Friday, 29 March 2024

An Inconvenient Wife
by Karen E. Olson
Pegasus Crime, April 2024, $27

Connecticut’s Karen E. Olson has long been one of the most versatile voices in crime fiction. An editor and former newspaper journalist, Olson made her debut with the Sara Ann Freed Memorial Award-winning Sacred Cows (2005)—the first in her traditional mystery series featuring New Haven-based reporter Annie Seymour. Then, Olson wrote the Vegas-set Tattoo Shop cozies (yes, you read that correctly) and the the Black Hat thrillers about a hacker on the run. This spring, she makes a triumphant return with An Inconvenient Wife—a modern retelling of Henry VIII and his ill-fated brides.

Meet Kate Parker. She’s billionaire businessman Hank Tudor’s sixth, and newest, wife. As his former assistant, she’s used to running interference for him—but all that changes with their exchange of vows. The honeymoon is short-lived, when a body is discovered sans head in the marshland that surrounds Tudor's Greenwich summer home. And while that would be a most unfortunate occurrence under any circumstances, it’s also a highly suspicious one, as the decapitated remains of a Jane Doe were also found on his Martha’s Vineyard property years ago. It can’t possibly be coincidence, can it? (Spoiler alert: No.) Sussing out the truth may just be the death of Kate.

Temporarily ensconced at a bed-and-breakfast across from the crime scene—operated by Hank’s fourth wife, Anna Klein, who also cares for his two children from previous marriages—Kate does the unthinkable: She begins to question her husband. After all, two of his previous wives have gone missing and are presumed dead, while a third, Catherine, lives in seclusion. Can it be that his ruthlessness extends beyond the boardroom and into the bedroom? Having come into possession of a diary kept by one of Hank's missing wives, Kate begins to see a different, domineering side to her seemingly solicitous husband. And the final entry is both eerie and potentially prophetic: HE’S GOING TO KILL ME.

Told through the alternating viewpoints of wives' Kate, Anna, and Catherine—along with extracts from the aforementioned diary—Olson offers twists aplenty while illuminating the complex inner lives of the women who outwardly gave up their identities to become Mrs. Tudor. Hank’s pattern is clear: He loved them, until he didn’t. But does that make him a monster? Things are rarely so straightforward—at least in fiction. As the current and former Mrs. Tudors, Kate and Anna, form a tenuous alliance in search of truth, Hank becomes both increasingly distant and demanding. Will Kate break free from his clutches—or will history repeat itself once again?

Karen E. Olson—a self-professed Tudor-era obsessive—achieves something wholly original with An Inconvenient Wife, which is both a crime novel and an astute study in marital relations and power struggles. While it takes its inspiration from Henry VIII and his wives, a king (and killer) who lived more than five hundred years ago, the story is thoroughly modern. Because the motives for murder seldom go out of style—even as the machinations change (or don’t). At the risk of sounding impertinent: You may just lose your head over this book.

Review: "An Inconvenient Wife" by Karen E. Olson
John B. Valeri
review-an-inconvenient-wife-by-karen-e-olson
Monday, 25 March 2024

The Truth About the Devlins by Lisa ScottolineThe Truth About the Devlins
by Lisa Scottoline
G.P. Putnam's Sons, March 2024, $29.95

In her latest novel The Truth About the Devlins, Lisa Scottoline introduces a dysfunctional family that really puts the “fun” in “dysfunctional.” Yeah, that sounds pretty cliché, but it fits. Oh, does it fit! This family is really something else and Scottoline explores those deliciously screwed-up family dynamics with gusto.

The Devlins are a prominent family of attorneys in Philadelphia. There’s Paul, the no-nonsense patriarch and head of the powerful law firm Devlin & Devlin, who’s a respected man in the community; there’s Marie, his wife, also an attorney, and peacemaker; there’s John, the eldest son and golden boy who’s very driven and wants to take over the firm once Paul retires; there’s Gabby, a crusading attorney who takes on pro bono cases and is a staunch champion of the downtrodden.

Finally, there’s the black sheep of the family: TJ, the youngest child. TJ is on parole and a recovering alcoholic who can’t get a job anywhere else but at his family’s law firm, where he’s an investigator. Really, a sinecure. Paul makes it clear that he’s ashamed of TJ. John is not shy about lording his success over him, either.

The book begins with John turning to TJ—now two years sober—for help. John confides to TJ that he accidentally killed an accountant named Neil Lemaire, one of Devlin & Devlin’s clients, in self-defense after confronting Neil with proof of embezzlement. The brothers race to the scene of the crime, only to find Neil’s body is gone. It’s discovered later and his death is ruled a suicide.

John wants to let it go and move on like nothing happened. TJ won’t let it go, however. As a result, John throws TJ under the bus, telling the family he’s relapsed and undermining what little credibility TJ has with Paul and the rest of his family. Then the police get involved. Knowing he’s on parole, TJ has no choice but to cooperate.

With his back against the wall, TJ still continues looking into the murder as a way to redeem himself in the eyes of his family, only to discover a hotbed of corruption, kickbacks, and corporate greed that may well spell the end of Devlin & Devlin—if he doesn’t get himself killed first.

Scottoline creates a flawed yet likable protagonist with TJ. He’s a man who knows he’s an alcoholic and and understands he deserved to go to prison, but feels he’s paid his debt to society. In short, he took full responsibility for himself and his actions. Now thrust into an untenable situation, he’s determined to prove himself to his family all the while fighting the urge to relapse.

Part family drama, part legal thriller, Scottoline proves once again why she’s a master of the genre. You’ll burn through this book in no time flat.

Review: "The Truth About the Devlins" by Lisa Scottoline
Kurt Anthony Krug
review-the-truth-about-the-devlins-by-lisa-scottoline
Sunday, 10 March 2024

I am sad to report that John Pugmire, Publisher of Locked Room International (LRI), passed away on March 7, 2024, in New York City.

Originally from the United Kingdom, John relocated to Manhattan in the 1980s after a successful executive career at IBM. His interest in locked-room and other impossible crimes was stimulated in 1991 when he learned about Paul Halter, a rising young French writer. Being bilingual in French and English, John read and enjoyed Halter's books so much that he tried to interest publishers in translated versions. Eventually Wildside Press agreed to publish Night of the Wolf (2006), a collection of Halter's short stories, translated into English by Pugmire and noted impossible crime expert Robert Adey.

In 2010, John founded Locked Room International, dedicated to publishing translations of mystery novels featuring impossibilities. At first LRI focused on French mysteries, especially those by Halter, and were all translated by John himself. Later, LRI expanded to publishing mysteries from other languages, including Japanese, Swedish, and Chinese. In addition, LRI published an omnibus edition of Derek Smith's English locked-room mysteries, an English language anthology of locked-room mysteries, The Realm of the Impossible, edited by Pugmire and myself, and a revised edition of Adey's seminal Locked Room Murders bibliography. John's online publication "A Locked Room Library" has been a valuable guide to new readers of impossible mystery fiction, and he was an early proponent of Shin Honkaku, a literary movement in Japan that focusing on the writing of new mystery novels in the classic or Golden Age style.

John was a generous soul, a fine drinking companion, and a good friend.

John Pugmire, Publisher, Translator
Brian Skupin
john-pugmire-publisher-translator