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The Devil’s Harmony
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Sarah Rayne. Severn, $28.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8988-1
At the start of Rayne’s haunting fifth Phineas Fox mystery (after 2019’s Music Macabre), two scholars ask London musicologist Phineas Fox and his lover, Arabella Tallis, to authenticate a scrapbook recovered from a building site in Warsaw, Poland, where the Chopin Library once stood decades ago before the Germans destroyed it during WWII. The scrapbook contains a draft of what looks like a concert program cover with the name of a quartet, a date, and a piece of music the scholars agree would never have been performed at a concert, let alone written down. Phineas and Arabella set out to identify the mysterious and ominous piece of music, which is only performed at a traitor’s execution and has a connection to what happened in 1944 Poland, as well as events in 1918 Russia. Rayne smoothly intertwines the present-day action with flashbacks as this intricate tale of music, love, betrayal, and self-sacrifice builds to a satisfactory if somewhat unsurprising conclusion. The snarky banter of the academics provides a nice comic touch. Fans of intelligent historical mysteries will be rewarded. Agent: Jane Conway-Gordon, Jane Conway-Gordon Ltd. (U.K.). (Feb.)
Do No Harm
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Christina McDonald. Gallery, $16.99 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-9821-4261-2
In this so-so domestic thriller from McDonald (Behind Every Lie), happily married physician Emma Sweeney and her police detective husband, Nate, dote on their precocious five-year-old son, Josh. Then Josh is diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, and their insurance won’t cover his costly treatment. After they’re turned down for loans, Emma believes the only way to raise the cash is to sell opioids to addicts and forged prescription orders to drug dealers. Meanwhile, Nate, who knows nothing of Emma’s scheme, volunteers to work with the DEA to find the source of opioids invading their town of Skamania, Wash., in the hope of a promotion. The weak plot spins on Emma’s rationalization that in trying to save Josh she’s also helping those who truly are in pain, but whose medication has been cut back because of government crackdowns. Emma’s plan soon goes awry as the bodies pile up while her inexperience puts herself and her loved ones in danger. This well-meaning effort to highlight the opioid crisis spins out of control with clichés, shallow characters, and a preachy narrative. McDonald has done better. Agent: Carly Watters, P.S. Literary (Canada). (Feb.)
An Evil Most Men Welcome
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Leta Serafim. Coffeetown, $15.95 trade paper (212p) ISBN 978-1-60381-722-6
Serafim’s gripping fourth Greek Islands mystery (after 2017’s From the Devil’s Farm) finds Melissa Costas, the chief police officer on the island of Spetses, facing her first murder investigation. American Hope Erickson, the wife of Thanasis Papadopoulos, has found her husband dead, his throat slashed with a broken wine bottle, in a cave near the home they share with Thanasis’s family. Wanting to prove herself, Costas diligently interviews the family and gathers evidence. But her boss in Athens, Haralambos Stathis, wants the case closed quickly, with Hope’s arrest. The teary-eyed American casts herself as a victim of police abuse, and soon videos of the woman being led away in handcuffs are trending on social media. Hoping to avoid an international incident, Stathis demotes Costas and sends in series lead Yiannis Patronas, the chief police officer on the island of Chios, who has a reputation for solving homicides. The tension builds as Patronas closes in on a deadly family secret. Serafim’s firm grip on contemporary Greek culture enriches her characterization and lends veracity. Readers will hope to return to the islands soon. (Feb.)
Bad Habits
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Amy Gentry. Mariner, $14.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-0-358-40857-4
Professor Mackenzie Claire Woods, the narrator of this engrossing psychological thriller from Gentry (Good as Gone), is on a career high, finally achieving her quest for respect after delivering a keynote speech at an academic conference held at an L.A. hotel. She’s about to retreat to her suite when she spots Gwen Whitney, her former best friend and rival. Flashbacks reveal how the once close friendship Mackenzie and Gwen formed in high school splintered after they were admitted to a prestigious, cultlike graduate humanities program at Dwight Handler University. There, the two women vie for the attention of the university’s power couple professors, Bethany Ladd and her husband, Rocky Semyonovich, who use gossip, betrayal, and sex to control students. Bethany and Rocky will also determine who receives a fellowship that, for some, is worth killing for. Superior storytelling makes up for the off-putting leads and an absurd twist toward the end. This rousing exposé of the politics of academia, with its textbook reputation for backbiting, will keep readers turning the pages. Agent: Sharon Pelletier, Dystel & Goderich Literary. (Feb.)
A Glimmer of Death
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Valerie Wilson Wesley. Kensington, $15.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-4967-2778-7
Widow Odessa Jones, the psychically gifted narrator of this strong series launch from Wesley (the Tamara Hayle series), can see glimmers, auralike colors that correspond to a person’s emotional state. Odessa works at Risko Realty, a cut-rate real estate agency in an aging New Jersey town. When the agency’s owner, Charlie Risko, a bully who never passes up an opportunity to humiliate his staff, is shot dead with his own gun, no one is surprised. Everyone in the office had a motive, and they all agree that Charlie deserved to die. After Odessa’s workmate Harley Wild is arrested for the crime and her glimmers tell her Harley is innocent, Odessa decides to follow her instincts and find the killer. The sheer goodness that Odessa displays in her dealings with others, including her witchy aunts, makes this cozy a standout. Wesley perfectly captures her protagonist’s emotions, including the lingering melancholy she feels for her late husband. Only a weak resolution to the mystery disappoints. Readers will hope to see a lot more of kind, empathetic Odessa. Agent: Faith Childs, Faith Childs Literary. (Feb.)
Crocodile Tears
Mercedes Rosende, trans. from the Spanish by Tim Gutteridge. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 trade paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-913394-43-1
Uruguayan author Rosende showcases her considerable talent in this offbeat crime novel, her English-language debut. Diego , who’s been imprisoned for kidnapping Montevideo businessman Santiago Losada, is released after Losada’s wife, Ursula López, denies to the authorities that Diego demanded a ransom for her husband’s safe return—because Diego accidentally called a different Ursula López. Once Diego’s free, he hooks up with Ricardo Prieto (aka the Hobo), a murderer who has recently escaped from prison, and joins the Hobo’s plot to rob an armored car. Police captain Leonilda Lima, who’s been disappointed with how her career’s unfolded, gets word of the plan and hopes that thwarting it will reward her professionally. Vivid descriptive prose enhances the action, such as a passage that contrasts a real court waiting room with how American TV shows depict such spaces (“The outside world would wrinkle its nose if it entered this place, where prisoners wait for hours and days”). Rosende smoothly combines dark humor and farce with moving depictions of the grimmer aspects of life. Elmore Leonard fans will look forward to the sequel. (Feb.)
The Sharpest Needle
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Renee Patrick. Severn, $28.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8928-7
In Agatha finalist Patrick’s entertaining fourth 1930s Hollywood mystery (after 2020’s Script for Scandal), Marion Davies, the mistress of press baron William Randolph Hearst, asks Lillian Frost, the social secretary to a starstruck millionaire, and famed costume designer Edith Head, Lillian’s friend, to discreetly discover the source of a letter threatening to reveal a saucy incident from Marion’s past that could embarrass Hearst. Lillian and Edith’s investigation leads them to the letter writer, a surprising blackmail demand, a dead body, and a painting by Otto Haas, a German artist whose work is being destroyed by the Nazis. Along the way, Lillian attends parties at Hearst’s San Simeon estate, meets Charlie Chaplin, dances with Orson Welles, and attends the premiere of The Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile, the Germans invade Poland, and at least one Hollywood producer is trying to curry favor with Mussolini. Patrick elegantly weaves Hollywood gossip and history into the well-crafted plot. This is a tailor-made treat for film buffs. Agent: Lisa Gallagher, DeFiore & Co. (Feb.)
Amid Rage: A Mike Jacobs Environmental Legal Thriller
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Joel Burcat. Headline (IPG, dist.), $19.95 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-9515-5645-7
Burcat’s disappointing sequel to 2019’s Drink to Every Beast opens strongly before devolving into a clichéd action yarn. Along with two henchmen, Ernie Rinati, the thuggish owner of Rhino Mining, ties mine inspector Marty Stevens to a chair in Stevens’s home, before torching the house, because Stevens opposes Rhino’s efforts to start a new coal mine close to a residential area, which could also pollute some nearby headwaters. Stevens dies, but the murder isn’t connected to Rinati. Though Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection gives Rinati a permit to go ahead, with some strict conditions, that decision is challenged in administrative court both by Rinati, who considers those conditions too strict, and locals opposed to the mine’s development under any circumstances. Mike Jacobs, an assistant DEP counsel representing his agency in the case, finds himself in the middle and the object of Rinati’s violent ire. A subplot involving Jacobs’s relationship with his best friend, a lesbian with whom he’d like to be romantically involved, doesn’t add anything. Hopefully, Burcat will use his expertise as an environmental lawyer more effectively in the future. (Feb.)
Ink and Shadows
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Ellery Adams. Kensington, $26 (304p) ISBN 978-1-4967-2641-4
It’s fall festival season in Miracle Springs, N.C., in bestseller Adams’s subpar fourth Secret, Book, and Scone Society mystery (after 2020’s The Book of Candlelight), and good-hearted Nora Pennington, the owner of Miracle Books, and her friend and employee, Sheldon Vega, choose powerful women as the theme for the shop’s front window. Following an evening at the Farm to Table festival, Nora returns home to find an old book page covered in strange symbols on her deck—and a dead body on her lawn. In between shared moments with her circle of friends, Nora investigates and becomes a target for both a murderer and the strident Women of Lasting Values Society. Nora’s constant need to suggest books to everyone she meets makes her bibliophilia seem like a clinical disorder and mostly serves to pad the slim plot. Inveterate readers looking for new authors to try may welcome Nora’s nonstop recommendations. Others will hope for a meatier plot next time. Agent: Jessica Faust, BookEnds Literary. (Feb.)
The Umbrella Lady
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V.C. Andrews. Gallery, $16.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-9821-1447-3
In this unremarkable series launch from the Andrews franchise (Flowers in the Attic, etc.), Derek Anders tells his eight-year-old daughter, Saffron, they’re moving to a new town after Saffron’s mother dies in a fire that destroys the family’s house. In the middle of their trip, Derek leaves Saffron at a train station, where many hours later Mazy Dazy, a retired schoolteacher, shows up and convinces Saffron to come home with her to wait for her father. Eerily, Mazy’s house has a little girl’s bedroom and clothes that fit Saffron perfectly. As days turn into years and Saffron and Mazy grow closer, Saffron gives up hope her father will return. On occasion, Mazy shows Saffron typed letters she says are from Derek, but he always make excuses for why he isn’t ready for Saffron yet. Whether Mazy is lying to Saffron about Derek provides some mild suspense. Those looking for fast and simple escape reading will be satisfied. Agent: Alec Shane, Writers House. (Feb.)
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