April 4, 2016
Round’s (Lake on the Mountain) exciting and suspenseful novel pays tribute to Agatha Christie in this modern spin on her classic mystery And Then There Were None. When the remaining members of the punk rock band the Ladykillers are summoned to Shark Island off the coast of Washington State by their former manager, they believe the reunion is to complete their final album, abandoned when they split acrimoniously more than 15 years earlier. Joining them on the island are former groupies, a girlfriend, a nurse, a music critic, and a real estate agent who is there to put the island up for sale. Shortly after arriving on the island, however, things start to go wrong. Their manager and host Harvey Keill fails to show up, but after they are served dinner, a video Harvey had instructed the staff to play for all the guests implicates everyone present, including the island staff, in the death of a young woman many years previous. The atmosphere quickly becomes one of distrust and fear as the guests begin to die, one by one, in mysterious ways. With strong characters related to the rock band’s past and inventive plot twists and details, Round succeeds in making the story his own while staying true to Christie’s original framework. A must read for fans of both authors.
January 19, 2015
This is the third book in the Dan Sharp Mystery series, the first of which (Lake on the Mountain) won the 2013 Lambda Literary Award for best gay mystery. On June 4, 1989, a young girl named Ling disappears in the confusion of the Tiananmen Square Massacre and is never seen again, at least in China. Twenty years later, Ren Hao, a Taiwanese businessman, hires missing-persons investigator Dan Sharp to find his sister, after he sees an online photo of a woman in a bakery in Canada whom he believes is Ling. The case becomes complicated when what began as a simple missing persons case quickly expands to international intrigue. A key person of interest in the case turns up dead, and Dan discovers that a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent is following him. Although Round's series has been praised for its character development, in this book, Dan's carefully crafted personal story line overshadows the mystery. It isn't until a major twist presents itself that readers are reminded this is not just a novel about Dan, but also a mystery about a missing woman.
June 1, 2016
The Ladykillers thought they were punk rock gods back in the day. Spike Anthrax, Pete Doghouse, and Max Hardcore had a well-publicized breakup and vowed never to see one another again, after the fatal overdose of Kent Stabber and the drug-related death of one of their groupies. Still, the lure of money can temporarily ease ill feelings. When former manager Harvey Keill invites the band members to Shark Island to finish recording their final record, Endgame, they cannot refuse the invitation. Accompanied by their girlfriends, critics, and hangers-on, the group decamps to the island off the coast of Seattle. Then, slowly and inexorably, the deaths start. Who is killing off the Ladykillers and their entourage? Paranoia and anxiety escalate, but true to their pitiful natures, each person remains despicable. VERDICT Lambda Award winner Round's (Lake on the Mountain) contemporary homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is far from derivative. Be prepared to read this in one sitting.
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
May 1, 2016
Agatha Christie gets a punk-rock reboot in this stand-alone mystery by Round (After the Horses, 2015). Harvey Keill, the ex-manager for the band the Ladykillers, invites the feuding band members to mend fences and prepare for a reunion tour on a small Seattle-area island. It turns out the band split up for more than artistic differences. A groupie died of an overdose at one of their notorious parties, and each of them was involved in the cover-up in some way. Also on the island are a music critic, housekeeper/nurse, butler, lawyer, and a contest-winning fan. Of course, not everyone is who they say they are. As often happens when accomplices are assembled in a remote location with no access to radio, phones, or Internet, they start getting murdered. Someone is avenging the girl whose death they all walked away from. Is it one of them, or is someone else pulling the strings? An entertaining mix of classic cozy conventions (with the island functioning as a locked room) and contemporary characters and subject matter.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)