Sarah Blair, first met in One Taste Too Many, is a woman at the crossroads. The unpleasantness of her divorce is firmly in the rearview mirror and lingering memories of her late ex-husband have dissipated. It’s unfortunate that her ex’s lover, Jane Clark, is ubiquitous in the fictional town of Wheaton, Alabama, located in the…
The plot of The Plot is compelling and believable. A failed novelist appropriates a brilliant plot and before you can say New York Times bestseller list, he’s “back in the high life again.” Of course, nothing is ever that simple. Novelist Jacob Finch Bonner was once a rising star in publishing. His first book received…
The Granite Coast Murders combines many felicitous elements, like stunning surroundings, a fish-out-of-water commissaire, and a chère amie determined that Commissaire Dupin fully embrace a fortnight’s vacation at the beach in Brittany. Claire is thwarted by the Trégastel-Plage villagers who are eager to enlist Dupin into solving the myriad mysteries on their doorstep. Dupin seems…
A messenger dressed all in black, his ensemble topped off with a “pillbox-like cap,” delivers a message to Delaney Nichols at the Cracked Spine, the bookstore where she works. Ms. Delaney Nichols, Your presence is requested this afternoon at 2:00 at Deacon Brodie’s Tavern to discuss Ms. Shelagh O’Conner’s vast collection of rare and…
Like Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol opening: “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever, about that,” the premise of Will Thomas’s thirteenth Barker and Llewelyn tale is also without doubt. Tsesarevich Nicholas (heir to Czar Alexander III) was a dead ringer for his cousin, Prince George of England. Their uncanny resemblance,…
Life is coming up roses for Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin… or does that cliché exaggerate? It does ignore his inability to resist stirring up hornets’ nests. Even if he did exhibit restraint, determined gadfly journalist Hero would undoubtedly shove him aside and do the poking herself. Emerging intact from a chaotic past, Sebastian is…
What a debut—Sutanto has whipped together a frothy mixture of “murder mystery, rom-com, and a celebration of mothers and daughters.” Meddy has not one but four mothers, her ma and her three aunties (which rhymes with Ant). She is the embodiment of “filial piety, the foundation of Asian parenting.” These loving, interfering, outspoken women shower…
Death with a Double Edge by Anne Perry is the fourth in the Daniel Pitt series, where the junior barrister’s investigation into his colleague’s murder leads him through London’s teeming underbelly to the suspicious dealings of one of England’s most influential shipbuilding magnates. A policeman comes to Daniel Pitt’s law chambers and asks him to…
Wedgefield Manor is an aristocratic estate located in the “tranquil” Essex countryside. The year is 1926, a period that dovetails with Downton Abbey, the popular television show and movie sensation. Aristocrats are tightening their belts and making do with skeleton staffs since their former servants have more career choices after the war. A possible exception—in…
Laura Griffin delivers topical stories, deserving of the accolade “ripped from the headlines.” Her characters are intelligent and detail-oriented, constantly sifting through impressions and facts to arrive at sound conclusions. Set in the fictional Texas coastal town of Lost Beach, Flight is a romantic thriller, in which Griffin masterfully balances the elements of attraction and…
