Margaret Agnew

D.E. White: Everyone is Lying

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Alexandra has built a perfect life based more than a little on a lie. When she was young, she worked for the Candy Girls – party favors for high class men – though she herself never slept with anyone. As the host of these debauched parties, she saw and heard much more than the other girls did. That included the events of the very last the Candy Girls hosted, where she saw something that has haunted, and followed her, her entire life. The aptly named Everyone is Lying by D.E. White starts when Alexandra’s house of cards starts to topple. read more

J.M. Cannon: The Lost Girls

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This book is only available in a digital format.

The Lost Girls by J.M. Canon, also known as The Flash Girls, comes in a few editions. I personally read it as in eBook, and did note that there were some layout issues with the version I read to review. It’s likely that these issues have been fixed in the official version, but there were sometimes distracting from the story. Regardless, this was a solid thriller.

The story follows Anna, a reporter with a rough upbringing, whose best friend Sylvie went missing years ago. Anna has spent her life trying to get justice for Sylvie, and to find her, alongside the other “Flash Girls.”  Despite the evidence of three girls disappearing after being stalked, and seeing the flash of a camera before they went missing, no one else believes there is a serial killer among them. Anna was the only one to coin and use the term “Flash Girls”. read more

E.L. Johnson: Winter’s Poison

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Winter Murders #1

There are not many mysteries set in the tumultuous court of King Stephen (1096-1154). A Winter’s Poison by E.L. Johnson is certainly the first I have personally read. It follows teenage Baker’s daughter Bronwyn, adept in the kitchen herself, as she is pulled into it making a fairly routine delivery. A nobleman named De Grecy orders fancy white rolls from her father’s shop on a whim, and Bronwyn discovers they are intended for the king and queen only when she arrives to drop them off. However, as she is departing, she sees a cloaked figure fiddling with the food and tries to report it to the head cook. It’s clear that someone has added mushrooms to the top of the rolls. read more

Elly Griffiths: The Man in Black

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Short Stories

It wasn’t so long ago that Elly Griffiths penned the last instalment of the Ruth Galloway series – but definitely long enough to miss the characters. The Man in Black provides a delicious taste of Ruth’s world once again, as well as familiar favorites from Griffiths’ other series. However, established characters aren’t the only ones to appear in these short stories. Griffiths’ stories are brief, but full, sketches. The book introduces glimpses of many lives, just little capsules of how they think and live and feel. read more

Louise Penny: The Grey Wolf

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Chief Inspector Gamache #19

In the impressive 19th installment of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny, The Grey Wolf, something more than murder is lurking in the darkness. Gamache is at first baffled by a string of seemingly random murders – people with quiet lives and no enemies, killed execution style with no reason for it. The investigation is slow going, likely stalled, and Gamache isn’t sure where to turn next.

However, a meeting with a stranger changes everything. When this man is killed directly in front of him, trying to tell Gamache a final secret, things get set in motion that none of them ever would have expected. Cryptic clues and old faces just lead the inspector further and further down the rabbit hole and put his family, and Three Pines, in jeopardy, alongside maybe even more lives and something bigger than each of them. read more

Sarah Stewart Taylor: Agony Hill

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Series debut

Sarah Stewart Taylor starts a new series with Agony Hill, following Detective Franklin Warren as he tries to start his life over again. Set in the tiny Vermont town of Bethany in the 1960s, the novel immediately plunges the reader into small town, rustic life, and realities of the struggling farmers there. The characters are rich, and each of the three point of view characters especially get filled out into living, breathing people.

When Warren arrives in town, he gets little time to settle in, or even unpack. Immediately, there is a barn fire up on Agony Hill. At first, it seems like a clear-cut suicide. The victim, Hugh Weber, was always one for making statements, and he was deeply against the highway set to go through town. The barn was latched from the inside, too. With no alternate exits, it seems clear that Weber got drunk and took his ideals a little too far. read more

Carol Goodman: Return to Wyldcliffe Heights

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Carol Goodman’s latest standalone novel, Return to Wyldcliffe Heights, takes the reader into a modern day gothic. Our heroine Agnes Corey works at a small failing publishing company, and is naturally all alone in the world. Knowing she will be let go first, as she was the last hired on as an assistant, Agnes makes a desperate bid to keep her job by writing to the publisher’s most famous author. To the surprise of everyone, perhaps most of all Agnes herself, the author writes back.

Years ago, enigmatic and reclusive Veronica St. Clair wrote a generation defining gothic novel of her own. It launched the publisher and ensnared the hearts of countless teenage girls, but Veronica never wrote anything again. Agnes’ plea for a sequel to The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights is one of hundreds, if not thousands. But Veronica, who was blinded in a mysterious fire on her massive estate, needs someone to transcribe it for her. 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

Lynn Morrison and Anne Radcliffe: The Missing Diamond

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Crown Jewels Regency #1

(Editor’s note: this is only available on Kindle Scribe & Audio).

The first in Lynn Morrison and Anne Radcliffe’s Crown Jewels series, The Missing Diamond is a regency delight. Starting at the beginning of the London season, the drama, at first, revolves around who will marry who. At first it seems obvious that the season’s most eligible bachelor, Roland, Lord Percy, will wed the season’s diamond, Lady Charity. Charity is determined to marry as well as she can and her best friend, Lady Grace, is happy to help her do so. 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