A richly drawn, multipronged mystery set during a winter week in Maine.
Selbo’s tenacious Portland detective untangles a knot of related mysteries in this crime novel, the fourth in a series.
Dee Rommel is Portland, Maine’s newest minted private investigator. The former police officer with a distinctive prosthetic just passed the license exam, making her an even more valuable member of the team at G&Z Investigations. And just in time: The mysteries are piling up both at work and at home. For one, her mother Gayle, a top administrator at a prestigious cancer research institute, is being cyberbullied by one of her subordinates, but for some reason, she refuses to make a report. Then there’s Billy Payer, a murderer who once kidnapped Dee and is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence. He wants to meet, claiming he might have some information about an outstanding case. On top of that, while breaking up a domestic dispute in a restaurant parking lot on the way back from Boston, Dee has her luggage stolen by a violent woman who may be off her meds. Dee manages to get the bag back a few days later—only to discover that the thief, Gilli Wanz, has been brutally murdered. It turns out the unstable Gilli is a member of a farming family with deep ties to the area—and the owner of a block of dilapidated rental units in the midst of rapidly gentrifying Portland. Finally, Dee’s boss, detective Gordy Greer, has asked her to look into the death of a friend of his: local environmental activist Frank Croake, whose demise was initially ruled a suicide, though Gordy suspects foul play. Is there a connection between Gilli’s death and Frank’s? Dee’s work on both cases will force her to collaborate with her ex-boyfriend, current Portland police detective Robbie Donato, stirring up unwanted feelings along the way. Dee will need to keep her wits if she wants to solve the cases without losing any more limbs—and all during her birthday week, no less!
Selbo’s muscular prose captures both the particularities of the setting—snowy farms, locals suspicious of outsiders, seafood platters covered in Captain Mowatt’s Canceaux Sauce—and the guarded personality of her narrator. “I toss these observations around in my mind too often,” Dee acknowledges after a litany of shower-time thoughts about the nature of humanity and detective work; “nearly always as conversations between me and me because they take place when I’m home and alone.” Even so, there are satisfying moments of connection, or near connection, thanks to the large cast of characters, most of whom come with established histories. The author manages to deploy three books’ worth of backstory in a way that deepens this novel and helps the reader understand the way Dee operates. There is a vulnerability to the investigator—seen both in her romantic life and in her quest for a suitable prosthetic with which to run the Boston Marathon—rarely encountered in detective novels. Fans of the series will undoubtedly enjoy this volume, while new readers will be drawn in by the many intersecting plotlines and chilly, lived-in atmosphere.
A richly drawn, multipronged mystery set during a winter week in Maine.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781950627769
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Pandamoon Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.
More than a decade after a Georgia man is convicted of a monstrous double murder, an uncomfortably similar crime frees him and resets the search for the guilty party.
In Clifton County, home to the Rich Cliftons and the other Cliftons, the disappearance of teens Madison Dalrymple and Cheyenne Baker during the Halloween festivities hits everyone in North Falls hard. Working with her father, Sheriff Gerald Clifton, Deputy Emmy Lou Clifton hears the clock ticking down as she races frantically to get leads on the two friends, who’d been secretly plotting to take off for Atlanta after some undisclosed big score. As a longtime friend of Madison’s mother, Hannah, Emmy hopes against hope to find the missing teens before they’re both dead. By the time Emmy’s hopes are dashed, two unpleasantly likely suspects with strong attachments to underage sex partners have emerged, and one of them ends up in prison. In a bold move, Slaughter jumps over the next 12 years to the case of Paisley Walker, a 14-year-old whose disappearance catches the eye of retiring FBI criminal psychologist Jude Archer, who promptly crosses the country to come to Clifton County and take charge—um, that is, consult—on this heartrending new investigation. Emmy, suddenly and shockingly deprived of counsel from the parents who’ve supported her all her life, doesn’t get along any better with Jude than with the larger circle of Cliftons and the Clifton-Cliftons. But together they identify one new suspect, then another, before a shootout that arrives so early you just know there are still more surprises to come.
Although it lacks the surgical precision of Slaughter’s very best nightmares, this one richly earns its title.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2025
ISBN: 9780063336773
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
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