Fakes and Lies

March 5, 2018
In Adams’s plodding 12th Naomi Blake mystery set in the British Midlands (after 2016’s A Murderous Mind), 19-year-old Bee Jones is certain that her late father, artist and successful forger Freddie Jones, was murdered, even though the police have determined that he died of natural causes. Shortly before his death, Freddie told Bee his life was in danger. She asks Bob Taylor, a friend of her father’s, for help. Bob in turn consults Naomi, a blind former police detective. Freddie’s death soon ties in with the ruthless murder of gallery owner Antonia Scott and the theft of a portfolio of Freddie’s drawings. The jumbled story that follows includes a kidnapping, torture, multiple murders, and a fire bombing. While Naomi, a pleasant woman who’s no astute thinker, sits at her specially adapted computer gathering data, Bob, Bob’s wife, and Det. Insp. Karen Morgan run after clues and confront villains. A hazy mixture of police procedural, psychological thriller, and cozy, this outing will please series fans, but others may wonder what to make of it.

February 15, 2016
The tenth Naomi Blake mystery finds Naomi and her husband, Alec, adjusting to a dramatic new phase in their lives. She is now blind due to an accident, and Alec has retired; though no longer police officers, they are not finished with investigations. When a young student at a nearby university is brutally murdered, the police discover links to a series of cold cases. DI Tess Fuller and her partner, DS Vin Dattani, discover that the investigating officer on one of the old cases, Joe Jackson, thought he knew the identity of the perpetrator. Jackson, now dead and discredited, cannot help, but Naomi, his protegee, may have useful information. Along with Naomi and Alec, who play background roles in the intricate story, readers hear from the primary investigators, the students affected by the death of their friend, and some mysterious friends of the retired sleuths. This is a fine British procedural that will engage readers immediately and hold their attention until justice is done.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2018
Freddie Jones, an artist, is dead. His daughter, Bee, suspects foul play, so she enlists the aid of an artist friend of her father's, Bob Taylor, and former police officer Naomi Blake. When another body turns up and a portfolio of Jones' work disappears, it looks like Bee wasn't just imagining things. But solving the murder proves to be a lot more complicated than simply finding out whodunit, especially when details concerning Freddie's less-than-honorable professional life come to light. The long-running Blake series is noteworthy not just for its cleverly plotted mysteries but also for its lead character, who is, unusually for the mystery genre, blind. This lends an extra level of complexity to the story, since clues have to be planted in the narrative in such a way that it would seem natural that a woman who cannot see would pick up on them. Adams also keeps us guessing with Bob Taylor, who might have some secrets of his own he'd really prefer no one discovered. Another fine entry in a special mystery series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)