Welcome to Rosalie, Mississippi’s wedding of the year: Wendy Winchester, the daughter of Police Chief Bax Winchester, is tying the knot with her longtime beau, Detective Ross Rierson. Wendy, the heroine of the Bridge to Death Mystery series, wears two hats. After a successful run as an amateur sleuth, she was named a full-time investigative…
Some titles and opening words have the power to propel us instantly into an unsolved mystery, as with Nalini Singh’s Quiet in Her Bones: My mother vanished ten years ago. So did a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Thief. Bitch. Criminal. Now, she’s back. Her bones clothed in scarlet…
Some people are so happy with their lives, that for a split-second, they label it perfect. The ancient Greek philosopher Solon had a stark antidote to such folly: Call no man happy before he is dead. Keep that in mind when you meet Detective Nate Sweeney, his wife Emma, a doctor at the local hospital,…
If Ink and Shadows is your first Ellery Adam’s mystery, a useful entry point is the series name, Secret, Book, and Scone Society series. The secret refers to bookseller Nora Pennington’s hidden past that led to a new life in the fictional town of Miracle Springs, North Carolina. Book is self-evident: Nora’s bookstore, Miracle Books, is…
Trouble always seems to find Detective Casey Duncan and her boyfriend and boss Sheriff Eric Dalton, particularly when they’re off-piste, looking for some R&R in the wilderness surrounding Rockton. For readers who are new to Rockton, a thumbnail explanation— First, let me explain Rockton to those new to the series: it’s a small, isolated town…
A Glimmer of Death is delightful new mystery from Valerie Wilson Wesley. The word glimmer references the aura some folks give off to recent widow Odessa (Dessa) Jones. Sometimes it’s a whiff of a smell or a color or mist that surrounds a person. Dessa is an empath who has inherited a wide array of…
This is the last of Catherine Lloyd’s Kurland St. Mary stories. The series comes full circle from Death Comes to the Village (2013) and it’s a pleasure to catch up with familiar personalities and storylines. Death Comes to the Rectory is a closed village mystery since inclement weather traps everyone in the village of Kurland…
The Mitford Trial is “inspired by a real-life murder.” Jessica Fellowes embeds an actual crime into the narrative of a consequential cruise taken by the two most controversial Mitford sisters, Diana and Unity. The protagonist, Louisa Cannon, was once maid to the Mitford sisters and she’s been and in and out of their lives forever.…
Be careful what you wish for, you may receive it. – W. W. Jacobs, English author (1863-1943). Both Beth Soames and Sadie Langton have their wishes come true but afterward, life is never the same. Note to readers: The Perfect Guests pays meticulous attention to seemingly extraneous details—consider this a major spoiler alert. July 1988.…
Wrong Alibi has a Perils of Pauline or Toad’s Wild Ride feel to it. Step up, step up: find out how Evie transforms herself from Too Stupid to Live to Too Smart to Lose. Everything is larger than life, starting with the location, Alaska. The villains are scarier, the heroism over the top, and the…
