Review by New York Times Review
Once women got tired of being cast as helpless victims in crime novels and began running their own investigative agencies, authors had to scramble for other marginalized groups requiring the services of a detective hero. For more than a decade, P. L. Gaus has been writing quietly spellbinding mysteries about one such group, the conservative Old Order Amish of Holmes County, Ohio. Returning to the region in the seventh installment of his series, HARMLESS AS DOVES (Ohio University, $24.95), Gaus offers a sensitive account of the impact on this community when outsiders (that is, the cops) descend to deal with an Amish youth who has confessed to the murder of his fiancée's older, richer and very persistent admirer. Gaus takes an evenhanded approach to the conflicting values of the otherworldly Plain People, who travel by horse and buggy and shun electricity on their farms, as well as intruders from "the modern world of gadgets." But he also writes with feeling about the dissension within the Amish community whenever unruly human passions threaten its members' pacifist principles. Holmes County is also the setting for Linda Castillo's more conventional procedural mysteries featuring Kate Burkholder, an Amish-born (but excommunicated) chief of police who feels torn between two cultures whenever her job takes her back to the old community. Kate's divided loyalties make her a sympathetic narrator in BREAKING SILENCE (Minotaur, $24.99) when three members of an Amish family are found dead in the manure pit of their pig farm, a tragedy she fears may be related to a recent rash of hate crimes. Kate seems a competent if sentimental cop, and for some reason her banal, clichéd interrogations don't incite the plain-spoken Amish to drive her off with pitchforks. David Loogan, the personable amateur sleuth in Harry Dolan's first crime novel, "Bad Things Happen," finds himself entangled in another literary murder case in VERY BAD MEN (Amy Einhorn/ Putnam, $25.95). As the editor of a mystery magazine called Gray Streets, Loogan is used to dealing with peculiar authors. But when a killer drops off a manuscript in which he confesses to one murder and thoughtfully provides the next name on his hit list, Loogan feels compelled to horn in on the investigation headed by his girlfriend, a detective on the police force in Ann Arbor, Mich. Although the dynamic of this relationship is fairly bland, the characterization of the killer is more inspired. Anthony Lark suffers from synesthesia, a rare condition that causes him to perceive written words as having color and movement. He can read most crime stories without difficulty because of their simple language, but ornate writing styles leave him queasy, and adverbs, which "swarmed like marching ants," make his skin crawl. If Lark could actually read this convoluted account of his mad mission to rectify the unjust outcome of a 17-year-old robbery, the killer might indeed be seeing red. That reaction would have less to do with Dolan's language, which is clean and crisp, than with his excessive use of plot twists, character reversals and irrelevant clues - devices that, like adverbs, should be used sparingly by writers who don't want to find themselves on some crazy reader's hit list. It's a fact of crime fiction that social misfits make the best amateur detectives. That's certainly true of the endearing sleuth of Colin Cotterill's first mystery series, Dr. Siri Paiboun, an aged pathologist who is amused and appalled to find himself one of the last surviving free-thinking intellectuals in 1970s Communist Laos. In KILLED AT THE WHIM OF A HAT (Minotaur, $24.99), Cotterill expands on his outsider theme with a beguiling new series set in contemporary Thailand. His scrappy young heroine, Jimm Juree, feels the sting of social alienation when her mother's impulsive decision to buy a shabby resort on the Gulf of Thailand forces a move south from Chiang Mai, dashing Jimm's dreams of becoming the local paper's first-string crime reporter. Stuck in this rural backwater, where southerners dislike northerners and northerners scorn southerners and everyone hates the Chinese, Jimm can identify with the lonely stand of evergreen trees she spies growing here in the tropics: "I wondered if they had dreams of snow." Luckily for her, two drifters from a bygone era suddenly surface when a workman digs up a 1972 Volkswagen camper with their skeletons inside. Now that's something you don't often see up north, a hint that Jimm's life in the south is going to be much more interesting than she thought. Don't believe the hype about THE HYPNOTIST (Sarah Crichton/ Ferrar, Straus & Giroux, $27), a calculating thriller by two Swedish authors writing as Lars Kepler. This lengthy story of a spree killer who wipes out three members of a family in a murderous rage and the discredited hypnotist who comes out of professional exile to help catch him does contain strokes of good writing ("Josef had a particular smell about him, a smell of rage, of burning chemicals," in Ann Long's blunt translation). And the maniac of the piece is certainly an eye-catching villain. But the dislocations in time, glib psychology and repetitious depiction of guts and gore create more discomfort than tension. For genuinely stylish sadism, stick to Stieg Larsson; for cruelty executed with true cunning, read Jo Nesbo; and if ponderous philosophizing is called for, no one can beat Henning Mankell. In two new crime novels, outsiders (that is, the cops) descend on the otherworldly Amish of rural Ohio.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 24, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review
Like Dolan's excellent Bad Things Happen (2009), this book begins with a story submitted to the crime-fiction journal, Gray Streets. In Bad Things Happen, David Loogan's submission earned him an editing job and a role in an exceedingly twisty mystery. Now Loogan is editor-in-chief, and an intriguing manuscript (it begins. I killed Henry Kormoran in his apartment on Linden Street ) involves him in the case of a serial killer with straightforward goals but motives that unravel a long-lasting, far-flung conspiracy. Dolan's plotting is just as astonishing as in his first book. His wry, dry dialogue is nearly as good, and his character names are the best in the business. But his stories require strong suspension of disbelief. In Bad Things, we accepted the unlikely publishing enterprise because Ann Arbor noir was too tempting to resist. Here, the magazine is more believable, but Loogan's partnership with his lover, detective Elizabeth Waishkey, strains credulity. Most readers will succumb, but it's hard to justify an amateur sleuth when a professional is already on the job.--Graff, Kei. Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dolan follows Bad Things Happen, his acclaimed debut, with a riveting crime novel also featuring Ann Arbor, Mich., amateur sleuth David Loogan, editor of the mystery magazine Gray Streets. When Loogan finds a manuscript outside his office door-a story about three murders, two already committed and one still being planned-he instantly realizes it's not a work of fiction but a declaration from the murderer of two local men. With the help of his police detective girlfriend, Elizabeth Waishkey, Loogan uncovers an elaborate, at times convoluted conspiracy including criminals involved in a 17-year-old bank robbery gone wrong, an adulterous statesman, a paranormal fantasy novelist turned tabloid journalist, and a charismatic politician running for the Senate. As the body count rises, the intrepid Loogan gets closer to the truth-and closer to becoming the killer's next victim. Relentless pacing, a wry sense of humor, and an engaging protagonist add up to another winner for Dolan. Author tour. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A second mind-bending case for Ann Arbor editor David Loogan that begins just as simply and ominously and takes the reader on just as wild a journey.Anthony Lark's mission is simple: to kill three of the men involved in a fatally botched bank robbery 17 years ago. He's already dispatched two of his targetsan impressive feat, considering that one of them, Terry Dawtrey, is serving 30 years in Kinross Prisonwhen he identifies them both and announces his third, nurse practitioner Sutton Bell, in an anonymous letter to Loogan (Bad Things Happen,2009), who promptly shares it with his ladylove, police detective Elizabeth Waishkey. The timely intervention of aspiring tabloid reporter Lucy Navarro saves Bell from Lark's initial attempt and gives Dolan a chance to fill in some back story. Lark's motives are obscure, but they have something to do with U.S. Senate candidate Callie Spencer, whose father Harlan was the Chippewa County Sheriff shot and paralyzed in the bank robbery and whose father-in-law, John Casterbridge, is the senator she hopes to succeed. Lark keeps coming nerve-wrackingly close to killing Bell; Loogan and Elizabeth keep coming heartbreakingly close to catching Lark; and yet the tale still goes on. To divulge any more about the plot would spoil some of the dozens of surprises Dolan springs. But it's not too much to say that nearly every cast member, however minor, is complicit in some crime; that nearly every one, even though they're all rooted in excruciatingly familiar generic types, gets a chance to reveal unexpected depths; and that Dolan mixes his pitches with an ace's judgment, steadily complicating Lark's quest while keeping the psychology of his characters considerably more plausible than in Loogan's equally baroque debut.The rare crime novel with something for everyone who reads crime fiction.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
