Listening to Mysteries

The Boyfriend by Thomas Perry (Tantor Audio book, 5 March 2013).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

I feel very fortunate to be able to download e-galleys of books from various publishers through services like Edelweiss, and I'm always delighted when I'm granted access to a title I've requested.  Even more so when it's by one of my favorite authors.

I love Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield series, but it's been over a year since Poison Flower was published.  When I thought I saw the availability of a galley of The Boyfriend (which I mistakenly thought was a standalone), I jumped at it.  When I received approval, I was surprised to realize that it was an audiobook.  I reserve book listening for  driving, but since my trips are seldom very long, it doesn't seem worthwhile.  However,  I gamely downloaded the book, and though it took me 6 weeks, I managed to listen to the whole nine hours without too much confusion.  

The protagonist of the story is Jack Till, a former Los Angeles police detective turned P.I. (who first appeared in 2007's Silence).  In The Boyfriend, Jack lives still lives in the L.A. area.  He has a 24-year-old daughter named Holly, who has Down Syndrome and lives in a group home not far from her father's home.

Jack is visited at his office by a couple who ask him to find the killer of their daughter, Catherine Hamilton.  Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton believe that because Catherine was an high-class call girl, the police are being lax about their investigation.  Jack takes the case, and soon discovers that young women who share Catherine's profession have been murdered every few months in cities around the country.  At first, there doesn't appear to be anything linking these women, apart from their appearance: they are all strawberry blonde, and similar in features and build.

But as Jack digs deeper, he learns that they were all killed in the same manner, with a 9 mm handgun, and probably by the same guy.  Jack calls him "the boyfriend", but has difficulty finding information on the man's background.  As he follows the boyfriend across the country, he discovers a seriously disturbed and dangerous man who just may be Till's match.

Robert Dean has a deep, compelling reading voice, which is a good match for the suspenseful story, and more than once I found myself sitting in my driveway waiting for a chapter to end.


FTC Full Disclosure:  My thanks to Tantor Media and Edelweiss for the audio-download of the book.

Investigating Mothers

I know it's a little bit late for Mother's Day, but my brother and his wife had a baby last week, which made me think of all the mysteries there are out there featuring mothers with new babies.  Following is a list of some of my favorites.  Please feel free to add yours in the comments.

Orgain, Diana. The Maternal Instincts Mysteries:  Bundle of Trouble, Motherhood is Murder and Formula   for Murder.

 The series begins with protagonist Kate Connolly on maternity leave with her newborn daughter Laurie.  She can't imagine returning to work after six weeks, but she and her husband, Jim, really need two incomes in the expensive city of San Francisco.  When her mother-in-law hires a PI to find Jim's brother, Kate is decides to help him, and realizes that investigating is the ideal occupation for a mother.

Each of the three books in the series is juxtaposed with a month in Laurie's development.  Kate is a charming and determined heroine, who truly believes that both she and her daughter will suffer if she has to return to her office job.



Page, Katherine Hall.  The Faith Fairchild Mysteries.

There are twenty books in Hall's delightful series about caterer Faith Fairchild, beginning with The Body in the Belfry (1990), so I'm not going to list all the titles.  (You can find all the titles if you click on the author's name, above.)  Faith is married to Tom, an Episcopal minister who accepts a position in the village of Aleford, Massachusetts.  They have a five-month-old named Benjamin;  and Faith, who gave up a growing New York catering business when they moved, is a bit bored by small-town life until she finds a body, stabbed with a kitchen knife, in the church's belfry.

Faith has trouble settling into the small community, as she just doesn't fit into the villagers' idea of what a minister's wife should be.  Her discovery of a  young woman's body, stabbed with a kitchen knife, in the church's belfry does not aid this perception, especially when the bored Faith, who has a very well-developed sense of curiosity, decides to find out what happened.

By the end of book three, The Body in the Bouillon, Faith is making arrangements to take over a local catering company, and also discovers that she's expecting.  Daughter Amy first appears in book five, The Body in the Cast.



Waldman, Ayelet.  The Mommy-Track Mysteries:  Nursery Crimes, The Big Nap, A Playdate With Death, Death Gets a Time-Out, Murder Plays House, The Cradle Robbers and Bye-Bye, Black Sheep.

When we meet Juliet Applebaum, the former public defender is a  full-time mom and pregnant with her second child.  Her husband, Peter, sold a screenplay for an outrageous amount of money, so she doesn't need to go back to work.  But even though trying to get two-year-old Ruby into the best Hollywood preschool is more cutthroat than the California justice system, Juliet is bored.  So, when the  principal is killed in what-may-not-have-been an auto accident, she decides to find out what really happened.

During the course of the series, Juliet has another child, the family moves into a bigger house, and she hangs out a shingle as a private investigator with former cop Al Hockey.  Juliet is a wonderful character who struggles with her weight, and tries to stay sane while being a stay-at-home mom.