Barbara Clark

“I have drunk, and seen the spider.” This extraordinary quote from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale has seldom been better employed than in Barbara Cleverly’s new Scotland Yard mystery, aptly titled A Spider in the Cup. It chillingly refers to one character’s realization that the gruesome murder of an innocent person was committed solely to frighten him and weaken his already “wounded, fearful mind.”

This new release in the author’s Joe Sandilands series is set in 1933 between the two World Wars. Assistant Commissioner Sandilands is on assignment protecting American Senator Cornelius Kingstone, who—with his bodyguard, Bill Armitage—is attending a crucial international economic summit in London. Kingstone, a close advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt, is a major player at the conference, and Armitage is a newly minted American citizen who’s well known to Sandilands from their shared military service as Britishers in the Great War. The three form a triad around which the rest of the story revolves, and they become part of a high-stakes political game where the fates of nations hang in the balance and no one can be trusted.

Earlier in the day of the summit meeting, members of the Bloomsbury Society of Dowsers search for concealed metals that may be buried at the tideline of the steamy, polluted Thames River. Instead of treasure, however, they unearth the body of a woman, whose mouth contains an ancient-looking coin.

Impossible as it seems, a thread of connection links Senator Kingstone to the early morning discovery, and Sandilands must do some excavating of his own to unearth a bizarre plot that takes him from a shooting party at a country estate to a private health clinic for women set on a back street of London. The detective finds himself subjected to a crash course in survival in this world of international intrigue, as seen through the prism of clever lawyers, economists, industrialists and other prima donnas (even including some of the Russian ballet variety).

There are a number of asides in the narrative, including a fascinating look at the ancient game of Nine Men’s Morris, which dates back to the Roman Empire and adds a nice puzzle to the plot. The measured pace of the writing does not lend itself to page-turning suspense, but it highlights the historical backdrop as major world powers make fateful decisions and alliances in the prologue to World War II. In-depth descriptions of the main characters are matched by realistic dialogue, historical details and an atmospheric re-creation of those turbulent times.

It’s springtime in the village of St. Denis in the French province of Dordogne. Flowers bloom, the church choir rehearses for Easter, corks pop from wine bottles, the outdoor market displays delicious treats . . . and the dead body of a nude woman drifts lazily down the river in an abandoned rowboat.

Here’s where Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges enters—or should we say ambles—into Martin Walker’s latest mystery novel featuring the popular village Chief of Police.

The Devil’s Cave marks the fifth entry in the Bruno crime series, which contains village adventures both culinary and murderous. A sunny village atmosphere stands in sharp contrast to murky goings-on, and Bruno seems equally at home pursuing criminal activities in this deceptively rustic setting as he does cooking in his small farmhouse kitchen, whipping up a mouth-watering meal of smoked ham, white asparagus and new potatoes with dandelion buds sautéed in butter.

The French countryside gets a little bit darker in the newest mystery starring Bruno, Chief of Police.

The relaxed yet resolute detective enjoys sharing a glass of wine with his friends, horseback riding, feeding his chickens, maneuvering between girlfriends and cooking gourmet repasts, but he proves just as adept when he takes charge of the gruesome crime scene, where the floating body is surrounded by black candles and marked by crude symbols indicating a connection to the black arts. Bruno is soon called upon to explore the “Devil’s Cave,” a local tourist attraction containing caverns, an underground river and a silent, dark lake, where the trappings of a strange occult Mass are discovered, seemingly connected to the woman on the river.

Complications ensue as well-heeled visitors descend on the town as part of a group hoping to develop a “vacation village” near St. Denis. At the same time, relatives surface who may be connected to the estate of the aging, comatose local resident known to all as the Red Countess, whose infamous activities date back to the French Resistance during World War II. A local case of domestic abuse is followed by a second death that appears to be an accident. All these separate occurrences initiate an investigation that leads Bruno to a common thread that weaves them all together, and to a dark and exciting dénouement set deep underground.

The Devil’s Cave brings to life a pastoral setting where the gourmet menu is as spicy as the sex, and where readers can share in the timeless beauty of the French countryside, laced with a little murder.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a 7 questions interview with Martin Walker for The Devil's Cave.

Author Lori Roy’s 2011 debut novel, Bent Road, was an Edgar Award winner. In her new novel, Until She Comes Home, Roy has created a tour-de-force of mood and suspense, where old habits and new realities collide in a drama played out in a gritty and memorable urban setting.

If language can be delicate and brutal at the same time, this is what Roy achieves in a beautifully written, dark exploration of fears both real and imagined, of old ways facing upheaval. The author’s stunning word pictures convey the air and mood almost of a fairy tale or fable—strange, laden with foreboding, dark around the edges where it may initially seem clear.

Detroit in 1958, a city on the verge of cataclysmic change, contains fading factory neighborhoods filled with close-knit families of a solid ethnic white. Families struggle to cope with the impending loss of livelihoods and the first inklings of ethnic diversity. Faced with facts both inevitable and unwelcome, the women of Alder Avenue respond according to their individual private inner fears and circumstances.

Racial tensions crackle like summer lightning when a mentally challenged 22-year-old white woman disappears, seemingly at her front gate, shortly after a local African-American woman is brutally murdered. Glass shards litter the street; the wheels of a baby carriage squeal disconcertingly on the pavement. A red-handled hammer disappears. Homemade carrot cake fills the stomachs of the husbands and the time of the women as the search continues for the missing girl. Children both born and unborn figure large, and terrible events can happen, unspoken and untold, behind closed doors up and down Alder Avenue.

Roy perfectly evokes these immaculately clad and mannered women, right down to their de rigueur white gloves and appropriate hats, all in contrast to the gritty realities assaulting their well-ordered lives. During the course of the book, readers are asked to encounter, and maneuver, the often stark differences between perception and reality that course through the pages.

In this book, small descriptions are never “fill”: each adds a layer to the developing story, as events assault and then change our minds and the action unfolds in a changing kaleidoscope. Roy has contributed a challenging, thoughtful and riveting story. Seeing the marvels she can create with words, we can only hope she’ll continue to share her talent with readers.

Anne Perry’s fine new book, Midnight at Marble Arch, features her well-known series duo Charlotte and Thomas Pitt in their familiar setting of Victorian England.

Readers of Perry’s engrossing novels know to expect the highest quality in both story and characterization, plus a continuation of the familiar and finely drawn characters from previous books in the series. But in this story, the unexpected and in-depth treatment of the subject of rape gives the book a timely, almost modern feel. The descriptions and language may be straight out of 1896, but the attitudes and arguments are still relevant today.

The dark debates in Anne Perry's newest Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mystery ring true even today.

Thomas Pitt, now head of Britain’s Special Branch, joins forces with Victor Narraway, his friend and the agency’s former head, to investigate several violent attacks on women. Narraway responds to the scene of a violent rape and the subsequent death of Catherine Quixwood, wife of a successful merchant banker. Likewise, Pitt and his wife are present at a society function when the daughter of the Portuguese ambassador apparently commits suicide, leaping through a window to her death. Charlotte, however, fears she was frightened into an accidental plunge after coming face-to-face with a young man who had previously raped her. Charlotte’s suspicions are strengthened after another woman privately names the same man as her rapist. The suspect is the scion of another prominent banking family of considerable means, to whom many are financially indebted. No one dares point a finger without an airtight case, and the frightened families aren’t talking.

Perry is adept at tempting us with the impossible—and perhaps inevitable—solution, as well as making us watch what we think are surefire clues go up in smoke. A discussion of attitudes toward the crime of rape is woven into the fabric of the plot, and we come to realize we’ve heard many of the same thoughts expressed in our own time. The author seamlessly connects the separate storylines and reveals multiple sides of various suspects, making us wary of convicting the most obvious.

Perry’s fans will also have the pleasure of witnessing a developing relationship between likeable series characters Narraway and Charlotte’s great-aunt Vespasia, as their growing bond, slight at first, becomes a crucial part of the story.

Although the author’s intricate prose gets a little repetitive and overwrought at times, we’re hooked on this provoking and tightly woven book to the very last page.