March 1, 2022
How's this for a shock-inducing opening? A penitent enters a confessional and, skipping the ""Bless me, Father,"" blasts six rounds through the partition and into the priest. Such a beginning will have readers thinking they're in for a blood fest, but author Buchanan has something else in mind. She's created a hot pot out of chunks of subgenres, and after the hard-boiled intro, we're in a cozy kitchen, sampling baked brie with ripe melon. Readers who roll with this can likely absorb a third subgenre, the Christie country-house, here artfully disguised as a writers' retreat in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. The skullduggery goes on amid scenes with, among others, an Afghanistan war vet, a lawyer, a photographer, a chef, and the priest-killer, and Buchanan shows a sure hand as an action writer as the latter comes to the fore and the botched drug heist behind the killings is revealed. A smooth, ultra-professional read, but the character who lingers is the iconoclast of the title. She doesn't bake anything, but once, after an arrest, she murdered her court-appointed therapist.
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December 1, 2021
A former cop goes up against the mob in Buchanan's second mystery series installment. Sean "Mick" McPherson has little time to unwind after the events of Indelible(2021), in which Mick's fiancee, Emma Benton, was kidnapped by Jason Hughes, who was later killed. This story opens with the brutal murder of Father Paddy MacCullough, the brother of Mick's brother-in-law, Niall MacCullough. The hit was ordered by crime boss Giorgio "The Bull" Gambino because of his concern about what Hughes might have confessed to Paddy, a hospital chaplain. Soon, Emma is targeted by an assassin masquerading as an author at the writing retreat Pines & Quill, operated by Niall and Libby (Mick's sister); later, a sniper attempts to kill Emma while she's on a whale-watching boat. It turns out that Gambino is seeking to protect his asset Toni Bianco, a dirty cop who's the mobster's mole in the local police department. Mick and his law enforcement allies work to find Paddy's killer while also protecting Emma from her pursuers. This propulsive novel ably expands Buchanan's entertaining series, which is built primarily on engaging characterization. Mick and Emma both continue to grow as people, with Mick deciding to become an armed private investigator and Emma striving to walk again after the events of the previous book. Niall fights through the pain of his brother's murder and continues, with Libby, to run Pines & Quill with authority. Various characters contribute small clues to the complex, central mystery, and the story offers readers context regarding Gambino's sinister plans and explains why a crime boss would care so much about the confessions of a single man. The big question is how long will Buchanan continue to hide a villain among the retreat's visitors? Readers will look forward to future series entries. An involving thriller with compelling characters.
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