Women Sleuths

They’re back! The quirky duo of sort-of psychic Leda Foley—she’s also a travel agent and sometime chanteuse—and Seattle P.D. detective Grady Merritt reunites to find two missing people. Leda is approached by a man whose sister has gone missing for a month—driving a bright-orange antique Volvo and with $30,000 in cash—and hopes that Leda can use her psychic powers to locate the woman. Has she been murdered, or has she finally given up on her adulterous husband and run off? Meanwhile, Grady’s dog has gone missing on Mount Rainier, only to pop up with a limb in his mouth. A leg, to be precise. A human leg. Unfortunately, it’s a male leg, so not from Leda’s missing person, but DNA proves that there is a relationship between the two. But where’s the rest of the body? With help from a delightful circle of friends, including Grady’s police partner and Leda’s best friend, the two develop plenty of hypotheses but nothing that will hold water. Fortunately, Leda’s psychic skills kick in, providing some much-needed clues to help resolve the mysteries. As in the first book, Grave Reservations, readers will delight in the banter between Leda and Grady while enjoying Leda’s struggle with her psychic gift. For cozy fans who can tolerate a bit of the macabre.

A dozen terrifically talented and diverse authors—including Alyssa Cole, Lucy Foley, Val McDermid, and Dreda Say Mitchell—reimagine that most iconic of amateur sleuths: Miss Jane Marple. Billed by the publisher as a way to introduce a new generation to Miss Marple—likely best done by Christie’s books, actually—this collection reads more like fanfiction and is sure to delight Marple enthusiasts, who comprise a great swath of mystery fiction’s readership. Miss Marple is no stranger to the short story, having been first introduced to readers in a 1927 magazine. But here we see her in some extraordinary circumstances, while never losing sight of who she really is. A formal dinner at one of the Oxford colleges descends into sexual harassment and Quaalude popping—to tragic ends. A brief stop-over to visit an old school friend in a country village results in the sort of complex murder we expect only Miss Marple to decipher. When a young woman keels over dead at a wedding, Miss Marple teams up with her Caribbean-born friend, Miss Bella. But not all the stories involve murder; stolen pearls ruin a Christmas dinner, until Miss Marple slowly drops the pieces into place, to the surprise of the other guests. Fun to read in print, this collection would make a great audiobook.

Is it a gothic romance? Yes, indeed. Is it a mystery? That, too. In fact, A Dreadful Splendor uses nearly all the tropes of the gothic, adding a bit of humor to the mix. Genevieve Timmons, all of 19 years old, is a spiritualist, a conjurer, adept at calling forth the dead to assuage the grief of the living—and lining her own pocket. Trained by her mother, who is recently deceased, Genevieve has hit a bad patch and is in jail until she’s approached by a gentleman who wants her to summon the dead bride of his boss, Mr. Pemberton. Except when Genevieve arrives at Somerset Park, Mr. Pemberton’s estate, she discovers that the widower believes his bride was murdered, and he wants Genevieve to stage a session so powerful it will reveal the killer. (As for Mr. Pemberton, he’s one part Mr. Darcy, one part Heathcliff, and one part Maxim de Winter. Brooding and beautiful.) With days to go before the séance, there’s plenty of time for Genevieve to rattle around the estate, research the past, and become terrified of a ghost who may well be the real thing. Lots of fun for readers who enjoy historical mysteries with a double serving of atmosphere.