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repeat itself when someone attacks Iris
Watson-Watt, a fellow guest at Cavendish
Manor, after she passes the blueprints to
him, leading Narraway to play sleuth to
identify her assailant. An obvious villain
disappoints. This is an unmemorable
effort by a prolific author who is usually
better. Agent: Donald Maass, Donald Maass
Literary. (Nov.)Dead Blow: A Horseshoer Mystery
Lisa Preston. Arcade CrimeWise, $25.99
(264p) ISBN 978-1-5107-4911-5
In Preston’s enjoyable sequel to 2018’s
The Clincher, Rainy Dale, the intrepid
horseshoer of Cowdry, Ore., takes on a new
client, rancher Donna Chevigny, whose
husband, Cameron, died the previous year
in a tractor accident. Rainy welcomes the
job as a chance to help someone hard-
pressed to manage a cattle ranch all on her
own. Everything changes, though, when
Donna’s dog finds a glove with a human
hand in it. The hand belongs to Arielle
Blake, a young woman who went missing
about the same time Cameron died. Are the
two deaths related? Was Donna involved
with either death? What about Arielle’s
fiancé? Rainy becomes mired in clues,
suspects, and questions, with no answers
in sight. Rainy, a strong, down-home,
likable sleuth, has just the right amount of
attitude to give her some gumption. The
horseshoeing jargon and details of the tools
of the trade may be more than some readers
care to know, but Preston delivers a steady
ride right up to the satisfying ending.
Hopefully, Rainy will be back soon. Agent:
Mark Gottlieb, Trident Media Group. (Nov.)Lady Takes the Case
Eliza Casey. Berkley Prime Crime, $16 trade
paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-9848-0388-7
Set in 1912, the pseudonymous Casey’s
solid first novel and series launch focuses
on the plight of Lord and Lady Avebury,
who are near financial ruin: the only way
to save their beloved Yorkshire estate,
Danby Hall, is for their shy, botanist son,
Patrick, to marry Annabel Clarke, an
American heiress. The Countess of Avebury
invites Annabel and a host of distinguished
guests to a grand weeklong event, which
includes a garden party, archery, and cro-
quet, and a masquerade ball to help seal
the engagement. During a formal dinner,
the fatal poisoning of a celebrated explorerdisaffected teens, this book will appeal to
fans of criminal investigations led by
empowered women. Agent: Jill Marr,
Sandra Dijkstra Agency. (Dec.)★ Galway Girl: A Jack Taylor Novel
Ken Bruen. Mysterious, $26 (288p) ISBN 978-
0-8021-4793-6
In Bruen’s superior 15th Jack Taylor
novel (after 2018’s In the Galway Silence),
killers stalk PI Taylor, once a member of
the Garda, through Galway. Jericho, a
femme fatale for whom “everyone was the
enemy,” cracks the whip on her fellow
psychos as they roam the city gunning
down members of the Garda to grab Jack’s
attention. Soon enough it gets personal
with the fatal stabbing of a nun known to
Taylor. Abrupt violence and plot twists
keep the action popping, as Bruen plays
his story like a series of brilliant impro-
visational jazz solos. Cultural references
punctuate the narrative—for example, the
first paragraph from Hammett’s The Maltese
Falcon is dropped in as a free-form poem.
For the finale, Bruen brings in a new
character, the capable and deadly Keefer,
once a roadie for the Rolling Stones, thereby
balancing the odds so that Jack might live
to drink Jameson another day. Bruen
reinforces his place as the master of Irish
noir. Agent: Lukas Ortiz, Philip G. Spitzer
Literary Agency. (Nov.)A Christmas Gathering
Anne Perry. Ballantine, $20 (208p) ISBN 978-
0-525621-01-0
Set in Victorian England, bestseller
Perry’s 17th Christmas mystery (after
2018’s A Christmas Revelation) is less
rewarding than others in the series. Victor
Narraway, from the author’s Thomas and
Charlotte Pitt series, who has stepped down
as the head of Special Branch, travels with
his wife from London to the country estate
of the Cavendishes, where they are to spend
Christmas. Narraway is on a secret mission
to take custody of “submarine blueprints,
discreetly doctored,” so as to be unusable in
actually developing such a vessel. Narraway
is to pass the fakes on through British spy
networks to Germany, in order to out a
suspected traitor in the intelligence ser-
vices. Twenty years earlier, Narraway had
a similar assignment in Normandy that
ended with the death of a young female
Special Branch agent. History seems toAdvertisement◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆Sarah Jane Pullman, the narrator
of this hypnotic, meticulously crafted
crime novel from Sallis (Drive), has
become the acting sheriff of Farr, a
rural southwestern town, following
the disappearance of her predecessor
and mentor, Sheriff Cal Phillips.
Sarah’s combat experience in the Gulf
War and her heightened perception
of human nature have made her a
natural for law enforcement, but her
life up until this point has followed
anything but a linear route. Amid
her search for the missing Phillips,
Sarah lls in her past. After eeing
from her small Southern town at 17,
Sarah hit the road, and a bit of trouble
led to her court-ordered stint in the
military. After her discharge, Sarah
spent years adrift, nding work as an
itinerant cook in faceless diners and
shelters, moving through a string of
relationships (including one with
a violent cop), getting a college
degree, losing a child, improvising
a life, moving on when things got
complicated. An insightful character
study of one woman’s reckoning
with her own demons, this is also
a powerful look at contemporary
America. Sallis is writing at the top
of his game. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky
Bijur Literary. (Oct.)
—Publishers Weekly
August 12, 2019http://www.sohopress.com★
James Sallis.
Soho Crime, $23.95 (216p)
ISBN 978-1-64129-080-7Sarah Jane