A month where light-hearted, gently humorous mysteries are very much at the triumphant fore, but also some personal disappointments from authors I had high expectations from. The gothic revival marches on; a major trilogy comes to an end; the ghosts of AI strike in a singular debut; a road movie thriller from Switzerland with Vatican-controlled killers; a popular series that just keeps on getting better, and the customary menu of murder and deceit is on generous offer. Crime and mystery writing continues on its varied, entertaining path…
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Maz Evans/A DEGREE OF MURDER (Headline)
For her third adult novel, Maz Evans delivers yet another gem, a classic mystery intrigue set amongst a school reunion, with identical twins, a bucket full of red herrings and twists, all leavened with her unique wit. No one makes crime as belly laugh funny as Maz! A dastardly murder was committed at the Bathory College graduation celebrations of 2,000, but did the killer get away with it? Over the ensuing years, the social secretary’s blithely bonkers bulletins keep the former students abreast of the inevitable passing of time in an often hilarious manner, while mysteries lurk in the undercurrents, as the protagonists have grown older, certainly none the wiser and the passage of time has witnessed falls in grace and fortune, what with some now tech moguls or rock stars on the decline, and infatuations and couplings of the past keep on casting a doubting shadow over the proceedings. Then, on the 25th anniversary reunion death strikes again and each character is forced to revisit the initial events and reassess what they have done with their lives since. On paper, the plot is well worn and familiar to assiduous crime readers but it’s seldom been presented in such an unusual format and with a sardonic humour that elevates the proceedings to both farce and tragedy. Unmissable and a sheer hoot.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Evelyn Clarke/THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF (HQ)
A novel that comes with much commercial hype but, for once, fully justifies the enthusiasm, THE ENDING WRITES ITSELF, a collaboration debut between fantasy author V.E. Schwab and screenwriter Cat Clarke turns out to be a frothy piece of first-class entertainment, alongside a wicked but perceptive satire of the writing world and its complicated denizens: writers, publishers, agents, bloggers, wannabes and all. A group of authors from a wide variety of genres are summoned to an isolated Scottish island by a world-famous bestselling author only to find out he has drowned and his business acolytes want his much-awaited final novel to be completed by one of them, with a substantial, lifechanging reward being offered. Naturally, there is no connection to the outside world, their phones are safely locked away in a safe, computers are off the menu and typewriters only allowed (naturally making one a perfect instrument of death when the occasion arises…); the clock is ticking and rivalries and personality clashes soon rise to the surface, what with most of the involuntary protagonists harbouring personal secrets. The scene is set for a mischievous variant on Golden Age scenarios in the tradition of both Christie and John Dickson Carr, what with an old-fashioned castle with locked rooms, secret corridors, a doll house of the locale and such. And then of course the first body appears and the race is on, not just for each writer to deliver the required final chapter but also to avoid becoming the next body. I’m often suspicious of publishing world satires but this one is pitched just right, with a blend of subtle humour that navigates the fast-paced and twisty plot with finesse. A book full of hidden pleasures and a wonderful homage to Golden Age traditions.
Benjamin Stevenson/EVERYBODY IN THIS BANK IS A THIEF (Michael Joseph)
I was a massive fan of Australian author and comic Benjamin Stevenson’s EVERYBODY series featuring the exploits of tyro crime writer Ernest Cunningham, and thoroughly enjoyed the first three instalments respectively set in an isolated mountain cabin, a train full of mystery writers (my personal favourite) and a novella featuring a Christmas investigation and unruly magicians. Cunningham is a delightful narrator, a pedantic stickler for the strict rules of Golden Age mystery writing (no dastardly Chinese, twins, secret corridors, etc..) and his running commentaries were comic, apposite, albeit often self-deluded as opposed to the rationality of his ever-suffering fiancée. Now, their marriage is nearing and in search of money to open a proper investigation agency, they find themselves entrapped in a bank building with characters dropping dead like flies around them and faced with a locked safe mystery within a locked building. However, this time around, the charm no longer operates as smoothly -or maybe the novelty of Stevenson’s writing and style has faltered?- and the ensuing capers just felt a bit too forced and unnecessarily confusing as too many threads are kept hanging and the repeated injections of humour actually slow down the fiendishly complicated plot and its plethora of caricatural suspects. What was once original and witty has somehow become a formula. Maybe I was in the wrong mood and previous fans will lap it up regardless, and I cannot deny the superlative ingenuity and tradecraft on show, but overall something of a disappointment.
Heidi Amsinck/THE WOMAN IN THE WALL (Muswell Press)
The fifth instalment in a series growing in resonance and set in Copenhagen by the UK-based Danish crime writer sees the return of bicycle-riding Dagbladet newspaper reporter Jensen, a stubborn but sometimes reckless young woman with a complicated past, sentimental and otherwise, whose first name has been withheld from the reader until now (and is only unveiled in the final line, but I wouldn’t recommend skipping ahead…). When her married lover D.I. Henrik Jungersen is called to a house while Jensen is enjoying maternity leave, and human remains are discovered behind the walls of a city apartment, an investigation is set in motion. In parallel, Jensen is confronted by famous author Valde Brix, who is claiming to be her father. Complicating matters is the fact that a female acquaintance of Brix’s is soon found savagely murdered, and Jensen, alongside her teenage acolyte Gustav, is drawn into the orbit of a puzzling case too close to home for comfort as a stalker is lurking and all are in acute danger. With a strong cast of both familiar and new characters, Amsinck, a former journalist whose style is spare and precise, strongly evokes the charms and downside of the Danish capital and orchestrates a fast-moving plot with clockwork precision, deftly pulling disparate strings together with a talent for twists that fit perfectly into her investigative reality. Great characters and a rewarding storyline.
Tom Bradby/RED SCORPION (Bantam)
I’d hitherto somehow missed out on Tom Bradby’s earlier thrillers and was much looking forward to immersing myself into the fictional world of the popular, prolific writer and TV journalist, only to be disappointed. Maybe his previous geopolitical thrillers have more substance, but RED SCORPION (whose working title for some time was THE CARTEL) feels terribly flawed and, all too often, stretches the limits of credibility. Dr Laura Strong is a hardworking A&E medic in a London hospital, and badly in debt to loan sharks as she is burdened by having to look after a handicapped brother on a NHS salary, following the death of their parents. She is also somewhat beautiful as all the characters surrounding her insist on repeatedly and her looks and competence soon attract the attention of a young, widowed, devilishly handsome and mega-wealthy UK-educated Colombian coffee mogul with a small child in need of constant medical attention. The reader is of course aware that Rafael is the reluctant heir apparent to an enormous drug empire and on the death of his evil father stands to inherit the mantle of kingpin. But does he really want to follow in the family footsteps, and will the terribly attractive Laura fall for him, after he offers her a job she cannot refuse? This attracts the immediate attention of a team of rogue British Secret Service operatives whose motivations towards the drug trafficking empire are decidedly murky. The novel is fast-paced, violent but also predictable, and repeatedly weighed down by unsubtle reminders as to whether dastardly handsome (and did I mention elite British military-educated?) Rafael is or not a bad guy, and chapter after chapter the insistent ‘will they or won’t they?’ fall in love balancing act between the possible drug lord and the beautiful doctor. And I could see the final twist coming much too early. Too many clichés, I fear!
Joseph Incardona/HOLY F*CK (Bitter Lemon)
A particularly striking choice of English title for the translation (by Sam Taylor) of this engaging Swiss-French caper novel, as a literal version would simply have read STELLA AND THE AMERICAS! A persistent rumour is spreading fast across the bars and dives of the USA’s deep South of the existence of a prostitute whose continuous partners in sex miraculously heal from the worst of illnesses after sleeping with her. Naturally, these possible miracles, reminiscent of Mary Magdalene’s Biblical prowess are not to the liking of the grey eminences of the distant Vatican who set two vicious killers, the notorious, psychopathic Bronski Twins, after the joyous 19-year-old Stella Thibodaux as she blithely offers her services indiscriminately in her crumbling camper van to her growing audience of failing Redneck clients. A madcap and highly politically incorrect and effervescent road trip, with echoes of Quentin Tarantino movies, ensues as she and her two guardian angels, a journalist and a priest who was once a Navy Seal, go on the lam. Balancing matters of feminine empowerment, the rigidity of Catholic dogma in broad caricatural strokes, HOLY F*UCK is a curious blend of action and anger, if weakened at times by a deliberate ‘male gaze’ approach to the bawdily innocent if not saintly aspects of Stella’s sexuality and might well divide readers along gender lines, but will prove mighty enjoyable if you take it all down with a pinch of salt.
Tana French/THE KEEPER (Viking)
The Cal Cooper trilogy comes to an exciting ending in this doorstopper of a novel, succeeding THE SEARCHER and THE HUNTER. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has settled in the remote small town of Ardnakelty in rural Ireland, working with wood as a handyman, helped by young Trey whom he saved in the opening volume of the series, seeking peace of mind alongside his fiancée Lena when, much to her dislike, he becomes entangled in a local tragedy when pretty, young Rachel Holahan goes missing and is found dead in the river, which make his previous skills useful when Tommy Moynihan, the local big shot in a place full of grudges, past rivalries and sinister undercurrents, and father in law to be of the dead girl forcefully insists he investigates the case. As ever French’s talent for evoking landscape and atmosphere come to the fore, and the prose often turns lyrical and evocative as the reluctant sleuth finds himself at the nexus of the fault lines that define the dark side of the town and a pervasive mood of oppression dominates the proceedings, making this as much a study in small town subterranean and long standing conflicts as a straight forward mystery, with characters who jump off the page and feel intensely real, all faults and sensitivity. The pace does drag on occasions but is redeemed by the exquisite writing and I can’t wait to see what Tana French does next.
Max Lury/NO GHOSTS (Peninsula Press)
This debut novel by a British award-winning short story writer plunges headlong into the demi-monde of modern day technology and proves an immersive, and at time highly claustrophobic journey into contemporary darkness, a disturbing and often hallucinatory zigzagging trudge into the imprint of technology on both the landscape and the inner psyche. The end result is a science-adjascent and empathetic ghost story which stands out in its ambition from much of today’s thrillers. After Kieran and Harlow’s best friend Annie disappeared, her echo keeps on strongly resonating, and when they meet up again a year later at her memorial, the quest to find her strains their shaky friendship to the core. Harlow, a recently retired special visual effects expert is assaulted by the weight of AI generated videos and their conflicting stories, while Kieran finds himself captivated by an occult community in search of the ghosts in the machine. Their descent into the puzzling undercurrents of an ever-mutating world turns into an unlikely but highly innovative thriller with a strong literary bent and an engrossing and provocative premise. The contrast between the familiar everyday sentimentality of the main characters and the unsettling nature of the demi-monde through which they stumble makes for a great contrast and will linger long in the reader’s memory. Wonderfully unique and challenging.
Elizabeth Arnott/THE SECRET LIVES OF MURDERERS’ WIVES (Viking)
A stylish and entertaining spin on the serial killer novel, this adult debut by a British author hitherto best known for writing historical fiction, stands out from the crowd in its recreation of sunny Californian climes in the mid-1960s, atmospheric and compelling, and a sharp psychological portrait of female friendship and empowerment. Bev, Elsie and Margot have one thing in common: they were all married to convicted killers and share the same societal opprobrium their situation attracts from strangers unversed in the particulars of their respective stories, while struggling with their own guilt and demons and often shame at not having been capable of recognising the right signs in their past fateful marriages. Struggling to make a new life for themselves, shunned by strangers, they become involuntary friends when a new killer appears on the scene and form an unlikely alliance to unmask him, with authorities, bystanders and the law suspicious of their motives, and dubious about this unlikely path to redemption. An acute portrait of women trying to find their proper place in a society in a time when feminism was still around the corner, the novel paints a fascinating portrait of women under pressure allied with an impeccable and pacey police procedural plot with a few twists in reserve. A rather notable debut and a page turner.
Stephanie Bramwell-Lawes/THORNBY MANOR (Orenda)
The gothic suspense modern revival marches on with a powerful and evocative debut by a new British author with a strong feel for the genre, razor-sharp atmospherics and a tremulous heroine you can’t help but empathise with in the course of her travails. In 1890s England, orphaned Briar Monroe, with a darkness in her soul, has planned to leave the company of her sister to travel, and do so with her aunt. However, this does not pan out and, instead, Briar is carried on the wings of fate and happenstance to the eponymous dark and gloomy manor owned by recent widower Lord Danville. With echoes of REBECCA, WUTHERING HEIGHTS and other smouldering tales of gothic menace and repressed desire, the locale becomes the focal point for a tale of intrigue teeming with heightened feelings and desires. The manor is host to Marie Clara, an ambiguous governess whose charge has long grown up and made her redundant although she still holds sway over the company, and the younger Gabriel Danville, to whom Briar is instantly attracted. The precise circumstances of the death of Lady Danville act as a stepping stone into a morass of intrigue and quiet terror, deeply steeped in all the shuderring traditions of the genre and will hold the reader entranced, as footsteps in the night, a forbidden attic and familiar tropes conjugate to orchestrate the fallible heroine’s mounting sense of terror and desperation. A perfect read for stormy nights.
