The latest crime books mark the return of an Icelandic sheriff and a young U.K. sleuth

When Alan Bradley published “The Golden Tresses of the Dead,” the 10th volume of his hugely popular Flavia de Luce series of cosy mysteries, in 2019, he thought that he was done with the precocious young amateur sleuth and chemistry prodigy. But, like those rabid Sherlock Holmes aficionados who could not countenance the detective’s demise over Reichenbach Falls, the books’ fans clamoured for more, and the author found that he also wanted to revisit Flavia and find out what she has been up to. The result, “What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust,” is a lively and welcome 11th instalment.
In postwar Buckshaw, U.K., rations have ended, and Flavia’s beloved family chef, Mrs. Mullet, stands accused of poisoning Major Greyleigh, the former town hangman, with deadly mushrooms. Flavia can’t believe Mrs. Mullet is guilty, and disobeys the instructions of her mentor-turned-nemesis Inspector Hewitt by launching an investigation herself. She’s aided by her partner, Dogger the gardener, and her upstart cousin, Undine, who is a delightful feature in this volume, lending it some piquancy in the form of a series of enjoyable, if somewhat off-colour, fart jokes.
Kalmann, the self-anointed sheriff of the Icelandic town of Raufarhöfn, returns in this followup to his eponymous first book, which finds him travelling to America following the death of his beloved grandfather. It’s January 2021, and Kalmann’s biological father and Uncle Bucky, both rabid Trump supporters, take the grieving man to a protest at the Capitol where he is promptly arrested and questioned by the FBI. Once Kallman is released, thanks to the intercession of an empathetic agent, and returned home, his perpetually online friend Noi helps convince him that his grandfather — whom the U.S. feds suspected of having been a Soviet spy during the Cold War — may in fact have been murdered.
As with the earlier book, Kalmann’s first-person narration is the big draw here. A neurodivergent adult who bears some resemblance to Nita Prose’s maid and Stephen King’s Holly Gibney, Kalmann is by turns funny, perceptive and surprising. References to the earlier novel may prove stumbling blocks for new readers, at least in the early stages, but this one stands on its own and amounts to a welcome return for one of Icelandic noir’s most iconoclastic heroes.
Otto Penzler, one of the legendary figures in American crime publishing, has done mystery readers everywhere a great service by instituting his own eponymous imprint dedicated to bringing back into print stories and novels from the early 20th century. The latest in the Golden Age story series — which already includes volumes dedicated to detective stories, locked-room mysteries, and so-called bibliomysteries — focuses on tales of ratiocination, in which sleuths professional and amateur use their powers of deduction to solve apparently unsolvable crimes.
Penzler’s depth of knowledge of the genre is in full evidence in this volume, which contains entries from the usual suspects — Ellery Queen, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Anthony Boucher — alongside some unexpected inclusions. One of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s only genre stories, “The Dance,” is featured, and while it doesn’t quite live up to the standards of his more literary work, it’s a fascinating addition to the modernist’s canon. Ring Lardner’s famous “Haircut” is more representative of the author’s work, while Stephen Vincent Benét’s “The Amateur of Crime” is an interesting artifact from the author of “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” This anthology is sure to contain something to surprise even the most diehard mystery fan.
Rhode Island author Jessa Maxwell’s sophomore thriller commits one of the unforgivable sins of a crime novel: it doesn’t play fair with its reader. One key rule genre writers must observe is that the person investigating the crime must never have access to more information than the reader. This rule is breached in the story of Alex Marks, a woman with unspecified trauma in her past who has come to New York City seeking to reset her life. When her favourite newspaper advice columnist is murdered, she impulsively applies for the job, which she unexpectedly lands.
As she navigates the mountains of reader letters left behind and tries to get a handle on her new boss, the storied editor Howard Demetri, she starts looking into the circumstances surrounding her predecessor’s death. One throwaway line tilts at the identity of a key character, but the extent of the relationship in the narrative past is not revealed until late in the novel, rendering the whole scenario anticlimactic and unsatisfying. That said, there is enough suspense here to keep a reader turning the pages, even if the final confrontation in an isolated cabin reads a bit clichéd.