Murder in Constantinople had a great potential that was spoiled by an unlikeable and one-dimensional main character, multiple anachronisms, and worst of all an uneven pacing. I kept plugging through it but it never seemed to get better in my opinion. If you like historical mysteries, there are much betterContinue Reading
The Hitchhikers is an adrenaline fueled ride through rural Canada in 1976. Alice and Tom are on an RV adventure to see the Montreal Olympics. While traveling from their home in Washington state, they pick up two hitchhikers who call themselves Blue and Ocean. Little do they know that BlueContinue Reading
A serial killer uses Sharp Force to kill his victims on major holidays. But first he terrorizes them with a ghostly vision that seemingly can pass through walls without triggering alarms. It’s Christmas Eve. Forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta is just finishing up an autopsy on a man found floating inContinue Reading
I’ve read a lot of mysteries with unreliable narrators. However, The Armchair Detectives is unique because Martin may, or may not, have dementia. He also may, or may not, have a former career as a spy. Martin’s thoughtful though somewhat reluctant sidekick, Albie, makes up the other half of TheContinue Reading
Take 1 part the locked room mysteries of John Dickson Carr and 2 parts Murder on the Orient Express and you have 6:40 to Montreal, a new whodunnit. Long married Agatha is a writer who has both a writer’s block and cancer. She attempts to solve one and forget theContinue Reading
Lady-of-a-certain-age Judith and her best friends Becks and Suzie are back on the case in Murder on the Marlow Belle. A local blowhard who runs the town’s drama society and playhouse is killed on a boat where everyone is a suspect. Was it his protégé who is now an eliteContinue Reading
Bad Things Happened in This Room is a weird fevered dream of a book. It is, perhaps, the best first person depiction of mental illness that I have ever read. That, of course, takes it down a rather unnerving and depressing path. Is our heroine just a victim of herContinue Reading
A mysterious host lures seven guests to a posh dinner party in Seven Reasons to Murder Your Dinner Guests. While there, they each receive an envelope that includes a card with their age at time of their death. Most think it is a not-very-clever PR stunt. Until the bodies startContinue Reading
I have one word for the newly translated Icelandic thriller, The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer. Frustrating. This book has a mystery of a missing crime writer but so much more. It has a detective with a violent ex-girlfriend in 2012, a bank robbery being planned in 1965,Continue Reading
In For Duck’s Sake, Meg has had enough of planning huge events. When her town decides to have a parade and fair to support an animal adoption event, she successfully pawns off the leadership of it to her uber organized mother. That leaves Meg plenty of time to help theContinue Reading
Twin girls adopted at birth by two families. One is middle class. One is upper class. The rich one is accused of murdering her family’s biological daughter. The other tries to get her freed from The Locked Ward, a psychiatric hospital where she is being held on a murder charge.Continue Reading
The World Inside is a ghost story written with teens in mind. However, since the prose is at a third grade level, per the publisher, even younger children might enjoy it too. Fifteen-year-old Tamika’s mother won’t let her join her friends in Paris for a summer vacation. Instead, she isContinue Reading
Reading Tea with Jam & Dread, the sixth entry in the Tea by the Sea cozy mystery series, is like slipping on a warm robe on a chilly winter day. It’s comforting and lets you forget all the troubling “fake” news of late. In the book, Cape Cod tearoom proprietorContinue Reading
Rage is the latest novel in the Kate Burkholder police procedural series. In a small Ohio town, a young Amish man recently back from his rumspringa is found dead in the woods cut into eleven pieces. Police Chief Kate is on the case. She suspects a non-local is the killerContinue Reading
My Review A Body in Boston is the latest cozy mystery series based on the popular television series featuring Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher. The characters here speak and act just like their television counterparts. Even down to Doctor Seth’s Maine Ayuhs. Other familiar people appear too like noir detectiveContinue Reading
In the previous thirty entries in this mystery series, Andy Carpenter is a rich defense attorney, who really, really, really, wants to retire but just keeps getting sucked into one more case. To be honest, it was getting a bit repetitive, though Andy’s snarky humor always makes me come backContinue Reading