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American by Day

Katrina Niidas Holm

Set in the summer of 2008, Derek Miller’s second Sigrid Ødegård novel (after 2013’s Norwegian by Night) opens one month after the 40-year-old Oslo-based police officer fatally shoots a man from Kosovo during an armed standoff. Internal Affairs exonerates her, although Sigrid can’t help but wonder whether things would have gone differently had the suspect been white. Rather than return to work, she takes a leave of absence and goes to visit her widowed father, Morten, with the intent of decompressing on the family farm; instead, Morten sends Sigrid to America to check on her older brother, Marcus, whom he’s been unable to reach.

Sigrid arrives in Watertown, New York, to find that Marcus has been missing for two weeks and is suspected of murdering his girlfriend, African American college professor Lydia Jones. Sheriff Irving Wylie wants to team up with Sigrid to locate her brother, but while Sigrid could certainly use Wylie’s resources, she’s hesitant to deliver Marcus into the hands of someone so convinced of his guilt. What really happened on the night that Lydia died, and why is Marcus on the run? Sigrid is positive that current events somehow relate to the fact that a grand jury recently declined to prosecute a white cop for shooting and killing the professor’s 12-year-old nephew—but how?

Equal parts mystery, travelogue, and fish-out-of-water tale, American by Day entertains while meditating on matters of love, loss, race, politics, and religion. Miller’s latest is unquestionably an indictment of American culture—of our justice system, our love for guns, our institutionalized racism, and our emphasis on self-reliance and the individual over cooperation and the community—but the author tempers his indignation with healthy doses of humor, heart, and hope.

Zany characters, witty banter, and madcap action prevent the tone from skewing too dark, and while Miller’s central puzzle isn’t exactly fair play, he offers enough clues to keep readers engaged until the satisfying, thought-provoking conclusion. Although many of the cast’s American characters read like cartoons, Wylie contains multitudes; his cowboy boots and folksy speech patterns mask a kind heart, a wicked wit, and a shrewd, deeply philosophical mind. Sigrid may be the series character, but Wylie is the book’s true star, and Miller would be wise to find him a role in the Norwegian chief inspector’s next adventure.

Speakeasy

Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

This is an unusual and interesting combination of a World War II spy mystery and a 1930s bank heist thriller. What ties the two together is Lena Stillman, a 30-year-old wartime code breaker who, ten years earlier, had been a bank teller taken hostage by the notorious bank robber Bill Bagley. Bored with her life at that time, she chose to join Bill and his gang in their nefarious pursuits.

Now, stationed in a hidden military bunker somewhere on the Pacific Northwest coastline, she is busy studying and breaking Japanese radio codes when Bagley is captured. Facing trial, her former partner in crime asks for her help by way of a secret mailing. At the same time, Lena becomes aware that the code-breaking unit she is a part of has been infiltrated by an enemy spy. The story proceeds in alternating chapters some ten years apart: the chapters set in the 1940s are told from Lena’s point of view, and the chapters set a decade earlier are told from the point of view of a young man, formerly an accountant, recruited into Bagley’s gang.

The bank-robbery segments are exciting, and include the intricacies of successful criminal planning, as well as the up and down nature of Lena and Bill’s romance before Lena has had enough and leaves, but the more enjoyable story line to me was the World War II segment, with its interesting facts about code breaking and its whodunit mystery as Lena tries to determine which of her military cohorts is a spy for the Japanese.

Although the writing overall is crisp and the action moves along swiftly, the gangster segments seemed a bit repetitive at times, and I was less able to identify with any of the characters after Lena leaves the group. As a result, I looked forward to the return to the 1940s story line each time, and it did not disappoint.

Edgar Allan Poe and the Jewel of Peru

Ben Boulden

Edgar Allan Poe and the Jewel of Peru, Karen Lee Street’s successful second mystery featuring Poe and his literary creation C. Auguste Dupin as a flesh-and-blood detective, is a duplicitous, at times macabre, and very clever tale worthy of Mr. Poe’s name.

Living in 1844 Philadelphia with his wife, Virginia, whom Poe has nicknamed “Sissy,” and his mother-in-law, Muddy, Poe receives a parcel containing three mummified crows. Poe’s immediate suspicion is that the package is from an old enemy, George Rhynwick Williams. Complicating matters, Helena Loddiges, for whom Poe is editing an ornithology text, wants Poe’s help in finding out how her father’s bird collector, Andrew Mathews, and his son, Jeremiah—who was Helena’s lover—died at the Philadelphia docks. When two additional packages arrive, including one that hints that Dupin is in danger, and Helena is kidnapped, Poe and Dupin team up to solve the mystery.

Edgar Allan Poe and the Jewel of Peru is an invigorating mystery that feels both new and old at once. Its rich depiction of Edgar Allan Poe and its language, which has the same quality as Poe’s own prose, add depth and substance to the story. The smile-inducing combination of Poe and Dupin as crime-solving partners is admirably achieved without stretching the novel’s credibility. The Jewel of Peru is a traditional mystery most readers will find attractive, but its full appeal is for those with a deep appreciation for Poe and his writing.

Bloody January

Jay Roberts

The debut novel from Alan Parks introduces readers to Harry McCoy, a police detective in 1973 Glasgow, Scotland. The story starts off with McCoy being tipped off by a convict about a murder set to happen the next day. Doubtful of the information, he eventually is compelled to track the potential victim. Arriving too late to stop the killing, he’s plunged into a case with implications that reach far beyond a single murder.

McCoy is no paragon of moral virtue. He drinks and drugs his way through life while maintaining a relationship of sorts with a junkie hooker and a local crime lord he’s known since childhood. He’s on thin ice at work with a boss who barely tolerates him and he is saddled with an inexperienced partner named Wattie.

When events in the case point in the direction of the Dunlops, the richest family in Glasgow, the stakes are raised. If absolute power corrupts absolutely, then the Dunlops illustrate that axiom to perfection. McCoy has tangled with them in the past—and lost.

As McCoy investigates the Dunlops, he’s warned off both verbally and later physically. With no idea whom to trust, he is forced to use all means at his disposal to find out the truth, tapping his sources on both sides of the law. Told over the course of 20 days, Bloody January never flags in pace. Bundled with a myriad of personal flaws, Harry McCoy is an immediately compelling new character. His quest for justice (and a little measure of revenge), despite the personal cost to himself, makes for an irresistible read.

Green Sun

Craig Sisterson

Kent Anderson’s first novel in more than 20 years sparkles darkly, like California iron sands shimmering under the baking heat of a midsummer sun, gorgeous yet dangerously hot to the touch. It’s mesmerizing, violent, and thought-provoking, full of flashes of brutality yet beautifully written.

Green Sun belatedly continues the travails of Hanson, whom readers first met in Sympathy for the Devil (1987) as a poetry-loving college student turned Green Beret who found the savagery within himself to survive the horrors of Vietnam. Hanson returned a decade later in Night Dogs (1996), a powerful tale of the dangerous, complex realities of life on the beat in the Portland PD. Now Hanson, like his creator, has leaped from Vietnam to Oregon cop to college life and then back to the beat with the Oakland PD. He’s a 38-year-old at the Oakland Police Academy then he’s out on streets that can resemble a war zone, trying to survive and get his months in. Some colleagues, as well as criminals, may be gunning for him.

Anderson tells Hanson’s tale as a series of vignettes, slices of life for an unusual street cop in early 1980s Oakland. There’s not so much a central story line to Green Sun as there is an accumulation of experiences that give us a startlingly raw look at the realities of cop life at that time and place. There’s a gritty authenticity rising to the surface among the spare beauty of Anderson’s prose. Hanson is an unusual, unforgettable character who’s easy to follow even as events and choices get sharp. He’s a social worker with a gun, more interested in justice than arrest counts and overtime pay.

Green Sun is a searing insight into life on the streets, from a master storyteller.

A Howl of Wolves

Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

When book editor Samantha “Sam” Clair attends a gory play in London’s West End to watch her upstairs neighbor and six-year-old son in small roles, she and her boyfriend, Jake Field, a Scotland Yard detective, expect to see lots of fake deaths on stage. What no one expects, however, is the real death of the director, Campbell Davison, whose body is discovered dangling above the stage as the second-act curtain opens.

Jake takes over the investigation, but sleuth wannabe Sam can’t resist putting her amateur detective skills to work while watching over her young neighbor backstage during the continuing run of the play. When the show’s costume designer is later found dead, Sam becomes worried about the safety of her neighbors and redoubles her efforts to talk with the cast and crew. She learns of longtime ties between the costume designer and the director, and begins to realize that the motives for their deaths might go back many years.

Additionally, Sam’s mother is a prominent London lawyer with a very sharp mind and a lot of influence and connections, which become vitally important in untangling the various threads of the past and the possible sinister motives behind the deaths. What made this fourth Sam Claire mystery more enjoyable for me was the very funny dialogue Sam has with herself, her boyfriend, and others throughout the story—some of it truly a howl.

Hard Aground

Jay Roberts

In the 11th book in the Lewis Cole mystery series, our hero, a former Department of Defense research analyst, finds himself housebound following a surgery that has left him with an extended recovery time, tubes draining fluid from his body, and a unique set of bedside aides: his girlfriend Paula Quinn, his police detective friend Diane Woods, and his criminal acquaintance Felix Tinios.

Tyler, New Hampshire, might not seem like a hot spot of criminal activity, but when a local antiques dealer is found murdered and her death is tied to the state’s growing opioid crisis, the case is in the spotlight. Local cops get pushed aside by glory-seeking politicians looking to score points with the public, but for Cole, who once interviewed the woman for a magazine article, finding out what happened is more important than who gets credit for solving the murder. 

While puzzling out the murder from his home, Cole’s rest and recovery is interrupted by gang members who have the dubious distinction of being suspects in the murder, as well as having crossed paths with Felix in the past. The clash leaves both parties out for the other’s blood. If that wasn’t bad enough, Cole has to fend off a pair of pushy genealogists who accost him while repeatedly trying to gain access to his home (a historic beach house that was once party to a Navy scandal in the Korean War era) to do some research. There’s also Cole’s belief that someone is repeatedly breaking into his home, but he can’t prove it, which leads to some mild disbelief on the part of the local police force.

There are the claustrophobic echoes of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window in the book’s narrative about a man trying to piece out a crime from afar. Lewis Cole is an interesting protagonist with a rich and somewhat tragic backstory, and when the story sticks to the main plot of trying to find out who killed the old woman, things work fine as events unfold and disparate threads weave together for a strong resolution. However, there is so much time spent on describing Cole’s medical care that it tends to undercut the story’s pace and drama, leaving sedated readers somewhat adrift.

If I Die Tonight

Sharon Magee

This riveting read about a  family in distress begins with  17-year-old social outcast Wade  Reed hacking his mother’s Facebook page to post, “By the time  you read this, I’ll be dead.” The  story then jumps back to five  days earlier, when the late-night  calm of a small-town New York  police station is disrupted by a  sobbing woman, Aimee En, who  tells Patrol Officer Pearl Maze  that her Jaguar has just been  hijacked by a teenage boy, who ran over and killed another teen who was coming to her rescue. The would-be rescuer was Liam Miller, a local football star—and the hijacker? Well, it looked a lot like sad, lonely Wade, dressed, as he was, in a black hoodie.

It doesn’t look good for Wade. His mother, Jackie, heard him sneak out of the house that night, and his little brother, Connor, caught a rain-drenched Wade hiding something in his room at 4 am. To make matters worse, Wade refuses to say where he was, even if it means clearing his name. Very quickly, social media brands Wade as the murderer. But one person won’t give up on him: his mother Jackie. Even as the evidence mounts, she never falters in her faith in her son as she sets out to prove his innocence.

Luckily for the Reeds, Officer Maze also has doubts about Aimee’s story right from the beginning, which strikes her as having too many implausible claims. For instance, why did Aimee have the driver’s window down on a cold, stormy night? As author Alison Gaylin lays out the evidence via multiple viewpoints, the truth of what happened slowly clicks into focus. Especially strong are the voices of Maze, who has a past which she wants to keep secret, and Wade’s mother, Jackie, whose love for and fierce protection of her children is poignant. If I Die Tonight is an excellent outing from this three-time Edgar nominee.

Twenty-One Days

Robin Agnew

I love when a writer has the rare longevity to maintain a series and then start a new one with the original character’s grown children (Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series and Miriam Grace Monfredo’s Seneca Falls series are two such favorites) as Anne Perry has here. This is the first in a new series featuring young barrister Daniel Pitt, son of the beloved Perry characters Thomas and Charlotte Pitt. Daniel is now 25, and as the book opens, he’s in court, defending a seemingly losing prospect, but he’s able to free his client using the new science of fingerprinting. (This novel is set in 1910 London.)

His next case poses more of a challenge, however. An arrogant man is accused of brutally murdering his wife in their home. The man maintains his innocence, but Daniel and his colleague, Kitteridge, are unable to save him from a sentence of hanging. They then have 21 days to overturn the sentence before it is carried out.

The man, Russell Graves, is a well-known biographer, and his daughter and invalid son are living an uncertain life as the date of their father’s execution approaches. Daniel and Kitteridge, split duties, with the more experienced Kitteridge examining legal points and Daniel more or less taking on the role of a detective.

He interviews the man’s family and household, and discovers a book Graves has been working on. To Daniel’s horror, it portrays family friends and his own father—head of the Special Branch—as morally corrupt. While Daniel believes his father is honest, he is afraid of the book’s publication almost as much as he’s afraid of a man being framed for a crime he possibly didn’t commit.

Perry, at this point, is a pro at establishing a setting and an array of useful characters to support her main player. From the start, it’s clear she’s going to utilize the man Daniel frees with fingerprint evidence, Roman Blackwell, as well as his mother, as ongoing characters, and they pitch in to help Daniel wherever they can. Blackwell is not averse to skirting the law and plays the part of sidekick to Daniel, much in the tradition of Robert B. Parker’s Hawk, Robert Crais’ Joe Pike, or Harlan Coben’s Win.

The other developing key character is a female scientist, Miriam, who is also the daughter of the head of Daniel’s firm. Miriam is an expert in the new technology of the X-ray, a skill that is used to good advantage to help Daniel solve the case.

The mystery itself, with an unexpected twist, is gripping—as Perry’s books always are. I appreciated the freshness of a new character and his point of view. Twenty-One Days is an energetic start to an interesting series.

Plain Confession

Robin Agnew

I was pleasantly surprised by this novel, the fifth in a series featuring former Amish B&B owner Rachel Mast. As the book opens, Rachel is attending the funeral of a member of the Amish community when Rachel’s fiancé, a state trooper, shows up and tells Rachel that the man’s death was not a hunting accident but a murder, and he asks her to be in the room while the family is questioned.

As Rachel steps in to translate, she is drawn into the family’s grief. The deceased left behind a young wife and baby, as well as two young brothers-in-law and a mother-in-law. By all accounts, his hard work was saving the family’s hardscrabble farm. When a day or so later, one of the brothers is arrested for the murder, Rachel’s conviction that he isn’t guilty propels her into action despite her fiancé’s request that she stay out of it.

Under the guise of sympathetic visits to the family, Rachel is on the case asking questions and helping the young man get a lawyer—to the detriment of her own wedding plans (multiple missed dress fittings and florist appointments). The path of her questioning, however, not only helps to solve the mystery, it serves to illuminate Amish culture and the many differences between the Amish and “English” way of life.

Readers also meet some truly memorable characters. One of them is a querulous, complaining guest at the B&B, and one is a neighbor of the dead man’s family who lives an isolated life in his hilltop home, preparing for end times. In each case, neither is what they first appear to be.

Nor is the ending to the novel, which I thought I had figured out—and had not. I thoroughly enjoyed Emma Miller’s tour of Stone Mill, Pennsylvania, as I did meeting Rachel Mast. I plan to seek out the rest of the series.

The Darkling Bride

Sharon Magee

Carragh Ryan has always had a fascination with Irish folklore and is thrilled to be hired to catalog the extensive library of Deeprath Castle, home to the myth of the Darkling Bride, a beautiful ghost said to haunt its halls. Located in the Irish countryside near Dublin, the brooding Gothic castle has been in the Gallagher family for 700 years. Now, in 2015, the family, including Aiden Gallagher, his sister Kyla, and their aunt Nessa who raised them after their parents’ death, have arrived at Deeprath. Their plan is to endow the castle to a public trust, thus the inventory of the library.

Soon after her arrival, Carragh learns of two significant events: the apparent suicide of Lady Jenny Gallagher, who was found at the foot of the Bride’s Tower in the 1800s, and the mysterious murders of Aiden and Kayla’s parents. Seems Aiden discovered the bodies of his father, Cillian, and his mother, Lily, when he was only ten years old. Murder-suicide? A double murder? A robbery gone wrong? (There are precious artifacts missing from the library.) Over the last 20-plus years the case has gone cold.

Carragh finds herself enthralled with the library and intrigued with the family’s three mysterious deaths. At the same time, the police have reopened the 1990s cold case of the deaths of Lily and Cillian. But it appears someone or something—Carragh swears the castle talks to her—doesn’t want anyone snooping. A painting of the Darkling Bride that hangs in her room mysteriously moves from the wall to her bed, then clothing is slashed, and finally her papers and laptop are destroyed. This makes her all the more determined to investigate, along with the handsome Aiden, to whom she is strongly attracted. Award-winning author Laura Andersen has done a masterful job of blending three time periods (the late 1800s, the lives of Lily and Cillian, and the present) into a story of mystery, myth, truth, and treachery. Woven throughout with Irish history, this is a fascinating story full of likable characters as well as satisfyingly haunting ghosts of the past.

Down the River Unto the Sea

Kevin Burton Smith

From the opening blast dedication (“For Malcolm, Medgar, and Martin”), Walter Mosley makes it clear which side of Black Lives Matter he’s on, but the complexities and ironies of the author’s take on society raise this ambitious, defiant standalone far above any simple slogan. Because, of course, life is infinitely complex, and no issue is ever simply black and white—not in Mosley’s world, and certainly not in ours.

Our hero, Joe King Oliver, may be black, but he’s also blue. Or at least he was. A shaky frame-job and the resulting scandal cost him his career in the NYPD, his marriage, and a brief but harrowing stint in Rikers that left him deeply scarred—both inside and out.

Now Joe’s a broken man, a disgraced former cop trying to squeeze out a living as a private eye with an office on Brooklyn’s Montague Street. The sole saving grace in his still tentative new life is that Aja, his precocious teenage daughter, has stuck by him, even acting as his sometime office manager, and trying to keep dear old dad out of trouble. But that all changes when Joe’s hired by a disillusioned young legal researcher, Willa Portman, to try and gather evidence to help an incarcerated street activist accused of cold-bloodedly gunning down two of New York’s finest.

Then Joe gets a call from the woman who framed him years ago, begging forgiveness, and claiming she wants to make things right. Or does she?

The two separate cases allow Mosley to tear into the heart of our current malaise, where “over and over again, the almighty dollar proves its superiority;” where institutional racism, political corruption, and identity-based ignorance spreads like the cancer it is. But Mosley digs even deeper, slicing into the guts of those caught up in it all, and the heavy toll it takes on their souls, leaving nobody’s sins, lies, and betrayals unexplored, and nobody—particularly Joe—unscathed.

Yet, for all his noble intentions, Mosley occasionally steps on his own message, allowing cartoonish elements to creep in, such as Joe’s too-cool-to-be-true office/apartment arrangement, or the activist who goes by the awkward moniker of A Free Man, alternatively referred to by others as “Manny” and “Mr. Man.” Also not helping are sudden clunks of overbearing, overwritten prose, such as, “Those few days held the most potent experiences in my life up to that point.”

Rainbirds

Hank Wagner

The death of his older sister Keiko has a profound effect on twentysomething Ren Ishida; she’s always been his idol and protector, and she’s the standard by which he judges all other women. The fact that she was murdered, viciously stabbed to death, compounds his grief, as does the fact that her assailant remains unknown and at large.

Thus, it is not surprising that Ren lingers in Akakawa, the Japanese city Keiko settled in after college, for several days after her funeral, trying to reestablish his connection with her. Eventually, he settles for vicariously living the same life she did, filling in for her at her job as a cram school teacher, and finding himself in the general orbit of her friends and acquaintances. He even, for a time, inhabits her former living quarters. Doing so, he gains a deeper understanding of his sibling, while uncovering the many secrets she concealed, including clues to the circumstances surrounding her murder and the identity of her assailant.

It’s difficult to believe that Clarissa Goenawan is a first-time novelist, as she writes with great skill and assurance, drawing readers deeper into the central mystery of the novel, beat by measured beat. Ren is an extremely sympathetic character, and makes the perfect amateur private eye, given his motivations, and his odd combination of sophistication and naïveté. Add in a deeply interesting, richly rendered supporting cast, and you have a rewarding, engaging debut.

Winter Sisters

Jean Gazis

When a freak spring snowstorm buries the city of Albany, New York, in the year 1879, Emma O’Donnell, age ten, and her little sister Claire, age seven, leave school, heading for home. But they never get there, and their parents, David, a lumberyard worker, and Bonnie, a hatmaker, are both killed in the storm. The girls’ godparents, doctors Mary Sutter Stipp and William Stipp, who met as Civil War surgeons, refuse to give up searching for the girls—despite discouragement from the police and others who insist that the missing girls are also dead.

Mary’s niece Elizabeth and her mother, Amelia, return to Albany for the O’Donnell’s funeral from France, where Elizabeth has been studying violin at the Paris Conservatory. At the funeral, Elizabeth encounters Jakob Van der Veer, the son of Gerritt and Viola Van der Veer, Albany’s wealthiest family and leading members of its high society, and a budding romance begins between the two young people.

In time the true fate of the missing girls becomes known, revealing evil secrets that lead to a scandal that threatens to expose the city’s corruption, disrupt the highest levels of society, ruin the Stipps’ medical practice, and tear apart the young sweethearts.

Winter Sisters is a historical family saga, a compelling thriller, and a courtroom drama, weaving an original mystery story that is by turns suspenseful, shocking, and touching. It also features unforgettable and inspiring heroines in Mary and Elizabeth, as well as a memorable hero in Jakob. Author Robin Oliveira deals with issues such as sexual assault and official corruption that feel contemporary in their relevance, but explores them within a believable historical context. Winter Sisters takes its time to establish characters and setting, then builds to an astonishing climax and satisfying conclusion.

Resurrection Bay

Craig Sisterson

This highly original crime debut scooped up five different book awards in Australia in 2016, and now US readers have a chance to judge it for themselves. What they’ll find is further evidence of the treasure trove of crime writing talent Down Under, just waiting to be discovered by the wider world.

“Deaf man investigates  friend’s murder” would be the  Hollywood tagline, but this tale  is about much more than its  main character Caleb Zelic’s  deafness. It never feels like  Emma Viskic uses Caleb’s condition as a mere quirk to make  him stand out in a crowded  crime field. His deafness infuses  his personality and story, affects  how he sees the world and how  people react to him, and feels  an organic part of a greater whole, rather than something done to be original. There’s a real authenticity, not tokenism.

Caleb is stubborn, but an intelligent observer, who reads other people’s body language and perceives nuances others miss. But he also misses things himself. He teams up with Frankie, a tough female ex-cop, to hunt for the mysterious “Scott,” the last word ever sent by his dead friend.

Viskic does a great job bringing her entire cast to vivid and authentic life, along with the Melbourne setting—both the city and the rural and small-town areas surrounding. She captures the contemporary melting pot of Australian life. Powered by lean prose, this is an interesting, assured, and excellent debut.

2018 Agatha Award Winners

Oline H. Cogdill

The 2018 Agatha Awards were presented Saturday, April 28, during the Malice Domestic conference, which is celebrating its 30th year.

These titles were published during 2017.

Congratulations to all those who took home an Agatha Award, as well as congratulations to all the nominees.

Winners below are in boldface with asterisks.

Best Contemporary Novel
Death Overdue: A Haunted Library Mystery by Allison Brook (Crooked Lane Books)
A Cajun Christmas Killing: A Cajun Country Mystery by Ellen Byron (Crooked Lane Books)
No Way Home: A Zoe Chambers Mystery by Annette Dashofy (Henery Press)
Take Out by Margaret Maron (Grand Central Publishing)
**Glass Houses: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

Best Historical Novel
**In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen (Lake Union Publishing)
Murder in an English Village: A Beryl and Edwina Mystery by Jessica Ellicott (Kensington)
Called to Justice: A Quaker Midwife Mystery by Edith Maxwell (Midnight Ink)
The Paris Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery by Susan Elia MacNeal (Bantam)
Dangerous to Know: A Lillian Frost and Edith Head Novel by Renee Patrick (Forge)

Best First Novel
Adrift: A Mer Cavallo Mystery by Micki Browning (Alibi-Random House)
The Plot Is Murder: Mystery Bookshop by V.M. Burns (Kensington)
**Hollywood Homicide: A Detective by Day Mystery by Kellye Garrett (Midnight Ink)
Daughters of Bad Men by Laura Oles (Red Adept Publishing)
Protocol: A Maggie O'Malley Mystery by Kathleen Valenti (Henery Press)

Best Nonfiction
**From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Boström (Mysterious Press)
The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards (Poisoned Pen Press)
American Fire: Love, Arson and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse (Liveright Publishing Corp.)
Rewrite Your Life: Discover Your Truth Through the Healing Power of Fiction by Jess Lourey (Conari Press)
Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin’s Press)

Best Short Story
“Double Deck the Halls” by Gretchen Archer (Henery Press)
“Whose Wine Is it Anyway” by Barb Goffman in 50 Shades of Cabernet (Koehler Books)
“The Night They Burned Miss Dixie’s Place” by Debra Goldstein in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine (May/June 2017)
**“The Library Ghost of Tanglewood Inn” by Gigi Pandian (Henery Press)
“A Necessary Ingredient” by Art Taylor in Coast to Coast: Private Eyes from Sea to Shining Seat (Down & Out Books)

Best Children’s/Young Adult
City of Angels by Kristi Belcamino (Polis Books)
**Sydney Mackenzie Knocks 'Em Dead by Cindy Callaghan (Aladdin)
The World’s Greatest Detective by Caroline Carlson (HarperCollins)
Audacity Jones Steals the Show by Kirby Larson (Scholastic Press)
The Harlem Charade by Natasha Tarpley (Scholastic Press)

2018 Edgar Award Winners

Oline H. Cogdill

Mystery Writers of America presented its annual Edgar® Awards during its 72nd Gala Banquet on April 26, 2018, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York City. The novels represent those published during 2017.

Congratulations to all those who took home an Edgar Award, as well as congratulations to all the nominees.

Each category featured terrific novels—I don't envy the judges, as making the final choice could not have been easy.

Winners below are in boldface with asterisks.

BEST NOVEL
The Dime by Kathleen Kent (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)
Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr (Penguin Random House – G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
**Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke (Hachette Book Group - Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)
A Rising Man by Abir Mukherjee (Pegasus Books)
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti (Penguin Random House – The Dial Press)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
**She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper (HarperCollins – Ecco)
Dark Chapter by Winnie M. Li (Polis Books)
Lola by Melissa Scrivner Love (Penguin Random House – Crown)
Tornado Weather by Deborah E. Kennedy (Macmillan – Flatiron Books)
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (Random House)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen (Amazon Publishing – Thomas & Mercer)
Ragged Lake by Ron Corbett (ECW Press)
Black Fall by Andrew Mayne (HarperCollins Publishers – Harper Paperbacks)
**The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Landmark)
Penance by Kanae Minato (Hachette Book Group – Little, Brown & Co./Mulholland Books)
The Rules of Backyard Cricket by Jock Serong (Text Publishing)

BEST FACT CRIME
**Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster)
American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse (W.W. Norton & Company – Liveright)
The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery by Bill and Rachel McCarthy James (Simon & Schuster – Scribner)
Mrs. Sherlock Holmes: The True Story of New York City's Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case that Captivated a Nation by Brad Ricca (St. Martin’s Press)

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
From Holmes to Sherlock: The Story of the Men and Women Who Created an Icon by Mattias Bostrom (Grove/Atlantic – The Mysterious Press)
Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier by Tatiana de Rosnay (St. Martin’s Press)
Murder in the Closet: Essays on Queer Clues in Crime Fiction Before Stonewall by Curtis Evans (McFarland Publishing)
**Chester B. Himes: A Biography by Lawrence P. Jackson (W.W. Norton & Company)
Arthur and Sherlock: Conan Doyle and the Creation of Holmes by Michael Sims (Bloomsbury USA)

BEST SHORT STORY
**"Spring Break” by John Crowley (New Haven Noir, Akashic Books)
“Hard to Get” by Jeffery Deaver (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Dell Magazines)
“Ace in the Hole” by Eric Heidle (Montana Noir, Akashic Books)
“A Moment of Clarity at the Waffle House” by Kenji Jasper (Atlanta Noir, Akashic Books)
“Chin Yong-Yun Stays at Home” by S.J. Rozan (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Dell Magazines)

BEST JUVENILE
Audacity Jones Steals the Show by Kirby Larson (Scholastic – Scholastic Press)
**Vanished! by James Ponti (Simon & Schuster – Aladdin)
The Assassin’s Curse by Kevin Sands (Simon & Schuster – Aladdin)
First Class Murder by Robin Stevens (Simon & Schuster – Simon & Schuster BFYR)
NewsPrints by Ru Xu (Scholastic – Graphix)

BEST YOUNG ADULT
The Cruelty by Scott Bergstrom (Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group – Feiwel & Friends)
Grit by Gillian French (HarperCollins Publishers – HarperTeen)
The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak (Simon & Schuster)
**Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (Simon & Schuster – Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (HarperCollins Publishers – Balzer + Bray)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode 1” – The Loch, Teleplay by Stephen Brady (Acorn TV)
“Something Happened” – Law and Order: SVU, Teleplay by Michael Chernuchin (NBC Universal/Wolf Entertainment)
**“Somebody to Love” – Fargo, Teleplay by Noah Hawley (FX Networks/MGM)
“Gently and the New Age” – George Gently, Teleplay by Robert Murphy (Acorn TV)
“The Blanket Mire” – Vera, Teleplay by Paul Matthew Thompson & Martha Hillier (Acorn TV)

ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD
"The Queen of Secrets" by Lisa D. Gray (New Haven Noir, Akashic Books)

GRAND MASTER
Jane Langton
William Link
Peter Lovesey

RAVEN AWARD
Kristopher Zgorski, BOLO Books
The Raven Bookstore, Lawrence Kansas

ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Robert Pépin

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD
The Vineyard Victims by Ellen Crosby (Minotaur)
You’ll Never Know Dear by Hallie Ephron (HarperCollins – William Morrow)
**The Widow’s House by Carol Goodman (HarperCollins – William Morrow Paperbacks)
Uncorking a Lie by Nadine Nettmann (Llewellyn Worldwide – Midnight Ink)
The Day I Died by Lori Rader-Day (HarperCollins – William Morrow Paperbacks)

2018 Arthur Ellis Nominees

Oline Cogdill

Next week the Edgar Awards will be presented on April 26 and the Agatha Award winners will be announced April 28.

But let’s not forget the award-winning authors of our Canadian neighbors.

The nominees for the 2018 Arthur Ellis Awards for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing have been announced. These nominees represent those novels published during 2017.

The annual Arthur Ellis Awards by Crime Writers of Canada recognizes the best in mystery, crime, and suspense writing in fiction and nonfiction by Canadian writers.

The winners will be announced on May 24, 2018, during the Arthur Ellis Awards Gala in Toronto.

BEST CRIME NOVEL
The Winners’ Circle, by Gail Bowen (McClelland & Stewart)
The Party, by Robyn Harding (Gallery/Scout Press)
The White Angel, by John MacLachlan (Gray Douglas and McIntyre)
Sleeping in the Ground, by Peter Robinson (McClelland & Stewart)
The Forgotten Girl, by Rio Youers (St. Martin’s Press)

BEST FIRST CRIME NOVEL
Puzzle of Pieces, by Sally Hill Brouard (FriesenPress)
Full Curl, by Dave Butler (Dundurn Press)
Ragged Lake, by Ron Corbett (ECW Press)
Flush, by Sky Curtis (Inanna Publications)
Our Little Secret, by Roz Nay (Simon & Schuster Canada, Inc.)

BEST CRIME NOVELLA – The Lou Allin Memorial Award
Snake Oil, by M.H. Callway (published in 13 Claws by Carrick Publishing)
How Lon Pruitt Was Found Murdered in an Open Field with No Footprints Around, by Mike Culpepper (published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, by Dell)
Blood & Belonging, by Vicki Delany (Orca Book Publishers)
Dead Clown Blues, by R. Daniel Lester (Shotgun Honey)
Money Maker, by Jas R. Petrin (published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, by Dell)

BEST CRIME SHORT STORY
The Outlier, by Catherine Astolfo (published in 13 Claws by Carrick Publishing)
There be Dragons, by Jane Petersen Burfield (published in 13 Claws by Carrick Publishing)
Jerusalem Syndrome, by Hilary Davidson (published in Passport to Murder Bouchercon Anthology 2017, Down & Out Books)
The Ranchero’s Daughter, by Sylvia Maultash Warsh (published in 13 Claws by Carrick Publishing)
The Sin Eaters, by Melissa Yi (published in Montreal Noir by Akashic Noir)

BEST NONFICTION CRIME BOOK
Murder in Plain English, by Michael Arntfield and Marcel Danesi (Prometheus Books)
The Whisky King, by Trevor Cole (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.)
Blood, Sweat and Fear, by Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press)
The Dog Lover Unit, by Rachel Rose (St. Martin's Press)
Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence, by Alex Roslin (Sugar Hill Books)

BEST JUVENILE/YOUNG ADULT CRIME BOOK
Missing, by Kelley Armstrong (Penguin Random House Doubleday Canada)
Chase - Get Ready to Run, by Linwood Barclay (Penguin Random House Puffin Canada)
The Disappearance, by Gillian Chan (Annick Press Ltd.)
Thistlewood, by Donna Chubaty (Grasmere Publishing)
The Lives of Desperate Girls, by MacKenzie Common (Penguin Random House Penguin Teen Canada)

BEST CRIME BOOK IN FRENCH
Amqui, by Éric Forbes (Héliotrope Noir)
La vie rêvée de Frank Bélair, by Maxime Houde (Éditions Alire Inc.)
Les clefs du silence, by Jean Lemieux (Québec Amérique)
La mort en bleu pastel, by Maryse Rouy (Éditions Druide)
Les Tricoteuses, by Marie Saur (Héliotrope Noir)

BEST UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT
The Alibi Network, by Raimey Gallant
Finn Slew, by Ken MacQueen
Destruction in Paradise, by Dianne Scott
Dig, Dug, Dead, by Sylvia Teaves
Condemned, by Kevin Thornton

The Crime Writers of Canada Grand Master Award:
Gail Bowen
Gail Bowen is being recognized by Crime Writers of Canada for her long and illustrious career as a crime fiction author. She has almost 20 books in her long-running Joanne Kilbourn series, several of which were either nominated for or received awards, including the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel in 1994, for A Colder Kind of Death. She has also written four Rapid Reads novellas and several plays. She is well established in Canada, highly respected in the writing community, and much sought after by readers. She is frequently a guest at literary events. Several of her Joanne Kilbourn books were turned into a TV series in Canada.

About Crime Writers of Canada
Crime Writers of Canada was founded in 1982 as a professional organization designed to raise the profile of Canadian crime writers. Its membership includes authors, publishers, editors, booksellers, librarians, reviewers, literary agents, and “developing authors.” Past winners of the “Arthurs” have included such major names in Canadian crime writing as Howard Engel, Eric Wright, Peter Robinson, Gail Bowen, Louise Penny, Stevie Cameron, Barbara Fradkin, and Mario Bolduc.

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Armchair Detective Book of Lists

The Armchair Detective Book of Lists rocks!

After Anna

Sharon Magee

In this domestic thriller from Lisa Scottoline, Maggie Ippolitti is leading a charmed life with her second husband, Noah, and his ten-year-old son. Her only regret is the loss of custody 17 years before of her infant daughter, Anna; due to debilitating postpartum psychosis, she was judged an unfit mother. When Anna calls Maggie out of the blue and wants to come live with her, Maggie couldn’t be happier, as is Noah. But beware the old adage “be careful what you wish for.” At first all is well, but soon cracks begin to appear: the beautiful Anna won’t obey their rules, and within weeks accuses Noah of sexually abusing her. Then Anna shows up dead, and Noah is charged with her murder. Maggie is devastated at the loss of both her daughter and her husband. But then a phone call with shocking information leads her on a search for truth.

With this book, Lisa Scottoline, who has written more than 30 novels, proves once again that the greatest harm—both physical and emotional—can come from those you love the most. Written in alternating chapters—Maggie going forward and Noah backward as he stands trial (the book opens with the judge preparing to announce the jury’s decision)—the two meet in an outcome that will leave readers breathless.

Phoenix Burning

Betty Webb

Police procedurals can be wearying if they rely too much on the bureaucratic side of policing at the expense of character development. Fortunately that is not the case in Phoenix Burning, where author Isabella Maldonado serves up one of the most fully fleshed-out police detectives I’ve read in a long time.

Phoenix PD’s Veranda Cruz, head of an anti-drug task force (after Blood’s Echo), is hiding a dreadful secret: she is the biological daughter of Adolfo Villalobos, the drug kingpin she has vowed to bring down. Phoenix Burning begins with a knuckle-biting car chase and shootout as Veranda and her partner, Sam Stark, attempt and fail to bring in Roberto Bernal, one of the Villalobos’ enforcers. Just as we begin to catch our breath, Maldonado pulls us out of the streets of Phoenix and whisks us to the cartel’s compound in Mexico, where the Villalobos siblings are vying for power. Torture is daily entertainment for them, and throughout the book we are treated to several hair-raising sessions of it.

The nasty Villalobos clan contrasts with Veranda’s large, loving family, which is gearing up for the quinceañera of Gabriela “Gabby” Gomez, Veranda’s half-sister. Although Gabby looks forward to her 15th birthday bash, she is haunted by the memory of the time she once spent as the Villalobos’ captive. Aware of Veranda’s vendetta and the danger she poses, the Villalobos family is planning to take out the Latina detective’s entire family, and Gabby’s upcoming quinceañera seems like the perfect day to do it. And as long as they’re making the trip across the border, why not take over Phoenix’s drug trade?

Maldonado’s insider’s view on the international drug wars never ceases to be riveting, partially because Maldonado—a retired police detective—has been there, done that, and has a long list of departmental commendations to prove it. But Maldonado’s books are about something even deeper than the drug trade. In a way, her books are family sagas: evil family versus good family. In less capable hands, Veranda’s family matters could have been a standard “by the way” backstory, but Maldonado’s writing bristles with urgency and authority.

Maldonado is also careful never to romanticize the men and women who make up the thin blue line. In one exchange, Sam Stark, Veranda’s partner, says, “There’s a flock of sheep out in a pasture surrounded by wolves. When the shepherd sleeps, who protects the flock?” Veranda answers, “A dog.” Nodding, Sam continues, “A dog is a close relative of the wolf. That’s why the shepherd chooses a dog to guard the flock, because it takes a predator to understand and fight another predator.” This idea of cops as predators could be off-putting, but it isn’t in Phoenix Burning. Yes, Veranda is a predator—and a particularly fierce one, too—but her love for her family and her compassion for the drug trade’s many victims reveal the heart behind the uniform.

Fiction Can Be Murder

Joseph Scarpato, Jr.

This novel begins with a very interesting premise: while meeting with her book critique group, mid-list mystery novelist Charlee Russo gets a phone call that Melinda, her agent, has been found dead of mercury poisoning in her locked car, which ran off the road that morning—and the murder method is an exact duplicate of the method used in Charlee’s about-to-be published manuscript! Between Charlee’s weak alibi and recent disagreement with her agent regarding royalties, she is suspect number one.

After being questioned by the police, who, Charlee feels, are incompetent, she decides to find the murderer herself. It’s obvious that the killer has to be someone who has read her manuscript: the eight members of her critique group, her boyfriend, Ozzi, and his sister, and the victim’s husband and her assistant. As she meticulously begins eliminating suspects, it appears they all have alibis. Meanwhile, Charlee begins to suspect she is being watched, and her ongoing relationship with Ozzi, who initially believes that she might be guilty, is tenuous at best.

Although I was intrigued by the premise, I felt that the book could have been improved by having fewer suspects, more information about the ongoing police investigation, and a Watson-type character with whom Charlee could share ideas about the murder. Nevertheless, the ending is as exciting as it is unexpected, with Charlee fighting for her life against an attack, with mercury as the weapon.

Crimson Lake

Vanessa Orr

Detective Ted Conkaffey is at the wrong place at the wrong time. After stopping and talking with a young girl at a bus stop, he moves on...and the girl is later abducted and brutally murdered. Arrested and held for trial, he is released when the charges are abruptly withdrawn. No one believes his innocence, though, including his wife and his fellow police officers. An outcast, he moves to the desolate town of Crimson Lake, outside Cairns, Australia, to try to start his life over.

Here he begins working with private investigator Amanda Pharrell, a woman with her own murky past. As a young woman, Pharrell was convicted and served eight years in prison for stabbing another teenager to death. Together, they try to solve the mystery of a missing local book author, Jake Scully, while Ted also tries to unearth the real truth about Amanda. Both protagonists are damaged people clawing for a chance to survive, even as everything and everyone works against them. Their dependence on each other, while necessary, is never easy.

The setting of Crimson Lake is just as integral to the story as the relationship of its main characters. It is a landscape full of dangerous creatures, snakes crawling through the rafters, crocodiles waiting on the banks for prey, and a corrupt local policeman whose only goal seems to be to cause Ted and Amanda pain. The ever-present threat of violence is only heightened by the continued harassment of Ted by those who believe he’s a guilty man.

The story is dark and, at points, depressing, but you have to admire the tenacity of Ted and Amanda as they work to solve the mystery, while trying to keep themselves from becoming the next victims of Crimson Lake. And to your surprise, you just might find yourself rooting for two accused killers to succeed.

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions

Eileen Brady

Bravo to Mario Giordano for creating a 60-year-old heroine who embraces each day naked from the rooftop of her new home in Sicily with a “Namaste, Sicilia.” A former costume designer from Munich, Auntie Isolde Poldi is stylish, lusty, and rarely without a drink in her hand. Her natural curiosity leads to trouble, though, when a handsome Italian handyman—appropriately named Valentino—goes missing.

Poldi, as she prefers to be called, decides to investigate. Uninvited, she drives her vintage Alfa Romeo to Valentino’s parent’s home, where she meets the couple, who seem resigned to the fact that something terrible has happened to their son. Not content to let the mystery go, she tracks down the last person Valentino visited, Valerié di Belfiore, a young Frenchwoman who lives in a run-down villa named Feminamorta (which roughly translates into “dead woman”). Along the way we meet Poldi’s opinionated Sicilian in-laws, a rich landowner with mafia connections, and Valerié’s cousins, Mimi and Carmella. Mimi, short for Domenico Pastorella di Belfiore, is writing a book on the German poet Holderlin, so is especially eager to socialize with a reluctant Poldi. Our heroine, however, would much prefer the company of Detective Chief Inspector Vito Montano, a man with a face of a Greek god. Montano, however, wants Poldi nowhere near his investigation. That, of course, doesn’t stop this Bavarian force of nature.

Poldi leaps from the pages, hands you a stiff drink, and invites you along with her. Absolutely delightful and unpredictable, she is a triumph of a character. Even with the ups and downs in her personal life—mostly downs—she is resilient and undeterred. The details of Italian life, and descriptions of the food and ambience made me feel as if I were back in Sicily, happily drinking an espresso while watching the locals walk by. John Brownjohn’s masterful English translation has preserved Giordano’s spirited and zesty style. Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions is a fun read. I for one will be watching for more of Poldi’s adventures.

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