I’m on my way to my Mom’s for the weekend, to celebrate her birthday. I’ll be driving back on Monday. In the meantime, Kevin Tipple has a few reviews to share, beginning with Michael Connelly’s Nightshade. As usual, there are no spoilers. Thank you, Kevin.

For Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Detective Sergeant  Stilwell, the posting to Catalina Island was supposed to be a punishment for not playing well with others and failing to play politics correctly. After all, sending deputies that annoyed the leadership out to the island has always been the way of handling those who could not be terminated, for whatever reason. While it may have started out as a punishment, these days Stilwell likes being out there a lot. He is in charge, isolated from the political garbage on the mainland, likes the folks under his command, and the scenery can’t be beat.

What isn’t great is the fact that recently a buffalo was killed at the preserve. Its head was cutoff. A local reporter, Lionel McKey, is hounding him for updates and Stilwell has nothing to say. It is one thing to have a good idea who did it. It is another to prove it and he is working the case.

He has a lead, a search warrant, and progress is being made. It is the start of the first full weekend of summer and that means the place will be packed. Tourists will be on the island in huge numbers. That means things will happen when you bring in large numbers of people together for gambling, drinking, and more.

It also includes at least one murder as a body is soon discovered hooked by a chain and lodged under a sailboat on the harbor. She certainly didn’t commit suicide, wrap herself up in a bag for a sail, and then wrap a chain around herself, before affixing it all to the underside of the boat. The mayor might be more focused on the tourism aspects of such a discovery, but Stilwell is focused on the murder.

Solving the murder case, his first since leaving the mainland, and others, is at work in Nightshade by Michael Connelly. It is a complicated read with a lot of backstory and character development as well. None of that slows down the read. In fact, that character development and backstory gives the read considerable depth while creating an excellent first novel of a series. There is one heck of a foundation should the author start another series. One hopes he made that choice as his website indicates this is the start of a new series.

Even if it is only a standalone, it is a great read, and well worth your time.

My digital ARC reading copy came from the publisher, Little, Brown and Company, through NetGalley, with no expectation of a review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025