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Review

Fog and Fury

by Brian Kenney

Lucky us suspense readers. If you don’t know Rachel Howzell Hall’s books, then this novel is one fantastic introduction. If you do know Hall, then you will be thrilled to learn that this is the first in a series, the Haven Thrillers series featuring Sonny, a former LAPD cop who has just moved to the idyllic community of Haven (along with her mother, who, with memory issues, is quite a handful). It was high time that Sonny got out of Los Angeles, and joining her godfather’s PI business in Haven—one vowel short of heaven—on the bucolic Northern California coast seems the perfect option. First job? Locating Figgy, a missing goldendoodle. In seeking out Figgy, Sonny comes across her ex-boyfriend, the super-rich Cooper Sutton, a powerful force in Haven. But it’s the discovery of 17-year-old Xander Monroe, one of only four African Americans in Haven, dead on a hiking trail, that really wakes up Sonny. Xander was a super-smart 17-year-old physics student and a star football player with a career at UCLA ahead of him. So why is no one paying attention to his murder? Sonny is one smart, tenacious, Black, woman with her own personal issues to fight against. Powerful social commentary and strong suspense make for one excellent novel.

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Review

The Lake Escape

by Jeff Ayers

An annual tradition goes horribly wrong at a lake retreat in Vermont in Day’s latest thriller. Three families have grown up, and lifelong friendships have developed from Julia’s, David’s, and Erika’s families spending time every summer together. So much so that when their children become adults, they continue meeting every year and bring their kids. The area gives off a Jason/Friday the 13th vibe, since a local legend has a young woman disappear every 30 years, and this reunion marks the 30th anniversary of the last disappearance. Tensions explode from the moment they arrive, and everyone appears to have secrets and hidden motives. Day takes characters who initially seem to dislike one another and slowly reveals the bonds and reasons for them to stay as close as siblings forever. When David’s new girlfriend disappears, and his new nanny seems to have ulterior motives for taking the job, the group’s bonds begin to fray. The revelations pile up, and by the end, the reader will be surprised and a bit overwhelmed, which is a good thing. Day perfectly delivers the awkwardness and obligation of family reunions while spotlighting the comfortability and love that makes it all worthwhile.

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Review

He’s to Die For

by Brian Kenney

What the world needs now is more LGBTQIA+ romantic and suspenseful fiction, and fortunately Erin Dunn’s He’s to Die For delivers just that. It’s totally head over heels when NYPD Detective Rav Trivedi (British born, Ivy League educated, Dad’s a Lord, suits are bespoke, get the picture?) can’t take his eyes off rock star Jack Vale, who is as talented a musician as he is super hot. But here’s the one flaw: Jack is the lead suspect in a murder case, and Rav is leading the investigation. Fortunately, Jack is able to clear his name, although both he and Rav remain cautious about hooking up thanks to the media onslaught, their own private natures, and the threat of violence that continues to surround them. Meanwhile the dialog snaps, the stakes are high, and the pacing pops. Give yourself a treat and get a copy of He’s to Die For, which miraculously succeeds as a romance as much as it is a suspense novel. Yes it’s early in the year, but this is already one of my favorite novels of 2025.

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Review

Picking Up the Pieces

by Henrietta Thornton

The South Island Jigsaw Crew has a fun remit: to test-drive the Cedar Bay Puzzle Company’s creations before they’re approved, making sure they work and critiquing visual design. Well, that’s what they usually do, but now the Washington State group has a new, more urgent project: to figure out who really killed a local woman, so that librarian Jim Chambers, father of our determined protagonist, Katie Chambers, can be freed. This series debut sees Katie plunge deeper and deeper into danger as she becomes the target of a mysterious figure who warns her to quit the case or else, and readers will be gratified by the cozy fiction staple of friends and other locals coming to her aid. A bonus is steadfast firefighter ex-boyfriend Connor, who wants to be back in the picture and whose loyalty keeps stubborn Katie safe even as she pushes him away. Tidbits about jigsaw-puzzle creation add to the fast-moving story, and with its exciting ending, it’s a great choice for both cozy fans and readers of other mysteries, and of course puzzle lovers.

J.B. Abbott is a pseudonym for firstCLUE Contributing Editor Jeff Ayers, author of Leave No Trace and Cold Burn; and author Brian Tracey.

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Review

Murder Runs in the Family

by Danise Hoover

As Amber approaches a luxury Arizona retirement community, she is truly at the end of her possibilities. All her worldly goods are in her backpack, she’s coming off a really bad breakup, and i
she’s looking to mooch off a grandmother she has never met. Amber’s mother has essentially blackballed grandma, but as mom is eternally disappointed in Amber, the young woman hopes to make a connection with her grandma. And oh my, does she! Grandma Judith, now known as Jade, is the glamorous leader of a crime-podcasting pack of residents. The physical resemblance is striking, and as Amber has been working for three years with her PI boyfriend, Bones, hoping to qualify for her own license, so is the subject expertise. The night she arrives, one of the podcast members dies under suspicious circumstances in the studio, and all are suspects. In order to earn her keep, Amber searches for information and for the dead man’s missing tortoise. Then an ex-boyfriend shows up, Jade is arrested, and it is up to Amber to figure things out with the help of a temporarily disabled veterinarian and a nurse. People are not who they seem, a major clue is concealed in the most unlikely place, and above all, Amber grows up and comes to terms with herself and her family. There are good characters here, and an insightful look at senior living.

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Review

The Book of Lost Hours

by Jeff Ayers

In 1938, to hide her from the Nazis, a German watchmaker places his 11-year-old daughter in a library balanced between space and time, where the books on the shelves are memories, and promises to return. Lisavet grows up in this world between worlds, and as she grows, she becomes the leader of a movement to stop some of the timekeepers who browse the shelves from burning pages out of the books. In Boston in 1965, a young woman named Amelia is approached by the director of a highly secretive CIA program. Amelia has a watch that can access the library, and the director, Moira, wants her to find a particular book of memories. With no choice, Amelia begins her search, not realizing that success will destroy everything she loves. The story is elegantly poetic, with hints of romance and science fiction mixed with the thriller elements. The time references and how everything operates can be complicated, but it doesn’t matter because the characters and the writing carry the reader on a fantastic journey. What are memories? Can love transcend time? This tremendous debut from Gelfuso reminds us that we write in the book of memories every day of our lives.

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Review

The Orphanage by the Lake

by Henrietta Thornton

It’s not easy being New Yorker Hazel Cho. Her parents, who are from Korea, find her private-investigation business brings shame on her family. Why can’t she be a doctor or lawyer? She lives in a small New York Chinatown apartment with a roommate who has a crush on her, and it’s not mutual. Not to mention that the rent is due and her latest client won’t pay and is turning violent. So when wealthy, commandeering Madeline Hemsley turns up looking to hire Hazel and will pay thousands now and a bonus of $100,000 if she finds Madeline’s missing goddaughter, Mia, by the end of the following week, it’s a dream come true. Well, financially it is, but definitely not professionally, as this case is cold. Madeline has hired multiple private investigators before who couldn’t find the girl, who is missing from a private orphanage—oops, children’s home. The police insist that Mia must have run away, but as Hazel investigates goings-on at the school and its wealthy benefactors, things don’t add up. Romance steals its way in when Hazel meets a dashing donor at a school benefit, and while things seem to be going her way at last, they soon turn scary. Miller brings us on a twisting path to finding the truth, one that immerses readers in both the life of a likeable, struggling young entrepreneur and the frustrations of a missing-person investigation, both to great effect.

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Review

The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant.

by Brian Kenney

A traditional mystery full of quirky characters and humorous situations, this feel-good narrative is told by Gen Z’s Olivia Blunt, who remains ticked off with her famous boss (low wages, no opportunities for growth, hostile environment), Boomer Aubrey Merritt. Olivia dreams of being more than an assistant, but in the meantime she’s soaking up everything she can about the job from Aubrey (she has to retire or die someday, right?) while evaluating possible cases. Which is how she and Aubrey end up on Vermont’s beautiful Lake Champlain, where they’ve been hired to investigate the murder—or is it suicide?—of Victoria Summersworth, the matriarch of a family that owns a sprawling resort on the lake. Readers will enjoy the cast of largely middle-aged family members, employees, and general hangers-on as Olivia and Aubrey grill each and every one of them. The ending may be totally surprising as Aubrey delivers quite the denouement in the tradition of Agatha Christie.

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Review

Murder at Gulls Nest

by Brian Kenney

It’s 1954, and most people in Great Britain seem happy to put the second world war behind them. Nora Breen, previously a nun and a nurse, asks to be released from her vow of 30 years to pursue Frieda, a young novice she is fond of who has left the monastery. Frieda promised Nora she would write—and she did, until suddenly she stopped. The only choice Nora has is to head south, settling at Gulls Nest, a small, shabby guest house in the seaside town of Gore-on-Sea, Kent, where Frieda had been living. One would think that Gulls Nest was all fresh air and new starts, but while the air is fresh, nearly every resident of Gulls Nest has their own secrets, some nastier than others, which Nora tries to pry from her fellow residents. But within days of arriving, Nora stumbles across a series of murders, offering the police her medical knowledge in helping to discover the murderer, an offer that initially is met with disdain (although by the end of the book, the police chief is seeking her advice). It’s a pleasure to watch Nora adapt to the secular world, use her immense empathy, and explore her rich inner life. It would seem that this is the first book in the series “Nora Breen Investigates,” something that will delight traditional and cozy readers alike.

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Review

King of Ashes

by Henrietta Thornton

A gripping family story packed with tension, violence, and secrets that’s sure to enthrall Cosby’s legions of fans. It introduces the Carruthers clan of Jefferson Run, GA. The town, known to local kids and jaded adults as Jefferson Got the Runs, used to be prosperous, but “now all we make are orphans and widows.” In a gray area in that regard is Keith Carruthers, who might or might not be widowed. His wife hasn’t been seen for years; he’s the owner of a crematory; and locals think he killed and disposed of her himself. Now that he’s been the victim of a hit-and-run and is comatose, his grown children, Roman, Dante, and Neveah, may never know what happened to their mother. But that’s the least of their worries after rich, successful Roman returns from Atlanta to see his father and tries to help Dante, who’s in trouble with ruthless local gangsters. Roman is used to more than a little white-collar sleight of hand in his financial advising business, but is quickly far out of his depth in the evil underbelly of his hometown. “We all fall short of grace, but the beauty lives in the attempt,” says Cosby (All the Sinners Bleed, The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2024), neatly summing up Dante’s increasingly bloody helping hand and the family’s striving to love one another even when the world gives them every reason to give up.

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