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Women Sleuths

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Silent Bones

by Chris Kahn

Book of the Week September 11, 2025

When a mudslide blocks a highway near Edinburgh, the debris also exposes a skeleton with a damaged skull, indicating signs of murder. Detective Inspector Karen Pitrie and her Police Scotland Historic Crimes Unit are called in to investigate. It’s spring 2025, five years after the traumatic COVID-related events of Past Lying. Research indicates that the skeleton, soon identified as that of freelance journalist Sam Nimmo, was buried back in 2014 when the road was constructed. At that time, Nimmo was the prime suspect in the killing of his pregnant girlfriend. Was his death an act of vengeance? Or was his investigation into a possible sex scandal connected to the 2014 referendum for Scottish independence the motivating factor? Pirie and her team also probe the so-called accidental death of a hotel manager with ties to a mysterious book club called Justified Sinners, whose members are wealthy, entitled men. Flavoring her writing with colorful Scottish slang, McDermid combines compelling, intricate plotting with strong character development. It’s nice to see DC Jason Murray developing his sleuthing skills and confidence under Karen’s patient mentoring, while talented but impulsive DS Daisy Mortimer occasionally still irritates her boss. The unsettled ending may disappoint some readers (real life is not always so neatly tied up), but McDermid’s passion for justice shines through.

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Review

The Italian Secret

by Danise Hoover

In a spectacular example of a post-war noir novel we have Billie Walker, a hardboiled PI following in her father’s tradition, with her specialty helping women out of terrible marriages by finding evidence of infidelity. The Sydney, Australia PI has a loyal and supportive staff, an attractive police officer to back her up, and a mystery in her background. In her father’s files, she finds an old picture, taken in an Italian town near Naples, of him, another woman, and a young girl. There follows the suspicious death of a client, a sea voyage with her mother to Naples, vendettas, the search for her father’s other family, and a deadly chase through the tunnels under the city. This is non-stop action, with an authenticity of mood, clothing, travel detail, and attitude that makes it special.

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Review

The Tumbling Girl

by Henrietta Thornton

In the acknowledgments to this immersive debut, Walsh explains that she took a novel-writing course partly to convince herself not to write this series opener; readers will be happy that she went ahead anyway. Walsh drops us deep into the world of Minnie Ward, who writes music for Victorian London’s Variety Palace Music Hall. The shabby venue hosts a plate spinner whose dressing room sounds like breaking crockery and sobs, a soprano who only sometimes hits a note, a wayward monkey that likes to have its way with the ventriloquist’s dummy, and other downmarket wonders. When kindly detective Albert Easterbrook is hired to find the killer of a young woman who worked at the Palace, it brings him into Minnie’s world. She’s not content to sit on the sidelines of the investigation—she knows far more than Albert does about the workings of her realm, not to mention that those he needs to question aren’t going to open themselves up to a “toff.” While working through his exasperation with headstrong Minnie, Albert begins to fall for her, a situation she rebuffs as it will never work out—class divides loom large here. Their sometimes-parallel, sometimes-together work exposes both to dangers and horrors that will keep readers rapt; a side plot involving a serial killer who is terrorizing London closes the book and creates an opening for a sequel, which readers will eagerly await.

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Review

Innocence Road

by Danise Hoover

The body of a young woman is found in the desert outside a nothing Texas town, stirring memories of the murder of the daughter of a prominent citizen 15 years ago. Leanne Everhart, a local cop and daughter of one of the officers who solved the original case, is in a terrible place. The man who confessed to the original crime has had his conviction overturned, and she sees connections that no one else sees in the two crimes. As she digs further, she finds that there are more dead women, nearly one a year, whose existence has been ignored by politics and local inertia. She sees patterns, but there are no funds to pursue the case. Long-held local loyalties and family ties stand in her way, but it’s the politics and scandals that are the true impediments. Tough, indomitable Leanne calls in every favor she can while risking her career and her life in the process. This is an edge-of-the-seat read that’s not for the faint of heart.

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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 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 Pines Were Watching

by Danise Hoover

Life in a small town in Minnesota is not supposed to involve complex crimes in the middle of a heat wave, at least that’s how Sheriff Red Hammergren feels, but when missing public-health nurse Joanie Crea’s body is found on the run-down estate of the formerly wealthy Grandgeorge family, tensions and suspicions run away with the locals. There is little help coming from Joanie’s rigid, bureaucratic robot of a boss or her glad-handing, church deacon of a husband. The body of a second woman is found and information from her abused and recently beaten young son may hold a key. A mystery man with a green jacket, missing funds, and long-held secrets all play with Red’s sixth sense, making her feel that the solution is just beyond her grasp. Help comes from Red’s poker-playing buddies and Waltz, a crime scene tech, but her indomitable need to solve the crime is primary. This is a deeply atmospheric and compelling read. We can only hope for more from the series.

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