A Cursed Inheritance

Finished April 7

A Cursed Inheritance by Kate Ellis

This is the ninth book in the Wesley Peterson mystery series set in Devon, a series that I'm gradually making my way through. Wesley is a senior police officer in Devon, England. He has a degree in archeology and is also Black. All of these things bring a unique aspect to his cases. 

Here, there is a new case of a freelance journalist who is found dead in the river. Luckily, he hadn't been in the water a long time, so once they identify the body they are quickly looking into what he was doing in the area and what may have led to his death. At the same time, a case where a man has been serving time for years is reopened after a woman who has been living abroad since the crime gives him an alibi. As the police take another look at the evidence and case notes, they must ask themselves why the previous investigation didn't get it right. 

The journalist had been looking at a crime from 1985 where nearly the whole Harford family and their staff at their sixteenth century house, Potwoolstan Hall, had been killed. At the time, it was determined that the young housekeeper had killed everyone and then herself. The police have to ask themselves whether maybe this case was solved with too little questions being asked as well, given that the journalist is also now dead. The house has been transformed into a wellness center offering lodging and treatment for guests willing to spend the high fees for the New Age treatments on offer. 

Wesley's archeologist friend Neil Watson is part of an exchange program, where he is off to Virginia in the United States to visit a dig there at a settlement founded by people who took a ship from this area of Devon centuries before, including one member of the original family of Potwoolstan Hall. Neil also has a personal task he has been given by a family member. 

As some of these cases converge and the historical dig gives uncovers interesting information about some deaths back then, we can see elements of similarity in some of the stories. 

I enjoy seeing Wesley's personal life as well, here with his wife Pam in the later stages of her second pregnancy, which is putting stress on their relationship as well. 

The Chase

Finished August 31

The Chase by DiAnn Mills

This FBI thriller has two main characters.

Kariss Walker is a former television journalist turned novelist. She's written several successful women's fiction novels, but dreams of writing about her true passion, finding justice for those unable to do so themselves. She is haunted by an experience in her past where she was unable to protect someone vulnerable. One case she covered as a journalist was of a young girl, whose body was found, malnourished near an apartment complex. The girl's identity was never determined. This is the case that she plans to base her novel on.

Kariss has gained access to follow an FBI agent to get background information on the world she plans to write about. The agent is Tigo Harris. He has many years of experience, including undercover work, and is currently involved in a case involving gangs smuggling drugs and guns. 

When Kariss is able to get the case reopened, she and the FBI find new evidence that points to the child's identity, and perhaps to new crimes. 

Tigo is very close to his mother, who is dying from a cancer, and this element impacts how he lives his life and sets his priorities. 

Kariss makes a lot of questionable decisions putting her own safety into jeopardy. 

Both characters have families who are strong church goers, but both have distanced themselves from religion. The Christian element in this book is subtle until the end, when it suddenly becomes more evident. 

The Book of Cold Cases

Finished May 22

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James

This book is centered on a young woman who was a victim of a crime in her childhood, and who now writes a true crime blog in her spare time. Shea Collins works as a receptionist in a medical office and has a trust issue due to her past experience. It is 2017, and Shea has lately been interested in a cold case from forty years ago. She lives and works near the area of the crimes, and finds herself visiting places connected with the case. 

The 1977 crime consisted of two killings of men. Both were shot at close range with the same gun. A wealthy young woman, Beth Greer, was seen leaving one of the crime scenes and was tried for the murders, but acquitted. When Shea runs into Beth by chance, she impulsively asks her for an interview and to her surprise, Beth agrees. 

This connection opens other doors and leads Shea to new sources of information on the crime. She learns a lot about Beth's family and her reclusive life, and she finds herself noticing things  at the mansion that Beth lives in that have no rational explanation, and make her very uneasy. 

One of Shea's fans is a local private investigator and ex-cop, Michael De Vos, and she has often bounced ideas off of him. She's never met him, but she has a connection with him, and this case strengthens that connection. 

She also has her married sister Esther, who lives nearby, and who worries about her. And there is the unexpected appearance of a stray cat, who Shea more or less adopts and who helps her make a breakthrough in some of the issues she has from her own experiences.

I found Shea a very interesting character, a woman who wants to overcome her issues, but doesn't really know how to. She's so used to putting up barriers in her life, that she finds it difficult to remove them. The cold case, and the mysterious Beth bring a level of the paranormal to the book, that makes it creepy in moments that leave you holding your breath. 

A great read. 

Cleaning the Gold

Finished June 9
Cleaning the Gold: A Jack Reacher and Will Trent Short Story by Karin Slaughter and Lee Child

This short story print version also included the first chapters from Lee Child's Jack Reacher book Blue Moon and Karin Slaughter's Will Trent novel The Last Widow
The story is told alternately from Jack Reacher's and Will Trent's viewpoints. Each has been selected for going to Fort Knox and getting hired on a crew moving gold between vaults. Reacher is himself, and Will is undercover as an ex-Army man down on his luck. They've each been told different things, but together discover that there is bigger issue at stake, and teaming up is the way to tackle it.
I like both these series and enjoyed seeing the two men work together here.

Under the Cold Bright Lights

Finished May 12
Under the Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher

This Australian mystery features the Melbourne detective Alan Auhl. Alan had retired from the police, but recently rejoined to work cold cases. Alan also has an unusual living arrangement. He lives in the large old house that he inherited from his parents. He rents out rooms to university students, and his university attending daughter also lives there. His ex-wife has a room in the house that she sometimes uses and the two get on well. There is a small suite at the back of the house that has been used from time to time by people who need time to get themselves together, and is currently being used by a young mother and daughter fleeing from a domestic abuse situation with a powerful man.
As the book begins, a body is found in a former agricultural area hidden under a concrete pad. Alan and his team are assigned the case, looking to find both the identity of the man and who might have killed him. Another case that Alan brings to the job himself, is one that he worked on before he retired. The two daughters of a murder victim call him every year to see if anything has turned up. He decides to look into the case again and see what he can find. Alan is also brought into another case from his past when a man that Alan had investigated for murder when both of his first two young wives died under suspicious circumstances. Alan could never prove it, but he believed the man was guilty. Now, though the man is accusing his third wife of trying to kill him, a twist that Alan doesn't believe for a minute.
On the home front, Alan is finding himself drawn into the situation with his vulnerable tenant as well. As Alan starts to make more of a productive relationship with one of his new colleagues, he also gets drawn into her personal life. There is lots going on here, and Alan is a very interesting man, who strongly believes in justice, even if it isn't always formal.

The Lake House

Finished March 13
The Lake House by Kate Morton

This novel, like many of Morton's others has linked stories from the past and present. Here, the link is the house of the title. In the present, London police officer DC Sadie Sparrow is on a leave from her job, visiting her grandfather at his home in Cornwall. Her grandfather moved here recently, after the death of her grandmother, and therefore Sadie hasn't been here before. She is a very driven woman, with good instincts about her cases. A recent case on a missing woman has got her in trouble as she was sure the woman did not leave of her own accord, despite a note, and Sadie grew frustrated when others on the force dismissed her opinion. She made an anonymous comment to the press that has her superiors unhappy and is taking some time for things to die down.
She isn't a woman who can sit still however, and as she does one of her runs around the area she finds a large estate where the grounds and house show signs of abandonment. Her curiosity piqued, she puts her energies into this new mystery. Once she finds that the family more or less left the house unlived in after the disappearance of the young son of the family in 1933, she wants to unravel the mystery of his disappearance. Working with the local librarian, and an elderly man who was a young policeman on the case, she continues her research, asking the surviving owner for a meeting and permission to access the house.
When eighty-six year old Alice Edevane gets Sadie's letter, she is brought back to that summer when she was sixteen and the events that transpired. She is now a well-known mystery writer, with a young assistant Peter who helps her organize her work and obligations. At first, she finds the reminder upsetting, but gradually realizes that these events have haunted her life and influences her personal relationships.
As the past and the present come together, secrets of many kinds are revealed.
I really enjoyed this book, and the mysteries of the plot. Sadie and Alice are both strong women, with hidden secrets that they must deal with to move forward positively.

After I'm Gone

Finished April 9
After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman, performed by Linda Emond

This mystery is set in the Baltimore area. In 2012, Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez, a retired cop now doing consultant work on cold cases, pulls out the case of Julie Saxony. In 1976, Julie was a stripper working in a club owned by Felix Brewer. She was also his mistress. When Felix, facing prison for some of his activities, disappears in 1976, he leaves behind not only Julie, but also his wife Bernadette "Bambi", and his three children, Linda, 17, Rachel, 14, and Michelle, 3. He also transfers the ownership of his cafe to Julie.
As the years go by, Julie has transformed herself into a businesswoman and, by 1986, owns an inn and is on the verge of opening a restaurant. Then, she disappears with no notice. People wonder, did she go to join Felix or did something happen to her? When her decomposed body is found in 2001 in a wooded park near the Brewer house in Baltimore the trail has gone cold, and the case went cold. Hence, Sandy's work now.
As Sandy goes over the evidence, talking to everyone whose name was in the file, and reinterviewing all the players, he awakens old resentments and memories, and possibly more.
We see Bambi, Julie, Linda, Rachel, and Michelle at various points in the intervening years, learning their stories and their experiences that brought them to the present day. This is a complex situation and there are lots of secrets that have been kept for years.
This is a story that reveals things slowly, gradually, and it creeps toward the final story inexorably. A very nice plot.