Mrs. Laetitia Rodd works hard for her money. She is the middle-aged widow of a clergyman—her beloved Matt—and neither of them expected a “vigorous man of one-and-fifty, who had known scarcely a day’s illness in his life,” to die suddenly and without “making provision for his widow.” It’s 1851, a turbulent time in England: horse-drawn…
A Madness of Sunshine is a complicated, compelling story that addresses the pain posed by the title of Thomas Wolfe’s famous book, You Can’t Go Home Again. This pithy description of the plot illustrates why readers will be drawn by the story. Anahera Rawiri left New Zealand at twenty-one, fleeing small-town poverty and the ghosts…
Coached to Death by Victoria Laurie is the first book in the new Life Coach Mystery series, where Catherine Cooper settles in the Hamptons on the heels of a nasty split from her long-time husband but soon discovers that starting fresh on the East End can be deadly. What is needed for a satisfying life?…
A Bitter Feast is the 18th Duncan Kincaid mystery. Crombie’s police procedurals come with a side-benefit: you’ll have an armchair holiday in the British Isles, complete with a detailed map. Readers will be enthralled by the beauty of the Cotswolds and experience a country house weekend vicariously, through the generous auspices of Melody Talbot, “Gemma’s…
A Merry Murder by Kate Kingsbury is a special holiday Pennyfoot Hotel mystery, where one of the guests turns up dead and owner Cecily Sinclair Baxter realizes the hotel’s Christmas curse has struck again. A Merry Murder is the perfect pre-Christmas treat for lovers of cozy Christmas mysteries and the upstairs/downstairs world of Downton Abbey. Author…
The Dead Beat Scroll by Mark Coggins is the seventh book in the August Riordan series, where Riordan must work with old allies and enemies to untangle the case before time runs out. The Dead Beat Scroll owes a great deal to Humphrey Bogart’s famous film noir, The Maltese Falcon. It is set in contemporary…
In One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski, Allison Simpson is offered a job house-sitting a beachfront home, but she never expects to embark on a search for a missing woman from 30 years ago…
What Rose Forgot is a wild and crazy ride. Rose Dennis, born in 1952, would undoubtedly appreciate the appropriation of Steve Martin’s signature phrase. Not that there’s anything funny about Dennis’s predicament. She’s on the lam from somewhere—she’s not sure where—clad in a hospital gown and she’s dehydrated and delirious. Perhaps she’s dreaming: “I’ve fallen…
Murder at Kensington Palace by Andrea Penrose is the third Wrexford & Sloane Mystery, where Wrexford and Sloane must unravel secrets within secrets—including a few that entangle their own hearts—when they reunite to solve a string of shocking murders that have horrified Regency London. Charlotte Sloane’s secret persona as the “controversial satirical cartoonist A.J. Quill”…
Death in Focus by Anne Perry is the first book in the new Elena Standish mystery series set in pre–World War II Europe, where an intrepid young photographer carries her dead lover’s final, world-shattering message into the heart of Berlin as Hitler ascends to power. Death in Focus is the inaugural entry in Anne Perry’s…
