Past is inescapable in 2 new mysteries

2023-07-30 - By Oline H. Cogdill

Reconciling with the past is an ongoing theme of mystery fiction, and a major part of Colette “Coco” Weber’s life as depicted in Rachel Howzell Hall’s enthralling character-driven “What Never Happened.”

Howzell Hall’s ninth novel is a story about one’s family history, survivor guilt, racism, greed and living in an insular, isolated community. Intense characters populate “What Never Happened.”

For nearly 20 years, Coco has dealt with her grief and guilt over the murder of her family when she was 15 years old. She escaped only because she had snuck out that night to join her friends at the beach.

Her father, Reginald, a popular and well-respected high school coach, had moved his family to Catalina Island because it was supposed to be a “safe” place. But Coco’s mother, Alyson, an attorney, and her younger brother, Langston, resented the move and never felt comfortable being one of the few Black families on Catalina, just off the coast of California. They missed their home in View Park, “the heart of Black Los Angeles,” disliked that the only way to get back to L.A. was by ferry and were acutely aware that Catalina had “more bison living on it than Black people.”

Recently laid off from her job as an award-winning obituary writer for the Los Angeles Times and dealing with a bad breakup with her ex, Coco returns to Catalina to care for her cantankerous aunt Gwen, who resented raising her following her family’s murder. Coco has a job writing obits for the local newspaper run by

her college roommate and plans to reclaim the house she inherited — not the “murder house’’ — but the family’s second house.

Coco’s arrival is fraught with trouble. The house is deteriorating; Gwen, who has a history of stealing from her employers, refuses to acknowledge that Coco owns the house; the man convicted of murdering Coco’s family has been released because new DNA evidence exonerates him; and she receives threatening, racist notes demanding she leave.

Coco begins to write obits about local residents — “All widows, all old, all vulnerable” — each of whom owned lucrative property and whose bodies were found after having dinner with anonymous friends. Then someone begins to write Coco’s obits, predicting gruesome deaths, leaving them at her door.

Howzell Hall delivers a tightly coiled plot, giving readers a view of an area most may not be familiar with. Coco finds Catalina a boom town that, despite exorbitant housing prices, still is attractive to parttime owners and tourists.

Howzell Hall specializes in complex, realistic characters who are not always appealing but who we care about. Coco’s inability to trust others affects every decision. Gwen is a hot mess, whose antics alienate her from others and whose greed overtakes her personality.

“What Never Happened” gives a unique look at the domestic thriller.

Disappearing acts

The chance to completely disappear appeals to some people, to just live anonymously, not on the run but to not worry about being found. This is Jack Betancourt’s job, helping people “escape,” in Dwyer Murphy’s lively, sophisticated “The Stolen Coast.”

Jack inherited the business of arranging for people “to escape” from his father, an ex-spy who still helps out and offers advice. The Massachusetts beach town Onset, where Jack lives, has proven to be the perfect place to stash people. Rundown and out of the way, Onset offers an “organized haven” with its slew of empty cottages, seasonal residents and people who mind their own business. Some people stay for a night, others for years, but at a certain point, some are “no longer in hiding. . . but just residents.” Jack’s clients encompass members of crime families, Russian mobsters, petty criminals or just ordinary people like the local man with whom Jack and his friends play a weekly pickup basketball game.

A lot goes into getting people settled, days traveling to pick them up, overnight stays in shabby motels, crossing borders, cleaning the residences to remove any trace of the previous occupants. In the beginning, Jack thought the job “necessary,” but the years have taken a toll, leaving him little time for himself, “a parochial life.”

Then Jack’s grifter girlfriend Elena comes back to Onset after a seven-year absence. Elena is an attorney but her career choice was only a way to find a better class of people she could scam. People are meant to be used, in her world.

Elena has a plan to steal diamonds from a corrupt litigator who is holding the gems for a client. Depending on whom she can find to buy them, the diamonds will bring in anywhere from $3 million to $180 million. Needing a change, Jack agrees to help, despite being very aware that Elena is a loose cannon.

Murphy seamlessly moves “The Stolen Coast” into a solid plot about con games, heists and disappearances. Murphy, who lives in Miami and is editor of “Crime Reads,” takes his characters on a road trip from the Massachusetts coast, up to Canada, back to Virginia and down to the Florida Keys and Miami.

His breezy style keeps “The Stolen Coast” churning, adding levity when the plot turns dark while serving the labyrinth story. Murphy’s elegant plotting, established in his 2022 debut “An Honest Living,” shows he is an author to watch.