Honeymoons Can Be Murder

I took a brief hiatus from posting to celebrate my youngest son's wedding, but my mystery addict side, seeing the newlyweds' besotted bliss, began to speculate on the honeymoon's place in murder fiction. Some noted mystery/thriller writers have certainly plotted how a love story can transform into tragedy. Best-selling author James Patterson, for one, penned Honeymoon, in which an FBI agent John O'Hara investigates the alluring "black widow" Nora Sinclair, who practices a deadly sorcery on the men she enthralls, including O'Hara. In First to Die, which launched his Women Murder Club series, Patterson brings together a team of four female sleuths--a homicide inspector, a medical examiner, an assistant D.A., and a crime desk reporter--to catch a killer stalking newlyweds in San Francisco. Honeymoon to Nowhere by Akimitsu Takagi, a Soho Crime novel, adds international flavor with a Japanese setting: Etsuko insists on marrying a shy young university lecturer despite her parents' objections that his father was a war criminal and his deceased younger brother a murderer, but then, on their wedding night, the groom leaves in response to an urgent phone call and is still missing in the morning. For a tropical taste, check out Jaden Skye's Death by Honeymoon, first book in the Caribbean Murder series: Cindy and Clint are enjoying a dream honeymoon in Barbados when Clint is drowned in a freak ocean accident. Returning home to her wealthy husband's unfriendly family, Cindy begins to question how well she knew her husband when an anonymous photo of a woman she has never met arrives in the mail. Digging into Clint's e-mails and files, she discovers secrets from his past that convince her that Clint was murdered, and she returns to Barbados to find out what really happened. Of course, mystery queen Agatha Christie leads the way in the famous Death on the Nile, with Hercule Poirot seeking the murderer of a new bride among a river cruise boat's many suspects. For true crime tales of honeymoon murder, check out Listverse.com's 10 cases of spouses committing murder on their honeymoons. One important lesson for honeymooners: If your new beloved convinces you to get a big insurance policy before the honeymoon, avoid romantic trysts near the cruise ship railing or cliff's edge. For details, see http://listverse.com/2018/01/02/10-newlyweds-who-killed-their-spouses-on-their-honeymoons/

Political Thriller Romps Unlike Our Real Ones

If you're like me, you want a summer beach read that will help you forget the current circus of our divisive politics. I assumed that a political thriller would be last book to fit that escapist urge. But, surprise, there are new mystery/thriller books that are both political and capable of taking the reader away to a place of heroism, humor and happy endings. Start with the thriller by former President Bill Clinton and best-selling author James Patterson. Try to ignore Clinton's problematic book tour and any bias you have about the former commander in chief because The President Is Missing is, in the words of the New York Times reviewer, "wildly readable." Its hero, President Jonathan Lincoln Duncan, is so worried about a potentially crippling cyberterror attack that he decides to ditch his protective detail and try to contact the shadowy figures who know about the threat on his own. Readers will enjoy rooting for the presidential character, described by the NYT reviewer as brimming "with humanity, character and stoicism," as he dodges an assassin's bullets and seeks to unmask a traitor in his inner circle of advisers. If you want to step further into fantasy, pick up this improbable, politically inspired mystery: Hope Never Dies by best-selling author Andrew Shaffer. The comic crime tale starts a few months after the 2016 presidential election as former Vice President Joe Biden turns amateur sleuth to investigate the suspicious death of his favorite Amtrak conductor. Naturally, Joe turns to his cerebral buddy former President Barack Obama for help! Or perhaps you long for a covert U.S.-Russia confrontation where the Americans come out on top. Try veteran thriller writer Brad Thor's Spymaster, another entry in his Scot Harvath series. Across Europe, a secret organization has begun attacking diplomats. Meanwhile, Russia implements a daring plan to draw the U.S. into war. It's up to counter-terrorism operative Scot Harvath to once again save the day! For more new (and non-political) mystery/thrillers, see https://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/summer-reads-2018/mystery

These Mysteries Use Arson to Fire Up the Plot

The recent California fires in Sonoma County really struck a chord for me. Not only do we have close friends in Santa Rose affected by the fires, but fire is one of my phobias. As a result, I generally don't choose murder mysteries involving arson, whether flames are used to cover up murder evidence, as the main murder weapon, or express a pyromaniac obsession. However, the terror of killers who use fire does spark (no pun intended) a deep desire for apprehension, which makes the solution at the end of these mysteries especially satisfying. Among arson-murder mysteries, 7th Heaven by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (part of the Women's Murder Club series) is a good example. As Detective Lindsay Boxer and her partner Rich Conklin are searching for leads in California golden boy Michael Campion's disappearance, they are drawn into a series of arson fires that kill suburban couples in wealthy homes. The plot of Douglas Preston's White Fire intriguingly combines modern arson murders and a long-lost Sherlock Holmes story. FBI Special Agent Pendergast comes to help protege Corrie Swanson when her examination of remains from a Colorado town's fabled 19th century grizzly attack on miners turns up shocking results. But the pair soon face modern mayhem as fires burn down multimillion-dollar mansions with families locked inside. Pendergast discovers a long-lost Sherlock Holmes story that may be the key to solving both the mystery of the long-dead miners and the modern-day arson killings as well! Fireproof  by best-selling author Alex Kava brings back his protagonist special agent Maggie O'Dell, who is leading the search for a serial arsonist in Washington, D.C., a search with a personal stake now that Maggie's brother Patrick is back in D.C. and working for a private firefighting company frequently called in to the fires. I'm a sucker for Irish settings like Graham Masterton's Dead Girls Dancing (part of the Kate Maguire series). DCI Maguire investigates the tragic deaths of 13 promising Irish folk dance stars who die when their studio goes up in flames in Cork. A small Australian town is the setting of 2017's Little Secrets by Anna Snoekstra. Would-be journalist Rose Blakey thinks she can win acclaim with a big scoop about strange porcelain doll replicas of the town's daughters that are turning up on doorsteps, terrifying parents already shaken by an arson fire at the town's courthouse, which killed a boy trapped inside. Community paranoia, ugly secrets, a suspicious stranger, and subtle red herrings propel this psychological thriller. For more arson mysteries, see https://www.alibris.com/search/books/subject/Arson-investigation

Happy Birthday to March-Born Mystery Writers!

Because I was born in this month, I am naturally curious about other writers with March birthdays. If you look at the whole literary realm, from children's book great Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) to the Roman poet Ovid, the list is overwhelming. So I narrowed it down to just March-born mystery/crime fiction writers. And they're a varied lot! Start with the late Mickey Spillane (Frank Morrison Spillane, born March 9, 1918). I'm actually not a fan of his PI Mike Hammer, who debuted in 1947's I, the Jury, but Spillane is a pioneer of "hard-boiled" crime fiction and won the 1995 Edgar Allan Poe Grand Master Award, so you may want to meet Hammer just to indulge in old-fashioned, tough-guy nostalgia. More modern mayhem comes courtesy of James Patterson (born March 22, 1947). Patterson is probably best-known for the African-American psychologist and police detective protagonist of his Alex Cross series (including Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls), but he has penned standalone thrillers and other series, such as the Women's Murder Club. Meanwhile, there's Nevada Barr (born March 1, 1952), author of the Anna Pigeon mystery series with a park ranger detective (so naturally set in national parks). Her debut novel, Track of the Cat, won the 1994 Anthony Award and Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Staying with the wilderness theme, another March writer is Dana Stabenow (born March 27, 1952). Her Kate Shugak mystery series is set in Stabenow's native Alaska and has a unique protagonist: an Aleut living on a 160-acre homestead in a national park, with a half-wolf, half-husky roommate called Mutt. The first Kate Shugak mystery, 1992's A Cold Day for Murder, won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original. But probably my favorite of all the March-born mystery writers is Peter Robinson (born March 17, 1950) and his Inspector Alan Banks novels set in Yorkshire. The 1999 Anthony Award and Barry Award for Best Novel went to the tenth entry in the series, In a Dry Season. When a drought drains the local reservoir to reveal the ruins of a lost village and the unidentified bones of a murdered young woman, Banks must hunt down a sadistic killer who has escaped detection for half a century. For all authors born in March, check out this list: https://www.bookish.com/articles/happy-birthday-authors-a-look-at-writers-born-in-march/

On the Road to Washington, D.C., Fictionally

Watching the pundit-confounding presidential candidates, it dawned on me that one of these people will actually move into the White House and I might want to get a feel for his or her new home city. There are many historical, biographical and journalistic books about Washington, D.C., but I focused on fiction, especially mysteries and thrillers, hoping to dig under the facts to the politics-fueled soul of the place. Thanks to author Neely Tucker's scarred, Ducati-riding Cajun journalist sleuth Sully Carter in 2015's Murder, D.C.,  I can take a quick visit to the underbelly of the Washington beast. Tucker's series joins James Patterson's Alex Cross, David Baldacci's Camel Club, and George Pelecanos's D.C. Quartet series in the Nation's Capital setting--all best-seller mystery-thriller options. For a woman's angle, turn to two daughters of famous politicians. Margaret Truman Daniel (President Harry Truman's daughter) offers traditional mysteries with a D.C. twist in Murder in Georgetown, Murder in Foggy Bottom and Murder on K Street. Kristin Gore (VP Al Gore's daughter) has written Sammy’s Hill and Sammy’s House about the inner workings of Capitol Hill and the White House. River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke is an Oprah-endorsed novel about the emotional impact on an African-American family and community of a child's drowning in the Potomac. Now sometimes it's more revealing to consider a place from an outsider's viewpoint, so I was especially interested in The Guardian newspaper's British recommendations on D.C.-based fiction. Unsurprisingly, Pelecanos topped the author list, but other notable suggestions include 2002's The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter, about two different privileged elites--the upper-crust African-American society and an Ivy League law school. Then there's Heartburn by the great Nora Ephron, a 1983 autobiographical novel of her marriage to Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein and their divorce. Finally, although I don't agree with author Allen Drury's politics, I think British readers were right to choose his fascinating 1959 portrait of power politics in the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Advise and Consent about U.S. Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee. For more views of Washington from "across the pond," see http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/sep/02/books-about-washington-dc-readers-picks