Set the teapot aside. Close the scrapbook. Ignore the recipes.
After three dozen cozy mysteries written under the name Laura Childs, Gerry Schmitt releases her bad self in her first thriller, “Little Girl Gone” (336 pages, Berkley, $26).
On a frigid night in Minneapolis, dollmaker Marjorie Sorensen and her dim son, Ronnie, storm into the home of wealthy Richard and Susan Darden, assault and hogtie babysitter Ashley Copeland and snatch the Dardens’ 3-month-old daughter, Elizabeth Ann.
Enter the cops, including Afton Tangler, a twice-divorced single mom who works as a family liaison officer for the city police department.
Intuitive and intrepid, Afton soon develops doubt that the kidnapping is a ransom case and suspects something more sinister. As the cops search frantically for the infant, they encounter surprises and multiple suspects.
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Schmitt fills her thriller with numerous twists and builds it to a heart-pounding conclusion that takes place during a monster blizzard. Fans of Midwest noir — think John Sandford — will revel in this nightmarish tale, admire Schmitt for her courageous departure and eagerly await Afton’s next case.
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A cop who goes undercover faces great rewards — and equally great risks.
Kate Burkholder finds both in “Among the Wicked” (320 pages, Minotaur Books, $26.99), the eighth entry in Linda Castillo’s series featuring the police chief of Painters Mill, a fictional village in Ohio’s Amish country.
Kate, a woman raised in the Amish faith but who left it in her late teens, is approached by two officials from New York state who ask her to investigate a secretive Amish community in which a young girl has been found dead and rumors abound about other unsavory possibilities. Despite the objections of her live-in lover, John Tomasetti, an employee of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, she agrees.
What she finds is twofold: a bone-chilling array of suspicions, all of which lead back to the strict, charismatic bishop of the community, Eli Schrock; and mortal danger to herself.
Castillo, as she has throughout her incisive and affecting series, showcases her many talents: a harrowing plot in which she ratchets up the suspense to nearly unbearable levels; a heroic and fully human protagonist — in Kate’s own words, “driven and flawed”; an ability to engage heart and mind; a reminder that no place is immune from the intrusion of evil; and, in this novel in particular, the dangers of liars — and false prophets.
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The lure of the sea — where life began — runs through our blood and our history, with stories of pirates and shipwrecks and treasure, possibilities of medical advances, opportunities for recreation and the threat of the perils posed by climate change.
All find a place in “Murder on Brittany Shores” (384 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.99, the second of Jean-Luc Bannalec’s whodunits starring Commissaire Georges Dupin of the regional police.
When three bodies wash up on the Glénan Islands, an archipelago 10 miles off the coast, Dupin and his team launch an investigation. It’s not long until the victims are identified: Yannig Konan, a wealthy entrepreneur and investor; Lucas Lefort, a famous sailor who owns a sailing school with his sister, Muriel; and Grégoire Pajot, a developer. And when Dupin learns that the men were killed, he must cast a wide net for murderer and motive.
Meanwhile, fisherman Arthur Martin and local physician Devan Le Menn have disappeared, and Dupin must deal with an intersecting web of treasure hunters, marine biologists, diving enthusiasts and local officials.
Dupin — a cantankerous caffeine addict whose mind works expansively — cements his place in the pantheon of fascinating cops from French crime fiction in this intriguing puzzle. Add Bannalec’s rich sense of local color — food, flora, fauna and folklore — and his skillful plotting, and “Murder on Brittany Shores” offers multiple pleasures.
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“When you’re down and troubled,/And you need some love and care,/And nothing, nothing is going right/Close your eyes and think of me,/And soon I will be there/To brighten up even your darkest night.” — Carole King, “You’ve Got a Friend”
But what if you’re both in your early 30s, you haven’t seen each other since you were teens, and she shows up unexpectedly? And what if the friendship ended in fracture? Such is the premise of Camilla Way’s work of psychological suspense, “Watching Edie” (304 pages, NAL, $26).
At 33, Edie works as a London waitress while she waits for her child — sired by a married former co-worker who’s unaware of the pregnancy — to be born. When Heather appears, she and a surprised Edie reconnect. As Edie suffers through postpartum depression, Heather cares for baby Maya. But as Edie recovers, she finds Heather’s presence intrusive and asks her to leave.
In secondary school, pretty, popular Edie and chubby, clingy Heather seemed like unlikely pals. Heather, disturbed by Edie’s relationship with handsome, controlling Connor, lies in an attempt to sever the couple’s bond. And the seeds of a troubled future are sown.
Way cleverly allows Heather to narrate the past while Edie relates the present. As their stories develop, she draws the reader into an unsettling narrative, amplified by her skills at dialogue, her keen eye for plot and character and her ability to foreshadow but not telegraph a stunning conclusion.
A novel that excels in portraying the torment of youth, the reverberations of the past and the darkness of the heart, “Watching Edie” transcends the boundaries of the standard stalker story into a tale of misguided love, unthinking betrayal and random cruelty.
Jay Strafford is a retired writer and editor for The Times-Dispatch. Contact him at jstrafford@timesdispatch.com.