Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
Deadly Animals, Marie Tierney’s brilliantly plotted debut mystery, introduces readers to Ava Bonney: a 14-year-old English girl obsessed with decomposing bodies.
John Straley’s nonstop, high-octane Big Breath In introduces the unforgettable Delphine, a 68-year-old cancer patient-turned-investigator.
John Straley’s nonstop, high-octane Big Breath In introduces the unforgettable Delphine, a 68-year-old cancer patient-turned-investigator.
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Readers unfamiliar with Charles Todd’s superlative Ian Rutledge mystery series, set in Britain in the aftermath of World War I, will soon learn that the Scotland Yard detective carries scars from his own service in the Great War. He’s haunted by the voice of Corporal Hamish MacLeod, whose refusal to follow a direct military order to lead his battle-weary men into yet another deadly skirmish ended in his execution by military firing squad—on Rutledge’s orders. Rutledge, himself a victim of shell shock, or what we’d now surely call post-traumatic stress disorder, finds the voice of Hamish echoing in his mind, throughout his waking hours and in his nightmares.

In A Lonely Death, Rutledge is faced with the deaths of four young men from the town of Eastfield in Sussex, all of whom served in the war, and who are murdered in separate incidents, each garroted and with the military identity disc of another, unknown, soldier in their mouths. With little to go on, Rutledge, alternately helped and hampered by Hamish’s warning voice, sets out to find the killer, someone who must be closely connected with the town and with the backgrounds of these returning soldiers.

In Eastfield, Rutledge deals with a slew of red herrings as he meets the townspeople, including a stiff-necked brewery owner; a teacher at the Misses Tate Latin School who has ties to the victims as schoolboys; a housewife caring for her war-injured husband; and police constables, inspectors, and sergeants galore. The plot leads the reader up many garden paths before yielding up clues that shed light on the tragic events. Rutledge searches for the elusive Daniel Pierce, brother of one of the victims, and seeks to uncover the identity of another shadowy figure: a long-forgotten fellow student from the boys’ childhood days and a victim of their schoolboy pranks.

As much an ongoing character study of a haunted man and war survivor as it is a mystery story, this complex and dark entry in a fine series will yield treasures to the patient reader, with its many threads of romance cut off by war’s tragedy and separation, including Rutledge’s encounter with the woman he loves, herself searching for a husband missing in action. These are among the harrowing legacies, sympathetically told, of a war that still rages within many of its survivors, and whose scars will take many a year to heal.

Readers unfamiliar with Charles Todd’s superlative Ian Rutledge mystery series, set in Britain in the aftermath of World War I, will soon learn that the Scotland Yard detective carries scars from his own service in the Great War. He’s haunted by the voice of Corporal…

A thriller about a librarian? Have no fear, best-selling author Brad Meltzer soon gets you hooked. After a somewhat slow start, The Inner Circle quickly becomes a fast, fun thriller. Once the twists start coming, Meltzer proves his prowess with the Washington D.C. political thriller and soon it’s impossible to resist the lure of the next page. Meltzer cleverly disguises who’s telling the truth, making the reader question if there’s anyone they can trust.
 
An unlikely leading man, Beecher White is an archivist at the National Archives. Buried in history every day, he makes a living by finding answers to arcane questions. “Mysteries are my speciality,” Beecher says with nerdy pride.
 
When Clementine Kaye, his elementary crush and first kiss, asks for his help in finding her father’s identity, Beecher can’t resist showing off his research skills. He’s been sleepwalking through life since his fiancée left him, and a chance to reconnect with this woman is a much-needed wake up call.
 
An ordinary day of a guy trying to impress a girl quickly goes wrong. Beecher and his security guard friend show Clementine the secret vault where the President comes to de-stress by reviewing old documents. An accidental coffee spill unearths a torn-up old dictionary hidden under a chair. One that belonged to George Washington. One that may be used to send secret messages to the most powerful man in the United States.
 
Soon the security guard is dead and Beecher and Clementine are on the run. As they try to stay ahead of who might be after them, they have to solve the puzzle of the book. The more answers they find, the closer they get to the President and a secret that he and his inner circle are determined to keep buried.

As the book picks up the pace, Beecher comes alive too, shedding his naive, nice guy persona as he uncovers the layers of conspiracy. And as he uses his librarian sleuthing skills it’s impossible not to root for the little guy going up against the President. Meltzer’s ending leaves the door open to future adventures for Beecher. Let’s hope we see him again. 

 

A thriller about a librarian? Have no fear, best-selling author Brad Meltzer soon gets you hooked. After a somewhat slow start, The Inner Circle quickly becomes a fast, fun thriller. Once the twists start coming, Meltzer proves his prowess with the Washington D.C. political thriller…
Review by

The first thing that Flavia de Luce, Alan Bradley’s 11-year-old sleuth, does in his latest mystery is set a gypsy fortune teller’s tent on fire. It gets worse from there, but this is a Flavia de Luce novel. So there’s a nasty bludgeoning followed by a gruesomely inventive murder and the discovery of yet another corpse, all on the de Luce property. We can count on the undaunted Flavia to get to the bottom of these crimes.

Because she’s an expert in poisons, which she sometimes uses to get non-lethal revenge on her mean sisters Ophelia and Daphne, Flavia solves her crimes through chemistry. The title may refer to the persistent and unexpected smell of fish around both crime scenes and persons of interest. But as Flavia knows, a fishy smell doesn’t necessarily mean fish. And let’s not forget the pair of fox andirons that belonged to Flavia’s long-dead Mum, Harriet. They seem heavy enough to smash in a skull or two.

A Red Herring Without Mustard is as hilarious, gripping and sad as the previous books in this enjoyable series. The comedy comes from a little girl pulling one over on a bunch of clueless grown-ups as she pretends to be as clueless as they are. It’s gripping because it’s a well-paced murder mystery, and it’s sad because Flavia’s family is so messed up. Her sisters truly, deeply, inexplicably hate her. Her father, as inurned in grief over his wife as ever, now has the extra burden of trying to keep up Buckshaw, the de Luce’s great pile of a house, and the acreage it sits on. It’s gotten to the point where he’s auctioning off the family silver—another detail the reader should keep in mind.

Bradley displays his usual insight into Flavia’s character, though I’ve always suspected the books are from the point of view of an old lady recalling an unusually interesting childhood, like Mattie in True Grit. Bradley’s also good with his minor characters, a colorful bunch that includes Dogger, the shell-shocked factotum; Mrs. Mullet, the de Luces’ voluble, no-nonsense cook; and Inspector Hewitt, the stoic detective who’ll never admit how much Flavia helps his cases. A Red Herring Without Mustard introduces the deeply troubled Bull family and Porcelain, the unstable granddaughter of the fortuneteller. The requisite, well, red herrings, are numerous enough to keep the reader guessing. Once again, Bradley succeeds. And so, of course, does Flavia.

 

The first thing that Flavia de Luce, Alan Bradley’s 11-year-old sleuth, does in his latest mystery is set a gypsy fortune teller’s tent on fire. It gets worse from there, but this is a Flavia de Luce novel. So there’s a nasty bludgeoning followed by…

Review by
Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun? Please! But once you read the first few pages of Lois Winston’s first-in-series whodunit, you’re hooked for the duration, weird M.O. or not.
 

Anastasia Pollock, recently widowed (hubby dropped dead at a roulette table in Vegas) and with two teenage boys and a bizarre mother-in-law living under her roof, may be a smart crafts editor at American Woman magazine, but she’s out of her depth when it comes to What Went Wrong In My Marriage. Do we believe that a man could be a gambling addict, stripping the family coffers of all savings, investments and college funds, and incurring a mountain of debt—including $50,000 owed to the mob—without his wife having one little clue that something was wrong? Author Lois Winston takes a page from the Stephanie Plum school of wise-cracking heroines in crafting Anastasia’s character, but adds in a tad more innocence and willingness to forgive.

 

The titular glue gun victim is the magazine’s fashion editor, Marlys Vandenburg, found in Anastasia’s office. The craftslady becomes suspect numero uno after detectives find a photo of Marlys apparently entwined with Anastasia’s recently deceased Karl. Enter detectives Batswin and Robbins, along with a slew of amazing characters, some human, some not-so, who inhabit Anastasia’s home. Manifesto (canine) and Catherine the Great (feline) are frequently upstaged by Ralph (parrot), whose repertoire consists entirely of Shakespearean quotes, wittily timed to the plot action. All these coexist with Anastasia’s assorted relatives, in one now-impoverished household.

 

Despite the distractions (and the addition of a hunky tenant who’s moving in over the garage), Anastasia gets to work finding the murderer (what else will get her off the hook?!), who must surely be one of her co-workers. Nobody didn’t hate the supercilious Marlys—from her beleaguered assistant, Erica; to the editor-in-chief, Naomi; to the magazine’s former owner, Hugo, who got dumped by the now-dead fashionista; to Vittorio, a designer recently trashed in Marlys’s column. Anastasia must also outwit an unknown character named Ricardo who calls daily, seeking 50 grand apparently owed him by the now-disgraced Karl.

 

Anastasia spends a bit too much time playing the victim in this otherwise witty and wacky merry-go-round, but readers who enjoy clever repartee and the clamor of a household on the verge of craziness, mixed with a down-home bit of sleuthing, will enjoy getting in on the ground floor of this new series.

  

Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun? Please! But once you read the first few pages of Lois Winston’s first-in-series whodunit, you’re hooked for the duration, weird M.O. or not.
 


Anastasia Pollock, recently widowed (hubby dropped dead at a roulette table in Vegas) and with…
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Seems there’s a Black Sheep Knitting Shop just around the corner near the seaside in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Shop owner Maggie Messina has played the role of amateur sleuth before, a couple of times to be exact, and in author Anne Canadeo’s third knitting conundrum, A Stitch Before Dying, Maggie sets out to lead a knitting class during a “Creative Spirit Weekend” at a pricey New Age spa in Western Massachusetts, where positive thinking and good karma rule the day.

Maggie and the Black Sheep Knitters—her close friends Lucy, Dana, Suzanne, and Phoebe—get to share that weekend at the Crystal Lake Spa, courtesy of Maggie’s friend Nadine, who works there and needs a fill-in teacher. Intrigued by the promised participation of the spa’s new owner, Dr. Max Flemming, whose star has been burnished after an appearance on “Oprah,” the group sets out to experience a weekend of yoga, tai chi and enlightenment in a luxury setting. Instead, they encounter a deadly moonlight meditation, along with some decidedly unholistic activities and assignations.

Also making appearances are spa business manager Anne; her angry son, Brian; Joy, a yoga teacher who has a history with Dr. Max; assorted weekend New Agers, including former model Shannon; Curtis, a writer whose iPhone is busy taking surreptitious photos; and Rita and Walter, an elderly couple with attitude. Some participants seem to be on a possible investors’ list for Dr. Max’s planned spa expansion.

Maggie’s workshop combines “mindful knitting” with yoga, asking that guests “slow down and focus,” while encouraging “relaxation and contemplation” and “a kinder, gentler attitude.” Instead, suspiciously unkind intentions begin to surface, after one of the guests is found dead in a mountain hut. As the weekend wears on, the venal appears to overtake the cosmic, and tensions escalate. The Black Sheepers sometimes resemble eight-year-olds rather than adults, afraid of every twig, tree and unfamiliar corridor, but they share helpful ideas and clues in their close-knit group. A second death casts any remaining serenity to the winds, as guests vie to be the first ones out the door and safely home.

Maggie counts her stitches and casts on all the clues that are accumulating, and it’s not surprising to discover that the final, deciding clue has been hiding in her possession all along. It’s only a matter of time before she unravels the skein of problems and works out a pattern that solves the crime.

Seems there’s a Black Sheep Knitting Shop just around the corner near the seaside in Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Shop owner Maggie Messina has played the role of amateur sleuth before, a couple of times to be exact, and in author Anne Canadeo’s third knitting conundrum,…

Review by

Upscale restaurateur Jane, who’s gay, has an ex-husband she thought was gay but isn’t, really. If you think that’s a good premise for a mystery novel, just wait til you read The Cruel Ever After, which has all these twists and turns and many more besides.

Cruel is Ellen Hart’s 18th Jane Lawless mystery, and those familiar with her work will respond to the returning characters: best friend and cohort Cordelia, she of the flamboyant opinions and equally flamboyant outfits; Julia, Jane’s ex-girlfriend, a doctor of oncology who’d dearly like to reignite her relationship with Jane; Jane’s brother, Peter and his family. But newcomers to the series can jump right in and quickly get familiar with the territory. The author has conveniently provided a cast of characters at the front of the book, and has a knack for catching you up on past history without becoming dull or repetitive.

Chess, Jane’s ex-husband (or is he?) is on the scene with a dead body, plus he’s trying to finagle the sale of the Winged Bull of Nimrud, a priceless golden statue stolen from the Baghdad Museum in Iraq during the invasion by U.S. forces, and which is now in his hands—or is it? Chess arrives on Jane’s doorstep, needing a temporary place to stay while simultaneously fending off and staying in the good graces of Irina, a curator of antiquities who is complicit in the pending sale of the stolen artifact. After the gallery owner (Irina’s mother) becomes the second dead body to surface, the plot escalates into a tangled and intriguing web of layered lies and subterfuge. To say that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, page by page, is to put it mildly.

Jane, suddenly beset by a street attack and some shady-looking followers, consults her friend, private investigator A.J. Nolan, who appears to be one of the few cool heads to get a handle on the emerging mayhem. Also keeping an eye on the proceedings is an eccentric preacher named Lee, who unaccountably joins in the action.

When someone near and dear to Jane is kidnapped, we’re close to reaching the final outcome of this complex and exciting story. Hart is skilled at giving us characters of interest and spark, and she deftly tidies up the loose ends into a satisfying pattern in this accomplished and expertly crafted page-turner.

Upscale restaurateur Jane, who’s gay, has an ex-husband she thought was gay but isn’t, really. If you think that’s a good premise for a mystery novel, just wait til you read The Cruel Ever After, which has all these twists and turns and many more…

Review by

When the word “Amish” comes up, it brings a slew of quick impressions: quiet, innocent, simple, non-violent. In Clouds Without Rain, the third in P.L. Gaus’s Amish-Country mystery series (originally published by Ohio State University Press) the author has added a slightly different shading to one particular Amish community, one that is sure to remain in readers’ minds for a long time.

Michael Branden, professor of Civil War history in a local college and newly deputized in the Holmes County, Ohio, sheriff’s office, is clopping about in a borrowed horse and buggy in Amish garb, seeking to apprehend a couple of teenagers in Amish dress who are robbing “the Peaceful Ones” as they travel in their slow-moving vehicles. His part-time undercover work is interrupted by a deadly crash between a semitrailer rig and a horse-drawn vehicle. Branden begins to work with sheriff’s deputies on the incident, one that comes to look more like a homicide than an accident, and his two assignments begin to intersect.

Branden gets better acquainted with a newly appointed Amish bishop, whose intellect and intentions are anything but simple, as well as members of the religious community he leads. Their deep roots in the land are matched against a powerful money-making land scheme certain to test the group’s ethical and religious underpinnings. Branden’s role as an “outsider” gives him a curious advantage, as he goes beneath a placid-seeming exterior of the Amish community to understand the effect that disaffected youth, warring religious factions and the siren call of big money have on the group, increasingly enmeshed in the modern world they try to avoid.

Gaus himself has lived in Ohio and written about Amish Country for more than 30 years. In his own online “Ohio Amish Journal,” the author explains that his aim is “to illuminate Amish culture as much as possible in the context of a mystery story.” His remarkable prose reflects the deceptively simple, sometimes stark lifestyle of these religious folk, with its affecting descriptions of clothes drying on a line, crops wilting in the heat of a flat summer sun, and the beauty of an Amish table, where “the polished lazy Susan held a pitcher of water, two glasses, a bowl of chipped ice, slices of a fruit-nut bread, and apple butter in a canning jar.”

This series is all about surfaces and the deep waters that may lie beneath, in a culture of contrasts where old and new share a sometimes uneasy co-existence.

When the word “Amish” comes up, it brings a slew of quick impressions: quiet, innocent, simple, non-violent. In Clouds Without Rain, the third in P.L. Gaus’s Amish-Country mystery series (originally published by Ohio State University Press) the author has added a slightly different shading to one…

Interview by

Karen Robards, author of Justice (as well as 39 other books and a novella . . . and counting!), gives us a sneak-peek into her writing world. Her thrillers combine suspense and scorching romance, and, according to our reviewer, the second story of Jessica Ford and Mark Ryan is a “winning summer read.”

Describe your book in one sentence.
Fledgling lawyer Jessica Ford’s killer new job may, literally, kill her – can hunky FBI agent Mark Ryan help keep her alive?

  1. Where do you write?

The third floor of my house is my office.

  1. What are you reading now?

Lee Child. I’m really enjoying his Jack Reacher character.

  1. How do you conquer writer’s block?

By writing. I employ the old seat of pants on seat of chair trick.

  1. Of all the characters you’ve written, which is your favorite?

That’s a tough one. I love all my main characters. I probably identify most with Clara in Night Magic or Summer in Walking After Midnight. I’ll leave you to figure out why.

  1. What was the proudest moment of your career so far?

The day I saw my first book on the shelf, of course.  The book was Island Flame (due to be re-issued by Pocket in February 2012, by the way), the cover was hot pink with a voluptuous blonde woman in a classic clench, and my name was so small you almost had to have a magnifying glass to find it. But it was my book! In a real bookstore! On a shelf with other real books for people to buy!

  1. Name one book you think everyone should read.

I’ve always loved A Wrinkle in Time.

Karen Robards, author of Justice (as well as 39 other books and a novella . . . and counting!), gives us a sneak-peek into her writing world. Her thrillers combine suspense and scorching romance, and, according to our reviewer, the second story of Jessica…
Review by

It’s often said that history repeats itself, and it would appear that literary history—at least where Dennis Lehane is concerned—is no exception. In the world of private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro, it’s been 12 years since four-year-old Amanda McCready vanished in Gone, Baby, Gone, only to be returned to her neglectful and conniving mother by a morally and ethically conflicted Kenzie. Now 16, Amanda, whip-smart and hardened by chronic parental neglect, has once more disappeared into the swirling eddies of Boston’s organized crime cartels. Her aunt Beatrice yet again appeals to Kenzie and Gennaro to find out what happened to Amanda, by extension offering a chance to lay to rest the demons that plagued them after the resolution of Amanda’s first disappearance. Kenzie is no longer a young man; now married (to Gennaro) and raising their own four-year-old daughter, he has more at stake personally than ever before, and the myriad complications of Amanda’s latest disappearance, along with the ghost of her previous kidnapping, have a personal immediacy that he can’t escape. As with any tale of crime and intrigue, there is far more at stake than Kenzie can guess, and he is quickly drawn into a situation that far outstrips his aging sensibilities and capabilities.

The sixth book in the Kenzie and Gennaro series, Moonlight Mile is as much a meditation on what it is to love another person as it is a slyly woven action tale, in which the heroes are getting older while the challenges they face seem only to become more morally fraught and powerful as time passes. What is left for someone when the life they once lived and loved, full of danger, blood and excitement, is no longer one they can sustain? How do you do right by the world when every choice hurts either those you love or those you strive to help? Lehane manages to address these weighty questions, deftly skirting tired moral platitudes and all the while keeping the reader’s pulse pounding. Those who enjoyed the previous books will certainly enjoy this one, while new readers will have the opportunity to enjoy the crackling chemistry Kenzie and Gennaro share, all the while being drawn into tightly plotted action that keeps the pages turning. Snappy dialogue, questions with morally ambiguous answers, a sense of the enduring humanity that manages to draw people together despite their situation, and a winking acknowledgement of the ironic comedy that is life all come together to give this book a sense of reality that is both rare and refreshing.

The sixth book in the Kenzie and Gennaro series, Moonlight Mile is as much a meditation on what it is to love another person as it is a slyly woven action tale.
Review by

What's it about?
Lizzy Tucker has just moved from New York City to Marblehead, Massachusetts, to claim her inheritance—her great-aunt Ophelia’s house, built in 1740—and take a job as chief cupcake baker at Dazzle’s Bakery in Salem. A few months after her move, though, life gets difficult. A man named Diesel informs Lizzy that she’s an Unmentionable, “a human with special abilities,” and she must help him track down the SALIGIA Stones—seven stones holding the power of the seven deadly sins. If the Stones fall into the wrong hands, there will be hell on earth. Complicating matters is Wulf, an evil guy also on the hunt for the Stones; the unpredictable Carl the monkey; and Lizzy’s budding attraction to Diesel. In Wicked Appetite, the first book in Janet Evanovich’s Unmentionables series, can Lizzy and Diesel get their hands on gluttony, the first of the sins?

Bestseller formula:
Easy-to-love heroine + sexy male leads + suspenseful plot + romantic tension

Favorite lines:
Diesel hauled himself up behind the wheel and went to work shoveling locks. I watched him for a while, wondering who on earth he was. When I found myself fantasizing him naked, I gave myself a mental slap and looked for something else to do. If I’d had my computer, I’d have googled SALIGIA Stones. In the absence of the computer, I called my mom.

Worth the hype?
Her sentences may not be the most beautifully-crafted I have ever read, but Janet Evanovich knows how to write a page-turner. Readers looking for a fun new series about an independent and slightly frazzled heroine will not be disappointed with Wicked Appetite.

What's it about?
Lizzy Tucker has just moved from New York City to Marblehead, Massachusetts, to claim her inheritance—her great-aunt Ophelia’s house, built in 1740—and take a job as chief cupcake baker at Dazzle’s Bakery in Salem. A few months after her move,…

Review by

The newest addition to John le Carré’s extensive list of novels proves that this master of the espionage genre is still at the height of his authorial powers. Filled with Russian spies, financial and political scandals and even a few games of tennis thrown in for good measure, Our Kind of Traitor has all the necessary elements for a rip-roaring, intelligent thriller that never lacks in high-wire suspense.

When young British couple Perry and Gail decided to splurge on a Caribbean tennis holiday, they never imagined their dream vacation could go from fun in the sun to deadly dealings so fast. Without really being sure how it happened, they find themselves inexplicably linked to money-launderer Dima, who has ties to the Russian mafia. He enlists the couple’s aid in seeking amnesty from the British Service in exchange for information concerning corruption in the British banking system. Before they have the chance to say no, Perry and Gail find themselves acting as pawns in a sinister game well beyond their depths, one that will take them on a whirlwind tour through Paris, Switzerland and beyond, always with the British Secret Service nipping at their heels.

Le Carré has managed to capture a snapshot of history and immortalize it in the suspenseful and morally complex Our Kind of Traitor, which is based on a December 2009 article in The Observer claiming that at the height of the economic crisis in 2008, it was drug money keeping the British financial system afloat. A member of the British Foreign Service from 1959 to 1964, le Carré is well-positioned to infuse the thrilling story with the gravitas necessary to set it apart from your dime-a-dozen drugstore pulp fiction. A solid addition to his oeuvre, Our Kind of Traitor does not disappoint, and readers should be prepared for one heck of a ride.

 

The newest addition to John le Carré’s extensive list of novels proves that this master of the espionage genre is still at the height of his authorial powers. Filled with Russian spies, financial and political scandals and even a few games of tennis thrown in…
Review by

Dara Barr, documentary filmmaker and protagonist of Elmore Leonard’s latest, Djibouti, is a tough girl. This hard-driving, hard-drinking Academy Award winner has to be tough, after all. Along with her trusty cameraman, a genial six-and-a-half-foot-tall African-American chap named Xavier, she’s made films of Bosnian women, neo-Nazis and the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Dara’s latest, riskiest project is filming the pirates of Somalia, who, fortified by cheekfuls of khat and AK47s slung over their shoulders, think nothing of taking over supertankers from their rickety little skiffs. The piracy brings in millions of dollars that fund everything from luxury cars to prostitutes to beachfront mansions to more khat. Loot floating around brings complications, and things get very complicated very quickly.

Dara and her friends quickly get mixed up with an Al Qaeda psychopath who doesn’t want people to know his real name as much as he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement. Dara and Xavier encounter this maniac several times and are no more frightened of him than they would be of any other drinking buddy—an impressive feat, and one that’s necessary if they want to finish their movie. Then there’s the tanker full of liquid natural gas—a floating bomb, in other words—and rumor has it that the killer’s jihadi pals would just love to light it up if a cut of ransom money isn’t forthcoming. That is, unless someone else gets to the ship first.

Told in short, punchy chapters, Djibouti, with its East African setting and focus on topical Somali piracy, might seem a departure for Leonard, but it’s not. Once again, he concentrates on crooks, moviemakers and other hustlers, folks whose moral compass, if they have one, might be a little askew, who let nothing get in the way of their goals, and whose bravery seems indistinguishable from foolhardiness. Djibouti is a nasty good time.

Told in short, punchy chapters and set in East Africa, Djibouti might seem a departure for Leonard, but it’s not.
Review by

A Bad Day’s Work, the debut novel of former CNN staffer Nora McFarland, is more than a compelling mystery—it’s a unique glimpse into the life of a small-town television news photographer. The story of Lilly Hawkins of Bakersfield, California, may be fiction, but the author’s fresh voice and careful attention to detail make the intrigue real—and will have readers rooting for the photographer, called the “shooter” in newsroom lingo.

Lilly can use all the fans she can get. Backstabbing takes center stage, since her co-workers want recognition at any cost—the end goal being a better job in a bigger city.

The action starts on page one with a middle-of-the-night call to go out and videotape a crime scene. But the station’s news director hesitates to send Lilly because she has made several serious blunders recently. She convinces him she can handle the assignment, but faces unusually strong resistance at the scene as she tries to get the important footage. Things deteriorate further when she gets to the office and finds she has made yet another mistake. And somehow she gets caught up in the ever-unfolding crime, leading to even greater traumas.

Some of Lilly’s problems arise because she’s a terrible judge of character, trusting people she shouldn’t and suspecting those who are on her side. For example, there’s her uncle, who is Lilly’s main champion in solving the case, but can barely stay on the right side of the law. Andunfortunately, she’s also falling for her least favorite slick reporter.

This cozy mystery-with-an-edge is especially appealing because the characters are not typecast. Far from bland, their zaniness is reminiscent of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. Plus, the reading group guide includes a terrific interview with the author. The next installment of this excellent new series can’t come soon enough. 

A Bad Day’s Work, the debut novel of former CNN staffer Nora McFarland, is more than a compelling mystery—it’s a unique glimpse into the life of a small-town television news photographer. The story of Lilly Hawkins of Bakersfield, California, may be fiction, but the author’s fresh…

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