Review: Snow White Must Die by Nele Neuhaus

Ever since Stieg Larson’s Millenium trilogy hit it big, it seems like the mystery shelves have been flooded with a ton of imported mysteries and thrillers, all attempting to capture lighting in a bottle for a second time.

Of the translated thrillers I’ve read over the past couple of years, it’s Snow White Must Die that not only captured me and wouldn’t let go but also left me hoping that the rest of this series will get translated and published in America ASAP. Simply put, Snow White is one of the most entertaining and enthralling mystery novels I’ve read in a long time.

Over a decade ago, two girls with a romantic connection to Tobias Satorius went missing. Suspicion centered on Tobias, who experience a 24-hour blackout around the time of the disappearances, leading to Tobias’ conviction and ten year jail sentence. As he’s released from prison, Tobias returns home to find his parents estranged, his father’s business in ruin and the town unwilling to forget the crimes of which he was convicted.

Review: Black Box by Michael Connelly

For the past couple of months, I’ve been dipping into the back catalog of Detective Harry Bosch as I waited for The Black Box to a)hit shelves and b)come in on reserve at my local library. That could be part of the reason that this one felt a bit more like a greatest hits of Michael Connelly’s Bosch novels.

This time around, Bosch is looking into a murder that took place during the L.A. riots two plus decades ago. At the time, Bosch was called out to the body of a female photojournalist but not given the time to pursue the case to its resolution. Years later, as he works to finish out his career in cold cases, Bosch decides to revisit the case and hopefully find some closure for himself and the victim’s family and friends.

As I said before, this one feels a bit too much like a “greatest hits” for Connelly, mixed a bit with the current trend in Swedish murder mysteries flooding the market. The photojournalist in question is Swedish, thus creating a tie to that country and it turns out there was more to her vacation to America and being in the riot-zone than originally meets the eye. There’s also a lot of conflict between Bosch and his boss as the story goes along, as Harry, as usual, follows his instincts and is proven correct despite outside pressure and authority figures up the chain of command who doubt him.

The Black Box wasn’t a terrible book. In fact, it was quite good and kept the pages turning–as most Connelly novels do. But it feels like a Bosch novel written more on cruise control than really one that could or should push the character and series in new and interesting directions as several of the previous entries have.

Review: Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George

A good friend always used to comment that she looked forward to the latest Lynley and Havers novel not just because it would have a good mystery, but because she enjoyed her annual check in with Lynley, Havers, Deborah, Helen and Simon.

On a certain level, I have to admit I agreed with her.

Based on that, I should have loved the latest installment in the series from George a lot more than I did. After a couple of books focusing on Lynley in the aftermath of Helen’s death, it’s nice to see George getting back to including some of her other characters in the story. That doesn’t mean that Lynley still isn’t haunted a bit by what’s happened to Helen and is still grieving (although his engaging in a strictly sexual relationship with his boss at Scotland Yard seems exactly like the kind of rebound relationship both parties would pursue), but this is a novel about Lynley coming out of his mourning and trying to get about the business of living again.

It helps that he’s been given a special assignment by Hillier. When the nephew of a family friend of Hillier slips and drowns, Hillier sends Lynley to a small village to make sure that no stone has gone unturned in investigation.

If you’re looking for a murder mystery, you won’t find one here. George takes a break from his typical “whodunnit” mystery with a story in which Lynley is brought in as a catalyst for a family who makes a regular habit of lying to each other. As the story unfolds, the lies told by various characters in their day to day interaction–not only to each other but also themselves–come to light, all with intriguing and, at times, unintended consequences. But the shining a light into the darkness isn’t limited to the cast created for this novel–the light also is shone on the regular characters as well.

Review: Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay

Linwood Barclay’s latest thriller Trust Your Eyes has receive a lot of pre-publication buzz, capped off with a cover blurb and recommendation by Stephen King. Most of the time, if King recommends a novel, I’ll pick it up and try it because I’ve had good luck with King recommendations in the past (it was King’s recommendation in EW that turned me on to the genius that is Laura Lippman).

And for the first half of Trust Your Eyes, I agreed completely with King–the book is riveting and a page-turner in that popcorn thriller kind of way. But it’s once the book hits its midway point that things derail a bit, taking the book from a four star recommendation down to a three and a half star one.

Review: And When She Was Good by Laura Lippman

Along with Elizabeth George and Michael Connelly, Laura Lippman is mystery writer whose usual who-done-its transcend the genre. So it’s interesting that for her latest novel, Lippman steps outside the familiar ground of a straight-forward mystery novel and gives us a character study of a suburban madam.

Alternating between the past and the present, Lippman lays out the circumstances that led to Helen changing her name to Heloise and trying to escape her past. Fathered by a man cheating on his wife and stringing her mother along that maybe he’ll someday leave his wife and other family for them, Helen grows up desperate for her father’s attention and approval. Told at an early age that she has a “nothing face,” Helen hitches her wagon to the washed up, drug addicted son of her boss at a local Italian restaurant. He convinces her to drop out of high school, rob the restaurant and head out to the big city with him.

Before you know it, Helen is caught up in a life of prostitution as she tries to escape one bad situation and ends up in a worse one. Out of options, Helen’s one solace is sneaking to the library to lead the great classics of literature and trying to improve her mind while finding a way to improve her station in life.

Eventually her on-again, off-again pimp boyfriend is sent to jail for murder and Helen decides to try and leave her past behind. As a single mother, Helen sets up an escort service, full of rules and regulations for her girls to follow and adhere to. But the past is coming back to haunt Helen (now known as Heloise), just as she’s thinking of looking for a new lot in life for she and her son.

A stand-alone novel by Lippman, this one is less a mystery (though there are some elements of your typical mystery included here) and more a character study thriller. Lippman alternates between the present and the past, filling in details on what led Helen to her current situation and information how and why she’s made certain decisions in her life. On one level, the stakes are lower than your typical Tess Monagahan mystery, but on other levels, they’re much higher.

An atypical Lippman novel, this one works because of the crafting of Helen/Heloise as a character. A bit of an anti-hero, Lippman keeps up close enough to feel for what she’s going through and the events that led her to this point in her life, but at enough of a distance so her life isn’t being necessarily celebrated. It’s a fine line to walk and Lippman does it with ease. Don’t expect the happy hooker with a heart of gold here. Heloise is fiercely devoted to her son but also ruthless in keeping what she does in her business on the straight and narrow…well, as straight and narrow as an escort service can be.

This is a very different novel from one of the best writers on the market today.

Review: Dare Me by Megan Abbott

Cheerleader noir?

Is it possible to take the gritty world of noir novels and combine that the perceived fluffy world of cheerleaders?

It is, if you’re Megan Abbott.

Addy has always been head cheerleader Beth Cassidy’s second in command and best friend. But all the changes when a new cheer coach shows up–one who demands more of the girls than just shaking pom-poms and inciting the crowd at athletic contests. The new coach wants to take this team to the next level and it doesn’t matter how many stair runs, twisted ankles and shattered egos are left in the wake.

Review: Mortal Fear by Greg Iles

Give Greg Iles credit–he never writes the same book twice.

By day, Harper Cole is a self-employed commodities trader. By night, he’s a system administrator and participant in the erotic on-line community EROS. Populated by highly successful and affluent people, the EROS offers discreet on-line connections for those seeking something or someone different.

Married to his high school sweetheart, Harper has his own sets of secrets–not just related to his communications on EROS but also to his personal and relationship history.

When Harper notices a pattern of women disappearing from the EROS boards and ending up murdered, he deduces a serial killer is targeting the group. Informing the authorities of this, Harper and his long-time friend and co-system admin Miles become the prime suspects in the murder. Harper is forced to help the authorities try to draw out the killer, leading him to take greater and greater personal and professional risks to try and smoke out the person or persons committing the crimes.

While some of the technological aspects of Mortal Fear are a bit dated (transmission of pictures across the Web is a new thing in the novel), the suspense and psychological depth of Mortal Fear are not. Harper has his secrets and things in his past he’d rather keep buried–things that will all come to light during the course of the story. Harper isn’t necessarily the cleanest of heroes, but Iles does a nice job of getting us to root for Harper even as we recognize that the seeds he’s sewn are beginning to bear fruit.

It helps that Iles keeps the story moving forward at a near relentless speed. In many ways, this is the book equivalent of a good Hollywood thriller movie–it rockets along, not slowing down to allow you to question too much of the logic or motivation of the situation. Characters in the novel make some spectacularly bad decisions during the story (Harper’s attempt to flush out the killer by adopting personality traits from his sister-in-law to create an on-line profile, for example), but a lot of them come from characters not thinking through the consequences of their actions, as could and would happen in real life.

As with other works by Iles, this isn’t one to start reading late at night because you’ll find yourself saying, “Just one more chapter” until it’s three in the morning and you realize the alarm will buzz a lot earlier than you expected.

Another winner from Iles.

Review: A Deeper Darkness by J.T. Ellison

After reading and not particularly loving the middle installments of J.T. Ellison’s Taylor Jackson series of novels, I’d given up on the series and Ellison. While I enjoy reading novels set in and around Music City, the fun of seeing local real-world landmarks incorporated into the pages of standard procedural had lost its appeal.

So it came as huge surprise to me when I saw Ellison’s latest, A Deeper Darkness on the new books shelves at the library that not only did I pick it up but that that back cover blurb was enough a hook to make me want to give Ellison another shot.

In the months and years following the Nashville floods, coroner Samantha Owen is struggling under a flood of her own. She lost her family in the flood and has been muddling through life since that time. When the mother of an ex-boyfriend calls, asking Sam to come to Washington DC to offer a second opinion on the cause of death of her son, Sam reluctantly agrees. Sam and her ex, Eddie Donovan, had a brief romance while in grad school with Eddie breaking off the romance to return to his first love, the military. Donovan served a couple of tours in the Middle East, married and had two children, but never lost contact with Sam.

Review: Where Are You Now by Mary Higgins Clark

 A decade ago, Charles MacKenzie Jr (better known as Mack) mysterious disappeared before his graduation from Columbia University. Each year on Mother’s Day, he calls home to assure his mother he’s fine and to ask his family not to look for him.

When Mack’s younger sister Caroline decides to try and piece together what happened to her brother and why, Mack warns her off by dropping a note in the collection plate at his uncle’s church. Not dissuaded by the warning, Caroline begins to delve deeper into the mystery of why Mack went away, straining her relationship with her mother and opening up connections with some of Mack’s old friends and acquaintances.

When a young college student, Lisa “Leesey” Andrews disappears, calling home to her father and brother to tell them not to look for her and she’ll call each Mother’s Day to assure them she’s fine, the police begin looking at Mack’s disappearance in a new light. Is there a connection between the two crimes or a possible greater pattern at work?

Filled with red herrings and potential suspects, Mary Higgins Clark’s Where Are You Now has an intriguing hook that carries the novel for its first half. Caroline’s digging and asking questions about the past and its potential connection to the current case drives the first half of the novel with Clark hinting there’s more than meets the eye about the disappearances. However, somewhere around the mid-point of the novel, the story begins to spin its wheels, covering a lot of the same ground multiple time without really advancing the storyline or introducing any new substantial clues to the mystery. By the time I reached the denouncement of who was behind the disappearances and why, my interest had waned substantially and the novel had lost its early element of page-turning suspense.

Perhaps had the novel been fifty to a hundred pages shorter, it might have been a more effective story and one that truly earned Clark the title of “The Queen of Suspense.”

Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Ever since I finished reading Gone Girl, it seems like I’m seeing it everywhere. It’s cropping up on a lot of “must read” lists and USA Today blogger Whitney Mattheson recently wondered if this might not be the “book of the summer.”

If she’s right (and I think she very well is), it couldn’t happen to a more satisfying and compulsively read-able type of book. From the first page, Gillian Flynn pulls you into the relationship and marriage of Nick and Amy Dunne. On the surface, their dating and marriage looks like the fodder for a romantic comedy featuring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, but once you start digging under the surface a bit, you realize these two characters are far from perfect. And once you start peeling away some of the layers, you realize that this isn’t so much a marriage built on love (it may have been when they started, but not anymore) but instead one built on dark needs and secrets.