Review_FICTION
52 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JANUARY 27, 2020
Review_FICTION
third Depression-era mystery featuring
Wyoming U.S. marshal Nelson Lane (after
2019’s The Marshal and the Sinister Still),
Lane agrees to help Sally Maddis find her
freelance reporter brother, Jesse, who has
not been heard from since setting off for
the Mystical Mountain Hunting Lodge
in search of a story he intends to sell to
the New York Daily News. Lane wonders:
“what interest would the publication have
in an obscure hunting lodge in Wyoming?
Especially written by a muckraker like
Jesse Maddis.” A visit to the fortresslike
lodge and an encounter with some of the
armed security personnel deepen his
interest, as does the client list, which
includes a lot of wealthy men. Ignoring
warnings from the security team, Lane
does a flyover of the property and spots a
dead body. Other deaths follow. Convincing
local color makes up for a mystery whose
solution relies exclusively on Lane’s dis-
covery of one piece of evidence. Those
who like to have no doubt about who the
villains are or the full extent of their
crimes will be satisfied. (Mar.)Blood Song:
A Roy & Castells Thriller
Johana Gustawsson, trans. from the French by
David Warriner. Orenda (IPG, dist.), $15.95
trade paper (300p) ISBN 978-1-912374-81-6
The prologue of Gustawsson’s disap-
pointing third crime thriller featuring
profiler Emily Roy and true crime author
Alexis Castells (after 2018’s Keeper) suggests
that the atrocities of Franco’s Spain will be
a prime plot element, as does a scene set in
1937 Spain, but these prove incidental.
Instead, the focus is on the stabbing
murders of three members of the wealthy
Lindbergh family in Falkenberg, Sweden,
in 2016. When Aliénor Lindbergh, who’s
interning with the Metropolitan Police in
London, learns of the deaths of her parents
and sister, she returns home to Sweden,
accompanied by her friend Emily, who
was teaching her criminal profiling. There
Alexis joins Emily in investigating the
killings. The search for answers leads the
pair to look for a connection to a fertility
clinic operated by Aliénor’s parents that
boasted an improbable success rate. Readers
should be prepared for stock characters
and predictable plot twists, as well as dis-
tracting flashbacks that promise more
than they deliver. Crime fiction fans canwas told
decades ago.
Accompanied
by friends,
Claire embarks
on a desperate
search for
Allegra across
Italy, but those
offering answers
are often not
what they seem.
The surprising revelations that populate
the book, mixed with a mood of regret
and wistful longing for dead loves,
imbue the story with a seductive power.
Ambrose ratchets up the suspense over
the fate of Allegra and the truth about
mad, bad, and dangerous-to-know Byron.
Readers will eagerly anticipate the final
volume in this trilogy. Agent: Nicole
Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Mar.)A Deathly Silence
Jane Isaac. Legend (IPG, dist.), $15.95 trade
paper (288p) ISBN 978-1-7895507-1-9
In British author Isaac’s competent third
procedural featuring Det. Chief Insp. Helen
Lavery (after 2015’s The Truth Will Out),
Lavery, of the Hampton Homicide and
Major Incident Squad, has been off work
for two months following a serious injury,
but she’s brought back into action to help
investigate the murder of a colleague found
in an abandoned factory. After a man
walking his dog saw two kids fleeing from
the building, he called the police, who
entered and discovered Police Constable
Sinead O’Donnell with her throat slit
and multiple head and chest injuries. A
prologue depicting two preteens coming
across the body removes them from sus-
picion at the outset, but another member
of the force becomes a person of interest:
O’Donnell’s husband, Blane. Though
Isaac doesn’t break new ground, she does
a solid and moving job of depicting the
devastating impact of the homicide on its
survivors. Fans of Lynda La Plante’s Jane
Tennison will be pleased. (Mar.)The Marshal and the Mystical
Mountain: A Nelson Lane
Frontier Mystery
C.M. Wendelboe. Five Star, $25.99 (234p)
ISBN 978-1-4328-6836-9
Early in Wendelboe’s atmosphericthere to see the moment she lets go?”
Original metaphors and nice descriptions
bolster this extended monologue of a
potential killer, but it lacks suspense and
variation in tone. Still, Dietrich’s assured
prose bodes well for the future. Agent:
Alice Martell, Martell Agency. (Mar.)Code Zero
Marc Elsberg, trans. from the German by
Simon Pare. Black Swan (IPG, dist.), $17.95
trade paper (432p) ISBN 978-1-784-16348-8
In this workmanlike near-future thriller
from Elsberg (Blackout), the world is
shocked when someone known only as
Zero manages to livestream the U.S.
president and his family up close using
tiny drones, a stunt that terrifies and
embarrasses the president. Zero intended
to attract attention to his campaign to
“destroy the data krakens,” whose techno-
logical innovations and conveniences have
lured so many people into abandoning any
semblance of privacy. British newspaper
reporter Cynthia Bonsant joins a team of
journalists hoping to uncover Zero’s
identity, and is given a special pair of
smart glasses to facilitate her efforts. When
another team member pursues a man that
the glasses identify as a wanted criminal,
the criminal fatally shoots him. This
tragedy leads Bonsant to investigate the
company that made the glasses. The trail
eventually leads to a showdown with
Zero. The routine characterizations and
plot twists aren’t a match for Elsberg’s
Orwellian scenario. Readers seeking a more
rounded look at how potential future tech
might change humanity should check out
Rob Hart’s The Warehouse. (Mar.)★ A Shadowed Fate
Marty Ambrose. Severn, $28.99 (192p)
ISBN 978-0-7278-8992-8
Ambrose’s excellent sequel to 2018’s
Claire’s Last Secret finds Claire Claremont,
Mary Shelley’s stepsister, living in near-
poverty in 1873 Florence, Italy, with her
niece and grand-niece, though her memo-
ries of reckless youthful passion provide
solace. Claire has kept her valuable letters
from Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, which
ruthless men in Last Secret made clear were
worth murdering for. Claire’s not out of
danger yet. Moreover, she’s learned that her
illegitimate daughter with Byron, Allegra,
did not die of disease in a convent as she