Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mystery. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2024




Three stars
This book comes out March 19, 2024
Follows Dread and Buried
ARC kindly provided by Moose Island Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Sunday, March 17, 2024

A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian


stars
This book comes out March 19, 2024
ARC provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own



Sunday, March 3, 2024

A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn



stars
This book comes out March 12, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley
Opinions are my own



Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano

Vero and Finlay ended the last book missing someone important to them missing and they want to get that person back. To that end, they are heading to Atlantic City. They say it's for a girls' trip but somehow Finlay's children, mother, and ex-husband all end up coming along. 
They get to Atlantic City and meet the loan shark, but it all goes downhill from there. They're unable to make a deal and then the loan shark ends up dead. But how are they supposed to handle this situation? Especially when Finlay's sister and boyfriend show up on the scene.
These books are so well plotted with all of the pieces fitting together nicely and the ending come to a nice knot but still with a bit of a cliffhanger. There is always some disbelief of suspension that goes just a little too far for me but an overall nice read. Definitely read the other books in this series first. 

Four stars
This book comes out March 5, 2024
ARC kindly provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Monday, February 26, 2024

Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens by Andrea Penrose

Charlotte and Wrexford are getting married. That means that they are incredibly busy with wedding plans and the social twirl of being a newly engaged couple. It is at one of the parties, one at the Royal Botanic Gardens, that Wrexford is summoned into another room. He has gained a reputation for solving murders and the murdered man's friend is convinced this is not a natural death. Yes, the man had heart problems but the white powder around his mouth points to a different reason for death. 
An old enemy comes back and a new comrade (a cousin of Thomas Jefferson, no less) is made. 
A nice book with a branching into the botanic realm of the time, stepping out of the technical one a little bit. 

Wrexford & Sloan #5
Four stars
This book came out September 28, 2021
Followed by Murder at the Serpentine Bridge
Borrowed as hard copy from library
Opinions are my own





Sunday, February 25, 2024

Three Blind Mice and Other Stories by Agatha Christie

A novelization of Christie's long-running play with stories starring Poirot and Miss Marple. A wonderful amalgam of some of Christie's best short work.
Stories include the titular tale in which a young couple is starting up a hotel but their first guests arrive on the heels of a snowstorm. And one of them is a killer.
Miss Marple is the star of "Strange Jest" in which a young couple tries to decipher clues to a fortune left by a jocular uncle, "Tape-Measure Murder" which gives away the cause of death, and "The Case of the Perfect Maid" where she anticipates a crime. She also solves "The Case of the Caretaker" which is a manuscript given to her by her favorite doctor about a young man whose wife is murdered soon after they marry.
Hercule Poirot steps in to solve the mystery of "The Third Floor Flat" in which a double date leads to finding a dead body when one of the girls loses the key to her apartment and "The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly" wherein a young boy is kidnapped from under the noses of any number of policemen. He also gets a third story in "Four and Twenty Blackbirds" when the eating habits of 'Old Father Time' help to solve his murder.
The last story pulls misters Satterthwaite and Quinn who are less well known but still help solve the murder of a man even though both the man's wife and her lover confess in "The Love Detectives."

Four stars
This book came out in 1950
Hard copy of mine
Opinions are my own

Friday, February 23, 2024

I Only Read Murder by Will Ferguson, Ian Ferguson

Miranda Abbott was once Pastor Fran, itinerant pastor solving crimes. Fifteen years later, she can't even get on "Real Has Beens of Hollywood." Her money has run out, her assistant is leaving, and a mysterious postcard has come. Finally. Her husband wants her back. But does he?
When Miranda travels to Happy Rock, she finds Edgar in his shop, selling only mysteries. He is happy but he is sure it's time for them to figure out their relationship. Miranda is not sure they have the same end goal in mind. She decides to stick around, even going out for the local play. 
I have to admit, I really didn't like Miranda. Her lens was very well fleshed out in  its narrow, self-centered focus but it often left me feeling icky. It took me awhile to finish the book but I would definitely be interested in the next one in the series if we get to see some personal growth from the main character. 

Three stars
This book comes out February 27, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Mira and Edelweiss
Opinions are my own


Wednesday, February 21, 2024

A Date to Die For by E.V. Hunter

Alexi Ellis is leaving London to hang out with her best friend and she's bringing along her feline with an attitude, Cosmo. She just got cut from the journalism job that she loves, her ex knowing about it and not telling her was just icing on the cake. So, now she's in a small town, living in a hotel, and wondering about a local woman who has disappeared.

While looking into it, she runs into a private investigator, Jack Maddox. The two team up to try and figure out exactly what happened to Natalie.
The characters were a little flat and I feel like there is going to be a build up to Jack and Alexi having Twu Lurv but there was something that just didn't quite fit for me. Will probably read the next book in the series but may wait a bit to do so.

The Hopgood Hall Murder Mysteries
Three stars
This book came out February 3, 2023
Followed by A Contest to Kill For
Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Opinions are my own

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Death Comes to the Village by Catherine Lloyd

Lucy Harrington is the oldest daughter of the village rector. She has taken over many of the duties that are usually given to the rector's wife after her mother died. One of those duties includes caring for the invalids in her father's parish. That includes Major Robert Kurland who has recently returned from Waterloo.
Many of Major Kurland's memories from his time after returning home involve the managing voice of Miss Lucy Harrington telling him what to do and what not to do after she replace his original nurse who was a bit of a drunk. Though she is a plain woman, he appreciates her attitude. It is forthright and she is one of the few people who doesn't treat him as though his mind is as damaged as his leg. 
One night, the major looks out his window and sees someone carrying a heavy load. How does that tie in to the disappearance of two girls from the village? And what about the small thefts from various stores and houses?
The mysteries all tied together neatly. We get to see how Lucy and Robert interact. Though childhood friends, the two are definitely not in love (at this point) but they are making each other better and supporting each other when no one else will. 

Kurland St. Mary Mystery #1
Four stars
This book came out November 26, 2013
Followed by Death comes to London
Borrowed as audiobook from Audible Plus catalog
Opinions are my own


Monday, February 19, 2024

Murder at Queen's Landing by Andrea Penrose

At first, Charlotte and Wrexford do not appear to be involved in this murder at all. But then, a mysterious exchange Charlotte overheard at a ball and the sudden disappearance of a friend mean that they are pulled into another mystery. 
Some new characters in this book but a number of people we've seen in previous books as well. Charlotte and Wrexford are growing ever closer but so is his friend Sheffield and the Lady Cordelia. It will take the intelligence of all of them as well as the guile of the Weasels to figure out why a clerk from the East India company was killed and then left for dead. And what their friends may have had to do with it. A convoluted set of intertwining mysteries (could have been a little less convoluted) but Penrose puts them together well.

Wrexford & Sloane #4
Four stars
This book came out September 29, 2020
Borrowed as ebook from Libby
Opinions are my own

Sunday, February 18, 2024

The Hurtwood Village Murders by Benedict Brown

His second book now safely published, Marius Quin is going for a celebratory lunch with his Lady Isabella Montague. Too bad her beau, Gilbert Gaines, joins them. It seems the two have an idea for a new business as private investigators. Their first case can be why people are sending poison pen letters to people in the village they grew up in. Specifically, why Lucinda Heaton, who is revered by most of the town, is getting these letters. 
Isabella and Marius travel back and get to know some of the people in town, none of whom have changed very much though Marius describes trying to overlay the people from his memories with the people in front of him. Then, someone is murdered. Inspector Lovelace is pressed into service once again (though neither Bella nor Marius know his first name...
This was a nice addition to the series. I didn't love the wrap up to the mystery but it left us with an open ended question for the next book in the series.

Marius Quin #2
Four stars
This book comes out February 20, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Storm Publishing and NetGalley
Opinions are my own


Saturday, February 17, 2024

Lady Avely's Guide to Truth and Magic by Rosalie Oaks

This is a really cute book and I am going to figure out how to read the other series that Oaks has. I was a little annoyed at some of the capitalization in this book and can't figure out why because I haven't minded it in other books. I am also not a fan of time skips but that only happened in the first half of this book and I was very relieved. 
Judith Avely has only recently been given the rank of marchioness for her husband's service to the crown. Unfortunately, after his death, she also discovered something else about him and she is returning to Sargenet, the estate of the Duke of Sargen, to try to heal that secret. Being able to use her new title will work to her advantage as she doesn't want anyone to know who she is. 
The first night at the inn, she not only encounters a vampiri, she also sees, and is seen by, the Duke. It seems that he is recently returned after nine years abroad to deal with the rumors of a haunting on his estate and the death of a footman. He could use her Gift of Discernment (being able to hear a lie) to help ferret out the truth of what has been going on while he is gone. 
I loved the lay out of the main characters but thought we could have learned more about some of the side characters, especially the ones that come into play at the end of the book. It is hard to do when there are so many characters that we will probably see in future books so Oaks was trying to paint them all equally. 

Matronly Misadventures #1
Four stars
This book came out February 16, 2024
Followed by Lady Avely's Guide to Lies and Charms
ARC kindly provided by Parkerville Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Friday, February 16, 2024

Gone with the Witch by Angela M. Sanders

The book opens with an old outhouse being demolished and a set of bones being discovered. But whoever could the bones have been? There is a thought that they could be Martin Garlington. He disappeared almost fifty years ago. But the DNA says not and, besides, his wife, Helen, has just seen a man on a quiz show that she's convinced is her long, lost husband. She prevails on Josie to find out about the man, Bruno Gates, and ask him to come to town. 
Josie does find him and the man comes to town but he is decidedly NOT Martin. What he is, is a flirt who drinks too much at the bar, flirts a little too hard with the women of the town, and is found dead near where the old bones were discovered.
That is just the start of a mystery that unwinds the past fifty years. This time, Josie has some help in solving it. Her powers must be growing because she is once again finding the same book everywhere, but this time, when she opens it, Sherlock Holmes walks out of an illustration and into helping her solve the mystery. He also warns her that her own Moriarity is going to be making trouble for her.
This was a fun story with a lot of foreshadowing for future books. I felt like some of the characters could have been developed a bit more if they were going to be a part of the eventual solution. There are also some new people who have moved to town including a new rare book dealer whose last name is the same as that of a short story by Arthur Conan Doyle. 

Three and a half stars
This book comes out February 20, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Kensington Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own



Friday, February 9, 2024

The Framed Women of Ardemore House by Brandy Schillace

Jo Jones has had a very fraught couple of years. Her much-older husband sold their publishing company out from under her for a pittance and then divorced her. Right as that was happening her mother died. On the Monday before this book starts, she finds out that she's inherited an estate in England from her mother and the book opens with her arriving there with her solicitor, Rupert Selkirk. It's just unfortunate that the next person she meets, Sid Randles, the caretaker of her livable cottage, is such an unpleasant jerk. He even leaves a lawn mower running and seems to be the obvious suspect when a painting goes missing from a previously locked room. 
It is the painting that Jo focuses on during this story even though Sid turns up dead in her cottage. And it's very refreshing to see an amateur sleuth sort of staying in her own lane. 
This was a really nice read about an autistic main character. The author didn't avoid the dread love (interest) triangle but I think this is going to be the start of a series with characters I really enjoy. 

Four stars
This book comes out February 13, 2024
ARC kindly provided by Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Murder at Kensington Palace by Andrea Penrose

Charlotte Sloane is coming up against the secret of her former life in a big way in this novel. In the last book of the series, she admitted her past to the Earl of Wrexford. But a young gentleman's death, presumably by his three-minutes-younger brother, will pull her into the spotlight.
Both of the young men in question were deeply involved in the scientific community but the twin who was killed was working on some particularly gruesome experiments that may also have led to his death. Of course, it might also be related to gambling debts. But whatever it is, Charlotte is determined to solve the murder, even if it means returning to a world she thought she had completely turned her back on.
I really liked this mystery and the fact that it moved Charlotte's character forward. We are getting to see both Raven and Hawk grow into their own. Wrexford may not have had as much to do in this book but his relationship with Charlotte is growing at a nice speed.

Wrexford & Sloane #3
Four stars
This book came out September 24, 2019
Borrowed as ebook from Libby
Opinions are my own


Sunday, February 4, 2024

My Murder by Katie Williams

I saw this on the Books We Love list for 2023 and thought it looked interesting. We meet Lou who is a clone but who has all the memories of her previous body. As you can imagine, there is some dysmorphia over whether she really is "her" and some exploration of what it means to be yourself.
With four other women, Lou was brought back by the Replication Committee. All five of them were killed by a serial killer whose name is now famous and he is in prison. They are all trying to figure out what it means to have been brought back with all of their memories, with their same faces, but with a gap missing of what actually happened at the end (ascribed to trauma.)
Lou is having problems since the daughter who she wasn't even sure about before she died certainly wants nothing to do with her now that she has returned. She's also struggling in her job which seems to be virtual cuddling (human touch in a virtual age.)
A really interesting book that was a little disturbing a points but overall an interesting read. 

Four stars
This book came out June 6, 2023
Borrowed as hard copy from Library
Opinions are my own

Saturday, February 3, 2024

Board to Death by C.J. Connor

Ben Rosencrantz used to be an English professor (yes, he's heard all of the Shakespeare jokes) but he came back to Sugar House, a neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, to help his father run their family's board game shop. His father is ill and can use the help but their shop has been in a slow decline for years as Amazon has taken over. Newly divorced, Ben is just in a constant state of nervousness because nothing has gone the way it should have and now he's back, still gay, in the heart of Mormon country. 
It really doesn't help that a patron shows up on his doorstep, with a knife sticking out of his chest, and promptly dies. The man had claimed to have the prototype for Monopoly which, if true, would have been worth quite a lot of money. Ben thinks that he may be a suspect in the murder so he decides to investigate on his own.
This was an okay start to a series. I don't love amateur sleuths who run into danger but Ben at least took someone along with him. There wasn't a lot of build up for the mystery other than Ben running around. The narrator also had some weird pauses that kept throwing me off but I did finish the book and I'd probably read the next one. 

A Board Game Shop Mystery #1
Three stars
This book came out August 22, 2023
Borrowed as audiobook from Hoopla
Opinions are my own


Friday, February 2, 2024

A Fatal Illusion by Anna Lee Huber

At the end of the last book, Sebastian had gotten word that his father had been attacked. He and Kiera took their whole family, including their four-month-old daughter. He is being housed in a small village near where he was attacked, in the home of a former army doctor, so he at least has good care. 
However, when Sebastian and Kiera try to investigate, they run into a series of problems. There are few in the village who are willing to talk. They are also attacked. Someone is really working to make sure that the reasons for Lord Gage's attack aren't uncovered. And even the people who appear to be helpful aren't actually what they seemed. 
This book was fine but there was a lot going on. It may have been the time of my life and I'd like to re-read it again later because I did enjoy the character building, both the new characters and between Lord Gage and Henry, his son who was claimed by a duke.

Lady Darby Mystery #11
Three stars
This book came out June 20, 2023
Followed by A Deceptive Composition
Borrowed as ebook from Libby
Opinions are my own

Monday, January 29, 2024

Solstice Spirits by Erin Johnson

Rudie Hollybrook is the only person in Holiday Haven who sees dead people. It's been a point of contention between herself and her best frenemy Hayley Swift. Except now, Hayley is also seeing ghosts. Well, ghost. It's just one ghost. But it's still scaring the bejeebers out of her. So she calls Rudie, at ridiculous hours of the morning (seriously, the lady has no manners.)

But her life view may be about to change. It may not be three separate ghosts but this particular ghost is trying to tell her something.
Not a ton of depth but a good story.

Three stars
This book came out July 1, 2021
Follows Holiday Hijinks
Followed by Merry Mischief 
Rudie last appeared in Cocoa Curses
Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Opinions are my own


Friday, January 26, 2024

Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

I read the first book by Stevenson, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, and enjoyed it. There was some verbal trickery that I didn't quite agree with but still, a fun book. Having read that book made this one more enjoyable and so did expecting that the author would toy with the readers expectations.
Ernest Cunningham returns as the first person narrator. He's been asked to come along as the debut writer on the Australian Mystery Writer's Society's fiftieth anniversary of their Festival. Along with five other writers, he will be doing a series of panels for a select group. 
Also on the train is his girlfriend, Juliette, and his literary agent, Simone Morrison, as well as any number of other characters. Ernest is not excited to see Simone as he is late on delivering his next book, the one he has already gotten an advance for. It's just too bad because he just doesn't have a brain for fiction. So it's with mixed emotions that Ernest realizes that a death along their journey may not be entirely natural. He decides that he is going to investigate, all while writing his next book (the one we are reading) while adhering to the rules he lists at the beginning of the book. 
As in the first book, Ernest drops clues as to who the murderer will end up being. Also like the first book, many of those clues were deft red herrings. It made it a little hard to read and some of the story felt a little thin but it was overall a very nice read and I'm hoping that the epilogue is a hint to how the next book in the series will be rolled out. 

Four stars
This book comes out January 30, 2024
Follows Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone
ARC kindly provided by Mariner Books and NetGalley
Opinions are my own