Mystery

Very Quick Review: THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALPERTON ANGELS by Janice Hallett (Atria/Viper)

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HallettJ-MysteriousCaseOfTheAlpertonAngelsUSHCJanice Hallett returns with another excellent epistolary mystery

A true crime journalist who revives a long-buried case about a cult — and finds herself too close to the story.

Everyone knows the story of the Alperton Angels: the cult who brainwashed a teenage girl into believing her baby was the anti-Christ. When the girl came to her senses and called the police, the Angels committed suicide and mother and baby disappeared.

Now, true crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned eighteen; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected, and also on the baby’s trail.

As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it

I was a bit late to reading Janice Hallett’s mysteries. For some reason, The Appeal passed me by entirely, but I managed to read The Twyford Code shortly after it was published, which I very much enjoyed. I’ve always had a fondness for epistolary novels, and Hallett has a real gift for gradually building a mystery through distinctive and engaging voices. I very much enjoyed The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. Continue reading →

Upcoming: GLASS HOUSES by Madeline Ashby (Tor)

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AshbyM-GlassHousesUSHCThe next novel from Madeline Ashby is Glass Houses. Pitched as a “near future whodunit for fans of Glass Onion and Black Mirror“, it certainly sounds intriguing. Due to be published in August, by Tor Books, I imagine there are a lot of people who will be interested in reading this. Here’s what it’s about:

Join a stranded start-up team led by a terrifyingly realistic charismatic billionaire, a deserted tropical island, and a mysterious AI-driven mansion — as the remaining members disappear one by one.

A group of employees and their CEO, celebrating the sale of their remarkable emotion-mapping-AI-algorithm, crash onto a not-quite-deserted tropical island.

Luckily, those who survived have found a beautiful, fully-stocked private palace, with all the latest technological updates (though one without connection to the outside world). The house, however, has more secrets than anyone might have guessed, and a much darker reason for having been built and left behind.

Kristen, the hyper-competent “chief emotional manager” (i.e., the eccentric boyish billionaire-CEO Sumter’s idea of an HR department) is trying to keep her colleagues stable throughout this new challenge, but staying sane seems to be as much of a challenge as staying alive. Being a woman in technology has always meant having to be smarter than anyone expects… and Kristen’s survival skills are more impressive than anyone knows.

Madeline Ashby’s Glass Houses is due to be published by Tor Books in North America and in the UK, on August 13th.

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Excerpt: CALIFORNIA BEAR by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books)

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SwierczynskiD-CaliforniaBearUSHCToday, Mulholland Books publishes the latest novel from Duane Swierczynski: California Bear — a “clever, moving, and surprising as it takes aim at the true crime industry, Hollywood, justice, and the killers inside us all.” I’ve been a fan of Swierczynski’s writing for some time, now (including his prose and comics work), so this has been on my most-anticipated list ever since I saw it in one of the publisher’s catalogues. To celebrate the release, we have an excerpt to share! First, though, here’s the synopsis:

Four unlikely vigilantes pit themselves against the villain behind California’s coldest case when they decide to take justice into their own hands.

NONE OF YOU ARE SAFE

“KILLER”: Jack Queen has been exonerated and freed from prison thanks to retired LAPD officer Cato Hightower. But when guilt gnaws at Jack, he admits: “I actually did it.” To which Hightower responds: “Yeah, no kidding.” You see, the ex-cop has a special job in mind for the ex-con…

THE GIRL DETECTIVE: Fifteen-year-old Matilda Finnerty has been handed a potential death sentence in the form of a leukemia diagnosis. But that’s not going to stop her from tackling the most important mystery of her life: Is her father guilty of murder?

GENE JEANIE: Jeanie Hightower mends family trees for a living, but the genealogist is unable to repair her own marriage. And her soon-to-be ex may have entangled her in a scheme that has drawn the bloody wrath of…

THE BEAR: A prolific serial killer who disappeared forty years ago, who is only now emerging from hibernation when the conditions are just right. And this time, the California Bear is not content to hunt in the shadows…

Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: JUDGMENT PREY by John Sandford (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

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SandfordJ-P33-JudgementPreyUSHCLucas Davenport & Virgil Flowers team up to crack an unsolvable case…

Alex Sand was spending the evening at home playing basketball with his two young sons when all three were shot in cold blood. A wealthy federal judge, there’s no short list of people who could have a vendetta against Sands, but the gruesome murders, especially that of his children, turn their St. Paul community on its head. Sand was on the verge of a major donation to a local housing charity, Heart/Twin Cities, and with the money in limbo, eyes suddenly turn to his grieving widow, Margaret Cooper, to see what she might do with the money. Margaret, distraught over the death of her family, struggles to move forward, and can’t imagine how or why anyone would target her husband.

With public pressure mounting and both the local police force and FBI hitting dead end after dead end, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to do what others could not: find answers. With each potential lead flawed, Davenport and Flowers are determined to chase every theory until they figure out who killed the Sands. But when they find themselves being stonewalled by the most unlikely of forces, the two wonder if perhaps each misdirection could lead them closer to the truth.

In Judgment Prey, the 33rd novel in John Sandford’s best-selling Prey series, star investigators Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are convalescing back in Minnesota and Wisconsin, after being injured during their most recent case. A strange murder, however, has them brought in to. Sandford remains one of the most consistently good crime writers, and I thoroughly enjoyed this. Continue reading →

Quick Review: CALIFORNIA BEAR by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland Books)

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SwierczynskiD-CaliforniaBearUSHCAn intriguing, quirky serial killer mystery

NONE OF YOU ARE SAFE

“KILLER”: Jack Queen has been exonerated and freed from prison thanks to retired LAPD officer Cato Hightower. But when guilt gnaws at Jack, he admits: “I actually did it.” To which Hightower responds: “Yeah, no kidding.” You see, the ex-cop has a special job in mind for the ex-con…

THE GIRL DETECTIVE: Fifteen-year-old Matilda Finnerty has been handed a potential death sentence in the form of a leukemia diagnosis. But that’s not going to stop her from tackling the most important mystery of her life: Is her father guilty of murder?

GENE JEANIE: Jeanie Hightower mends family trees for a living, but the genealogist is unable to repair her own marriage. And her soon-to-be ex may have entangled her in a scheme that has drawn the bloody wrath of…

THE BEAR: A prolific serial killer who disappeared forty years ago, who is only now emerging from hibernation when the conditions are just right. And this time, the California Bear is not content to hunt in the shadows…

I’ve been a fan of Swierczynski’s work for some time — I’m more familiar with his comics work than his prose, but I was nevertheless very much looking forward to reading California Bear. The publisher was kind enough to send me an early DRC of the novel, and it was my final read of 2023. It’s an intriguing serial killer mystery with a difference, and I very much enjoyed it. Continue reading →

Quick Review: THE SPY COAST by Tess Gerritsen (Thomas & Mercer/Bantam)

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GerritsenT-SpyCoastUSHCIntroducing Maggie Bird and the Martini Club…

A retired CIA operative in small-town Maine tackles the ghosts of her past…

Former spy Maggie Bird came to the seaside village of Purity, Maine, eager to put the past behind her after a mission went tragically wrong. These days, she’s living quietly on her chicken farm, still wary of blowback from the events that forced her early retirement.

But when a body turns up in Maggie’s driveway, she knows it’s a message from former foes who haven’t forgotten her. Maggie turns to her local circle of old friends — all retirees from the CIA — to help uncover the truth about who is trying to kill her, and why. This “Martini Club” of former spies may be retired, but they still have a few useful skills that they’re eager to use again, if only to spice up their rather sedate new lives.

Complicating their efforts is Purity’s acting police chief, Jo Thibodeau. More accustomed to dealing with rowdy tourists than homicide, Jo is puzzled by Maggie’s reluctance to share information — and by her odd circle of friends, who seem to be a step ahead of her at every turn.

As Jo’s investigation collides with the Martini Club’s maneuvers, Maggie’s hunt for answers will force her to revisit a clandestine career that spanned the globe, from Bangkok to Istanbul, from London to Malta. The ghosts of her past have returned, but with the help of her friends — and the reluctant Jo Thibodeau — Maggie might just be able to save the life she’s built.

This is the first novel in Tess Gerritsen’s new series, the Martini Club. It is also, somehow, the first of Gerritsen’s novels that I’ve ever read — not entirely sure how this happened, given that the Rizzoli & Isles series looks like it should definitely appeal. (I also enjoyed the first season of the TV adaptation). Anyway, I digress: The Spy Coast is a really good start to a series, which I really enjoyed, and it will definitely not be my last Gerritsen read. Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: THE NINTH METAL by Benjamin Percy (William Morrow)

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PercyB-CC1-NinthMetalUSPBThe first book in the Comet Cycle trilogy

IT BEGAN WITH A COMET…

At first, people gazed in wonder at the radiant tear in the sky. A year later, the celestial marvel became a planetary crisis when Earth spun through the comet’s debris field and the sky rained fire.

The town of Northfall, Minnesota will never be the same. Meteors cratered hardwood forests and annihilated homes, and among the wreckage a new metal was discovered. This “omnimetal” has properties that make it world-changing as an energy source… and a weapon.

John Frontier — the troubled scion of an iron-ore dynasty in Northfall — returns for his sister’s wedding to find his family embroiled in a cutthroat war to control mineral rights and mining operations. His father rightly suspects foreign leaders and competing corporations of sabotage, but the greatest threat to his legacy might be the US government. Physicist Victoria Lennon was recruited by the Department of Defense to research omnimetal, but she finds herself trapped in a laboratory of nightmares. And across town, a rookie cop is investigating a murder that puts her own life in the crosshairs. She will have to compromise her moral code to bring justice to this now lawless community.

I read Benjamin Percy’s The Ninth Metal little while ago, but somehow completely forgot to write a review! It’s the first novel in his Comet Cycle trilogy, and it’s quite the start, too: it’s the story of a devastating natural calamity, and its impact on the inhabitants of Northfall. Coupled with greed, small-town and national politics, this makes for a very intriguing start. I very much enjoyed this.

Continue reading →

Quick Review: ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S. A. Cosby (Flatiron)

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CosbySA-AllTheSinnersBleedUSHCA Black sheriff. A serial killer. A small town ready to combust.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon.

With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.

Charon is Titus’s home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.

I must offer a mea culpa, here: I read this a long while ago, but right in the middle of an incredibly busy couple of months. As a result, writing the review just fell off my radar, much to my shame. Especially as this is easily one of the best five books I’ve read this year. I’ve been reading Cosby’s novels since Blacktop Wasteland, and he immediately became one of my must-read authors. All The Sinners Bleed is superb. Continue reading →

Excerpt: SWEET THING by David Swinson (Mulholland Books)

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SwinsonD-SweetThingUSHCToday, we have an excerpt from David Swinson‘s Sweet Thing — one of my most-anticipated novels of the year. I loved Swinson’s Frank Marr trilogy (The Second Girl, Crime Song, and Trigger), and so this new novel went right on my TBR list as soon as it was announced. The publisher has kindly provided this excerpt to celebrate the novel’s release next week. First, here’s the synopsis:

Homicide Detective Alex Blum must answer a terrible question: ‘how far would you go to love the wrong woman?’

In a red brick house on a tree-lined street, DC homicide detective Alex Blum stares at the bullet-pocked body of Chris Doyle. As he roots around for evidence, he finds an old polaroid: the decedent, arm in arm with Arthur Holland, Blum’s informant from years ago when he worked at the Narcotics branch.

But Arthur has been missing for days. Blum’s only source: Arthur’s girl, Celeste — beautiful, seductive, and tragic — whom he can’t get out of his head. Blum is drawn to her and feels compelled to save her from Arthur’s underworld. As the investigation ticks on and dead bodies domino, Blum, unearths clues with damning implications for Celeste. Swallowed by desire, Blum’s single misstep sends him tunnelling down a rabbit hole of transgression. He may soon find the only way out is down below.

Set in 1999, Swinson, a former DC cop, offers a look back at a rougher, grittier, bygone DC replete with seedy strip clubs, pagers beeping, and Y2K anxiety. It’s here we’re taken inside sting operations, fluorescent-tinged interrogation chambers, and rooms that have seen irreversible mistakes. At once authentic, gritty, tragic, and profound, SWEET THING asks how far can you fall when the world teeters on the edge?

Now, on with the excerpt…!

Continue reading →

Excerpt: THE MURDER OF ANDREW JOHNSON by Burt Solomon (Forge)

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SolomonB-MurderOfAndrewJohnsonUSHCEarlier this month, Forge Books published the third novel in Burt Solomon‘s John Hay Mysteries series, The Murder of Andrew Johnson. To celebrate, the publisher has provided CR with the first chapter to share with readers. First, though, here’s the synopsis:

Andrew Johnson was called The Great Commoner, appealing to the masses, loathing the establishment and anyone he deemed elitist. Once Johnson made an enemy, you became his enemy for life. He saw insults where none were intended and personal loyalty meant everything…and his devoted fans would follow him into the depths of Hell. He was also the first U.S. president to be impeached.

Time however waits for no man and even the Famous (or Infamous) must leave this world eventually. But when a man has as many enemies as the Devil, what death could really be a natural one? From political opponents to most of his own family, the suspects are endless, and the truth not really wanted. John Hay, lawyer, sometimes governmental bureaucrat, and now journeyman investigative reporter, is set on finding that truth. And it may wind up killing him.

Continue reading →