S.J. Bennett: Death on the Royal Yacht

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Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #6

To read this book, I had to violate one of my “rules” – no circuses, no ships, no fairs (state or world).  This is one of my favorite series, however, so I was forced to make an exception. Along with Allison Montclair, Bennett writes one of the smartest, most tightly plotted series around.  If you love the golden age schematic but welcome an update, these are the books for you.  Set on the Royal Yacht in 1966, we follow the Queen’s tour of the Caribbean. As always the central character is the Queen’s personal assistant, Joan McGraw, but also as always, when a dead body crops up, it’s the united efforts of the Queen and Joan that solve the crime. read more

Louise Penny: Miss Wolcott’s Ghost

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Chief Inspector Gamache #21

It’s been a while.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the last two Gamache books, or of the more recent thriller co-written with Melissa Fung, but with Miss Wolcott’s Ghost Louise Penny has returned to the form that has made me a giant supporter of her work.  I’ll never forget the spell put on me by her first novel, Still Life, and that reading rapture was gifted to me again with this book.  When I hit the three-quarter mark, I was glued to the pages and didn’t leave my chair. read more

Katherine Reay: The Undercover Bookshop

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This thoroughly enjoyable read is set in postwar Britain, and follows young Gemma Brown as she attempts to make a life for herself in the small Cotswolds village of Great Rollright.  In London, Gemma had been lonely in her boarding-house, and wanting to find a sense of community she couldn’t find in the big city, so she answers an advertisement for a shop clerk in Great Rollright simply because the job offers the perk of a bedsit. She settles into her new life pretty quickly, getting to know the villagers when they shop in the store, and developing friendships at the pub each night. read more

Tamara Berry: The Claus Conspiracy

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Seven Ponds #2

Berry’s formula for this novel is not a totally new one, but it is an enjoyable one, to which she adds her own twist.  20 something Amber Winslow has left her private eye boyfriend and moved to Arizona, where she’s near her grandmother and her grandmother’s bossy and intrusive retirement community friends.  Between them, they’ve started a very of the moment true crime podcast, Death Comes Calling.  In this second instalment in the series, a mystery lands at their literal doorstep. read more

Mariah Fredericks: Murder on 34th Street

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What Fredricks has put under the tree for her readers this year is an instant Christmas classic, the kind of book you might reach for every December – but only if your taste runs to a few murder victims in Santa’s bag.  Set in 1932, main character Grace Verlander is in charge of much of the big Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade, an event as big in 1932 as it is today.  Her biggest headache is that someone has threatened Santa Claus, and she must do everything she can to keep the big fellow safe despite the chaos of the parade. read more

Andrea Penrose: Murder on Threadneedle Street

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Wrexford & Sloane #10

Murder on Threadneedle Street is book 10 in Andrea Penrose’s wonderful Wrexford and Sloane Regency mystery series.  The protagonists are the Earl of Wrexford, a chemist with a special expertise in metallurgy, and his wife Charlotte, formerly Sloane, an artist and political cartoonist who uses the pseudonym A.J. Quill.  It is an attraction of opposites between the two.  He solves crimes by using logic and the scientific method, while she uses intuition and an artist’s eye for details.  Over the course of the series, they have each come to respect, and occasionally use, the other’s method. read more

Leslie Meier: Countdown to Christmas Murder

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Lucy Stone  #32             

It’s been years since I’ve read a Lucy Stone mystery but I couldn’t resist this holiday tale and I loved it so much I could hardly put it down! Lucy and her husband are now empty-nesters and as Christmas approaches, Lucy just hopes all her children come home for the holiday.

Tinker’s Cove, Maine, is gearing up for the holidays with a Merrie Olde Christmas festival that keeps Lucy busy rehearsing her Mrs. Cratchit role when she’s not working as a reporter and features writer for the Courier, now in print and online, covering all the related holiday events. Among Lucy’s assignments is interviewing Merrie Old Christmas volunteers. She starts with bank manager Bert Cosgrove, an all-around nice guy who is very enthusiastic about playing Marley’s ghost in the Christmas Carol vignettes and being a judge for the plum pudding contest – but after his interview is published he’s attacked online when someone posts nasty photos and comments about him. (I learned that attacking someone’s reputation online like this is called doxing. I had no idea there was a term for it!) And he’s not the first; at least two other people Lucy knows have been doxed. read more

Cleo Coyle: The Ghost and the Dead Librarian

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Haunted Bookshop Detective #1

This series appears new but is actually is a continuation of Coyle’s nine-book Haunted Bookshop Mystery series, published by Berkeley under the pseudonym Alice Kimberly. I’m so glad Kensington has picked up this series!

Young widow Penelope Thornton-McClure and her Aunt Sadie own Buy the Books, a mystery bookshop in Quindicott, RI. (Isn’t that the best bookstore name ever?!) Unbeknownst to everyone except Pen and her cat Bookmark, the shop is haunted by the ghost of 1940s PI Jack Shepard. Jack died in the shop so he’s stuck there for eternity but he gladly helps Pen solve suspicious deaths in their town. Pen’s only rule: don’t haunt the customers. read more

Ann Cleeves: The Dying Light

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Matthew Venn #4

Over a forty year writing career, Ann Cleeves has emerged as one of the very best traditional mystery writers around.  With three very well regarded series to her credit, Shetland, Vera, and Matthew Venn, she’s achieved something few writers are capable of: creating several discrete casts of characters who differ from each other, yet remain individual and memorable.   Her latest features Matthew Venn, a gay Detective Inspector in Devon, who, despite being shunned by his religious parents when he lost his faith, now lives very happily with his husband, the chill and patient Jonathan, the two of them comprising one of the nicest couples in mystery fiction. read more

Dianne Freeman: A Christmas Guide to Family and Murder

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Countess of Harleigh #9

A Christmas Guide to Family and Murder is the ninth book in Dianne Freeman’s delightful series set at the turn of the 20th century, about Frances, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, and her second husband, George Hazelton, a younger son of an earl and a secret agent for the British government.  The two of them solve crimes together, usually among the upper classes in London, even though the two books before this one have taken them to Paris.  This novel introduces a new setting: a country estate in Norfolk.  Frances is looking forward to spending Christmas of 1900 in London when she and George receive an invitation from Fiona, George’s sister and Frances’ best friend, to join her and her husband, Robert, at their estate, Hadley Grange.  Rose, Frances’ nine-year-old daughter by her first husband, is excited about spending Christmas in Norfolk, as are the two most recent additions to the family: Lissette, George’s fifteen-year-old cousin and ward, and her half-sister Christine, a young woman in her early twenties.  Frances’ aunt Hetty joins them as well, after indicating that things are not going smoothly between her and her suitor Gilliam, a theater manager. read more