If you would like to read a mystery series that goes beyond entertainment, one that takes you into one hundred plus years of English history, brings you to the battlefields of The Great War and the Second World World, and into the lives of both the British aristocracy and their servants, the Maisie Dobbs series is the one you’re looking for. When readers first met Maisie, she was a thirteen-year-old housemaid in the home of Lord Julian Compton and his family.  She was discovered by Lady Rowan surreptitiously reading in the family’s library, her intelligence was noted, and her life changed ..read more

Emlyn’s father abandoned her and her mother when Emlyn was a child, and the trauma has colored her entire life.  Shy and fearful of the world, her life changes when she goes to college and meets Janessa.  But are all the changes for the best? Janessa is everything Emlyn isn’t–beautiful, popular, at ease in all situations, and wealthy.  And for a reason Emlyn can’t figure out, Janessa is eager to be her friend.  Janessa describes their closeness like that of Anne Shirley and Diana Barry in the Anne of Green Gables novels, that they are “bosom friends” and always will be. And ..read more

When the first line of a mystery is “I was horny,” the reader may be certain that the book isn’t a cozy.  This is how Black private investigator Evander Myrick introduces herself in Delia Pitts’ debut novel; she’s one strong lady. Born and bred in Queenstown, New Jersey, Evander has had a tough life.  Her hometown has always been a hotbed of Ku Klux Klan activities, and although there’s now a Black police chief, it’s white mayor Jo Hannah whose hand is at the controls.  In case the sentiment of the town isn’t clear, two of Queentown’s businesses make it obvious:  Kate’s Kou ..read more

I’ve been a fan of Abir Mukherjee since he wrote the first in his outstanding series of five mysteries that take place in India during the British Raj.  The books originally featured British Police Detective Sam Wyndham who is later joined by his Indian colleague Surendranath “Surrender-not” Bannerjee. Now the author has written a very different novel, a present-day thriller that travels from England to Oregon to Los Angeles to Florida and is told in several voices.  The protagonists are Bangladeshi, British, and American, Muslim, Christian, and Hindu.  It makes for a fascinatin ..read more

When Game Warden Services Inspector Mike Bowditch receives a call from a rookie member of the Maine Warden Service, telling him there may be a man missing in the northern woods, he starts out on what will become the most dangerous search of his career. Hammond Pratt has checked in at a lodge compound called Seboomook Farm and asked its owner about a father and daughter who were living somewhere nearby, offering a reward to anyone who could point him toward them.  A member of the lodge’s staff told him about a pair living in a very remote locality; they are there because the father, Mark R ..read more

I have come, most regretfully, to the realization that I cannot read every mystery novel ever published. This insight came to me a few days ago as I looked at the shelves in my study.  I counted seventeen books that were sent by publicists in hopes that I would review them.  I looked at another shelf that held three library books that I chose after I had read reviews of them by other bloggers. Then I looked up my library account and saw that I had eighteen books “frozen,” waiting for me to be picked up on my next trip to the Needham Library.  The Minuteman Library System allows ..read more

It’s 1875, 25 years after the founding of the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, but there is still a great deal of opposition to the idea of women physicians.  Too radical, not a fit job for a woman, a woman should be home taking care of her husband and children–these are the remarks that could be heard whenever the College is discussed. Dr. Lydia Weston, professor and anatomist, has learned to ignore such comments and go about healing the women who arrive at the hospital.  As much as she wants to carry on with her work in a professional manner to everyone she encounters, she ..read more

Influencers are everywhere, promoting everything.  Gemma Jorgenson is the face and body behind @GymmaGemma, with almost half a million followers hanging on her every word about how she shed one hundred pounds and became a fitness model, personal trainer, and bodybuilder.  Now she’s at the Olympia, the world’s most prestigious bodybuilding competition.  She placed second in the Bikini contest two years in a row, got blown out of the water last year, and decided against competing this year.  However, she hasn’t yet told Rick, her coach, or Chuck, the owner of REIGN, the exerc ..read more

Johnny Reddy has been gone for four years, and not many people have missed him.  A good-looking charmer from childhood, he was always looking for something that his hometown of Ardnakelty couldn’t provide, always working on some plan or con to make himself rich.  Now he’s come back, bringing trouble with him. Trey is the oldest Reddy daughter living at home.  At fifteen, she’s the one who remembers what it was like before her father went away and how much more peaceful the last four years have been.  For the past two years she’s been working after school with Cal Hooper, a ..read more

A familiar scene–high school seniors Ryan and Ali are sitting in a car in a secluded spot.  Then, out of nowhere, one of the doors opens, Ryan is knocked out with a blow to his head.  When he regains consciousness, Ali and the car are gone. Five years later, Ryan has completed his first year of law school at Georgetown.  He’s on an alumni-funded trip to Italy, a perk for the editorial board of the school’s law review, and when he returns to his room after a few hours at a local bar, there’s an envelope under his door.  “I need to see you.  Tomorrow, 10 a.m. at the pala ..read more