Tag: crime

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“When a man dies from a bullet entering his chest, it’s a homicide.
When a man dies from a meteorite landing on his head, it’s a tragedy.
Don’t use bullets. Use meteorites
Don’t commit a homicide. Commit a Tragedy.
-Guy McMaster”
― Rupert Holmes, Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide

While reading review journals, I stumbled upon Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes. My first question: Is this the Rupert Holmes who write ‘Escape (The Pina Colada Song)‘? Answer: it IS the same Rupert Holmes! My second question: what type of book is this? This is the first volume in new mystery series by Holmes. I was intrigued from the start and couldn’t wait to get my hands on a copy.

The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts is not your traditional college. You see, no one knows where it is located and they don’t advertise for students like other colleges do. This clandestine, secret college focuses on the art of murder, which isn’t exactly something they wish to be widely known. McMasters does count among their alumni some very powerful people in government, politics, law enforcement, corporations, etc. Its prestigious students spend their time learning how to best ‘delete’ their victim. (‘Delete’ being the McMasters term for murder).

Students selected to attend McMasters must go through a screening process that includes a necessary outline for the ethical reasons they have for wanting to eliminate someone. Their proposed victim must deserve this deadly fate. Once accepted, students are taught a wide range of homicidal arts, giving them a well-rounded knowledge of how to delete their victim in case their murderous graduation thesis necessitates a change. They are charged to get away with the perfect murder. If they fail, deletion is their own fate. Outside of classes, students may find themselves the practice target of a classmate. Students are encouraged to practice their skills on their classmates, although they are warned to stop before completion of their practice deletion. Points are awarded for succeeding, while points are deducted from the practice victim for not being vigilant enough.

Readers are privy to the lives of three McMasters students – Cliff, Gemma, and Dorie – as they traverse their way through their studies on their quests to perfecting their mandatory graduation thesis of deletion of their employer. All three must plan and execute the perfect murder, as well as get away with the crime. Their victim: someone whose deletion will make the world a better place to live for many others.

This first introduction to the world of McMasters was an utter delight. Each character presented has their own reasons for why they want to commit murder. You follow their journeys from their arrivals at McMasters, through their studies, and then their release back into the real world where they attempt to complete their deletion thesis. Holmes has written a tongue-in-cheek story full of murder and adventure told from multiple viewpoints that leave you wondering what the actual truth is.

This title is also available as a Libby eBook.

“After all, when the behavior of another person leaves you no choice but to kill them, their murder is simply involuntary suicide.”
― Rupert Holmes, Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide

New, and, True Crime Books – Art Thieves and Con Artists Edition

- Lynn Leave a comment

Looking for new true crime books? Our true crime selector, Lynn, has two brand new true crime books about art thieves and con artists! Read more about them below and share your favorites art thief/con artist true crime book in the comments.

Con/Artist: The Life and Crimes of the World’s Greatest Art Forger by Tony Tetro

Art forger Tetro is known for his virtually perfect copies of works by such artists as Rembrandt, Dali, and Rockwell. Charged in the late 1980s with more than 40 counts of forgery, he eventually pleaded no contest to a drastically reduced number of charges. Tetro, born in 1950, is a self-taught artist, who, in his early years, copied famous paintings (often from library books) and put them up for sale at art fairs. But nobody wanted them, and he figured he knew why: he signed them with his own name. Inspiration struck when he read Fake!, Clifford Irving’s 1969 book about the notorious art forger Elmyr de Hory. As Tetro tells us, he thought, “I could do this.” And he did—better, perhaps, than anyone before or since. His memoir, cowritten with investigative journalist Giampiero Ambrosi, is absolutely fascinating, full of the kind of evocative writing and precise detail that brings an autobiography to life. He might have been doing something illegal, but it’s awfully hard not to like Tony Tetro. Like reformed con artist Frank W. Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can), he seems straightforward, open about his crimes, and just a bit proud of his success as a crook. A welcome addition to any true-crime shelf.  From Booklist Online

Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel

Finkel (The Stranger in the Woods, 2017) presents a roller-coaster read of hubris and romance, contradiction and despair. French art thief Stéphane Breitwieser’s story is full of epic highs that seem never-ending and crucial questions regarding his mental state and motivation. He is a man who “exempt[ed] himself from the rules of society.” Over nearly eight years, Breitwieser stole a work of art once every dozen or so days, amassing over 300 objects, including engravings, weapons, tapestries, and paintings. Acting on instinct, often spontaneously, improvising, and thrilled by the challenge, Breitwieser seems to have reveled in the exhilaration aroused by taunting the authorities. But he also comes across as lonesome, guided by passion and aesthetics, and obsessed with acquisition; he kept all that he stole. Is he criminally insane? Immature and spoiled? Certainly his unquenchable thirst for stealing art was indulged by the people who loved him and whom he loved, including his mother, and his crimes ultimately destroyed their lives. Finkel examines the circumstances that fed Breitwieser’s obsession and led to his downfall. From Booklist Online

 

New, and, True Crime

- Lynn Leave a comment

It’s summer time and there’s an explosion of new crime books. Check out these new titles:

Angel Makers: Arsenic, a Midwife, and Modern History’s Most Astonishing Murder Ring by Patti McCracken

They called her Auntie Suzy: a pleasant, friendly woman who acted as a midwife in a village in Hungary a century ago. Most readers, even devoted fans of true crime, have probably never heard of her. And yet she was the leader of a ring of women who committed dozens, maybe hundreds, of murders over a period of perhaps 15 years. This is journalist McCracken’s first book, and it is simply excellent. The storytelling is dramatic and compassionate; unlike works of crime nonfiction that relate facts at a journalistic remove, this book feels like it was written by someone who cares deeply about the victims of the crimes. There are a lot of mysteries surrounding this story: for example, there are conflicting accounts of how the “murder ring” was uncovered, and the total number of victims remains uncertain. Historical accounts conflict with one another. As much as it is possible to do so a century later, McCracken separates the wheat from the chaff and arrives at a representation of events that seems to tell the real story of the crimes—both who committed them, how they did it (distilling arsenic from flypaper), and how Auntie Suzy and her gang were finally apprehended.   From Booklist Online

Tangled Vines: Power, Privilege, and the Murdaugh Family Murders by John Glatt

The horrific double homicide may have thrown the South Carolina low country into an unflattering national spotlight, but the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh are but two in a series of tragedies. At the center is Maggie’s husband and Paul’s father, Alex, a former lawyer descended from a long line of South Carolina prosecutors. Investigative journalist and veteran true-crime author Glatt (The Doomsday Mother, 2022) tells the story, from the first Murdaugh solicitors to hold office through Alex’s 2023 trial, including the several deaths in Alex’s orbit: Stephen Smith, his son Buster’s classmate, who was found dead under suspicious circumstances in 2015; longtime housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who died after allegedly tripping and falling on the Murdaugh’s property in 2018; Mallory Beach, Paul’s 19-year-old friend, who was killed in a 2019 boating accident while Paul was driving drunk. And of course, the 2021 shooting deaths of Maggie and Paul on the family hunting property. Adding to the horror, Alex all the while was stealing millions from his clients’ settlements, including from the sons of his deceased housekeeper. With the flurry of recent coverage, including Netflix and Dateline documentaries, readers will be swept up in this account of the circumstances that enabled such tragedies.  From Booklist Online

Devil’s Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious Onecoin CryptoQueen  by  Jennifer McAdam

McAdam, with journalist coauthor Thompson, tells the incredible journey of how she, a Scottish grandmother and the daughter of a coal miner, went from cryptocurrency fraud victim to a champion for herself and the millions of others who were deceived by OneCoin, losing their savings for a total of $27 billion worldwide. Her memoir is both a cautionary tale and a story of endurance in the pursuit of justice. Readers will come to understand McAdam’s health conditions as well as her fascination with OneCoin’s founder, Ruja Plamenova Ignatova, who would later be convicted for fraud. McAdam relates how she worked with law enforcement to uncover the scandal, weathered death threats, and continued to tell her own story and push for awareness in the media. Readers interested in true-crime tales of deception and scams, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology will find this book fascinating as it unfolds McAdam’s point of view on the personal and worldwide impact of the OneCoin scandal. From Booklist Online

What the Dead Know: Learning about Life as a New York City Death Investigator by Barbara Butcher

Butcher’s life is right out of a novel, and a best-seller at that. She was one of the first women to be hired as a medicolegal investigator in New York City, spending over two decades in the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. She battled alcoholism and depression before and during her career as well as the fraught interpersonal dynamics that come from being a gay woman in an overwhelmingly male profession and still managed to rise in the ranks and become one of the most trusted voices in her field. There’s even her mystery-series, protagonist-ready name. And, after reading What the Dead Know, readers will wish that Butcher would turn to mystery writing. The book is part memoir, part crime—or more specifically death—procedural. She shares specific cases from her long career, chronicling the range of death scenes she encountered, from the many suicides to front-page-ready double murders. The chapters that follow the complicated nature of her job following the 9/11 attacks are especially harrowing and emotionally resonant. Butcher’s relaxed writing style allows her to show off her engaging personality, which often lends moments of humor despite the heavy topic, making this a recommended addition to any public-library collection.  From Booklist Online

The Passenger

- Lynn Leave a comment

The Passenger, by Lisa Lutz, appeared in a list of books that had highly effective surprise endings. Not only are there abundant  twists and turns in this book, Lutz is able to create a plot in which our heroine, Tanya Dubois, is able to repeatedly go off the grid, even in this day and age. She travels the country by car and by rail, surviving by her considerable wits, know-how and ability to read people.

Although she adopts different names, hair colors and identities, “Tanya” is not really your typical unreliable narrator. Readers can believe what she tells them; but no one else should. We have the sense that even though she’s on the run, and whatever the catalyst may have been, it wasn’t her fault.  For one thing, she maintains an ironic, self-deprecating – and very dark – humor, which, for whatever reason, creates trust.

This novel is compelling on many levels. Tanya is like an onion; her secrets are many-layered, and peeled back ever so slowly. Information about her early life is gradually revealed in emails to and from a childhood friend. These emails are fraught with blame and bitterness and hint at traumatic events the two experienced during high school.

The surprise ending is well-earned and feels just. However, it’s so unexpected you want to go back and re-read the book with the new knowledge in mind.

I don’t understand why Lutz has never hit it big(ger). From the Spellman series onward, all her novels are finely crafted and populated with unique and/or eccentric characters.

 

Mystery Reads: Marlow Murder Club series by Robert Thorogood

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“She couldn’t help noticing everything about her existence seemed to be defined by someone who wasn’t her.”
― Robert Thorogood, The Marlow Murder Club

The Marlow Murder Club is the first book in the series of the same name by Robert Thorogood. The tag line really sets up the whole book: ‘To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…’. This book has a whole cast of impossible heroes: the main one being Judith Potts, a seventy-seven year old woman who lives on her own in a mansion, drinking whiskey and setting crosswords for The Times newspaper. She recruits a mismatched group of women to help her solve a mystery.

One evening, Judith is out swimming in the Thames when she witnesses a murder. Well, she hears yelling and a gunshot. Desperate for answers, Judith talks to the police. They don’t believe her story however, so she decides to investigate for herself. In the midst of her digging, Judith recruits Suzie, a local dog walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar. The three women form the Marlow Murder Club. Unsure of what their sleuthing will bring about, they are shocked when another person dies. Thinking that there may be a serial killer running around Marlow, they realize that this puzzle they are trying to solve may instead be a trap with deadly implications for the Marlow Murder Club.

This book is also available in the following format:

Marlow Murder Club series

  1. The Marlow Murder Club (2021)
  2. Death Comes to Marlow (2023)

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Don’t let yourself get caught up in what-ifs. That way madness lies.”
― Ruth Ware, The It Girl

Ruth Ware has crafted another page-turning mystery thriller in her latest novel, The It Girl.  This book follows a young woman’s search for answers a decade after her friend’s murder.

Hannah Jones was elated when she got into Oxford. Discovering she had a roommate was a shock, but April Clarke-Cliveden was incredibly bright and vivacious. She could also be vindictive and vicious, but her status as an It Girl pulled people into her orbit whether they wanted to be there or not. April quickly pulls Hannah, Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily close. By the end of their first term, they are inseparable and quick friends. By the end of their first year, April will be dead.

Flash forward a decade and Hannah is trying to move on. She and Will are married and are expecting their first child together. Her world is rocked when she learns that the man convicted of killing April has died in prison. Hannah feels both relief at the news of his death, but that soon changes to anxiety when a journalist pops into her life with evidence that the man convicted of April’s murder may in fact have been innocent. This is troublesome as Hannah’s testimony was critical to putting away the convicted murderer. In order to get closure, Hannah starts reconnecting with her old friends and examining the mystery surrounding April’s death. As Hannah begins to talk to them, she realizes that her friends are hiding secrets possibly related to the murder. Increasingly concerned, Hannah keeps pressing for answers, unwittingly putting herself right in the killer’s path.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Cozy Mystery Series: Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Many years ago, everybody here would wake early because there was much to do and only so many hours in the day. Now they wake early because there is much to do and only so many days left.”
― Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club is the first book in the series of the same name written by Richard Osman. This book has been recommended to me many many times by other librarians since it was published in 2020. I finally listened to this book earlier this month and oh, I wish I would have started it sooner.

The Thursday Murder Club meets every Thursday to solve crime. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim, and Ron are four unlikely friends brought together by circumstance. They all live in a peaceful retirement village, but all feel like they need more. They meet weekly in the Jigsaw room to discuss unsolved crimes. Ron used to be known as Red Ron, the infamous former socialist who still causes trouble. Joyce is a gentle widow who is pining for another resident, but she seems to be hiding something darker. Ibrahim is a former therapist whose grasp of the darker side of human nature helps the four truly understand the unsolved crimes they discuss each week. Elizabeth has a dark past that is kept deliberately hidden. No one is quite certain of her past, but they all know that one should never underestimate her.

As the four get together as the Thursday Murder Club, they work to solve unsolved crimes kept by a former police officer. When a local developer is brutally murdered, the four decide its time for them to start investigating their first live case. They may be older, but their skill sets mean that they are more well-equipped to solve this case than most people. As they dig into the crime, they inadvertently put themselves in danger, but still hope that they can find the killer before they kill again.

This book is also available in the following formats:

Thursday Murder Club series

  1. The Thursday Murder Club (2020)
  2. The Man Who Died Twice (2021)
  3. The Bullet That Missed (2022)
  4. The Thursday Murder Club 4 (2023)

“You always know when it’s your first time, don’t you? But you rarely know when it’s your final time.”
― Richard Osman, The Thursday Murder Club

Cozy Mystery Reads: Pies Before Guys Mystery series by Misha Popp

- Stephanie Leave a comment

“Like there are these things that matter on a large grand scale, the kind of things Melly cares about, like stopping fascism and curing climate change, and that’s obviously super important, but then there are the little individual things, like a woman who’s getting hit at home or a girl whose rapist gets a free pass for being popular. Do you go for the big sweeping save-the-world changes that will help the most people, or do you chip away at the little problems, fixing one and another and another until you have this huge snowball of good deeds built up?”
― Misha Popp, Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies

Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies is the first book in the Pies Before Guys Mystery series. The description drew me in and I knew I needed to read it: a woman seeks vengeance on men who have wronged women by baking pies laced with deadly magic. Best part: there are recipes listed at the end of the book!

Daisy Ellery comes from a long line of magic women. Each woman’s magic manifests in different ways though: her grandmother sewed her magic into beautiful dresses, her mother opened a beauty salon where she used her magic to help cut women’s hair, and Daisy bakes her magic into pies. For years Daisy has believed that the family’s magic twisted and changed for the worse when it came to her. After all, her mother and grandmother used their magic for good, while Daisy’s magic mostly manifests for revenge.

Daisy’s first murder by pie was an accident. She has been on the move ever since, but has still found ways to deliver magic through baking. Daisy travels with her dog Zoe around the country in her refurbished RV baking vengeance into her pastries. Daisy delivers them to men who have done wrong to women in the towns wherever she chooses to stop.

Daisy currently parks her Pies Before Guys van outside a local diner, where she bakes pies for Frank, the diner owner. One day, Frank tells Daisy that someone has been prowling around her van. Daisy later discovers a letter stuck to her door. Her prowler knows about her secret murder pie business and is threatening to out her unless Daisy bakes pies for his own list of targets.

Daisy feels violated. Who dares blackmail her? This person obviously has no idea who or what they are dealing with, but without identifying who has it out for her, Daisy is left floundering. She decides to take whatever action she can: using her databases to research past abusive men, investing in security equipment, and staying aware of her surroundings.

When Daisy learns of a statewide pie contest that has the ability to help her promote Pies Before Guys everywhere, she decides to take the leap and enter. This contest, and the prize money, could change her life for the better as long as her blackmailer doesn’t get to her first.

Pies Before Guys Mystery series

  1. Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies (2022)
  2. A Good Day to Pie (2023)

With Our Blessing by Jo Spain

- Lynn Leave a comment

 With Our Blessing by Jo Spain is one of those books that provide a bonus – an insight into a piece of history that may have been completely unknown to a reader. Such was the case with this book –  for me. (I’d never before heard of the Magdalene laundries).  For more than a hundred years, these laundries were operated for profit by the church with the help of the Irish government.  Locals and families were often unaware that the girls, predominantly unmarried mothers, were in fact free labor, more or less imprisoned in sometimes very harsh conditions.

That’s the premise for this mystery. A team of Dublin police (or garda, as they’re known in Ireland) is sent to a Limerick convent and former laundry after a local murder is linked to the site. Detective Laura Brennan’s aunt was sent to the convent in the seventies, which personalizes for Brennan the abuse these girls endured. Brennan discovers that her aunt was victimized by the town’s most prominent family and then by the laundry operators. The secrecy that allowed this abuse to go on until the 1990’s stymies the current murder investigations, as well.

This is the first in the Inspector Tom Reynolds series, which features members of the Dublin Murder Squad. Reynolds is the unassuming cool head of the team; Brennan, and other detectives provide a mix of temperaments, skills and backstories that add yet another layer to the already multilayered novel.

 

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

- Stephanie Leave a comment

In November every year, I try to read as many mysteries as I can. This November, I decided to focus on cozy mysteries partly because Checked In: A Davenport Library Podcast, hosted by three DPL librarians, will be talking about cozy mysteries, amongst other things, in our November episode. (You should check it out to hear myself and two other librarians talk about all things library). Cozy mysteries are considered the gentle reads of the mystery genre. They generally avoid graphic violence, sexual content, and profanity, but feature instead unlikely detectives. Right up my alley!

On my quest to read more cozy mysteries, I discovered Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala. This book is the first in a brand new series called Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery. (The second title Homicide and Halo-Halo is set to come out in February 2022.)This culturally diverse title is full of sharp humor and delicious food. The author even includes a list of recipes at the end of the novel. The end of this book clearly sets you up for a sequel. You even get to read a snippet of the next book in the series.

Lila Macapagal has moved back home. This was not what she wanted to do, but after a nasty breakup and not having completed college, Lila doesn’t really have any other options. Now living back home with her grandmother and aunt, Lila must figure out ways to help save her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant. In addition to that huge task, Lila is also dealing with her big group of matchmaking aunties/godmothers who want her to settle down and be happy. They love her, but that love is tinged with judgment.

Lil’s ex-boyfriend also keeps popping up in her life too. He is a food critic that has been targeting all the local restaurants for the last couple years and is destroying businesses through his reviews. He has become increasingly nasty and has set his sights on Tita Rosie’s restaurant. While eating one day at the restaurant, he drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila. The aftermath of that has drastic consequences for the family. The local police treat Lila like she is their only suspect, their landlord wants to use the death as an excuse to kick the family out of the restaurant, and Lila’s best friend has started acting weird. Refusing to let her family be persecuted for something that they didn’t do, Lila decides to start investigating herself with the help of her family and friends. What she discovers is more complicated than she ever could have imagined.