Mystery Memo
March/April 2009
Brightwell, Gerri: The Dark Lantern (2008) non-series. Historical, set in London, England,
1893. two main characters: Jane, an orphan servant girl who forged her reference letter so
she could get work in the Roberts household and Mr. Robert’s wife Mira, who has a shady
past. Lots of discussion of methods of identifying people, e.g. fingerprints or anthropometry
(Mr. Roberts is an expert in anthropometry: measuring parts of the body). Ironically, many
people are pretending to be someone else in the book. The story grabbed me – the Victorian
setting, the Upstairs, Downstairs atmosphere, the characters. The book is more historical
fiction than mystery. *** ½
Deaver, Jeffery: Twelfth Card (2005) Book # 6 in the series with Lincoln Rhyme, who is
paralyzed and works as a crime scene consultant for the NYPD. An murderer seems to
be targeting a teenaged black girl who is doing an essay on her ancestor, a free black
man who owned land in New York, but was falsely accused of theft. Lincoln’s team
looks at the old case in the 1860s as well as trying to find murderer in the present day.
Fast-paced. Lots of good twists. First book: The Bone Collector (1997) ****
Dwyer, Liam: Murder in Muskoka (2004) Book # 1. Ian Murdoch is a homicide detective with
the Ontario Provincial Police, still on leave after his wife’s death. When a body washes up
on his private island, Ian is assigned to the case because of short-staffing. Although the
mystery’s solution seemed kind of obvious to me, there was an interesting twist. It was well
enough written to try the next one: Gold & Greed (2005) ***
Forbes, Elena: Die with Me (2007) British police procedural, set in London. Book # 1 with DI
Mark Tartaglia. The case: a teenaged girl’s fatal fall from a church balcony is originally
thought to be suicide, but Mark discovers an online link to several similar deaths. Next
book: Our Lady of Pain (2008) *** ½
Fox, Kathryn: Skin and Bone (2007) Australian police procedural. Homicide detective Kate
Farrer appears in an earlier book Malicious Intent (2004) with forensic pathologist Dr.
Anya Crichton. There are two cases: a fire with a young woman’s body (it appears that the
dead woman’s baby is missing), and a missing woman from a wealthy family. Very
readable, as Kate works through her fears of being back to work and doubts about her new
partner. ****
Horton, Lesley: Devils in the Mirror (2005) British police procedural. Book # 3 with DI John
Handford and Sergeant Ali, in a small city in England. The case: a missing teenaged girl is
found murdered on an old Druid altar. First book: Snares of Guilt (2002). *** ½
Jance, J.A.: Web of Evil (2007) Book # 2 with Alison (Ali) Reynolds, former TV journalist. Back
in Palm Springs to sign the final divorce papers, Ali is surprised to learn her husband was
murdered the night before, and as his primary heir, she is the main suspect. Of course, she has
to investigate the murder herself. This falls into the category of an “airplane read” for me: light,
fast-paced and police who don’t look beyond the obvious. Jance writes two other series, one
with rural Arizona sheriff Joanna Brady (Desert Heat) and my favourite, the series with J.P.
Beaumont, Seattle homicide cop (Until Proven Guilty). First book with Ali Reynolds: Edge of
Evil (2006) ***
Kellerman, Jonathon: Bones (2008) Book # 23 with child psychologist Alex Delaware and his
friend homicide detective Milo, Los Angeles. Several women’s bodies are found in a
protected marsh area, each missing a hand. The latest victim is a young piano teacher First
book: When the Bough Breaks (1985) *** ½
Kelly, Jim: The Fire Baby (2004) Book # 2 with Philip Dryden, a journalist at a small town
weekly newspaper in the Cambridgeshire Fens, England. His wife is in a coma after a car
accident and Dryden, still unwilling to drive, uses taxi driver Humphrey to get around.
When the dying woman in the same hospital room as his wife tells a story of mixing up
babies over 30 years ago, Dryden decides to look into it. Complex, but not hard to follow.
Start with the first book: The Water Clock (2003) ***
Pawel, Rebecca: Death of a Nationalist (2003) Historical, set in Madrid, Spain in 1939 just
after the Spanish Civil War. Book # 1 with Carlos Tejada Alonso y Leon, a sergeant in the
Guardia Civil (a Spanish paramilitary police force). When a fellow Guardia is found shot in
the street, Carlos assumes the woman standing beside him, a Republican, was the murderer.
But when he looks more carefully at the scene, he realizes things aren’t what they seem.
The author gives a good description of the place and time. This book won the Edgar Award
for Best First Novel. Next book: Law of Return (2004) *** ½
Pawson, Stuart: Chill Factor (2001) British police procedural. Book # 7 with Detective
Inspector Charlie Priest, Yorkshire. The case: a salesman confesses to murdering a former
friend of his, but he claims he was driven to it because the murdered man had just murdered
his (the salesman’s) wife. First book: The Picasso Scam (1995) *** ½
Roe, Caroline: Poultice for a Healer (1999) Historical, set in northern Spain in 1354. Book
# 7 with Isaac, a blind Jewish physician. When a young man comes to town claiming to
be the nephew of a wealthy Jew, the wealthy man is suspicious and sends someone to the
nephew’s hometown to look into things. I’m reading my way through this series because
of my trip to Spain. Roe handles the historical detail beautifully, but I tend to lose interest
in her plots. First book: Remedy for Treason (1998) **
Spencer, Sally: Fatal Quest: Woodend’s First Case (2008) Historical British police
procedural, set in the 1960s. Book # 20 with DCI Charlie Woodend, Whitebridge. This
book is actually set in 1950 as Charlie spends the day of his retirement looking back on one
of his first cases when he was with in Scotland Yard: after a black teenaged girl is found
murdered, everyone but Charlie assumed she was a prostitute. The case still haunts him.
First book: The Salton Killings (1998) ****
Strange, Marc: Sucker Punch (2007) Joe Grundy, a former boxer, is now head of security for a
big hotel in Vancouver. When a millionaire is shot in his hotel room and it looks like hotel
staff might be involved, Joe starts investigating. *** ½
Stuckart, Diane A.S.: The Queen’s Gambit: a Leonardo da Vinci mystery (2008) Historical,
set in Italy in 1483. Book # 1 with Leonardo da Vinci and his apprentice Dino. Leonardo is
the guest artist and engineer for the Duke of Milan. When one of his guests is murdered in
the castle, the Duke asks Leonardo to quietly look into the matter. Next book: Portrait of a
Lady (2009) ****
Wilson, Robert: The Blind Man of Seville (2003) Police procedural set in Spain. Book # 1 with
Seville homicide detective Javier Falcon. Falcon discovers a particularly gruesome murder
has links to his own father, a famous artist who died not long beforer. Kind of a slowmoving psychological mystery. Next book: The Silent and the Damned (2004) ****
The rating system: five stars ***** is the highest
Want more mysteries? Check out the RPL’s Murder by the Book mystery fiction blog for reviews by
Sharon, Pat, Shiela and guests: http://www.reginalibrary.ca/murderbythebook
Sharon