Can You Solve the Crime in These Four Novels?

by MK French

Do you like to try to solve the mystery before the characters do, or are you just along for the roller coaster ride? However you enjoy crime fiction, you will want to check out these four books.

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The Classified Dossier - Sherlock Holmes and Dorian Gray by Christian Klaver

March 2025; Titan Books; 978-1789098716
audio, ebook, print (368 pages); mystery

In 1903, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson bought tickets to the Circus of Amun-Ra. Performers are dressed as Egyptian gods but don't speak any Arabic and take orders from a ringmaster no one has seen. When one of the performers is murdered, Holmes takes up the case. During the investigation, he approaches the owner of a particular townhouse in Grosvenor Square: Dorian Gray.

This novel mixes the Victorian mystery and horror tropes. It's the third in a series of Classified Dossier novels, but it's not necessary to have read those first. To somewhat spoil those two prior novels, the dynamic duo had worked with Jekyll and Hyde, as well as Count Dracula. These characters aren't quite like their novel counterparts, with the novels we know written by men who tried to obscure the true version. Those of us who know Dorian Gray will feel like they have one up on Sherlock Holmes, especially when he doesn't know the significance of the painting. The Circus is full of beast men, cleverly hidden by costumes that hide the features or make the public think that it's all masks. These creatures are in fact an amalgam of animals and are capable of speech and walking upright. If you know your classic literature, you'll probably guess their origin long before it's revealed. 

The mix of literary characters in the same universe is clever and I was delighted by the big reveal halfway through the book. The second half is about trying to find the murderer, Holmes style. The allies he has have their own supernatural abilities, so Lestrade isn't too put out to be sidelined. As we discover more about the origins of the creatures, of Dorian himself, and see the assembled characters try to track down the truth, there are fight scenes, a cat-and-mouse game, and a final confrontation. I enjoyed seeing Holmes and the supernatural in this book, and I'm sure there will be more books in this series. 

Buy The Classified Dossier - Sherlock Holmes and Dorian Gray at Amazon

Saltwater by Katy Hays

March 2025; Ballantine Books; 978-0593875551
audio, ebook, print (336 pages); psychological thriller

Sarah Lingate died below the cliffs of Capri in 1992, leaving behind her three-year-old daughter Helen. The death was ruled accidental, and the family continued to gather on Capri every year. On the thirtieth anniversary of Sarah’s death, the Lingates arrive and find the necklace Sarah was wearing the night she died. Helen uses the opportunity to investigate her paranoid family with the help fo the family assistant Lorna Moreno. When Lorna disappears and the investigation into Sarah’s death is reopened, Helen is faced with the uncomfortable truth that everyone who was on Capri thirty years ago is a suspect and even Lorna might not be who she seems. Secrets are now coming to light, and it's unlikely that everyone will leave the island alive.

The story has different parts, with different timelines meeting to inform the reader. There's Lorna's POV prior to her disappearance, complete with countdown, Helen's POV, and we occasionally get a glimpse of Sarah prior to her death. Money isn't all it's cracked up to be; Helen for years was controlled, isolated, monitored, and expressly told what she was allowed to do in order to keep her family name and legacy clean. Even her boyfriend is vetted ahead of time and presented to her. The trust fund her mother set up in order to protect her with an independent income was kept from her and raided, making her wholly dependent on the family. She met Lorna and introduced her to her uncle, and her uncle invited Lorna along on a whim; even this friendship gets folded into family affairs. 

Helen's caught in this trap, and the people around her aren't nice to each other or to people they consider lesser. Asking about the past doesn't yield answers until the second half of the book when we finally discover the secrets her parents have kept. Even then, when we see what everyone is capable of and what they have done, we still get shocked at the end with other POV chapters. People aren't what they seem to be, and the final chapters truly bear that out.

Buy Saltwater at Amazon

I Would Die for You by Sandie Jones

March 2025; Minotaur Books; 978-1250910035
audio, ebook, print (320 pages); domestic thriller

In 2011 California, Nicole Forbes lives a quiet life with her husband and daughter. Just when a writer asks about her views on the breakup of Secret Oktober, her daughter goes missing and the school claims her aunt picked her up. There is no aunt, so Nicole must revisit memories of 1986 London. Nicole's sixteen-year-old sister Cassie was obsessed with the band Secret Okotober and its lead singer Ben Edwards. But Ben is drawn to her older sister Nicole singing at a local bar.

First and foremost, Nicole's daughter Hannah is okay, and going missing was to scare Nicole and get the story started. We have two timelines, 1986 London where Cassie is drawn to Ben and follows the band around, skipping school and work, making friends with another groupie, and avoiding the slow, painful death of her mother. Her older sister Nicole was working and singing in bars and soon got involved with Ben too. The 2010 timeline involves an older Nicole working to save seals while her husband works on a Navy base. The two have underlying tension that comes to the surface when Hannah goes missing, and there are secrets they both have. Nicole's might be bigger, but it doesn't seem like they trust each other after all.

While the band and groupie scene undoubtedly reflects what often went on, I really didn't enjoy seeing the band members like that. Michael especially was obnoxious, with very little positive about him aside from musical talent. Ben looks great next to him, but I didn't find him charming either. I get it, they're teenagers, but I really had a hard time seeing any appeal. Nicole's so anxious in the 2010 timeline, and some of her actions make us doubt her version of events. The final third of the book moves back and forth between timelines and what we think we know about the past. While I don't particularly like any of the characters, their story was compelling and kept me up late to finish the book.

Buy I Would Die for You at Amazon

Something Wicked by John F. Myslinski and Michael McKinley

February 2025; Pierian Springs Press; 978-1953136886
print (312 pages); thriller

Sister Maureen O'Connor is a progressive American nun working to make women equal to men in the Roman Catholic Church. At a conference in Jerusalem, a bomb kills Sister Maureen and twelve other nuns. Sister Marie Therese De Bruyne, Father Dan Lanaham, and Jacqueline Brussard investigate the bombing. A terrorist group is blamed, and a terrorist that comes forward with information has surprising ties to Dan forty years ago. He claims that the bombing isn't because of a terrorist group, but the Vatican.

Women have always held a place within the Bible, supporting Jesus within his ministry, and were the first to witness his resurrection. Despite that, they never really held a place of power within the Catholic Church. Sister Marie Therese is part of a task force looking into the role of women within the church, serving as the executive director of the group Donne del Vaticano. Because she was all but threatened to back off by a cardinal, she missed the keynote address that killed Sister Maureen. Father Dan Lanaham is a Jesuit, normally in Jerusalem, and avoids the politicking that other priests and religious leaders engage in. He knows Pope Leo, who had been friends with Sister Maureen. Dan is sent back to Jerusalem to help with the investigation, which at first assumes a terrorist group is at fault. He pulls in his former student Jacqueline Broussard, a journalist, to help get to the truth. Even as they begin to look into Sister Maureen's work outside of campaigning for women's rights, people in Rome are already moving to gain power due to the Pope's failing health.

We're slowly introduced to all of the relationships between the characters, from the religious groups within the church to the Israeli intelligence and police force investigating. Father Dan had once been a teacher in Beirut, making them suspect past ties. We see those past ties in flashback sequences from his time as a teacher, where he begins a surreptitious love affair with Layla. As everyone begins digging, they start to see connections to different groups that are trying to move into the Vatican. It's always about money and power, and Sister Maureen had been poised to interfere with both.

The authors know the ins and outs of the Vatican and law enforcement. John Myslinski was a Jesuit, a capitol police officer, and is a Monsignor. Michael McKinley is an Oxford-educated journalist and screenwriter. There are a lot of explanations along the way since most of us won't know the ins and outs of how Popes are elected, which departments handle what responsibility, and how the succession of Popes are determined. We know what happened by the end, and know that it really isn't the end of the story after all. It drew me in to see the mystery solved. I can only hope that justice will come to the other nefarious players brought up in the book.

Buy Something Wicked at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and a golden retriever.

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