Arts & Events
August Novels
This month I have six mystery/thriller novels to recommend and one to avoid.
(A) The In Crowd Charlotte Vassal (5 stars)
An atmospheric police-procedural mystery set in London.
The second book in the Caius Beauchamp series finds DI Caius and hist team, Amy and Matt, investigating two cold-cases: the disappearance of a teenage girl from a Dover boarding school and the looting of a pension fund. Busy DI Caius somehow makes time to start a relationship with an even busier milliner, Callie Foster. Will Caius solve the mysteries, and will his new relationship succeed?
This has become one of my favorite mystery series.
(B) In the Blink of an Eye Jo Callaghan (5 stars)
A techno thriller set in Warwickshire, England.
Coming off bereavement leave, DSI Kat Frank is given a novel assignment: form a small team and investigate whether an artificial intelligence program, Lock, can speed up the laborious process of finding missing persons. The team selects two cases – missing students – and ascertains both men may have been abducted by the same person. Then Kat’s son Cam disappears.
Thoughtful mystery/thriller with believable plot.
(C) Murder at the White Palace Allison Montclair (five stars)
A historical mystery set in 1946 London.
This is the 6th mystery in the delightful series featuring Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge, proprietors of the Right Sort Marriage Bureau, and part-time detectives. Sparks and Bainbridge plan a New Year’s Eve party for their clients only to find that because of the London war damage there aren’t any available sites. They decide to use the shuttered White Palace club. As they supervise its renovation they find a dead body.
Murder at the White Palace works as a historical mystery. The plot is well paced and the atmospherics superb. What distinguishes this series is the relationship between Iris and Gwen and the evolution of their dating lives. Iris and Gwen grow and become interesting. (Caution: you may have difficulty understanding the relationships if you have not read the previous books.)
A good series getting better.
(D) May the Wolf Die Elizabeth Heider (5 stars)
A police-procedural mystery set in Naples, Italy.
Police officers Nikki and Valerio are sailing on their boat when they run into the corpse of a murdered naval officer. Nikki’s job is to manage relations between the Naples police and Americans working at the local naval base. Nikki is assigned to the murder investigation. And then there is another murder.
Very realistic mystery with good characterization of Nikki and Valerio. (Caution: there are vivid descriptions of sexual violence.)
(E) House of Glass Sarah Pekkanen (4.5 stars)
A psychological thriller set in Washington DC.
Stella Hutson is a “best-interest attorney” assigned to represent nine-year-old Rose Barclay in a civil-custody dispute. Rose is a prodigy who turned mute after the mysterious death of her nanny, Tina. To resolve the custody issue, Stella must determine who killed Tina: the father, Ian, the mother, Beth, the grandmother, Harriet, or even Rose?
A familiar plot structure, skillfully written.
(F) Smothermoss Alisa Alering (4.5 stars)
A thriller set in rural 1980’s Appalachia. Literary fiction with a healthy dose of magic realism.
Sisters Sheila and Angie live with their mother and great aunt in a cabin adjacent to the Appalachian trail in Virginia. Their hardscrabble existence is made more difficult when two hikers are murdered on the trail. Both sisters have psychic powers, which ultimately lead them to the killer. (Caution: if you don’t like magical realism, you won’t enjoy Smothermoss.)
Original and creepy.
A MYSTERY TO AVOID:
(G) Imposter Syndrome Joseph Knox (3 stars)
A stolen identity thriller set in London.
hhLynch, a burnt-out con artist, arrives in London. He comes to the attention of the Pierce family because he bears an uncanny resemblance to their missing son, Heydon. The bereft mother, Miranda, offers Lynch money to help find Heydon. Uncharacteristically, Lynch becomes obsessed with finding out what happened, And then there’s a murder.
Imposter Syndrome starts out well and then bogs down. A disappointment.
Summary: 2024’s best novels are: All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker and The Hunter by Tana French.
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