Contemporary Mysteries and Thrillers

Contemporary mysteries and thrillers ranging from the mid 1900s (plus or minus) to the present time

A review of Birder, She Wrote by Donna Andrews – out today

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

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A review of A Fatal Groove by Olivia Blacke – coming soon

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

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A review of The Bitter Past by Bruce Borgos, coming on July 18

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

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Review of Fool’s Paradise by Mike Lupica – a Jesse Stone novel

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

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Liquid Shades of Blue by James Polkinghorn is coming soon – a review

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

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A review of Retribution by Robert McCaw – coming soon

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

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Murder at the Willows by Jane Adams – a review

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: 

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Good Dog, Bad Cop by David Rosenfelt – a review

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

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A review of Philanthropists: Inspector Mislan and the Executioners by Rozlan Mohd Noor – coming soon

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

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