Clara McKenna: Murder at Cottonwood Creek

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Stella & Lyndy #7

Murder At Cottonwood Creek Is the seventh book in Clara McKenna’s series set in the early 20th century, about Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst, a British aristocrat, and Stella, his American-born wife, the daughter of a Kentucky horse farmer who was murdered in an earlier book.  It was an arranged marriage at first, but the couple grew to love each other.  A shared love of horses certainly helped.  This book takes place outside the series’ usual setting of the New Forest region of England, as Stella and Lyndy travel to a ranch in Montana, owned by her mother’s second husband, Ned Smith.  There, Lyndy’s father, Lord Atherly, pursues his passion for fossil-hunting, as he works with a paleontologist, Professor Gridley, to search for the fossils of prehistoric horses.  Lyndy, a fan of dime novels, is excited about seeing the “Wild West,” even though he is disappointed that the herds of buffalo have largely died out.  Stella is glad to finally meet her stepfather and twelve-year-old brother.  She has recently settled her father’s estate in Kentucky and brought thoroughbred horses to the ranch. read more

Valerie Wilson Wesley: The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum

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Series Debut

Harriet Stone is named for Harriet Tubman – the legendary Tubman had saved her father from slavery (he referred to her as “the General”). Our Harriet is intrepid and courageous, though she herself may not quite be aware of it.  Set in 1926, she’s has lost most of her family as well as her fiancée to the Spanish flu, and she’s in charge of the orphaned Lovey, who is not quite young enough to be her daughter and not quite old enough to be her sister.  Their relationship teeters between the two designations. read more

Elizabeth Penney: Vows and Villainy

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Cambridge Bookshop #5

In Elizabeth Penny’s fifth addition to her Cambridge Bookshop series, Vows and Villainy, the reader finds Molly Kimball, a librarian who helps her aunt in her bookshop and the local police with their murders in Cambridge, England. Molly uses deductive reasoning and her social prowess to entice others to give her clues and bits of information. She also does not try to solve everything on her own and then turn over the information to the authorities – instead, she keeps the local detectives in the know as she goes, trying her best to be helpful as well as safe. While they might not praise her for her efforts they appreciate and utilize her intel as much as possible, more so now that she has established herself as a credible amateur sleuth. read more

Elly Griffiths: The Frozen People

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Series Debut

I had decided to skip this book because of the time travel element, but what a huge mistake.  A friend and book club member listed it on her favorites of the year list, and since I trust her taste, I dove in.  I should also, of course, have trusted the great Elly Griffiths, who has one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary crime fiction, not to mention extraordinary storytelling skills.  She has a way of writing that draws the reader in.  Readers, I was all in with this book. read more

Connie Berry: A Grave Deception

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Kate Hamilton #6

To me this series is an absolute bingeable dream.  If your taste runs to a gentle British police mystery featuring an antiques specialist, these are the books for you.  In the first book in the series (A Dream of Death), 40 something heroine Kate Hamilton, an American antiques dealer, is in the UK to repair her relationship with her dead husband’s sister and she gets more than she bargained for.  In the course of the series she meets her new husband (by book six they are happily married newlyweds).  In each novel, there’s an unusual antiquity or archaeological find that holds the threads of the plot together. read more

Cara Black: Huguette

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I was very eagerly awaiting this book, which marries Cara Black’s interest in Paris and WWII with a great new female central character.  Black has made her name with her Aimée Leduc series featuring a private detective in 1990s Paris.  Her new book takes us back to the war where we discover, along with titular character Huguette, Aimée’s grandfather Claude, founder of the Leduc Detective Agency.  When the book opens, though, Claude is a policeman, or flic, just trying to hold on to his job. read more

Julia Spencer-Fleming: At Midnight Comes the Cry

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Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alsytne #10

Julia Spencer-Fleming has been following the beloved duo of Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne throughout their entire relationship, and At Midnight Comes the Cry finds them at a period of great change. The couple have just had a baby, and are re-shaping their lives around their son. In addition, Russ has resigned as police chief earlier than intended and he isn’t quite sure what to do with himself. Going from the military to the police force kept his life regimented and task driven, and being a stay-at-home dad isn’t quite the same. read more

Rhys Bowen: From Cradle to Grave

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Royal Spyness #19

February 1937.  King Edward VIII has abdicated the British throne to be with his beloved Mrs. Simpson in Paris, his brother George VI awaits his coronation, and Lady Georgie is busy enjoying being a new mother and running the country house of her godfather, Sir Hubert. Alas, her peaceful home life is soon destroyed by the arrival of the horrible Nanny Hardbottle, sent by her dreadful sister-in-law Fig to bring Georgie’s life up to Fig’s cold worst-of-British childrearing standards. As if the anti-Mary Poppins isn’t bad enough, Fig herself soon arrives and settles into Georgie’s comfortable house to avoid the worst of the Scottish winter and shows no sign of leaving. read more

Peggy Townsend: The Botanist’s Assistant

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I could not have loved this utterly charming mystery more.  It’s original, it’s well written, it’s well plotted, and it has a wonderful main character in botanist Margaret Finch.  Much like her name, Margaret resembles a large bird (and she is in fact referred to as Big Bird behind her back), and she values order, cleanliness and science above all else.  In her work as a research assistant in a lab, these qualities serve her well.  It’s people she has trouble with, not plants.

The only person she has true respect for is her boss, Dr. Deaver.  When she discovers his body in his office, details seem off to her, details the busy police officer (who is busy ignoring Margaret’s suggestions of poison) seems not to notice.  When Dr. Deaver’s death is declared a heart attack, Margaret knows, in the interest of truth and science, that she must discover what really happened.  In this way, Margaret is similar to all amateur sleuths of every description.  She fits into a narrower category – the neuro divergent detective, someone familiar to fans of detective fiction and TV for many years, from Columbo to Monk to E.J. Copperman’s classic Asperger detective to Nita Prose’s “maid.” All share a quirkiness and while there are many differences, their similarity is the observation of all details. read more

S.J. Bennett: The Queen Who Came in from the Cold

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Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #5

I flat out love this series, as it combines two of my favorite things: the Queen and a good mystery.  The unexpected bonus is Ms. Bennett’s skillful writing – she’s excellent at plotting and character development, and her portrayal of the Queen – chef’s kiss!  The Queen, as portrayed here, is dutiful, intelligent, and possessed of a full measure of curiosity and humor.  My reading about the Queen suggests these things were true.  This series installment is set in 1961, during the space race, the cold war, and the popularity of James Bond. read more