This is a series built on mystery, humor, great characters, and enough snark from Sam’s mother Helena to keep readers coming back.

Being the supportive neighbor she is, Sam Clair agrees to go to the opening night of a new play in which Kay and her son Bim are appearing. Apparently, it is ghastly and grisly but no one was expecting the body dangling from the hook to be real. Yet it turns out to be the director, Campbell Davison strung up and covered in green makeup.

Days later the costume designer is dead and someone has kidnapped Bim. Yes, things keep piling on, but though Sam swears she is not getting involved in yet another murder investigation, she is front and centers much to the chagrin of her boyfriend homicide detective Jake Field. An investigator whom she has to keep explaining things to since everything get a bit twisty and she is just short of drawing a murder board with names, strings, and timelines.

All the while Sam is trying to get into the office at a reasonable time and having the right words and passion to fight for the talent she represents and going toe to toe with an editor-in-chief and sales director who think women of a certain age are un-promotable. Clair might have a way around that and taking a chapter from her mother’s book of how to play with the boys club, comes to the aid of those she believes in.

I really enjoyed this mystery. The theater world is a perfect setting for a real murder and mystery. The author did a fabulous job of giving readers lots of clues and false clues to keep them guessing. It would be interesting to see what is coming next.

This was a fun one! This is one of those mysteries where the day to day life of the main characters takes up almost as much page time as the mystery itself. Sometimes this can get tedious but luckily in this book Sam, Jake, Kay and the rest of their world is entertaining and engaging. I also loved the behind the scenes look at life on stage and at life behind the desk at a publishing office.

This is not one of those books where the main character has a cool job and mentions it occasionally but never ever goes to it. We go to work with Sam a pretty good bit and between all the book talk and the selling books talk and the meeting authors talk I could have had an entire book of nothing but that. I love that Sam is good at her job and driven but also has a fairly balanced personal life. Her relationship with her mother, Helena, was entertaining and felt authentic as well as her relationship with Jake. Jake is CID and is usually involved in the official investigation of whatever Sam is sticking her nose into. I liked that he clearly didn't want to talk about the case with her but she was so interested and asked such good questions that he would forget he felt that way from time to time.

The mystery itself is fascinating with lots of behind the scenes peeks at rehearsals. I loved seeing how it all ran and just what everyone did. While I did have a guess at the killer I wasn't convinced I was correct until the very end. Between trying to figure out just who had killed the director in such a brutal way and wanting to spend more time with Sam this made for a can't put down read!

A Howl of Wolves by Judith Flanders is the fourth installment in A Sam Clair Mystery series. Sam Clair and Jake Field are attending the opening night of The Spanish Tragedy in a West End theater. Their neighbor, Kay and her son, Bim are in the production. It is a macabre play with thirteen "deaths" and a lot of blood. In the beginning of the second half, the curtain pulls back to reveal the tenth faux body, and everyone is shocked when it is not the dummy. Someone has replaced the dummy with the play's director, Campbell Davison. Jake, as a detective with Scotland Yard, is on the case. But we all know that Sam cannot stay out of a mystery. The more Sam digs into Campbell Davison's life, the more secrets she discovers. He was not well liked by the cast and crew which adds to the suspect list. Sam must work through the clues to catch the evildoer especially after he ups the game by taking an innocent. Who is behind the murder of Campbell Davison? Can Sam and Jake catch the culprit before he takes another life?

A Howl of Wolves is written in the first person, so we experience the story through Sam's eyes. It was interesting to find out more about the life of a book editor. There is more to the job than reading manuscripts (wouldn't that be a dream job) and, like with many jobs, there are politics at play. I enjoyed the setting of London which gives this cozy a unique feel. I would recommend reading A Murder of Magpies before embarking on A Howl of Wolves. The author does not provide the necessary backstory on Sam. I like that Sam is a smart, generous woman with a natural curiosity. A Howl of Wolves is hard to get into (slow starter) and the pace does not improve. Judith Flanders is good at misdirection. She does send readers down a rabbit hole. Unfortunately, the misdirection only works if the reader has not solved the mystery first. I knew the who and why before I was a quarter of the way through the book (glaring clues). The investigation was not active. It involved more research than questioning. There are pages devoted to Sam's thoughts on the case and speculation (which I started skimming through). Bim was a cute character and the neighbors are lucky that Sam is a willing babysitter (not sure why, but she is). I am giving A Howl of Wolves 3 out of 5 stars. I am not the right audience for A Sam Clair Mystery series. I suggest you obtain a sample to see if it is the book for you (we all have different preferences).

I  received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

It was a fun mystery with enjoyable characters. I will definitely be looking for the next book in the series!

First Sentence: “There are thirteen dead people here.” Jake was accusing.

Book editor Sam Clair takes her Scotland Yard detective partner, Jake, to a West End play in which her neighbor. Kay, and her son, Bim, have small parts, along with the play’s director, Campbell Davison. The play is chock full of faux murders, until one is not faux at all. As Sam learns about Davison, the list of suspects grows. With another death, the need to find the killer becomes imperative.

Now this is an opening that will get your attention. After the first sentence, it’s the author’s voice which draws one in—“’I don’t make up dead people.’ I replayed the sentence in my head. It sounded worse the second time around.’”—and her protagonist, Sam, is a character with whom many of us can identify—“I spend so much time inside my own head that imperiled animals would have to claw their way up my leg, sit on my shoulder and bat at my nose before I looked up from my book long enough to notice them.”

It is nice to have Sam’s partner be with Scotland Yard as it gives veracity to her being involved in the investigation. It’s also nice that they clearly have such a good relationship—“He looked me over. ‘You should be fine. You’re clean.’ That cut through my exhaustion. ‘I’m always clean.’ He held up a palm against my outrage. ‘Sorry, I had a man moment. …I like the way you look, and you look the way you always look. Which I like.’”

Another wonderful character is Mr. Rudiger, the resident of the top-floor flat in Sam’s building. He’s a former architect who is agoraphobic, but smart, and resourceful. Sam’s mother isn’t necessarily someone one would want for a mother, but she is an excellent character.

Flanders thoroughly dissuades any thought one might have of a book editor’s job being a glamorous one. However, she also does a very good job of defining the role of an editor, while providing a clear picture of the misogamy women face every day—“Bruce and I were roughly the same age, in our mid-forties. When he was angry, he shouted, and people were obliged to listen. When I raised my voice, however, it was called “being upset,” and people could refuse to listen. In my twenties, if I’d been angry charmingly enough, I might have got away with being called feisty. Now I was just a bitch.”

Her writing is wonderfully visual—“The rain the previous night had diminished to the odd shower, and it was clear now, but still wet enough that Bim could hopscotch his way across the pavement, aiming for the centre of each puddle as we went.” Her dialogue is a treat—“I snarled, but, being Miranda, she ignored it, concentrating on essentials: “’Maybe we could set up a pool, have a sweepstake about who you’re going to blast next.’ There was only so much a person could take. ‘For goodness sake,’ I snapped. ‘Whom. Whom you’re going to blast next.’”

The plot is very well done with plenty of effective twists. Flanders does an excellent job of taking the story from suspense and dread, to lightness and humor, without its ever being forced, but feeling realistic.

“A Howl of Wolves” is a wonderfully-written mystery with humor, suspense, twists--including the motive--and an inside look at the world of publishing.

A HOWL OF WOLVES (Trad Mys- Sam Clair-London-Contemp) - Ex
Flanders, Judith - 4th in series
Minotaur Books – May 2018

A Howl of Wolves is the 4th Sam Clair Mystery written by author Judith Flanders. It can easily be read as a stand alone if you have not read the earlier books in the series.

Sam Clair is a book editor in London. Her partner Jake is with Scotland Yard. Sam's neighbor is appearing in a play so they attend. During the play, the director is found dead...hanging from the rafters when the curtain opens. The dead director, Campbell Davison, had many enemies.

With a big suspect list and a few twists, Sam sets out to solve the mystery. With plenty of humor along the way, this well written mystery is very enjoyable.

Highly recommend A Howl of Wolves.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. This is the first I have read in the series but it will not be the last.
Enjoyable characters and a well written whodunit.
I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

I like the Sam Clair mysteries—about an editor who keeps getting drawn into these murder investigations—a lot, though this one wasn’t the strongest one for me. The story here centers on a play featuring one of Sam's friends—and her friend's little boy—where someone is MURDERED. I love the characters and the descriptions here, and Flanders is very funny, but the mystery itself left me feeling a little flat (I correctly guessed the killer, perhaps due to an editing error in my ARC [is that ironic?], but found the motive troubling). If this is going to be one of those series that is more interested in the characters and their relationships than in the plotting of a mystery, I’d be fine with that, because that is really where the books shine, for me. B/B+.