A new Kathy Reichs Temperance Brennan novel plus other mysteries reviewed

Celadon, 288 pages, $25.99

The current housing crisis is ripe for exploitation in fiction, and journalist Marisa Kashino focuses on one particularly aggrieved would-be homebuyer in her deliciously nasty debut novel. Margo Miyake is a publicist in the Washington, D.C. area. Pushing 40, she desperately wants a child with her husband, Ian, but the couple needs a family-sized home to accommodate their hoped-for new arrival. After losing 11 bidding wars, Margo gets an inside tip on a house about to go on the market — one she is determined to land at any price.

What begins with Margo’s clandestine stalking of the current owners, John and Curt — subtly ingratiating herself into their lives over the objections of her straitlaced husband — quickly elevates to threats of blackmail and, eventually, bodily harm. As Margo discovers more about the sellers, it becomes apparent that Curt holds secrets that could jeopardize his new academic position in London, U.K.

Kashino proves adept at manipulating her reader’s sympathies, pitting Margo and Curt against one another in a battle of wits that grows increasingly pitched and dangerous. “Best Offer Wins” is simultaneously a biting satire about the excruciating intricacies of navigating an overheated housing market and a coal-black psychological thriller about a woman willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her American Dream.

A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Cheating Death

Maxie Dara

Berkley, 288 pages, $25.99

Canadian actor and writer Maxie Dara follows her delightful 2024 debut, “A Grim Reaper’s Guide to Catching a Killer,” with a sophomore mystery set among the employees of S.C.Y.T.H.E. (Secure Collection, Yielding, and Transportation of Human Essences), a group that facilitates the transit of souls from their place of dying to their next location. Nora Bird works as a functionary there, sorting files of the soon-to-be-deceased and matching them with their proper agents. When she comes across a file for her twin brother, Charlie, who is meant to be struck by a vehicle on their birthday, she tracks him down and spirits him away, determined to outrun Death and her pursuing colleagues.

The two decide to hide out in Virgo Bay, a tiny Nova Scotia hamlet their father fled decades ago. They are initially received warmly by their extended family, though it quickly becomes apparent that someone is intent on making good on Charlie’s death sentence and it’s up to Nora to determine who among the residents has homicidal intentions.

Nora is an engaging character — a woman who works with and around death yet harbours neurotic fears about her own demise and Charlie’s. Her brother’s insouciance is infectious, as is that of Jessica, a particularly verbose parrot who proves instrumental in solving the mystery. Purists may be put off by the novel’s paranormal aspects — Virgo Bay is in a “Blind Spot” that Death can’t reach — but for adventurous readers, this is a welcome spin on the traditional small-town cosy.

The Burning Library

Gilly Macmillan

William Morrow, 304 pages, $25.99

Hot off her PhD for translating an ancient manuscript, Anya Brown is recruited by Diana Cornish of the elite Institute of Manuscript Studies in St. Andrew’s, Scotland. Diana is eager to have Anya put her skills to work interpreting the storied Voynich manuscript, thought to have been composed during the Italian Renaissance. Meanwhile, Clio Spicer, a detective at Scotland Yard, launches her own investigation into the death of Eleanor Bruton, a woman who was in possession of a fragment of tapestry that might be connected to a priceless treasure.

Of course, the two stories intersect, but before they do, readers are treated to Anya’s pursuit of the truth about the Voynich manuscript and the reason its secrets are coveted by two rival groups: the Larks, an organization of radical feminists, and the Kats, murderous trad wives who worship St. Catherine. What begins as an academic detective story along the lines of A.S. Byatt’s “Possession” becomes grander, and sillier, as it proceeds, ending up as a kind of feminist spin on Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon thrillers.

Macmillan alternates her narrative among various perspectives to keep the reader hanging and does manage to pull off one authentic surprise midway through. But the closer Anya gets to the truth, the more bogged down the story gets. The finale involves a bit of moral rationalization that undercuts much of what has gone before in this sometimes engaging but ultimately frustrating novel.

Evil Bones

Kathy Reichs

Simon & Schuster, 288 pages, $26.99

“Evil Bones” is the 24th novel in Kathy Reichs’s bestselling series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, star of books and television. Reichs also served as producer on “Bones,” the long-running Fox TV series, which may help explain the author’s dialogue-heavy style and short, explanatory paragraphs.

As this new novel opens, Brennan is called in to inspect the bones of an animal that has been discovered ritually nailed to a tree. It is the latest in a series of animal mutilations, and the carcasses have been getting larger, leading one of Brennan’s psychologist friends to presume the perpetrator is escalating, perhaps soon to be targeting humans. While she and Det. “Skinny” Slidell investigate the series of atrocities, Brennan is also anticipating a visit from Ryan, her French Canadian paramour, and struggling to connect with her 17-year-old great-niece, Ruthie.

British author Jeanette Winterson once referred to “printed television,” meaning the kind of prose that reads like the first draft of a teleplay; this is an apt description of the writing in “Evil Bones.” What is more problematic is the overuse of thudding exposition. Brennan’s job is highly technical, so some explanation is necessary, but when Reichs feels the need to define what a Venn diagram is or who Jeffrey Dahmer was — complete with dates of his crimes — something has clearly gone sideways.