Pipley, Hertfordshire 16 August 1941. Olive Bright is a twenty-two-year-old pigeoneer and would-be spy. In Olive Bright, Pigeoneer (Olive Bright Mystery #1) Captain Jameson Aldridge conscripted Olive and the Bright Lofts’ pigeons to help in the fight against the Nazis. Homing pigeons greatly aided the war effort on both sides of the Atlantic, making A Valiant…
The Dead Cry Justice by Rosemary Simpson is the sixth book in the Gilded Age Mystery series, where heiress-turned-sleuth Prudence MacKenzie and ex-Pinkerton Geoffrey Hunter step out of the elite society of Gilded Age New York and venture into the city’s crime ridden streets and most dangerous neighborhoods to search for two missing children. If…
Can a parent’s worst nightmare be the result of unintended consequences? Perhaps. Two high school girls go missing one autumn evening after they audition for a play at Boston’s prestigious Performing Arts High School. June Danforth and Tali Carrington are best friends. The last sighting of the pair is on a grainy surveillance tape. Two…
It’s not unusual for historical figures to appear on the pages of mysteries and such is the case with The Bloodless Boy. Robert Hooke, a noteworthy natural philosopher, and his former assistant Harry Hunt, the hero of The Harry Hunt Adventures, were well-known figures in post-Cromwellian London. On a snowy New Year’s Day in January…
Sherlock Holmes’s sister Charlotte is a consummate detective. Clients flock to her door (or rather her sitting room, conveniently situated next to her fictionally ailing brother’s bedroom—the easier to “consult” with him). But who would anticipate that Moriarty, her sworn enemy, would turn to her in his hour of need? Moriarty has a tortured, tenuous…
A housekeeper discovers a dead body in the library early one morning, rather a clichéd start to a mystery. But Phyllida Bright is no ordinary housekeeper. She is the head of household at her old friend’s stately country manor: her friend is Mrs. Max Mallowan aka Agatha Christie, the famous mystery novelist. It’s the 1930s.…
Austin attorney Leigh Larson is the lawyer of choice for “victims of sexual extortion, harassment, and online abuse.” Last Seen Alone could not be more topical as October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The plot lives up to the cliché, “ripped from the headlines,” since the news is flush with tragic stories of women killed…
Lady Charlotte Sloane’s upcoming marriage to the Earl of Wrexford is the social event of the season. Charlotte is feeling some pre-marital jitters, not because she isn’t in love with her husband-to-be, but instead because becoming a countess is a sea-change for her and her two wards, fondly referred to as the Weasels. Will she…
A Most Clever Girl is based on the life of the American communist spy Elizabeth Bentley. She was recruited in New York City at the beginning of World War II to fight against fascism. Elizabeth was a well-educated loner working in dead-end jobs. On a personal level, becoming a communist meant she suddenly had a…
The title of Meg Tilly’s new thriller is evocative and intriguing—who is the heiress running from? Why is a wealthy woman on the lam? A vulnerable woman at the end of her rope is a trope that speaks to our deepest fears. We applaud a woman’s determination to leave a perilous situation while wishing no…
