Tess Gerritsen, author of `The Mephisto Club.
The Silent Girl
By Tess Gerritsen, Ballantine, 318 pages, $30
I'm a huge fan of Tess Gerritsen's odd couple of detective Jane Rizzoli and pathologist Maura Isles. This new story has the pair investigating a death in New York's Chinatown. The problem is that the killer appears to be a ghost, albeit one with a very sharp blade.
Rizzoli's investigation begins when a tour group finds a hand on the sidewalk in front of a shuttered restaurant that was the scene of a notorious Chinatown murder. A cook, in a moment of madness, killed four people, and then himself. The motive has never surfaced, but the crime casts a shadow on the community even after 20 years. Now it appears that a ghost has revived old memories.
How Rizzoli and Isles face a supernatural killer is only part of the fun of this terrific book, one of Gerritsen's best.
The Winter of the Lions
By Jan Costin Wagner, translated by Anthea Bell, Random House, 268 pages, $17.95
Many authors claim to be influenced by Raymond Chandler, but Germany's Jan Costin Wagner's work actually shows the master's touch. His novels are set in rural Finland, but his detective, the clever and solitary Kimmo Joentaa, is a chilly Philip Marlowe, and the plot of The Winter of the Lions is a great showcase for Wagner's talents.
It's Christmas, Joentaa's least favourite season. He mourns his dead wife and spends his holiday on duty or with a jug of vodka and a bottle of milk. He's manning the desks when a woman claims she was raped. She knows the name and address of the man. In fact, she has his driver's licence.
Shortly after, a forensic pathologist for the department is found murdered in a park, and then another man is killed in the exact same way. There are no clues and no connections. Then the rape victim shows up at Joentaa's house and doesn't leave.
There are several plot lines moving in this novel, and you have to read carefully to keep them all straight, but that's no task when the writing is as good as this. There are two previous Joentaa books; I plan to read both, soon.
The Hand That Trembles
By Kjell Eriksson, translated by Ebba Segerberg, St. Martin's, 320 pages, $28.99
We can count on Eriksson, author of The Princess of Burundi and The Demon of Dakar, to come up with a new twist on old plots. The Hand That Trembles is a terrific story, but it's also a sophisticated and intriguing character study of a most unusual central character.
We first meet Sven-Arne Persson as a child, sitting at the side of his uncle in the dead of a Swedish winter on a country farm. His uncle tells him a tale of heroics and war.
Years later, we meet Sven-Arne again. This time, he's a local county commissioner, up and coming in politics, known for his support for his constituents. In the midst of a boring local meeting, Sven-Arne excuses himself, disappearing without a trace. Why did he leave? Where did he go? No clues remain.
Eleven years later, Sven-Arne is spotted in Bangalore, India, working as a labourer in a public garden. He has committed no crime, so when he returns to Sweden, the question is: For what?
Meanwhile, Detective Ann Lindell faces a mystery much larger than a missing politician. She has a foot, severed cleanly. Just what happened to the rest of the body? Whose body? Was it a crime? How the plot lines merge is just one of the pleasures of this intelligent, cleverly designed novel.
Bad Intentions
By Karin Fossum, translated by Charlotte Barslund, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 224 pages, $26
Ruth Rendell fans need to discover Karin Fossum. The setting may be Norway, but the clever police work and oddball plots are very reminiscent of Rendell's Inspector Wexford series.
In this excellent outing, Inspector Konrad Sejer is faced with two deaths. One is a lonely and unhappy Vietnamese boy; the other a young man on a weekend pass from a psychiatric hospital, who drowns while with friends in the woods. The two deaths seem unrelated, but Sejer follows his hunches and his clues and uncovers a truly evil killer. One of Fossum's very best.
Exposed
By Liza Marklund, translated by Neil Smith, Vintage Canada, 557 pages, $19.95
Another winner from Vintage Canada's World of Crime collection. Devotees of Marklund know about the exploits of investigative journalist Annika Bengtzon from The Red Wolf, but how did Annika get there? This prequel fills in all the blanks as trainee reporter Annika tries to make her mark at Sweden's biggest newspaper. When a call on a tip line says there's a naked body in a nearby cemetery, she sees her big chance. As the investigation continues, Annika is convinced that the police are looking at the wrong man. She wants to solve the case and get the scoop, but she may end up dead. Marklund joined James Patterson to write The Postcard Killers, and she has learned much from him. Exposed has non-stop action and plenty of convoluted plot lines. Patterson fans will love it.
The Law of Angels
By Cassandra Clark, St. Martin's, 360 pages, $29.99
Miss the Brother Cadfael mysteries? Cassandra Clark's series, set in medieval York and featuring the Abbess Hildegard of Meaux, is just the answer. The Law of Angels, the third in the series, is as well-written and extensively researched as he other two. It's also the best.
It's summer, and York awaits the performance of the annual Mystery Plays. Abbess Hildegard is approached to provide protection for a young woman who has witnessed a terrible crime. Just what happened and what does it have to do with a craftsman creating a great stained-glass window for the York Cathedral? Clark brings 14th-century York vividly to life, and offers a light subplot as well.
Acceptable Loss
By Anne Perry, Ballantine, 304 pages, $30
Anne Perry's recent novels, especially her First World War tales, have been a letdown, so it's great to find her back on form with this excellent entry in the Inspector Monk series. It's back to the scum and thrum of Victorian London as the body of a petty criminal is washed up with the tide. No one particularly mourns the dead man, but Monk is intrigued by the cravat used to strangle him. This leads him, along with his wife, Hester, into the drawing rooms and secrets of the rich and powerful. Vintage Perry.