City of the Muse, Kate Hilton (Simon & Schuster, 304 pages)
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Based on solid research, with intriguing characters and a dynamite plot that extends over a century, this is the perfect summer read for those who love historical mystery.
We begin in Egypt in 1903 as Helen Gardiner, an expert papyrologist, arrives at ancient Calliopolis to discover her predecessor has disappeared under strange circumstances. Helen’s task is to record and restore thousands of tiny fragments of ancient script, and there are clues to events in old Calliopolis that the male-dominated archeological team is missing.
From that opening, we skip to modern Toronto where archivist Maddie Sloan is facing the end of a relationship and a clash with her famous father. Along comes archaeologist Peter Bahar with a job for Maddie that will take her away from her problems. The pair depart for Egypt and a dig, which Maddie’s grandmother was once on. But there are more secrets buried in the cursed city of Calliopolis than we know of and more than one papyrologist has disappeared while researching them. I read this one in one weekend and literally couldn’t put it down.
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Midnight at the Savoy, Ron Base (Douglas & McIntyre, 288 pages)
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For the few who don’t already know, Toronto journalist Ron Base has spent a lifetime immersed in popular culture. Music, movies, television, radio – Base has been part of them all and still has somehow managed to pen two dozen books, short stories and screenplays, and polish this terrific series featuring Priscilla Tempest.
This fifth outing finds Priscilla in London, in the Swinging Sixties, heading up the press office of the Savoy Hotel when a dead body turns up in a Rolls-Royce with a love note that may be to Priscilla. Cue the clues and the red herrings. Base knows how to build and pace a puzzle but he takes this one a long step further. No less a literary lion than Agatha Christie is at the hotel and she teams up with Priscilla to track down the killer. Along the way there are appearances by such luminaries as Rex Harrison and Marlene Dietrich. It’s all good fun and a great summer beach book.
An Ordinary Sort of Evil, Kelley Armstrong (Minotaur, 305 pages)
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She’s back. I’ve run out of superlatives for Kelley Armstrong’s multiple series. Suffice to say, she continues to charm and confuse at the same time. An Ordinary Sort of Evil is a return trip for modern-day homicide cop Mallory Mitchell, who now resides in Victorian Scotland as the housemaid/detective to forensic science pioneer Dr. Duncan Gray and detective Hugh McBride.
Once again, the intrepid trio is faced with a death, but this time, the summons comes from a ghost. Mallory and Duncan aren’t convinced that the ghost is real but it turns out the murder most certainly is. Trips through high society and a side plot into the Victorian business of undertaking are just some fun bits. This is a grand book for a rainy summer day.
This Weekend Doesn’t End Well for Anyone, Catherine Mack (Minotaur, 337 pages)
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Feeling sad because you’re trapped in the city? Dip into the perfect escape with Mack’s delightful holiday mystery with Eleanor Dash, the woman death follows on vacation.
This time out, Eleanor is really due a rest. She’s solved two murders in the past year and a resort in the Bahamas is calling her to speak at a conference for crime writers. Naturally, this being an Eleanor Dash novel, a dead body turns up in her room and the hotel is loaded with potential suspects. There’s a terrific puzzle plot that I won’t dare divulge and lots of clues and red herrings and derring-do. Save this one for the weekend you feel sorry for yourself and then get cheered.
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The Longest Death, Kevin Jagernauth (House of Anansi, 320 pages)
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Anansi continues to seek out and publish first-rate mysteries by new Canadian authors, and The Longest Death is no exception. Jagernauth, born in Ottawa and living now in Montreal, debuts with this fascinating neo-noir tale of a pair of small-town losers who find each other, dream big and encounter forces they have no idea how to control.
The setting is Riverton, a bleak town somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Richard works at a dead-end job at Eddy & Dowd Safe Deposits Company, a middling business. He meets the sharp and smooth Marlon. The pair connect and plan an escape to a big city. Money? They’ll rob the vault at Eddy & Dowd and be set for life. Naturally, nothing goes as planned.
There is a lot of homage in this book to the heyday of Raymond Chandler and Cornell Woolrich, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Richard and Marlon are pawns in the hands of much richer and smarter people and all that keeps the action moving and the plot spinning.
Jagernauth is a writer to watch.