Dunia Ahmed, like many other single New Yorkers her age, looks forward every morning to the mild flirtation she has going on with a cute guy who happens to take the same subway line as she does into work. Mostly, they just smile hello at each other, so the last thing she expects is for…
Welcome to New York City, where Carole McCann is the first female mayor, and now her 15-year-old son has gone missing. Normally one would expect that this situation calls for a citywide search with all NYPD precincts scouring the streets. However, McCann instead calls in the help of private investigator Bill Smith. And with that,…
What makes us return, again and again, to the futuristic thriller series In Death? Random in Death is #58 of 59 Eve Dallas novels—by any measuring stick, that’s quite a run. J.D. Robb cleverly balances deepening familiarity with Eve Dallas and her gazillionaire husband Roarke—and their friends, co-workers, and family—while introducing new people to the…
Will Parker dearly loves being the assistant to New York City’s finest private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. Over the course of their association, she’s built up a formidable reputation for crime-fighting in her own right. So when she’s gulled and mugged while on Coney Island one day, her immediate reaction is to hide the experience from…
Mugshots of Manhattan by Christin Brecher, the effervescent sophomore installment of the Snapshots of New York series, delivers yet another charming look at the high life of the Big Apple, as seen through the lens of a keen-eyed photographer with a penchant for solving mysteries. Liv Spyers is happily building up her own brand while…
Jesse Q. Sutanto contains multitudes! Her cozy Bay Area mystery, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice For Murderers, is one of my favorite books of this year for its large-hearted generosity. Her latest release, I’m Not Done With You Yet, is almost the exact tonal opposite: a psychological thriller involving damaged women doing terrible, murderous things. Both…
Marion Brooks dreams of a career in dance. But in her 1950s home her father’s word is law, and Simon Brooks believes that the only jobs suitable for women are nurse, teacher, or secretary. Her older sister Judy has followed that path, joining him in the executive suite of Met Power as his dutiful assistant.…
Willowjean “Will” Parker is coming off of the fresh high of apprehending a kidnapper with her boss Lillian Pentecost, 1947 New York City’s most celebrated detective. But there’s no time to rest on their laurels, as they must move quickly to once more pick up the trail of Pentecost’s greatest nemesis, Olivia Waterhouse. The woman…
Alice Lee is eighteen years-old when she takes off from her small Wisconsin town, drawn like a moth to the bright lights of New York City. With only six hundred dollars and a vintage Leica camera to her name, she has no idea what she wants to do with her life, only that she wants…
Ecologically, New York City is an estuary; a giant, cleansing filter. Figuratively it is the same, and I know of no place on earth that can be so described in identical terms as accurate as they are disparate. Among the many gifts bestowed by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical Hamilton, there is revolutionary 18th century NYC as…
