Novels No. 80

 

Susie Dent. Guilty by Definition. Canada: HarperCollins, 2025.

Martha Thornhill has returned to her hometown of Oxford as editor-in-chief of the renowned Clarendon English Dictionary (CED). Martha’s team of editors includes Alex, the aging but elegant veteran; Simon, quickwitted and semi-bored; Safi is the relative newcomer, upbeat and upfront. Consulting editor Jonathan Overton is a minor celebrity, having just published his second book about Shakespeare. Through connections such as her godmother Gemma – Jonathan’s agent – Martha already knows most of Oxford’s publishing elite. A strange letter signed “Chorus” is sent to the CED office, loaded with cryptic quotations. It seems to ask their help regarding a murder, throwing them into confusion. On collaborating to decipher it, Martha realizes it has reference to her idolized sister Charlie, missing since 2010. Disjointed memories of a sister who had it all and vanished begin plaguing Martha.

The team seeks out individuals Charlie was last in contact with, learning that mystifying postcards from Chorus had reached a wide audience. In office records, they find a similar postcard was sent annually since 2011 to Mike Orme, CED’s former editor-in-chief. More letters arrive with equally puzzling messages; it’s a group struggle to interpret clues in them. What is Chorus trying to tell them? As they collect memories of the day Charlie vanished, Martha reluctantly understands that Charlie’s personality had not endeared her to many. It’s harder still to accept that her sister had apparently been up to nefarious activities. A spurned lover, a doting father, a conned employer, a secret business—not the Charlie she knew. The police are no practical help until dead bodies happen and secrets explode.

In sum, Dent’s mind-expanding novel is an awesome accomplishment, while provocative and convoluted to the very end. Sympatico characters balance the ongoing tension; indulging in local Oxford scenes is a pleasure. The literary theme will thrill lexicology-loving readers as well as Shakespeare fans.

(A few) Words (to savour at your convenience :-)

aspectabund ~ vellichor ~ kything ~ contristation ~ chirr ~ idiolect ~

Bits

▪ “We had a very curious letter today, Jonathan. It’s so loaded with Shakespeare references that we wondered if it was meant for you.” (21)

▪ The atmosphere in the office seemed to thicken. Simon looked affronted, Safi seemed unsettled, and Alex’s face was a mask. (152)

▪ That Martha had wanted, just for once, to have something first, something Charlie wanted? (179-80)

▪ “Caldwell is tracing the transactions, but most of the income seems to be from legitimate book dealers in London, and the withdrawals were in cash.” (191)

▪ “He mentions his work here in every fucking interview he gives!” Simon hissed. “Are you really that naive?” (237)

▪ “You’re not the only silly bitch to tail after him. Shameless, all of you.” (250)

Charlie

▪ “It would be in poor taste to say she could be arrogant, dismissive, but she seemed to reduce the rest of us to ciphers.” (37)

▪ “There was something going on with Charlie, and I thought I’d been too blinded by her looks and brains to notice.” (37)

▪ Why would Charlie give up working here and then lie about it? (104)

▪ “I thought she was in love with you,” Martha replied. “Obsessed, even.” (137)

▪ “She was so used to being the golden girl. It’s dangerous to build your sense of self on the adoration of others.” (201)

▪ “She liked to keep things to herself and then make a big announcement. Maximum impact.” (219)

▪ “She was one of the first really exceptional minds I encountered after coming here.” (264)

Elena Forbes. Evil in Return. Toronto: House of Anansi Press Inc., 2010.

The freshly dead body in the crypt of a cemetery has an execution-style bullet hole in his forehead. Identified as Joseph Logan, he lived most recently on a Thames narrow boat after hitting bestseller lists with his first novel, Indian Summer. DI Mark Tartaglia and his team have difficulty learning anything about the rather unsociable man, who was lately supply-teaching in schools. Neighbour Maggie Thomas says he had been an actor before that; she believes he was attracted to journalist Anna Paget who interviewed him as a celebrity author—despite his aversion to publicity. Seeing police checking out the boat, friend Alex Fleming is shocked by the news and panics, giving them his name as Tim Wade—Alex, Tim, Joe, plus Paul and Danny, had been a rowdy quintet at university. Next, Paul is murdered in precisely the same manner; it’s as if the killer had tortured them for information.

Alex is very nervous, seeking his friends, wondering if he should have contacted the police about an incident many years ago, undisclosed to us yet. Tim maintains his cool, but it’s hard to reach Danny who seems lost on another planet. The place name “Ashleigh Grange” pops up, related to oddly gothic, sinister emails received by both dead men. Eventually Tartaglia’s team catches the three remaining men together and Alex spills a tale of a drunken graduation party that went horribly wrong. But still no suspect, no motive, for the deaths, even with Anna’s interview notes and the help of a profiler. The plot speeds up when divers retrieve a missing body from twenty years ago. Male friendships and misogyny are well nuanced, as guilt eats at these men.

Mark and his DS Samantha Shepherd have mutual, but unspoken, feelings for each other—until Mark succumbs to Anna’s deliberate enticements. In fact, Mark has a few professional failings. Compelling enough to look for the next book in the series.

Words and thoughts

▪ “Whoever did it stood right in front of him as they delivered the coup de grace. They looked him in the eye. Whatever the motive, it’s got to be personal.” (41)

▪ “I felt a bit like a therapist. I don’t think he’d talked to anyone in a long while.” (70)

▪ He was surprised that Tim, of all people, had lost touch. He had been the glue that had held them all together, a combination of sheer force of personality and the fact that everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. (85)

▪ “Logan was a one-time actor and teacher turned best-selling novelist, not some dirty little pusher or gangland heavy. Did the two worlds collide somehow?” (127)

▪ Alex wondered if either Tim or Danny was capable of murder, deciding to silence the rest of them after all these years. Tim stood to gain the most by getting rid of them all. (199)

▪ “Coming from an immigrant family, Paul was very driven, almost to the exclusion of anything else. Joe, on the other hand, was less focused, a bit of a drifter and a dreamer.” (224)

▪ He wished now that he had made time to read the book. It was almost impossible to argue from a position of ignorance. (239)

▪ Without doubt she had used Logan, just as she was probably using him now, but it didn’t matter any more. (283-4)

Novels No. 79

 

Ashley Elston. First Lie Wins. USA: Viking/Penguin Random House LLC, 2024.

Evie Porter is moving in with successful financial planner Ryan Sumner, into his lovely old family home, and she seems as completely in love as he does. But we know from the beginning that Evie has a hidden agenda—she’s never shown Ryan where she lives, and her past has been carefully fabricated to fool any internet snoopers. Ryan’s old friends, especially Rachel the lawyer, are suspicious that she’s a gold-digger; if they only knew the truth! Evie (not her real name) was given the job of gleaning information about Ryan’s other business, Glenview Trucking, a front for criminal enterprise—after months of preparation in her new identity. Her boss/instructor Mr Smith is not FBI or anyone acting for the public good; he’s more or less blackmailing her into illicit actions on behalf of his clients. Evie has been very good at what she does. But she may be headed for trouble because she’s genuinely attracted to Ryan who adores her.

As if Evie’s job wasn’t delicate and nerve-wracking enough, enter diabolus ex machina: at a social event among Ryan’s friends, Evie meets a woman posing in her real ID: Lucca Marino. “Lucca” even physically resembles Evie; Mr Smith seems to be playing games with her. Having performed previous long-term jobs, and not one to be bullied, Evie risks danger by modifying the rules her way. However, she’s shocked when Lucca dies in a car crash. A police investigation into the accident escalates the tension—did Mr Smith engineer Lucca’s death? Is Evie being framed for it? Will the cops uncover her fake ID? Can she still keep Ryan from learning her ulterior purpose?

More than one suspicious identity throws confusion into the twisting course. Each visit to Evie’s past assignments is a jewel of a plot in its own right, spinning clues for her goal of unmasking Mr Smith and leaving this chancy business. A superb nail-biter; I’m eager to see Elston’s next brilliant work.

First Lie Wins

There’s an old saying: The first lie wins. It’s not referring to the little white kind that tumble out with no thought; it refers to the big one. The one that changes the game. The one that is deliberate. The lie that sets the stage for everything that comes after it. And once the lie is told, it’s what most people believe to be true. The first lie has to be the strongest. The most important. The one that has to be told. (27)

Bits and Lies

▪ In this line of work, being replaced doesn’t mean you’re let go without a letter of recommendation. Even if I don’t know Mr Smith’s real name, I know enough that I don’t get to just walk away. (83)

▪ I’m going back over everything to discover why Mr Smith chose Ryan Sumner and this job to test me. (90)

▪ Ryan adds before I can stop him, “Evie just moved here from Brookwood, Alabama, a few months ago.” (136)

▪ I now have a handful of well-respected, God-fearing politicians in my back pocket. A senator, a couple of congressmen, several mayors and state legislators. (179)

▪ As a condition of being released, I was photographed and fingerprinted, so now not only am I in the system for the first time ever, I’m in the system as Evie Porter. (180)

▪ “And I’m supposed to believe you’ll call off the dogs if I show you the contents of the safe deposit box?” (185)

▪ “Give him what he wants. I don’t want to do what he’ll ask me to do if you don’t.” (250)

▪ “Fuck, something’s got her spooked.” Ryan’s voice fills the space and I freeze. They’ve moved a little closer to me. (259)

Neil Lancaster. When Shadows Fall. UK: HQ/HarperCollins, 2025.

Ah yes, the Scottish police team starring DS Max Craigie (Novels No. 56), the anti-corruption unit within the force. In a chance moment Max’s old friend Shay, a mountain search and rescue pilot, consults him about an odd death in the Cairngorms. A woman’s body was found at the base of a cliff, looking like a fatal fall, no witnesses. Even as Max tells his team about it, a second body is found in similar circumstances. DI Ross, Max’s partner Janie, analyst Norma, and their crack IT friend Barney discuss how six women could meet the same fate in a relatively short period of time. Little or no real investigation took place at each occurrence so the situation calls for this team. The women were all about the same age, novice climbers who never should have gone out alone, and who had posted their plans on social media. Barney’s magic on one woman’s smashed phone gives them a face and a name, Silver Fox, turning their focus onto internet dating sites.

Fast arrangements are made for DC Janie’s first undercover role, as bait. In the quickest-ever dating hookup, she goes to meet “Mikey Fox” at a ski centre for a climbing lesson—with plenty of hidden backup. But whoa: shockingly, Mikey not only out-foxes them, avoiding the concealed police, he shoves another innocent woman to her death. Max and Ross are furious that an informant must be involved; surely not police corruption? They get only more frantic when Barney finds his way into a misplaced laptop with its dark web conversations. This killer is not going to stop. The detectives don’t know yet that catching Mikey is merely the top layer of a deep conspiracy. Max is under double pressure: the job is triggering his PTSD, and wife Katie is due to give birth any moment.

Internet wizards Barney and pal Clive can hack anything; nerds will love the technical language. I’d forgotten how the author peppers every chapter with dumbfounding Police Scotland acronyms but the fun is in the Scots vernacular and the potty-mouth camaraderie—until it wears thin. Suspense, yes; plot, pretty straightforward with a few disbelief leaps.

Bits

▪ “I think someone is stalking Facebook groups, and picking off lone climbers.” (26)

▪ “Well, I can’t get in the normal way, so all the connections must be cream-crackered.” Barney lifted his cup and drank deeply. (70)

▪ “Question is for us, with our counter-corruption ninja hats on, and looking at this in the round, is whether it’s deliberate, careless, or something much worse.” (78)

▪ “Someone leaked what we were doing and yet Mikey whatever his name is still came. This evil bastard is playing games. Worse than that, he’s fucking taunting us.” (112)

▪ “It is a genuine warrant card, you stupid bastards. You’ve got nothing, and you know nothing at all,” he continued to guffaw. (162)

▪ “Hands on head, dickhead, or you’re getting fried,” yelled PC Lennox as he advanced, Taser outstretched in his hands, as the laser dot quivered on the attacker’s chest. (162)

▪ Ross’s brow bristled menacingly. “Man’s a total fucking wankspangle. Telling me he wants the computer product for interview.” (215)

▪ “I was running brute force along with a rainbow table, which was sensible of me, as that was what cracked it.” (231)

Novels No. 78

 

Kotaro Isaka. Hotel Lucky Seven. NYC: The Overlook Press/ABRAMS, 2024.

Something like entering a movie theatre halfway through the plot? The first pages felt like I stepped into a latter-day comic book with a gang of happy-go-lucky sociopaths. Once I could start filling in the blanks, it seems that criminal mastermind Inui sent a motley crew called the Six to kill Kamino because she knows all his secret passwords. Kamino has an eidetic memory that works both for and against her; Inui used her as his personal assistant, until her very skill made her a liability—because she can’t forget anything. Checked into the Winton Palace Hotel where she hopes for safety, Kamino asks hacker Koko to plan a perfect getaway for her. Koko is a modest, kindly old woman who already hired two bodyguards, and is working to erase the hotel’s security cameras.

Winton Palace is also a scene of confusion by unlucky Nanao who appears to be a flunky working for Maria. He is ordered to deliver a painting, but goes to the wrong room. The man there assaults him and ends up dead. The right man in the correct room accepts delivery, urging Nanao to warn Maria at once that a hit is out on her. Nanao is desperate to flee the hotel before the unknown dead man is discovered, but manages to crush his phone during a chance encounter with a former colleague—who tries to kill him. Apparently we are to understand that “professional” means “hit man” and that Nanao is a professional known as Ladybug. Before Nanao can even reach the ground floor, he’s met Kamino in an elevator and more professional bodies pile up as some wild chases race from floor to floor.

Still with me? Downstairs the head of the country’s Information Bureau (think CIA) is dining with a reporter, unaware that someone has placed a hit on him. In a different hotel, two housekeeping maids called Blanket and Pillow are busy disposing of a man they’d just deftly murdered. And so on. It’s actually a master class in character duplicity and inventive plotting.

Snips

▪ In this sense, it did seem as though Inui thought of her primarily as a voice-activated recording device. (29)

▪ “These darts are smeared with poison. It’ll paralyze you as it circulates through your system.” (37)

▪ “Inui is tight with the police at all levels. He does a lot of work for politicians, after all.” (44)

▪ The moment he meets anyone, Kamakura makes an assessment: Are they more attractive than him? Do they have something he wants? (72)

▪ “There’s been a series of professionals found murdered. Both shoulders dislocated.” (91)

▪ “You say that, but he made you memorize all those passwords, and now he’s planning on erasing them by erasing you.” (109)

▪ With Soda, who just lost Cola, and Kamino, who just lost Koko, on either side of him, Nanao doesn’t quite know how to feel – it’s almost as if he should have lost an important person in his life, too. (171)

▪ “Oh, by the way, when we put Koko’s body in the bathtub, we found someone else already there.” (174)

▪ All I do these days is carry around corpses, he thinks, sighing. Where will he stash this one? Another bathroom, most likely. (236)

▪ “What kind of group is the Six?”

       “They do wind work.”

              “Wind work? They play instruments?”

                     “Blowguns.” (98)

Michael Campling. Murder Between the Tides. UK: Shadowstones Books, no date, no ISBN.

[Self-published?] Alan Hargreaves attends a writers’ retreat at the Regent Hotel in Newquay, convincing his non-writer neighbour Dan Corrigan to come along for a vacation. Dan is learning a dozen or so new names and faces among these mostly established, published authors and he observes their interactions bemusedly. To Dan, Alan’s friend Roz Hammond stands out—an artist as well as writer—and so does the arrogant, belligerent Edward Hatcher, a former MI6 agent whose pen name is Max Cardew. Organizer Dominic Rudge proposes a flexible schedule to accommodate their working hours and social time. Unexpectedly, most of the participants receive anonymous typed messages during the first day; they don’t make sense to anyone although Edward’s sounds like a threat.

Then all are baffled when Edward disappears on the first night, luggage gone too. The hotel is near a dangerous cliff that falls to a tide-ruled beach, and the fear is that he might have fallen. Alan and Dan go searching but instead of a body, they find one of Edward’s suitcases stashed outside. And discover that a paparazzi-type journalist, Charlie, has been stalking the man. The plot thickens accordingly next day when police bring news of Dominic’s death—his body found lying at the base of the cliff with hands tied. In a classic scene of misunderstanding, Roz is arrested, just when she was on the verge of exposing an old secret. Amateur sleuths Alan and Dan are trying to connect all these events, rushing around one step ahead of the cops; they make an entertaining pair.

Plenty of dialogue to push a decent plot, good writing, interesting characters; what’s not to like? Oh: maybe the limp conclusion. Campling’s website michaelcampling.com features a series of Devonshire Mysteries and a host of additional titles, so clearly he’s an experienced hand.

Bits

▪ “This is your fault, you idiot! If you’d done your job properly, this wouldn’t have happened.” (19)

▪ Roz moved in an oddly theatrical way, her back straight, her head held high and her arms swinging at her sides as if she were on stage in a West End musical. (34)

▪ The man was brimming with repressed rage. And anger, when it was constrained for too long, could break out in any number of ways. (38)

▪ Someone had threatened Edward, and either they’d driven him to despair, or they’d made good on their threat and done him harm. (84)

▪ “She prefers to keep herself to herself, but she’s quite a brave little thing.” Dominic smirked. (102)

▪ “People who can easily step outside of their personality can be dangerous, divorced from reality, unstable.” (152)

▪ “If we can find that typewriter, we can connect the notes with what happened to Rudge.” (167)

▪ “But his money makes Roz look like a calculating gold-digger, and that, my friend, means she’s lost all credibility.” (190)

Novels No. 77

 

Sue Hincenbergs. The Retirement Plan. USA: HarperCollins, 2025.

After Marlene’s husband Dave dies in a freak accident, her three friends decide life without husbands will be so much better. And they happen to know a hit man who works as a barber. Pam is hesitant at first but Nancy and Shaliza persuade her they’re all in. An investment gone belly up, promoted by Pam’s husband Hank, had earlier caused all four couples to lose their savings. Living in reduced circumstances is not the women’s only quibble; the men they married have long morphed into selfish, oblivious oafs. So, a transaction with the barber will yield one million in life insurance to each— straightforward, n’est-ce pas? Well, what they don’t know is their husbands have secretly engineered a grand theft scheme, and are now in fear that Dave’s death was the result of a criminal syndicate discovering their plot. They’ve hired the same hit man, Hector, to discover and kill whoever is trying to kill them.

It doesn’t end there. What we have is a grand farce of grand larceny. Hank’s new boss is the daughter of a notorious female crime ringleader back in India. Padma is a newly-minted MBA, out to prove to mama she is capable of running a business and thus avoid the traditional arranged marriage. The eligible suitors that her mother sends are mistakenly presumed by the three remaining husbands—Hank, Larry, and Andre—to be gangster killers and they panic. Padma is no dummy, she’s already noticed a few years of suspiciously large payouts in her business; she can’t stop her mother from sending thugs to search for the stolen money, a job she’d prefer to do herself. The new head of tech security at Padma’s business, hired to replace Dave, happens to be Hector’s wife Brenda – unknown to them.

Will the wives discover that the husbands cancelled the generous life insurance policies? What will Hector do with the two contracts? Who is going to die? I’m deliberately withholding what kind of business Padma runs. The original scenario multiplies in all directions and just gets crazy funnier. It’s like a ride on a lurching, outta control, never-ending roller coaster. Author Hincenbergs hit a goldmine for combining laughter and suspense.

Bits

▪ “I’m just saying out loud what you’re thinking. We do not need our husbands.” (43)

▪ “Padma, my dear, regrettably you are not a ten. You need to be happy with a six. If you can get that. It’s a hard truth.” (115)

▪ “We’ve ordered the hit.” Nancy shook her head slowly. “I don’t know much about hitman protocol. ... I couldn’t google it. But I think once these things get going, there’s no turning back.” (139)

▪ Maybe this had been an accident. Maybe the explosion was a crazy coincidence. (147)

▪ Even if they did change their minds at that last minute, this whole thing started because they had their reasons. (155)

▪ “But then one day I was closing up, and your wives, the three of them, pulled up in their minivan, asked me to jump in, passed me a donut, and hired me to kill you.” (194)

▪ “Hector did a fucking double dip,” Pam said. (210)

▪ “But the four of them could barely plan a road trip. Remember?” (234)

▪ Nancy said, “Not only do we not owe you a hundred thousand dollars, we want our fifty-thousand-dollar deposit back.” (244)

Rachel Kushner. Creation Lake. Large Print.

Extra-cryptic openings do not endear an author to me, so this highly acclaimed work got off on the wrong foot. An American spy called Sadie has installed herself in a perfect rural spot in the French countryside for watching the activities of Le Moulin, a radical farming cooperative. Led by Pascal Balmy, they may be responsible for destructive acts against the corporate farming interests currently transforming the neglected valley. Sadie seems to be pragmatic and rather dull although her spycraft is excellent.

Sadie hacks emails from Bruno, an “old lefty,” who mentors Le Moulin members. Bruno drones on about the percentage of Neanderthal that may exist in humankind, about our cultural need for a wild bogeyman, about living free. Bruno’s ramblings are annoying regular inserts, distracting whatever mission or action Sadie is undertaking. I’m not into this intellectual exercise. DNF [Did Not Finish]

Jo Spain. The Darkest Place. UK: Quercus, 2018.

[In-house grab] Due to a previous work episode (in a prior book), DCI Tom Reynolds has been relegated to minor cases. Sent to investigate a cold case upon the finding of Dr Conrad Howe’s skeleton—on the island that housed a leading Irish insane asylum—he learns that the man had been strangled. Widow Miriam Howe in Dublin has waited forty years for a solution to the doctor’s inexplicable Christmas Eve disappearance. Reynolds, his DS Ray Lennon, and state criminal psychologist Linda McCarn inspect the burial site and the long-shuttered asylum where people had been involuntarily committed. A few of the former staff still live there in cottages, all elderly; perhaps they can provide a motive for the killing, or even a suspect. Howe’s private diary, discovered years later by his wife, describes his disquiet with many medical treatments and one unnamed doctor in particular. Altogether, not an environment appealing to every crime reader fan.

Arnie Nolan provides security for the buildings and the small island in general; his mother Kitty was the last cook for the institution. Doctors to interview are Lawrence Boylan, former chief of the medical department; Robert O’Hare who’d arrived only shortly before Howe disappeared; Andrew Collins, befriending Miriam all these years, who still keeps an island cottage. In addition to Kitty, the cops will see former head nurse Carla Crowley and chemist Edward Lane. Gossip provides a few clues as the detectives puzzle over two staff members who left on the ferry that same Christmas Eve and then seemed to vanish. Who wanted to kill Dr Howe? Or was it a conspiracy?

The Darkest Place is like a history of older, inhumane treatments for the mentally disturbed—not easy to read and not for the queasy. Mulling over possible suspects does not prepare the detectives for more than one shocking revelation, and even then, the convoluted events are brain-spinning. Staff or patients, who was most insane in a madhouse?

Fragments

▪ “Asylums were big business. They were huge providers of employment.” (37)

▪ “What are you saying?” Tom said. “That some of the patients here died as a result of their treatment in the asylum?” (69)

▪ “It was a Catch 22. They would respond to being locked up as you or I would but the very act of that would satisfy the accusation of madness made against them.” (75)

▪ “Conrad was a good doctor in many ways. Extremely gifted.” (110)

▪ “Conrad was an utterly brilliant doctor, by all accounts. He really had the patients’ best interests at heart but he was also forward thinking.” (163)

▪ “Howe was an uppity little chancer,” Lane said, then broke into a hacking cough, wiping the accompanying phlegm with a filthy handkerchief. (170)

▪ “Well, funny that,” Ray said. “Because we seem to have lots of hopeless lovers on this island.” (173)

▪ “Everything the people on this island have been hiding will come out.” (285)

Howe’s diary

▪ I suspect she could see I was traumatised by what I’d seen and wanted me to understand the need for the operation. (79)

▪ He is experimenting on them, like they are his animals and he a demented ringmaster. (269)

▪ I’ve told Dolores I will confront him. (270)

Novels No. 76

With the advent of a new computer plus Windows 11, I struggle with tech changes—trying to find familiar stuff; at least half my bookmarks missing. Welcome to 2025.

Simon Mason. Missing Person: Alice. UK: riverrun/Quercus, 2024.

Talib is a “finder,” a person gifted in tracing lost people; an ex-cop, he is contracted by a police force to concentrate on a specific case, in this instance, Alice Johnson age twelve who went missing nine years ago. Local cops think Vince Burns abducted/killed her, a man presently in custody for a similar crime. Burns will not confess, but enjoys playing verbal games with police. Talib rents a bed and breakfast room from Mrs Wentworth to make Sevenoaks his base. His investigation covers all the former witnesses, and then some—the divorced parents, neighbours, father’s girlfriend, school mates and staff, and a few strangers who’d seen Alice the morning she disappeared. It’s essential that he get to know, even understand, the missing person. In fact what Talib ultimately does is painstakingly reconstruct that fateful morning, and the possible clues in Alice’s life that led up to it.

Always impassive in his interviews, Talib collects conflicting opinions about Alice herself. Basically he is forming an image of a girl emotionally struggling over divorced parents who paid little attention to her, a solitary girl normally comfortable in her own skin. Even the tiniest interaction she’d had with or near another person adds to his building of her personality and thoughts. While the police are dragging a nearby lake, expecting to find her body, Talib’s search has gone so far afield they are rather dubious about him. Clearly he keeps his own emotions in check regarding his discoveries, and in particular, his quiet inner admiration of Mrs Wentworth is never manifest.

This book is not only about parent-child relationships and misunderstandings, it reflects the effect of Alice’s disappearance on all the people she came in contact with. Author Mason gives us a freshly different aspect of a police procedural on missing persons where death is so often predictable. Yet his protagonist remains a man of mystery.

How various informants viewed Alice:

▪ “Looks to me like the sort of girl who likes pretty things. Don’t you think? Make herself look good, smell nice.” (16, Burns)

▪ Mrs Johnson said that from an early age, but especially after the divorce, which Alice had found so upsetting, her daughter, by nature rather young for her age and timid by nature, had needed protecting; (39)

▪ When Alice was small, he said, she reminded him of a small fierce creature, she was headstrong and fearless ... Yes, she was an absolute wildcat, he said. (51-2, Dad)

▪ Alice’s teacher had described her as withdrawn but self-sufficient. (74)

▪ The poor girl was struggling with the separation of her parents; she needed her father’s attention. (74, Dad’s ex-girlfriend)

▪ He remembered how angry she’d looked when she talked about her father’s girlfriend, her mouth snarly and her face all scrunched up. (129, nephew of last homeowner to see her)

▪ “She bared her teeth at me. It was the weirdest fucking thing. And I tell you what. I was scared. Even though she was smaller than me.” (136, schoolmate)

▪ Small, Pauline said. Sort of undernourished-looking. (176)

▪ Whenever Beth asked her a question she didn’t want to answer, Alice just held her gaze and stared her out in silence, not aggressively but with complete self-control. (193-4)

Belinda Bauer. The Impossible Thing. USA: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025 (UK: Bantam, 2025).

One of the most fascinating, entertaining novels in some time, brilliantly executed by Bauer. Imagine a world a hundred years ago where savvy collectors were obsessed with owning eggs—rather than, say, precious artwork or jewellery. Eggs from wild birds, like the guillemots that nest on the Yorkshire cliffs over the North Sea. Prized for their colour variations and uniquely individualized patterns, the eggs are gathered by local men swinging cautiously on harnesses against the cliff faces (and angry birds). George Ambler is the most important broker for collectors, and one day he is stunned by the magnificence of an egg harvested by tiny Celie Sheppard of Metland Farm. An impossibly exquisite red colour like no other. For many years Celie provides him with rare red eggs—“the Metland Egg”—laid twice annually by the same bird that only Celie’s slender shape can reach on a dangerous overhung cliff. But strangely, no one sees these iconic eggs after Ambler presumably sells them on.

In the present day, Nick Morgan is robbed of just such a Metland Egg, found in his late father’s belongings. He and his friend Patrick are young men naive in many ways, but quick to learn about egg collectors as they hunt for the thieves. Dr Chris Connor is a curator at the Natural History Museum; Matthew Barr is a dedicated but grubby gatherer and collector; Finn Garrett is a bird conservation/protection militant. From them, Nick and Patrick hear that the legendary broker Ambler had been murdered, along with tales of famous collectors, and that possession of wild bird eggs is now illegal. And still, no one knows where the most coveted of all eggs are hiding. So many surprises to come!

The wonderful characters pull us into this amazing story and its settings, based on real events. Lively, dramatic, absorbing, with comic input from the Patrick-Nick duo, it’s no less than captivating. Bauer is a magic wordsmith!

Bits from the Past

▪ For the first time since he was four years old and Tobias had pushed him off a pony, George Ambler felt tears spring to his eyes – so moved was he by how much money he was going to make. (53)

▪ Celie was terrified of the houses on wheels that emerged screaming from a plume of grey smoke, and at first refused to get on the train because she thought it was on fire. (107)

▪ He hadn’t thought of it, but Ambler having sold the egg to royalty would explain it. The lies. The secrecy. (169)

▪ Every manner of securing the Metland Egg while also punishing Celie Sheppard and her family for their lack of respect was toyed with and honed, while all the time his sense of having been cheated and humiliated burned so fiercely that by the time they passed Sheffield he was incandescent. (247)

Bits from the Present

▪ “Jeez, Patrick. Don’t sweat the small stuff. We just go there, tell him we know he took the egg and demand he give it back.” (77)

▪ “Somebody stole that egg from the bird that laid it. Now somebody has stolen it from you. Sounds fair to me.” (95)

▪ “The RSPB is committed to halting this disgusting crime and we hope you will send a clear message to Matthew Barr, and others like him, that there is nothing scientific about stealing an egg, drilling a hole in it, and then killing the chick inside by pouring acid over it.” (91)

▪ “Old eggs are particularly sought after because, if you have data showing that the egg was collected before the 1954 ban, then it can be legally owned.” (133)

▪ “You don’t sell ‘em,” Barr snorted without looking up from his scrolling. “I’d sell my granny before my eggs!” (159)

▪ “All he cares about is eggs. It’s an obsession. He can’t help it. He’s sick. They’re all the same, these collectors.” (186)

▪ “Jeez,” said Nick, “who knew the world of eggs was so cut-throat! Just as well you got out of that car, or you could be dead in a ditch by now.” (201)

▪ “If I screw it up, we’ll both get caught!” Nick rubbed his nose nervously. “Why can’t you go in and steal the key and stall Chris?” (254)

Novels No. 75

 

Elizabeth Strout. Oh William! NYC: Random House, 2021.

This acclaimed multiple award-winning author: what is she all about? Her unforgettable characters Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton became known through several books and a television series. Do I have the "right" novel to explore her charisma? Because I just happened on it by chance, and this particular one, I'm told, was shortlisted for the Booker prize. Yes, it's a step away from my regular crime fodder, which I do occasionally, but it does contain a little family history mystery.

Lucy is looking at her relationship with husband number one, William Gerhardt. They remain good friends as they enter old age, consulting each other over the years for conversation or comfort. It's as if they take turns being unable or unwilling to describe painful feelings. Lately Lucy's beloved second husband David died and William's third wife Estelle has suddenly walked out on him. Keeping track of marriages made by William's mother Catherine and themselves, and the children thereof, is a bit of an effort at first. When William discovers that he has a heretofore unknown half-sister named Lois, it's a distraction from his current woes; of course Lucy agrees to accompany him as he plans to snoop around rural Maine where Lois lives. It's where he learns more about his German POW father, but it's really his now-deceased mom Catherine who becomes the revelation.

Lucy thoroughly engages us as she reacts to whatever life presents her with. She has felt distant, an outsider, often invisible; William has frequently been judged as remote and unresponsive. Still unable to articulate their deepest concerns to each other, they seek unconditional acceptance. Yet they resonate as flesh and blood with us, from the moments of loneliness to the yearning for safety.

Bits

▪ William felt (almost) invulnerable, is what I am saying here. (7)

▪ But the feeling I have just described did not go away, and during the little reception afterward I did not feel quite like I was really there. Everything felt a little bit far away, is what I mean, like I was removed from it. (55)

▪ He had been petrified by what he saw there in Germany. He must have been deeply haunted by his father's role in it. Unspeakably frightened. It had unmoored him. (96)

▪ He sat back down across from me, and he threw his head back and laughed one of his real—genuine—laughs that I have not heard in ages. And my panic left me. (113)

▪ When I looked back, William was still gazing at the photograph; he finally turned his face to me and said, "It's him, Lucy." Then he added in a quieter tone, "It's my father." (121)

▪ He said, "I'm afraid of being alone, Lucy." I listened but I never heard him say, "Please don't leave, because you are Lucy!" (131)

▪ And then William began to close down. I watched this happen. His face—it is odd—it is almost like his face remains but everything behind it retreats. You can see him going away, is what I mean. (199)

▪ There have been a few times—and I mean recently—when I feel the curtain of my childhood descend around me once again. A terrible enclosure, a quiet horror. (221)

▪ We crave authority. We do. No matter what anyone says, we crave that sense of authority. Of believing that in the presence of this person we are safe. (132)

Korelitz. The Sequel. Large Print. USA: Thorndike Press, 2024.

This is a sequel to Korelitz's earlier The Plot (see Novels No. 70) but it appears to stand alone. Even more so than the first novel—if possible—The Sequel presents a mindbending plot. Anna Williams-Bonner is the widow of novelist Jake Bonner, who committed suicide shortly after the publication of his highly successful and popular fourth novel called Crib. Rumours were that he was being anonymously harassed for plagiarism. Anna is treated like royalty on book tours to promote Crib; months later she amazes Jake's agent Matilda and editor Wendy by producing an impressive manuscript of her own. Her Afterword becomes a bestseller and Anna a heroine to all survivors of deep personal loss, one who speaks of her dearly departed husband with nothing but love and humble admiration—except everything she says in public is bullshit.

Having read The Plot could be an advantage; I can't be sure how The Sequel will affect someone who didn't. The Plot contained parts of Jake's Crib story and its origins; similarly, The Sequel contains the gist of Anna's story in Afterward. Another similarity: someone unknown is now harassing Anna, someone with knowledge of the real story of Crib's grim subject matter, despite the fact that Anna herself had destroyed all evidence of its origins. She was certain she had effectively stopped her sly brother, Evan Parker, from publishing his manuscript for a novel that dwelt on her miserable past—she must find, and stop, whoever is threatening to destroy her newly acquired prestigious life. Perhaps someone like Martin Purcell who'd intersected with Jake and Evan at Ripley College.

Oh my, yes: it's complicated and sinister and guaranteed to keep you awake. The author doesn't miss a beat in drawing out the tension to murderous points. Be afraid of this woman.

Fragments

▪ "It felt a little bit unseemly, trying to do something my husband had done so well. I mean, who did I think I was?" (48)

▪ “This is our shared journey as survivors, and we have to do our best to offer one another comfort.” (67)

▪ She did not believe for one moment that Jake would have been proud [of her]. Besides, she did not remotely care whether he'd have been proud or not. (69-70)

▪ "You met him after he wrote that book, didn't you? You can't be sure he didn't lift it off somebody else." (99-100)

▪ Evan was gone. His "work" was gone. His all-too-consequential interference in her life: finally, blessedly, irreversibly gone. (138)

▪ "Just for the record, and just because we're here, was it all your idea? Or something the two of you cooked up together?" (177)

▪ They were out there, towns or small cities she might live in comfortably, and perhaps even — if she felt like it — continue the "work" her editor was evidently hoping for. But also: be left alone. (261)

▪ Evan, Jake, Martin, men who had harmed her, threatened her, and stolen from her. (310)

Novels No. 74

 

Michael Connelly. The Waiting. Large Print. USA: Little, Brown and Company, 2024.

Hello again, Harry Bosch! Good to see you, although Detective Renée Ballard has taken over as the established cop of Connelly's LAPD series. Ballard is chief of the Open-Unsolved Unit with a team of volunteers and a good rate of solving cold cases. A keen surfer, her police ID and gun are stolen while she's riding the board; she fears losing her position if her superiors find out, so she's privately hunting the suspects who left a trail through layers of criminal activities. Above all, she must retrieve her police badge. The team finds that the DNA of a man charged with domestic violence is a match to the cold "Pillowcase Rapist" case, so investigative genetic genealogist Colleen Hatteras is working on a family tree. Then Maddie, Bosch's daughter who is now a police officer, requests placement on the OU team on her off duty time. Maddie has stumbled on a potential case of sensational proportions.

Locating Ballard's police badge leads to a dangerous terrorist conspiracy; Renée is forced to involve the FBI as well as old friend Harry. For each cold case successfully solved, the DA must officially sign off on it; that may be a problem when politics raise an ugly snag. A search for the domestic abuse perp's biological father uncovers more than one possibility for being the Pillowcase Rapist. And an old filing cabinet contains evidence of eight horrific murders related to the infamous, real-life Black Dahlia killing. Dodging protocol issues and interference from her bosses, Renée directs her team on painstaking searches and interviews while encouraging Maddie's detective instincts. Until the unexpected happens—a shocking murder on their own doorstep.

Connelly never fails, does he? With all these items in motion, it's like having three novels in one. Like a juggler, he provides a fascinating performance where no balls get dropped.

Bits

▪ "What are you saying? We might be barking up the wrong family tree?" (84)

▪ "What's it going to be, Dean? I take off the cuffs or I take you to jail? I'm running out of goodwill here." (109)

▪ She knew she would have to go in blind, and for the first time she started second-guessing her off-the-books maneuvering to get her badge and gun back. (117)

▪ "Great," Bosch said. "Now we have homeless terrorists." (142)

▪ Ballard wasn't ready for it, and the centrifugal force threw her against the back of the van with a thud. (160)

▪ "Believe me, it's not a story I would enjoy sharing. I saw the photos. I'll never forget them. Horrible." (210)

▪ "We tried to have children of our own," the judge said. "It wasn't happening." (257)

▪ Ballard saw Maddie lean her head back as she realized her mistake. "Uh, we can't show you those right now, ma'am," she said. (302)

▪ "Mallory did pass out, right? That's why she wasn't in the photo, correct?" (390)

Peter James. One of Us Is Dead. UK: Macmillan, 2024.

This is a first for me, this author I mean, although I see dozens of books to his credit. Superintendent Roy Grace is a busy man heading Major Crimes, guiding his friend DI Glenn Branson on an unusual case—Barnie Wallace's suspicious death from eating toxic wild mushrooms. Supermarket cameras clearly reveal that the victim's package of mushrooms was switched in the checkout line. But the perpetrator effectively concealed his ID. Who would want to kill inoffensive Barnie Wallace, a loser by most accounts, but lately a budding gourmet chef? This case, plus two more story threads, are all going to come together as readers know from experience. At Barnie's funeral, friend James Taylor believes he sees another old friend in attendance—Rufus Rorke; but James delivered the eulogy at Rufus' own funeral two years before! James, Barnie, and Rufus had been tight youthful chums, losing track of each in later years. On a different track, the police have 98% confirmed that the intentional mushroom switcher had been Rufus, a person of interest well before his disappearance off a yacht two years ago.

James is intrigued enough to follow up his sighting with questions to various people, including Barnie's ex-wife Debbie Martin. Besides their curiosity about Rufus, unaware of the police interest in him, James and Debbie find a mutual attraction. We also meet Paul Anthony, a shady businessman, who convinces his tech-savvy girlfriend Shannon to take orders for making 3-D printed guns. It seems that Paul is the dark web's go-to guy for hire if you fancy a fatal accident for someone you dislike. Thus the narrative shifts among the various participants. Finding Rufus and/or proving he's not dead becomes imperative. The easy camaraderie among police officers is notable, so far from the contentious/nasty rivalry among colleagues in many detective novels. However, inserting a physical fight between Grace and an old enemy seems completely gratuitous. No doubt the author is signaling a loose end to faithful readers of the series.

A very exacting police procedural, with an ingenious, sociopathic villain. A villain whose methods may require a tiny amount of disbelief suspension at times. But Roy Grace is an admirably sensitive, thoughtful cop on a desperate race to save a life.

Fragments

▪ "If he was a trained chef, how on earth did he not realize these were deadly? Was he a total idiot?" (44)

▪ How had Barnie tracked him down after his quite magnificent and convincing funeral? (64)

▪ They would be bound together in conspiracy to murder ‒ whether she liked it or not. It would be an end to that tiny bit of love, commitment, affection ‒ whatever ‒ that she always seemed to hold back. (177)

▪ "In the absence of any other suspects, right now our best hope is a dead man." (112)

▪ He walked across the floor, holding a perfectly made macchiato, handing it to the woman he had contemplated killing three years ago, before realizing she was more useful alive. (185)

▪ He'd been almost sorry to have despatched Barnie. He wouldn't feel any emotion at all if he had to kill goody-two-shoes Taylor. (210)

▪ "Now I'm starting to feel real uncomfortable. I didn't get paid enough to deal with all this stuff. So I called your Fiona and she said to phone you." (296)

▪ Taylor looked at Debbie and the look she gave him back totally melted him. I could fall in love with you, he thought. (326)

▪ "I've not actually committed any provable offence, Paul," she said. (347)