MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD, Pushkin Vertigo brings prize-winning debut Japanese mystery to Anglophones

MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD
AKANE ARAKI (tr. Jesse Kirkwood)
Pushkin Vertigo (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$13.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: An unlikely duo embarks on a road trip to find a serial killer before the apocalypse in this prize-winning Japanese murder mystery.

Perfectly blends the dystopian humor of Zombieland and the thrills of My Sister the Serial Killer!

From Japan’s most exciting new crime writer Akane Araki, this thrillingly funny, high-concept murder mystery follows a young woman and her driving instructor as they face a compelling moral dilemma: should they work to stop a serial killer before the end of the world? A meteor is on a collision course with Earth. The entire human race has 3 months to live. Uncontrollable panic has set in across the globe, but 23-year-old Haru is still determined to finally get her driver’s license.

When Haru and her ex-cop driving instructor Isagawa open their car trunk one day to find the corpse of a murder victim inside, they feel duty-bound to investigate. Together, they set off on a road trip through the crumbling landscape around them to hunt for the killer. As more bodies start appearing, more questions surge. Why would a serial killer begin work three months before the end of the world? And does justice lose its meaning with humanity on the brink of extinction?

And it turns out that Haru's driving instructor is not just an ex-cop but one with a manic devotion to justice. So, despite the small matter of an impending apocalypse, the pair team up to catch the culprit, no matter where it takes them. After all, the world's not quite over yet...

Quirky, fast-paced, and packed full of surprising heart, Murder at the End of the World will delight fans of Stuart Turton’s audacious plots and the humorous, life-affirming bent of dystopian favorites like Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead.

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My Review: I really liked The Last Policeman when it came out. I'm still salty that it never made it onto the screens of the world where I really felt it deserved to be. So I was all ready to be this book's fanboy.

I'm on record as not wanting to read about women being sexually abused and murdered for plot purposes. This story, led by an amateur sleuth who's female, does indeed have a woman abused and murdered in it, so why am I breaking my strong preference not to read that plot?

Because it's not the first death (that's her father's suicide), and it's not the glorified, prurient point of the victim's death, but is instead an indictment of a patriarchal system I found myself willing to spend my entertainment eyeblinks on this topic. It's a sleuthing excursion led by two women who found a shared compass in bringing justice to the victim. In spite of flaming death for the whole human race racing towards the planet.

That, mes vieux, is a moral compass. We're going to die. And that's still no reason not to bring justice to a terribly abused woman by making her abuser pay for his crime. Haru greets us, so to speak, by discovering her father has hanged himself; her response is to arrange his body respectfully and goes to finish her driving lessons. Her instructor Isagawa is a retired cop, determined like Haru to keep her world in balance and thus cope with the existential crisis of certain doom.

I'm quite taken by the nature of these end-is-nigh narratives; they add a weird frisson to the most quotidian conversations. Haru and Isagawa discover the horribly mutilated body of a young woman in the trunk of their randomly selected driver-training car, which would occasion much screaming and dialing of 911 if I happened to be there; the women are incensed, repulsed, but the police are not inclined to do anything as no one else is fussed about all the dead girls piling up around town...the world is ending, and Isagawa already knows the local police well so tells Haru this victim will receive no attention to speak of (nor would she ever have).

They discuss what to do. They really get into it. They have powerful feelings about it even as extinction faces them; ultimately they decide to investigate this murder for themselves. And it takes paragraphs (reported by Haru in first person) to do it. There is deeply important stuff at stake for Isagawa that might help her process her decisions leading up to her leaving the police in the first place. I'm all for redemption arcs.

Seriously y'all...there's a mutilated dead person in the trunk. These women stand there and talk. My hysterical, overemotional male self would be retching, screaming, generally freaking out at the top of my lungs as I speed-dialed the cops skatey-eight skabillion times to tell them to come get this corpse RIGHT NOW. Haru and Isagawa discuss, calmly, how to approach the process of identifying who killed her and why. While an asteroid's speeding towards Earth to end life as we know it. So, no...not ordinary circumstances, therefore not ordinary responses, and honestly the chats they're having would be fascinating no matter what but the existential stakes make them so deeply, touchingly human. These two very different people, Haru cheated out of a full life by the asteroid and Isagawa processing her much-closer end as a chance to do the right thing with her last actions on Earth, confront a serial killer...a thing I never want to do yet they're just doing it...and, in the least effective narrative choice made by Author Araki, that scumbag goes into the cliched villain monologue. More infuriatingly, Haru reveals she's known something central to the case, something coincidentally itportant, since the beginning. Fifth star sliding under the waves in 3...2...1....

I'm recommending this read to you because it is, for its structural flaws, a fascinating meditative tale. It delves into serious, interesting, well-thought-out moral discussions; it gives these two oddly assorted road-trippers ample scope to let their thoughts stew, serve them up, and discuss together and in company with odds-and-sods they collect along the road. It's often funny stuff, occasionally maudlin, usually prolix as anything.

As much as I really got annoyed I'm even more pleased that Haru and Isagawa brought me along with them as they maintained ma'at in extremis.

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE PO'BOY PERILS, second dangerously fattening entry in a delightful, atmospheric series

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE PO'BOY PERILS (Savvy Summers #2)
SANDRA JACKSON-OPOKU
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: The next delectable mystery featuring quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, owner of a soul food café in Chicago.

Savvy has her work cut out when an old friend hires her to cater a company luncheon at a nearby office building on Chicago's South Side. Stepping out of her traditional soul food comfort zone, Savvy whips together a menu of Creole classics, with her own spin, of course—mini po’boys with assorted fillings, sunburst salad, and bread pudding using Great Aunt Essie’s famous buttermilk biscuits.

But when someone is found dead in the company’s conference room, Savvy’s culinary creations are suddenly in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. While the focus should be on their delicious flavors and inventive techniques, Savvy’s beloved café instead becomes the center of a murder investigation once again.

Caught within a messy web of gossip, miscommunication, and fraught coworker relationships, Savvy will have to settle the confusion to clear her name. Somebody’s hiding something, and with the help of her trusty assistant manager, Penny Lopés, Savvy sets out uncover exactly who is to blame. With familiar faces turning up the heat on her investigation and her café still in hot water, will Savvy be able to save her reputation before it’s too late?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I gained fifteen pounds off the bread-pudding description alone. I would *kill* for some right now! I'd kill for some buttermilk biscuits, honestly, but these, and the perfect bread pudding...*drool*

As I said of Author Jackson-Opoku's work before, this series is going to fatten me right up into blimp-sized, belching satiety. Savvy's knack for landing in hot water is still credible to me, seasoned old reader that I am, because it doesn't come from some out-of-character contrivance but from accepting a job her business needs.

It seems clear that the series is going to do a lot of wandering around. It's not my first preference for the way a murder mystery unfolds, but it very much is my preference for a character-driven polyphonic novel of a community that feels real in its tight-knit gossipy love. Even though ugliness is inherent in murder mysteries, death is always a blow to a group, the deep interconnections are strong enough to heal the wound. With time, and as an aftermath to justice being served.

Savvy herself is a fun character to follow around as she talks to people, caring about them, listening to them. Penny is a scene-stealin' sass-dealin' delight as always. It's a hallmark of Author Jackson-Opoku's chops that I felt welcomed back into a charmed circle of lovely friends most of the time during this read. It takes skill to make that a reader's experience of a series story.

Savvy and Fanon (love that name, so resonant for someone born when and where he most likely was) have the kind of chemistry I myownself prefer: hot, but at a simmer that can turn into a boil quickly if there's just a *little* nudge of the thermostat. It's believable these two connected as hard as they did; it's believable they couldn't make it work full-time, but also are so finely attuned to each other that they have an unbreakable connection.

I really enjoyed being invited back into the community, welcomed with a so-enticing spread of delights, and told all the tea while everyone tried to be the one to spill it hardest. Not the greatest shakes on the mystery front...another deeply unlikeable crudbucket dead that not one soul should mourn the loss of...but as a novel, and a way to spend time rewardingly, it's up there for 2026.

REVENGE, SERVED ROYAL, third in the Lady Petra Inquires series

REVENGE, SERVED ROYAL (Lady Petra Inquires #3)
CELESTE CONNALLY
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in this dazzling third instalment to the captivating Regency-era Lady Petra Inquires mystery series.

September, 1815. Autumn is in the air as Lady Petra Forsyth and some of the most illustrious members of the ton descend upon Windsor Castle for a week of royal celebrations, with the highlight being Queen Charlotte’s inaugural patisserie contest for the best bakers employed by England’s finest houses. Not only is Lady Petra’s own cook one of the contestants, but Her Majesty has requested that Petra herself serve as one of the judges.

Petra’s happiness at tasting delicious cakes and biscuits only increases at finding her beloved Aunt Ophelia in attendance at Windsor, as well as Sir Rufus Pomeroy. As England’s most famous former royal chef-turned-cookbook author, Sir Rufus is slated to present his best recipes to the Queen during the festivities, with Petra being granted an early viewing in the royal library.

Yet upon arrival, Petra instead encounters a frantic housemaid pointing to a body of one of Her Majesty’s guests—and to the valet still tugging at the silk ribbon used to strangle the victim. What’s more, the valet turns out to be Oliver Beecham, the ne’er-do-well brother of Petra’s own lady’s maid, Annie. But as Oliver is hauled away to the dungeons, he protests his innocence, claiming the late guest argued with several aristocrats, including the Prince Regent and Petra’s Aunt Ophelia, and boasted about hiding a potentially scandalous document within the vastness of Windsor Castle.

When some poisoned tea meant for Petra is consumed by one of her fellow judges, it’s clear the real killer is still walking the castle’s halls. Indeed, in order to prove the innocence of Annie’s brother and find the incriminating document, Petra will need to act like a lady, eat like a chef, and think like one of Her Majesty’s best spies before a murderer can turn the celebrations from sweet to royally deadly.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I experienced this as GBBO in 1815, featuring a much, much nastier Paul Hollywood in Sir Rufus Pomeroy. While Petra is his co-judge (there are others but I forget who they are) in Queen Charlotte's version of a baking contest, I'm more inclined to call her kindly, sweet Mary Berry than Prue Leith.

When Sir Rufus is offed, ugly secrets come out about him causing Lady Petra to reconsider her lifelong attachment to him. Everyone decides to blame Oliver (Lady Petra's maid's brother, so feudal family)for the death. The hunt is on for the real killer...and it's quite a hunt. Lots of people, including me and Lady Petra's Aunt Ophelia, had hard words about and with Sir Rufus. No one is sorry he's dead. We're at Windsor Castle with the Royal Family in residence. There is an immense pool of people to draw suspects from. One person exempt from that was Duncan, Lady Petra's honeybunch. He's offscreen a lot this iteration, too much so for my taste.

The sheer complexity of the naming conventions, thus styles of address, among the titled cluttering up the pages requires attention to be paid. "Lord Doohickey" is also "His Grace the Duke of Thattaway"; forgetting that can lead to great confusion. The shifts were tonal, representing different situations and relationships. I'd love a peek at Author Connally's spreadsheets to see how this all nested together in the writing process. Another thing I'd love to see is this anachronistic GBBO clone on screen! The glorious descriptions of the foods, the added bonus of silly royal pageantry, everyone dressed to the nines all the time...wouldn't Netflix do this right? Hmm?

There is the upholding of Ma'at, there is the outing of the real actor behind the masks worn by multiple people, maybe even too many, but of course the crime is punished. It's why mysteries appeal to readers: the crime is punished.

This time quite fairly in my view. Enjoy the first two books before this one if you want a bit of a leg-up with the characters' names; if not, you'll work a little harder but still have good fun.

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE SWEET POTATO CRIMES (Savvy Summers #1) starts a Chicagoland series that's gonna fatten me up

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE SWEET POTATO CRIMES (Savvy Summers #1)
SANDRA JACKSON-OPOKU
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A sparkling debut mystery set on the south side of Chicago, featuring the quick-witted, unforgettable Savvy Summers, proprietor of a soul food café.

When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area.

Even as the police deem Grandy’s death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself—and her beloved café—in the middle of an entire city’s worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager, Penny Lopés, take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy.

But with a slimy investor harassing her to sell her name and business, customers avoiding her sweet potato pie like the plague, and her police sergeant ex-husband suddenly back in the picture, will Savvy be able to clear the café’s name and solve Grandy’s murder before it all falls apart?

After all, while Savvy always said her sweet potato pie was to die for, she never meant literally.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Savvy is a funny, observant, cool customer who inhabits a richly interconnected world. It means a lot of what makes a cozy mystery work...the cast of characters, the sleuth's motivations, and the tone of the storytelling...are all present and accounted for from the get-go.

Just in case you're wondering, the sweet potato pie of the title (which, I'll note approvingly, is both vegan and murder weapon after a certain...addition's made) is very much part of the story line. You will not do well with your diet during this read. Calorie restriction and food-item substitution regimes are not supported by this author's descriptions of food. I would marry Savvy's macaroni and cheese and/or collards as described.

No quotes...I'm not that cruel.

Part of the charm of a series mystery is the scoobygroup of side characters, and the sidekick or assistant sleuth. Penny seems likely to do the latter sparkly and sneaky (a little too sneaky) role, and Savvy's grumblybear ex-husband Fanon does a lot of the fun sparking with her. He totally gets that Savvy's innocent and does things he might maybe shouldn't've because he knows Savvy so well.

So where's the fifth star, fussbudget? I can hear one partic'lar friend say. It got stuck in the run-around-accomplish-nothing middle third. The scumbag who wants to make profits *ptooptoo* without ethics takes up a lot of space. It's not quite there but it's close, like the sweet potato pie out of the oven just before it sets. I found the vernacular easy on my readerly ear; others will not feel it adds anything and might take away from their positive experience. My Rob was in the latter camp.

I'm also required to mention that Savvy is not an eager, nosy sleuth; she's compelled to act because she's got skin in this game as her pie's being blamed for a death that, frankly, ought to upset no one. Oh yeah...that's another piece of a star gone, it seems to me a lot of amateur-sleuth mysteries now are leaning hard on the crutch of making the victim a rotten-souled bastard. The use of that trope here makes a touch more sense, because it's Savvy's pie thus her reputation, but honestly? Just chalk this one up to cleanin' the gene pool, officer, and move on with your day.

So no...not a perfect read. A perfectly fun one, yes, and one I think will give a lot of summertime smiles to most all y'all.