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by Barbara Clark

 The dead man’s ID says his name is James Putnam. The unfortunate victim of a motor vehicle accident, Putnam was killed instantly on the highway when an oncoming car jumped the divider and plowed head-on into his Porsche.

The problem is that James Putnam has been dead for 15 years.

The aptly titled The Guise of Another, the second thriller from Allen Eskens, shifts into high gear as police detective Alexander Rupert of the Minneapolis Frauds Unit begins a search for the real story: not only for the real James Putnam, but for the reason someone has been impersonating him. The detective uses a cache of letters to discover the imposter’s name, and then tracks both “Putnams” to New Jersey and their former incarnations as college roommates. Alexander works with his brother, Max, a fellow police detective, as the case spirals out from identity theft to a convoluted maze of corruption and crime at the highest levels.

Alexander connects the case to a 15-year-old event involving blackmail and murder aboard a corporate yacht. But uncovering this violent event sends Alexander down a dangerous path. Drago Basta, a powerful assassin working with giant defense contractor Patrio International, is intricately involved with the yacht explosion, and he emerges from the shadows to follow the detective’s every move.

Alexander is no simple character himself, as he tries to counter charges of police corruption leveled against him as well as his police colleagues, triggering his move from narcotics to fraud. And there seems to be no lack of trouble involving the women in his life: Desiree, his faithless wife; Billie, a savvy New York cop whose initiative puts her in jeopardy; and Ianna, who possesses the means to overturn the criminals’ advantage.

Poor editing and lapses in style hinder a smooth read, but The Guise of Another moves at top speed, and although it’s a skin-deep thriller, there are enough plot twists to keep readers absorbed, right through the surprising epilogue.

The problem is that James Putnam has been dead for 15 years.

Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Mystery

Art in the Blood

Review by Lizzie Davis

by Lizzie Davis

In Art in the Blood, author Bonnie MacBird revives the favored and famous detective Sherlock Holmes and the indispensable, recently married Dr. Watson.

In the aftermath of the Ripper cases, Holmes is riddled with defeat and has regressed to his old cocaine addiction. But when a mysterious perfumed letter arrives addressed to Holmes, along with the happenstantial news of the Greek Nike statue’s baffling disappearance, he’s soon up to his old tricks of disguise and inquiry. This complicated case has Holmes and Watson tearing through the streets of London and caught in the shadowed corners of Paris’ elicit cabarets, where the absinthe might put you in a daze but isn’t nearly as hallucinogenic as the seductive chanteuses serenading from the stage.

Art in the Blood blends the industrial and archaeological developments of the late 1800s with the avant-garde urbanity that tipped the scale and poured life into a booming 20th century. MacBird illustrates the energy leading up to the turn of the century, giving the reader a tantalizing taste of the art and sensuality that defined Bohemian culture, set in high contrast to the seedy side of industrialization and its exploitation of child labor and the corruption of money. And weaving in and out of all this chaos is Holmes, with his astute, hypersensitive observations and clever, sharp-tongued witticisms that only get him in trouble. This is a smashing, fast-paced page-turner that shines.

In Art in the Blood, author Bonnie MacBird revives the favored and famous detective Sherlock Holmes and the indispensable, recently married Dr. Watson.

Historical Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery Historical Fiction

A literary mystery in historic Atlanta

Review by Matthew Jackson

by Matthew Jackson

Few writers seem to understand the difficult balance between historical detail and suspense better than Edgar Award finalist Matthew Guinn. His second novel, The Scribe, is a master class in historical mystery.

The time is 1881, the place is Atlanta on the eve of the International Cotton Exposition. Post-Reconstruction, the city is ready to present itself as the avatar of the new industrial South, but a string of murders puts all that in jeopardy. Thomas Canby, a former detective who left his job in disgrace, might be the city’s only hope. He must team with Atlanta’s first African-American police officer, Cyrus Underwood, to solve the gruesome crimes, both to appease the city’s elite businessmen—known collectively as “The Ring”—and to save a city still filled to bursting with racial tension.

Guinn brushes in the perfect amount of detail, from Canby’s own experiences with the racial turmoil of the city to the Ring’s power-driven view of the new society they’ve helped to create. This is the South in transition: Everyone wants to rise from the ashes, but the powerful still dictate how and when that happens. It’s a city bent on prosperity, but the divisive views still create a particular kind of powder keg.

The Scribe is a powerful, elaborate page-turner, perfect for fans of everything from Caleb Carr’s The Alienist to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.

This article was originally published in the October 2015 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Mystery

A tiny town for Reacher’s 20th

Review by Emily Bartlett Hines

by Emily Bartlett Hines

“I'm just a guy passing through. . . . [I’m] a coincidence.” That's how Jack Reacher explains his presence in the tiny Oklahoma town of Mother’s Rest. A laconic ex-military detective with no fixed address, Reacher got off the train with no deeper motivation than a desire to know the source of the town’s strange name. Once there, he finds a reason to stay—Michelle Chang, a private detective on the hunt for her missing partner. The sleuth disappeared shortly after calling her to Mother’s Rest for help on a case. But what mystery could he have been solving in the middle of nowhere? Was it really dangerous enough to cause his disappearance? And just why are the townspeople in such a hurry for Reacher to leave?

The pair team up to find answers. To do it, they’ll have to track down the mysterious client who hired Chang’s partner just before he went missing. Their search will take them to from Oklahoma City to Chicago to LA, and bring them into contact with strange characters, like a genius computer programmer who’s obsessed with searching the dark web. The closer they get to the truth, the more people want to keep them away from it—from Ukranian crime bosses to angry hog farmers. None of them particularly scare the effortlessly competent Reacher; his opponents may be armed and dangerous, but, as he points out, “only temporarily.”

Though this is the 20th Jack Reacher novel, newcomers will be won over by the pleasures of identifying with a noirish-badass hero who can outthink, out-punch, out-shoot and out-quip a bad guy at lightning speed. Lee Child is brilliant at generating suspense, but amid all the heart-stopping action scenes, Make Me also offers flashes of deadpan wit and captures the spare, dusty rhythms of Oklahoma farm life. The book’s opening coincidence is just the first of many ingenious plot devices, and a series of masterfully timed revelations will lay bare the chilling truth about Mother’s Rest.

Historical Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Mystery Historical Fiction

Magicians and murder

Review by Sheila M. Trask

by Sheila M. Trask

Take a seat, front row center, and get ready for a show, as Elly Griffiths weaves her authorial magic on a new stage. Leaving her popular Ruth Galloway series aside for the moment, Griffiths enters the world of showmanship and sleight of hand, focusing on a very special troupe of magicians. For her first trick, a stunning stage moment—the beautiful assistant sawn in three and miraculously restored to wholeness—has been appropriated by a criminal mind not at all interested in putting the pieces back together. When crated body parts start showing up at DI Edgar Stephens’ office, he recognizes the props, though the contents are all too real.

Griffiths paints the modest, intellectual Edgar in stark contrast to his best friend and famous magician, the glitzy Max Mephisto, as the two band together to solve the “zig zag girl” murder and the increasingly bizarre deaths that follow. The combination allows Griffiths to shift the focus from the murders to the men’s shared history and back again in sections that mimic the magician’s routine—the Buildup, Misdirection, Raising the Stakes and the Reveal.

It’s effective in part because Edgar, Max and the rest of the Magic Men become familiar through their fascinating history as magicians who worked covertly for the government during World War II, a backstory modeled on the real-life Magic Gang that served as camouflage experts in that war. As the triumphs and rivalries of their past become clearer, the reader grows attached to the group but also suspicious of some of its members.

Similarly, Griffiths contrasts a fairly light tone, and nostalgic setting—her hometown of Brighton, in 1950—with some vivid and gruesome murders. The jolts of shock keep interest high, but readers will essentially feel safe in her expert hands.

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a Q&A with Griffiths for The Zig Zag Girl.

Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Mystery

Murder in ancient China

Review by Barbara Clark

by Barbara Clark

Italian-born author Elsa Hart lived in China for a time, absorbing knowledge of its history, customs and manners, and in her exceptional debut mystery, Jade Dragon Mountain, she evokes its essence for readers in often dreamlike, mesmerizing prose.

Scholar Li Du is in exile, wandering the geographic borders of 18th-century China, far from the imperial capital and his former role of librarian in the Forbidden City. Traveling alone, he arrives in the city of Dayan just a few days before a visit by the Emperor of China, an event carefully planned to demonstrate the ruler’s ability to predict a solar eclipse—a wondrous and frightening occurrence to be viewed by thousands, acknowledging the Emperor’s infinite power to command the heavens. Just before Li Du prepares to leave the city, an elderly Jesuit scholar is murdered in the home of a local magistrate, who insists Li Du delay his departure and apprehend the killer before the Emperor arrives.

The former librarian uses his observational acuity, scientific learning and familiarity with Jesuit culture to seek out the criminal. In this ancient culture where manners often conceal impulse, he begins to discover the secrets of those with a possible motive: a foreign merchant who brings wondrous instruments of science to entice the ruler; an anxious young priest; the magistrate’s consort, who finds her political power has become tenuous; a quiet and efficient secretary; and a traveling storyteller whose tales promise magic and mystery.

China’s ancient custom of taking tea is central to the Jesuit’s murder, and the author describes the journey of the leaves over many miles to reach the cities, as they absorb “the scents of the caravan: horse sweat, the musk of meadow herbs, and the frosty loam of the northern forest,” allowing those tasting the tea to “follow in their mind the entire journey of the leaves, a mapped trajectory of taste and fragrance.” A similar journey of the senses awaits readers of this book. The intricate, detailed mystery never disappoints, but Hart’s descriptions set the book apart, illuminating a world for readers to savor.

Jade Dragon Mountain is a compelling look into an ancient culture driven by intellectual curiosity, powerful symbolism and customs, overlaid by the gauze of appearances.

Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Suspense

Alternate history based on real Nazi intentions

Review by Barbara Clark

by Barbara Clark

Imagine a world in which the Nazis were victorious in World War II. Guy Saville takes that perilous route in his new thriller, The Madagaskar Plan, a sequel to his first novel, The Afrika Reich, with a third to follow in the author’s alternate history trilogy.

In April 1953, victorious Germany has consolidated its power, and the Reich, now called Germania, stretches from the Rhine to the Ural Mountains. Much of the story centers on the mineral-rich continent of Africa, where rule is divided between Britain and Germany. America, which never entered the war, remains politically isolated from the current fray, although a powerful Jewish lobby courts the U.S. president, ensuring his election.

As for the Jews, instead of the extermination camps of history, Saville imagines that millions are in the process of being forcibly “resettled” on the island of Madagaskar off the African coast, most slated for eventual extermination. On the island, there are ruptures among several factions in the Jewish community and hints of violent revolution.

Into this imagined political and social milieu steps Burton Cole, a British ex-mercenary who has recently failed in an attempt to assassinate the current Kongolese governor, the wily, ambitious Nazi Walter Hochburg, who is pursuing Jewish scientists that have knowledge of a mega-weapon the Nazis covet. He’s also eyeing British-controlled Northern Rhodesia for a possible takeover, while Britain is developing its own plan for getting America involved in the looming struggle. This thrilling tale is also a sprawling and expansive romance, as Burton seeks to rescue his Jewish lover, Madeleine, from the island of Madagaskar, where she is held after being betrayed by her husband, Jared Cranley.

The Madagaskar Plan is layered with conspiracy upon conspiracy, as characters betray those closest to them in the battle for power and territory in a grim post-war world. Dark passages about the thousands of displaced souls struggling to survive—and retake their freedom—alternate with lyrical prose that defines the strength of the human connection. It succeeds as a standalone read, as a prologue brings readers up to date with a concise description of Saville’s alternative world, while an intriguing author’s note explains the very real history behind the book: a Nazi plan to “quarantine” Jews in Poland beginning in 1939, and the subsequent unsuccessful Nazi “Madagaskar-Projekt,” hatched by SS leader Heinrich Himmler in 1940.

Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Mystery

Far from idyllic

Review by Lori K. Joyce

by Lori K. Joyce

The fictional town of Idyll, Connecticut, is anything but idyllic for a gay police chief in 1997.

Former New York City detective Thomas Lynch recently became the Idyll police chief in an attempt to flee his guilt regarding his NYC partner’s on-duty death. In the 1997 macho police world, gay jokes are abundant, and though Lynch is out to his family, he keeps his personal life hidden from his colleagues. Everything threatens to collide when a chance sexual encounter places Lynch in the path of a young woman who’s murdered on a golf course only a few hours later. Lynch decides to solve the murder without revealing he had encountered the victim. Leading his team of officers is his first true test as chief, and he must balance being a confident leader with being one of the boys. Adding further drama is the town’s mayor, who wants the murder solved quickly to avoid negatively influencing the town’s huge festival, Idyll Days. Lynch’s diligent police work, mixed with intuition and a bit of subterfuge, ultimately triumphs, both in solving the murder and earning his men’s respect.

The story’s backdrop features small-town staples such as a Founders Day festival, a postal worker who knows everything and relatives who work in the various town departments. Author Stephanie Gayle’s attention to realistic details creates a fun portrait of small-town America.

Readers will hope that Gayle won’t be idle, and that this book will be the first of many with Thomas Lynch as the multidimensional and likable police chief.

The fictional town of Idyll, Connecticut, is anything but idyllic for a gay police chief in 1997.

Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Mystery

A Curious Beginning

Review by Lori K. Joyce

by Lori K. Joyce

Veronica Speedwell, the Victorian sleuth in A Curious Beginning, is observant, outspoken and a bit risqué. Fans of Deanna Raybourn’s Lady Julia series will be delighted with this intrepid new heroine in what promises to be a vastly entertaining series.

Readers meet the scientific butterfly-net carrying protagonist immediately after the funeral of her lifelong chaperone. Rather than feeling distraught about being alone in the world, Veronica relishes the idea. Upon returning home from the funeral, a heretofore unknown benefactor offers her transportation to London, and she readily jumps at the opportunity, thus launching a series of events that all center on her mysterious origins. Although unconvinced that someone is after her or something she possesses, Veronica agrees to her benefactor’s request to stay with Mr. Stoker, a damaged man who’s hiding under this alias. Stoker is an explorer, a taxidermist extraordinaire and rather rough around the edges, and their relationship at times sizzles and always provides entertainment with their bickering.

Veronica and Stoker flee London and find sanctuary with a traveling show. In order to remain with the troupe and earn their keep, they must become an act in the show. But after only a few performances, they’re on the run again, this time back to London—where Veronica’s mysterious benefactor has been murdered.

While they piece together clues and try to determine which pursuers are good guys and which are bad, Veronica and Stoker ultimately unravel the surprising secret of her parentage. Readers can be assured that many more adventures are in store for this duo.

Debut Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Suspense Debut Fiction

About that night

Review by Anna Lauren Levy

by Anna Lauren Levy

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware is every adult’s worst nightmare. In her debut novel, Ware rips off the Band-Aids binding her characters’ adolescent scars in order to reopen unforgettable, unforgivable wounds. The question here is whether protagonist Lenora Shaw is wounded, dangerous or both.

Now in her late 20s, Lenora is a crime writer. She’s perfectly content with her adult life of guarded and precise routines. That is, until she accepts an invitation to attend the bachelorette weekend of her former best friend, Clare, in a remote, off-the-grid house in the snow-covered woods. It was Clare who had helped Lenora through the most horrible time in her life—when something happened to her high-school sweetheart, James. Clare had helped Leonora out of that mess when James sent that text telling her to never talk to him again. Leonora owes Claire, doesn’t she? But why, after 10 years without a word, has Clare suddenly invited Lenora to attend her bachelorette weekend? After all, she wasn’t even invited to the actual wedding. But as Leonora and those who know Clare best know, it’s all about Clare and what Clare wants. And Clare doesn’t want anything—or anyone—to interfere with her wedding, which is to none other than James.

After waking up in a hospital bed with bruises, blood and lacerations on her body, Leonora attempts to piece together what happened during the bachelorette weekend. But she can’t remember everything. And what she does remember, she wishes that she didn’t.

With its clever plot and a room of suspects, In a Dark, Dark Wood reads like an ode to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock. Fast paced chapters are laced with literary allegories from the great classic crime novels, which serve as clues for the reader to try to Sherlock out what happened before Leonora uncovers her next memory . . . if Leonora’s memory can be trusted at all.

In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware is every adult’s worst nightmare. In her debut novel, Ware rips off the Band-Aids binding her characters’ adolescent scars in order to reopen unforgettable, unforgivable wounds.

Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Suspense

Dangers of a good deed

Review by Barbara Clark

by Barbara Clark

There are plenty of ugly childhoods, traumas and bad starts to go around in Mary Kubica’s Pretty Baby, a new psychological thriller that comes hard on the heels of the author’s debut novel, The Good Girl, which hit a number of “best” lists in 2014.

This new thriller is narrated from three different viewpoints, and—as the author no doubt intends—it’s sometimes hard to identify where falsehoods end and reality begins. Kubica skillfully depicts the emotionally scarred psyches, moods and internal meanderings of her characters while ratcheting up the tension with each succeeding chapter.

Do-gooder Heidi Wood volunteers at the local soup kitchen, tutors students in ESL and rescues stray animals from city alleyways. But she ups the ante when, without first telling her husband or preteen daughter, she initiates another, more intensive pickup. After discovering a ragged, homeless teen and her baby on a freezing Chicago street, Heidi brings them into her home, where an overnight respite turns into a much longer stay, punctuated by growing suspicions on the part of Heidi’s husband, Chris, as to what baggage young Willow has brought into their home.

As Willow tells her part of the narrative, filled with foster homes and wayward stepfathers, readers also begin to feel uneasy about Heidi’s obsession with the child, as her own hidden and terrible grief surfaces in this intense, addictive psychological thriller.

Intermingling with the stories spun by Willow and Heidi, readers hear from Chris, a workaholic who has plowed ahead with his life and career without considering what his wife has been going through. And after all, there’s his sexy, emotionally unencumbered office assistant offering an attractive sideline, should he choose to take it. He says: “Heidi and I rarely hold hands. We’re like the wheels of a car: in sync but also independent.” This may be admirable, but here it’s also a definite clue to how easily things can go wrong when you don’t pay attention. As household aggravations escalate and suspicions about Willow’s past take shape, Chris is finally galvanized to action, as events in Heidi’s life begin to spin out of control. But is there time to avoid a family disaster?

The story uncoils chapter after chapter in this unpredictable story, where readers are kept in suspense until the last page—and perhaps beyond.

Fiction, Mystery & Suspense, Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Suspense

An elaborate game gets out of control

Review by Lizzie Davis

by Lizzie Davis

For some college is about fresh starts, new friends and big adventures. When Chad wants to make the most of his time abroad at Oxford, he befriends Jolyon, a jovial, well-liked first-year student. The two share great camaraderie, and together they design an innocent game meant to mimic the inherent risks and consequences of life. Needing six to realize the game, they invite four others to participate with an enticing reward.

But those closest to you have the ability to use your greatest fear against you, and this harmless game of dares and consequences evolves into psychological warfare, and after a horrifying incident, The Game is suspended.

Now, 14 years later, The Game resumes. This lapse in time was enough for the players to mend from the psychological stress—except for Jolyon, whose neurosis immobilizes him into a shuddering recluse, damaging his love life and career and impairing the simplest of everyday physical activities such as dressing, eating and going outside. Now that The Game has even higher stakes, Jolyon sets out to retell the story of his first year at Oxford so he can get the story straight and get his life back. More than just a fable of his youthful follies with friends, his story holds secrets unknown to the final players—but they have hidden confidences, too.

Christopher J. Yates shines with his first book, Black Chalk, a grippingly dark narrative set in 1990s Oxford and present-day New York. Yates creates calculated threads, knotted with friendship and romance, and slowly reveals frightening character traits for a thrilling read. One question will remain with readers: What do your friends know about you, and how far would they take that truth?

Fiction, Mystery, Mystery & Suspense

Mystery & Suspense Fiction Mystery

Keep your secrets close

Review by Barbara Clark

by Barbara Clark

It takes only a few pages of the suspenseful mystery After the Storm to hurl readers into the heart of a violent tornado touching down near the little town of Painters Mill in rural Ohio, bringing widespread destruction and even the death of an infant. In the twister’s aftermath, a different kind of damage works its way to the surface, as Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called to the site of an old barn where human bones have been unearthed in the wake of the storm.

Linda Castillo is the author of six previous Burkholder mysteries, set deep in Amish country where the author was raised. She skillfully weaves the attitudes and habits of the Amish Ordnung—the disciplines of this religious community—with clear, dramatic portraits of the people who still follow the sect’s old ways in today’s modern world. Amish phrases add a distinct flavor to the narrative and are never confusing or out of place, providing readers with a bedrock sense of place and atmosphere.

Burkholder, originally from a conservative Amish family, pursues her life and career outside the confines of that faith, but readers sense the detective’s affection for her family, despite their disapproval that she’s left the fold, as well as her respect for the plain—and often misleading—face the Amish community presents to outsiders. In After the Storm, that plain face turns violent, as Kate and her team search for the identity of the 30-year-old bones, leading her to terrible secrets that will upend a seemingly peaceful, bucolic world. The bones tell the story of an unimaginable atrocity whose legacy continues to scar lives right into the present day.

The author introduces the additional counterpoint of a secret that Kate carries in her own life, one that’s bound to affect her new relationship with state investigative agent John Tomasetti. The interplay of the couple’s feelings for each other can be tender and dramatic, at times terse and cutting, but always authentic.

After the Storm deftly follows a story of modern-day crime detection as it grinds against the implacable ways of a community bound by ties so strong that violence and betrayal seem to be their only destiny.