aunt_agatha

Ausma Zehanat Khan: Blood Betrayal

by

Detective Inaya Rahman #2

The second novel in Ausma Khan’s Detective Inaya Rahman series is as powerful and moving as the first, Blackwater Falls.  I think police novels are at a tough point at the moment because of recent, tragic events involving police violence. Khan looks at policing from a different angle, approaching her novel from the point of view of a Muslim detective who works for Denver’s CRU, or Community Response Unit. The CRU takes on cases that are racially sensitive, and in both this novel and the first, the action is centered in Blackwater Falls, an idlyllic (seeming) town just outside of Denver. read more

Vanessa Lillie: Blood Sisters

by

I had a love-hate relationship with this read.  Love: I loved the characters, the set-up, the cultural background, and the rocket powered story.  Hate: I hated the way the main character runs into danger, alone, even though she knows it’s stupid.  The 4th or 5th time she did it I almost closed the cover, but I am so glad I didn’t because this read is powerful, moving, and difficult to forget.

The main character is Syd Walker, a Cherokee from Oklahoma who has made a life for herself far from home.  She’s an archeologist, married to a dentist, and the two women are trying for a baby, though Syd doesn’t seem to be totally on board with the baby idea.  As the book opens, Syd is examining the bones of a woman found on Native land in Rhode Island. As she’s on her way home from the site, she gets a call from her boss. read more

Dana Mentink: Spoon to be Dead

by

Shake Shop #3

Dana Mentink’s Shake Shop series is joined by her latest addition: Spoon to be Dead. Trinidad Jones, owner of the Shimmy and Shake ice-cream shop, is facing every ice-cream shop’s biggest obstacle: winter. It’s hard to tempt people with an icy treat in the middle of a blizzard, no matter how tasty. While her business partner Juliette has a much more optimistic attitude, Trinidad fears the failure of her shop might be just around the corner. Given that she came to Sprocket, Oregon to set up a new and better life for herself and her Papa, she is finding the risk of closing almost unbearable. Luckily, she comes up with some less frosty options to try and float her business through the cold, including catering deserts at an event on a local steamboat. While worried, Trinidad is more than ready to face the challenges. With her Papa, her newfound boyfriend Quinn, found sisters (and fellow ex-wives of one Gabe Bigley) Juliet and Bonnie, she has enough confidence to come up with plenty of shop-saving ideas – then the unthinkable happens. The notorious ex-husband Gabe Bigley walks right into their shop and back into all their lives. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he confesses to having possibly killed someone before he passes out and letting the ladies take over. read more

Maya Corrigan: A Parfait Crime

by

Five-Ingredient #9

Two murders combine in Maya Corrigan’s ninth installment of her Five-Ingredient series,  A Parfait Crime. Val Deniston first gets drawn into this mystery when her boyfriend, firefighter Bram Muir, comes to her house for dinner. He’s distraught at finding not only a fire, but that the fire resulted in the death of a woman named Jane. Jane also happened to be a part of a play of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, along with Val’s grandfather. Val’s grandfather was also a member of Jane’s Agatha Christie book club and  has an in to the group, which helps Val learn more about the victim. Or victims, rather, as one more body is found in Jane’s basement. This poor victim is long dead and locked in a freezer. Needless to say, there are many questions and not nearly enough answers. read more

Diane Kelly: Snow Place for Murder

by

Mountain Lodge #3

For those looking for a snow mountain getaway, but the weather isn’t quite cooperating or it might just be out of budget, look no further than Snow Place for Murder by Diane Kelly. This is the third in her Mountain Lodge series. Misty Murphy is our amateur sleuth, but she prefers her role as owner and caretaker of North Carolina’s Mountain Top Lodge. Misty is making a promising life for herself, forging her place in the community, and making connections. As the holiday season approaches, her two sons are coming to help out at the Lodge and take advantage of the ideal snowboarding conditions. Everything seems to be going well. Misty has a full booking at the Lodge, a blossoming relationship with her boyfriend Rocky, a loving family around her, friends a plenty, and of course her beloved cat Yeti. However, when a group that booked the whole Lodge arrives, things don’t go quite as planned. read more

Vanessa Riley: Murder in Drury Lane

by

Lady Worthing #2

The second book in Vanessa Riley’s Lady Worthing Series, Murder in Drury Lane, starts off with a recently reformed rake getting stabbed with a theater prop. Though Anthony Danielson had lived far from a blameless life, and died with others owing him money they couldn’t pay, it seems he truly had turned over a new leaf. Newly married to the previously upstanding Joanna Mathews Danielson, Anthony had a lot to look forward to. He was even writing a new play that he was sure would be a smash hit. read more

Clara McKenna: Murder on Mistletoe Lane

by

Stella & Lyndy #5

Murder on Mistletoe Lane is the fifth book in Clara McKenna’s series about a newly-married couple, Stella Kendrick and Viscount “Lyndy” Lyndhurst, set in the New Forest region of England in the early 1900s.  Lyndy is the son of an impoverished aristocrat, and Stella is a wealthy American who grew up on a horse farm in Kentucky.  Their marriage was arranged by their fathers and, happily, they fell in love not long after they met.  But Lyndy’s mother, Lady Atherly, has always disapproved of Stella and her American ways, even though she needed Stella’s money to make improvements to the crumbling family estate, Morrington Hall.  Stella and Lyndy share a love of horses, and some of the best scenes in the book are the ones where Stella takes her beloved mare, Tully, for a ride.  Lady Atherly sees that her son and Stella are in love, and recently the two women have come to an uneasy truce, but they are still far from being friends. read more

Carlene O’Connor: Some of Us Are Looking

by

County Kerry #2

The follow up to O’Connor’s County Kerry series debut, No Strangers Here, avoids any tinge of sophomore slump. Her thoughtful, well plotted, richly charactered series is set in tiny Dingle, Ireland.  The series heroine, Dimpna Wilde, is a vet whose work insinuates itself into the plots in the best possible way.  Not only does her work temper some of the gruesomeness O’Connor writes about, it also grounds Dimpna in the community.  As the book opens she’s been called to the scene of a hit and run – there’s a baby fox trapped under the body, and the mother fox is giving all the emergency workers on the scene a death stare. read more

Paula Munier: Home at Night

by

Mercy & Elvis #5

This is a great Halloween read.  You’d think mystery fiction would be more littered with great Halloween reads, but there really aren’t that many.  Munier also has a theme, as she always does, and the theme of this novel is “home,” the meaning of it and the finding of it. Her series centers on Mercy Carr, a veteran of the Afghan war, as is her dog, Elvis. The story opens with a young Mercy Carr encountering a ghost like figure at an old, abandoned house in town.  The woman who had owned it was a well known poet, and one of her more famous poems is a Halloween verse for children. read more

S.K.Golden: The Socialites Guide to Death & Dating

by

Pinnacle Hotel #2

This charming series follows Evelyn Elizabeth Grace Murphy in 1958 New York City.  Her father owns the swanky Pinnacle Hotel, where Evelyn lives, and he makes only occasional appearances in her life.  As the book opens, she and her boyfriend, Mac, are at a party she’s planned at the hotel.  It’s full of wealthy, prominent people, but as it’s wrapping up, Mac suggests they make a break for it and head to his place in Yonkers.  Evelyn, who is agoraphobic (but she’s working on it) reluctantly agrees to this plan.  Unfortunately, on their way out of the hotel garage, they find one of the guests, a Judge Baker, dead in his car of an apparent heroin overdose. read more