Contemporary mysteries and thrillers ranging from the mid 1900s (plus or minus) to the present time
Read it by yourself because you’ll laugh out loud… Some mysteries draw you in with the depth of their plot, and others with the intensity of their action. Books in Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow series, on the other hand, have good plots and plenty of action, but mostly pull you along because you can’t wait …
A review of Birder, She Wrote by Donna Andrews – out today Read More »
A fun small town cozy mystery… A Fatal Groove is practically the definition of a cozy mystery, and folks who like cozies should enjoy this second installment in Olivia Blacke’s Record Shop Mysteries series. And I enjoyed it too, although it did have a couple of minor issues, in my opinion. As A Fatal …
A review of A Fatal Groove by Olivia Blacke – coming soon Read More »
A compelling mix of spy thriller and mystery… Long ago, on a pre-pandemic trip to Las Vegas, my husband and I visited the National Atomic Testing Museum, which showcases the history of the dawn of the nuclear age and the bomb tests that occurred at the nearby Nevada Test Site. Although going to a museum …
A review of The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos, coming on July 18 Read More »
A great first outing for Mike Lupica in Jesse Stone’s world… I’m often not a huge fan of follow-on books in series whose original author has died, but I very much liked Fool’s Paradise, Mike Lupica’s first crack at a title in Robert B Parker’s Jesse Stone series. Lupica has also previously written two titles …
Review of Fool’s Paradise by Mike Lupica – a Jesse Stone novel Read More »
A promising debut novel that kept me up late… Liquid Shades of Blue is a promising first book from author James Polkinghorn. It’s a bit rough in places, but kept me reading much later into the night than I should have – not so much trying to figure out what happened (the outlines of which …
Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn is coming soon – a review Read More »
A slightly odd but enjoyable mix of police procedural and thriller… Retribution is the fifth book in Robert McCaw’s Koa Kane series, set in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. It’s a slightly odd mix of police procedural and thriller, and although readers may have to suspend disbelief occasionally as a result, Retribution is …
A review of Retribution by Robert McCaw – coming soon Read More »
A cozy mystery with a bit of grit… Jane Adams has written a thoroughly engaging English countryside mystery featuring actress Rina Martin, who is now semi-retired and the “proprietress” of a Victorian era boarding house, Peverill Lodge. At first, the case appears pretty simple – so simple that there’s not really a case at all: …
A fun, not-quite-cozy, mystery… David Rosenfelt’s Good Dog, Bad Cop is the fourth in his K-Team mystery series, which is itself a spin-off from his Andy Carpenter series, And somehow I’ve never read any of them. But I was recently offered an advance review copy of Good Dog, and, even without having any background from …
Another solid police procedural set in Kuala Lumpur… It had been a while since I’d read one of Rozlan Mohd Noor’s Inspector Mislan books, so I was pleased to receive a review copy of the latest in the series from the publishers. Philanthropists: Inspector Mislan and the Executioners is, like the earlier books, a tightly …
A classic psychological mystery… I’m not usually a big fan of psychological thrillers, but even I can recognize that A Gentle Murderer is a classic of the genre. Although it’s actually not clear whether it’s a psychological thriller as much as it’s a psychological mystery, with two different “detectives” on the trail of the man …
