For your crime fiction shelves, the latest from Kate Atkinson, a sci-fi/crime tale from Alexander Boldizar, and a fresh take on who’s doing the detecting from Marie Tierney.
The Man Who Saw Seconds by Alexander Boldizar
When Preble Jefferson has an unfortunate encounter with two New York cops in a subway station, it swiftly escalates to an all-out, all-guns-firing episode. What is amazing is that even with reinforcements, Preble exits unscathed, while several of New York’s finest lie shot and wounded, having dispensed more than seven hundred rounds aimed at their target, Preble. It would seem that Preble has the ability to ‘see’ five seconds into the future, and has trained himself to be capable of altering multiple outcomes. Naturally, he becomes a person of special interest to the security forces of the US Government, and for one particular NSA Head, he’s adamant that a dead Preble is better than one that isn’t in their control. So adamant that they bypass the President and imagine scenarios where the President is compromised under Preble’s "power."
Preble has a wife and three-year-old son; and in a daring outlandish escape, they just manage to elude their would-be captors, and flee to Manitoba, Canada. There, Preble hopes to spend the rest of their days avoiding being made some Government experimental or strategic asset; and keeping his son Kasper from being turned into a guinea pig as to whether the gift can be transmitted to the next generation and further improved on. After all, imagine if we could harness that sight into more than five seconds. This novel is action-packed but no spoilers here. But what I admire about the narrative is how, within this SciFi premise, Boldizar raises questions about the rights of the individual and the citizen, when up against the system, or the perception of the State. When the tension between those opposing forces is stretched, who carries the weight of righteousness and the greater good?
Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
Awarded an MBE in 2011, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Atkinson authored such novels as Behind the Scenes at the Museum (Whitbread Book of the Year when it was published), Life After Life, and Transcription, to name a few. Within the genre of crime fiction, she’s also highly regarded for her Jackson Brodie novels, and this is the very latest, a stirring homage to the books of Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers. Set in a sleepy Yorkshire town, Brodie is called out of retirement to first investigate a run-of-the-mill stolen painting. What is of interest is when a second burglary gets into the story, one at a stately country house, Burton Makepeace, home to Lady Milton; and she has partially converted the home into a hotel. What’s gone missing is a valuable Turner, and fingers first point to Sophie, Lady Milton’s secretary.
The history behind Burton Makepeace is in itself worth the price of admission. It’s your grand family home fallen on hard times and crippled by the estate taxes. There’s Lady Milton’s husband, Johnny, who spends more time with his smirking footman than his wife. Son Piers runs the estate, daughter Arabella is thankfully married off, while youngest son Cosmo seems hellbent on spending what’s left of the family’s assets in dubious undertakings. Is there a common thief behind these cases of art theft? And when the story culminates with a Murder Mystery Weekend held at Rook Hall, the hotel; you know Atkinson is having so much fun. She ties up all the loose ends in a manner that leaves us very satisfied, knows how to leave the distinct possibility of Jackson and policewoman Reggie returning as something we’ll look forward to, and leaves a smile on the faces of the Christie and Sayers enthusiasts.
Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney
In this, her debut novel, Tierney conjures up a protagonist/heroine that’s quite unique and engaging. Thirteen-year-old Ava Bonney sneaks out late at night to study roadkill and measure animal decomposition. It’s when one of these nocturnal adventures has her discovering the body of a missing local boy beside that of a dead fox that sets this crime adventure on course. Mickey Grant was a bully and even picked on Ava, but she knows that no child deserves the bite marks and shattered bones that she finds Grant had been subjected to. An anonymous tip with Ava disguising her voice to the local police has Det. Seth Delahaye and his team conducted local interviews and made the acquaintance of Ava. He immediately picks up on how special a young girl Ava is, and how her unusual interests, combined with a sharp, analytical mind, are hard to ignore.
When a second missing boy, six-year-old Bryon Shelton, happens; stakes are raised as Ava is a close friend of Bry’s older brother, and everyone in the community loves Bry. Set in 1981, it’s at this point that Delahaye speaks to a local psychologist who rambles about how the term serial killer and profiling are becoming popular in usage and practice over in the USA. What Tierney does very well is evoke small-town life in the Birmingham suburbs, and takes care in shading the various characters, so it’s not just Ava and Seth who resonate. There’s Ava’s mother Colleen, and Ava’s two younger sisters; and more importantly, the friends she acquires, such as John, who accept her unusual proclivities and interests. As Ava becomes Delahaye’s ‘secret weapon’ in the investigation, the web of evil that’s being spun gets more complex and devious. It's a great first novel and hoping it’s not the last we read of Ava.