Lexy Lomax, working as a private detective out of her fisherman’s cabin in the Suffolk, England village of Clopwolde-on-Sea, is hired by a 16-tear-old girl to investigate the recent death of a woman she’d never met. This strange request is, somewhat dubiously, explained by the fact that the girl, Rowana Paterson, is convinced that her attempt at witchcraft has produced fatal results. A fuller explanation deals with the dead woman having left to Rowana all her worldly goods, including her cottage in a place called Freshing Hill.

Thirty-year-old Lexy has literally escaped three months prior from her previous life as Alexandra Warwick-Holmes, the trophy wife of an antiques dealer of questionable morality, taking her [well, technically, her husband's] scarred, caramel-coloured Chihuahua, Kinky, with her. (more…)

It is a journalistic axiom that a reporter should never become part of the story. Unfortunately, that principle does not apply to Chris Turner, a reporter for the Bergen News who is led by the nose by a serial killer, who initially entices him with a tip about a scandal about a leading political figure and then feeds him additional leads. To dead bodies.

At one point, even Chris is suspected of being the mysterious “PT,” the source of the information which has made him nationally, and even internationally, famous, while he claims modestly he was only lucky, being in the right place at the right time. It makes for a rousing plot.

This is the author’s second standalone novel, following the highly popular Andy Carpenter series, which included seven entries. What this book proves is that he is not limited to a formula. The book is well-written and the story moves ahead swiftly, keeping the reader off kilter [in a good way]. Recommended.

There’s a rumor going around that an ex- New York Governor, who resigned amid a sex scandal, is being considered for an hour-long CNN program. The wags are pointing out that it would be a switch: This time he would be paid by the hour instead of forking over money to a working girl for services. Then, of course, there were a former President and a certain southern Governor also involved in sex scandals.

Of course there is nothing new about the sex trade; just look back to the Bible and Mary Magdalene or David and Bathsheba. But the topic is timely. Just consider the murder of a Boston woman who advertised her “services” on Craig’s list about the time the manuscript for the present novel was submitted. Such a topic plays an important role in helping Ellie Hatcher and her partner, J.J. Rogan, to solve at least three murders in this well-written police procedural. (more…)

Serendipity plays an important part in the plot of this novel. Recently divorced, Adam Kindred decides to change his life and return to his native England. So he resigns his university position in Arizona and applies for a position in London. On the night of his interview there, he stops for a meal at a local restaurant and meets Dr. Philip Wang, an immunologist heading the development of a new asthma drug for a drug company. They chat for a few minutes and Wang leaves. Adam discovers that he left a file behind, and Adam phones him and is invited for a drink when he returns the paper.

From this simple encounter flows a series of incidents that change the course of lives and events. When Adam arrives where Wang is staying, he finds him with a knife protruding from his chest, just barely alive. (more…)

Having just read and reviewed Mr. Montalban’s “Tattoo,” this reviewer found that this novel marks a deep contrast both in the writing and in the portrayal of Pepe Carvalho, the Barcelona private eye. In the former book, he is pictured as a light-hearted, irreverent lover and gourmet, and the tone of the writing is equally sprightly. In this installment, the writing is deep and somber, as befits the subject, and Pepe’s approach to his two loves is anything but light. Only his taste for food remains the same.

Pepe is retained by a rich widow to find the identity of the murderer of her son. To accomplish this task, Pepe becomes involved in infiltrating all kinds of conspiracies: a murderous scandal, murky politics and the world of Satanism and religious sects. (more…)

An entry in a popular series about Pepe Carvalho, an unusual character who is a private investigator and a gourmet based in Barcelona, this novel was published many years ago in Europe and more recently translated with grace a couple of years ago. The publisher is to be congratulated in reprinting and releasing Tattoo and another, The Man of My Life (review to follow shortly), in February, among others in this series. Pepe is a charming rascal, with an intriguing background, having had an apparently successful career before he walked away from the CIA to undertake his more or less relaxed profession in his native Spain.

Pepe is retained for a hefty sum by the husband of a local hairdresser to identify a body pulled out of the sea with a face so badly destroyed that the only identification is a tattoo on the back reading “Born to Raise Hell in Hell.” Barcelona police attribute the death to local prostitutes and drug dealers and sweep up these elements off the street. Pepe’s investigation leads him to Amsterdam, where the victim worked briefly and apparently was involved with a drug gang. But the mystery is not so simple. (more…)

The statement is made that this is a debut novel, although the author has co-written two books with Richard Patterson previously. Be that as it may, this solo effort s an impressive one. It introduces a troubled but determined protagonist, Darlene O’Hara, a detective in a lower East Side New York precinct.

One day, O’Hara catches a missing person case and starts working it diligently. But after three days, the investigation becomes a homicide case and she is told to keep away from it and leave it to the specialists, including a star detective from Homicide South. However, she can’t let go and defies orders, attempting to solve the crime, until she is finally suspended. And she still goes on.
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Sixteen novels have preceded this latest entry in the Kate Shugak series set in Alaska, and there is always something doing in The Park, this time pretty much between the Memorial and Labor Day Holidays. Since Global Harvest Resources opened up the Suulutaq mine on state property, there has been unrest disturbing the tranquility of the area as more employees are brought in to begin work on what is expected to be one of the largest sources of gold in the world, not to mention deposits of other mineral ores.

Then one employee heads into the woods, leaving a suicide note. When Kate and others go searching for him they find human remains apparently finished off by a bear. The case is ruled “suicide by Alaska,” but Kate keeps turning up evidence that the case is more complicated, with some signs implicating funny goings on at the mine.

The author obviously has a deep feeling for Alaska, and her descriptions of the state and its inhabitants go deep. At the same time, she portrays the problems of the lack of jobs versus the needs of the environment with feeling. And always creating believable characters and a sustainable mystery.

Recommended.

I originally reviewed A Simple Plan by Scott Smith on November 7, 2006.

There is a detached almost unemotional tone to the story as told from the point of view of one of the brothers, Hank the one whose job is to hold the money. The somber thoughtfulness and the clinical reporting heighten the internal dynamics of the small group. Old tensions, personality quirks and internal failings all will rise to the surface. Deception and subterfuge quickly becomes the rules by which the game is to be played as a genuine need for the money arises. Friendship and loyalty will be tested as tensions continue to mount. The dread of what is going to happen becomes palpable and weighs heavy on the reader because we know, more so then the characters, that this is going to end badly.

I would imagine that when most people think of a thriller they think of a book that has a blistering pace where the action and suspense quickly escalate to create a level of tension. But A Simple Plan is a slow burner of a novel, the suspense and terror are all there in abundance but its the tension of waiting, you know that the train wreck is going to happen, you just don’t know when.

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Leonid McGill (his father was a communist union organizer who changed his name to Tolstoy and named his brother Nikita) was first introduced to readers in this novel in 2009, now reprinted as a trade paperback. (His second appearance was in a hardcover issued in March of 2010.) A black private eye based in New York, Leonid lives with his wife and three children (two of whom were fathered by someone else) in a loveless marriage (although Katrina is a great cook and he is close to her son, but not his own).

Essentially, the plot revolves around Leonid’s acceptance of a job to find four persons only identified by their boyhood nicknames, offered to him by a PI from Albany. It turns out the PI used a false name, making it hard to trace him after Leonid discovers the identities of the four men: One of them is dead, another in jail, the third is awaiting trial and the fourth appears to be a legitimate investment advisor. When they start dying off one by one, Leonid feels guilty and attempts to find the underlying client.

Meanwhile there are various side capers testing Leonid’s resolve to give up his past shady activities and go somewhat honest in his endeavors. Many of his activities are amusing and offbeat, making him a colorful character. In fact, many of the personages he comes into contact with could inhabit a Jimmy Breslin or Damon Runyon column. This aspect of the novel alone is sufficient incentive to read the sequel.

Recommended.

The Long Fall by Walter Mosley