The involvement of animals in popular mystery fiction, as Martin Edwards notes in his excellent introduction to this collection, has been a large and lively part of the genre from its very inception. From what’s commonly acknowledged as the first detective story, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders In The Rue Morgue,” to the plethora of…
Peter Spiegelman spins a gripping tale of deception, betrayal and murder on a remote campus of a biotech firm in his latest offering, A Secret About a Secret. Agent Myles is a member of Standard Division, a shadowy government agency with a reputation for ruthless investigations in service to the state. What state this is,…
As a Malaysian American with a love of sailing, I was so much looking forward to reading this novel. Deep Water is the story of the Anglo-French Virginie, a surprisingly naive 31-year-old who’s desperate to make a success of her second marriage, to the comparatively poorer British Jake. For their extended honeymoon, they’ve decided to…
Trinidad Jones finally feels like she’s settling into life in the small East Oregon town of Upper Sprocket, especially now that the ice cream shop that is her pride and joy has been rebuilt and is back in business. It helps that she has the close friendship and support of her ex-husband’s two other ex-wives—the…
James Lee Burke’s most autobiographical novel yet examines America’s bloody past and contentious present, through a holistic lens that embraces the supernatural while railing against the all-too-human stupidity and greed that lead to so much unnecessary suffering and death. The fourth book in the Holland Family Saga finds aging novelist Aaron Holland Broussard reeling from…
Sage Caplin is taking her Ground Rules coffee truck on the road! Or at least to Campathon, an annual eco-friendly music festival held on a farm just outside of Portland, Oregon. She’s hoping that being the only coffee vendor at the festival will help recoup the cost of buying a second truck, as her first…
Thriller writer Tess Harrow has packed up her fourteen-year-old daughter Gertrude and fled to the hills of Washington State in the aftermath of her contentious divorce. Having inherited her grandfather’s remote rural property, Tess figures a summer living without easy access to the Internet is just what she needs to work on her next book—and…
I deeply regret that I have waited this long to get acquainted with Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher mystery novels. I knew of them, of course, from the entertaining Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries TV series, but had never had the time to investigate the source material until this book landed on my desk (or in my…
Lee Barrett, program director of Salem, Massachusetts’ WICH-TV, is excited to finally be marrying her fiancé, Detective Pete Mondello. In the lead-up to their wedding, they’ve been house hunting for the perfect place in which to start married life. One important consideration for their prospective new home is proximity to where Lee currently lives in…
Callie Padget is still feeling emotionally fragile about her return to Cattail Island, where she grew up on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Alas, after being let go as a journalist from the Charlotte newspaper she’d worked for, she has few other options. Her Uncle Hudson welcomes her home with open arms, readying her old bedroom…
