nomadreader

The backstory: Fear the Darkness  is the second mystery featuring former FBI agent Brigid Quinn. I loved the first one, Rage Against the Dying . The basics: When Brigid's sister-in-law dies, she agrees to let her seventeen-year-old daughter Gemma-Kate move from Florida and live with her (and her husband Carlo.) Around the same time, she agrees to investigate the somewhat suspicious drowning death of a fourteen-year-old boy. Also, things start seeming off with Brigid's own mind and body. My thoughts: There are essentially three mysteries at the center of Fear the Darkness. First: what is wrong with Brigid? Second: was Joe's death in the pool an accident, a suicide or a homicide? Third: is Gemma-Kate a psychopath. All of these storylines are interesting at times, but none of them seem to move along particularly quickly. The only running theme is that things are perhaps not quite what they seem, but is anything actually happening? It's clear to the reader that Br...

The backstory: Rage Against the Dying  is Becky Masterman's first mystery. It introduces former FBI agent Brigid Quinn. It was a finalist for almost every mystery award last year: Edgar (Best First Novel), Macavity (Best First Mystery), Barry (Best First Novel), Anthony  (Best First Novel), and CWA Dagger ( Gold Dagger shortlist and John Creasey Dagger longlist ). The basics: Brigid Quinn is fifty-nine. She was forced into early retirement from the FBI and now lives with her husband, from whom she hides as much as possible about her FBI life, and their two dogs, in Tucson. When a man confesses to the unsolved murder of Brigid's protegee, the current case agent brings her back in to consult on the case. My thoughts: It's a well-known trope that the first mystery in a series will feature a case very close to the main character. Too often this trope is met with too many coincidences, but in Rage Against the Dying , it doesn't feel like a trope at all. Because the...