Hemlock Bay by Martin Edwards

 

Rachel Savernake Mysteries #5

384 pages

Publisher: Head of Zeus

Release date: September 12, 2024

 

Blurb

The first rule of murder: know your victim.

Basil Palmer has decided to murder a man called Louis Carson. There's only one problem: he doesn't know anything about his intended victim, not who he is or where he lives.

Basil learns that Carson owns Hemlock Bay, a resort for the wealthy and privileged. Knowing that his plan will only work if he covers his tracks, he invents a false identity and, posing as Dr Seamus Doyle, journeys to the coast plotting murder along the way.

Meanwhile Rachel Savernake buys an intriguing painting of a place called Hemlock Bay, one that she cannot get out of her head. Macabre and strange, the image shows a shape that seems to represent a dead body lying on the beach.

Convinced that there is something sinister lurking amongst the glamour of the bay, Rachel books a cottage there – where she meets a mysterious doctor called Seamus Doyle…

 

Review

Exactly a year ago, I read Sepulchre Street, the fourth title in the Rachel Savernake series. That book opened on the intriguing dilemma of how one solves a murder before it has happened. Intrigue (and impossible murders) appear to be a theme in this series because the hook into Hemlock Bay is how do you murder somebody if you have no idea who he is?

The year is 1931 and a seaside resort called Hemlock Bay is about to live up to its somewhat sinister name. And a series of apparently unconnected events bring Rachel Savernake and her entourage to the resort.

Through diary entries, we learn that a man named Basil Palmer plans to kill Louis Carson although the two men have never met. Meanwhile, journalist Jack Flint is intrigued when he is visited by a man claiming to be a clairvoyant who claims that he has had a vision that a murder will be committed in a place called Hemlock Bay on the summer solstice. And finally, Rachel Savernake has recently bought a disturbing surrealistic painting titled Hemlock Bay which appears to feature a body draped over a rock on the beach.

It doesn’t take much to capture Rachel’s imagination and it isn’t long before she decides that she wants to know more about what’s going on in Hemlock Bay where she meets among other people the woman who painted the picture that inspired Rachel’s trip, a reclusive doctor named Seamus Doyle, as well as a man named Louis Carson. However, when murder does happen it isn’t on the summer solstice and the victim isn’t Louis Carson. The plot just thickened and is about to get a lot thicker again before Rachel figures out exactly what has been going on.

Hemlock Bay is a fascinating and captivating mystery. I was drawn in from the very first chapter and my interest didn’t flag until I had finished the full story and all the mysteries had been solved in a satisfying and fiendishly clever way. There is a lot going on in this golden age of mystery inspired story. We’ve got a locked room mystery, a fair number of red herrings, and plenty of clues there to be found for the ‘professional’ mystery reader/solver. For those of us who read too fast or too carelessly to pick up on (all) the clues, they are spelled out after the story has ended and they make it perfectly clear that Martin Edwards plays fair with his readers. Most importantly though, the recurring characters in these books are fascinating. Especially Rachel has captured my attention, just as she has captured Jack’s in the story. And like Jack, I’d love to discover more about her background and exactly how she became the woman she is. I can’t wait to read more titles in this series.

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books by Kirsten Miller

 

304 pages

Publisher: HQ

Release Date: June 20,2024

 

Blurb

In Troy, Georgia, Lula Dean has decided to cleanse the town’s reading habits. All banned books have been removed from public spaces, and the townspeople are only allowed to read books Lula has deemed ‘appropriate’.

But a small group refuse to be told what they can and can’t read.

The revolution is coming …

 

Review

Beverly Underwood and Lula Dean have been arch-enemies ever since their high school cheerleading days. The mostly silent rivalry between them becomes public however after Lula embarks on a book-banning mission. To ‘replace’ the books she’s removed from the local schools and library, Lula has created a little library filled with titles Lula deems appropriate reading in her front yard. Not that Lula has read the books she has banned or the titles in her garden.

Beverly’s daughter Lindsay is outraged about Lula’s actions and uses the cover of night to fill Lula’s little libraries with banned books wrapped in dust jackets that belong to books Lula approves of.

Curiosity being what it is means that inhabitants of the town of Troy pick up books from the Little Library and most of them finish reading the stories even after they discover the book in their hands isn’t what they thought it was.

Actions have consequences and it isn’t long before Lula and Beverly are running against each other in the town’s Mayoral election. And that’s when the repercussions of Lula’s library and Lindsay’s counter-action become visible. Because everybody who picked and read a book from the Little Library has been affected in one way or another.

At first glance, this book offers an easy-to-read, mostly light-hearted story. It appears to be one of those Southern novels in which even the bad people end up sounding adorable. Don’t let first impressions fool you though. Once you settle into the story you will find a darker edge to many of the chapters. What really scared me is that quite a few of the right-wing ideas shared on these pages don’t sound immediately shocking or wrong. It’s almost too easy to understand how people stumble into traps laid by people like Donald Trump and how a journey down that road comes without a return ticket for most people.

 Although it is very easy to read and get lost in, this book doesn’t try to make our current reality look any better than it is. In this book, the silent majority are people who have no interest in banning books or excluding certain people from society. They are those who can easily live their lives under the radar and prefer it that way. In this book, as in reality, they don’t speak up until they feel their way of life and/or their sense of fairness is under threat.

While the book is overall a fun read, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that book banning and censorship are real issues, in particular in America. Only this week I came across the following tragic news: An Idaho Public Library Will Become Adults-Only per July 1, 2024. News like that makes me want to cry. There’s a part of me that feels Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books is too easy to read to make a difference in real life. On the other hand, maybe an easy read with characters most people would recognise is exactly what is needed to get people to question what is going on around them. Sure, real life is never going to come with perfect solutions like the ones found in this book, but maybe this book can make imperfect solutions possible in real life. And if that isn’t a fabulous reason to promote Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books, I don’t know what is.

 

 

 

The Pyramid Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith

#3 Miss Clara Vale Mysteries

 Pages: 300

Publisher: Embla Books

Release Date: June 13, 2024

 

Blurb

A night at the museum, a dead body and a trail to Cairo. Sounds like a case for Miss Clara Vale!

1930: Miss Clara Vale, chemistry major turned detective, is taking a night off from sleuthing to attend the launch party of a new exhibition at the Hancock Museum in Newcastle. But when the piece de resistance, a rare ornate sarcophagus, is finally opened and it turns out the mummy inside it is a fake it looks like there is no rest for Clara after all...

Later that night, she is summoned back to the museum and asked to investigate a series of stolen Egyptian artefacts. Using her scientific and forensic prowess, Clara, with her trusted assistant Bella in tow, embarks on a trail that will lead from Newcastle to London and along the river Nile to Cairo.

But she is not the only person hunting for stolen antiquities and when she uncovers an international smuggling ring with a penchant for murder, it becomes clear that Clara's own life is in danger too.

Can Clara catch the smugglers before they get away with another murder among the pyramids?

Review

This is my second Miss Clara Vale Mystery. Last year I read and reviewed The Pantomime Murders. I ended that review with the words: ‘I’ve got a feeling I’ll be spending more time with Miss Clara Vale in the future’, and what do you know, just over six months later I find myself solving mysteries with the spunky lady investigator once again.

The year is 1930 and Clara, our heroine, has donated some of her deceased uncle’s Egyptian artifacts and papers to a local museum. But what should have been a joyous occasion soon turns sour when she discovers a mummy that is very recent as well as a selection of Egyptian jewels that shouldn’t even be in England, never mind in her local museum.

When she’s asked to investigate it isn’t long before she finds herself on a journey to Egypt where she soon encounters danger as the plot thickens.

There is so much to enjoy in this book. The mystery is intriguing, Clara Vale is a wonderful MC, as is Bessie her assistant and there isn’t a dull moment in the story. This story is properly set in 1930. For example, there is mention of Dr. Fleming and penicillin, the start of (commercial) air travel, and most delightfully, Agatha Christie makes an appearance when Clara is in Egypt. The author’s biography states that Fiona Veitch Smith is a huge fan of the Golden Age of Mystery stories, and her books show that clearly.

I love Clara Vale’s independence which was still rare and mostly unheard of in the early decades of the 20^th century.

The Pyramid Murders was well written and filled with detail without ever dragging. The characters are vivid, and the mystery is very well-plotted. Which means I’ll end this review as I did my review of The Pantomime Murders. I will be spending more time with Miss Clara Vale in the future. And while I wait for book #4 to be published, I'll go back and read The Picture House Murders, the first title in this series. 

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

 432 pages

Publisher: HarperCollins

Release Date: June 6, 2024

 

Blurb

It’s the opening night of The Manor, and no expense, small or large, has been spared. The infinity pool sparkles; crystal pouches for guests’ healing have been placed in the Seaside Cottages and Woodland Hutches; the “Manor Mule” cocktail (grapefruit, ginger, vodka, and a dash of CBD oil) is being poured with a heavy hand. Everyone is wearing linen.

And yet, just outside the Manor’s immaculately kept grounds, an ancient forest bristles with secrets. The local community resents what they see as the Manor’s intrusion into the local woods and attempts to privatize the beach, and small skirmishes have erupted on the edges of the property between locals and the staff. And the whispers keep coming, about an old piece of pagan folklore—it must be folklore??—the Night Birds, an avenging force that can be called upon to make right wrongs that elude the law. Though surely everything at the Manor has been done above board.

On the Sunday morning of opening weekend, the local police are called. There’s been a fire. A body’s been discovered. Something’s not right with the guests. What happened on the grounds of the Manor the past 36 hours? And who—or what—is the cause?

THE FOUNDER

THE HUSBAND

THE MYSTERY GUEST

THE KITCHEN HELP

Everyone has an agenda. Everyone has a past. But not everyone will survive…The Midnight Feast.

 

Review

I guess it is safe to say that I’m a fan of Lucy Foley’s mystery-thrillers. I thoroughly enjoyed The Hunting Party, The Guest List, and The Paris Apartment. So when I had the opportunity to request a review copy of The Midnight Feast from Netgalley it only took me half a second to click that button. I did not regret that decision.

Just like those three previous titles, The Midnight Feast is a multi-layered and well-plotted mystery in which nobody and nothing is exactly who or what they appear to be.

The story is told through four narrators: the founder of the newly opened luxury resort and organiser of the midnight feast, her husband, a mystery guest, and the kitchen help. These four characters have very distinctive voices as they share their personal perspective on The Manor, past and present.

I rated the book 4.5 rather than 5 stars because too much of the story felt a little over the top to me. From Francesca’s esoteric musings to the total destruction of the Manor I would have preferred a more nuanced approach. On the other hand, I loved the author’s use of folklore and local myths and practices. These gave the story a somewhat magical feeling which only added to the thrill of reading a fast-paced and well-executed mystery. And there’s no denying that the story pulled me in from the start and didn’t release me until I reached the end. An end that kept on surprising me. Just when I thought that surely all the questions had been answered and all the mysteries solved, Lucy Foley managed to surprise me again and again.

Long review short: With The Midnight Feast, Lucy Foley has created yet another breathtaking mystery that only reveals the truth slowly and with a few misdirections along the way.  The past and the present mirror each other as events that remained unresolved 15 years earlier finally come to a head. The use of local myth and folklore only adds to the mystery and the thrillerish vibe. This is a must read for everybody who enjoys a good and fascinating mystery.