Francis Bacon said that “men fear Death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.” Why, then, do we tell tales that have death as their core? I sometimes hear the complaint that crime writers profit from the trivialization of death. There might be a kernel of truth in that. But I suggest that mystery fiction, on the metaphysical level, is about the struggle of Justice and Knowledge against Death. We can’t stop death, but mystery fiction may ameliorate its sting. After writing the following reviews, I noticed the first four titles all featured the word “Death” or one of its derivations.

Michael Stanley, Deadly Harvest, Harper Bourbon Street Books, $19.99. The disappearance of two young girls seems unconnected to the severed dog’s head found at the door of an arrogant and ambitious Botswanan politician. But in this fourth mystery featuring Detective Kubu Bengu, there are no coincidences. Tight plotting is seasoned with African culture and the uglier presence of political corruption, AIDS, and black magic. Detective Kubu is joined by Detective Samantha Khama, who helps unravel a mystery involving a witch doctor who is believable and utterly menacing.

Aaron Elkins, Dying on the Vine, Berkley Prime Crime, $25.95. The seventeenth book in Elkins’ award- winning Gideon Oliver series takes the anthropologist to Florence, Italy, where he’s been invited to lecture at a symposium on forensic science. But when presented with a sample case—the recently solved murder-suicide of a wealthy vintner and his wife—the American “Skeleton Detective” tells the lieutenant of the local carabinieri that the bones tell a different story. Dying on the Vine demonstrates Elkins’ skill at put-ting a modern twist on classical detection, with the forensic science of R. Austin Freeman, the witty storytelling of John Dickson Carr, and the clever plotting of both. 

M.L. Longworth, Death in the Vines, Penguin, $15.00.  While the police in Aix-en-Provence are investigating the looting of a private wine cellar, Magistrate Antoine Verlaque looks into the brutal rape of a young bank employee and the disappearance of a seventy-five-year- old woman. This is an intelligently written police procedural with the warm comfort of a baguette with banon cheese. As enjoyable as I found the author’s style, I suspect that in the writing her hard-to-follow plot took second fiddle to the rich flavor of the booksetting. 

Carolyn Hart, Dead, White, and Blue, Berkley Prime Crime, $25.95.  When the town trollop goes missing following a Fourth of July dance, no one is particularly upset. No one except mystery bookstore owner Annie Darling and her trouble-solving husband Max. They may be the only couple on the South Carolina island whose marriage hadn’t been damaged by the missing woman’s promiscuity. The villain’s identity is predictable, but Hart treats readers to a well-plotted investigation and a perfectly orchestrated denouement, complete with a public reenactment of the crime. The heroine’s role as a mystery bookseller gives Hart the chance to mention dozens of books and authors, including this magazine. 

Max Allan Collins, Seduction of the Innocent, Hard Case Crime, $9.59. A Senate subcommittee in 1954, sparked by a “study” linking comic books to juvenile delinquency, held hearings that developed into a witch trial singling out EC Comics publisher William Gaines. With his flair for blending fiction and historical events, Collins uses the title of that 1954 study and the backdrop of Senate hearings to tell the story of the murder of an anti-comic crusader, and of the comic-industry troubleshooter determined to find the killer. The novel is filled with illustrations by Collins’s comic book collaborator Terry Beatty.

Joanie McDonell, Bolero, Thomas & Mercer, $14.95. Memory is a theme running through this novel about an unorthodox private eye: the hero’s memories of the murder of his lover ten years earlier, and the total amnesia of his client, a beautiful ballerina. The book has elements of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee mysteries, including a hero who lives aboard a barge—one with the accoutrements of a large floating mansion —that he won in a poker game. The story is good, and when told in action and dialogue, it soars. But large pieces of expository writing and backstory weigh down much of this novel.

David Dean, The Thirteenth Child, Genius Book Publishing, $13.50.  Retired New Jersey police chief and EQMM Readers Choice winner David Dean has turned his talent for suspense to creating a most unusual vampire tale set in rural New Jersey. An alcoholic ex-professor serves first as ally and then as foil to a childlike creature with a taste for children’s blood. Meanwhile the local police chief keeps one eye on the professor’s attractive daughter and the other on the mounting evidence that the professor is involved in the disappearance of several local youths. The villain of the tale is a horrific creature worthy of Poe and Lovecraft and the story has echoes of the Swedish film Let the Right One In. 

Electronic devices such as Kindle, Nook, and tablet computers have transformed the reading habits of over 150 million people worldwide. There’s a good chance you’re reading this page on such a device. The technology has led to short stories and novelettes being sold as “singles.” What follows is a roundup highlighting a few of these.

Elizabeth Zelvin blends and bends genres in “Shifting is for the Goyim” (Untreed Reads, $1.50). Traveling country singer Emerald Love wrestles with her background as a Jewish girl from New York when she goes home for Passover. But the Jewish festival occurs during a full moon, and full moons bring out supernatural changes in certain people.

Sean Chercover’s tragic portrait, “Maybe Someday” (Shift Lock, $0.99, also included in his e-book anthology Eight Lies (About the Truth), $3.99) tells of a man’s obsession with a married woman after a brief affair.

Mysterious Press and Open Road have introduced a line of biblio-myteries—short stories and novelettes that feature books, bookstores, and book collectors in criminous plots. I’ve had the pleasure of reading several. Reed Farrell Coleman tells a beautiful tale of truth, lies, and redemption for a concentration-camp survivor in “The Book of Ghosts” (Mysterious Press, $1.99). Baltimore private eye Tess Monaghan pursues a book thief in Laura Lippman’s tribute to independent bookshops, “The Book Thing” (Mysterious Press, $1.99). In William Link’s “Death Leaves a Bookmark” (Mysterious Press, $1.99), Lieutenant Columbo looks for the killer of an antiquarian bookseller and attracts an ally who may be as ruthless as the killer himself. Other stories in the biblio-mysteries line include titles by Ken Bruen, Anne Perry, Nelson DeMille, Loren Estleman, C.J. Box, and Jeffery Deaver.

 © 2013 Steve Steinbock