An engaging but somewhat placid mystery with a feline sleuth.
In this third installment of a series, a Midwestern architect and a clever cat are pulled back into the detective game when a Hollywood movie—and a Hollywood murder—comes to town.
Architect and amateur sleuth Brody Norris is building his dream home in Dumont, Wisconsin, with his husband (and former uncle by marriage), Marson Miles. Brody is also catsitting for his friend Mary Questman while she’s out of town: a welcome chance to spend extra time with his favorite talking Abyssinian cat, Mister Puss. But the real excitement in Dumont is that the favorite local son, Hollywood actor Thad Manning, has returned to direct a film based on his childhood there. The citizens of Dumont are invited to serve as extras—and there’s even a role for a certain feline. As is typical in Dumont, nothing ever goes without a hitch, and the production soon suffers from the tragic death of the crew electrician. Brody’s friend Sheriff Thomas Simms suspects foul play, and it isn’t long before the architect and Mister Puss are pulled into the investigation. Thad and his production have more enemies than one might expect—he and his wife, the billionaire heiress Paige Yeats, have designs in Dumont beyond the movie—and, to make everything even more stressful, Brody’s mother, the combative lesbian Inez Norris, has come back to town. Craft writes in typically polished prose, illustrating his characters with precision and humor, as when Brody describes Inez: “I hadn’t seen her in three years, but even at a distance, I could see she hadn’t changed much…a hippie of sorts, older and wiser. She wore leotards with an East Indian tunic and a billowing mohair stole to ward off the chill of a late-October afternoon.” Despite the familiar touches, this latest volume is perhaps not quite as gripping or colorful as the previous entrants in the series—it takes its time getting going, and the mystery element is somewhat sidelined by other drama. (Perhaps part of the problem is that the novelty of a talking cat and Brody’s May-December marriage have lost a bit of their shine.) Even so, fans of Mister Puss will likely still enjoy this personality-filled and altogether pleasant sojourn in Dumont.
An engaging but somewhat placid mystery with a feline sleuth.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 263
Publisher: Manuscript
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.
The feds must protect an accused criminal and an orphaned girl.
Maybe you’ve met him before as protagonist of The 6:20 Man (2022): Ex-Army Ranger Travis Devine, who’d had the dubious fortune to tangle with “the girl on the train,” is now assigned by his homeland security boss to protect Danny Glass, who's awaiting trial on multiple RICO charges in Washington state. Devine has what it takes: He “was a closer, snooper, fixer, investigator,” and, when necessary, a killer. These skills are on full display as the deaths of three key witnesses grind justice to a temporary halt. Glass has a 12-year-old niece, Betsy Odom, and each is the other’s only living relative—her parents recently died of an apparent drug overdose. The FBI has temporary guardianship of Betsy, who's a handful. She tells Travis that though she’s not yet 13, she's 28 in “life-shit years.” The financially well-heeled Glass wants to be her legal guardian with an eye to eventual adoption, but what are his real motives? And what happens to her if he's convicted? Meanwhile, Betsy insists that her parents never touched drugs, and she begs Travis to find out how they really died. This becomes part of a mission that oozes danger. The small town of Ricketts has a woman mayor who’s full of charm on the surface, but deeply corrupt and deadly when crossed. She may be linked to a subversive group called "12/24/65," as in 1865, when the Ku Klux Klan beast was born. Blood flows, bombs explode, and people perish, both good guys and not-so-good guys. Readers might ponder why in fiction as well as in life, it sometimes seems necessary for many to die so one may live. And what about the girl on the train? She's not necessary to the plot, but she's a fun addition as she pops in and out of the pages, occasionally leaving notes for Travis. Maybe she still wants him dead.
Fast-moving excitement with a satisfying finish.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757901
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2024
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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