Review_FICTION
46 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 2, 2020
Review_FICTION
for his trademark of leaving a coin between
the lips of his victims, strikes again. This
moody section leaves readers wondering
who Charon works for and exactly what’s
going on. That suspense soon dissipates as
the focus shifts to American actor Addy
Banks, who’s headed from New York City
to London to visit her Aunt Rose. Though
Rose’s letter inviting Addy promised that
she would be back from Paris by the time
of her niece’s arrival, Rose is nowhere to be
found. Addy’s quest to find Rose leads to
murder and the search for a dull
MacGuffin, a memory stick of great
interest to the Russian government. Genre
followers will find nothing they haven’t
already encountered. Fans of this talented
writer will hope for more Madden. Agent:
Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary. (May)Spent Identity
Marlene M. Bell. Ewephoric, $14.95 trade
paper (378p) ISBN 978-0-9995394-2-2
Bell’s busy follow-up to Stolen Obsession
finds New York City antiquities appraiser
Annalisse Drury having doubts about her
relationship with the vastly wealthy and
incredibly handsome Alec Zavros, who’s a
veterinarian as well as hands-on owner of a
luxury sports car company. In search of
relationship advice, Annalisse sets off for
her Aunt Kate’s farm near Goshen, N.Y.,
only to find Kate in a stew because her
son, to whom she quitclaimed it when she
was broke, has decided to sell the farm,
which Kate was planning on leaving to
Annalisse. Meanwhile, Ethan Fawdray,
Kate’s hired man, reports an unusually
pungent smell coming from the barn.
When Annalisse, Kate, and Ethan investi-
gate, they find a man’s decomposing body.
Shortly thereafter, Kate vanishes. Has she
been kidnapped? How is she connected to
the dead man? The suspenseful search for
Kate leads Annalisse, Alec, and Alec’s PI
friend, Bill Drake, to past crimes as well
as current ones. This mystery is for readers
who like their romances spiced up with
Glocks and danger. (Self-published)SF/Fantasy/Horror
Red Noise
John P. Murphy. Angry Robot, $14.99 trade
paper (432p) ISBN 978-0-85766-847-9
Murphy skillfully transports spaghettisunken treasure hunt involving a drug
cartel, a crooked lawyer, and renegade
intelligence operatives. Distinctive
characters and a genuinely thrilling finale
compensate for contrived and improbable
situations. Readers will look forward to
Sloan’s further adventures. Agent: Erica
Silverman, Trident Media Group. (May)Berkeley Noir
Edited by Jerry Thompson and Owen Hill.
Akashic, $15.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-
1-61775-797-6
The 16 stories set in Berkeley, Calif., in
this above average Akashic noir anthology
offer little actual noir but a heaping
helping of crime, with almost every entry
featuring at least a murder or kidnapping.
Highlights
include Barry
Gifford’s brief
but effective
“Barroom
Butterfly,” a riff
on true crime
magazines, and
Lexi Pandell’s
unsettling
“Hill House,”
in which a jour-
nalism grad student house-sits for a
famous UC Berkeley professor. In Lucy
Jane Bledsoe’s tense “The Tangy Brine of
the Dark Night,” a young woman paddles
a kayak onto San Francisco Bay to give her
dead grandmother a furtive watery burial.
Jim Nisbet in “Boy Toy” takes to the bay
in a sailboat, but drowns his narrative in
more nautical jargon than Moby-Dick. One
of the most entertaining selections, Michael
David Lukas’s “Dear Fellow Graduates,”
takes the form of a high school student’s
graduation address that focuses on a
teacher’s kidnapping. Readers will be glad
that many of these tales are fun in a way
that traditional noir isn’t. (May)Cold Kill
Rennie Airth. Severn, $28.99 (224p)
ISBN 978-0-7278-9029-0
This standalone from Airth (the John
Madden series) offers an uninspired
variation on a familiar thriller theme—
the innocent caught up in intrigue and
violence. The opening, set in Paris, is
promising enough, as an assassin who
once worked for the CIA, known as CharonRead or Alive:
A Bookmobile Mystery
Nora Page. Crooked Lane, $26.99 (320p)
ISBN 978-1-64385-301-7
The murder of underhanded book
scout Hunter Fox, found dead in a Catalpa
Springs, Ga., alley during the Georgia
Antiquarian Book Society Fair, drives
Page’s delightful third Bookmobile
mystery (after 2019’s Read on Arrival).
Since Fox finagled or outright stole
valuable books from Dot Moore and many
other town residents, suspects abound. To
the dismay of 76-year-old librarian and
bookmobile driver Cleo Watkins, two of
them are her cousin Dot and antiquarian
bookdealer Henry Lafayette, her gentleman
friend. Meanwhile, the police chief is so
taken with bookseller Kitty Peavey, a
Marilyn Monroe look-alike, that no amount
of evidence will convince him to see her as
a suspect, even though her relationship
with the deceased seemed awfully
friendly for a woman who claimed to be
“pre-engaged” to the book society presi-
dent. To catch the killer, Cleo lays a trap
for someone that no one else has even
suspected. Page offers a fascinating look
at book collectors and their world. Cozy
fans will look forward to seeing more of
Cleo and her friends. Agent: Christina
Hogrebe, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)The Girl Beneath the Sea:
Underwater Investigation Unit
Andrew Mayne. Thomas & Mercer, $15.95
trade paper (360p) ISBN 978-1-5420-0957-7
This decent series launch from Edgar
finalist Mayne (the Naturalist series)
introduces Sloan McPherson, a diver
employed by the Lauderdale Shores PD to
recover corpses and evidence from Florida
waters. When 23-year-old Stacy Miller is
garroted and dumped in a canal, the off-
duty Sloan, who was in the canal at the
time and oblivious to the crime, becomes
a suspect. Loose ties to the victim, plus a
reputation blemished by her outlaw
uncle, Karl McPherson, a drug smuggler
serving a three-year prison sentence for a
parole violation, ensure that local police
and the DEA keep her under surveillance.
As Sloan investigates the murder, she’s
aided by her treasure hunter father and the
dogged, if shady, DEA agent responsible
for Karl’s arrest. Targeted by vicious killers,
Sloan becomes entangled in a dangerous