The Sound of One Hand Killing-Teresa Solana, translated by Peter Bush

The Sound of One Hand Killing
Teresa Solana, translated by Peter Bush
Bitter Lemon, May 7 2013, $14.95
ISBN 9781908524065

In Barcelona detective twins Eduard Martínez and Borja Masdéu return to their office only to find someone broke in and trashed the place. Heeding the advice of a friend, best-selling noir author Teresa Solana hires the siblings to investigate alternative therapies for a noir she plans to write while she stays in a vacant apartment upstairs.

Instead they find the apartment’s occupant Brian Morgan dead inside, but Borja’s Assyrian statue, the Lioness of Baghdad, he stashed there remains safe there. Although unaware that the corpse is CIA, the brothers sign up for various New Age classes. Only they find a director Dr. Horaci Bou murdered by a Buddha statue.

The third Borja and Eduard Barcelona satirical Noir (see A Shortcut to Paradise and A Not So Perfect Crime) continues to lampoon the sub-genre while this time also mocking New Age saviors. The enjoyable storyline rotates between the two homicides and Borja’s smuggling efforts. However it is the amusing skewing of con artists (especially believers who con themselves) preying on those struggling to find healing for even regular life ills in order to live as a norm in an abnormal land.

Harriet Klausner

The Body in the Piazza-Katherine Hall Page

The Body in the Piazza
Katherine Hall Page
Morrow, Apr 30 2013, $24.99
ISBN: 9780062065506

Aleford, Massachusetts caterer Faith Fairchild and her husband Reverend Thomas Fairchild head to Tuscany to celebrate their wedding anniversary with her friend Francesca Rossi at her Cucina Della Rossi cooking school. Faith’s former assistant in New York Francesca met Thomas and saw her mentor when the couple honeymooned in Italy.

In Rome, British travel writer Freddy Ives charms the Fairchild’s. Intoxicated by the city, Faith and Tom stroll hand in hand the streets when in horror they observe a man stab to death Freddy. The vesting American couple wants to solve the homicide, but instead go on to Tuscany as Francesca awaits their arrival. Several people they saw in Rome appear in Tuscany while someone sabotages Francesca’s new dining endeavors. Faith plans to resolve all mysteries including learning the secret recipe for Nona Rossi’s incredible sauce.

The latest Faith Fairchild amateur sleuth (see The Body in the Boudoir) is a fabulous entry as Tuscany and Rome provide fresh locations while also giving long-time fans a glimpse into the heroine’s salad days. Filled with action and mouthwatering delights (cover should include a dieter’s warning label), readers will enjoy this strong culinary investigation.

Harriet Klausner

Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding-Lea Wait

Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding
Lea Wait
Perseverance, Apr 7 2013, $15.95
ISBN 9781564745316

On Cape Cod, Maggie Summers calls 911 when she finds a dead body on the beach. Winslow, Massachusetts Police Chief Ike Iron identifies the apparent drowning victim as drunkard Dan Jeffrey. Following standard operating procedures, Ike initiates an investigation into Dan’s death.

While Ike looks into Dan’s seemingly accidental death most likely caused by intoxication, Maid of Honor Maggie helps her best friend Aunt Augusta’s Attic antique shop owner Gussie White prepare for the latter’s wedding to lawyer Jim Dryden. As Ike revises his premise from accident to murder, the wedding preparations continue with last second modifications even as a hurricane veers towards the Cape and a second homicide occurs.

The latest Antique Print regional cozy (see Shadows on the Coast of Maine and Shadows of a Down East Summer) is an engaging whodunit as murders places dark Shadows on a Cape Cod Wedding. The whodunit is fun but not very tense as the wedding supersedes the inquiry. Still fans will enjoy attending Gussie’s nuptials that weather, murder, a groom’s cake shaped like a fish, and handicaps cannot deter.

Harriet Klausner

The Golden Egg-Donna Leon

The Golden Egg
Donna Leon
Atlantic Monthly, Mar 26 2013, $24.00
ISBN 9780802121011

Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti’s ambitious boss Vice-Questore Patta requests the police inspector look into alleged violations of public vending laws by the partner of the mayor’s future daughter-in-law. Brunetti understands that it is a request poorly disguising an order, and his inquiry has nothing to do with the law and all to do with reputations of political animals. He knows that the local bureaucracy works on bribery and blood ties so he turns to his subordinate Pucetti whose uncle and cousin has the information Patta and the mayor wants.

At home, Brunetti’s caring wife Paola requests her husband the police inspector look into the sleeping pill overdose death of simple minded and deaf Davide Cavanella. Brunetti understands that it is a request made from the heart. He questions Davide’s mother, but she refuses to answer him. His search into the deceased’s background proves confusing as the government does not recognize that a Davide Cavanella ever existed; as there is no birth certificate, passport or any official document in that name. Even more stunning no medical records exist either in spite of the man’s disabilities.

The latest Commissario Guido Brunetti police procedural (see Beastly Things) contains two insightful investigations that enable the reader to see deep into the soul of Venice; as corruption and nepotism are just below the surface of the historical architecture, restaurants and canals. The Patta inquiry contrasts with that of Cavanella as even the motives of the respective requesters differ. Series fans will relish this strong Italian mystery while wondering who Davide was.

Harriet Klausner

Silenced-Kristina Ohlsson

Silenced
Kristina Ohlsson
Atria/Emily Bestler Books, Mar 5 2013, $25.00
ISBN: 9781439198902

In 2008 in Stockholm, Alex Recht leads his team (pregnant Fredrika Bergman, sexist Peder Rydh and newbie Joar Shalin) in two investigations, They look into the deaths of immigrant rights activist Vicar Jakob Ahlbin and his wife Marja in what looks like a murder-suicide probably brought on the by the death of a daughter. Additionally the unit conducts an inquiry into a hit and run vehicular homicide of a person with no identification except notes in Arabic.

As they work the seemingly separate cases, the police find links to human trafficking and an unreported assault of a teen in 1993. While Bergman tries to identify the unknown victim as no one filed a missing person’s report, Recht leads his subordinates scrutiny of Jakob’s activities protecting illegal immigrants in his home while also seeking the missing other daughter of the late Ahlbin couple.

When this engaging Swedish police procedural focuses on the cases and the related immigration debate, Silenced is a strong mystery; when the storyline centers on the respective personal lives of the three cops and one civilian, it loses steam as those subplots feel intrusive. Still, filled with betrayal and dark predatory practices, readers will appreciate this relevant look at the social and economic impacts of trafficking (especially the shocking glimpse into a Swede trapped in Thailand as her identification begins to vanish) and immigration.

Harriet Klausner

Room No. 10-Åke Edwardson, Rachel Willson-Broyles (translator)

Room No. 10
Åke Edwardson, Rachel Willson-Broyles (translator)
Simon & Schuster, Mar 5 2013, $25.99
ISBN 9781451608526

In Gothenburg, Sweden, the corpse of twenty-nine year old Paula Ney is found hanging in Room No. 10 of a dive, the Hotel Revy. Although an enigmatic suicide note is nearby, police Chief Inspector Erik Winter knows this was a homicide.

Winter recalls working with Detective Inspector Fredrik Halders on a disappearance case in the same hotel almost two decades ago. Twenty-nine year old Ellen Börge vanished from the same Room No. 10, but that case remains cold. As he conducts his inquiry into the Ney murder, Winter also thinks back to the unsolved Börge disappearance.

The latest Chief Inspector Erik Winter Swedish police procedural (see Sail of Stone) is an intriguing psychological mystery that grips readers who prefer a more conversational cerebral whodunit as the action is tepid at best and the clues reanalyzed several times. This technique adds a sense of reality to the engaging storyline but can at times become tedious. Still sub-genre fans will want to know what is going on in Room No. 10.

Harriet Klausner

The Book Of Killowen-Erin Hart

The Book Of Killowen
Erin Hart
Scribner, Mar 5 2013, $26.00
ISBN: 9781451634846

Detectives Stella Cusack and Fergal Malloy lead the investigation into how a Gold Mercedes containing in its trunk the remains of a centuries-old corpse ended up in County Tipperary’s Killowen Bog. Keeper of Conservation, National Museum of Ireland brings in two experts, Irish archeologist Cormac Maguire and American pathologist Nora Gavin to extract the victim. As the pair works on the removal of the well preserved but murdered Killowen Man, they find another corpse wearing modern garb.

Cormac and Nora are interested in the top deceased who turns out to be a ninth century monk murdered allegedly for heretic scripting. Stella and Fergal are interested in the bottom deceased who turns out to be TV host Benedict Kavanagh, known for destroying his guests with his sharp wit. Both investigations intertwine; forcing the four investigators to cooperate; especially since the nearby landowners and an artist colony prefer to hide the motives of the two homicides more than millennia apart.

The latest Maguire-Gavin archeological mystery (see False Mermaid) is a great whodunit that hooks the audience from the moment the car is found in the bog. Fast-paced from the onset with its dual homicides, The Book Of Killowen will be shortlisted as one of the best mysteries of the year as Erin Hart provides a deep look at various motives to maintain secrets.

Harriet Klausner

The Day Is Dark-Yrsa Sigurdardottir; Philip Roughton (translator)

The Day Is Dark
Yrsa Sigurdardottir; Philip Roughton (translator)
Minotaur, Feb 26 2013, $15.99
ISBN: 9781250029409

Kaupthing Bank head of security Matthew Reich hires his lover Reykjavik lawyer Thora Gudmunstdottir to assist him in investigating occurrences at a mining camp in the Greenland tundra though to escape her adult children and grandchild she planned on the Caribbean. Accompanying Matthew and Thora on her trek to the frozen island is her dreadful office secretary Bella and scientists.

The geologists and support personnel disappeared and are presumed dead; no one else wants to work at a place considered haunted by the malevolent Tupilak; as besides the current vanishing, Danish colonists also disappeared without a trace in 1918. Thora is to learn what happened to the present day missing crew. The local Inuit population resent the latest visitors as outsiders have polluted their formerly pristine land. Thora looks closely at the Inuit struggling between a heritage that is teetering on the brink of generational extinction and the intrusion of modernization; symbolized by Igmaq the hunter, whose son prefers modern day beer and his favorite husky like him becoming too old to remain the leader of the pack.

The latest Thora Gudmundsdottir tale (see Ashes to Dust, Last Rituals and My Soul To Take) is a fabulous chilling (literally and figuratively) thunder on the tundra thriller. The leisurely–paced storyline looks close at the war between cultural tradition and unique modernizing assimilation. Although having an Icelandic grandmotherly lawyer on the investigative team and an incompetent legal secretary (brought along for comic relief) seem unlikely, fans will enjoy this engaging thought-provoking mystery.

Harriet Klausner

A Christmas Garland-Anne Perry

A Christmas Garland

Anne Perry

Ballantine, Oct 30 2012, $18.00

ISBN: 9780345530745

 

In 1857, as a rebellion sweeps across India, Colonel Latimer assigns newcomer Lieutenant Victor Narraway with an unpleasant assignment.  He is to defend British medical orderly Corporal John Tallis for abetting the escape of a Sikh prisoner Dhuleep Singh that led to the murder of a guard Cutter Singh and other deaths.  With the recent Siege of Cawnpore on everyone’s mind and the deaths of comrades, the garrison occupants demand execution immediately.

 

Narraway assumes his defense of Tallis is a meaningless check the box formality as he expects his “client” to hang.  However, Narraway realizes there is no physical proof or an eyewitness tying Tallis to the murders.  In fact the evidence is indirect as he is the only soldier who apparently has no alibi.  Though his comrades warn him to do nothing, Narroway, encouraged by a widow and her children, investigates what really happened.

 

The latest annual Perry Christmas treat (see A Christmas Homecoming, A Christmas Odyssey, A Christmas Promise, A Christmas Grace, and A Christmas Beginning) is a terrific Victorian era legal thriller.  The background of a rebellious India enhances the tale as the protagonist begins to believe his client is innocent while almost everyone else demands a scapegoat.  However, believing in the innocence is not the same as proving it as Narraway learns; yet he finds hope to have a Happy Christmas if he can prevent a travesty of justice.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds-Alexander McCall Smith

The Uncommon Appeal of Clouds

Alexander McCall Smith

Pantheon, Oct 23 2012, $24.95

ISBN: 9780307907332

 

In Edinburgh, Isabel Dalhousie lives a busy life.  She edits the Review of Applied Ethics, deals with friends and family and “sorts out people’s difficulties.”  

 

Affluent Duncan Munrowe asks for her help.  Thieves stole his valuable Nicolas Poussin painting and offer to return it if he pays their ransom demands.  He wants her to negotiate the safe return of his prized work that he plans to donate to the Scottish National Gallery.  Isabel agrees to regain the renowned French artist’s masterpiece.  On the personal front, Isabel the philosopher knows first-hand relationships are confusing due to The Charming (and not so charming) Quirks of Others.

 

The latest Isabel Dalhousie contemporary (see The Forgotten Affairs of Youth) is an engaging amusing tale that deeply looks at the ethics of people.  The enjoyable painting subplot is the prime entry.  However Isabel’s math prodigy toddler Charlie, her caring lover Jamie, her dedicated but anger management not housekeeper Grace, her toxic niece Cat (at the restaurant), and Cat’s employee Eddie affirm that human interactivity is a contact sport with no rules.

 

Harriet Klausner