Robin Agnew

Elizabeth Hobbs: Misery Hates Company

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Series debut

I really, really appreciate a book that’s able to keep me guessing.  This novel, while adhering to many of the expectations applying to cozy historicals, also completely upends them in other ways, to the point that even when I was about three quarters of the way through I was still not quite sure where the story was headed.  (I was more than eager to discover where that might be, however.)  As the book opens in 1890’s Boston, Marigold Manners has just lost both parents to the flu pandemic.  And worse, she’s discovered that they died broke.  While Marigold had formerly been a firm part of upper crust Boston, it appears now as though she will have to leave ritzy Wellesley College, abandon her dreams of archaeology, and throw herself at the mercy of her relatives. She has a last, final night out with her friend Isabelle and her devoted society hunk, Cab. So far, so standard. read more

Christina Lynch: Pony Confidential

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I loved this book and sobbed my way through it. I loved it so much that I may not even be able to speak rationally to people who don’t feel the same way, even though, as you can judge by the title, it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. As the book opens, our heroine, Penny, is being arrested for reasons not all that clear until her overworked public defender, who has yet to pass the bar exam, arrives to present her with her options.  As is common practice, the lawyer advises Penny to settle, but she refuses as she knows she is innocent on what emerges as a murder charge. read more

G.M. Malliet: Death and the Old Master

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St. Just #6

I’m a huge fan of G.M. Malliet, who writes in a classic, golden age style, right down to the length of her novels.  Like the masters of the genre who came before her, she keeps her books on the shorter side.  With their sharp prose and quick but indelible characterizations, authors like Christie, Marsh, and Tey got their stories told in a much briefer manner than we are now accustomed to.  I have a dear bookseller friend who insists that you should be able to settle in after dinner, say, and finish up your read that evening.  That is indeed possible with a Malliet book.  She shares the dry humor of her foremothers, as well as their clever way with a puzzle. read more

The Canine reads of Margaret Mizushima and Paula Munier

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The Night Woods, Paula Munier (Mercy Carr #6) and Gathering Mist, Margaret Mizushima (Timber Creek K-9 #9)

In sports there are often rivals who challenge each other to greater excellence.  This happens in writing too, and the head-to-head match up of Paula Munier and Margaret Mizushima, who both write working dog mysteries, is a fantastic example.  Both series continue to maintain their excellence, and while I can’t say for sure if these two women know each other, are friendly rivals or even read each other’s work, I do know the similarity in topic calls for a comparison.  Munier’s first book, A Borrowing of the Bones, was published in 2018, while Mizushima’s first novel, Killing Trail, came out in 2015.  Each writer has worked steadily, producing a book every year. read more

Julia Kelly: Betrayal at Blackthorn Park

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Evelyne Redfern #2

In Julia Kelly’s first book in this series, heroine Evelyne Redfern got a job as a clerk in Churchill’s war rooms only to discover a body on her very first day.  As she’d been asked by a high up family friend to “keep her eyes open,” she ends up investigating. and solves the crime. In book two, she’s already been sent north for training as a member of the ultra secret Special Operations Executive (SOE), where she’ll be working as an investigator.  Her maiden outing is to Blackthorn Park, which has been requisitioned by the government as a center for creating bombs for use in the field. The home office suspects some kind of theft is going on and requests that Evelyne travel there and assess how easily the property can be breached. read more

Jenny Milchman: The Usual Silence

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Series Debut

It’s been awhile since Jenny Milchman had a new book out (The Second Mother, 2020) but her brand of feminist, almost gentle, thrillers are always appealing and difficult to put down once you’ve started reading one.  Her new book is the launch of a series featuring Dr. Arles Shepherd, a therapist who, as the book opens, is in disgrace. She’s been fired from her job as she appears to have huge gaps in her memory, one of which happened during a session with a client.

Arles also has an ailing stepfather suffering from dementia, and when she visits, it’s clear there’s some kind of bad emotional backstory, and that he’s hung on to a family property that belongs to her.  She plans to take over the property and turn it into a therapeutic immersive camp for families.  It’s also clear she’s had a long obsession with a certain photograph, and she’s just found the identity of the person in the photo.  Part of the reason for her therapy camp is the woman in the photo, who happens to have an autistic son.  She’s a perfect fit for the camp. read more

Michelle Chouinard: The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco

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I enjoy picking up a book where I don’t know what to expect, and it’s even better when the book I’ve selected doesn’t match my expectations — but in a good way. From the title, I supposed this book would be all shiny concept, heavy on clever plot, no emotional engagement, but probably funny.  It does have a shiny concept, but the concept (as it should be), is just the kick off.  Heroine Capri (like the car, the pants or the island) Sanzio, granddaughter of a serial killer, makes her living giving – you guessed it – serial killer tours of San Francisco.  She’s been quite successful, and the patrons only infrequently ask questions about her grandfather, who was known as “Overkill Bill.” read more

Tasha Alexander: Death by Misadventure

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Lady Emily #18

I’ll freely admit that I love this series.  Of course some of them are even yummier than others, and this latest one might be one of the most delicious.  The books follow Lady Emily and her dishy husband, Colin, as they investigate crimes all over the globe, and although Colin has a mysterious secret arrangement with her majesty’s government, it’s often Lady Emily’s intuition and intelligence that solves the case.  Another standard element in the books is a dual timeline, with events from the past connecting or relating to events in the present in some form or fashion, with part of the mystery consisting of figuring out how. read more

Matthew Becker: Run

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Debut

This book is by a former customer of ours, who, as a kid, used to shop with his family at our store.  He and his brother gobbled up thrillers like they were candy, and I’m happy to say, Becker has now written an excellent one of his own.  I have rules when I’m reading a thriller, and if they don’t meet them, I always feel a lack.  They are: upping the ante; the seemingly unsolvable problem; the twist; specifity; and pace.

Becker ups the ante right off the bat.  Ben and Veronica, a happy, seemingly ideal couple, are suddenly split apart when Veronica disappears after a mass shooting in a Washington DC park. Immediately, the reader is on Ben’s side as he tries to find his wife, the only clue being a mysterious text she’d sent him out of the blue before her disappearance. There’s the unsolvable problem: where is Veronica, and why has she disappeared? read more

Simon Brett: A Messy Murder

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Decluttering mysteries #4

I’m not sure why I haven’t read this series before, but this book is so good it makes me want to go back and check out the first three installments.  Main character Ellen Curtis is a “professional declutterer,” a job that sounds very silly but really isn’t.  As the story begins she’s working for a husband and wife looking to downsize, with the wife being all for it and the husband, a fading former TV host, not so enthusiastic.  Ellen is a widow, having lost her husband to suicide, and when the husband, “Humph” to his friends, dies, apparently a suicide as well, Ellen’s skills  and familiarity with grief come to the fore. read more