Where Petals Fall
Shirley Wells
Soho, May 2009, $25.00
ISBN 9781569475720
Two boys find a female corpse in a nearby quarry. Her neck was slashed, a red ribbon with a wedding ring tied to the victim, who was wrapped in a white sheet. Forensic psychologist Jill Kennedy and Lancashire Detective Chief Inspector Max Trentham are shocked by the MO; five years ago the pair brought an end to the murdering horror of the serial killer the Undertaker; the suspect Eddie Marshall died in a police car chase when his vehicle went over a cliff. Although his corpse was never found, the killings ceased until now.
Jill and Max look back at their conclusions to the Undertaker case wondering whether the original profile was wrong and Marshall was an innocent, but using Holmesian logic ask why then did he run? They also ponder whether he could somehow have survived going over the cliff, which both agree is impossible. Neither premise seems right leading to the profiler and the cop to wonder if Marshall mentored his replacement.
The third Kennedy-Trentham police procedural (see INTO THE SHADOWS and A DARKER SIDE) is an engaging serial killer whodunit. The tone differs from the previous books because this time the relationship between the lead couple never connects as each is much more introspective due to the fears they fumbled the case five years ago. Readers will wonder did they make a tragic mistake or was Marshall preparing his replacement.
Harriet Klausner
Saturday, May 2, 2009
The Cheater-Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
The Cheater
Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
Forge, Jun 9 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780765319029
Lily Forester has come a long way from when she killed her daughter’s rapist (see Mitigating Circumstances) as she is now a Ventura County judge. She even survived killing the wrong man at that time and her daughter killing the right male (see Buried Evidence).
Recently Lily and lawyer Anne Bradley have become friends. However, Anne has accused Lily’s husband Bryce Donnelly of rape in Vegas. Meanwhile FBI profiler Mary Stevens has begun finding a pattern of a female serial killer murdering cheating spouses. She is unaware who even as Alibi Connection inadvertently helps Anne locate cheaters in order to kill them.
THE CHEATER is a fascinating cat and mouse serial killer investigation. The story line is fast-paced and gripping though the readers know who the killer is early on and that man-eater is a zillion kilometers over the top of the Sierras as a psychopath. Mary is a terrific support character as she struggles to profile a female predator while Lily remains tormented and remorseful though she does not prevent her internal demons from doing her job. Fans will enjoy her return and want more profiling from Mary.
Harriet Klausner
Nancy Taylor Rosenberg
Forge, Jun 9 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780765319029
Lily Forester has come a long way from when she killed her daughter’s rapist (see Mitigating Circumstances) as she is now a Ventura County judge. She even survived killing the wrong man at that time and her daughter killing the right male (see Buried Evidence).
Recently Lily and lawyer Anne Bradley have become friends. However, Anne has accused Lily’s husband Bryce Donnelly of rape in Vegas. Meanwhile FBI profiler Mary Stevens has begun finding a pattern of a female serial killer murdering cheating spouses. She is unaware who even as Alibi Connection inadvertently helps Anne locate cheaters in order to kill them.
THE CHEATER is a fascinating cat and mouse serial killer investigation. The story line is fast-paced and gripping though the readers know who the killer is early on and that man-eater is a zillion kilometers over the top of the Sierras as a psychopath. Mary is a terrific support character as she struggles to profile a female predator while Lily remains tormented and remorseful though she does not prevent her internal demons from doing her job. Fans will enjoy her return and want more profiling from Mary.
Harriet Klausner
Greedy Bones-Carolyn Haines
Greedy Bones
Carolyn Haines
Minotaur, Jul 7 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780312377106
The CDC agents come to Zinnia, Mississippi where a nasty illness is leaving people in comas on the brink of death. A drama queen by DNA, Sarah Booth Delaney also travels to Zinnia, her hometown to help friends and family cope. The actress and private investigator stays at her family’s ancestral home while worrying about her P.I. partner and best friend Tinkie Richmond, whose husband Oscar has caught the illness.
Tinkie tells Sarah Booth that Oscar became deathly ill after visiting the Carlisle cotton plantation; a place overwhelmed by weird boll weevils, a mold, and a curse. Sarah Booth intrigued by the horror film like script of reality; has her Hollywood boyfriend Graf Milieu take a breather preferably on the West Coast. She prefers one hunk at a time and that is handsome Sheriff Coleman Peters who she teams up with to investigate while the deaths pile up; ironically not from the disease, but from the usual southern custom of shootings and hangings.
The latest Sarah Booth tale may be the best in this fun lighthearted paranormal mystery series (see WISHBONES). The story line is fast-paced while the heroine is her usual courageous madcap investigative self; who knows that all native Mississippians understand you heed the family haint’s advice though you do not understand what in hell the spirit is saying, you distrust Fed or state theories but trust intelligent design theories of mama, and you avoid cursed plantations as if they are quarantined. Fans will enjoy GREEDY BONES as Sarah Booth is on the case.
Harriet Klausner
Carolyn Haines
Minotaur, Jul 7 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780312377106
The CDC agents come to Zinnia, Mississippi where a nasty illness is leaving people in comas on the brink of death. A drama queen by DNA, Sarah Booth Delaney also travels to Zinnia, her hometown to help friends and family cope. The actress and private investigator stays at her family’s ancestral home while worrying about her P.I. partner and best friend Tinkie Richmond, whose husband Oscar has caught the illness.
Tinkie tells Sarah Booth that Oscar became deathly ill after visiting the Carlisle cotton plantation; a place overwhelmed by weird boll weevils, a mold, and a curse. Sarah Booth intrigued by the horror film like script of reality; has her Hollywood boyfriend Graf Milieu take a breather preferably on the West Coast. She prefers one hunk at a time and that is handsome Sheriff Coleman Peters who she teams up with to investigate while the deaths pile up; ironically not from the disease, but from the usual southern custom of shootings and hangings.
The latest Sarah Booth tale may be the best in this fun lighthearted paranormal mystery series (see WISHBONES). The story line is fast-paced while the heroine is her usual courageous madcap investigative self; who knows that all native Mississippians understand you heed the family haint’s advice though you do not understand what in hell the spirit is saying, you distrust Fed or state theories but trust intelligent design theories of mama, and you avoid cursed plantations as if they are quarantined. Fans will enjoy GREEDY BONES as Sarah Booth is on the case.
Harriet Klausner
The Missing Ink-Karen E. Olson
The Missing Ink
Karen E. Olson
Obsidian, Jul 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451227461
In Las Vegas, Brett Kavanaugh owns the Painted Lady tattoo parlor. A girl enters her shop to have a devotion tattoo of her fiancé’s name in a heart engraved on her. Brett gives the young girl an appointment but she fails to keep it, which is not unusual as people have second thoughts. Two days later, stoic hard boiled cop Willis shows a picture and asks if Brett seen the girl in the photo; not good with police except her brother Tim, Brett shrugs her shoulders but conceals that is the girl who failed to show up for her appointment.
Tim asks Brett to help investigate the missing girl case because of ties to his sister’s artistic profession. She agrees and as she follows the needles as clues Brett soon finds herself involved with homicide, hotel manager Simon Chase, and of course this being Vegas Elvis.
This is a fun amateur sleuth starring a delightful tour guide who escorts readers to another side of Vegas where tattoo parlors come in all levels of quality and are hygienically safe (or not). The story line is fast-paced from the moment the cop arrives at the Painted Lady with Brett’s attitude established when she calmly explains this is a tattoo shop not a brothel to his looking for a girl comment. Fans will enjoy THE MISSING INK as Brett tattoos Sin City’s underbelly.
Harriet Klausner
Karen E. Olson
Obsidian, Jul 2009, $6.99
ISBN: 9780451227461
In Las Vegas, Brett Kavanaugh owns the Painted Lady tattoo parlor. A girl enters her shop to have a devotion tattoo of her fiancé’s name in a heart engraved on her. Brett gives the young girl an appointment but she fails to keep it, which is not unusual as people have second thoughts. Two days later, stoic hard boiled cop Willis shows a picture and asks if Brett seen the girl in the photo; not good with police except her brother Tim, Brett shrugs her shoulders but conceals that is the girl who failed to show up for her appointment.
Tim asks Brett to help investigate the missing girl case because of ties to his sister’s artistic profession. She agrees and as she follows the needles as clues Brett soon finds herself involved with homicide, hotel manager Simon Chase, and of course this being Vegas Elvis.
This is a fun amateur sleuth starring a delightful tour guide who escorts readers to another side of Vegas where tattoo parlors come in all levels of quality and are hygienically safe (or not). The story line is fast-paced from the moment the cop arrives at the Painted Lady with Brett’s attitude established when she calmly explains this is a tattoo shop not a brothel to his looking for a girl comment. Fans will enjoy THE MISSING INK as Brett tattoos Sin City’s underbelly.
Harriet Klausner
The Genesis Secret-Tom Knox
The Genesis Secret
Tom Knox
Viking, Apr 2009, $26.95
ISBN: 9780670020881
British reporter Rob Luttrell was up front and too close as he eye witnessed a suicide bomber in Iraq executing a grisly mass murder. Rob survived and his London based editor sends him to Tel Aviv for a mental health breather.
Ready to get back to work, he is sent to report on a safe assignment, an excavation in the Kurdish sector of Turkey led by German archeologist Franz Breitner. The dig at Gobekli Tepe has uncovered incredible evidence of edifices somewhere between ten and eleven millennium old; at least twice the age of the previous known oldest structure. However, the excavation is not without controversy as the local population is outraged by the outsiders’ blasphemy; they curse those working there. Soon afterward, Breitner is killed when an accident left him pierced by a pole. Rob and biological anthropologist Christine Meyer investigate what each assumes is a mortal murder even as rumors spread that this locale is the Garden of Eden before they are deported back to England where trouble awaits them and his daughter for what they know about Gobekli Tepe.
The premise of ancient secrets uncovered is as old as say ancient times, but Tom Knox refreshes the concept with an interesting amateur sleuth inquiry. The story line is fast-paced with the opening sequences when the reporter first arrives at the Turkish dig are excellent and brisk. The plot spins more to the usual thugs chasing the heroes about half way in although in fairness that is exciting and well written. Fans will enjoy THE GENESIS SECRET, but will also consider what if Mr. Knox stayed the initial course.
Harriet Klausner
Tom Knox
Viking, Apr 2009, $26.95
ISBN: 9780670020881
British reporter Rob Luttrell was up front and too close as he eye witnessed a suicide bomber in Iraq executing a grisly mass murder. Rob survived and his London based editor sends him to Tel Aviv for a mental health breather.
Ready to get back to work, he is sent to report on a safe assignment, an excavation in the Kurdish sector of Turkey led by German archeologist Franz Breitner. The dig at Gobekli Tepe has uncovered incredible evidence of edifices somewhere between ten and eleven millennium old; at least twice the age of the previous known oldest structure. However, the excavation is not without controversy as the local population is outraged by the outsiders’ blasphemy; they curse those working there. Soon afterward, Breitner is killed when an accident left him pierced by a pole. Rob and biological anthropologist Christine Meyer investigate what each assumes is a mortal murder even as rumors spread that this locale is the Garden of Eden before they are deported back to England where trouble awaits them and his daughter for what they know about Gobekli Tepe.
The premise of ancient secrets uncovered is as old as say ancient times, but Tom Knox refreshes the concept with an interesting amateur sleuth inquiry. The story line is fast-paced with the opening sequences when the reporter first arrives at the Turkish dig are excellent and brisk. The plot spins more to the usual thugs chasing the heroes about half way in although in fairness that is exciting and well written. Fans will enjoy THE GENESIS SECRET, but will also consider what if Mr. Knox stayed the initial course.
Harriet Klausner
The Way Home-George Pelecanos
The Way Home
George Pelecanos
Little, Brown, May 1 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780316156493
In DC, seventeen year old Chris Flynn knows he grew up in a comfortable home with loving parents nurturing him. Somehow along the way “Bad Chris” emerged as a rebel seeking trouble: “Good Chris” goes dormant. On drugs, he gets into a car accident and almost kills the other driver when they discuss the cause. He gives the cops a run for their money, but eventually is sent to Pine Ridge juvenile detention facility; his angry perturbed father seeks to blame someone else while his mother is devastated. At Pine Ridge, Chris makes friends with other troubled youth who teach him how to hide “Bad Chris” from civilians and when to allow “Bad Chris” to take control.
A decade later, Chris seems to have straightened himself out. One day he and his peer find money that he thinks they should ignore. Soon afterward two killers demand Chris hand over what he stole or else. He knows that to survive he needs to free “Bad Chris”.
THE WAY HOME is an exciting character study of a young male who struggles with inner demons while knowing he has let down his mom, fears he will let down his nice girlfriend, and is not sure whether he cares that he lets down his dad. Although a key element to the lead character’s behavior is his relationship with his father; that disturbed link is explored on a surface level without digging deep into either’s psyche re this issue. Ironically George Pelecanos does enable his audience to understand “Good and Bad Chris”, just not what either side of the protagonist thinks of his dad beyond the shallow musings. Still aptly titled, fans will enjoy Mr. Pelecanos’ profound look at a troubled person
Harriet Klausner
George Pelecanos
Little, Brown, May 1 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780316156493
In DC, seventeen year old Chris Flynn knows he grew up in a comfortable home with loving parents nurturing him. Somehow along the way “Bad Chris” emerged as a rebel seeking trouble: “Good Chris” goes dormant. On drugs, he gets into a car accident and almost kills the other driver when they discuss the cause. He gives the cops a run for their money, but eventually is sent to Pine Ridge juvenile detention facility; his angry perturbed father seeks to blame someone else while his mother is devastated. At Pine Ridge, Chris makes friends with other troubled youth who teach him how to hide “Bad Chris” from civilians and when to allow “Bad Chris” to take control.
A decade later, Chris seems to have straightened himself out. One day he and his peer find money that he thinks they should ignore. Soon afterward two killers demand Chris hand over what he stole or else. He knows that to survive he needs to free “Bad Chris”.
THE WAY HOME is an exciting character study of a young male who struggles with inner demons while knowing he has let down his mom, fears he will let down his nice girlfriend, and is not sure whether he cares that he lets down his dad. Although a key element to the lead character’s behavior is his relationship with his father; that disturbed link is explored on a surface level without digging deep into either’s psyche re this issue. Ironically George Pelecanos does enable his audience to understand “Good and Bad Chris”, just not what either side of the protagonist thinks of his dad beyond the shallow musings. Still aptly titled, fans will enjoy Mr. Pelecanos’ profound look at a troubled person
Harriet Klausner
Friday, May 1, 2009
Where It Lies-K.J. Egan
Where It Lies
K.J. Egan
Minotaur, May 12 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780312538880
Single mom of a moody teen Sam, Jenny Chase works as assistant golf pro at the Harbor Terrace Country Club in Poningo, N.Y. She arrives at the course only to be greeted by a horrific site at the cart barn; groundskeeper Rick Gilbert is hanging on a rafter. In spite of being unnerved, Jenny surprisingly stays calm and playing at the nearby Westchester Country Club wins a Women's U.S. Open qualifying tournament that same day.
The police led by Detective George Donahue and youth officer Nick Cirillo rule suicide, which means Rick’s widow is ineligible to collect on his life insurance. Jenny cannot believe the official decision, feeling some remorse as Rick called her five times that night, and wanting to help his widow Kit and her autistic son Quint, investigates the death. Meanwhile, Sam gets in trouble with the law for petty theft requiring a lawyer and jeopardizing her custody; still Jenny reluctantly calls her former spouse to help their son with his legal problems.
This is a well written amateur sleuth sports mystery starring a strong support cast and a super lead protagonist. The story line plays fast on and off the greens. Fans will root for Jenny as K.J. Egan easily breaks par with this engaging golf murder mystery.
Harriet Klausner
K.J. Egan
Minotaur, May 12 2009, $24.95
ISBN: 9780312538880
Single mom of a moody teen Sam, Jenny Chase works as assistant golf pro at the Harbor Terrace Country Club in Poningo, N.Y. She arrives at the course only to be greeted by a horrific site at the cart barn; groundskeeper Rick Gilbert is hanging on a rafter. In spite of being unnerved, Jenny surprisingly stays calm and playing at the nearby Westchester Country Club wins a Women's U.S. Open qualifying tournament that same day.
The police led by Detective George Donahue and youth officer Nick Cirillo rule suicide, which means Rick’s widow is ineligible to collect on his life insurance. Jenny cannot believe the official decision, feeling some remorse as Rick called her five times that night, and wanting to help his widow Kit and her autistic son Quint, investigates the death. Meanwhile, Sam gets in trouble with the law for petty theft requiring a lawyer and jeopardizing her custody; still Jenny reluctantly calls her former spouse to help their son with his legal problems.
This is a well written amateur sleuth sports mystery starring a strong support cast and a super lead protagonist. The story line plays fast on and off the greens. Fans will root for Jenny as K.J. Egan easily breaks par with this engaging golf murder mystery.
Harriet Klausner
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