Vicki Kondelik’s List
Better the Blood, Michael Bennett (2022).
Night Flight to Paris, Cara Black (2023).
What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust, Alan Bradley (2024).
To Slip the Bonds of Earth, Amanda Flower (2024).
Moonflower Murders, Anthony Horowitz (2020).
A Fatal Reception, Kathleen Marple Kalb (2024).
Blood Sisters, Vanessa Lillie (2023).
The Last Hope, Susan Elia MacNeal (2024).
Murder at the White Palace, Allison Montclair (2024).
The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny (2024).
My list is, as usual, heavy on historical mysteries, but it also includes some contemporary (or near-contemporary) mysteries, as well as one book that is both. I have confined my list to books that I read for the first time this year, which means I had to leave off two of my favorite books of all time, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King, which celebrated its 30th anniversary this year, and Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. I reread them both this year, and I loved them just as much as I did before.
To start with the contemporary mysteries, there are two I read recently, Better the Blood by Michael Bennett and Blood Sisters by Vanessa Lillie, that, when I think about it, have certain themes in common. Both deal with atrocities committed against indigenous peoples by white colonizers, and, in both, the heroine has taken actions which can be seen as siding with the oppressors, causing friction between her and her family or community. Better the Blood is about Hana Westerman, a Māori police detective in Auckland, New Zealand, who is on the trail of a serial killer who sets out to avenge the death of a Māori leader at the hands of British soldiers 160 years ago. Some chapters are told from the killer’s point of view, which I usually don’t like, but I found these compelling because you understand the killer’s reasons for his actions, even though he takes it too far.
Blood Sisters is about Syd Walker, a Cherokee archaeologist for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, who witnessed a horrific crime fifteen years before, and who returns to her hometown in Oklahoma when a skull is found near the scene of the crime and her sister, also a witness to the crime, and now a recovering drug addict, goes missing. The novel is set in 2008 and is inspired by a real-life crime. Both Better the Blood and Blood Sisters are more violent than the books I usually like, but I couldn’t put them down. Both feature strong, complex heroines who I want to read about again.
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny is the latest entry in the Chief Inspector Gamache series, and well worth the two-year wait. Gamache and his team race against the clock to stop a plot to poison Montreal’s drinking water. The beloved Three Pines characters are back, even though this book doesn’t spend as much time in Three Pines as many of the others. It features a return to the monastery that was the setting for The Beautiful Mystery, as well as a remote monastery in France. It leaves you wanting to read the next book, and wondering what the future holds for Gamache.
Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz is both a contemporary and a historical mystery. In the present day, former book editor Susan Ryeland, who helps to run a hotel on Crete, returns to England to find a woman who disappeared after reading a mystery novel Susan edited. The woman realizes the novel contained a clue to a murder that happened at her parents’ hotel several years before. This novel is then inserted into the book as a mystery-within-a-mystery, where detective Atticus Pünd solves the murder of a film star in an English village in the 1950s. This part of the book is, of course, a tribute to Agatha Christie and other Golden Age mystery authors. Both the contemporary and historical parts are very compelling. I also enjoyed the recent TV adaptation.
As for historical mysteries, I will start with two World War II thrillers. In Night Flight to Paris by Cara Black, American sharpshooter Kate Rees, who tried and failed to kill Hitler in the previous book, Three Hours in Paris, is sent back to Paris to assassinate a leading Nazi operative and to rescue the British agent who saved her life. Her mission takes many twists and turns, and Kate is never sure who is on her side and who is against her.
The Last Hope is, sadly, the last in Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope series. It is set largely in Spain and Portugal. Maggie, like Kate Rees, is sent to assassinate a leading Nazi figure, this time a scientist who may or may not be developing an atomic bomb for Hitler. She joins forces with Coco Chanel, who is possibly a double agent. I was very sad to hear that the publisher decided not to continue the series. Maggie is one of my favorite characters of all time, and there was enough time left in the war for several more books.
Another of my favorite heroines, returning after a long absence, is Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce, a preteen scientific genius and expert on poisons in 1950s England. In What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust, her family’s cook. Mrs. Mullet, is accused of the murder of a neighbor, who used to be a hangman. Flavia works with the gardener and her obnoxious cousin Undine to solve the murder and clear Mrs. Mullet’s name. We also learn more details about the secret society her family is involved with, and the story takes a surprising twist that not everyone liked (but I did).
To Slip the Bonds of Earth by Amanda Flower is the first in a new series about Katharine Wright, the sister of the Wright brothers and a classics teacher in a high school in Dayton, Ohio. Shortly after her brothers’ first flight, the blueprints for their flying machine are stolen and one of Katharine’s students is accused of murder. The strong, outspoken Katharine makes a great protagonist, and I look forward to reading more of her adventures. I also highly recommend Flower’s series with Emily Dickinson as the detective. The second book, I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, was actually #11 on my list.
A Fatal Reception by Kathleen Marple Kalb is the fourth book in a wrongly-neglected series, which I am very glad has found a home with a new publisher. It is set in Gilded Age New York and features Ella Shane, an opera singer known for singing male roles. She is about to be married to her beloved duke, when she finds out he was on a ship that sank (never fear, he survived), and she has to solve a murder before she can have her happy ending.
Murder at the White Palace by Allison Montclair is the latest book in another series which has found a new home. It features two women who run a marriage bureau in London shortly after World War II. Iris Sparks is a working-class former intelligence agent, now dating a gangster. Gwen Bainbridge is an aristocratic war widow who has recently regained her independence after being declared insane following her husband’s death. Iris and Gwen plan to host a New Year’s Eve party for their clients, only to find a dead body in the wall of the building they want to use. This series is a delight, and I recommend starting from the beginning.
Margaret Agnew’s List
The Man in Black, Elly Griffiths. A short story collection that features characters from Griffiths’ series, but also original tales. A quick, fun read that lets the reader spend time with their favorites.
The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny. With a detail driven plot and a deep mystery, the best part of this book for me was the interaction between the characters. Reading a book by Penny always feels like catching up with old friends.
Agony Hill, Sarah Stewart Taylor. A deep dive into the minds and lives of the cast in this small town. I was pleased to learn it will be a series, as there is a lot more to learn about everyone involved.
Return to Wyldcliffe Heights, Carol Goodman. A true Gothic that is genuinely creepy. Perfect to pick up right around Halloween, especially if you like a good ghost story.
Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers, Frank Figliuzzi. Though not about any one serial killer, this was still interesting. The peek behind the curtain into the lives of truckers was almost more engrossing than the scattered cases themselves. I haven’t looked at long haul trucks the same way since.
The Missing Diamond, Lynn Morrison and Anne Radcliffe. If you like Bridgerton, this is essentially Brigerton as a mystery book – with none of the racy bits.
Darling Girls, Sally Hepworth. Absolutely excellent – a great cast, a good mystery, and a compelling and twisted villain. The characters were almost all female, too, which was a fun change of pace.
The Last Word, Elly Griffiths. A fun romp with the side characters from the Detective Harbinder Kaur series taking center stage.
An Inconvenient Wife, Karen E Olson. A good book with an ending I didn’t like as well as the rest of it. Still, there were plenty of fun nods to history!
Strange, Dark and Mysterious: The Graphic Stories, MrBallen, illustrations by Andrea Mutti. Mostly true crime creepy stories in comic book form. (Ballen is a podcaster: MrBallen Presents).
Carla Schantz’s List
A New Lease on Death, by Olivia Blacke, is the first in her Supernatural Mysteries series. Two main characters star in A New Lease on Death and switch perspective every few chapters or so. Our living detective is Ruby Young, an optimistic new tenant of a cheap and fully furnished apartment in Boston. Our ghost is the apartment’s previous tenant, Cordelia Graves. What put these two on a collision course was the death of their neighbor Jack Macintyre. I really enjoyed A New Lease on Death, and especially the ghostly mechanics that Olivia Blacke implemented. There are a lot of twists and as readers learn alongside Cordelia and Ruby not only who the killer could be, but also what exactly being and living with a ghost entails. I highly recommend A New Lease on Death for readers who enjoy paranormal novels and a detective duo with vastly conflicting but complementing personalities.
The little Lost Library is the seventh book in Ellery Adam’s Secret, book, & Scone Society series. In it we follow Nora Pennington, owner of Miracle Books Bookstore in Miracle Springs, North Carolina. One of her more eccentric clients is an elderly and agoraphobic town resident called Lucille Wynter. Nora finds Lucille dead at the bottom of her stairs, amongst a hoard of books that would overwhelm even the most dedicated bibliophile. There are rich interpersonal relationships, daily and relatable struggles, and two different mysteries in one. Trying to solve little riddles and clues in the house was a fun and engaging way to get Nora to investigate. There is also a character index at the start of the book, one of my favorite things, especially if I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the other books in the series yet. I suggest this book for anyone who enjoys a murder mystery with fun clue and puzzle elements to it.
Once more Korina Moss’s Cheese Shop mystery series ends up on my list! The fifth addition to the series is Fondue or Die. The neighboring town of Lockwood is holding its annual Labor Day celebration known as Dairy Days. This is a huge event that involves all three districts of Sonoma Valley. Previously, Willa decided to brie safe with her new business and not get involved. But this year Willa Baur has her very own booth and is selling various graze boxes of Curds & Whey cheeses. Team Cheese are all present as well, her employees Archie and Mrs. Schultz, as well as her neighbor and friend Baz. Archie is helping her to run the booth and Mrs. Schultz and Baz are assisting with the Miss Dairy pageant. Korina Moss also makes sure to address both the pro and con sides of beauty pageants. Willa has the cheddar of the two roles as the pageant organizer Nadine is driving everyone nuts – at least until she is found murdered. Things don’t quite add up, and Willa and team think they cheddar investigate along with her friends, who call themselves Team Cheese. Each member of Team Cheese brings their own unique perspective and skillset so I feel there is someone for any reader to relate to. Fondue or Die came to a very satisfactory end, complete with a surprising twist.
The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco, by Michelle Chouinard, features Capri Sanzio, the granddaughter of one of San Francisco’s most famous serial killers, Overkill Bill. Despite having been tried and convicted, Mr. Sanzio proclaimed his innocence until the day he died. Growing up with a serial killer in the family is never easy, some even change their names to avoid the association. Capri decides to capitalize on it, and her passion for researching serial killers, by giving crime tours through San Francisco. I appreciated how she would pull historical context into her investigation. Capri is very self-aware, and I appreciated her in depth looks into society but also the psychology of herself and her family as a result of being associated with Overkill Bill. I do hope that The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco is the start in a series because I would love to see more of Michelle Chouinard’s writing and what adventures might await Capri.
Darci Hannah starts off her new series, Food & Spirits, with A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor. At first, I wasn’t sure when the paranormal was going to play in, as the main character Bridget “Bunny” MacBride is a chef on a cooking show under the main host. She is then offered a new contract where she will be the primary chef on a series that will be called Food & Spirits. Now, Bunny made one rather large mistake when accepting this particular job: she did not explore the contract thoroughly before signing. If she had, she might have seen that the ‘Spirit’ part of the show was not referring to beverages but to the dearly departed. Her main role is to be preparing meals to attract sprits to the table. Needless to say, she was far from pleased with that turn of events, but decides to stick with her contract and make the best of it. It’s interesting to watch Bunny in her ideal setting, far away from anything spooky, and get to journey with her as she gets dragged into the world she has spent a lifetime trying to get away from. Darci Hannah also tackles two mysteries in one in A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor, that of the current murder victim and that of the Mistletoe Bride that haunts the manor.
Michael Falco takes readers away to the village of Positano, Italy, in his second Bria Bartolucci Mystery, Murder in an Italian Café. Readers looking for an Italian escape will love Murder in an Italian Café. From the descriptions of the landscape to the people Bria encounters everything pulls readers in. The use of the Italian language further immerses readers. The Amalfi coast is one of the most gorgeous spots on earth. Bria Bartolucci has made a home her for herself and her son Marco by running a bed and breakfast called Bella Bella. She and her late husband Carlos shared the dream of opening Bella Bella, and she’s doing her best to live her life and honor his memory. Bria is facing one of the biggest challenges anyone can face: arguing grandparents. Her parents and Carlos’ mother both have very different and strong opinions on where Marco’s communion should be celebrated. Making everyone happy is impossible, so Bria is grateful to become very preoccupied with guests. Some of which are from a production crew that are there for the famous Chef Lugo, filming in Positano. One thing no one could have prepared for was for Chef Lugo’s on-camera death. Bria is such a wonderful protagonist that readers cannot help but be drawn into her life and cheer on her success with both her personal life as well as her sleuthing.
Emmeline Duncan introduces us to her first book in a new series with Chaos at the Lazy Bones Bookshop. Readers are taken to Elya Hollow, Oregon to Bailey Briggs’ Lazy Bones Bookshop. Aiming to take full advantage of the Lit Festival, Baily has several fun events planned for her store including some visiting authors. She also is going to try hosting a TV show known as Gone Ghouls is also coming around to film a few episodes, which goes horribly wrong with the obnoxious and rather destructive crew of Gone Ghouls. Then she turns around and comes across a dead body, and Baily finds herself on the Detective’s short list of suspects. Readers get a good feel for her as a person, experiencing all her fears and hopes as she investigates her family, her town, and searches for a killer to clear her name. I also appreciate the continuanal defense of bookshops in the face of an ever more digitalized world. I also enjoyed seeing alternative family structures represented.
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 (someone who studies mollusks) and teller of stories and legends. 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, but apparently, that’s 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. I enjoyed the duality of the police presence in the book as well. Molly MacRae has one very antagonistic and unpleasant detective that has reader’s teeth on edge, and also a kinder, more reasonable one that truly does have the best interest of the islanders at heart. A lot of time you get one or the other in a cozy, but having both playing off and around each other really worked. I recommend Come Shell or High Water to readers who are looking for a new series full of great eccentric characters, an island getaway, and spectral shenanigans.
Disclaimer: this book is a part of the Cannabis Café mystery series by Emily George. Legalized cannabis and its uses are major theme in A High Tide Murder. If this topic puts you off, please stop reading. Right now. Medical use is the driving motivation, but it is also used recreationally by the café patrons. In Emily George’s A High Tide Murder, baker Chloe runs her cannabis Café called Chloe Bakes in town of Azalea Bay, California. She decided to pursue baked goods and beverages infused with THC or CBD ingredients in order to help make others in her community unwind and relax, but also to offer alternatives to traditional edibles for those who medically need it. Her grandmother Rose’s cancer diagnosis is what pushed Chloe’s café in this particular direction. Everyone who comes through gets a safety and educational rundown by Chloe and her employees, and she has plenty of pamphlets so that everyone can consume responsibly. Business is booming as the local surfing competition is in full swing, and it’s all Chloe can do to keep the Café stocked. However, things take a turn when it appears that Aaron takes his own life due to the pressures and stress of trying to make it in the world of competitive surfing. Well, at least it appears that way to everyone but Ethan. Thanks to Matt, Ethan knows that Chloe is the go-to sleuth when the police seem satisfied a case is closed. Chloe wants to establish herself in her new home and start over after an imploding career and failed romance. Pulling one’s self up by their bootstraps after such thing is never easy, but she takes it a step further by opening a cannabis café.
In the Blink of a Pie, the third Maple Syrup Mystery by Cathrine Bruns, takes place in Sugar Ridge Vermont, where Leila Khoury manages the family business, Sappy Endings farm. It’s a maple syrup haven that has a farm, store, and café that all work in tandem. To celebrate the oncoming Thanksgiving season, Sappy Endings is hosting a pie-baking contest. The town is elated, and soon Leila finds herself drowning in pie entries. A very tasty problem to have, but tricky to manage when one has to keep track of who entered what pie and then choose a winner. Luckily her friend Heather, her mother, and even Noah’s daughter are all there to help keep things as organized as possible. Everything starts off wonderfully, but quickly takes a turn for the deadly when a neighbor dies shortly after tasting one of the entries. Cathrine Bruns’ shows just how fickle the public can be for any business and how devastating it can be when fear mongering manages to get ahold of the masses. Sappy Endings didn’t even provide the poisoned pie, but they suffered heavy losses because of it. I do feel I should give people a little disclaimer that it does contain themes of stalking and toxic relationships. I found myself reading faster simply because I very much wanted to see that it all came out alright in the end. I won’t give any spoilers along that track, but I will say that I was satisfied with the ending.