Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com My bookshelves surround me with the words of writers I admire, whose influence I feel when I sit at my desk. The place we keep our treasured books varies from reader to reader, but who knew bookshelves were such an aesthetic trend?  According to Madison Malone Kircher in her New York Times article of Jan 16, 2024, social media platforms have been having a field day with people who own a huge number of books and how they “stage” them. The term “bookshelf wealth” is bandied about, too.  Here’s a direct quote: “If you’ve ever seen a Nancy Meyers movie, the ..read more

Canadian Nita Prose’s first Molly Gray book, THE MAID, won all sorts of well-deserved awards, including an Anthony and Barry for best first mystery, as well as the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction. Now she returns with Molly, elevated to Head Maid at the prestigious Regency Grand Hotel where she tries for perfection and trains and mentors new maids. The hotel’s tearoom has just undergone a spectacular renovation, and its inaugural event features the famous mystery author, JD Grimthorpe, who manages to spread mayhem of his own when he drops dead during his speech. This is partic ..read more

I’ve been gathering research for a stand alone mystery set in 1926, for writing next year, while at the same time working on getting the third Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery, Death in the Orchard, ready to print in the spring. Such is the life of a writer, juggling multiple balls and plot lines, and now, eras. It’s my first foray into a non-contemporary novel, with the challenges of getting those period details, customs, social mores right, giving me even more increased respect for the historical writers I enjoy reading. It feels like wading into a different world, where things like cell ..read more

The Psychologist’s Shadow by Laury A Egan Please welcome Laury A. Egan, who will describe her journey with her new thriller, The Psychologist’s Shadow: The Psychologist’s Shadow by Laury A. Egan From the Beginning  The Psychologist’s Shadow is a portrait of Dr. Ellen Haskell, a compassionate, introspective therapist who finds herself in a dangerous struggle with an unknown stalker. The novel is a simmering suspense, one in which tension accumulates as the reader gains insights during sessions with clients—one of whom may be the psychologist’s shadow—and through the stalker’s ..read more

Doug Johnstone’s Skelf series is a favorite of Auntie M’s and readers worldwide. The three generations of women in the Skelf family, who run a funeral home and PI agency out of their home, captured our attention with good reason. He’s back with the fifth offering, THE OPPOSITE OF LONELY, and it’s another winner. Dorothy is the matriarch, who plays drums in a band, keeps the funeral home ticking over with an assorted crew she’s assembled from people who’ve needed her, and in this episode, as she plans to grow the kind of funeral the Skelfs offer, she adds to her crew. She’s also tasked with in ..read more

No, not Cagney and Lacey, although they remain a very popular team from television.  Norwegian crime writer Anne Holt (ret. Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen series), also a lawyer and former Minister of Justice, credits the duo with stirring her to write crime fiction, and gives a nod to Lynda LaPlante’s Jane Tennison for her gritty character, too. She says these women were all ” . . . tough, driven, and damn good” at their jobs. Yet female detectives represent only approximately 26% of characters in crime fiction, according to a recent survey. That’s actually lower than I would have thought ..read more

Crombie’s 19th Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James was worth waiting for, with The Killing of Innocents the new case that starts in a Bloomsbury pub. Sitting with his DS, Doug Cullen, Duncan notices a young woman wearing scrubs, obviously waiting for someone who never arrives. She leaves, and he is shocked to be called shortly after to a murder scene. The victim is the young trainee doctor he’s just seen, stabbed to death in Russell Square. With Gemma working on a task force on rising knife crimes, she and her DS, Melody Talbot, aid their investigation, Soon all the familiar characters are in force, a ..read more

Kate Rhodes has been a favorite author of Auntie M’s, starting with her compelling Alice Quentin series. Now that’s she’s branched out to her Locked-Island Mysteries, set in the Scilly Isles, Auntie M caught up with the series that features local detective DI Ben Kitto, with the 5th and 6th in this compelling series. Devil’s Table centers on the island of St. Martin’s, where young Jade and her twin brother, Ethan, are attacked after leaving their shared bedroom at night. Ethan escapes but Jade is nowhere to be seen, and an island-wide search starts with residents and police battling the inces ..read more

Mariah Fredericks’ THE LINDBERGH NANNY takes readers inside the homes of Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh, exploring their marriage, their travels, and the horrific kidnapping in 1932 of their first-born child, Charlie, all from the point of view of the young nanny they hire, Betty Gow. A Scottish immigrant learning East Coast etiquette after a disastrous affair, Betty is often put off by the eccentricities of Colonel Lindbergh. She admires Anne Lindbergh for her attempts to live up to her husband’s expectations, despite her shy and nervous manner. Coming from a monied family, the young coup ..read more

Khan’s first in a dynamic new series, BLACKWATER FALLS, is set in Colorado and introduces readers to a fresh new protagonist, Detective Inaya Rahman, and her lieutenant, Waqas Seif. Young girls from immigrant communities in the area have disappeared over the past months, but the sheriff seems disinterested in pursuing any real exploration of the situation. Then the body of a good student and Syrian refugee is found outside a mosque, hanging in a horrific crucifixion-like manner. A right-wing evangelical biker group called The Disciples displays open hostility to any newcomer with their threat ..read more