When an author creates a fantastic debut novel, it’s unfair to compare the sophomore effort to the first. Not making comparisons is hard when they are both mysteries, both historical, both unusual, and the first novel is The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. After reading Hardcastle, I […]
The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle is a murder mystery by Stuart Turton. Or is it? Is it actually a science fiction story set in the past where a murder has occurred? Or is it a race against time to reveal all the deceit and lies underpinning […]
Specter Inspector (Series Title: Dead and Back Again) is a second series following the Haunted Romance trilogy by C. Rae D’Arc. The reader may start with Specter Inspector without reading the prior series, though the first trilogy is highly recommended. This novel moves forward in time about fifteen years, starts […]
The French Powder Mystery is a golden age novel “authored by” Ellery Queen who is also the protagonist. The true authors were cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee who collaborated on many of this celebrated sleuth’s mysteries. The first eight published are known as the international series because they have […]
The First Time I Knocked, fourth in the Garnett McGee series, is a suspense/mystery about a psychologist with extra-sensory abilities who investigates crimes with her chief of police boyfriend. In this offering, Garnett and her boyfriend Ryan fly down from Vermont to New Orleans to help out her boyfriend’s ex-wife […]
On a recommendation from a family member, I read the mystery novel The Door by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Many people have forgotten this woman, but in her time, her novels rivaled Christie’s in popularity. At one point, she was called the American Agatha Christie. The Door was published in 1930 […]
In the YA thriller Little Creeping Things by Chelsea Ichaso, a teenage girl named Cassidy (Cass) overhears a potential murder and hunts for the victim. Cass, also known as Fire Girl, is haunted by her past where she may have accidentally killed her best friend. Unfortunately for Cass, the high […]
Mystery and thriller often go hand-in-hand, but some stories are excellent mysteries but not solid thrillers and vice-versa. And then there’s Ruth Ware’s One By One: a mystery, a thriller, and a great book. Snoop, a company built on a music app, decides to hold its business retreat in the […]
Mysterious, isolated island? Check. List of victims…er, guests? Check. Atmospheric setting? Check. Victim? Uh…victim? Hello? The Guest List is a mystery without a victim through most of its story, and therein lies the genius. Lucy Foley has concocted a story where the reader has to make it through most of […]
Jo Macgregor’s The First Time I Fell is the second of the Garnet McGee series of a psychology student who has a knack for landing in the middle of a mystery. In the first novel, Garnet gained certain abilities after dying and coming back to life, leaving her with not […]