THE WOODCUTTER By Reginald Hill, Doubleday, Canada, 528 pages, $32.95
Fairy tales, before Disney cleaned them up, were nightmarish things. Cinderella's stepsisters cut off their heels and toes attempting to fit into that glass slipper. Snow White's dwarfs didn't sing and witches stole babies and walled up princesses. So when Reginald Hill, one of Britain's finest crime talents, turns his hand to the land of "Once upon a time," you figure it's going to end badly. In fact, The Woodcutter, a superb stand-alone thriller, without the beloved duo of Pascoe and Dalziel, is about class, caste, revenge and the panoply of plots one expects of Jacobean drama. There are even spies and a dog.
The Woodcutter is Wilfred Hadda, known to all as Wolf. Once a self-made millionaire married to his dream princess, he's lost it all. Set up by someone, he's spent the last six years in prison, convicted of being a pedophile. He's lost his wife, his business and his money, and his daughter has died. When Wolf returns to his native Cumbria, he's an angry, dangerous man in search of answers and, possibly, revenge. Prison psychiatrist Alva Ozigbo believes him guilty of his crimes and sets out to save him from repeating. Then people start to die.
Everything in this highly coloured melodrama works a treat, as soon as you realize that is what it is. Hill's usual elegant language is larded with florid description, as well as his perfectly tuned, witty dialogue. There is a great deal of action, some deus ex machina and more than one appropriate romance. The end has a twist that I didn't see coming, and I admit I didn't miss Peter and Fat Andy at all.
STARTED EARLY, TOOK MY DOG By Kate Atkinson, Doubleday, Canada, 352 pages, $24.95
Yet another brilliant story from Atkinson, the author of Case Histories and When Will There Be Good News? This tale, set in Leeds, has characters who wouldn't be out of place in Dickens, and a complex plot that works beautifully from start to finish.
Tracy Waterhouse is the large, lonely and unappreciated security chief at a large shopping centre. Tracy is used to handling things and rewarding herself with chips and chocolate. Just as she heads for her daily dose, an event occurs that throws her off her stride, and she slips from the right side of the law.
Tracy's trail crosses that of an aging actress in the first stages of Alzheimer's disease, and former police detective Jackson Brodie (featured in three earlier novels) on a mission to find an adoptee's parents. Atkinson blends these lives and histories brilliantly, weaving an irresistible tale that will keep you reading far into the night.
HEARTSTONE By C.J. Sansom, Random House Canada, 631 pages, $34.95
This wonderful Tudor-era series is must reading for any devotee of historical mysteries. Heartstone is the fifth Shardlake, and while perhaps not the best, it's still a superior novel.
Lawyer Matthew Shardlake's fortunes have risen through the rocky reign of Henry VIII. Now, it's the summer of 1545. Henry is waging an ill-fated war against France and bankrupting the kingdom to pay for it. Shardlake, protected by the favour of Queen Catherine Parr, is hired by her to investigate "monstrous wrongs" against a young ward of a wealthy landowner.
Since King Henry has made a special court for wards, one that nets him substantial revenue, Shardlake must tread nimbly through the webs of legal deceit and court corruption.
WORTH DYING FOR By Lee Child, Delacorte, 384 pages, $33
There is only one Jack Reacher, and Worth Dying For is one of Lee Child's best in the series. The plot, a superbly updated version of Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest, has him cleaning up a small Nebraska town that's been taken over by a family of thugs. From first page to last sentence, Child never puts a word wrong.
Reacher is always on the road, living off any grid and apt to turn up anywhere. Here, he's hitchhiking across the United States, headed for Virginia, when his ride drops him off at the edge of a town. An unforgettable motel and a boozy doctor get the plot moving. The doctor is called to a patient who's been beaten up by her husband. Reacher, donning his knight-errant garb, takes the doc to the scene and, within hours, is in the cross-hairs of the murderous Duncan clan.
That's a good plotline, but it doesn't stop there. Reacher's vendetta with the Duncans leads to a long-dead child whose murder set the town on its downward spiral. In true Continental Op fashion, he goes about cleaning up the mess. If, somehow, you've missed the Jack Reacher series, start here and now.
BACK SPIN By Harlan Coben, Delacorte, 307 pages, $28.95
Harlan Coben's latest mystery featuring sports agent Myron Bolitar is one of the best of the series. The cover bills this as "classic" Bolitar. If that means great characters, solid plot and smart dialogue, classic it is. Classy, too. Myron's client is golf superstar Linda Coldren. When Coldren's teenaged son disappears - runaway or kidnapped - protecting the client means finding the boy. The trail leads from Philadelphia's Main Line to the dregs of society. Then there's Linda's golf-pro husband, whose concern for her son seems, at best, half-hearted. Simply terrific.
SHE DEMONS By Donald J. Hauka, Dundurn, 349 pages, $11.99
This is the second novel by Hauka, of New Westminster, B.C., featuring smart and funny news reporter Hakeem Jinnah. The setting is Vancouver and it's the time of Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Light, but things are definitely not bright for Mr. Jinnah. It all starts with his attempt to sell some Babji dolls, which leads to a beheaded body, a wildly off-track rave and a crazed cult. He has a new and none-too-happy editor, and he's convinced that he's coming down with a case of dengue fever. Can things get worse? Mr. Jinnah's first outing, in Mr. Jinnah: Securities, was adapted for television. She Demons should set him up for a series.
A CRIMINAL TO REMEMBER By Michael Van Rooy, Turnstone, 304 pages, $16
Monty Haaviko, Winnipeg house-husband and ex-con, is back for the third instalment of Michael Van Rooy's clever comic mysteries. Monty is running for chief of Winnipeg's police commission, but plans to throw the election to triple-cross some local elite. But while he's engaging in a bit of electoral fluff, there's real crime afoot. A serial killer is about and appears to have targeted Monty's wife, Claire, as his next victim. Van Rooy keeps it light and lively despite the nasty psychopath.