aunt_agatha

Best of: Cozies 2021

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I read many books in a year, but I still can’t claim an encyclopedic reading of the cozies that were published in 2021.  These delicious morsels of storytelling are reason for joy, as the storytellers, even though they include murders, are in general optimistic.  You like the characters in these books, and would love to be friends with them.  These are my favorites this year.  For a really deep dive, check out Dru Ann Love’s blog, Dru’s Book Musings, which tackles everything in the cozy universe.  All of these titles are available on our website.  read more

Alice Henderson: A Blizzard of Polar Bears

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These books – two so far – are a mix of adventure, climate change despair, and appreciation and love of the natural world and the creatures that share the planet with us.  In the first book, Henderson’s protagonist, Dr. Alex Carter, left Boston to study wolverines in Montana.  As that study winds down in book two, she’s delighted to get a call from a colleague, asking her to fill in for her on a polar bear study in Churchill, Manitoba.

Thrilled, Alex jumps at the chance and hops on a plane.  She’s used to solitude and her main points of contact are a buddy who is an actor and her father.  While Churchill would be no one’s idea of the big city, to Alex, it almost is, as she’ll be working at a large center with other scientists.  She’s happy enough to be able to stay in a motel on her own instead of the center’s quarters. read more

November Book Club

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In November, our book club will meet outside – in person – on Sunday, November 14 at 2 p.m. to discuss David Hewson’s Devil’s Fjord.   Our zoom book club will meet on Wednesday, November 17 at 7 p.m.  Message us for a zoom link or the book club address.  We’ll be taking December off and will reconvene in January.

Here’s a precis from the publisher about Devil’s Fjord:

New District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen uncovers a series of dark secrets when he investigates the disappearance of two boys in the remote Faroe Islands.

Newly-appointed District Sheriff Tristan Haraldsen and his wife Elsebeth are looking forward to a peaceful semi-retirement in the remote fishing village of Djevulsfjord on the stunningly beautiful island of Vagar. But when two boys go missing during the first whale hunt of the season, the repercussions strike at the heart of the isolated coastal community.
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Lori Rader-Day: Death at Greenway

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The most towering figure in mystery fiction is Agatha Christie.  She created and influenced countless plots and tropes, and invented iconic detectives.  Surely no mystery writer can set a pen to paper without feeling in her debt.  Re-paying this debt with her impressionistic Death at Greenway is Lori Rader-Day, a writer known for multiple point of view novels and indirect storytelling.  Her style could not be further from Agatha’s, but – there’s still that debt to be paid.

The book is set during WWII at Mrs. Christie’s summer home, Greenway, in Devon.  During the war the Mallowans (for that was Agatha’s married name) lent their house to a war nursery – or to children evacuated from London, cared for by nurses.  Rader-Day has chosen to focus her story on Bridget Kelly, a failed nurse in training, who takes up the war nursery job out of desperation. read more

Craig Johnson: Daughter of the Morning Star

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This review is by our frequent guest reviewer, Cathy Akers-Jordan.

Walt Longmire has been in some awkward and dangerous situations during his decades as Sheriff of Absaroka county. This year he faces one he had no way of anticipating: guarding a Indian teenage girls’ basketball team. Longmire, big, tough, and a man of few words, is clearly out of his depth. He survives but only due to the help of best friend Henry Standing Bear and Deputy Vic Moretti.

The story focuses on Jaya Long, niece of Tribal Police Chief Lolo Long. A year after Jaya’s sister Jeanie disappears, Jaya begins to receive threatening notes. Knowing she’s unlikely to keep her niece safe when she’s off the rez, Chief Long recruits Walt and Henry to do so and to find whoever is sending notes. Complicating the situation is Jaya’s status as a superstar basketball player. Traveling to other schools for away games means there are more opportunities for someone to kidnap or kill Jaya. read more

Sofie Kelly: Hooked on a Feline

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This review comes to us from guest reviewer Cathy Akers-Jordan.

Have you ever lost your cat indoors? You know what it’s like. You look all over the house, in all the cat’s favorite places, call its name, shout “treat!” while shaking the a container of the same, only to turn around and find the cat sitting in the exact spot you’ve already looked five times? Welcome to the life of Kathleen Paulson. Unlike our cats though, her gray tabby Owen can literally disappear. His brother, tuxedo cat Hercules, can walk through walls and other solid surfaces. Neither cat cares who knows about his magical ability but Kathleen tries to hide it so everyone will avoid the feral cat colony on Wisteria Hill where Owen and Hercules were born. Of course, the cats assist Kathleen in solving murders. If you like light-hearted cozy mysteries with a touch of magic, this is the series for you. read more

Rhys Bowen: God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen

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Poor Lady Georgie.  She’s at last married to Darcy, in residence at a lovely estate, and all she wants is to have a happy family Christmas at her new home.  A typical wish for any young bride, but Georgie seems to have left her planning late, and her invitations are unfortunately declined as all and sundry seem to have made other plans.  Luckily Georgie’s grandfather is able to come, and sadly for Georgie (but happily for the reader) her brother and sister in law, Binky and Fig, also plan to make an appearance. read more

Andrea Penrose: Murder at the Royal Botanic Gardens

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This is the fifth installment in Andrea Penrose’s Wrexford and Sloane series, set in London in the early 1800’s.  In each novel, Penrose folds in some sort of scientific discovery, and in this one, the discovery involves a cure for malaria, a huge problem at the time.  Set in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Penrose also includes some real-life scientists (read her interesting author’s note), while at the same time creating an exciting adventure and a bit of romance.

When the series opened, Lady Charlotte Sloane was a widow who had slipped into her late husband’s career as a satiric artist.  She works anonymously, often causing a stir when her work is published in the paper. She assists her now fiancée, Lord Wrexford in investigations. As the book opens, he is introducing her to society at a huge gathering at the Botanical Garden as his future bride.  Unfortunately, a dead body is discovered during the course of the evening, and Wrexford, a now well known amateur sleuth, is called in for advice. read more

Reavis Wortham: The Rock Hole

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Review by Cathy Akers-Jordan.

For its 10th anniversary, Reavis Wortham’s The Rock Hole has been reissued with a new cover and a forward by Joe R. Lansdale.

In the 1964 the town of Center Springs, (East) Texas a series of increasingly violent animal mutilations takes place. Most corpses are found with a hint that the killer is looking for human prey. Then a grandfather finds footprints under his grandson’s bedroom window…

The Rock Hole features dual protagonists Constable Ned Parker and his grandson Texas Orrin Parker (called Top), who are based on Wortham and his grandfather. The book reflects Wortham’s childhood memories of daily life in a peaceful small town where no one locks their doors, neighbors listen to each other on the party line telephone, and sit on the front porch of the general store swapping gossip and telling stories. It’s so small that Constable Ned Parker’s main job is running his farm with his Choctaw wife, whom everyone lovingly refers to as “Miss Becky.” read more

Jane Casey: The Killing Kind

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This stand alone from Jane Casey is whip smart and terrifying.  I am a big fan of her Maeve Kerrigan series, with its combination of character, complex plotting and nuanced look at police work.  In this standalone, the central character is not a policewoman but a barrister, youngish Ingrid Lewis, happily involved with Mark.

As Ingrid goes through her court routine in the opening scene, which sets up not only the legal surround but some of the relationships and events that carry through the book, she lends a colleague her umbrella.  As she’s hurrying out later to another case, she sees that the umbrella borrower has been a victim of a hit and run.  As she is interviewed by a police officer about her colleague, she mentions a stalker from her past.  She’s afraid the man saw her umbrella and pushed the wrong woman under a bus. read more