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Man Down: Rogue Series Book 2
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Irma Venter, trans. from the Afrikaans by Karin Schimke. Amazon Crossing, $14.95 trade paper (448p) ISBN 978-1-5420-1817-3
Early in Venter’s enjoyable sequel to 2020’s Hard Rain, Isabel Kroon, who’s on the run from South African police who want her for her stalker’s murder, is tracked down by master hacker Sarah in Mumbai, India. Alex Derksen, Isabel’s ex-boyfriend and Sarah’s current love interest, has been missing for weeks, and Sarah needs Isabel’s help finding him. Sarah and Isabel return home to South Africa, where they figure out Alex has been kidnapped. Instead of a ransom, Alex’s kidnapper, a criminal recently released from prison after 20 years, demands that Isabel return a box that her abusive father, state prosecutor Hendrik Kroon, stole from him 25 years earlier, shortly before Hendrik died in what the police ruled a suicide. To save Alex, Isabel must figure out what was going on between the kidnapper and her father in the past. A complicated but not convoluted plot with several unexpected twists matches well-developed characters, most of whom aren’t who they appear to be. Readers will be left wondering what’s next for Isabel. (Apr.)
We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day
Ibana Bodrozic, trans. from the Croatian by Ellen Elias-Bursac. Seven Stories, $18.95 trade paper (240p) ISBN 978-1-64421-048-2
In an unnamed Croatian city in 2010, reporter Nora Kirin, the heroine of this searing political thriller from Bodrozic (The Hotel Tito), hopes to expose the city’s sleazy government. Instead, she’s assigned to write a lurid piece about a Croatian high school teacher who murdered her brutal husband, a Croatian war veteran, while having an affair with a student, an ethnic Serb. Nora’s own troubled past distracts her from this task. Her father disappeared in 1991, just before a horrifying massacre of Croats by Serbs. As Nora seeks the truth about his fate, she uncovers heinous instances of immorality throughout a city supposedly promoting “peaceful reintegration” between Croats and Serbs. In her effort to get justice for her father, Nora dooms her own love affair. Bodrozic smoothly integrates Nora’s gripping personal story with, as revealed in a translator’s note, the recent history of Vukovar, the author’s native city. Noir fans won’t want to miss this one. Agent: Diana Matulic, Corto Literary (Croatia). (Apr.)
Murder on Wall Street: A Gaslight Mystery
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Victoria Thompson. Berkley Prime Crime, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-1-9848-0577-5
Set in 1900, Edgar finalist Thompson’s subpar 24th Gaslight mystery (after 2020’s Murder on Pleasant Avenue) finds midwife Sarah Malloy attending to Jocelyn Robinson, who’s soon to give birth after having been raped by Hayden Norcross, a Wall Street investment banker, nine months earlier. After someone fatally shoots Norcross in his office, Jocelyn’s husband, Jack, an obvious suspect who was plotting a nonviolent revenge aimed at the banker’s reputation, retains Sarah’s PI husband, Frank, to probe the homicide and clear his name. Frank has lots of leads. Norcross was a serial rapist, and his enemies included anarchists and a partner at the bank who felt Norcross got unwarranted preferential treatment because his father was the bank’s owner. Inevitably, Sarah gets drawn into the inquiry, using her profession as a way of accessing Norcross’s widow, who’s in denial about her own pregnancy and who was brutalized by her husband. A superficial portrayal of the period, thin characters, and a less than riveting plot aren’t helped by an improbably melodramatic climax. This one’s strictly for series fans. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary. (Apr.)
Deceptions: A Helena Marsh Novel
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Anna Porter. ECW, $16.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-77041-538-6
In Porter’s exciting sequel to 2017’s The Appraisal, art appraiser Helena Marsh attempts to trace the provenance of a painting believed to be the work of 17th-century artist Artemisia Gentileschi. Helena has her own fascinating provenance: she’s the daughter of a forger, now dead, who taught her the tricks of his trade, and instilled in her a healthy disdain for authority. Helena’s client, Gizella Vaszary, believes her husband is trying to pass an original off as a copy in order to undervalue it in their divorce settlement. Helena meets with Madam Vaszary’s lawyer on a Rhine tour boat in Strasbourg, France. Before much information has been exchanged, the lawyer is shot and killed by an archer. Helena jumps from the boat onto the embankment and runs after the assassin. Soon the police are on her trail, which leads into the netherworld of shady eastern European gangsters, corrupt politicians, and collectors who will pay any price to get what they want. The forgery tips alone are worth the price of admission. Porter takes readers on an exhilarating ride. Agent: John Pearce, Westwood Creative Artists (Canada). (Apr.)
The Three Locks: A Sherlock Holmes Adventure
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Bonnie MacBird. Collins Crime Club, $26.99 (432p) ISBN 978-0-008380-83-0
MacBird’s intriguing fourth Sherlock Holmes adventure (after 2019’s The Devil’s Due) centers on three possibly connected mysteries. The first fleshes out the backstory of Dr. Watson, who’s unsettled to receive a letter and a locked box from an unknown woman, Elspeth Carnachan, who claims to have been his late father’s estranged half-sister. In the letter, Carnachan states the box was given to her by Watson’s mother, who died under mysterious circumstances two days afterward. Carnachan was supposed to pass the box to Watson when he turned 21, but forgot. Meanwhile, Watson and Holmes get two more puzzles to handle. One involves a magician whose wife worries that a human finger sent to her husband presages a threat to him. Another prospective client, a deacon, worries about the disappearance of a young woman he’s fond of whose family members don’t appear concerned. MacBird artfully alternates among the multiple plotlines, maximizing suspense. With its deep probe into the friendship between the detective and the doctor, this is a good choice for fans of Lyndsay Faye’s Sherlock Holmes pastiches. Agent: Linda Langton, Langton’s International. (Apr.)
Bitterroot Lake
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Alicia Beckman. Crooked Lane, $27.99 (336p) ISBN 978-1-64385-580-6
Sarah McCaskill Carter, the protagonist of this amorphous paranormal mystery from Beckman (the pen name of Leslie Budewitz; the Spice Shop mysteries), returns to her family’s home in Deer Park, Mont., at the urging of her mother, Peggy, who believes Sarah needs a project to take her mind off the recent death of her husband. Peggy suggests that sorting out the contents of the long-abandoned McCaskills’ summer house on Bitterroot Lake would be therapeutic, but revisiting the lake brings back troubling memories for Sarah of an unfortunate incident that occurred there 25 years earlier involving her friend Janine Chapman and rich, entitled Lucas Erickson. Soon after Sarah’s arrival, Lucas, now a successful but much despised lawyer, is found dead on his office floor by Janine, who fears everyone will believe she killed him. The meandering plot includes ghostly presences and prophetic nightmares, well-kept family secrets, and a maid’s suspicious death in 1922. The resolution of Lucas’s murder is almost an afterthought. The author’s fans will enjoy this, but others may find it a bit muddled. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Apr.)
A Deadly Twist: A Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery
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Jeffrey Siger. Poisoned Pen, $15.99 trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-4642-1426-4
The disappearance of journalist Nikoletta Elia while on assignment on the Greek island of Naxos drives Siger’s charming 11th mystery featuring Chief Insp. Andreas Kaldis (after 2019’s The Mykonos Mob). Kaldis sends his deputy, Yianni Kouros, from Athens to the island to investigate the disappearance—and the discovery of an unidentified body that may or may not be related. Yianni soon learns that Nikoletta was reporting on a battle between preservationists and advocates for expanded tourism, and her snooping may have placed her in danger. After pairing up with the local police, Yianni has a near fatal accident that forces Kaldis and his wife, Lila, along with Yianni’s girlfriend, Toni, to travel to the island to pursue the case. Siger balances the conflict that fuels the plot with vivid descriptions of the culture, food, and glorious settings of this off-the-beaten-track Greek island. Endearing supporting characters add to the fun. Travel buffs will be enchanted. (Apr.)
Head Case
Michael Wiley. Severn, $28.99 (240p) ISBN 978-0-7278-8983-6
At the start of Wiley’s outstanding third mystery featuring Chicago PI Sam Kelson (after 2020’s Lucky Bones), Kelson confronts car thief Gary Renshaw in the hallway of the man’s building. Renshaw shoots Kelson in the arm, landing him back in the hospital, where he once spent time recovering from a head wound that left him with disinhibition, a condition that renders him incapable of not answering any question asked of him or sharing his thoughts, and afflicted with occasional bouts of being unable to recognize himself in a mirror. At the hospital, Kelson is befriended by nurse Jose Feliciano, who shares his suspicions that some of the facility’s patients have died unnatural deaths. Kelson initially dismisses the claim, but agrees to help when another patient dies unexpectedly, and Feliciano’s girlfriend, also a nurse, is blamed for a fatal error. The whodunit plotline is enhanced by Wiley’s superior gift at integrating humor, mostly deriving from Kelson’s inability to keep himself from sharing blunt truths. The author’s ingenuity shows no sign of diminishing. Fans of the TV series Monk will be enthralled. Agent: Lukas Ortiz, Philip G. Spitzer Literary. (Apr.)
Dead Even
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Annelise Ryan. Kensington, $26 (336p) ISBN 978-1-4967-2257-7
When someone fatally stabs wealthy real estate agent Montgomery Dixon with a pool cue in Ryan’s well-crafted 12th Mattie Winston mystery (after 2020’s Dead Ringer), Mattie, a medicolegal investigator in Sorensen, Wis., and her husband, homicide detective Steve Hurley, have no lack of suspects. They include Monty’s younger, faithless, second wife; a ne’er-do-well son who has racked up gambling debts he hoped his dad would pay off; a former wife; a recently fired employee; and any number of victims of the shady business deals engineered by Monty and his twin brother. The motives vary as much as the suspects, and soon Mattie and Hurley discover possible connections between Monty’s murder and several others that cross their desks during the course of a weekend. Mattie is an engagingly flawed protagonist, and readers will connect with her insecurities and stressful home life. A fine cast of family and friends lend support, and Ryan weaves the many plot threads into a single, satisfying solution. This convincing procedural with a domestic twist should have wide appeal. Agent: Adam Chromy, Movable Type Management. (Apr.)
Just My Luck
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Adele Parks. Mira, $17.99 trade paper (368p) ISBN 978-0-7783-3173-5
This exhilarating, shrewdly observed tale about morality and greed from Parks (Lies, Lies, Lies) focuses on three English couples. Lexi Greenwood and her husband, Jake, who live with their two children in Little Chester, scrape by on their modest earnings. For 15 years, Lexi and Jake have gotten together every week with Peter and Carla Pearson and Fred and Jennifer Heathcote, who live in posh Great Chester, for dinner and their group-flutter on the National Lottery. Year in and year out, they have played and lost. One fateful evening, the Pearsons and the Heathcotes declare the lottery is for losers and they will no longer take part. Out of habit the following week, Lexi buys a ticket and plays their regular numbers, winning £17.8 million. The other couples feel they deserve a share. The ensuing lawsuits, double-dealing, secret trysts, and fistfights devolve into cruelty, kidnapping, and fraud. Elegant, quietly witty prose helps speed along the twisty plot. Anyone who thinks winning the lottery Those curious about the downside of winning it big will be entertained. Agent: Jonny Geller, Curtis Brown (U.K.). (Apr.)
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