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more than satisfied. (Nov.)Penny for Your Secrets:
A Verity Kent Mystery
Anna Lee Huber. Kensington, $15.95 trade
paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-4967-1319-3
In Huber’s action-filled third Verity
Kent mystery (after 2018’s Treacherous Is
the Night), former British Secret Service
agent Verity is still adjusting to her post-
WWI life and trying to rebuild her mar-
riage to Sidney after a three-year separation.
At a London
dinner party, the
Kents are
shocked by the
reckless behavior
of Verity’s friend
Ada, Lady
Rockham, who
finds a pistol on
her chair and
jokes that she
might as well
shoot her husband with it. Her joke back-
fires when Lord Rockham is shot to death
that very night. Meanwhile, an ex-MI5
colleague of Verity’s, Irene Shaw, asks
Verity to look into the death of her half-
sister, Esther. The police say Esther’s
murder was a robbery gone wrong, but the
only things missing are letters from French
cousins. Verity comes upon a clue in
Esther’s journal that links the two unre-
lated deaths by the most unlikely event—a
wartime shipwreck in which the entire
crew disappeared without a trace. Huber
offers a well-researched historical and a
fascinating look at the lingering aftermath
of war. Agent: Kevan Lyon, Marsal Lyon
Literary. (Nov.)The Ringmaster
Vanda Symon. Orenda (IPG, dist.), $15.95
trade paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-912374-65-6
New Zealand author Symon’s uninspired
sequel to 2019’s Overkill finds Sam
Shephard, a trainee detective in Dunedin,
on the team looking into the murder of
Rose-Marie Bateman, a 23-year-old uni-
versity student. Bateman, believed to be
the victim of a serial killer, was found
bound and gagged in the water in the
Botanic Garden with her head bashed in. A
prologue that depicts this killing unneces-
sarily and prematurely narrows the list of
possible suspects. Meanwhile, Shephard’sher wealthy family for several weeks. She
was last seen headed toward a railroad
station in the company of a known druggie
and carrying a duffle most likely filled with
heroin. As he pursues the elusive Bardon,
Naor encounters a number of stock char-
acters, including the cabbie who knows
all, the matriarch madam willing to
share everything about Bangkok’s sex and
narcotics trade, and the drug boss who
thinks little of human life and often speaks
in riddles. The choppy, hard-to-follow
quest ends with little more than a sigh.
Along the way, readers never get a chance to
form an emotional connection with Bardon.
Fans of sophisticated international thrillers
will have to look elsewhere. Agent: Murray
Weiss, Catalyst Literary. (Nov.)★ Death Has Deep Roots
Michael Gilbert. Poisoned Pen, $14.99 trade
paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-4926-9953-8
In this entry in the British Library
Crime Classics series, first published in
1951, Gilbert (1912–2006) adroitly
blends whodunit, courtroom drama, and
thriller. Victoria Lamartine, a French
woman living in London a few years after
WWII, has been charged with stabbing
Maj. Eric Thoseby to death in his room.
During the war, Thoseby worked as a
British agent in the same part of France
where
Lamartine ran
errands for the
Resistance. The
prosecution
believes that
Lamartine was
motivated by
hatred of the
victim, who
fathered her
child and then
abandoned them both. On the eve of her
trial, she switches attorneys and enlists
Noel Anthony Pontarlier Rumbold to
defend her, asserting not only her inno-
cence but that Thoseby was not the
father of her now-dead son. Rumbold’s
efforts on her behalf, which take him
across the Channel to investigate, expose
him to danger, even as skilled barrister
Hargest Macrea uses his superior cross-
examination skills to raise doubts about
the government’s case. Readers who like
their detection balanced by action will beBrian becomes the prime suspect in both
deaths. Determined to help clear Brian,
Ray and his fellow librarian and secret love
Adele Morgan discover that Shannon was
actually Sandra Dean, mother to a six-year-
old daughter and wife of a wealthy and
influential man. Ray’s worries and per-
sonal problems muddle the plot rather
than add depth to the story, though the
atmospheric setting compensates in
part. Those who love New York City and
libraries will be rewarded. Agent: Alice
Martell, Martell Agency. (Nov.)The Missing Diamond Murder
Diane Janes. Severn, $28.99 (208p) ISBN 978-
0-7278-8954-6
Set in 1930 England, Janes’s unimpres-
sive third cozy featuring Fran Black and
Tom Dod (after 2018’s The Poisoned Chalice
Murder) finds the couple, who have become
friends through a literary club, in a difficult
position. Fran wants their relationship to
become more than a friendship but must
keep Tom at arm’s length during her
divorce proceedings, as they’ve been
accused of having an affair. Tom manages
to secretly slip Fran a note during a club
gathering, suggesting that she assist the
Edgerton family with a mystery they con-
tacted him about. Fran agrees and travels
to the Edgertons’ country home in Devon,
where she learns that she has two puzzles
to solve. Was the fall from a cliff of
elderly, wheelchair-bound Frederick
Edgerton the prior year foul play? And
was a diamond he owned stolen or just
misplaced? Fran checks alibis and looks
for clues, and in the end resorts to trickery
to unmask a killer. Fran is too thin a
character to compensate for an uninspired
plot and contrived climax. Jessica Fletcher
fans will be disappointed. (Nov.)Passport to Death:
A Dotan Naor Thriller
Yigal Zur, trans. from the Hebrew by Sara Kitai.
Oceanview, $26.95 (208p) ISBN 978-1-60809-
364-9
Zur’s so-so second Dotan Naor thriller
to be translated into English (after 2018’s
Death in Shangri-La) takes the tough-
talking Tel Aviv private eye, who special-
izes in rescuing missing young Israelis
abroad, to Bangkok, Thailand, in search
of Sigal Bardon, a 26-year-old beauty and
spoiled brat, who hasn’t checked in with