Robin Agnew

Amy Pease: Northwoods

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This debut by Amy Pease takes on a lot.  Her flawed hero, Eli North, is a vet with PTSD and a drinking problem.  He’s lost the job he loved, and his wife has left him – plus he works on sufferance for his mother, the sheriff, at the understaffed sheriff’s department in tiny Shaky Lake, Wisconsin.  His co-workers don’t think much of him but his mother is doing her very best to pull him forward.  He defeats her efforts at almost every turn as addicts tend to do.

As the book opens, Eli ignores a call from work and when he does get to it, it’s a noise complaint.  He finds an empty resort cabin with the music playing full blast.  He turns it off, and, checking out the nearby dock, finds a boat tied up with a dead body inside.  His first panicked thought is that it’s the body of his boy, Andy, but he sees the boy in the boat is too old – he’s a teen.  It also becomes clear that the girl he was with is missing. 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

Jeri Westerson: The Twilight Queen

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King’s Fool #2

I am a hardcore Tudor fan, mostly because of the long ago 70’s TV series The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Elizabeth R.  I inhaled everything Tudor during high school and went on to major in history in college.  So when Jeri Westerson asked me if I’d care to read her book about Will Sommers, Henry VIII’s jester, the answer was easy.  Set a few months before Anne Boleyn’s ultimate demise, Will is called to the Queen’s presence one evening as she’s discovered a corpse under her bed.  She doesn’t know who the man is, but she does know that a dead body in her chamber will be bad and she asks Will to move it. Reluctantly, he agrees, and moves the man to the garden. 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

Catriona McPherson: Hop Scot

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Last Ditch #6

This hilarious breath of fresh air from Catriona McPherson has rocketed on to my all time favorite Christmas mystery list.  This series centers on Scot Lexy Campbell, who has settled in the strange land of California, and lives in a motel surrounded by an array of interesting characters who often help her solve crimes.  Her “real” job is working as a life coach, but honestly, sleuthing takes front and center stage for her.

In this outing McPherson has flipped the script, and sent Lexy and her buddies home (Lexy’s home, anyway) to Scotland for Christmas.  While it was a trip planned for just her and her fiancée, their buddy Roger the doc says he needs to get out of town and buys them all swanky airplane tickets – how can they refuse? read more

Kathleen Marple Kalb: The Stuff of Murder

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Old Stuff #1

It’s no secret I’m a big fan of Kathleen Kalb’s.  The fact that her maiden name was actually Marple might be reason enough to love her, but she’s also an incredibly adept and enjoyable cozy writer.  She kicked off her career with an historical fiction series featuring an opera singer, but she’s written various cozies, one based on her actual profession (radio host), one featuring a secret hit woman, and this latest one featuring historical society head and antiques expert Christian Shaw. 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

Amanda Flower: I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

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Emily Dickinson #2

I hardly ever think the second book in a series is better than the first, but in this case, I do.  Amanda Flower introduced Emily Dickinson as a detective in the first audacious book. She detects with her maid, Willa Noble.  While the first book was mostly about Willa and her family, this one is more a melding of the two women’s lives, centering on a visit by Ralph Waldo Emerson to the home of Emily’s brother, Austin, and his new wife, Susan.

As the story opens Austin and Susan have just returned from their honeymoon, and Emily insists that Willa help them out for the week, preparing the house for Emerson’s arrival.  She blithely insists Willa can do her work at her house when she’s finished for the day at Austin’s.  One feature of this book, a bit more than the first, is Emily’s lack of awareness of the different life of a servant, and the constraints under which they function.  She’s constantly putting Willa into situations where no other maid would find herself and where Willa is supremely uncomfortable. This friction, mostly undiscerned by Emily herself, adds depth to the story. read more

Val McDermid: Past Lying

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Karen Pirie #7

This is the series I think of as Val McDermid’s “gentler” series.  Unlike the gruesomeness of the Tony Hill books, these books are more cerebral.  Cerebral in an un-putdownable way. Karen Pirie heads up Edinburgh’s cold case squad – called in Scotland the HCU or Historical Cases Unit.  At the close of the last book, Karen and her squad mate, Daisy, had agreed to go into lockdown together as COVID was just taking its hold on the world.  At that moment, it seemed like lockdown would be a few short weeks, but as this novel opens COVID is in full swing. read more