Minotaur Books

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

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

Christina Estes: Off the Air

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Debut

Reporters: Some love them, some hate them, but most understand they are a necessary part of society if we want to stay aware of current events. Off the Air is Christina Estes’ first mystery novel and follows reporter Jolene Garcia, a TV reporter in Phoenix, Arizona. Jolene covers everything from puff pieces to in depth breaking news. She tries to hold onto her integrity to not reveal her sources, and to not publish information that isn’t verified and confirmed, despite the fact that other reporters around her have no qualms of just running with any crumb they’re given. read more

Gigi Pandian: A Midnight Puzzle

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Secret Staircase #3

In the third book in Gigi Pandian’s locked room series her heroine, magician Tempest Raj, seeks the answer to a devastating question: who killed her mother?  A supposed “curse” decrees that the eldest born child in the family will die while performing magic. It may sound ridiculous but Tempest’s aunt and mother both passed that way, and Tempest herself has already suffered a narrow escape.  The killing that opens the book is that of the wealthy bully who has been suing Tempest’s family construction company, insisting that the staircase that collapsed and put his wife in a coma was the result of shoddy construction. read more

Mariah Fredericks: The Wharton Plot

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I am a big fan of Mariah Fredericks’ vivid historical fiction.  I adore her Jane Prescott series, featuring a lady’s maid in 1910 New York, in which Jane ends up investigating crimes with the blessing of the family she works for, often with the help of a friendly investigative reporter.  Mariah’s now moved toward standalone historical novels – in 2022’s The Lindbergh Nanny she followed the kidnapping through the eyes of the nursemaid to the baby.  In The Wharton Plot, Edith Wharton herself takes on the true murder of a well known (at the time) author, David Graham Phillips. read more

Kat Ailes: The Expectant Detectives

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Expectant Detectives #1

This charmingly goofy, messy, funny mystery follows a very pregnant Alice and her partner Joe as they forsake the busy (and expensive) chaos of London for “the country.”  They’ve chosen the tiny village of Penton in the Cotswolds on the theory that a “posh hippy” community will be a good fit.  They bring along their gorgeous, if stupid, dog, Helen, who makes the moving trip to Penton extra nightmarish by vomiting all over the car.

They jam their things into their cute, tiny rental cottage, sleeping on an air mattress.  Alice and Joe seem to have mixed feelings on their upcoming blessed arrival and make a stab at joining their new community (and reality) by attending a pre-natal class, where they meet other pregnant mums in the vicinity. read more

Jess Armstrong: The Curse of Penryth Hall

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Debut

This was an interesting and unexpected read. Set just post WWI, it’s the story of Ruby Vaughn, an orphaned heiress who makes a living selling books. She works for an elderly Exeter bookseller, and as the novel opens, he’s sending her to Cornwall to deliver a trunk full which he warns her not to open. Mystified, she complies. The village where he’s sending her is the home of her former best friend and perhaps former lover, Tamsyn. Tamsyn is married to Sir Edward Chenowyth of Penryth Hall, a marriage that broke their friendship. read more

Paige Shelton: Lost Hours

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Alaska Wild #5

I’ve been following this series since book one, and I’m glad I have, because I might have been a bit confused if I hadn’t read all the adventures of Beth Rivers.  A few years back, Beth had been abducted and kept in a van.  She escaped – with grievous injuries – with her kidnapper still on the loose.  She headed to tiny Benedict, Alaska, to hide out more or less on a whim, leaving her Missouri home behind.  The “hotel” she found was actually a halfway house, but it still suits her, as do the residents of Benedict, who don’t make a fuss but form a solid community around her. read more

Celeste Connally: Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord

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Lady Petra Inquires #1

Joining the now crowded regency mystery field, Celeste Connally manages to make her entry a stand out in her series debut.  Set in 1815, Lady Petra Forsyth has declared to all of society that she plans to remain unmarried.  Unusually for the time, she has her own monies left to her by her mother, and she’s mourning not only a dead fiancé but the loss of her dearest childhood friend, Duncan Shawcross.  The two were raised together and parted on a terrible note after the death of Petra’s beloved, who was also Duncan’s best friend. read more

Paula Munier: Home at Night

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Mercy & Elvis #5

This is a great Halloween read.  You’d think mystery fiction would be more littered with great Halloween reads, but there really aren’t that many.  Munier also has a theme, as she always does, and the theme of this novel is “home,” the meaning of it and the finding of it. Her series centers on Mercy Carr, a veteran of the Afghan war, as is her dog, Elvis. The story opens with a young Mercy Carr encountering a ghost like figure at an old, abandoned house in town.  The woman who had owned it was a well known poet, and one of her more famous poems is a Halloween verse for children. read more