Reviews, Dec. 2002-June 2003

Blackflies Are Murder, by Lou Allin
A Darker Justice, by Sallie Bissell
Corpus de Crossword, by Nero Blank
Coffin's Ghost, by Gwendoline Butler
Sunshine and Shadow, by Earlene Fowler
Thicker Than Water, by P.J. Parrish
Deadly Nightshade, by Cynthia Riggs
A Fountain Filled with Blood, by Julia Spencer-Fleming
A Killing Sky, by Andy Straka

Blackflies are Murder
by Lou Allin
Rendezvous Press
Paperback, 268 pages, $10.95
ISBN: 092914192X
Reviewed by Barbara F. Thompson

Real estate agent Belle Palmer likes to think she lives on a quiet road on the outskirts of the small town in northern Ontario. However, along with summer arriving there are also bear baiting camps and moose blinds being found in the in the nearby woods as well as the sound of gunshots. As Belle and her eccentric neighbor, Anni Jacobs, battle illegal hunters, that is not all this quiet neighborhood along a crater lake will have to worry about.

Belle has just sold the vacant house at the end of the lane to James Morris, a retired accountant. Belle and James immediately strike up a friendship. When Belle learns James likes to collect antiques she suggests he meet Anni and evaluate her jigsaw collection, some of which are framed and hanging on the walls. Upon arriving at the house Belle discovers Anni dead on the floor with her head bashed in and no sign of forced entry.

Belle calls in her friend and local law enforcement officer Steve Davis to investigate. As Belle gets more involved in the case than Steve would like, she discovers some old letters from a friend of Anni's about something horrible that happened a long time ago, though she did not specify what that something was in the letters. As Belle delves deeper into Anni's family she also meets Anni's nephew Zack, who constantly borrowed money from Anni for his entrepreneur schemes. Is Zack harmless or did he kill his aunt for her money?

Through a bit of odd circumstances Belle also meets Steve's brother Craig, who returns back to town unbeknownst to Steve. Belle now has a list of suspects for Anni's murder a mile long. Finally she begins to understand what those letters of Anni's were referring to. Following more leads Belle uncovers a sex abuse scandal that took place a long time ago at a residential school in a town that no longer exists, the same town James said he used to live. As strange things continue to happen to Belle and her neighbors she must determine if the murder and mayhem on their quiet road is a result of angry poachers or uncovering the school scandal.

Blackflies are Murder is the second book in Lou Allin's Belle Palmer mystery series. Allin has somewhat of a literary flair to her writing yet she can be sneakily funny. She incorporates a lot of old movie titles in her novels due to her father's employment in the film industry. I was truly surprised by the ending. Allin actually developed a plot within a plot that should delight fellow mystery readers and surprise them in the end.

Being a dog lover I enjoyed Belle's sidekick, a shepherd named Freya, and her participation in the story. Readers will enjoy Belle's "take no prisoners" attitude toward life as she goes about uncovering clues to her neighbor's murder. I enjoyed learning about the natural beauty through Belle's eyes of her small Canadian town and the lake where she resides. I will gladly recommend this Cozy mystery to other readers.

A Darker Justice
by Sallie Bissell
Bantam
Paperback, 416 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0553582712

Interrupted in the midst of a melancholy moment as she ponders the marriage of her best friend and the recent departure of her lover, Assistant District Attorney Mary Crow is about to learn just how quickly business can become personal. Summoned to her employer’s office, she’s greeted there by an FBI agent who has photographic evidence that someone is stalking the country’s Federal Judges and killing them off at a rate of one per month for the last 11 months. It appears that Judge Irene Hannah is next on the list. If the killer stays on schedule there are only a few days left before her time is up. Judge Hannah is the closest thing Mary has to family after the death of her mother and grandmother. The problem? Judge Hannah is refusing protection and the FBI has come for Mary’s help to convince her otherwise.

Determined, Mary heads for Hannah’s home accompanied by enigmatic FBI agent Dan Safer, but the memories that greet her are not all pleasant. The horror of last year’s tragedy is compounded by the discovery that Jonathan Walkingstick, the love of her life, now has a new live-in lover and Irene, despite Mary’s pleading, is adamant that she’ll not allow 24-hour protection. Equally stubborn, Mary settles in to do bodyguard duty while Safer and his team have to wait off Hannah’s property. But a few uneventful days lead only to inevitable chaos. The Judge disappears right in the middle of the sleepy town and there’s no clue to her whereabouts aside from a single black feather left at the scene.

After an intense prologue to set the stage, the book begins with a tension similar to that of the uphill ride on a roller coaster. Sometimes agonizingly slow, yet always with the anticipation that something threatening is just over the hill. Bissell has created a very likeable heroine in Crow and the Native American heritage is intriguing although it sometimes seems incidental more than integral.

The Judge’s disappearance throws momentum into overdrive and there’s a temptation to read hurriedly just to arrive at a conclusion. Alternating chapters and scenes written from the killer’s point of view are bleak and serve as a vivid contrast to the urgent search that Mary undertakes to find her missing mentor. Several of the later scenes are completely unlikely yet the writing is so riveting that suspending disbelief is a natural response.

It’s a marvelous thing when the cover of a small book serves as a portal through which we can step into another place and time. Once again, the author of In the Forest of Harm has created a place that is compelling enough to warrant a return visit. The conclusion might be likened to a harrowing skid across the ice, then lurching to an abrupt stop against a large, immovable object. It takes a moment to realize that you’ve stopped moving, you really are still alive and you’re not sure you can believe what you see. Some might say the ending is too contrived, and it is a reach, all neatly tied up. But there’s at least one loose end that will lead to another sequel and the whole series is compelling enough that I, for one, will pick it up when it comes out.

Corpus de Crossword
by Nero Blanc
Berkley
Paperback, 320 pages, $13
ISBN: 0425190218
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

In Taneysville, Massachusetts, a builder is developing fifteen acres of land. Because machine noise and vibrations are damaging the church, the vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church, just down the hill, meet to figure out a way to stop it. Despite the fact that John Stark, a vestry member, goes up to confront the builder, construction does not stop. In addition, the people in town are quite upset as none of the local tradesmen were hired for this job, with the construction company choosing to bring in a foreign crew.

When a skeleton is found by the construction crew, construction is halted while the remains are analyzed. Because the police are concerned the area may be sacred Indian burial grounds, they stop the development until the skeleton is identified.

Mitch Hoffmeyer, a politician who grew up in Taneysville, hires P.I. Rosco Polycrates to identify the remains. He doesn't want there to be any fuel his opponent can use. Then Rosco's wife Belle, crossword editor, starts receiving anonymous crossword puzzles with hidden clues. She and Rosco start asking questions and soon find that not is all that it seems in this little town.

The author has done a great job of describing the tensions in this small town. It is all very believable, and I felt like I was there. All through the book you know the unidentified older woman in the nursing home is important, but you don't know until the end why.

I like this series because it is always set in New England and the plot is always more complex than you initially think. There are twists and turns that finally bring you to the conclusion but you can't easily figure it out ahead. I always think I have it figured out and then more information is brought out and I have to start all over again.

Please read this book. It is great! The whole series is too.

Coffin's Ghost
by Gwendoline Butler
Worldwide Library
Paperback, 253 pages
ISBN: 0-373-26443-7
Reviewed by Cindy Daniel

Convalescence was wearing on Chief Commander John Coffin. The attempt on his life was unsuccessful, but recuperating from the subsequent surgery had put quite a damper on his spirits nonetheless. The Second City police force added to his misery by welcoming him back to work with a grisly case that hit close to home.

When bits and pieces of a body are found at a refuge for battered women, along with a convoluted message for John Coffin, he is forced to look into his past life and previous indiscretion. Could these extremities belong to the woman he shared his life with during a brief period of loneliness? Or, did they relate to the fact that Coffin resided at the location (that is now the refuge) during his peccadillo?

The body count begins to climb as another woman with ties to the refuge is found. Quickly followed with attacks at the Coffin home, two shootings and a break-in. With danger imminent it is time for Coffin to confess his past. To tell his wife, the actress Stella Pinero, about his indiscretion and the thought it may be related to these cases. Once Commander Coffin's secrets are exposed to his wife, his colleagues, and half the vagabonds in Second City, he is then ready to face the killer head-on.

Coffin's beliefs and suspicions are detailed as an aside to those of his Inspectors, enabling your mind to go down one of two paths. Butler manages these thought patterns well with a brisk pace. I must add that a few areas slowed me down to the point of frustration; I feel it was my lack of fluidity with the proper English she uses and not with the writing.

Butler writes a well constructed police procedural with the passion and evil of human nature thrown about in liberal amounts. Then blindsides you with the identity and motive of the killer. It wasn't until the end that I realized the true talent of this author.

Coffin's Ghost is a superb whodunit. Persevering through a few language barriers was a small price to pay for the suspense. The matter-of-fact way she introduced the heinous acts of crime, somehow making them impersonal enough to bear, was a nice break from the norm. I liked the style. Butler definitely left me anxious to read another Commander John Coffin Mystery.

Sunshine and Shadow
by Earlene Fowler
Berkley
Hardcover, 304 pages, $22.95
ISBN: 0425188558
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Benni Harper's widowed grandmother Dove is getting married to Isaac Lyons, a world-renowned photographer. Having been widowed for over 30 years and finding adjusting to marriage harder than she expected, Dove begins to have second thoughts about her marriage. The fact that Isaac has groupies always trying to get his attention doesn't help.

Benni's cousin Emory and Benni's best friend Elvia were recently married. Emory bought Elvia Blind Harry's bookstore. Bennie helps the nervous Elvira with the store's grand opening and is excited to renew a friendship with her favorite author, Emma Baldwin, who has come to speak.

Gabe's friend and former undercover partner Luke comes to town supposedly on a case; he's now a PI. He is later found stabbed to death. Someone is stalking Benni. Gabe is concerned it could be someone from his undercover days before they were married.

Benni and her first husband Jack were ranchers. Now Benni is the folk art museum curator. This book parallels her life back in 1978 with Jack and her life now in 1995 with Gabe. This is done so well and you know that there is a reason for it, but you don't know the reason until the end.

I truly enjoyed this book. It was so well written. The parallel plots are expertly weaved. The characters are developed so well and the setting is so real that I find myself having to put down her books. I just want to keep reading and find out what happened.

I think this is the best in the series yet. I thoroughly enjoyed the surprise ending.

I highly recommend this book and that you read the whole series.

Thicker Than Water
by P.J. Parrish
Pinnacle Books
Paperback, 400 pages, $6.99
ISBN: 0786015152
Reviewed by: P.J. Nunn

Louis Kincaid is a PI with a past he'd like to forget. Especially considering how young he still is. But he is young and not independently wealthy. A man's got to earn a living to eat. When he's approached by Ronnie Cade about doing some investigation for his father, Kincaid feels a moment of anticipation—another month's food tab taken care of. When he realizes that the father in question is none other than the notorious Jack Cade, recently released from prison then almost immediately arrested again—this time for gunning down his defense attorney, anticipation turns to dread. Kincaid's reluctant acceptance of the case opens the door to a dark and compelling mystery.

Because of an incident that occurred while he was still wearing a police uniform, Kincaid isn't a very popular man in uniformed circles. He doesn't seem to hit it off with his soon-to-be client, either, during that first incarcerated interview, and nearly comes to blows with Cade's public defender—young, motivated and attractive Susan Outlaw. The case is immediately convoluted, with no dearth of valid suspects for both the present case and the one that put Jack Cade behind bars 20 years earlier.

Parish's strength is in an almost grudging unfolding of character insights that prompts the reader to question and wonder. There's an intricate balance between right and wrong, good and evil, nurtured by realistic portrayals that refuse to paint the good guy as all good and the bad guy as all bad. Getting to know the characters, especially Kincaid and Cade, soon becomes as intriguing as figuring out whodunit, which in itself was a challenge.

Thicker Than Water is aptly titled and compellingly written. It's one of those rare mysteries in which the reader can be drawn right into the setting to empathize with the characters, recognize the scents carried in the wind and sometimes, feel the fear. It's a really good book.

Deadly Nightshade
by Cynthia Riggs
NAL
Paperback, 249 pages, $5.99
ISBN: 0451208161
Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle

Victoria Trumbull has lived on Martha's Vineyard most of her 92 years. One night she hears something out of the ordinary. It is a scream, then a splash, and then the sound of a car speeding away. Victoria, her granddaughter Elizabeth and the harbormaster Domingo (and Elizabeth's boss), speed in a boat across to where she heard the sounds. There they find a body.

Because all the harbor's money hasn't made it to the accountant, Domingo believes something illegal is going on. He hires Howland Atherton has written a computer program to seal up the loopholes in the system.

A member of an long-standing summer family, Professor T. R. Folger (Rocky) has brought his large sailboat to the harbor. Though he is just a professor, he also owns a big house on Tashmoo. Everyone begins speculating how a professor can afford such luxuries. He apparently wrote a software program and has received large royalties.

Domingo quietly enlists island locals to keep an eye on Victoria as he is afraid something thinks she knows more about the murder than she does. It's a good thing. Vehicles start following Elizabeth and Victoria on dark streets putting them in harm's way more than once.

Victoria knows everyone and, even though she doesn't do a lot of sleuthing herself, she finds out information from various sources and discusses it with Domingo and Elizabeth. I feel they all do the sleuthing together.

I have been to Martha's Vineyard for a short visit and read Philip Craig's Martha's Vineyard series so I enjoyed the settings for this book immensely. They are very well described.

The characters in this book are well defined and believable. I look forward to further adventures with Victoria, Elizabeth and Domingo.

The plot in this book was good, offering some twists and turns to the reader. This was a great first installment in this series. I recommend you read it.

A Fountain Filled With Blood
by Julia Spencer-Fleming
Thomas Dunne Books
Hardcover, 320 pages, $23.95
ISBN: 0312304102

Clare Fergusson thought she would settle into her new role as the Episcopal priest in tiny Millers Kill, do the regular things a priest does. After all, could it get worse than it did during her first cold, murderous Adirondack winter when someone left a baby on the church's doorstep, leading Clare into a murderous web spun by a one family wanting to get rid of a baby and another wanting to keep it?

Well, actually, yes it could get worse. Or at least as bad. Winter has turned into summer, a hotter one than most people in Millers Kill are used to. The town's residents are in an uproar about the possibility that construction on a new resort may release harmful PCBs buried years ago. With two gay men beaten almost to death, Clare is concerned that a wave of hate crimes may be smothering her new town, much like the heat that sticks to her every time she leaves the parsonage. When the unlucky Clare finds the gay resort developer murdered and tossed in shrubbery, she is determined to let residents know her opinion that they are hate- motivated, much to the chagrin of Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne.

With the threat of investigating the crimes herself, Clare convinces Russ to let her work alongside him, proving her pilot skills useful during a daring helicopter rescue. Eventually, Clare untangles the development mess and helps Russ nab the murderer, breaking the heat way in a summer Millers Kill.

In this second installment of the Millers Kill series, Spencer-Fleming only proves she has what it takes to draw in mystery readers and hold them as long as she needs to. While Spencer-Fleming's books are considered traditional mysteries, there aren't any aspects that make a mystery reader think "cozy." She has peppered exciting action scenes, including Clare piloting and unfortunately crashing a helicopter during a rescue, throughout the novel. Romance simmers between Clare and Russ, despite each character's personal convictions and commitments. Readers just want them to be free to consummate it, but it seems so much better when they can't.

Spencer-Fleming recently won an Agatha for her first novel In The Bleak Midwinter, which also won a Dilys Award. In The Bleak Midwinter was deemed a winner first in the St. Martin's Best First Novel contest. The only disappointing part about A Fountain Filled With Blood is that it can't be a winner in the Best First Novel contest. Readers, however, will be waiting to see exactly what Spencer- Fleming wins this time.

Julia Spencer-Fleming lives in Maine with her husband and three children. Between appearances promoting A Fountain Filled With Blood, she is completing the third in the Millers Kill series, part of a six-novel set.

A Killing Sky
by Andy Straka
Signet
Paperback, 288 pages, $5.99
ISBN: 0451205707

Finding the missing daughter of a Congressman can be tricky in the best of circumstances, but it’s even more convoluted when her twin sister, Cassidy Drummond, reports her missing and doesn’t want the Congressman to know. Drawn into the case by Cassidy’s faint resemblance to his own daughter, Nicole, PI Frank Pavlicek begins an investigation he seriously hopes will lead him to the missing Cartwright caught up in a clandestine overnighter with a boyfriend. But it wasn’t meant to be.

Cartwright isn’t with her boyfriend, who convincingly swears he hasn’t seen her, and the case gets trickier as more evidence comes to light. Cassidy fears that her father might somehow be involved in Cartwright’s disappearance and Frank begins to believe she’s right. Threatened, intimidated and even accused of perpetrating Cartwright’s disappearance himself, Frank enlists the aid of his co-ed daughter and Jake Toronto, friend, falconer and former homicide investigator. Together, they piece together a trail that leads through dark corridors linking past to present. Even so, knowing the truth and proving it are distinctly different and Frank knows he has to dig deeper. But when he walks into the answers, someone is waiting there for him.

When Straka introduced Pavlicek in A Witness Above, he brought us a new private investigator with an interesting and unusual hobby, wrapped in a good story. A Killing Sky takes us well beyond that introduction and proves two things: falconry is part of who Frank is, it’s not just something Straka uses as a hook; and Straka can write. I especially like the fact that I was nearly through with the book before I realized that there was no sex or gratuitous violence and I hadn’t missed it. The story was tight, compelling and entertaining. No fluff or excuses, just a good book. I believe we’ll be hearing the name of Andy Straka for many years to come.

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