Murder in Thrall by Anne Cleeland

Whatever your basic expectations of a mystery are, they will have changed by the time you finish reading this book.  Your concepts of love and romance may also get a serious overhaul.

 

There are two threads to the storyline, the murder and the romance.  A horse trainer is murdered at a race track and this murder is followed by a number of other seemingly related murders.  Two Scotland Yard detectives are on the case.  Kathleen Doyle, the junior, and Chief Inspector Michael Sinclair (Lord Acton) lead the inquiry.  She is young, inexperienced, comes from modest means and is intuitive in her investigative style.  He is older, wealthy and established and known for his brilliance in solving high profile murder cases.  He appears to have decided to become Kathleen's mentor and she is eager to work with him and learn.  Because he has singled her out there is a certain amount of animosity towards her in the squad room. 

 

I want to say that the murder investigation became secondary to their relationship, but that would be a half truth.  Their mutual effort and method in solving the crime make for an engaging read. Despite a number of red herrings, two major clues made it easy for me to identify the murderer, but I was completely surprised by the motive.

 

Anne Cleeland's writing left me feeling like I was always coming from behind and getting blindsided by twists in the plot.  First, Doyle and Acton have worked together before but we only learn about this through statements made here and there.  Secondly, we join the story with the investigation into the murder already underway. Also, she opens each chapter with thoughts from what at first appears to be someone stalking Doyle.  A writing style often used in psychological thrillers. It is only at the start of chapter four that you learn the thoughts belong to Acton.  Say what? This is pure genius on her part and typifies how she diverts the reader.   

 

She informs the reader in a casual "by the way" manner of a fairly major event in the story long after it has happened. This had me going back and rereading pages and pages to see if I had missed something. No. She just likes to toy with the reader.  Which may also explain why the epilogue is actually the prologue.

 

Her writing is descriptive, the dialogue is interesting and well-written and the psychology between the two main characters is mesmerizing.  Is their relationship dysfunctional, weird, creepy, bizarre or twisted?  Absolutely, all of these and possibly more. But it works for them; it works well within the plot line; and it works for me as a reader.

 

I can't wait for the release of Murder in Retribution, the second book in the series.

http://annecleeland.com/

Border Angels by Anthony Quinn

Open Road Integrated Media
MysteriousPress.com/Open Road   

At its core, Border Angels is not a particularly original story.  In fact, when I first started reading the book, I had this vague feeling that I had read the story before. A woman who has been held captive in a brothel, escapes her captors and is on the run to save her life and to reach a border that signifies safety. In this instance, the border is the one that separates Northern Ireland from the Republic.  The woman is Lena Novak.

Lena is a woman who has survived her captivity in a brothel by allowing a part of herself to die.  Despite this, throughout her months in captivity, she never loses the desire to return to her home and family in Croatia.  When hope arrives in the form of shady businessman Jack Fowler, a client at the brothel, Lena is ready to capitalize on the opportunity.  But before Fowler can rescue her, she is forced into a car ride with her pimp that ends in a fiery explosion and Lena escaping barefoot in the snow. 

Celcius Daly is assigned to investigate the violent death of the pimp, and later, Fowler's death as well.  Daly becomes obsessed with the footprints in the snow leading away from the burned-out car and to the riverbank.  Who do they belong to? Where did the person come from? Where did the person disappear to? etc.  From the moment he spots the footprints, Daly is trying to catch and catch up with Lena.  She is always steps ahead of him, even when she is standing right in front of him. There are others chasing Lena, in particular the prostitution ring owner Mikolajek.  But she is wily, she is fast, she is resourceful and she has nothing to lose. She has also had time to plot her revenge.

Aside from human trafficking, threaded through the story are other elements such as black market operations, empty housing developments and references to Northern Ireland today, after "The Troubles", that round out the story.  However, it is the tango between Lena and Daly that creates the tension that holds the story together.  Lena choreographs every move to make Daly think he is the lead dancer, but his every step is designed to distract from her own fancy footwork. 

I would have liked to have understood Daly better.  He is a sympathetic character, but a bit too easily deceived for a police inspector. I gather to know Daly better I need to read Quinn's previous book Disappeared, but Border Angels certainly stands alone.

Quinn is very adept at creating atmosphere and his descriptions of the border area left firmly implanted images in my head of a rugged, wind swept land with a cold dark river running through it. The overall feeling is that of grayness.  His characters are all very human, their weaknesses and strengths are neither hidden nor flaunted, they are just a natural part of each character's story.

The plot is well thought through with a twist at the end and the pace is quick but not rapid.  Definitely a worthwhile read.