Murder Takes a Vacation

Borderline
Nevada Barr

Unable to shake the despondency and self-doubt that settled on her after her horrific experiences at Isle Royale (Winter Study, 2008), Anna is put on administrative leave. In a move designed to help her recover, her husband arranges to take her on a guided rafting trip in Big Bend National Park, which straddles the border between Texas and Mexico. Their companions are four college students. Within hours of their departure, the raft careens into rocks and is lost. The occupants have barely recovered from the shock when one of them makes a gruesome discovery: the body of a very pregnant woman caught among tangled branches. Though unable to save the woman, Anna saves the child, whose welfare becomes her mission. Unfortunately, some people have other plans for the tiny new life and the struggling rafters. A riveting series of gut-wrenching events heads the book, winding down about midway as the personalities on shore and the mystery surrounding the child come into focus. Barr is less successful than usual in masking her evildoers, but her extraordinary ability to create electrifying drama in the natural world is unequivocal, as is her compelling portrait of Anna--real enough to touch as she struggles to regain her confidence, her enthusiasm, and her sense of self.
Booklist Review; March 2009.

Killer Knots
Nancy Cohen

In Cohen's laid-back ninth mystery (after Perish by Pedicure), hairdresser and sleuth Marla Shore takes a cruise with her fiance, police detective Dalton Vail, and his parents and teenage daughter. Shortly after boarding, Marla receives a threatening note addressed to 'Martha Shore.' At dinner, she and Dalton find themselves seated with a tense group of museum employees, all of whom were sent on the cruise by an anonymous benefactor and received similar notes. When a piece to be sold at the cruise's auction turns out to be the work of an artist who died under unusual circumstances, Marla decides to do a bit of digging. Her detecting is complemented by a more personal subplot: how she will get along with her soon-to-be in-laws. Fans of vacation mysteries will enjoy watching Marla find her way through this light whodunit.
Publishers Weekly Review; September 2007.

Obsessions
Marshall Cook

Small-town newspaper editor Monona Quinn and her husband, Doug, are vacationing in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Monona is attending a writers' conference, while Doug is there to relax and learn to fish. The trip is also a chance for the two to reconnect and smooth over problems in their marriage. The conference has barely begun when Fletcher Downs, the obnoxious, best-selling mystery author who was brought in to headline the conference, disappears and is later found dead. Who killed him? Was it a disgruntled student or a local resident? Is this murder connected to two previous deaths that have occurred in the area, but were ruled accidents? The small-town environment and the writers'- conference milieu are carefully described and well integrated into the story, and Monona and Doug's relationship is nicely developed.
Booklist Review; May 2008.

Holy Terror in the Hebrides
Jeanne Dams

To escape the turmoil of home remodeling, Dorothy Martin, a sixtyish American expatriate, plans to visit the Scottish island of Iona, home of Saint Columba and the awe-inspiring Fingall's Cave. At the last minute, her friends cancel and she ends up touring the island's religious sites with seven of the most sanctimonious ugly Americans imaginable. At Fingall's Cave, Martin sees one of these tourists, slip, fall, and drown--spectacularly and suspiciously. Avoiding the cliches that plague mysteries starring pert retirees, Dams' third novel freshens the English whodunit with a clever plot, snappy pace, and spirited dialogue. The book exudes the atmosphere of the British Isles: quiet village churches, chases across the moors, and stormy nights with trees crashing through stout, shuttered walls. Through all this mayhem, Dorothy Martin presses on, good natured, insightful and gently poking fun at others--and herself.
Booklist Review; September 1997.

Winter of Secrets
Vicki Delany

The discovery early one Christmas morning of the bodies of best friends Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth and Ewan Williams, two privileged young men from Toronto, in an SUV sunken in an ice-covered river propels Delaney's stellar third mystery to feature constable Molly Smith of Trafalgar, B.C. (after Feb. 2009's Valley of the Lost). Molly investigates what at first appears to be an accident, but when the times and manner of Jason's and Ewan's deaths turn out to differ, she and her colleagues have a murder case on their hands. Whether at the Glacier Chalet B&B, on a black diamond ski trail or in the police station, Delaney glides between scenes with ease. She uses a bare-bones style, without literary flash, to achieve artistry as sturdy and restrained as a Shaker chair. Warmth and menace, past and present, are nicely balanced, with a denouement that's equally plausible and startling.
Publishers Weekly Review; September 2009.

Set Sail for Murder
Carolyn Hart

Retired newswoman Henrie O Collins sails on a two-week Baltic cruise to help out an old friend and former boyfriend, James Lennox, who is concerned that someone is trying to kill his wife, documentary filmmaker Sophia Montgomery. James believes that there have already been two attempts on Sophia's life, and he suspects that one of her second husband's children is out to kill her because she controls when they will receive their inheritance. The whole family is required to go on the cruise, during which Sophia will announce her decision regarding the inheritance. James wants Henrie O to help protect Sophia, who believes James' concerns are ridiculous, and to determine which child is the would-be killer. Framed by descriptions of the lovely Baltic ports of call, Hart's seventh in the Henrie O series combines engaging subordinate characters and surprising plot twists with the charms of Henrie O herself, who grapples with her past feelings for James while trying to solve the case.
Booklist Review; February 2007.

A Rule Against Murder
Louise Penny

Readers who haven't discovered Louise Penny and her Armand Gamache series yet are in for a treat. In the latest entry, Chief Inspector Gamache of the Surete du Quebec has traveled to the luxurious and remote Manoir Bellechasse with his wife, Reine-Marie. Each year they return to the manor to celebrate their wedding anniversary on July 1, Canada Day. This year they are fellow guests with the Finney family. Two of the members of that family are old friends Peter and Clara Morrow from the village of Three Pines on the Riviere Bella Bella, where the first three books in this series took place. Not only are we treated to Penny's usual rich characterizations, but the atmospheric and beautiful language will make you want to take your next vacation at the manoir. Of course, a crime does occur, and Gamache ends up on a busman's holiday. One of the eccentric Finney family members dies in a very grotesque manner, and Gamache calls in his team to help solve the mystery. First, Armand has to figure out why the victim was killed, and, in fact, it wouldn't hurt to determine how the deed was done. Suspects abound, naturally, and Gamache sorts through them with aplomb.
Booklist Review; January 2009.

Shark River
Randy Wayne White

The skeletons in Doc Ford's closet are on the loose. The marine biologist's former career as an operative in a covert wing of the CIA has a way of breaking in on his quiet life gathering specimens on Florida's Gulf Coast, but this time it's a full-frontal assault. Doc and his hippie pal Tomlinson (his closet isn't skeleton-free either) are enjoying a working vacation on Guava Key when Doc stumbles on a kidnapping-in-progress. Drawing on remembered tradecraft, he foils the plan but soon finds himself on the hit list of a Colombian drug lord. Not to mention that the father of one of the women whom Ford rescued seems inordinately interested in the biologist's past life. The skeletons in Ford's personal closet want equal time, too, as seen by the arrival of a black woman who claims to be Doc's sister. It all comes together in a rousing finale in which Ford, Tomlinson, the drug lord, the would-be sister, and all the skeletons gather at in a tropical island version of the OK Corral. Ford remains the most consistently entertaining of the latter-day Travis McGees, as White continues to mix action and introspection in just the right proportions.
Booklist Review; May 2001