William Morrow

Carol Goodman: Our Marriage is Murder

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Our Marriage is Murder centers, appropriately, on the crumbling marriage of Thea and Fred, a duo in writing and in life. The latest in Carol Goodman’s stand alone novels, it has a cozy feel with some of Goodman’s trademark grisly murders sprinkled in. The married couple are up for an award for their who-done-it series, based on their relationship in the loosest terms, at a mystery convention they’ve attended many times before. Now, partially to honor Thea and Fred, it’s being held in Italy at the new hotel, and former nunnery, Castellarosa. read more

Stacy Hackney: The Primrose Murder Society

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Paperback Original

The Primrose Murder Society is the first adult mystery by Stacey Hackney, who has previously written two middle grade books. Indeed, this mystery also prominently features a kid – main character Lila’s rebellious little girl, Bea. When we meet mother and daughter, they’ve lost just about everything but each other. Lila’s well to do husband, Ryan, has been caught committing fraud and has abandoned them to run from the law. No one in Lila’s upper crust circle believes that she didn’t know about the crimes, and she has been shunned from society. 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

Cara Hunter: Making a Killing

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DI Adam Fawley #7

If you haven’t read the first book in this series, Close to Home, please, read no further.  Instead, go find a copy, and get as hooked on DI Adam Fawley as I am.  Then, get caught up (it will only take a couple of days, I guarantee it) and dive into this one.  Fawley is a detective in Oxford, England, and author Hunter supplies a character list at the beginning of each book, golden age style.  It is helpful, as there are a lot of characters, and while the police characters are important, in Hunter’s universe, story is all.  So pull up a seat. read more

Carol Goodman: Return to Wyldcliffe Heights

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Carol Goodman’s latest standalone novel, Return to Wyldcliffe Heights, takes the reader into a modern day gothic. Our heroine Agnes Corey works at a small failing publishing company, and is naturally all alone in the world. Knowing she will be let go first, as she was the last hired on as an assistant, Agnes makes a desperate bid to keep her job by writing to the publisher’s most famous author. To the surprise of everyone, perhaps most of all Agnes herself, the author writes back.

Years ago, enigmatic and reclusive Veronica St. Clair wrote a generation defining gothic novel of her own. It launched the publisher and ensnared the hearts of countless teenage girls, but Veronica never wrote anything again. Agnes’ plea for a sequel to The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights is one of hundreds, if not thousands. But Veronica, who was blinded in a mysterious fire on her massive estate, needs someone to transcribe it for her. 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

Katherine Hall Page: The Body in the Web

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Faith Fairchild #26

Katherine Hall Page has written the first mystery – that I have read – that has fully fleshed out the pandemic. How it hit, how weird it was, how it affected schools, including colleges, jobs, and all the ways people congregate.

Faith Fairchild is a minister’s wife, a parent of a college student and a high school senior, and the owner of a catering company. Her sister is a financial lawyer on Wall Street, and she receives early information about the forthcoming pandemic. She contacts Faith and tells her all the things she needs to stock up on, as well as telling her that Faith’s son would be sent home from college soon. read more

Summer reading: Book Club picks & dates

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Join us this summer for some reading!  In June, we’ll read S.J. Bennett’s All the Queen’s Men, meeting in person on Sunday, June 25 at 2 p.m. and on zoom on Wednesday, June 28 at 7 p.m.  In July, Allison Montclair will be joining us on zoom on Sunday, July 23 at 2 p.m. to discuss her new book, The Lady from Burma.  While it’s not necessary to have read any of Ms. Montclair’s books before the discussion, I recommend them highly!  It’s a wonderful series set in London just post WWII.  And spoiler, Allison Montclair is a pen name – tune to discover her (?) true identity.  In August, we’ll be reading the much award nominated Shutter by Ramona Emerson, meeting in person on Sunday, August 13 at 2 p.m. and on zoom on Wednesday, August 16 at 7 p.m.  Anyone is welcome – please message us on facebook or twitter or email us at store (at) auntagathas.com for more info or for a zoom link. read more

Lauren Willig: Two Wars and a Wedding

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Lauren Willig’s new novel blooms from one of her recent books, Band of Sisters (2021) which followed a group of Smith College grads as they made their intrepid way to France to lend a hand during WWI in 1917.  Willig became intrigued with their leader and this book’s central character is based on her – another Smith grad who trained in archeology, was denied “dig” time in Greece because of her sex, and turned to humanitarian work and war nursing.

Willig’s fictional creation, Betsy Hayes, has just arrived in Athens in 1896 hoping to excavate.  The classicist in charge tells her to try being a librarian; she finds lodging with a swanky titled Greek woman who knew her father, gets around town on her bicycle, and manages to get on some archaeological tours with the male students.  Along the way she encounters a dashing French Count and falls hard even though (gasp, though not a surprise) he’s inconveniently married.  Ultimately, her frustrations become so great she decides to try war nursing.  Recommended by the Queen of Greece, she heads to the front, in what was the short lived Greco-Turkish war of 1897.  Short lived, but with no shortage of horror. read more

Karin Slaughter: Girl, Forgotten

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Despite the title of Karin Slaughter’s latest work, Girl, Forgotten, it’s pretty clear that Emily Vaughn’s idyllic little hometown has never truly forgotten her. Told half in the present, where the case has been reopened by newly minted US Marshal Andrea Oliver, and half in the past, where Emily lives out the days before her own murder, her voice isn’t silenced for long. That can make the horrific things she endured – rape by someone who knew she was drugged, ostracization by former friends, loss of her future, and unexpected pregnancy – difficult to bear. It is clear throughout that Emily was a sweet, good person who intended to make the most of her situation moving forward. Unfortunately, she never gets the chance to do so. read more