I’ve enjoyed several of Krista Davis’s books while writing for Criminal Element, and I have to say that the Domestic Divas series is far and away my favorite of her works. Part of this is likely due to its setting; I’ve enjoyed many an evening in Old Town Alexandria myself,… Read more
I have such a weakness for places that serve tea as a meal, so the restaurant featured in this second Daisy’s Tea Garden Mystery is just the kind of delightful place I wistfully imagine visiting, murders notwithstanding. Daisy Swanson is part-owner of her namesake tea garden with her beloved Aunt… Read more
A Stone’s Throw by James W. Ziskin is the sixth book in the Ellie Stone mystery series, where the young newspaper reporter investigates a double murder at an abandoned stud farm near glamorous Saratoga Springs in 1960s’ Upstate New York. It is August of 1962, and “girl reporter” Ellie Stone is first… Read more
Can You Hear Me? by Elena Varvello is the winner of the English PEN Award, translated into English for the first time. It is the summer of 1978, and Elia Furenti is a 16-year-old boy living in the small northern Italian town of Ponte. His mother, Marta, is the local librarian,… Read more
This first novel in the Southern Cake Baker Mystery series takes a slightly different road towards placing our heroine where everyone knows she’s meant to be. Usually, culinary cozies open with the heroine fresh off of a heartbreak and ready to start a new life in new circumstances. Sophia Cummings… Read more
Sherry Frazelle is licking her wounds as she finalizes her divorce from her husband of five years and the loss of her job as his legal assistant. Now, she works part-time at her dad’s rug store and spends her free time whipping up entries for the cooking competitions she’s becoming… Read more
Welcome back to the Village Blend cafe for the 17th installment in the bestselling Coffeehouse Mystery series! Clare Cosi—Village Blend manager and our heroine—is worrying about setting a date for her wedding to one of NYPD’s finest, Detective Lieutenant Mike Quinn. But it’s another sort of date that soon absorbs… Read more
MI5 and Me by Charlotte Bingham is a beguiling comic memoir about a young woman who discovers her father is a spy (and was the model for John le Carré’s George Smiley) and goes to work as a secretary in 1950s MI5. This effervescent memoir follows the rather unworldly 18-year-old Lottie… Read more
Madman Walking by L. F. Robertson is the second book in the Janet Moodie series. Janet Moodie is a defense lawyer. She used to work in the state defender’s office and was part of a small community of attorneys who defended capital cases, along with her more acclaimed husband, Terry…. Read more
Tate Harper and Angie DeLaura are getting married! After the bridezilla nonsense of the previous book, Caramel Crush, it’s refreshing to see the wedding draw close with minimal romantic drama. Alas, there is more than enough murderous drama to make up for it. With the wedding only a week away,… Read more
