Vol 4 Issue 6
Introduction
As I search for novels to recommend to you, I like finding authors who are not household names yet but who excel at their craft. In this issue, I’m sharing crime novels from writers you might not have heard of but are worthy of consideration for your next read.
Recommendations
May the Wolf Die by Elizabeth Heider
Elizabeth Heider’s debut novel, set in Naples, Italy introduces readers to a quirky, but highly effective female investigator, Nikki Serafina. She works as a liaison between the police and American troops stationed at a local military base.
A former bouncer, arms and legs covered with tattoos, Serafina faces overt hostility in her male dominated profession. While sailing, she discovers a dead body lodged under her boat. The murder victim is a U.S. Navy captain, putting Serafina front and center in a politically sensitive case. As she investigates, another U.S. military officer is murdered, linking both deaths to the American base and organized crime. Despite numerous roadblocks in her path to the truth, Serafina succeeds in painstakingly putting together the pieces of this elaborate criminal enterprise.
Elizabeth Heider, who has lived and worked in Naples, deftly immerses readers in the life, culture and atmosphere of this distinctive Italian city. She now resides in The Hague.
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
Liam Noone, the wealthy owner of a chain of luxury hotels, dies in a fall from a rocky cliff at his beachfront home in California. Authorities rule the death accidental. But two of his children, daughter Nora and Sam, her estranged stepbrother, believe Liam may have been murdered.
As they look deeper into Liam’s life, Nora and Sam uncover details of their father’s complicated past and question what role it might have played in his death. Both siblings also must deal with their mutual distrust as they work together for answers to their father’s death.
The novel covers two timelines spanning fifty years. Laura Dave portrays the troubled family dynamics created by long hidden secrets. The author creates both tension and suspense as the plot and the characters lead us to an unexpected ending.
Laura Dave is the best-selling author of The Last Thing He Told Me and Eight Hundred Grapes. She lives in Santa Monica, California.
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins
When Quinn Colson, the new sheriff of Tibbehah County, Mississippi enters a ramshackle compound to investigate child abuse, he finds visible signs of wide-spread neglect. What he also finds are thirteen empty cribs and no sign of the couple responsible for the children.
As Colson and Deputy Lillie Virgil search for the children and the fugitive couple, they discover links between the couple and a drug cartel, both trafficking in children, drugs and guns.
In The Lost Ones, author Ace Atkins creates a rich cast of realistic characters. Both law enforcement officers and criminals are fully realized human beings who seem able to walk off the page into real life. At the same time, Atkins weaves in action-filled scenes, ramping up the suspense until the dramatic climax.
Ace Atkins is a former newspaper reporter, living in Oxford, Mississippi. In addition to the eleven-book Colson series, Atkins has contributed ten best-selling novels that continued the Robert B. Parker’s Spencer series following Parker’s death in 2010.
Quotable Quote
“The detective story is neither irrational nor romantic, and its clues are rooted in the reality and minutiae of everyday life.”
-PD James, award-winning, best-selling author, and recipient of the Grandmaster Award from Mystery Writers of America. From Talking about Detective Fiction.
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Watch your inbox for my next newsletter out in January. In the meantime, please feel free to share your thoughts and recommendations with me. Email me at chrisquarembo@gmail.com
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