Amateur detective

A Case of Mice and Murder

A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith A new historical mystery series set in London’s cloistered legal world has loads of potential! Barrister Gabriel Ward lives and works […]

The Mudflats Murder Club

The Mudflats Murder Club (Book 1) by Brian Thiem Former homicide detective and widower Sean Tanner recently moved to a posh retirement community in Spartina Island. Not long after his […]

The Impossible Fortune

The Impossible Fortune (Book 5) by Richard Osman I am slightly embarrassed to admit that I pre-ordered (full price), a hardback copy of the latest Thursday Murder Club Mystery and […]

Gone Before Goodbye

Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben Gone Before Goodbye by the improbable duo Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben is a classic airplane read, and I mean that […]

The Boy in the Suitcase

The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis The title is creepier than the book, despite its Nordic crime label. I was expecting something very SVU, but […]

The Thursday Murder Club

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (Book 1) This novel kept appearing on various “recommended for you” lists, but I initially resisted buying it as it sounded rather insipid, […]

Close to Death

Close to Death, a Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery by Anthony Horowitz BOOK 5 Anthony Horowitz novels are more sophisticated than silly, but are excellent, engrossing summer reads. In the Hawthorne […]

The Examiner

The Examiner by Janice Hallett I loved The Examiner, a fiendishly clever epistolary novel. I read the book in a weekend, and was repeatedly flummoxed by the plot’s twists and […]

One Death at a Time

One Death at a Time by Abbi Waxman Romance writer Abbi Waxman (The Bookish Life of Nina Hill) has written a mystery. Twentysomething Natasha Mason and iconic, retired actress Julia […]

Murder Takes a Vacation

Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman As we swelter in Nashville, a river cruise in France sounds delicious! Unless you are the traveler who discovers the body! Mrs. Blossom, […]

American in Paris Mysteries

American In Paris Mysteries, Colleen Cambridge There is a sub-genre of mystery novels that feature real-life historical figures as crime solvers. Some of these efforts seem a bit of a […]

The Country Club Murders

The Country Club Murder Mysteries by Julie Mulhern In the first of these novels, set in Kansas City 1975, artist, and unhappy wife Ellison Russell stumbles over a body during […]

How to Choose a Murder Mystery

How to Choose a Murder Mystery Those of us who regularly read crime novels know that despite their down-market reputation, writing an engaging page-turner (I bow to you Michael Connelly) […]