Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

July 19, 2025

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

Mary Pat Fennessy spent all her life living in a housing project in South Boston. She raised her children there the same way that she was raised, with the belief that the Irish of her South Boston neighborhood were better than other people. The residents of South Boston have always lived a certain way and they want things to stay that way, and they want those they consider to be outsiders to stay out. But it's 1974 and change is coming whether they want it or not, and they can't stop it, beginning with the integration of the local high school that they all attended and that their children now attend. Mary Pat's daughter Jules is one of the students affected by the plan to bus white students to a Black neighborhood, but when Jules disappears just days before busing is supposed to begin, Mary Pat's focus switches to finding her daughter, whatever it takes. 

Gritty, violent, compelling. Dennis Lehane a great writer, no question. Mary Pat is not always a likeable character - she has a lot of hateful beliefs. But she is a bad ass who will fight for her child, even though you know she is on a collision course with disaster. Filled with morally ambiguous characters, class struggle, hypocrisy and broken dreams, it's a story of bigoted violent adults raising bigoted violent children. Sensitive readers should take note that there are scenes of violence, and brutality, child abuse, racism, drugs, crimes against women. Will appeal to fans to Don Winslow and Jeffery Deaver.

Busing protest in South Boston in the 1970s

City in Ruins by Don Winslow

June 1, 2025

City in Ruins by Don Winslow

After leaving Hollywood, Danny Ryan has landed in Las Vegas. He is now a multi-millionaire, a legitimate businessman developing luxury hotels. But his past is never far behind, and it finally catches up with him.

Winslow concludes his saga of Danny Ryan with its combination of Greek tragedy and the Godfather. Not my favorite book in the trilogy, but Winslow wrote a conclusion to the series that wound in all the various threads and characters. Themes include moral ambiguity, revenge, crime and punishment, fathers and sons, honor, and the importance of family, whether they are your biological family or your chosen family. Although Winslow does some recapping, you really need to read the first two books to appreciate this one. The audio version is excellent. Winslow has announced that this will be his final novel. We'll see. Recommended for readers who enjoy the crime fiction of Michael Connelly, John Sandford, and Lee Child.

The Riviera, one of the oldest hotels in Las Vegas

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

December 30, 2021

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

Stan Carlisle is a young carnival worker, on his way up in the world. He hooks up with Zeena, another carnival worker who has a mind reading act, and learns how to fool an audience. He leaves the carnival with Molly, a girl who has an act with the circus freak show, and together they develop a mind-reading stage act that does reasonably well. When he realizes how much money people will pay to contact their loved ones in the next world, Stan morphs into the Reverend Stanton Carlisle, spiritualist and medium. His church contacts lead him to an unscrupulous psychologist named Lilith, who helps him gain access to wealthy and powerful men. But he takes his act one step too far and his life begins to spiral out of control, until it comes full circle and he returns to the carnival life where the story began.

Dark, disturbing, atmospheric, bleak, with great characters. The 2021 movie adaptation is well done.

Carnival sideshow

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

August 30, 2022

Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara

American-born Aki and her sister Rose are Nissei, the children of Japanese immigrants. Aki's father runs a successful produce business in a Los Angeles suburb. Aki has always lived in California, until the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. The family soon finds themselves in Manzanar concentration camp out in the middle of nowhere.

When the government offers relocation to cities in the center of the country, the family jumps at the chance to move to Chicago, where there is work and housing available. Aki's older sister Rose works for the camp administration and is allowed to go on ahead of the rest of the family. But shortly before the rest of the family arrive in Chicago, Rose is killed in a subway accident. Her death is ruled a suicide by the coroner. Aki is certain that her sister would never have killed herself and is determined to find out what caused her death.

Chicago 1944

This is Hirahara's first historical novel and it's not as good as her mystery series. It is a fascinating look at life for Japanese Americans during World War II. Lots of descriptions about Chicago, although there is a little too much about traveling around the city. Some of the more interesting characters (like a drag queen Aki meets at the hair salon) are unfortunately not explored and in fact, have nothing to do with the plot. Not the author's best effort.

Manzanar Camp

The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

March 19, 2021

The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

A 90 year old woman named Peggy Smith is found dead in her flat by her caregiver. At first, it seems the woman died of natural causes (she IS 90, after all), but when the caregiver is cleaning out the flat, she notices a large number of crime novels dedicated to Peggy:  PS: to PS.

It turns out that Peggy was a murder consultant for a number of popular writers, with a knack for thinking up clever and unusual ways to kill someone. But this time, someone wanted Peggy dead. The caregiver, an elderly (but very dapper) neighbor, and the owner of the local cafe team up to solve the crime with one of the local detectives, DS Harbinder Kaur. But then other writers start turning up dead, and the amateur sleuths pursue a lead to a popular book festival in Edinburgh.

This is the second book in the Harbinder Kaur series, but it can be read as a stand-alone. The characters are charming and the police detective is nicer than a lot of crime fiction cops.

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

March 4, 2021

Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz

Retired book editor Susan Ryeland is living on a Greek island with her boyfriend, helping him run a boutique hotel. She is not getting much job satisfaction out of her duties and is exhausted. When a wealthy couple comes to stay at the hotel, they tell her about a murder that occurred at the hotel where their daughter's wedding was held. The circumstances of the murder are eerily similar to the plot of a book by Alan Conway, the author of the Atticus Pund series and the subject of a previous mystery that Susan solved (in The Magpie Murders). They implore her to come back to England and investigate the crime.

It's a novel within a novel, a literary thriller. This is the second book in the Susan Ryeland series, and I loved the first book. Although the plot isn't as good as the first book, I was glad to read another Atticus Pund mystery - I hope there will be more.

The Survivors by Jane Harper

March 4, 2021

The Survivors by Jane Harper

Twelve years ago, a local girl drown during a horrific storm, as did two young men who were trying to rescue one of their brothers. Kieran Elliott, the guy they were sent to rescue, has always blamed himself for all three deaths since he was in one of the cliff caves with a girl (another girl, not the one who drowned). Now he has returned to his hometown to help his parents pack up their house in preparation for a move to the city. Shortly after Kieran arrives with his wife and daughter, a young art student is found dead on the beach. Kieran is immediately suspected.

Slow moving, character driven, and all of the characters were unlikeable. The Survivors in the title was a statue of three people looking out to sea, and I never really understood what it had to do with the story, other than it was located near the mouth of the caves. All of Harper's books are set in Australia - I believe this is the first one not set in the outback.

I have enjoyed all of Jane Harper's previous books, but this one was a miss for me. If you haven't read her before, read either The Dry or The Lost Man.

The eastern tip of Australia is the place to go to surf.

The Unwilling by John Hart

February 23, 2021

The Unwilling by John Hart

The French family has had their share of sorrow: son Robert was killed in Vietnam, and his twin brother Jason came home drug-addicted with a serious case of PTSD that landed him in prison. His mother has disowned him and is pinning the family's hopes on youngest son Gibson, about to graduate from high school.

Jason encounters Gibby at the local quarry where everyone goes swimming, and wants to reconnect with him. He proposes spending a day of fun and adventure together, but he shows up with two skanky young women. One of the women taunts the inmates on a prison bus and later is found murdered in a horrific manner (even if you're a skank, you don't deserve to be murdered). With no suspects, the police focus on Jason (who has a criminal record). Jason disappears, and Gibby and his girlfriend are determined to find him and help him clear his name. Their search leads them through the underworld where they meet bad people and learn bad things.

John Hart is a great writer and I have really enjoyed his previous books. This one was somewhat flat for me, partially since some of the characters were like caricatures. Jason is a macho sort, almost too macho, the kind who would say "if you don't do this, you're not a man." Likewise, X the criminal is so bad that he's like a supervillain in a comic book.

If you haven't read John Hart before, I would suggest reading Down River instead.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC.

Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich

May 11, 2020

Hard Cash Valley by Brian Panowich

Dane Kirby has been drifting through life since the death of his wife and daughter ten years earlier.  A former fire chief, now part-time investigator for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Dane has a girlfriend who loves him and friends who care deeply but he can't seem to connect with them and spends more time talking to his dead wife than he does with the living.  He is unexpectedly called in by the FBI when a small-time hoodlum from Georgia is found horribly murdered in a Florida motel.  The murdered man recently won $1.2 million on cockfighting but both the money and the man's younger brother are missing.  Kirby teams up with an agent who is less than thrilled to be working with him, and they follow the money and the kid back to Kirby's home grounds in Georgia near Bull Mountain.

Brian Panowich returns to the Georgia mountains from his first two thrillers.  A few characters recur but this is largely a new cast and the focus is not on the Burroughs clan.  This is a fast-paced quick thriller that keeps the reader turning pages.  Panowich's characters are what make the story notable, despite their dumb mistakes and decisions (as I've told fellow librarians, if characters didn't make dumb choices, there wouldn't be a novel).  The ending is a little sappy but if you like a feel-good or hopeful ending, you'll be okay with it.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing a review copy in exchange for a review.

A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bollen

December 29, 2019

A Beautiful Crime by Christopher Bolen

Nick and Clay, two fledgling con men from New York, concoct a scheme to swindle a retired American expatriate in Venice.  Their plan is simple:  play on the expatriate gazillionaire's obsession with a famous New York family's antiques.  When their first swindle succeeds beautifully, they decide to gamble on an even bigger con.

While the plot was interesting, I found all three of the main characters to be unlikable - the most interesting character in the book was Freddy, who died before the book opens but fortunately appears in a later section.  When I found out that Richard, the expatriate, was one of those super-wealthy Americans who decide that they have to save Venice, I hoped that Nick and Clay would swindle him good (sorry, but if the Italian and Venetian governments don't want to save Venice, it shouldn't be up to a bunch of stupid mega-rich Americans to do it - there are too many causes in our own country that need their help desperately, like wildlife conservation and childhood poverty).  But the plot moves quickly, the writing is quite literary for a thriller, and it's a quick read that will keep the reader interested.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC in return for a review.