Cleo Coyle: The Ghost and the Dead Librarian

by

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

by

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

by

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

Tasha Alexander: Murder on the Sacred River

by

Lady Emily #20

Murder on the Sacred River is the twentieth novel in Tasha Alexander’s series about Lady Emily Hargreaves, an unconventional English noblewoman in the late 19th-early 20th century, and her handsome husband Colin, a secret agent for the British government.  Long-time readers of the series will know that Emily and Colin have traveled all over the world, and that each book—at least, the ones that don’t take place in England—has a different setting.  This one takes place in India in 1908.  The beginning of the book finds Emily and Colin staying with a group of British tourists at the Ahilya Fort in Maheshwar.  This fort was built in the 18th century by the maharani Ahilya (full name: Ahilyabai Holkar), a ruling queen who was, and still is, revered for improving the lot of the common people of her kingdom, especially women.  As usual with Alexander, Emily’s adventures are intertwined with a plot set in the more distant past, and in this book it’s the story of Ahilya, and how she came to rule her kingdom. read more

Michelle L. Cullen: A Field Guide to Death and Deceit

by

Harry & Emma #2

It’s always tricky when a second book in a new series is released the same year as the first one, for a couple reasons, but a big reason is that the first one is still fresh in your mind, so you won’t be able to help comparing the two.  Cullen’s first book, A Field Guide to Murder, was released last January. It’s one of my favorite debuts of this year.  I’m happy to report that book two might be even stronger than book one.  (Where this lands Cullen during award season is another story).  This nascent series has a great set up: retired anthropologist Harry meets young caregiver Emma in book one.  He’s grieving his wife, but as he and Emma investigate a murder in the neighborhood together, they both find friendship and a new purpose. read more

Jule Selbo: 6 Days

by

Dee Rommel #5

6 Days by Jule Selbo is, ironically, the fifth book in the Dee Rommel series. This is already a crowded, detailed world by the time Dee is hired for her first solo mission as a private eye. Hired by her godfather, the former head of the firm’s best friend, she is soon drawn into the uppercrust world of Freya Cummings and her small isolated family. Though there is a little story beforehand, the book truly picks up when they reach Freya’s private island.

Freya was traumatically raped at the age of thirteen, and had a baby that she was told was dead. However, a young woman has stepped forward claiming to be her daughter and is pushing hard to meet her mother. Freya, a famous recluse who hasn’t left her island in years, is not eager to make the acquaintance. Dee and the family friend, who is immediately smitten with Freya, are tasked with making this claim simply go away – whether there is a biological relationship or not between them. read more

Vivien Chien: And Then There Were Bun

by

Noodle Shop #13

Vivien Chien’s thirteenth book in the Noodle Shop Mystery series is And Then There Were Bun. Main character Lana Lee manages her family’s business, the Ho-Lee Noodlehouse Restaurant, in Cleveland’s Asian Village. While managing the noodle house pays the bills, Lana has a very serious knack for managing mysteries as well. Twelve times over now, Lana has helped the local detectives, including her boyfriend, Adam Trudeau. With her team of friends, there never seems to be any mystery they cannot unravel. read more

Laurie R. King: Those Who Are Gone

by

Raquel Laing #2

Those Who Are Gone is the follow-up to Laurie King’s excellent 2022 novel, Back to the Garden, one of my favorite books of that year. Her new effort is definitely a different animal, as she goes back to her roots with a complex police tale reminiscent of A Grave Talent, for which she won the 1993 Edgar for best first novel.

Equal to the modern master of the genre, Michael Connelly, this is a procedural with bells on. Main character Raquel Laing is a homicide cop still cleaning up a timeline which stretches back to King’s previous book, while at the same time trying to get a grip her own troubled and murky past.  She’s what we might recognize as neurodivergent, as many social cues elude her, but she’s compensated by developing the skill of reading micro expressions, allowing her to translate her interpretations into an out of the box solution to various mysteries, solutions which are quite often correct. Her glitches relating to other humans make her a challenge as a partner, and in this novel, she has a new one named Pam, who seems more interested in her Manolo Blahniks and boyfriend than her job. read more

Hank Phillippi Ryan: Mother Daughter Sister Stranger

by

Nearly twenty books in, accomplished pro Hank Phillippi Ryan can keep you entertained, squeeze your heart, make you cry, give you a bit of a scare and make the whole darn thing look easy.  But this one achieves just a little bit more, with the characters so beautifully delineated, and the family tensions and problems that gives the plot its legs so poignant, that the book had me aching to actually reach into the pages and help the compelling characters in some way.

Ryan always has a great set up – here Eliza is caring for niece Piper for a week while her sister Bea takes some time away from it all after a divorce. The problems start when the day comes for Bea to collect Piper and she doesn’t show up. At first the family rationalizes that Bea must have gotten the wrong day. The following day is the annual family “remembrance day,” when Eliza, Bea and Piper go to the cemetery to visit the grave of Eliza and Bea’s parents, who died in a plane crash many years back. Since they know Bea packed an appropriate remembrance day dress, they conclude Bea must mean to meet them there, so they head over the next morning, but, again she’s a no show. read more

Kate Westbury: The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies

by

Debut

Set in Oxford in 1951, this delightful first novel features an opposites attract type couple, Ginevra Bishop and Simon Braithwaite.  Bishop, Gin to her friends, is a well connected redhead familiar with the upper crust boys who have joined her at Oxford.  Simon Braithwaite, on the other hand, is a clever working-class veteran damaged by the war who has come to the campus in order to escape his ghosts (what we would now recognize as PTSD).

At that time, the after effects of the war remained inescapable, with both the student body and the faculty staffed with war veterans, all of them struggling with their own nightmare memories. As the book opens, Gin, searching for a study spot in the crowded Bodleian library, asks her favorite librarian, Tolliver, for a tip, and ends up next to a hostile and inhospitable Simon. Meeting cute, the two glare at one another over the top of their research tomes, and so far, so cozy.  It’s only when Simon and Gin discover the body of sweet old Tolliver at the moment he’s drawing his final breath that things take a slightly darker turn.  It’s murder, and the pair are soon recruited by British intelligence. read more