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Ashley Weaver: Locked in Pursuit

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Electra McDonnell #4

I am a huge fan of this series, set in London during the blitz.  Safecracker Electra, working with her uncle Mick, was picked up by British intelligence in the first book for special “help” on a government job, and now four books in, she’s wanting to give up her former life of crime and is completely committed to government service.  Weaver also has the soul of a romance writer, and Electra has two possible and delightful beaus: Felix, whom she’s known since childhood, and the dashing Major Ramsey, her “handler”.  In the last book the two shared a passionate kiss but they now seem to be trying to forget about it.  However, the heart wants what the heart wants. read more

R.L. Graham: Death on the Lusitania

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Patrick Gallagher #1

This book has a ticking clock hanging over it even without any of the machinations of the plot – it’s set aboard the Lusitania on its final voyage.  As each chapter is set to a day, you can watch, as a reader, the time ticking down to May 7, 1915, the day of the disaster.  While there’s a mystery to be solved, the almost larger one is which of the characters encountered in the story will be alive by the end of the book. And this is a very well conceived mystery.

Many, many books are set during WWII, far fewer are set during WWI.  This one takes place at a point when the U.S. has not yet entered the war (the sinking of the Lusitania, of course, will prompt this), but the characters in the novel are still possessed by the war and it hangs over everything.  Shipboard mysteries are traditionally a time away from the happenings of the outside world, but in this book many of the characters are connected to the war in some form or fashion. read more

Catherine Mack: Every Time I Go on Vacation, Some One Dies

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Vacation Mysteries #1

This book takes the form of a very traditional mystery, and turns it on it’s head, standing back a bit to look with fondness at the genre.  There are other writers looking at mysteries in the same way – Elle Cosimano, Anthony Horowitz, Kat Ailes, Benjamin Stevenson and to and extent, Kemper Donovan – but like Cosimano, Ailes and Stevenson, Mack’s take is humorous.  These are not stories written by dumb people.  The stories are smart and the mysteries are clever and tricky, with fairly laid out turns of the plot.  Mack invites the reader to join her somewhat hapless main character in detection, and honestly, as a reader, you might do a better job than Eleanor Dash. read more

Andromeda Romano-Lax: The Deepest Lake

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Standalone

This was an unexpected read.  Set in Guatemala on the shores of Lake Atitlán, the story follows the drowning death of young Jules.  The way into the story is through her mother, Rose’s, unfathomable grief at the loss of her daughter.  The lake is deeper than Lake Michigan (to put it in context) and Jules’ body has not been found.  Her father went first to search, and with his military training and willingness to work with local law enforcement he gets a certain number of facts, but Rose wants to somehow live into the place where her daughter was last seen and feel her way into a solution.  It’s almost a perfect split of the stereotypical male and female ways of approaching a problem. read more

Harini Negendra: A Nest of Vipers

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Bangalore Detectives Club #3

I am a huge fan of this fledgling series set in 1920’s Bangalore.  The books are set around the same time at Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry books, but in a different part of India.  However, all the parts of India were experiencing the same thing: a desire for independence from their British overlords.  Massey has a book about the Prince of Wales’ visit to then colonial India, The Bombay Prince, and this is Negendra’s book about that same visit.  Gandhi was calling for peaceful protests (much like Martin Luther King) and throughout India there were welcomes for the Prince with an undercurrent of revolution.  India did not actually gain independence until 1947, so this is a story of a nascent movement, brought out of the shadows by the visit of a British royal. read more

Kathleen Marple Kalb: A Fatal Reception

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Ella Shane #4

A Fatal Reception is the fourth book in Kathleen Marple Kalb’s series featuring Ella Shane, an opera singer in New York City in the early 1900s, and the first with its new publisher, Level Best Books.  This is an excellent series, so I was disappointed to hear that the original publisher had dropped it and very glad when it found a new home.  Ella, a mezzo soprano “trouser diva” who sings male roles and is an expert swordswoman, is a wonderful protagonist.  She’s an orphan, the daughter of a Jewish mother and an Irish Catholic father, who grew up in the tenements of the Lower East Side, and was rescued from a life of poverty when a famous singer discovered her voice and trained her for opera.  Ella observes both her parents’ faiths, lighting candles for the Jewish Sabbath on Friday nights and going to Mass on Sundays, and she has never forgotten her origins, and helps the poor people of the tenements whenever she can. read more

Colleen Cambridge: A Murder Most French

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An American in Paris #2

A Murder Most French is the second book in Colleen Cambridge’s delightful American in Paris Mystery series featuring Tabitha Knight, the fictitious best friend of Julia Child.  The book is set in 1950, as Paris is recovering from World War II and the German occupation.  Tabitha, the daughter of an American police officer father and a French mother, grew up in a Detroit suburb and was a Rosie the Riveter during the war.  In the first book in the series, Mastering the Art of French Murder, she accepted an invitation to go to Paris to stay with her maternal grandfather and his partner, Oncle Rafe.  Tabitha loves her two “messieurs,” but she is not a good cook and is unable to make the French meals they love.  Very luckily for her, she becomes friends with her neighbor, none other than Julia Child, and learns to cook under her direction.  Without Julia, however, Tabitha is still hopeless in the kitchen.  Julia loves to use the spacious kitchen in Tabitha’s grandfather’s mansion, which is much larger than her own tiny kitchen, so she often comes to the house to cook, and everyone gets a delicious meal. read more

Leslie Meier: Patchwork Quilt Murder

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Lucy Stone #30

Leslie Meier has delighted us with twenty-nine Lucy Stone Mysteries, and hits the thirty book milestone with Patchwork Quilt Murder. Lucy Stone works as a reporter for Tinker Cove’s local paper, The Courier. Her investigative skills have helped Lucy, in her small town in Maine, solve many a crime alongside the local police. In Patchwork Quilt Murder the town is taking on the new community center with its high-priced director, Darleen Busby-Platt. As with any tax payer funded project, there is a lot of controversy surrounding it. Some think it cost too much, some are more focused on Darleen and her questionable price tag, while others are focusing on the possible environmental harm the community center might cause in the long run. Darleen is more than pleased to talk to Lucy Stone, and mentions the first sponsored event will focus on handmade quilts including her own mother’s historical one. Lucy’s interest in the event, however, does not distract from her noticing how flashy Darleen happens to be, and how abusive she is to her own staff. Despite how wonderful Darleen makes everything out to be, there seems to be more to the story. read more

Paige Shelton: The Poison Pen

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Scottish Bookshop #9

Paige Shelton’s Scottish Bookshop Mystery series follows Delaney Nichols. Delaney’s adventures take place in Edinburgh as she works for the specialty bookstore, The Cracked Spine, and its connected and more secretive warehouse. The Poison Pen takes place just after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. Even though Delaney is American by birth, she feels the loss deeply. Work is a welcome distraction, and Delaney’s curious nature is piqued when her boss, Edwin McAlister, asks her to go and investigate a friend’s claims about an interesting artifact they found on their property. The secretive nature of the item, and Edwin’s special interest, lets Delaney know that she is in for something big. read more

Sally Hepworth: Darling Girls

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Standalone

Sally Hepworth’s latest standalone, Darling Girls, explores what it means to be a foster child put in a very bad situation. Three foster sisters, Jessica, Norah, and Alicia grew up in an idyllic looking farmhouse in rural Australia, with the kindly seeming Miss Fairchild. However, Miss Fairchild is manipulative and overbearing, causing her “daughters” to never want to see her again when they finally escape her questionable care. All three have gone have become adults with issues stemming from their often confusing, unpleasant upbringing. But all three have also come out as very close sisters. Family. read more