A Midnight Puzzle by Gigi Pandian

Tempest Raj finally figures out the mystery of her mother's death in this book. It's not particularly fairly clued and I wish we had gotten to know the twists a little bit more (trying to be cryptic here...) but I enjoyed the ride.

Tempest has bought the old Whispering Creek Theater, the one where her mother disappeared from. She should be rejoicing but she is worrying about Julian Rhodes. Her family did some construction on his house and now he's suing them. So when she gets a phone call to meet him at the theater at midnight, she is less than ecstatic. When she arrives, Julian is dead. Apparently dead from a contraption that stabbed him through the heart. A note, in her handwriting, is on the door. 

We see more of Tempest and quite a bit from her mentor in this book. 

Three and a half stars

This book comes out March 19, 2024

Secret Staircase Mystery #3

Follows The Raven Thief

Followed by The Library Game

ARC provided by St. Martin's Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas

When Evie's friend Lillian was kidnapped by Sebastian, Viscount St. Vincent, Lillian's fiance quickly came to the rescue. Sebastian was just trying to get his hands on a bountiful dowry. Well, Evie has such a dowry and she is in desperate need of a noble husband. Her mother's family won't let her see her father. He's the owner of a lucrative gaming hall but he's also dying and Evie wants to be there for him at the end. Sebastian decides that she's as good a bride as any and they take off for Scotland. 

When they get back, Sebastian immediately steps in and takes over the business. It turns out that Jenner's (Evie's father) business manager has been robbing the place blind and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Evie and Sebastian will have to battle old ghosts, former friends, and a murderous enemy before they can find their Happily Ever After.

My favorite book in the series.

Four and a half stars

Wallflowers #3

This book came out February 28, 2006

Follows It Happened One Autumn

Followed by Scandal in Spring

Audiobook of mine from Audible

Opinions are my own

A-List by D.P. Lyle

Nicole's uncle, the famous producer Charles Balfour, is in need of a PI so he calls Jake's dad. Nicole is still an employee (at least according to the ID she held on to from the last case) so she drags Jake down to New Orleans to find out what happened to Kristi Guidry, a young woman who was strangled, puportedly by A-list star Kirk Ford. They were alone in the hotel room so it seems like he is the obvious (and only) suspect. Mucking up the works are Kristi's brothers and her uncle who are searching for revenge. Can Jake and Nicole solve the mystery before Kristi's family kills Kirk?

Also included are a pair of fantastically gorgeous identical twins, Pancake (who may have found a girlfriend in the movie's makeup artist) and a fortune teller.

About the same level of insanity as the first book though this one wasn't as well put together.

Three stars

This book came out December 12, 2017

Jake Longly #2

Follows Deep Six 

Followed by Sunshine State

Borrowed as ebook from Hoopla

Opinions are my own

After Dark by Jayne Castle

Lydia Smith experienced a "Lost Weekend" wherein two of the Hunters she was underground with claim she went rogue and ran away. She can't dispute the claim since she can't remember exactly what happened. But she's too cautious to have ever done something as stupid as run away from the men who were supposed to be protecting her. After the incident, she lost her university job and is now working at Shrimpton's museum of horrors. And she's just discovered a body. One that's not supposed to be there. The body of a man who was a ruin rat and sort of a friend. Whatever will the first client of her fledgling antiques-finding business think?

Emmett London is hard to disconcert. After all, he was the Guild Boss of a neighboring city and managed to completely overhaul that group's reputation into being something less than hired thugs and more like any other large business. Of course he hasn't told Lydia that he's a hunter. He's read her file and knows that she blames hunters in general for her lost weekend. Emmett just wants help finding an curio cabinet his family brought from Earth when they came through the Curtain and he thinks she might know some of the... less savory places to look.

Despite their total differences, Lydia and Emmett manage to not only find the curio cabinet, but in the process they take down a group working illegally in the tunnels, and rescue Emmett's nephew as well.

Ghost Hunters #1

Four stars

This book came out January 1, 2000

Followed by After Glow

Hard copy of mine

Opinions are my own

Murder at the Serpentine Bridge by Andrea Penrose

Charlotte and Wrexford are married. She and the boys as well as the maid have moved into his house. But that doesn't keep them from finding another dead body. This time it's that of a Black man who is found floating in a lake. The man ends up being not only someone who has developed a way to make guns more efficient but is also the relative of Charlotte's brother's brother-in-law's nephew, a young lord. He is currently the ward of his uncle but Charlotte and Wrexford can tell he is not being treated well among his own family. Luckily, Peregrine (another bird!) makes friends with Raven and Hawk. 

The three boys will play an important part in helping the adults solve this murder.

Also, another story line is finally starting to get resolved with Cordelia and Kit.

Wrexford and Sloane #6

Four stars

Follows Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens

Followed by Murder at the Merton Library

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Playful Intelligence by Anthony T. DeBenedet

It looks like this book is being re-released as it originally came out on May 1, 2018. There are no notes on this being a new edition so, if you've read this before, I don't think anything has changed.

The author dives into the idea that people with rich imaginations, who are able to re-frame their stressors, are able to go far in life. He talks about Bill B whose job was in danger of being cut every day for ten years. We look at Sheila whose life is one catastrophe after another starting from her birth. These two are just the start of example after example of people who used some form of imagination to make it through hard times.

DeBenedet argues that empathy is a part of imagination and that exercising that muscle can help us to connect with others. That putting ourselves in their shoes can help make us better at our jobs and at life. He also argues that having imagination can help us avoid "anchoring," when our thoughts are so rooted in what we've seen in the past that we can't come up for solutions what is in front of us now. 

For a book that relies on what seem to be true stories, the writing style reminded me of nothing so much as The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. 

Three stars

This book came out May 1, 2018

ARC kindly provided by Santa Monica Press and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

Death Comes to London by Catherine Lloyd

What a perfectly lovely story. It's a romance with a slow burn. We actually get to see Major Kurland and Miss Harrington interact even as they're solving a mystery. I didn't read the first book but didn't feel like I missed much. There was no major info dump; instead, we learned about their past slowly. 

Lucy Harrington is going to London to accompany her younger (lovelier?) sister to attend the Season. Major Kurland is about to be given a baronetcy for bravery on the field so he also goes to town. There, they meet the Broughton family. The elder son, a lieutenant, served with Major Kurland. He is also a scientist. His younger brother is something of a loose canon as is his grandmother. The grandmother who falls dead in the middle of Almack's while she's ranting. But it's not her heart, they soon discover, it was poison. 

I can't wait to get the next book in the series.

Kurland St. Mary Mystery #2

Four stars

This book came out November 25, 2014

Follows Death comes to the Village

Followed by Death comes to Kurland Hall

Borrowed as ebook from Kindle Unlimited

Opinions are my own