Heather Seggel

E.J. Copperman’s second entry in the Agent to the Paws series, Bird, Bath, and Beyond, finds animal talent agent Kay Powell on the set of a TV show with a parrot whose owner has the flu. When the show’s (human) star turns up dead, the parrot is surprisingly talkative, and since he’s Kay’s client, she’s drawn into the search for a killer. The well-populated story zips along—Kay’s parents visit, the show’s cast and crew are all suspects, and the human-animal banter is snappy. Glimpses of show business at its best and worst (the hard work, the giant egos) and the ways animals are used on film give this clever tale a realistic feel. So far, Kay is two for two when it comes to adopting her animal clients. As the series evolves, what kind of zoo will she end up with? For cozy fans, it will be fun to find out.

TILL DEATH DO US PART
The town of Tinker’s Cove, Maine, is in an introspective mood at the start of Silver Anniversary Murder. A quarrelsome couple is renewing their vows, and everyone’s invited. Lucy Stone reaches out to her best friend, Beth, to reminisce about her own wedding day, only to learn that Beth has died. But was it suicide, or did one of Beth’s four ex-husbands help her off that balcony? To find out, Lucy goes back to New York City and reflects on her own past while searching for clues. This is bestselling author Leslie Meier’s 25th Lucy Stone mystery, but the small-town hospitality of Tinker’s Cove welcomes all readers, new and old alike. Lucy is observant by nature, and her reporter’s instincts are both an asset and a liability; anyone with something to hide had better do it well, or else keep Lucy out of the way. The resolution to this mystery takes a few unexpectedly dark turns, but Lucy lands on her feet. After all, it’s hardly her first time to be embroiled in matters of life and death.

TOP PICK IN COZIES
In the 1950s, Brighton, England, was bucolic and lovely—if you disregard the hooligans, Teddy Boys and other criminal mischief-makers lurking about. In A Shot in the Dark, author Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots and Leaves (2003) fame introduces Inspector Steine, a police captain who wants nothing more than for crime to simply relocate itself so he can enjoy his ice cream in peace. When a well-known theater critic is gunned down just before he’s supposed to share crucial evidence in an old case, earnest Constable Twitten is determined to buck departmental tradition and actually solve a crime. This farcical tale is packed with interwoven plotlines, clues strewn about like confetti and a comically oblivious chief inspector. It reads like a stage comedy, and in fact Truss has written four seasons’ worth of Inspector Steine dramas for BBC Radio. There are no dark and stormy nights here, just gorgeous seaside views marred by occasional corpses. The ’60s are coming, but for now, women are still largely ignored; this turns out to be its own kind of liberation, since who would suspect them? Sharp and witty, A Shot in the Dark is a good time.

This article was originally published in the November 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Three new serial killer thrillers approach their murderous subjects in vastly different ways. One is a game of cat and mouse, another probes the psychological makeup of a killer, and a third is disarmingly funny.

Peter Swanson sets Before She Knew Him in a charming Massachusetts neighborhood. Two young couples live next door to one another, and at a casual dinner they hope will lead to friendship, Hen notices something in her neighbor’s studio that alarms her. It appears to be evidence in an unsolved murder. Worse yet, she can tell her neighbor, Matthew, saw her react. She fudges a reason to go back and double-check, and suddenly the item has disappeared. What now?

Hen must act with caution—she has a history of mental illness that led her to fixate on the very case she suspects Matthew of being connected to, and her husband, Lloyd, is adamant that she not pursue the matter further. But it’s not long before she’s an eyewitness to something horrible, and now both she and Lloyd are at risk.

Swanson artfully plays the tension in this story. The details of Hen’s job as an illustrator and printmaker are fascinating, and the dynamic between both couples who can’t quite get along lull the reader into forgetting that one of the four might be a murderer. There’s a neat twist at the end, but the real surprise is the way characters are allowed to grieve their losses, a luxury not always allowed in stories of this type. For a fast-paced thriller, Before She Knew Him achieves an impressive significance in its pauses.

The Devil Aspect is Scottish author Craig Russell’s American debut, and it’s a knockout. Set in Czechoslovakia in 1935, it tells parallel stories that converge in an explosive conclusion. Viktor Kosárek, a psychiatrist, has come to work at an asylum for the criminally insane that is housed in a castle and contains just six patients, the most dangerous killers in the country. In Prague, police are trailing a serial killer who seems to be imitating Jack the Ripper. And over the border in Germany, Nazism is on the rise. Welcome to the pressure cooker.

Kosárek is interviewing the asylum’s inmates to try and identify the “devil aspect” that leads them to kill, and their stories are terrifying and extravagantly gory. Prague police eventually appeal to the doctors at the asylum for help with their own case—catching the murderer they’ve nicknamed “Leather Apron.” The combination of research and investigation takes place while people gradually take sides in the new political climate, adding up to an edge-of-the-seat suspense tale and Gothic tragedy in one.

The fine details of the investigation (part of it hinges on a single glass bead), and a romance between the doctor and a Jewish hospital administrator who is thus on constant guard, are given space to breathe and described in lush detail. Even characters that appear only briefly are memorable and realistic. Russell sets up these converging stories, then adds a twist that could give a reader whiplash. It’s no wonder the film rights have already been snapped up. Read it now, though, before the spoilers get out. The Devil Aspect is the best of its kind.

A serial killer is targeting pairs of best friends in Sophie Hannah’s latest, The Next to Die. Police can’t nail him down, though they’ve helpfully given him the nickname “Billy Dead Mates.” A radical feminist columnist is using the killings to highlight misogynist violence while pointedly ignoring that one of the victims was male. And comedian Kim Tribbeck would find this all hilarious—that is her job, after all—but for the fact that she might be next on the killer’s list. The killer’s calling card is a tiny white handmade book with a bit of verse inside. Kim received one but has no best friend or desire for one. Police are left to wonder if it was a mistake, or if the killer might be moving on to solo targets.

Woven into the investigation is a subplot particular to two of the detectives on the case who are married, which Kim inadvertently gets involved in, and which adds to the story’s extended meditation on relationships, be they friendly, familial or maybe just a thing on the side.

Told in a mix of memoir excerpts, newspaper columns and narration from varied points of view, The Next to Die will keep you guessing and also, perhaps unexpectedly, laughing. Hannah lets the line slacken then pulls it back in with a jolt as needed. The shifts in narration demand close attention and add to the suspense, though the police seem to take the most roundabout path possible to finally solving the case, including a road trip to Kim’s prior performance venues to find the one where she was given the book. Playing freely with the conventions of the genre, The Next to Die is a funny, philosophical, reflective and taut whodunit.

Top Pick
S.C. Perkins taps into the current obsession with researching one’s ancestry with her terrific series debut. Murder Once Removed finds genealogist Lucy Lancaster researching a murder that took place in the 1800s, only to have it become frighteningly relevant in the present day. The killer could be one of two men with the same initials, and when his identity becomes a point of contention in a senate race, tempers run high. Suddenly historical research is crucial to restoring the peace. Perkins blends a serious interest in history with giddy energy and a burgeoning romance between Lucy and a confounding but adorable special agent. The Austin, Texas, setting makes for a rich atmosphere and some rapturous descriptions of Tex-Mex food. There’s also a sober consideration of the value, and risk, of learning about your past. Murder Once Removed kicks off this series with a bang. Here’s to many more to come.

From knitting to baking to Sudoku, cozy mysteries and niche themes are a natural pairing, but if they were all set in bookstores, would anyone complain? The Loch Ness Papers is Paige Shelton’s latest Scottish Bookshop Mystery, and this time the genial atmosphere at the Cracked Spine bookstore is shaken up by a murder with tenuous ties to Scotland’s legendary Loch Ness monster. Bookseller and American transplant Delaney Nichols is loving life in Edinburgh, juggling wedding plans and a visit from her family, when she meets an older man obsessed with Nessie. When he’s suddenly accused of murder, she’s determined to learn the truth. The warm relationships among characters—and Delaney’s gift for finding the best quote from the right author to direct her forward—make this the perfect book to curl up with on a rainy day.

A hotel ballroom plays host to murder in Mrs. Jeffries Delivers the Goods, Emily Brightwell’s latest in the Victorian Mystery series. When the lights are turned back on after a dramatic moment of silence at a party, one of the guests has a violent seizure and dies. A doctor determines that it was arsenic. The victim was a cad whom most people hated, but there’s still a dangerous killer on the loose. Inspector Witherspoon comes to the Wrexley Hotel to investigate, and without his knowing, the members of his household do their part to help. The unsanctioned detective work by housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries and company provides keen observations about class divisions, which Brightwell balances with humor in a story that runs like clockwork. Watching Witherspoon’s crew collect clues and sift through the suspect list, usually at meetings featuring tea and a selection of dreamy baked goods, is pure pleasure. This is Brightwell’s 37th book in the series, but newcomers will find their footing in a jiffy.

It’s all fun and games until someone takes a flying cat to the head. Two new cozy mysteries feature cats who are characters in their own right (and who occasionally get airborne as the situation demands), along with the punniest of titles.

Librarian and archivist Charlie Harris is well-known around Athena, Mississippi, as the man walking a 35-pound Maine Coon cat on a leash. Even folks who don’t know Charlie recognize Diesel the cat. When Charlie decides to audit a medieval history class, the only student close to his age is a woman whom he overhears in a fight with their professor and who then comes to Charlie’s office asking if he’ll be her study buddy. Charlie says no, and just a few days later his classmate has turned up dead, kicking off the central mystery of Miranda James’s The Pawful Truth.

Not only is Charlie dealing with one—then two—murders, he’s also a doting grandfather who also has a new kitten that needs training. He has boarders and a housekeeper who make his house not just a home but a family, though one of them might be a suspect. His research background gives him a leg up where investigation is concerned, and of course it’s easy to gain folks’ confidence if your enormous cat likes them (but if Diesel is wary, watch out). Athena is both modern and old-fashioned. Vestiges of the old South remain, and race relations can be tricky to navigate. All this makes for a rich stew featuring an independent senior leading a full, engaging life. Far from pawful, this is a treat.

Christin Brecher debuts a new series centered on a unique profession in Murder’s No Votive Confidence. Stella Wright owns a candle shop on Nantucket Island where she teaches classes to locals and makes custom candles for special occasions. She’s thrilled to have designed a two-foot unity candle for a wedding that will be all anyone talks about on Memorial Day weekend, but her excitement is quickly snuffed out when the bride-to-be’s uncle is found murdered—and the unity candle is the weapon. To save her business, Stella must solve the crime. Murder’s No Votive Confidence is a whodunit in a gorgeous setting with a burgeoning love triangle to complicate things. What’s not to love?

The victim’s cat, Tinker, has a way of turning up in Stella’s path and subtly steering the investigation, but details about the candle-making process and the struggle to keep a small business afloat make Stella’s predicament believable. Her long-standing grudge against/crush on a local cop is stirred up when a reporter starts to court her, though one of their dates ends up with the pair stuck in a tree. Yet she keeps an eye on who’s acting strangely and keeps building a theory of the case, even as it leads her into dangerous territory. Stella may burn the candle at both ends, but readers will love her for it.

★ Word to the Wise
A mystery set in a library just feels right. Jenn McKinlay’s newest Library Lover’s Mystery, Word to the Wise, lets the comfort of a familiar location set up a truly creepy premise. Library director Lindsey Norris is busy with her job and happily planning her wedding. The attention of a patron who is new in town seems odd but innocuous, but it quickly becomes clear that Aaron Grady is a stalker. The more Lindsey learns about Aaron, the more she begins to doubt her own gut; she knows something feels wrong, but is she overreacting? When his body is found on library property, the killing appears to have been set up to incriminate Sully, Lindsey’s fiancé. To clear Sully’s name, she’ll have to dig into Aaron’s past, bringing herself into the killer’s orbit. McKinlay lets the first third of the story breathe, effectively ramping up the tension. Once Aaron is out of the picture, the pace picks up as the search for the killer intensifies, and the conclusion is a wild ride indeed.

Late Checkout
Halloween in Salem is a bit like Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Chaos reigns, and the streets are a mess, but everyone has a good time. Late Checkout finds Lee Barrett losing hours at her TV news gig just as things get busy for the holiday. She volunteers at the library to pass the time and almost immediately finds a dead body in the stacks. It’s a big scoop, and with the help of her Aunt Ibby, Lee begins to research the victim. There are interesting forays into the work of running a small TV station and appearances by Lee’s charming and possibly clairvoyant cat. Author Carol J. Perry juggles these details with finesse and moves the plot toward a creepy conclusion that adds a few shivers to this cozy.

A Golden Grave
In Erin Lindsey’s A Golden Grave, Rose Gallagher should have the world on a string. She’s a Pinkerton agent working with a gorgeous partner—a far cry from her old life as a housekeeper—but that change in status has tested old friendships, and Rose still can’t pass for a society dame. A plot to assassinate New York City mayoral candidate Theodore Roosevelt keeps her hopping among ballrooms, political mixers and Nikola Tesla’s lab, where Mark Twain wisecracks while watching for the next fireball to appear. Lindsey balances history, a budding romance, a dash of paranormal activity and surprising humor. (A scene involving the as-yet-unveiled Statue of Liberty is surreal and hilarious.) In the language of its time, this is a corker.