Suspicion of Vengeance, by Barbara Parker

Parker's latest in the Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana series is also one of the best.  If you are unfamiliar with the series, Gail and Anthony are Miami lawyers in a rocky up and down relationship.  Anthony is a partner in a high-priced law firm and Gail is trying to make a go of it on her own with her one-woman firm.  As the novel begins, Gail is trying to decide whether to accept Anthony's proposal of marriage.  But, before she can make a decision, she gets caught up in the case of Kenny Ray Clark, who is on death row awaiting execution for the stabbing death of a young mother twenty years ago. Kenny is the grandson of the lady who cleaned Gail's house when she was growing up and Gail feels an obligation to get involved in the case.  Anthony tries to dissuade her and tells her he wants no part of it but soon Gail talks him into helping and before he knows it, he's co-counsel.  And, not a moment too soon because the governor has signed Kenny's death warrant and he is scheduled to be executed in thirty days.  Gail and Anthony must come up with new evidence--or the real killer--if they have any hope of saving Kenny.  This is a great legal thriller and murder mystery that you won't want to put down and it just might change your view of the death penalty.
 

Orchid Blues, by Stuart Woods

Holly Barker, chief of police of the small Florida town of Orchid Beach, was introduced to us in Orchid Beach.  Holly is a former military policewoman and she lives by herself in Orchid Beach with her dog, Daisy. Her father, Ham, is also retired military and he lives near her.  Holly is about to be married when she receives word that her fiancé, Jackson Oxenhandler, has been killed in a bank holdup.  Jackson had the misfortune to be in the bank at the time of the robbery.  Holly is devastated but decides to lose herself in work and she immediately sets out to find the team of bank robbers.  It's clear that the robbers had inside information that the bank would have an unusually large amount of cash on hand and Holly soon pinpoints a new bank employee, who lives in a remote community made up of a secretive paramilitary clan of gun collectors and dealers.  Ham volunteers to infiltrate the clan and soon he is ensnared in a plot more sinister than he or Holly could ever have imagined.  It's up to Holly, with the help of her friend, FBI agent Harry Crisp, to save her father and solve the case.  I loved getting to know Holly and her gang in the first book and she has made a welcome return in this terrific sequel.
 

American Fuji, by Sara Backer

Well, my sister Bonnie has done it again.  Readers will recall that on one of our earlier get-togethers she recommended This Much I Know is True, by Wally Lamb.   After some initial reluctance, I read the book and loved it.  Bonnie was up from Florida a month or so ago and this visit she mentioned a book she had liked called American Fuji, by Sara Backer. The author had lived in Japan for three years while teaching English at Shizuoka University and this was her first novel.  I hadn’t heard of the book but I decided to order it for the Popular Collection.  Well, it’s another winner.  Gaby Stanton is an American living in Japan.  Fluent in Japanese, she had been teaching at one of the universities before she was inexplicably fired.  Unable to get another teaching position, she is now working for the Gone With the Wind funeral home, selling fantasy funerals to wealthy Japanese. (I’m partial to the ‘Star Flight Memory’ package. The funeral takes place on an indoor roller coaster to the accompaniment of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’!)  Alex Thorn has come to Japan to investigate the death of his son, Cody, who was an exchange student in Japan before he was killed in a motorcycle accident.  Alex has some questions about his son’s death and he starts with Gaby’s funeral home, which shipped Cody’s body back to America.  Since Gaby is the only American employee, she is assigned to assist Alex.  At first she is reluctant to help but she soon finds herself caught up in the mystery of what actually happened to Cody.  You’ll be caught up, too, in the wonderful story, the memorable characters, and the fascinating look at modern Japan.  Expect the unexpected.
 

Funeral in Blue, by Anne Perry

Perry’s Victorian London mysteries continue with this latest.  Elissa Beck, married to Dr. Kristian Beck, is having her portrait painted at the art studio of Argo Allardyce and she has gone there for sittings a number of times.  At her latest visit, she is found strangled, along with the artist’s female model.  Argo was not at the studio, he has an alibi, and he is quickly eliminated as a suspect in the murders.  Attention shifts to Dr. Beck and the police learn that Elissa had been gambling heavily, which was about to leave the Beck’s financially ruined.  Dr. Beck’s alibi proves to be false and he is charged with the murders.  Enter private investigator William Monk and Hester, his wife.  Hester, a nurse, has worked closely with Kristian and she believes he is innocent.  So, too, does Lady Callandra Daviot, a widow secretly in love with Kristian, and she hires William to try to find any evidence that will clear him.  William’s search will take him to Vienna, where Kristian and Elissa were involved in the Vienna uprising of 1848.  This was a good mystery that had me fooled and I especially enjoyed the excursion to Vienna.
 

Jackdaws, by Ken Follett

After a few side trips, Ken Follett has returned to where he first gained international fame—the World War II suspense novel.  The time is late May, 1944 and the Allied invasion of Normandy is but a week away.  Field Marshall Erwin Rommel is in command of the Nazi defense.  One of the keys to the invasion's success is the elimination of Rommel’s ability to communicate with his troops and the German high command.  The largest Nazi telephone exchange is in Sainte-Cecile, France and it must be destroyed.  The Allies have tried to bomb the target but the exchange is fortified and underground.  Assigned to spearhead the attack on the exchange is Felicity 'Flick' Clairet.  She has operated as a secret agent in France, directing a cell of fighters for the Resistance.  Returned to London, she has less than a week to put together an all-girl team to parachute back into France and blow up the telephone exchange before D Day.  Readers of The Key to Rebecca and The Eye of the Needle will not be disappointed with this deliciously suspenseful wartime tale.
 
 

 

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