Novels No. 63

 

Jason Rekulak. The Last One at the Wedding. USA: Flatiron Books, 2024.

Two TPL 'holds' in a row! ☺

Frank Szatowski was estranged from his daughter for three years until she calls to invite him to her wedding. It's an emotional wallop for the veteran UPS delivery man, but a good one; he's so grateful they can put past differences behind them. Frank is further stunned when Maggie introduces her fiancé Aidan as the son of Errol Gardner, uber-wealthy founder of Capaciti where Maggie—now called Margaret—is employed. Capaciti produces a "miracle" battery for many uses, just one of Errol's many technology innovations. Frank feels no warmth from Aidan. A copy of a photograph is sent to Frank anonymously – why? – showing Aidan with a young woman called Dawn Taggart. And so Maggie explains that Dawn disappeared some months ago and Aidan is being wrongfully blamed in local gossip. Even though she, Maggie, is his alibi for being two hundred miles away when it happened.

Nevertheless, Frank sets off happily for the celebratory long weekend in New Hampshire, bringing his sister Tammy and youngster Abigail, a foster child Tammy cares for. The Gardner family compound in the mountains is a magnificent resort camp with every conceivable luxury; it's also a fortress with numerous security features—such as a compulsory fifty-six page NDA (non-disclosure agreement)! With Maggie totally focused on wedding plans and Aidan still being distant, Frank gets no quality daughter time. Errol is friendlier but his high-society wife Catherine is a recluse, suffering debilitating migraines. Not exactly feeling welcome amid the horde of arriving guests, Frank follows his sense that something is wholly out of kilter here. A dead body found in the lake is not Dawn.

Amid this swarm of the rich and famous, straight-speaking Frank wants to protect Maggie from the sinister elements hidden among them; he ignores warnings about the dangerous hole he's digging. Love the character development here, and the unexpected tender touches. A new-to-me author and one to watch!

Bits

▪ "I have to pay for something. Traditionally, the father of the bride pays for everything." (38)

▪ Errol was smart, funny, plainspoken, and unfailingly generous. (40)

▪ "You're letting your daughter marry Aidan Gardner? Are you out of your fucking mind?" (75)

▪ And I didn't know why I felt so irritable. Maybe it was my lack of sleep. Or maybe I just knew from the get-go that something about the camp was wrong. (97)

▪ "It's three hundred square feet, Aidan. I wouldn't keep a dog in that space. What were you doing all weekend?" (124)

▪ "Convince her to call off the wedding before any more people get hurt. Because something awful is happening here. You can feel it, right?" (144)

▪ "It's totally safe. Commercial-grade psilocybin and ketamine. They make it in labs, like vitamins." (148)

▪ "But I think anyone who invented a Miracle Battery could probably forge a time stamp, don't you?" (192)

▪ "Oh, Frank! You missed the point of the whole story! Or maybe I told it wrong? Did I leave out the part about Margaret?" (219)

Simon Mason. A Killing in November. UK: riverrun/Quercus, 2022.

Newly arrived to Oxford police, DI Ryan Wilkins is the most unorthodox detective yet: no filter on his thoughts, expressed in rudimentary street language. During anti-police protests that keep Superintendent Waddington occupied, Ryan is sent to investigate a murder in the lodgings of Sir James, Provost of Barnabas Hall. Surprise: Ryan is partnered with unrelated DI Raymond Wilkins. Educated, elegant Ray is disgusted by the trashy, ragamuffin-looking Ryan. In establishing a timeline for the murder evening they encounter various college members or visitors—Leonard, the lodge porter; Ameena and Ashley in Barnabas kitchen service; Jason Birch, college handyman; American visiting scholar Kent Dodge; Prof. Goodman, the faculty Arabist; Claire, college bursar; and the bodyguard of Sheik al-Medina, the Provost's dinner guest. The Sheik had been treated with utmost deference as a potential college donor, but his nervous focus was only on their minimal security measures.

No one seems to know who the strangled dead woman is. Ryan's compulsive mouth gets him in trouble with everyone from Ray and Waddington to the witnesses; he suspects the unlikeable Provost is hiding secrets. Somehow the two detectives, frustrated with and dissing each other, manage to perform some teamwork, each new clue leading to a dead end, some of them dangerous. Ryan has moments of zoned-out insights that help make the connections they need. Not to mention that he has an adorable toddler son who captivates everyone, unlike himself. Protocol-bound Ray loses some stiffness keeping pace with Ryan's antics—the humour comes largely from their relationship, but it helps to be able to decipher Brit colloquialisms as well as Oxford college-speak.

Ryan's behaviour is so unprofessional at times, at least one character wonders aloud whether he's on the spectrum; certainly he suffered an abusive childhood. He's bound for misconduct hearings despite solving the complex case. But the duo's opinions are changing about each other. It's the first of a fascinating new series, so sign me up for more.

Bits

▪ In Syria, she had been a law graduate; here, she was a kitchen porter, someone who could be given any menial task, to clean the ovens or take out the rubbish. (5)

▪ "File says he has, quote, 'problems with privileged elites', unquote. Must be good, though," she added. "Came top of his year in the fast track." (43)

▪ He had always noticed things. They stuck to his eyes. Sometimes, things he didn't want to see. (46)

▪ "We don't tell the Provost of one of the colleges to calm the fuck down. Do you understand me?" (65)

▪ Ryan said, "But the way he was speaking to me like I was trash, calling me lowlife and stuff, and all the time he's been forcing his junior staff to do stuff for him in his study." (164)

▪ He was twice as wide and a foot and a half taller than Ryan, and Ryan marched all the way up to him, and, pivoting suddenly from the hip like a circus gymnast, flung his right leg into the air and kicked him in the side of the head. (186)

▪ "Don't tell me what to do," Ray called back. "And, by the way, next time I give you my blazer, don't just drop it on the ground. It's a Tommy Hilfiger!" (187)

▪ He breathed deeply, thinking of her body dumped on the carpet, left like rubbish to be cleared up in the morning. He couldn't look her in her angry dead face till he got who'd done it. (213)

▪ Ryan put his foot down. "There's a gap in her file. Those ten months in the UK, for a start." (310)