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Women Sleuths

Review

The Stranger in the Library

by Jeff Ayers

Recently married, Lucy McNeil runs the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library. When a traveling art-history exhibit arrives in town, Lucy works with family and friends to create a unique display in the library that showcases local, national, and international artists. The morning after the library celebration, the librarian is surprised to discover one of the reproductions of a famous local artist is no longer on the wall. Who would want to steal a worthless copy of a famous painting? The grand opening of the exhibit leads to drama and the murder of one of the organizers, and the prime suspect for both the theft and the death is Tom Reilly, an art dealer with a shady past. Gates, who also writes mysteries under the name Vicki Delany (Deadly Summer Nights, 2021; Have yourself a Deadly Little Christmas, 2023), is a master of cozy settings and telling a compelling story. Her vast cast of characters is realistic, and the puzzle is challenging and surprising. While the actual lighthouse at Cape Hatteras does not have enough space for a library, readers will still want to visit. Whether this is the first dive or the eleventh, this series is a lot of fun.

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Review

The Last Note of Warning

by Henrietta Thornton

Fans of Schellman’s previous two books in this exciting series, Last Call at the Nightingale (2022) and The Last Drop of Hemlock (2023), will find this trilogy closer a satisfying end to the roller coaster of Vivian Kelly’s life as a seamstress by day, flapper at a queer-friendly speakeasy by night. Vivian now delivers dresses to her boss’s wealthy clients, waiting around mansions until the clients deign to join her for a last check on their new dresses’ fit. On one such visit, Vivian is invited by the gentleman of the house to sit a while and warm up, during which time he’s called away. She then finds him dead, and as she’s the only person around, she’s on the hook for the killing. She’s given a week to find the real killer, with the police seemingly aware that she probably didn’t do the crime but happy to have a handy suspect to charge. The tumultuous week forms the bulk of the book, and sees our hero display her signature moxie, smarts, and the love she hides for her family and her police-officer paramour, their relationship troubled by his family ties to the commissioner who’s happy to put Vivian away. Life among the haves and have nots of the Roaring Twenties is a heady setting and Vivian a character well worth getting to know—you can enjoy this without having read the previous two books, but do yourself a favor and add them to your library’s hold list anyway!

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Review

The Marlow Club Murder

by Brian Kenney

What the world needs now is more Robert Thorogood and the three heroes of the Marlow Murder Club: Judith the crossword-puzzle author, Suzie the dogwalker, and Becks the vicar’s wife. This romp starts off with the Mayor keeling over at a planning meeting—lucky for us, Suzie happens to be attending—and the cause of death is soon determined to be poison in his coffee. Aconite, to be specific, the queen of all poisons. But who would kill the beloved Mayor? Before the ladies can begin their investigation, Tanika—a police officer in the earlier books and now detective inspector—appoints them as “civilian advisors,” a clear case of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” While traversing Marlow in search of the murderer is loads of fun, the real joy in this series is the dialog, wit, and friendships of the women. This is nothing less than the ultimate in cozies.

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Review

The Witless Protection Program

by Brian Kenney

Mia Carina is living her best life, as the kids say. Her family’s catering hall in Queens, NY is both hugely successful and, with her acumen, now a fully legitimate business (the Family hasn’t always played above board). Shane, the love of her life, has finally proposed (Mia’s one tough lady, although when it comes to Shane, her knees get weak). But then she catches sight of a man who very much looks like Adam Grosso, her presumed-dead husband. Could she be wrong? Possibly, but a second sighting of the no-good SOB confirms he’s alive, which means Mia and Shane will have to delay their wedding—which they refuse to do. Mia calls an emergency meeting of family and Family—capisce?—to remove Adam, just not kill him (“My goal is to be a divorcee, not a widow. Ya got it?”). While finding Adam takes up a good chunk of the book, there are several fun subplots, not to mention an incredible cast of characters. Normally I’d worry about telling them apart, but DiRico manages to give each a strong identity, starting with our lead, Mia the Magnificent. Yes, it’s the fifth book in the series, but feel free to jump in. You won’t regret it.

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Review

The Woman in the Garden

by Brian Kenney

Eustacia Rose, Professor of Botanical Toxicology, lives alone in London with just her extensive but exquisite collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her rooftop garden with meticulous care, buys the occasional rare specimen off the black market, and, Rear Window-like, follows the goings on of her neighbors through her super-powerful telescope. She even records the neighbors’ activities, giving it all the veneer of science. Until one day she hears a scream coming from across the street that is so terrifying it forces her to shift from voyeur to participant. The woman who screamed was the remarkably beautiful Simone, as Rose has named her, and days later, when Rose sees Simone being shoved into a car and driven off by a group of men, she becomes obsessed with saving the woman. But does Simone need saving? A fascinating novel that brings together the cops, friends of Rose from years ago, the use of toxins from poisonous plants, lost love, the nature of friendship, and the effects of the death of a parent. In the end, we see Rose begin to emerge from her cocoon and reenter the world around her, a transformation hugely satisfying to watch.

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Review

Diamond Cut

by Henrietta Thornton

They say you can’t go back, but what if the past won’t let go? That’s the case for Sandy Corrigan. She narrowly escaped sex work and now works for her brother as a private detective. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds, with Sandy spending her days chasing cheating husbands and those seeking to milk personal-injury cases. But at least she’s safe—until her former life comes calling. A woman who works for Sandy’s old pimp begs for help when another sex worker, Naomi, goes missing. Naomi’s just a teenager and Sandy’s emotions kick in, as well as her desire for revenge against the abusive, disgusting pimp, Omar. She wraps up the initial part of the case quickly and her brother wants her back to her usual gigs. But Sandy can’t give in when she finds that Omar and his gang are up to much worse than pimping. Sandy is a gutsy but realistic hero, with chase scenes and literal near-death experiences alternating with bathroom breaks—a girl’s gotta pee!—and picking her child up from school. Fast action, snappy dialogue, and empathy galore add up to a quick read, and with an 11th-hour twist, this book keeps on giving right till the last page. I hope for more from PI Corrigan.

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Review

Public Anchovy #1

by Brian Kenney

Delilah and the crew from her restaurant, the upscale pizzeria Delilah & Son (Son is short for Sonya, Delilah’s best friend and sous chef), are at Bluff Point, an opulent, old mansion on Wisconsin’s Geneva Bay. They’re catering the Friends of the Library’s fundraising gala—an opportunity to show off their skills and bolster the declining winter business—and the menu does look fantastic. Too bad that the guests hardly get to sample anything more than the appetizers when Edgar Clemmons, outgoing board chair—and quite bitter about his departure—falls down the staircase, landing at the bottom like a broken marionette. Murder or accident? It’s hard to say, since Edgar shared a number of vague secrets with several people before he took his tumble. The man’s demise sends many scurrying home, although a powerful storm has moved in—downed trees, exposed power lines—prohibiting law enforcement from reaching Bluff Point and keeping a dozen or so attendees, including Delilah and her staff, in the mansion for the night. Here the mystery morphs into a closed circle, with an assemblage that includes Delilah’s crush, police detective Calvin Capone; and Butterball, her cat, who takes on quite the active role in this title. As with the other books in the series, Quigley balances wonderful character development and plenty of low-key humor with the search for a killer. It’s hard to imagine a cozy fan who wouldn’t find this book to be a total delight.

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The Expectant Detectives

by Henrietta Thornton

Bridget Jones meets Thursday Murder Club in this tale of rural English women who meet in a prenatal class and learn far more than how to not kill your partner while the baby’s making its debut. The central character and narrator is Alice, who, she tells us, thought she’d surprise her boyfriend for his 30th birthday with a pregnancy. It’s a happy if slightly puzzling surprise, as Alice has little idea how to care for a baby and she’s terrified of birth. The overly chipper and hippy teacher of the class, whose clothes resemble “a chameleon caught in a kaleidoscope,” isn’t much help. Even less helpful is that one of the students gives birth during the class (would a first baby be that fast? Eh, it’s Bridget Jones with a baby. Moving on). And after that, the owner of the store downstairs from the class is found very dead. The rest of the class is still pregnant and they spend their time lumbering around the “posh hippy” town of Penton (“Population: seventeen people and a cow”) puzzling out village relationships, past scandals, and the intricacies of cloth diapers. This fun romp offers hilarious moments while taking on some real-life issues: the fear involved in becoming a first-time parent and the shadows of one’s own upbringing that can darken parenthood, all while Alice and friends undertake the whodunit. Ailes’s sequel, the perfectly named Dead Tired, meets the characters again after they’ve had their babies and will be out on the heels of this one, on June 4, 2024.

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Review

Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies

by Brian Kenney

This series debut is sure to delight fans of traditional mysteries as well as those who prefer a good CWC (cozy with corpses). Successful author Eleanor Dash is off on a publicity tour of southern Italy with a rather motley crew of fellow mystery writers; her sister, who is also her manager; a busload of fans; two ex-lovers; a stalker; and a few hangers-on. No sooner does the reader pour a refreshing limoncello than there is an attempt on one of the characters’ lives: that of Charles, one of the exes and a rather suave ladies’ man whom Eleanor has featured in her novels and who receives royalties from her books (what? it’s complicated). In fact, Eleanor would love nothing more than to see Charles dead, although she’s more likely to kill him off in her next book than in real life. As the group ambles about Sorrento and Positano—having fantastic meals and dishing on the publishing industry while managing to dodge the occasional murder attempt—we are treated to the best feature of the book: Eleanor’s witty, droll, and sophisticated voice, on display in dialog, interior monologue, and, best of all, the many footnotes that pepper the text. As roles are upended, and the crime writers become detectives, we also learn more about Eleanor’s personal life, from her complicated relationship with her sister to her remaining passion for Oliver, the other ex. Perfect for fans of The Magpie Murders; the Finlay Donovan series; and Only Murders in the Building.

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Review

The Deepest Lake

by Willy Williams

Noted for her historical and speculative fiction (The Spanish Bow; Annie and the Wolves), Romano-Lax ventures into suspense territory with this atmospheric, entertaining thriller about a grieving mother investigating her daughter’s mysterious death. Three months after her 23-year-old daughter was presumed to have drowned in Lake Atitlán, Central America’s deepest lake, Rose arrives in Guatemala. Although a six-week search failed to recover Jules’s body, Rose is unsatisfied with the official investigation’s conclusion. She wants to learn more about her daughter’s final hours and why Jules, who had a lifelong fear of water, was last seen swimming in the lake. A key but uncooperative witness is Eva Marshall, the best-selling memoirist and Jules’s literary idol, for whom the aspiring writer had just started working as a personal assistant before her disappearance. Frustrated with Eva’s refusal to schedule a visit or a phone call from Rose and her ex-husband Matt, a determined Rose signs up under her maiden name for an upcoming memoir-writing workshop taught by the charismatic Eva at her Guatemalan lakeside retreat. “Rose has no ambitions whatsoever as a memoirist, not even the tiniest desire to be published.…But you do what you must, after you’ve already tried everything else.” Despite the glamor and natural beauty of her surroundings, Rose senses something off both in Eva and in how she runs her workshop. Did Jules uncover a dark truth that led to her death? While crafting a taut tale of suspense, Romano-Lax also turns a gimlet eye on the sometimes-toxic writing-workshop industry and the social media demands that turn authors into marketers and branders. In spite of an epilogue that feels a bit forced, the author has written a satisfying tale about the sometimes-strained but always unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.

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