Reviews

Ellen Byron: A Very Woodsy Murder

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Golden Motel #1

Ellen Byron always brings it.  In this series launch, exhausted TV writer Dee has found gold at the end of her particular rainbow.  In her case, it’s an abandoned mid century motel in need of lots of love at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains.  She wants to buy it and renovate it with her ex-husband and now best friend, Jeff, whose life also needs a bit of a reboot.  The two agree to the plan, sinking their savings into it.  They’re happily renovating when their first guest checks in: an old fellow sit-com writer frenemy of Dee’s.  He seems to be roundly disliked by everyone in town and in good cozy fashion he’s shortly dispatched.  (It’s the end of his particular rainbow.) read more

Kathryn Lasky: Mortal Radiance

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Georgia O’Keeffe #2

I truly enjoyed the first novel in this series, Light on Bone, despite initial reservations about Georgia O’Keeffe as a detective.  Lasky ably uses O’Keeffe’s artistic skillset to solve the crimes presented to her, and I am always in favor of a sleuth using an actual skill they already possess.  Set in and around Taos, New Mexico, Georgia in this instalment is staying at the home of Mabel Dodge Luhan, an art patroness who maintained quite a salon.  Georgia is in Taos for the funeral of D.H. Lawrence, whose body was disinterred by his wife five years after his death, cremated, and brought to Taos for interment on the grounds of a ranch Mabel had gifted to the couple (in return, Mabel received the original manuscript of Sons and Lovers). read more

Elise Bryant: It’s Elementary

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Series debut

If the mystery part of this novel hadn’t meandered a bit as it headed in for the finish it would have been the absolutely perfect summer read.  The rest of the book, though, is so utterly charming, that’s really a nitpick.  This is the first adult novel for author Bryant, who up until now has written YA romance, and she seems to be embracing adulting in her first outing.  Her heroine, Mavis Miller, is a single mom who lives with her Dad and is late getting her adorable daughter Pearl to school just about every day in the rush of getting ready for work, making Pearl’s lunch, letting the dog out, etc. read more

Dianne Freeman: An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder

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Countess of Harleigh #7

An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder is the seventh entry in Dianne Freeman’s delightful Countess of Harleigh series.  Set at the turn of the twentieth century, the series features Frances, the American-born former Countess of Harleigh, and her second husband, George Hazelton, who carries out secret investigations for the British government.  This book is somewhat of a departure for the series, since it takes place in Paris instead of the usual setting of London, but you can hardly complain about that. read more

Molly MacRae: Come Shell or High Water

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Series Debut – Haunted Shell Shop #1

Molly MacRae launches her new haunted shell shop mystery series with Come Shell or High Water. Newly widowed Maureen Nash heads to Ocracoke Island to follow up on some rather odd letters from the shell shop owner. Maureen is a Malacologist and teller of stories and legends. Malacologist is the term for someone who studies mollusks, an interesting factoid I enjoyed learning. One might think that Maureen of the mollusks could have picked a better time to visit the island than right in the middle of hurricane season. Apparently, though, that is a prime time to find some seaside treasures of the shelled variety. Maureen has quite the journey to the island, but the real adventure starts when she literally trips over a body, then stumbles through a series of unfortunate events that results in compromised memory, becoming a murder suspect, and meeting a ghost. read more

Anna Lee Huber: A Deceptive Composition

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Lady Darby #12

This enjoyable series centers on unconventional artist Lady Darby, aka Kiera Gage, who still carries her first husband’s title, though she’s since remarried one Sebastian Gage. That first husband was cruel, forcing her to use her artistic skills as an anatomical illustrator to sketch as he dissected corpses, an extremely disreputable occupation for a woman in the 1830s.  Fortunately for her, his passing left her free to marry her dishy second husband and have a baby with him.  She now uses those skills as a society portraitist, but it’s her eye that makes this series original, detecting colors and relevant details others would miss. It’s her incredible powers of observation that makes her such a valuable assistant to her husband, an operative for the crown. read more

Connie Berry: A Collection of Lies

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Kate Hamilton #5

Even though this is book five in an established series, I was able to comfortably settle in with Berry’s characters, setting, and story right away. The series features antiques expert Kate Hamilton, and in this instalment she’s on honeymoon in Devon with her police detective husband, Tom Mallory.  In true mystery tradition, it’s a busman’s honeymoon, as they’ve also taken on a private job to verify the provenance of a blood covered dress from the 1880s, which supposedly belonged to a murderess. read more

E.J. Copperman: Same Difference

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Fran and Ken Stein #2

There are several things a reader can expect when they pick up an E.J. Copperman book, among them humor, a tight plot and great characters. Also to be expected in each of his series, written as either Jeff Cohen or Copperman, is a high concept premise, and this instalment is no exception.  The sibling protagonists, brother and sister Fran and Ken Stein (you get the word play), were not born, exactly, but created by their scientist parents who added a little extra something to the formula.  The two of them are remarkably tall and strong, the downside being that they have to plug the USB port under their arms into a charger every couple of days to keep going.  This part of the story was, to me, almost extraneous – the rest is so excellent that it needs no embellishment.  Fran and Ken could just simply have been tall and extra strong and the book wouldn’t have suffered any.  Being Copperman, however, there’s an extra emotional layer here as Fran and Ken haven’t seen their parents since they were children and are still hoping to find them.  All signs point to that search being the plot of the next book. Their sense of loss is only lightly touched on here but it’s present and beautifully handled. read more

M.E. Hilliard: Smoke and Mirrors

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Greer Hogan #4

Since the first book in this series (The Unkindness of Ravens), librarian Greer Hogan has been working through the aftermath of her husband’s murder.  While she’s upright and functional, his death feels unresolved, and she’s not so sure the right person is in prison. While she has a job, she’s taken on a temporary one in New York City, archiving the collection of a magician.  The gig comes with an apartment across the street, and the archiving job gives her the flexibility she needs for sleuthing.  It also comes with an assistant: the aptly named “Grim” (short for Grimaldi), a former magician himself, is helping out by archiving the straight up magic tricks part of the collection, while Greer herself sticks to books.  She decides to trust him early on and he proves to be incredibly useful. read more

Frank Figliuzzi: Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers

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True Crime

Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers is former FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi’s second non fiction work, and an in depth dive into the prevalence of serial killers in long haul trucking. Though not an examination of any one individual, or any one case, the  book covers the culture of trucking. That includes not only the drivers themselves, but the prostitution rampant at truck lots, and the kind of trafficking that leads to an unfortunately thriving industry.  Truckers are primarily men alone for weeks at a time, isolated and often unaccounted for, and combined with vulnerable and often intoxicated women, this doesn’t lead to good things. read more