Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff

Today’s blog highlights two UK authors whose series Auntie M follows.

Stephen Booth’s Derbyshire mysteries have caught on so well that the Guardian calls him “a modern master of rural noir.” The Peak District is always well explored in terms of the dark setting, and this is evident from the opening scene in Lost River.

Detective Constable Ben Cooper is on a Bank Holiday in May when an eight-year-old girl tragically drowns and he is helpless to save her. As this event haunts him, he becomes entangled with the dead girl’s family and the secrets they hide. Was this a horrible accident or a murder? Despite being warned off, he continues to investigate, which brings consequences to his personal and professional life.

In a continuing thread, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry returns to her home town of Birmingham to face the reopening of a case that hits too close to home. The area’s inner city streets are well-drawn, as is Fry’s fraught relationships with her sister, foster parents, and people from her past she learns she can’t really trust. Fry tries to preserve herself as she digs deeply for truths that will be startling and change the way she looks at people she thought she knew.

Booth’s books are well plotted and have a rich, dark atmosphere. The taut relationship between the prickly Fry and the softer Cooper has never shone brighter.

M. R. Hall’s Jenny Cooper mysteries are rapidly gaining an audience in the US. The Redeemed is the next installment in this series that relies heavily on Hall’s knowledge as a former criminal lawyer.

Jenny is Severn Vale District Coroner, a position she fights hard to keep every day, whether she’s battling her own interior ghosts or those of outsiders who’d like her to rubber stamp death certificates. She takes her job seriously, and we  are behind her every step of the way as she battles her inner demons to find the strength to serve justice for those dead.

Hall does a fine job of explaining the differences between a criminal court and that of the Her Majesty’s Coroner, and he’s also well-versed in the debilitating anxiety and panic attacks Cooper struggles with. Her personal life is a mess: a son who spends most of his time with his father; an ex-husband whose new wife is pregnant; and a lover who needs a commitment from her, one she’s not certain she can give. She relies on pills to get her through the torment of her days and nights.

Living just over the border in Wales, that countryside is beautifully described; the area becomes a haven for Cooper in her investigation into three separate deaths. What looks like a suicide becomes more when a Jesuit priest appeals to her for help on behalf of one of  his charges, who confessed to the murder of former adult actress Eva Donaldson. Eva has become a world-renowned anti-pornography crusader. Her murder investigation was rapidly closed when a former inmate, newly out on probation, confessed to her murder.

Father Lucas Starr is not above using emotional blackmail to urge Cooper to look again at Eva’s death. When the suicide that opens the novel is joined by a second, and both were members of Eva’s politically charged charismatic Mission Church of God, Jenny starts to agree that the surface story is far from the truth.

Her inquests will ruffle feathers of the wealthy and the mighty, who use their money and position to block her at every turn. They are not above resurrecting an old family tragedy in the news, one which haunts Jenny as her memory is wiped clean for that time period. Confronting that memory puts Jenny on a fearful inner journey to confront the ghosts of her past. Using the law and her hard-won strength to continue, Jenny feels alone in her quest for the real story. Even Jenny’s court officer is unreliable in terms of support, as Alison is struggling with her husband’s infidelity.

It’s only when Father Starr brings help, just as Jenny reaches the end of her options, that she claws her way to finding the resolution the cases demand, at tremendous personal cost.

Hall’s  Jenny is a flawed woman but an appealing character. Quick to feel frustration and lash out, he manages to have her retain our sympathy and understanding, especially when the decks become stacked against her. You’ll be rooting for Jenny to survive.

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These  are great summer reads, whether you are on the beach or sitting at home. But don’t think either of these masterful authors are just for summer, either. Both have great backlists to explore.

Alexander McCall Smith’s humorous series are always endearing yet truthful.  The second offering in the Corduroy Mansions series is The Dog Who Came in From the Cold. This series takes place in the Pimlico section of London,with Smith’s sense of setting is as firm as ever.

Pimlico terrier Freddie de la Hay lightens the life of failed oenophile William French. The breed may be made up, but French’s affection for this little dog is not. What happens when Freddie is pressed by MI6 into the service of Her Majesty’s government is just one of the delightful story threads followed in this installment, which revolves around the residents of the worn Pimlico mansion of the series title.

Berthea Snark is the psychiatrist who finds herself out of love with her own son and plotting to write his biography to set the world straight about her MP son. It’s her brother Terence who has her attention at the moment, that trusting soul whose newest infatuation is with a New Age couple who have convinced Terence his home is the preordained place for their cosmological studies. Berthea must snap into action to rout out the scammers, and how she goes about it is just one of the silly but lovable portions of the book. We also continue the story of literary agent Barbara Ragg,who has a new love in her life, and an old contract with a writer who insists he is being dictated the autobiography of a Yeti. With Barbara in Scotland, her partner, Rupert Porter, struggles to catch a look of this Yeti. “Hilarity ensues” doesn’t begin to describe Rupert’s fall from grace, but there are anchovies involved.

With his trademark wit and insights into human behavior that prove universal, it’s small wonder McCall Smith is adored in many countries.

Next up is CWA Silver, Gold and Diamond dagger winner Peter Lovesey. With stand alones and three other series, Stagestruck is the newest in his Inspector Peter Diamond series, set in Bath.

Lovesey is not afraid to take risks with his character’s lives, which I admire. In this outing, Diamond’s love life is stable for the moment. It’s his professional life that is driving him to confront his own phobia, which revolves around the theater, and which he is forced to confront when murders start to multiply at the Bath’s Theatre Royal.

Lovesey is another writer who uses his setting to enhance his novels, and we are transported to Bath and to the drama that takes place in theatre life behind the curtain. It starts when a pop diva debuts in a production designed to resurrect her failing career. With mixed feelings about her talent on stage, but great anticipation from her fans, opening night disaster strikes when she appears and within moments steps out of character and screams, clawing at her face.

Disfiguring burns, traced to her stage makeup, have ended her stage career before it began. When the makeup artist is found dead, Diamond and his team must sort through the rivalries of the cast and crew to find a murderer. Along the way, there are encounters with a theatre ghost, and the addition to Diamond’s team of a riddling detective who drives him crazy. Lovesey’s humor is at the top of his form here, but he has a knack of never letting it detract from his well-constsructed plot. The Chicago Tribune has said: “Lovesey’s books are so beautifully constructed and cleanly written that they could be used as textbooks in a crime writing course.”

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