Robin Agnew

Valerie Wilson Wesley: The Mysterious Death of Junetta Plum

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Series Debut

Harriet Stone is named for Harriet Tubman – the legendary Tubman had saved her father from slavery (he referred to her as “the General”). Our Harriet is intrepid and courageous, though she herself may not quite be aware of it.  Set in 1926, she’s has lost most of her family as well as her fiancée to the Spanish flu, and she’s in charge of the orphaned Lovey, who is not quite young enough to be her daughter and not quite old enough to be her sister.  Their relationship teeters between the two designations. read more

Elly Griffiths: The Frozen People

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Series Debut

I had decided to skip this book because of the time travel element, but what a huge mistake.  A friend and book club member listed it on her favorites of the year list, and since I trust her taste, I dove in.  I should also, of course, have trusted the great Elly Griffiths, who has one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary crime fiction, not to mention extraordinary storytelling skills.  She has a way of writing that draws the reader in.  Readers, I was all in with this book. read more

Connie Berry: A Grave Deception

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Kate Hamilton #6

To me this series is an absolute bingeable dream.  If your taste runs to a gentle British police mystery featuring an antiques specialist, these are the books for you.  In the first book in the series (A Dream of Death), 40 something heroine Kate Hamilton, an American antiques dealer, is in the UK to repair her relationship with her dead husband’s sister and she gets more than she bargained for.  In the course of the series she meets her new husband (by book six they are happily married newlyweds).  In each novel, there’s an unusual antiquity or archaeological find that holds the threads of the plot together. read more

Peggy Townsend: The Botanist’s Assistant

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I could not have loved this utterly charming mystery more.  It’s original, it’s well written, it’s well plotted, and it has a wonderful main character in botanist Margaret Finch.  Much like her name, Margaret resembles a large bird (and she is in fact referred to as Big Bird behind her back), and she values order, cleanliness and science above all else.  In her work as a research assistant in a lab, these qualities serve her well.  It’s people she has trouble with, not plants.

The only person she has true respect for is her boss, Dr. Deaver.  When she discovers his body in his office, details seem off to her, details the busy police officer (who is busy ignoring Margaret’s suggestions of poison) seems not to notice.  When Dr. Deaver’s death is declared a heart attack, Margaret knows, in the interest of truth and science, that she must discover what really happened.  In this way, Margaret is similar to all amateur sleuths of every description.  She fits into a narrower category – the neuro divergent detective, someone familiar to fans of detective fiction and TV for many years, from Columbo to Monk to E.J. Copperman’s classic Asperger detective to Nita Prose’s “maid.” All share a quirkiness and while there are many differences, their similarity is the observation of all details. read more

S.J. Bennett: The Queen Who Came in from the Cold

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Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #5

I flat out love this series, as it combines two of my favorite things: the Queen and a good mystery.  The unexpected bonus is Ms. Bennett’s skillful writing – she’s excellent at plotting and character development, and her portrayal of the Queen – chef’s kiss!  The Queen, as portrayed here, is dutiful, intelligent, and possessed of a full measure of curiosity and humor.  My reading about the Queen suggests these things were true.  This series installment is set in 1961, during the space race, the cold war, and the popularity of James Bond. read more

Vanessa Lillie: The Bone Thief

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Syd Walker #2

This is the second novel following Syd Walker, an archaeologist for the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs).  It has the same strengths and weaknesses as the first novel, but the strengths are many, and overcome the weaknesses.  The weaknesses:  Syd jumps into danger and neglects her pregnant wife to an annoying degree.  If you’ve ever watched the TV show The Closer and been frustrated by Brenda’s treatment of her husband and parents while still admiring Brenda’s skills as a detective, you’ll experience the same feelings here. You’ll admire Syd while at the same time you might be thinking to yourself – get home to your wife! read more

Beth Lewis: The Rush

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Set in the late 1890s in the Klondike during the gold rush, this is epic story telling in the good old fashioned sense of the word, with the sweep of books like Gone with the Wind, Hawaii or Shogun. Author Lewis familiarizes the reader vividly with the hardships of simply surviving in the hostile climate of Klondike (then as now a part of Canada, not Alaska) while staking out a claim and mining in the hotly competitive hunt for gold.

The story is grounded in three female main characters, Kate, Ellen and Martha, who are loosely based on real women of the time, but come to vivid fictional life as the author applies her writerly magic. Kate is a reporter being paid a great deal of money to go on the trail and write about the men seeking claims, but who is also pursuing a search for her missing sister on her own time.  Ellen lives on her claim with her feckless husband, Charlie, who despite his best efforts is terrible at mining and only manages to steadily lose all their money.  Martha owns a hotel in the town of Dawson (where all the adventures begin), which also serves as a bar and a house of prostitution. read more

Susie Dent: Guilty by Definition

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Series Debut

This book may not be for everyone, but for those who enjoy words, dictionaries, and a virtual visit to Oxford, it’s absolute catnip.  Set in the workplace of the Clarendon English Dictionary (a thinly veiled Oxford English Dictionary), the story follows the solution of the mystery of the missing sister, in this case that of dictionary diva Martha. She and her staff, Alex, Safi, and Simon, along with her boss, Jonathan, who makes infrequent appearances (he’s busy with a book tour), become the core group that solves the puzzle presented to them. read more

Tasha Alexander: The Sisterhood

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Lady Emily #19

Like a great box of chocolates, all of Tasha Alexander’s books are deliciously enjoyable, some more than others, but all of them pure pleasure to consume.  The 19th novel in this series is no exception, and this installment finds Lady Emily in 1907 London, being asked (along with her dashing husband) to look into the mysterious death of the most fabulous debutante of the season, Victoria Goldsborough, who collapsed in her fiancée’s arms while waltzing.  And that’s just the prologue. read more

James R. Benn: A Bitter Wind

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Billy Boyle #20

This series is still enjoyable twenty books in, and while Benn’s fictional WWII may have now lasted longer than the real one, the latest book demonstrates that there are still many unexamined aspects to be explored, among them the dramatization what a complex and far reaching conflict it was, and how many different types of battlefields there were.  The story begins with the then nascent tactic of radio jamming, where radio waves were used to jam German signals, diverting or stopping attacks. read more