62 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 29, 2019
Review_FICTION
★ A Prisoner of Privilege
Rosemary Rowe. Severn, $28.99 (240p)
ISBN 978-0-7278-8890-7
Set in Roman-ruled Britain in 194 CE,
Rowe’s 18th series whodunit (after 2018’s
The Price of Freedom) surpasses her own high
standard. Libertus, a pavement maker
turned magistrate in Glevum (modern day
Gloucester), visits the home of Josephus
Loftus, the local moneylender, who wants
to talk with Libertus. But when Josephus’s
servant looks in on her master, she finds
him dead, and Libertus quickly discovers
evidence that Josephus was smothered with
a pillow. His investigation comes as ten-
sions remain high in Rome over who will
be recognized as emperor; civil war broke
out the previous year after the Praetorian
Guard assassinated Emperor Pertinax. The
expected arrival in Glevum of a retired
member of the guard leads Libertus’s
patron, Marcus Aurelius Septimus, to fear
that his loyalty is being questioned. Three
more killings—a strangling, a beheading,
and a stabbing—raise the stakes. Rowe’s
series remains a welcome complement to
Ruth Downie’s Medicus mysteries, which
provide a different perspective on Roman
Britain. (Sept.)Ain’t Nobody Nobody
Heather Harper Ellett. Polis, $26 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-947993-83-9
Set in rural Texas in 1996, Ellett’s
auspicious debut boasts a cast of zany
characters, starting with former sheriff
Randy Mayhill, who resides alone in a
small house, hunts wild hogs with his three
dogs, and pines for his days as a lawman.
When a body is discovered on the fence of
the property belonging to his late best
friend, Van, Randy instructs Van’s teenage
daughter, Birdie, to keep quiet about it
while he stakes out the corpse to see if the
killer returns. Alas, the body disappears
when Randy’s not paying attention. Caught
up in the ensuing complications are Birdie
and her grandmother, Onie, who are both
still coping with Van’s suicide a year earlier
as the authorities were about to arrest him
for growing marijuana, a crime then-sheriff
Randy was aware of but did nothing about.
The cover-up cost him his job. Ellett
balances the goofiness of the crimes and
setting with some effective storytelling,
never letting the real emotional stakes for
the characters get obscured. Carl Hiassen
fans will find a lot to like. Agent: Josh
Getzler, HSG Agency. (Sept.)Word to the Wise
Jenn McKinlay. Berkley Prime Crime, $26
(304p) ISBN 978-0-593-10003-5
McKinlay’s gripping 10th Library
Lover’s mystery (after 2018’s Hitting the
Books) finds Briar Creek, Conn., librarian
Lindsey Norris preparing for her upcoming
wedding to her longtime love, Mike “Sully”
Sullivan—and dealing with the unwelcome
advances of a new library patron, Aaron
Grady. Aaron’s stalking of Lindsey results
in his obsessive wife, Sylvia, publicly
accusing Lindsey of trying to steal her
husband away. British actor Robbie Vine,
police chief Emma Plewicki’s significant
other, volunteers to help protect Lindsey
from Aaron, but when Aaron’s body is
found outside the library’s employee
entrance, even Lindsey’s friendship with
Emma doesn’t prevent Sully from
becoming the chief suspect in the man’s
murder. The couple are determined to do
their own sleuthing to prove Sully’s
innocence and keep their nuptials on track.
The real killer, however, has other plans
for Lindsey. McKinlay does a good job
building the suspense. Rarely does a clean-
as-a-whistle cozy qualify as riveting, but
this one definitely does. Agent: Christina
Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (Sept.)Graveyard Bay:
A Geneva Chase Mystery
Thomas Kies. Poisoned Pen, $26.99 (304p)
ISBN 978-1-4642-1143-0
At the outset of Kies’s unimpressive
third Geneva Chase mystery (after 2018’s
Darkness Lane), Chase’s position as an
editor at the Sheffield Post, an independent
Connecticut newspaper, is in jeopardy as a
result of its impending sale to a corporate
conglomerate. As soon as the new owner
takes over, Chase is demoted to the crime
beat under the supervision of her less-
than-congenial replacement. Meanwhile,
the bodies of a state judge and a private
investigator are found in a local marina,
chained to the prongs of a forklift. The
murders were caught on a security camera,
and the leader of the group of men who
brought the victims to the marina
resembles a vicious Russian thug Chase
has encountered before. The authorities,
including Chase’s ex-husband, Dep. Chief
Mike Dillon, focus on Merlin Finn, a white
supremacist the judge sent to prison, from
which Finn broke out two weeks earlier.★ The Deserter
Nelson and Alex DeMille. Simon & Schuster, $28.99 (560p) ISBN 978-1-5011-0175-5T
his outstanding thriller from bestseller Nelson
DeMille (The Cuban Affair) and his screenwriter son
centers on a search for an Army deserter who has
fled to Venezuela after escaping duty in Afghanistan
under strange circumstances. On the hunt for Delta
Force captain Kyle Mercer are Scott Brodie, a hardened
ex-soldier with impulsive, rogue tendencies, and
Maggie Taylor, a cunning by-the-book Army cop who
does her best to rein in Brodie’s urges, both investigative
and sexual. Brodie, the senior officer, quickly suspects
his commanders aren’t telling him everything about
Mercer; his desertion may have less to do with disobedi-
ence than his knowing too much about military atrocities in Afghanistan.
Nonetheless, Brodie and Taylor track Mercer to a jungle hideout far outside
Caracas, where he’s training a group of mercenaries with the apparent backing of
President Maduro. In typical DeMille fashion, the last hundred pages move along
like a ballistic missile, exploding in a satisfying finale on a remote airstrip.
DeMille and son provide it all in this rumble through the jungle—authentic
detail, lively dialogue, a vividly drawn setting, and an exhilarating plot. Agents:
Jenn Joel and Sloan Harris, ICM Partners. (Oct.)