48 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
Review_FICTION Review_FICTIONupsets everyone at Danby Hall and
threatens Patrick’s marriage prospects.
Annabel’s American maid, Jane Hughes,
befriends Lady Cecelia Bates, Patrick’s
feisty 19-year-old sister, and together, with
the help of Jane’s cat, Jack, they set out to
solve the murder. Jack plays a key role in
the mystery’s resolution. Casey portrays an
appealing aristocratic world, though some
readers will struggle to keep track of the
large cast of lords and ladies. Downton Abbey
fans will look forward to the sequel. Agent:
Gail Fortune, Talbot Fortune Agency. (Nov.)The Showstone
Glenn Cooper. Severn, $29.99 (224p) ISBN 978-
0-7278-8893-8
Cooper’s labored fourth Cal Donovan
thriller (after 2018’s The Debt) finds
Donovan, a Harvard religion professor
with handy combat skills, distraught after
learning that his mother, Bess, was tied up
and strangled in her Manhattan apartment.
The motive for the murder is baffling to
Donovan and the police, as the culprit took
none of Bess’s valuables. The reader, how-
ever, is ahead of them both. A prologue,
set 30 years earlier in 1989 Iraq, shows
Donovan’s archaeologist father, Hiram,
unearthing an unusual piece of obsidian,
which he covertly mails to Bess for safe-keeping. Shortly afterward, a thug in the
employ of businessman George Hamid
breaks Hiram’s neck. Hamid eventually
learns where Hiram sent the stone, leading
to the fatal, and unsuccessful, search of
Bess’s residence. Donovan gets the rock
after a friend goes through his mother’s
closet and finds it in a shoebox. He later
discovers that it’s allegedly a showstone,
which can yield spiritual visions that were
once studied by Elizabethan alchemist and
astrologer John Dee. Hamid’s continued
and bloody quest for the MacGuffin follows
a predictable and boring course. This is
further proof that Dan Brown’s coattails
can carry imitators only so far. (Nov.)An Equal Justice
Chad Zunker. Thomas & Mercer, $15.95 trade
paper (252p) ISBN 978-1-5420-4308-3
Raised in a trailer park, David Adams,
the hero of this lackluster series launch
from Zunker (the Sam Callahan thrillers),
overcomes tremendous odds to graduate
among the top 10 at Stanford Law School
and secure a place at one of the richest law
firms in Austin, Tex. After a Saturday night
dinner introducing him to members of the
firm, he provides an inebriated associate,
Nick Carlson, a lift home. Nick warns
David that dark things are happening atthe firm and David should leave before it’s
too late. Monday morning, David hears
that Nick has committed suicide. Days
later, David is accosted in an alley at knife
point, but is saved by a homeless man,
Benny Dugan, whom David later agrees
to assist with a legal matter that takes a
sinister turn. David begins to suspect that
Nick was murdered, Benny was perhaps
involved, and the firm may be ultimately
responsible. In his struggle to discover the
truth, David uncovers dangerous informa-
tion and puts himself in great peril. Well-
drawn characters compensate only in part
for the predictable plot. John Grisham
fans have seen this all before. (Nov.)Storm of Secrets:
A Haunted Bluffs Mystery
Loretta Marion. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (336p)
ISBN 978-1-64385-175-4
The approach of tropical storm Chantal
propels the action of Marion’s gripping
sequel to 2018’s House of Ashes. In Whale
Rock Village, Mass., Cassie Mitchell
postpones her wedding to former FBI agent
Daniel Benjamin. While helping locals
and tourists prepare for the storm, she finds
a dead body in a dumpster. Meanwhile,
three-year-old Lucas Kleister, the son of a
wealthy tourist, goes missing. Opening
her historic home to those stranded, Cassie
soon realizes she may have the murder
suspect and possible child abductor right
under her roof. Amid the chaos of the
storm, a strange woman is seen in Cassie’s
family cemetery leaving flowers on the
grave of an unidentified child known as
the Barnacle Boy, who drowned in Cape
Cod Bay decades earlier. The frantic search
for Lucas opens up old wounds for the
townspeople and brings to light startling
connections among Cassie’s houseguests,
the missing child, and the long ago mystery
of the Barnacle Boy. Marion seamlessly
weaves the multiple story threads together.
Fans of tales of regional intrigue will be
satisfied. Agent: Jill Grosjean, Jill Grosjean
Literary. (Nov.)Dressed to Kill
Kathleen Delaney. Severn, $28.99 (208p)
ISBN 978-0-7278-8894-5
At the start of Delaney’s pleasing fourth
mystery featuring retired Santa Louisa,
Calif., school teacher Mary McGill (after
2017’s Blood Red, White and Blue), Mary,★ The Family Upstairs
Lisa Jewell. Atria, $27 (320p) ISBN 978-1-5011-9010-0T
wenty-five years before the present-day action of
this un-put-downable psychological thriller from
bestseller Jewell (Watching You), the bodies of Henry
and Martina Lamb and an unknown man were
found in the Lambs’ mansion in London’s exclusive
Chelsea district. How did they die, and where were the
Lambs’ children? Three entwined stories provide some
answers. Homeless Lucy, a busking violinist, is sitting on
a French beach with her son when she receives a message
on her phone: “The baby is 25.” Lucy’s account of her
voyage to London merges with that of Libby Jones.
Libby, adopted when she was around a year old, is
working for a kitchen design company in St. Albans when she receives the news
that she has inherited the Lambs’ family home. Henry, the Lambs’ son, describes his
childhood and the terrifying events that changed all their lives when the charismatic
charlatan David Thomsen came to stay. Investigating her past, Libby gets much
more than she bargained for. Distinct, well-developed characters, shifting points
of view, and a disturbing narrative that pulses with life create an enthralling tale
full of surprises. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary. (Nov.)