Darkness, Sing Me a Song

November 6, 2017
In Edgar-winner Housewright’s welcome fourth outing for St. Paul, Minn., PI Holland Taylor, last seen in 1999’s Dearly Departed, Holland tries to clear wealthy client Eleanor Barrington of fatally shooting Emily Denys, who was dating her son, Joel. The evidence is against Eleanor: she threatened to kill Emily, who was struck by a bullet from a nine-millimeter handgun, a weapon that Eleanor purchased years before, though it’s now missing. Complications follow. Joel accuses his mother of the murder and of sexually abusing him; a neighbor claims that she saw Eleanor shoot Emily in the head; and the identity of the victim, whose past is shrouded in mystery, comes into question. A connection between Emily’s murder and that of the mayor of Arona, Wis., puts Holland on a trail that involves a fracking company and a group of right-wing extremists. Meanwhile, Holland has to deal with Devon, Eleanor’s volatile 16-year-old daughter, who seems to have a crush on him. The knots are many and messy, and Holland shows he has the wit and character to untangle them. Agent: Alison Picard, Alison J. Picard Agency.

December 1, 2017
An impossible assignment leads Twin Cities shamus Holland Taylor, who's been sidelined ever since Dearly Departed (1999), to an even more combustible case in the past.Hired by socialite widow Eleanor Barrington's pet attorney, David Helin, to check out the bona fides of Emily Denys, her son's gold-hunting girlfriend, Taylor has barely had time to discover that her name isn't really Emily Denys when the case is propelled into more explosive territory by the fatal shooting of the subject. Now Taylor's supposed to find evidence that will exonerate his imperious client--a tall order given that Joel Barrington is certain that his mother killed his girl and that Emily's neighbor Alexandra Campbell actually saw her pull the trigger. The case seems hopeless until Taylor's friend and ex-partner, St. Paul Police Department Assistant Chief Anne Scalasi, tells him that the bullet fired from the missing murder weapon shows the same marks as the one that killed Todd Franson, the mayor of Arona, Wisconsin, a year ago. Naturally Taylor hikes out to Arona, which is gratifyingly populated with citizens who hated Franson because of his anti-environmental scams, his quarrels with the local cops, and his sex life. But what does this bumper crop of suspects in another state have to do with the death of Emily Denys, whoever she was?Housewright (Unidentified Woman #15, 2015, etc.) resurrects an appealingly troubled, self-tormenting hero who assures himself, "you're the most pathetic human being alive," even as he's dodging bullets, decking assailants, making nice to his neighbor's 11-year-old daughter, and coming up with a solution as dark as the mystery.

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August 1, 2017

Burdened by the long-ago death of his wife and daughter and the collapse of a promising new relationship, PI Holland Taylor only wants straightforward cases such as background checks, so he's content when gilt-edged Eleanor Barrington hires him to investigate her son's out-of-nowhere fiancee Emily Denys. Just as Holland discovers that Emily has made up her name and story, Emily's head is blown to smithereens, and Eleanor is accused of murder. Series starter Penance won an Edgar for Best First Novel.

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