Viviana Valentine goes up the river

In Edwards's second outing for Viviana Valentine (after 2022's Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man), the spunky former watch thief has become a partner at Tommy Fortuna's PI firm in 1950 Hell's Kitchen. Things kick off when Valentine and Fortuna are invited to a house party at the Tarrytown, N.Y., mansion of scientist Buster Beacon, who complains of spooky noises on the premises. It's a thin pretense for dragging the two private eyes out of the city, but soon one of the house guests is poisoned, and a blizzard leaves everyone snowed in, with nearly every guest harboring a potential murder motive or illicit secret. Throughout, Valentine's voice shifts puzzlingly from polished and proper to slangy, but much of the dialogue is quick and witty, and the mansion is a delightfully rendered setting, full of hidden passages and strange scientific devices. Fans of Susan Elia MacNeal's Maggie Hope or Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs will want to give this a try. Agent: Anne Tibbets, Donald Maass Literary. (May)

After Viviana Valentine became a PI and partnered with Tommy Fortuna in their Manhattan business, wealthy debutante Tally Blackstone moved into Viviana's position as secretary. The firm's newest client, Buster Beacon, is one of Tally's acquaintances. A scientist with a sprawling estate in Tarrytown, Buster has been hearing creaks and ghastly sounds in the house and asks the PIs to uncover the cause. When Tommy and Viviana arrive, they find a house full of scientists and wealthy investors, but Buster doesn't know whom to trust. Within a day, an undercover FBI agent is dead, and the estate is snowed in with a bridge out. Although the investigators try to keep their identities secret, it isn't long before they have to dig into top-secret Cold War scientific experiments in hopes of uncovering a spy as well as a killer. VERDICT Some questions are never fully answered in Edwards's sequel to Viviana Valentine Gets Her Man. Sexist male attitudes toward working women are on full display in this 1950s period piece, which might only appeal to fans of the earlier book.--Lesa Holstine