Review by New York Times Review
THE FIRST THING we learn about New York tabloid journalism from INVISIBLE CITY (Minotaur, $24.99) is that a body in Gowanus takes precedence over a brothel in Chinatown. Rebekah Roberts, the narrator of Julia Dahl's first novel, is fresh out of college and considers herself lucky to be working as a stringer for a bottom-feeding tabloid. Amateur sleuths with day jobs on a newspaper's staff are usually battle-weary veterans, so it's a treat to hear Rebekah and her friends trade horror stories about fighting for entry-level positions. Rebekah's journalistic skills - a combination of shrewdness, tenacity and subterfuge that Dahl describes in strong, blunt prose - produce a decent crime story on that body in Gowanus. The bald, naked woman hanging from the cage of a scrapyard crane turns out to be Rivka Mendelssohn, the wife of the owner of the yard. And Rebekah is disturbed to see men in Hasidic dress walk past the police to claim the body and carry it away in a private van, contaminating a crime scene and raising questions about police complicity. It isn't Rebekah's reportorial muscle but her identity as the daughter of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman (who abandoned her shortly after birth) that gains her entry into the Hasidic neighborhood of Borough Park, where the murder victim lived. "I kind of feel like I've been transported to a 1930s Polish village," she observes. Making her way in this insular world, Rebekah discovers the political power of the religious community. "The Hasidim vote, and most vote for who their rebbe tells them to vote for," she learns from a rebellious member of this patriarchal society. When she uncovers the story the police won't touch, it's a harrowing tale of the domestic violence, sexual abuse and mental illness compliant wives like Rivka learn to live with - or escape at their peril. ONCE MET, Bill Ogden is not soon forgotten. When Scott Phillips introduced this womanizing rogue in "Cottonwood," he was working as a professional photographer while consorting with killers and shady entrepreneurs in a rowdy Kansas frontier town in 1872. Some 20 years after running off to California with another man's wife, the rascal returned to the Great Plains to close that chapter of a lifelong adventure. Rather than pick up the narrative at this point, HOP ALLEY (Counterpoint, $25) fills in those missing years with another rollicking escapade, starting in 1873 in Omaha, a town with a reputation for "roughness, violence and general squalor." Bill is still bedding dangerous women and still making a living as a photographer; since he's also still wanted for murder in Kansas, he's calling himself Bill Sadlaw and keeping a low profile. But trouble knows where to find him, and he's soon involved in two shootings and a riot in the Chinese section of town known as Hop Alley. Phillips's juicy vernacular is perfect for Bill's louche narrative voice, and his easy, flowing style suits the loose morality and freewheeling spirit of a hotheaded young nation. THERE SHOULD BE a better word for a mystery that runs on for 500-plus pages, stuffed with multigenerational back stories for key characters and detailed subplots about the domestic affairs of the married sleuths, their friends, colleagues and former spouses. How about calling it a historical-biographical-romanticdomestic-police-proceduralcrime-and-love saga? Like Camilla Lackberg's previous novels set in the Swedish tourist town of Fjallbacka, THE HIDDEN CHILD (Pegasus Crime, $25.95) opens with an unusual homicide. On this occasion, it's the bludgeoning of Erik Frankel, a scholarly old man known to be an expert on World War II and a collector of Nazi artifacts. It's an intriguing crime, but the case is constantly up-staged by a busy domestic drama starring Erika Falck, a true-crime author who plays amateur detective in this series, and her husband, Patrik Hedstrom, a policeman who is supposed to be on paternity leave but can't resist getting involved in the murder investigation. Lackberg has whipped up a respectable plot, but who can concentrate on murder when Patrik is secretly taking his 1-year-old daughter on play dates with his ex-wife? CLASSIC DETECTIVE DUOS - brilliant, eccentric sleuths (like Nero Wolfe) and their scrappy young assistants (like Archie Goodwin) - make livelier companions than those contrived, politically correct pretenders who plod through many modern detective stories. One such classic pair can be found in Will Thomas's Victorian mysteries featuring Cyrus Barker, private inquiry agent and resident genius, and Thomas Llewelyn, his young associate, who narrates their energetic adventures. FATAL ENQUIRY (Minotaur, $25.99) opens in London in the spring of 1886 when the S.S. Rangoon steams into port from Calcutta, bearing Col. Sebastian Nightwine, the villain who killed Barker's brother back in Shanghai. The deadly events that ensue involve a mysterious kingdom in Tibet, but the best fun in this Big Boys' Adventure Book is observing Barker in action. An autodidact who keeps a French chef in his kitchen and rare penjing trees in his garden, he's a formidable foe who applies the wits he was born with (and the subversive skills he acquired in Canton) in hand-to-hand combat. His sidekick, Thomas, is cute, but he has a lot to learn.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [June 5, 2014]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This latest visit to Lackberg's Fjallbacka, a tourist resort on Sweden's southwest coast, finds homicide detective Patrik Hedstrom on paternity leave, caring for baby daughter Maja, which frees his wife, author Erica Falck, to finish a book about her late mother's life. When news arrives of the brutal murder of the retired Marxist history teacher Erik Frankel, Patrik is asked for advice. Erica, meanwhile, has just discovered a connection between her mother and Frankel dating back to the WWII years. The lengthy novel leaps back and forth, from the present-day investigations to 1943-1944, when Erik and Erica's mother become embroiled in the Nazi occupation of neighboring Norway. There are also a number of subplots, populated by numerous characters. Following a story this complex as it moves backward, forward, and sideways can be a bit daunting, but narrator Vance does his best to keep us on track. He presents the expository passages in a crisp, immaculately paced British accent, and slips with seeming ease into a vast assortment of vocal intonations for the characters, each of whom distinctive enough to identify immediately. Lackberg sketches out of what feels like half the population of Fjallbacka and Vance's narration add detail and color. A Pegasus hardcover. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Rich in suspense, history, characters, and especially secrets, this fifth entry in Lackberg's Swedish detective series (after The Stranger) is exciting and thought provoking, with a fast-paced plot that addresses past and present-day prejudices and their consequences. After crime writer Erica Falck made the puzzling discoveries of a Nazi war medal and diaries among her late mother's possessions, she reached out to a friend of her mother's for answers. He evaded her questions, then died violently several days after speaking with her. Falck's husband, Det. Patrik Hedstrom, is pulled into the investigation. For those who enjoy the sometimes hilarious relationships among the members of the Fjallbacka police force and the complex conflicts and ties among the Hedstrom and Falck families, this is a must-listen. Some new characters are introduced and minor characters given more of the spotlight all are well drawn and essential. Beautifully narrated by Simon Vance. VERDICT An excellent entry in a solid series. ["Though dealing with the serious subjects of extremist groups and prisoners of war, the novel has its humorous moments. Recommended for the author's fans as well as lovers of Scandinavian mysteries," read the review of the Pegasus Crime hc, LJ 4/1/14.] Sandra C. Clariday, Tennessee Wesleyan Coll., Athens (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
