Danger In Plain Sight-Marta Perry

Danger In Plain Sight


Marta Perry

Harlequin HQN, May 22 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780373776689



Photojournalist Libby Morgan returns from San Francisco to Spring Township in Lancaster County for her brother Trey’s marriage to Jessica (see Murder in Plain Sight). She also needs to see her best friend Esther Zook who sent her notes that implied she was afraid as something was not right in their mellow Amish community. However, before Libby can see Esther, a hit and run while she drove her buggy has hospitalized her in bad shape with a head injury. Libby insists the vehicle assault was deliberate.



Springville Police Chief Adam Byler leads the official inquiry but as he uncovers clues he does not like what he finds. This shakes his core value system. Unable to remain idly by on the sidelines while her former boyfriend Adam works the case, Libby applies her investigative journalism skills to investigate



This is a strong romantic suspense (see Vanish In Plain Sight) as readers see how the Amish deal with a police investigation that takes the “Englischer” former marine turned cop and the photojournalist deep into the community. Filled with tension and several deft twists re the motive, Marta Perry provides a fabulous whodunit (and why).



Harriet Klausner

The Reckoning-Jane Casey

The Reckoning


Jane Casey

Minotaur, May 22 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312622008



In London Metropolitan police Superintendent Charles Godley, assigns Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan and Detective Inspector Josh Derwent to investigate two similar homicides. Both victims were convicted sex offenders and tortured by the culprit; however Barry Palmer's skull was fractured while Ivan Tremlett's throat was sliced. A third pedophile is murdered in a similar manner but his head was blown off his body.



Someone on their task force is leaking information to the media who makes the killer into a hero because of whom the victims were. Kerrigan and Josh Derwent save the fourth victim. This sends them to search for Cheyenne, the missing teenage daughter of brutal gangster John Skinner as time is running out for the girl.



The latest DC Kerrigan police procedural (see The Burning) is a fabulous investigative thriller as reticent Maeve swims upstream in a testosterone ocean. She makes the tale work with her feminine perspective as she shows confidence on the job though copes poorly with nasty bullying Derwent who ridicules her as being inadequate; she knows she cannot report him to her superior as Giodley will assume she is too sensitive to do the job. Her maybe romance with Detective Constable Rob Langton lessens Kerrigan’s self-esteem though this is somewhat a standard but distracting sub-genre element. With a couple of twists including who is behind the killings, fans will enjoy Kerrigan’s second case.



Harriet Klausner

Don't Ever Get Old-Daniel Friedman

Don't Ever Get Old


Daniel Friedman

Minotaur, May 22 2012, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312606930



Jim Wallace is dying at the MED geriatric ICU. He asks octogenarian Buck Schatz to visit him though they were not friends even when they were incarcerated in a POW camp back in ‘44. Buck’s wife of over six decades Rose makes him honor the dying man’s request. Because he cannot drive that far, Jim’s daughter Emily Feely takes him.



Wallace tells him he saw camp commandant SS officer Heinrich Ziegler in France in 1946. Schatz hated Ziegler who abused him for being Jewish and looked for the SOB after the war, but learned the Russians killed the Nazi. However, Wallace says he accepted a gold bar to let the man go. He begs Buck to forgive him, but instead Schatz tells him to enjoy hell; Wallace dies immediately before Buck leaves.



Buck plans to return to daytime TV, but apparently Emily, her husband Norris, and a horde of others know what Wallace told Buck and assume he will go after the Nazi and the gold. As those with an interest begin to die, Buck decides he better get involved before someone comes after him or Rose; he drafts his NYU law student grandson Billy to help him find Ziegler.



Mindful of Mike Befeler’s octogenarian Paul Jacobson Geezer-mysteries (see Retirement Homes Are Murder); this is a terrific geriatric noir. The key is the protagonist suffers from memory loss and a ton of physical ailments but retains his witty sense of humor as he and his sidekick end in one jam after another. Fast-paced Daniel Friedman makes a strong case that revenge may be a dish served cold but it still served even after six decades of being dormant.



Harriet Klausner

A Cold Day in Paradise-Steve Hamilton

A Cold Day in Paradise


Steve Hamilton

Minotaur, May 22 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9781250012685



Detroit police officer Alex McKnight was forced to accept a disability retirement when he took a bullet near his heart. Alex moves to Paradise, a small community in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where he rents cabins to hunters. Local attorney Lane Uttley urges Alex to get his private investigator's license by promising to send the former cop his investigating business.



When Edwin Fulton of the wealthy Detroit family is mixed up with the murder of his bookie, Alex is hired to protect the Fulton name. However, a second murder of another local bookie and the disappearance of Eddie change the case. Alex and Lane begin to investigate the murders and the disappearance. However, at the same time the ex-cop begins to receive mail and calls allegedly from the individual who shot him near the heart fourteen years ago, a person supposedly spending life behind bars without parole.



This is a reprint of the first engaging Alex McKnight Upper Peninsular private investigator case. The characters are brilliantly developed and the mysteries are fun puzzles that blend together in a witty and wonderful story line. However, what really makes Steve Hamilton's debut a smashing success is the clever way the author provides background material from several different years and incidents from Alex's past in the context of a current situational dilemma. Readers who have spent cold days in paradise with Alex and the local community will want to do so with other McKnight tales.



Harriet Klausner

The Executioner's Song-Norman Mailer

The Executioner's Song


Norman Mailer

Grand Central, May 8 2012, $18.99

ISBN: 9780446584388



In 1976, thirtyish Gary Gilmore was released from an Indiana prison after serving twelve years for a robbery conviction. He moved to Utah to live with his uncle, aunt and his cousin Brenda. Gilmore meets and falls in love with single mom of two widow Nicole Barrett. Like his family especially Brenda, Nicole tries to help him, but in spite of his high IQ and caring people he continues to brawl just like he did at Marion and robbed stores. On two consecutive nights Gilmore kills a person during a robbery. He is arrested and convicted of a capital offense. His lawyer Lawrence Schiller appealed the death sentence, but Gilmore demanded the state execute him by firing squad. On January 17, 1977, Gilmore is executed as the first person killed by a state in almost a decade.



This is a reprint of a great true crime tale with its insightful look at the effect of institutionalization (half of Gilmore’s life was inside) as the government-prison industrial complex prefers warehousing to educating; the right to die (Gilmore’s lawyers appealed without his consent) with the Utah court ruling as judicial grounds for others who choose death (not just prisoners), and the true value of the death penalty. The first section focuses in Gilmore's life before the homicides with much of his time in detention facilities and his final months of freedom in Utah. Part two centers on the trial and Gilmore’s quest for the state execution. Using interviews with 360 degrees of Gilmore contacts, court and police documents, and the defense attorney’s notes, but with no communication with the defendant, Norman Mailer’s work remains relevant today.



Harriet Klausner

Destiny Kills-S. D. Tooley

Destiny Kills


S. D. Tooley

Full Moon Publishing, Apr 15 2012, $16.95

ISBN: 9780984635757



In Chasen Heights, Illinois Marti Johnson is having fun with her nine moth old daughter Savannah when her cell phone rings. Immediately after the four-second call ends; she puts on her sneakers, ignores her baby, walks out of the condo onto an overpass, and leaps. She lands on a semi to her death.



The police call Marti’s death a suicide but her husband Forrest rejects the official position as his wife was a contented person. He pleads with the police to reopen the case, but the cops have no grounds to do so; instead they refer bereaving Forrest to police consultant and former cop Sam Casey. She also meets a client who tells her that her sister calmly walked into Lake Michigan and drowned herself just after a four-second call one week before her wedding. Sam’s husband, police detective Jake Mitchell investigates the case of a woman strangled to death by her purse strap. When Sam touches the victim’s purses, she hears the same word destiny, same as the two “suicides”. They need all of Sam’s Indian magic and Jake’s police smarts to figure out who or what the caller is.



The sixth stupendous Sam Casey paranormal police procedural (see What Lies Within, When the Dead Speak and Echoes From The Grave) is the usual great mystery. Sam and Jake are a terrific yin and yang pairing as she believes in the ethereal and he in technology; together they are an incredible team. With some humor especially when the heroine deals with her spouse, Destiny Kills is a fabulous whodunit it as S.D. Tooley makes her cast and the Lake Michigan fantasy elements seem real inside of an enjoyable tale.



Harriet Klausner

The Borgia Mistress-Sara Poole

The Borgia Mistress


Sara Poole

St. Martin's Griffin, May 22 2012, $14.99

ISBN: 9780312609856



Rodrigo Borgia has been elected Pope Alexander VI and his son Cesare a cardinal. Realizing the threats from his enemies towards his family has exponentially increased and fearing the spread of plague, Pope Alexander moves his kin and his retinue from Rome to Viterbo, a nearby fortified town.



Amongst those relocating with the House of Borgia is the family’s Jewish poisoner Francesca Giordano who has her own issues staring with the unsolved murder of her dad, her late mom rumored to be alive, her relationship with Cesare and her addicted dependency on opium. However, Francesca has a greater concern at the moment with the sudden unexplained deaths of several staff members. Many look at the Spanish contingent traveling with them, but as the Borgia coroner Francesca has doubts because they support their kingdom’s alliance with the Borgia so she knows not to rule them out but to look elsewhere too as must find the assassin while wondering who the ultimate target is.



The third Poisoner Mysteries (see Poison and The Borgia Betrayal) is a superb twisting historical that combines a strong sense of time and place with a fabulous whodunit. Readers will enjoy the exploits of Francesca as she works several inquiries, but knows the one that matters is ending the serial killings of an insider assassin.



Harriet Klausner