A conservative cozy whodunit that’s most likely to appeal to those who share the protagonist’s complaints about younger...
In Hanafee’s latest series mystery, a Florida amateur investigator and aspiring novelist gets entangled in another murder investigation—this time one with ties to her local church.
This fourth outing featuring former public relations executive Leslie Elliott relocates her to Anibonie Island, Florida, where she teams up with her friend and local reporter Wes Avery to solve mysteries involving members of the small island community. After an unseasonable windstorm apparently results in a church bell falling onto and killing elderly church member Alice Gerkin, the amateur detective starts to wonder if foul play may have been involved. Specifically, she launches an investigation into the church’s pastor and the leaders of an expensive church-renovation project, which Alice opposed. Meanwhile, Leslie’s mother, Ruth, expedites her planned wedding to Gale Gammon; Leslie’s daughter, Meredith, and Gale’s son, Val (whom Gale mysteriously calls “unusual”), are pulled into the wedding planning as well, resulting in family drama. As things become more complicated at home, additional deaths appear to be connected to the renovation project. Leslie’s investigation causes her to run afoul of the church board and the island police. At the same time, Wes heads to Panama to investigate a strange, cultlike retreat that comes up in the investigation. Over the course of this complex novel, Hanafee presents Leslie’s primary interests as solving mysteries, watching her weight, and bemoaning the choices of young people. Indeed, many readers of this novel are likely to have some trouble relating to the younger characters, as they mostly seem to be included only so that older characters can criticize “needy” vegan millennials who don’t go to church. However, readers who share the opinions of the latter will find clear representation in these pages.
A conservative cozy whodunit that’s most likely to appeal to those who share the protagonist’s complaints about younger generations.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2023
ISBN: 9781732489431
Page Count: 256
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.
A routine break-in at the home of Sûreté homicide chief Armand Gamache leads slowly but surely to the revelation of a potentially calamitous threat to all Québec.
At first it seems as if nothing at all triggered the burglar alarm at Gamache’s home in Three Pines; it was literally a false alarm. It’s not till he receives a package containing his summer jacket that Gamache realizes someone really did get into his house, choosing to steal exactly this one item and return it with a cryptic note referring to “some malady…water” and “Angelica stems.” Having already refused to meet with Jeanne Caron, chief of staff to Marcus Lauzon, a powerful politician who’s already taken vengeance on Gamache and his family for not expunging his child’s criminal record, Gamache now agrees to meet with Charles Langlois, a marine biologist with ties to Caron who confesses to a leading role in stealing Gamache’s jacket. Their meeting ends inconclusively for Gamache, who’s convinced that Langlois is hiding something weighty, and all too conclusively for Langlois, who’s killed by a hit-and-run driver as he leaves. The news that Langlois had been investigating a water supply near the abbey of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups sends Gamache scurrying off to the abbey, where the plot steadily thickens until he’s led to ask how “an old recipe for Chartreuse” can possibly be connected to “a terrorist plot to poison Québec’s drinking water.” That’s a great question, and answering it will take the second half of this story, which spins ever more intricate connections among leading players that become deeply unsettling.
One of those rare triple-deckers that’s actually worth every page, every complication, every bead of sweat.Pub Date: Oct. 29, 2024
ISBN: 9781250328137
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
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