“On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England, the past drives the present.” the rising tide
LAST BUT NOT LEASHED
Brady, Eileen Poisoned Pen (272 pp.) $8.99 paper | Sept. 6, 2022 978-1-72824-934-6
DEWEY DECIMATED
Brook, Allison Crooked Lane (336 pp.) $26.99 | Sept. 6, 2022 978-1-63910-090-3
A librarian solves a very cold case with help from a friendly spirit. Carrie Singleton has had a wonderful year. She’s landed a great job at the Clover Ridge Library, joined the town council, and become engaged to Dylan Avery. Now that the library’s acquired the building next door on the town square, renovations are underway courtesy of Powell Construction, whose owner, Sean Powell, has an excellent reputation. Evelyn Havers, the library ghost whom very few lucky souls have seen, has often helped Carrie with problems. But she’s taken aback when the workmen find a body in the cellar of the building under renovation. Carrie plans to keep out of the investigation until the body is identified as that of Dylan’s uncle, Alec Dunmore, whose ghost turns up in the library with a very limited memory of who he is and who murdered him. The three members of the Whitehead family who owned the building
THE RISING TIDE
Cleeves, Ann Minotaur (384 pp.) $23.99 | Sept. 6, 2022 978-1-2502-0453-0
Indomitable Inspector Vera Stanhope, whose lonely youth with a lawless father has given her a unique approach to crime and punishment, returns in a heartbreaking case. On the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, off the northeast coast of England, the past drives the present. A small group of old school friends have been meeting there, at Pilgrims’ House, every five years for half a century. They first came to the island on a school trip organized by a young teacher hoping to “challenge their preconceptions” on “a kind of secular retreat.” They bonded on that first trip, but what may have really brought them together was the death of Isobel, one of their number, at their first reunion five years later. At that time, Annie and Daniel were married and mourning the loss of a baby. Since then, Lou and Ken have also married, and now Ken has dementia. Rick has become a famous television personality, and Philip, a priest. Now, after a night of drinking and reliving the past, Annie, long divorced from Daniel, finds Rick’s body hanging in his room. The fact that Rick was recently fired from his job over allegations of sexual impropriety does not convince Annie that her notably vain friend would commit suicide and leave himself to be found naked. Soon after Vera and her crew are called in, she confirms that Rick was smothered and hanged. The Holy Island is an island only when the tide covers the causeway; indeed, trying to drive through the water caused Isobel’s death all those years ago. Although there are certainly present-day reasons why someone might have killed Rick, Vera and her team do a deep dive into the past and find an unexpected motive. A character-driven puzzler that ends in a painful denouement.
|
kirkus.com
|
mystery
|
15 july 2022
|
y o u n g a d u lt
A veterinarian, her friends, and several dogs save the day. Kate Turner is filling in for another vet whose yearlong absence offers her a great opportunity to live rent-free while paying off her student loans. In addition to becoming popular with the people in the Hudson Valley whose pets she cares for, she’s also garnered quite a reputation as a crime solver—though her boyfriend, Luke, who’s left a job with the police to go to law school, has recently seemed a bit distant. When Kate joins her vet tech, Mari, at a lecture about organizing everything in your life, she finds the body of the lecturer, Sookie Overmann, lying in a pool of blood. Both her Gramps and Luke know that she won’t be able to resist doing a little detective work between rounds of caring for her diverse clients. As Sookie’s assistant moves into her job, her husband becomes the leading suspect because of their impending divorce and a missing bunch of money. Meanwhile, a badly bitten pit bull left in the clinic parking lot and the feisty Chihuahua Little Man, one of Kate’s favorite clients who may have cancer, temporarily join her crew at home. At a New Year’s dance, Kate is pursued by a charming artist, and a woman apparently jumps to her death. Soon thereafter Luke breaks off their romance. With time on her hands, Kate has leisure for enough snooping to hit a killer’s nerve. Her savior turns out to be a tiny dog. A pleasing mélange of mystery and pet lore.
and sold it to the town were dominated by the dishonest James, whom many can easily imagine as a murderer, and there are plenty of other suspects. In the meantime, the town council has to decide what to do with a neglected nature preserve: make improvements, turn it into a park, or build high-end condos. The pressure put on Carrie by a snarky reporter who’s joined her to investigate places her friendship with police chief Lt. John Mathers in jeopardy. Even so, she can’t resist a puzzle and hopes the past and present will provide some answers. Books, ghosts, murder, fun.
33
