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Review

I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home

by Brian Kenney

Free after several decades in prison and now a resident of a high-end retirement home, Carol fears that her presence there will evoke a range of emotions in her peers, including fear, curiosity, and hostility. And she’s right. Carol’s history as a serial killer does come to light, exposing her past to the other seniors. But when a fellow resident dies—he turns out to have been a former police commissioner—Carol realizes that many of the occupants also have a past in law enforcement, some more sordid than others. Suddenly, the burden to prove her innocence falls on her shoulders, along with some help from a few of her new-found law-enforcement friends. In this winning mixture of humor and seriousness, baking and bingo, Carol does her very best to end up on the right side of justice, even if she has to commit murder to stay there. A great choice for book-group discussions.

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Review

Lost in the Garden of Eve

by Henrietta Thornton

Keke McCoy is an Indian Springs, GA, reporter who’s investigating the deaths of teenage dancers at a local strip club as she recovers from injuries received in her previous investigation. Not one to take things easy, she’s soon back in the thick of the town’s underworld as she’s a former stripper herself and can perfectly blend in as undercover in the club where she used to work. Confusing the job is that the detective also working the case is her former—well, sometimes current—boyfriend, Drew, who’s now engaged to someone else, a woman who’s none too happy with Keke. Also not enamored of her won’t-back-down ethic are the town’s good ol’ boys who take the bodies of Keke and the other “colored gals” as their birthright. Paired with awful abuse—including that of a young woman whose mother is her pimp—and tawdry behavior by entitled locals are Bible passages about Eve that highlight her plight and pious behavior by a bigwig family who are ripe for a fall. Divine shines a bright light on social issues in still-segregated small towns and brings memorable characters to a tense, satisfying showdown. More from Keke and Drew, please!

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Review

The Haunting of Emily Grace

by Jeff Ayers

Emily Grace has lost everyone she cares about, but rather than wallow in grief, she decides to work for a secretive millionaire renovating his mansion on a secluded island. The owner of the home, Cameron, is also grieving, since his wife disappeared in what appears to be a sailing accident over a month ago. The folks living on the island believe the house Emily’s working on is cursed, and mysterious events start to happen there when Cameron’s daughter, Chloe, arrives. Strange sounds, Cameron’s wife’s clothes folded in a closet, and other oddities that put Emily Grace in a bad light with her employer all put her on edge. She starts to question everything, including the motivations behind the friendships of a couple of others who live on the island. Both of them tell her different stories of what’s happening in Cameron’s creepy house, making it difficult for her to focus since she thinks that she’ll be next to disappear. Taylor takes the reader on a journey that never falters, invoking the setting and isolation so well that readers will see the fog, feel the darkness, and hear the faint footsteps throughout. When diving into this, make sure you are in a crowded room with bright lights.

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Review

Undead and Unwed

by Dodie Ownes

Tiffenie is a 300-year old-vampire forced to live within the existence of Tiffany Amanda Blair, whose identity she recently purchased online. You see, this is a very modern vampire story. Undead and Unwed is set in dozens of Hallmark movie tropes—The Fixer Upper, The Perfect Snowy Date, The Bachelor Auction —in a small Vermont town where Tiffany has just inherited a dilapidated country house. But why now, and where is the real Tiffany? Having just lost her job at the plasma bank, Tiffenie picks up and moves with her roommate and newly minted vampire, Heaven, to Valentine to start new lives. Drinking coconut water instead of blood works, to some extent, but a gal can get thirsty, and when handsome Christmas-tree farmer Tyrone appears on the scene, Tiff’s undead body gets hot. Her irksome and devastatingly handsome ex Vlad keeps showing up, offering her eternal princesshood at his side, and decides to stay in Valentine. Everyone in town knows more about Tiffany Amanda Blair than Tiffenie does, and there is the matter of her ex-fiancé’s untimely death and his connection to Tyrone. Tiff’s sessions with the town therapist, during which she tries to convince Dr. Rosetti that she is an actual vampire, are hilarious. When the town inspector threatens to condemn the house that Tiff and Heaven plan to turn into a B&B, he suffers a regrettable injury and starts to dig deeper into Tiffany Amanda Blair. Blackmail, small-town minds, and mean girls meet found family, true love, and Hallmark happiness in this campy, little-bit-steamy, and entertaining tale.

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Review

The Dinner Party

by Dodie Ownes

It doesn’t take long for van de Sandt’s plot and writing to grip readers’ attention in this debut. Two timelines interweave around the circumstances of a single dinner party, set to celebrate the launch of Franca’s fiancé, Andrew’s, latest project, a canon of sorts inspired by time capsules. Franca once aspired to have a career, but it is clear that Andrew prefers a more domestic arrangement for her. Her father died while she was quite young, and her mother is distant, so her life with Andrew feels safe, initially. In his discussion with Franca over what should be served at the dinner party, Andrew throws off a mean vibe, even insisting that Franca get fresh rabbit to prepare, despite knowing she is a vegetarian. Kitchen disasters up the tension, and when one unexpected guest arrives, a friend of hers from Utrecht, the wrenching details of Franca’s relationship with Andrew are slowly revealed as the timeline shifts forward and back. Claustrophobic and thrilling at the same time, the book allows readers to follow Franca’s unwinding as she seeks revenge against the man who says he loves her, when he just wants to own her, body and soul. Readers will feel every bit of Franca’s female rage as she attempts to extricate herself from her untenable situation. At a time when “tradwife” movements are on the rise, which prioritize homemaking and caring for the husband, trusting him to provide and protect, this story is particularly relevant.

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Review

The Queen Who Came in from the Cold

by Brian Kenney

This fifth in the series featuring Queen Elizabeth as an amateur sleuth is even more credible, more captivating than its predecessors—and they were awfully good. It’s 1961, deep into the Cold War, and the queen is headed north aboard the royal train, along with Princess Margaret and their respective entourages, when one of the ladies-in-waiting claims to have seen a murder unfold from her carriage. Is this sighting for real or a case of ladies-who-drink-too much? The queen, along with her assistant private secretary Joan McGraw—she’s the thread who connects many of the books—takes on the possible murder, which then expands, threatening to spoil the queen’s state visit to Italy. (Here the action moves to the royal yacht, a delightful foray.) Bennett does a fabulous job of balancing the monarch’s role as head of state with her involvement in a tale that exposes the dark side of the post-war world. For fans of The Crown, the Marlow Murder Club series, Miss Marple, and Robert Lacey’s Majesty: Elizabeth II and the House of Windsor.

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Review

Desperate Spies

by Charlotte Del Vecchio

At 75 years old, retired FBI agent Ethel Fiona Crestwater returns for another case of digging up dirt and showing up perps. Ethel may have hung up her badge, but that does not make her any less active on the cases that impact the people closest to her, especially the steady stream of FBI agents she rents rooms to in her home. When an old colleague calls in a favor, she accepts without question. But as she dives deeper into the case, Ethel discovers that it originates in the very sting-operation-gone-bad that sent her into retirement, involving the murder of a college student and the Russian mob. Now, 18 years later, Ethel is back on the case with a new team and even more to lose. De Castrique’s (Secret Lives) sharp protagonist must use her skills and resources in the form of some tech-savvy spies, including Jesse, her beloved double-first-cousin-twice-removed, to keep state secrets out of the wrong hands once and for all. Fans of elderly sleuths will enjoy this political thriller, as well as Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series and Deanna Rayborn’s Killers of a Certain Age.

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Review

At Midnight Comes the Cry

by Danise Hoover

Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne are now married and happy despite the innate differences of an ex-pilot Episcopal priest and a now-retired police chief. Son Ethan, eight months old, has a stay-at-home dad as a caregiver and things are relatively smooth until the annual Thanksgiving day parade is beset by white supremacists. Officer Knox, newest on the Miller’s Kill police department, is concerned about the disappearance of Syracuse PD officer Kevin Flynn, who was assigned to a state task force to infiltrate the sort of group that disrupted the parade. When Russ and Knox search the woods, two interesting new characters join their quest: Yixin Zhao, from the state attorney’s office; and Paul Terrance, from the park service. Clare is not left out, having taken on the task of saving an abused young mother whose husband is part of a supremacist group, and her child. With great outdoor scenes, tight plotting, and appealing characters, this will hold readers’ attention and leave them hungry for more.

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Review

The Award

by Brian Kenney

Full-on brilliant, this sojourn into the groves of academe evolves into something totally dark and absolutely compelling. MFA grad David Trent is hanging around Cambridge cafes, reworking his novel for the umpteenth time, and lying to his fiance. It doesn’t help that his upstairs neighbor is Silas Hale, a renowned author who poses as a mentor when in fact he is nothing less than a monster who takes delight in torturing emerging authors (quite literally. In one of the funniest/most horrifying scenes, he refuses to supply David with any heat, despite it being winter in Boston.) But when David wins an award for his debut novel, everything changes, and even Silas is forced into welcoming his neighbor into the literary scene, albeit begrudgingly. From there, the novel, and David’s career, really take off. But enough from me. I refuse to let any of this devilishly satiric plot escape. Why take the fun away from other readers? Comparisons to Donna Tartt, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and Patricia Highsmith are inevitable. On my list of the top ten Best Books of 2025, this novel needs to be shared with a whole range of readers and enjoyed in book groups. They’ll be grateful.

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Review

Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife

by Willy Williams

In a clever standalone homage to Agatha Christie and other Golden Age authors, Edwards (Rachel Savernake series) invites “external observers” (i.e., readers) and “analysts” (reviewers) to participate in an interactive puzzle mystery-within-a-mystery set in a remote, snowbound Yorkshire village. The mysterious Midwinter Trust has brought six down-on-their-luck people with connections to crime fiction (including washed-out author Harry Crystal and laid-off book publicist Poppy de Lisle) to Midwinter village in the rugged Pennines to solve a fictional murder over the Christmas holidays under the close supervision of six Midwinter Trust employees. But the game soon goes awry when one of the guests, podcaster Baz Frederick, is found dead in a frozen creek; it is determined that he fell accidentally. But two more deaths are more than coincidental. Is a killer on the loose? As the players struggle to solve both the actual murders and the fictional one, readers can apply their own detective skills in deciphering the clues the author sprinkles throughout the podcast excerpts, text messages, journal entries, webpage excerpts, and third-person narrative. He even provides a Cluefinder (a nod to Golden Age detective fiction) but warns sternly that readers who cheat will be disqualified. If you love to play Clue and are a fan of atmospheric cozies, this is a fun, diverting read.

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