Liza Tully: The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant

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This series debut was a complete delight.  Lead character Aubrey Merritt, the “Greatest Detective,” is a 60 something lady with a pristine reputation for cracking difficult cases, clearly cast in the Sherlock Holmes mold.  As the book opens, she finds her somewhat hapless Watson in the person of assistant Olivia Blunt, an obsessed low level stalker who had always dreamt of working for Merritt. When she’s hired, she happily jettisons her job and informs her fiancé she’ll be away on a case, only to realize too late it might mean missing his off-Broadway debut.  She hopes very much to be back in time, and he’s completely supportive, though he does fruitlessly beg her throughout the book to please call his mother, who is planning their wedding. read more

Elise Bryant: The Game is Afoot

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Mavis Miller #2

Reading this book and the one before it, It’s Elementary, I was reminded that the perils of raising a kid come with a mega peril: other parents.  The heroine of the series, Mavis, is a newly single mom who lives with her retired dad and a very adorable 8-year-old named Pearl.  Mavis, one of the few black moms at the suburban elementary school which Pearl attends, is extra attuned to the passive aggressive judging that goes on in school parking lots everywhere. These days, facebook groups and social media in general seem to have ramped things up even more. read more

Laurie R. King: Knave of Diamonds

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Mary Russell #19

At Damian Adler’s wedding Mary Russell thinks she sees a familiar figure in the crowd, someone who looks like her uncle Jake. But Jake is dead, isn’t he? She last saw her wayward uncle 14 years ago and only remembers that the charming rogue was cast out of the family shortly before her parents and brother were killed in an auto accident.

As Mary looks forward to recovering from their adventures in the previous two books, Mycroft Holmes summons his brother Sherlock to London. The case? A cold case involving the theft of the so-called Irish Crown Jewels 14 years before: a case Holmes could not solve, a theft that cost him the wrath of the Dublin police and the King. That 14 years is no coincidence and Holmes immediately recalls the unproveable involvement of Jake Russell in the theft. Should he tell Mary the truth about her beloved (and apparently dead) uncle? read more

Lina Chern: Tricks of Fortune

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Play the Fool #2

This second installment follows up  Chern’s Edgar winner, Play the Fool, which introduced Tarot card reader Katie True.  Even though I hadn’t read the first book, this one still did an excellent job of effortlessly weaving Katie’s origin story into the plot.  As the story opens, Katie, who runs a tarot reading business out of her sister’s real estate office, is stunned when her friend Gina is arrested for the murder of local hero cop, Matthew Peterson, better known in town as “Officer Pete.”  Not only is Katie rocked by Gina’s arrest, but also by the death of Officer Pete, who years ago famously rescued baby Katie True from a car wreck, saving her life. read more

August Book Club: The Murders in Great Diddling

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Join us for our August book club discussion of Katarina Bivald’s award winning The Murders in Great Diddling.  We’ll meet in person on Sunday, August 10 at 2 p.m. and on zoom on Sunday, August 17 also at 2 p.m. All are welcome!  Message me on facebook or email me at store (at) auntagathas.com for an address or zoom link.

Publisher’s description of the book: The small, rundown village of Great Diddling is full of stories—author Berit Gardner can feel it. The way the villagers avoid outsiders, the furtive stares and whispers in the presence of newcomers… Berit can sense the edge of a story waiting to be unraveled, and she’s just the person to do it. In fact, with a book deadline looming over her and no manuscript (not even the idea for a manuscript, truth be told), Berit doesn’t just want this story. She needs it. read more

E.L. Johnson: Winter’s Crown

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The Winter Murders #2

Winter’s Crown, the second in E.L. Johnson’s historical mystery series picks up where the first book left off, directly after heroine Bronwyn saved Empress Maud’s life.* Despite her heroic act, however, Bronwyn’s life doesn’t change too much. She remains a cook, serving the empress with dwindling supplies in their ramshackle campsite. Separated from her family, as well as her friend Lady Alice and crush Rupert, Bronwyn is lonely and listless. She doesn’t even know for sure if her family is alive. read more

Harini Negendra: Into the Leopard’s Den

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Bangalore Detectives Club #4

I love this richly evocative series set in 1920s India. While that country did not achieve independence until 1947, unrest was already bubbling under, with an understandable resentment building toward the British who intruded on their country and culture, trying to remake it in their own image. While Negendra is far from a political writer, she introduces these sentiments into her stories organically, personified in this book by an unpleasant British planter.

As the story opens, our heroine Kaveri is feeling both confined by her pregnancy and her protective mother-in-law, while missing her husband, Ramu, who is in the state of Coorg attempting to help the people there with their medical needs.  Coorg was a big coffee growing region, controlled by the British until independence, and Ramu is staying with a friend who owns a plantation there. read more

Isis Crawford: A Catered Bake-Off

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Mystery with Recipes #19

Isis Crawford’s latest addition to her “mystery with recipes” series is A Catered Bake Off. The owners of A Little Taste of Haven Catering, sisters Libby and Bernie Simmons, have a knack for solving mysteries. So much so that they are now sought out by those in need of a little amateur sleuthing expertise. Libby and Bernie each have very distinctive personalities and methods that allow them to play off each other, approaching the same clues and problems from different angles. It also helps that their father is a former detective and can advise them on how to proceed with whatever they find. Often the sisters and their father ruminate over cases and cake, a combination that often results in progress in culinary master pieces, or a break in the case. Their catering business has taken off in popularity recently, and it’s becoming difficult to keep up with the orders, which is a very good problem to have. read more

Molly MacRae: There’ll be Shell to Pay

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Haunted Shell Shop #2

Molly MacRae’s Haunted Shell Shop series returns with There’ll be Shell to Pay. Our shell shop sleuth and malacologist, Maureen Nash, is settling into her new home on the island of Ocracoke. The shell shop is named Moon Shell after a beautifully and intricately carved shell on display – a shell that is also the tether for accidental pirate ghost Emrys Lloyd. While Maureen’s introduction to Ocracoke in the first book in the series was possibly the most disastrous one any new resident could dream of, she has now made plenty of friends around the island, including the Weaver siblings that live across the way, Bert and Gladys, and is settling in nicely to make the Moon Shell her own. read more

Lynn Cahoon: An Amateur Sleuth’s Guide to Murder

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Series debut

An Amateur Sleuth’s Guide to Murder sounds like an instructional booklet, but is actually the most recent of Lynn Cahoon’s novels. Meg Gates is our protagonist, and readers join her at the lowest point of her life. Her fiancé has just left her, right before their wedding, to take their honeymoon trip with one of her bridesmaids. Understandably, Meg is determined to get out of what was their shared Seattle apartment, and onto rebuilding her life before the happy couple returns. Luckily, she has plenty of friends and family living nearby on the island of Bainbridge ready to help her do just that. Her aunt even has an apartment to rent her at the friends and family rate to help her get back on her feet. Meg is grateful to not having to face restarting her life alone, even if she does also feel like she ‘failed’ spectacularly at life up to this point. But when you reach the bottom, there is nowhere to go but up. Or so she hopes. read more