A fun murder-and-mayhem detective story enhanced by historical details and a sturdy female lead.
Caroline Case and Hannibal Jones, now living in a lush penthouse in Chicago, return in Gertcher’s second installment of a series, once again navigating the crossfire of the warring Al Capone and a North Side gang.
It’s October 1928, and Caroline—formerly the madam of a houseboat brothel in the Wabash Valley and currently a private detective together with her partner Hannibal—receives an early morning phone call from neighbor and new friend Ruth Meltzer. The police are at Ruth’s apartment, having just informed her of the death of her 28-year-old son, Sydney. His lifeless body was discovered in his suite at the luxe Steven’s Hotel. Caroline and Hannibal have their next case. Sydney, a handsome, rich playboy, frequented one of Chicago’s vast assortment of speak-easies, known as “blind pigs.” As Caroline explains, “rival Chicago gangs fight bloody battles over control of the illegal booze trade. Murders are frequent, and I investigate.” Two different poisons are found in Sydney’s system, and it appears more than one person wanted him dead. Meanwhile, the duo is handed another case. Someone is trying to kill Giuseppe Costanzo’s youngest son, Michael. Giuseppe owns a string of bakeries in Chicago; not incidentally, he also launders money for Capone. There is plenty of fuel for a high-action drama, and Gertcher doesn’t disappoint. Like the series opener, the novel is enjoyably lightened by humor and a strong protagonist. And vivid portrayals of locale, décor, and clothing land readers squarely in the Roaring ’20s. One caveat: Caroline’s repetitious description of her favorite evening lounge attire becomes wearying. Nonetheless, Caroline is smart, confident, and spirited, and in between the shootings, knifings, and a kidnapping is some solid sleuthing. Gertcher supplies a sizable cast of likable secondary players; kudos go to Ruth, a clever, wealthy widow with a wickedly useful cane.
A fun murder-and-mayhem detective story enhanced by historical details and a sturdy female lead.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-9835754-6-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Wind Grass Hill Books
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.
An aspiring mystery writer sets out to solve her great-aunt’s murder and inherit an estate.
Twenty-five-year-old Annie Adams has never met her great-aunt Frances, who prefers her small village to busy London. But when a mysterious letter arrives instructing Annie to come to Castle Knoll in Dorset to meet Frances and discuss her role as sole beneficiary of her great-aunt’s estate, Annie can’t resist. Unfortunately, she arrives to find Frances’ worst fears have come true: The elderly woman—who’s been haunted for decades by a fortuneteller’s prediction that this will happen—has been murdered, and her will dictates that she will leave her entire estate to Annie, but only if Annie solves her killing. It’s a cheeky if not exactly believable premise, especially since the local police don’t seem terribly opposed to it. Annie herself is an engaging presence, if a little too blind to the fact that she could be on the killer’s to-do list. Her roll call of suspects is pleasingly long, including but not limited to the local vicar, a one-time paramour of her great-aunt’s; a gardener who grows a lot more than flowers; shady developers and suspicious friends from Frances’ past; and Saxon, Annie’s crafty rival, who inherits the estate himself if he manages to solve the case first. Annie pieces together clues through readings of Frances’ journal, but the story eventually runs aground on the twin rocks of too much explanation and a flimsy climax. Cute dialogue gives way to lengthy exposition, and by the time Frances’ killer is revealed you may well be ready to leave Annie, Dorset, and Castle Knoll behind for the firmer ground of reality. Fans of cozy mysteries are likely to be more forgiving, but if you cast a skeptical eye toward amateur sleuths, this novel won’t change your mind about them.
Breezy, entertaining characters and a cheeky premise fall prey to too much explanation and an unlikely climax.Pub Date: March 26, 2024
ISBN: 9780593474013
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 3, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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