Dangerous Women by Mark de Castrique

DANGEROUS WOMEN by Mark de Castrique is the latest from a prolific author whose work I have been recommending for years. This mystery is the second in the Secret Lives series and features a retired and extremely well-connected former FBI agent named Ethel Fiona Crestwater. She, along with her much younger cousin, Jesse Cooper, become emmeshed in a botched robbery that leads to two deaths and may be evidence of an attack on the Supreme Court’s integrity and confidentiality. De Castrique cleverly ties in a number of prominent suspects, including a couple of US Senators as well as a lobbyist, and employees of the Department of Defense and the Supreme Court. In his author’s note de Castrique writes, “the existential threat of our time is climate change. In response, the effort to convert vehicles from fossil fuels to batteries has become a national priority.” His characters recognize that rare earth elements like lithium are becoming the new oil with attendant national security concerns. DANGEROUS WOMEN offers a timely, complicated puzzle and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal (“Ethel's adventures will appeal to fans of Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club series and Deanna Raybourn's Killers of a Certain Age”). We also listened to the audiobook and Patrick Lawlor’s narration was excellent. He has a variety of audiobooks (including other mysteries, stories about the military, and even the Darwin Awards Chronicles) to his credit. Enjoy!