Tag: Minotaur Books

Murder at the White Palace by Allison Montclair (Mystery)

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

Book six of the Sparks and Bainbridge historical mystery series. These books are just fun — a combination of novel, historical interest, and always an interesting body or two that unravel into quirks and twists and plenty of opportunity for the two women to evolve personally. Set in post-WWII London, the two have started the Right Sort Marriage Bureau. Iris Sparks, with a mysterious past in British Intelligence, and Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a genteel war widow who has recently been pronounced “sane” after an extensive engagement with the lunacy courts. I’ve only read book five so I’ll have to go back and start from the beginning to get all the details, but the author does a decent job of giving you enough background to make sense of the present.
In this episode, Gwen has fun with some bad boys and turns out to be a snooker shark (I’m afraid I skimmed over the snooker scenes — all I got was that it is played on a table with some balls) and has the uncanny ability to tell when someone is lying. Iris is dating a charming man whom we love instantly along with her, though he has ties to the underworld that should be unattractive. A body is found that ties back to history and an old bank robbery, and both women take some pretty interesting twists in their love life. They don’t actually match anyone in this story so (as a fellow reviewer pointed out) we have to hope that they manage to stay in business and nobody is paying them to solve mysteries!

Very entertaining and just the right amount of “cozy” for me.

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 July 30th, 2024.

City of Secrets by P. J. Tracy (Mystery / Crime)

Book four of Tracy’s Los Angeles based, Detective Margaret Nolan crime series. I wait for these books — for me they are a perfect combination of pacing, surprises, and just the right amount of tension (i.e. not too much because I don’t enjoy being anxious, but just enough that I’m not bored reading about tea parties while someone is murdered offstage).

In this episode, what appears to be “just” another fatal car jacking, turns out to be a far more complex crime involving big business, cartels, and some pretty crazy people. I love Margaret Nolan as a detective. She has the same qualities you would appreciate in a male detective — strong, competent, honest, determined — and manages to be simultaneously female without having to introduce any “traditionally feminine” traits. No shopping scenes! No whining with girlfriends about men! No struggling with single motherhood while trying to have a career! She’s just a consummate cop who happens to be a woman. Thank goodness. She’s a great character and I’m happy to read more about her. Other strong characters populate the series — her cynical and somewhat world-weary partner Al Crawford, Sam Easton — a friend recovering from Afghanistan induced PTSD, and Remy Boudreau, fellow homicide detective and a more serious than planned lover.

One of my favorite mystery / crime writers. I really like her writing — a few quotes:

“They were victims of a rotting culture of violence — domestic terrorism, really, — that wouldn’t go away, no matter how many gangsters the LAPD locked up.”

“He was wearing a foul weather windbreaker and his frowny, pissed-off face. Maybe it was because his tiny umbrella had unicorns on it.”

“From a young age, her mother had always told her that her rare combination of strawberry-blonde hair and pale skin made her a genetic tinderbox and her temper should be managed early.”

“Consorting with evil to exterminate greater evil was an existential conflict of the job — hell, of the world — but it was getting more difficult to justify.”

“Interviewing witnesses was like slowly unwrapping a gift, hoping there was a gold nugget inside instead of a lump of coal.”

“Nolan was always amazed by the sullen indifference of criminals, like they were ordinary citizens who’d just gotten a bogus speeding ticket.”

“The job was slowly corroding him from the inside, like poison that didn’t kill you right away. So was Los Angeles. It had a shrill, dangerous hum that hadn’t existed five years ago, and it scared him.”

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 August 20th, 2024.

Next of Kin by Samantha Jayne Allen

Number three in Allen’s Annie McIntyre / Garrett, Texas series. Nice and complicated, full of atmosphere, and I really like the way Annie is developing. In my review of the last book, I said, “Annie suffers from occasional bouts of self-doubt which I hope she has less often in the future (I like to see characters grow!)” and guess what? She really has grown into the role, and her bouts of self-doubt have largely disappeared. Made me happy!

This deliciously convoluted plot includes long lost relative discoveries on Ancestry.com with a heavy dose of bad guy blood mixed in. Social services, group homes, drug dealing, bank robbers — they pop up in unexpected places and through it all Annie keeps her cool, pursues justice like a tenacious bulldog, and treats us to her ongoing reflections, many of a philosophical and moral nature (my cup of tea). The regular characters — her 85 year grandfather retired sheriff Leroy, his investigative partner of many years Mary Kate, Annie’s newly married cousin Nikki, and increasingly serious boyfriend Wyatt — all get better and more interesting with each book.

This is the best book so far — tighter plot, better balance of “novel” and “mystery,” and a well-developed (and continuously developing) set of characters.

A couple of quotes:

“He let information sit before speculating, enough time to regulate his own emotions, square them off, and keep them sealed.”

“Though I knew myself to be a believer in redemption, it was hard to overlook the universe’s uneven distribution of such favors.”

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 April 23rd, 2024.

Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen (Mystery)

Second in the series about budding PI, Annie McIntyre.

Small town Garnett, Texas is suffering from a (very) wet natural disaster as heavy rain causes the river to jump its banks and bring massive floods. Preacher’s wife and old friend Bethany Richter hires Annie to find the man who rescued her from the flood while being swept off himself. The case gets muddied when the trail leads to a woman who is found dead in her truck, floating in the river. But she didn’t drown — she was shot. Nice and convoluted, with a wide variety of characters from drug dealers to preachers to drifters to Annie’s atypical family, their circle of friends, and their ties to law enforcement.

For me it was a little too long — I favor a more spare prose — but if you’re enjoying the story you night appreciate all of the novelistic commentary on scenery, character background, and fully fleshed out experiences. Annie suffers from occasional bouts of self-doubt which I hope she has less often in the future (I like to see characters grow!)

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 April 18th, 2023

The Devil You Know by PJ Tracy (Mystery)

Book number three in the Margaret Nolan series (I still haven’t gotten around to reading number one but I really liked number two). This one has all the glitz, glamour, and ultimately scumminess of Hollywood. A beloved celebrity is found dead — accident, suicide, or murder unclear — days after a nasty-nasty (but deepfaked) video of him sped out over social media. Nolan and partner Crawford have a more difficult time “reading” the persons of interest as they are all actors and good ones at that.
Very good writing (see a couple of quotes below) and I like the regular characters who have depth and develop with each book. I didn’t love the “bad guy” characters as much as last time — they seemed more shallow and two dimensional — but it’s Hollywood and I expect that comes with the territory!
A fun read, and I’ll be happy to check out book four when it comes!

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 January 17th, 2023.