Exciting enough to be a page-turner, but can also be enjoyed slowly, like a delicious Swiss chocolate.
In Hays’ mystery novel, a woman who died 15 years ago after a fall from the cathedral tower in Bern’s Old City may not have leapt, but been pushed.
In the fourth book in the Linder and Donatelli Mystery series, a teenage boy races from the Bern cathedral after intentionally causing a glassworker to fall from a scaffold. As the teen shakes the scaffold, he yells, “Murderer, I hope you bust your head open.” The glassworker, Denis Kellenberger, is seriously injured. Denis grew up in a tiny apartment in the cathedral, where his grandparents served as tower guards. When he was 10, his friend Zora and her little brother Goran lived nearby. Supposedly, one night, Zora’s mother Katica Horvat entered the cathedral through the tower door, climbed the staircase, jumped from the tower, and died. The church sexton says Denis was to blame for her death because he left the tower door unlocked. In the hospital after his fall, Denis realizes the teen who shook the scaffold trying to kill him was Goran. Investigator Renzo Donatelli and Detective Giuliana Linder work the attempted murder case and question whether Katica truly committed suicide. The pair discovers nobody remembers much about the investigation, which “vanished” from police radar quickly. A B-story involves a potential mercy killing, but perhaps the book’s biggest buzz emanates from the heat between Renzo and Giuliana. Married Giuliana openly ogles the “preposterously beautiful,” almost-divorced Renzo as a man who “looked too mischievous to be an angel and not arrogant enough to be a model.” The author has lived in Switzerland for decades, so readers can expect vivid portraits of its locales. The narrative contains disturbing sexual violence, but also humor and rich descriptions, such as those referring to Guiliana’s husband’s “white-on-white” dinner: “White plates filled with cauliflower, rice, and chicken served with white wine.” The hardships of refugees—in this case, from Yugoslavia—provide added relevancy.
Exciting enough to be a page-turner, but can also be enjoyed slowly, like a delicious Swiss chocolate.Pub Date: April 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781645060949
Page Count: 366
Publisher: Seventh Street Books
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”
Idyllic Catalina Island turns out to be just as crime infested as the rest of Los Angeles County in the latest series launch by the creator of Harry Bosch, Renée Ballard, and the Lincoln Lawyer.
Det. Sgt. Stilwell has been bounced off the county homicide squad and rusticized to Catalina, where the exclusive Black Marlin Club won’t admit even four-term Avalon Mayor Doug Allen to full membership and the most serious infraction seems to be the killing and cutting up of a buffalo, presumably by Henry Gaston, who operates Island Mystery Tours when he’s not threatening endangered species. All that changes with the discovery of a body sunk in the surrounding waters. The corpse, most recognizable by its streak of purple hair, is that of Leigh-Anne Moss, a Black Marlin server recently fired for fraternizing with members and guests she sees as potential sugar daddies. Stilwell is sufficiently invested in her murder to compete vigorously over jurisdiction with Rex Ahearn, the LA County homicide detective who kept his job when Stilwell lost his. Their rivalry, fueled by mutual contempt, is only the first hint that Stilwell will end up fighting his counterparts in law enforcement and local government at least as hard as he fights crooks like hit man Merris Spivak and Oscar “Baby Head” Terranova, Henry’s boss, who comes under sharper scrutiny when Henry disappears and ends up dead himself. Connelly handles his hero’s obligatory romance with assistant harbormaster Tash Dano and his increasingly wary alliance with assistant D.A. Monika Juarez with equal professionalism, and if the wrap-up leaves some loose ends dangling, well, that’s what franchises are for.
As the prosecutor sadly observes: “All this because of a dead buffalo.”Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780316588485
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: April 19, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2025
Hair-raising fun!
Two strange deaths in the desert pose tough questions in this fifth Nora Kelly adventure.
In a remote section of New Mexico, a woman walks alone into the blistering desert heat. In a trance, she ignores her horrific thirst and discards her clothing, piece by piece, until she lies down and dies. Five years later, a video crew with a drone discovers her skeletal remains, which they promptly report. Agent Corrie Swanson is part of an FBI team that heads out into the bleak badlands to investigate. She shares a photo with anthropologist Nora Kelly, who is especially intrigued by the pair of rare green lightning stones found under the skeleton. The woman died with perfect health, yet no one had reported her missing. DNA confirms the 40-ish woman was Molly Vine, an apparently vibrant person who “wouldn’t just throw her life away.” Then the FBI finds another body, another woman, same trail of clothing and pair of green lightning stones, but her death is much more recent. And that’s just the beginning of a tale that gets curiouser and curiouser with discoveries of ancient mass murders and modern mind control. Corrie and Nora are a perfect pair: smart and professional, and with bravery they will need in abundance. At one point, they compare approaches: As an anthropologist, Nora is trained not to judge; as an FBI agent, Corrie is trained to judge. As they delve into the investigation, Nora’s younger brother, Skip, and his billionaire buddy, Edison Nash, complicate matters immensely. They decide to go camping and investigate on their own, and Skip reminds Nash that taking ancient artifacts like an obsidian arrowhead is a felony. But as strange shadows lurk around their faded campfire at night, they learn that getting in trouble with the law is the least of their worries. The landscape imbues a special flavor to this engrossing yarn—the adobe kivas with signs of thousand-year-old murders, the slot canyons, the changing terrain as desert yields to ponderosa pine—and the sandstorms that can abort a rescue. In this setting, an unknown enemy causes cringeworthy violence that the heroes may have to face alone. But as Corrie tells Nora, “We’ve got a gun. We’ve got a knife. Now we need a plan.”
Hair-raising fun!Pub Date: June 3, 2025
ISBN: 9781538765821
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2025
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