Robin Agnew

Author interview: Jennifer K. Breedlove

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Jennifer Breedlove’s first novel, Murder Will Out, is already a favorite read of 2026 for me.  The main character is a church organist who returns to her childhood summer place for a funeral and finds all kinds of intrigue and even ghosts.  The writing, plotting and characters are all lovely.  It deservedly won the Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award. Jennifer graciously agreed to answer some questions.

Q: This is your first published book – but is it your first book? Are there novels stuck in a desk drawer somewhere, and this is the one that made it through? I ask because your voice seems both very assured and natural. read more

Jennifer K. Breedlove: Murder Will Out

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Debut

I flat out loved this book, the very worthy winner of the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel award.  Set in coastal Maine on Little North Island, the story opens with organist and grad student Willow Stone returning to Little North for the funeral of her godmother, Sue.  Due to a family quarrel, they hadn’t seen each other in many years, though Willow always loved Sue and could never understand why her family stopped seeing her.  She finally receives a letter inviting her back to the island for Sue’s wedding, but unfortunately, by the time Willow receives it she finds herself attending her funeral instead. read more

Mollie Ann Cox: The Widow Hamilton

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Eliza Hamilton #2

I had never given much thought to what became of Alexander Hamilton’s widow, but Mollie Ann Cox is here to provide readers with the details of this remarkable woman’s life.  Though she wasn’t actually a sleuth as posited here, she did live a long life with her many children, founded a large orphanage, and dedicated much of her life to preserving her husband’s legacy, organizing his papers and keeping him in the public eye. Along with Dolley Madison and Louisa Adams, she raised the funds for the Washington Monument. read more

Yosha Gunasekera: The Midnight Taxi

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Debut

This is a sparkling debut.  The main character, Siriwathi Perera, is a New York City cab driver in the age of Uber and Lyft.  It’s a tough job but she works the late shift to keep her family afloat. As she’s cruising by night court late one night, she spots two possible fares: a white, male lawyer and a woman who looks more like herself, obviously on her way home. She picks up the woman and the two of them bond as they discover they are both Sri Lankan. The woman, Amaya, is a public defender, and the quick bond the two women form is enough that Amaya presses her business card in Siri’s hand before she gets out of the cab.  Little does Siri know how much she will need it. read more

Rob Osler: The Case of the Murdered Muckraker

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Harriet Morrow # 2

It’s rare that I like the encore more than the first book in a series, but Rob Osler has pulled it off with the second in his series about Harriet Morrow, a fledgling private detective in turn of the century Chicago.  I liked the first book very much, but in this one, Osler delves even deeper and more expansively into Harriet’s character.  She’s an LGBTQ woman at a time when such things hardly had a name and she’s not sure what to do about it, though she enjoys wearing men’s clothes does seem to have a potential girlfriend in mind.  Unbelievably, in her era cross dressing was an offense that could bring a fine or jail time or both, so she mostly confines herself to wearing men’s more comfortable shoes and practical hats.  She vastly prefers trousers for bicycling around town (and who can blame her?) but is forced to make do. read more

Michelle L. Cullen: A Field Guide to Murder

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Debut

This is a perfectly charming novel with enough quirky characters to make it a standout debut.  Roughly following the “Thursday Murder Club” scenario in which retirees in a closed community solve crimes, it features widower Harry Lancaster, who has recently suffered a hip injury. He’s forced to temporarily hire a younger in-home caregiver, Emma, who, having burned out on critical care nursing, sees helping people like Harry as her next step.  The setting is a small community of mostly retirees, and, with many hours to kill, Harry spends many of them looking out his large front window at the comings and goings in the neighborhood. read more

Ross Montgomery: The Murder at World’s End

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Series debut

In 1910 many people thought that poison gases in the tail of the soon to be arriving Halley’s Comet would mean the end of the world, providing a memorable milieu for this clever mystery set in England.  At Tithe Hall in remote World’s End, the Lord of the manor, Viscount Stockingham-Welt, is so convinced of the coming apocalypse that he’s filling his house full of guests (as well as servants) and sealing them in their rooms to prevent entry of poisonous gasses.  Into this “Masque of the Red Death”  steps Stephen Pike, recently released from prison, thinking he’s secured a job as a second footman. read more

Allison Montclair: Fire Must Burn

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Sparks & Bainbridge #8

I just love this series.  It has two wonderful main characters, spectacular plotting, and, in post war London, a fascinating time period and setting, making it simply one of the best contemporary traditional detective series out there. In this outing, our two heroines, Iris Sparks and Gwen Bainbridge, are tasked by English government intelligence to assign a woman through their marriage bureau (The Right Sort) to act as an agent as a means to discover if a certain diplomatic employee is loyal to their government or perhaps another. read more

Vivien Chien: Crime Rangoon

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Noodle Shop #12

The heroine of the fun, bouncy series is Lana Lee, the owner (along with her family) of a restaurant in the Asia Village neighborhood of Cleveland. Lana is browsing in her favorite local bookstore one day when the owner mentions that her employee has quit without warning, leaving her shorthanded for an important upcoming event with a popular writer.  Lana, a big fan, happily offers to help, and the owner assigns her to act as her assistant (mainly monitoring the signing line and opening the books to the right page to be signed). read more

Jennie Godfrey: The List of Suspicious Things

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This isn’t exactly a mystery but it does have plenty of crime.  Jennie Godfrey creates a 12 year old character as memorable (and perhaps more rooted in reality) than Flavia DeLuce.  Miv, the heroine of the story, lives in 1970’s Yorkshire, with her Dad, her Aunty Jean, and her mother, who doesn’t speak and spends most of her time in her room.  Miv is pretty much left to her own devices but is happy enough hanging out with her best friend, Sharon.

Margaret Thatcher has just been elected and the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper is in full swing.  While Miv and Sharon are someone insulated from the stories about the Ripper, the news coverage is beginning to grow, and it is becoming unavoidable not to know about him.  The boys at her school even play a game called “Ripper chase.” read more