The Jury Box
by Steve Steinbock
Aspiring writers are often advised to “write what you know.” This is good advice, but it’s only half of the story. The books in this installment of The Jury Box all highlight their authors knowledge, background, and fields of interest, giving readers insights into the customs and folklore of the indigenous Seneca, the history of British colonial Fiji, creative architecture, and what it’s like being an author on a book tour. But what makes these books thrilling works of fiction is how the authors each blend factual content with their own dreams, nightmares, and imaginings.
Nilima Rao, A Shipwreck in Fiji, Soho, $29.95. Our lead title is set in the British colony of Fiji in 1915 as the Great War rages in Europe. British colonial police Sergeant Akal Singh is given the punishing task to babysit a pair of European (white) women visiting the island of Ovalau. Singh wants to prove himself after being exiled to Fiji, a result of a scandal, but he finds it difficult to avoid further shame due to the flirtatious advances of his charges. Singh and his best friend, Fijian police constable Taviti Tukana, accompany the two women to the island where they become embroiled in politics after a local village chief abducts a group of shipwrecked Norwegian sailors (who may in fact be German spies). This sequel to Rao’s 2023 debut novel A Disappearance in Fiji is an absolute delight. The style is engaging, the characters and plotting are charming, and the background and historical details are fascinating.
Hank Phillippi Ryan, All This Can Be Yours, Minotaur, $29.00. When Tessa Calloway’s debut novel became a blockbuster bestseller, inspiring and empowering women all over the globe, the young author discovers that success comes with sacrifices. Tessa flies to a different city each day, meeting her fans, answering their questions, and signing books while her husband and two children settle into life in a new home. But things turn sinister when audience members begin asking unsettling personal questions. Disturbing chatter begins appearing on her media feeds, a mysterious locket shows up in her hotel room, and her luggage disappears and reappears with unexpected gifts. Tessa is unsure if a tragedy from her past is threatening to come to light or if it’s all in her mind. As a bestselling author herself, Hank Phillippi Ryan brings a level of frightening realism to this story of a book tour gone afoul.
Thomas Perry, The Tree of Light and Flowers, Mysterious Press, $27.95. The mystery world lost one of its greats last year with the sudden passing of Thomas Perry. He earned an Edgar for The Butcher Boy (1983) and his 2017 novel The Old Man was adapted as a television series starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow. Perry’s best known series was his ten novels featuring Jane Whitefield, a Seneca Indian from western New York State who helps at-risk clients disappear, providing new identities and coaching them to stay below the radar. In the final book in the series, three women’s lives intersect in a violent tale of hope and redemption. Jane, now with a newborn daughter and a husband who wants her to quit her risky career, meets Clare Markham, a sixteen-year-old member of the Seneca Cayuga Tribe from Oklahoma who flees after killing her would-be rapist. Meanwhile Russian assassin Magda Kaprovna, smuggled out of a California prison by the Russian mob, is given the task of tracking down Jane and her family. The trajectory of the three women, along with a vengeful Oklahoma cop and various of Jane’s colleagues and former clients collide in a satisfying but bittersweet conclusion to the series.
Deanna Raybourn, A Ghastly Catastrophe, Berkley, $30.00. Set in England in the late nineteenth century, Raybourn’s popular Veronica Speedwell whodunits have featured several monstrous themes which ultimately, like in classic Scooby-Doo style, turn out to have human rather than supernatural sources. She dealt with a mummy’s curse (A Treacherous Curse, 2018), Jack the Ripper (A Murderous Relation, 2020), ghosts (An Impossible Imposter, 2022), and Frankenstein-like revivification (A Grave Robbery, 2024). In their latest adventure, Veronica Speedwell and her scientist-lover Stoker confront possible cases of witchcraft, vampirism, and . . . unicorns. When the corpse of a young man is found with his body completely drained of blood, Veronica and Stoker follow leads to uncover a deadly cult. Raybourn writes with witty charm, blending science, history, and romance. Also fresh off the press is the paperback release of Kills Well With Others (Berkley, $18.99), Raybourne’s second book in her new series (following Killers of a Certain Age) about a team of four retirement-aged female assassins.
Ande Pliego, The Library After Dark, Bantam, $30.00. New York bookseller Aria Stokes is one of eight guests invited to an after-hours tour of an elaborate private library and a private exhibition of the only extant copy of an eighteenth-century book of fairy tales. The Daedalus Library was designed with secret chambers and passageways, an elaborate security system, and rumors of curses and ghosts. Aria has a hidden connection to the library, but the other guests each have secrets of their own, and by the end of the night several of them will lose their lives. The premise of the book is intriguing, and its elaborate design is charming. But the chapters, told in first-person present-tense by alternating characters, made the reading experience frantic and confusing. This book was advertised as a “locked-room thriller” but didn’t actually contain a locked-room plot device. Rather, in the spirit of Christie’s And Then There Were None or The Mysterious Affair at Styles with their closed circle of suspects, The Library After Dark is a closed-circle mystery.
Diane Josefowicz, The Great Houses of Pill Hill, Soho Crime, $28.95. Our next title features an actual locked-room murder in a story that, ironically, reads more like a literary novel than a whodunit. Rhode Island interior decorator Hannah “Cookie” Cooke is trying to make a name for herself renovating Gilded Age mansions. On the side she creates scale-model crime scene dioramas to assist the local police. Her latest project is the home of Chuck Halsey, a neurosurgeon with questionable ethics. Among other things, Dr. Halsey wants a private bedroom (away from his wife) which offers an “oblivion of light” with a fireplace and a deadbolt on the door. After a fire breaks out during a housewarming party, Chuck Halsey’s burnt body is discovered stuffed up the chimney within his room, which of course has been locked from the inside. Josefowicz’s writing is crisp and adroit, but the dialogue is written without quotation marks, which I found confusing and distracting. Setting that aside, I found Cookie’s story engaging, as were the details about Egyptology, psychology, architecture, and the crime-scene models based on Frances Glessner Lee’s classic “Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death.”
Lindy Ryan, Dollface, Minotaur, $29.00. Jill Marshall is a housewife, a mother, and a horror novelist. Settling into life in her suburban New Jersey home is not without challenges. Her overbearing neighbor Darla, who happens to be the local PTA president, coerces Jill into chairing the Cultural Arts committee. Jill doesn’t quite fit in with the other New Jersey wives. For one thing, she hasn’t liked wearing makeup since 1998 when she and her little sister witnessed their mother’s cosmetic-fueled breakdown and suicide. To make matters worse, a serial killer wearing a plastic doll-face mask has been slashing up the members of the mean-girl PTA. Dollface is a darkly funny spin on suburbia.
John M. Floyd, River Road and Other Mystery Stories, Crippen & Landru, $47.00 signed and numbered clothbound edition, $22.00 trade paperback. Mississippi mystery writer John Floyd’s credits include over a thousand published short stories, many of which have appeared in the pages of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. This new collection includes six stories that originally appeared in AHMM featuring Sheriff Ray Douglas of Pine County, Mississippi and his on-again/off-again girlfriend, mystery writer Jennifer Parker. Also included are six stories about private detective Tom Langford and five nonseries stories. The signed limited-edition hardcover also includes a chapbook containing a previously unpublished Sheriff Ray Douglas story. The stories are fast, fun, and filled with Southern charm.
Finally, I’d like to mention the latest in a series of illustrated guides to the works of John Dickson Carr, Carr Graphic Vol. 4: Appointment with Fear and Farce, published by the Talkative Middles. The book is primarily in Japanese but is illustrated throughout with English notations provided by British detective-fiction expert Tony Medawar. This 238-page volume features discussions, debates, diagrams, and crime scene maps from twelve novels by John Dickson Carr/Carter Dickson written between 1942 and 1949, including The Emperor’s Snuff Box, He Who Whispers, He Couldn’t Kill Patience, and Graveyard to Let. If you’re interested on purchasing a copy, email Moriwaki Akira at tao-owl@jcom.home.ne.jp. The cost is approximately $20.00 plus shipping.