How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister
Anna Crawford learns she wasn’t just suspended from her
teaching job at a small, Pennsylvania high school when she sees herself on the
news with the headline “Former Teacher Had Motive” referring to a shooting at
the school that left seventeen dead and many more injured. Though the teenager responsible for the
massacre is quickly caught, Anna finds herself and her life in her small
hometown under a microscope, fueling a media frenzy and a public outcry for
which no one is ready. As Anna finds
herself the target of scrutiny, though why she’s not sure, she finds herself
reconnecting with her younger brother Calvin and former boyfriend Robbie,
reassessing her family life growing up; Anna, who was considered “unpredictable”
by her principal, has not yet found a new job, and spends much of her time
considering the tragedy, why some people became victims while others escaped,
the process of public mourning, speaking out against the planned permanent
memorial, and the inevitable gun control debate that ensues. This is a searing, keenly observed, in some
ways an indictment of the face of tragedy, the blame that follows, and the
often tending toward hypocrisy of a post-tragedy culture as well as more
general social issues such as misogyny and religious fervor taking the place of
understanding and compassion. This novel
could not be timelier and is sure to spark discussion among all who read it,
and everyone should.
The Shadow of Death by Jane Willan
In North Wales’s Gwenafwy Abbey, Sister Agatha, the
librarian and aspiring mystery writer, tries her hand at solving a local murder
when Jacob, the local sexton is found dead in the abbey’s cheese barn under
wheels of the abbey’s award winning Heavenly Gouda. The local constable dismisses the death as an
accident, but Agatha, who has steeped herself in mystery novels from Sherlock
Holmes to her namesake Dame Agatha, to Stephanie Plum, sees clues at every turn
and begins to become suspicious of seemingly disparate events: the theft of a
valuable Communion set from the local church, a fire in the cheese barn, and
the sabotage of Heavenly Gouda’s entry in the prestigious cheese contest. With Father Selwyn as her gumshoe, Agatha
begins to connect the dots while Reverend Mother and the other sisters
contemplate how they can become more relevant to their local community as they
receive veiled threats from the local bishop that she may close the abbey. The colorful women in this religious
community make this atmosphere shimmer with energy; Sister Agatha’s enthusiasm
to solve Jacob’s murder and figure out all the odd goings on provide a mystery
to untangle while providing a broader view of the community in which the abbey
lives. The delightful North Wales
setting gives this debut an old-fashioned cozy feel with modern twists. Readers will be eager for more from Sister
Agatha and Father Selwyn.
Too Close to Breath by Olivia Kiernan
Dublin-based Detective Chief Superintendent Frankie Sheehan
has returned to work after almost being killed while pursuing a murderer: Her
first case upon her return is the apparent hanging suicide of Professor Eleanor
Costello. Frankie is happy to let it go
as a suicide, but when the autopsy results come back and indicate Eleanor may
not have committed suicide Frankie knows she must investigate: a fresh wound
edged in Blue Prussian paint and multiple healed injuries make Frankie suspect
Eleanor was abused. Eleanor’s husband
Peter is nowhere to be found and his sister insists she hasn’t seen him in
several weeks. The Costello’s home
appears orderly, carefully controlled order even, though a laptop has been
found which reveals a surprise: access
to the Dark Web with recent activity on a site for people who fantasize about
experiencing death without actually dying.
A second death ties back to Peter, who still cannot be located, though
Frankie is receiving hang up calls that can be traced to Peter’s cell phone. The more Frankie investigates, the more
Eleanor’s carefully crafted life comes apart.
A longtime detective, Frankie relies on her instincts and they are
telling her she’s missing something, both with Eleanor’s case and her previous
case that is now being tried. When
Frankie finds the missing link, it proves to be more disturbing than imagined
in this complex, very dark, but ultimately satisfying debut thriller.