It’s the Mystery Writers of America’s seventy-fifth anniversary! To celebrate they are throwing a party and we’re all invited. Luckily, we readers get the present—an anthology of nineteen short stories by the best mystery writers around. All the stories have an anniversary theme. In fact, they are all Deadly Anniversaries.Continue Reading
From the author of Jar of Hearts comes another twisty domestic suspense novel writ large, Little Secrets. “The FBI estimates that there are currently over thirty thousand active missing person cases for children.” Marin is shopping with her four-year-old son, Sebastian, in Seattle’s touristy Pike’s Place Market. Her husband, Derek,Continue Reading
“Where do you see yourself In Five Years?” is a standard interview question. Dannie is a driven corporate attorney interviewing for her dream job. It’s December 15, 2020. Later that night, Dannie’s boyfriend, David, proposes and she accepts. Slightly high from champagne, Dannie falls asleep on the couch and dreams…Continue Reading
What happens when you mix Great Expectations with a bit of early Stephen King and a handful of Robin Cook? She has a Broken Thing Where her Heart Should Be, of course. A totally effective mashing of all my favorite 1980s books with the 1861 Dickens tale. I guarantee youContinue Reading
In Providence, Mankind is fighting an alien race that acts nothing like mankind. The derogatory label of Salamanders is applied to this exoskeletal species. They appear to live in hives the size of planets out in the far, far universe. When we first run into them, they kill the majorityContinue Reading
I really enjoyed this perfect gem of a mobster novel! Like Flies from Afar is the story of mobster, Mr. Machi, who finds a faceless dead body in the trunk of his car. He is waiting for roadside assistance after his tire is “caltropped” or intentionally flattened on the PanamericanaContinue Reading
My Review Another excellent deep dive into the mind of a female sociopath. This time attorney Jane is searching for her missing sixteen-year-old niece, Kayla. By all accounts, Kayla is a Problem Child, who acts just like Jane… I cannot believe how much I enjoy this series. Jane reminds meContinue Reading
So you want to be an artist. A painter or a writer? It’s no matter. What is the matter is you have no idea how to start? Sure, it’s easy to say writers write and painters paint. But what does that really mean? What you really need to know isContinue Reading
Gone by Midnight is the third book in the Crimson Lake thriller series. When eight-year-old Richie goes missing while in a room with three other young boys, his mother Sara asks for discredited private detective Ted to assist the police in finding her son. Ted brings in his wild “don’tContinue Reading
In Oona Out of Order, Oona lives “her life like an M.C. Escher drawing, years like staircases turning in on themselves to form a tangible but implausible whole.” Beginning on her nineteenth birthday New Year’s Day in 1982, Oona jumps forward or backwards on her own life’s timeline. For exampleContinue Reading
I have watched every season of Drag Race (even the blurry first one). However, I never fully understood the history of drag before reading Legendary Children. This book adds context to Rupaul’s Drag Race that I was completely missing. Each chapter starts with some section of the show and explainsContinue Reading
It’s another zany adventure for Phee, her mother Harriet, and her private detective co-workers in Dressed Up 4 Murder. You would expect retirement to be a time of quiet reflection on a life well-lived. But in Sun City West, the giant planned retirement community in Arizona, you would be wrong.Continue Reading
Shay is a numbers-obsessed single woman in NYC, who lives with her best friend, Sean, who she wishes was more than just a friend. Sean is oblivious to Shay’s interest in him and has a girlfriend, Jody. Shay has also recently lost her job. One day she is waiting forContinue Reading
With all the new escape room books for adults, it was only a matter of time before versions for kids appeared. Escape Game The Mad Hacker is a perfect choice for puzzle-loving children. Using skills like code-breaking, matching pictures, counting, following directions, and applying the correct tools to a problem,Continue Reading
“If my kids had been with me, it wouldn’t have happened. I would have stayed in the minivan, doors locked, windows rolled up. Just like the 911 operator instructed.” Instead Cassie confronts a knife-wielding assassin, who warns her, “Let her die, and I’ll let you live.” When the man racesContinue Reading
Victorians are enchanted by Things in Jars. As you will be, after reading this spellbinding mystery. Mrs. Bridie Devine, widow and consulting detective in Victorian London, has a personal problem. She can see dead people. Well, at least one, recently dead boxer Ruby Doyle. Bridie also has a case. SirContinue Reading