Blue Lightning
Ann Cleeves
Minotaur, Sep 28 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312384357
Police Detective Jimmy Perez brings his English fiancée Fran Hunter to his home on Fair Isle to meet his parents and the other residents. A welcoming fete is thrown, but at a bird observatory, someone stabs a woman with a knife to her back and leaving feathers in her hair.
The deceased is a famous BBC ornithologist Angela, alleged guardian of the island’s bird sanctuary. Perez realizes the victim was universally disliked by those who knew her; even perhaps her husband Maurice. Suspects are numerous ranging from a myriad of lovers, her stepdaughter, her employee and the bird lovers’ crowd. Perez struggles on his own due to a hurricane cutting off the island from the mainland. At the same time just before the storm hit, there is an influx of bird watchers due to a rare avian finding. As Perez digs deeper and Fran tries to help her beloved though he pleads with her not to get involved, he fears a tie to his family.
The final Shetland Island police procedural (see Red Bones, Raven Black and White Nights) is a super whodunit. The story line focuses beyond just Jimmy’s investigation and relationship with his fiancée, as the murder haunts the small community although the victim is loathed by anyone who met her. Jimmy is great as he is cut off from professional help, but though he detests what he is finding, he resolutely stays the course. With a final twist that will stun fans, The Shetland Island saga is a terrific series and hopefully will have more colorful Fair Isle mysteries.
Harriet Klausner
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Par for the Course-Jennifer Vido
Par for the Course
Jennifer Vido
Top Publications, Jun 2010, $14.00
12221 Merit Dr, Suite 950
Dallas, Texas 75251
ISBN: 9781929976720
In Woodlawn Ohio, when her older womanizing wealthy husband Charles is murdered, Piper O’Donnell is the prime suspect as Par for the Course the cops always look at the family. The townsfolk especially those snooty society ladies at the Woodlawn Golf & Country Club assume she killed her spouse for his money or perhaps another one of his affairs; or more likely both. For her part, she wished they remained in Manhattan.
Piper and Rusty O’Brien meet and are attracted to one another. They, accompanied by her sister and her friend, investigate the homicide before the cops replace Piper’s clubs with a murder rap. However, none of the quartet are prepared for a killer who plans to make a hole in one with their respective heads if they come close to his or her identity.
Lighthearted, this is an enjoyable nineteen holes of golf amateur sleuth. The story line is breezy as the quartet of tyro detectives follow the sexual escapes of the late Charles as they believe one of his women finally gave him the permanent hook. Fans who enjoy a facetious sports mystery will want to play the Woodlawn course alongside of Piper and friends.
Harriet Klausner
Jennifer Vido
Top Publications, Jun 2010, $14.00
12221 Merit Dr, Suite 950
Dallas, Texas 75251
ISBN: 9781929976720
In Woodlawn Ohio, when her older womanizing wealthy husband Charles is murdered, Piper O’Donnell is the prime suspect as Par for the Course the cops always look at the family. The townsfolk especially those snooty society ladies at the Woodlawn Golf & Country Club assume she killed her spouse for his money or perhaps another one of his affairs; or more likely both. For her part, she wished they remained in Manhattan.
Piper and Rusty O’Brien meet and are attracted to one another. They, accompanied by her sister and her friend, investigate the homicide before the cops replace Piper’s clubs with a murder rap. However, none of the quartet are prepared for a killer who plans to make a hole in one with their respective heads if they come close to his or her identity.
Lighthearted, this is an enjoyable nineteen holes of golf amateur sleuth. The story line is breezy as the quartet of tyro detectives follow the sexual escapes of the late Charles as they believe one of his women finally gave him the permanent hook. Fans who enjoy a facetious sports mystery will want to play the Woodlawn course alongside of Piper and friends.
Harriet Klausner
Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End: The Story of a Crime-Leif GW Persson
Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End: The Story of a Crime
Leif GW Persson
Pantheon, Sep 14 2010, $27.95
ISBN: 9780307377456
American John Krassner is in Stockholm writing a biography on his uncle, OSS agent Colonel John Buchanan just after WW II. Krassner has found evidence that ties Buchanan to a Swedish politician known as "Pilgrim", but he is unsure who that is though he has an idea.
Meanwhile the Swedish secret police have become concerned with threats to their Prime Minister Olaf Palme. They link the noise to the American Krassner, who almost immediately is under suspicion. He apparently commits suicide by jumping from a student dorm window. He almost kills an elderly pedestrian walking his Pomeranian, but Charlie the dog saves his owner’s life only to have the leaper’s shoe kill the dog. Soon afterward someone assassinates Palme, but the Swedish manhunt fails to find a killer or a valid group claiming the hit. However, police superintendent Lars Johansson finds a tie between the dead American, his uncle and the murdered PM.
Constructed around the unsolved cold case murder of PM Palme, Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End: The Story of a Crime is an interesting first act of a fictionalized account of the assassination. The story line has too much going on especially in the first sections of the novel making it difficult to follow. However, once Johansson takes control of the plot, the whodunit becomes more focused and enjoyable. Though Lars (so far at least) is no Falck or Wallender, fans of Camilla Lackberg and Henning Mankell will enjoy this opening police procedural that delves deep into the Swedish identity haunted by the homicide a quarter of a century ago.
Harriet Klausner
Leif GW Persson
Pantheon, Sep 14 2010, $27.95
ISBN: 9780307377456
American John Krassner is in Stockholm writing a biography on his uncle, OSS agent Colonel John Buchanan just after WW II. Krassner has found evidence that ties Buchanan to a Swedish politician known as "Pilgrim", but he is unsure who that is though he has an idea.
Meanwhile the Swedish secret police have become concerned with threats to their Prime Minister Olaf Palme. They link the noise to the American Krassner, who almost immediately is under suspicion. He apparently commits suicide by jumping from a student dorm window. He almost kills an elderly pedestrian walking his Pomeranian, but Charlie the dog saves his owner’s life only to have the leaper’s shoe kill the dog. Soon afterward someone assassinates Palme, but the Swedish manhunt fails to find a killer or a valid group claiming the hit. However, police superintendent Lars Johansson finds a tie between the dead American, his uncle and the murdered PM.
Constructed around the unsolved cold case murder of PM Palme, Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End: The Story of a Crime is an interesting first act of a fictionalized account of the assassination. The story line has too much going on especially in the first sections of the novel making it difficult to follow. However, once Johansson takes control of the plot, the whodunit becomes more focused and enjoyable. Though Lars (so far at least) is no Falck or Wallender, fans of Camilla Lackberg and Henning Mankell will enjoy this opening police procedural that delves deep into the Swedish identity haunted by the homicide a quarter of a century ago.
Harriet Klausner
Me, Myself, and Why?-MaryJanice Davidson
Me, Myself, and Why?
MaryJanice Davidson
St. Martin’s, Sep 28 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312531171
In Minneapolis, the FBI Bureau of False Flags Ops (BOFFO) Agent Cadence Jones suffers from multiple personality disorder, which is an asset for the mission of this unit filled with psychotics and an occasional functional neurotic. She and her partner sociopath George Pinkham are assigned to ending the reign of terror of Threefer Killer, who murders people in groups of three leaving behind newspaper articles and nothing else.
The serial killer begins sending messages to Cadence and her two sisters Shiro and Adrienne. Depending on which MPD is working determines whether Cadence is concerned or not. However, anyone who is from the Twin Cities knows better than to mess with the Jones. More concerned to Cadence as she switches from one personality to another is she falls in love with her best friend’s visiting brother.
Clearly over the top of the Prospect Park Water Tower and Deming Heights Park combined, Me, Myself and Why? Is a zany dark humorous police procedural. Not for all of MaryJanice Davidson’s fans especially the paranormal shoe lovers, this tale lampoons how easily society conveniently catalogues people to make them fit inside a file drawer. The strong radically offbeat edgy cast make for a madcap Minnesota mystery, in which ironically MPD sufferer holds the plot together as readers will wonder whether to label her as the main character or characters.
Harriet Klausner
MaryJanice Davidson
St. Martin’s, Sep 28 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312531171
In Minneapolis, the FBI Bureau of False Flags Ops (BOFFO) Agent Cadence Jones suffers from multiple personality disorder, which is an asset for the mission of this unit filled with psychotics and an occasional functional neurotic. She and her partner sociopath George Pinkham are assigned to ending the reign of terror of Threefer Killer, who murders people in groups of three leaving behind newspaper articles and nothing else.
The serial killer begins sending messages to Cadence and her two sisters Shiro and Adrienne. Depending on which MPD is working determines whether Cadence is concerned or not. However, anyone who is from the Twin Cities knows better than to mess with the Jones. More concerned to Cadence as she switches from one personality to another is she falls in love with her best friend’s visiting brother.
Clearly over the top of the Prospect Park Water Tower and Deming Heights Park combined, Me, Myself and Why? Is a zany dark humorous police procedural. Not for all of MaryJanice Davidson’s fans especially the paranormal shoe lovers, this tale lampoons how easily society conveniently catalogues people to make them fit inside a file drawer. The strong radically offbeat edgy cast make for a madcap Minnesota mystery, in which ironically MPD sufferer holds the plot together as readers will wonder whether to label her as the main character or characters.
Harriet Klausner
Me, Myself, and Why?-MaryJanice Davidson
Me, Myself, and Why?
MaryJanice Davidson
St. Martin’s, Sep 28 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312531171
In Minneapolis, the FBI Bureau of False Flags Ops (BOFFO) Agent Cadence Jones suffers from multiple personality disorder, which is an asset for the mission of this unit filled with psychotics and an occasional functional neurotic. She and her partner sociopath George Pinkham are assigned to ending the reign of terror of Threefer Killer, who murders people in groups of three leaving behind newspaper articles and nothing else.
The serial killer begins sending messages to Cadence and her two sisters Shiro and Adrienne. Depending on which MPD is working determines whether Cadence is concerned or not. However, anyone who is from the Twin Cities knows better than to mess with the Jones. More concerned to Cadence as she switches from one personality to another is she falls in love with her best friend’s visiting brother.
Clearly over the top of the Prospect Park Water Tower and Deming Heights Park combined, Me, Myself and Why? Is a zany dark humorous police procedural. Not for all of MaryJanice Davidson’s fans especially the paranormal shoe lovers, this tale lampoons how easily society conveniently catalogues people to make them fit inside a file drawer. The strong radically offbeat edgy cast make for a madcap Minnesota mystery, in which ironically MPD sufferer holds the plot together as readers will wonder whether to label her as the main character or characters.
Harriet Klausner
MaryJanice Davidson
St. Martin’s, Sep 28 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312531171
In Minneapolis, the FBI Bureau of False Flags Ops (BOFFO) Agent Cadence Jones suffers from multiple personality disorder, which is an asset for the mission of this unit filled with psychotics and an occasional functional neurotic. She and her partner sociopath George Pinkham are assigned to ending the reign of terror of Threefer Killer, who murders people in groups of three leaving behind newspaper articles and nothing else.
The serial killer begins sending messages to Cadence and her two sisters Shiro and Adrienne. Depending on which MPD is working determines whether Cadence is concerned or not. However, anyone who is from the Twin Cities knows better than to mess with the Jones. More concerned to Cadence as she switches from one personality to another is she falls in love with her best friend’s visiting brother.
Clearly over the top of the Prospect Park Water Tower and Deming Heights Park combined, Me, Myself and Why? Is a zany dark humorous police procedural. Not for all of MaryJanice Davidson’s fans especially the paranormal shoe lovers, this tale lampoons how easily society conveniently catalogues people to make them fit inside a file drawer. The strong radically offbeat edgy cast make for a madcap Minnesota mystery, in which ironically MPD sufferer holds the plot together as readers will wonder whether to label her as the main character or characters.
Harriet Klausner
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop-Edited by Otto Penzler
Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop
Edited by Otto Penzler
Vanguard, Oct 12 2010, $24.95
ISBN: 9781593156176
This compilation of seventeen short stories that were given out as pamphlets to the customers of the legendary store date back to 1993 with one a year since. The only two stipulations are it takes place at Christmas and the bookstore must be involved at least in one scene. The contributors are a who’s who of the mystery-suspense genre with most lampooning the classics including those written by the author as Donald E. Westlake did in 1993 with Dortmunder learning to “Give Till It Hurts” and Mary Higgins Clark in 2009 with Alvirah in” What’s In A Name?”. Lawrence Block satirizes Nero Wolfe in the amusing 1997 “As Dark as Christmas Gets" or the 1995 jocular self-deprecating "I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus" by Ed McBain (is that his ninth plum of an pseudonym?). With No clinkers, fans who appreciate a strong mostly tongue in cheek anthology in which part of the fun is discovering the insider jokes will want to stop in Manhattan’s Tribecca neighborhood (in person or from the armchair) to visit Otto Penzler’s Mystery Bookshop as this is an entertaining collection.
Harriet Klausner
Edited by Otto Penzler
Vanguard, Oct 12 2010, $24.95
ISBN: 9781593156176
This compilation of seventeen short stories that were given out as pamphlets to the customers of the legendary store date back to 1993 with one a year since. The only two stipulations are it takes place at Christmas and the bookstore must be involved at least in one scene. The contributors are a who’s who of the mystery-suspense genre with most lampooning the classics including those written by the author as Donald E. Westlake did in 1993 with Dortmunder learning to “Give Till It Hurts” and Mary Higgins Clark in 2009 with Alvirah in” What’s In A Name?”. Lawrence Block satirizes Nero Wolfe in the amusing 1997 “As Dark as Christmas Gets" or the 1995 jocular self-deprecating "I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus" by Ed McBain (is that his ninth plum of an pseudonym?). With No clinkers, fans who appreciate a strong mostly tongue in cheek anthology in which part of the fun is discovering the insider jokes will want to stop in Manhattan’s Tribecca neighborhood (in person or from the armchair) to visit Otto Penzler’s Mystery Bookshop as this is an entertaining collection.
Harriet Klausner
The Pericles Commission-Gary Corby
The Pericles Commission
Gary Corby
Minotaur, Oct 12 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312599027
In 461 BC in Athens, the man fell from the sky. At least that is how it initially looked to those near the Areopagus. In fact democratic reformist leader Ephialtes was shot with a myriad of arrows before his dive off the Rock of Areopagus. He landed dead at the feet of a sculptor’s son Nicolaos.
Ephialtes's political ally Pericles arrives just after the death. He is pleasantly surprised by the logical analysis Nicolaos applies to the assassination; as such Pericles hires the lad to investigate the murder. Knowing the ruling council meets at the Areopagus and the obvious motive is these members refuse to lose power as they would under Ephialtes’ reform, he looks for the killer(s) amidst the leading citizens of the city including his client.
This is an excellent Ancient Athenian mystery in which Gary Corby constructs his deep story line around real persona (including the victim) and events (including the victim’s murder). The early chapters set the tale of fifth century BC in Athens and once Ephialtes falls, the story line takes off at a resounding speed. Mindful of Jose Carlos Somoza’s The Athenian Murders, The Pericles Commission is a superb BCE historical.
Harriet Klausner
Gary Corby
Minotaur, Oct 12 2010, $24.99
ISBN: 9780312599027
In 461 BC in Athens, the man fell from the sky. At least that is how it initially looked to those near the Areopagus. In fact democratic reformist leader Ephialtes was shot with a myriad of arrows before his dive off the Rock of Areopagus. He landed dead at the feet of a sculptor’s son Nicolaos.
Ephialtes's political ally Pericles arrives just after the death. He is pleasantly surprised by the logical analysis Nicolaos applies to the assassination; as such Pericles hires the lad to investigate the murder. Knowing the ruling council meets at the Areopagus and the obvious motive is these members refuse to lose power as they would under Ephialtes’ reform, he looks for the killer(s) amidst the leading citizens of the city including his client.
This is an excellent Ancient Athenian mystery in which Gary Corby constructs his deep story line around real persona (including the victim) and events (including the victim’s murder). The early chapters set the tale of fifth century BC in Athens and once Ephialtes falls, the story line takes off at a resounding speed. Mindful of Jose Carlos Somoza’s The Athenian Murders, The Pericles Commission is a superb BCE historical.
Harriet Klausner
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