Maha Khan Phillips: The Museum Detective

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Dr. Gul Delani is an art historian working at the Museum of History and Heritage in Karachi, Pakistan.  She has basically forced her way into the museum by more or less creating her own department and curating her own staff of eager grad students.  When she gets a middle of the night phone call, she thinks it’s information about her long missing niece, Mahnaz, who had vanished at 15, but instead, it’s an order to get dressed and get in a car for a long ride. When she arrives, she’s asked to take a look at what could possibly be the mummy of a legendary princess of Persepolis. read more

Will Thomas: Season of Death

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Barker & Llewelyn #16

Season of Death is the sixteenth book in Will Thomas’ series set in Victorian London, featuring private enquiry agents (they prefer this term, rather than “detectives”) Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn.  I had not read any of the previous books in the series before, and at first I wondered if I’d be lost, starting the series with the sixteenth book, but this novel was so engaging that I felt drawn in by the story and the characters right away, and now I want to go back and read the others.  Thomas gives the reader enough detail about the characters and their previous cases that you don’t feel lost, but not so much as to spoil the earlier books. read more

Chris Nickson: No Precious Truth

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Cathy Marsden #1

Often when I read a book set during WWII, I imagine myself as the heroine of an exciting yet dangerous espionage operation, looking Hollywood glamorous the whole time.  Nickson offers readers a different, more workaday take in the person of Cathy Marsden, seconded from the Leeds police department to serve in the SIB or Special Operations Bureau, part of the military police. As the book opens, Cathy’s unit is joined by her brother Dan, who at the moment is stationed in London in the XX Committee, a part of MI5 which attempted to turn German spies in England into counter agents who would feed selected disinformation back to their masters. read more

Jesse Q. Sutanto: Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man)

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Vera Wong #2

These books are like comfy, beautiful pillows for your brain, and, let me tell you, these days that’s not a bad thing.  Vera, the heroine of the series, is the 60 something widow who, in the first book, finds a dead body in the middle of her formerly obscure tea shop, ultimately finding friends and a purpose in the act of solving a murder.  Vera is opinionated, bossy, maternal, and an excellent cook, who as the book opens, gets a scam phone call which cons her into sharing her social security number and even a photo of her driver’s licence. read more

Allie Pleiter: One Sharp Stitch

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Nimble Needle #1

One Sharp Stitch is the first of the Nimble Needle Mysteries by Allie Pleiter. Readers are taken to Gwen Lake, outside of Asheville, North Carolina, with Shelby Phillips. Having just lost her job as well as a possible relationship, Shelby is headed home for a break from her life and to help her mother out at her needlepoint shop, the Nimble Needle. Her parents are finally taking a vacation in their RV. Shelby will only be minding the shop for a month, as she keeps reminding her parents and her perfectionist sister, Jessica. There’s also a trunk show coming up for local vendors, and Shelby will have to work with an old classmate, Kat Katsaros, who now makes needlework scissors — very artsy and expensive needlework scissors. Kat also sharpens blades of all kinds in a van that she happily uses to transport her scissors and crafts. read more

Lauren Elliott: A Spirited Blend

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Crystals & CuriosiTEAS #3

In Lauren Elliott’s third Crystals & CuriosiTEAS mystery, A Spirited Blend, Shayleigh Myers is making the most of her life in Bray Harbor, California as a tea shop owner and local seer. After having her life completely destroyed, and everything taken from her, Shayleigh is slow to trust and cautious of new ventures. Despite that, Bray Harbor has quickly begun to feel like home thanks to the lovely locals, a large white German Shepard named Spirit, and her sister Jen and her family. Not only is she learning how to run her tea shop, she’s also having to learn how work with and use her ancestors powerful magic, known as Early Magic. For the longest time, she fought against the validity of her visions and the magic local Gran Madigan talked about. However, there’s only so much proof denial can stand against, and now Shayleigh is embracing the magic and learning to respect the dangers that come with it. read more

V.M. Burns: The Next Deadly Chapter

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Mystery Bookshop #10

In V. M Burns’ mystery bookshop series, Samantha Washington, who prefers to go by Sam, owns a bookstore in Michigan and is a recent publisher of her own cozy mystery. Thanks to the support from her grandmother, Nana Jo, and her friends from the Shady Acres Retirement Village. Sam has not only written about murder, but has solved a few as well, including one where the ever ornery and confrontational Sheriff Brad Pitt, or Stinky Pitt as they prefer to call him, ended up in her debt, much to his horror and embarrassment. Sam has also recently become engaged to her friend and former investigator Frank Patterson. It really does seem that Sam’s life is looking up, even with the murders she keeps helping to solve. read more

May Book Club: A Traitor in Whitehall

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All are welcome to join our book club discussion in May (we’re skipping April) either in person or on zoom.  Message us on facebook for details.  We’ll be reading Julia Kelly’s wonderful historical mystery, A Traitor in Whitehall, set in London during the blitz.  We’ll meet in person on Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m. and on zoom on Wednesday, May 7, at 7 p.m.  Books are available at our online store.

This book was a top 10 pick for me the year it came out.  Here’s the publisher’s description: 1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms. read more

Erica Ruth Neubauer: Homicide in the Indian Hills

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Jane Wunderly #6

Homicide in the Indian Hills is the sixth full-length book in Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Jane Wunderly series set in various locations around the world in the 1920s.  Jane, an American war widow, has recently married the enigmatic Englishman Redvers, and this represents their first case as a married couple.  The couple met in Egypt, in the first book in the series, Murder at the Mena House, and so far their adventures have taken them to Istanbul, a Scottish island, a transatlantic voyage on the sister ship of the Titanic, and several other places.  Redvers carries out secret operations for the Crown, and usually these lead to a murder which Jane and Redvers solve. read more

Nikki Knight: Hound of the Bonnevilles

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Grace the Hit Mom #2

This is the second book in the deliciously high concept “Hit Mom” series.  Knight’s heroine, Grace Adair, only takes out those who truly deserve it.  And she does it in an untraceable way.  Book one had many details of the way her organization functions; this second book deals more with fallout of actions taken by Grace and her fellow murder-y sisters.  While this sounds intense, humor is on tap here.

While Grace is a “hit mom” she’s also a mom-mom, as well as an editor and a sometime practicing lawyer.  In other words, she’s extremely busy.  She and her husband, who have a solid and affectionately loving marriage, share a fairly low maintenance son but her life still revolves around school drop off and pick up time.  It’s truly amazing what she manages to fit in between those times. read more