I am always so grateful whenever the latest British Library Crime Classics anthology crosses my desk. Having been raised in the fine tradition of sleuthing exemplified by the Golden Age of detective fiction—many if not most of whose practitioners were British—I always look forward to exploring the gems unearthed by Martin Edwards for his thoughtfully…
Meet Billie Webster, Mary Alice Tuttle, Helen Randolph, and Natalie Schuyler—fierce women who comprise a unique female squad of assassins in Deana Raybourn’s new thriller Killers of a Certain Age. The “Museum”—the foursome’s shadowy non-governmental employer—deploys assassins to kill those who need terminating. What started with Nazis is now focused on arms dealers and money…
Mark Westmoreland’s debut novella, A Violent Gospel, introduced readers to Mack and Marshall Dooley, two roustabout brothers in the north Georgia mountains whose penchant for trouble leads them into a deadly showdown with a psychotic preacher, Randy Jessup, and his criminal flock. Along the way, Mack (from whose point of view the novel is told)…
A frontrunner in the literary world of cold case fiction has emerged this year in the form of Back to the Garden. This new thriller from renowned author Laurie R. King had me hooked from page one. King opens up the novel by diving into the past, and from here seamlessly transports the reader back…
Mysteries featuring historical figures shed light on the times in which they lived. It’s a bonus when the setting is a gorgeous destination. Welcome to Newport, Rhode Island, July 1900. Edwin and Elizabeth Morgan are summering at their Grecian-inspired summer cottage, Beacon Rock, a stunningly beautiful mansion. Emmaline (Emma) Cross and her fiancé, Derrick Andrews,…
Now that Enola Holmes has reconciled with her overbearing older brothers Mycroft and Sherlock (yes, that Sherlock,) she has settled into a relatively respectable life as the youngest boarder at the Professional Women’s Club. Enola spends her days taking classes at the London Women’s Academy and attempting to get to know her brothers better now…
Loni Mae Murrow is happy in her job as a bird artist for the Smithsonian up in the nation’s capital. When she gets an urgent message from Philip, her younger brother by a dozen years, to come home for a few weeks, she isn’t thrilled she’ll have to leave the comforts of DC in order…
I have a weakness for comic book writers who turn their hands to writing long-form prose, so I jumped at the chance to review Grant Morrison’s new novel, Luda. A sort of gender-fluid All About Eve wrapped in a Phantom Of The Opera shell, this dazzling debut follows drag artist Luci La Bang as she…
It’s very easy to sell me on any book that has the premise of older women joining forces to solve crimes, and this series debut lives up to its potential in spades! Which is fitting, since our heroines—long-time nemeses who first appeared in Laurien Berenson’s Melanie Travis mystery series—originally team up because former nun Rose…
Homicide detective Eve Dallas stands in for victims, making their pain her own. The circumstance of their death fuels her energy to avenge them and bring them justice. No crimes affect her more deeply than sexual abuse and exploitation of children: Eve’s painful past gives her a visceral understanding. Her father repeatedly raped and terrorized…
