A highly readable whodunit that’s well grounded in social issues.
A gay Latino writer turns detective when a series of apparent hate crimes rocks his small town in VanPatten’s mystery.
Aspiring middle-aged novelist Will Christian is pedaling hard on his daily cardio bike ride in the fictional town of Mañana in California’s fertile Central Valley when he comes across a flock of vultures devouring a large carcass. He queasily recognizes a human hand rising from the remains, which are soon identified as those of 22-year-old Sergio Ramirez; like Will, he’s gay and Latino, and Will’s writerly curiosity kicks in as he begins to wonder if the man’s death could be a hate crime. His week is made even more eventful when he meets José Torres, a handsome grocery store worker who seems to be his perfect romantic match, while out shopping. Will’s fascination with the murder mystery is heightened when the body of another handsome, young, gay Latino man is found; at the same time, Will remains troubled by a memory of his high school friend, who may also have been killed for being gay and Latino. But as Will finds himself drawn further into the investigation, asking locals for help and pursuing potential leads with a dating app, he could become the killer’s next target. VanPatten presents an affable and relatable amateur detective in Will, and the story immediately draws readers in by placing the gruesome discovery of the first body in the opening paragraphs. Will’s immediate attention to the possible racial aspect of the crime and the account of his first meeting with José have a feeling of authenticity, as does the men’s encounter with a local homophobe. However, some readers may wish that the author had explored some facets of the narrative more deeply, such as the history of Will’s close relationship with his lesbian sister. The story has some lighter moments, but the story also presents a keen exploration of American racism, which, as Will says, “coursed through this country’s veins like cheap vodka in a drunk’s bloodstream.”
A highly readable whodunit that’s well grounded in social issues.Pub Date: July 8, 2021
ISBN: 979-8737025731
Page Count: 345
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.
Four residents of Coopers Chase, a British retirement village, compete with the police to solve a murder in this debut novel.
The Thursday Murder Club started out with a group of septuagenarians working on old murder cases culled from the files of club founder Elizabeth Best’s friend Penny Gray, a former police officer who's now comatose in the village's nursing home. Elizabeth used to have an unspecified job, possibly as a spy, that has left her with a large network of helpful sources. Joyce Meadowcroft is a former nurse who chronicles their deeds. Psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif and well-known political firebrand Ron Ritchie complete the group. They charm Police Constable Donna De Freitas, who, visiting to give a talk on safety at Coopers Chase, finds the residents sharp as tacks. Built with drug money on the grounds of a convent, Coopers Chase is a high-end development conceived by loathsome Ian Ventham and maintained by dangerous crook Tony Curran, who’s about to be fired and replaced with wary but willing Bogdan Jankowski. Ventham has big plans for the future—as soon as he’s removed the nuns' bodies from the cemetery. When Curran is murdered, DCI Chris Hudson gets the case, but Elizabeth uses her influence to get the ambitious De Freitas included, giving the Thursday Club a police source. What follows is a fascinating primer in detection as British TV personality Osman allows the members to use their diverse skills to solve a series of interconnected crimes.
A top-class cozy infused with dry wit and charming characters who draw you in and leave you wanting more, please.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-98-488096-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
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