Sourcebooks

Tamara Berry: The Claus Conspiracy

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Seven Ponds #2

Berry’s formula for this novel is not a totally new one, but it is an enjoyable one, to which she adds her own twist.  20 something Amber Winslow has left her private eye boyfriend and moved to Arizona, where she’s near her grandmother and her grandmother’s bossy and intrusive retirement community friends.  Between them, they’ve started a very of the moment true crime podcast, Death Comes Calling.  In this second instalment in the series, a mystery lands at their literal doorstep. 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

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