Review_FICTION
48 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ AUGUST 5, 2019
Review_FICTION
Potting Shed mysteries), accepts a major
responsibility when she becomes the
curator of the late Lady Georgina
Fowling’s collection of first editions of
women authors from the golden age of
mystery. Desperate to prove her worth and
revitalize the public image of the library
that houses the
collection,
Hayley invites a
group of mys-
tery writers to
hold their
weekly meet-
ings there.
When the arro-
gant group
leader is found
with his head
bashed in on the library floor, the police
have no murder weapon and no clues.
Inspired by Miss Marple in Agatha Christie’s
The Body in the Library, Hayley turns ama-
teur sleuth. Wingate focuses more on set-
ting up the characters and a romance for
Hayley than on developing the mystery,
making for a somewhat muddled plot.
Hopefully, the sequel will better balance
the various elements. Fans of British
sleuths will appreciate the references to
the classics of the genre. Agent: Christina
Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Oct.)Read and Buried:
A Lighthouse Library Mystery
Eva Gates. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-64385-233-1
In Gates’s delightful sixth Lighthouse
Library mystery (after Something Read,
Something Dead), workmen who are exca-
vating around the foundations of the
lighthouse in Nags Head, N.C., discover
a tin box containing a leather-bound diary
dating from the Civil War era, along with
a couple of loose sheets of paper and a
mysterious map of the Outer Banks. The
find has the entire town dreaming of
buried treasure. Within minutes, librarian
Lucy Richardson and the library staff are
fending off squabbling scholars and
members of the local historical society.
An exasperated Bertie James, the library
director, orders the historians to leave and
locks the box in her desk for the night.
After dinner, Lucy returns to find the
front door open, the map gone, and a man
lying dead on the floor of Bertie’s office.At Blackwater Abbey, Lady Highmount
hosts a séance that she hopes will allow
her to speak with her two soldier sons
who perished on the western front. The
Highmounts’ guests include a man who
calls himself Capt. Robert Donovan,
spunky socialite Kate Cartwright, Kate’s
parents, Kate’s slimy ex-fiancé, Count
Orlov (a medium), Madam Feda (another
medium), and a shell-shocked soldier,
whose doctor insists that he hovers on the
border of the spirit world. Also present are
the spirits of the dead that Kate, a natural
though unwilling medium, sees swarming
throughout the house. Heightening the
suspense is a mysterious stranger, who
lurks in the secret passages that honey-
comb the house. After a storm isolates the
place and violence breaks out, a ripping
yarn ensues. The tale exudes a whiff of
fusty melodrama in places, but this is a
quibble. Agatha Christie fans will have
fun. (Oct.)The Bodies in the Library
Marty Wingate. Berkley Prime Crime, $26
(336p) ISBN 978-1-9848-0410-5
Hayley Burke, the narrator of this
appealing, if flawed, series launch set in
Bath, England, from Wingate (thea touristy Highlands village. There Fiona
meets a friend of her sister who forces her
to accept that Rona was working as a pros-
titute when she disappeared. Stunned,
Fiona becomes obsessed with the online
ads for sex workers, as well as with the
women plying their trade near her grim
office building as she tries to discover
what became of Rona. Fiona’s preconcep-
tions of prostitution and her own dead-
end life are shattered as she gets to know
women trading sex for cash. Innes tends
to take to the soapbox to champion the
rights of sex workers, and Fiona’s efforts
to get out of her rut at times matter more
than her quest to find Rona. Still, this is a
captivating mystery with plenty of main-
stream appeal. Agent: Charlie Brotherstone,
A.M. Heath (U.K.). (Oct.)A House of Ghosts
W.C. Ryan. Arcade CrimeWise, $24.99 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-948924-71-9
During the winter of 1917, at the
height of WWI, various people with
hidden agendas travel at the invitation of
munitions tycoon Lord Highmount to
Blackwater, an island off the English
coast, in this lively traditional mystery
from Irish author Ryan (The Holy Thief).★ Your House Will Pay
Steph Cha. Ecco, $26.99 (320p) ISBN 978-0-06-286885-5B
ased on a true case, Cha’s ambitious tale of race,
identity, and murder delivers on the promise of
her Juniper Song mysteries (Dead Soon Enough,
etc.). Racial tensions in Los Angeles are at a
boiling point following the police shooting of a black
teenager, and 27-year-old Grace Park, who lives with
her Korean immigrant parents, shares the sense of out-
rage felt by many. Her sheltered world is suddenly
shattered when her mother, Yvonne, is shot in front
of the family pharmacy in a drive-by shooting. Dark
family secrets begin to emerge about Yvonne’s involve-
ment in the notorious 1991 shooting of Ava Matthews,
an unarmed young black woman, by a Korean shopkeeper. Grace is torn by
conflicting emotions of concern for her mother and shame at the implications of
her mother’s crime. Meanwhile, Ava’s brother, Shawn Matthews, has tried to put
the past behind him. When news of Yvonne’s attempted murder reaches him, it
brings up emotions Shawn has long fought to keep down. The tension rises as the
authorities circle in on his family as possible suspects in Yvonne’s shooting. This
timely, morally complex story could well be Cha’s breakout novel. Agent: Ethan
Bassoff, Lippincott Massie McQuilkin. (Oct.)