The Printed Page

City of Veils by Zoë Ferraris

When the body of a brutally beaten woman is found on the beach in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Detective Osama Ibrahim dreads investigating another unsolvable murder–chillingly common in a city where the veils of conservative Islam keep women as anonymous in life as the victim is in death.

But Katya, one of the few females in the coroner’s office, is determined to identify the woman and find her killer. Aided by her friend Nayir, she soon discovers that the victim was a young, controversial filmmaker named Leila. Was it Leila’s connection to an incendiary Koranic scholar or a missing American man that got her killed?

Chapter and Hearse (Booktown Mysteries, book #4) by Lorna Bennett

Mystery bookstore owner Tricia Miles has been spending more time solving whodunits than reading them. Now a nearby gas explosion has injured Tricia’s sister’s boyfriend, Bob Kelly, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, and killed the owner of the town’s history bookstore. Tricia’s never been a fan of Bob, but when she reads that he’s being tight-lipped about the “accident”, it’s time to take action.

The Unexpected Son by Shobhan Bantwal

A shocking letter from India sends middle-aged Vinita Patil reeling in Bantwal’s (The Dowry Bride) absorbing latest. Living in New Jersey, contentedly married for almost 25 years to Girish, a mechanical engineer with whom she has a daughter, Vinita learns that the illegitimate child she believed was stillborn in India, is alive, suffering from myeloid leukemia, and desperately in need of a bone marrow transplant. Vinita’s brother, Vishal, who’d orchestrated the deception and arranged for the baby’s adoption, fesses up that Vinta’s son, Rohit Barve, is a chemistry professor at Shivraj College, the college where Vinita met Rohit’s playboy father, Som Kori, who’d refused to marry her. Vinita and Som’s coming from different linguistic groups vying for control of the border town of Palagum, made their union impossible. After Vinita finally meets her grown son, she’s disturbed to learn that Som and Rohit’s adoptive father are still embroiled in the violent territorial conflict, a situation that adds suspense to the story. This inspiring testament to a mother’s enduring love makes for a fascinating tale and provides a window into an equally fascinating culture.

The Perfect Alibi by Phillip Siegel

The seventh installment in this bestselling, critically-acclaimed series opens with Mike Daley representing a tattooed record store clerk in a lawsuit against the manufacturer of her vibrator – the ‘marital aid’ failed to turn off at a critical moment, and Mike the ex-priest is forced to brave his embarrassment and demonstrate the faulty on/off switch for a skeptical judge.

Things quickly take a darker turn, however, when Mike and Rosie learn that their sixteen-year-old daughter’s boyfriend has been arrested in the beating death of his father, a Superior Court judge. Bobby Fairchild claims that he found his father’s body after returning home from a date with Grace. The police contend that his parents’ acrimonious divorce sent the boy over the edge – they found him at the scene holding the bloody hammer that was used to kill his father. With their daughter as Bobby’s only alibi, Mike and Rosie take the case and uncover a sex scandal that will take them into the homes of some of San Francisco’s most prominent citizens.