Minotaur Books

Cathy Pegau: A Murderous Buisness

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Series debut

This is an “old school” read, with everything good that comes to mind when you hear that phrase, which is to say it’s well structured, well written, with vivid  characters and a plot that moves efficiently to the conclusion. While this is a series debut, it’s far from Ms. Pegau’s maiden novel, as she’s written an assortment of others in various genres, including other mysteries.  This one is set in 1912 New York, anchored by references to the recent sinking of the Titanic. read more

Ragnar Jonasson: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer

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This is the kind of terrific book that gets you to the middle and you aren’t sure what’s coming next. It’s the follow up to the excellent Death at the Sanatorium, though it’s billed as a standalone.  In fact, it picks up right where Death at the Sanitorium left off, resolving the question of what happened to the main character, Helgi. In the last book, Helgi was working on a master’s thesis based on an old crime; in this novel, he’s no longer a student, but a member of the Icelandic police force. read more

Fall Book Clubs: The Stars Turned Inside out and Sarah Stewart Taylor

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Join us for our fall meetings on zoom!  Message me for a zoom link if you’d like to attend, all are welcome.  In October we’ll meet on Sunday, October 19 at 2 p.m. to discuss The Stars Turned Inside Out by Nova Jacobs.  Publisher’s description: Deep beneath the ground outside of Geneva, where CERN’s Large Hadron Collider smashes subatomic particles at breathtaking speeds, a startling discovery is made when the tunnel is down for maintenance: the body of Howard Anderby, a brilliant and recently arrived young physicist, who appears to have been irradiated by the collider. But security shows no evidence of him entering the tunnel, and for all of the lab’s funding, its video surveillance is sorely lacking. read more

Mariah Fredericks: The Girl in the Green Dress

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I love the way Mariah Fredericks writes. Her prose sings.  And if you are going to write about one of the greatest of all prose stylists, F. Scott Fitzgerald, you’ve got to have game yourself. While Scott and the lovely Zelda are not the main characters in this novel, they certainly inform it in every possible way.  The main character is a much lesser-known writer of the time, Morris Markey.  Markey, a friend of James Thurber’s and James M. Cain’s, wrote for The New Yorker and wrote extensively (for the purposes of this novel) about the still unsolved murder of James Elwell in 1920, a “swell” found shot through the head in his library.  His house happens to be across the street from Markey’s and he is one of the last people to have seen him alive, very early the morning of his death. read more

Sarah Stewart Taylor: Hunter’s Heart Ridge

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Franklin Warren and Alice Bellows #2

Hunter’s Heart Ridge is the second in Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Detective Frank Warren and Alice Bellows series, and it sees both of them returning with new challenges. Alice and Warren (no one seems to call him Frank) are neighbors, and have become good friends in the three months that have passed since the first book. Frank is still very much settling into his professional role, but he’s already become a fixture in this small community. He and his partner in crime solving, Pinky, are working well together, and he’s become familiar with everyone in town. Alice, on the other hand, is happy in her retirement and hosting a dinner party that includes Warren as a prominent guest. read more

Sandra Jackson-Opoku: Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes

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Debut

Savvy Summers and the Sweet Potato Crimes is the winner of Minotaur’s Malice Domestic© Award, a prize previously won by writers like Donna Andrews and Julia Spencer-Fleming. Savvy Summers owns the soul food restaurant Sapphire Summers Soulfood Café and Catering Company, or Essie’s, for the abbreviation SSS-CCC. Her restaurant is a staple of the community and one of the few remaining businesses on a sought-after bit of land. Her one employee and friend, Penny Porter Lopes, keeps things running smoothly. Savvy is a very down-to-earth woman who is determined to make a success of her business and to keep ahold of it, something that is becoming increasingly difficult with numerous phone calls and emails from a very annoying investor harassing her almost daily. read more

Lindsey Davis: There Will be Bodies

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Flavia Alba #13

Lindsey Davis’s latest addition to her Flavia Albia series is There Will Be Bodies. Flavia Albia is married to a Roman by the name of Tiberius, and is a dedicated Roman wife who learned her husband’s business. She helps him to keep things organized and running smoothly and profitably. However, she has her own profession on the side as well. Flavia has a knack for solving mysteries and getting answers for people, and thus she has made a bit of a name for herself. If anyone wants to know what happened to a missing cousin, or are worried the local authorities might not give them a fair investigation, they turn to her. read more

Ashley Weaver: One Final Turn

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Electra McDonnell #5

This is the last instalment in Ashley Weaver’s series following the exploits of safecracker turned intelligence agent Electra McDonnell in 1940s London. She came to live there with her “locksmith” (and safecracker) uncle after both her parents died. Her cousins Colm and Toby are like brothers to her, but since the start of the war Toby has been missing, feared dead.

Electra has a real pall of gloom hanging over her in general – not only because of the war, but also because her last assignment with one Major Ramsey ended with him injured and her dismissed.  Realizing too late that she was actually in love with him, she’s trying mightily to forget the whole fiasco. When an assignment comes through via Archie Blandings, an underling of Ramsey’s, she’s off to Lisbon, hoping to locate her long lost cousin.  Much to Electra’s discomfort, it turns out that Ramsey is a part of the operation as well. read more

Elizabeth Penney: Bodies and Battlements

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New series

Bodies and Battlements is the first Ravensea Castle mystery by Elizabeth Penney. Readers are taken to the Yorkshire Coast in Robinhood’s Bay, where Ravensea castle stands near the shore. The Asquith family has lived in the castle for generations, and with bills piling up Ravensea Castle is undergoing a dramatic transformation to a B&B location. Nora, full title Eleanor Sibilla Asquith, is spear heading the effort with the blessing of her father and contention from her siblings. She runs her own little apothecary, but the funds just aren’t enough for the upkeep of the castle. Despite the lack of support from her siblings and the push back and protests from some new locals, Nora manages to get Ravensea all up to code, ready to run as an official B&B, and get her first guests registered. She just hopes that their resident ghost, Sir Percival, stays inactive long enough to not scare anyone off. read more

Nev March: The Silversmith’s Puzzle

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Captain Jim & Lady Diana #4

I loved, loved, loved the first book in this series, Murder in Old Bombay.  In that first book, the main characters, Captain Jim Agnihotri and Lady Diana Framji, meet and marry despite some pretty steep obstacles.  Jim is half white, half Indian, and he is not a Parsi, as Lady Diana is.  The Parsis, the aristocrats of Indian culture in the 1890’s, have very strict rules about marrying outside the faith. This creates problems for the couple.

Jim, a dashing and decorated Captain in the British army, has worked as a journalist and a private investigator for the Framji family.  He met the Framjis when he searched for the killer of Diana’s sister-in-law.  In this novel, it’s her widower, Diana’s brother Adi, who is in trouble.  The two novels in between this one and the first found Diana and Jim in Boston and Chicago and on a steamship crossing the ocean.  Those novels, which were fine traditional mysteries, nevertheless lacked the zip and life of the first novel.  As the Agnihotris return to India, however, life returns to this wonderful series. read more