Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Imagine yourself on a plane from Hobart to Sydney, Australia.  You are sitting quietly, perhaps reading a book or watching the small screen on the back of the seat in front of you.  Suddenly a middle aged woman begins walking down the narrow aisle, pausing for a few moments at each row, saying something, and then moving on.  At first nothing seems amiss, but after she stops several times there’s a stir in the air as if something unpleasant is happening.

It takes a few minutes for people to realize the situation.  The woman is talking at the passengers, not to them.  As she moves down the aisle, people begin to understand her words.  “I expect catastrophic stroke.  Age seventy-two.”  “Heart disease.  Age eight-four.”  “Workplace accident.  Age forty-three.”  “Drowning.  Age seven.”

The woman making these predictions, later to become known as the “Death Lady,” had boarded the plane quietly, nobody noticing her.  But she and several of the travelers whose futures she predicts would shortly be known all over the country.

The passengers to whom the woman speaks react differently.  Not surprisingly, the ones whose deaths were predicted at more advanced ages were not unduly upset.  Eighty-four.  Ninety-three. Ninety-five.  Those predictions were okay.  But thirty-seven.  Forty-three.  Seven.  Not okay.

The flight attendants, all of whom are busy with unrelated tasks, aren’t aware of exactly what’s going on, but finally the cabin manager Alexa is alerted and is able to lead the woman back to her seat.  Her final comment is directed to Alexa.  “I expect self-harm—age…age..twenty-eight.”

The talking among the passengers continues until the plane lands.  There is a lot of conversation about psychic powers, their reliability or lack thereof.  But then the first death occurs, exactly as predicted, followed by two more.  It’s scary.

The novel is told in various voices.  We hear from Alexa; Ethan, a passenger who is told he will die at thirty (he’s twenty-nine); Paula, a young mother whose son is predicted to die by drowning at age seven; and several others.  We note their reactions to the predictions and wonder, what would we do in that situation?

We also hear from the woman who has become notorious.  Although she doesn’t say more to each individual than their age of death and the cause, she observes, “Fate won’t be fought,” which is hardly comforting for those whose death date is sooner rather than later.

Here One Moment, as well as being an outstanding mystery, is a novel that is truly thought-provoking.  It raises at least two questions.  First, do you believe in prophesies?  Second, if you do, how would you try to avoid yours, assuming it told of your early or imminent death?  Would you give up your favorite hobby, rock climbing, if you were told you’d die in a fall?  Would you never go in the water if it were foretold that you would drown?  Or would you dismiss the predictions and proceed with your life as if you’d never been told the date and manner of your demise?

Liane Moriarty continues her streak of excellent thrillers, novels with excellent plots and characters you care about.  You can read more about her at various sites on the web.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

The protagonist of Death in the Air, Ro Krishna, is the American-born son of Tamil parents.  He spent most of his life in the United States, then moved to England where he received a law degree at Oxford, and since then has traveled widely in Europe, becoming fluent in French and German.  In other words, he’s a cultured man.

As the novel opens, Ro has just lost his position at an international firm.  His boss had been speaking against him behind his back and took all the credit for his work.  He’s not worried about his financial status, but he’s upset and hurt nevertheless.

Almost on the spur of the moment, he decides to go to the world-famous Samsara Spa at the foot of the Himalayas to relax, unwind, and revitalize his body and mind.  It’s located in Rishikesh, where the Beatles studied transcendental meditation.

As it turns out, several of Ro’s friends and acquaintances will be at the spa also.  Like Ro, they are all super-wealthy, worldly, and sophisticated.  They are also very quick with cutting remarks.  Celebrating Ro’s birthday shortly before he leaves for India, one woman asks Amrita, who will play a major part in the novel, about a party she attended.  “It was a great party, if you’d never been to a party before,” Amrita responds.  Ouch!

Among the guests at Samsara are Ro’s friend Joss, a theatrical agent; Chris, the movie star he represents; Chris’ wife Catherine, formerly a diplomat; Mrs. Banerjee, the grande dame who runs the hotel; Makesh, a valued staff member specializing in yoga and meditation; and Amir, another visitor.

Amrita and Ro spend much of the first day talking and discovering a bit about each other, but at dinner she’s obviously upset.  She tells him she’s lost her watch, which had belonged to her mother, and Ro tries to reassure her, saying he’s sure it will turn up.  Then, while they’re eating, Amrita is called away from the table to take a phone call, and when she returns she’s smiling.  Her watch has been found, she is told over the phone, and she decides she’ll pick it up at Reception immediately.

After dinner, Ro and several of his friends decide to do some star-gazing. He and Lala, another guest, go to the laundry room to pick up blankets for the group to lie on.  Hands full, they return to the grounds, Lala in the lead, when suddenly she begins to scream.  In front of them on the grass is Amrita’s corpse.

No one appears to have a motive to murder Amrita, but hers will not be the only murder at the spa.  And the others will appear to be motiveless as well.

Ram Murali has written a wonderful first novel.  Its setting in the Himalayas is both beautiful and remote, and the guests are definitely living the lives of “the other half.”  The dialog is clever and often sarcastic, although never to the victim’s face, only behind their back.  Perhaps that goes with being in the top one percent.

Still, that being said and multiple murders notwithstanding, if someone would like to invite me to spend a week at the Samsara Spa, I’m game!

You can read more about the author at this website.

These days everyone wants to be famous.  Not for developing a vaccine to fight a pandemic sweeping the world or for writing a novel that wins the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.  Honestly, anyone can do those things.

No, people want to be famous as an Influencer, someone with thousands, if not millions, of followers on TikTok or Instagram.  And the people with rather small followings but who believe they should have thousands more are very vulnerable to an agency promising that they can make that happen.

Rosie D’Antonio doesn’t need an agency to bump up her profile.  She’s a best-selling author and a noted media personality.  But she does need a bodyguard because a character in one of her books is obviously based on Vasiliy Karpin, a Russian billionaire, and he took exception to the way he was portrayed and has twice attempted to kill Rosie. 

That’s why she and Amy Wheeler, a bodyguard who works for Maximum Impact Solutions, are on Rosie’s private island in the waters off South Carolina.  Until MIS can neutralize this threat, Amy and Rosie need to stay out of the public eye.

Jeff Nolan, CEO of MIS, is clearly taking no chances with Rosie’s safety.  He has already “lost” three influencer clients to unexplained deaths, and he certainly doesn’t want to lose any more.  He’s not in doubt about who is behind these deaths.  It’s François Lubet, a former client and money-smuggler, and Jeff is writing to him to let him know that he will take steps to stop this threat to his business if Loubet doesn’t cease and desist.  But who is François Lubet?

As it happens, in each case where a client was murdered, Amy Wheeler was in the vicinity.  Now her father-in-law Steve wants to talk to her about the latest murder victim, Andrew Fairchild.  Andrew was just beginning his career as an influencer when his body was found.  He’d been shot, tied to a rope, and thrown from a boat into the Atlantic.

Jeff wants Amy to come back to London to help him solve these murders, and she’s about to leave Rosie on her South Carolina island with a second bodyguard, an ex-Navy SEAL named Kevin, when Kevin comes into the room and points a gun at her.  He tells her to handcuff herself behind her back, which she does, and starts to lead her to the panic room that Rosie had installed.  Suddenly he’s hit on the head with a golden statue held by Rosie, and then the two women manage to put Kevin in the panic room.  His gun is useless there, Rosie tells Amy.  “He’s in there for the long run.”

And thus the Rosie and Amy begin their trip around the world, stopping only to bring Steve to America to join them, and the three of them start to work together to solve these murders.  Their stops include Dubai and Dublin and then back to Dubai, ending up in London.  There are murders along the way, suspicious influences, money-laundering criminals, and murderers.  All in all, it’s a fabulous trip.

Richard Osman continues the winning streak he started with The Thursday Murder Club, creating another group of characters who are utterly charming and beguiling, funny and determined.  I imagine We Solve Murders is only the first in the author’s new series; all I can say is that I hope so.

You can read more about Richard Osman at various sites on the web.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

Agnes Glin’s life has been dominated by two men, her father and her grandfather.  Now she’s going to Iceland, where both men were born, to find the truth of the secret that has ruled all three lives ever since she can remember.

Agnes was very close to her grandfather Einar, closer than she was to her father, visiting him every Sunday until his death a year earlier.  All she knows about the men’s lives in the small village of Bifröst is what led them to come to California, a tragedy known as the Frozen Madonna case.  It’s something her father, Magnús, would never talk about, nor would Einar.  Einar’s last words to Agnes on the subject were, “There is no before.  My life began when you were born,” but Agnes knows that cannot be true.

Now a true crime podcast is being developed by Nora Clark, an American who has gone to Bifröst to try to discover the story of the deaths of Marie Hvass, her paternal grandmother, and Marie’s infant daughter Agnes.  It’s forty years after the horrific event, and not everyone who was alive at the time is still alive and living in the village, and not everyone wants to remember the story.

Marie was a beautiful Danish young woman who married Einar and moved to the small village of Bifröst.  They had two children, Magnùs and Agnes, the latter for whom Agnes Glin is named.  No one knows what really happened to the mother and her daughter, but everyone thinks they know.  Their bodies were found in the snow by their six-year-old neighbor Ingvar.  Marie’s throat was slashed, the infant Agnes was drowned.

The villagers believed that Einar had murdered his wife and child, although it was never proven.  Then, when Einar and Magnús left for America, selling their land to a relative who had adjoining property, never returning to Iceland, the unofficial verdict against them was solidified.  Einar was guilty.

It’s a year after Agnes’ own life-changing event occurred, a fall that resulted in a badly injured left leg, leaving her with constant pain and a limp.  Perhaps it is that event that made her decide to accept the invitation to go on Nora’s podcast and hopefully learn the truth about the Frozen Madonna Murder.

When she arrives, another village-wide search is in progress.  A young woman, Ása Gunnarsdóttir, has gone missing, and everyone is looking for her.  Nora tells Agnes, “She was reported missing yesterday, and I have reason to believe it’s connected to your grandmother’s case.”

Although she’s fighting jet lag and the experience of being in a place where she doesn’t speak or understand the language, Agnes doesn’t want to be constrained by Nora’s interviews.  She meets Ingvar, the boy who discovered the two bodies; his mother, now suffering from dementia; Thor Thorsen, a relative of Einar’s;  and his father, Thor Senior, who is now  in a nursing home and blames his son for putting him there.

Melissa Larsen has written a compelling novel about secrets that lie buried for generations and what happens when they’re uncovered.  The relentless snow and ice that cover Biförst can’t hide the truth forever.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Now is the season for the “best of” lists.  Best films, best recordings, best television shows–you’re familiar with all of those.  But here’s the list you’ve really been waiting for–my list of the best mysteries of 2024.

The trend of mysteries that take place outside the United States and England continues, which I think is a great thing.  One of the pleasures of reading books in any genre is the fun of learning about a place you may never have lived in or visited.  If you’ve never been to France, Japan, or Cuba, here’s your opportunity to learn about them and perhaps put them on your bucket list, though I’d suggest without the murders.

My choices are in alphabetical order by author’s last name

DARK RIDE by Lou Berney,  ECHO by Tracy Clark, LAST SEEN IN HAVANA by Teresa Dovalpage, THE BEST LIES by David Ellis, IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME by Alex Finlay, THE SLATE by Matthew Fitzsimmons, THE FINAL CURTAIN by Keigo Higashino, LIKE IT NEVER HAPPENED by Jeff Hoffman, HUNTED by Abir Mukherjee, NOTHING BUT THE BONES by Brian Panowich, A BLOOD RED MORNING by Mark Pryor, WORDHUNTER by Stella Sands, and DEATH IN THE DETAILS by Katie Tietjen.

I would have liked to include even more novels, but there are already a “baker’s dozen.”  Each and every book I’ve blogged about this year is worthy of having been included, so you can scroll through my reviews; if you’ve missed a couple or more, here’s your second chance. It’s never too late to curl up and read a great mystery.

All my best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a happy 2025.

Marilyn

Mirror Me is a mystery unlike any other I’ve read.  It’s a story of familial dysfunction, interracial adoptions, and mental illness, ending with a twist that I never saw coming.

Eddie Asher is the adopted son of the Asher family, a well-to-do Jewish family in Manhattan.  There are four Ashers–Eddie, his mother, his father, and his older brother Robert, the Ashers’ biological child, who alternately protects and torments Eddie.

When we meet Eddie, he’s a patient at the Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital.  His therapist is the renowned Dr. Richard Montgomery, a specialist in the condition variously known as split personality disorder, splintered personality disorder, or multiple/dissociative identity disorder.  In Eddie’s case, his “other” identity is Pär, who, along with Eddie, takes turns narrating the novel.

Whatever the condition is called, the patient has two or more distinct identities in control at various times.  The patient may have memory lapses caused by the switching of one personality to another, with one trying to gain control.  There are several causes of DID, and the reader won’t discover which one is the main cause of Eddie’s condition until nearly the end of Mirror Me.  Then perhaps you’ll wonder, as I did, why you didn’t think of it sooner.

Growing up, Eddie was the easily recognizable son, the one with brown skin.  His biological mother was a teenaged Swedish exchange student visiting New York City, his father a Black exchange student from an unknown African country.  When Britta discovers that she’s pregnant and contacts the father, she finds out he wants nothing to do with her or the expected baby.  She delivers Eddie, immediately signs the papers for him to be adopted, and leaves the hospital at once, not looking back.

The two brothers go their separate ways to college, and then Robert moves to Seattle and reconnects with Lucy, a young dancer he knows from New York City.  When Eddie visits, there’s an immediate connection with Lucy, due in part to the fact that they’re both biracial and were adopted by white Jewish families.  But, at least on Eddie’s part initially, the connection is stronger than that–is it lust or love that he feels?  And does Lucy feel the same, or is she simply a master manipulator who enjoys her power over him?

As Eddie becomes, in the words of Lucy, enmeshed with her and her family, her hold on him becomes stronger.  Eddie discovers that his is not the only dysfunctional family–Lucy’s family is as well.  And who is this Andy, whom Eddie hasn’t met but is constantly being mistaken for?

Eddie has memory lapses and occasional violent outbursts.   Pär doesn’t, but he isn’t omniscient, so can the reader trust his version of Eddie’s story?  The scenes in the hospital, with Eddie strapped down to protect himself and those around him from his violent actions, are hard to read, and we have to wonder how helpful Dr. Montgomery’s therapy is.

The novel is a disturbing look into mental illness, its causes, and its impact not only on the patient but on nearly everyone around him.  Lisa Williamson Rosenberg has written a strong mystery with conflicted and confused characters you are rooting for to conquer their demons and go on with their lives.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

Drug user, extreme party-goer, stalker–there’s so much not to like about Dylan Welch.  When his multi-millionaire father asks private investigator Sunny Randall to find his missing son, she refuses, but when Dylan’s mother turns up at Sunny’s office, it becomes a different story.

Lydia Welch insists that Sunny must take the case, saying that “You’re the best out there.”  Sunny tries to remind her that her previous encounter with Dylan did not end well for him, but Lydia is insistent.  And when she writes a check for an amount greater than Sunny has ever received previously and tells the detective that she and her son share a special relationship, she convinces Sunny to investigate the disappearance.

Dylan is the head of the company that produces Gonzo, a best-selling energy drink.  At least he’s nominally the head of it, but in fact the brains behind the organization belong to his college friend, Sky Farley.  Sky, whom the Welches consider to be a “daughter,” tells Sunny that when Dylan has disappeared in the past, she’s always known where he was, but not this time.

Sunny searches Dylan’s office and discovers his cell phone in a desk drawer.  After a few futile tries, Sunny guesses his password.  The phone reveals more than two dozen messages from a blocked number, and every text says MURDERER.  Then Sky and Maurice Depree, head of the organization’s security, show Sunny a video that was taken earlier that day.  It’s of a woman who was in the company’s offices, and even though there’s no sound, it’s obvious that the woman is screaming and out of control.

Although Dylan’s behavior didn’t make him a lot of friends, the only person Sky and Maurice can think of who might have been responsible for the texts is Rhonda Lewis, the woman in the video.  Rhonda’s seventeen-year-old daughter died after drinking three cans of Gonzo mixed with alcohol.  Rhonda sued Dylan’s company and lost the suit, but she’s appealing that decision.  Obviously not content with waiting for legal recourse, she came to Dylan’s office to confront him.  Now Sunny is going to confront her.

Sunny is also dealing with a major issue in her private life.  Her former husband has moved to New Jersey and wants Sunny to move there also, at least for part of the year.  Her love for her ex has resurfaced, and she’s torn.  Does she really want to uproot herself from Boston, the only city she’s ever lived in?  In addition, Richie tells her he’s worried about her and would like it if she took on less demanding, less dangerous cases.  Can she do that?  Does she even want to?

After Robert B. Parker’s death, Ms. Gaylin was asked by his estate to continue the Sunny Randall series.  The author does an excellent job of bringing Parker’s protagonist to life.  Sunny is smart, determined, and a force to be reckoned with when she’s facing an opponent.  Readers will welcome her back.

Alison Gaylin is the author of numerous thrillers and the winner of an Edgar and a Shamus award.   You can read more about her at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

Roman Grady’s family has been touched by tragedy and trouble more times than seems possible.  His maternal grandparents were killed in a car accident, his father committed suicide, his mother is a recovering alcoholic, and he and his girlfriend, parents of four-year-old Mason, are drifting further apart each day.

Roman had been a graduate student in journalism at New York University with a bright future ahead of him.  An essay he wrote won a major prize, and he was on his way to California to accept a prestigious fellowship at the Los Angeles Times.

But then things changed in a major way.  His girlfriend Ashley got pregnant, and Roman decided to defer the fellowship for one year, and then one year became four, and they’re still living in Upstate New York with Tara, Roman’s mother.

Tara had not been a good, caring mother for Roman during his early years, and now she’s determined to make up for it with her grandson.  She has become his primary caregiver, although that has made for some friction in the relationship with her son’s girlfriend.  Tara believes that Roman and Ashley are both suffering from depression and aren’t the best parents.  Both are working part-time jobs, and their combined incomes are barely holding things together.

Ashley and Roman had agreed when they started dating that theirs would be an open relationship, and that included Ashley’s lesbian relationship with Bella, a high school friend.  Then the two women had a falling out and hadn’t spoken in years, so Roman is stunned to discover that Ashley had been to a party at Bella’s home the previous evening and that it wasn’t the first time they’d been together.

Roman, however, is in no position to point a finger at his girlfriend as he spent the night with an old flame in Manhattan, never calling home to tell his mother or his girlfriend where he was.  Thus when he’s on the way home the following morning and gets a call from Ashley’s boss at the local coffee shop to say Ashley hasn’t turned up for work and isn’t answering her phone, Roman isn’t unduly upset.

However, she’s not at the home they share with Tara and John, Tara’s fiancé, and she’s not at the gym where she teaches yoga.  When Roman calls his mother, he discovers that Tara hadn’t seen Ashley since the night before.  Roman drives to Bella’s house on the chance Ashley is there.

After he and Bella’s cousin look through the house to no avail, they go outside to the sloping lawn that ends at the Hudson River.  Down at the bottom is Ashley, dead.

I Dreamed of Falling has many what ifs and if onlys, the thoughts we all have about how our lives would have been different if we hadn’t done some of the things we did.  As Roman mourns, he discovers that Ashley had kept not only her renewed relationship with Bella a secret but her plan for a major life change as well.

Julia Dahl has written a truly suspenseful book, one in which the characters continue to make decisions that are not well thought out and that continue to affect every part of their lives.  Roman, Ashley, and Tara are definitely flawed, almost constantly doing the wrong things, but they are human and trying their best.

You can read more about Julia Dahl at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

Police Detective “Harri” Foster is working the dark streets of Chicago, still trying to prove that her late partner, Glynnis Thompson, did not die by suicide as everyone believes.  When Glynnis’ husband comes to Harri with a photo purporting to show his late wife accepting a payoff from an unknown man, Harri becomes more convinced than ever that Glynnis’ death was in fact murder.  She’s continuing to try to prove it despite the efforts of the Chicago Police Department, which would like the whole embarrassing incident swept under the rug.

Now there’s a new murder that must take priority for the detective.  Brice Collier, the only son and heir to the Collier fortune, is found outside Hardwicke House, the Gilded Age mansion on the Belverton College campus where he and a number of his college friends live. 

Several of the buildings on the campus bear the family name–the Collier School of Science and Technology, the Collier Library, and the Collier Business School.  Thus there’s immediately a great deal of pressure from Brice’s father Sebastian, the Chicago Police Department, and the media to solve this case ASAP.

When Harri and the other police officers arrive at the scene of Brice’s death, they see the young man’s body lying in a field of snow and ice.  It’s February and the temperature is below freezing, but Brice is shirtless, showing a tattoo on his upper right arm of a mythical creature holding a double-edged axe.  The corpse reeks of alcohol and vomit.  Could he have staggered out of Hartwicke House on his own, too drunk to know what he was doing?  Or was he taken to the field and left there to die?

Brice is found by two women who were at the party at the House.  Shelby Ritter makes the call to 911, and her friend Hailie Kenton is with her.  Both are students at Belverton and say they knew Brice slightly and thus had invitations to the party, but they say they left before it was over.

Before she begins questioning them, Harri suggests going inside the House, where it will be warmer and more comfortable than sitting in the police car answering questions.  The girls refuse, and the detective wonders why.  And why were they out walking the snow-covered field before six in the morning in the freezing cold weather?  Their stories don’t make sense, but Harri lets them go home with a warning that she may need to speak to them again.

To make matters even more tense, Harri is getting anonymous phone calls.  The caller says he was wronged and that Harri has a “debt to pay.”  She tells him she doesn’t understand what he’s talking about, and she doesn’t, but he continues talking.  “It’s about you.  You’re the get.  Where the road ends.”

Tracy Clark takes the reader on a thrilling ride with a believable plot and wonderfully drawn characters.  Harri Foster is a dedicated police officer, always willing to go the extra mile to solve a case, but she has a number of demons that she lives with every day.  Ms. Clark has written another outstanding novel in this series.

You can read more about the author at this website.

It’s been just over three years since I published a review in the Golden Oldies section of this blog.  My only reason/excuse is that I was kept busy reading so many outstanding current mysteries that I received from publicists, and novels that I read years ago somehow got lost in the shuffle.

But as I was walking in the mystery section of my local library (a shoutout to the Needham, Massachusetts Free Public Library) I saw an old familiar title:  Triple Zeck, A Nero Wolfe Omnibus by Rex Stout.  Stout has always been a favorite author of mine, so much so that I took a course on his writings at Boston College given by his biographer, Professor John J. McAleer.  I had to miss the last class of the semester as I was in the hospital giving birth to my younger son; he celebrates his 53rd birthday next week!

Triple Zeck consists of three full-length novels–And Be A Villain, The Second Confession, and In the Best Families–all of which I had read previously.  That being said, I enjoyed them as much this time.  The books were published individually from 1948 to 1950, and each one is a complete novel on its own.

In case you are not a Wolfe aficionado, a little background is necessary.  Wolfe is an oversized man whose weight varies from an eighth of a ton (250 pounds) to a quarter of a ton (500 pounds), depending on the book.  I’ll split the difference and say he weighed about 375 pounds, hefty by any standard.  That explains, at least in part, why he never (or almost never) leaves his brownstone in Manhattan to physically investigate the cases that are brought to him; Archie Goodwin, his trusted assistant, takes care of that.  Wolfe’s job is simply to sit back in his chair and be a genius.

What connects the three mysteries in this single volume is the fact that in each case Wolfe agrees to investigate a case a client brings to him and then receives a phone call ordering him to drop the case.  In the first phone call, the caller, whom Wolfe identifies as Arnold Zeck, says,”The wisest course for you will be to drop the matter,” which of course Wolfe will not do.

Zeck is the major crime boss in the New York City area and beyond, apparently untouchable, although his many illegal enterprises are known to the city police, the state police, and the FBI.  By the third volume, Wolfe realizes that it’s now a case of Wolfe vs. Zeck and that the only way it can end is with the death of one of them.  So he makes his plan and hopes he will be the survivor.

As is the case with reading the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre, part of the joy of reading Wolfe and Archie’s adventures, in addition to the crime in each novel, is spending time with the two of them.  The similarities with Doyle’s creation are there–Holmes’ pipe, Wolfe’s beer; Inspector Lestrade, Inspector Cramer; Professor Moriarty, Arnold Zeck.  And note that three letters in each protagonist’s name are the same:  Sherlock/Nero, Holmes/Wolfe.  

Coincidence?  I think not.

Rex Stout was a remarkable man.  Encouraged by his father, he had read the Bible twice by the age of four.  At age 13 he was the Kansas state spelling bee champion, and some readers of a certain age will remember a school banking system in which elementary school children brought money to school every week to be deposited in their bank account.  I was one of those children.  That system was invented by Stout.

The first Nero Wolfe novel (Fer-de-Lance) was published in 1934, the final (A Family Affair) in 1975.  Just think about that for a moment–41 years of Nero and Archie!  That is something to celebrate!

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

A new term for me is “baby gangs,” referring to groups of young teenagers who are running wild on the streets of Venice.  They arrange violent clashes with each other, getting the word out via social media, trying to prove which group is the toughest and strongest while at the same time vandalizing and destroying property.

When two groups decide to meet at the Piazzetta del Leoncini, they have the bad luck to congregate just when the police squads are changing shifts.  That means that for a few minutes there is double the number of police at the site than would ordinarily be there, so it was relatively easy for the officers to round up the baby gang members and bring them to the police station.

After several hours almost all the boys are picked up by their parents, none of whom is happy to be pulled from their homes in the middle of the night.  Orlando, one of the younger boys, tells Commissario Claudia Griffoni that he lives only with his father and that his father’s cell phone is turned off every night at eleven.  Reluctant to leave him overnight at the station, Griffoni decides to accompany him to his home, a decision that will have far-reaching consequences.

At the same time, Commissario Guido Brunetti learns about a pattern of violence and intimidation against his colleague and friend Bocchese, chief technician of the police station’s lab.  Brunetti is shocked when he enters Bocchese’s office; the latter is pale and drawn and obviously on edge about something.  He finally admits to Guido that he’s being harassed by the teenaged son of the family who lives in his building.  He says that this boy trips him on the stairs, hits his parents, and has made threatening remarks about Bocchese’s pride and joy, his collection of antique statues.

Bocchese has collected numerous statues over the years, some quite valuable, and he believes that the teenager has been going into his apartment and moving his statues around, apparently not worrying about Bocchese’s reaction.

The technician tells Brunetti that he’s decided to sell most of his collection, possibly because of his fear of his young neighbor, and would like the commissario’s opinion about which ones to keep.  When Brunetti goes to his apartment that night to look at the statues, he sees his friend with a bloody nose and blood on his jacket.  “The bastard tripped me,” Bocchese says, but he says there’s really nothing to be done about it.

A somber thread runs through A Refiner’s Fire with the author’s comments about the state of life in Venice.  Corruption is rife, there is venality everywhere, and the criminal court system is a joke.  It is no wonder that gang members are getting younger, as apparently under Italian law and actual practice there is nothing that can be done to anyone under 18. It’s a dispiriting scenario, one that has gotten more troubling with each of Ms. Leon’s novels.

Not surprisingly, per the author’s request, the novels in this series are not translated into Italian, although they are available in many other languages.

A Refiner’s Fire is a worthy addition to the Guido Brunetti series, bringing readers once again into the warmth and closeness of the protagonist’s family and contrasting that with the violence surrounding them.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

Newly trained in spycraft and now part of Great Britain’s Special Investigations Unit, Evelyne Redfern is sent on her first assignment.  She’s disappointed in the seemingly prosaic nature of it, to perform a security test at Blackthorne Park and discover how several of the specialized materials used there have gone missing, but of course she’s determined to succeed at this task.

She’s not the only agent in the Unit who is disappointed.  David Poole would rather be working in the field, but he’s told he will have to remain in London and act as Evelyne’s handler, or supervisor, for her first job.

Putting additional pressure on the pair is the fact that Prime Minister Winston Churchill is scheduled to arrive at Blackthorne Park later in the week to see a series of demonstrations of the weapons produced there.  Time, therefore, is of the essence in discovering who is responsible for the missing materials.

At ten o’clock on the evening of her arrival in the town of Benstead, Evelyne surreptitiously enters the grounds of the Park.  She has just picked the lock on the front door and entered the house when she hears a gunshot.  She rushes to the room where she believes the sound came from, the room according to the blueprint she was given before she left London is Sir Nigel’s office.  There she discovers the body of the scientist, in a pool of blood.

Given that Sir Nigel’s corpse was found at his desk with his gun in his right hand, suicide seems obvious.  Evelyne, however, feels that something is not right about the scene, and when the coroner arrives he confirms her suspicion.

Although the cause of the death was the gunshot wound, the doctor points out a faint red pinprick on Sir Nigel’s neck to Evelyne and David.  Dr. Morrison believes that someone stood behind him, used a hypodermic needle with a sedative on him, and then put the gun in the scientist’s hand and pulled the trigger.

Evelyne and David learn Sir Nigel was not an easy man to work for, and there is a great deal of tension among the several members of the Park.  His behavior had become increasingly difficult over the past few months, whether due to the missing materials or something else the investigators must discover.  The stress levels are high at the mansion, and the upcoming visit of the prime minister is doing nothing to help.

One of the many delightful things about this novel is its excellent sense of time and place.  The time is November 1940, the very beginning of World War II, and the place is one of the many stately homes/mansions in various English counties that were requisitioned by the government to aid the war effort.  The reader is immediately drawn into the world of food and clothing rationing, disrupted careers, and the various emotions of a group of people living and working together not by choice.

Julia Kelly has written an outstanding mystery again.  The characters are beautifully drawn, and the plot is suspenseful and believable.  Betrayal at Blackthorne Park ends with the promise of a third adventure for Evelyne and David, a promise this reader hopes the author will keep.

You can read more about Julia Kelly at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

The streets of Los Angeles are grittier and meaner than ever before, and even the fabulously wealthy aren’t immune.

Police Detective Margaret Nolan and her partner Al Crawford are called to investigate the case of a man’s body found in a BMW Series 8 in an unsavory part of town.  The driver’s window is down, leading the police to believe that he knew his killer and had lowered the window to talk to them.

No identification is found on the corpse, but he’s identified by the car’s license plate.  He was Bruce Messane, co-founder  of  Peppy Pets, an organic pet food company that boasts that their products are good enough for humans to eat.                        

Messane and the Peppy Pets chief financial officer, Cynthia Jackson, had scheduled a meeting with the president of Wilder Foods for today.  Their company is on the verge of being acquired by the Wilder group, an international conglomerate, but its president informs Jackson that Messane needs to be there in person to sign the papers.  No Messane, no deal.

So after Bruce’s non-appearance at the meeting and because he doesn’t answer his phone, Jackson rushes out of her office to track him down.  She doesn’t know about his murder yet, but she soon will.

The morning following Messane’s death, the wife of the company’s co-founder, veterinarian Rome Bechtold, is abducted.  Now there are two crimes connected to the company, although it’s hard for Detective Nolan to see how they’re related.

Peppy Pets, after a brief period of financial problems, is doing very well, according to Jackson, and that turnaround was due to Messane.  In addition, with the impending takeover by Wilder, Messane, Jackson, and another employee at Peppy Pets were expecting a substantial financial windfall.  So, Nolan wonders, what is the motive for the company president’s death?

Then, despite the kidnappers’ warning not to involve the police, Bechtold reluctantly notifies them, and soon his house is swarming with LAPD officers.  Desperate for a few minutes to himself, Bechtold gets permission from one of the policewomen to take his dog for a walk around the block, but before he realizes what’s happening, the veterinarian is hustled into a passing car and injected with a drug that will put him out of commission while they take him away from his home and the authorities.

Unknown to the president of Wilder Foods, its outside counsel is also having problems.  Monserrat De Leon is becoming disenchanted with her advisory role to the company and is particularly unhappy with its president.  Her job at a prestigious law firm is no longer to her liking, and Wilder’s offer to become general counsel for his firm is less than appealing.  She definitely doesn’t need the money, as her father is a multimillionaire, but she does enjoy the work and the prestige of being the legal counsel for important corporations.   Then she receives two strange messages, one from her  erratic sister and one from her imperious father, and Monserrat needs to decide where her loyalties lay.

P. J. Tracy has written another exciting entry in the Margaret Nolan series, one that looks not only into the crimes committed but into the minds and actions of the people involved.  Margaret Nolan is a very appealing and realistic character, and Ms. Tracy helps bring Los Angeles and its many disparate parts to life.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

What a great title.  What a great mystery.  I imagine that many of us, myself included, have gone on mystery or ghost tours.  A quick Google search brought up mystery tours in England, Ireland, France, and of course in various locations in the United States, including two near me–in Boston and Salem, Massachusetts.

Now Michelle Chouinard has set a mystery in a small company that hosts such tours in San Francisco.  Since the city has been host to a number of killers over the years, the company’s owner, Capri Sanzio, has plenty of material to choose from.  Now, however, murder strikes closer to home.

Capri’s grandfather, William Sanzio, was convicted of murdering three women.  Because of the manner of their deaths–first being hit over the head with a blunt object, then knifed to death, finally having their throats slit open–William Sanzio was given the nickname Overkill Bill.  Capri’s father has always refused to discuss his father, and nothing Capri has ever said has changed his mind.

Now two horrific events have brought the decades-old case into the news again.  First, a wealthy San Francisco matron, Katherine Harper, is found dead outside the Legion of Honor, the site of two murders in the twentieth century, and the method of this murder is identical to those committed by Overkill Bill.  And the following day Capri receives a phone call from her former father-in-law Philip; his wife Sylvia, mother of Capri’s ex-husband, is missing.

Capri and Philip search The Chateau, as Sylvia and Philip’s mansion is called, but they cannot find anything to explain Sylvia’s disappearance.  She had returned home from a trip the evening before, irritated about something that she refused to share with her husband, and her car, house keys, and cell phone are in the house.

The police are called, and homicide Inspector Dan Petito shows Philip and Capri a photo of a woman whose body was found earlier in the day outside the Presidio, formerly a military base and now a national park.  It’s Sylvia, killed in the same manner as Katherine Harper and the three victims of Overkill Bill.

It’s obvious that there is a copycat killer on the loose since the crimes attributed to Capri’s grandfather were committed decades earlier and he died in prison.  After all this time, who would have chosen to murder in this way. and why these two women?

Capri is determined to help the police with their investigation, although they definitely do not want her assistance.  In fact, Capri and her daughter Morgan are suspects in the latest murders, as both had argued with Sylvia the night before her death over her decision to stop paying Morgan’s graduate school tuition.  That gives Capri a strong reason to look into the recent deaths, hopefully solve the murders, and at the same time find evidence that would exonerate her late grandfather as a murderer.

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco is a clever, original mystery with an appealing heroine who is determined to get to the bottom of the two current cases.  Michelle Chouinard has written a novel well worth reading.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

The British comedian Eric Idle says it best:  “A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate.”

That statement could have been describing the politicians and their staffs in Matthew Fitzsimmons’ standalone mystery, The Slate.  In it, corrupt deals are formulated, promises are made and broken, and people and their reputations are tossed aside with uncaring regularity.

Agatha Cardiff was once Representative Paul Paxton’s go-to person.  There was no job too big or too small for her to deal with, and sadly there was no job too dirty for her to take on.

When Agatha’s phone rings at midnight and it’s her boss on the line, she knows there’s a job to be done and it won’t be pleasant.  Paxton wants her to go to the Grey Horse Inn in a neighboring town where there’s been an “incident” involving another congressman, Harrison Clark.

Clark and a member of Paxton’s staff, Charlotte Haines, had been together in a room at the Inn, and now Charlotte lay dead in the bathroom with four vials of white power on the toilet seat.  It isn’t necessary for Paxton to explain to Agatha what happened in Clark’s room:  “Clean up his mess” is enough.

Twenty years have passed since that night, and they have not been kind to Agatha.  She’s no longer Paxton’s right-hand person, trusted with doing whatever he wants.  Two of the three people involved in what happened that evening have prospered, but she hasn’t.

Harrison Clark is now President of the United States, Paul Paxton has become even closer to him, but Agatha’s trajectory has been in the opposite direction.  She’s still in Washington, cobbling together jobs, barely making ends meet, and trying to avoid people who knew her in the day when she too was a power to be reckoned with.

Now two events, seemingly unconnected, will bring her back to the halls of power.  Her tenant, Shelby Franklin, is late with her rent check again, and Cardiff has lost patience.  Shelby promises that this is the last time, that it won’t happen again, that she will pay Agatha in two days, but Agatha doesn’t believe her.  Sure enough, when Monday comes, the check isn’t there and, more worryingly, neither is Shelby.

Felix Gallardo is a rising star on the president’s staff.  He’s usually the first, okay, maybe the second person to know what’s going on with President Clark, but now he’s totally stupefied.  One of the Supreme Count judges is retiring due to ill health, and the president has short-listed three men to take his place.

Felix is called to Paxton’s office by his chief of staff Tina Liu and told that the congressman wants to be considered for the justice’s seat.  Felix is stunned, saying that Paxton’s not qualified for the position, but Liu ignores that.  She hands Felix an envelope, saying it’s for the president’s eyes only, and Felix leaves her office, totally off-kilter.

Matthew Fitzsimmons has skillfully woven together the stories of Agatha, Shelby, and Felix into a compelling and taut mystery.  These three characters, as well as all the others in the novel, are completely believable, and the plot is all too familiar with anyone reading the newspapers or watching television.  The Slate is a masterful novel.

You can read more about Matthew Fitzsimmons at this site.