“A Most Agreeable Murder” by Julia Seales reads as if a giggly Jane Austen dipped her pen in blood.
Penguin Random House/TNS
This column is now on an every-other-month schedule, which gives me more time to plot revenge and to ponder the very crime-fiction word “deadline.” And, of course, more time to read.
Should you be in need of an utterly delightful murder mystery, have I got a pick for you this month: “A Most Agreeable Murder” by Julia Seales, reads as if a giggly Jane Austen dipped her pen in blood. (Not too much blood, mind you; it’s all quite decorous.) The book takes place in the fictional hamlet of Swampshire, where Beatrice Steele lives with her family, fantasizes about solving crimes, and worries about what happens to women who step outside their societal spheres. Swampshire, we’re told, has very strict standards of behavior, and a woman who fails to live up to them will be cast out — “friendless, single, and dressed in last season’s garb” — and forced to relocate to a morally corrupt city (Paris, of course) where she would be “surely robbed by a mime and left for dead.”
Nonetheless, Beatrice dreams of following in the footsteps of her idol, the gentleman detective Sir Huxley, and soon an opportunity presents itself: At a ball at a nearby manor aptly named Stabmort Park, an eligible bachelor turns up dead; an inconvenience for dancing, to be sure, but a chance for Beatrice to show her talents. I loved every page of this very silly romp, and became particularly fond of Beatrice’s father (who has a penchant for practical jokes involving “false rats”), the naval officer Captain Pena (who impressively manages to work a naval metaphor into every sentence), and the resourceful Beatrice herself, who I devoutly hope is returning for a multitude of books to come.
Laura Lippman’s suspense novels are always good for stay-up-too-late reading, and her latest, “Prom Mom” (on sale July 25) doesn’t disappoint. The setup is a gorgeously slow burn: Twenty-three years ago, Amber Glass was a teenager who on prom night gave birth to a baby who was found dead. Notorious, she left her Baltimore hometown soon after — but now she’s back, with her eye on former boyfriend Joe Simpson, called “Cad Dad” back then by the tabloids. Joe has a wife now, as well as a mistress, and he’s both dismayed and intrigued by Amber’s return. Lippman paces the book like a delicious 1940s noir, revealing just what we need to know and no more, letting us slip in and out of the characters’ heads. Set mostly during those strange early days of the pandemic, “Prom Mom” is all ominous mood and elegant nuance; you don’t know where Lippman is going, but you’ll happily follow.
Last year, I reviewed music-teacher-turned-crime-novelist Brendan Slocumb’s excellent debut “The Violin Conspiracy,” and I’m happy to report that his second book is every bit as good. Slocumb sets his books in the world of classical music, and his latest, “Symphony of Secrets,” takes place over two time periods. In the present, musicology professor Bern Hendricks is hired to authenticate a lost masterpiece by long-dead composer Frederic Delaney; a century in the past, Delaney meets a brilliant Black female composer whose role in his career becomes increasingly clear as the book — and Bern’s work — progresses.
Slocumb has a real knack for page-turning suspense — turns out the wealthy people behind Delaney’s foundation don’t care at all for what Bern is discovering — and the story plays out breathlessly and skillfully. And as with “The Violin Conspiracy,” Slocumb’s descriptions of music are a joy. A character walking outside hears music from an open door, “like mint in cool water or the smooth taste of fresh cream … a trombone, a clarinet, and then a trumpet lifting itself up like a benediction.”
And finally, here are a few highly anticipated titles coming up, in case you want to pre-order at your favorite bookstore or place an early hold at the library.
* “Evergreen” by Naomi Hirahara (Aug. 1). Hirahara follows up her excellent debut “Clark and Division” with a sequel also featuring amateur detective Aki Ito and her Japanese American family, this time navigating their return to California post-incarceration during World War II.
* “The Second Murderer: A Philip Marlowe Novel” by Denise Mina (Aug. 1). Very curious how Mina, the Glasgow, Scotland-based author of numerous slyly clever crime novels, will tackle the world of Raymond Chandler’s great detective in this novel authorized by the Chandler estate.
* “The Raging Storm” by Ann Cleeves (Sept. 5). I quite like Cleeves’ current Two Rivers series featuring detective Matthew Venn and set in a remote fishing village; this is the third installment. (The first, “The Long Call,” is also a very good television adaptation, streaming on Britbox.)
* “The Enchanters” by James Ellroy (Sept. 12). Ellroy, a crime fiction master whose previous books include “L.A. Confidential” and “The Black Dahlia,” sets his latest novel in 1962 Hollywood, in the aftermath of Marilyn Monroe’s death.
* “The Last Devil to Die” by Richard Osman (Sept. 19). The latest in the delightful Thursday Murder Club series finds seniors Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim solving yet another mysterious homicide, this one set in the world of antiques.
As always, please tell me if you’re reading a great mystery!
