Book Reviews by vicki rock

Evelyn Bednarz is a single mother of a son, Cliff, 5. As a child she was easily bored, unsuited to life at school, asked odd questions about faith and time, and saw through conventions others take for granted.

When she graduated, Evelyn hitchhiked across the American West taking odd jobs. In distant Tibet, another life unfolds as remote from Evelyn’s as can be: the life of a boy named Tsering, raised as a Buddhist monk in the mountains of Tibet, who eventually becomes a high lama.

Evelyn’s and Tsering’s lives are strangely linked. Three Buddhist lamas show up at her door to announce that her five-year-old son Cliff is the seventh reincarnation of the illustrious Norbu Rinpoche, recently deceased. The lamas’ visit sets off a family crisis and a media firestorm over Cliff’s future.

The novel’s format of short sentences and unexplained jumps between paragraphs is really annoying. If you prefer tightly plotted narratives, this will seem very disjointed to you. Even at the end the story wasn’t clear to me.

David Guterson is best known as the author of the bestselling novel “Snow Falling on Cedars” which is one of my favorite books. Unfortunately, I really struggled with “Evelyn in Transit,” and can only rate it three out of five stars.

Detective Sergeant George Cross of the Somerset and Avon Police Force is called to a garage demolition site where the body of a man has been found. Cross, who is on the autism spectrum, is an exceptional detective.

Cross is assisted by his partner, Detective Inspector Josie Ottey, who is trying to teach him more social skills. Ottey tried to avoid being partnered with Cross, but she works well with him and others don’t. Detective Chief Inspector Carson is their supervisor. Alice Mackenzie is a trainee police staff investigator.

By looking closely at the body, Cross deducts that the man was a cyclist, possibly professionally. He is then identified as Alex Paphides, 32, a cyclist who worked at his family's Greek restaurant in Bristol. He was a member of the Avon Cycling Club. He had texted the team captain and said he was injured and couldn’t go to a training session. His brother, Kostas, tells police that Alex recently became aggressive with almost everyone.

There are several misdirections in the plot, but of course, Cross solves the murder. The writing is rather stilted and it is annoying that Sullivan continually explains that Cross’s anti-social behaviour is because he was on the spectrum. The overall plot is good.

I rate it three out of five stars.

With River Valley Hospital in the midst of negotiations to avert a nurses' strike, Seymour Larson, a wealthy benefactor, is set to give a large donation to honor of the Chief of Emergency Medicine: Dr. Elliott Chin, the brother of private investigator Lydia Chin.

Larson is giving the donation because Chin once saved his daughter, Hartley’s, life. But before the donation is finalized, Sophia Scott, a member of the nurses’ negotiating committee, is found dead. Jordan Kazarian, a morgue assistant, is arrested. He denies even knowing her, but he found her body. She overdosed and police believe it was murder.

Dr. Irwin DeBreng, Jordan’s father, is chief of medicine and his brother, Bradley, is also a doctor. They have different last names because Jordan changed his to his mother’s name. They want him to have a family friend as his lawyer and for him to plead guilty.

Bill Smith, Lydia’s partner, asks a friend to recommend a criminal lawyer. He recommends Juanita Cohen, who in turn hires Lydia and Bill who start to dig into the events and personnel at the hospital. Then someone they interviewed, Alon Bacay, quits the negotiating committee and another employee, Barry Sivek, cleans out his locker and disappears.

“First Do No Harm” has a complex plot as Lydia and Bill discover some people employed by the hospital are dishonest. I didn’t see the ending or the motive coming. The characters are great, including some new ones. While this is the 16th in one of my favorite series, you don’t have to read the others first.

I rate it five out of five stars.

Deadly hurricanes regularly hit St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama. The Rosalie Inn, a beachfront building, has survived every one. During Hurricane Marie in 1984, Gloria “Lo” Bailey, was accused of the murder of her married lover, Landon Fitzroy, 30, who was the governor’s son. Lo Bailey was 19.

When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears that a writer, August Fletcher, is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she hopes a successful book will help the struggling inn’s bottom line. Edie Vargas is her assistant. Geneva’s mother, Ellen, has early onset Alzheimer’s and is in a nursing home. Her father died years ago.

But to her surprise, August Fletcher doesn’t come to St. Medard’s Bay alone. Lo Bailey comes with him. She says she’s there to finally clear her name. The prosecution couldn’t prove that Fitzroy’s death wasn’t accidental because of the hurricane. Her trial ended in a mistrial and she wasn’t tried again. And now there is a storm building in the Caribbean and St. Medard’s Bay may be hit by another hurricane.

This has a fast-paced plot with a shocking reveal midway through the book and a surprise ending. The characters are good. Readers who like slow-burning domestic thrillers will really enjoy this one.

I rate it five out of five stars.

Miv Senior, 12, lives in West Yorkshire, England in 1979. Britain’s first-ever female Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, has just been elected.

It’s been almost two years since Miv’s mother, Marion, stopped speaking. No one has explained to Miv what is wrong. Her aunt Jean moved in with them to help. Now her father is talking about moving the family away to London because of serial murders occurring in their area.

Aunt Jean is a list-maker, so Miv decides that is what she and her best friend Sharon will do. Miv begins to make a list of suspicious characters and places in her town. Omir Bashir, the corner grocer from Pakistan, is suspicious because he has dark hair and a mustache. But he is kind. He has a son, Ishtiaq, who is in the girls’ class. They then suspect Mike Ware, one of their teachers. Helen, a librarian, helps the girls do research, but she seems to be accident prone.

When Sharon’s enthusiasm for their project wanes, she tells Miv, “I don’t know if any of the people we know are suspicious or whether they’re just trying to live their lives.” That is the bottom line of the novel.

This was a bestseller in the U.K. in 2024 and has now been released in the U.S. It is a coming of age story about family, friendship and racism. The murders are in the background as Miv and Sharon learn more about their town. Miv is naïve, but the friendship between Miv and Sharon is one of the best aspects of the novel. The dialogue is good, but the ending falls short. Content warning: this book contains references to child sexual abuse, domestic violence, alcoholism and mental health.

In interviews, Jennie Godfrey said she wrote her debut novel after seeing a television documentary on Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper. She had almost forgotten that her father had serviced vehicles where Sutcliffe worked and the two men interacted frequently.

I rate it four out of five stars.

When Laurie Montgomery Stapleton temporarily steps down from her position as chief medical examiner in New York City, she and her husband Jack, also a medical examiner, decide to embark on a weekend getaway.

Meanwhile in Essex Falls, N.Y. Ethan Jameson, one of the founders of a paramilitary group, the Diehard Patriots, is angry that only two of the four Russians who are observing the group showed up for a night training exercise.

When Ethan leaves for work at a pest control company the next day, there is an odd substance on the door handle of his truck. He cleans it off, only to have a major reaction to a chemical. He goes to Dr. Robert Neilson’s office.

Neilson, who was in medical school with Jack, calls him about two strange deaths and their potential association with the upswing in Alzheimer's cases in Essex Falls. Neilson is also the county coroner. Laurie and Jack agree to help him and head upstate. Before they can do an autopsy, the body disappears.

While the plotting and pacing are good, the dialogue is rather stilted. The ending is not what the reader will expect. This is the 15th in the series.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Scotland, 2025. Torrential rain causes a landslide onto highway M73 which reveals a skeleton.

Detective Chief Inspector Pete Niven is first called in, but when Forensic Anthropologist Dr. River Wilde says the skeleton is male and was the victim of a homicide years earlier, the case is turned over to Detective Chief Inspector Karen Pirie, chief of Police Scotland’s Historic Cases Unit.

The remains are identified as Sam Nimmo, an investigative journalist who’d been looking into the politics of the Scottish independence referendum. He was the prime suspect in the brutal murder of his pregnant fiancée, Rachel Morrison, when he vanished 11 years ago.

Meanwhile, Detective Sergeant Daisy Mortimer interviews Drew Jamieson who comes to the police station. He says his brother, Tom, was murdered five years earlier. He fell down a flight of outside steps and police considered it an accident. Tom was general manager of a hotel. Drew suspects Marcus Nicol, who is CEO of Surinco, a company that makes CPAP devices, of his brother’s murder.

“Silent Bones” is ingeniously plotted, with multiple twists. The characters and dialogue are true to life. Readers won’t see the ending coming. This is the eighth in the Historic Cases Unit novels, but Val McDermid has written books in four series in addition to several stand-alone novels.

I rate it five out of five stars.

It’s Christmas in Millers Kill, N.Y. and the Rev. Clare Fergusson and her husband, Russ van Alstyne, newly resigned from his position as chief of police, plan to enjoy it with Ethan, their 8-month-old son.

The Greenwich Annual Lighted Tractor Parade is in full swing. Clare and Russ can watch while at a holiday open house hosted by PJ Addams. But when white supremacists in the parade unfurl an offensive banner, people in the crowd attack them. Russ runs to stop the fight. Claire, rector of St. Albany’s Episcopal Church, talks to Meghan Smith, the wife of the man with the banner, to try to defuse the situation before police arrive.

Meanwhile, Hadley Knox, the newest member of the police force, doesn’t want to worry about her former partner, Kevin Flynn, but when he takes leave from the Syracuse Police Department and disappears, she can’t help her growing concern that something has gone very wrong. She convinces Russ to look into Kevin’s disappearance.
Novice lawyer Joy Zhào is keeping secrets from her superiors at the state Attorney General’s Office. She knows they wouldn’t condone her off-the-books investigation, but she’s convinced a threatening alt-right conspiracy is brewing.
NYS Forest Ranger Paul Terrance is looking for his uncle, Pierre Laduc, a veteran of the park service who is missing. He doesn’t think much of an ex-cop and out-of-town officer showing up in his patch of the woods, but he’s heard the disturbing rumors of dangerous men in the mountains. These five people will discover their suspicions hang on a single twisting thread, leading to the High Peaks of the Adirondacks.

This has a fast-moving, intense plot that is believable. The characters have changed over the 10 books in this excellent series, but it can be read as a stand-alone novel. I like how Claire and Russ aren’t the only strong characters in the book. It’s a pleasure to return to Millers Kill, N.Y.

I rate it five out of five stars.

It is Christmas Eve 1901. The Inner Temple in London, one of the Inns of the Court, remains as quiet and calm as ever. Quiet, that is, until a severed hand is delivered, wrapped as a Christmas present to Temple Treasurer Sir William Waring.

Waring is very shaken. He is anticipating a family dinner at which his daughter Amelia’s engagement is to be announced. He orders Sir Gabriel Ward, Kings Counsel, to investigate the hand. Gabriel is filled with curiosity. Who would want to send such a thing? And why? But then Sir Edward Hopkins K.C. receives a similar package containing a foot. Gabriel realizes the Inner Temple is under attack.

Someone is holding a grudge that has already led to at least one death. Now it's up to Gabriel, and Constable Maurice Wright of the City of London Police, to find out who, before an old death leads to a new murder.

During all this, London's most famous music hall star, Tabitha “Topsy” Tillotson tries to retain Gabriel to represent her in a libel case against Landon’s most notorious tabloid newspaper, the Nation's Voice. But Gabriel tells her that she must first retain a solicitor who will represent her. A solicitor would then consult a barrister. She hires Arthur Brindle who consults Gabriel.

Lionel Sullivan, owner and editor of The Nation’s Voice, and other journalists are invited to the Inner Temple Treasurer’s annual dinner. Frank Holloway is Sullivan’s top reporter.

This is the second in the series. While it is easy to guess the outcome of the libel trial, the mystery of the body parts is more complex. The characters are wonderful. This is a good new historical series.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Walter Nash’s father, Tiberius, a Vietnam veteran, has died. The two weren’t close in recent years. Walter and his wife, Judith, have a daughter, Maggie, 19. His mother died when Walter was young.

Nash is the vice president of a company, Sybaritic Investments, where he is head of acquisitions. Everett “Rhett” Temple is the company’s CEO.

Isaiah York, nicknamed Shock, was his father’s best friend. He berates Nash at the funeral. That night, FBI Special Agent Reed Morris goes to Nash’s house. The meeting isn’t about Tiberius; it is about Sybaritic.

The FBI believes Rhett Temple is a criminal and they want Nash to help in the investigation. The FBI agents think Temple works for Victoria Steers, who is the head of a criminal organization. After Nash verifies that Morris is an FBI agent, he agrees to help.

Then Steers learns that Nash is helping the FBI and has Maggie kidnapped. Nash is implicated in her disappearance and in a related murder. He contacts Shock, his father’s old Army buddy, for help.

This is an intense, fast-moving escapist thriller. While the plot is riveting and the book is difficult to put down, it is also violent and implausible. While readers knows who the villains are, they don’t know how far Nash will go for revenge. The ending is surprising.

I rate it five out of five stars.

It is 1879. Charles Lenox is in Portsmouth, England, waiting for the ship, Marie Grace, which is coming from India. Lenox, a detective, was stabbed during his last investigation and is still recovering.

He lives in London with his wife, Lady Jane, and young daughters, Sophia and Clara. His agency partners are Polly Buchanan and Lord John Dallington. He is waiting for the arrival of Angela Lenox, his late cousin Jasper’s daughter. She has a companion, Sari.

Lenox receives a letter from his former housekeeper, Elizabeth Huggins. She is now living in London and is contacting him because of a cold case murder. It was the murder of Austin Martell, an apothecary, seven years earlier.

The only clue to the murder is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. Mrs. Huggins lives in that building now owned by her nephew, Ernest. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern.

The morning after the girls arrive in London, Charles’ older brother, Sir Edmund Lenox, comes to meet them. He has one of the nation’s highest political posts. The brothers are good friends with Scottish physician Thomas McConnell and his wife, Toto. But Toto and Lady Jane have fallen out because of Lady Jane’s public support for women’s right to vote.

Charles Finch’s books have a strong sense of place and time; the reader feels what it must have been like in Victorian England. He writes good characters, both men and women. The mysteries are intertwined and the ending is satisfying. This is the 15th in the series.

I rate it four out of five stars.

Clay Edison has left behind the Alameda County coroner’s office to strike out on his own as a private investigator. He’s working on an embezzlement case when Regina Klein, another private investigator, calls. She needs his help.

Elizabeth and Rick Valois are friends with Regina’s boyfriend. Their son, Adam, 33, disappeared the previous summer. A couple of weeks later, his body was found in Coyote Hills.

With the anniversary of his disappearance coming up, the parents are hiring investigators because they feel that they got the runaround from police who called the death an accident because of drugs in Adam’s system and a head injury. Adam was a videographer who had a girlfriend, Olivia Parisi.

But when Clay reads the toxicology report, he remembers the death of Denny Kudelka, who died under similar circumstances. It was also ruled an accidental death. Then a search of records shows additional similar deaths. Is there a serial killer?

This is the sixth in the series. The plotting is good and has a psychological element exploring memories and guilt. There is an unusual element as an expert in tidal technology tracks where the body entered the water. I didn’t see the ending coming at all.

I rate it four out of five stars.