Clear My Name

Finished May 30

Clear My Name by Paula Daly

This novel is set around Tess Gilroy, up to now the only employee of Innocence UK, a charity that helps people wrongly convicted of crimes. They have just wrapped up a successful case as the book starts and the board is meeting to decide what case they will tackle next. They've narrowed it to three options. They've also hired a new employee, Avril Hughes, who will be shadowing Tess as she prepares to be a second investigator for the organization. The board consists of Tom Robinson, a solicitor who sifts through the many cases sent their way and decides which ones have merit; Tess, who was a probation officer before she took this job; Vanessa Waring, a Home Office pathologist; Chris Pownall, a forensic scientist with an interest in fibre analysis; Fran Adler, a forensic scientist with an interest in blood; and Clive Earle, an ex-DI. 

The case they end up going with is that of Carrie Kamara, who was convicted of killing her husband's lover. She is three years into a fifteen-year sentence. It was her own barrister that pushed the case to Innocence UK. As Tess and Avril dig into the evidence and begin interviewing witnesses and others, they find some of the evidence questionable, some police work lazy, and some things that truly puzzle them.

Tess is also having a casual sexual relationship with Clive, who is married and pushing for more than Tess wants to give. We also are given clues to a personal complication to this case for Tess. The town where Carrie lived is the same town that Tess grew up in. She left years before, for reasons we only gradually learn of, and is wary of spending time there now. She is a diligent researcher though and follows up on all lines of the case despite her personal issues. 

I found this story intriguing, both in the way of evidence and for the personal life of Tess. 

Big Sky

Finished August 6

Big Sky by Kate Atkinson

There was a long gap between the publication of the previous book in the Jackson Brodie series and this one. 

The book opens with a scene of Jackson helping a bride escape her wedding, It then jumps to events from a couple of weeks earlier, with two young Polish women being brought into what we can see is a human trafficking situation. It moves quickly on from there into the main body of the story which begins a week after that. 

Brodie is living in a seaside village in North Yorkshire and has his son Nathan staying with him for most of the summer as Nathan's mother Julia is busy on set for her television series, Collier's. He's also looking after Julia's aging Labrador, Dido. At the moment Brodie is working on a case where he is gathering proof of an unfaithful husband for a client, but he has a couple of encounters rescuing people from risky situations that bring him into contact with a darker criminal situation. 

There are parallel plots that end up intersecting at various points in the novel.

Four men who know each other, some better than others, play golf together and sometimes more. Thomas (Tommy) Holroyd runs a good transportation company, Andrew Bragg runs a travel agency, Stephen Mellors is a corporate lawyer, and Vincent Ives is a telcom-equipment area manager. Vince is a more recent member of the group, but he knew Steve years ago when they were young and saved Steve's life.

Tommy is married to his second wife Crystal, after his first wife died in a supposed accident falling from a cliff. His son Harry, from his first wife, is an interesting teenager who plays a key role in the plot, and daughter Candace is an infant. Andrew is married to , and they run a B&B together. Steve is married to Sophie and has two children, a teenage boy Jamie, and teenage girl Ida. Vince is married to Wendy and has a daughter Ashley who is on her gap year. Wendy has also recently asked Vince to move out as she doesn't want to be married to him anymore and he is now living in a pretty awful apartment on his own. Steve acted as his lawyer, but doesn't seem to have done a good job for Vince. 

Two young, but very capable female officers digging into old case files and notes about a man who is already serving time in a pedophile case. There was long suspicion that there was another man that they didn't get at the time, and DCs Reggie Chase and Ronnie Dibicki are thorough and persistent in their review of material and interviewing of potential witnesses. 

I really liked the Crystal who we see a good deal of. She's not well-educated, but she's smarter than she thinks, and a really good mom to both kids. I also liked Harry. He's got an interesting job that opens him up to different life experiences and a world he'd never imagined. He's younger than his age in some ways, and older in others. Vulnerable, with a hidden strength of character. 

The novel kept me wanting to read late into the night, and I loved how the plots developed and abutted each other on occasion before coming together dramatically near the end of the book. Well worth waiting several years for. 

Final Assignment

Finished February 9

Final Assignment by Linwood Barclay

This novella is part of his series set in Promise Falls, New York. It is set as #1.5 in the series, and the main character and narrator is Cal Weaver, a private investigator that readers of the series would be familiar with. Here, he is called to the home of an acquaintance of a friend, the mother of a high school student who has handed in an English assignment that includes an act of violence. The school wants him to get a psychiatric evaluation, but the mother has something else in mind to get her son out of trouble.

After Cal leaves their home, he visits the friend who referred him to them, and find another situation. Their son didn't come home the previous night and isn't answering. 

As Cal follows up on the developing situation, talking to his friend the police chief, as well as other students who knew both boys, he comes up with a surprising conclusion that is more nuanced than one first realizes. 

A great short read that gives a great example of Cal's strengths around observation and quick thinking. 

Lone Wolf

Finished September 25

Lone Wolf by Linwood Barclay

This is the third book in the series featuring Zack Walker, a Toronto journalist. This book was also published under the title Bad Luck. I like this series for the humour and the Canadian setting, as well as the well-written family dynamics. 

Here, he is out at lunch with a former neighbour when he receives a disturbing phone call from his wife. One of the contributing reporters in cottage country has let her know that a body has been found, apparently killed by a bear, near the camp run by Zack's father, and his father is nowhere to be found. 

Zack immediately heads north, and finds the local police chief Orville Thorne, the local coroner, the reporter who called it in, and the people who are renting his dad's cabins at the present time. Most of these are returning guests, who've been coming up for years. While it is quickly established that his father isn't the victim, the victim's identity takes a little while to uncover, and several other issues show themselves.

One is the renters of the farmhouse on his dad's property. They have all kinds of warning signs mounted around the place dissuading casual visitors, a pair of aggressive dogs, and a radical mindset.

Another is one of his father's guests, a wealthy entrepreneur who wants to create a large luxury resort on a neighbouring property which goes against the local culture and may endanger the lake's health. 

The reader also soon learns that the local fair, which begins with a parade and is coming up on the next weekend, has been issued a threat of violence if a local LGBTQ community is allowed to participate. There is a petition, driven by one small-minded local businessman, and some threatening phone calls to the mayor, which also seem to be directed at her being married to a man who isn't white. 

Both Zack and his father are a bit overwhelmed by what they are facing and he calls on an old friend Lawrence Jones for his assistance. This assistance helps with some of the issues, others are resolved in unexpected ways, but the largest issue of the renters only gets worse until the final climax. 

A total engaging read, with lots of edge of the seat scenes. 

The Dangerous Hour

Finished August 17

The Dangerous Hour by Marcia Muller

This is part of the Sharon McCone series, fairly far along, and she is celebrating a planned expansion for her agency when things start going bad. One of her agents in training is accused of stealing a client's credit card and purchasing items online with it. The client also files a complaint against the agency, meaning that Sharon's license could be in jeopardy. As she complies with investigators, she also researches old cases to see who might have a grudge against her and be capable of this kind of planned attack. 

Sharon is also mulling over a question her longtime partner Hy has posed to her.

This book has a fast-moving plot, with lots going on in terms of clues that Sharon and her investigators follow up on, both near and far. 

I also liked the storylines around helping people improve their circumstances through training and other social resources. 

A Line to Kill

Finished January 28

A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz

This is part of a series where a fictionalized version of the author, also named Anthony Horowitz, works with an ex-cop turned private investigator, Daniel Hawthorne. He essentially shadows Hawthorne as he investigates a case and writes it up as a book. Hawthorne is reserved, not talking about himself to Horowitz much, and disdainful of Horowitz's intelligence. 

This is the third book in the series, but the only one I've read. I received it as a gift this past Christmas. 

As the book opens, Anthony is having a meeting with his publisher and they want Daniel to come to the meeting as well. He tells Daniel about it, and he comes and makes a favourable impression. They are told about a new literary festival that they've received an invitation to, and even though the newest book isn't out, so they don't have anything to flog, Daniel seems eager to go, so Anthony agrees. 

The festival takes place on the small island of Alderney, and the group of authors is small. They include a TV chef who has a new book, a children's author, a woman who says she can communicate with the world beyond, a local historian, and a French poet. All but the local historian meet as they wait for the plane to take them to the island. 

Once on the island they meet the organizer of the festival and soon after the sponsor, a wealthy casino owner who is also pushing for a planned power line to cut through the island, a project that has significant local resistance. Anthony also discovers a man that Daniel once arrested also lives on the island, and he begins to wonder if that was why Daniel agreed to come. 

As the festival gets underway, and Anthony and Daniel spend more time together, he learns more about this man and his background. 

When someone is found killed, and the local police aren't immediately available, Daniel gets brought in to look at the case, and Anthony comes along with him.

This series is definitely an interesting idea, and one wonders how much the real author resembles this fictional version. The case has lots of people with opportunity and many with motives, but it is a slower read than many mystery books as the case progresses slowly and the characters are mostly shallowly drawn. A decent read. 

All I Did Was Shoot My Man

Finished October 2

All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley

This is the 4th book in the Leonid McGill series. Set in New York City, Leonid is a former criminal who has gone legitimate (mostly), works as a private investigator, and one of the things he does is try to rectify some of the things he did in his earlier life. 

As this book begins he is fighting a low-grade fever and waiting to meet a bus carrying women released from prison, specifically to meet Zella Grisham. Eight years earlier, Zella came home early from work one day due to feeling ill. She walked in on her boyfriend Harry Tangelo in bed with her best friend Minnie Lesser. She reached for the gun in the top drawer of her dresser and shot Harry, injuring him. She was in a disassociated state at the time and doesn't actually remember doing it, but doesn't deny it. Interestingly, both Harry and Minnie had their own apartments, so having their assignation in her place seems like it was just asking to be discovered. The judge was being inclined to go light on Zella given the circumstances until an anonymous tip came in saying that information related to a large theft of money would be found in her storage locker. Zella was given several years in jail, and made life choices based on her sentence.

McGill was involved in the placement of that evidence (something he had done in other circumstances as well) and feels guilt over how it affected her life. He was able to get the evidence reexamined and get that case against her dropped and get her out of jail. He has also found her a place to live and a job. But all of these actions have awakened the guilty of that crime and it seems like many people associated with that crime have been killed and tortured. As McGill tries to protect Zella, and get to the bottom of the case, it takes him to the highest levels of the company the crime was committed against, and back to his own past. 

McGill is also facing issues in his personal life, starting to search for his father who he has recently learned is alive, dealing with his oldest son's first serious relationship, and sorting out his feelings about his wife and a former lover. His wife Katrina is showing behavioural changes and he is worried about this change.

His younger son Twill is now working for him, and showing himself to be very much like his father in terms of personality and judgement. When McGill has Twill involved in a case, Twill shows initiative in making his own decisions and going beyond his remit. 

This is the second book that I've read in the series, and I find McGill to be an interesting and complex character. He is smart and quick to react to a situation. This book lets us see more of his family and the relationships between the members of that family as well as some of his associates. Mosley is a fantastic writer and I've loved everything I've read of his.

Closed Casket

Finished July 20
Closed Casket: The New Hercule Poirot Mystery by Sophie Hannah

This story takes place at an Irish manor house of Lady Playford, a famous English children's author. The author has invited a number of people to her house for a weekend, including Inspector Catchpool of Scotland Yard and Hercule Poirot.
Lady Playford's son Harry and daughter-in-law Dorro are also living there as is her daughter Claudia. Her daughter's fiance, Randall Klimpton, a pathologist from Oxford is visiting. Lady Playford has also invited the two principal lawyers from her law firm, Orville Rolfe and Michael Gathercole, and we see her early meeting with one of them as she discusses making a significant change to her will.
Besides these people, there are also staff members: Hatton the butler, the cook Brigid, the maid Phyllis, Lady Playford's secretary Joseph Scotcher, and Scotcher's nurse Sophie Bourlet. Scotcher is suffering from a kidney disease and is not expected to last much longer.
Catchpool and Poirot are not entirely sure why they are there, but the expect it is to prevent something from happening.
Lady Playford is a very manipulative woman who likes to have things her way, and she was the sole recipient of her husband's estate, unusual in those times, although her son did get the title. Claudia is a very forthright young woman, resentful of pretty much everyone and everything and a strong feminist in some ways. Gathercole, her lawyer, originally applied for the job as her secretary and has been a lifelong fan of her writings, crediting them with his success in life. As Lady Playford puts her plan in action, she fails to account for a variety of other variables and it does not unfold to her satisfaction at all, and it is now that Catchpool and Poirot must work together to figure out what has really happened and who is responsible.
An interesting novel, with a more convoluted plot than I prefer. Poirot is himself and it is all neatly wrapped up, but there are many casualties and a sad ending.

No Way Home

Finished October 4
No Way Home by Peter Spiegelman

This is the second book in the series featuring private investigator John March and has been on my reading list for a very long time. It took me a while to track down a copy, and then a couple of years to bring it to the top of my reading pile. But it was definitely worth the wait.
John March used to be a cop in upstate New York until one of his investigations resulted in the death of his much-loved wife. After a period of depression and darkness, he reinvented himself as a private investigator. But he is still very much alone. He lives in a loft owned by his sister, and has become involved with a woman, but is wary of commitment. His family owns a small investment firm and he has always resisted being part of it. He has agreed to help with the interviews the company is doing for a Head of Security though, and is on good terms with one of his brothers as well as his sister. His new case is one referred to him by a friend who runs a security company and used to be in the FBI. The case is that of a missing person, a man who was a well-known and controversial stock market analyst, who has disappeared after a very public argument with someone at his firm. His ex-wife knows he wouldn't not show up for his time with his son without calling. She was still relying on his support payments for her lifestyle. It is she who hires John to find her ex-husband.
As John delves into his life, he discovers the man had many secrets, and few friends. He also draws attention to himself and begins to receive threats against some who are close to him. He can't handle another case that spills into his personal life, and he is both driven to find an answer and to protect those he cares about from the threats he's received.
John is a complex character, with a fair bit of baggage, but he also has a stronger group of supporters than he realizes and I really enjoyed getting to know him here.

Dying to Read

Finished November 7
Dying to Read by Lorena McCourtney

This book is part of a series featuring Cate Kincaid, a young woman who has had bad luck with jobs, and has recently joined her uncle in his small private investigation business in Eugene, Oregon.
As the book opens, Cate's uncle has had a small health setback and is in the hospital. He's left her a task to track down a young woman for an elderly relative, and she's got an address to look for her at.
As she arrives at the house, she finds a number of women at the door of the house, all of whom were expecting to have lunch with the homeowner, who isn't answering the door.
Cate takes charge, opens the door with the key one of the women has, and enters the house followed by the women. As they search the house, they find the table laid, the food prepared and no sign of anybody. It looks like the housekeeper, the woman that Cate is looking for, has left in a hurry. And then Cate and one of the women find the homeowner, dead at the bottom of a set of outside steps.
As Cate continues to track down the woman, finds that the person searching for her hasn't been honest about the reasons he is looking for her, and tries to figure out what really happened to the dead woman, since the police seem quick to write it off as an accident, she also finds herself in some tricky situations, and meets a man who seems a little too eager to protect her. She also tries to keep some of the information from her uncle as he recovers, and finds herself the unexpected owner of a cat that seems to be sending her occasional messages.
A fun read.

The Last Place You Look

Finished January 18
The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka, read by Allyson Ryan

This suspense novel is the first in a series featuring private detective Roxane Weary. Roxane is in bad shape as the book begins, still not really recovered from her father's death. Her dad was a police officer who was killed on duty. He was a gruff man, who drank too much and criticized a lot. Roxane doesn't really have fond memories of him, but his death has hit her hard, and she's been drinking too much too often. When one of her brothers refers someone to her to find a person who's been missing for more than a decade, she takes it only because she really needs the money.
But as she begins to research the case of the missing Sarah Cook, she finds other women in the area who've gone missing. The woman who hired her has a tight deadline, as her brother, Brad Stockton, is on death row for killing Sarah's parents and his date of death has been set for just a couple months away. Brad is black, and Sarah was white, so there is a possible racial element to this case as well.
The police in the suburban community near Columbus, Ohio, where Sarah and her parents lived actively dissuade Roxane from looking further into these disappearances, which really pisses her off.
I loved the character Roxane, as she's really interesting. She's smart, with great instincts for the work she does, but definitely has some problems on the personal side. She's made some questionable choices of partners (she's bisexual) and she resents her oldest brother as a goody-goody. She also thinks her mother put up with too much from her father. But she has definitely feelings for all her family members.
She also cares about the people she gets close to as a result of this case, as well as the victims. She puts herself in danger to try to help them, and she definitely has her share of bad luck. I look forward to reading more books featuring her.

The Long Fall

Finished May 27
The Long Fall by Walter Mosley, read by Mirron Willis

I enjoyed the last Walter Mosley book so much that I sought out another of his series. This one feature the private detective Leonid McGill and is set in New York City, mostly. This is the first book in this series and the time is 2008. Leonid has a shady background, one where he did a lot of looking for people for on the criminal side, without asking questions about why they wanted that information. He has also planted information on people he deemed as "not good," to fit his own or others' narratives. That is, in fact, how he got his current office space.
He is trying to go straight, to do legitimate work, but it is harder to disentangle himself from his past than he thought. He does a seemingly simple job of looking for four men based on their descriptions and nicknames in their youth, but begins to grow suspicious of the motive behind the search when he locates the final man of the four. But he needs the money, and the story seems believable, so he provides the information.
The characters introduced here are interesting. Leonid's wife, come back to him after an ill-fated separation, but now untrustworthy. His landlord representative, for whom he has more than professional feelings. His old clients, who still want his expertise and won't take no for an answer. The cop who knows he's done some sketchy things, and has his eye on him for good. His former associates, some of who he still relies on for their expertise and connections. Those who owe him something and are willing to do him favours because of that. His younger son, who has a good heart and immense charm, but who doesn't always make the best choices.
I will definitely be looking for more in this series.

Little Green

Finished March 1
Little Green by Walter Mosley, read by Michael Boatman

I had read a few novels by Walter Mosley before this, but never one featuring Easy Rawlins. This is the 12th book in the series.
The year is 1967, and Rawlins is recovering from an near fatal car accident. As he gradually regains consciousness, his close friend Mouse comes to him for help. A young man, Evander Noon, nicknamed Little Green by Mouse, has gone missing after a trip up to Sunset Strip. The case brings Rawlins out of his own issues, but he must go to Mama Jo for help in gaining the energy to pursue the case. Mama Jo provides him with an energizing and healing elixir she calls Gator's Blood that he is careful to use as directed. Rawlins search for Evander takes him to the other world that is the Sunset Strip. The world of hippies, free love, and racial bridges, but also the world of conmen, drug dealers, and those who take advantage of the innocent. He meets the hippie flower selling young woman Ruby who put Evander on an acid trip that took him on a dangerous adventure that Rawlins must get him out of.
There are other side plots here as well, such as the attempted blackmail of Rawlins' highly placed insurance industry friend Jackson Blue, the squatter who has taken over Rawlins' house while he was incapacitated, and the windows into Rawlins' personal life through his adopted children and love interest.
This book evokes a particular time period, but certain insights, particularly around racism, still read true today. Rawlins is a man who is capable of violence, but also one who will always choose another way if her can. The writing is absolutely wonderful, something I've found in every Walter Mosley book I've read. He has an extensive vocabulary, choosing the right word for each situation and character, and the story just flows.
Here, the narrator brings that all to life, as we see the various friends that Rawlins can rely on, each with their own particular personality. I will have to read more in this series.

The Ghost Runner

Finished November 26
The Ghost Runner by Parker Bilal

This is the third book in the series featuring Makana, but the first that I've read. Makana is from Sudan, but now living in exile in Cairo. He was a police officer in Sudan, but with the change in regime, he lost everything: his job, his family, and nearly his life. In Cairo, he has created a business as a private investigator and he and his partner have taken on the mundane job of following a man around to see if his wife's suspicions of a mistress are true. The man seems to be innocent, and therefore the job is quite boring until one day when he stops at a private health clinic. Makana finds him to be visiting a severely burned young woman. As his curiosity takes him further, and he confronts the man, he gets hired for a different job. Find the man who did this to the young woman. His job takes him out into the desert community of Siwa, where both of the girl's parents were from. There he finds a very insular community, with corrupt police, a drunken doctor, and many secrets past and present.
This is a story of a man haunted by his past, with a strong moral sense, and very good instincts and investigative skills. He is a man who notices things, and that means that he isn't easily fooled, and that he isn't willing to take things at face value. This is not a nicely wrapped up story, but a story that feels representative of a certain place and time in the world. A very interesting read.