As summer turned into fall, I found myself returning again and again to the mystery/suspense genre. PD James has opined that people like mysteries because they create an inviolable world in which justice is inevitably served. I think my own interest may be more pedestrian than that. I enjoy seeing where the author is taking me, and what I learn along the way.
Here are three recent reads in the genre and what I thought of them:
1.
Defined as a murder solved amidst a contained, usually small community (think of Jessica Fletcher in Cabot’s Cove), cozy mysteries tend to spare the reader too much gore or graphic sex as well. I usually steer clear of them due to a childhood aversion to Murder, She Wrote. However, this one caught my eye and held my attention, even briefly turning me into a fan.
Crash (named after Kevin Coster’s character in Bull Durham) is a recent college grad who lands a coveted internship with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. She has no sooner been hired than the senior senator agrees to give a stump speech in her hometown of Eagle Creek, Vt. After they arrive, a body is fished out of a local lake. The autopsy reveals that the vic’s lungs were filled with maple syrup. Crash and her boss put their heads together and investigate the crime. Suspects include Crash’s cousin (who smells suspiciously of maple syrup), the local mayor, and a bevy of small town ladies.
The story was entertaining with a few twists along the way. It was also informative. I learned quite a bit about how maple syrup is made and marketed. Bernie Sanders is a surprisingly entertaining sleuth. I’d be happy for another visit sometime.
2.
Hannah Hall is a woodworker living on a floating home in Sausalito with her husband, Owen, and teenage stepdaughter, Bailey. When news breaks that Owen’s tech company is being investigated by the feds, Owen disappears, leaving a duffel bag of cash and a note to Hannah that says Protect her.
As she struggles to understand why her husband has fled, Hannah discovers that his life story is fictionalized. Hannah takes Bailey to Austin, TX, after the teen has some vague memories of being at a sports game and a wedding there. As they piece together who Owen really was, Hannah and Bailey form a bond and find themselves in danger.
I was reminded a bit of Harlan Coben as I read this. If you know my reading habits, that is very high praise. The Last Thing He Told Me is a suspenseful and ultimately satisfying story about why people live double lives and the people left in the wake of them.
3.
Paloma comes home one night to her San Francisco apartment and finds her roommate dead. We know that he had been blackmailing her and that Paloma has a drinking problem, so when the police show up and find no body, it all sounds about right. This is one of those novels that doesn’t hide from the reader that the narrator may be unreliable. That’s OK for a while.
The novel switches back and forth between Paloma’s current investigation and her girlhood in Sri Lanka, where she is ultimately adopted by a Bay Area couple. As her paranoia about her roommate increases, Paloma goes to her parents’ home, where she encounters some disturbing things. A neighbor lurks around, dropping off a copy of Paloma’s favorite book Wuthering Heights. A friend of her parents invites Paloma over with great urgency, but then goes missing. And peculiar things are happening around the house, with ties to Paloma’s Sri Lankan memories.
This is all pretty scary, and hinges on the possibility that Paloma is mentally ill. There is also another fairly obvious explanation, which won’t be a surprise to anyone who reads regularly in this genre. By the end there are some laughable implausibilities and a final scene that aspires to cinematic greatness, but just comes off as derivative.
Overall this was pretty entertaining, but not enough to rate a rave.
Books Smitten 