A fun YA mystery that’s good for adults too… I hadn’t realized that The Starlet Letter was a young adult mystery when I requested a review copy. But that didn’t really matter too much – it was still a fun mystery with an engaging pair of protagonists, and a really nicely developed historical background. Vivian […]
Review of The Starlet Letter by Julie Mathison – out tomorrow Read More »
A fun collection of period short mysteries… Way back in the early twentieth century, Gelett Burgess wrote a series of short mysteries featuring “Astro the Seer”. Astro ostensibly uses his metaphysical and extrasensory talents, such as reading palms, calculating astrological profiles, and feeling magnetic vibrations, to help his clients. But he doesn’t really rely on
A review of The Master of Mysteries by Gelett Burgess – recently published Read More »
A heroine with problems, attitude, and smarts… Rhode Island Red is the first in Charlotte Carter’s short three-book mystery series featuring street-smart (and also just plain smart) Nanette Hayes as the protagonist. Nan has a degree from Wellesley in French, with a minor in Music, that, as she describes it, was “scholarship all the way”.
Review of Rhode Island Red by Charlotte Carter Read More »
SJ Rozan’s latest Lydia Chin/Bill Smith title, Family Business, is a wonderful look at New York’s Chinatown, full of atmosphere and a strong sense of place. But it also addresses some complicated topics, starting on a small scale with Lydia’s own family dynamics, including her unstated “don’t ask/don’t tell” bargain with her very Chinese mother
Review of Family Business by SJ Rozan – recently published Read More »
Smooth and easy to read… I had read and really enjoyed the previous book in this series, The Last Scoop, and so I was happy to also receive an advance review copy of Beyond the Headlines. And I wasn’t disappointed – the things I had enjoyed in the earlier book were all also present in
Review of Beyond the Headlines by RG Belsky – recently published Read More »
An investigative journalist goes back to her roots…. I have read and enjoyed a few other books by RL Belsky, so I was happy to be offered a review copy of The Last Scoop, which is the most recent in his newest Clare Carlson series. (The most recent at least until May, when the next
Review of The Last Scoop by RL Belsky Read More »
A fun and enjoyable fiftieth (!!!) book in this near-future mystery series… I read and enjoyed some of JD Robb’s Eve Dallas near-future mysteries back in the 1990s, when they first came out. But somehow, over the years, I lost track of the series, and didn’t read any more. So I was happy to get
JD Robb: Golden in Death (review) Read More »
I wish the author had been able to write more mysteries before he died… The Conjure-Man Dies is a piece of history: its introduction says it’s the first detective novel written by an African-American. That tends to put it under a bright spotlight, and might make it hard for the book to live up to
Coming Soon: The Conjure-Man Dies by Rudolph Fisher (review) Read More »
Some things to think about while also solving a mystery… SJ Rozan tackles two difficult topics in her most recent Lydia Chin/Bill Smith entry, The Art of Violence. The first, as might be guessed from the book’s title, is the nature of art – or maybe the nature of Art, **with** the capital letter. And
Review of The Art of Violence by SJ Rozan Read More »
