Death of a Kitchen Diva-Lee Hollis

Death of a Kitchen Diva

Lee Hollis

Kensington, Mar 1 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780758267375

 

In Bar Harbor, Maine, Island Times Editor in Chief Sal Moretti offers his office manager single mom (of fifteen year old Gemma and thirteen years old Dustin) Hayley Powell the position of writing the food and wine column with the nonagenarian reporter retiring.  She agrees and her column proves successful with its unpretentious Maine earthiness, which angers her rival at the Bar Harbor Herald prim and proper British aristocratic Karen Applebaum.

 

However, Karen is found dead with her face buried in a bowl of Hayley’s clam chowder.  The police consider Hayley their only suspect and soon Officers Earl and Haley arrest her.  She makes bail and with her BFFs investigates the Death of a Kitchen Diva.

 

This is an amusing culinary amateur sleuth starring a delightful beleaguered protagonist.  The breezy storyline is fun to follow as the war of the recipes turns deadly.  Although the sub-genre is loaded with similar entries (see Diane Mott Davidson), sub-genre fans will enjoy this entertaining regional whodunit as Haley seeks out a cold blooded killer whose recipe includes the soccer mom taking the fall.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Sound of a Scream-John Manning

The Sound of a Scream

John Manning

Pinnacle, Mar 6 2012, $7.99

ISBN 9780786027637

 

Orphan Daphne May has spent her life cloistered at Our Ladies School for Girls.  Now at twenty-two years old, she leaves the convent where she met only one male in her life Father O’Donnell to ride the train to her first job as a governess in Point Woebegone, Maine.  No one from Swallowtail meets her at the station, as promised.  Instead a stranger takes her to a nearby inn.

 

Daphne is taken aback by a clown before she enters the ladies’ room to find a waitress with her throat slashed.  The gruesome homicide has the townsfolk angry and anxious.  Meanwhile Daphne struggles with the behavior of her eight years old charge Christopher whose grandfather was a serial killer wearing a clown costume.  When the psychopath kills several more times, Daphne wonders whether somehow she was the spark that ignited a dormant serial killer.

 

The bloody storyline is an exciting thriller with an interesting late twist that ties the tale together.  Daphne is a terrific damsel in distress whole local Gregory Winston tries to be her knight in shining armor.  Although the plot is very typical of the suspense sub-genre even with a fascinating spin re the killer’s identity, fans will enjoy The Sound of a Scream in gothic aptly named Point Woebegone (no relationship to Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon).

 

Harriet Klausner

Head Race-R. Lee Nathans

Head Race

R. Lee Nathans

Hudson House Publishing, Sep 23 2011, $12.95

www.hudsonhousepub.com

ISBN: 9781587761850

 

Medical director of the Doubestrover Township Community Health Center in New Jersey, single mom Dr. Audrey Epstein raises her twelve year old daughter Lainie and her away at a nearby college Josh alone ever since their dad Ben was murdered.  She has problems at home with her tweener and at work with another state inspection and in the Newark Star Ledger where reporter A. J. Amoreaux accuses her staff of improprieties.  On the bright side Bradford Lecoyne Eccleston IV gives her a large pink diamond as an engagement ring.

 

Craig Boseman believes the world owes him.  He collects a check from the state due to a fake back injury, but that is not enough as he had to move back in with his disgusting mom.  His cousin Dennis’s friend Bill Hartick tells Craig they can make a fortune robbing a clinic.  Instead the trio abducts Audrey and a colleague Tim.  When the local police chief investigates, the mayor tells him to stop wasting money as the pair of pain in butt missing persons are obviously decamped lovers.  The media following the mayor’s lead drops the story while only Brad searches for his missing fiancée.

 

Bias disclosure: I was hooked with the mention of Jerome Avenue, spaldeen and sewers as my husband was all-neighborhood in stickball.  This is a dark humorous satirical tour of New Jersey in which R. Lee Nathans mocks the media-big business-government complex that has Ike turning in his grave.  The entertaining storyline is fast-paced though it rotates between several subplots starring an ensemble cast besides those above and the suspense comes late.  Readers will appreciate Head Race as the audience will learn that avarice lowlifes come from all classes.

 

Harriet Klausner

Victims-Jonathan Kellerman

Victims

Jonathan Kellerman

Ballantine, Feb 28 2012, $28.00

ISBN: 9780345505712

 

In her apartment, the victim fifty-six years old Vita Berlin was mutilated with her guts placed like a precious necklace around her neck.  The only clue to the horrific murder is a strange note with a question mark on it left inside a pizza box that adds eeriness to an already unnerving homicide.  LAPD homicide detective Lieutenant Milo Sturgis leads the investigation.  His friend and frequent police consultant psychiatrist Dr. Alex Delaware assists on the inquiry.  Both men who have seen too much violence over the years are particularly shook up by this gruesome killing.

 

As they work the case, several additional similar murders occur.  They find a link at the mothballed Ventura State Hospital; a place that at one time housed mentally troubled people with the worst head cases locked away in the Specialized Care Unit.  Alex interviews psychiatrists who worked with the victims, but all hide behind a wall of privacy. 

 

The latest Delaware-Sturgis police procedural is an entreating serial killer thriller as mildly mocking Miles is off his feed bag with this case.  The storyline is fast-paced with a deep spotlight shining on when the mental health care system fails.  Although the ending feels off kilter and Delaware has worked vicious serial killing cases with and without Sturgis (see The Butcher’s Theater), fans will enjoy the latest buddies’ whodunit as their usual quipping is subdued by the brutal homicides.

 

Harriet Klausner

 

If You Know Her-Shiloh Walker

If You Know Her

Shiloh Walker

Ballantine, Feb 29 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780345517555

 

Nia Hollister knows logically the law caught the killer Joe Carson who brutalized and killed her cousin Jolene six months ago in Ash, Kentucky.  She saw his corpse, yet her instincts scream at her that something is not right.  To obtain closure, she heads to Ash.

 

The only negative with her quest in her mind is in Ash is Law Reilly who she obsesses over as much as finding who killed Joely.  Law reciprocates her attraction and goes up in her mind when he does not scorn her theory but actually supports her assertion.  As Nia scrutinizes the police report and other related public documents, Law fears for her safety from an unknown enemy watching her.  He will soon learn that sometime paranoia is justified when her room is haphazardly searched.

 

The final Ash romantic suspense is a great finish to a strong series.  The overarching whodunit os brilliantly resolved while the romantic subplot takes a back seat to the increasingly dangerous investigation.  Although it behooves the audience to read the previous novels in order (see If You See Her  and If You Hear Her) as they build up and directly lead to this suspenseful climax, Shiloh Walker completes the fabulous Ash saga with another super entry.

 

Harriet Klausner

Run From Fear-Jami Alden

Run From Fear

Jami Alden

Forever, Feb 28 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780446572811

 

Two years ago in Seattle, former Green Beret Jack Brooks saved the life of Talia Vega from a serial killer.  Talia was part of fifteen minutes of notorious fame and she still is unfairly trashed on the Net.

 

She relocated in the Bay area with her teenage sister Rosario.  At the restaurant where Talia works, Jack enters, which brings back the bad times in her mind.  He explains he is in town for a few weeks helping his boss at Gemini securities.  When Jack meets Rosie’s friend Kevin, he warns the douche bag that these siblings have met enough creeps.  However, Talia soon will be grateful for Jack’s return into her life as a psychopath decides to complete the Seattle nightmare.

 

The latest Jami Alden romantic suspense (see Beg For Mercy and Hide From Evil) is a pulse pumping taut thriller that grips readers from the first threat to the final confrontation.  The lead couple is an interesting pairing as both have survived the baptism of fire.  The support cast augments a terrific tense tale in which the romantic subplot is palatable but it is the viable threat from a madman that takes center stage.

 

Harriet Klausner

A Parliament of Spies-Cassandras Clark

A Parliament of Spies

Cassandras Clark

Minotaur, Jan 31 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312595746

 

These are chaotic times in England under the unsteady rule of King Richard II and the viable threat of a French invasion.  In these dangerous times, Abbess Hildegard prefers to rusticate in prayer. 

 

However, though she insists she has no skills, York Archbishop Alexander Neville orders the nun  to come with him to the Parliament meeting at Westminster in London, where she will be his spy; a role she is extremely uncomfortable with.  Before they leave York, Neville assigns her a short clock to investigate the murder of Martin his saucier drowned in a wine vat filled with water and barley.  The road to London is filled with violence as Hildegard thinks no place not even near the monarch is safe in these dangerous divisive partisan times.

 

This is a great medieval historical thriller as murder, mayhem and politics converge in fourteenth century England.  The storyline is fast-paced as a power struggle that makes Machiavelli seems like an amateur manipulator.  Timely, readers will relish Cassandra Clark’s strong entertaining Abbess Hildegard tale (see The Law of Angels).

 

Harriet Klausner

A Parliament of Spies-Cassandras Clark

A Parliament of Spies

Cassandras Clark

Minotaur, Jan 31 2012, $25.99

ISBN: 9780312595746

 

These are chaotic times in England under the unsteady rule of King Richard II and the viable threat of a French invasion.  In these dangerous times, Abbess Hildegard prefers to rusticate in prayer. 

 

However, though she insists she has no skills, York Archbishop Alexander Neville orders the nun  to come with him to the Parliament meeting at Westminster in London, where she will be his spy; a role she is extremely uncomfortable with.  Before they leave York, Neville assigns her a short clock to investigate the murder of Martin his saucier drowned in a wine vat filled with water and barley.  The road to London is filled with violence as Hildegard thinks no place not even near the monarch is safe in these dangerous divisive partisan times.

 

This is a great medieval historical thriller as murder, mayhem and politics converge in fourteenth century England.  The storyline is fast-paced as a power struggle that makes Machiavelli seems like an amateur manipulator.  Timely, readers will relish Cassandra Clark’s strong entertaining Abbess Hildegard tale (see The Law of Angels).

 

Harriet Klausner

Chasing Midnight-Randy Wayne White

Chasing Midnight

Randy Wayne White

Putnam, Mar 6 2012, $25.95

ISBN: 9780399158315

 

Marine biologist Doc Ford seems like a mild amiable person who enjoys studying sea life and providing fresh or preserved specimens to schools and labs nationwide from his Sanibel Island base.  In his other life, Doc is a brutal agent working for the American government by cleaning up dire ugly situations.

 

He and his friend Tomlinson attend an eastern waters caviar productivity improvement conference hosted by vicious Russian black marketer Victor Kaslov on Vanderbilt Island.  Attendees come from China, Iran and Turkmenia etc., but Doc diligently focuses on Kaslov in order to obtain some Intel.  While Ford goes underwater to inspect the Russian’s yacht, six eco-terrorists crash the conference.  Just after their assault, an explosion knocks out the electricity and jamming electronic communication on the island.  The party crashers demands must be met or one hostage every hour will die until at the stroke of midnight, everyone still breathing will die in an explosion.  Doc realizes how precarious the situation is; his goal is simple to get his friends and himself off island, but the execution is impossible as this group acts more like the Russian’s deadliest “capitalist” rivals than environmental extremists.

 

This is an exhilarating Doc Ford thriller as the meek marine biologist and the ruthless agent makes him seem like a sea version of Clark Kent-Superman.  Tomlinson is his usual Zen-self driving Doc crazy, but who though not brave turns competently hyper with ideas when facing danger.  He actually is the one who provides the twists to another fabulous Doc Ford tale as he battles to keep alive his friends from cut throat competitors with no business ethics.

 

Harriet Klausner

Question of Trust-Laura Caldwell

Question of Trust

Laura Caldwell

Mira, Feb 20 2012, $7.99

ISBN: 9780778313212

 

In Chicago, Bristol & Associates criminal attorney Izzy McNeil and her boyfriend Theo Jameson move into her place together until his new house is ready once his mortgage is approved.  However, soon after he arrives at her home, someone breaks into her abode. 

 

Not long afterward, the Feds arrest Theo charging him with fraud at his firm HeadFirst software he co-owns with Eric.  While Izzy defends the Cortadero Mexican drug cartel family, her boss Maggie Bristol represents Theo.  As Izzy wonders about Theo’s anomalies like his mortgage request being rejected and his inability to put up the $50,000 bail money when his firm has made a fortune, Cortadero stunningly demands her firm stop their defense of her boyfriend.

 

The latest magnificent McNeil legal thriller (see Red Blood Murder and Claim of Innocence) has a loose sense of déjà vu that the beleaguered heroine notices (see Red Hot Lies).  With her father back in her life after years of not being there for her, last year’s Sam fiasco (see Red Hot Lies), and now the Theo incident; Izzy wonders whom do you trust when you cannot trust a loved one.  This is a terrific twisting tale.

 

Harriet Klausner