A Dark and Deadly Deception

October 31, 2005
Unspoken fears, guilty secrets and divisions between rich and poor serve as the unsettling backdrop for Bland's well-crafted 13th Marti MacAlister mystery (after 2004's A Cold and Silent Dying
), set in Lincoln Prairie, Ill. When the body of Savannah Payne-Jones, a 43-year-old black actress and known gambler, washes up on the shore of the Des Plaines River, Marti and her detective partner, Matthew "Vik" Jessenovik, investigate. Marti and Vik are also under pressure to identify the skeleton of a 28-year-old mixed-race male, apparently shot in the chest and sealed in the closet of an old building for more than 50 years. To make matters worse, Marti and Vik must each cope with the illnesses of their respective spouses. Meanwhile, several elderly residents of Lincoln Prairie guard family secrets that could provide important clues to solving the two murders. Bland's deft use of flashbacks not only builds suspense but adds complexity to her characters.

November 1, 2005
In Bland's 13th Marti MacAlister mystery (e.g., "Windy City Dying" ), the Chicago homicide detective and her partner, Matthew, investigate the death of a Hollywood actress, as well as the remains of another gunshot victim.

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2005
Homicide detective Marti MacAlister from the fictional Chicago suburb of Lincoln Prairie (read Waukegan) returns in the thirteenth installment of the series. Marti and her longtime partner, Matthew "Vik" Jessenovik, split their time between local work and special task-force assignments. There aren't many homicides in their fairly quiet town, which makes it easy for Marti's cranky sergeant to fill her days with pointless busywork. One such seemingly dead-end assignment, trying to identify some 50-year-old bones, suddenly takes on new significance when links are made between it and a high-profile case involving the body of a middle-aged actress washed up in floodwaters. The jewelry missing from her corpse seems to hold the answers, but someone doesn't want Marti and Vik to ask the questions. A welcome new entree in a solid police series (and one of the few featuring a female African American). Recommend this to readers of Paula L. Woods' Charlotte Justice series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)