By Fiona Stevenson – Columnist
Is everyone counting the extra minute of daylight each day? I hope it’s helping to bring a spark of joy.
With snow, cold, the dreaded black ice, and cringing from the news, I’m finding my thoughts turning into some dark corners. In this frame of mind I turn to mysteries and thrillers, books or films, where the mood of alienation and suspicion reflects my unease. And as always, reading or watching provides an outlet and, hopefully, a resolution, even if it’s just one mystery that can be solved.
If Los Angeles has been on your mind with the terrible wildfires, then embrace its status as the spiritual home of the literary noir, a place of bright sunshine with secrets hiding in the darkness. I want to reread “I.Q.” by Joe Ide (Mulholland Books), first in his series about Isaiah Quintana, also known as IQ, high school dropout, unlicensed private eye, and neighborhood avenging angel. I’d love to see IQ on screen, but will settle for “Brick,” a contemporary high school mystery starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a whip-smart Angeleno investigating an ex-girlfriend’s murder. It is Rian Johnson’s first film, whose latest “Knives Out” movie, “Wake Up Dead Man,” just dropped its first trailer with Daniel Craig and another fabulous cast.
Staring out the window at mounds of snow in my street reminded me things could be worse, as evidenced when I read “A Killing Cold” by Kate Alice Marshall (Flatiron). It’s for fans of private mountain resorts where you can’t get cellphone reception, a storm is moving in, and the past is coming to get you — trope-riddled stuff but fun. Another rich family in “Vantage Point” by Sara Sligar (MCD) has its troubles when the younger generation of an old-money New England family doesn’t take seriously the curse placed on their family tree — until it manifests as digital hauntings.
Do you remember the pervasive feeling of dread in Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”? Reading this made me sympathize with how it must feel to be watched on social media. I confess I watched a procedural thriller on Netflix before I read the book “The Åre Murders,” about a Stockholm detective who winds up in a scenic ski resort town solving local homicides and ignoring her messy private life. The first book is “Hidden in Snow” by the great Scandinoir author Viveca Sten, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Amazon Crossing).
I fell in love with Maggie Bird, the retired CIA operative turned chicken farmer in Maine, in Tess Gerritsen’s “The Spy Coast.” Now Maggie’s back, with her ex-colleagues from The Martini Club and police chief Jo Thibodeau, to solve a local murder in “The Summer Guests” (Thomas & Mercer).
Another Maine mystery coming out is Stephen King’s “Never Flinch” (Scribner), with PI Holly Gibney returning in her 25th appearance. Say what you like about King, but please acknowledge there’s a reason for his phenomenal success — he’s the master of the twisty thriller, a proponent of the ruthless editing/writing technique known as “kill your darlings.”
I Googled that phrase and discovered we should all get on the library lists now for “Kill Your Darlings” by Peter Swanson (HarperCollins), the next thriller by another estimable New England author. The plot sounds promising, one that traces a marriage in reverse order to a terrible secret, and Julia Roberts is starring in an Amazon adaptation.
There’s a rumor that Adam Oyebanji’s “Quiet Teacher” books (Severn) have just been snapped up for a series adaptation. Black British expat Greg Abimbola, a Russian language teacher in a posh U.S. private school, likes tea, tweeds, and a quiet life, but he has some dark secrets that keep him in danger. I just finished the second title, “Two Times Murder,” and have my fingers crossed that Chiwetel Ejiofor will play him in this hybrid spy thriller/murder mystery.
Another author whose books would make must-see films is S.A. Cosby, whose upcoming “King of Ashes” (Flatiron) details the Carruthers family, whose Black-owned Virginia funeral home business is attracting the interest of some unsavory types.
One of the best British Golden Age thrillers, “Green For Danger” by Christianna Brand (Poisoned Press), is set in Kent in 1942, when bombs were falling heavily and ordinary folk were living under terrible stresses. Brand herself survived many air raids, and it shows in this brilliant mystery. It inspired a classic English detective film with Alistair Sim as Inspector Cockrill, who must puzzle out who might be willing to commit murder in front of witnesses during a routine hospital surgery. The movie is available on Criterion and other streaming services.
While you wait for “The Marble Hall Murders” by Anthony Horowitz (Harper, May), the third in the Atticus Pund series, you can catch up with the PBS adaptations of the first two books and see how editor Susan Ryeland (played by the divine Lesley Manville) got so enmeshed with a fictional detective.
I can’t recommend enough Jason Isaac’s reading of Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series, available through CFPL’s Libby service. Her latest, “Death at the Sign of the Rook” (Random House Audio), is wonderfully funny and features a terrific art heist theme. “The Museum Detective” by Maha Khan Phillips (Soho Crime), which addresses an antiquities scandal in Pakistan and a determined female detective sorting it out, is also a must-read.
If you’re stressed by all this murder-y stuff, you could try “Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight” by Sara Gran (Dreamland Books).
For middle school readers, mysteries can often hold an attention span. “The Curious Vanishing of Beatrice Willoughby” by G.Z. Schmidt (Holiday House) centers around a missing girl and how the reader can solve the case while meeting all the suspects. Nice to have a girl in peril story guaranteed for a happy ending. “The Van Gogh Deception” by Deron Hicks (Houghton Mifflin) is the first in “The Lost Art” series. This one is set around the National Gallery of Art in Washington, where a boy and a girl have to solve an art-focused mystery. Readers can use QR codes on the pages to view the paintings.
Enough of this pessimistic stuff. I am so looking forward to the latest in Claudia Gray’s Jane Austen-inspired series, “The Rushworth Family Plot” (June, Vintage). Gray is making a library appearance in the Millbury Library at 6:30 p.m. on March 18 to discuss her books.
If you don’t want to travel that far, you can enjoy the Fowler Library’s Book-a-Mystery meet-up on the third Wednesday of every month from 2-3 p.m. with some of the sharpest discussion of what makes a book work, led by Madeline Klein and enjoyed by all. Community is another way to find solace at this time of year.
