The November crime review
These are the crime books which have been read and reviewed by our excellent booksellers this month - all in one place!
The Mantis by Kotaro Isaka & Sam Malissa (trans.)
Reviewed by Joe Murray from Readings Kids
Kabuto lives a double life: one as a loving father and dutiful husband, the other as a cold-blooded contract killer. Only one of those lives is terrifying – the other is just murder for hire. Trouble is, Kabuto wants out of the game: he’s tired of the bloodshed and can barely stomach killing other professionals, let alone the innocent. Leaving the criminal underworld is classically a very risky move, but it’s especially difficult when he also has to make sure his wife’s happy and his son’s on the right path. He’s going to need all his wits about him, and then some.
Told in a series of episodic vignettes, The Mantis is a wonderful chameleon of a novel, equally capable of being gripping, amusing and poignant, whether it’s describing a high-stakes conversation at the dinner table or a matter-of-fact fist fight. Kabuto is a brilliantly contradictory character, lethally competent but socially hapless, anxiously devoted to never upsetting his wife but perfectly capable of keeping his biggest secret from her. It’s a testament to Kotaro Isaka’s writing that it’s impossible not to root for Kabuto.
Throughout the novel, the dramas of everyday life, from hornet nests to parent–teacher conferences, are perfectly juxtaposed with the cut-throat Tokyo underworld that fans of Isaka’s earlier novels will be immediately familiar with. It’s a juxtaposition which produces a humour and lightness that never threatens to undercut the emotional stakes. Isaka will make you smile and then he’ll make your stomach drop – that’s just the way the business goes.
The Mantis is a thrilling and endearing tale about a man trapped between two worlds and searching for an escape. It’s perfect for anyone who likes their family dramas with a little bit of murder on the side.
Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr from Readings Kids
Hot Springs Drive is an explosive cocktail of lust, loneliness, and indulgence, all suppressed in a domestic suburban lifestyle. The tragedy occurs when the truth is unearthed.
Jackie and Theresa have been best friends since they first met in the maternity ward. Their lives are inextricably intertwined as their families become inseparable; they soon become next-door neighbours, their children attend the same schools, the mothers vow to go on the same weight-loss program, and they become each other’s closest confidants. But this perfect Garden of Eden is interrupted by two irreversible acts: when Theresa walks in on her husband having sex with Jackie, and when Theresa’s murdered body is found in her garage the next day. Soon, the families’ secrets and darkest desires are brought out into the open, and we are left to question the means by which human desires are satiated, and how much we can trust appearances.
With the salaciousness of Caroline Kepnes’ You and the competitiveness of Death Becomes Her, Hot Springs Drive offers a sardonic examination of the American Dream, of the fantasies and hedonism we hide beneath a pure facade, and the darkest crevices of the human soul that are inevitably brought to light. Told from the perspective of each parent and five children, the dramas intended to be kept behind closed doors are exposed in Lindsay Hunter’s intense and gripping thriller, exploring the harms of toxic parent-child relationships, the potential for animosity in female friendships – especially in relation to male validation – and the complexities of motherhood and desire. Theresa and Jackie are raw in their fears and anxieties, especially regarding how being a mother has shaped their sense of identity. The thrills and horrors of being a woman are dissected in this titillating and disturbing journey of self-discovery.
West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr from Readings Kids
It’s the 4th of July. Barbecues are sizzling, the sky is aglow with fireworks, star-spangled banners wave proudly, painting the day red, white and blue. But amid the celebrations, a murder has occurred, and only you can solve it.
In an original and thrilling take on the classic whodunnit story, Dann McDorman welcomes the reader into the narrative by writing in the second point of view, as you assist Detective McAnnis in solving who is responsible for the murders of the West Heart Club. Set in upstate New York, West Heart is populated by the founding families of the club, and each family has their own secrets, motives, and desires for wanting the truth to stay dead. As a major storm hits and power goes down, all the members of the club, the detective, and you are isolated in a remote hunting lodge, with only each other to rely on to survive, even as the bodies start to pile up and the suspect list grows more complex.
Cluedo meets Knives Out in this fun, immersive reading experience. It’s almost reminiscent of a role-playing game, and breathes new life into the whodunnit genre. You have your eccentric and mysterious characters; an evocative atmosphere that jumps straight off the page with compelling prose; and a narrator that speaks to you as the reader, offering academic and historical facts, and hints about the development of the murder-mystery genre, helping you identify the tropes, red herrings, and motives from past sources such as Agatha Christie, Sherlock Holmes, and more, to assist you in solving the murder.
West Heart Kill is perfect for those who love classic murder mysteries, and those who are more interested in experimental and ambitious crime writing. Bold and original, McDorman’s debut is a wondrous achievement that succeeds in making the reader a cast member.
