Admit to Murder. Margaret Yorke. 1990. 267p. Century (UK). When Louise Vaughan disappears on her way homes from choir practice in the village of Feringham, her parents and their dear friend Norah are devastated. No trace of her is ever found. But twelve years later Detective Marsh rekindles the investigation and discovers that the family, including a spiteful and violent adopted brother, have something to hide.

Adopted Son, The. Nanci Brownlow. 2007. 322p. iUniverse, Inc. Can death be stalking the only remaining heir to the Carlson fortune? If the death of her brother was not a suicide and the death of her mother and father was not an accident, could her own death be the next step in a plot to eliminate her family? Megan Carlson is a young woman trying to solve a mystery that could threaten her life. Can she find the missing pieces to the puzzle before the stalker ends the game? Each of the people who love Megan hold a part of the puzzle that can solve the mystery, but years of secrets have locked them into silence. An old friend of the family is the only person who knows the biggest secret about the adopted son. Sometimes what you don’t know can be deadly. The remarkable twists in the plot of The Adopted Son compel the reader to rush to the end to discover who survives this remarkable game of cat and mouse. The cat or the mouse? About the Author: Nanci Murphy (nee Brownlow) has worked in High Tech for over 30 years and felt the need to reach beyond her office desk and create fiction. She lives in Norfolk, MA, with Harv.

After Dark. Beverly Barton. 2000. Zebra Books. Johnny Mack Cahill has come a long way from his dirt-poor upbringing in Noble’s Crossing, AL. Now he is a multi-millionaire businessman in Houston, TX. After nearly being murdered 15 years ago, Johnny Mack left town vowing never to return. Lane Noble was the only good thing in Noble’s Crossing, but knowing he was not worthy of her, he left her behind. The receipt of an anonymous note and newspaper clipping changes everything in an instant. The note reads simply “Your son needs you. Come home.” The trouble is, Johnny Mack never knew he had a son. The newspaper article states that Lane Noble Graham is the prime suspect in the murder of her ex-husband Kent Graham. It shows a picture of Lane’s 14-year-old son Will, who is the spitting image of Johnny Mack. The only problem is that he never slept with Lane, so who is Will’s biological mother?

Age of Consent. Joanne Greenberg. 1987. 277p. Henry Holt & Company. Vivian sets out to find who and how about her brother Daniel’s murder in Spain. Did the assassins intend to kill the archbishop he was traveling with? As she looks, she finds out much about this adopted brother, an internationally known surgeon who travels to the hinterlands and repairs faces. She begins to wonder if this brother she never really knew might be the target of the attack.

Akin to Death. Caroll Lachnit. 1998. 384p. Prime Crime. Ex-cop Hannah Barlow, now a lawyer, has just joined her former law school study partner at his new firm. Their first case is to finalize an adoption. It’s a no-brainer that is supposed to be a formality—until a man bursts into their office, claiming to be the baby’s biological father. So Hannah delves into the mystery—and what she finds is an elaborate web of deceit.

Ambush House. Kurt Steel. 1943. (A Hank Hyer Mystery). Harcourt Brace & Co. Hank Hyer is hard boiled detective who adopted little girl refugee from Spanish civil war.

American Outrage. Tim Green. 2007. 320p. Grand Central Publishing. From Kirkus Reviews: An adopted child’s need to know his birth mother puts his father on the trail of treachery and deception practiced by Albanian Mafiosi and a powerful political family in the latest from the author of, most recently, Kingdom Come (2006). He may work for one of those television tabloid news shows and he may be rich, but recent widower and former NPR reporter Jake Carlson is still an ethical journalist, unhappy with his lot. Neither his beachfront house nor his closetful of Zegna suits is enough to make up for the sleazy stories he’s chasing. But he’s got a worse problem than his career blues. His overgrown adopted 13-year-old son Sam had been miserable since the death of Jake’s wife and now he’s getting into trouble at school. Jake will do anything in the world for Sam, but he’s not sure about the only thing Sam asks him for: to find his birth mother. The Carlsons adopted their baby from a lawyer at the American end of an Albanian pipeline, so that’s where Jake has to start his inquiries. But the lawyer is dead now, a supposed suicide, and the Albanian baby office has been transformed into a travel agency managed by a beautiful but damaged woman answering to some very bad men. Following up his slim leads makes much trouble for Jake with his employers, as nasty in their own way as the swarm of Mafiosi whose hive Jake is rattling. Compounding his problems, Sam insists on sticking with his dad every step of the way. Fortunately, Jake’s able to stash the lad with his very rich grandmother, leaving the reporter free for a night with the travel agent, who’s murdered the next morning with Sam’s gun. Spurred on by the computer-savvy and surprisingly resourceful Sam, Jake battles producers andcriminals all the way to the courts of the mightiest family in the Hudson Valley, to whom Sam may be closely related. Mild thrills. By the Same Author: A Man and His Mother: An Adopted Son’s Search. Visit the Author’s Website.

And Baby Makes None. Stephen C Lewis. 1991. Walker & Co. Second novel by the author of the well-received, dark, gritty The Monkey Rope (1990). Seymour Lipp—a Brooklyn Heights lawyer—is now hired by Tricia Morissey, 16, and her building contractor father, Paul. When Tricia got pregnant and her boyfriend chose not to marry her, Paul arranged for shady lawyer Daniel Dugan to sell the baby for forty grand to Vietnam vet Jack Lowry. Jack once covered a Viet child during a raid, lost the use of his left arm, has a head full of burned bodies. Will he make a good father? During the 45-day waiting period in which the mother can choose not to part with the infant after all, Tricia decides she wants her baby back and Lipp is hired to restore the child. Jack says he will fight in court. Then Paul is murdered. Does it have something to do with the codicil to his will he’s asked Lipp to handle? The answer takes Lipp through a mugging, a kidnapping, contact with lowlifes and a wildly unnerving Viet vets therapy group. He’s assisted by Rosalie Constantino, whom he fell for in book one, and they have ribbons of amusing Nick & Nora exchanges, largely about food and sex. No falling off from volume one—but nothing new either. — © 1991 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Architect, The: A Novel. Keith Russell Ablow. 2005. 289p. St Martin’s Press. From Kirkus Reviews: An architect catering to the spectacularly well-connected extends his services to the permanent removal of family aesthetic problems. Anaesthetics and Yale’s top secret society figure heavily. Ablow sets his recurring alcoholic FBI psychiatrist Frank Clevenger to the task of identifying the culprit behind a string of spectacularly revolting murders. The modus operandi of the fiend (revealed early on as a brilliant architect West Crosse) is to first chloroform, then to lethally inject his victim and, for rather hazy reasons, dissects one of the victim’s body parts. In hotel rooms. On plastic sheets. With special silver pins. Clevenger’s detective work is complicated both by what appears to be a conspiracy of silence among the families of the victims and by his own long list of personal problems. The latter include the son Clevenger adopted to save himself from a life of crime—though that seems to be his fate; the FBI associate girlfriend who runs hot and cold; and Clevenger’s unsuccessful battle to stay off the bottle. Juggling the domestic woes and gobbling Antabuse (makes liquor disgusting), Clevenger interviews the victims’ wealthy families and finds that they’re united by their employment of an architect whose identity they will not reveal, by their relief at having the victims removed from their lives and by their ties to Yale and its notorious Skull and Bones. And—say! Isn’t the president ... ? Indeed he is. And his wife has just called in architect Crosse to come up with the first major addition to the White House since the Truman revamp. Oh, no! What if the president has a family problem!? Like, maybe, an unwed daughter who has just gotten pregnant? You don’t suppose...! A thriller for those whose lives were ruined, just ruined, by the Kerry loss.

Ariel. Lawrence Block. 1980. Arbor House. Consider Ariel Jardell, an adopted twelve-year-old girl driven by jealousy—her mother thinks—and by forces far more bizarre—as you will discern—to a precocious excursion into evil from mere mischief to malevolence beyond compare.

Assassins of Athens. Jeffrey Siger. 2010. 408p. Poisoned Pen Press. From Kirkus Reviews: The intricately planned murder of a wealthy young Greek has disturbing implications. Andreas Kaldis, Chief Inspector of the Special Crimes Division, is called to a seedy quarter of Athens to examine a body in a dumpster. Ironically, it's Andreas' secretary Maggie who identifies the victim from police photos. Addicted, like everyone in the country but Andreas, to the tabloid press, she's spotted the victim's picture there. He's Sotiris, the adopted son of Zanni and Ginny Kostopoulos. The couple's tight-lipped reaction to the news of their only child's death puts Andreas' radar on alert. Nouveau riche publisher Zanni identifies the family of Sarantis Linardos as a nest of likely suspects-not exactly a disinterested suggestion, since Siger has already shown Zanni plotting to acquire the influential and respected daily The Athenian, crown jewel of the old-money Linardos empire. On the other side of the journalistic tracks, party boy Sotiris has been immortalized in a tabloid as part of a threesome with Sarantis' similarly wild granddaughter. Andreas' worst suspicions are confirmed by the first major break in the case. Sometime hooker Anna Panitz admits to luring Sotiris to an isolated place at the cash-fueled request of two strangers. Andreas' methodical probe stretches from Athens' tenderloin to the halls of the city's moneyed interests and all the way to the island of Sardinia. Otherwise undistinguished, but greatly enhanced by Siger's intimate knowledge of Athens. Armchair travelers take note. About the Author: Jeffrey Siger was born and raised in Pittsburgh. He practiced law until giving it all up to write full-time in Mykonos, Greece. His other home is a farm outside New York City.

Baby Crimes. Randall Hicks. 2007. 296p. Wordslinger Press. Adoption attorney/country club tennis pro, Toby Dillon, is hired by a wealthy and powerful couple being blackmailed over the illegal adoption of their daughter sixteen years ago. No one—not even their own daughter—knows the truth... except the birth mother. But Toby’s search for her leads only to dead bodies, one of them almost his own, as he learns there may be more buried secrets than even his clients know—secrets people are killing to keep. Combining compassionate characters, wry humor, romance and a shocking triple-twist ending, Hicks has produced another great mystery, told at a thriller’s pace.

Baby Game, The. Randall Hicks. 2005. 254p. Wordslinger Press. A prominent adoption attorney and the author of the well-received Adopting in America: How to Adopt Within One Year (2004), Randall Hicks here makes his fiction debut with a novel about Toby Dillon, a new attorney who hedges his bets by remaining the part-time tennis pro at the country club. Then his idyllic life changes when his two childhood friends, Brogan and Rita, Hollywood’s glamour couple, ask his help in adopting a baby. The media’s feel good story curdles into danger when the baby is kidnapped. When the expected ransom demand never arrives and the police turn up nothing, Toby and Brogan try to find answers on their own. First they think the baby’s birth mother is responsible, but suddenly she’s missing too, and their suspects start turning up dead. They soon learn there’s more at stake than a kidnapping, and the answers may trace back to their shared childhood.

Baby Merchants, The. Lillian O’Donnell. 1975. 185p. Putnam. Married six years, Norah Mulcahaney yearns for a child. Miscarriage after miscarriage convinces her that she is not able to carry to term. Adoption seems her only hope. But finding a child is not so easy. The sudden opportunity to adopt three year old Mark seems too good to be true. A brutal murder confirms Norah’s suspicions that the child’s background is tainted. About the Author: Born in Trieste, Italy, Lillian O’Donnell has had careers as dancer, actress, and the first woman stage manager on Broadway. Today she is generally regarded as the Grande Dame of the female detective story.

Bad Blood. P(atricia) M(cElroy) Carlson. 1991. 306p. Doubleday. When Rina Marshall’s daughter, Ginny, suddenly disappears and a guest at her mother Leonora’s bridge party, the very charming John Spencer, is found dead near the school library with Ginny’s scissors skewering him, everyone is eager to find the teenager. Where is she? She leaves a message and says Philly, but, actually, the adopted Ginny has gone in search of her real mom—and turned up at Maggie Ryan’s New York doorstep. To prove her illegitimate daughter innocent, the resourceful Maggie, in the guise of a magazine reporter, insinuates herself into the Marshall household, interviews the members of the bridge party, and nit-picks the dead man’s life until she uncovers the real story: blackmail. He bilked everyone—from Rina, who didn’t want the world to know Ginny was adopted, to Ginny’s boyfriend’s mother (drugs). While Maggie wrestles with the blackmailees, Ginny wrestles with Maggie’s decision, 16 years before, to put her up for adoption. One more blackmailee comes to light before Ginny returns to suburban Maryland and she and her birth-mom come to an emotional rapprochement. Genuinely moving, and while Maggie is less bouncy than before (Murder Misread, 1990), she is more honest, and her outspokenness is a major plus here. Another strong entry in the Perfect Crime series. — Copyright 1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Beautiful Lies. Lisa Unger. 2006. 384p. Shaye Areheart Books. From Booklist: Unless readers scan the biographical information first, they will never guess that Unger is a first novelist. Her ability to generate spine-tingling suspense while evoking the danger and glamour of New York City is matched by her skill in creating memorable, realistic characters. Most notable is protagonist Ridley Scott, a freelance writer whose life changes when she rescues a toddler who wanders into traffic. Her heroic act delights a city of cynical New Yorkers and leads to weeks of newspaper and TV publicity. While enjoying her 15 minutes of fame, Ridley receives a strange message from someone claiming to be her father--but she already has a father. Her parents dismiss the note as the work of a crackpot, but Ridley senses they are lying. Perhaps the only one who knows the truth is her brother, Ace, estranged from the family as a result of his drug addiction. Just as Ridley starts to investigate her own past, she meets Jake, a handsome new neighbor who quickly becomes involved in her quest. When it turns out Jake might be connected to her investigation, Ridley feels betrayed--is he using her? Unger takes readers on a pulse-pounding ride through the Big Apple in this outstanding debut that will please both pace-obsessed thriller fans and those who want to savor the more subtle aspects of character development. — Jenny McLarin; © American Library Association. All rights reserved. By the Same Author: Sliver of Truth

Bella Mafia. Lynda La Plante. 1991. 498p. William Morrow & Co. From Publishers Weekly: Don Roberto Luciano, boss of the Sicilian Mafia, agrees to be chief witness in the trial of Paul Carolla, who murdered Luciano’s firstborn son, Michael, 20 years ago. Despite round-the-clock protection, all the Luciano men are killed the night before a family wedding. The don’s wife, Graziella, holds together what’s left of the family—daughters-in-law Theresa and Sophia, and Theresa’s daughter Rosa—while instructing their lawyer to sell off business holdings. Eventually the women become involved in the business themselves, trying to recover money that’s disappeared into Carolla’s hands. Following a courtroom shootout, Carolla’s adopted son Luka, using his knowledge of organization politics and his mastery of murder, becomes the women’s partner and protector. Once the Luciano women discover Luka’s secret, however, they implacably take revenge in the ruthless manner of their age-old code, and the strongest of them becomes the new head of the family, the bella mafiosa.

Paperback Edition

Benjamin Seven. Michael Kerr. 1975. 266p. Secker & Warburg (UK). It is a chance encounter with an unknown and drunk American in a restaurant in Mexico City that results in young, British-born Steven Rutland meeting Dolores Sanchez-Mejia and being witness shortly afterwards to a brutal murder. It is their common interest in the pre-Colombian civilisation known as Chintu-Huachi—Steven has just done a television programme on it—that makes her take him to visit her adopted parents, Pablo and Denise d’Alcala, in their palatial villa at Cuernavaca. By this time Steven, charming, amoral, on the make, has fallen in love. Who are these d’Alcalas? How are they so rich? Gradually some of their life’s pattern is revealed to Steven by Pablo’s elder son Marcel. They are members of a syndicate engaged in smuggling Chintu-Huachi figures from the South American country of Caragua to New York. The rewards are very great but the penalty for being caught is death at the hands of the Caraguense authorities. Head of the syndicate is the mysterious Benjamin Seven, whom no one has ever seen. Pablo d’Alcala is his chief lieutenant. Would Steven like to join the syndicate, which also includes Marcel and Dolores? He accepts, and adopts a life of crime. What this involves Mr. Kerr reveals in a story of increasing pace, excitement and ingenuity. Robbery, violence, blackmail and a finale in which virtue is far from triumphant are among the ingredients; and Mr. Kerr’s plot involves the sinister South American Indian Juan, Pablo’s bodyguard and strong-arm man, a leading Hungarian archaeologist, a mad impresario, a gay pianist, while Steven’s torrid love affair with Dolores is played out against the backgrounds of New York, Mexico, Caragua and Buenos Aires.

Bent Man. Arthur Maling. 1975. 227p. Harper & Row. Novel of a father and son in trouble in Chicago with the mob, gamblers and the FBI. Walter Jackson of Chicago has just been told he’s dying. He didn’t know exactly how he was going to face the future or even how to tell his mistress, Rita. The fates seemed to want to get his mind off the subject for the next morning, an FBI man came to see Walter. The FBI man had been a fan of Walter’s when he had been a famous running back..but that doesn’t say why he came calling. He’d come about Walter’s son, Steve, who’d been adopted by an extremely wealthy man, Delmore Livingston, when Walter’s ex-wife had married Livingston. It seems his son wasn’t in trouble but his girlfriend was. She was believed to be part of a ring of jewel thieves. Soon Walter doesn’t have time to dwell on his health.

Best Money Murder Can Buy, The. Neil McGaughey. 1996. 256p. (A Stokes Moran Mystery). Simon & Schuster. Kyle Malachi, better known by his mystery critic pseudonym of Stokes Moran, is enjoying a quiet evening at home with his literary agent wife Lee Holland and his dog Bootsie when a simple knock on the door announces a series of surprises that change Kyle’s life forever. Standing on the threshold is Kyle’s spitting image. The visitor, Derek Winslow, claims he is Kyle’s twin brother, a twin Kyle never knew existed. Even more shocking to Kyle, Derek says Kyle was adopted. Far from welcoming the prodigal brother, Kyle rejects his claims and orders him off his property. Surely his assertions could not be true! Or could they? Calmed by Lee, Kyle realizes that perhaps he acted too rashly. He should give Derek another chance. But it’s too late. When Kyle arrives at Derek’s motel, Derek is dead. Who could have wanted to kill the man Kyle now believes may have been his brother? There is one way to find out: Kyle will assume Derek’s identity and move into his world. Won’t the killer be surprised when Kyle/Derek reappears on the scene, healthy and vigorous and eager to trap a villain?

Big Nowhere, The. James Ellroy. 1988. 406p. Mysterious Press. Los Angeles, 1950. Red crosscurrents: the Commie Scare and a string of brutal mutilation killings. Movieland leftists on a collision course with a grand jury investigation team. A young homicide detective obsessed with capturing a murderer of unparalleled viciousness—even though the price may be horrific self-revelation. Gangsters and cops and fixers and Hollywood grotesques in a noir novel of epic scope and depth. The Big Nowhere is the story of three men caught up in massive web of ambition, perversion and deceit. Danny Upshaw is a Sheriff’s deputy stuck with a bunch of snuffs nobody cares about; they’re his chance to make his name as a cop—and to sate his darkest curiosities. Mal Considine is D.A.’s Bureau brass, climbing on the Red Scare bandwagon to advance his career and to gain custody of his adopted son—a child he saved from the horror of postwar Europe. Buzz Meeks—bagman, ex-Narco goon and pimp for Howard Hughes—is fighting Communism for the money. All three have purchased tickets to a nightmare. The Big Nowhere is dark, brutal, tender and powerful; it is a remarkably vivid portrait of a remarkable time and place. With his best-selling The Black Dahlia, James Ellroy established himself as the modern master of noir fiction; The Big Nowhere establishes him as a major American novelist. — © Mysterious Press

Birthday Girl, The. Stephen Leather. 2006. 528p. Hodder & Stoughton (UK). Mersiha was adopted from war-torn Yugoslavia, and has grown up to be an all-American teenager. When she discovers that her adoptive father is in financial trouble, she decides to intervene—whatever the risks. However, the consequences of her actions are lethal, for Mersiha has unearthed a conspiracy of terrifying proportions. About the Author: Stephen Leather was a journalist for more than ten years on newspapers such as The Times, the Daily Mail and the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong. His bestsellers have been translated into more than ten languages. He has also written for television shows such as London’s Burning, The Knock and the BBC’s Murder in Mind series. You can find out more from his website, www.stephenleather.com.

Birthright. Nora Roberts. 2003. 480p. Putnam. Callie Dunbrook goes up against developer Ron Dolan, whose housing project has come to a halt because a bulldozer uncovered human remains. Though the site is near Antietam, Maryland, the bones predate the Civil War by thousands of years and are most likely from the burial ground of an unknown Neolithic tribe. The authorities force Dolan to lay off his crew, whose workboots and carelessness have already contaminated the site, before more damage is done. An excavation is planned, a process that will take months. So Callie makes the local news—and her face is seen by Suzanne Cullen, who’s sure that Callie’s triple dimples are identical to those of her long-lost baby girl. The sleeping infant was snatched from her stroller at a shopping mall only a few days after Callie was born, and, paying an unexpected visit, Suzanne insists that Callie is her child. Knowing that Suzanne is the CEO of a national firm reassures Callie that the woman is not a crank—though wrong. But a peek into a desk at her parents’ house uncovers adoption papers dated two months after her mother’s devastating miscarriage and a few days after little Jessica Cullen disappeared. Callie confronts her parents, who fess up at last, though insisting that the adoption was perfectly legal. Marcus Carlyle, a distinguished Boston lawyer, had arranged everything. He couldn’t possibly be a baby-seller and certainly not a kidnapper. Or could he? Callie looks for clues, with the help of her sexy ex, Jake Graystone. The trail leads back to nosy Nurse Poffenberger, who tells all; and then to Richard Carlyle, Marcus’s equally distinguished son, who isn’t talking. The plot thickens, with suspects appearing—and supporting characters disappearing—as fast as mechanical ducks in a shooting gallery. Improbable plot is kept humming smoothly by Roberts, whose fans oughta love it. —Kirkus Reviews

Bitter Sweets. GA McKevett. 1996. 293p. (A Savannah Reid Mystery). Kensington Books. Eased out of her job with the San Carmelita Police Department (Just Desserts, 1995), queen-sized peach blossom Savannah Reid has set up the Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency. She’s jubilant when she lands her first client, realtor Brian O’Donnell, who traced his sister Lisa Mallock, separated from him since her childhood adoption, to San Carmelita before he lost her trail. But Savannah quickly learns that Lisa doesn’t want to be found. The $50,000 legacy Brian’s trying to share with her is no match for his sister’s terror of her abusive ex, Earl Mallock. Hours after Savannah has found Lisa, she’s dead, and her daughter Christy’s missing. The brutal murder looks just like Earl’s work—until he turns up as the next victim. Despite a tough time for poor Lisa, this is more sweet than substantial, with gauzy romance-novel clich‚s purveying a double portion of food, fashion, and full-figured fun. Only the mystery is malnourished. — From Kirkus Reviews. Copyright © 1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Black Betty. Walter Mosley. 1994. 255p. WW Norton & Co. From Publishers Weekly: sleuth, Easy Rawlins, to the cusp of the 1960s without his wife and daughter, his real estate riches or the hopes and ambitions that fueled his earlier years. Easy must grab at the $400 he’s offered to locate Elizabeth Eady, a missing housekeeper who several years and a few lifetimes away was “Black Betty,” a sensual presence on the Houston streets where he grew up. Easy understands that Betty (“... a great shark of a woman. Men died in her wake”) has a mythical importance to him, but he doesn’t know why the rich and dysfunctional California family she recently worked for is offering so much money to find her, or why her brother Marlon is also missing—and likely dead, given the spilled blood found in his place. Easy isn’t always able to concentrate on the case. His pal Mouse, just out of the slammer, wants help finding the guy who sold him out to the cops; all the rage Mouse acts unthinkingly on, Easy feels too and struggles to contain. In measured, quietly emotive prose, Mosley moves his work away from conventional genre fiction, tinkering, abandoning and later returning to the mystery element. Nevertheless, the solution fully satisfies as Easy opts for smaller victories—not the white man’s riches, but maybe a few bucks in his pocket and some time with the two adopted kids that now constitute his family. © 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Black Cherry Blues. James Lee Burke. 1989. 416p. Little, Brown & Co. Burke pits a land-hungry oil company against a Blackfeet Indian reservation in a stunning novel that takes detective fiction into new imaginative realms. His Cajun sleuth, Dave Robicheaux, an ex-New Orleans cop featured in two previous novels, attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, has recurrent nightmares about his murdered wife, and cares for an adopted El Salvadoran refugee girl. When two American Indian activists disappear, Robicheaux’s dogged investigation not only sets him on a collision course with Mafia thugs and oil interests, but also leads him into a romance with Darlene American Horse, his ex-partner’s girlfriend. All the main characters in this darkly beautiful, lyric saga carry heavy emotional baggage, and Robicheaux’s sleuthing is a simultaneous exorcism of demons of grief, loss, fear, rage, vengeance. Burke’s fictional terrain—stretching from the Louisiana bayous to Montana’s red cliffs and pine-dotted hills—is uniquely his own, yet also a microcosm of a multi-ethnic America. He writes from the heart and the gut.

Black Squirrel Ball, The. Amy Liptak Caruso. 2009. 200p. iUniverse, Inc. Samantha Jane Cummings is organized, creative, and resourceful but terribly frustrated in her corporate job. With some prodding from her Aunt Reggie, she quits her job to take on a short-term assignment as the Fortieth Black Squirrel Ball coordinator at Peaceland Park. Sam wanted to make this Ball the best ever—to raise the most money, regain her professional confidence, and make her family proud. After all, she was in charge of the event that her grandfather, the former superintendent of Peaceland Park, founded forty years ago. However, while working with volunteers with strong personalities, recruiting new corporate sponsors, and ensuring every last detail of the event is perfect, Sam learns that the inaugural co-chairperson, Pauli Suarez, mysteriously died in the park the evening of the first ball. Was it an accident? If it was, how could a park that Sam’s grandfather ensured was safe and secure be the location of a tragic accident? Or was it murder? And if it was, why was this much-loved successful woman killed? And more importantly, why hasn’t the mystery been solved in forty years? Is she in over her head or will she exceed even her expectations by managing the best Black Squirrel Ball ever?

Blind Spot. Adam Barrow. 1997. 291p. Dutton. The perfect all-American father and mother are plunged headlong into every parent’s nightmare, as their three-year-old son mysteriously vanishes during an outing. The chances of finding him dwindle quickly, and every promising lead turns up a dead end. Then the father uncovers the chilling truth behind the disappearance, and realizes how far he is willing to go to get his child back no matter what the cost.

Blonde Faith. Walter Mosley. 2007. 320p. Little, Brown & Co. From Kirkus Reviews: There’s nothing unusual about the LAPD looking for Mouse Alexander, who went missing the day before Pericles Tarr, the inventory clerk he’s suspected of killing, also dropped off the map. Nor is there anything unprecedented about a child turning up in Easy Rawlins’ home, the way Easter Dawn, the precocious Vietnamese girl ex-Marine Christmas Black adopted, does without a note or a word of explanation from her father. What’s unusual here is the way Easy’s attention, which ought to be focused by the gung-ho soldiers in pursuit of Christmas Black, keeps shifting from one disappearance to another. In truth, his mind isn’t really on any of them; he can’t stop thinking about Bonnie Shay, the flight attendant he threw out when she took up with an African prince. Certain he should have begged Bonnie to return, Easy is especially distracted after she phones to announce her upcoming marriage. But that doesn’t prevent him from pursuing a new romance with UCLA student Tourmaline Goss and responding to the embraces of troubled bank officer Faith Laneer, none of which prevent him from feeling “lost in my own home, in my own skin.”

Blood Doesn’t Tell. Richard Barth. 1989. 199p. St Martin’s Press. From Publishers Weekly: Amateur sleuth Margaret Binton, a sprightly septuagenarian with a zest for life, returns in a poignant story reflecting today’s headlines. During one of her stints as a volunteer at a Manhattan hospital, Margaret accidentally discovers a room inhabited by “boarder babies,” children waiting to be placed in foster homes. One of the tots, 15-month-old Eric Williams, captures her heart, and Margaret, a childless widow, decides to become a foster mother. Concerned about Eric’s impending adoption, Margaret turns to reporter Peter Ryker to learn about the social services system. When Eric’s prospective father, diamond mogul Victor Lazarre, offers her $3,000 compensation for the boy, the sagacious Margaret suspects that the head of the adoption agency, Helen Regency, is taking kickbacks. She refuses to relinquish Eric and begins investigating Lazarre and Regency. Her snooping reveals a baby-selling ring and leads to murder. While the bureaucracy works faster in this case than in real life, the well-spun mystery remains a sad commentary on the plight of displaced children and those who capitalize on these innocent victims. Barth’s lovable Margaret, here in her sixth outing, should be declared senior citizen of the year. Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Blood Kin. Marjorie Dorner. 1992. Morrow. Adoptee Kate Lundgren, 23, is caught up in murder as she pursues her biological mother in this emotionally intense mystery with a surprise ending. After years of legal efforts to get in touch with the woman who bore her but who has twice refused contact, Kate discovers the woman’s name in a letter in her adoptive father’s files. Traveling across Minnesota from White Bear Lake to Woodard, she confronts Terry Cruzan, who is curt and secretive and insists that Kate leave her alone. Refusing to believe Terry isn’t interested in her, Kate dogs her steps and spies on her house. Then she discovers Terry’s strangled body and vows to locate her natural father, whose identity she is convinced Terry died to protect. With the help of local developer Jack Kramer, Kate learns that Terry was being bankrolled, perhaps by a mysterious man she met periodically in Duluth. Kate’s own life is threatened before she learns a series of hard truths. Dorner (Freeze Frame) delivers credible motivation and well-crafted suspense. — Synopsis From Publisher’s Weekly

Blood Matters. Taffy Cannon. 2007. 248p. Perseverance Press. Everybody loved adoption guru Sam Brennan, the founder and head of Adoption Central, whose life’s work was the creating loving adoptive families and reuniting birth relatives—until somebody beat him to death with a statuette of Michael Jackson. Who could have wanted to hurt the man who did such wonderful things for so many grateful people? Roxanne Prescott, now a detective in the San Diego Sheriff’s Department, is part of the team investigating the mysterious murder. Roxanne must wrestle her own haunting nightmare, along with rookie nerves and a hiden killer from the past. Cannon’s lively, sassy writing zones in on contemporary Southern California lifestyles and characters.

Blood Relative. Carolyn Hougan. 1992. 304p. Fawcett Columbine. Despite a highfalutin Author’s Note describing it as “a book about ‘real’ and received memory, about our inability to escape the past, about deception and discovery,” this is really a two-act melodrama about a crazed victim of Argentine political terrorism who, after losing his entire family except for his three-year-old niece—years ago spirited off to America—decides (don’t ask why) to avenge himself by finding and killing the niece. Act One, about how Rolando Carerra, with the help of his volatile henchman Hugo Moro, tracks down and prepares to kill Maria—now teenaged Mariah Ebinger, living with a hypernormal adoptive family in Wisconsin, then the D.C. suburbs—is a throwaway; you could read the blurb and crack the book halfway through without missing a thing except for Mariah’s deflowering by clean-cut Ryan Ferguson. Act Two, about how Mariah and Ryan frantically scheme to stay one jump ahead of Uncle Rolando and his sidekick, is an expertly sustained chase, as Hougan (Shooting in the Dark, 1984; The Romeo Flag, 1989) brings the pursuers to Alexandria just as Mariah’s coincidentally realized that she’s adopted and taken off from home—knowing, after she calls her parents, that something terrible is going on between them and the strange man she’s glimpsed, but not knowing enough to sell a convincing story to the police. If you forget the memory/political pretensions and overlook the delaying tactics of the exposition, well, this isn’t half bad. — Copyright © 1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Blood Relative. Michael Allegretto. 1992. 224p. Scribners. This time out, Denver p.i. Jake Lomax (Dead of Winter; Blood Stone; Death on the Rocks) deals with siblings and their spouses in extreme distress over wealthy, controlling dad Samuel Butler’s marriage to a second wife—the flashy, trashy Clare. The unsympathetic kids seem all too willing to believe that dad, about to be tried for bashing in Clare’s head, did the deed—but did he? Lomax’s attempts to prove dad’s alibi result in another death and two tries at taking him out: a sniper setup at a deserted golf course and a hit-and-run accident almost identical to the one that smashed up another p.i. formerly employed by the Butlers. Meanwhile, breaking and entering reveals that Butler’s company payroll included a dummy employee and some accounts that received rugs with their shipments. Furthermore, Clare was cheating on dad with one of his own children, and it’ll take threats, punches, and a major bullying scene before Lomax gets dad off the hook Lomax’s sardonic asides add a touch of dry humor here, and the ending again finds him giving away money to a needy cause. Quick with his fists, dead accurate with his gun, the (sometimes) personable Lomax makes for solid p.i. reading. — Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Blood Ties. Ralph M McInerny. 2005. 260p. (A Father Dowling Mystery). St Martin’s Minotaur. Henry Dolan’s granddaughter, Martha Lynch, adopted 23 years earlier by Henry’s daughter and son-in-law, has decided she wants to find her birth parents. Her adopted parents are frantic over the idea of losing her, so Henry seeks out the popular pastor of St. Hilary’s parish in Fox River, the parish that married the Dolans and baptized their children. Father Dowling is well known for his sensitivity and patient nurturing of his parishioners, and Henry hopes that the pastor can find a solution to this problem threatening his family’s peace. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the Dolans and the Lynches, Martha’s birth father, Nathaniel Fleck, has contacted Martha’s real mother, Madeline Lorenzo, for details about Martha. Madeline doesn’t want to intrude on the young woman’s life, nor does she want to upset her own. But he won’t leave her alone, and so she turns in her panic to Amos Cadbury, a lawyer and one of Father Dowling’s best friends, for advice. When Nathaniel is murdered two days later, Dowling and Cadbury come together to juggle their responsibilities to the families involved while uncovering the truth behind the murder.

Bloodline. Gerry Boyle. 1995. 260p. (A Jack McMorrow Mystery). Putnam. Jack McMorrow is a former New York Times reporter mending his soul in rural Maine. But a man’s gotta eat, so when an offer comes to do a story on teenage motherhood, Jack accepts. He starts with Missy Hewitt, a local girl who recently gave her baby up for adoption. She supplies Jack with several sensible reasons for her decision, but a couple of days later, she leaves Jack a message saying she wants to get her baby back. Then she turns up murdered, and before you can say phone trace, the cops are viewing Jack as a suspect. Meanwhile, Jack’s investigation—it’s a big-time story now—puts him in contact with all the various agencies and lawyers in the area who operate in the potentially lucrative adoption market. There are bucks in babies, and where there’s money there’s motive. This second entry in the McMorrow series is an improvement over the first, Deadline (1993). McMorrow is less a collection of traits and quirks and much more a fully realized character. There’s also an intriguing cast of secondary characters who bode well for future McMorrow adventures. — Wes Lukowsky. From Booklist. Copyright © 1995, American Library Association. All rights reserved.

Bloodprint: A Novel of Psychological Suspense. Kitty Sewell. 2009. 368p. Touchstone. Madeleine Frank knows all too well that it’s impossible to recover from some losses. She herself has escaped devastating heartbreak, fleeing her native Key West to begin life anew in the ancient city of Bath. But Madeleine’s demons have never left her and may, in fact, be closer than ever—in the mad visions of her mother, formerly a priestess of Santeria, the mysterious Afro-Cuban religion. Rachel Locklear appears in her office seeking therapy, but Madeleine becomes increasingly troubled by the history of this hostile, damaged young woman. As the relationship with her new patient deepens, Madeleine discovers that Rachel’s childhood eerily echoes her own darkest secret. Reluctant to act unprofessionally and risk having Rachel walk out of her life forever, Madeleine keeps her suspicions to herself. But Madeleine is unaware of sinister forces gathering strength in her patient’s life. On the run from her ruthless partner—a man who will stop at nothing to control her and her son—Rachel is desperate to keep her child safe from his father’s dangerous “associates.” Finally she has no choice but to involve the only person she can trust in a murderous web of revenge and deception. From the tropical lushness of Key West to the imposing Georgian streets of Bath two women and their painful pasts collide dangerously with Cuban sorcery, prostitution, and coldhearted murder—culminating in a tale as terrifying as it is compelling. About the Author: Kitty Sewell, a psychotherapist and a sculptor, was born in Sweden but met her husband, a young English doctor, while living in Northern Canada. Sewell and her family now divide their time between Wales and Spain, where they own and operate a fruit plantation. Translated into more than ten languages, Ice Trap is Sewell’s first novel.

Bloody Waters. Carolina Garcia-Aguilera. 1996. 274p. (A Lupe Solano Mystery). GP Putnam. Cuban-American private investigator Lupe Solano takes on a case to search for the biological mother of an illegally adopted child who is dying, and can only be saved by a bone marrow transplant. Soon enough, Lupe is risking her life, involved more deeply than ever before, in an experience that will, to her own surprise, fulfill her wildest dreams.

Bluest Blood, The. Gillian Roberts. 1998. 230p. (An Amanda Pepper Mystery). Ballantine Books. From Kirkus Reviews: If Neddy and Tea Roederer lived in Boston, they wouldn’t have to speak to anyone but the Cabots and the Lowells. In Philadelphia, though, their millions can’t insulate them from contact with Amanda Pepper’s spineless colleagues at Philly Prep, where their adopted son Griffin attends school, or from the Moral Ecologists, the censorship mavens who’d be ludicrous if they weren’t so dangerous. Now that Amanda has talked the Roederer Trust into settling a nice piece of change on the Philly Prep library, Neddy and Tea are on a collision course with Moral Ecologist loudmouth Rev. Harvey Spiers—a collision course that begins with the hanging of an effigy and leads up to the real thing. As the Philly Prep staff and the Moral Ecologists (“Don’t pollute minds!”) trip over each other in their haste to embarrass themselves, and Amanda and her favorite cop, C.K. Mackenzie, sort out the zanies from the murderers, the unlikely friendship between two lonely boys—Spiers’s stepson Jake Ulrich and Griffin Roederer—emerges as the heart of this story. It’s a strong heart that, together with Roberts’s unusually firm mystery-mongering and pointed use of clues, makes Amanda’s eighth case (The Mummers’ Curse, 1996, etc.) her finest hour yet.

Body Double. Tess Gerritsen. 2004. 339p. Ballantine Books. From the Inside Flap: Boston medical examiner Dr. Maura Isles literally meets her match—and must face a savage serial killer and shattering personal revelations—in the brilliant new novel of suspense by the New York Times bestselling author of The Surgeon and The Sinner. Dr. Maura Isles makes her living dealing with death. As a pathologist in a major metropolitan city, she has seen more than her share of corpses every day—many of them victims of violent murder. But never before has her blood run cold, and never has the grim expression “dead ringer” rung so terrifyingly true. Because never before has the lifeless body on the medical examiner’s table been her own. Yet there can be no denying the mind-reeling evidence before her shocked eyes and those of her colleagues, including Detective Jane Rizzoli: the woman found shot to death outside Maura’s home is the mirror image of Maura, down to the most intimate physical nuances. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type. For the stunned Maura, an only child, there can be just one explanation. And when a DNA test confirms that Maura’s mysterious doppelgänger is in fact her twin sister, an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing and dangerous excursion into a past full of dark secrets. Searching for answers, Maura is drawn to a seaside town in Maine where other horrifying surprises await. But perhaps more frightening, an unknown murderer is at large on a cross-country killing spree. To stop the massacre and uncover the twisted truth about her own roots, Maura must probe her first living subject: the mother that she never knew ... an icy and cunning woman who could be responsible for giving Maura life—and who just may have a plan to take it away. About the Author: Tess Gerritsen left a successful practice as an internist to raise her children and concentrate on her writing. She gained nationwide acclaim for her first novel of medical suspense, the New York Times bestseller Harvest. She is also the author of the bestsellers Life Support, Bloodstream, and Gravity, as well as The Surgeon, The Apprentice, and The Sinner. Tess Gerritsen lives in Maine. Visit her Web site at www.tessgerritsen.com.

Body in the Library, The. Agatha Christie. 1942. 198p. The Crime Club/Collins (UK). Second in the author’s “Miss Marple” series, the story begins with the mysterious appearance of the body of a young girl in the library of Gossington Hall, home of Colonel Bantry. Bantry’s wife calls on her old friend, Miss Marple, to investigate. The body is identified as that of a dancer who worked at a nearby hotel and was in no way connected to the Bantrys. It is also discovered that the young lady had attached herself to a rich old man and his family and that he had been planning to adopt her. Soon afterwards, the body of another young woman is found in a burned-out car. She is thought to be a girl guide who had disappeared on the same day as the dancer. The crimes seem unrelated, but Miss Marple starts to poke around and finds a connection that enables her to solve the mystery. The story was also dramatized in 2000 on the PBS series Mystery! with the late Jane Hickson portraying the indomitable sleuth, and is available as a VHS cassette. The 2000 paperback edition is pictured at right.

Border Dogs. Karen Palmer. 2002. 305p. Soho Press. James Reese patrols the California desert a hundred fifty miles southeast of L.A. His job is to pursue illegals attempting to cross the border, to capture them and return them to the other side. James is on horseback and armed. The illegals, on foot, mostly aren’t. It’s ironic work for a white man with Chicano cheekbones. Adopted as a child, James is disturbed by memories of his first family. Although married and the devoted son of a retired homicide cop, he feels estranged. When word unexpectedly arrives that his birth mother has died, his murky past comes alive with danger. James has questions. And the answers can only be found in that lost world where he was Jaime Santana, son of a wealthy woman and a convicted murderer. Who committed the crime that destroyed his family? Why was he exiled from his own past? Is it worth his life to find out?

Borrowed Wind, The. Dew Platt. 2009. 177p. lulu.com. Not borrowing the wind is out of the question. For every breath, the wind is borrowed. To honor his grandmother’s dying wish, Dave Evers must go back home unfulfilled. He finds himself swallowing harsh winds as he confronts his successful older brother, gasping at a mother’s betrayal he must uncover to find himself and losing his breath in love quite complicated with Leslie Brown. There is that whiff of murder he must take in, that smell of a cadaver when Barbara Landry turns up dead. He is prime suspect. But when his brother is arrested for the crime, he faces a different dilemma. He hadn’t done it? How hadn’t he done it? His brother is not talking, and Dave faces his harshest wind yet.

Boys From Brazil, The: A Novel. Ira Levin. 1976. 312p. Random House. With the current (2001) controversy regarding human cloning, this 25-year-old novel seems to take on a new relevance. In his book, Levin speculates—rather wildly, in my opinion—that Josef Mengele—the infamous Nazi “Angel of Death”—has been able to clone Adolph Hitler almost 100 times and implant the cloned embryos in surrogate mothers in a facility hidden deep in the Brazilian rain  forest. The resulting babies are then placed for adoption with unsuspecting couples whose constellation mimics Hitler’s own parents by a woman who is planted in an adoption agency and given orders to select couples whose application for adoption had been denied and fit the criteria for age and occupation. In 1978, it was turned into a rather overwrought film by Franklin J. Schaffner, starring Gregory Peck as Josef Mengele. — WLG

Burning Angel. James Lee Burke. 352p. 1995. Hyperion. From Publishers Weekly: Burke pits a land-hungry oil company against a Blackfeet Indian reservation in a stunning novel that takes detective fiction into new imaginative realms. His Cajun sleuth, Dave Robicheaux, an ex-New Orleans cop featured in two previous novels, attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, has recurrent nightmares about his murdered wife, and cares for an adopted El Salvadoran refugee girl. When two American Indian activists disappear, Robicheaux’s dogged investigation not only sets him on a collision course with Mafia thugs and oil interests, but also leads him into a romance with Darlene American Horse, his ex-partner’s girlfriend. All the main characters in this darkly beautiful, lyric saga carry heavy emotional baggage, and Robicheaux’s sleuthing is a simultaneous exorcism of demons of grief, loss, fear, rage, vengeance.

Cache of Corpses. Henry Kisor. 2007. 304p. Forge Books. Porcupine City is a peaceful little town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The residents enjoy a quiet life far removed from the comings and goings of larger cities. The kind of town where everyone knows everyone else and good-natured gossip is a prime source of entertainment. It’s certainly the last place anyone would think of using as the backdrop for a high-tech, high-thrill treasure hunt. Until the first gruesome clue is found: a headless corpse wrapped in plastic. Deputy Steve Martinez—Lakota Indian by birth, Porcupine City native by association—has investigated many crimes, but none more surprising than the case before him now. When clues at the first crime scene lead to the discovery of a second headless corpse, it becomes clear to Steve that it’s someone’s twisted idea of a game. And these events couldn’t come at worse time: the election for county sheriff is fast approaching and the sudden rash of corpses is just the sort of ammunition Steve’s opponent is all too eager to use against him. Luckily Steve’s longtime love, beautiful redhead Ginny Fitzgerald, is still by his side, but even that relationship becomes strained as Steve searches for a way to connect with her foster son, Tommy. This is Steve’s toughest investigation yet—one that spreads from secretive internet chatrooms into Chicago’s seedy underbelly and even takes to the air above Porcupine City. It will take all of Deputy Martinez’s patience and cunning to catch a sociopath who’s after the next forbidden rush. It might also force him to face some unpleasant truths about the locals he has sworn to protect.

Calling for a Funeral. Christine T Jorgensen. 2007. 282p. Five Star. Growing up straight in a family of crooks is tough, but for Francie Starzel it pales in comparison to the challenges of precipitous motherhood when she inherits nine-year-old son, Mac, after her fiancé’s sudden death. Her life gets worse when she is fired from a desperately needed job and threatens her boss in the heat of the moment. Not only must spider-phobic Francie win the heart of Mac who wants only to have a pet tarantula named Spike, she is forced to take a temporary telemarketing job selling funerals to pay the bills and discovers just how reluctant people are to plan for the death of their lives. But, when things get bad for Francie, they get really, really bad. Her former boss is found in the trunk of Francie’s car, murdered. Francie protests that she is being framed, but Detective Dominic Wolfe discovers Francie had threatened her murdered boss. Then Detective Wolfe learns of Francie’s troubled personal history and warns Francie the case against her is growing. Finally when Detective Wolfe discovers she is related to the infamous Starlinski crime family of Chicago, renowned for their expertise in the genteel arts of cat burglary and forgery, she faces a murder charge and even worse, the possibility of losing custody of Mac. Francie must face her own worst demons to find the real killer and keep the boy. Harder yet, she must teach herself and Mac to rely on facing trouble and finding truth as the way to stay alive. About the Author: Christine T. Jorgensen lives in Denver with her husband, her dog Tyrannus Rex, her anole, Lips, and an African fat-tailed gecko, Spotty.

Case of the Screaming Woman, The. Erle Stanley Gardner. 1957. William Morrow. Is an alleged do-gooder really a life-taker? A murdered doctor’s appointment book points a damning finger. But when Perry Mason intervenes—uncovering a mystery rife with illegal adoption, stolen narcotics, and blackmail—his sleuthing skills face their toughest test. And his penchant for risk-taking is pushed to the edge.

Casino Moon. Peter Blauner. 1996. 308p. Morrow/Avon. A young man’s struggle to break free of his gangster family holds center stage in Blauner’s second novel, a competent but derivative tale that’s no match for his Edgar-winning Slow Motion Riot. The author again offers a gritty portrait of lowlifes, in this case an Atlantic City crew riven by federal harassment, falling income and paranoia. But the wish of Anthony Russo, adopted son of underboss Vincent Russo, to go straight won’t surprise those who recall Michael Corleone in The Godfather; nor will Anthony’s slow realization that the sins of the father, including blood lust, are inherited by the son. That the hero’s love interest is an ex-whore with a heart of gold also doesn’t earn points for originality. Even so, Anthony’s scheme to make his own way by managing an aging boxer on the comeback trail brings readers deep into the dirty world of prizefighting, with Blauner tracing the boxer’s battered nobility with as much sensitivity as he does Anthony’s love/hate toward the man who raised him. Forgetting that less can be more, though, the author implicates Vincent Russo in the death of Anthony’s natural father, a complication as distracting as the narration’s choppy alternation between first and third person. Still, this isn’t bad for a sophomore slump.

Caught in the Shadows: A Mystery. CA Haddad. 1992. St Martin’s Press. Becky Belski is a nice small-town girl with a nice computer research job in Chicago which entails digging up electronic dirt on people through computer networks and borders on the illegal. Her past is a little murky, what with her mother convicted of killing Becky’s stepfather. Still, the case is closed, her mother long dead, so why does a high-profile divorce case shake up her humdrum world of sweatsuits and take-out Chinese? A wealthy socialite has shot her husband and her lawyers have hired Becky to do some computerized snooping. A straightforward assignment—until the digging reveals a link between the victim and Becky’s own half-forgotten past. The connection provides Becky with the chance to unearth the real story behind her mother’s imprisonment.

Cavalier in White, The. Marcia Muller. 1986. 207p. (A Joanna Stark Mystery). St Martin’s Press. When Joanna Stark learns that a tall stranger has been attempting to locate her, she tries to remain calm. But even three years after her retirement as a security consultant to California museums and galleries, her suspicions are automatically aroused. The man turns out to be her former partner Nick, who persuades Joanna, against her better judgment, to help him find a stolen Franz Hals painting, The Cavalier in White. All too soon, Joanna realizes that the case is more complex and frightening than it originally appeared. Before it is resolved, she is forced to confront her old nemesis, Parducci, as well as dramatic secrets in her personal life. Muller’s introduction to her new detective is laden with expository passages that slow the development of the mystery. Still, the intricate story builds to a satisfying climax with enough left unresolved to promise more adventures in the future.

Chandler’s Daughter. Truly Donovan. 2000. 232p. (A Lexy Connor Mystery). Write Way Publishers. Lexy Connor is perfectly content with her uneventful life: her Boulder, Colorado suburban home; her bookcases full of mystery novels; her love of good food (the source of her magnificent girth); and her faithful Westie companion, Molly. But then a phone call in the midde of the night sends her peaceful world into turmoil. Tally Richard, a long-time family friend, is looking for a place to hide out. Having received a cryptic message warning that she’s in terrible danger, she seeks refuge with Lexy, and pleads for help to decipher the mystery of her true parentage, which appears to be the root of the danger she’s in. Lexy is reluctantly drawn into the middle of a mystery straight out of one of those novels she loves so much. Only now she finds herself playing the unlikely role of amateur sleuth. From California and the untimely death of their only solid lead to Tally’s parents all the way across the country to Westchester County, New York, Lexy tracks down clues to the identities of Tally’s birth parents, and of the determined strangers trying to get to Tally first. Are they one and the same? With the help of a friendship ring, old yearbooks, newspaper articles involving a thirty-year-old car accident that occurred under suspicious circumstances, and a bevy of canines from dachshunds to rottweilers and their owners, Lexy puts her own life, and the lives of those closest to her, on the line to uncover the truth about Tally’s past.

Child’s Play: A Novel. Carmen Posadas. Translated by Nick Caistor & Amanda Hopkinson. 2008. 394p. Alma Books Ltd (UK). When the fictional amateur detective Carmen O’Inns is called upon to investigate the mysterious death of a boy at a prestigious school, both teachers and pupils are in the frame as suspects. Meanwhile, the novelist Luisa Dávila, her creator, finds that memories of a tragic incident she witnessed during her own school days are brought to the surface when, during her daughter, Elba’s enrolment at her old school, she encounters two of her childhood friends. When a pupil dies shortly afterwards, Luisa begins to harbour terrible suspicions about the episode, seeing haunting similarities between past, present and the subject of her latest novel. As events unfold, the boundaries between reality, memory and fiction begin to appear alarmingly blurry, and Luisa finds herself taking on some of the characteristics of her detective creation in order to find the solution. But is life really like a detective novel? Will Luisa find the answers she is looking for? About the Author: Carmen Posadas has consistently topped the bestseller charts in Latin America, Spain, France, and Italy. Born in Uruguay and raised in Europe, she attended a British boarding school, where she absorbed the English masters in her field, from Daphne du Maurier to Roald Dahl. As a novelist she has developed a highly original narrative voice, a perfect blend combining an absurdist sense of the uncanny with a mastery of characterization and plotting, which she attributes to her penchant for Anglo-American authors such as Henry James. Critics have hailed her fiction as the perfect blend of Agatha Christie and Pedro Almodóvar. Compiler’s Notation: This book takes a slightly different approach to adoption: the protagonist, Luisa, has told her daughter, Elba, all her life that she’s adopted; but it turns out that, in fact, she wasn’t, a deception that apparently plays a pivotal role.

China Doll. Talia Carner. 2006. 322p. Windsprint Press. A riveting journey to save one life. An American music icon, Nola Sands is on a concert tour in China when a baby is thrust into her arms. Resolved to save the infant from death in a Chinese orphanage, Nola finds herself on a collision course with her husband/manager, with her record label company’s interests in China-and with the world’s two superpowers determined to silence her. In a story of an adoptive parent’s unwavering love, Nola’s flight across China is a tale not only of human rights abuses running amok in an astonishingly picturesque land: It is the gripping self-discovery voyage of a woman coming into her own. About the Author: Talia Carner’s first novel, Puppet Child, was listed in The Top 10 Favorite First Novels 2002 (BookBrowse.com) and won her an Outstanding Author Award (BookReviewCafe.com). Her personal essays and some winners of the Writer’s Digest Writing Competition appeared in The New York Times, Chocolate For Women anthologies (Simon & Schuster), Cup of Comfort (Adams Media) and The Best Jewish Writing 2003 (John Wiley & Son). Several of Carner’s short stories entered Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope’s Hall of Fame and were published in literary magazines such as Lynx Eye, Midstream, Rosebud, Confrontation and North Atlantic Review. Visit the Author’s website.

Christopher’s Mansion. W[illiam] E[dward] D[aniel] Ross (1912-1995). 1969. 190p. Thomas Bouregy & Co. When Vera Wells, the adopted child of Roger and Jane, returned for the summer to the Boston mansion that had been her home, the portrait still hung in the living room. Vera was a college graduate now, but somehow the old oil of Master Christopher, a fanatical witch hunter in the days of the Salem trials, still smoldered with evil and filled the house—and her—with fear.

Cities of the Dead. Linda Barnes. 1986. 184p. (A Michael Spraggue Mystery). St Martin’s Press. When the great chefs of New Orleans stage an elegant banquet, tempers burn hotter than cayenne pepper. Up-and-coming Cajun chef Joseph Fontenot is found with a slender French cooking knife through his heart, and all the evidence points to Dora Levoyer, sublime cook to Boston’s wealthhy and eccentric Mary Spraggue Hillman. A guest at the banquet, Mary summons her nephew Michael Spraggue, actor-cum-private detective, to the scene. And soon Spraggue is investigating a murder case that will leave his mouth burning and his mind spinning. One thing is certain: the solution to the murder will make for a spicy mystery indeed!

Come & Be Killed. Sally Spedding. 2007. 272p. Severn House Publishers, Ltd (UK). Adopted as a child, Frankie Holt had been abused by her adoptive parents, while the Holts’ natural daughter, Shannon, was showered with expensive clothes and gifts. No wonder Frankie is resentful—and determined to find her birth mother. It is summer 2002, and twenty-three-year-old Frankie, a hardworking carer armed with good references, leaves Manchester’s grimy slums for the Malvern Hills and a job looking after the wealthy yet vulnerable Scott sisters. Little do the two women know that sparky, tough-talking Frankie, with her strange newborn doll, has her own sinister agenda. But Frankie has two dark shadows who will dog her days in that pretty place: her sister Shannon, whom she tried to drown two years before for a hurt that was one hurt too many, and Londoner, Martin Webb, a police force reject who is convinced that he has an instinct for solving crime. About the Author: Spedding, referred to as a “latter-day Du Maurier,” delves into the darkest parts of the human psyche, the landscape we inhabit and that Other Dimension beyond the earth we know. Read, and you won’t know whom to trust, or where to choose to plant your dreams… An award-winning crime mystery writer, Sally Spedding was born Wales and trained in sculpture at Manchester and St. Martin’s, London. Winning the Nottingham Festival’s International Short Story competition was her first writing success. She has since carved a particular niche with her novels Wringland, A Night With No Stars, Prey Silence and Come and Be Killed (2007) all published by Allison & Busby. Her short stories have appeared in two Crime Writers’ Association anthologies, been widely published, and she won the H. E. Bates Award in 2002. She is a member of Academi for services to literature in Wales, and is a contributor to Hafan, an anthology of Welsh Women Writers. She appears at many literary festivals, adjudicates national writing competitions, teaches Creative Writing for Leicester University and, as one of three Hazard Warning crime writers, continues to successfully tour the UK. Visit the author’s website.

Conspiracy of Silence. Martha Powers. 2008. 336p. Oceanview Publishing. From Publishers Weekly: When Clare Prentice, a Chicago journalist, discovers she’s adopted in this cozy romantic thriller from Powers (Death Angel), she’s disturbed enough to call off her impending wedding. The high school ring of her adoptive mother, who died two years earlier and was careful to keep Clare’s true origin a secret, provides a clue that takes Clare to Grand Rapids, MN., where she conveniently has an assignment to interview a reclusive novelist, Nate Hanssen. The pace picks up after Clare discovers that her birth mother, Lily Gundersen, was murdered in Grand Rapids. Clare becomes the target of a killer intent on silencing anyone who knows the real story behind Lily’s untimely death. Meanwhile, a subtle romance develops between Clare and Nate. Full of red herrings, this suspense novel will appeal to those who also like traditional whodunits. © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Visit the Author’s website.

Corners of the Heart. Leslie Grey. 1993. 201p. Rising Tide Press. Katya Michaels, an English professor, and her adopted son, Sam, are living quietly outside the small town of Deer Falls, NY. Painter and general handywoman Chris Benet share an attraction, but unhappiness in each woman’s past makes it hard for them to move beyond flirtation. Despite the fact that two lesbians were recently murdered outside of town, the police ignore Katya’s calls about a caller threatening her son. Chris makes a heroic rescue of Sam, and the women soon find evidence the danger was deliberately caused, by that dastardly homophobic villain.

Countdown. Iris Johansen. 2005. 416p. (Eve Duncan Series #5). Bantam. From Publishers Weekly: Prolific bestseller Johansen subjects gutsy Jane Maguire to more troubles in her latest thrill ride. Jane, the adopted daughter of forensic sculptor Eve Duncan, was threatened by one serial killer in 1999’s The Killing Game and another in 2004’s Blind Alley, so it’s no surprise that she’s in danger again. The once-troubled adolescent is now a brilliant Harvard student and talented artist who spends her summers at far-off archeological digs in Pompeii and Herculaneum, but she’s still haunted by her resemblance to Cira, a woman who lived 2,000 years ago in the latter city. Suddenly she’s being ambushed in alleys. Does the attempted kidnapping have something to do with Blind Alley’s climax, in which Eve; her husband, Joe Quinn of the Atlanta PD; soldier of fortune Mark Trevor; and Jane, the bait, triumphed over the psychopath who was killing women who looked like Cira? You bet it does, as Trevor turns up in Cambridge, enigmatic but still definitely magnetic, determined to protect Jane from danger due to new developments regarding Cira, “the femme fatale of the ancient world.” Seems all kinds of notorious criminals are after Cira’s lost gold, but some people have mass murder on their minds. Action, romance, castles, bomb plots and a booby-trapped hideaway in snowbound Idaho—what more could Johansen fans want? © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. By the Same Author (Eve Duncan Series Titles): The Face of Deception (1998), The Killing Game (1999), The Search (2000), Body of Lies (2002), Stalemate (2006), Quicksand (2008), Blood Game (2009).

Crime School. Carol O’Connell. 2002. 352p. (A Mallory Novel). GP Putnam’s Sons. From Kirkus Reviews: Sparrow, a middle-aged prostitute, is found hanging in the living room of her Greenwich Village apartment, the centerpiece of a ritualistic arrangement. Lit candles surround her; pieces of her hair are chopped off and stuffed in her mouth. The apartment has been set afire in select places, and dead insects surround the woman who, miraculously, survives in a coma. There’s a double jolt for the NYPD’s Kathleen Mallory (Shell Game, 1999, etc.): The crime scene reminds her of an unsolved murder of a generation ago, and Sparrow is a significant figure from Mallory’s childhood. The closest thing to the adopted girl’s big sister, Sparrow represented glamour, street smarts, and danger. Mallory’s connection to the victim makes her colleagues privately question her judgment and doubt her conviction that they’re looking for a serial killer. And sloppy police work in that earlier case, the murder of a young woman named Natalie Homer, obscures the connection to Sparrow’s attempted murder. Though Mallory is the story’s linchpin, O’Connell cuts among a handful of Special Crimes cops, sharply delineated, as they follow old leads and new evidence. Mallory’s scruffy partner Riker arouses her suspicion by pocketing and concealing key evidence that leads him to unexpected corners of Sparrow’s world. Mallory’s mentor, methodical Charles Butler, uncovers eye-opening details about her past. And cocky younger detective Deluthe stumbles into dangerous situations and valuable witnesses as the anonymous killer closes in on struggling actress Stella Small. Like the best work of James Lee Burke and Barbara Vine, O’Connell’s character-driven procedural transcends genre pigeonholing. The juxtaposition of grisly detailand elegantly elliptical writing creates suspense that builds and resonates. © 2002, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Other Titles in the “Mallory” Series: Mallory’s Oracle (1994); The Man Who Cast Two Shadows (1995); Killing Critics (1996); Stone Angel (1997); Shell Game (1999); Dead Famous (2003); Winter House (2004); and Find Me (2006).

Cry from the Dark, A. Robert Barnard. 2003. 288p. Scribner. Bettina Whitelaw has come a long way from her childhood in the little outback town of Bundaroo, Australia. Many years have passed, a lifetime really, but she’s never forgotten what happened there on the evening that changed her life forever. How could she forget the school dance, her taunting classmates, dancing with the strange but brilliant English boy, Hughie Naismyth? How could she forget what happened next, when, overheated and exhilarated by the music and the moment, she wandered off along into a secluded, wooded area? Now a renowned, elderly author living in London’s elegant Holland Park, Bettina faces a flood of memories as she works on her memoirs, even though her focus is more on the frightening things that are happening today. Someone has recently entered her home and gone through her desk. The intruder is clearly not an ordinary burglar. It must be someone she knows. She’s been a little lax in handing out keys, so the suspects are many—her nephew, Mark; her agent, Clare; her friends, Peter or Katie. Or it could be someone else. What does Bettina possess that his person would want to steal? A puzzle that at first seems mildly disturbing soon turns deadly serious. Someone is willing to kill—but why? Does the answer rest in Bundaroo or nearer to home?

Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter. Blaize Clement. 2005. 272p. St Martin’s Press. From Kirkus Reviews: Sarasota, FL, is a peaceful spot for a pet sitter until her job leads to murder. Dixie Hemingway is on medical leave from the Sheriff’s Department after the accidental death of her husband and child. Caring for other people’s pets looks like a less stressful job until she finds a corpse in the home of client Marilee Doering while looking after Ghost, her Abyssinian. When Marilee remains missing and Ghost must be sent to Kitty Haven, Dixie is soon involved with Marilee’s vitriolic, homophobic neighbor, his alcoholic wife and their closeted, Juilliard-bound son Phillip. Marilee’s grandmother Cora provides some answers when the body is identified as Marilee’s wealthy lover and the father of the child she was forced to give up for adoption, but he’s far from her only partner or the only source of her considerable income. Dixie becomes a prime suspect after she stumbles on a badly beaten Phillip and then on Marilee’s decomposing body. A local lawyer adds to her woes when he announces that she’s been left Marilee’s estate in trust for Ghost, making her one wealthy pet sitter. Luckily, her dormant detecting skills return in time for her to get into Marilee’s safe full of secrets, to get stalked by a felon and to get saved from certain death by Ghost. An entertaining debut. Dixie is a complex, well-conceived character and the plot fast-moving and believable.

Custody. Nancy Thayer. 2001. 256p. St Martin’s Press. When Kelly MacLeod becomes a Massachusetts Family Court judge, she is determined to do what is right. But what is right when one’s deepest personal emotions clash with the law? Anne Madison, a respected state reformer with political aspirations, wants custody of her 12-year-old adopted daughter Tessa, as does Randall Madison, a prominent physician. Tessa, caught between warring parents, on the brink of her own sexuality, wonders who her birth mother is, and tries to please those she loves at a cost that just might be too high. How does one balance public service with private desires? What does it mean, legally and emotionally, to be a family? How does one move past anger and sorrow toward compassion and wisdom? How do adults learn to temper their own wills with the best needs of the child? In order to must answer these questions, Kelly MacLeod must judge her new and mysterious lover, her own past, and the complications of many kinds of love. About the Author: Author of twelve novels, including Between Husbands & Friends, An Act of Love and Three Women at the Water’s Edge, Nancy Thayer joined St. Martin’s with her novel Belonging. She lives in Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Cutting Edge. Allison Brennan. 2009. 405p. Ballentine Books. When security specialist Duke Rogan’s state-of-the-art computer system fails at a controversial bio-tech firm, a raging inferno spreads, and a grotesquely charred body is discovered in the aftermath. With an extremist anti-technology group claiming responsibility, the case grows even more complex when the victim’s autopsy unexpectedly reveals that he bled to death. Heading the FBI’s domestic terrorism unit, Agent Nora English is fiercely determined to track and stop a sadistic assassin. About the Author: Allison Brennan is the author of ten bestselling romantic thrillers, including The Prey, Speak No Evil, Killing Fear, and Playing Dead. For thirteen years she worked as a consultant in the California State Legislature before leaving to devote herself fully to her family and writing. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Mystery Writers of America, and International Thriller Writers. She lives in Northern California with her husband, Dan, and their five children.

Danger-Close: A Jake Thunder Adventure. Jon F Merz. 2004. 299p. Five Star. Former U.S. Air Force Commando Jake Thunder remains paralyzed during an incident in Somalia, but he believes he will one day walk again, although the medical profession tells him otherwise. Using a wheelchair to get around Boston, Jake runs a private investigative firm. Beautiful and wealthy Mrs. Vanessa Patterson wants to hire Jake, but is stunned by his wheelchair and his sarcasm. Still, she employs him to find out who killed her estranged sister, Melinda. The police have not anything done anything involving the case writing it off as not worth the effort. With the help of his friend, Homicide Detective Frank McCloskey, Jake makes inquires starting with Melinda’s sleazy boyfriend, Don Woolery. This engaging private investigative tale stars a terrific unique optimist who refuses to allow his physical impairment from making the rounds and doing his job. The who-done-it is engaging as Jake cajoles his police pal to “help” him with insider information. Jake’s wise cracking is amusing although how he keeps a client is questionable because who would want to pay someone tearing off your skin in double entendres. Fans of strong detective tales will enjoy this fine story due to the inspirational protagonist. — Harriet Klausner

Dark to Mortal Eyes: A Novel. Eric Wilson. 2004. 448p. WaterBrook Press. Returning to the hometown of her birth parents, rebellious 23-year-old Josee Walker seeks answers to long-held questions about her childhood. Her biological father, wealthy vintner Marsh Addison, wants nothing to do with her. But a determined Kara Addison sets out to meet the child she gave up years before, despite Marsh’s passionate opposition. When Kara disappears and her car is discovered at the bottom of a ravine, however, Marsh becomes the prime suspect. Suddenly, Marsh and Josee are forced to unite in their search for Kara–and for the truth. But there’s more to their family’s past than meets the eye. What could the mysterious canister that Josee found in the woods contain? What does it have to do with her mother’s disappearance? When an ancient evil rouses, each member of the Addison family becomes enmeshed in a terrifying supernatural battle–one with global consequences.

Dead By Sunset. Ann Rule. 1996. Simon & Schuster. When attorney Cheryl Keeton’s brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare. In this gripping account of Cheryl’s murder, Ann Rule takes us from Brad’s troubled boyhood to one of the most bizarre trials in legal history, uncovering multiple marriages, financial manipulations, infidelities, and monstrous acts of harassment and revenge along the way.

Dead Famous. Carol O’Connell. 2003. 288p. (A Mallory Novel). GP Putnam’s Sons. From Kirkus Reviews: In her eighth outing, iconic detective Kathy Mallory takes on the FBI, a serial killer, a powerful shock jock, the depression of her ex-partner, and a determined woman nearly as brilliant and devious as herself. Loner Johanna Apollo lives at the Chelsea Hotel and works as a crime-scene cleaner. A hunchback with long black hair and extra long legs, Johanna resembles a giant spider maneuvering Manhattan’s dicey streets. She works for Mallory’s scruffy partner Riker (currently on medical leave after an on-the-job shooting) and has, like her fellow characters, a closetful of secrets O’Connell shrewdly doles out piecemeal, tilting the landscape with each new revelation. FBI agent Marvin Argus is hounding her about an unsolved Chicago case, the killing of Timothy Kidd, another Fed, her psychiatric patient and/or lover and/or victim. Meanwhile, New York shock jock Ian Zachary pushes his popularity through the roof by fomenting public outrage against a jury that let an apparent killer go free. Stopping just short of criminal activity, he exhorts his audience to locate the jurors. As the tale opens, eight of them have been killed by someone identifying himself as The Reaper. After grappling with personal demons and mental stability in her last case (Crime School, 2002), superwoman Mallory returns with a vengeance, and in total control. But clever Johanna tests both her wits and her will. Memorable characters and blazingly original prose. Once again, O’Connell transcends the genre. © 2003, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Other Titles in the “Mallory” Series: Mallory’s Oracle (1994); The Man Who Cast Two Shadows (1995); Killing Critics (1996); Stone Angel (1997); Shell Game (1999); Crime School (2002); Winter House (2004); and Find Me (2006).

Dead Giveaway. Leann Sweeney. 2005. 272p. (A Yellow Rose Mystery). Signet. She’s a Texas heiress and a brand-new P.I. specializing in adoption cases. But Abby Rose focuses more on what money can’t buy—like answers in a case of a baby abandoned years ago and a present-day murder. About the Author: Leann Sweeney was born and raised in Niagara Falls and educated at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Lemoyne College in Syracuse, NY. She also has a degree from the University of Houston in behavioral science and worked for many years in psychiatry. Currently a school nurse, she began writing about fifteen years ago, fulfilling her lifelong dream. After perfecting her writing skills with classes and a small fortune in writing books, she joined MWA and Sisters in Crime. Her short fiction won many awards and several mysteries were published in small market mystery magazines. One novel and another mystery novella went straight to audio. Leann is married with two fabulous grown children, a wonderful son-in-law and a beautiful daughter-in-law. She has lived in Texas for almost thirty years and resides in Friendswood, Texas with husband Mike and her three cats. By the Same Author: Pick Your Poison (2004), A Wedding to Die For (2005) and Shoot From the Lip (2007), and Pushing Up Bluebonnets (2008).

Dead of Jericho, The. Colin Dexter. 1981. 224p. Macmillan Publishers Ltd (UK). He meets her at a suburban party. They share a flirtation over their red wine ... and he doesn’t see her again. It’s the old familiar story for Morse. Then one day he just happens to be in Jericho, where Anne Scott lives. Nobody’s home—and Morse should know since her door is unlocked and he takes a quick look inside. Only later does Morse learn that the lady was at home, just not alive. The jury’s verdict at the inquest is death by suicide. But that doesn’t sit right with Morse, and he embarks on his own investigation into the tangled private life of a lovely woman, all the while feeling his own remorse of what might have been...

Dead to Rights. J(udith) A Jance. 1996. 373p. Avon Books. A fourth outing for Joanna Brady (Shoot, Don’t Shoot, 1995, etc.), who’s not only the sheriff of Arizona’s Cochise County—and that means administrator, investigator, crisis manager, grief counselor, and on-call patroller—but also a full-time mother, daughter, and daughter-in-law. Joanna’s biggest case this time is the torching of unloved veterinarian Amos Buckwalter’s barn with him inside. Everything points to Hal Morgan, whose wife was the victim of Bucky’s lethal binge of drunk driving a year ago, as the killer. But Joanna’s impressed by Morgan’s claims of innocence and appalled by the Widow Buckwalter’s unseemly lack of mourning (a round of golf and a makeover the following day), which contrasts so vividly with Joanna’s continued grieving for her own husband. Besides Bucky’s murder, there are other cases- -the death of ancient Reed Carruthers, a smuggler’s fatal car crash—but more important are the endless domestic intrigues of Joanna’s circle. What’s holding up her friend Marianne Maculyea’s adoption of a Chinese orphan? How can Joanna prevent her daughter from bullying her into buying Bucky’s horse? What can Joanna say to the wife of a deputy who’s leaving her husband over Joanna? And why does Joanna’s long-lost adult brother get along so much better with their difficult mother than Joanna does? Jance’s portrait of Sheriff Supermom and her world is painted in broad, soapy strokes—perfect entertainment for anybody who wonders how J.J. Marric’s George Gideon would’ve made out as a southwestern American female. — From Kirkus Reviews. Copyright © 1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Deadly Agent, A. Susan R Sweet. 1996. Vantage Press. Penny McGrath suffers the loss of both parents within a relatively short period of time. Luckily, her Aunt Les is a big part of her life. When her aunt insists on taking her to Australia, Penny is shocked to discover a huge family she didn’t know existed. Why she didn’t know is a big part of the book’s mystery plot. Of particular interest is Devin McGrath, adopted son of her Uncle Dan. Although Devin feels put upon to act as Penny’s personal guide, Penny doesn’t mind spending time with him. She’s elated to find there are no blood ties between them.

Death & Co. David Brierley. 1999. 320p. Little, Brown & Co (UK). Cody is asked to solve the brutal murder of a wealthy businessman’s wife, and the abduction of their newly adopted Romanian daughter. She teams up with Chief Inspector Crevecoeur of the Surete Nationale to find the killer and the little girl. All along she has suspicions about the murdered wife’s husband’s connections and why he is holed up in a fortress surrounded by armed guards.

Death at the Opera. Gladys Mitchell. 1934. 192p. Penguin Books (UK). When Miss Ferris drowned in a wash basin during a performance of The Mikado at the Hillmaston Coeducational Day School, the police ruled it a suicide. The school’s headmaster wasn’t so sure. He called in that grand dame of detection, the psychoanalyst-sleuth Mrs. Beatrice Lestrange Bradley. The innocuous Miss Ferris wasn’t popular among her fellow teachers, several of whom feared she would expose their guilty secrets. But these transgressions, for the most part, appeared too inconsequential to end in murder. Death at the Opera is an early mystery by Gladys Mitchell, lumped with Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers by contemporary critics as one of England’s “big three” women mystery writers. Mitchell wrote 66 mysteries featuring Mrs. Bradley between 1929 and her death in 1983. Death at the Opera was filmed for British television (with a different motive, killer and method of murder than in the book) in 2000 with Diana Rigg portraying Mrs. Bradley. First American edition published under the title Death in the Wet.

Death Goes Dutch. Albert A Bell. 2005. 304p. (A Wooden Shoe Mystery). Ingalls Publishing Group, Inc. Sarah DeGraaf reunites adoptees with their biological parents—bittersweet for a Korean-American adoptee unlikely to ever have the same experience. When she finds that her client’s mother, a furniture industry heiress, died under mysterious circumstances that were never investigated, her personal commitment takes her farther than agency regulations allow. As long-concealed family secrets unravel, more is at stake than the job Sarah loves and the possibility of fortune for her client. Someone will kill to protect what they“ve gained.

Death in Summer. William Trevor. 1998. 213p. Viking Penguin. One of the masters of contemporary fiction, Trevor (After Rain, 1996.) keeps his typically level head as he quietly records two worlds in collision. Though on the surface it portrays a conflict of class, this straightforward novel also captures with equanimity the delusional world of the downtrodden and the emotionally stunted lives of the genteel rich. Trevor’s tight-lipped Englishman, Thaddeus Davenant, comes into his wealth through his loveless marriage to Letitia Iveson, a spinsterish librarian who admires Thaddeus’s attachment to his decaying family estate, and who, at story’s outset, dies in a bicycle accident. She leaves behind a six-month-old baby, Georgina, who elicits from the usually distrustful Thaddeus a love and devotion such as he’s shown no female before. All his passion has been spent on the tattered grandeur of Quincunx House, the family estate preserved by Thaddeus’s Polish mother, even after the family fortunes declined. And once Thaddeus reluctantly agrees to allow his mother-in-law (and former enemy) to join them at Quincunx, trouble begins—not with her, but with one of the rejected nannies interviewed beforehand, an orphan girl named Pettie, who quickly develops an elaborate fantasy life involving the grieving widower and his darling child. Trevor suggests character with the ease of a single gesture or detail, and his narrative instincts are, as usual, dead-on, providing just enough melodramatic intrigue to propel his studies in interior life.

Death of a Colonial. Bruce Alexander (pseudonym). 1999. Putnam Publishing Group. Eighteenth-century London judge Sir John Fielding returns in the sixth of Alexander’s highly praised mysteries. Consistently hailed as “wonderful” (The New York Times Book Review), “first-rate” (The Boston Globe), and “altogether much fun” (The Washington Post), the Fielding mysteries are a magical combination of period ambiance, vivid characterization, and intriguing plotlines. Now the blind magistrate embarks upon the most puzzling of all his cases. A nobleman, the last of his line, is executed, and his possessions set to go to the Crown, when his younger brother, missing for seven years, suddenly reappears to stake his claim. But where has he been? Why does his mother react to him so oddly? And what connection does this case have to the suicide by hanging of an American in London? To find the answers, Sir John and his ward, Jeremy, must travel from London to Bath to Oxford—and finally to a much darker place. About the Author: Bruce Alexander is the pseudonym of a well-known author of fiction and non-fiction.

Death of an Amiable Child, The. Irene Marcuse. 2000. 227p. (Anita Servi Mysteries). Walker & Co. From Publishers Weekly: Social worker and transplanted Californian Anita Servi, her cabinetmaker husband, Bruno, and their adopted daughter, Clea, live in a prewar co-op on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in this compassionate debut novel. Many of Anita’s elderly neighbors are clients at her agency at the nearby Cathedral of St. John the Divine. A typical crazed Monday morning turns even more chaotic when Clea discovers the body of a homeless woman, known only as Lillian, on a landing in the co-op. The local police believe she died from a fall. Not convinced, Anita decides to investigate and becomes embroiled in the doings at the building where Lillian lived, seeing clients and avoiding the management, who have their reasons for not wanting her around. Anita eventually learns that Lillian had some good jewelry and a lot of money as well, so why did she live that way? What was she scared of, and why did she spend a lot of time in Riverside Park at the grave of the Amiable Child? As she asks around, Anita discovers that many seniors are afraid of losing their apartments and are being threatened and intimidated. The tough ones remain, but at what cost? Anita and her family enjoy life in an increasingly gentrified neighborhood, where longtime tenants and newcomers with conflicting values and philosophies must navigate the political minefield of co-op life. Bravo to Marcuse, herself a savvy West Sider with a degree in social work, for this entertaining and engrossing puzzle that also calls attention to serious unresolved social problems. © 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Death of Distinction, A. Marjorie Eccles. 1998. 188p. St Martin’s Press. Police detective Gil Mayo (An Accidental Shroud, 1997, etc.), based in the Midlands town of Lavenstock, has just been promoted to Detective Superintendent. Lavenstock is home to the Conyhall Young Offenders’ Institution, and nearby is the rambling country house of Jack Lilburne, its highly respected Governor, his garden-fixated wife Dorthea, and their nubile daughter Flora. When Jack is killedand Flora injuredby a bomb placed under his car, Mayo heads the investigation. It centers, at first, on the inmates at the Institution, especially on Derek Davis, now on release but known to have threatened Lilburne. Flora, slowly recovering in the hospital, has drawn the adoring attention of operating room technician Marc Daventry. Marc’s recent life has been obsessed with finding the mother who’d given him up for adoption to parents now dead. He has accidentally succeeded in that missionthrough stolid Avril Kitchineven as Mayo and his staff are exploring leads from Davis and are beginning to uncover the secrets of 20 years past that will lead to the killer, though not in time to stop another murder. Heavily focused on the psychological aspects of the story’s well-drawn characterseven those peripherally involvedbut Eccles’s lucid narrative and tension-building skills provide an intriguing outing for procedural fans. — From Kirkus Reviews. Copyright © 1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Découpage Album, The. Salvatore Pistoia Jr. 2009. 342p. BookSurge Publishing. In this action-packed, high-stakes adventure, Tessa Reeves fights for her life after hiring a private investigator to find her biological parents. Tessa had no clue what the P.I. was going to uncover. Now those involved want to make sure their secret stays just that—a secret. A web of deceit and corruption flows from the white house and into the hands of the mafia. But just how high does the conspiracy go? A high end assassin has been brought in to get the job done right. Now Tessa is forced to run for her life while unraveling the mystery surrounding her adoption. With the assistance of Brian, a fellow college student whom she despises, she is forced to turn to him for help. It is Brian’s unorthodox connection to the mafia that provides them with some insight. Brian has to deal with his past and confront a mafia boss who lost his son to a kidnapper. Brian looks to his old friend for guidance and support as they struggle to evade the assassin and unravel the mystery surrounding Tessa’s adoption. While researching her life, Tessa and Brian discover the assassin who is after them may have been behind the death of Tessa’s father. Now, the closer Tessa gets to uncover the truth, the more she questions her understanding of the situation. Unbeknownst to Tessa and Brian, someone else has been watching them. With the FBI and local police involved it will take everything they have, both emotionally and physically to stay alive. It turns out you can’t always trust those around you, especially family.

Depths of the Sea, The. Jamie Metzl. 2004. 256p. St Martin’s Press. It’s 1979 and Morgan O’Reilly, a dispirited CIA desk officer, is desperately trying to bury his memories. Sent to Cambodia as a Marine and then as a CIA operative during the Vietnam War, he had been given the unlikely task of pulling together a secret spy unit of orphaned street children. At the end of the war, he was only able to get one child out of the country, his surrogate son, Sophal. Years later, Sophal, now a CIA agent, disappears on a secret mission in the Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand. Tom Dillon, the dashing young superstar of the White House foreign policy staff, asks O’Reilly to find Sophal and bring him home. O’Reilly’s search takes him deeper and deeper into the politics of the Thai-Cambodian border and finally into the deadly Khmer Rouge zone—a place where all foreigners are forbidden from entering and where cruelty and death are omnipresent. Filled with the fascinating workings of the refugee camps, the life or death politics of Washington, DC, and the inner workings of the personalities that are drawn to such extreme circumstances, The Depths of the Sea is a thriller that both entertains and educates. About the Author: Jamie Metzl has served on the National Securtiy Council at the White House, in the State Department, and as a United Nations Human Rights Officer in Cambodia. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a Ph.D. in Southeast Asian history from Oxford University. A marathon runner and Ironman triathlete, he lives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders. Alicia Gaspar De Alba. 2005. 346p. Arte Publico Press. It’s the summer of 1998 and for five years over a hundred mangled and desecrated bodies have been found dumped on the Chihuahua desert outside of Juárez, México, just across the river from El Paso, Texas. The perpetrators of the ever-rising number of violent deaths target poor young women, terrifying inhabitants of both sides of the border. El Paso native Ivon Villa has returned to her hometown to adopt the baby of Cecilia, a pregnant maquiladora worker in Juárez. When Cecilia turns up strangled and disemboweled in the desert, Ivon is thrown into the churning chaos of abuse and murder. Even as the rapes and killings of “girls from the south” continue—their tragic stories written in desert blood—a conspiracy covers up the crimes that implicate everyone from the Maquiladora Association to the Border Patrol. When Ivon’s younger sister gets kidnapped in Juárez, Ivon knows that it’s up to her to find her sister, whatever it takes. Despite the sharp warnings she gets from family, friends, and nervous officials, Ivon’s investigation moves her deeper and deeper into the labyrinth of silence. From acclaimed poet and prose-writer Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders is a gripping mystery novel that ponders the effects of patriarchy, gender identity, border culture, transnationalism, and globalization on an international crisis.

Detection Unlimited. Georgette Heyer. 1953. 288p. Heinemann (UK). “There is,” observed Chief Inspector Hemingway, “a very classy decor in this case and in my experience that always makes things difficult. Squire, vicar, family solicitor, retired major they’ll all stand by one another and they’re apt to have a lot more sense than the criminal classes.” The people of Thornden and Bellingham certainly stood to gether in their dislike for Mr. Sampson Warrenby, an upstart newcomer of no more than fifteen years’ standing in the district, and a go-ahead and serious rival to the more acceptable, old-fashioned kind of solicitor, Thaddeus Dry beck. Then Warrenby had kicked Mrs. Midgeholme’s peke Ulysses off his flowerbed, and he did consistently bully his niece Mavis and generally upset his neighbours. Still, it came as rather a surprise to everybody-or almost every body-when Warrenby was found, slumped on a wooden seat under the oak in his garden, with a bullet in his head. As Miss Patterdale observed to her niece Abigail and her adopted nephew Charles (those two were really interested in nothing but themselves!) the same evening during supper, the whole affair was bound to lead to unpleasant ness. And it did; a great deal of unpleasantness for Mavis Warrenby, for Charles, Abby and Miriam Patterdale themselves, for Drybeck, Squire Ainstable and sharp—tongued, limping Gavin Plenmeller, Lindale the ex-stock broker, the vicar, and the Pole with the unpronounceable name- and in fact, everyone else who could possibly have disposed of Warrenby at Fox House that early summer evening. With such a murder and so many suspects. Chief Inspector Hemingway and Inspector Harbottle devoted themselves to unlimited detection in order to solve the mystery. Miss Heyer’s gay and lively story keeps every one, including her genial police men, guessing until the very end.”

Detour: A Novel. James Siegel. 2005. 352p. Warner Books. From Publishers Weekly: Siegel’s acclaimed debut, 2001’s Epitaph, was eclipsed by last year’s electrifying thriller Derailed (to be a feature film starring Jennifer Aniston), which reached bestseller lists and marked Siegel as an author with serious chops. It’s no surprise that Siegel’s third novel offers yet another exhilarating ride, albeit not quite up to the bar set by Derailed. The premise is terrific. Paul and Joanna Breibard, childless Manhattan professionals, travel to Colombia to adopt a baby, but are kidnapped by left-wing militia who make an offer they can’t refuse: Paul must swallow 36 condoms stuffed with cocaine and deliver the contraband to a contact in New Jersey within 18 hours; if he fails, Joanna and the baby will die. But in New Jersey, Paul finds a burned-out shell of a house at the contact’s address. For help, he contacts Miles Goldstein, the Orthodox Jewish lawyer who arranged the adoption, and when a further delivery attempt ends in gunplay, Paul and Miles turn to Moshe Skolnick, a Russian mobster; later, a DEA agent steps in. Meanwhile, Joanna is held hostage in a country house whose walls are stained with blood. Siegel keeps tension at a steady high throughout, in part by employing short chapters and paragraphs à la James Patterson. He makes great use of local color, not only of the easily exotic Colombian settings but also of the no less unusual Brooklyn Jewish and Russian enclaves where Paul finds himself. The novel features some smart twists, although a key one will be spotted by veteran thriller readers from the first page of its setup. Overall, this is first-rate entertainment, not quite as fresh as Derailed, but sure to brush bestseller lists as well as become a favorite airplane read both in hardcover and, eventually, mass market. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Doubled in Spades. Susan Moody. 1997. Scribner. A fourth adventure for Cassandra Swann (King of Hearts, 1996, etc.)—zesty, zaftig, divorced—who’s now starting up a business as a bridge instructor from her cottage in the Oxford countryside. Meanwhile, preoccupied with computer technology and taking wary note of a mysterious stalker in a white car, she finds time for a visit to a sick friend—poor (but rich) Naomi, who thinks her husband has been trying to kill her. Later, when Naomi’s found an apparent suicide, strangers converge to convince Cassie that murder has occurred—among them are Naomi’s muscular lover Philip and her needy, punk-haired daughter Lucy, returned from the secret exile of adoption (Naomi had always claimed to be childless). Cassie sleuths her way through multiple crimes and even finds the stalker, aided not at all by her moody policeman sometime-lover Paul and a little too much by her boisterous would-be lover Charlie, who turns out to be both sexually sensitive and rich. This latest in Moody’s series shows some signs of having been written too speedily, including excessive personal-life padding, grammatical gaffes, and a lurid climax—all remediable by a more carefully worked final draft. Still, Cassie is lively, pleasant company. And the transatlantically accessible enjoyment Moody provides her readers puts a gloss on any number of gaucheries. — From Kirkus Reviews. Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Drowning River, The. Kim Byrne. 2009. 258p. Five Star. From Kirkus Reviews: A graduate student’s arrival on campus causes quite a stir. Elise Moloney has chosen Wickman College over Harvard to spare her adoptive parents further expense. Elise and her flamboyant roommate Kat Herrera are surprised by the strange reaction so many people have to seeing Elise until fellow grad student Parker Reilly informs her she’s a dead ringer for Hannah McPhee, a student who was killed in a fall from a bridge. When Elise is told they even have the same birthday, she realizes Hannah must have been her twin and becomes obsessed with finding out more about Hannah, her life with their sluttish mother and her mysterious death. She swiftly becomes involved with those claiming to know Hannah best. Hannah had recently dumped her boyfriend Gavin, now a police officer whose father, the chief, may be covering up a crime to protect his son. Things go from bad to worse when her mother admits to Elise that she sold her as a baby; threatening letters turn up telling her to quit investigating; and her romantic interest in Parker is threatened by the sense that he’s withholding information. Seeking safety, she starts dating her ex-fiance Nick Carrano. But in the end, taking chances proves to be the only way for Elise to find the truth. A debut with romance, thrills, chills, red herrings and a surprise ending.

Dying for a Clue. Judy Fitzwater. 1999. 223p. (Jennifer Marsh Mysteries). Random House. From Publishers Weekly: Aspiring mystery writer Jennifer Marsh gets more than she bargains for—as well as plenty of material for her latest novel—when she accompanies private detective Johnny Zeeman on a case. Jennifer finds herself in the middle of a shootout at a fertility clinic where a nurse is killed before she can give Johnny information about his client, Diane Robbins, an adopted teenager searching for her birth parents. Jennifer takes on the task of solving the murder. Enlisting the help of her boyfriend, reporter Sam Culpepper, and friends from her writers’ support group, Jennifer hides Diane from the killers, who are trying to thwart the teen in her quest, and sets out to infiltrate the clinic, which she suspects of arranging illegal adoptions, among other dubious practices. In her latest Jennifer Marsh mystery, Fitzwater (Dying to Get Published) obviously has fun with her characters, but fails to render them believable or interesting. The same can be said for the mystery of Diane’s identity, which takes Jennifer much longer than the reader to solve. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.