The Taken by Vicki Pettersson

Griffin “Grif” Shaw is a Centurion, an angel who helps souls cross into the Everlast, especially those who died violently – just as he did fifty years ago. Grif still wants to find out who killed his wife, Evie, the love of his life. One day he comes to collect the soul of a prostitute, and against his better judgment he grants her a few brief minutes of life again before taking her away. That was enough time for the woman (who was actually an undercover news photographer) to leave a message pointing to her killer and endanger her best friend’s life.

Katherine “Kit” Craig is a newspaper reporter for her family-owned paper who dresses and lives the rockabilly lifestyle. She is full of life and always in search of the truth. She’s waiting outside the motel where her best friend has gone undercover when she sees a man dressed as if he was one of the Rat Pack staring out the window. Within mere hours she would be brutally attacked – with the intent to rape and kill – in her own her home.

Grif is supposed to collect Kit’s soul before leaving earth. Fortunately for Kit, he acts on impulse and saves her by beating up her attackers. Now Grif’s in some real trouble with the heavenly host, and has been banished to earth to once again don weak and sinful flesh until he is able to let Kit Craig die and bring her soul home. Only he decides to protect her and help her figure out who murdered her best friend and why in exchange for the ace reporter’s help in solving his wife’s fifty year old murder case.

I really liked this book because the characters are fully drawn and believable and provide some great dialogue, Vicki Pettersson’s world building of Sin City and the rockabilly culture, the whole angel / urban fantasy premise and the story itself was gripping and kept me turning pages. One warning though, there are some slightly disturbing scenes involving forced prostitution of underage girls and there’s a fair helping of violence toward women (by the bad guys). Still, it was very enjoyable and highly recommended for fans of Jim Butcher, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, or Tad Williams‘ newest book The Dirty Streets of Heaven. The next in the Celestial Blues series, The Lost, came out this spring.

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A Season in Purgatory by Dominick Dunne

Dominick Dunne (1925-2009) was famous for being a socially connected, astute writer of both fiction and non-fiction. He was one of the best contemporary observers of the socially connected very rich from (mostly) old money. His favorite subject was the WASP-y rich who get arrested for murder or mayhem.  He was catty, biting, and wove delightful novels that were thinly disguised fiction which in reality were based on the very socialites with whom he wined and dined.

Dunne himself was well-connected; born into New England wealth, married to the socialite Ellen “Peaches,”  he evolved into a keen observer of behavior of the rich. His brother, screenwriter John Gregory Dunne, was married to the author Joan Didion. Dunne’s daughter Dominique (an actress in the film “Poltergeist”) was tragically murdered by her boyfriend.   In addition to writing novels, and for Vanity Fair magazine, he hosted a crime show on Court TV, covering the foibles of the rich and famous with disgust and gusto.

A Season in Purgatory is Dunne at his best. The novel was inspired by the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley and the subsequent involvement of Michael Skakel (nephew of Ethel Kennedy Skakel) as a suspect in the case. In the novel, protagonist Harrison Burns is enthralled with his wealthy prep school friend Constant Bradley, a JFK-like teen with a large Kennedy-like Irish-American brood, headed by the patriarch Gerald Bradley. Harrison is poor, but connected in society, and the Bradleys are fierce social climbers. When the girl-next-door Winifred Utley is bludgeoned to death, Constant is questioned, but nothing can be proved. Fast forward 20 years — Harrison is a true crime writer and Constant is running for president. Harrison knows a secret about Constant’s whereabouts the night of Winifred’s murder…and seeks to bring him down and to justice. But the Bradleys are powerful and connected and will stop at nothing to save Constant’s freedom and political future…

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Faces of the Gone by Brad Parks

Brad Parks is visiting our libraries today and tomorrow, along with Mystery authors Deborah Coonts and Nancy Martin.

Four people were shot dead execution style in a vacant lot in Newark, NJ and Carter Ross, an investigative reporter with the Newark Eagle-Examiner, wants to know why. The local police say it’s a revenge killing for robbery gone wrong at the bar across the street. Carter’s sources are telling him that the police have got it all wrong, but who will believe a homeless guy or a go-go dancer? There has to be some other connection between the four victims, but what is it?

Wanda was a single mom with four kids who worked as also worked as a go-go dancer to pay the bills. Tyrone Scott, AKA ‘Hundred Year’, had recently been released from prison and may or may not have been in a gang. Shareef Thomas was the alleged robber of the tavern and the “reason” in the minds of the cops for the murders. Devin Whitehead, AKA Dee-Dub, was a young man also believed to be in a gang, but the Brick City Brown gang, who operated on the other side of town from the murder site. What could tie these four individuals together? Carter is determined to discover the truth about these four brutal murders, no matter what the cost.

Faces of the Gone is a fast paced mystery that reads like a thriller. The rapid fire story takes place both in the gritty streets of Newark as well the newsroom of the Newark Eagle-Examiner. It is the first in the Carter Ross mystery series – followed by Eyes of the Innocent – and is a perfect read for a lazy day at the beach or the pool.

Brad Parks will be appearing along with Deborah Coonts and Nancy Martin today: Friday May 31, 2013 at 2 p.m. at the North Regional Library in Raleigh, and Saturday June 1, 2013 at 2:30 p.m. at the West Regional Library in Cary.

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In A Dry Season by Peter Robinson

Detective Chief Inspector Banks is currently in trouble for insubordination, not an unusual occurrence.  However, this time was much worse because he actually punched his boss, Jimmy Riddle. Banks was suspended at first, but the powers that be forced Riddle to reinstate him.  Since then Riddle has made sure Banks was limited to the drudgery of desk duty and other mundane tasks.  Now Riddle has a new kind of punishment in mind. He appoints Banks to lead the investigation of a fifty year old murder that he doesn’t think can be solved.

To complicate matters, Riddle assigns Banks to work with the local DS, Annie Cabot, an officer with a reputation as a troublemaker.  Cabot took the position in a small town force where there is little activity because it was made clear to her she would not be in line for promotion any time soon.  She has been branded a loner who doesn’t work well with others on the force.  What Riddle doesn’t expect is that once Banks sinks his teeth in, he will do everything in his power to uncover the truth. Not only that, it turns out he and Cabot work well together, both on and off duty.

While this book is part of the Inspector Banks series, there is more to it than a straightforward detective story. The victim was discovered when a drought caused a reservoir to dry up, exposing a village which had been evacuated and flooded in the early 1950s. The woman was not buried by the flood, though; she was murdered and placed under a stone slab. Banks 1st task is to figure out when the body was buried before he can begin to find out why she was murdered.

Robinson’s novel switches back and forth between World War II, when the village was last occupied, and the present day investigation.  Telling the story this way makes the mystery more suspenseful, and  Robinson is able to make a very cold police case have relevance and urgency for the characters today; and I found the description of life during the war to be fascinating. This is my favorite book in the Inspector Banks series, although I would recommend all of them.  The series has also been recently made into a television series that was shown on WUNCTV in January.  Hopefully, they will repeat it soon!

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The Charm School by Nelson Demille

A new television series called ‘The Americans’ …about embedded spies in the United States reminded me of a favorite book from 25 years ago ….Nelson DeMille‘s, The Charm School.   So I picked it up and started reading it again. And it still is just as captivating!

Gregory Fisher, an American visiting Russia, goes off the main road leading to Moscow and discovers something he shouldn’t find. He stumbles across an American prisoner, Major Jack Dodson . He relays this information to the American Embassy , but before he gets to meet an agent from the U.S…..he disappears!!

The ‘Cold War’ may have ended on the pages of the world’s newspapers but in reality, the situation in Russia has not changed very much. Lisa Rhodes is a Foreign Service Officer attached to the United States Embassy and Colonel Sam Hollis is the American Air attaché assigned to the Embass.  Lisa is going to assist Hollis in following up on Fisher’s phone call but Fisher has disappeared! If what Fisher has relayed to the Embassy is true, there may be a hidden prisoner-of-war camp holding Americans captured during the Vietnam War.  The Embassy is informed that Fisher has had an untimely death in an automobile accident and is asked to pick up his remains. Rhodes volunteers to accompany Hollis in retrieving the body and soon they will find themselves in the middle of this mystery. Getting back to Moscow may even prove their undoing.

DeMille has maintained his expertise in capturing the reader in his world adventures and this book is as much fun as it was 20-odd years ago.

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Insatiable by Meg Cabot

I’m not sure what I expected when I started reading Insatiable by Meg Cabot. Maybe I felt something along the lines of ‘No! Not another vampire novel!’ But perhaps Cabot feels the same way. Meena, the protagonist, is tired of hearing/writing/talking about vampires. Imagine her disbelief when she discovers they are not only real, but her new boyfriend is the prince of darkness himself. Not that Meena is normal herself…

Meena is able to predict the way every person she meets will die. Relieved that this isn’t the case when she meets Lucien, she doesn’t realize this very fact will embroil her in the middle of a load of vampire trouble. Lucien is in town from Romania, visiting his cousin, to solve the mystery of who is draining girls and leaving their bodies all over New York City.  Meena stumbles into a power struggle between Lucien and his brother, Dimitri, and unknowingly gets herself placed in the middle of their battle.

There is something for vampire lovers and haters alike in this novel. Meena spends a great deal of time abusing ‘monster misogyny’ of vampire culture. She even finds the concept of vampires laughable. Add in a fanatical, sword-wielding, vampire hunter named Alaric Wulf, a yappy Pomeranian mix named Jack Bauer who doubles as a vampire dog, Meena’s nosy neighbor Mary Lou (also a vampire), and Meena’s unemployed brother Jon, and amusement abounds.

The humor and major cheese factor kept me laughing the whole time! What a great approach to mix up the normal, overly dramatic, vampire novel!

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Naked Prey by John Sandford

Detective Lucas Davenport has moved to Minneapolis with his boss, Rose Marie Roux. He is happily married to his surgeon wife , Weather, and they have a son, Samuel. He now trouble shoots cases for the state……special crimes that need to be handled at the State level and not the local level. And now there is a new case that will not reflect well on Minnesota. A naked man and woman are found hanging from a tree.The man is African-American and the woman is white. To some this might appear to be a lynching but it turns out to be ‘just’ a gruesome murder.

Now Lucas and his buddy, Del need to connect the dots and see where they lead. They first must find the precocious Letty West. She discovered the bodies while setting her traps to catch muskrats. And she is one interesting 12-year-old. As the clues start to lead to a suspect, Lucas is suspicious that this has all been too easy. He has no idea at this junction of the intricate criminal activity going on in two small northern Minnesota communities. It doesn’t take much to reveal that it involves stolen cars and drugs from across the Canadian border. Just a hint : the depth of the activity will amaze you.

The pace is typical Sandford and once you are caught up in the story and the number of characters who have ‘money in the game’ you will not put this book down. Although Sandford has written ‘ stand alone ‘ books, the Prey series by the author is one of the most exciting on the literary scene today.

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Outrage by Arnaldur Indridason

Inspector Erlundur is away trying to resolve a personal problem while his associate, Elinborg, is left to handle a strange murder with few clues. There is one important clue left behind….the murder victim, Runolfur, is found with Rohypnol or the ‘date-rape’ drug in his possession. Elinborg’s partner, Sigurdur Oli, is involved with another case and can only give Elinborg peripheral assistance. And so starts Indridason’s fast-paced murder mystery…Outrage!

Elinborg’s persistent digging brings out a few vague clues and a lot of suspicions. Somehow the killing almost seems like a revenge killing of a possible stalker. Not only is Runolfur found with the drug in his possession but his toxins screen shows a high percentage of the drug in his system. There is also evidence that a woman might have been present in his apartment at the time of his death.

As Elinborg starts to create a picture of Runolfur, a case of a disappearing young woman from six years ago may also involve this victim. She has to re-familiarize herself with the Icelandic drug underworld and see if the clues also work their way back to the murder victim.

The book is part of the Inspector Erlundur series by Arnaldur Indridason but in this one his two main subordinates play the key roles. Elinborg is relentless in his pursuit of answers. None of his books have disappointed yet and I hope I have introduced this talented author to many new fans!

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The Princes in the Tower by Alison Weir

Historian Alison Weir has written many biographies of Medieval and Tudor era Royalty. Her books are eminently readable, and The Princes in the Tower is no different.  The disappearance of the Princes, Edward V and his brother, Richard, Duke of York, sons of Edward IV and nephews of Richard III, is one of the most enduring mysteries of our time.   The recent discovery of Richard III’s skeleton, lost for over 500 years, will doubtless generate much interest in this topic.

The Princes in the Tower is a fine introduction to the mystery of the Princes.  Weir provides detailed historical background, and then describes the untimely death of their father, Edward IV and the efforts of his unpopular Queen to hurriedly coronate her son and solidify the power of the Woodville faction.  Richard III soon disinherits his nephews and ascends to the throne.  The Princes subsequently vanish from history.  Richard’s controversial reign, his death and defeat at the hands of Henry Tudor, and subsequent rebellions by men pretending to be one of the Princes are also discussed in the book.

The major premise of The Princes in the Tower seems to be that not only was Richard III guilty of murdering the two Princes, but that this was a premeditated act and Richard plotted to usurp the throne from the moment of his brother’s death.   Weir apparently seeks to demonstrate that Richard III was fully the tyrant and cold-hearted monster that Shakespeare portrays.  Much evidence does point to Richard’s guilt.  Yet Weir seems to automatically dismiss any evidence to the contrary, which I find worrisome.  As someone sympathetic to Richard III yet realistic, I have no issue with ultimately laying the responsibility for the Princes’ deaths at his door.  After all, he was King.  But proving that he personally ordered or committed the murders is another matter, and we will probably never find a “smoking gun”.

Her attempts to show that Richard III deliberately intended to depose his nephews and seize the throne from the beginning are on even shakier ground.    Richard did not even know of his death until days afterwards, when Hastings informed him of the Woodville’s hurried attempts to shut him out and seize control of the government.  Weir is very selective in her use of sources, intimating that anything favorable to Richard was mere propaganda, while anything negative “must” be genuine.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend The Princes in the Tower for everyone interested in Richard III and the disappearance of the Princes.  I may not agree with all of Weir’s conclusions, but she is undoubtedly a fine writer and one of the key historians in this fascinating debate.

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The Book of Killowen by Erin Hart

Pathologist Nora Gavin and archeologist Cormac Maguire have been called by the police to a small farm in Killowen, Ireland to examine the remains of a body found in a bog. Like most bog bodies, this one has been in the ground for a long time.  What’s unusual is that this body was found in the trunk of a car. And when removed, a second body was found underneath it.  The first man turns out to have died 1000 years ago, while the second has been dead less than a year.  Both men, however, have been murdered.

Nora and Gavin stay at a local farm while they examine the bodies. The farm is an artist’s retreat, with many people living there on a long term basis, all contributing to the farm work while also practicing their art or craft.  As the investigation proceeds, Nora and Gavin identify the earlier victim as a monk who may have also been a scribe.  The police find that the most recent victim was Benedict Kavanagh, a prominent philosopher well known to the general public as the host of a national television program.  Kavanagh was fascinated by the ancient books produced in Ireland’s early monasteries and was searching for a long lost book of philosophy. The artists at the farm turn out to have known Benedict personally.  In addition, his wife frequently stayed on the farm.  Is it possible that Kavanagh’s murder was related to the bog man?  Can Nora and Gavin solve either murder before they become targets?

I love the idea of tying a current mystery to historical events, and Ireland is a wonderful setting for this.  The Book of Killowen is the most recent in a series of mysteries starring Nora and Cormac, and it was especially good.  But you may want to start with the first one, Haunted Ground.

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