> WHODUNIT
Deep Into The Dark
By P.J. Tracy Minotaur, 340 pages, $36.50
Sam Easton returns to his home in California from two tours in Afghanistan with the mother of all cases of PTSD. There’s money and privilege in Sam’s background, but that’s not much help to his recovery, especially when someone close to him gets murdered and he emerges as a leading suspect in the crime. P.J. Tracy tells Sam’s complex story with plenty of authority, decorating the narrative in entirely believable characters. One police inspector seems convinced of Sam’s guilt; his partner takes the opposite view. This tug-of-war is echoed throughout the book. Worse for Sam, another murder darkens the sleuthing and nothing gets resolved until our beleaguered central character is almost ready to toss in his chips.
Exit
By Belinda Bauer Atlantic, 336 pages, $26
Felix Pink kills the wrong man. Not on purpose, mind you. Felix is a 75-yearold widower, gentle and kind, a resident of a village in Devon where he volunteers as an “Exiteer.” That’s a person who helps terminally ill people end their lives. This is all very legal except when things go wrong on Felix’s latest assignment. He finds not one but two very sick men at the designated home and applies the gas mask to the one who has no intention of shuffling off this mortal coil. What follows in this beautifully written story is very tricky in the plotting, unexpectedly funny, and ultimately reveals a surprising villain. It’s not giving away too much to mention that, in the course of the narrative, the very likeable Felix finds deserved romance.
The Girls Are All So Nice Here By Laurie Elizabeth Flynn Simon & Schuster, 320 pages, $24.99
The setting is an east coast American college where, contrary to the book’s title, there’s a shortage of girls who might be considered “nice.” The girls at this school are mean and possibly lethal. The story takes place in two alternating time periods: the freshman year for the girls of the story and the 10-year reunion for the same bunch. Somewhere back in the early times but not revealed until much later, terrible things have happened on campus and somebody’s going to pay a penalty. Many secrets are withheld until late in the story and, while this is a familiar device, Flynn makes it work with special power by piling on the details in numbers and in specificity. Sex, betrayal, scheming — all come into play in dark and heavy loads. Is there someone to root for in all of this? Only at the reader’s peril.
The Windsor Knot
By SJ Bennett
William Morrow, 288 pages, $34.99
It’s the early spring of 2016, days before Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday. She’s hosting a party at her favourite residence when a young Russian guest is murdered by asphyxiation in a bedroom. Hence, the novel’s jokey title. Get it? A bigger source of quiet chuckles is the identity of the story’s sleuth. It’s Elizabeth herself, also known around Windsor Castle as “the Boss.” She needs someone to handle the case’s legwork — that’s the role for her British-Nigerian assistant private secretary — but when it comes to figuring out clues and motives, the Queen shows a little Sherlock Holmes and a dash of George Smiley. She also charms the reader. The non-Queen sections of the book tend to over-complication, but not enough to dampen the grand spirit generated by the Boss.
Jack Batten