WWW.PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 35Review_FICTION
★ The Prodigal Daughter
Mette Ivie Harrison. Soho Crime, $27.95
(264p) ISBN 978-1-64129-245-0
Harrison’s heart-wrenching fifth Linda
Wallheim mystery (after 2018’s Not of
This Fold) finds Linda, the wife of an LDS
bishop in Draper, Utah, drawn into the
role of amateur investigator by the oldest
of her five grown sons, Joseph, who
teaches Sunday School in nearby Ogden.
Sage Jensen, a 15-year-old who regularly
babysits for
Joseph and his
wife, has disap-
peared, but her
parents appear
unconcerned
about her
whereabouts.
Linda, a self-
described busy-
body who can’t
resist helping
anyone in need, throws herself into
searching for Sage, who she eventually
learns was the victim of a terrible crime
committed by “good Mormon boys.”
Linda winds up trekking the meaner
streets of Salt Lake City in her effort to
save Sage. Meanwhile, she struggles with
the strictures of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints and her fraught
relationship with her husband, with
whom she’s in marriage therapy. Harrison
adroitly raises various ethical issues as the
suspenseful plot builds to a devastating
climax. Those looking for a nuanced char-
acter study will be rewarded. Agent: Barry
Goldblatt, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (May)
What Doesn’t Kill Us
David Housewright. Minotaur, $26.99 (352p)
ISBN 978-1-250-75699-2
At the start of Edgar-winner House-
wright’s routine 18th novel featuring
Rushmore “Mac” McKenzie (after 2020’s
From the Grave), Mac, a former St. Paul,
Minn., cop turned unlicensed detective, is
shot in the back by an unknown assailant
outside a club. While Mac lies in an
induced coma, Lt. Bobby Dunston of the
St. Paul PD, a childhood friend, assigns
his best detectives to the case, and
Thaddeus Coleman, a former drug dealer
and pimp who now runs a ticket-scalping
operation, works his contacts in St. Paul’s
underworld. Alternating between the
investigation and Mac’s recollections after
he regains consciousness, the action never
kicks into high gear. A solid look at St.
Paul and environs and snappy dialogue
enhance the fast-moving plot, which
involves investment bankers and a family
grudge, but the normally appealing Mac is
wasted. Longtime fans will enjoy another
visit with Mac, but new readers may wonder
what the fuss is about. Agent: Alison Picard,
Alison J. Picard Agency. (May)Murder on Mustique
Anne Glenconner. Mobius, $26.99 (352p)
ISBN 978-1-52933-634-4
Glenconner (Lady in Waiting: My
Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the
Crown) makes her fiction debut with a
straightforward mystery set on the private
island of Mustique in the West Indies, a
sanctuary for rock stars, royalty, celebri-
ties, and captains of industry. Lady Blake
(aka Vee) has returned to the island in
2002 in order to prepare for her god-
daughter Lily Calder’s lavish 21st birthday
party. Lily has been Vee’s ward since her
mother’s suicide 16 years earlier. The day
before Vee’s arrival, beautiful New York
socialite Amanda Fortini, Lily’s childhood
friend, disappears after a morning swim.
Then other rich, young heirs and heiresses
start turning up dead. Det. Sgt. Solomon
Nile, “Mustique’s only fully trained police
officer,” joins forces with Vee, whose con-
nections among the affluent locals prove
useful in trying to unmask the killer.
Glenconner, who served as lady-in-waiting
to Princess Margaret, brings authenticity
to the proceedings. Readers will have fun
seeing just how different the rich are from
other people. Agent: Gordon Wise, Curtis
Brown Agency (U.K.). (May)Thirty-One Bones
Morgan Cry. Arcade CrimeWise, $25.99
(312p) ISBN SBN 978-1-951627-66-9
Daniella Coulstoun, the protagonist of
the pseudonymous Cry’s amusing debut,
inherits the mess of a busted real estate
scheme when her estranged mother, Effie,
dies of a heart attack at Se Busca, Effie’s
pub in El Descaro, Spain, just as every-
thing is beginning to go under. Daniella
arrives in El Descaro after 20 years of min-
imal contact with Effie, hoping to attend
the funeral and wrap up any loose ends
quickly. She finds her mother’s ex-attorneyfriend, George Laidlaw, to be mysteri-
ously belligerent and soon discovers that
George and other misfit expat patrons of
Se Busca were involved with Effie in a
property con that amassed €1.3 million
that’s now missing. The misled investors
want their money, so George and company
are desperate enough to threaten Daniella
with having 31 bones broken by a local
heavy, implication in the scam, or both.
The appealing Daniella is clever enough to
save herself, but not immune to the lure of
life on the Costa del Sol. Readers who like
clever, sun-drenched crime capers will find
much to enjoy. Agent: Fiona Brownlee,
Brownlee Donald Assoc. (May)A Hostile State
Adrian Magson. Severn, $28.99 (256p)
ISBN 978-0-7278-5027-0
Magson’s engrossing fifth Marc
Portman thriller (after 2017’s Dark Asset)
finds deep cover intelligence specialist
Portman in Lebanon on what’s supposed
to be a simple assignment to pick up a
memory stick from a source, until he
comes under sniper fire. Portman escapes,
but this is just the first in a string of near
deadly attacks, which unbeknownst to
him are being orchestrated from Moscow
by a Russian intelligence unit being fed
information on his whereabouts by a spy
in Washington, D.C. Portman’s CIA han-
dler, Brian Callahan, scraps the mission
and tells Portman to link up with a local
contact and exit Lebanon immediately.
The contact, an MI6 field operative, is
tasked with getting Portman out, and soon
they’re on the run for their lives. Portman
remains clueless who’s targeting him, but
Callahan suspects a mole at the CIA is
involved. The search for the mole and the
continued attacks on Portman keep the
suspense high. Readers will relate to the
well-rounded, capable Portman, who never
strays into superman territory as so many
spy fiction heroes do. Agent: David Headley,
DHH Literary (U.K.). (May)The Night Whistler
Greg Woodland. Text, $15.95 trade paper
(400p) ISBN 978-1-922330-09-3
In 1966, 12-year-old Hal Humphries,
the protagonist of Woodland’s haunting
debut, moves with his parents and eight-
year-old brother, Evan, from Sydney,
Australia, to rural Moorabool. Soon after