Bruce Robert Coffin: Bitter Fall Thursday, Jan 22 2026 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read , , , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 5:25 pm

Coffin’s second Det. Brock Justice novel more than continues the promise of the debut in the series, Crimson Thaw, with an atmospheric and charged story.

With baggage from testifying against a fellow officer following him, the state police officer and his partner’s new case takes them to the autumn back roads of small town Maine, where a woman’s body has been found at the roadside. Originally thought a victim of a motor vehicle accident, a stab wound is found on Summer Randall’s body that clouds the cause of death.

Mentoring Detective Chloe Wright, their investigation soon shakes up the small towns near Moosehead Lake, and out fall plenty of suspects. Justice and Wright follow different threads into Summer’s life, but soon Justice is running a parellel case of his own: trying to prove the officer he’d testified against is dirty to the point of unbelievable actions.

There will be affairs in the victim’s past that muddy the waters, while poachers, including a veteran who lives off the grid, all come under scrutiny and add to the tension.

This is a well-plotted police procedural that keeps the action going, and Coffin succeeds in bringing the back woods of Maine to life, populating the novel with realistic characters, while imbuing the case with a sense of urgency matched by his care to find Summer’s killer.

As an added treat, there’s a brilliant ending twist that elevates this very readable book you won’t want to put down.

Highly recommended.

 

The Quiet Mother: Arnaldur Indridason Saturday, Dec 6 2025 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and police thriller , , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 6:52 pm

A master of Icelandic noir, with several popular series and many awards to his credit, Indridason bring a new Detective Konrad mystery to readers. And if you have read some of his others, there are a few brief references that canny readers will catch.

Now retired, the detective continues to pursue his father’s killer. This cold case of the murdered man, not a pleasant person, has occupied Konrad over several years but readers will be quick to understand his background if this is their first read in the series.

It’s not just this case that takes up his time. When a Reykjavik woman is found murdered in her home, Konrad’s phone number is on her desk and he’s notified by the current detective on the case. Valborg had approached him recently, asking for his help in finding the child she gave up for adoption many years ago, over fifty in fact, and faced with that kind of time lag, Konrad hadn’t acquiesced.

But now that she’s dead he feels compelled to figure out what happened to her child, despite having very little knowledge, not even the sex of the child.

This is where Indridason shines, in following Konrad’s private investigation as he ferrets out leads and information from almost thin air as he digs into the woman’s past. It’s a complicated route but one that leads to an unexpected resolution, with surprising stops and starts along the way.

As the tension rises, crimes from the past are unearthed. This is an absorbing story of the echoes of old crimes that last through the years.

 

Anne Cleeland: Murder in All Patience Sunday, Nov 9 2025 

Continued series winner and great read and humorous crime and mystery to die for and police procedural and Series not to be missed , , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 11:41 am

The 22nd Doyle & Action mystery is just as fresh and compelling as the first in this long-running series, which continues to delight readers. With Sir Michael Acton and Lady Acton married police officers, Acton’s way of handling justice often has the Irish Kathleen exasperated as she tries to rein him in.

Her fey nature is helpful to him, though, and Acton enlists the very pregnant Kath to ascertain when witnesses are lying. Aided at times by ghosts only she sees in dreams, she juggles two young boys at home with minimal help. This third child is a girl, and Kath’s imminent delivery has sidelined her to easier tasks.

So when Acton tells his beloved wife he is arranging a charity gala at his ancestral home, Trestles, where a play will entertain the guests, she is immediately suspicious that more is at work, as Acton is known for his devious ways of handling things. A cold murder case mixed with an art-rig gang are at the forefront, as is a fortune to be inherited. Kathleen knows this play is a ruse for more serious business.

The chosen play is a fictional court case revolving around the characters of Sherlock Holmes’s The Hound of the Baskervilles, and soon Kathleen can see parallels to their cases. There are romantic entanglements to sort, murderers to catch, blackmailers to halt–it’s all in a day’s work for this duo who remain devious and charming together. There’s even an evil man confined to a wheelchair whose silver-headed cane may or may not contain a gun.

Cleeland’s plot evolves as Kathleen tries to find out what her exasperating husband is really up to, and this time even she is surprised. A delightful addition to an entertaining series.

 

Four to Die For: Griffiths, Billingham, Robotham, Horowitz Thursday, Sep 4 2025 

Uncategorized , , , , , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 5:34 pm

Auntie M has been back to reading up a storm this summer and over the next posts, I’ll give you a my top picks for readers who won’t be disappointed in any of these choices. Each of these authors are a joy to read and these top four are all highly recommended.

Any novel by Elly Griffiths is a cause for celebration, whether it’s from her series with Det. Harbinder Kaur, her Brighton Mysteries, or her Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries (which I live in hope she will resurrect at some point in the future).

But as a writer I understand the desire to explore new characters and situations, and The Frozen People is as unexpected as it is suspenseful. She introduced cold case officer Ali Dawson, whose new assignment is to literally head back to the Victorian era to clear the name of an ancestor of a Tory MP.

Ali soon becomes involved seeking a group called The Collectors, whose membership required killing a woman. Under Griffiths skillful pen, 1850 London comes alive, and as a new body is found, Ali finds her cover almost blown and her life in danger. And just how is she meant to return to the present?

It’s a neat concept carried out to perfection, filled with Griffiths trademark eccentric characters and sly humor, as creative as it is imaginative.

Billingham’s much-awarded series featuring Tom Thorne is always chock full of surprises and no more so than in his newest offering, What the Night Brings.

Always a master at plotting, Thorne and DI Nicola Tanner are thrust into a nightmare of epic proportions, when a box of donuts given to four officers at a crime scene by a “thankful” member of the public poisons them all. Three die soon after, with the fourth hanging on to life.

Who is the intended victim? Or is it a swipe at all police? Thorne and his team must delve into each of the officer’s lives, treading a fine line with the grieving families of the officers involved.

But this soon turns out to be only the first the attacks on police, leaving everyone scrambling to make connections that don’t seem to be there. Could the reason lie deeper in a betrayal?

Thorne’s partner, Helen, makes an appearance, as does his pathologist friend saddled with the post mortem, Phil Hendricks, bringing a feel of normalcy to this completely shocking tale.

Billingham is a master of twists but even seasoned reader Auntie M was shocked at the turn of events. You won’t be able to put this one down.

Every Michael Robotham novel Auntie M has read has surprised and moved me in unexpected ways, and I’ve read and recommend them all: The wonderful Joe O’Loughlin series, The Cyrus Haven series, ad several standalone. So it’s no surprise that his newest series featuring London PC Phil McCarthy is an instant favorite. Debuted in When You Are Mine, the daughter of a crime boss is constantly fighting preconceptions of her team against that of her family.

When Phil discovers a child wandering alone at night in her PJs, she will uncover that tough realization that the child has been a witness to a deadly home invasion. At the same time a jeweler found in his store, strapped to a an explosive vest, is found to be tied to the child.

And soon ties are also discovered to Phil’s family, setting up a tense situation that will test her loyalties and her career. It’s a tight plot with plenty of action as things turn and unravel, with Phil at the center of it all.

One of the hallmarks of Robotham’s book is his ability to create characters readers will care about, and this is no exception. Grab yourself a copy.

Who isn’t a fan of the creative Anthony Horowitz? His Susan Ryland series has been adapted into a wonderful television series he also writes, and Marble Hall Murders is the third in that series, rumored regrettably to be the last.

Susan has decided England is where she must be planted and is working as a freelance editor for a publisher when she’s handed her worst editing nightmare: someone has written a continued of the Atticus Pund series that got her into her prior troubles.

It doesn’t help that the author, Eliot Crace, quickly annoys Susan, but she concedes his book has merit–until she realizes he’s hiding clues in it about the death of his grandmother, who he is convinced was poisoned.

As Eliot’s behavior becomes more and more unstable, a murder makes Susan the prime suspect.

Wonderfully plotted and difficult to put down.

 

The Psychologist’s shadow Saturday, Nov 18 2023 

psychological mystery and suspense thriller and Uncategorized and writing process , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 7:00 am

The Psychologist’s Shadow by Laury A Egan

Please welcome Laury A. Egan, who will describe her journey with her new thriller, The Psychologist’s Shadow:

The Psychologist’s Shadow by Laury A. Egan

From the Beginning 

The Psychologist’s Shadow is a portrait of Dr. Ellen Haskell, a compassionate, introspective therapist who finds herself in a dangerous struggle with an unknown stalker. The novel is a simmering suspense, one in which tension accumulates as the reader gains insights during sessions with clients—one of whom may be the psychologist’s shadow—and through the stalker’s journal entries, which serve as a discordant counterpoint. 

The inspiration for the novel originated in my college interest in psychology. During my later years at Carnegie Mellon University, I selected all of my course electives in that field. Upon graduation, the head of the university’s counseling center, who had been one of my professors, urged me to embark on a career as a therapist. I was tempted but didn’t go that route, yet I continued to read books and to follow changes in psychology. When I began this manuscript in 1992 (a second novel), my goal was to meld my interest with my writing, depicting how a psychologist would react in sessions and what her thoughts would be during them as well as later, when she was alone and in private.

In other words, the story let me travel down the road I hadn’t taken, to try on the career I hadn’t chosen. 

The novel is a semi-cozy suspense/mystery, set primarily in the counselor’s office in Princeton, New Jersey, and in her home on a forested property northwest of town—places I know well because I worked in Princeton and lived in a similar house. In addition to the familiar setting and my fascination with psychology, I was also attracted to the idea of writing about a light/dark dichotomy: the psychologist versus the disturbed, obsessive follower whose identity is unknown. Both are narrated in first person, thus allowing the reader (and me) to plunge into their minds, with a more in-depth concentration on Ellen Haskell. 

Because one of my greatest pleasures as a writer is creating characters, the plot of The Psychologist’s Shadow allowed me rich opportunities to compose a sampler of diverse clients; to imagine their histories, personalities, and problems; how they would speak, behave, and dress, a process which was similar to writing case studies at university. I was also able to don a psychologist’s hat to “treat” each person, which provides the reader a voyeuristic perch from which to observe, analyze, and search for clues during therapeutic conversations. Wrapping Ellen’s story around her clients’ lives and interspersing the enigmatic journal entries by the stalker, was like being granted a chance to perform all the roles in a drama. 

Throughout the years, I continued to revise the manuscript—almost forty times—and then, after publishing a number of other novels, I rolled up my sleeves, sharpened my red pencil, and attacked the manuscript with fervor, finally finishing the project. It now joins eleven other books on my shelf, several of which are in the suspense genre: A Bittersweet Tale, Doublecrossed, Jenny Kidd, and The Ungodly Hour. 

However, unlike most authors, who usually concentrate on one genre, I tend to write whatever alights in my consciousness. This sometimes happens in a kind of channeling process when a character “comes through” while I’m sitting on my deck, looking out to sea, for example, or because a setting or “what-if” situation has inspired me. I’ve even tackled comedy: Fabulous! An Opera Buffa and young adult fiction, The Outcast Oracle and Turnabout. Perhaps I’m versatile or perhaps I love being all kinds of people, in all kinds of situations and places.

The Psychologist’s Shadow stayed with me for a long time, but it was ultimately a very satisfying creation. For those who have been in therapy or are therapists, for those who love solving mysteries, I hope this psychological suspense will be an intriguing read! 

Published November 18, 2023 by Enigma Books, an imprint of Spectrum Books, UK

Available in paperback and eBook.

Amazon: https://mybook.to/thepsychologistsshadow

Laury A. Egan is the author of twelve novels, most recently The Firefly and Once, Upon an Island; a collection, Fog and Other Stories; four volumes of poetry; and numerous short fiction published in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on the northern coast of New Jersey. Website: www.lauryaegan.com

 

Mariah Fredericks’: The Lindbergh Nanny Tuesday, Nov 15 2022 

great read , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 8:25 pm

Mariah Fredericks’ THE LINDBERGH NANNY takes readers inside the homes of Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh, exploring their marriage, their travels, and the horrific kidnapping in 1932 of their first-born child, Charlie, all from the point of view of the young nanny they hire, Betty Gow.

A Scottish immigrant learning East Coast etiquette after a disastrous affair, Betty is often put off by the eccentricities of Colonel Lindbergh. She admires Anne Lindbergh for her attempts to live up to her husband’s expectations, despite her shy and nervous manner. Coming from a monied family, the young couple live with the Morrow’s as they renovate a house in New Jersey.

Charlie is a darling child, sweet-natured and adventurous, and well as he gets on with Betty, Anne Morrow often worries he’s growing more attached to his nanny when she’s away on world-wide jaunts with her famous husband. At times not understanding how the parents can be away from Charlie for such extended periods, she nevertheless spends her own money on his clothing when he outgrows what she’s been left with. Yet she carves out a life for herself and even has a new beau.

Then when Anne is heavily pregnant with the couple’s next child, tragedy strikes, becoming one of the most celebrated international cases when young Charlie is kidnapped and his body eventually found. 

Betty soon finds herself at the center of journalists and public scrutiny, when a suspect is arrested. She understands that to clear her name for the future, she must figure out what really happened that night when a loose shutter allowed the child she’d come to love to be abducted.

You may think they know this story, but Fredericks’ manages to bring readers into the closed off world of the Lindbergh’s and into Betty’s thoughts, as she adds a sense of tension and mystery to the story. The characters, real and fictional, are finely drawn. With its on-the-spot view, this is a book that speaks to the role of women in the 1930s and delves into what might have happened on that fateful night, and who was responsible. A gripping and suspenseful read.

 

 

Wendy Walker: All is Not Forgotten Monday, Aug 1 2016 

Uncategorized , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:45 am

all-is-not-forgotten

In All Is Not Forgotten, Wendy Walker examines the implications of the use of a drug being developed which would be used to treat soldiers with PTSD which wipes out their memories of the incidents that haunt them. She skillfully blends fact with fiction in creating its use in this story filled with intrigue.

When teen Jenny is raped in the woods near her Connecticut home, her mother consents to her being given the controversial drug to erase the memory of the horrific assault she’s suffered.

But wiping out the memory also disturbs the police investigation into any relevant information Jenny could have given them regarding her attacker. As she heals from the wounds left behind, Jenny struggles with flashes of emotional memory of feelings that have no facts attached to them.

Her parents are at odds, with her father crazed that he cannot bring her attacked to justice. Her mother pretends the event didn’t really affect the tony country club circle they live in. With their entire family relationships torn apart by the attack, it will be Jenny’s psychiatrist who sets in the motion the revelations that will shock the family, the community, and Jenny, as the truth worms its way to the surface.

Walker uses a deft hand as she examines our place in society, the importance of memory, and how manipulation can be used in devastating and cleansing ways. Readers will be surprised and shocked at the ending. Reese Witherspoon’s production company has purchased the film rights, and Auntie M can see this on the big screen, suspenseful and taut with emotion, highly visual and emotionally charged. A winner.

 

Fine Crime Fiction for Fall Reading Monday, Sep 21 2015 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed , , , , , , , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:11 am

Auntie M has been reading up a storm this summer and brings you some of the finest crime novels out there for your perusal. These have things in common, which is why these particular novels are grouped together: darn fine stories supported by great writing. Enjoy~

ToyTaker
Luke Delany’s third DI Sean Corrigan police procedural will grab you from its creepy opening. The Toy Taker starts out strong and never lets up, with Corrigan’s team at Scotland Yard covering the sickest criminals that roam the metropolitan mecca.

Delany’s experience as a former CID investigator serves him well and makes the story jolt into reality when a young boy is discovered missing from his bed one morning in a tony London suburb. There’s no sign of an intruder and no alarms were tripped; there are no signs of a struggle. Corrigan has a knack of being able to put himself into the mind of the criminal he’s seeking, a device that seems to have left him in this installment, frustrating him, his wife, and his colleagues.

The action doesn’t let up, even when another child is taken. What is the hold this predator has over the children who appear to have gone willingly with a stranger? Tautl written and gGuaranteed to keep you up late at night.

SongDrownedSouls
After the huge success of Bernard Minier’s The Frozen Dead, Auntie M was not the only reader looking forward to the sequel featuring Commandant Martin Servaz of the Toulouse Crime Squad. A Song for Drowned Souls is the kind of crime novel that presents a fascinating look at the lives of the perpetrator and of the team on the hunt.

A young man is found, stunned, sitting by a swimming pool where dolls float on its surface. He’s discovered his teacher, drowned in her bath in a horrific manner, and is arrested for her murder. Servaz is called by his former college lover, Marianne, and immediately rushes over and takes over the investigation. The arrested boy is her son and she implores Servaz to clear Hugo.

To do so, he must reopen old wounds of his time at the Marsac school in the Pyrenees at the elite school where the victim taught. He will run into former students now teaching there during the case and find a former friend and competitor for Marianne’s affections figures in the case. Servaz’s daughter has just started in the prep division there and her presence will provide both a distraction and a boon to his investigation as it soon becomes apparent there are ties between students at the school and the murdered woman.

Miner examines the way the past haunts our present in a way that is chilling and highly believable.

Even if you’ve never visited the area, Minier will have you breathing in the scent of the trees in this evocative thriller that takes police procedurals to a new height. Highly recommended.

Open Grave
Kjell Eriksson’s Ann Lindell series continues with an unusual installment, not your usual hurried murder investigation at all, in Open Grave. The idea here is one more of a series of incidents that may or may not lead to murder. And the tension is palpable.

An aging professor has just won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, yet instead of rejoicing, the announcement brings problems to the doctor’s upper-class neighborhood. There are jealousies amongst his colleagues, some who are his neighbors, and even his housekeeper of decades seems to be on on the verge of leaving. What is there about the man that causes this reason for celebration to bring out the worst in people?

Eriksson spools out the story of the participants by delving into their pasts as unusual incidents start to happen. When Inspector Ann Lindell tries to sort out what is happening, her own past rears its head into the carefully arranged present she’s trying to fashion. And the expected outcome is far from the ending twist. The author knows human nature and describes it well in this psychological study that is subtle and character-driven.

run you down

Julia Dahl’s first crime novel, Invisible City, garnered multiple award nominations and is still nominated for more. It was a highly rated debut for Auntie M last year so she was looking forward to its newest, run you down, featuring young reporter Rebekah Roberts.

Rebekah’s ties to the Hasidic community started in the first book, her interested piqued by trying to find the mother she doesn’t know after Aviva Kagan abandoned her as a baby to be raised by her Christian father. Not sure she’s ready to meet the woman she’s finally found, Rebekah is drawn into Aviva’s community in Roseville, NY, by a man who contacts her about his young wife’s mysterious death.

Pessie Goldin’s body was found in her bathtub, an apparent accident or unmentionable suicide–but her husband believes she was murdered. As she investigates, Rebekah will find others like her mother who left the ultra-conservative sect and formed their own group. Some rage about the restraints they were forced to live under in their old community. And others find themselves inexplicably mixed up with groups who would kill without a clear thought for the lives and beliefs of others.

Dahl does a lovely job of letting Rebekah tell readers her story from her point of view as an outsider to a culture she’s trying to understand, while developing a wallop of a story that is its own mystery. One aspect Auntie M particularly enjoyed was seeing the protagonist’s growth and maturity in her job and in her personal life, which adds to the compelling aspect of the mystery. Don’t miss this one.

Slaughter Man
Auntie M enjoyed UK author Tony Parson’s foray into crime novels with The Murder Man, which introduced DI Max Wolfe, his daughter Scout, and their personable dog, Stan. With The Slaughter Man, Max returns to investigate a heinous crime that jumps off the page from the Prologue describing the horrific slaughter of an entire family, except for the youngest child, apparently kidnapped.

It’s New Year’s Day when this occurs and the day after this wealthy family is found inside their gated-community home, all dead from a most unusual method: a cattle gun, used to stun cattle before butchering. When Max visits Scotland Yard’s Black Museum for background, he comes across a murderer who used just this method three decades ago and was dubbed The Slaughter Man by the press. Could the man, now released from prison, be on a murdering rampage? And why this particular family?

The happy family included two teens and parents who were former Olympians. There’s history here and Max is determined to find out how the past of the parents has led to this slaughter, always aware that as time goes by, his chances of finding the kidnapped boy alive grow dimmer.

Auntie M marveled at Max’s ability to withstand physical punishment, but Parsons does a good job illustrating his physical prowess and workouts at a local boxing club to balance what could be seen as super-human. For Max is definitely a very human detective, devoted to his daughter and her safely and happiness, and this makes him a very real character who leaps off the page and who readers will follow anywhere he takes them. Highly recommended.

GameFamily
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Sophie Hannah seems to be everywhere, and Auntie M says this with all due respect and admiration. Last year's The Telling Error has been published in the US recently under the title Woman with a Secret and was previously reviewed on this blog on February 1st. It’s the tale of a woman keeping a secret and brings back the unusual husband-and-wife detective duo of Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer, an interesting and intriguing pair, and if you haven’t made their acquaintance yet, now’s the time to do it.

Hannah was also the author of the new Hercule Poirot novel authorized by Agatha Christie’s estate, The Monogram Murders, notable for her outstanding voice of Poirot, which so many readers miss. Now she has a standalone in A Game For All The Family, which shows her deft hand at psychological thrillers, as well as her ability to create an intriguing story from the most seemingly innocuous bits of people’s lives that somehow escalate before the reader’s eyes into full-blown terror.

Justine Merrison is moving with her family to escape London and her high pressure job to the lovely Devon countryside, home to Dame Agatha, by the way. She has huge plans to do nothing at all, at least for a while, but the family is no sooner moved in than teen daughter Ellen withdraws and changes personality.

It seems Ellen has written a story that describes a grisly murder set in the family’s gorgeous new home and just happened to name a character after herself. What starts out as a school assignment morphs into the story of someone else’s family. Her good friend is expelled from school for a trifle and when Justine goes to the school to ask the head to reconsider, she’s told the student doesn’t exist and that he never attended the school. Who is going crazy–Ellen or the school? And then the anonymous calls start, and Justine finds herself accused of sharing a murderous past with the caller whose voice she doesn’t recognize.

How this falls out is part of the fun of reading the unique novel where Justine must find out just whom she’s supposed to be in order to stop the threat to her family. Twisted and entertaining.

 

The Book of You: Claire Kendal Sunday, Aug 9 2015 

debut and great read and mystery to die for , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:14 am

Book of You

If you read and enjoyed Elizabeth Haynes Into the Darkest Corner then you will definitely want to read Claire Kendal’s The Book of You.

University administrator Clarissa, getting used to a painful split from her partner, can’t wait for her jury duty to begin. She’s thrilled when she’s assigned to a case where she will have to be off work for at least seven weeks. Every day in the protected courtroom means a day out of sight of the man whose stalking is ruining her life and haunting her dreams on the rare nights she’s able to sleep.

Rafe is the academic who turned one night’s encounter with her into his obsession. An expert on fairy tales, especially those of a dark nature, Rafe uses these to add chilling texture to the terror that has become Clarissa’s life. She’s unable to walk home from the train station or leave her home without seeing his shadow. Even a walk in a nearby park becomes the stuff of nightmares until a stranger walking his dog interrupts what she increasingly fears could have been her murder, after researching Rafe’s personal history and learning that a young woman he’d stalked previously has disappeared.

He is ever present in her life, showing up at her house with gifts she must save as evidence of his stalking and harassment to go to the police with enough incidents that they will take her seriously. A talented sewer, Clarissa uses her this sideline to keep hold of her sanity, as her physical health deteriorates and she must detail the conversations and presence of this sick man in her life in a small black book she calls the Book of You.

Now as she takes solace in the jury room, making a few friends, attracted to a fireman in particular, Clarissa can’t help but notice the case they are trying of a young woman raped and brutalized mirrors her worst fears if Rafe should ever get in close contact with her again. The defendant’s grueling days on the witness stand point out that Rafe will try to twist her story around to his benefit, and Clarissa must have enough proof before going to the police of the seriousness of his intent.

The power of the book comes from illustrating how much psychological damage an obsessive like Rafe can incur simply by his continued and annoying presence. And when his threats escalate, so does the horror that Clarissa feels and what she ultimately faces.

This well-written thriller will have readers hearts beating as hard and fast as Clarissa’s does on a regular basis. A harrowing story of the ability to enact cruelty on another human being with Kendal’s knack bringing the reader right into Clarissa’s churning anxiety.

 

Deborah Crombie: To Dwell in Darkness Friday, Oct 3 2014 

Uncategorized , , , , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:27 am

One of the issues with writing a series where the main protagonists have conquered their romantic fear and plunged into a committed relationship is worrying if there will continue to be the same chemistry for readers to enjoy.
Dwell in Darkness

Deborah Crombie has successfully conquered this in her series featuring London detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, married and raising a blended family. In her 16th outing, To Dwell in Darkness, she shows how it’d done: by creating a mystery plot that has tendrils that reach out into other areas, and by portraying the detectives family life with a sense of reality that keeps readers reaching for her books time and again.

Raising young children with parents who are detectives is always a juggling act, and readers see how Kincaid and James handle those demands that crop up in family life, whether it’s the disposition of suddenly acquired kittens or a young teen needing to clarify a house rule about letting strangers into their home.

The action this time centers around a small group of eco-protestors who live together and have decided to carry on a protest inside St. Pancras Station as a crowd gathers for a musical concert. Gemma’s sergeant, Melody Talbot, arrives at the event to watch her boyfriend, Andy Monahan, and his musical companion open the event. Both young musicians’ agents are in attendance when a sudden explosion changes everything.

A man is on fire, burned beyond recognition by what appears to be a bomb and turns out to a phosphorus charge. The results are horrific: besides the charred body of the dead man, Andy’s agent, Tam, suffers burns to his trunk. When Melody rushes to try to put out the fire, she’s momentarily aided by a distraught man who suddenly disappears. And her own respiratory system is affected by the bomb.

Duncan Kincaid will be the senior investigating officer on this case, his first after an unexpected transfer takes him from Scotland Yard to head a new murder team out of Holborn Station. He still questions the move and his one ally higher up the channels has taken a sudden leave and is unavailable. It feels like a demotion, without explanation, and Kincaid must adjust to his new team and how they work together–or don’t.

When it’s determined from the protestors that the dead man is indeed from their group, but was supposed to set off only a smoke bomb, Kincaid must investigate how the bomb was switched and who was behind it, even as he tries to find the other witness, the man who assisted Melody and appears to have vanished into thin air.

There are other threads here, as a good read should have, with Gemma sorting out her own case and missing Melody’s assistance. But the main thread this time is Kincaid’s, and not all of his questions will be answered at the surprising end of this well-wrought mystery.

Auntie M always enjoys reading Crombie’s work, with one of the highlights her chapter epigrams, which contain historical information about the area where that mystery is set. Readers learn about London and its suburbs as they are surprised by the turn of events. Highly recommended.

 

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