Here are some whodunits to kick off the summer.The Globe and Mail
Of all the delights that warm weather brings, reading outside has got to be high on the list. And even if the days are bright, it’s a perfect time to delve into a dark mystery. Or two, or three.
With many hot days and steamy nights ahead of us, here are some whodunits to start gathering for the cottage, beach or backyard.
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Widows and Orphans, Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti (House of Anansi, 352 pages) Second books in a series can be difficult to nail, but Hilton and Renzetti do it with ease. Widows and Orphans is even better than their bestselling Bury the Lead, and it promises many great Cat Conway mysteries to come.
In Port Ellis, journalist Cat is looking forward to covering a wellness and self-actualization summit at a resort. Social-media stars Bliss Bondar and Bree Guthrie are in charge and Cat’s mother is a featured speaker. An influencer ends up dead and Cat is on the case since a celebrity death is instant news at the local Quill & Packet newspaper – which is, at it happens, beset with financial problems. Will Cat get her great story or lose her job? This one is great fun and perfect for that first weekend at the cottage.
Death on the Island, Eliza Reid (Simon & Schuster Canada, 336 pages) This treat is billed as Agatha Christie meets Nordic noir, but it could also be described as Canada goes to Iceland and solves a murder. It’s the first novel by Reid, a Canadian who was also the first lady of Iceland, and it’s a true treat from the first page to the last.
The dead body is Kavita Banerjee, deputy ambassador of Canada to Iceland, and the setting is an important and private formal dinner for a who’s who of the Icelandic elite, hosted by Canadian ambassador Graeme Shearer. The plot is a classic closed-room mystery, which means Shearer himself is a major suspect. After all, why would an Icelander kill a Canadian? That’s the question for the police who conduct the investigation and, in good Christie fashion, red herrings and clues abound.
Reid loses her characters in the plot – a common first-novel problem – but she keeps the suspense going to the end.
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The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, Eddy Boudel Tan (Viking, 336 pages) The only problem with this suspense novel is that Tan has three stories going at once and that means a slow start. But once he gets into the investigation, the story zings by quickly.
Casper Han, son of Chinese immigrants from Brunei (as is Tan), left the small town of Wilhelm, B.C., 10 years ago, never planning to return. As a gay man, Casper had encountered racism and homophobia; once he escaped to Vancouver, he put Wilhelm out of sight, if not out of mind. When his father goes missing, however, he’s forced to return and confront his past – as well as issues with his present. His partner, Anthony, an accomplished actor, accompanies him, opening old wounds and uncovering an old love affair.
The backstory is the plot line here. Twenty years before, Casper’s twin brother, Sam, disappeared during a local festival. A white youth disappeared the same night, and the search focused solely for him. Sam was never found and, thus, their father’s wandering is more than just a case of dementia. Issues of race and class are at the heart of this book, and Tan does a great job of keeping them part of the story without lecturing. Just what happened that long-ago evening kept me reading all night.
The Impossible Thing, Belinda Bauer (Atlantic Monthly, 336 pages) I’m a huge fan of Welsh novelist Bauer, and those who adored Rubbernecker will be thrilled to see Patrick Fort returning in a terrific tale about a stolen egg. (Fans of Ann Cleeves’s Vera Stanhope know all about the trade in rare birds’ eggs, but others may not.)
Patrick’s friend Nick found a guillemot egg in his attic and decided to advertise it on eBay. Naturally, it’s stolen in a ruthless home invasion. Patrick, who is autistic, brings his unique talents to the investigation, which leads back to 1926 and a young girl who supported herself finding those eggs. What happened to her and how it weaves into today is the secondary plot –and it’s terrific. Save this one for a long weekend.
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Glitter in the Dark, Olesya Lyuzna (The Mysterious Press, 360 pages) This ideal escape novel takes us into the fabulous world of the Harlem Renaissance with a kidnapped chanteuse and lots of showgirl glam.
Ginny Dugan yearns to write hard news but is stuck doing a women’s advice column for a national magazine. When she witnesses the kidnapping of a star singer from a Harlem speakeasy, Ginny thinks she’s finally got something to sink her teeth into. Enter a detective, Jack Crawford, and a showgirl from the Ziegfeld Follies, Gloria Gardner, and you have a great trio.
The Cracked Mirror, Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown, 500 pages) Brookmyre, one of Britain’s best crime writers, is playing with his readers here. He introduces two recognizable detective archetypes: Penny Coyne, a little old lady in the village, and LAPD copper Johnny Hawke, a classic noir hero. Both are faced with complicated cases, but it all begins when Penny gets an invitation to a society wedding from a couple she doesn’t know. Who sent it – and why?
Hawke, over in L.A., has his own crime to deal with. Eventually, it will take him right to that wedding and Penny Coyne. In the meantime, Brookmyre slips back and forth in place and voice, building the plot line from California to the U.K. It’s a tour de force of writing. This is a long read and you’ll need time to take it all in.
Blood Ties, Jo Nesbo (Random House Canada, 384 pages) First and foremost, this is not a Harry Hole novel. We are not in Oslo and there is no serial killer, at least, not right away. It is, however, a sequel. If you missed The Kingdom, which introduced the brothers Roy and Carl Opgard, you’ll want to read that one first, as Blood Ties picks up where that novel ended.
The Opgard boys are the children of an abusive father and a neglectful mother. These days, they are focused on their businesses: Carl is trying to run a hotel and Roy is hunting for financing for an amusement park that he claims will have world’s biggest roller coaster. No surprise, the pair aren’t seeking a mortgage from the local bank. As the story unfolds, bodies pile up and Roy and Carl get into deeper and deeper trouble, dragging unsuspecting people along with them. This is classic, no-holds-barred Nesbo.
Leo, Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly, 464 pages) I love the character of Benny Griessel and his crime-solving in South Africa, which means I dive into every Meyer novel with relish. There are no bad ones, but some are better than others. Leo is one of the best.
Benny and his partner, Vaughn Cupido, are stuck in boring Stellenbosch doing routine police work. Life in a tidy university town isn’t what they want and they miss Cape Town, with its crimes begging for investigation. Then a student is killed on a nature trail. Benny and Vaughn have only begun to investigate when the major suspect, a local businessman, is murdered by having filler foam shot into his throat. There is obviously a message here.
That’s just the start of Meyer’s story, which hops across the country. As always, crime is secondary to politics in today’s South Africa: The detectives have to read political messages as well as uncover clues.
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The Silversmith’s Puzzle, Nev March (Minotaur, 320 pages) If you’re stuck in the city and can’t escape to the lake, consider a trip to 1894 India. Fans of March know that she can vividly evoke the days of the Raj, and this book is one of her best to date.
We are in Britain in 1894. Times are rough for the family of Lady Diana Framji and her partner, Captain James Agnihotri. It appears that the Framji family fortune has been lost and, if that’s not bad enough, Lady Diana’s brother Adi is accused of murder in India. He calls for his family’s help but there are issues surrounding the couple’s unconventional marriage. How can they slip back into Bombay and save Adi? How can they get the help they know they’ll need?
That’s just part of the great adventure that surrounds an excellent puzzle plot that deals with, among other things, surgical instruments, complex racial and social issues and an excellent love story. If you haven’t already discovered March’s books, it’s fine to start here – but you’ll want to read the other three as well.
The Last Session, Julia Bartz (Simon & Schuster, 368 pages) Bartz, a practising therapist, broke out of the pack two years ago with The Writing Retreat, a dynamite first novel. Her second book also touches on the wellness/therapeutic community, but it’s tighter and more complex. This time, Thea, a psychiatric social worker, follows a lost patient across the country.
The patient in question is in a catatonic state when she shows up at Thea’s New York psychiatric unit. Strangely, Thea thinks she may know her – but from where and when? Gradually, the woman moves out of her catatonia and Thea realizes she holds information about a trauma in Thea’s own life. But the patient can’t remember anything – not what happened to her and certainly not what connection she has to Thea.
Then she’s spirited away and Thea starts a chase that leads to a cultish wellness centre in New Mexico, where she must finally face her own issues if she’s to save her patient. Solid writing and good characters keep this one moving to the last page.
Cold Burn, A.J. Landau (Minotaur, 336 pages) Landau is the nom de plume for two authors, Jon Land and Jeff Ayers, who have revived the great American National Parks thriller genre. If you miss Nevada Barr – and I do – Landau is a good way to make do.
Cold Burn starts in Florida with federal agent Michael Walker on the trail of smugglers who are stealing priceless artifacts from park archeological digs. Not only are the thieves depriving the public, but they’re ruining the digs themselves. While Walker follows the few clues to his artifacts, FBI agent Gina Delgado is on the case of a young murdered man murdered in the Everglades. What could possibly be the motive to kill an environmental-science intern? We know that the cases will merge, but Landau has a lot of twists here; nothing is exactly what the reader is expecting.
This is a clever whodunit/whydunit that will keep you guessing right to the end. If you like it, check out Leave No Trace, Landau’s 2024 book, now out in paperback. In that one, someone blows up the Statue of Liberty.