VOICE WITH NO ECHO
A Jimmy Vega Mystery # 5
Suzanne Chazin
Kensington Books
March 31, 2020
Tensions are on the rise in Lake Holly, NY, along with ICE raids and deportations and an anti-immigrant district attorney. Jimmy Vega, cleared of charges in the shooting of an unarmed man, but still on limited duty, responds to a call to that same DA's home. The new wife of the DA, Talia Crowley, has been found hanging in their flooded basement. The police are ready to call it a suicide but will go through the motions, especially in their search for Crowley's immigrant maid. The maid is the niece of Edgar Aviles, the long-time custodian at Beth Shalom Synagogue. When ICE shows up to deport Edgar, the synagogue somewhat reluctantly gives him sanctuary and calls in Adele Figueroa, Jimmy's girlfriend, and the force behind La Casa, the local immigrant advocacy group. Added to the mix is Michelle, the ICE agent sent to supervise the case; she is also Jimmy's estranged half-sister.
Voice With No Echo starts with a bang, and the action doesn't let up. The ugly underbelly of local ICE and police operations is exposed in this case. Jimmy has to confront some demons from his past. He also must deal with doing what is right as opposed to what is legal, and the fact that sometimes people are not at all what they appear to be. Once again, Suzanne Chazin is even-handed in her characterization of both the immigrant and legal community while spinning an intricate plot.
Thanks to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING- 4.5 Stars
THE LAST PASSENGER
Charles Lenox # 13
Charles Finch
Minotaur Books
February 18, 2020
It's 1855 London, and a young Charles Lenox is establishing his reputation as a private detective in London. From time to time, he gets a summons from Scotland Yard to consult on a case. This time he is called to Paddington Station to look at a crime scene. A passenger, a young man, has been found in a first-class carriage, brutally slain. The young man is well-dressed but has no identification, and the conductor claims no knowledge of the passenger. The first order of business is to find out who he is. When Lenox and his indispensable valet, Graham, learn who he is, they are plunged into the world of Abolitionists, white supremacists in England, and the ongoing slave trade to America. The US government is also very interested in this particular young man's fate. No one, however, is quite who he seems to be in this story, and many members of the aristocracy are involved.
I have much enjoyed the previous two books in the Charles Lenox series, The Woman in the Water and The Vanishing Man. They have examined the early life of Charles Lenox, his uncertainty about balancing his work and his place in society. Many people have "cut" him for engaging in "trade." Thankfully, none of those people are in Lenox's family. His mother, however, is concerned for him and wants him to find a wife who will support him and avert loneliness. She enlists Lady Jane, Lenox's neighbor and childhood friend in the effort. Charles thinks he has found her until his heart is broken. Charles also sees more of the duplicity and callousness of the upper classes than ever before.
This is a solid entry in the long-running Charles Lenox series. As always, I particularly enjoy the little fascinating facts that Charles Finch drops, seemingly effortlessly, into the text. This time, he covers the state of politics in America, embroiled in the issue of slavery. My favorite this time is that Queen Victoria had a black African god-daughter. Who knew? Thanks to NetGalley and Minotaur for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING- 4 Stars
A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE
Sunshine Vicram # 1
Darynda Jones
St. Martin's Books
April 7, 2020
Sunshine Vicram never thought she would return to her hometown of Del Sol, New Mexico, after leaving with her infant daughter 14 years earlier. Sunshine was abducted at the age of 17 and barely survived. She had since built a stellar career in law enforcement in Albuquerque and was content with her life. However, after winning the election to be the new sheriff of Del Sol, one that she was not aware of entering and never campaigned for, she decided to return with her daughter, Aurora. No doubt, her loving parents engineered the election somehow. Sunshine wants to find out how they did it, and more importantly, find her abductor and bring him to justice.
Del Sol is usually a tranquil place, and Sunshine only expects to have to arrest the occasional flasher and manage an ongoing feud between two senior citizens over a rooster. She also anticipates having to deal with the Ravinder clan of transplanted Southern Mafia types. The head of the family, Levi Ravinder, has dragged them into respectability (somewhat) with his successful and legal moonshine distillery. Levi is also the only man that Sunshine has ever loved since they were children. Expectations change when a 14-year-old girl is abducted on Sunshine's first day, announced by the girl's distraught mother crashing her Mercedes through the front wall of the police station. This abduction has disturbing echoes of Sunshine's own experience.
A Bad Day for Sunshine is a mix of family drama, crime drama, a touch of paranormal, frequent laugh-out-loud moments, suspense and simmering romance. To say that the village of Del Sol is inhabited by quirky and eccentric characters is a gross understatement. But after all, New Mexico is the home of Roswell. There are more twists and turns in the story than one can count and I was sucked in from the first page. Told from the viewpoints of Sunshine and her scarily smart daughter, Auri, this novel is a true page-turner. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING-4.5 rounded up to 5 stars
DEATH BY CHOCOLATE FROSTED DOUGHNUT
A Death by Chocolate Mystery #3
Sarah Graves
Kensington Books
February 25, 2020
It's early September in Eastport ME, which means it's time for the Pirate Festival, a weekend full of fun, booze, and "Aargh." Partners in The Chocolate Moose bakery, Jake and Ellie, are hoping for a big weekend of sales at the end of the tourist season. Eastport is full of people, mostly those who are looking for fun in their pirate garb. Among those visitors are Harry Hadlyme, 'foodie' celebrity, and his camera crew. Harry is not out for fun, though. His purpose seems to be to trash all the food establishments in Eastport. A confrontation with Jake is soon big news all around the town, and when he is discovered dead in the basement of The Chocolate Moose, Jake becomes the prime and only suspect.
I always enjoy my fictional visits to Eastport. We took a very long drive to Eastport from our usual Maine vacation spot a few years ago on the strength of Grave's previous series, Home Repair is Homicide. It's a lovely small town with gorgeous 19th-century houses and vivid history. Sarah Graves captures the look and feel of the place beautifully. Jake and Ellie are a bit of a "Lucy and Ethel" pair of sleuths. The difference is that they are capable women who manage to get themselves out of their sometimes hare-brained plans. This time they cut it very close. I always enjoy the supporting characters whom I have become to know so well. Ellie's ever-expanding family in the big old house on Key Street plays a part in this story as well.
Thanks to Kensington Books and NetGalley for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING- 4 Stars
BIG LIES IN A SMALL TOWN
Diane Chamberlain
St. Martin's Press
January 14, 2020
It's 2018, and 22-year-old Morgan Christopher is starting the second year of her sentence for a crime she did not commit. Her incarceration in the NC State Correctional Center has completely derailed her hopes for a career in art. When she is offered a chance to be released to restore a WPA Post Office mural, which was never hung in the Edenton NC post office. The offer comes from the daughter of Jesse Jameson Williams, a renowned African-American artist from Edenton. Jesse had a history of helping young artists, but Morgan has no idea how he learned of her work and can't ask since he is now deceased. She, of course, jumps at the offer, despite her lack of any experience with restoration. There are several other strings attached, chiefly a hard date for the completion of the repair. The mural must be hung in the gallery that Jesse wanted to be built in Edenton. Compounding the mystery is the question of why the mural was not hung in 1940, and the fate of the young NJ artist, Anna Dale. Anna disappeared, and nothing has been heard of her since. The story is told from the viewpoint of Morgan in 2018, alternating with Anna in 1940.
I found Big Lies in a Small Town a somewhat difficult read. It pushed a lot of buttons for me since I grew up in a small town not that far from Edenton, and not that many years after Anna's time. Growing up in the Jim Crow South in the 1950s made me aware of the dangers and prejudices that a forward-thinking young woman from NJ faced in Edenton. Added to those problems, Anna had won the contest for the mural over a local, "favorite son." Reading Anna's viewpoint filled me with foreboding as to what her fate might have been. However, I came away from the book with an appreciation for its sense of place and time, and indelible characters. It's a wrenching story, beautifully told. I had never read anything by Diane Chamberlain before Big Lies in a Small Town, but I hope to read more of her work in the future. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martins for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING- 5 Stars
A LONGER FALL
Gunnie Rose # 2
Charlaine Harris
Gallery/Saga Press
January 14, 2020
Lizbeth Rose, recovered from the events and injuries she sustained in An Easy Death, is hired by a new crew. Gunnie is a gunslinger in dangerous modern America, one in which the country split into independent nation-states. The split was precipitated by the assassination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Even the Holy Russian Empire has a foothold in what was formerly California and Oregon. The crew is protecting a crate being sent into Dixie, one in which there seems to be much interest. The long train ride has been mostly uneventful until the very end when a gunfight erupts, and the train is blown up. The crew leader is injured but alive and is left to guard the crate while Gunnie tries to help survivors. When she returns, the crew leader is dead, and the box has disappeared. Surprisingly, an old friend, Ilya (Eli) Savarov, a "Grigori" (magician) who has his own interest in the crate, one that he refuses to disclose. Gunnie and Eli join forces to search for the container. Gunnie never wanted to go to Dixie, and the reality is as awful as she imagined. Slavery no longer exists, but Jim Crow, racism, sexism, and religious fervor are the norm. An unaccompanied woman, wearing trousers at that, can't pass under the radar in Dixie. Posing as a married couple, the two hope to find the crate and fulfill their respective missions.
I have been a fan of Charlaine Harris' particular blend of genre-bending fiction for a while now. I enjoyed the Sookie Stackhouse series (at least the majority of them) and particularly liked the Midnight, TX, and Harper Connolly series. The blend of alternate history, action, magic, romance, and an appealing lead in Gunnie kept me interested and involved throughout. I am already looking forward to the next in the series. I hope that Eli and Lizbeth can work out the differences in their relative "stations" in life and make a go of it. Since Eli is out of favor with the other Grigori so it might be possible. The differences are more in her head than in his, I think.
Thanks to NetGalley and Saga Press for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING-4.5 rounded up to 5
SOUTHERN HARM
A Southern B&B Mystery # 2
Caroline Fardig
Random House Alibi
November 12, 2019
Sisters Quinn and Delilah Bellandini are happy to be back to normal and running the family B&B after solving a murder in a local restaurant in Savannah (Southern Discomfort). At least Quinn is happy, having nearly lost her life in the investigation. Delilah, on the other hand, misses the excitement and longs for more. There is plenty of excitement to come when Quinn and her new boyfriend, Tucker Heyward, are digging in his Aunt Lela's yard to build a firepit and discover a long-buried body. When the body turns out to be Esther Sinclair, who supposedly left town for good after her high school graduation, Aunt Lela is in big trouble. She and Esther had quite a history that hasn't been forgotten in the intervening thirty-three years. In fact, Esther had more secrets than any 18-year-old girl should have, along with the members of her high school clique, the "Magnolias." Tucker, who is very close to his Aunt, changes his tune against Quinn's sleuthing and even participates. When the sisters' aging hippie mom and absentee father get dragged in as suspects, the chase is on to find out just who, of the many who might have wanted to kill Esther actually did.
I found the byplay between the two very different sisters particularly amusing. Two more different sisters could not be imagined, but those differences complement each other. I was very much "in the dark" as to who exactly could have killed Esther, and why. Southern Harm is an entertaining and enjoyable read. Thanks to NetGalley and Alibi for an advance copy. The opinions are my own.
RATING-3.5 Stars rounded up to 4
