Rob Hart returns with PI Ash McKenna in The Woman from Prague., which is where he finds himself, laying low for the past months, but on a visa ready to run out.
This entertaining novel elevates the spy genre with Ash’s first person POV, the crisp dialogue, and Ash’s wry thoughts when he finds himself strong-armed into working for a supposed US agent who knows far too much about Ash and his background. But can “Roman” be trusted? And is he who he says he is?
Things quickly go south–did Auntie M mention there’s a woman involved? –as the meet Roman sets up turns deadly. Ash is forced to go on the run with the mysterious Samantha. Despite the lovely Sam in tow, Ash finds the role of an international spy is not all James Bond made it seem.
He’s in a foreign city, with someone he can’t trust, being hunted for reasons he can’t fathom.
Non-stop action gives readers a wild ride in a great setting. The fast pace makes this a perfect summer read.
If the name Anthony Horowitz sounds familiar to you, it’s probably because you’ve seen it in the credits for Midsomer Murders or Foyle’s War, amongst other television works. Or because you’ve read his Holmes novels, Moriarty and The House of Silk; or Trigger Mortis, which contained original material from Ian Fleming; or perhaps his YA Alex Rider series.
Yes, quite the prolific and successful author in multiple genres. Yet Horowitz manages to pull off a coup quite unlike any other with his newest mystery, Magpie Murders.
This is a clever and compelling romp, paying homage to the writers of the Golden Age with a mystery novel-within-a-novel. Readers are introduced to editor Susan Ryeland, whose client Alan Conway’s Atticus Pund series has kept her publishing house afloat. There should be an umlaut over that “u” in Pund, but Auntie M’s keyboard doesn’t have that diacritical mark. It’s another way that Conway plays with his readers. And play he does, with increasing contempt, for Conway could be snarky, and as Susan soon discovers, not just to her.
Susan is delivered Conway’s newest and last manuscript, where he’s decided to kill his detective off. Over the weekend as she reads it, so do we, becoming submerged into 1950s England outside Bath, and we and she are presented with a period-perfect murder mystery, complete with many references to classic works. But as Susan reaches the end of the manuscript, she finds to her dismay–and ours–that the denouement chapter is missing. When Susan returns to work Monday, searching for that last chapter, she finds that Conway has committed suicide.
The novel turns into a contemporary mystery, as Susan takes on the detecting of issues surrounding Conway’s death, trying to find the missing chapter, and soon becomes convinced his death could be murder. As she travels to his home and his funeral, meeting those in Conway’s circle, she connects many of the devices Conway used in the book with his real life. It’s not a pretty picture that emerges, and there are far too many candidates for the role of murderer. And where is that missing chapter?
This is a hugely satisfying read, containing puzzles, anagrams, literary motifs and more, including a gentle send-up of today’s publishing world. It’s garnered wonderful enthusiastic reviews and this is one more. Highly recommended.
Palombo merges reality with history in a captivating way and returns to do it again with a story of Botticelli in The Most Beautiful Woman in Florence.
Inspired by Botticelli’s iconic painting The Birth of Venus, readers will be plunged into the Florence of the Medicis that has a surprisingly feminist view.
Palombo has the artist’s muse, Simonetta Vespucci, appearing here not just as his muse but as his mistress. Not difficult to imagine this might have been true, when in reality the artist asked to be buried at her feet.
Born into a glittering circle of the time, with writers, artists, and politicians of the day fawning over her, men are enthralled with Simonetta’s beauty. She saves her heart for the young Botticelli, becoming his muse after he invites her to pose for him.
Once she married Maraco Vespucci, Simonetta must learn how to massage both her marriage and her place in Medici society, while she and the painter dance around their growing love for each other, until they finally consummate their passion that leads to his most famous painting of her.
Don’t miss the author’s note that explains the historical research the author conducted and how she choose this version of events.
Action, adventure and science wrapped up together prove an explosive read in the second outing from this duo of Bill Schutt and JR Finch in The Himalayan Codex, the second book featuring zoologist RJ MacCready.
This time the adventure captain finds himself on searching the plateaus of Tibet for the legendary Yeti. For the post WWII era, 1946 is a time of rebuilding. MacCready heads to Tibet to examine mammoth bones that were recently discovered in the Himalayas.
Yeti may not exist, but a codex purportedly written by Pliny the Elder certainly does, giving rise to the theory of a new race of ancestral humans, whose presence gave rise to the stories of the Yetis, yet with one startling aspect–their ability to speed up evolution.
It’s a process that would bring with it benefits but also potential for devastation with no limits. Is this the truth? And if not, why would Communist Chinese among others be hunting him and his team?
There’s enough plausible science here with technical research to allow readers to suspend disbelief to enjoy the action-packed ride. A thorough author’s note gives a complete explanation on what is fictional, what is not, and just what might be possible.
Author Peter Blauner took time off from novels to write for television, including co-executive producing Blue Bloods, but he’s returned to crime novels with Proving Ground, an urban crime drama where Brooklyn springs to life as do the characters he’d drawn.
Nathaniel Dresden’s law career can’t wipe out the memories and effects of his time in the Iraq War. He feels like he’s returned to a world he no longer recognizes.
Then Nathaniel’s father is shot and killed in Prospect Park. When he returns to Brooklyn, Natty sifts through his father’s papers, and finds in his records troubling evidence of a plot against his father.
David Dresden defended too many criminals to make NYPD happy, with his controversial activist stance adding to their ire. There are almost too many suspects who might have wanted him dead.
The detective investigating David’s murder is Lourdes Robles, working in her own shadow of disgrace. Trying to save her career, Lourdes is determined to figure out who murdered David, and who wants to keep that knowledge secret, knowing that even her colleagues are against her investigation.
The juxtaposition, and jostling against each other, between the wounded Iraqi war veteran and the brash Latina detective–two “mongrels”– make for some interesting reading and keep this successful novel character driven, even as the plot intensifies and ratchets up. The ending will surprise readers as some things will come full circe, while other do not.
Carolyn Haines returns with her next Sarah Booth Delaney cozy, Sticks and Bones. This time the southern sleuth examines a cold case that comes to light in a most unexpected way.
An old acquaintance comes back into Sarah’s life in the form of Frangelica McFee, known as Sister. Now a bestselling author who lives in New York, she woman is still as arrogant and downright cruel as Sarah remembered.
So she’s doubly dismayed when it seems Sister’s memoir is being filmed on location right in Zinnia Mississippi, and the film crew decides to hire Sarah to dig out the truth about he deaths of Sister’s mother and brother decades ago.
Of course, digging into deeply buried dirt is bound to upset the real perpetrator, whose secrets have lain undisturbed until Sarah gets involved. With her trademark humor and strong protagonist, it’s another wild ride with Sarah Booth and her cohorts around.
Kline’s adult novels have been reviewed here, but Auntie M wanted to make mention of a wonderful middle grad reader, as many of you out there have young readers at home or may be looking for a gift for one. Great for summer reading, Kline’s Orphan Train Girl follows two storylines that overlap, and introduces real history in a version for this age group.
Vivian is now an adult living in Maine when young Molly comes to her to help her cleanup her attic, but before that, she was an Irish immigrant who was brought to New York and put on an “orphan train” that would take her to the Midwest and to a new home in Minnesota.
The real orphan trains existed between 1854 and 1929, carrying an estimated two hundred and fifty thousand children from the East Coast to the Midwest to being new lives. Many of them, like Vivian, were immigrants to the US.
As her story unwinds, Molly, who had resided in more foster homes than she should have, finds that she and the elderly widow have more in common than she could have imagined. Molly learns of other children Vivian met on the train, and she learns of the homes and adjustment Vivian has had to endure, even to having her name changed.
The lovely story included a brief history of the orphan trains at the end for young readers. A satisfying read for any age.
Brian McGilloway’s Lucy Black series, set in Northern Ireland, returns with the compelling Bad Blood.
Not one to shy from controversial topics, McGilloway tackles Lucy’s latest case head on, when a community becomes overwhelmed with tragedy.
A young man is found in a park, dead from head wounds, and with a stamp from a gay club on his hand. Concurrently, a hate-speech pastor was heard spouting the advocacy of stoning gay people. Could the death be connected to his talks?
At the same time as Lucy and her boss, DI Tom Fleming, try to cool things off, a Gay Rights group become involved, showing up and demonstrating at the pastor’s talks, while a far-right group target new immigrants who’ve moved into the area.
There will be vandalism that escalates to assault, arson, and more deaths before Lucy and her team, who are undergoing their own stresses, can figure out who is behind the various issues. There are turf wars within the community, and an escalating drug problem that adds to the tension.
Set against the days leading up to the Brexit vote, this highly current and compelling thriller will have readers flipping pages as Lucy and her team try to figure out who is responsible for what, when she finds herself on the receiving end of some of the ugliness.
The complex plot all makes sense in this end in this enjoyable read that will have readers searching for others in the Lucy Black series.
Kristen Lepionka’s debut mystery, The Last Place You Look, introduces PI Roxanne Weary, daughter of a police detective who’s inherited her father’s keen instincts along with his affinity for alcohol.
This is not your typical, sweet protagonist, but a hard-drinking, sexually active woman who’s learning to deal with her grief after her father’s death on duty. When her brother Matt sends her a new client, she finds herself drawn to look for Sarah Cook, a young woman who vanished the same day her parents were murdered.
The man accused of those murders languishes in jail, and with his execution scheduled for two months down the road, time is of the essence to find the young woman who would know who really killed her parents. Brad Stockton has always claimed he’s innocent and refused to put any blame on Sarah.
Then Brad’s sister swears she sees Sarah at a local gas station, although police have long maintained Sarah was also one of Brad’s victims when something went wrong between the two young lovers. This prompts her to hire Roxanne in a last-ditch effort to prove her brother’s innocence.
It seems like a cold case destined to go nowhere, until Roxanne links Sarah’s disappearance to another of her father’s cold cases. And then a third body is found, and Roxanne is scrambling to get ahead of a serial killer, while the local police thwart her every move.
Readers will feel Roxanne’s frustration and her grief as she tries to sort out her own tumbled emotions at the same time as she solves a decades-old crime. Readers will look forward to a sequel featuring the gritty PI.
A tense and suspenseful thriller, Lori Rader-Day says of Lepionka: “A talented new voice and a character worth following anywhere she trespasses.”
Please welcome Canadian author Joanne Guidoccio, whose mystery Too Many Women in the Room has the tag line: Eight women–eight motives to kill a lecherous photographer! Don’t miss her special giveaway at the end of her discussion.
Joanne is going to share what she’s learned about prologues:
To Prologue or Not to Prologue
Whenever I’ve asked a writing instructor or workshop facilitator about prologues, I’ve encountered a variety of negative facial expressions—everything from a wince to a frown to a quick shake of the head. And the following responses: Agents hate prologues; Readers will skip to the first chapter; Prologues = Information Dumps.
One instructor offered a ray of hope: Use only if the prologue adds an interesting and integral layer to the narrative.
Interesting and Integral…Definitely a challenge and one I decided to tackle in my new release, Too Many Women in the Room.
But first, I needed to get more information about the Uses and Misuses of Prologues. Here’s what I discovered:
Use a Prologue to…
• Provide information that is crucial to understanding the rest of the story. In Too Many Women in the Room, I needed to introduce the victim’s voice. Having written the rest of the novel in the first-person POV, I wanted the reader to be privy to the thoughts and feelings of the victim in his final hour.
• Provide clues. Red herrings are an important component of cozy mysteries. In Too Many Women in the Room, the initial crime scene contains vital details that form the basis for these red herrings.
• Hook the reader. If the actual crime doesn’t occur for several chapters, it is a good idea to whet the reader’s appetite with a prologue. But—and a big but—the interim chapters also need hooks to keep the reader engaged.
Don’t Use a Prologue to…
• Introduce a voice or tone that is not as engaging as the rest of the novel.
• Dispose of the entire back story. Much better to incorporate bits and pieces throughout the novel.
• Introduce an overly-dramatic voice and then switch to a much quieter voice.
Here’s the idea of Too Many Women in the Room:
When Gilda Greco invites her closest friends to a VIP dinner, she plans to share David Korba’s signature dishes and launch their joint venture— Xenia, an innovative Greek restaurant near Sudbury, Ontario. Unknown to Gilda, David has also invited Michael Taylor, a lecherous photographer who has throughout the past three decades managed to annoy all the women in the room. One woman follows Michael to a deserted field for his midnight run and stabs him in the jugular.
Gilda’s life is awash with complications as she wrestles with a certain detective’s commitment issues and growing doubts about her risky investment in Xenia. Frustrated, Gilda launches her own investigation and uncovers decades-old secrets and resentments that have festered until they explode into untimely death. Can Gilda outwit a killer bent on killing again?
And here’s some of that opening prologue:
He couldn’t believe he was following his wife’s advice. After twelve years of paying lip service to deep yoga breaths, mindfulness, and all the other New Age crap she espoused, he had finally found a use for it. His midnight run usually sorted out all the stress, but tonight was different. He still couldn’t shake the venom that had been directed his way.
To make matters worse, it had come from eight women, eight very different and very annoying women. He had bedded four, but right now he couldn’t imagine having sex with any of them. As for the untouched four, well, only one interested him, and it had nothing to do with her feminine wiles and everything to do with her healthy bank account.
He would have to take something to get through the night, something a lot stronger than his wife’s herbal teas. The remnants of an old Percocet prescription came to mind. Two capsules might do the trick. The thought of a panacea, albeit a chemical one, calmed his racing thoughts. A good night’s sleep would make a world of difference. And tomorrow, he would sort it out.
The light patter of feet distracted him. Definitely a woman’s gait. Her breath was even, neither shallow nor panting. Younger, maybe in her thirties. His pulse quickened, and a smile spread over his features. A welcome distraction. Just what he needed to erase the built-up stress. To hell with deep breathing, affirmations, and Percocet.
Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff 