The Big Empty
Classic detective novels don’t need to be set in Los Angeles. The protagonist does not have to drive a vintage Corvette convertible, and they don’t necessarily require a loyal and lethal sidekick. It is not imperative that the narrative be spun in the first person. That said, it is a formula that has worked for the better part of 40 years for author Robert Crais, demonstrated ably in his latest installment in the Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series, The Big Empty. When the antique Mickey Mouse phone rings on the desk of private investigator Elvis (self-described as “the world’s greatest detective”), he picks up and finds himself in a conversation with the somewhat harried assistant of Traci Beller, a hugely popular social media influencer. Traci is too busy to meet Cole at his office, but if he comes to her, she will give him $1,000 whether he accepts the case or not. It turns out that she wants to hire him to find out what happened to her father, who disappeared 10 years ago: “He called my mom after lunch, told her he was running late, and we never heard from him again. So it was like, poof, he vanished.” Cases don’t get much colder, but Cole agrees to look into it, cautioning Traci not to expect miracles. But before long, Cole can use a miracle or two of his own, as he is savagely beaten by a gang of criminals intent on derailing his investigation at any cost. Oh, and the big finish? It was such a shock and surprise that I went back and read it again.
The Note
Alafair Burke’s latest, The Note, follows three women: May, Lauren and Kelsey, who have been lifelong friends since attending the same summer camp ages ago. They decide to do a girls trip together, a few relaxing days in an Airbnb in the Hamptons. They need it—they have been embroiled in three separate and very public scandals, and they think a seaside vacation will be both fun and cathartic. They are so wrong. As they arrive at a local lunch spot, they discover that parking is at a premium. They patiently await a person exiting a space, only to have it snagged by a driver coming from the other direction. They are annoyed to the point where one of them leaves a note on the car’s windshield that says, “He’s cheating. He always does.” It certainly seems as if it might sow a bit of disharmony between the male driver and his attractive female passenger, some minor naughty payback for the stolen parking spot. It is all fun and games, as they say, until someone turns up dead: in this case, the driver. When the police discover the existence of the note, bit by bit the investigation leads them toward the three women. As their mutual trust begins to break down, alliances shift and reshift. One character is a murderer. Good luck figuring out which one.
Invisible Helix
Keigo Higashino’s beloved character Professor Galileo (aka Manabu Yukawa) returns in Invisible Helix, the latest from Japan’s preeminent suspense author. This book relies less on Yukawa’s detecting skills than some of the previous installments in the series, but is nonetheless a compelling read loaded with Japanese scenery and culture, with a storyline chock-full of secrets past and present. It starts with a baby being left on the doorstep of an orphanage by a young mother devoid of options. By means of a very twisty path, it winds forward two generations to the present, in which people are still shaped by, and acting on, events that happened in their parents’ and grandparents’ day. Professor Galileo gets involved after a murder takes place—no surprise there—and his longtime friend Chief Inspector Kusanagi summons him to assist. Invisible Helix is a very different book than I expected given its predecessors in the series, but I quite liked it all the same. (A brief aside: I lived in Tokyo when the first Professor Galileo book, The Devotion of Suspect X, was released in English. Oddly, as I was reading, I found myself predicting what would happen next at every turn. Some time later, I realized that I had actually seen the Japanese movie based on the book, well before the book’s translation into English.)
★ The Lost House
It’s no secret among BookPage mystery and suspense readers that I am a devotee of Nordic noir, as I often wax poetic about the subgenre. But who would have thought that a superb Nordic noir novel would emanate from the pen (or more likely, keyboard) of an American writer? Melissa Larsen’s The Lost House is that book. On the 40th anniversary of a double murder that rocked Iceland, Agnes, the American granddaughter of the presumed—but not convicted—killer, goes to the small town of Bifröst to participate in a podcast about the homicide. She has always believed her grandfather to be innocent, but she is in the distinct minority. Now, after her grandfather’s slow decline and death, Agnes has decided to visit her ancestral homeland for the first time in an attempt to get some closure. Then, as if in response to the grim anniversary, a local girl goes missing in the harsh Icelandic wilderness. Suspicions of foul play abound, and the buzz around the town is that it is at least peripherally connected to the 40-year-old cold case. The characters are all conflicted and vividly drawn, the milieu is pitch-perfect and the resolution is by turns heartbreaking and strangely uplifting. The Lost House is the first must-read thriller of 2025.