Mostly Mysteries

Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, is on sale today in the US

Peril, by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, is on sale for $4.99 today as part of the US Kindle Daily Deal, matched at Kobo US. Buy at Kindle US | Kobo US

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Murder at Beaulieu Abbey by Cassandra Clark is on sale in the UK today

8 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

Murder at Beaulieu Abbey is the eleventh in Cassandra Clark’s Hildegard of Meaux series. I read and really liked the first few books in this series and then just lost track of it. So it’s nice to see the most recent (2021) in the series go on sale for £2.84 at Kindle UK – I’ll

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Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson is on sale today in the US

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin is on sale in the UK today

4 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

A Wizard of Earthsea is the first in Ursula K Le Guin’s Earthsea series. I read the first three back in my college days, and liked them all. So I’m really happy to see Wizard go on sale for £0.99 at Kindle UK right now. Buy at Kindle UK

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The Body on the Beach by Simon Brett is on sale in the UK today

6 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

The Body on the Beach is the first in Simon Brett’s Fethering series. It has dropped to £0.99 at Kindle UK. This is probably my third favorite series of his, slightly behind his Mrs. Pargeter and Blotto & Twinks series, but it’s still quite fun. Buy at Kindle UK

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All seven Narnia books by CS Lewis are on sale today at Kindle UK

2 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

Today’s Big Deal at Kindle UK is all seven Narnia books, by CS Lewis, for £0.99 each. Titles include: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, The Horse and his Boy, The Magician’s Nephew, and The Last Battle. Link to the sale webpage at

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Most of the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters is on sale today in the UK

Review of The Mirror Dance by Catriona McPherson – recently published

10 Comments / Historical Mysteries and Thrillers / By Sue

A nice mystery and great historical background…. I had read several early titles in Catriona McPherson’s Dandy Gilver series back in “real paperback book” days, and remember them fondly. However during my transition to reading e-books almost exclusively, I had somehow kind of lost track of this series. So I was happy to be offered

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Review of Give Unto Others by Donna Leon – coming in March 2022

6 Comments / Contemporary Mysteries and Thrillers / By Sue

I’ve been a big fan of Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti series for years, ever since picking up some of the early series titles in paperback on a business trip to the UK – and then binge-reading three of them, one after the other, on the two airplane flights home. And in the first couple of

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Spoils of the Dead by Dana Stabenow is on sale at Kindle UK

Leave a Comment / Price Drops / By Sue

Spoils of the Dead is the fifth (blurb) or sixth (SYKM) and most recent (2021) in Dana Stabenow’s Liam Campbell series. It has dropped to £1.19 at Kindle UK right now. Buy at Kindle UK

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About Mostly Mysteries

Whether you are a non-stop reader looking for your next series to binge-read, or someone without much spare time, wanting to make sure the next book you read is great, I hope my reviews will help you out. I hate reading reviews that just say “five stars” or “I loved the book, it was great”, and I’m sure you do too. So you won’t find any of those here! Instead, I take the time to read and think about a book, and then write a review that (1) doesn’t just parrot the blurb, (2) talks about what I liked and didn’t like, and (3) has some additional info to help you decide if the book might be right for you.

I’ve been a huge fan of mysteries since my earliest days of reading, cutting my teeth on Encyclopedia Brown and Nancy Drew, and quickly moving on to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. From there, I bounced around a bit, trying some thrillers, like Alistair MacLean, and some romantic suspense, mainly Mary Stewart. And then I started branching out. I discovered historical mysteries, and British mysteries (Sarah Caudwell is my idol), and cozy mysteries, and police procedurals, and mysteries set in foreign climes, and noir, and…well, you get the idea! Just about the only mysteries I’ve never quite gotten into are psychological thrillers.

This blog reflects my own personal tastes, so, as you might guess, you’ll mostly find reviews of mysteries here. But, over the decades, I’ve also picked up some other reading habits. I read a fair amount of history, especially books about the Great Game rivalry between Britain and Russia. I’ve gone through all the Asterix comics (a big thank-you to my middle-school French teacher), and I even read a bunch of them out loud to my son when he was young. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read and re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and those books have led me into a little bit of fantasy and science fiction as well. Oh yeah, and recently, I’ve been reading some social and political science books too. So check out the Science Fiction/Fantasy, Nonfiction, Romance and Other Stuff tabs up in the menu as well!

Finally I’d love to hear from you too, so please make use of the comments sections available for most of my posts, or use the contact form, down at the bottom of the page.

Reviewing and Rating Info

I rate books on a scale from 1 to 5 stars, with occasional half-stars when a full star just won’t do.

Many of the books I review are provided to me by the publisher or author as a reading copy – in other words, at no cost to me. In other cases, usually for older books, I’m reviewing books I borrowed from the library or bought myself. My rating and review do not depend on whether I was provided a free reading copy. However if I did receive a free reading copy, I will disclose this in the review.

I do not post reviews of every book I read – not even close. It takes a lot of time and effort to craft a good review, and so I tend to be biased towards reviewing books that I enjoy or that excite me. As a result, you’ll find mostly 4- and 5-star reviews on my blog. Also, I do not post 1- or 2-star reviews on my blog unless the author or publisher asks me to.