Fiction review: five mysteries

MYSTERIES
The sins-of-the-fathers plotline has been around since the Old Testament and the Greek myths, but Northern Virginia writer Ellen Crosby gives it her own twist in The Riesling Retribution (272 pages, Scribner, $25).

The fourth entry in Crosby's series featuring vineyard owner Lucie Montgomery begins with a tornado that destroys some grapevines, forces Lucie to take cover under an old bridge and unearths human bones from a shallow grave on her property, which straddles Loudoun and Fauquier counties.

When the remains are identified as those of Beauregard Kinkaid, suspicion falls upon Lucie's late father, Leland Montgomery, with whom Kinkaid had a falling out.

Lucie, though, is convinced that her father -- although a rogue and a philanderer -- was no murderer. Despite a bounty of circumstantial evidence, she's determined to clear his name and her family's reputation.

Crosby is a writer with flair, and her compelling plot, likable heroine, wealth of wine lore and sure sense of Virginia's horse country combine in a crisp read that goes down smoothly with a pleasant finish.

. . .

Beneath the beauty of classical music can lie the high-profile, high-pressure lives of those who play it, and Gerald Elias, associate concertmaster of the Utah Symphony, uncovers layers of ugliness in his debut novel, Devil's Trill (306 pages, Minotaur Books, $25.99).

The year is 1983, and Daniel Jacobus, a 60-something blind violin teacher, is living reclusively in New England's Berkshires. But he returns to the world of professional music by attending the Grimsley Competition concert at Carnegie Hall, where a 9-year-prodigy is playing the famous Piccolino Stradivarius violin. When the instrument is stolen, the ornery and infuriating Jacobus becomes a suspect. And when one of the board members of the Musical Arts Project, which runs the competition, is strangled with a violin string, Jacobus' peril doubles.

Jacobus enlists the help of his new student, Yumi Shinagawa, and his former musical partner, Nathaniel Williams (now an insurance investigator), to clear his name as he embarks on an unwitting voyage of self-discovery.

With a true whodunit, an uncommon protagonist and a backstage backstory, "Devil's Trill" ranks among the finest -- and most unusual -- mysteries of the year: elegant and profane, measured and menacing, entertaining and educational. And Elias, who hits no false notes, should take a bow.

. . .

To call a woman an adventuress is pejorative -- think of Wallis Simpson. But to call her an adventurer brings to mind Beryl Markham, Amelia Earhart, Gertrude Bell, Freya Stark and countless others whose exploits fascinated the world.

Such is Jade del Cameron, who makes her fifth appearance in Suzanne Arruda's Treasure of the Golden Cheetah (368 pages, Obsidian, $24.95). Jade, an expatriate New Mexican, has settled in Africa as a writer and photographer for a travel magazine. She's also an intrepid explorer and guide.

This time out, it's 1920, and Jade has been hired to accompany a Hollywood film crew to Mount Kilimanjaro, where a producer wants to make a film about the lost treasure of King Solomon. But before the group can leave Kenya, the producer is murdered, and death seems to stalk the expedition up the mountain. With the help of her teenage friend, Jelani, and her cheetah, Biscuit, Jade is able to unravel a heartless scheme.

Cinematic in its descriptions of Africa, compelling in plot -- this is a true whodunit -- and skilled in characterization, "Treasure of the Golden Cheetah" is the best so far of an outstanding series. And Arruda's cliff-hanging ending will have readers yearning for the quick appearance of Jade's next adventure.

. . .

The beginning could come straight from Agatha Christie. A man witnesses a murder, but when the police arrive, the body has disappeared. An heir is cheated of a legacy. And an aviation executive's disfigured body is found floating in the River Thames.

But in As If by Magic (296 pages, SohoConstable, $25), the third installment in her Jack Haldean series, the stamp is unmistakably that of Dolores Gordon-Smith.

The mischief begins on a cold night in 1923, and it's not long before Haldean, a World War I veteran and a writer of detective stories, is called in to help an old friend. What he uncovers is a multitude of lies that force him to use all his inductive and deductive powers to uncover the truly evil villain.

Gordon-Smith pays homage to the mysteries of the Golden Age -- the final-chapter explanation from the amateur sleuth is one example, his amiability another -- but brings a 21st-century sensibility to her task. The result is period-piece delight that never seems dated.

. . .

Try to picture a more pacific view of small-town Americana than this: a 50-year-old widow who runs a sewing-machine shop in Missouri.

But Stella Hardesty will make you change your mind. Sure, she knows about sewing, but she also knows how to bring a cheating, abusive man to his knees -- or to the hospital.

Such is the premise of Sophie Littlefield's first mystery, A Bad Day for Sorry (288 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.95), and it's markedly original. In this initial outing, Stella, who runs a vigilante service for abused women (she was one, herself) is approached by Chrissy Shaw, who tells her that her no-account husband, Roy Dean Shaw, has taken off with Tucker, Chrissy's toddler son from a previous relationship. As Stella sets out to retrieve Tucker and bring Roy Dean down a notch or four, she finds her own life in peril.

Littlefield uses words, not drawings, but this is as graphic a crime novel as you'll find this side of the thriller subgenre. The story's compelling, the dialogue perfect -- and Stella is one of the most memorable characters of this summer or any other.

Contact Jay Strafford at (804) 649-6698 or jstrafford@timesdispatch.com.