“Missing in Soho,” by Holly Stars (Berkley Mystery)
Misty Devine, the glamorous drag queen and hostess of Lady’s Bar, who solved the mystery of her boss’s murder last year, is horrified when a badly wounded private detective stumbles into her venue. He’s been stabbed, and his blood ruins Misty’s white suit! Even more frightening, he warns Misty she’s in danger and that she must find Jeremy, whoever that is. Misty has no choice but to buy a pink glitter-encrusted notebook and once again become the drag queen Sherlock Holmes.
“Missing in Soho” is just plain fun. There is something fetching about a drag queen in a yellow silk Kate Hudson dress and gigantic blond wig going undercover. “Missing in Soho” is more than drag slapstick, however.
Misty is really Joe Brown, a former accountant. His boyfriend of 13 years walks out when Joe refuses to give up sleuthing. But Joe can’t help himself. He’s mild-mannered in real life, but when he becomes Misty Divine, he is Superman. Misty is more exciting, more confident than Joe. Author Holly Stars writes with real understanding about the dual lives of these entertainers. She gives an authentic behind-the-scenes look at the lives of drag queens, which makes “Missing in Soho” that much better.
“No Prisoners,” by Ellis Blake (Putnam)
Nobody believes Hannah Lyon when she insists her husband, Adam, didn’t just walk away from her and their son. When she decides Detective Lou Hunt won’t help her, Hannah sets out to find her missing husband on her own. A physicist, Hannah watches a security camera video of Adam driving into a gas station — the last known sighting of him — and determines mathematically that there are two other people in the car with him. When she realizes she has been tailed three times by a red SUV, she knows Adam was abducted. Whatap more, she believes he’s alive.
Set in Albuquerque, N.M., and Santa Fe, N.M., “No Prisoners” also delves into shady dealings on the part of the detective and even the disappearance of Hannah’s father.
“Hide and Seek,” by Soren Sveistrup (Harper)
Someone is stalking a terrified divorced mother, sending her photographs of herself taken sometimes only minutes before. The woman’s also receiving text messages with frightening rhymes from a Danish hide-and-seek game. Then comes a final message: “Gotcha.”
Turns out the woman is not the only victim. A man who’s involved in a vicious custody battle receives the same frightening messages.
Danish detectives Mark Hess and Naia Thulin discover the stalking is similar to that of a young woman, whose remains were found two years earlier. And the murders are eerily like the murders of children a generation ago. That killer committed suicide in prison.
“Hide and Seek” appears to be an unsolvable case, but Thulin and Hess, whose personal relationship is rocky, are determined to find the killer. The book is long–some might say over-long–but once you’re hooked, you’ll read to the end.
“McKenna’s Guy,” by Mike Lawson (Blackstone)
For years, mild-mannered Roger Smith has been making fake passports–one a year—with the money he makes going to help his daughter. An intermediary named McKenna commissions the fake documents, so there’s no way the recipients know who created them. Then one night, an assassin breaks into Roger’s house, but instead of being the victim, Roger smacks the assassin over the head with a baseball bat, killing him.
Roger tells the police the dead man must have been a robber, but he knows better. So does detective Grace Lillinthal, who finds the story fishy. While Roger tries to find who among the 20 or so fake passport holders wants him dead, Grace goes after the genial Roger, an employee in the government office that prints passports. Meanwhile, a second assassin is on Roger’s trail.
Despite a few killings, “McKenna’s Guy” is a mystery that makes you smile and one of the few in which readers will be rooting for a bad guy.
“Our Marriage is Murder,” by Carol Goodman (William Morrow)
Husband-and-wife writing team Thea and Fred Morgan-Lane are attending a mystery writers’ conference in an Italian castle, to be honored for their 20 “Death Takes a Holiday” books. But there are cracks in their façade of the happily married couple. Thea wants to end the series; Fred has already hooked up with a gorgeous young female writer to replace her.
Then writers start dropping like flies, one of them Fred’s would-be collaborator. Since the castle is the site of Thea and Fred’s first novel, they put aside their differences to solve the murders, which just happen to be based on their book.
The plot is predictable, but you can’t help but cheer for the couple to figure out the clues and settle down to solve more murders — on paper.
Sandra Dallas is a Denver author and book reviewer.
