Crimespree Magazine #56 Page 14
Alison Gaylin’s STAY WITH ME (Harper—mass paperback) is out June 24th, just in time for that first trip to the shore! Brenna Spector has autobiographical memory of her adult life but no clarity as to why her sister Clea disappeared 30 years ago. In SWM her growing obsession with that long ago crime takes on an urgency when her own Daughter, Maya disappears. Is it coincidence, a cat and mouse game or something even more evil. Brenna must use all of her PII skills to get to the end of this tale. Brenna is “one of the most memorable protagonists to come along in years” Laura Lippman . You know you want to meet her.
SUSPICION (Dutton) from Joe Finder should come with a warning on the title page/ “Do not open this book unless you have a window to read straight through.” Finder is back with his brilliant mix of dialog, characters and visual action. The plot of SUSPICION is more personal. Single parent Danny is afraid he’s going to have to pull his daughter out of school when one of her classmate’s dads offers him a loan. Thomas Galvin is an extremely successful Boston business man and so Danny accepts with some trepidation. The trepidation quickly turns to fear when the DEA comes knocking, informing our hero he has just received drug money. What happens next is a brilliant bit of believable fiction that will have you turning pages, holding your breath, and cheering on the good guys until the last page is consumed.
WOLVERINE BROS. FREIGHT & STORAGE (Minotaur) is the latest Conway Sax offering from Steve Ulfelder. Conway Sax, former race car driver, recovering alcoholic and private investigator has quickly become one of Mystery’s must reads. In WBR&S, Sax is doing a favor for a friend. The book opens in LA with a complicated and highly entertaining rescue and then heads back home to Ulfelder’s Massachusetts. And what a Massachusetts it is. Sax’s favor soon involves him in a family dynamic worthy of Lear with a strong dose of murder for the discerning reader.
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Book Reviews
Issue 56
THE BALLAD OF MILA
Matteo Strukul
2014
Exhibit A
There are some basic themes in film and literature that are universal. True Love is one. Brutal gangland slayings are another. The never-ending quest for vengeance is another still. Epic violence and bloodletting is a theme that oftentimes comes across in movies, music, and our favorite pulp novels.
THE BALLAD OF MILA by Matteo Strukul takes these ideas and repackages them into something new and fresh. Exhibit A has brought Strukul’s novel, which was originally published in Italy in 2011, here to the US. Translated by Marco Piva-Dittrich and Allan Guthrie, MILA has landed in America amid a hail of bullets and swinging katana swords.
The landscape of crime in Italy is facing epic changes. The traditional criminal organizations that have always existed are being encroached upon by the Chinese Triads. The Triads are growing stronger every day. Tensions are rising. Something has to give. When Mila Zago emerges in the midst of a violent convenience store confrontation wearing a t-shirt that reads “Girls Kick Ass”, all parties take notice. In a flurry of leather, red dreadlocks, and blood, Mila is a force that is impossible to ignore. Strukul parcels out the story of who she is and what her plans are for the warring factions to the reader masterfully.
The first in an on-going series of novels starring Mila, Strukul presents a female lead that has seen epic horror in her life and used it to forge herself into an unstoppable force of vengeance. A pulp fueled superhero? Sure. But that’s what we were talking about at the start: universal themes in literature and pop culture. We’ve seen heroes emerge from tragedy so many times before. Batman springs to mind. But what matters is what you do with these basic tropes. What do you bring to the table that’s new? What we haven’t seen before?
Strukul uses MILA as an introduction to a character that readers can immediately feel like they know, feel for, and sympathize with. And it works. She slices and dices, kicks, punches, and shoots her way through gangsters and this reader LOVES IT. And at the end? Where Mila goes next? Yeah, I didn’t see that coming.
I’ll be reading Mila’s adventures as long as Matteo Strukul keeps sending record of them here to the United States.
Dan Malmon
BLACKLIST
Jerry Ludwig
2014
Forge
I’ve always been fascinated by the way society reacted during the cold war. Much of it included the witch-hunt in Hollywood where it came down to ratting someone out or being blacklisted as a commie. Emmy winning screenwriter Jerry Ludwig is using this as a backdrop for an enjoyable novel. With aspects of a thriller, and a who-dunnit, Ludwig creates a lot of suspense.
Back in the day two men were brought in front of the HUAC, the committee looking for communists in Hollywood. One gave info and names and went on to have a successful career. The other wouldn’t talk and fled the country. David Weber has returned to the US after his parents self-imposed exile had him raised abroad. He heads to Hollywood to bury his father. McKenna, an FBI agent, seems to think that it would be worth his while to keep an eye on David. Jana Vardin’s father, while having a career that was noteworthy, always felt horrible for what he had done. Seeing David again reminds her of a less cynical time in her life and causes some complications for her.
Before long bodies start to fall and it looks like Agent McKenna might get the case he was hoping for. All the victims have ties to the committee that ruined David’s father.
The tension in this book builds like a belt being drawn tighter and tighter. By the time I finished, I found myself tensing as I read the last few pages. Ludwig really has a flair for keeping the pages turning. I can’t wait to see what he does next.
Jon Jordan
BLOOD ALWAYS TELLS
Hilary Davidson
2014
Forge Books
Dominique Monaghan is out for revenge. Her boyfriend is not only married, but has another woman on the side besides her. She plans a minor revenge scheme, but before she can realize her plan, she is wrapped up in someone else’s and kidnapped with her cheating boyfriend. When she calls her brother, Desmond, he is quickly sucked down into a dark world of buried family secrets, murder, lies, and plots stacked upon plots. A world where no one is totally innocent and many are guilty of the most heinous of crimes.
BLOOD ALWAYS TELLS is one of the all-time best suspense novels I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Davidson digs into a dark world filled with the greedy, the power-mad, and the most devious people mankind has to offer and presents us with a book that is completely unpredictable and maddeningly addictive. The plot has more turns than a record breaking rollercoaster, and like any good coaster rider knows, you just strap in and enjoy the thrill ride of a lifetime.
Desmond is one of the most brilliant characters to hit the mystery scene in a long time. Bent but not broken, stoic but not sad, determined but not single-minded, he is remarkably complex and shockingly relatable at the same moment. The dark world crafted by Davidson into which Desmond is thrown is enough to destroy any man. The constant tension of whether he will break or not is as engaging as the nefarious plots being hatched around him.
For those of you who are familiar with Davidson’s other works, be warned that this is a far darker path than her normal novels. However, like her previous books, she proves herself a master of murder and mystery. Her characters are divinely complex. Her images are devastatingly beautiful. Her plots are devilishly intricate. If you can handle a good dose of grit, grime, and the downright grim, be sure not to miss the latest by Hilary Davidson.
Bryan VanMeter
BLOOD TANGO
Annamaria Alfieri
2013
Minotaur Books / A Thomas Dunne Book
Four love stories tell this tale: Evita’s love for Juan Peron; dressmaker Claudia’s for her man; her assistant Pilar’s, for newly-met investigating detective Roberto Leary; and the victim’s Luz, also an assistant, love for her abusive boyfriend.
Evita is a customer of Claudia’s dress shop. She gave an old green
dress to Luz who dyes her hair in Evita’s style, and from a distance looks like her—and that’s her undoing. Roberto doesn’t know if Luz’s abusive boyfriend or her abusive father is the murderer. Or was she killed because someone thought she was Evita?
Evita is loved by some, hated by others. Peron is arrested, but she is able to get the people to support his return. For Argentina, it was the devil they knew as opposed to the devil they didn’t know.
There is a lot going on in this book and the sense of turmoil and danger is ever present. How people can try to go on living normal lives is difficult to comprehend. The motive for the murder turns out to be a surprise.
The tango, of course, is an integral part of the Buenos Aires life, and it’s how Pilar and Roberto come together. Wonderful for the history and sense of place.
Gay Toltl Kinman
Board Stiff
Elaine Viets
May 2014
Obsidian
BOARD STIFF is the newest entry in Elaine Viets’ Dead End Job Mysteries. Helen Hawthorne and Phil Sagemont, have gotten married and started a private detective agency out of their condo office in Riggs Beach, Florida, a beach town just south of Fort Lauderdale. (The latest by this author, “Catnapped,” is due out in hardcover in May of 2014.)
Helen and Phil, now in their mid-40’s, with a reputation as the best private eyes in South Florida, are hired to work undercover for a paddleboard rental concession owner in Riggs Beach. He needs help finding out who is behind the vandalism and sabotage of his business, theft of his equipment, and competitors who seem to really want to put him out of business. The couple accepts the job. Helen feels that “I’m getting paid to sleep late and sit on the beach,” and Phil that he can get paid while sitting drinking beer with some guys on the beach trying to gain their confidence and information, seemingly a win-win situation. The crimes have been reported to the authorities, but they are convinced that no “official action” can be expected in a town like Riggs Beach (known as Rigged Beach since Prohibition days and rumored to be fairly uniformly corrupt). Their client’s problems multiply exponentially when a female tourist, one of his clients, tragically dies. The victim’s husband threatens the owner with revocation of his license and the City the lease on his valuable beach property, as well as a wrongful death lawsuit. Helen and Phil are tasked with proving their client was blameless in her death.
Things become more complicated when Helen’s sleazy ex-husband, thought dead, comes back to haunt them, almost literally, affecting their marriage and their partnership, and overshadowing the case they are trying to solve.
Ms. Viets always manages to come up with a good old-fashioned mystery, which, while containing a murder or two, is more lighthearted and contains less blood and gore than many others in the genre, and is a decidedly pleasant way to spend a summer, or even late summer, day.
Gloria Feit
Boiled Over
Barbara Ross
2014
Kensington Mystery
It’s Founder’s Weekend in Busman’s Harbor, Maine, and at Julia Snowden’s urging, the Snowden Family Clambake has set up shop on the town pier to take advantage of the increased foot traffic. The clambake looks poised to do a brisk business—until a human foot falls out of their portable fire pit just as the festivities are about to begin. Now the pier is closed, the pit is evidence, and one of their hardest working employees is wanted for questioning in relation to the crime. Can Julia solve the mystery and save the day, or will this fiasco be what finally sinks their financially strapped family business?
Barbara Ross’ first Maine Clambake Mystery, Clammed Up, was one of the best cozies I read last year, and I’m happy to report that her follow up, Boiled Over, is every bit as good as—if not better than—its predecessor. Boiled Over is a briskly paced, sharply written tale of love, lies, loss, and revenge in a small Maine town. The setting is marvelous; Ross perfectly captures the sights, scents, sounds, and mood of coastal New England in August, and she’s crafted such a wonderfully compelling history for Busman’s Harbor that the town is practically a character in its own right. The plot is twisty, the narration is witty, and Ross’ whodunit is both clever and complex, but if you ask me, what really elevates Boiled Over is its cast. The folks who inhabit Ross’ fictional universe are so vividly drawn and fully fleshed that it wouldn’t at all surprise me to encounter the lot of them while driving up the shore one day. More than that, though, Ross clearly just gets people, and that understanding shines through in her character work; every thought, every word, every deed, and every interaction rings 100% true, and that’s ultimately what brings Ross’ tale to life. (And what a glorious life it is!)
Take it from me: it doesn’t get any better than summer on the coast of Maine. (There’s a reason us natives put up with the long, snowy winters and the wet, buggy springs.) If you can’t make the trip yourself, though, then I highly suggest you pay Vacationland a fictional visit via Barbara Ross’ utterly fabulous Boiled Over.
Katrina Niidas Holm
ROBERT B. PARKER’S CHEAP SHOT
Ace Atkins
May 2014
Putnam
New England Patriots star linebacker Kinjo Heywood suspects he’s being followed. He hires Boston P.I. Spenser to look into it. After a week on the job, Spenser finds no threat, but within hours of leaving Kinjo’s employ, he’s called back when Kinjo’s nine-year-old son, Akira, is kidnapped.
Sure to draw comparisons to the Aaron Hernandez murder case and Plaxico Burress’s nightclub gun incident, Atkins’ third Spenser novel is topical, but will also remind longtime Spenser fans of Robert B. Parker’s classic third novel, MORTAL STAKES, which dealt with a Boston Red Sox pitcher’s secrets.
CHEAP SHOT is a well-conceived adventure that balances Spenser and friends’ experience with Akira’s innocence while drawing on Atkins’ own Auburn football days. Atkins takes the opportunity to show how the boy’s kidnapping affects Kinjo and everyone in his entourage.
If you’ve enjoyed Atkins’ take on Spenser as much as I have, you’ll be pleased to know he’s signed on for two more Spenser novels after CHEAP SHOT.
Gerald So
CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION
Peter Robinson
2014
William Morrow
Peter Robinson’s latest book, Children Of The Revolution, intertwines a murder mystery while bringing back the seventies era. As with all of his books Robinson explores a few social issues within a strong character based story. For this novel, he discussed the issues of date rape, sexual abuse, abuse of power, betrayal, Marxism, and the comparison of students in the seventies with today. What makes the plot intriguing is the use of folk music to enhance it.
Children of the Revolution begins with Inspector Banks investigating the death of a recluse college professor who was dismissed for alleged sexual misconduct four years ago. Along with 5,000 pounds found in his pockets, Professor Gavin Miller’s body position indicated that the cause of death was not natural. Banks struggles to find answers to why Miller would have committed suicide and begins to wonder if he was pushed off the nearby bridge. Robbery, blackmail, or revenge is the possible motive for the untimely death. Banks suspects Lady Veronica Chalmers because of her apparent link with the victim going back to the early seventies at the University of Essex, then a hotbed of political activism. After the inquiries, he is reprimanded by his supervisors and warned to stop. Banks continues to conduct his investigation under the radar, with the help of new DC Geraldine Masterson, DI Annie Cabbot and DS Winsome Jackman.
Readers can see the evolution of Detective Alan Banks from his initial appearance in 1987 to now where he is a lot more cynical, and melancholy as well as not being politically correct. He is an old fashioned detective that would rather use his thought process, assessment of a person’s character, and his own decision-making than the modern technology of today. This can be exemplified with the quote by Banks, “I’ve often thought that solving a crime has far more to do w
ith understanding people and their motives than it does with spectrographic analysis and DNA.”
Readers will never feel that Robinson is lecturing or pushing his viewpoints regarding social issues. Instead, through the character’s dialogue they can come up with their own point of view through observations and what is being said. He does a good job of incorporating different opinions into the storyline.
Children of the Revolution has Banks pondering aging and his mortality as well as his career. Through his contrast of the different periods including student life the readers will learn about those eras. This book is complex and thought provoking between a riveting mystery and an exploration of the social issues.
Elise Cooper
Cockroaches
Jo Nesbo
2014
Vintage Books
The Harry Hole series presently consists of 10 novels, of which this was the second, published in the US in February 2014 for the first time. (The newest book, The Son, is already out)
In the introductory novel, Harry was sent to Australia to solve a murder. This time he was selected to travel to Thailand where the Norwegian ambassador had been found knifed to death in a motel/brothel.
Harry was handpicked by the powers-to-be in their effort to hush up any possible scandal back home, on the theory that he is a drunk and would not be able to solve the murder. Once in Bangkok, Harry finds out he has not been fully informed and is operating in a vacuum (as was intended). As he begins to investigate he uncovers more and more information trying to make sense out of the situation.
The setting gives the author an opportunity to describe the traffic, noise, streets, bars, temples, tourist traps and opium dens in authentic detail, while following Harry’s efforts to solve the ambassador’s murder. Although Harry was supposed to “bury” the crime, the author concludes with a totally unexpected finale.