Tag:

Amateur Sleuth

Review

The Quilt Whisperer Investigates

by Danise Hoover

A lovely New England village, a charming, successful local museum, and the prospect of the loan of a historic quilt from a leading citizen; what could go wrong? Alas, the brunch meeting that museum curator Caroline Platte has with said leading citizen goes about as wrong as possible, with the discovery of the donor’s dead body and a missing quilt. Our lovely village is fraught with undercurrents of classism, real estate greed, and. of course, sexual misconduct. The morning coffeeshop coterie discusses and gossips hoping for clues, but it is our intrepid curator Caroline and her stalwart landlady Libby who face dangers to find the solution. Unfortunate arrests, false leads, and personal masks abound and lead our duo in fruitless directions. Like the best of cozies, this ends not with a recipe, but there’s a quilt pattern as well. Solid character development, a well-crafted plot with history and art pointing the way, and a heartwarming side-story make this a satisfying and enjoyable read.—Danise Hoover

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Murder at University Park

by Chris Kahn

Academic life is notoriously difficult, and striving for tenure often proves arduous if not impossible, but in this case, it might be deadly. Lacey is in a particularly impossible position; she’s a woman in the sciences—nutrition—with a department chair who dislikes her, a troublesome student who is the son of a major donor, and a data set from the chair that doesn’t add up. She needs tenure because her husband’s job and children’s lives are to the town. Her best friend, a computer specialist who is helping unravel the data problem, is found dead, the abusive department chair also dies, and the interim chair is an unknown. But enemies and danger don’t end there—even the family dog is in jeopardy. Twists and turns and false friends abound, but a rare true friend emerges. This is set in the late 1990s, so the time frame is a bit strange, not current, not historic, but overall, Dellasega offers an interesting and engaging puzzle.—Danise Hoover

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Shrink Solves Murder

by Danise Hoover

Book of the Week May 7, 2026

Patricia Phillips, formerly a Lawyer and now a psychotherapist, revels in her status as village curmudgeon. She lives on the Sussex Downs, swims in the cold English Channel daily, and lays down the law to tourists who venture too close to the edge of the cliff and people with their dogs off-leash. One of her patients is found washed up at the bottom of the cliff and is swiftly declared a suicide by the local incurious police department. Pat loudly and vehemently disagrees but has no success in getting the case reopened. She, of course, sets out to solve it, with the assistance of her friend Prichard. While she feels that her training will give her insights and make her readily able point out the killer, there are holes in her assumptions. She must face the changing local population (swingers and boho golf club planners) in addition to her own errors in thinking and lack of internet know-how. Pat is an extraordinary character, equally cranky and loveable, and the ending of her tale leaves open the chance for another installment. Readers can only hope.—Danise Hoover

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Murder at the Spirit Lounge

by Danise Hoover

It’s December in the beach town of Gore-on-Sea, and Nora Breen, recently a cloistered Carmelite nun, is drawn into the intrigue of a séance by friend and Detective Inspector Rideout. She is not invited to attend, but Rideout is. The medium, Mrs. Chimes, dies during the séance, murdered as we later find out, and all who were present seem marked for strange and dreadful deaths of their own. The connection is discovered only after much sleuthing, and Nora, with her sharp intelligence and easy manner, is able to uncover the striking details needed to unravel this. There is, however, so much more to this book than its complex mystery. The richly drawn characters, quirky situations of life in this odd town, and spectacularly inventive and colorful descriptive prose used by the author (portraits “rendered in gravy-brown paint”) make this captivating to read. As it is the second in a series, readers can only hope for number three.—Danise Hoover

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Article

The Author Weekend

by Chris Kahn

Book of the Week April 9, 2026

Faye Wader, NYT bestselling author of the Kitty Howe mystery series, finally makes the plunge with the encouragement of her assistant, Jade, and hosts her first ever author event. On Misery Island, a place of nostalgic fun and hijinks for Faye, the 50 attendees will be able to attend Pre- Post- or Peri-Menopausal Mermaid Meditation; Publishing Confidential: Inside the Book Business, with Faye’s editor and agent; a Kitty Howe-themed Clambake, and more. The swag bags include plenty of kitsch, including signature Kitty Aviators, binoculars, and a lobster bib, along with copies of her last, and newest, title. And never mind that Faye’s number-one fan and critic, Peggy Mercer, will be there, surely with news of a misplaced comma or incorrect tense – all those other loyal adoring Kitty loyalists will lift Faye above that. The arrival of Faye’s franchise series rival, though not a complete surprise, ups the competition for attendees’ attention, as well as that of her editor, Merry, and her agent, Hal. Distracted by concerns with her forthcoming manuscript and lack of feedback from Hatchet, her publisher, Faye slips up on a plot point detail, which Peggy recognizes as a lie in Faye’s own backstory. Meanwhile Xoey, a social media maven who’s crippled without her phone, is desperate to tell the “author weekend story.” Feeling trapped by a prescribed wardrobe and envy, Faye begins to spiral. Before long, the bodies start to pile up. Readers will delight in discovering who ends up on the top of the heap, both literally and figuratively. A sharp, gossipy, and hilarious satire of the publishing business.—Dodie Ownes

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Murder on Charity Lane

by Brian Kenney

This series is wonderfully reminiscent of Armistead Maupin’s series Tales of the City, Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club series, and Only Murders in the Building—all of which have a wonderful sense of community, an abundance of love, and a good dollop of eccentricity. It’s six months or so after the first murder solved by Mrs. B., the Marigold Cottages’ eccentric proprietor, who follows the lives of her tenants by keeping the cottages very quiet—too quiet, she is beginning to think. So she invites a friend, Elsa, to occupy one of the empty homes well located in Santa Barbara. But when a tragic death occurs, and several of the residents have reason to believe that Elsa is the protagonist, Mrs. B. has no choice except to call together the members of the Murder Collective to figure out who is responsible, and why. Then there is another death, with Elsa again the suspect. Can the collective free Elsa from their many doubts?—Brian Kenney

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Murder at First Slice

by Brian Kenney

Book of the Week March 26, 2026

Dogs and drama, detectives and divas. There is a whole lot going on in this, the fifth in Burns’s Baker Street series. But despite all the balls she has in the air, it looks like the wedding of Maddy (bride-to-be, social media queen, beloved daughter, full-time baker, dog parent to an adored 200 lb. English mastiff) and veterinarian Michael will go off without a hitch. Scores of people are arriving in New Bison, Michigan to celebrate the event, although a few participants have come just to complain about or to one another. This would include two cousins who always clash, Dorothy (pure negativity) and Hannah (whom most people believe is incapable of killing). But then Dorothy is found dead, her body left outside the bakery. And Hannah is discovered standing over her, the alleged murder weapon, a bloodied rolling pin, in hand. What is going on here? To get to the bottom of it all, Maddy calls in the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of non-professionals who excel at helping the police solve crimes. A fun, high-energy narrative that does a brilliant job of illuminating life in small-town America.—Brian Kenney

 

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts

by Brian Kenney

This latest work of the Marlow Murder Club, one of the most popular cozy crime series, is the fifth, with a major TV presence as well. Yet as cozy as this volume might be, it’s the darkest of the books to date, with blackmail, murder, and scandal all playing a major role. The murder of two of Marlow’s best known celebrities—soccer-player Gary Wise and thriller-writer Tony Sexton—galvanizes our three amateur female detectives, who travel all about the town to discover the killer, an endeavor both serious and hugely comic. But what’s changed? DI Malik, who always assisted the women in their previous searches, has now been suspended from duty; it’s a huge loss. And Judith, who has always been at the center of any investigation, shows up only to shortly disappear and then repeat again. Where is she going? Aficionados of the Marlow Murder Club can only worry that the three brave women may not survive and make it through to the other side.—Brian Kenney

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

Do You See What I See?

by Brian Kenney

Here’s a holiday-themed novella as brilliantly told as it is fully terrifying, with an energy akin to Swanson’s earlier holiday novella, The Christmas Guest (2023). Nicholas Child’s career is on the rocks; for starters, his publisher dropped him and he hasn’t succeeded in signing with anyone new. Meanwhile, super-popular novelist Marco Tavares is unable to get past a classic case of writer’s block to finish his sophomore effort. While the two authors barely know each other, they do share the same agent, who makes the unorthodox suggestion that Nicholas join Marco for the holidays at Marco’s Cape Cod mansion. This would, presumably, give Nicholas a chance to dig into Marco’s manuscript and begin to complete the missing pages and for Marco to, well, drink. Miraculously, both writers agree. More surprising are the other residents: Marco’s ex-girlfriend and her jealous husband, the silent grandmother, Marco’s oddball friend, and James Beers, who is convinced that Marco’s novel is based on one of his own. Nearly each of them believes that one of the other guests has a motive to kill Marco. And, in fact, before you know it, the corpses begin to arrive. Sophisticated and unnerving.—Brian Kenney

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
Review

I Think We Should Kill Other People.

by Brian Kenney

Love Synced is a new type of reality show in which a sophisticated AI pulls the participants together, eventually creating a database of their behavior and providing recommendations for what they should do to survive. When the show is down to two participants—Hazel, who has had a rough and tumble life growing up, and Marc, who oozes wealth—the two are ready for “I Do.” But it turns out they aren’t. Or at least Hazel can’t do it. Meanwhile, a huge storm is moving in, and cast and crew become stranded in a tiny airport off the coast of Norway along with several of Marc’s relatives, who are, as one might expect, absolutely livid. The small group had a successful day, more or less getting along, but when one of the participants is discovered dead, seated in the men’s room, a Toblerone shoved down his throat, the stakes have greatly increased. A sleek, fast ride sure to be enjoyed by many.—Brian Kenney

0 comments
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail