This week’s books
"The Axe Factor" by Colin Cotterill (Minotaur Books, 294 pages, $24.99)
"The Poor Boy's Game" by Dennis Tafoya (Minotaur Books, 322 pages, $25.99)
Fans of mystery novels can choose from a range of offerings. Some readers still prefer the solid genre classics in which the crimes are investigated and solved by the likes of Hercule Poirot, Lord Peter Wimsey, Miss Jane Marple, or Sherlock Holmes.
Adventuresome readers can dip into the boundless deluge of new books by established writers and a veritable legion of unknowns. The publisher Minotaur Books issues a steady stream of titles that run the gamut from cozy mysteries to adrenaline soaked thrillers. Here are a pair of their recent offerings:
"The Axe Factor" by Colin Cotterill (Minotaur Books, 294 pages, $24.99)
Colin Cotterill is an Englishman who is bewitched by Southeast Asia. He is known for his series featuring Dr. Siri Paiboun, the 70-something national coroner of Laos. In this capacity Dr. Siri encounters plentiful opportunities to puzzle over suspicious deaths.
A few years ago Cotterill, who now resides in Thailand, began another series set in that country. These books feature Jimm Juree, a journalist who lives with her wacky family at a decaying coastal resort that they own.
In his latest, “The Axe Factor,” a number of local women have vanished.
Jimm believes that an eccentric foreigner, a crime fiction writer named Conrad Coralbank, might actually be a serial killer. Any similarities between Colin Cotterill and his fictional creation Conrad Coralbank are surely coincidences.
Coralbank’s wife has gone missing now as well. Jimm uses her cover as a reporter to secure an interview with Coralbank. He says something about his missing wife that piques her suspicions:”a beautiful young woman loved me. So I gave her me. But that me wasn’t enough for her.
She deserved what she got.”
Things get complicated. During the course of her investigation Jimm becomes romantically involved with Coralbank. This presents another mystery: The author is rich, handsome, and his missing wife was gorgeous. Jimm’s a bit on the plain side. What could he possibly see in her? This crime series is elegant and always amusing.
"The Poor Boy's Game" by Dennis Tafoya (Minotaur Books, 322 pages, $25.99)
Dennis Tafoya sets his latest novel, “The Poor Boy’s Game,” in gritty neighborhoods of Philadelphia. His protagonist is U.S. Marshal Frannie Mullen. As the story opens Frannie is involved in a situation that goes terribly wrong. She ends up losing her job.
She is devastated. Things quickly turn from bad to worse. Her father had been a violent enforcer for a Philadelphia roofers’ union that is controlled by mobsters. He has just escaped from prison-now some of his former associates are turning up dead.
Frannie’s former employers at the US Marshals suspect that she had helped him to escape. Frannie loathes her father. She believes he murdered her mother. “The Poor Boy’s Game” churns quickly into bloody confrontations between the police, union thugs, Frannie’s father, and Frannie.
The union thugs want Frannie and her sister to become the bait to lure their father to his doom. This story moves quickly. The action is relentless. The police keep getting in the way. Oh, how it sizzles.
You can hear my interview with Dennis Tafoya this Sunday at 11 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3).
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