Five new mysteries plumb the past for clues to the present
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Yvonne Zipp Features Editor
The past, and how its tentacles can reach into the future, lies at the heart of many a mystery. In five new works, past secrets propel present crimes, threatening the new lives that protagonists are fighting hard to create.
One of my rules as a reader: If a character is going to mutter darkly for chapters on end about the Big Secret in their past, it needs to pay off. As far as I鈥檓 concerned, the form reached its apotheosis in Stella Gibbons鈥� classic satire 鈥淐old Comfort Farm,鈥� with the immortal cry, 鈥淚 saw something nasty in the woodshed!鈥� I am pleased to report that the writers here all understand the stakes.
Deceit in an Irish village
Why We Wrote This
Mysteries provide a break from everyday realities. We鈥檝e found five novels that ratchet up the escapism as well as the fun of figuring out the culprit.
Tana French uses the temperatures of a scorching heat wave to stretch the tension 鈥� and mystery genre conventions 鈥� like taffy in 鈥淭he Hunter,鈥� her follow-up to 鈥淭he Searcher.鈥� Both novels are inextricably woven together, and it is impossible to review the second without referring to the events in the first. So be warned: Spoilers ahead!
鈥淭he Hunter鈥� returns to the watchful and ethically murky Irish village of Ardnakelty, where retired Chicago cop Cal Hooper has crafted a new family for himself with veterinarian Lena and Trey, the teen he teaches carpentry and ethics. Cal handles his neighbors warily 鈥� as one should with dangerous materials 鈥� and confines his impulses to fix things to broken objects. Then Trey鈥檚 missing father brings home an English millionaire and tries to sell the villagers on what he claims is a promising scam: 鈥淭here鈥檚 gold in them thar hills.鈥� Trey, meanwhile, sees a chance for revenge against the men who buried her beloved brother in a peat bog. 鈥淭he Hunter鈥� is an unrepentedly slow burn. As the folksy charm of multiple characters wears thin, the novel exposes layers of malevolence and deceit. Who is going to die isn鈥檛 clear until halfway through, but the real question that will keep readers gripped is, can Cal and Lena save Trey from the course she鈥檚 embarked upon? The full emotional impact of her latest novel comes from readers having already learned to care about the characters in the first. And why deny yourself the pleasure of French at her best?聽
Secrets, some classified
There may be people who can resist sisters whose motto comes from Don Marquis鈥� 鈥淎rchy and Mehitabel,鈥� but I am not one of them. 鈥�Toujours gai, Archie!鈥� Penny and Josephine Williamson advise their beloved nephew in 鈥淭he Excitements鈥� by CJ Wray. Learning to remain stalwartly happy amid a downpour of sorrows is an acquired skill that they strive to teach Archie, along with fly-fishing, camping, and the vanished martial art of Defendu.
Now in their 90s, the World War II veterans are headed to France, with Archie in tow, to receive the Legion of Honor medal. 鈥淭he Excitements鈥� is not actually a mystery, but I鈥檓 cheating and including it here because it鈥檚 too delightful for readers to miss. And there is plenty of crime and at least one murder. Both Josephine and Penny are sitting on secrets 鈥� some covered by Britain鈥檚 Official Secrets Act, and some not. The ending requires much suspension of disbelief, but by then readers will be happy to believe the Williamson sisters capable of anything.
Preordained murder
As readers of British cozy mysteries know, a village fete is never a safe place to let down your guard. In 鈥淗ow To Solve Your Own Murder鈥� by Kristen Perrin, a fortuneteller predicts teenager Frances Adams鈥� murder: 鈥淵our future contains dry bones,鈥� the inauspicious reading begins. Frances spends the rest of her life trying to forestall that event 鈥� only to be found dead in her study after summoning her grandniece Annie to hear her will. Frances kept decades of research in the form of files and journals, and Annie, a would-be mystery writer, feels that she has the tools to put the clues together. The plot has a nice sense of propulsion, the mystery definitely captures interest, and Perrin is a smooth writer. But the past and the present never fully come together 鈥� the generous-hearted teen morphing into a paranoid lady-of-the-manor occurs mostly off the page. And Annie, a friendly presence but hapless sleuth, commits one of the genre鈥檚 chief blunders: confronting a potential murderer by herself. Unless your great-aunts have trained you in the World War II art of Defendu, please leave this to the professionals.
Mysterious portrait聽
An inheritance sends Jo Jones to the British countryside in 鈥淭he Framed Women of Ardemore House鈥� by Brandy Schillace. As an editor who is autistic and hyperlexic, she needs a reset and a job after her ex cheated on her, then cheated her. Nursing her dying mother, Jo is too tired to fight back. Then she inherits the family estate in North Yorkshire 鈥� a moldering pile of back taxes, rotting books, and a mysterious portrait of a lady, which promptly vanishes. Next, the sleazy caretaker is found dead, and outsider Jo finds herself considered a convenient suspect by the local constabulary. As Jo puts it, reading is her superpower, so she starts researching everything she can about Ardemore House and the missing painting, convinced the past will help clear her of suspicion.聽
Jo鈥檚 love of words and Gothic literature and her card catalog of a brain make her a sharp-witted protagonist. 鈥淢ostly it鈥檚 just very crowded up here. And sometimes lonely,鈥� she explains about her inability to forget that makes it possible for her to see connections others miss. 鈥淧lus, even though I never forget things, others do. Often, I鈥檓 left living in a memory that has vanished for other people.鈥� Schillace clearly loves the written word as much as her heroine, and 鈥淭he Framed Women of Ardemore House鈥� offers both gorgeous bits of Yorkshire lexicography and a thoughtful mystery that does justice to generations of women who see life differently.
Making a killing in antiques
In C.L. Miller鈥檚 鈥淭he Antique Hunter鈥檚 Guide to Murder,鈥� Freya Lockwood鈥檚 London home is being sold out from under her by her wretched ex-husband. Then she gets a message from her estranged mentor asking for her help 鈥� only to find he鈥檚 died in a fall.聽
Arthur Crockleford was ostensibly the owner of an antiques shop, but it was a front for his real business: a detective agency for the antiques world. Arthur had helped Freya鈥檚 Aunt Carole raise her after the child鈥檚 parents died in a fire.聽
Arthur showed the heartbroken girl a porcelain plate repaired with kintsugi, the Japanese art of fixing broken things with gold. 鈥淭his plate is different than before, but it鈥檚 still precious,鈥� Arthur tells Freya. 鈥淢ost of us have been broken in one way or another. We don鈥檛 need to hide the scars, for they make us who we are.鈥澛�
Freya hadn鈥檛 seen Arthur since events in Cairo sundered their relationship irreparably, but Arthur鈥檚 death has her resurrecting skills she hasn鈥檛 used in two decades. This includes an unerring eye for the old and precious and ... the martial art of Krav Maga. (That last feels more than a touch tacked on, as do references to Freya having been a real-life Lara Croft back in the day.) Aunt Carole鈥檚 glamour, however, is utterly unforced. Miller comes by her knowledge of antiques through her mother, the late Judith Miller, a star of the BBC鈥檚 鈥淎ntiques Roadshow.鈥澛�
Arthur鈥檚 aphorisms, which headline each chapter, vary in quality, but the best聽come from Miller鈥檚 mom, such as 鈥淭o find the best deal at an antiques fair always turn left, because everyone else always turns right.鈥澛�
