The Keeper of Hands

Starred review from May 13, 2013
The discovery of the nude and strangled corpse of a 19-year-old prostitute known as Mitzi propels Jones’s masterful fourth mystery set in early-20th-century Vienna (after 2011’s The Silence). Josephine Mutzenbacher, Mitzi’s madam, hires Hans Gross, the real-life pioneering criminologist, and Karl Werthen, a private enquiry agent and lawyer, to investigate. Werthen’s discovery of a letter that Mitzi wrote in code and hid in a Bible—specifically in the part of the Book of Joshua that refers to the harlot Rahab concealing Israelite spies—suggests that the victim may also have been involved in the world’s second-oldest profession. Another woman’s murder raises the stakes. Werthen and Gross’s inquiries come to the notice of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose revelations about conflict between the country’s different intelligence services add another dimension to the case. Top-notch detecting and characterizations bolster the intricate plot. Agent: John Talbot, Talbot Fortune Agency.

August 17, 2015
Early in Masters’s gripping sixth Martha Gunn mystery (after 2014’s The Devil’s Chair), the gatekeeper at Moreton Corbet Castle, an English Heritage site in Shropshire, discovers while inspecting the castle’s grounds a homeless man with his throat slashed. Det. Insp. Alex Randall leads the investigation in a most baffling murder case, while coroner Martha plays a subsidiary role. The few clues make identifying the victim unusually difficult. More questions arise once the police learn that he was a nice guy, polite and well-spoken, with no history of drug or alcohol abuse. How did he fall so completely off the grid? Alex becomes as eager to understand what motivated the dead man to abandon his respectable life as he is to catch the man’s killer. The intricate plot slowly builds momentum until reaching a surprising resolution. Details that hint at future developments for several characters will leave readers eager for the next installment.