Holmes is Missing

 

Holmes is Missing by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (2025) 322 pages

In modern day New York City, Auguste Poe and Margaret Marple continue running their detective agency while Brendan Holmes is battling his addictions. This is where we left off at the end of Holmes, Marple and Poe, the book that started this series. Poe has continued his relationship with Helene Grey, a NYC detective. Grey brings them into a case where six newborn babies have disappeared from the maternity ward of a hospital, in spite of the babies wearing security devices that are supposed to alert staff to a baby leaving the ward. The security camera footage has been disrupted, too. Poe and Marple decide that Holmes's input is needed, so they bring him back to work from rehab, although he insists he wants to leave the detective business. Maybe he'll just go to one more meeting, maybe one more case.

Meanwhile, Helene Grey gives Poe some news that he's not ready to process, and Oliver Paul, a clockmaker, shows up at an event that they are at, seeming to be a groupie of Holmes, talking about Holmes's mother, who Holmes was told had died when he was a child. Paul also talks about a series of deaths of mothers that happens every year on the same day, which always look like accidents, rather than murder. The date is getting near again.

There's a lot going on in this novel, on both sides of the ocean. London has perhaps a related child-snatching situation as well. The most important question is will the children be located in time? But other questions are pressing as well.

Past Lying

Past Lying by Val McDermid, 452 pages

It's late March 2020, and DCI Karen Pirie and her team at the Historic Crimes Unit are bored to tears with nothing to do during COVID lockdown when a call comes in from the National Library with a possible lead in a cold case. Late thriller author Jake Stein donated his personal archives to the library upon his death, and as archivists started to go through his belongings, they discovered an unpublished manuscript that matches very closely the details of an unsolved case of a missing woman. Now Pirie and her team must figure out how to reopen the case under the tight restrictions of lockdown.

I love the premise for this book, the seventh in McDermid's Karen Pirie series, though I was a bit surprised by how mobile the HCU team was during Scotland's strict lockdown regulations — I seriously thought they'd be doing all of the interviews via Zoom, yet they were meeting people in the park and sitting 6 feet away instead. That said, this was a remarkably quick and engaging read for 450 pages, and even though I figured out several of the twists WAY early, I still enjoyed the book, particularly the relationship between Pirie and her two teammates. I haven't read the other books in this series, but I'll probably put them on my TBR to check out at some future date.

Listen for the Lie

Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera, 336 pages

Five years ago, Lucy's best friend Savvy was murdered after a wedding in their small Texas town. Lucy has no memory of that night, but given that she was found covered in Savvy's blood not far from the body, everyone assumes she did it, despite the fact that the police never charged her with the crime. In the aftermath, Lucy divorced her husband and fled to Los Angeles, where she's enjoyed a much more anonymous life...at least until a popular true crime podcaster picks up the cold case. Suddenly, everyone knows who Lucy is, and it's managed to end her job and relationship in one fell swoop. At the request of her beloved grandmother, Lucy heads back to her hometown and starts working with the podcaster to discover the truth of Savvy's murder, whatever that may be.

This was an interesting, quick read with a main character that is such a mess that you can't help but shake your head at her. But she also has a fantastically dark sense of humor, which made her so realistic and likeable to me. The book is alternately billed as a thriller and a mystery, though I'm not sure it really matters in the grand scheme of things, because it's wicked fun and keeps you guessing until the end.

The In Crowd

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell, 424 pages

DI Caius Beauchamp was just trying to enjoy a bad play after his date stood him up when the next thing he knows, he's sitting next to a dead guy covered in vomit. As he looks into who this guy was and what he was even doing at this horrible drunken production of The Importance of Being Earnest, Caius learns that the dead man was in London looking into a cold case, the disappearance of a teen girl from a remote boarding school. Soon, Caius has taken up the banner and is simultaneously investigating this 15-year-old case as he also looks into the death of a woman pulled out of the Thames.

I feel like that was a horrible description of a book that ties together both of these cases, as well as the snooty upper crust of British society (that bit hinges on a surprisingly likeable milliner) in a compelling way. The twists were good and Vassell hit the sweet spot of letting the reader figure it out just barely before the characters did. This is the second in a series, and stood well on its own, even though I haven't read the first one yet. But I definitely will!

Daughter of Mine

Daughter of Mine by Megan Miranda, 354 pages

Hazel has never enjoyed returning to her hometown of Mirror Lake, but when her father (a longtime detective with the Mirror Lake police department) dies, she has no choice. She's always had a difficult relationship with her two brothers, and the revelation that their dad left his house and everything in it to Hazel has certainly not helped anything. Complicating matters even more is the fact that two cars have now been dragged out of the depths of the lake, and one can only have gone in from the yard of the house that is now Hazel's. And now, when she stays in the house, she can't fight the feeling that someone is watching her.

This was a quick read, and a fun way to spend an afternoon. However, I wouldn't put it on the top of my list of thrillers and it probably won't stick with me for much longer than it takes to type out this review. It's a solid OK in my book.

The Night in Question

The Night in Question by Kathleen Glasgow & Liz Lawson, 401 pages

In this excellent sequel to The Agathas, super-smart Iris and former popular girl Alice team up to solve a decades-old mystery of a Hollywood starlet's untimely death, which somehow led to the assault of one of Iris and Alice's classmates. It had been a minute since I'd read The Agathas, so it took me a bit to remember who everyone was, but really, that's my only complaint about this book. The first book has been described as "Veronica Mars meets Nancy Drew," and I'd say that description still holds up here. A great sequel to a great book. Can't wait to read more of their adventures!

The Bullet That Missed

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman (2022) 342 pages

The four members of The Thursday Murder Club (Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim) are onto another cold case. These seventy and eighty-year-olds befriend a news anchor to see what he can share with them about the murder of his co-worker, Brittany, ten years ago, when her car went off a cliff. Brittany had been working on a massive VAT (value added tax) fraud case when this occurred. The scheme is thought to have made millions for someone. The Club delves into those who worked with Brittany, as well as those whom she may have been investigating, and tries to follow the money to figure out who else may have been involved in the case.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth has been receiving strange text messages from an unknown number, which indicate that she will soon be called upon to help this unknown person. When the time comes, she's given no choice but to kill someone or else her best friend will be killed. Will her work experience at MI6 allow for a positive outcome?

Between these two cases, and a few developing relationships, there is no shortage of surprises while new information is parceled out. Even when I think the story is getting wrapped up, the twists continue. It's a lovely British book for a mystery lover, and I eagerly await the next installment.

The Bullet That Missed

The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman, 342 pages

In this third outing with the Thursday Murder Club, the senior citizen sleuths are digging up the cold case of the murder of Bethany Waites, an up-and-coming TV journalist who was on the verge of uncovering a major scandal when she and her car went off a cliff and into the ocean. As Joyce, Ron, and Ibriham start schmoozing with the local TV anchor to dig into Bethany's last days, former MI6 agent Elizabeth gets a startling ultimatum: an unknown "Viking" tells her she must kill a former KGB agent or he'll kill Joyce. Juggling between the cold case and Elizabeth's secret task, the crew manages to get tangled up in prison visits, snooker games with money launderers, and even Bitcoin. 

Just like the first two books in this series, The Bullet That Missed is a fun mystery with fantastic colorful characters. My one concern is that the cast is getting a bit unwieldy, with the four main members of the Thursday Murder Club, their friendly police officers, a Polish henchman who now does Elizabeth's bidding, and more. I fear that if this exponential growth continues, it's going to be more difficult to keep the twisty plotlines straight. That said, it was a fun story, and I'll certainly read the next one in the series.

We are all the same in the dark

 

We are all the same in the dark / Julia Heaberlin, read by Jenna Lamia,  Catherine Taber, and others 340 pgs.

It has been a decade since popular cheerleader Trumanell disappeared.  The number one suspect is her brother Wyatt, now the town piranha. Odette is a young police woman who returned to her hometown to solve the case.  Five years later, still unsolved, she is struggling with her relationships to her dead father, unhappy husband and her former boyfriend, Wyatt.  When a mysterious one eyed girl is dumped in a field near town, emotions boil to the surface.  This is a well done thriller with fantastic narration.

Dark Sacred Night

Dark Sacred Night: a Ballard and Bosch Novel / Michael Connelly, read by Titus Welliver and Christine Lakin, 433 p.

Harry's on a personal mission to find the killer of Daisy Clayton, a teen prostitute murdered nine years earlier.  Harry rescued Daisy's mother from heroin addiction in the excellent Two Kinds of Truth and he maintains a connection to this woman whose suffering since her daughter's death has been unending. His investigation, which involves old LAPD 'shake cards,' brief records of interactions between beat police and citizens, brings him into contact with Renee Ballard.  Their initial distrust leads quickly to mutual cooperation and focus on getting Daisy's killer at all costs.  They're a great team, and, as always, I enjoyed the action and careful unfolding of the plot.  But I'm worried about Harry's seeming slide into ethically dubious behavior, and hope that Ballard can keep him in line in the future. 

Lakin and Welliver are both first-rate.

The Comforts of Home

The Comforts of Home: a Chief Superintendent Simon Serrailler Mystery / Susan Hill, 305 p.

I jumped into the middle (#9) of this series to find the main character recuperating from a horrific accident which presumably occurred in the previous installment.  Simon spends his rehab period on a remote Scottish island, where he happens to get caught up in a local murder case.  Meanwhile, back home in Lafferton, the force is struggling with an outbreak of arson, while a bereaved mother demands that the case of her daughter's disappearance be reopened.