Killman by Graeme Kent

 

First Line: The twenty naked young virgins undulated slowly in front of Sister Conchita and the morose visiting female academic on the plateau next to the waterfall above the saltwater village.

 

It is young Sister Conchita's misfortune to find the drowned body of Papa Noah, head of the Church of the Blessed Ark, outside the ark he's been building with so much care. Since this is the third death by drowning on the island of Malaita (two of them with no nearby source of water), rumors immediately begin to circulate that there is a Japanese soldier, a killman, on the loose unwilling to admit that the war has been over for fifteen years. Within days, Sister Conchita's mission is inundated with islanders in search of a safe place from the killman.

While she's dealing with a packed mission and a visit from a formidable man known as the bishop's fixer, Sergeant Ben Kella has his own problems. He's been taken to task by the elders of the islands for his absence and his neglect of local problems. It's not Kella's fault that his superior has sent him on one useless assignment after another for months at a time, but the elders refuse to accept excuses from their custom-law enforcer-- a type of island law enforcement officer who takes the islanders' various religious beliefs into account as he dispenses justice.

There's a potentially deadly religious confrontation brewing in the Solomon Islands, and Sergeant Ben Kella and Sister Conchita are right in the middle of it.

~

Graeme Kent's Sergeant Ben Kella and Sister Conchita historical mystery series is perfect for the armchair traveler, and it's so good that I'd almost give my right arm to have more than three books in the series. The first book, Devil-Devil, was a Best Read of 2011, the second, One Blood, was a Best Read of 2012, and Killman came very close to being a Best Read this year. I am so glad I found it while doing some research.

I am of an age where I remember Japanese soldiers being found in the jungle in areas like the Solomon Islands, either not knowing or refusing to believe that World War II was over twenty and thirty years after the fact. Since Killman is set in the Solomons in 1960, this is a perfect thing to incorporate in a mystery involving mysterious deaths.

Another strong element in the mystery is that of religion. Christianity (and not just Catholicism) has a strong hold in the Solomon Islands, but there are still many who hold on to their pagan beliefs with their strong attachments to the natural world. What Kent brought to life for me was the very real danger of a type of religious war involving the differing beliefs of Christians and of those peoples living in saltwater villages as opposed to those living in the bush (jungle). 

The various religions aren't the only things that Kent brings to life. The Solomon Islands themselves play a major role. I can feel myself walking along a beach and breathing in the sea air... or being covered in sweat and slapping mosquitoes as I travel through the jungle and up into the mountains. There are political aspects to life in the islands. The Japanese are showing interest in the natural resources to be found there, and the Americans are showing interest in the Japanese. It's a land still struggling through the aftermath of World War II. Of all the equipment left behind by both the Japanese and the Americans. Of all the wreckage littering land and sea from the battles for Guadalcanal and the other islands. 

Kent does such a marvelous job of putting readers in the midst of life in the Solomons. Of the tremendous navigational skills of the Polynesians. Of the eighty different dialects spoken there. Of the towering banyan trees, symbols of eternal life. And of island occupations such as that of tree shouter. It is such a rich culture! One of the characters is an academic gathering island songs for a book she's writing. Kent uses her as an example of the danger academics can face in traveling to remote areas on fact-finding missions. (Whom do you trust to tell you the truth?)

The major thing that makes learning about the area so enjoyable is the pair of Sergeant Ben Kella and Sister Conchita. A young Catholic nun from Boston, Sister Conchita chose her name because she thought she was going to be posted to South America, and she wanted a name that the people would find familiar. She thought wrong, but she has adapted to life in the South Pacific beautifully and has become the mainstay of the mission. She also has a flair for deduction which Sergeant Ben Kella reluctantly admits is useful. As Sister Conchita shows us life from an outsider's point of view, Kella has the insider's side of the story, and it's the blending of the two that makes this series so special.

I could wax poetic about this book... the entire series... for page after page, but I won't. This is a series that I hope all of you will give a try, especially if books with a strong sense of place are your favorites. Give island life a try. You can't have two better guides than Sister Conchita and Sergeant Ben Kella.

Killman by Graeme Kent

eISBN: 9781472104762

Constable & Robinson © 2013

eBook, 272 pages

 

Historical Mystery, #3 Sergeant Ben Kella & Sister Conchita mystery

Rating: A

Source: Purchased from Amazon.

Celebrating Mysteries: Africa and Australasia

 

We share a lot of reading DNA, so I know that many of you also love reading mysteries with a strong sense of place. You may enjoy reading such books because you're reminded of a place you visited and loved, or you may enjoy reading them because it's a place you've never been and you want to learn more about it. For whatever reason, books with a strong sense of place can really take us out of our daily grind.

I've decided to write a series of posts that shine a spotlight on mysteries that exhibit such a strong sense of place that you almost feel as though you're there as you turn the pages. This week, I'll be focusing on Africa and Australasia. Clicking on the link in the book title will take you to my review of that book.

Let's get started!

Botswana

If you're interested in excellent mysteries and strong characters-- as well as learning about the landscape, customs, and food of Botswana, you can't beat reading Michael Stanley's Detective Kubu mysteries. 

A Carrion Death, the first Detective Kubu mystery

The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu, the second in the series

Death of the Mantis, the third book

This series currently has seven books.

Ghana

Kwei Quartey is another author I've been following since his first book. I first got hooked on his police procedural series featuring Darko Dawson, and now he's begun a new series with a female private investigator named Emma Djann.

Wife of the Gods, the first Darko Dawson mystery

Children of the Street, the second in the series

The Missing American, the first Emma Djann mystery

The Darko Dawson series has five books.

The Emma Djann series currently has two books.

South Africa

Sally Andrew has a marvelous series featuring Tannie Marie, who lives in the Klein Karoo of South Africa... and she certainly knows how to cook! 

Recipes for Love and Murder is the first book in the series.

The Satanic Mechanic is the second book.

There is a third book in the series, Death on the Limpopo, but it only seems to be available in South Africa, which does not make me happy.

American Samoa

John Enright introduced me to American Samoa, and I was hooked. His Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua is an excellent guide to the area, and I love Enright's poetic descriptions of the landscape.

There are four books in the Jungle Beat series:

Pago Pago Tango

Fire Knife Dancing

The Dead Don't Dance

Blood Jungle Ballet

I wish he had written more!

the Solomon Islands

Graeme Kent's Native police sergeant Ben Kella and American nun Sister Conchita had me living in the Solomon Islands during the 1960s as I read the books.

Devil-Devil is the first book in the series

One Blood is the second book

In researching this post, I was thrilled to discover that there's a third book in the series, Killman, and I immediately bought it.

Australia

When it comes to the crime fiction of Australia, there are several wonderful authors, but Adrian Hyland and Jane Harper are two of my particular favorites. 

 

Adrian Hyland wrote a much too brief  two-book series featuring part-white, part-aborigine Emily Tempest who lives in the Outback. These two books give a very different perspective of the Land Down Under.

Moonlight Downs is the first book (APA Diamond Dove)

Gunshot Road is the second

 

Jane Harper has written a (so far) two-book series featuring Federal police officer Aaron Falk and a couple of standalone thrillers. All of them take you right to the heart of Australia.

The Dry is the first Aaron Falk mystery

The Lost Man is a standalone thriller

I hope I've piqued your interest in these books and authors and that I've added to your Need to Read lists. But this is a two-way street. As far as Africa and Australasia are concerned, which mysteries do you turn to that have not only excellent stories but a strong sense of place as well? Inquiring minds would love to know!

Next up at a future date: Europe!

Scene of the Crime with Author Graeme Kent!

You may not find this week's featured author on Facebook or Twitter. He may not have his own website, and he may not even blog, but guess what? I don't care! The man has just had the second book in his excellent Sergeant Kella and Sister Conchita mystery series published, and as long as he keeps writing them, I certainly don't mind that he's not a social media guru.

Graeme Kent

Graeme Kent spent eight years as the Head of Schools broadcasting out in the Solomon Islands. Prior to that he taught in six primary schools in the UK, and was headmaster of one. Now he is an Educational Broadcasting Consultant for the South Pacific Commission as well as being a full-time writer.

His series is set in the Solomon Islands of the 1960s; he knows whereof he speaks. Sergeant Kella is not only an officer in the Solomon Islands police force, he's an hereditary spiritual peacekeeper of the Lau people. Sister Conchita is a twentysomething Catholic nun from the United States who's headstrong and plain spoken. She wants to do good and to do right-- and to do them both Right Now.

Kent's books are a wonderful blend of mystery, character, setting and culture placed in a time when attitudes are definitely changing even though the shadow of World War II still looms large. If you haven't had a chance to read Devil-Devil or One Blood yet, I highly recommend them. Now... let's get to that interview!


What was the very first book you remember reading and loving?  What makes that book so special?

I remember that book simply because it was so thrilling for a six-year-old boy.  It was called the Modern Boy's Book of Pirates by W.E. Johns and it was just that – chapter after chapter of bloodthirsty, politically incorrect biographies of such freebooters as Captain Kidd,  Edward Teach and many others.  The tone of the book was set with the illustration on the front cover of two pirates fighting with swords over a cache of buried treasure, with their sailing ship at anchor in the bay.  It would probably be severely censored by any committee of educationalists or librarians today, but it represented a whole new and exciting world to a lonely child sent to live with his grandparents in the country to avoid the German bombing raids which had just started on the big cities in 1940.

There is no reason why a writer should have led an adventurous life; indeed some of the greatest hardly ever left home.  But when a favourite author turns out to have been a hero as well, it adds a touch of piquancy to his books.  W.E. Johns was a hero.  He fought with the army at Gallipoli, transferred to the newly-formed Royal Flying Corps, was shot down in 1917 on a mission over enemy lines and became a prisoner of war.  After he had been demobilised he became famous as the author of a series of children’s novels featuring Biggles, like his creator an intrepid pioneer pilot.  As a temporary recruiting officer he also rejected T.E. Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia – when the latter tried to join the air force under an assumed name.


Outside of your writing and all associated commitments what do you like to do with your free time?

I served with the army in Korea as a teenager, boxed until I was 25 and played my last game of Rugby when I was 40.  After that I decided that my motto should be ‘Pace yourself!’ and I have done my utmost to live up to that somnolent philosophy.  I have five grandchildren who are still at the credulous stage and are prepared to sit still and believe my stories.  Oh yes, I am also waiting patiently for England to win the World Rugby Football Cup again.


If I were to visit your hometown, where would you recommend that I go? (I like seeing and doing things that aren’t in all the guide books)

Shodfriars Hall, Boston, Lincolnshire, UK

For the past 35 years, my wife Janet and I have lived in the pretty little river port and market town of Boston in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of Great Britain.  It was once the wool centre of the country but is now a sleepy, pleasant little place.  On the outskirts of the town there is a monument to the first Pilgrim Fathers, who first tried to leave for religious freedom in America in 1607.  They were arrested as they were about to board a waiting ship, and put on trial in the town.   There are acres of marshland just past the monument all the way to the Wash, a great sea inlet where King John was swamped and lost the Crown Jewels.  The marshland is a haven for dozens of different types of birds and all sorts of wildlife.

The best pub in the town is The Indian Queen.  It used to be managed by a former British featherweight boxing champion called Johnny Cuthbert.  It was well frequented by servicemen during World War 2.  They used to torment Johnny by chatting up his very pretty daughter.  He would stand it for so long and then eventually would snap and come out from behind the bar, fists clenched, threatening to take on any four soldiers or sailors at the same time, unless they left the girl alone.


You have total control over casting a movie based on your life.  Which actor would you cast as you?

John Goodman

John Goodman – but in the interests of verisimilitude he would have to be prepared to put on a little weight!


Who is your favorite recurring character in crime fiction?

Assistant Commissioner Desmond Iles in Bill James’s brilliant Harpur and Iles British police procedural series.  He is vain, ambitious, ruthless, amoral and dedicated to keeping control over the criminal elements in his city.   I once had a boss like him when I worked at the BBC.  He was absolutely barking mad!




Name one book that you’ve read that you wish you had written.  What is it about that book that makes it come to mind?

When Room at the Top by John Braine was published in 1957, I think it was a seminal moment for many young, would-be writers like myself.  It is a brilliant novel about social class in the immediate post-war years, and the efforts of a young working class aspirant Joe Lampton to better himself.  He believes that he will do anything to pull himself up by his bootlaces, but at the end of a novel wonders whether it was all worth it.  This was the first novel that I had read about a world that I recognized.


How did you celebrate when  you first heard you were to be published?  What did you do the first time you saw one of your books on a shelf in a bookshop?

I was 25 and didn’t know any better.   I had a meal at one of the first Indian restaurants to open in the West End of London, and got drunk.  I was then violently sick on the platform of a railway station while waiting for a train back to my rented room in the suburbs.  When the advance (£200) finally arrived, I bought myself two pairs of shoes.

When I first saw one of my books on a bookstore shelf I started what has turned out to be a long family tradition, now being carried out loyally by my grown-up children.  I moved it to a much more prominent display space.


I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I love Parnell Hall’s video about book signings.  What is the most unusual experience you’ve had at a book signing or audience event?

My first novel was called  The Monkey Game.  It was published in 1964.   It was about the current craze for professional wrestling, which was very big on television at the time.  It was widely and quite well reviewed and I was invited to discuss it on a book programme for a regional television company called Southern Television.  The interview was also broadcast on the national radio programme called Today.

In a headlock...

In my book I had been quite disparaging about the authenticity of the sport.  Also on the panel was a professional wrestling promoter, a very tough hombre indeed.  He did not take kindly to my disparaging remarks about ‘fixed’ wrestling bouts.  After the broadcast we all adjourned to the bar.  The promoter persisted in insisting that wrestling was on the up and up.  To prove this he suddenly put me in a headlock, while the horrified broadcasting crew looked on.  As I staggered helplessly around the bar with my head clamped against the behemoth’s side, I thought to myself, ‘I wonder if Gore Vidal or William Faulkner ever had to put up with this?’


The way some people talk, the only way to read now or in the future is with some sort of electronic device, like the Nooks my husband and I own.  What is your opinion of ebooks, and how will they effect you as a published author?

I had grave doubts about the efficacy of giving up the quill pen.  I am perfectly prepared to let those who understand such things debate the future of the printed word.

On Sale Now!

Thank you so much for giving us this chance to get to know you a little better, Mr. Kent. May your book sales do nothing but increase!

My review of Devil-Devil.

My review of One Blood.

 

One Blood by Graeme Kent

Title: One Blood
Author: Graeme Kent
ISBN: 9781616950583
Publisher: Soho Crime, 2012
Hardcover, 304 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, #2 Sergeant Kella and Sister Conchita mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Publicist

First Line: The Japanese destroyer came out of the night at forty knots like a huge shark snarling across the lagoon.

Sister Conchita may be just a bit too forthright and prone to act now and ask forgiveness later. She's been sent to a run-down mission in the Western District of the Solomon Islands. Her assignment being only temporary, she's still determined to wake up the four obstinate elderly nuns and get their help in cleaning up the place. Her plans don't get off to a good start. On the mission's very first open day, they are besieged by tourists,  two of the four nuns are AWOL, and a man is killed in the chapel. Sister Conchita can't believe that the government is content to call a very suspicious death a heart attack, and she is not prepared to let the matter rest.

Normally she would ask Ben Kella for help. Kella, a sergeant in the Solomon Islands Police Force and an aofia (hereditary spiritual peacekeeper of the Lau people), he's assigned to investigate the sabotage that's been threatening the local operations of an international logging company.

As Sister Conchita and Kella begin their investigations, they discover common elements-- especially three strange, unfriendly men who are very interested in the islands of Kasolo and Olasana. You see, it's 1960, and in a few weeks the people of the United States will be deciding whether to vote for Richard Nixon or John F. Kennedy as President. The islands of Kasolo and Olasana are where the survivors of PT 109 hid from the Japanese and tried to recuperate. Although it's not the first time strangers have come sniffing around in search of stories about Kennedy, there's something different... something ominous... about these men.

Once again Graeme Kent has written a mystery that transported me to the Solomon Islands of the 1960s. In this place, at this time, World War II is not a thing of the past. People canoe across lagoons over the easily visible twisted hulks of fighter planes and ships. The "good old boy" colonial government is still at work, filled with officials who do not want to admit that their days are numbered and that the educated young islanders they're ignoring today will be the leaders of tomorrow. Smugglers still know the secret coves and hiding places of these waters, and they use them.

Having a main character who's not only a policeman but a spiritual leader of his people gives the reader a chance to learn the customs of the peoples of the Solomon Islands in a very non-intrusive way. Many times Kella responds to the summons for a policeman and discovers that his services as aofia are really required.

I have to admit that the plot line concerning JFK put me in a pair of blinders that shielded me from almost everything else but Kent's excellent cast of characters. The author seems to know instinctively when it's time to insert a laugh-out-loud funny piece of humor to lighten the mood, and although those old nuns in that run-down mission could be by turns infuriating and heartbreaking, they could also be  extremely funny.

Sister Conchita is as headstrong and stubborn a person as one will ever meet, and one has to wonder who's going to give up first: Sister Conchita or the Catholic Church. Sister Conchita and Ben Kella are both outsiders in their own worlds who want to make things right. Pairing them is a bit of genius.

As I said earlier, the plot line concerning JFK had me so engrossed that when the solutions to the other threads concerning the murder of the man in the mission chapel and the sabotage at the logging company site were revealed, I was completely surprised. That doesn't happen very often at all.

When I read the first book in the series, Devil-Devil, I thought it could be the start of something very special. Now after reading One Blood, I know this is something very special. Let this series be your next armchair journey to a beautiful faraway land filled with fascinating customs, wonderful characters, and delectable mysteries. Then your smile will be as big and as bright as my own when I hear of Graeme Kent's newest book.

One Blood at Amazon.

One Blood at The Book Depository.

One Blood at Your Favorite Indie Bookseller.

Please stop by Monday, March 5, 

when Graeme Kent will be my guest on 

Scene of the Crime!

February 2012 New Mystery Releases!

Having just returned from a very relaxing week down in Bisbee, Arizona, it seems as though January flew by even more rapidly than the previous months. What is there about vacation time that makes it go by so much quicker?

Even though it seems impossible, it's time to gather up all the information about the books I'm looking forward to in February. I've already gotten my hands on a few of them, and let me tell you, there's some excellent reading to be found in the month ahead!

As usual, the books are grouped by release dates, and I've included the information you'll need to find them at all your favorite book spots. Here's to a brand-new year of reading!

===February 2===

Title: The Glass Room

Author: Ann Cleeves

Series: #5 Vera Stanhope set in East Yorkshire, England.

ISBN: 9780230745827

Publisher: Macmillan

Hardcover, 352 pages

*UK release*

Synopsis: "DI Vera Stanhope is not one to make friends easily, but her hippie neighbors keep her well-supplied in homebrew and conversation so she has more tolerance for them than most. When one of them goes missing she feels duty-bound to find out what happened. But her path leads her to more than a missing friend. It’s an easy job to track the young woman down to the Writer’s House, a country retreat where aspiring authors gather to workshop and work through their novels. It gets complicated when a body is discovered and Vera’s neighbor is found with a knife in her hand. Calling in the team, Vera knows that she should hand the case over to someone else. She’s too close to the main suspect. But the investigation is too tempting and she’s never been one to follow the rules. There seems to be no motive. No meaning to the crime. Then another body is found, and Vera suspects that someone is playing games with her. Somewhere there is a killer who has taken murder off the page and is making it real...." 

===February 7===

Title: The Walled Flower

Author: Lorraine Bartlett

Series: #2 in the Victoria Square series set in upstate New York.

ISBN: 9780425246160

Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime

Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "If Katie Bonner's late husband hadn't invested all their savings in the crafts fair Artisans Alley, the Webster mansion could have been hers to remodel into a bed-and-breakfast. Instead that dream belongs to another young couple. But that dream becomes a nightmare when a skeleton is discovered sealed in the walls of the mansion. The bones belong to Helen Winston, who went missing twenty-two years ago. Heather's aunt, a jewelry vendor at Artisans Alley, asks Kate for help finding her niece's murderer. The case may be cold, but the killer is very much alive-- and ready to go to any lengths to keep past secrets buried...."

Title: One Blood

Author: Graeme Kent

Series: #2 in the Ben Kella and Sister Conchita series set in the 1960s Solomon Islands.

ISBN: 9781616950583

Publisher: Soho Crime

Hardcover, 304 pages

*Upcoming review and author interview on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "Once again, Ben Kella has his hands full. A sergeant in the Solomon Islands Police Force, as well as an aofia, a hereditary spiritual peacekeeper of the Lau people, he’s called to investigate acts of sabotage that threaten the local operations of a powerful international logging company.

Meanwhile, Sister Conchita, a young nun with a flair for detection, has been forced to assume command of a run-down mission in the lush Western District of the Solomon Islands. When an American tourist is murdered in the mission church, she and Kella join forces to uncover the links between these goings-on and a sudden upsurge of interest in John F. Kennedy, who was once a wartime U.S. naval officer in the area but now, in 1960, thousands of miles away, about to become the thirty-fifth American President. Set in one of the most beautiful areas of the South Pacific, One Blood is the second entry in an exciting new series."

Title: Desert Wind

Author: Betty Webb 
Series: #7 in the Lena Jones Private Investigator series set in Arizona.
ISBN: 9781590589816
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Paperback, 250 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "When P.I. Lena Jones’s Pima Indian partner Jimmy Sisiwan is arrested in the remote northern Arizona town of Walapai Flats, Lena closes the Desert Investigations office and rushes to his aid. What she finds is a town up in arms over a new uranium mine located only ten miles from the magnificent Grand Canyon. Jimmy’s sister-in-law, founder of Victims of Uranium Mining, has been murdered, but the opposing side is taken hits, too. Ike Donohue, the mine’s public relations flak, is found shot to death, casting suspicion on Jimmy and his entire family. During Lena’s investigation, she finds not only a community decimated by dangerous mining practices, but a connection to actor John Wayne and the mysterious deaths resulting from the 1953 filming of “The Conqueror.” Gabe Boone, a wrangler on that doomed film, is still alive, but the only person the aged man will confide in is John Wayne’s ghost. It’s up to Lena to penetrate Gabe’s defenses and find out the decades-old tragedy no one in Walapai Flats wants to talk about. By delving into the area’s history, Lena learns that old sins never die; they’re still taking lives. As with “Desert Wives: Polygamy Can Be Murder,” this seventh book in the Lena Jones series exposes real life crimes, and the reason why high-ranking government officials want those crimes to remain under wraps."

Title: Old Haunts
Author: E.J. Copperman
Series: #3 in the Haunted Guesthouse series set in New Jersey.
ISBN: 9780425246207
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "The ghosts haunting Alison Kerby's Jersey Shore guesthouse are sad. Maxie wants to know who murdered her ex-husband, and Paul pines for his still-living almost-fiancee. The only one who isn't missing her ex is Alison-- because The Swine just arrived on her doorstep...."

Title: Buried in a Book
Author: Lucy Arlington
Series: #1 in the Novel Idea series set in North Carolina.
ISBN: 9780425246191
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Mass Market Paperback, 304 pages

Synopsis: "After losing her job as a journalist at the age of forty-five, Lila Wilkins accepts an internship at A Novel Idea, a thriving literary agency in North Carolina. Being paid to read seems perfect to Lila, although it's difficult with the cast of quirky co-workers and piles of query letters. But when a penniless aspiring author drops dead in the agency's waiting room-- and Lila discovers a series of threatening letters-- she's determined to find out who wrote him off."

Title: No Mark Upon Her
Author: Deborah Crombie 
Series: #14 in the Kincaid and James series set in England.
ISBN: 9780061990618
Publisher: William Morrow
Hardcover, 384 pages

*Upcoming review and author interview on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "When a K9 search-and-rescue team discovers a woman's body tangled up with debris in the river, Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself heading an investigation fraught with complications. The victim, Rebecca Meredith, was a talented but difficult woman with many admirers—and just as many enemies. An Olympic contender on the verge of a controversial comeback, she was also a high-ranking detective with the Met—a fact that raises a host of political and ethical issues in an already sensitive case.

To further complicate the situation, a separate investigation, led by Detective Inspector Gemma James, Kincaid's wife, soon reveals a disturbing—and possibly related—series of crimes, widening the field of suspects. But when someone tries to kill the search-and-rescue team member who found Rebecca's body, the case becomes even more complex and dangerous, involving powerful interests with tentacles that reach deep into the heart of the Met itself.

Surrounded by enemies with friendly faces, pressured to find answers quickly while protecting the Yard at all costs, his career and reputation on the line, Kincaid must race to catch the killer before more innocent lives are lost—including his own."

===February 8===

Title: Gem of a Ghost

Author: Sue Ann Jaffarian
Series: #3 in the Ghost of Granny Apples series set in California.
ISBN: 9780738713816
Publisher: Midnight Ink
Paperback, 336 pages

Synopsis: "When overbearing, ultra-rich Joanna Reid demands that Emma Whitecastle get rid of the ghost of her late husband Max, a former action film star who was killed in a car accident, Emma intends to refuse. But when Joanna reveals that she thinks Max killed himself, Emma decides to help find out why the film star’s spirit has returned. Joanna may know more than she lets on, including why Lainey, her daughter with Max, has attempted suicide multiple times. Emma and Granny Apples have their “nosing about” work cut out for them in this multi-faceted, ghost-filled mystery."

===February 14===

Title: Night Rounds

Author: Helene Tursten

Series: #2 in the Detective Inspector Irene Huss series set in Goteborg, Sweden.

ISBN: 9781616950064

Publisher: Soho Crime

Hardcover, 336 pages

*Upcoming review on Kittling: Books*

Synopsis: "Irene Huss is a former Ju-Jitsu champion, a mother of twin teenage girls, the wife of a successful chef, and a Detective Inspector with the Violent Crimes Unit in Goteborg, Sweden. 

One nurse lies dead and another vanishes after their hospital is hit by a blackout. The only witness claims to have seen Nurse Tekla doing her rounds, but Nurse Tekla died sixty years ago. Detective Inspector Irene Huss of the Violent Crimes Unit has the challenge of disentangling wandering ghosts and complex human relationships to get to the bottom of this intriguing case."

===February 28===

Title: Archive 17

Author: Sam Eastland

Series: #3 in the Inspector Pekkala series set in Stalinist Russia.

ISBN: 9780345525734

Publisher: Bantam

Hardcover, 272 pages

Synopsis: "It is 1939. Russia teeters on the verge of war with Germany. It is also on the brink of bankruptcy. To preserve his regime, Stalin orders a search for the legendary missing gold of Tsar Nicholas II. For this task, he chooses Pekkala, the former investigator for the Tsar. To accomplish his mission, Pekkala will go undercover, returning to Siberia and the nightmare of his own past, where he was once a prisoner in the notorious Gulag known as Borodok.

Pekkala must infiltrate a gang of convicts still loyal to the Tsar who, it is rumored, know the whereabouts of the precious gold. He soon learns that the best-kept secrets are those that no one even knows exist.

In the brutal frozen fortress where his survival once made him a myth, he begins to unravel the true identity of a murdered inmate, whose own mission to Siberia has lain buried for years deep within the mysterious Archive 17, where long-lost files obscure a shocking conspiracy that could decide the future of the Soviet Union itself. As more people die around him, Pekkala must decide where his true loyalties lie, or else take his place among the dead.

With the superb research and stunning suspense that are his trademarks, Sam Eastland delivers his most powerful Pekkala novel yet—the best in a mystery series riveting readers and reviewers alike."

That's it for this month! Have I tempted you with any of these titles???

Devil-Devil by Graeme Kent

Title: Devil-Devil, A Sister Conchita and Sergeant Kella Mystery
Author: Graeme Kent
ISBN: 9781569478738
Publisher: Soho Crime, 2011
Hardcover, 288 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery, #1 Sister Conchita and Sergeant Kella mystery
Rating: A+
Source: Purchased from Amazon.

First Line: Sister Conchita clung to the sides of the small dugout canoe as the waves pounded over the frail vessel, soaking its two occupants.

It is 1960 in the Solomon Islands, which saw some of the fiercest fighting during World War II (Guadalcanal among other battles). Memories of those days are still vivid. Sergeant Ben Kella of the Solomon Islands Police Force knows those days quite well, but he has many other things on his mind. Educated by the whites and now a member of their police force, Kella is still the aofia (spiritual peacekeeper) of the Lau people. His dual roles mean that neither the British colonial government nor the native peoples trust him 100%.

New to the islands is Sister Conchita, a young Catholic nun from Chicago who chose her name because she thought she was being posted to South America and wanted to fit in. She wants to learn native customs and to help these people as much as she possibly can. Her vows of poverty and chastity won't be problems for her, but her vow of obedience may be a backbreaker. Her impetuous desire for doing the right thing means bent and broken rules everywhere she goes:

In any case, it had always been her philosophy that it was better to apologize profusely after the event than to neglect an opportunity when it arose.

Sergeant Kella has been busy. Within a matter of a few days, he's been cursed by a shaman, stumbled across evidence of an uprising, and been unable to find a missing American anthropologist. When he stops at one of the mission stations, he finds Sister Conchita trying to bury a skeleton on the sly. Little does he know that he'll soon be teaming up with Sister Conchita to solve a series of murders that tie in with all these strange happenings.

Plain and simple-- I loved this book. Author Graeme Kent was a Schools Broadcasting Officer in the Solomon Islands during the 1960s, and he immersed me in the culture of the place without being heavy-handed or pedantic. He also painted a vivid portrait of the Solomons during World War II with a very few strokes... just enough to fire the imagination and illuminate portions of the plot.

The two main characters, Sergeant Ben Kella and Sister Conchita, are two of the most interesting characters that I've come across recently in crime fiction. With their differences in culture and temperament and their similar penchant for doing what they think right regardless of the prattling of their superiors, they are going to make a wonderful crime-fighting team. (They're pretty good at cracking jokes, too.)

I can't wait for more books to appear in this series!

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