Robin Agnew

Danielle Arceneaux: Glory Be

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Glory Broussard #1

Great books are like a song.  They have a melody and a rhythm all their own, and envelop you in their reality.  Danielle Arceneaux’s debut novel, Glory Be, might be Patti LaBelle’s You Are My Friend. Glory, the heroine of the novel, is an older, heavier black woman living in LaFayette, Louisiana.  She’s a divorcee and fills her time with church, the local Red Hat Society, and heading to the coffee shop Sunday afternoons to run her business – she’s a bookie.  Her life is in chaos, and it’s not made any better when her best friend, Amity, is found dead, an apparent suicide.  Like many a mystery heroine before her, Glory is certain Amity’s death is not a suicide, and begins trying to prove it. read more

SJ Bennett: Murder Most Royal

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Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #3

I love this series.  When I tell people about it, that the books have Queen Elizabeth II as the detective, there are many skeptical raised eyebrows.  The wonder of the books: the plots are wonderful; there’s diversity in the characters – the Queen’s foil is her aide, Rozie, a London born Nigerian – and the respect for the Queen, by all accounts a practical and dutiful woman, shines on every page in the nicest possible way.  The books allow you to imagine that it might have gone this way if the Queen really was a secret detective, guiding the police and Scotland Yard to solutions she’s already figured out, with Rozie’s help.  There’s also a shining thread of feminism underneath all the stories, celebrating women’s strength in the many forms that strength takes. read more

Allison Montclair: The Lady from Burma

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Sparks & Bainbridge #5

July has been almost too delicious for words.  First was the long awaited return of Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry series; and then, just as eagerly anticipated (by me) is the new book in Allison Montclair’s Sparks and Bainbridge series. Five books in, fans of the series know that Gwen Bainbridge and Iris Sparks run The Right Sort marriage bureau in postwar London.  Iris did undercover work during the war; Gwen lost her husband, fell apart, and was literally declared a lunatic by her husband’s family, who have custody of her child and have put the portion of the family company she’s inherited from her husband under the control of the lunacy court.  It looks like, in book five, that the form of purdah Gwen finds herself in is about to be lifted. Her lawyer is hopeful and so is Gwen. read more