Mostly Mysteries

Review of The Sleeping Car Murders by Sébastien Japrisot – coming soon

1 Comment / Contemporary Mysteries and Thrillers / By Sue

If I hadn’t already known I was reading an English translation of a French murder mystery, I would have figured it out anyway by the fourth paragraph of The Sleeping Car Murders. That’s the paragraph where Pierre, the railroad employee whose job it is to check over the just-arrived Phocéen train, and thus the man […]

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A Short History of Byzantium by John Julius Norwich is on sale today in the UK

5 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

I read and enjoyed John Julius Norwich’s A Short History of Byzantium in real-paper format several years ago, in the run-up to a combination work/vacation trip to Istanbul. I really enjoyed it, but at around 500 pages, it wasn’t particularly short (!!!), nor was it very convenient to carry around. So I’m really happy to

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Two James Bond titles by Ian Fleming are nicely priced in the US right now

Review of City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman – coming in February, 2022

6 Comments / Contemporary Mysteries and Thrillers / By Sue

Another enjoyable outing for Alex Delaware and Milo Sturgis… I only recently started reading Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware/Milo Sturgis series and I’ve really liked the books I’ve read so far. (You can read my review of Kellerman’s currently-most-recent title, Serpentine, here.) And I definitely enjoyed Kellerman’s upcoming series title, City of the Dead, as well.

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Eight books by Patricia Cornwell are on sale today at Kindle UK

31 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

Today’s Big Deal in the UK is 8 books by Patricia Cornwell for £0.99 each. These are the second through ninth titles in Cornwell’s Kay Scarpetta series. For some odd reason, the first one isn’t included – it’s at £4.99 right now (sigh!), although it was on briefly on sale for £0.99 a while back.

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Dreams Made Flesh by Anne Bishop is on sale today in the US and UK

6 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

Dreams Made Flesh is the fifth in Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels series. It’s on sale today in both the US ($1.99) and UK (£1.49). Buy at Kindle US | Kobo US | Kindle UK

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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is on sale in the UK

The entire Travis McGee series by John D MacDonald is on sale in the UK

1 Comment / Price Drops / By Sue

Almost the entire Travis McGee series, by John D MacDonald, has dropped to £1.99 each at Kindle UK, as of the middle of September. I’m having trouble believing I didn’t notice this before, and I have no idea how long the price drops will last. The exceptions to the £1.99 pricing are the first two

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Three titles by Thomas Mogford are on sale/inexpensive at Kindle US right now

An omnibus of all three Cathedral Mystery books by Philip Gooden is on sale in the UK

2 Comments / Price Drops / By Sue

Holy Murder: The Cathedral Mysteries is a compilation of all three books in Philip Gooden’s Thomas Ansell series: The Salisbury Manuscript, The Durham Disappearance (apa The Durham Deception), and The Ely Testament. It has dropped to £1.99 at Kindle UK right now. Buy at Kindle UK

An omnibus of all three Cathedral Mystery books by Philip Gooden is on sale in the UK Read More »

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.