32 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 8, 2021
Review_FICTION
scrutiny from a populace primed to spy the
devil’s hand everywhere. Chapter-prefacing
snippets from testimony at Mary’s future
court appearances fan suspense, but also
make her painful journey there seem at
times excruciatingly slow. With its explo-
ration of themes including domestic abuse,
toxic masculinity, and mass hysteria, the
novel feels like anything but a period piece.
Bohjalian fans and newcomers alike will be
satisfied. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman
Schneider Literary. (May)Dead of Winter
Steven Mack Jones. Soho Crime, $27.95
(312p) ISBN 978-1-64129-102-6
In Hammett Prize winner Jones’s gritty
third crime novel featuring Detroit PI
August Snow (after 2019’s Lives Laid
Away), Snow gets a call to meet with
Ronaldo Ochoa, the terminally ill owner
of Authentico Foods, in the city’s
Mexicantown neighborhood. Ochoa, who
employed Snow’s mother for decades, is
under pressure to sell out to a real estate
speculator claiming to represent Vic
Bronson, who “made his fortune selling
mortgages and collecting adjustable-rate
mortgage balloon payments in an overlev-
eraged housing market.” When Ochoa is
found shot dead in his office and Snow’s
godfather and best friend, Tomás, is
severely wounded, the detective saddles
up to investigate and wreak vengeance.
He brushes up against Bronson, who
responds by sending thugs his way with a
message to lay off. It’s the wrong approach
to take with hometown hero Snow. Readers
should be prepared for a surfeit of foul-
mouthed dialogue and a massive body
count as the action builds to a violent
lakeside showdown and troubling but
conclusive revelations. Snow remains a
distinctive lead capable of sustaining a
long series. Agent: Stephany Evans, Ayesha
Pande Literary. (May)The Quiet Boy
Ben H. Winters. Mulholland, $28 (448p)
ISBN 978-0-316-50544-4
A medical tragedy propels this subpar
legal thriller from Edgar winner Winters
(Golden State). In 2008, 14-year-old
Wesley Keener falls at his L.A. high
school and is rushed to a hospital to treat
the resulting subdural hematoma. When
the surgery doesn’t go as planned, WesleyRobert B. Parker’s Payback:
A Sunny Randall Novel
Mike Lupica. Putnam, $28 (352p) ISBN 978-0-
593-08785-5
Set in a post-Covid near future, Edgar
finalist Lupica’s twisty third entry in
Parker’s Sunny Randall franchise (after
2020’s Grudge Match) faithfully captures
the character of the Boston PI. Sunny’s
best friend, Spike, has been cheated out
of his restaurant by hedge fund hotshot
Alex Drysdale, who offered him a finan-
cial lifeline during the pandemic, but the
fine print essentially put the restaurateur
in default right after he signed the loan
papers. Sunny vows to restore Spike’s
business, but her aggressive tactics result
in a threatening visit from an unnamed
man, followed by receipt of a photo of her
father with a red dot superimposed on his
forehead. She’s also occupied assisting a
police detective friend, whose college
student niece, Emily Barnes, has been
assaulted, but isn’t fully forthcoming
about the attack. To her surprise, Sunny
finds a link between Alex and Emily, and
the ante gets upped when someone
involved in her inquiries is shot to death.
Lupica makes smart-mouthed Sunny as
fully realized as Parker’s better-known
gumshoe, Spenser. Readers are sure to
look forward to her next outing. Agent:
Esther Newberg, ICM Partners. (May)Hour of the Witch
Chris Bohjalian. Doubleday, $27.95 (416p)
ISBN 978-0-385-54243-2
Mary Deerfield, the indomitable,
24-year-old protagonist of this twisty
thriller set in 17th-century Boston from
bestseller Bohjalian (The Red Lotus), has
been married for five years to Thomas, a
well-to-do widower almost twice her age,
whose abusiveness has escalated with her
failure to become pregnant. In bed with
her brutish, frequently drunk husband,
Mary fantasizes about how different life
might be with someone like seductive
bachelor Henry Simmons, whom she
meets when he pulls her out of the way of
an oxcart that threatens to run her down.
Gossip soon grows about the pair, at the
same time Mary discovers items buried
in her garden associated with witchcraft.
Then Thomas’s most violent assault yet
propels Mary to petition for divorce, a
step she knows will bring dangerousAmerican billionaire Arrow Donaldson,
the head of a casino conglomerate in
China; Li Feng, the CFO of China’s largest
telecom company, whose testimony could
affect an impending trade deal between
China and the U.S.; and CIA agent Millie
Martindale, who’s been part of “a task
force in one of Arrow’s Chinese casinos to
identify Chinese government workers
with gambling problems and recruit
them as U.S. spies.” Keeping track of the
many players and their various schemes
isn’t easy, and Teddy has fewer opportuni-
ties to use his disguise skills than in his
previous outing. Series fans will enjoy the
ride, but this isn’t the place to start for
newcomers. Agent: Anne Sibbald, Janklow
& Nesbit Assoc. (June)★ Basil’s War
Stephen Hunter. Mysterious, $23.95 (240p)
ISBN 978-1-61316-224-8
British Army Capt. Basil St. Florian,
the hero of this terrific WWII thriller
from bestseller Hunter (the Bob Lee
Swagger series), is known for his wit, his
bravery as a Special Operations Executive
agent, and as a man who enjoys dating
film stars like Vivien Leigh. In the spring
of 1943, Basil
parachutes into
Nazi-occupied
France, steals
some identity
papers, and
catches a train
to Paris, where
his mission is to
photograph
pages from The
Path to Jesus, a
rare 18th-century pamphlet written by a
Scottish ecclesiastic held in the library of a
Paris museum. Stealing the pamphlet
would alert the enemy that the British
know the Nazis are using it as the basis of a
secret code. Deciphering the code is key to
catching a traitor employed at Bletchley
Park, the Allied code-breaking center in
England. The Nazis figure out a British spy
is among them, and a clever German coun-
terintelligence agent is soon hot on Basil’s
trail. Hunter adopts a breezy, boys’ adven-
ture book style that complements Basil’s
derring-do exploits. Readers will hope Basil
will soon be back for more. (May)