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Review_FICTION

Trade) takes the U.N. investigator with a The Fortunate Brother pelled to join in when her mom starts
penchant for getting into trouble to Maputo, Donna Morrissey. Canongate, $24 (272p) snooping, and soon they learn that there’s
Mozambique, where he looks into a fraud ISBN 978-1-78689-057-3 no shortage of possible suspects with a
case. Global Alternatives, a Swiss founda- Shameful secrets abound in Canadian variety of motives. Lots of humor and a
tion set up by hedge-fund billionaire Vincent author Morrissey’s strong conclusion to good whodunit help make this cozy a
Portallis, wired $5 million to Nossa Terra, her trilogy about the Now family set in winner. A ghost-detecting cat adds to
a development agency, but the money has rural Newfoundland (after Sylvanus Now). the fun. (Mar.)
gone missing. Aisa Simango, the head of Sylvanus Now does a poor job of hiding
Nossa Terra, and her small staff have no his drinking from his wife, Addie; Addie Hell Is Naked
explanation, nor does Global’s Maputo has cancer, but won’t tell daughter Sylvie; Jean and Mary James. Woodrock, $14.95
director or the local bank manager who and son Kyle tries to hide all his insecuri- trade paper (250p) ISBN 978-0-9848605-6-2
handled the electronic transfer. In ties from both parents as he continues to Warren Roberts, the endearingly
Vermeulen’s dogged attempt to figure out mourn his brother, Chris, who was killed imperfect hero of this suspenseful who-
the connections between the missing money, by a truck years before. Other residents of dunit from mother and daughter James,
Nossa Terra’s efforts to supply land to the village of Hampden have their secrets. was a member of a Chicago police SWAT
farmers, and the role of Portallis, Vermeulen Why does Bonnie Gillard stay with her team until the physical wear and tear
gets help from his long-distance lover, abusive husband, Clar? Who is newcomer proved too much. Warren must now settle
freelance journalist Tessa Bishonga and a Kate Mackenzie, the guitar playing for routine investigative jobs from his PI
resourceful, sword-wielding young vaga- singer-songwriter whom Kyle likes to friend, Bob Caine. His latest assignment,
bond calling himself KillBill. Niemann visit? Why does elusive Vernon Trapp to find 29-year-old Lorraine “Rainy”
provides interesting insights into U.N. skulk around the community? When Wray at the behest of her estranged father,
bureaucracy, developing countries, and someone fatally stabs Clar, Kyle, who looks like more of the same. Warren finds
global economics as he demonstrates once recently confronted him, becomes a sus- Rainy easily, on the set of an L.A. film
again the difference that an honest man pect, as does Sylvanus. Helpful friends shoot, where he poses as an extra to gain
can make. (Mar.) provide fabricated alibis for Kyle and her confidence and her home address.
Sylvanus, complicating things for Rainy disarms him with her generosity,
Holy Ceremony Sergeant MacDuff, the crime’s quietly providing him with appropriate clothes to
Harri Nykänen, trans. from the Finnish by competent investigator. Morrissey’s bleak wear for the film that belonged to a friend
Kristian London. Bitter Lemon, $14.95 trade portrait of harsh village life will linger of hers, an extra who fell off a cliff during
paper (248p) ISBN 978-1-908524-89-8 long in the reader’s memory. (Mar.) a shoot. Rainy’s revelation that she sus-
In Nykänen’s complex third mystery pects foul play in her friend’s death, fol-
featuring Helsinki cop Ariel Kafka to be Déjà Moo: A Perfectly Proper lowed by an attempt on Warren’s life and
translated into English (after 2014’s Behind Paranormal Museum Mystery the execution of Bob in Chicago, plunges
God’s Back), Kafka is summoned to an Kirsten Weiss. Midnight Ink, $15.99 trade Warren into a convoluted mystery.
apartment where the naked corpse of Roosa paper (360p) ISBN 978-0-7387-5036-1 Readers will hope to see more of Warren
Nevala, who had a history of psychiatric Santa Claus and a gang of gingerbread in a sequel. (BookLife)
problems, lies on a sofa, her back adorned men set fire to the San Benedetto, Calif.,
with ominous Biblical citations. The case Christmas Cow in Weiss’s chuckle-worthy
becomes even more bizarre when the med- third Paranormal Museum mystery (after SF/Fantasy/Horror
ical examiner recognizes her as the same 2017’s Pressed to Death). And while the
woman who fatally overdosed on sedatives burning of the straw cow, a tradition ★ The Great God Pan and Other
the day before and was brought to his started by Swedish immigrants a century Horror Stories
morgue to be autopsied. Kafka is further ago, is also an annual event, shooting an Arthur Machen, edited by Aaron Worth. Oxford
unsettled when a letter to him is found arrow into the person guarding the cow— Univ., $22.95 (448p) ISBN 978-0-19-881316-3
under Nevala’s body, signed by “The Bill Eldrich, the president of the Dairy Editor Worth has assembled a connois-
Adorner of the Sacred Vault,” who refers Association—is not. When Maddie seur’s collection of the work of legendary
to a holy ceremony that will end only after Kosloski, the proprietor of the town’s Welsh writer Machen (1863–1947),
an evil dragon is slain. When Nevala’s paranormal museum, and her mom, whose weird fiction frequently features
corpse vanishes again, Kafka is called by Fran Kosloski, discover Bill’s body on characters who pierce the veil of the ordi-
the thief, who advises him to “follow the the town’s gazebo steps, they’re met nary and encounter terrifying mysteries
signs of fire” to learn the truth. The solu- with kindness by Det. Jason Slate and and marvels beyond it. In addition to
tion to the subsequent murders that Kafka suspicious hostility by Det. Laurel such established classics as “The Great
eventually learns of is particularly clever, Hammer. Why would anyone want to God Pan,” about the unholy offspring
and Nykänen is careful to plant the clues kill the guy who was just guarding the spawned by a misguided medical experi-
to whodunit and why fairly. Readers will cow? And did the tolling of the haunted— ment, and “The White People,” an
look forward to Kafka’s next outing. (Mar.) some say cursed—cowbells in the museum account of an innocent young girl’s
foretell the murder? Maddie feels com- indoctrination into a malignant witch

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