Review by New York Times Review
WHO DOES WHAT? Readers usually wonder about the mechanics of smoothly successful collaborations like that of Jonathan Kellerman and his son, Jesse. There are no psychologically wounded children in a measure of darkness (Ballantine, $28.99), which would tip us to the hand of Kellerman pere. But a loving exchange between a college student and his grandmother (a homemade coconut cake as a reward for a quick visit) suggests a more youthful sensibility. As for the keen sense of drama, it must be a genetic trait. Clay Edison, an Oakland, Calif., coroner's investigator, makes a point of performing his sleuthing duties with "patience and diplomacy." Sensitive to both the living and the dead, he's gentle as he lifts the body of a transvestite dressed as an angel onto a gurney, noting that "she felt like nothing, like the body of a bird, hollow bones and down." Her death was the result of a party that got way too wild and claimed six casualties, one of whom is found in a shed by "the meat people," as the coroner's crew refer to themselves. This Jane Doe really gets to Edison, who shudders at the sadness of dying alone and unknown. Unlike most crime writers (not to mention most of their readers), who revel in the bloody aftermath of a violent encounter, the Kellermans show compassion for the survivors, including conscientious officials like Edison. "Deep down, we know we're powerless," he admits. "All of us, however, would like to imagine that we're contributing in some small way to keeping the world orderly. Then comes along a stark reminder to the contrary." Edison makes it his business to identify Jane Doe, find her killer and restore the dignity she's been denied. The man's got his flaws. (A silk scarf decorated with a pattern of human skulls might not have been such a great birthday present for his wife.) But he's got heart, caring not only for the lonely dead but for the cops, their living advocates: "I knew what it was like to live with victims - to have them take up residence in your head, nameless, insistent; to carry on a conversation no one else can hear." Except us. if you can overlook the high body count, THE BOUNCER (Mysterious Press, $26), by David Gordon, is a brilliantly goofy caper novel in the grand tradition of Donald E. Westlake. A terrorist plot to hit New York City is the only threat that would make confederates out of warring mobsters like Uncle Chen, who runs the Chinese street gangs in Flushing; Little Maria, who keeps the Dominican heroin trade cooking; Alonzo, who heads up the black gangs in Brooklyn; and Menachem (Rebbe) Stone, who oversees the Orthodox Jewish underworld. "We are all proud New Yorkers, patriotic Americans whose families came here from somewhere - Russia, Sicily, the Caribbean, Louisiana - fleeing poverty," says Giovanni Caprisi, the gangster known as Gio the Gent. But for all their professional expertise, hunting spies and defusing bombs aren't among the talents these tough folks have. Better they should hire a "gangster sheriff," like Joe Brody, a bouncer at Club Rendezvous who carried out classified military missions during a stint in Special Forces. In a case like this, Brody is definitely your man. Ghosts in the attic and skeletons in the closet are bad enough, but nothing in the realm of domestic horror beats coming home to find total strangers in the process of moving into your home. That's the heartbreak Louise Candlish dishes out in OUR house (Berkley, $26). Fiona and Bram Lawson have separated, but Fiona and the children are still living in the redbrick Edwardian at 91 Trinity Avenue in London - until the day Fiona discovers that another family has taken possession. Bram, meanwhile, has skipped off to Switzerland with the money from the sale, leaving his wife to sob out her story on "The Victim," a crime podcast that feeds on the misery of injured parties like herself. This terrific premise almost makes up for the fact that Fiona is such a pill and Bram is such a worm. As for the house, well, that's certainly worth a fight to the death. IMAGINE YOU'RE MARRIED to a handsome, charismatic teacher who's just been promoted to dorm master at an exclusive boarding school in New Hampshire. Now imagine that the students in Moreland Hall, informally known as "the slut dorm," are locked in a fierce competition to seduce their dorm master. If murder doesn't figure in your ruminations, it should, because that's what happens in SHE WAS THE QUIET ONE (St. Martin's, $26.99), Michele Campbell's cozy mystery with teeth - and nails. Sarah Donovan finds herself in this awkward situation when she and her husband, Heath, are assigned to monitor the raging hormones of the rich, entitled and unbridled Moreland girls. Among them are the 15-year-old twins Bel and Rose Enright. Bel, the bold twin, is mad for Heath. Rose, the quiet one, becomes attached to Sarah. Despite the annoying flips and flops in storytelling time (what is it with this trendy stylistic affectation?), the novel delivers a deadly crime, some surprising twists on said crime and several suspects who need a good spanking. MARILYN STASIO has covered crime fiction for the Book Review since 1988. Her column appears twice a month.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 31, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
Orphaned twins Bel and Rose Enright find a home with their wealthy grandmother, but it's short-lived, as she soon packs them off to swanky Odell boarding school. Rose fares well there, but Bel, who is more rebellious, goes a different way. She falls in with the wrong crowd, and rumors swirl that she might win the contest to be first to seduce the school's dishy dorm head. From the start of this intriguing mystery, readers know that one of the twins has been found dead by the other, and the novel moves back and forth between the investigation and the time before the crime; it also switches character viewpoints, giving readers a multifaceted look at the circumstances surrounding the killing, with Campbell masterfully hiding vital details until the end. Though the story drags in the middle while various intrigues build, Campbell's skillful characterization and her shocking final twist make this follow-up to It's Always the Husband (2017) well worthwhile. Readers who enjoyed Simone St. James' boarding-school mystery, The Broken Girls (2018), should give this a try.--Verma, Henrietta Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Campbell (It's Always the Husband) sets this twisty thriller against an academic background. Twins Rose and Bel could not be more dissimilar; after their mother's death, ambitious Rose is thrilled to be sent by their wealthy grandmother to boarding school at rigorous Odell Academy in New England, while Bel feels abandoned. Rose immediately excels academically while Bel becomes part of an older, trouble-making crowd. Both sisters are drawn to their faculty advisors, a married couple who are also their dorm parents. Readers learn straight off that one of the sisters will be murdered-but which one? And why? Overlapping narrative perspectives and shifting chronologies serve to heighten suspense but sometimes create tiresome redundancies, while the prolonged revelations not only of "who done it" but also "who got done" lead to some awkward moments in the novel's first half. The final narrative twist also feels tacked-on and almost entirely unnecessary to the plot. Readers will nevertheless be drawn in to the novel's intricate exploration of divided loyalties and the brittleness of trust. 100,000-copy announced first printing. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
