The Woman in the Mirror by Rebecca James is a chilling modern gothic novel, spanning multiple generations, of a family consumed by the shadows and secrets of its past. Rebecca James certainly knows her horror stories! While reading The Woman in the Mirror, I kept nodding at the deft allusions to the works of her…
I knew that I was in for a treat when award-winning author Ellen Byron debuted a brand new culinary cozy mystery series under the pen name Maria DiRico. I was so pleased when Here Comes the Body proceeded to exceed my every expectation—even given how much I already enjoy her Cajun Country Mystery novels! This…
Our title heroine, Mimi Lee, has just opened the business of her dreams, a pet grooming salon in Los Angeles, with the help of rich investor Pixie St James, whose dog she saved from drowning. Sure, business is a little slow to start, but she’s sure that once word spreads of how good she is…
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I started reading this book. Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of my favorite novels of all time, and hearing this book touted as the #MeToo era’s version of that classic made me understandably hesitant to begin. Lolita’s narrator Humbert Humbert is a monster whose cruelty, juxtaposed with…
It’s so hard for me to explain how invested I am in the Hannah Swensen mystery series. It’s certainly not just because I’ve read (and cooked my way through!) all 25 books to date, with each volume containing enough recipes to fill out a small cookbook. While the recipes have been consistently good—with only a…
The island village of Eastport, Maine, is in the throes of its annual Pirate Festival, and bakeshop owners Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree and Ellie White are fully prepared to take advantage of increased visitor traffic to turn a profit selling delicious chocolate baked goods. What they’re not prepared for are the attentions of pushy podcaster Henry…
The eighth book of the outstanding Rivers Of London series sees our hero Peter Grant at a significant crossroads in his life. Following his suspension from the police force due to the events that ended the previous book in the series, and now facing the prospect of fatherhood, he decides to take up a lucrative…
After the delightful debut novel of Christin Brecher’s Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery series, which featured a terrific manor-house-style murder mystery, the last thing I expected was for the follow up to turn into a spy thriller! But Ms. Brecher carries it off with aplomb, even if I did spend a good part of the proceedings…
It’s been a month since Berry Basket store owner Marlee Jacob brought a killer to justice, and she’s ready to put the whole thing behind her as she and her friends look forward to a summer of fun. The nearby Blackberry Art School is hosting its centenary and has invited all its previous students from…
I remember when I was younger and firmly convinced that any media adaptation of a novel must always be inferior to its source material. In recent years, I’ve been gladly disabused of this notion and nowhere more intriguingly so than with the second season of You on Netflix, based loosely on Caroline Kepnes’ sophomore novel,…
