Last year I read and raved about Hannah Morrissey’s debut crime thriller, Hello, Transcriber. That was the first book in the Black Harbor series, set in a crumbling town in the American Midwest. The city of Black Harbor is the recurring character, along with the gothic and…I guess Scandi crime feel of cold, dread, and horror (but not Horror horror). 
The Widowmaker is the second book in the Black Harbor series. Whereas Transcriber was a tour de force in atmospherics and language, Morrissey puts forth a confident and compelling story in Widowmaker.
In this round, antisocial photographer/misfit Morgan Mori heads home to Black Harbor after an unsettling series of events drags her home. Her place of business has burned to the ground – nothing is left in the charred skeleton of her world but a literal skeleton key with a cryptic note attached. She just gets home and books her first local photography job with a wealthy and somewhat infamous local family. Things are looking up, until a chance encounter at a gas station forces her to witness a brutal murder and get sucked further into the darkness of Black Harbor.
Along for the ride is Detective Hudson – he is trying to shine light on the gas station murder while keeping hidden some secrets of his own. Mori seems to be (skeleton) key of bringing it all together. Detective Kole from Hello, Transcriber also plays a small but important part in this story. It’s not really a sequel to Transcriber so much as set in the same world. You could probably read either book first.
While I loved the writing and atmospherics in Hello, Transcriber, I think Morrissey just nails the tone and plot in this one. As a blurb on the cover notes, she’s become a must-read writer for me.
I recommend this if you’re a goth kid into 90s-noir feeling thrillers or Scandi crime. It’s pretty dark, though, so maybe not for the casual reader. (Unless you’re a little bit of a freak.)
