Poisoned Pen Press

Tamara Berry: The Claus Conspiracy

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Seven Ponds #2

Berry’s formula for this novel is not a totally new one, but it is an enjoyable one, to which she adds her own twist.  20 something Amber Winslow has left her private eye boyfriend and moved to Arizona, where she’s near her grandmother and her grandmother’s bossy and intrusive retirement community friends.  Between them, they’ve started a very of the moment true crime podcast, Death Comes Calling.  In this second instalment in the series, a mystery lands at their literal doorstep. read more

Robert Thorogood: The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts

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Marlow Murder Club #5

This charming series inhabits the same universe as Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books.  The books are intelligent, well observed, occasionally funny – as well as being very clever mysteries.  The “Marlow Murder Club” consists of the intellectual, crossword puzzle loving Judith; dogwalker Suzie; and Becks, the wife of the vicar of Marlow (the vicar plays a very small supporting role).  The unofficial member of the club is Tanika, an actual police officer, who has come to rely on them. read more

Kiri Callaghan: The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic and Murder

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Hemlock Saga #1

The Hearth Witch’s Guide to Magic and Murder is Kiri Callaghan’s first book in the Hemlock Saga series. As promised in the title, there is plenty of magic and murder. There is a disclaimer at the start of the book that also lets readers know that, while this is a cozy mystery, it also has some rather graphic depictions of the bodies that might be a bit more intense than a typical cozy. However, that does not detract from the story at all and seems to motivate the characters even more to find the killer. The world the author depicts has a clear separation of the magical and non-magical world, which makes investigating one in the other rather difficult as the average normal human won’t be able to see or tell if there was some magical hijinks happening around them. The heroines are Avery Hemlock and Saga Trygg. Avery is a changeling who was condemned to five hundred years of nightmares in punishment by the Fey. Saga is a woman trying to find herself again, who is a practitioner of witchcraft like her grandmother and aunt, although Saga sees it as a spirituality and not an actual ability to cast spells. read more

Katarina Bivald: Just Another Dead Author

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Just Another Dead Author is Katarina Bivald’s follow up to her charming Edgar winner, The Murders in Great Diddling. Set in Lyon in the French countryside, Chateau des Livres is the setting for a literary retreat featuring main character and author Berit Gardner. Berit is a very pragmatic, inquisitive, and creative individual. Her dear friend Emma Scott, literary enthusiast and former bookstore owner, has managed to convince her to agree to be a speaker at the literary retreat. While speaking to large crowds and mentoring other authors isn’t Berit’s idea of a party, she is determined to help her friend. read more

August Book Club: The Murders in Great Diddling

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Join us for our August book club discussion of Katarina Bivald’s award winning The Murders in Great Diddling.  We’ll meet in person on Sunday, August 10 at 2 p.m. and on zoom on Sunday, August 17 also at 2 p.m. All are welcome!  Message me on facebook or email me at store (at) auntagathas.com for an address or zoom link.

Publisher’s description of the book: The small, rundown village of Great Diddling is full of stories—author Berit Gardner can feel it. The way the villagers avoid outsiders, the furtive stares and whispers in the presence of newcomers… Berit can sense the edge of a story waiting to be unraveled, and she’s just the person to do it. In fact, with a book deadline looming over her and no manuscript (not even the idea for a manuscript, truth be told), Berit doesn’t just want this story. She needs it. read more

Margot Bennett: Someone from the Past

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I’m a little bit jealous of Someone From the Past – it came out in 1958, the same year I did, yet it remains fresh, vital and contemporary, unlike some of us of a similar age. What I like most about  it is the vivid voice of the narrator, Nancy, who is snarky, calculating, confused and altogether real. One evening her estranged former best friend Sarah approaches her unexpectedly and tells her that ever since she announced her engagement to her ultimate prize, a corporate director, she’s received letters threatening to kill her, apparently from an ex-lover. When she’s killed the next day, that list of exes becomes a list of suspects. read more

Catherine Bruns: In the Blink of a Pie

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Maple Syrup Mysteries #3

In the Blink of a Pie is Catherine Bruns’ third Maple Syrup Mystery. Sugar Ridge, Vermont, is 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 together. Her mother runs the café, and her very serious boyfriend Noah Rivers also works at the farm and makes many a sugary treat. 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. read more

Dana Mentink: Spoon to be Dead

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Shake Shop #3

Dana Mentink’s Shake Shop series is joined by her latest addition: Spoon to be Dead. Trinidad Jones, owner of the Shimmy and Shake ice-cream shop, is facing every ice-cream shop’s biggest obstacle: winter. It’s hard to tempt people with an icy treat in the middle of a blizzard, no matter how tasty. While her business partner Juliette has a much more optimistic attitude, Trinidad fears the failure of her shop might be just around the corner. Given that she came to Sprocket, Oregon to set up a new and better life for herself and her Papa, she is finding the risk of closing almost unbearable. Luckily, she comes up with some less frosty options to try and float her business through the cold, including catering deserts at an event on a local steamboat. While worried, Trinidad is more than ready to face the challenges. With her Papa, her newfound boyfriend Quinn, found sisters (and fellow ex-wives of one Gabe Bigley) Juliet and Bonnie, she has enough confidence to come up with plenty of shop-saving ideas – then the unthinkable happens. The notorious ex-husband Gabe Bigley walks right into their shop and back into all their lives. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he confesses to having possibly killed someone before he passes out and letting the ladies take over. read more

Sulari Gentill: The Woman in the Library

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This odd, endearing and weirdly tricky book is a meta meditation on the traditional detective story.  Playing off of Agatha Christie’s The Body in the Library, author Sulari Gentill yanks this classic into the present.  In Christie’s Body the corpse of an apparently unknown young woman appears in the library of a private home.  In Gentill’s update, four young people are sitting near each other in the Boston Public library.  The main character, Freddie (or Winifred), a mystery writer, is working on a new book and she’s observed the others sitting near her, giving them nicknames as she slots them into a possible book.  Freud girl, Heroic Chin and Handsome Man have all invaded her imagination, when their real iterations hear a blood-curdling scream. read more

Denise Swanson: Body Over Troubled Waters

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Denise Swanson remains one of my favorite cozy writers.  Now twenty-three books into her Scumble River series (now billed as “Return to Scumble River”), she’s still cooking with gas.  The books are packed with humor as well as real world details of main character Skye Dennison’s work as a school psychologist, a job Swanson herself held for many years.

Cozy writers have to strike a tricky balance between addressing an issue but not being too harsh with it.  In a bravura first sequence, Skye is attending a meeting with Superintendent of schools Shamus Wraige, who has unceremoniously fired the school security officer because Scumble River is a small town and “It’s not as if anyone here is going to pull a Columbine or a Sandy Hook.” read more