Mystery, History, Suspense

For Richer, For Poorer by Kerry Wilkinson is the latest in the series featuring DI Jessica Daniel. The current bothersome case involves home invasions and robberies of cash and jewelry involving unusual prior knowledge of the homes and their security systems.  The new DCI is frustrated and wants the robberies solved posthaste.  

If that were not bad enough, the day following each robbery, the police begin getting calls from various charities saying someone made huge anonymous donations in cash.  Are the thieves taking a page from the Robin Hood tales?

In another tangle, Bex asks Jessica to see if she can help a friend whose neighbor's activities are disturbing her...which leads to a revelation involving sex trafficking.  

Jessica is still dealing with the aftermath of events in the last book and a new DCI who doesn't appear to have much confidence in Jess or her abilities.

NetGalley/Book Outure

Crime/Detective Fiction.  May 15, 2018.  Print length:  354 pages.  

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The Shadow Killer is set in Iceland in 1941 during the change over from the British to U.S. troops.  Tiny Iceland, which had been largely isolated, was first invaded by about 25,000 British troops.  When the novel begins, the British are about to depart and the Yanks are taking over in even larger numbers.

A time of great upheaval--the war, the Allied troops, the cultural and social confrontations.  A young man is found murdered with a bloody swastika on his forehead.  The weapon, a Colt 45, is associated with the American forces.

Flovent, an Icelandic policeman, and Thorson, a Canadian seconded to the American Military Police are united again in the investigation.  (I have not read The Shadow District, the first book in this series).  Both Flovent and Thorson are likable characters who lack the super-crime-solving abilities of many detectives.  They do the best they can in a difficult situation fraught with all kinds of social and political ramifications from both Icelandic and military interference.  

NetGalley/St. Martin's Press

Mystery/WWII.  May 29, 2018.  Print length:  368 pages.  

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Never Alone is one of those tricksy novels meant to keep you uncertain.  One of those methods (I won't mention the technique) began to bother me early.  Something wasn't meshing, and I wondered why.  It wasn't long before the suspicion was...not exactly verified, but I began to realize that one of the blurbs I'd read had deliberately set up the wrong perspective.  

So.  A widow, Sara, struggling financially on an isolated Yorkshire farm.  An old flame, Aiden, returns to the area, but is intent on keeping his private life off-bounds.  Sara's daughter Kitty, who visits during university breaks.  Sara's son, Louis, who became alienated from Sara after his father's death.  Sophie, Sara's friend and confidante.  Will, a friend of Sara's son Louis, who arrives in the area after a long absence.

The bleak Yorkshire winter setting lends itself to suspense, but the story dawdled along for quite some time.  The bad guy isn't too difficult to detect, and once you do, you wonder why Sara is so slow to wise-up.  I also found an element of the story just--weird and uncomfortable.    

Myriad Editions ARC in the mail.

Suspense.  2016.  354 pages.