Tom Spencer’s hilarious mystery about a contrary, gin-soaked, slightly oblivious archivist at a private library whose discovery of a lost work by a Golden Age author blows up in her face is a real find. You’ve never met a less likable—or funnier—would-be sleuth than Agatha Dorn: “When I’ve had a couple of gins-and-water, I like to think I resemble a taller, bonier Fiona Shaw. When I’m hideously sober, as I am now, I have a less flattering opinion of my appearance.” Reviled and canceled once the book is revealed to be a fake, Agatha begins to wonder if the recent death of her ex-girlfriend wasn’t natural after all, and might be connected to the bogus manuscript. She tries to get to the bottom of the deception, none too expertly, while staving off her terror of the titular childhood bogeyman. Agatha is like a P. G. Wodehouse character dipped in acid, a confirmed misanthrope who can’t get out of her own way. I hope Spencer will revisit her soonest.
This book has a big advantage going in: its author created and wrote every episode of the great British TV series Broadchurch. Chris Chibnall applies his considerable skills to this complex examination of another coastal English village rocked by a murder. The victim’s body has been bizarrely staged in death, and when he’s identified as the man who runs the popular White Hart pub, the villagers are flummoxed. The police detectives assigned to the case have their work cut out for them with uncooperative locals and a victim whose congenial public face concealed a troubled life. Death at the White Hart is a deft, probing police procedural that works on its own terms—no Broadchurch comparisons necessary.
The Thursday Murder Club formula has worked its magic for a number of talented crime writers recently, among them Tess Gerritsen, who started strongly a couple of years ago with The Spy Coast. Now she’s returned to her group of C.I.A. agents, who’ve retired to the same Maine community, where they enjoy the glories of Vacationland and gather for meetings of the Martini Club. Mostly this involves discussing books and enjoying a cocktail or two, but inevitably more pressing matters crop up. This time it’s the disappearance of a teenage girl whose family are wealthy—and difficult—summer people. The Summer Guests is more of a straight-ahead mystery than its predecessor, which involved exotic side trips recalling the retirees’ C.I.A. days, but there are still intriguing connections to their old employer, which the five are determined to winkle out. Fans of the first book will be more than satisfied with this second installment of a planned trilogy.
Lisa Henricksson reviews mystery books for Air Mail. She lives in New York City
