Steamed Open, the seventh in the Maine Clambake Mysteries, has great characters and will teach the reader about clamming but the mystery was too easy to solve. Bartholomew Frick, a stranger in town, inherits theHendrickson mansion, lighthouse, and beach after 101-year-old Lou’s death. His first move is to bar accessContinue Reading
Senior moments, travel mishaps and murder meet in Catch Me if Yukon. Husband and wife team Etienne and Emily run Destinations Travel, a senior tour group out of Iowa. This trip is a twelve-day Alaskan bus tour. Along with their twelve regulars are seven new travelers from the same IowanContinue Reading
Natalie and Will meet in law school, marry and have eleven-year-old Charlie when a family crisis threatens to break up their family in For Better and Worse. Natalie is suspicious that Will is having an affair. He is criticizing her appearance and organizational skills constantly. Will has also lost weightContinue Reading
Detective Sergeant Gemma Woodstock is back in the absorbing Australian police procedural Into the Night. Gemma has moved from her hometown and son, Ben, to Melbourne. Her relationship with Ben’s father, Simon, mutually ended after The Dark Lake. Gemma is falling into half-night stands with strangers picked up in barsContinue Reading
The Mansion is haunted by ancient prohibition-era ghosts who seem to have possessed the house’s personal assistant, Nellie. The only hope for the inhabitants are psychic twin seven-year-olds conceived on the estate. Billy and Shawn were best college buddies who spent the two years following college living in a ruralContinue Reading
Set in the houses of Parliament in 1932, when it was also written, the Division Bell Mystery is the first mystery written by a female member of Parliament. Someone is murdered. However, the focus is on British politics. Not being British, I had a hard time following the story. ThoseContinue Reading
Deep War is a war where everything is at stake—think the Somme or Stalingrad. China has intervened in a skirmish between India and Pakistan. When the United States sent in a carrier battle group, China destroyed it with a nuclear bomb—killing all 10,000 people aboard. It’s now year two ofContinue Reading
Family secrets abound in Murder at the Mill. Painter Iris rents a cottage on the grounds of famous mystery writer Dom’s large Hampshire family estate. Iris is deciding what to do about her verbally abusive husband and failing marriage. When Ariadne, Dom’s wife, hires Iris to paint his portrait, IrisContinue Reading
It’s 1969. Bryant and May are tasked with keeping a witness safe at an English Country House weekend. Unfortunately, the Army has closed the only exit road due to war games. There are nine suspects and more than one potential victim in this Hall of Mirrors. Hall of Mirrors isContinue Reading
Senator Jim McVeagh is approached by President Mark Hollenbach at a journalists’ dinner and invited to a Night of Camp David the same evening. While there, the President states that using wiretaps on every phone in America is a good way to prevent crime. He then goes on a paranoidContinue Reading
Cuckoo is an atmospheric gothic mystery set in a rural English house, where even the heroine doubts her sanity. Is she hallucinating? Are ghosts present or is it her memories coming back of her horrible childhood? Caro is a starving artist in London when she is informed her stepmother hasContinue Reading
Lowdown, a romantic thriller set in the world of New York City’s mafia families, has the best first paragraph I’ve read in a long time: “The first seven years you’re in the can, all you can think about is revenge. The next seven years you crave freedom and things youContinue Reading
Like Columbo, Newcomer is a new approach to a police procedural. Eight stories each tell an investigative tale. By the last chapter, the detective has solved the crime. Precinct Detective Sergeant Kaga is a new transfer to Tokyo’s police department investigating a murder. He is a self-effacing bumbler on theContinue Reading
In My Sister, the Serial Killer, Korede is a good sister, who cleans up her younger sister Ayoola’s messes, literally. With bleach. Ayoola, though beautiful, has man problems—she keeps killing them. As the book begins, Ayoola has just killed her third boyfriend. After googling the definition of serial killer, KoredeContinue Reading
Fans of the Limetown podcast rejoice! Many of your lingering questions are answered within these pages. Plus there are no spoilers for future podcasts. Lia wants to be a reporter. Her first investigation is of the missing residents of nearby Limetown. She discovers that her Uncle Emile is somehow involved,Continue Reading
Another fun-filled romp from Vicki Delany! A Scandal in Scarlet is the fourth cozy in the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop mystery series. Gemma is walking her dog late one night when she sees flames behind the window of the historic Scarlet Museum. A candle left burning is ruled the cause ofContinue Reading