You Can Kill / Rebecca Zanetti

 

3 out of 5 stars 

The continued adventures of my favourite neurodivergent FBI agent, Laurel Snow. Too smart for her own good and struggling to understand the emotional subtext when communicating with others, Laurel is still trying to prove that her father and half-sister are criminals. Knowing is one thing, proving it is another. And they're both getting cranky about her persistence. But is one of them killing women just to make her life miserable? Or has escaped serial killer Jason Abbot changed his MO? How many murderers are hunting in the Genesis Valley?

Laurel is learning more about her own emotions, too. She methodically takes care of her FBI team and sends her mom on a long vacation to get her out of harm's way. She finds that she misses them and that she feels isolated. Except for Huck, who has become uber protective since Laurel revealed her pregnancy. Now one of her many enemies is trying to hang some or all of the current murders on Huck to complete her isolation. (Shades of book one, when Huck was also considered a suspect. I question the intellect of the management who keep believing this.)

Zanetti seems to have tied up most of the loose ends in this book and may be moving on to other things. If she writes more Laurel Snow I will likely read it. I find I’m choosy about which of her series that I'm willing to spend my reading time on, but some, like this one, are quite enjoyable.

The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco / Michelle Chouinard

 

3.75 out of 5 stars 

This was a fast paced, complicated mystery. Capri Sanzio runs a tour company specializing in the killers of San Francisco. Perhaps a natural employment, as her grandfather died in jail following the deaths of several prostitutes. He claimed to be innocent, but nevertheless became known as Overkill Bill. Capri would like to know more, but her father is immovable on the subject—he will not discuss it under any circumstances. Overkill Bill is long dead, so it is a shock to Capri when two more women, one of whom is her ex-mother-in-law, are found dead, killed in Bill's signature way.

Capri may not have loved her MIL, but no one deserves to be brutally murdered. If Capri knows how to do anything, it's research, so she begins to dig. She has a daughter to protect and a police inspector to convince that neither she nor her girl are murderers, even if they are descended from one. There's a lot to do, as she must continue to run her tour business, provide emotional support to her father-in-law and ex-husband, and care for her daughter, in addition to investigating her grandfather's crimes and the current ones.

I enjoyed the book, although it does suffer from a usual cozy mystery trope: the main character not trusting the police to do their jobs. One of my least favourite plot devices. Despite this, I liked Capri and her daughter Morgan. I thought the basis of her company was funny and if it existed, I would go on a tour. The murderer was not who I expected but the other aspects of the book wrapped up in the ways that I predicted. That didn't detract from the fun of the journey so I will be on the lookout for the next novel in this series

The Pale Horse / Agatha Christie

 

3 out of 5 stars 

Agatha Christie is the mistress of bait & switch! She led me right up to the solution and then abruptly changed the question. As usual, I was bamboozled. I continue to be impressed with how much she could accomplish in so few pages.

Mark Easterbrook is an young man with imagination but a bit lacking in gumption. Ms. Christie supplies him with an investigative partner, namely Ginger, who is a bit bolder. Christie often gives the role of instigator to a plucky young woman. I did also enjoy the presence of Christie's alter-ego Ariadne Oliver. It must have been fun, writing Oliver as the absent minded and occasionally incoherent author of mysteries. Making fun of the public’s stereotype of the writer.

Of course the silliest part of the story concerns the inhabitants of the Pale Horse, the three witchy women who claim to eliminate people through magic. I wonder if Christie was aware of Gerald Gardner, the self-proclaimed restorer of witchcraft to the British Isles? He published a couple of books on the subject in the 1950s. He and his coven pranced about skyclad, i.e. naked, and practiced what is now known as Wicca. That was what these women put me in mind of.

It may have been silly, but the denizens of the Pale Horse played their part effectively. Christie fit the many pieces of her plot together neatly, letting DI Lejeune reveal all, rather like Poirot in other books. I enjoyed the goings on quite a bit, though I don't think it's one of her better outings.

A Winter Grave / Peter May

 

3 out of 5 stars 

This is a book I would never have chosen if left to my own devices, but my book club selected it. It's a very dark book, maybe what they call granite noir? It is very different from our usual fare, being set in a post-apocalyptic near future. In 2051 the climate has become all the things that we are being warned about right now: permanent flooding of coastal areas, viscious storms, desperate people looking for a new home, desperate politicians try to bar entrance to their countries.

Human dramas continue on, despite the worldwide chaos. Cameron Brodie is an old timer on the police force who has quit paying much attention to the news. He has personal issues to occupy his thoughts, namely a dead wife, an estranged daughter, and six months to live due to virulent cancer. So he lies to his superior and takes a case that will take him to the little town in Scotland where his daughter lives. In fact, she is the one who discovered the corpse of a journalist frozen in an ice tunnel at the top of a mountain.

I struggled to connect to any of the characters but finally, a third of the way through, I at least developed an interest in the plot. Who killed the journalist and what were they trying to cover up? How far will they go? [Spoiler alert: pretty far.] I alternated reading and housework in order to withstand the plot tension. Nothing like doing dishes to calm me down.

In my opinion, this book skews more toward the thriller end of the spectrum than the mystery end. Brodie manages to find things out, put things together and survive mishaps that are so severe that I found my belief being stretched very thin. I will be interested in hearing what other book club members think, particularly our retired crown attorney. I hope he's there!

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society / C.M. Waggoner

 

3.5 out of 5 stars 

What an odd book! In some ways, it was a cozy mystery as our librarian main character, Sherry Pinkwhistle, solves the numerous murders that take place in her small town. To begin with, I was satisfied to go with the flow. After all, we often laugh about how many of these crimes happen in small fictional towns. Why should Winesap be any different? Even when the demon showed up, I didn't take it very seriously. After all, possessing a cat named Sir Thomas Cromwell isn't really very impressively evil, is it?

My opinion changed when Sherry's boyfriend Alan is killed. This is the point when Sherry realizes that she's been treating people's deaths as a game or entertainment, not as the tragedies that they are, and knowing that she has an influential supernatural audience doesn't let her off the hook. The demon tells her in no uncertain terms that she must investigate. Attempts to leave town are thwarted and assistance from outside is deflected.

Waggoner sets Sherry up as a Poirot figure, but she was closer to Jane Marple in my opinion. She's not nearly as nice as everyone around town seems to think. She's actually quite calculating when evaluating those around her. We eventually discover her secret past, however, differentiating her from either Christie detective.

Once the audience is aware that this is a serious matter, things move along briskly. As paranormal crime books go, this one didn't stir up any of my usual reluctance to read after dark. I didn't find it spooky or eerie, despite my tendency to be affected by such things. I took the murders seriously but not the supernatural aspect of the story, I guess. The last bit of the last chapter seems to leave room for another adventure for Sherry in the future and I'd be willing to take it for a spin.

The Many-Colored Land / Julian May

 

5 out of 5 stars 

2025 Re-Read

I decided on a reread of Julian May's work in 2025, beginning with this novel. This is my third go round with it and I'm still seeing new things. This series is an odd mix of fantasy and science fiction with psychic decoration. I find it delightful.

This time, I really took note of the Galactic Milieu which looms in the background of this tale, forming the framework for May's vision. It will become more relevant in the following trilogy, The Galactic Milieu. But that's for later this year. Originally, this was my least favoured aspect, being as focused on the Pliocene fauna as I am. It has grown on me.

I also noticed a theme of individualism vs community. The humans who chose the time portal tend to be of the “me first" mindset. Once in the Pliocene, they find they must stick together or hang apart. It suggests that individualism relies on civilization and technology. Since most of us don't make most of the things we use, that independence is largely a illusion. The Galactic Milieu is a more “all for one and one for all" situation (or seems to be, at any rate). The human situation is mirrored by the Tanu and Firvulag, with the Tanu coercing community and the Firvulag being only loosely committed to their group. Both systems have their advantages and disadvantages, but once again cooperation gives the feral humans an edge.

We get to view this in the microcosm as well, with the very community minded nun Amerie contrasted starkly with the self-involved sportswoman Felice. Amerie immediately becomes a valued member of the free humans, while everyone is careful of the ultra-focused Felice. Felice gets knocked unconscious on at least one occasion to keep her from ruining a plan that will benefit the group.

Nevertheless, the Green group who came through the portal together are more likely to stick together from their time training as a unit. Upon arrival, the Greens get split into two groups. In this first book we get more time with the individuals who were less favoured by the Tanu. If I recall correctly, the folks who were taken with the Tanu get more page time in volume two. I'll be able to confirm or deny next month when I reread The Golden Torc.

The Postscript Murders / Elly Griffiths

 

4 out of 5 stars 

It's becoming a habit to start and end each reading year with an Elly Griffiths book. I am currently hoarding the last few Ruth Galloway volumes, so I began 2025 with the second Harbinder Kaur book. I am coming to be almost as fond of Harbinder as I am of Ruth even though you couldn't get two characters more different from each other.

Harbinder is an Anglo-Indian police officer, in contrast to the Anglo archaeologist Ruth. Harbinder is a lesbian, but she lives with her parents so has very little purview to pursue a relationship. She suspects that her parents would be disappointed if they knew. She actually has a strong bond with her parents, once again unlike Ruth.

Also different is the looser focus on the main character. Yes, Harbinder ties all the various plotlines together, but the ancillary characters get a great deal of page time without her. Like Claire Cassidy in the first volume (who makes an incidental appearance in this one). Perhaps Edwin, Benedict, and Natalka will hang around too. That would be fun.

I also appreciated the method that Harbinder uses to be able to put up with her partner, Neil. She imagines him to be a shy forest creature—wiping his whiskers, twitching his tail, seizing a nut, nibbling, nibbling. I wish I had thought of this when I was still confined to an office! (Retirement really is the best decision I ever made.)

This was a very enjoyable part of the mystery binge that I seem to be indulging in at present. Ms. Griffiths is definitely one of my favoured authors.