WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 85Review_FICTION Review_FICTION
action builds to a climax heavy on clichés.
This is no To Kill a Mockingbird. Hopefully,
Eskens will return to form next time. Agent:
Amy Cloughley, Kimberley Cameron & Assoc.
(Nov.)Impossible Causes
Julie Mayhew. Bloomsbury, $26 (432p)
ISBN 978-1-63557-325-1
YA author Mayhew (The Big Lie) makes
her adult debut with an atmospheric, if
disjointed, thriller set on Lark, an isolated
island off the English coast that’s home to
St. Rita’s School. Teenager Viola Kendrick
and her mother
come to Lark to
escape a family
tragedy that has
shattered them,
arriving on the
last boat before
the fog descends
that cuts off the
island from the
mainland for
seven months.
Viola spies on the three “Eldest Girls” from
St. Rita’s, who spend their time in the hills
performing rituals and fantasizing about
sex. Unlike the black hair of the Lark
natives, Viola’s vibrant red locks label her
a “coycrock,” or intruder from the main-
land. She longs to be accepted by the
elders, and eventually is. Meanwhile,
handsome Ben Hailey, St. Rita’s only male
teacher, and Leah Cedars, the school’s head
teacher, fall in love, creating petty jealou-
sies that lead to murder. The characters’
indistinguishable sameness and awkward
shifts between past and present will have
readers scrambling to keep the story
straight and understand whose voice is
telling it. That said, Mayhew delivers some
memorably creepy moments. Agent: Louise
Lamont, LBA Books. (Nov.)Lethal Pursuit
Will Thomas. Minotaur, $27.99 (320p) ISBN 978-
1-250-17040-8
Early in Thomas’s lackluster 11th
Victorian mystery featuring private
investigators Cyrus Barker and Thomas
Llewelyn (after 2018’s Blood Is Blood), the
pair are summoned to a secret meeting,
where Lord Salisbury, the prime minister,
informs them of the murder of Hillary
Drummond, a Foreign Office operative.Let Justice Descend
Lisa Black. Kensington, $26 (320p) ISBN 978-
1-4967-2235-5
The electrocution murder of Ohio sen-
ator Diane Cragin shortly before election
day propels bestseller Black’s solid fifth
thriller featuring Cleveland crime scene
investigator Maggie Gardiner and homi-
cide detective Jack Renner (after 2018’s
Suffer the Children). Initially, Maggie and
Jack’s prime suspect is Joe Green, Diane’s
political rival, but after they discover
almost a million dollars in cash in Cragin’s
house, they’re forced to delve into the world of
political corruption, bribes, and economic
hit men. Meanwhile, Cleveland Herald
reporter Lori Russo is working on a polit-
ical corruption story and a vigilante case
that involves a murder Maggie helped
Jack cover up. A second murder raises the
ante. Maggie wonders if these murders are
about politics or something more sinister.
Black’s deep dive into forensics and crime
scene investigation makes the book read at
times more like a procedural than a thriller.
This wealth of detail, combined with a
complex plot, slows the pace of what is
otherwise an intriguing tale of skulldug-
gery. On the whole, though, genre fans
will be satisfied. Agent: Vicky Bijur, Vicky
Bijur Agency. (Nov.)Nothing More Dangerous
Allen Eskens. Mulholland, $27 (304p) ISBN 978-
0-316-50972-5
Set in Jessup, Mo., in 1976, this tepid
coming-of-age story, with a mystery ele-
ment, from Edgar-finalist Eskens (The
Life We Bury) centers on the relationship
between Boady Sanden, an unhappy
15-year-old white boy, and Thomas Elgin,
a black boy his own age who moves in with
his family next door. Boady and Thomas
hit it off after some initial awkwardness
when Boady thoughtlessly uses the
N-word. The boys’ unremarkable escapades
include encounters with the opposite sex.
Meanwhile, Lida Poe, an African-American
woman who worked in the purchasing
department of Jessup’s largest employer, a
plastics producer, goes missing. Rumors
circulate that Lida was involved in some
financial chicanery and Thomas’s father
was brought in from Minnesota to try to
straighten the business out. Eventually,
Boady and Thomas run across a corpse and
start playing detectives themselves. Thedent, there are people who know some-
thing about you.” Enter investigators
Peter Rena and Randi Brooks, partners in
a firm that does opposition research (the
“oppo” of the title), to dig up dirt before
the other side does. Trying to figure out
what the threat refers to, as well as its
source, forms the bulk of the plot, though
Rosenstiel’s real mission seems to be pre-
senting his take on the horrible state of
contemporary politics. As the executive
director of the American Press Institute,
Rosenstiel has a real understanding of
American political life, but the book reads
more like a lengthy op-ed piece than a
novel. Agent: David Black, Black Agency.
(Dec.)★ A Step So Grave
Catriona McPherson. Quercus, $26.99
(320p) ISBN 978-1-473-68235-1
Agatha-winner McPherson’s exceptional
13th Dandy Gilver mystery (after 2017’s
Dandy Gilver and a Spot of Toil and Trouble)
puts a stylish spin on the traditional
country house murder. In the winter of
1935, Edinburgh PI Dandy and her
family travel to meet Mallory Dunnoch,
Dandy’s son Donald’s fiancée, and Mallory’s
family at Applecross, the Dunnochs’
estate in the Scottish Highlands. Oddly,
Lady Lavinia, Mallory’s mother, is absent
during their
visit. When the
spring thaw
reveals Lady
Lavinia’s body,
Dandy returns
to Applecross,
accompanied by
her fellow
detective, Alec
Osbourne, with
his “sharper
brain,” to investigate. That everyone at
Applecross has a motive for wanting Lady
Lavinia dead provides multiple red her-
rings, but who had the opportunity to kill
her? Details of rugged Highland life are
plentiful, with evocative descriptions of
climate and scenery gracefully incorpo-
rated into an intricate plot worthy of
Dorothy L. Sayers or Agatha Christie at
her finest. McPherson reliably entertains.
Agent: Lisa Moylett, CMM Literary (U.K.).
(Nov.)