Book Review: The Usual Santas, Foreword by Peter Lovesey

The Usual Santas
A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers
Foreward by Peter Lovesey
Soho Crime, October 2017
ISBN 978-1-61695-775-9
Hardcover

Here’s a collection that is sometimes amusing, sometimes dark, sometimes teaches a lesson, and is always entertaining. Set in most time periods, the stories will take the Christmas season all around the world. Thieves, murderers, revenge seekers and even cranky old women take their turns in making a memorable holiday.

In an outstanding collection, to my personal taste (yours most certainly may differ), some stand out. In a book with three different sections, the first being “Joy to the World: various acts of kindness at Christmas,” the lead-off story is a hoot. Suffice it to say, “don’t mess with ninety-year-old ladies. In “An Elderly Lady Seek Peace at Christmastime” by Helene Tursten, Maud is sick of the man in the apartment upstairs abusing his wife. The blows, the cursing, the sobbing destroy every vestige of her peace. And so, she takes matters into her own hands.

All the stories in this section are surprising. With a cast of authors like Timothy Hallinan and Teresa Dovalpage, among others, it’s what you can expect.

The second section is “Silent Night: the darkest of holiday noir.”  My favorite—or perhaps I should say, most standout story, one that stays with me, is by James R. Benn titled “Red Christmas.” The tale involves a discharged soldier arriving in a small town to give details of his friend’s death in a North Korean POW camp to the parents. He just doesn’t quite know how to begin. As he remembers back to their time in the POW camp, the events are dark indeed. Colin Cotterill, one of my favorite authors, also has a story in this section, as do Henry Chang,   Ed Lin, Stuart Neville, and Tod Goldberg.

The final section, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, and other Holiday Secrets,” will certainly give a fresh slant on cozy kisses, peace on earth and all the other tropes whether 1920s  Bombay with Sujata Massey or Niccolo Machiavelli and Cesarev Borgia, those fine sons of Italy, with Gary Corby.

The foreward by Peter Lovesey, along with the final story in the book, gives fair warning. Be prepared to see the season in a whole new light. Could it be the Christmas star? Because every story is a shining star.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, April 2020.
http://www.ckcrigger.com
Author of The Woman Who Built A Bridge (Spur Award Winner), Yester’s Ride,
Hometown Burning and Five Days, Five Dead: A China Bohannon Novel

Book Review: The Sleeping Nymph by Ilaria Tuti @Ilaria_Tuti @soho_press

The Sleeping Nymph
A Teresa Battagllia Novel #2
Ilaria Tuti
Translated from the Italian by Ekin Oklap
Soho Crime, September 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64129-121-7
Hardcover

To begin with, this is not really my style of mystery– or so I first thought. A bit too poetic, too flowery, too literary for my personal taste. What’s more, having been the caretaker of, and having been there from the beginning with a victim of Alzheimer’s, I can guarantee I don’t enjoy reading about it. Too sad, too damn frightening.

Also, at the beginning, I found myself skipping some passages, several of which failed to move the story along.

But then I became hooked. The mystery involves a painting, glorious and lifelike of a beautiful young woman, which dates from World War II. When the painting is inspected by experts, one of their tests reveals that the paint contains not only blood, but matter from a human heart. The woman’s heart? Will it help identify her all these years later? Brought in on what at first seems to be an unsolvable cold case, Superintendent Teresa Battaglia and her team are sent to Val Resia, an isolated area in the Italian mountains. Not only is the superintendent suffering the first stages of Alzheimer’s, but is diabetic and overweight. How is she to cope? All her answers lie in her diary, where she records every thought, every detail of her life.

Meanwhile, another human heart from a recent kill is found guarding the valley entrance, a warning to proceed no further. More people die, fires burn evidence, Teresa’s diary is stolen and creepy things happen in the forest.

When the tension picks up and the role of suspects grows longer, the hunt to uncover the secrets in this strange valley becomes more desperate. The author masterfully brings all the aspects together and ties up the loose ends. The side stories and the lives of the superintendent’s team all become important and necessary to solving the case. I ended up enjoying this book very much, enough to put it on my best mystery list for 2020.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, September 2020.
http://www.ckcrigger.com
Author of The Woman Who Built A Bridge (Spur Award Winner), Yester’s Ride,
Hometown Burning and Five Days, Five Dead: A China Bohannon Novel

Book Review: Death on Tuckernuck by Francine Mathews @FMathewsAuthor @soho_press

Death on Tuckernuck
A Merry Folger Nantucket Mystery #6
Francine Mathews
Soho Crime, April 2020
ISBN 978-1-61695-993-7
Hardcover

Let me start by saying that I haven’t read previous books in Francine Mathews‘ series featuring Detective Meredith (Merry) Folger and Death on Tuckernuck has introduced me to just what I have been missing!  Merry Folger is a detective on the Nantucket (MA) police force who is about to get married when she is called to investigate a case in which the Coast Guard found two people shot in a boat drifting off Nantucket.  In the meantime, a Category 3 hurricane is headed for New England and everyone on Nantucket and the small private island of Tuckernuck is  boarding up windows and otherwise preparing for a huge storm.

Dionis Mather and her father, Jack Mather, run a small business getting supplies from the mainland for people on Nantucket and Tuckernuck and taking care of properties when the summer folk leave for the winter.  With the storm approaching, they are busy getting homes ready to weather the storm and taking people off the islands to shelters until the storm is over.  One of the major properties on Tuckernuck is owned by a very rich, very arrogant star NFL quarterback who happens to own a couple of horses along with his huge home on the island.  He has a groom for the horses, but she left, unwilling to stay alone on Tuckernuck while a hurricane is bearing down on the island.  On instructions from the owner’s personal assistant in New York that if the Mathers don’t go and take care of the horses they will be sued if anything happens to them, Dionis reluctantly agrees to go and see to them.  As it turns out, she runs into much bigger problems than the two horses.

I don’t want to say much more about the story because I don’t want to give away too much about the plot.  Suffice it to say that Mathews has written a really good mystery, one that kept me reading far into the night until I finished it.  I highly recommend this book.  For sure, I will be looking for the first five books in this series.

Reviewed by Melinda Drew, July 2020.

Book Reviews: That Left Turn at Albuquerque by Scott Phillips and Where Privacy Dies by Priscilla Paton @soho_press @priscilla_paton @CoffeetownPress

That Left Turn at Albuquerque
Scott Phillips
Soho Crime, March 2020
ISBN 978-1-64129-109-5
Hardcover

The author has assembled here an engaging and substantial cast of characters. That he is able to keep track of their criminal activities and their attitudes toward their fellow humans, as well as their active lives is quite impressive.

Most of the characters engage in illegal and scurrilous acts without apparent concern for the morality or humanity of their lives. Or for the impact their actions have on others, often innocent others. That most of their criminality is directed at other criminals may be seen by many readers as a mitigating factor. A significant number of the characters are imbued with some level of humor and see their fellow humans as actually funny at times.

Central to the story is down and out attorney, Douglas Rigby. His small, now solo practice is falling to pieces and he engages in several illegal enterprises in his attempts to stave off bankruptcy and total ruin.

Readers will be treated to bare-knuckle humor, tongue in cheek satire, up-tempo action, murder, mayhem, and a good deal of action. A somewhat peculiar, jaundiced look at society, propels the book from start to finish.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, May 2020.
http://www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
Traces, Grand Lac, Reunion, Red Sky.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Where Privacy Dies
A Twin Cities Mystery #1
Priscilla Paton
Coffeetown Press, May 2018
ISBN 978-1-60381-665-6
Trade Paperback

From the striking cover to the final resolution of murky death and the corruption by power and money of numerous characters, this rich and at times difficult novel will attract, enthrall and sometimes irk readers. Central to the story is the gradual growth of understanding and appreciation of two detectives in a Twin Cities law enforcement force titled G-Met. It’s an intriguing amalgam of special cops whose franchise covers multiple jurisdictions in the metropolitan region of East Central Minnesota. It’s an authorial creation with much interesting and intriguing potential.

Lead detective is tall lanky Erik Jansson, divorced father of a young son. He is not a typical cop one frequently finds in this genre. He’s paired with a new hire from a small city in southern Minnesota, Deb Metzger, a six-foot plus lesbian, who could competently handle the physical requirements of a corporate bodyguard. The two are not instantly simpatico and thereby inhabit a running source of minor conflict and mutual support which adds a fine level of benign conflict to the novel.

Although the title of the novel is a quickly understood clue to an important dimension of the mystery, this story turns on the deviousness and sometimes nasty inclinations of human beings who have enjoyed a high degree of success without the leavening factor of ethics and moral suasion. The narrative is tight, solid and delves neatly into ego, intrusion of technology, moral failure and the entanglement of those who would ignore their childhood schooling. A multiplicity of characters, crisp dialogue and an absence of unnecessary description adds to the richness of the novel. The novel competently reveals a fresh voice and a thoughtful look into the modern world of computer crime and our almost universal entanglement therein. I recommend this fine novel.

Reviewed by Carl Brookins, March 2019.
http://www.carlbrookins.com http://agora2.blogspot.com
Traces, Grand Lac, Reunion, Red Sky.

Book Review: Invitation to Die by Barbara Cleverly @soho_press

Invitation to Die
A Detective Inspector Redefyre Investigation Book 2
Barbara Cleverly
Soho Crime, August 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64129-027-2
Hardcover

Set in Cambridge in 1924 after the Great War has decimated the ranks of able-bodied English men, nearly every man is a former soldier. This includes Detective Inspector John Redefyre, a former rifleman who is young for his position. When veterans of the earlier Boer war begin showing up dead, their bodies left in conspicuous places with nothing to identify them, he is on the hunt. A keen investigator, even the smallest clues soon help him uncover who the victims are, and he means to bring justice to his fellows. Certain things stand out. The dead men were all members of the same squad. They all were cashiered and faced the death penalty for looting. And they all have received, though some were little more than beggars, an invitation to dine with members of an exclusive Cambridge University club. Finally, just one of the six man squad remains alive, while one other is dying. But which one is the killer? Keen eyes and sharp wits help Redefyre and his sergeant, Thoday, ferret out the truth behind the deaths.

I liked the historical ambiance of the story. Though written in 2019, the method and writing could be pure 1920s, with the “smart” people and their witty conversations. Lots of conversations, as this isn’t a particularly action-packed story and relies on dialogue. At times it was difficult to keep track of who was speaking. As a reader, I didn’t really know who was driving the story for several chapters as the participants were often nameless. I must say, however, the parts detailing the Boer War held my complete interest.

Outside of the mystery, the actions, life style, and living conditions of the era are fascinating. Just don’t try to feed me jellied eels, although I’d love to learn to tango.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, January 2020.
http://www.ckcrigger.com
Author of The Woman Who Built A Bridge (Spur Award Winner), Yester’s Ride,
Hometown Burning and Five Days, Five Dead: A China Bohannon Novel

Book Review: Death on Nantucket by Francine Mathews @FMathewsAuthor @soho_press

Death on Nantucket
A Merry Folger Nantucket Mystery #5
Francine Mathews
Soho Crime, June 2017
ISBN 978-1-61695-737-7
Hardcover

Spencer Murphy is a Pulitzer prize winning foreign correspondent. The book that won him his fame tells of his escape from captivity in Laos during the Vietnam war. He made millions on his books and television appearances in subsequent years. But he is sinking into dementia, and is reported missing by his family.

He lives alone is a big house in Nantucket with only a housekeeper who comes in during the day. His adopted daughter Nora, who has been living in Asia, turns up for a visit and is discovered dead a month later on the rooftop deck. Spencer’s two sons, David and Elliot, haven’t heard from their sister in years, David is a recently divorced lawyer who continually criticizes his twenty-something daughter Laney.

Elliot and his partner Andre are the target of homophobic barbs from David and occasionally even from Spencer when his dementia tightens
its grip.

When Nora’s body is discovered, police detective Merry Folger investigates. It’s either suicide or an accident, the preliminary investigation shows. Nora has ingested enough apricot seeds in a cup of coffee that she died of cyanide poisoning. Merry’s boss is still convinced that it’s not murder, and he seems to have it in for her—after all, his predecessors as chief of police were Merry’s father and grandfather. Also, It’s high tourist season Nantucket with thousands of drunken college students invading the island and the police force is spread thin. But before the investigation concludes, there’s another death in the family and there’s no doubt that this time it’s murder.

Not quite a locked room mystery but a traditional mystery with a limited pool of suspects. There’s an abundance of description and backstory, sometimes too much, and it slows down the plot. While the culprit is discovered, there are enough red herrings and smart plotting to make it a surprise. It’s the fifth book in the series.

Reviewed by Susan Belsky, January 2020.

Book Review: The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey @sujatamassey @soho_press

The Satapur Moonstone
A mystery of 1920s India
A Perveen Mistry Novel, Book 2
Sujata Massey
Soho Crime, May 2019
ISBN 978-1-61695-909-8
Hardcover

Lawyer Perveen Mistry, Esquire, an employee of the British Raj, has been sent from Bombay to the princely state of Satapur to settle a dispute over the education of the ruling family’s children. The male succession line has been interrupted by the deaths of both the maharaja and his eldest heir and now the dowager maharani, (grandmother) and the younger maharani (the mother) can’t agree. But just how intense is their disagreement? This is what Perveen, India’s only female lawyer, must discover. She is the only one who can negotiate as the two maharanis live in purdah.

When Perveen arrives, she finds turmoil and even fear as the dowager maharani has assumed all power. But is she also a murderess? From the oddities surrounding the young maharaja’s death, supposedly killed by a tiger, Perveen’s suspicion grows. As she guards the young crown prince’s life, she’s on the edge of death herself as someone makes repeated attempts on her life and on the young prince’s.

The rather slow pacing in the beginning will fool you into thinking there’s no action, but as the pomp and ceremony of the state unfolds, you’ll find something different. Jealousies large and small, the wielding of power, the strictness of the caste system become intense. The character of the countryside is fascinating, as is the political aspect of the British Raj. Then there is the matter of women’s place in this closed world, and Perveen’s growing response to the white British agent Colin Sandringham. As events wind down to an exciting conclusion, you’re sure to be riveted.

Reviewed by Carol Crigger, July 2019.
https://carolcriggercom.sitelio.me/
Author of Five Days, Five Dead, Hereafter and Hometown Homicide.