It is difficult to imagine a more nerve-racking beginning to an adventure than a flight just above the treetops in wartime Europe with snipers below you firing at bombers above you, but that is precisely where Captain Billy Boyle finds himself at the outset of James R. Benn's gripping World War II mystery The Devouring. Billy and his associate, Piotr "Kaz" Kazimierz, are en route to Switzerland to investigate the killing of a bank executive amid the systematic looting and subsequent laundering of concentration camp gold. Switzerland, neutral though it may be, will not provide a lot of sanctuary for them. The OSS, predecessor to the CIA, has launched Operation Safehaven to ensure that gold held by Nazi officials in Swiss banks will never be put toward funding a Fourth Reich. There will be hell to pay if the Nazis get wind of this, naturally. Within this chaotic milieu Billy and Kaz must conduct their investigation on the down low, assuming they can stay alive long enough to see it through. If you're in need of a dose of adrenaline, then look no further.

EXPERT ESPIONAGE
If John le Carré is to be believed, then the world of spy craft is very different from the cinematic exploits of James Bond. Take le Carré's fictional Peter Guillam, for example, who came up through the British Secret Service during the height of the Cold War. Fifty-odd years later, he has been summoned out of his quiet retirement in Breton to come to London and explain his involvement in a clandestine operation, code-named Windfall, to a bunch of people too young or too inexperienced to understand its ramifications. This encounter, and the events leading up to it, is chronicled in le Carré's fascinating new novel, A Legacy of Spies. Guillam is an engaging first-person narrator imbued with insight and humor not dimmed one whit by age. And he uses his not inconsiderable skills as a raconteur to put a whole new spin on the events recounted in le Carré's 1963 bestseller, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (a book you will most assuredly want to read, or reread, soon after this one).

TEXAS RANGER
Texas has a reputation as a law-and-order state, after a fashion, at least. And it is the "after a fashion" part that resonates with Darren Mathews, the African-American Texas Ranger who anchors Attica Locke's atmospheric mystery Bluebird, Bluebird. That is to say, if Mathews has to color outside the lines in pursuit of justice, then so be it. In the past week, two murders—both possible hate crimes—have rocked the tiny East Texas town of Lark. One victim is a prominent black lawyer from Chicago, the other a local young white waitress. Mathews is on suspension when the story opens, but he quickly worms his way into the investigation and, upon being rebuked for this, plays his trump card: It would look really suspicious if the only black investigator were to be sidelined. Begrudgingly, the powers that be assign him to the case as the sole Texas Ranger investigator. In some ways, the case looks pretty cut and dried: out-of-town lawyer hooks up with local waitress; waitress' husband (a possible member of the Aryan brotherhood) pulls the plug on both of them, either in person or by proxy. But the truth is much more convoluted, with its roots in age-old Southern racial tensions and modern drug warfare, and it's all overlaid with a soundtrack of early and raw blues music.

TOP PICK IN MYSTERY
If you have never heard of a cobrador del frac, then don't feel left out. Neither had I, and neither, I suspect, will more than a handful of Louise Penny's readers prior to embarking on her latest suspense novel, Glass Houses. A cobrador del frac is a debt collector with roots in the Middle Ages; dressed in a top hat and tails, he stalks his prey, hovering always at the periphery of their vision, an unwelcome reminder of their indebtedness. One such cobrador has stationed himself in the town square of Three Pines, Quebec—the object of his attentions unknown. And although cobradors are nonconfrontational by design, murder follows soon after, leaving Sûreté Chief Superintendent Gamache caught up in the center of a dilemma, trying to balance a homicide investigation with his months-long goal of shutting down a massive drug operation. Gamache will face life-changing questions about the nature of guilt and innocence and the thin blue line separating law and conscience, leaving the reader contemplating these conundrums well after the final page has been turned.

 

This article was originally published in the September 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Penny's 13th entry in her award-winning "Chief Inspector Gamache" series will take readers back to the village of Three Pines, where Armand Gamache knows something is seriously wrong when a mysterious figure appears and a body is later discovered. An arrest and subsequent murder trial leaves Gamache struggling with his own conscience. [See Prepub Alert, 3/23/17.]

In the 13th book in Penny's popular "Chief Inspector Gamache" series (after A Great Reckoning), Armand Gamache is now the head of the Sûreté du Québec, which seems to be a sinking ship heading for an iceberg. Switching back and forth from an October murder scene in the village of Three Pines to a trial in a steamy summer courtroom in Montréal, the tale of a region devastated by drugs unfolds. Gamache and his team have a plan to save their beloved province, which may not succeed and will almost certainly result in the destruction of their careers. In Three Pines, the residents go about their lives, but no one is safe from the threat as both the tension and the action build. Fans of the series will be glad to encounter Ruth and her duck Rosa, Clara the artist, and Gamache's loved ones, Reine-Marie, Jean-Guy, and Annie. VERDICT The award-winning Penny does not rest on her laurels with this challenging and timely book. Though touched by the evils of the outside world, Three Pines remains a singular place away from time. [See Prepub Alert, 3/21/17.]—Terry Lucas, Shelter Island P.L., NY

Bestseller Penny's taut 13th novel featuring Chief Supt. Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec (after 2016's A Great Reckoning) opens at a murder trial in a Montreal courtroom. Judge Maureen Corriveau, who's trying her first homicide case, suspects that something is wrong with Gamache's testimony and the conduct of the Chief Crown Prosecutor. As for Gamache, who was the arresting officer in the case, he "knew perfectly well who the murderer was. He was just a little afraid that something would go wrong. And a particularly cunning killer would go free." Flash back to the recent past, when an ominous costumed figure starts to appear regularly on the green of Gamache's home town of Three Pines. The subsequent discovery by Gamache's wife of the murder victim in the local church leads to the unearthing of some disturbing, long-buried secrets that affect the entire community. The familiar, sometimes eccentric, denizens of Three Pines and Gamache's loyal investigative team help propel the plot to an exciting, high-stakes climax. Agent: Teresa Chris, Teresa Chris Literary Agency. (Aug.)