Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Book Reviews

How much do you know about anyone, even the person you’ve married?  And what happens when his/her past isn’t what you expected?

Hannah and Mark are practically newlyweds, having been married only eight months.  They met in New York, where Hannah was working at the time, and he was on a business trip.  After their wedding she decides to move back to London, her birthplace, reluctant to have an international marriage; in doing so she is giving up a successful advertising career in Manhattan.

The company Mark started more than a decade earlier, DataPro, is doing extremely well, and although Hannah has been looking for work ever since she returned to England, they appear to be doing very well financially and have an extremely comfortable lifestyle.

As the novel opens Hannah is driving to pick up Mark at Heathrow Airport in London after his business trip to New York, but although his plane arrives he’s not on it.  Getting more anxious by the hour as Mark doesn’t return her phone calls, she finally hears from him the next morning.  He’s full of apologies for his no-show, citing business, and promises to return in three days.

But before Hannah had heard from him, she had called his assistant Neesha at DataPro, who was surprised that Hannah and Mark weren’t together.  When Neesha lets slip that she had thought they were spending the weekend in Rome, Hannah’s anxiety grows stronger.

Still disturbed, but also angry at herself for her worry/distrust, Hannah starts going through Mark’s personal papers in his home office. She knows where his papers are kept, but his personal file isn’t where she had last seen it.  Seeking to put her mind at ease, Hannah goes to his office to look for it.  She looks through his desk until she locates the file and is stunned to learn that Mark has just taken out a huge second mortgage on their home; he had told her the house was virtually mortgage-free.

Even more upsetting, toward the bottom of the file she discovers that her husband has closed all of his savings accounts.  Then there’s the final piece of paper:  her personal account, holding all of the savings she’d accumulated during her years in New York and which Mark had told her was strictly for her own use, has been cleared out.  From the £46,800 she’d deposited, only £29.02 remain.

Before We Met is the story of what seems to be a perfect courtship and marriage.  When Mark returns, he has an answer for every question that Hannah asks, but her uneasiness never completely goes away.  She realizes how little she really knows about her husband.  His parents are dead, he and his younger brother are estranged, all of the friends he has introduced her to are people he has recently met.  Is there more to his past than he has told her?

Lucie Whitehouse has written a true thriller, with an exciting plot and perfectly drawn characters.  The story is told from Hannah’s perspective in the third person, and we are totally aware of all her thoughts.  Her worries seem legitimate, but so do Mark’s answers to her questions.  And the more questions she asks, the more questions she has.

Lucie Whitehouse doesn’t have a web site of her own, but there are several posts about her on the Internet.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

Jack Reacher is back, and that’s a good thing.  Actually, it’s a great thing because no matter how quickly Lee Child adds another novel to this series, it’s not often enough for me.

 Although Reacher has been out of the army for years (he was in military intelligence) and has no fixed address, the powers-that-be are able to find him.  As Reacher says, “You can leave the army, but the army doesn’t leave you.”  Especially when you have talents that organization needs.

An unknown sniper has tried to assassinate the president of France, and the U.S. military is afraid the gunman might be an American.  When Reacher is taken to meet with his former commander, General O’Day, he’s told that the list of possible gunmen has been narrowed down to four–one from Russia, one from Israel, one from Great Britain, and John Knott, the American that Jack Reacher put in prison to serve a fifteen year sentence. 

But now it’s sixteen years later, and Knott has been released.  Naturally he’s been under close surveillance, but although he returned to his Arkansas home when he completed his prison term his home is empty and his whereabouts unknown.  Knott was an expert sniper when he was in the army, and while he was in prison he devoted himself to vigorous exercise to keep in combat-ready shape.

The army believes that the sniper is going to attack one of the members of the G8, the organization of eight leading industrial countries, to redeem himself after his failed attempt on the French president.   Knott is known to be able to shoot to kill at fourteen hundred yards; if he is the gunman, he is a very dangerous man indeed.

When Reacher and CIA employee Casey Nice get to Knott’s home it’s deserted, as expected.  But inside the run-down house there are multiple photos of Reacher with bullet holes and knife wounds in various parts of his body.  It’s all too clear that if Knott is the sniper who is trying to assassinate a member of the G8, Reacher is another of his targets.   As Reacher recognizes, the army’s plan is for him to be used as bait to get to John Knott.  As the novel’s title says, it’s very personal.

Lee Child’s novels are nearly impossible to put down.  It’s not that the reader doesn’t know that Reacher will be victorious (after all, he’s the hero of the series), but the cleverness of the plotting and the incredible detail keep one riveted.  Even if you, like me, are totally unfamiliar with the military or snipers, Personal will have you hooked until the last page.

You can read more about Lee Child at this web site. 

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads blog at her web site.

The chief of police in Painters Mills, Ohio holds what seems to be dual citizenship.  Kate Burkholder was born into the town’s Amish community but left it to become, as they say in Pennsylvania Dutch, an Englischer.  That term, used both for men and women, simply denotes anyone who doesn’t follow the Amish way.  But Kate, having grown up as Amish, both speaks their language and understands their way of life better than most Englischers can.

Thirty-five years ago, there was a horrific murder in the town.  Kate was just a child then, but she knows the tragic story of the Hochstetlers.  Four masked people broke into the family’s farmhouse looking for money from the family’s business; it was believed that the family kept their cash in the house because of the Amish distrust of banks.  The intruders killed the family’s father and abducted the mother, and a lighted lantern left on the basement steps burned the four younger children to death.  Only the teenage son Billy, who was running after the getaway car carrying his mother, escaped with his life.

Now, all these years later, four respected members of Painters Mills have been receiving threatening notes.  Dale Michaels is the first to die, having received these messages:  I know what you did; I know what all of you did; Meet me or I go to the police; Hochstetler farm. 1 a.m.  Come alone.  When Dale arrives at the farm at the appointed hour, he sees the figure of Wanetta Hochstetler, the family’s mother who was abducted and assumed dead for thirty-five years.  And then Dale is shot to death.

Kate Burkholder didn’t know Dale Michaels, nor did she expect three people to be murdered within a week in her town.  What could tie these victims together?  And why had each victim received notes similar to Dale’s?

Kate is undergoing her own personal trial with her live-in partner, John Tomasetti.  His wife and two daughters were killed three years earlier as retribution for arrests he made as an FBI agent, and now one of the convicted men has been released on a technicality.  John can’t put this tragedy behind him, and his desire for revenge is threatening the relationship he has with Kate.

Linda Castillo continues the exciting Kate Burkholder series with this latest entry.  Reading about the Amish community in  Painters Mills is, for most of us, like taking a trip to a foreign country.  There are many things that set the members of the group apart from the majority–living without electricity, modest dress, traveling in buggies, ending education at the close of the eighth grade.  But readers can easily relate to their emotions and love of family.  As the late author Maya Angelou put it, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”  Ms. Castillo proves this once again in the outstanding The Dead Will Tell.

You can read more about Linda Costello at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

I’m not sure how Wallace Stroby does it, but he’s done it again.  He’s made me follow a gun-carrying thief, a woman with a long criminal history, and hope she doesn’t get caught.  And I always thought I had high morals.

Shoot the Woman first is the third in the Crissa Stone series; I reviewed Kings of Midnight previously on this blog.  In Shoot the Woman First, Crissa is involved with a male trio of thieves who plan to steal from a city drug lord.  She knows her colleague Larry well and has worked with him before, knows Chuck slightly, but it’s the unknown fourth man, Cordell, Chuck’s cousin, who brought the plan to the others.

Cordell is young and doesn’t have much experience, but he knows how the gang members get their money to a different car each time on a different street, using a Tigers baseball cap as the signal for the car loaded with drug money.  Another car is the lookout, heavily armed, but Cordell insists he knows the gang’s plans inside out and he, along with Crissa, Larry, and Chuck, can take the money  without a problem.  He estimates the haul to be somewhere in the neighborhood of a quarter of a million dollars, which is a nice neighborhood to be in.

Of course, things don’t go exactly as planned.  The quartet does get away with the money, but Crissa is shot and the drug gang is after them.   And then the situation gets even worse.

All credit to Wallace Stroby for making Crissa Stone such a believable character.  Even as you know she’s a crook, an unapologetic one at that, you are hoping she will end up with the money and her freedom.  She has emotions and feelings that sometimes get the better of her, and in Shoot the Woman First these feelings of loyalty and responsibility lead her into further danger.  Even as she tells herself that what she’s doing is foolish and dangerous, she continues to do it because it seems to be the right thing to do.  Crissa disproves the old adage that there’s no honor among thieves.

The novel has a number of very strong characters.  In addition to Crissa, each member of her team is distinct–Larry, a friend of long standing, in whom she has complete confidence; Chuck, with whom she has worked in the past only once; and Cordell, an unknown quantity, a beginner in this business, but necessary because he knows where the money is and has a plan to get it.  There are also the members of the drug gang led by Marquis, a young guy who thinks he has all the answers, and Burke, a former Detroit cop who has gone over to the dark side.

The novel’s title comes from something that Burke tells Cordell.  In a situation where there are multiple targets, men and women, “…you shoot the woman first.”  When Cordell wants to know why, Burke responds, “Because in a gang or a crew or whatever, a woman’s got to be three times as tough, three times as committed, three times as hard-ass for the men to take her seriously.”  Burke is right, and he’s just described Crissa Stone.  Shoot the Woman First is a terrific addition to this hard-boiled series, and I hope the novels keep on coming.

You can read more about Wallace Stroby at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads blog at her web site.

What happens to a teenager’s life when his best friend disappears?  Does he keep waiting for him to return, or does he accept the fact that he’ll never see him again?

Jason Danvers and his group were celebrating their graduation from Ednaville high school.  He and a girl from his class, Megan Raines, seemed about ready to take the next step in their so-far platonic relationship when Logan Shaw, Jason’s closest friend, interrupted.  Logan was the town’s “rich boy” who lived with his father in a house that dwarfed its surroundings; for him money appeared to be no object, and he was used to getting what he wanted.

Still, he and Jason, who came from a much more modest background, had been best friends for years until that night when Logan asked Megan to run away with him.  After she refused and the intoxicated Logan persisted, Jason attacked Logan and knocked him to the ground.  Logan got up, angrily walked away, and was never seen again.

Years have passed, and Jason is again living in Ednaville with his wife Nora after having spent time in New York City.  Megan Raines, now a divorced mother of two, lives in the town too.  Jason is asked to lunch by another former classmate, Colton Rivers, who says he has been contacted by Logan’s father to search for Logan.  Mr. Shaw, frail and suffering from dementia, wants to find his son before it’s too late.  But Jason isn’t any help; he hasn’t seen Logan since that night.

Into this mix comes Jason’s sister, Hayden.  She’s a woman with a troubled past, fueled mainly by alcohol, who has appeared and disappeared from their home town many times over the years.  Now she is back, this time with her teenage daughter.  She asks Jason and Nora to watch their niece Sierra for a day or two because she has something she must take care of immediately.

Despite Jason’s pleas, Hayden refuses to tell him what she is planning to do, and he finally agrees to let Sierra stay with them while Hayden leaves for “forty-eight hours at most.”  Then she’s gone.

 To quote the author Cassandra Clare, “Lies and secrets…they are like a cancer in the soul. They eat away what is good and leave only destruction behind.”   Those members of Jason’s graduating class would have done well to heed that saying.

David Bell’s characters are haunted by the many secrets they have kept over the years.  The secrets, which would have been easily explained at the time the events happened, burrowed deep into the psyches of the teenagers in town and affected the rest of their lives.  Jason, Hayden, Megan–each carry the memories and guilt of what happened on commencement night.

The Forgotten Girl is an exciting read, with characters whose faults and foibles may not be so different from our own.  Perhaps each one of us has kept a secret that has had major implications for the rest of our lives.   Should we have kept our secrets to ourselves in the hope that they never would be discovered?  Or should we have told the truth and dealt with the repercussions?

You can read more about David Bell at various sites on the internet.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads blog at her web site.

Friends and subscribers to my blog know that I read a lot of mysteries, three or four a week.  Not every book I read gets reviewed, as I write only about the ones I would recommend.

So when I write that Love Story, with Murders is an absolutely outstanding mystery, please believe me.

Love Story, with Murders follows Fiona Griffiths, a young Welsh detective, as she and her colleagues try to solve two gruesome, similar, but difficult-to-connect murders in Cardiff.  On a slow winter day, called to investigate an insignificant incident involving illegal trash, Fiona is examining  rubbish in a garage when she opens the freezer chest there and finds a human leg, complete with high-heeled shoe.  Judging from its appearance, it’s been there a long time.

The day following this grisly discovery another body part is found, an arm.  But this is a man’s arm, and the person to whom it belonged is only very recently dead.  When Fiona canvasses the area where she discovered the female leg, she enters a neighboring shed and finds a woman’s head in a bucket of oil.  The police discover that the head and leg belonged to Mary Langton, a young woman who disappeared five years earlier.

I know this sounds incredibly bizarre, but keep reading.  The key ingredient that makes this book so special is the heroine, Fiona.  As in the first mystery in the series, Talking to the Dead, she tells the story and is the center that holds everything together.

(Spoiler Alert:  What we didn’t know until the end of Talking to the Dead is that Fiona has Cotard’s Syndrome/aka Cotard’s Delusion or the Walking Corpse Syndrome).  Those suffering from this mental illness believe they are not alive, are missing body parts, don’t recognize themselves in the mirror, and/or have great difficulty experiencing both emotions and purely physical effects such as heat, cold, or pain.  So severe was Fiona’s case that she spent two of her teenage years in a mental hospital.

Because Fiona is telling the story, the reader is privy to all her thoughts.  We can understand her emotional issues and the questions she has about her past.  Fiona was found abandoned in a car that belonged to a Cardiff “businessman” and his wife.  She was nicely dressed, seemed to be about two or two and half years old, and had a camera around her neck; there was no other information with her.  The couple adopted her, and they and her two younger sisters are Fiona’s family.

The reason for the quotes around the word businessman is that Fiona’s father is involved in many illegal activities.  He’s been brought before the police on several occasions and was even brought to trial twice, but he was not convicted in either case.  Fiona is devoted to him, and the devotion is mutual, but she feels that he knows more about her background than he is willing to share.  So she’s determined to start investigating her past on her own.

Harry Bingham has written a mystery that succeeds on every level–its characters and plot are compelling.  Love Story, With Murders is a wonderfully written novel, and you will be cheering for Fiona every step of the way.

You can read more about Harry Bingham and how he developed his heroine at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

Things are not going well in Jarrett Creek, Texas.  The small town was hard hit by the 2008 economic recession and hasn’t recovered.  Things are so bad, in fact, that the town’s two full-time police officers have been let go due to budgetary concerns, and that brings Samuel Craddock back to resume his former position as chief of police. 

The reason that newly elected mayor Rusty Reinhardt asks Samuel to take the job is that Samuel has volunteered to work for a token dollar a year until the town’s finances improve and a new chief can be hired or until the current chief returns from his stint in rehab.  

So Samuel is approved as temporary chief, and the next morning he’s confronted by a murder.  One of the men at the meeting to discuss the town’s finances and approve Samuel’s “rehiring” has been shot to death.

Gary Dellmore was alive when the meeting at the American Legion Hall broke up the previous night, but no one can remember seeing him leave the building.  Gary had joined his father’s bank several years earlier and was apparently being groomed to be vice president, but the more deeply Samuel delves into the victim’s past and current behavior, the more people he finds who have reason to want Gary dead.

The murder victim was known around town as a man who liked women, and his marriage appears to have been a troubled one.  In addition, townspeople have been leaving the Dellmore family bank because Gary was unprofessionally free with private information about their bank accounts.  And he seemed to be doing more than simply flirting with one of the teenagers who worked with him, the mayor’s daughter.

Some of the characters in Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek are familiar to readers of the two previous books in the series.  There’s Loretta, Samuel’s good-hearted but gossipy neighbor; Jenny, an attorney who is Samuel’s confidante; and police chief Rodell Skinner, who has a major problem with alcohol.

And there are new characters as well:  Barbara Dellmore, the not-very-grieving widow; Alan Dellmore, the bank’s president and father of the victim, who admits to Samuel that there had been tension between himself and his son; and Cookie Travers, Alan’s assistant, who is willing to tell Samuel all about Gary’s indiscretions at the bank, personal and business.

Samuel Craddock reminds me of Walter Longmire, the fictional sheriff I greatly admire.  Maybe I’m partial to lawmen in the West, but there seems to be something very down-to-earth and homey about them.  Samuel is a man definitely past middle age, although we’re not told how old he is.  He’s a widower with no children, has lived all his life in Jarrett Creek, and its citizens and the town itself are very important to him.

All the usual virtues and vices are present in this small town:  kindness, charity, greed, and gossip.  Jarrett Creek sounds pretty much like Everytown to me.

Terry Shames has a flair for making her Texas townspeople real and vibrant.  Each book in the series has been an enjoyable read, and I’m looking forward to the next one. 

You can read more about Terry Shames at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

There’s a wonderful new entry in the ever-growing world of Scandinavian detectives.  He’s Ariel Kafka, no relation to the famous Franz Kafka, but I believe Ariel will soon be famous in his own right.  He makes his English-language debut in Harri Nykänen’s novel, Nights of Awe, and there are three other books in the series yet to be translated.

Ariel is one of two Jewish detectives on the Helsinki police force.  And yes, there are Jews in Finland–1,500 of them at last count.

The book opens with two bodies found in the city, one on a bridge and the other on a slope beneath the bridge.  The two men are assumed to be foreigners and one is quickly identified as Ali Hamid, the owner of an auto body shop in the city.  When Ariel arrives at the shop, a third corpse is there.  Bodies are mounting quickly, and there are more to come.

Ariel narrates the novel with a wry sense of humor, even as the bodies pile up.  Describing how he had graduated only fourth in his class from the police academy, Ariel says, “…the burdens that Einstein and Oppenheimer had left for less brilliant Jews like myself had weighed heavily on me.”  Referring to receiving several invitations to dinner before the twenty-four hour fast of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur (the Night of Awe referred to in the title), Ariel says, “Evidently a Jewish man of my age who lived alone was a hopelessly pitiful case.” 

And speaking about his lack of romantic success, he reminisces about a three-year relationship he had that ended because the woman felt Jewish traditions were too difficult.  “A few years later she married a Kurd from Iraq and converted to Islam.”  You have to love someone who can tell these stories on himself.

As the corpses multiply, tensions rise between the police department and Finland’s Security Police.  These issues intensify when a theory involving the dead Muslim men seems to be connected to a threat against the Jewish house of worship, which will be hosting the Israeli foreign minister during the Jewish High Holy Days.  

Ariel is approached by his brother Eli and by Raoul Silberstein, chair of the Helsinki Jewish Congregation.  It appears that the men are involved in security matters at the synagogue, a fact that surprises Ariel, and Silberstein is demanding that Ariel tell them if the congregation is involved in the case.  But Ariel says he is under an oath of confidentiality about this case as with others and refuses, much to their dismay, to give them any information. 

In fact, when questioned earlier by the police commander whether his religion might stand in the way of his pursuing the murderers if they turn out to be Jewish, Ariel is offended.  “I’m first and foremost a police officer, second a Finn, and only third a Jew.”

Nights of Awe is an excellent read, particularly because of its glimpse into a little-known pocket of the Jewish world.  Ariel, Eli, and their uncle Dennis are vivid characters, and their thoughts and motives ring true.  The plot of Nights of Awe is a bit convoluted and the number of those murdered is perhaps excessively high, but the novel is well worth reading and thinking about.   

There are several sites about Harri Nykänen on the web, although there is not one dedicated exclusively to him.  You can read more about him at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

First we met them in a play (“Pygmalion”), then a musical (“My Fair Lady”), then a movie (“My Fair Lady” again), and now they’re in a novel.  It’s Eliza Doolittle and Professor Henry Higgins, bringing us back in time to  Edwardian London.

Wouldn’t It Be Deadly takes place shortly after Eliza’s triumph at the Embassy Ball where, with her impeccable manners and perfect upper-class speech, she fooled London society into believing she was a duchess.  Upset at Henry for taking all the credit for her success, Eliza leaves the home she has shared with him and Colonel Pickering while learning proper diction and goes to live with Henry’s mother.  In order to support herself, she is giving elocution lessons at the offices of Henry’s archrival, “Professor” Emil Nepommuck. 

When Nepommuck’s advertisement appears in the Daily Mail, stating that he was responsible for teaching Eliza to speak proper English, an enraged Higgins goes to Nepommuck’s offices to confront him.  After an angry exchange during which both men ignore Eliza’s hard work and each congratulates himself for her achievements Higgins exits, leaving Eliza furious with the two phonetics teachers.

Tensions escalate further when Higgins puts his own advertisement into the newspapers stating that Nepommuck is a fraud and had served time in a Hungarian prison.  Fearing that the exposed linguistic “professor” will flee London when he reads this, Eliza rushes back to his office to collect the two weeks’ salary she is owed.  But by the time she arrives, Nepommuck has been killed, the murder weapon being one of Eliza’s own tuning forks.

The novel abounds with characters familiar to those who saw either the stage musical or the film, or both, of “My Fair Lady.”  Mrs. Higgins, Henry’s mother, is present, as gracious as her son is not.  Colonel Pickering is still living at Henry’s house; Eliza believes him to be the kindest man she has ever met, the one who made her wish she “had been born Colonel Pickering’s daughter.”  Freddy Eynsford Hill is still in love with Eliza, and Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, is now a man of means, having inherited an annuity of three thousand pounds yearly from an American admirer. 

And there are new characters in the novel as well.  There is Lady Gresham, a wealthy woman of a certain age who announces her engagement to Emil Nepommuck days before his murder; her butler, Harrison, handsome as a movie star; Rosalind Page, the most beautiful actress on the London stage; and Colonel Pickering’s new friend, Major Aubrey Redstone, a visitor from India who is an expert on Sanskrit poetry.  It’s a mix that will lead to murder.

D. E. Ireland is the pseudonym for the writing team of Meg Mims and Sharon Pisacreta.  Together they have fashioned a charming story that is also a captivating mystery.  The main characters are true to what we know about them from the plays and the movie, but here we are given a look into what happens after Eliza is no longer a flower-seller but not yet a lady. 

There are a lot more “My Fair Lady” titles for D. E. Ireland to choose from for the future books in this series.  I’m looking forward to reading them all.

You can read more about D. E. Ireland at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

The Armenian-American community in Philadelphia is centered around Cavanaugh Street.  The Armenian Apostolic Church is located there, home to Father Tibor Kasparian.  Cavanaugh Street is home as well to Gregor Demarkian, a former FBI agent who is now a consultant to police departments across the country.

Father Tibor has been the priest of the church for many years, and he is considered by all to be cultured, intelligent, and extremely compassionate.  So how did it come to be that this man has been arrested, accused of murder in the first degree?

Fighting Chance, the title of Jane Haddam’s latest mystery, is exactly what Father Tibor is not giving himself.  He was found in the office of Judge Martha Handling, covered in her blood.  Even worse, someone took a video of the cleric that seems to show him repeatedly beating on the judge’s head with a hammer.  Why would he have done that, and who could have taken that video?

Judge Handling was not a popular or respected member of the judiciary.  Recently the state of Pennsylvania had turned its prison system over to a private firm, and it is to that firm’s benefit to fill every prison bed since they receive a daily stipend for each occupied one.  It was well known that Ms. Handling’s sentences for juveniles was so out of line with her those of her colleagues that many people thought she was corrupt and being paid to give harsh prison terms. 

The state police had begun an investigation into the judge’s conduct, but the case wasn’t ready to be presented to the district attorney’s office.  In the meantime, Ms. Handling continued to send juveniles to serve the longest possible time for the most minor crimes, where other judges would have looked for alternatives in hopes that the offenders could be rehabilitated outside of prison.

The Armenian community in Philadelphia is an extremely close-knit one.  All of its members are stunned by the accusation that their priest murdered a judge and equally stunned by the fact that he refuses to defend himself.  More than that, he refuses to speak to anyone at all, even his close friend Gregor Demarkian. 

After refusing the services of an attorney who is a member of his church and refusing to talk to Gregor, Father Tibor is brought to court to answer the charge of capital murder.  After once again refusing to be represented by any counsel, the priest is asked by a rather annoyed judge to enter his plea. 

“If it please the court,” Father Tibor says, “I plead nolo contendere.”

Fighting Chance is the twenty-ninth novel featuring Gregor Demarkian.  As with any long-running series, there is a lot of backstory, and readers may find it worthwhile to return, if not to the beginning of the series, at least to one or two earlier books.  That being said, Ms. Haddam’s latest can stand alone because the novel is so well-written, each of its characters so clearly described. 

Something that I always enjoy in books about minorities, whether they be religious, cultural, or ethnic minorities, is learning about their customs and beliefs.  Ms. Haddam, herself an American of Armenian descent, does a wonderful job in giving the reader a sense of this community–the church, the food, the importance of family life–it is all there.

You can read more about Jane Haddam at this web site. 

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site. 

The year is 1645, three years into The English Civil War (1642-1651).  The city of York has fallen into the hands of the Puritans, led by Oliver Cromwell; religious fanaticism is well underway.  Into the city comes Hezekiah Ward, preaching the Puritan doctrine to its citizens, calling fire and brimstone down on those who deviate from the doctrines of the Godly Party.  At this time, all of England was Christian; Jews had been expelled in 1290 and would not return until 1657, and there were no Muslims in the country.

Shortly after Hezekiah’s entry into York, a series of gruesome murders targeting prostitutes and their clients begins.  Lady Bridget Hodgson, a wealthy gentlewoman and landowner, has been a midwife for some years.  She does not discriminate between the high-born ladies of the city and its unfortunate whores, so she is not surprised by a summons from her brother-in-law Edward to examine the body of a murdered prostitute.  Upon entering the woman’s home, Bridget and her assistant, Martha Hawkins, are horrified to see the bloody bodies of a woman they know as a harlot and an unknown man lying across her.

As she examines the bodies Bridget notices a crumpled bit of paper clutched tightly in the woman’s hand and a similar one in the man’s hand, with the numbers of chapters and verses from the Bible written on each.  Examining her Bible when she returns home, Bridget reads the two verses, one from Isiah concerning whores and one from Revelation urging repentance.  Martha voices the thought that both women have:  “So the murderer thinks he is doing God’s work?”

It seems as if each sermon by Hezekiah Ward is followed by a murder, although the methods vary.  And Lady Bridget is getting the feeling that her brother-in-law Edward, whom she greatly admires, is perhaps none-too-eager for her to look deeply into the crimes, preferring that his son Joseph, one of the town’s constables, investigate.  But given Joseph’s strong ties to the Puritans, Bridget is not certain that he can be trusted.

Bridget’s favorite nephew is Joseph’s younger brother Will.  Just as Will is Bridget’s favorite, Joseph is their father’s, and this of course leads to bad feelings and jealousy between the two brothers. 

Lady Bridget was widowed twice, bore two children who died young, and when this novel (the second in the series) opens, she owns a large house and is in possession of various lands and a good deal of money.  She occupies an exalted place in York’s society, but her favored position doesn’t stop her from being compassionate toward the many townspeople who are less fortunate than she is, especially toward the women she sees who have been forced by social and economic circumstances into selling their bodies.

The Harlot’s Tale is an exciting read that takes the reader into what is known as the Early Modern Period of history.  Lady Bridget is a wonderful heroine who has brains and convictions but still is hampered by society’s views on the proper place of women.  What allows her to speak her mind relatively freely are the facts of her own aristocratic birth and the high position that her late husband’s brother holds.  She is a woman to be admired and to be followed (hopefully) in future novels in this excellent series.

Sam Thomas is a historian with a Ph.D. in history with a focus on Reformation England.  You can read more about him at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

Gabriel Allon is a man with two very different but equally intriguing professions.  On one hand he is a master art restorer, bringing paintings back to their original brilliance through careful cleaning and repainting.  On the other he is a spy in the Israeli intelligence service and next in line to become its head.

The novel opens with a historical fact.  In October of 1969, the revered and priceless Caravaggio painting, Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence, was stolen from a church in Palermo, Italy.  Rumor has it that the Mafia was behind the theft, although that was never proven.  The masterpiece remains missing to this day.

Gabriel is restoring another Italian work, Virgin and Child in Glory with Saints, in a church in Verona when he is ordered to meet with the chief officer of the carabinieri, the Italian national military force which polices both military and citizen populations.  General Ferrari explains that he has called Gabriel because a friend of Gabriel’s, art gallery owner Julian Isherwood, has discovered the body of an Englishman in a Venetian mansion.  The murdered man, both tortured and hanged, was a man with a shady background.  In the general’s words, he had “a reputation for acquiring paintings that were not actually for sale.”

Reminding Gabriel that the carabinieri were holding Julian for questioning since he had found the body, the general tells Gabriel he is willing to let Julian return to England on the condition that Gabriel finds out who killed Jack Bradshaw and finds what the murderer was looking for.   And so a deal is struck.

Under this pressure, Gabriel leaves his pregnant wife Chiara and his restoration work on Virgin and Child in Glory with Saints to solve the crimes of murder and art theft.  Chiara too is an Israeli agent, but Gabriel refuses to let her accompany him on his search.  His first wife and their son were killed years ago by a car bomb, and Gabriel is determined to leave Chiara and their unborn twins in Venice under the protection of her family and the Italian police.

Silva’s novel takes the reader on a voyage through numerous countries–Italy, France, England, Holland, Switzerland, and Israel.  Gabriel enlists the help of art thieves, spies, mercenaries, and bankers, all in an effort to find the Caravaggio and Jack Bradshaw’s killer. 

The novel is so current that it might have been written today.  Corruption, double-dealing, murder–they are in the headlines every day, and the joining of political ambition and dirty money in The Heist is a dangerous combination.  Gabriel Allon is resourceful, talented, and compassionate–the latter not always a trait that one would expect to find in a spy.  But Gabriel is a three-dimensional man, a fact that makes Daniel Silva’s series worth reading.

You can read more about Daniel Silva at this web site.   

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

It’s been three years in real time since the publication of Resurrection Day, but only a week has passed in fictional time for Lewis Cole.  In that novel, a protest against the nuclear plant in Lewis’ adopted home town of Tyler, New Hampshire turned violent, leaving his best friend and town police officer Diane Woods in a coma.  Lewis saw the brutal attack and is determined to bring the killer to justice, or at least his idea of justice, in Fatal Harbor.

The only survivor of a project gone tragically wrong when he worked for the Department of Defense, Lewis has no faith that the any government agency wants to find the killer.  Every step he takes convinces him that he is endangering his own life and the life of his friend, Felix Tinios, by pursuing the man who nearly killed Diane and that the government is not on his side.  But Lewis won’t stop his investigation and pursuit.  He knows who the killer is, he just has to find him.

Lewis and Felix follow the trail to Boston University where faculty member Heywood Knowlton is known to be sympathetic to the Nuclear Freedom Front, the group behind the protest.  Posing as a free-lance journalist writing a story about the plant and the violent demonstration that took place there, Lewis talks to the professor but Heywood tells him in no uncertain terms that he won’t cooperate.  To Heywood, the man Lewis is looking for is a “true believer, a fighter for the people….”  And if a police officer was injured or killed, that’s the “price of progress.”

As Lewis exits the university building, he sees Felix talking to two men.  As Felix walks away from the men, they begin shouting at him, and he sees one of them reach under his coat for a weapon.  Felix fires first, the men fall, and he drives away. 

Picking up Lewis later in the day, Felix explains that the two men had said they were FBI agents.  Felix knows, from past experience, that they were merely impersonating federal agents and that the whole scene was a setup to get him into their SUV.   The next day the Boston Globe carries a very short paragraph reporting the incident.  The authorities call it a false alarm, a film shoot gone wrong.  When Lewis reads this, he is more convinced than ever that the only justice Diane will ever receive has to come from him.

And when Lewis is near the end of his journey and is talking again to the university professor, Heywood Knowlton, Heywood is stunned.  “A friend?  You’re doing this for a friend…Not even a family member…a friend….”  But to Lewis, a friend is the most important thing there is.

Brendan DuBois has written another page-turning novel.  Lewis Cole comes across as a real person, dealing with a difficult past and a traumatic present.  Regardless of the dangers, he continues his search for the killer.  Lewis’ friendships are vital to him, and a promise is sacred.

To completely appreciate this excellent book, I strongly suggest reading Resurrection Day first; it will make Fatal Harbor more understandable and even more enjoyable.

You can read more about Brendan DuBois at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

For the admirers of all things Québécois, there’s good news for your end-of-summer reading.  Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is back!

Actually, he’s retired Chief Inspector Gamache now.  After a series of incidents that nearly took his life, he has left the force, and now he and his wife, Reine-Marie, are living in the village of Three Pines, the scene of many of his earlier cases.  Now it is his wish to live in there quietly and enjoy the company of his wife and the many friends they’ve made in the community over the years.

But, bien entendu, this is not to be.  Clara Morrow, one of  Armand’s neighbors, very hesitantly comes to him with a problem.  A little over a year ago she and her husband, Peter, decided on a trial separation.  

All through the years of their marriage Peter had been the famous one, a painter of renown throughout Canada.  More recently, however, Clara’s paintings have been recognized for their originality and brilliance, and while her star rose, Peter’s fell.  He has not dealt well with this, not used to being the also-ran in their relationship, and finally Clara asked him to leave their home.  

As Clara tells Armand and his son-in-law, police detective Jean-Guy Beauvoir, at last she had recognized something that was long obvious to their friends.  “He never understood my art.  He tolerated it.  What he couldn’t tolerate was my success.”

The plan was for Peter to return, or at least contact Clara, a year from the date he left to discuss the state of their relationship.  But that date came and went with no word from him.  And now, several weeks later, she has finally worked up enough courage to ask Armand for his help.

Clara has no idea where her husband has gone, but she is convinced that wherever he is, he is painting.  Joined by Armand, Jean-Guy, and her closest friend, Myrna, Clara begins to search for her husband.

Reading The Long Way Home is, in fact, like going home for readers familiar with this series.  Now that Armand and Reine-Marie are finally ensconced in their new home, which actually is the oldest house in the village, they are with their friends on a daily basis. 

Besides Clara, there is Myrna, a psychologist and owner of the village bookstore; Olivier and Gabri, the gay couple who own a bistro in Three Pines; and Ruth, the prize-winning poet with a foul mouth and a duck who appears to speak only vulgarities.  And on the weekends, the Gamaches’ newly-married daughter, Annie, often arrives with her husband, Jean-Guy, Armand’s former colleague and still his close friend. 

Armand Gamache is a good man, struggling with his own demons after nearly losing his life and being unfairly vilified by a colleague during his tenure as chief inspector of homicide in the Sûreté du Québec.  He is working hard to banish these demons, not wanting to go again into any situations that might bring them to the forefront of his thoughts.  But when Clara asks him for help, he cannot refuse.

As with all of Louise Penny’s novels, the characters, with their virtues and flaws, are very, very real.  Watching them age and grow, the reader may see some of her/himself in some or all of them.  This trip back to Three Pines is suspenseful, wonderful, and sad.

You can read more about Louise Penny at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.

After each book I read by Laura Lippman, I’m reminded why she’s one of my favorite authors.  After I’m Gone has only reinforced my feeling.

Some people have incredible charisma, and Felix Brewer was one of those.  Not especially good-looking, not college-educated, he nevertheless charmed everyone he met and was able to parlay this into life with a beautiful wife, three lovely daughters, a large house in Baltimore, and a significant presence in the city’s Jewish and philanthropic communities.  However, he always wanted more.

But somehow, in After I’m Gone, things have gone awry.  Felix is hiding in a horse van, hoping not to be stopped by the police, because he’s on his way out of the country to avoid a fifteen year prison sentence.  He’s with his mistress, Julie Saxony, but he has no intention of taking her with him, nor is he taking his wife and children.  It’s July 4, 1976.

Bambi, Felix’s wife, has known almost from the beginning of their life together that not everything Felix did was legal.  It wasn’t exactly illegal, or at least not all of it, but it was slippery.  “People will gossip.  But we’ll be so respectable–so rich–that no one will be able to afford to look down on us,”  he tells her.  Bambi deals with that, just as she deals with knowing that Felix is unfaithful, consoling herself with the thought that he loves her best. 

Sandy Sanchez is the instrument that will open up this thirty-five-year-old history.  He’s a former police detective in Baltimore, working as a consultant on cold cases for the force.  Going through some old files, he comes across a photo of Julie, Felix’s girlfriend at the time he disappeared.  Julie vanished ten years after Felix did, but her body was not discovered for another fifteen years.  Her murder has never been solved, so Sandy decides it’s worth a closer look.

In addition to following Sandy’s pursuit of Julie’s killer, over the years we are introduced to the oldest Brewer daughter, Linda, on the night of the 1980 presidential election; Rachel, the middle daughter, caught in an unhappy marriage with a cheating husband; and Michelle, the spoiled youngest child, who never knew her father and perhaps misses him the most.

And there’s the beautiful Bambi, still turning heads at forty, fifty, sixty.  Too proud to ever let friends know how dire her financial situation really is, she manages from month to month, holding her breath as the bills pile up. 

The lives of everyone in the book have been touched both by the presence of Felix Brewer and by his absence.  It’s fascinating to watch the dynamics so many years after he leaves.  It’s as if his energy and personality are still vibrating nearly four decades later.  It’s not simply that his family and friends are still missing him, although they are.  It’s also that their lives are so different than they would have been if he had not left. 

After I’m Gone joins all the other novels by Laura Lippman as a wonderful read.  The characters are real, as are their reactions to what is happening to them.  The plot is outstanding; more than simply a mystery, it is a narrative about how each person’s life impacts so many other lives.

You can read more about Laura Lippman at this web site.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her web site.