Doug Johnstone: The Big Chill Sunday, Aug 2 2020 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:30 am

Doug Johnstone introduced the women of the Skelf family in last year’s well-done A Dark Matter, prompting Twitter cries for #MoreSkelfs. He listened, and brings the trio back in The Big Chill.

Matriarch Dorothy, daughter Jenny, and university student grand-daughter Hannah, along with her partner, Indy, have kept the business running that has made the Skelfs a well-known Edinburgh name after the death of father Jim: a funeral home the older two women live over, and with it, a private investigation agency.

The events in A Dark Matter have led to the women healing physically but grieving emotionally in different ways. With Jenny’s ex-husband creating a startling wave of anxiety, the book opens with a car crashing into the open grave at one of the funerals the Skelfs are conducting.

Dorothy soon makes it her mission to discover the identity of the dead driver, and find out about his life. Jenny is caught up in a new romance, one she’s not certain she deserves, while dealing with her ex’s second wife. Could they have anything in common? And Hannah’s friendship with an elderly professor takes its own dark turn, causing her relationship with Indy to suffer in the process while she ponders life’s big questions.

It’s been said people grieve in their own way, and the women’s grief after Jim’s death was interfered with by the events in A Dark Matter. Now as they each explore the different ways to deal with their often overwhelming thoughts, more pressing needs at hand, such as a disappearing teen, often take precedence.

There are different kinds of mystery here, as each thread is followed, connections made, and unsettling events occur while life continues on in its way. There are surprises, too, that make the plot a twisted but realistic thing, one that readers will swear they can almost see happening to them.

This is a darkly funny tale, with so much knowledge of human nature running through it. Perhaps it is not that Johnstone understands humans better than some of us, but more that he is open to the many variations we offer as a response to situations, especially when we are emotionally vulnerable. In this, he has a clear eye. In these women, he’s created three strong, vastly different characters whose reactions reflect their individuality.

Auntie M loves this series and you will, too. #MoreSkelfs. Highly recommended.

 

Ellison Cooper: Cut to the Bone Thursday, Jul 23 2020 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:59 am

Ellison Cooper’s Sayer Altair series calls on her own experience with neuroscience, as a murder investigator, and as a certified K9 Searach and Rescue Federal Disaster worker to inform the series with a high degree of authenticity.

She returns with the third in the series, Cut to the Bone, an original story with the kind of didn’t-see-it-coming twists that will startle readers.

Sayer is still grieving for her dead fiance’and building her reputation with her work into the minds of serial killers for the FBI, as she builds her little untraditional family in Washington DC and its environs.

When she’s called to the scene of young girl’s body, left inside a circle of baboons by the Einstein Memorial outside the National Academy of Sciences.

It isn’t long before Sayer and her team, with several returning and interesting characters, learn that just hours before, the victim was one student on a bus filled with twenty-four high school STEM students.

Within the first hour that bus left DC, the bus, driver, chaperone and all of the students have completely disappeared. And then a grisly discovery leads to an all-out manhunt for the sick person who had engineered this tragedy.

But hope survives for some of the students, and Sayer finds herself thwarted at every turn as she tries to find the psychotic person with a fixation on Egyptology who is behind this.

But when she finds out who it is and how that has happened, her world will be turned upside down once again.

Cooper has created realistic characters who gain our attention and empathy. The setting brings DC and its neighborhoods to life. All of this is wrapped within a chilling tale of false leads, laced with real science, to create a story with fast pacing and a race against time.

 

Margaret Murphy: Before He Kills Again Thursday, Jul 16 2020 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for and police procedural and police thriller and psychological mystery and Series not to be missed and suspense thriller and thriller Auntie M Writes Crime 12:47 am


Margaret Murphy has a strong history in writing chilling psychological novels. Known for the Clara Pascal, and Rickman and Foster series, Murphy has also written as AD Garrett, and with a partner as Ashley Dyer. All of her books feature realistic characters and chilling plots that will have readers leaving the lights on long after they should have been asleep.

Now she brings DC Cassie Rowan to the page in a complex psychological novel that is tightly woven in Before He Kills Again.

Starting from its powerful opening, readers will be hooked immediately with the powerful image Murphy creates.

There’s a sadist on the loose named the Furman, who targets prostitutes and pretty young woman, terrorizing them then raping and beating them before leaving the victims to be found. DC Cassie Rowan spends her evenings undercover, trying to get picked up by this maniac.

And one night she almost succeeds in catching him, where it not for the incompetence of two of her team members. All the while, she juggles being the responsible adult for her teenaged brother after the death of their parents.

Then someone who’s become a friend is savaged by the Furman. Frustrated, Cassie becomes even more determined to bring this maniac to justice, despite at times feeling sabotaged by her own team.

Alan Palmer is a psychologist with his own fraught home situation. Separated from his wife, trying to mend fences to have access to his young daughter, he has private and NHS patients he’s trying to help, but one in particular has caught his attention. Could this young man be the Furman?

Then someone dies, and all bets are off for Rowan and Palmer, all the while bringing the danger closer to home than they would like to believe. The incidents ratchet up in intensity; someone is losing it, and Cassie and Alan are at the heart of it all.

How these two professionals lives intersect forms the basis for a quick-paced psychological thriller, part police-procedural, all parts skillfully written, that heralds the start of a complex new series from this accomplished author.

Highly Recommended.

 

Jo Spain: Six Wicked Reasons Sunday, Jul 12 2020 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for and psychological mystery Auntie M Writes Crime 12:03 am

Jo Spain’s Six Wicked Reasons is a wonderful study in characters so vividly drawn, readers will feel they’ve come to know the Lattimer family.

Six siblings have varied stories, and all of their stories of this dysfunctional family will become known: sisters Ellen, Kate and Clio; brothers James, Adam, and Ryan.

The thing that unites them is the treatment each has endured from their father, Frazer Lattimer. While seeking his approval, wanting his love, each has experienced the depths he would sink to with his own children. Each has suffered at some point, been the butt of his humiliation, or worse. Each has reached a breaking point.

Ten years ago Adam disappeared and was presumed dead, which led to Kathleen Lattimer’s early death. Since then the other siblings have been absent from the family home, in Dublin, France, Italy. Youngest daughter, Clio, has spent the last four years in New York.

Then Adam suddenly returns. His sibling are called to the family home by their father for a reunion weekend in Spanish Cover that Frazer orchestrates with surprises for all of his children.

The weekend culminates with a party aboard a yacht with an ultimate surprise but a huge one for Frazer, too. Nine people are aboard, but only eight will return.

An excellent read, atmospheric and chilling, where every character has a strong motive for murder. Highly recommended.

 

Mark Billingham: The Killing Habit; Their Little Secrets Wednesday, Jul 8 2020 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:21 am

For some reason, Mark Billingham’s last two Tom Thorne novels didn’t make it to Auntie M’s To Be Read shelf, but she’s bought them herself to catch up.

The Killing Habit bring Thorne at first into the world where pets are being killed. A classic sign of a psychopath in the making, his goal is to find the culprit before his crimes can escalate.

To that end, he enlists DI Nicola Tanner, a welcome addition to the series. With her own quirks and the secret that binds them together, she’s working her own murder, a shooting by a motorcyclist that has drugs at its heart.

When the two find a serial killer is using a dating agency to target his victims, the chase is literally on before more women can be killed.

The opposing natures of Thorne and Tanner make them a dynamic couple with their interplay and dialogue some of the best in the book. Both are struggling with their personal lives, too. A great installment in one of Auntie M’s favorite series.

In Their Little Secret, with the personal aspects still looming for Thorne and Tanner, they duo become involved in the tragic suicide of a woman who has been the victim of a swindler.

At the same time, readers follow Sarah as she drops her young son off at school. She’s a devoted mum, has a strict routine, and couldn’t appear nicer.

When a young man’s bloodied body is found, CCTV shows a woman he was with shortly before his death. The reader knows more about how these two cases overlap than Thorne and Tanner do, and only heightens the suspense.

Coroner Phil Hendricks is back, too, a great character who manages to stay friends with Thorne and now Tanner. It’s a race to the finish between a couple who bring new meaning to the term psychopath.

This one is the 16th in an a police procedural series that is as authentic as it is filled with humanity.

Both books are Highly Recommended.

 

Lesley Thomson: Death of a Mermaid Sunday, Jul 5 2020 

complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:51 am

Lesley Thomson steps away from her wonderful Detective’s Daughter series to bring us a an equally compelling stand-alone mystery, Death of a Mermaid.

The mermaids in question are young women who all attended the same convent school in Newhaven. The women have varied relationships to Catholicism at the present time, but Thomson skillfully gives us chapters of their teen years so readers can see the entwined relationships between them.

Toni has become a police detective; Mags works in the local library. Karen runs a fish van that belongs to the Powers family, whose oldest child, daughter Freddy, left home decades years ago and has just returned when she learns of her mother’s terminal illness.

Freddy’s brothers, Andy and Ricky, run the Powers Fishery whose impact on the town is vast. It’s into this setting that Freddy returns and brings with her the impact of all the reasons why she left.

Then one of the mermaids is killed, another young person dies, and while Toni handles those cases, her investigation is hampered by the fact Ricky is her boyfriend.

Thomson imbues the setting, both past and present, with descriptions that utilize all the senses, bring the reader right into the church, the homes, and the fishery. There will be storms, secrets buried that resurface, and social issues that Thomson faces directly.

All of the characters are well-drawn, from their emotions to their quirks. Auntie M loves books where she learns something, and readers will learn about the fishing industry, too, in a way that’s built into the plot.

At the heart, this mystery is propelled by the short, tense chapters, by Thomson’s wonderful use of language and compelling characters, and by the sense of betrayal that haunts the entire story. Highly recommended.

 

Sara Paretsky: Love & Other Crimes Wednesday, Jul 1 2020 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:58 am

Sara Paretsky brings out a collection of stories she’s written over the past twenty years in Love & Other Crimes. There are fourteen stories in the collection, which include eight featuring her creation, VI Warshawski.

It’s a mixed collection, all with that twisting plot that has been the hallmark of her books. They range from a very young VI’s first investigation, to the title story, where a modern VI uses her investigative experience from the years to clear a family friend of a murder charge, and end with a surprise twist.

In the introduction, Paretsky notes her early reading of the Golden Agers, and her love of late Victorian and early 20th-century crime fiction. Notes at the end of the stories describe their genesis and often give clues to bits within the stories.

Her story “Murder at the Century of Progress” pays homage to two greats: she brings back Race Williams, the first hardboiled detective originally created by Carroll John Daly (1923) and mixes his investigation with that of a woman who is the ultimate mix of Miss Marple and Amelia Butterworth, another favorite.

She uses the cover of the dithering spinster and gives her Charlotte Palmer a more adventurous back story we discover, as the two manage to foil the murder of none-other than fan dancer Sally Rand at the World’s Fair of 1933 called the Century of Progress.

PD James called Paretsky “the most remarkable” of modern crime writers. Readers who sift through this collection will surely agree.

 

Jeffrey B. Burton: The Finders Tuesday, Jun 30 2020 

complex mystery and debut and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:03 am

Jeffrey B. Burton introduces a new series that will grab dog lovers and mystery hounds alike with The Finders.

Set in Chicago, trainer Mace Reid specializes in cadaver detection dogs. When he adopts a golden retriever he names Elvira he calls Vira, the star of the show, her unique talents go beyond his usual training.

Still recovering from the death of a beloved companion, and also a divorce, Mace’s head had been down for too long. After a horrid beginning, it will turn out that Vira’s instincts have been right all along.

Young women have been disappearing, and as Mace and the police start to connect the dots and widen the field of victims, Vira brings Mace to the culprit.

But it turns out this killer has been groomed by one even more despicable. Called Everyman, he’s become a master of hiding himself in plain sight. And now he has his sights set on Mace.

It will take all of Vira’s talents pushing Mace toward the right person in a chilling climax. It’s a high tension ride, but one that will leave readers anxious for the next installment featuring Mace, Vira and pals.

 

Sarah Stewart Taylor: The Mountains Wild Saturday, Jun 27 2020 

complex mystery and debut and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:31 am


The author of the Sweeney St. George series bring the first in a new series to readers in The Mountains Wild.

Featuring an American police detective investigating in Ireland, with scenes on Long Island, Taylor captures the landscape and the people in both places.

Auntie M grew up on Long Island and the North Shore is well represented. She’s never been to Ireland, but after this book, it’s gone up a few notches on her bucket list.

When her cousin Erin disappeared twenty-three years ago, Maggie D’Arcy flew over to Ireland, spending weeks there trying to get to the bottom of what happened to Erin.

Small clues left didn’t help, and there was no trace of Erin when she left to come back home. Told with flashbacks to Long Island in 1993 and the cousins lives then, contrasted with Maggie’s first trip over, the current time frame is interspersed in a new investigation.

The case and its influence turned Maggie into the detective she’s become. Then the Gardai get in touch again: Erin’s scarf has been found; another young woman has gone missing.

Maggie is now is a divorced mom of a teen who works for the homicide squad. She takes time off when the cold case calls her back to Dublin and its outskirts. She’s also determined to face the ghosts she left behind, as she must find out what happened to Erin. Maggie will use all the skills she’s learned in the intervening years to do that, while hoping to save the lift of the most recently abducted young woman, despite the cost to herself.

It’s a compelling mix with a startling twist at the end that leaves the reader in no doubt Taylor has a hit new series on her hands. Highly recommended.

 

Elly Griffiths: The Lantern Men Tuesday, Jun 16 2020 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:26 am

NOTE: This review was first published back in April. Auntie M is repeating it today, on its US publication date. If you aren’t already a fan of Elly Griffiths, get on board now! She’ll leave it up for a while so you can look for your copy, and while you’re at it, check out Griffith’s standalone, The Stranger Diaries, too, as well as her Stephens and Mephisto series set in 1950s Brighton.

It’s no secret Elly Griffiths long-running Dr. Ruth Galloway series is one of Auntie M’s favorites. She brings readers the newest, The Lantern Men, as accomplished as any of those preceding, one to read and savor, containing her wit and original and creative voice.

It’s been two years since Ruth left her marsh side cottage and her position at the North Norfolk University and as the police’s resident forensic archaeologist. She’s moved Cambridge to teach, and plan a future with historian Frank, and brought her daughter with DCI Nelson, Kate, and their cat, Flint. But where has she left her heart?

This is the subtext as the current story plays out. Having completed a week’s writing residency to finish what will be third book on forensic archaeology, Ruth is surprised when DCI Nelson appears for a visit.

Ivor March, in prison for life for murder, has offered to give up the site of more murdered bodies than he’s in prison for, but only if Ruth oversees the dig.

Reasonably wary, Ruth can hardly turn down a chance to bring closure to the families of the two missing young women, Nicola Ferris and Jenny McGuire. The Norfolk site where March insists the women are buried borders the fens in an area where local legend has it being haunted by figures holding lights and capturing travelers to bring them to their death. They are known as the Lantern Men.

The cast includes many of those readers will have met before and continues their stories but the case can be read as a stand alone. The setting continues its role as central to the case and to Ruth’s feelings as she becomes immersed in the case. But she’s chosen a new life in Cambridge; so why is she having panic attacks?

When a third body is found at the site, and another young woman is murdered, all bets are off. Nelson isn’t happy to entertain the thought that Ivor March is innocent? But if he isn’t the killer, then who is? While he keeps his feelings for Ruth buried as deeply as one of Ruth’s archaeological digs, he misses her, and that adds to his frustration over her new life with Frank in Cambridge.

It’s a finely wrought plot, with enough suspects to keep the reader at bay, while adding in terrific plot twists that will keep the reader on their toes with a building sense of urgency. Who is really at risk from a killer here?

All the balls Griffiths juggles stay afloat and lead to a stunning climax that finds this one Highly Recommended.

 

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