellow prisoner and came on purpose to find Josie. Now one of the girls is dead and the other three are unaccounted for. A revelation about who’s behind Isabella’s plight pushes Josie to take a step that leaves her with neither power nor authority—only a stubborn determination to stop the trafficking.
Even though Fields (Firebreak, 2015, etc.) still includes indiscriminate details about hair color and fashion choices, she’s settled into a brisker style, and her fourth case finds her gutsy cop a little less angst-ridden.Pub Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-07628-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
An appealing, three-dimensional heroine and some clever plot twists make this an enjoyable, quick read.
In this mystery novel, somebody’s been killing the proprietors of a prestigious inn, and the newest innkeeper is determined to find out why before she becomes the next victim.
Doyle (The Infidelity Pact, 2008, etc.) is a self-described “foodie” and an avid cheerleader for the quaint village of East Hampton, New York, and she indulges both of these passions in this first installment of her new Hamptons Murder Mysteries series. Recently transplanted from California following a nasty divorce, 35-year-old protagonist Antonia Bingham has bought the Windmill Inn from the estate of Gordon Haslett, who died suddenly, apparently from a heart attack. An inventive, passionate chef, Antonia has just reopened the inn’s restaurant when she learns from two of her regulars, Len and Sylvia Powers, that the circumstances surrounding Gordon’s death were suspicious. Worse, he wasn’t the first owner of the inn to experience an untimely death. Now, strange things are happening to Antonia—someone removes a stepladder while she’s installing a light bulb, someone locks her in a supply closet, and more. Her new buddy, Joseph Fowler, a 60-something widower, joins in the amateur sleuthing as they try to sort out the possible motives of a multitude of suspects; Gordon, they discover, was universally disliked. Doyle is an enthusiastic guide for Long Island’s East End village; she details each street and shop, the spectacular beaches, and the unique play of sunlight that has been a siren call to artists for more than a century. She also gives readers plenty of opportunities to vicariously indulge in every mouthwatering bite that Antonia and her restaurant patrons consume—especially if the item is loaded with butter, sugar, or some other comforting dietary no-no. Doyle also pays careful attention to housing décor, wardrobe selections, and the hairstyles of every character, which perhaps stems from her experience as a screenwriter (Intern, 2009). The generally smooth prose maintains a gentle pace, although there are one or two unnecessarily awkward lead-ins, such as “an odd incident occurred that unnerved Antonia and once again gave her pause about her own mortality.” The dinner-table gathering of suspects isn’t an original device, but it’s fun and satisfying nonetheless.
An appealing, three-dimensional heroine and some clever plot twists make this an enjoyable, quick read.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9972701-4-3
Page Count: 410
Publisher: Dunemere Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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A good one in the tough school, in which private detective Marlowe is hired to investigate a blackmailing and finds himself bucking a well-run gang, several murders, and the D A's office. Hard-boiled, fast paced, plenty of action, some sensationalism. Not for conservatives.
Pub Date: Feb. 5, 1938
ISBN: 0394758285
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1938
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