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Women Sleuths

Review

The Tutor

by Henrietta Thornton

The tutor is Isabel, a young woman who’s just started her new job at a rich Florida private school. Readers know that she’s angling to meet the Caldwells, a family whose son, James, attends the school; we follow along as she visits their palatial home for the first time, snooping while there—but what’s she up to? In the meantime, we meet Evelyn, James’s mean-spirited grandmother. Her daughter-in-law Rose, the female lead here, can’t do anything right, and in Evelyn’s view is a gold digger who needs to be out of the picture. The man between these two women is too busy with his finance work to be of any help, and the situation disintegrates as Isabel reveals the reason she wants to know the Caldwells and Rose finds out that her mother-in-law is rumored to have too many mysterious deaths in her tony circle. With secrets and twists coming fast, not to mention emotional stakes that build to fever pitch, this is psychological fiction at its best.

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Review

Poison & Pooches

by Brian Kenney

A charming novel with community at its heart. Arial Mayes Kingston has inherited a guest house in Monterey, California. Only in her mid-twenties, Arial turns to the one thing she knows how to do well: walk and sit dogs. O.K., so she is able to drum up only one client: the very handsome Golden named Monty (fans of Laurien Berenson and David Rosenfelt will enjoy meeting Monty). But she is able to make new acquaintances in the neighborhood while walking about with Monty, and Balzo spends plenty of time on character development. In fact, we’re nearly a quarter of the way through the book before a male corpse shows up, discovered, of all places, in the floorboards beneath Arial’s guest house. Fortunately Arial is in the clear—she hadn’t even moved to California when the body had been buried. But boy, talk about an incentive for gossip. Between the local book group, the vet, the neighborhood detective, and several more, we have enough speculation to keep the questions of who killed the victim and who buried him very much alive. When the murderer is finally revealed, it is truly a shock worth waiting for. Looking forward to more from Arial and Monty

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Review

Just Another Dead Author

by Dodie Ownes

Swedish author Bivald gives readers another delightful twisty tale (following The Murders in Great Diddling) with well-known mystery author Berit Gardner in the lead role, along with a diverse and quirky cast of characters, most of whom are writers, agents, and publishers attending a retreat outside Lyon, France. Against the backdrop of the somewhat dilapidated yet beautiful Chateau des Livres, the envy and adoration amongst the attendees begins to merge, even as they continue to workshop “Dramatic Plot Twists” and “Portrait of a Writer on Fire.” When John Wright, headliner and bestselling author, dies in the front row during Berit’s welcoming address, nearly everyone is a suspect. A series of reveals follows, including two Mrs. Wrights, a partial manuscript, and a kitchen crush. When another particularly annoying attendee is found stabbed, the stakes are raised. With the help of sharp-eyed observers and a DCI Ahmed, a friend from England, Berit and her rep Sarah, who happens to be the daughter of John Wright’s agent, start to work out whom the murderer might be, much to the chagrin of local authority Commissaire Roche. Fans of Kemper Donovan’s Ghostwriter series will eat this up. A fun romp through the publishing industry is icing on the cake!

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Review

The Devil in Oxford

by Danise Hoover

Christmas in Oxford sounds like a good idea. But as might be predicted by anyone acquainted with Ruby and her housemate and employer, Mr. Owens, that is likely a false assumption. While antiquarian books are their business, the Oxford sojourn highlights Egyptian artifacts and brings Ruby back to the harsh memories of her WWI service as an ambulance driver. Her feelings for Ruan, healer and witch, must be confronted, as must her trust in old and dear friends, including Leona, her partner in ambulance duties. Circumstances require much late-night skulking involving lockpicks and a reluctant Ruan as a partner, as well as attendance (unwilling) at overblown parties.In the end, the heroes are found and the evildoers are truly evil, but as with many books in this series, reading is easier if one starts at volume one. Smuggling, murder, and cocaine are mixed within a roiling undercurrent of social and political tension in an atmosphere of scholarship. A nicely drawn period piece.

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Review

Cross Your Heart and Hope He Dies

by Brian Kenney

This fun-loving mystery/romcom features Juliette Winters, author, editor, and likely workaholic. The book opens with Juliette hobnobbing with the Seattle elite on a posh yacht, working the crowd in anticipation of an announcement from business titan Warren Ellingham. It seems that Warren has a) decided to publish his memoirs and b) promised Juliette exclusive rights to the book, the most exciting, salacious tell-all that Seattle has seen in years, if not decades. Except things don’t always make it to the podium as smoothly as one might like. Before he can get a few words out, Warren keels over—likely from a heart attack—and the manuscript disappears, with Juliette left holding an empty bag. It’s easy to feel sorry for Juliette, but the arrival of Charlie Hawkins, MD on the scene, does a lot to cheer things up, and the woman who asserts not to have time for romance may well have to re-examine that claim, while still looking for Warren’s manuscript. Sure to delight fans of lighter mysteries from L. M. Chilton, Mia P. Manansala, and Elle Cosimano.

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Review

Come Through Your Door

by Danise Hoover

Twists within deceptions are at the heart of O’Connor’s story of insanity, confusion, and murder. Some readers, in fact, may need to take notes to keep straight the murder of Annabelle a year ago from what is happening in the present day. Veterinarian Dimpna Wilde is once again at the center of events that involve her assistant, Niamh, with a dead body found in her apartment. Cormac, Dimpna’s love interest, is investigating and is tricked by a fake crime-scene photographer who cleans the scene of evidence and disappears, just one of the outlandish events that occurs. The confusion about who is who and what is what is eventually explained, but hardly makes the situation clearer. There is even a bizarre Irish pun of a name that somehow brings the murderer into focus. This series, while offering much in the way of Irish local color, is far from cozy, and offers a lot of satisfaction for readers willing to untangle all the complicated knots.

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Review

Revenge, Served Royal

by Henrietta Thornton

I confess, I don’t know where to start this review, there’s so much to the novel that will draw in readers. Should I mention that Regency era-set novels are usually romances, so a mystery that unfolds in the era is a particular treat? Or maybe that the main character, Lady Petra—in her third series outing here—wears lock picks and a dagger beneath her gowns? (Feisty!) How about the baking competition that will attract lovers of The Great British Bake Off and cozies featuring baking? Well, I’m still no closer to an answer, but I will say that readers should pick this up and be ready for delicious treachery, lies, and scandal when everyone who’s anyone in Regency Britain descends on Windsor Castle. They’re excited for a week of diversion that includes a competition to decide the best cook in any aristocratic house in the kingdom. Lady Petra’s stint as a judge is interrupted by the murder of one of the other judges and the sleuthing is on. Try Connally’s previous works in the series (All’s Fair in Love and Treachery; Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord) while waiting for this one.

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Review

Sugar and Spite

by Brian Kenney

Fortunately for M.C. Beaton (aka Marian Chesney) fans, this sixth Agatha Raisin novel created since Beaton’s demise, and written by R. W. Greenby, provides all the fun they are looking for. Mrs. Bloxby, the Vicar’s wife, convinces Agatha to attend a lecture by the Carsely Ladies Society to be delivered by three bird watchers (they call themselves twitchers). Agatha expects a dull evening but it turns out to be quite the opposite as a local farmer breaks up the lecture and threatens the women for trespassing on his land, and then the trio of twitchers ends up having a full-on war among one another. The next day, Agatha learns that one of the women has been discovered dead, and the rather dumb police chief insists it isn’t murder. So off we go, as Agatha takes up the search for the murderer, using the staff of her detective agency, friends, and inside knowledge from the police themselves. A pleasure, but brace yourself for a very surprising ending.

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Review

Death on Dickens Island

by Danise Hoover

Tiny Dickens Island, located in the sound between Connecticut and Long Island, has a small permanent population composed of families in the midst of some sort of feud or another. Delia has come back after years of living in Manhattan to take up her role as mother to teenage Connor and part manager of the family’s general store. She’s inherited her grandmother’s house and for now is loving being back, though is unsure of her maternal success. Connor finds a secret room in grandma’s house with old books and what may be a pirate map. Delia encounters grandma’s ghost, who visits the room occasionally and offers a unique perspective on island history. The map is stolen by local miscreants and doesn’t lead to treasure but rather to a long-buried body that brings old scandals to the present. With logic, the help of an old love, and grandma’s ghost, Delia puts much of the puzzle together, leading to a solution to the murders and to some of the family feuds. An enjoyable, sandy cozy with the author’s promise of more to come from Dickens Island.

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Review

Close Call

by Jeff Ayers

Kipness compellingly combines her background as a sports reporter with her love of crime fiction, and her latest Kate Green thriller is her best yet. Kate is a sports reporter with a recent Emmy win, and she’s asked to cover the U.S. Open and specifically to interview two tennis stars: Brynn, an arrogant but talented up-and-comer, and Lucy, a veteran facing her last event. Brynn does not trust Kate at all, while Lucy is nicer but also hesitant. As Kate continues her coverage, she begins to uncover details that seem straight out of a soap opera rather than the tennis circuit. When Lucy forfeits a match the day after Kate interviews her, the reporter knows that something happened to Lucy and then receives a photo of the bound and gagged player. Kate can’t help but investigate, an effort that will uncover secrets about Lucy and Brynn and reveal personal elements of Kate’s life. There are many suspects here and it is so much fun from the first page to the last. Kipness’s engaging novel is perfect for newcomers to and fans of the series and is a blend of Hank Phillippi Ryan’s work and the Myron Bolitar novels by Harlan Coben. With a recently announced TV deal with Universal Television, picking this up should not be a close call.

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