Two Recent Crime Novels

I've got behind in my reviewing this month but here are two recent books I'd been anticipating:

No Rest for the Wicked by Rachel Louise Adams (2025)

Dolores Hawthorne left her small town in Wisconsin twenty years ago and built a new life for herself as a forensic pathologist in Los Angeles, although the recent ending of her marriage has left her raw. When she gets a call from the FBI that her father, the former mayor, is missing and her help is needed, she heads home to the stepmother she never liked, the younger half-brother she abandoned, and a half-sister she never met. Most of all, she is unwilling to see her ex-boyfriend, whose father is the richest and most controlling man in town. The two FBI agents add an unusual element to the story: one is quiet and intense and the other is a loud-mouthed show off. They actually enlist Dolores’ forensic expertise, which is not really appropriate – who would want to cut up people one knows, but is explained convincingly (I am willing to have suspension of disbelief if the author makes it worth my while).

Predictably, Dolores decides to do some sleuthing of her own but perhaps she should have applied her energy to the reasons she left home in the first place. There seems to be a convenient haze over Dolores’ memories of her last weeks at home, allowing me to guess what had happened before it was fully revealed. Little Horton, Wisconsin is famous for its Halloween celebrations but I did not see how this added anything to the plot except a denouement in which everyone is in costume and hard to keep track of but that could have been handled in some other way. There are also stray cats everywhere in town and one leads to an important clue. Overall, I thought this was well done with some appealing characters and unusual plot elements. I don’t know if this will work as a series but a sequel is coming in October.

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston (2026)

Elston’s first adult thriller, First Lie Wins, was my favorite book of 2024, so I have been eagerly awaiting this follow up. The concept is great: Camille, who is married to a handsome and successful lawyer, Ben Bayliss, is convinced her husband has a secret but can’t snoop on his satisfactorily because he is always watching her. Aubrey thinks Ben is somehow implicated in the death of her parents ten years earlier but as a low-paid bartender she got nowhere with the police. When the two women meet, they arrange for Aubrey to take Camille’s place for a day while Camille digs for new evidence. But when Ben is found murdered in his own den, only one of them has an alibi – and if their connection is discovered, both will become suspects.

Lots of twists and lots of secrets but I found this book disappointing. It starts on the night of the planned alibi, then is told alternatively in flashbacks (including some from ten years earlier) and in the days after the murder. I don’t object to flashbacks as a literary device but I found these somewhat disjointed: some are intentionally confusing but revelations come in the next chapter. I realized the biggest difference from the previous book is that most of the characters were not very likable.  Evie, the protagonist of First Lie Wins, was dishonest and involved in a long con but the author made the reader care for her and want her to escape detection. I did not like Camille and lost sympathy for Aubrey when she seemed like a double-crosser. I did appreciate the depiction of her loyal friends. Verdict: interesting but could have been better. 

These are my seventh and eighth books for Carol's Cloak and Dagger Challenge.  I enjoyed watching the Olympics (except some of the skiing that was so scary I had to close my eyes) but I actually had to return some library books I did not have time to read, which is very unusual for me.