The Fairfax Incident

April 23, 2018
Set in 1933, this intriguing standalone from McCauley (A Conspiracy of Ravens and two other James Hicks thrillers) features former NYPD detective Charlie Doherty, who’s now a PI with a patron, Harriman Van Dorn, who steers wealthy clients his way. One such client, Eleanor Blythe Fairfax, hires Charlie to prove that her husband, Walter, was a murder victim, not a suicide. After reading the file, Charlie thinks it will be an open-and-shut case, his only duty to convince the widow that Walter’s death was indeed a suicide. But he reconsiders after finding that the initial police report omitted several important details, including two phone calls: one Walter received, and one he made shortly before his death. That someone later takes a shot at Charlie when he tries to open the safe in Walter’s office confirms it’s a case of homicide. The tension mounts as he gets on the trail of a plot to undermine the U.S. government. The closing patriotic note may be too saccharine for some, but readers will hope to see more of the likable, capable Charlie. Agent: Doug Grad, Doug Grad Literary.

May 1, 2018
It begins as a locked-room mystery. Sort of. A rich old guy locks himself in his office and is later found with his brains blown out. Suicide, everyone agrees, including private eye Charlie Doherty. But the old guy's widow won't have it. Suicide is something people like us just don't do, she says, and she hires Charlie to prove murder. Charlie sees his job as convincing her the official version is right. But, as he goes through the motions, odd things emerge. Why was a phone call not in the police report? An interview with a staffer left out? The key is the year. It's 1933, the Depression is crushing the country, and no-one was making dreams like they used to any more. A different dream is being dreamed in Germany, by committed lunatics who think they have God on their side. Charlie doesn't close the case until he's gone up against a group of heavily armed German Americans and found the link to the old man's death. The author has merged a classic detective story with a full-on actioner, and it works beautifully.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)