When Isla Larsen Sanchez was eight years old, her mother Elena sent her to Puerto Rico by herself for the first time, flying from New Jersey in the care of a flight attendant, as was usual for the 1970s. Ordinarily, Isla would spend summers in the town where her mother grew up, with both her…
After the death of her long-term partner, Penny is all alone in the world. She continues living in the apartment they once shared, her world shrinking smaller and smaller with the perhaps inevitable loss of her mobility as she ages. When she has a fall one day, her landlord Mike sets into motion a plan…
Young Willa Noble is thrilled to be able to leave her position at the beck and call of an overbearing boarding house mistress to go into service in the home of one of Amherst, Massachusetts’ most prominent families instead. Her new superior, Margaret O’Brien, is demanding but fair, and the pay is much better. The…
April Claus is very excited to be able to bring her best friend from Oregon, Claire Emerson, up to Santaland to see what her new hometown has to offer in the lead up to Christmas, their most important holiday. Claire originally figured that April had just relocated to a town that really, really cares about…
The penultimate installment of the Department Q Scandinoir procedural series starts off with a bang, as a freak lightning strike kills six people standing outside a Danish university. One woman survives the direct strike, and responds to the paramedic attending to her with questions expected and reactions less so: “Yes, we were together. Are they…
Miranda Trent is looking forward to hosting her very first corporate retreat at Paint & Shine, the hiking tour company she runs that combines outdoorsiness with art and a bit of her family moonshine. If the retreat goes well, it could be the start of a lucrative revenue stream for her fledgling enterprise. To this…
Frankie Gray is determined to make this summer a perfect one to reconnect not only with her teenage daughter Izzy but also with her own mother and grandmother on small Orcades Island in the Puget Sound. Ingrid, the family matriarch, has a coveted spot in the Pacifica Gardens nursing home there, while Frankie’s mom Diana…
Originally written in 2005, Drive by James Sallis has been out of print for over a decade, since its last printing following the acclaimed movie of the same name. Now Poisoned Pen Press has brought a beautiful reprint edition back to the market, giving me the chance to evaluate both book and movie together. Both…
Sam Williams has built a nice, quiet life for herself as an elementary school art teacher in rural LaCrosse, Washington. After her parents died when she was a little girl, she was taken in by a strict aunt who taught her how to run a farm and be self-sufficient. While Sam eventually went off to…
The United States of America’s Central Intelligence Agency would not exist as it is today without the exemplary efforts of five brave and often undersung women. This lack of recognition, to a certain extent, is part and parcel of working with the CIA: it would never do to publicly laud work that is best done…
