Widow's Walk

 

Wido’s Walk, is the third book in a series, The Martha’s Vineyard Murders by Raemi A. Ray. I’ve read and reviewed the first two novels, and you can see those reviews in this blog. I continue to give high praise to the author. This story took a bit longer to grab me because Ms. Ray took enough time to fully develop the characters, which turned out to be quite necessary given the nature of the conclusion. I did not figure out who the ultimate villain was until the very end when the author revealed it. The story involved some of the people that we’ve learned about in the prior two novels, as well as a group of new characters that helped flesh out this new story.

 As occurred in the first two books, the British Lawyer Kyra Gibson found herself on the island of Martha’s Vineyard as the result of the murder of her father from whom she had long been estranged. Her law firm in England had been hired to deal with the sale of a business whose owners lived in the US, so rather than have a carefree vacation, Kyra found herself on Chappaquiddick, the neighboring island of Martha’s Vineyard, with all the principals of the sale of the valuable business. Some of those people were decidedly unpleasant. A huge estate had been rented for those people to close the deal during a weekend together.  There were also locals involved since servants were needed on the property, and Kyra already had a history with some of them, a history which was very troublesome. Just to add fuel to the evolving mystery, a massive storm struck the island causing the power to go out. They lost the internet and all means of communication with the outside world. They had no means to communicate with the police when the murders started to occur.

 

The closing sections of this story were fantastic – could not put it down. This series deserves my strong recommendation. You won’t be disappointed.

 

 

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

Nick and Nate McClusky. Brothers in arms. Older brother Nick taught Nate to follow him into crime. Mostly robberies. 

"When  you walk into a liquor store with a gun in your hand and a mask over your face, you rip the lid off the world. Time does some real Einstein shit. It streches; it shrinks."  

Nate ends up in a California prison for a short stint at ‘rehabilitation.’

The prison has a supermax wing for lifers. In solitary is Crazy Craig, the President of the Aryan Steel, the biggest dog in the white supremacy hierarchy of the California penal system. He has a brother in the joint who decides to get into a dustup with Nate (who is days from release on some legal technicality) . . . the two go at it and Crazy Craig’s brother ends up dead . . . prison goes on lockdown but after a week of failed investigation, the lockdown in lifted and Nate gets his release . . . within a day or two of release, the word is out that it was Nate who killed Craig's brother . . . Crazy Craig puts out a bounty to his Aryan Steel family . . . kill Nate . . . and his wife . . . and his daughter. When Nate is alerted to the bounty, he sets out to find his ex, Avis, and their daughter, the 11yo Polly.

First stop. Avis’ home and her husband – both dead. And not by a single shot to the head. No. Don't just kill them. Send Nate a message. They were both bludgeoned and tortured. Polly had gotten a ride from school that day and was late getting home. She finds Nate there, a man she barely knows, who whisks her up to put some distance between them and the Aryan Steel. He has to protect her and to teach her how to survive. And not only are they dodging the gang, they are also keeping their distance from Detective Park who is looking for Nate as a possible kidnapper.

It’s one town after another down the central valley of California. Each stop they run into an Aryan Steel member (or wanna-be) intent on cashing in on Crazy Craig’s call to action. 

"Looking down the barrel of a gun, you don't see the tip of the bullet. You just see darkness, like a preview of eternity."

After besting a few derelicts, Nate comes up with a plan. Instead of just killing each hunter and moving on, he decides to hit Aryan Steel where it hurts – their income. He hits cooking houses, drug warehouses, their ‘banks’ accumulating a tidy sum. His plan is to cut them off so hard that the kill order would be lifted so business could return to normal.

But Aryan Steel isn’t so easily reasoned with, and they press the chase harder deep into the desert to a town of wholesale meth cookers protected by a seriously crooked sheriff. The confrontation in the desert between the cookers, the sheriff, Aryan Steel, and Detective Park, each hell bent on being the first to get to Nate and Polly is the stuff of legend.

Boys and girls, this is a serious ball buster. Top shelf California Noir. A story of redemption and a renewal of family; of father protecting daughter and daughter turning the tables and protecting her dad. Where an ex-con and absent father discovers that he does indeed have feelings for a little girl and the little girl grows to worship this man she doesn't know but really does know. The ends that Nate will go to protect her will have you scratching your head and high-fiving their every success.

If you like newbies to the noir world like SA Cosby and Brian Panowich (all their books are reviewed here in MRB; just search for each author), you’ll need to add Jordan Harper to that short list. Harper’s 2^nd effort, Everybody Knows, received high praise from me. So high that I ran right out and got his first book . . . this one. When the chase hits the desert, send everyone away. Any interruptions will have you slamming and locking your door so you can finish.

This book was published in 2017 and won Harper the Edgar Award for Best First Novel. And a movie is in post-production now and looking for a distributor. Keep your eye/ears open. Assuming Hollywood doesn’t f*** this up, the movie will be a stone cold winner.

ECD

Tokyo Swindlers

 Tokyo Swindlers by Ko Shinjo is exactly what the title suggests. There are gangs of crooks who are attempting to illegally fake ownership of some of those properties valuable properties in downtown Tokyo and despite significant securities in place to prevent such thefts from happening, very bright swindlers were able to find loop holes and lies that would allow them to gain titles of the very valuable land in downtown Tokyo. The deals are fast moving, ownership only being briefly held, long enough to be sold to unsuspecting people. I think that anyone who is involved in any aspect of the real estate game anywhere would find this story to be fascinating. In southern California, the status of the real estate market, both residential and commercial, is a frequent topic of casual conversation, so the intrigue in this story probably is applicable to many people.

 

I thought the plot was good and the characters were most interesting. The only problem I had is a cultural one. I had trouble keeping the many Japanese name straight. I’m embarrassed to say that many of the names sound very similar to me. If the topic interests you, then have a look. This has been released as a movie on Netflix in July 2024.

Assume Nothing

 

Assume Nothing by Joshua Corin is an excellent YA read. The protagonist is a 15-year-old girl, Kat McCann, but the reader does not learn her name until a little ways into the book. Rather, she introduces herself by the username she uses in a specific AOL chatroom, KMcCann14. The chatroom is a key element in story since it is solely devoted to the mystery writer Carissa Miller who has written numerous murder mysteries which have been solved by the detective fictional detective Adrian Lescher. It’s in the chatroom that Kat meets Dev whose chatroom name is WmbleyLnDet, meant to pay honor to Lescher whose address in central London was on Wembley Lane.

 

The chatroom was filled with intense devotees of Carissa’s books who often played obscure trivia games about those novels. It was in the chatroom that Kat met Dev, and when they discovered they both lived in Boston, and they met so they could attend a lecture at Harvard by Alik Lisser who was the real life detective and criminologist about whom Lescher was created for the novels. We learn that Dev is 19 years old and is attending college.

 

As the book develops, we learn that Kat suffered multiple tragedies. Starting with her mother’s death and her father’s imprisonment, she had significant signs of post-traumatic stress and ongoing struggles with anxiety. She was just six years old when her mother was murdered and her father was convicted of having been the murderer, something that Kat was never willing to accept as a fact. She was quickly shipped off to live with her aunt and uncle. Over the course of the story, we’re told about the several other murders that were impacting Kat’s life. Eventually, Kat confessed to Dev that her mother’s murder had been the plot for one of Carissa’s books, a crime which Lisser had solved. At the age of 70, after having penned so many novels, Carissa suddenly disappeared and left no clue about what happened to her. The chatroom characters were distressed about the loss of their favorite mystery writer.

 

I don’t want to give away the plot, but I’ll tell you that the plot, subplots, main characters, and accessory characters are all well put together. There’s a major and unexpected plot event at the 1/3 mark of the book, and it took the rest of the novel to deal with that change.

 

I think this novel is one that my 11-year-old grandson would enjoy. He is reading at a level of sophistication that far exceeds his peers. Perhaps this story will help him see the joy in reading such mysteries. I liked this story and would give it a strong recommendation, especially to teen readers.

Open Season by Jonathan Kellerman

 

The adventures of the crime fighting duo, Dr. Alex Delaware and L.A. Detective Milo Sturgis continue in Open Season.

The body of a young starlet is dumped at an emergency room entrance of a decaying hospital in a seedy area of L.A.  She has been drugged and inspection of her social media leads the crime fighters to a likely suspect known for his misogyny and reputation for date rape.  Before the police can question him, he is shot to death with a 308 rifle.  The rifle used in this killing is quickly tied to other crimes and the M.O. is found to be consistent with several other murders around the country.  Alex goes to work developing a psychological profile while Milo turns his team loose on the now expanding suspect pool.  They think the killer is avenging the victims of men without boundaries but finding and capturing this vigilante takes all the skills Alex and Milo can muster.

Open Season is Kellerman’s fortieth Delaware/ Sturgis novel.  I have read them all and never tire of the formula… it’s all about the chase.  Kellerman is a master of engaging the reader and not letting go until the end.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advance look.