Don’t Look Down by Hilary Davidson is a fast-paced, twisty, classic city crime thriller that leaves one fully satisfied with the conclusion but perhaps thirsting a little more for the inner lives of the characters. The book begins not with NYPD Detective Sheryn Sterling, but with Jo Greaver, who is headed to an assignation to…
Second Sister by Chan Ho-Kei, translated by Jeremy Tiang, is a very timely and propulsively plotted tale of cyberbullying and revenge, about a woman on the hunt for the truth about her sister’s death. Older sister Nga-Yee is almost home after a long day at the library. The only thing on her mind is a…
The interplay between upstairs and downstairs, mistress and maid, never gets old, as fans of Downton Abbey will attest. Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady’s maid, Eva Huntford, make formidable investigators because of their access to every stratum of society. They don’t sugarcoat people’s foibles, but their inquiries are leavened by compassion and concern. September…
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is an eery, spellbinding tale spanning two generations of women and centering on an Upstate New York motel where something hasn’t been right for a very long time. Fell, New York, 1982: Twenty-year-old Viv Delaney leaves an unhappy home in Illinois for New York City but finds…
In the second Detective Betty mystery, Kathleen Kent’s protagonist Det. Betty Rhyzyk goes rogue, leading her into the dark underworld of the Dallas drug cartel. Dallas native Kathleen Kent began her career in publishing by writing bestselling, award-winning historical novels—The Heretic’s Daughter, The Traitor’s Wife, and The Outcasts. She made her crime fiction debut with…
The Only Child by Mi-Ae Seo is an eerie and absorbing novel following a criminal psychologist who has discovered shocking and possibly dangerous connections between a serial killer and her stepdaughter. Yi Seonkyeong is a young criminal psychologist who’s just wrapping up her first semester of teaching when she receives a curious request. A convicted serial killer named…
Hannah Capin’s terrific debut novel, The Dead Queens Club, was a YA thriller that re-examined the legacy of Henry VIII via transplantation to a present-day Indiana high school. With her sophomore effort, Foul Is Fair, she continues her quest to reclaim the role and agency of women in history and literature via a devastating adaptation…
Death in the Family introduces Senior Investigator Shana Merchant as she attempts to solve a murder on a small, storm-struck island. The setting for a Death in the Family is privately-owned Tern Island, one of the Thousand Islands. The Sinclair family owns it lock, stock, and baronial-splendor barrel. Senior Investigator Shana Merchant and her colleague,…
Before plunging into the Patricia Marcantonio’s second Victorian mystery, consider, what are the most famous unsolved crimes in history? Ding ding, Jack the Ripper: check out a short refresher on his hideous crime spree. The sensational brutal murders of five prostitutes in London’s East End in the autumn of 1888 by an unknown killer who…
Over a hundred years ago, the Catskills village of Galesburg was destroyed in the name of progress. Flooded, so the Chilewaukee Reservoir could be built, in order to funnel water downstate to quench the thirst of New York City. But the people of Galesburg didn’t go without a fight. Some didn’t go at all… They…
