Category: Mystery

The Hidden City by Charles Finch (Historical Mystery)

Number 12 in this historical mystery series, but number one for me. Regardless of not knowing the history of the characters I was able to follow the story very well. I would definitely categorize this as a “cozy” as there were no “thrilling” (i.e. terrifying for the reader) scenes to get my anxiety going. Fine by me! Interesting that as a cozy written by a man, there was less filler of the tea parties and gown description types (also fine by me) but plenty of historical detail about the Victorian Age in which the stories are set. This included plenty of social as well as policy / political commentary. I particularly enjoyed the description of various “guilds” (known here as “livery companies”) started in medieval times — all styled as the “Worshipful Company of xxx.” Tickled me. Some good bits on women’s suffrage and the complete injustice of the treatment of London’s “lower classes.” This particular episode felt like more of a novel than a mystery, although there was a mystery obviously (old murders just tied together with a current threat to someone living in the house where one of them occurred). I quite liked the characters and will likely go back to number one and see how things progress!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 4th, 2025.

Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery)

Number three in the Susan Ryeland series (after Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders — both now streaming on Masterpiece). Susan was the editor of the fantastically successful Atticus Pünd detective series — from inception until disastrous events brought the series to an end. You’d think she would have had enough, but dire straights lead her to accept a job editing a continuation novel, written by Eliot Crace — a well-known loose cannon who is nevertheless blessed with a beloved children’s author as a (now deceased) grandmother.

It’s a classic story-within-a-story format — we’re reading the Crace novel as fast as he produces pages while simultaneously reading Ryeland’s story as she keeps sticking her nose into the author and the story, which continues to mirror reality to an uncomfortable extent. The two stories dovetail in weird and twisted ways and I never saw what was coming, though the clues were all there. I love Horowitz’s writing — clear and concise and bringing characters to life with minimal, essential, prose. The mystery (two in parallel really, one fictional and one not) is excellent on its own, but I also loved the meta layer exposure of the literary world — how writers write, the relationship between author and editor, and basic survival tips for the publishing industry. It’s full of anagrams, ethical discussions, and deliciously clever (albeit often evil) moves. I always appreciate a book that has no stupidity — intentional or not — in its pages!

Some facts new to me: According to the Authors, Licensing and Collecting society, the average salary earned by a novelist is a mere 7,000 pounds a year — not a lot (not even a little, really). There are around 200,000 books published in the UK every year ( and as many as 1 million in the USA) and as Horowitz writes: “How many of them do you really think are going to end up on the front table at Waterstones?.” Lastly, I had never heard of the Nazca lines in Peru — giant geoglyphs in a Peruvian desert dated between 500 BC and 500 AD that are so large they can be seen from space (for those who have read it, this reminded me of Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan.

Easy read, completely engaging, and (IMHO) book clearly better than the Masterpiece series (which itself is very good, but the book is better)

Thank you to Harper and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 13th, 2025.

The Edge of the Crazies by Jamie Harrison (Mystery)

I quite enjoyed this new (to me) mystery series taking place in small town Blue Deer, Montana. This is book one of what is currently a set of five books, but I believe it is a recent release of the audio book (I liked the narrator, Justin Price, a lot — had a real Montana sound to him).

The independently minded characters gave off a real Montana vibe, without straying too far into stereotype (and not terribly accurate) portrayal of the Montana resident.

Jules Clement was born and raised in Blue Deer, escaped to the East Coast for education and adventure, and then in a surprising move (even to himself) went back to Blue Deer to take up the usually straightforward position of Sheriff. Not so straightforward during this story, though. What starts as someone taking a potshot at a local screenwriter, turns into something else completely as the bodies start piling up and seem to connect in some way to a 20-year old accident.

While I would not say that many of the characters were likeable, they were all interesting and had their own kind of depth. The story was slow paced, but not overwhelmed by filler, and I never got bored (which is saying a lot). I loved the character of Jules, whose personality contained many contradictory elements. I’ll definitely be pursuing books 2-5.

Thank you to Highbridge Audio and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book was published on November 5th, 2024.

Who Will Remember by C. S. Harris (Historical Mystery)

Number 20 in the historical mystery series featuring Sebastian St. Cyr, Lord Devlin. Throughout the series, Harris has successfully embedded each volume in an historically accurate period — this one is no exception. It is set in London in August, 1816, the year that “had no summer.” Later historians promoted the cause as a large volcano explosion that blocked the sun causing weather abnormalities, floods, and massive crop failures leading inevitably to riots, strikes, apocalyptic fears, and the potential for revolution.

In this milieu, the body of a Lord is found in an abandoned chapel, hanging upside down with legs posed as depicted on a rare set of tarot cards (Le Pendu — the Fool). From here connections are made to French assassins, the Prince of Wales, friends made during the 1808-9 British retreat across Northern Spain (Battle of Corunna), and a particular (nasty) society called the Society for the Suppression of Vice.

I always like the characters in these books — representing multiple walks of life and varied ideas of morality. I particularly like the depiction of the members of the “ton” — a term for the fashionable members of upper class English society during the Regency period. As one might expect, those characters run the gamut from utterly selfish, corrupt, and “above the law” to considerate, moral, and obsessed with a fair justice. Always fun to guess which is which upon the first “meeting.”

Thank you to Berkley and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 25th, 2025.

Esperance by Adam Oyebanji (SF / Mystery)

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 4/5 Story: 4/5

Part (very weird) murder mystery, part speculative fiction and a wow ending — Esperance is an evolving surprise from start to finish.
Ethan Karol is the Chicago PD detective trying to solve the seemingly inexplicable murder of a father and son, found drowned in seawater next to a large (also dead) fish on the 20th floor of a fashionable apartment building. Meanwhile, Abidemi Eniola is roaming the streets of Bristol (England), dressed in 30s attire, speaking in a weird accent, and full of technological trickery that is beyond anything her accidental sidekick, Hollie, has even considered possible. And both Karol and Eniola appear to be trying to track down a very specific, long ago sea captain…

All the characters are fun to read and slowly learn about. Character insight comes through action and behavior more than any kind of introspection. Themes of racism, justice, and intergenerational trauma are core to the story, but (IMHO) serve primarily as background motivation for what is an intense, action filled set of pages. In truth, a little more action than I usually care for, but so well-written and full of surprising twists I didn’t even have time to complain (to myself).

I’ve read all four of Oyebanji’s books in the last four months and they have all been written (or at least published) in the last three years. This is promising! Two books are straight up mysteries (not cozies, but also not too thrilling for me) and two are SciFi Crime / Mystery. Author has exactly the kind of interesting bio that leads to creative plots and unusual characters. I’ll be keeping an eye out for all his new, apparently rapidly produced(!), works.

Thank you to DAW and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on May 25th, 2025.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny (Mystery / Thriller)

Writing: 4/5 Characters: 3/5 Plot: 3/5

If you have liked every Louise Penny book so far, you will probably like this one, too. Gamache gets pulled into a mystery that smacks of domestic terrorism and calls into question everything (and almost everyone) he thought he could trust.

Penny writes taut, suspense-filled crime fiction with very accessible prose — this was an easy read for me — but I did not find myself enjoying it, and I’m not sure I will keep reading the series (despite the fact that I’ve read them all and pre-ordered this book in my enthusiasm!).

As the series has progressed (this is book 19), the stakes have gotten higher — too high. I preferred the highly psychological, small-scale, surprisingly twisted murder mysteries to these large-scale, conspiracy oriented, thrillers. At the same time, this book had a lot of filler. I love Three Pines (the town) and the many interesting characters we have come to love over the past two decades, but there were far too many filler scenes emphasizing the bounty of their lives: Many (too, too, many) food and wine descriptions, children bouncing around doing cute things, the love between our aging inspector and his (too) saintly wife. Somehow in this book this filler simply became too repetitive and too content-free to keep my interest during the many pages they occupied. Lastly, I honestly had a hard time believing that there could be a conspiracy to do something as deadly as planned, without any motive other than (apparently) power, that managed to attract so many previously decent people.

So in summary — second half a good crime thriller, characters had far less depth than they had in the earlier works; writing a little less polished — but an entertaining enough read.

Where Serpents Sleep by C. S. Harris (Historical Mystery — Audio Book)

This is the fourth book in the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series. I listen to them on audio book because the reader — Davina Porter — is the absolute best, with convincing “voices” for characters of all backgrounds, genders, professions, and place of origin accents. I highly recommend listening to, rather than reading, this series, despite the fact that I am primarily a book reader. The series starts in 1811; this fourth book starts in 1812. The Napoleonic Wars are in full swing and the upstart Americans are giving the British trouble (think “the War of 1812”). This book concerns itself with the killing of eight prostitutes who were sheltering in a Quaker house of refuge.

So why do I love this series so much? The characters — even those who appear in only one book — are fully fleshed out with time and place appropriate personalities. They run the gamut from nobility (both the utterly self obsessed and the more humane) to street urchins, with each novel bringing to light the experiences and behaviors of those in professions we don’t often hear about: for example, the chimney sweep boys or young prostitutes. The historical setting comprises all manner of detail from political power struggles, foreign policy and entanglements, the class system, and quite often the roles allowed or foisted upon women. Some wonderful strong female characters, along with those portraying more negative female stereotypes of the time. And always convoluted plot lines that introduce the reader to more of the time period — (often ridiculous) laws, the constabulary, power machinations, diplomacy, etc.

The main character is Sebastian St. Cyr — heir to an Earl and with a piercing intelligence. At 29, he has already seen quite a bit of military service and is a very impressive fighter as demonstrated through many action oriented scenes, none of which last longer than my low tolerance for extended action scenes allows. While one description called him an anti-hero (I’m guessing because he has no trouble dispatching people who are in the process of trying to kill him), I think he makes the perfect hero, with his strong regard for justice for all people (not just those with a title), and the ability to correct injustices with the combination of rank, privilege, physical prowess, courage, intelligence, and an unbreakable moral code.

While I started reading this series somewhere in the middle, and bounced about for a while, I’m now going back to the beginning and stepping through all the installments that I missed.

A Slash of Emerald by Patrice Mcdonough (Historical Mystery)

This Victorian London mystery really grew on me with its abundance of female characters pursuing professions and activities still unusual at the time (1867). Julia Lewis is a doctor and medical examiner who is called on to do post-mortems on women and to inspect suspected prostitutes for venereal disease (!) I love the historical note that Julia — trained in the US — is able to practice medicine in Britain (where medical schools do not admit women) though a loophole: Parliament added doctors with foreign degrees to the medical register in 1858 without specifying that they had to be men. Absolutely delightful piece of (real world) trivia! She is paired with the rather open-minded Inspector Tennant in this second installment of the Dr. Julia Lewis Mysteries.

This episode centers on the art world of Victorian England, the narrative flowing between competition for the Royal Academy’s annual exhibition and the frustrations of the female artists who wish to pursue art as a profession, rather than a genteel pastime. I enjoyed the fully fleshed out setting which opened an entire world of models, studios, galleries, technique, and inspiration with just enough well-researched detail. I particularly enjoyed the comment of one artist who pointed out that the best models were actresses who were able to channel the painter’s intention while posing.

Decent writing, strong women characters, and full marks for an historical setting that is detailed, interesting, and accurate. I’m going back to read book number one!

Thank you to Kensington and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on February 25th, 2025.

Two Times Murder by Adam Oyebanji (Mystery)

Writing: 4/5 Plot: 4.5/5 Characters: 4.5/5

Greg Abimbola is a multi-racial Russian with British citizenship who is trying to stay under the radar by teaching Russian at a small private school in Pittsburgh. But the book would be pretty dull if he managed to achieve that goal! He’s got an interesting and twisted history that unwinds slowly in response to the events brought to his doorstep despite his reluctance to accept them. There are several independent but connected plot lines — an apparent suicide, an unidentified body tossed in the river, and a DEI triggered clash at a neighboring elite school — all leading down some pretty engrossing paths. The writing is clean, the characters are diverse (in more than color) and have depth that is both quirky and sometimes inspiring, and I appreciated the (fairly) unbiased inclusion of a specific instantiation of the DEI/woke culture war.

This is the second book in the “Quiet Teacher” series. I look forward to reading future installments and will try to go back and catch up on whatever I have missed. I’ve seen the series labeled as “Agatha Christie meets John le Carre” and that’s not a bad tag line!

Thank you to Severn House and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on November 5th, 2024.

A New Lease on Death by Olivia Blacke (Mystery)

A nicely written and engaging murder mystery starring an unusual detection team: Cordelia Graves — a recently deceased woman coming to terms with navigating the world in her new state — and her new “roommate,” 20-year old Ruby Young — an annoyingly perky young woman who is hell on (Cordelia’s beloved) houseplants. When the body of the neighbor across the hall turns up in the snow wearing pajama bottoms and fuzzy socks, both women are concerned that the police just don’t seem terribly interested. In order to team up, however, Ruby needs to know that Cordelia exists and then they need to work out some way of communicating as ghostly Cordelia is invisible and silent to live ears.

The pacing could have been tighter, and the “ghostly” ideas were not terribly original but they were executed quite well. I liked the alternating POVs between the two leads and their engagement and developing friendship under such unusual circumstances. It was easy to read and I was satisfied with the resolution, though it did get a bit repetitive at times. A little cliffhanger at the end ensures there will be a second in the series. All told a light, fun read.

Don’t be confused by the author — in all honesty I selected this book because I thought it was by Olivie Blake of the Atlas series, but it is instead by Olivia Blacke. Looks very similar at a glance!

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 29th, 2025.