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Mirror Lake

Review by Maureen Ellen O’Leary

Vera Vixen, ace reporter for the Shady Hollow Herald, is a very busy bee. Well, busy, yes, but a fox rather than a bee. As in the previous two volumes in author duo Juneau Black’s Shady Hollow Mystery series, Mirror Lake follows Vera as she juggles work, love and crime-solving in her beloved Shady Hollow, which is populated solely by animals.

Although it is technically her day off (try telling that to her boss, B.W. Stone, a skunk in both fact and temperament), Vera’s delight in the annual October Harvest Festival is somewhat tempered as the day progresses. She learns that her burly bear boyfriend, Deputy Orville Braun, is throwing his cap in the ring for chief of the Shady Hill Police. With claws secretly crossed for his triumph, she determines to remain neutral in reporting on the heated campaign.

Vera’s raven friend, Lenore Lee, owner of the aptly named bookstore Nevermore, also needs support. Lenore is all a-flutter over the approaching book-signing event with Bradley Marvel, a bestselling author of thrillers who thinks rather too highly of himself. In his attempt to charm the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Vera, he proves to be a wolf in wolf’s clothing.

But these intrigues pale in comparison to the possible murder of Edward Springfield, a rat beloved by his eccentric wife, Dorothy. “Possible” because, well, Edward himself (or someone who looks exactly like him?) is standing beside Dorothy as she announces his murder! The most likely suspect is Edward’s older brother, Thomas. But he’s dead, too! Or is he? And whose headless body lies in the deep dark woods? All of Vera’s sly sleuthing skills are put to the test as she tries to solve a seemingly unsolvable case.

Mirror Lake opens with the authors’ plea for us to suspend our disbelief as we enter the realm of Shady Hollow. (Would all these animals be found in the same habitat in real life? How do you square carnivores and herbivores living in harmony?) It’s not hard to do: The anthropomorphizing of the cast is so unobtrusive that this reader often forgot the nonhuman nature of the characters. The occasional reminders of their animal nature add charm and humor to this pleasant tail—sorry, tale.

While some readers might roll their eyes at the simplicity of the plot, others will be chuffed as they attempt to outfox the wily Vera and solve the puzzle before she does. Mirror Lake doesn’t offer much emotional or intellectual complexity, but it does offer the pleasures associated with a cozy, close-knit community. Who wouldn’t want a cuppa at the coffee shop owned by Joe, the amiable moose? Who could resist the fine fare offered by panda master chef Sun Li? What could be cozier than a B&B run by the chipmunks Geoffrey and Ben?

Cold comfort is easy to find in our world these days. It’s much harder to find the humor and winsome warmth of the Shady Hollow mysteries.

Cold comfort is easy to find; it’s much harder to find the winsome warmth one encounters in Mirror Lake, a cozy mystery populated by woodland creatures.
Mystery & SuspenseMysteryCozy Mystery

Murder on the Menu

Review by Jamie Orsini

Readers will instantly be taken with ex-cop-turned-caterer Jodie “Nosey” Parker in Murder on the Menu, a delightful start to a new cozy mystery series set in the Cornish countryside.

After serving nearly 20 years on the force with the London Metropolitan Police and undergoing a contentious divorce, Jodie is ready to start fresh. She and her 12-year-old daughter, Daisy, move to Penstowan, the small Cornish village where Jodie grew up. There, she opens her own catering company, and her first client is Tony, a longtime friend and onetime ex-boyfriend who hires her to cater his upcoming wedding. Several uninvited guests show up the night before the service, including Tony’s first wife, Mel, who promptly gets into a fistfight with Cheryl, the bride-to-be. When Cheryl disappears and bodies start to pile up, Jodie takes off her caterer’s coat and dives into the investigation in order to clear Tony’s name. 

Author Fiona Leitch’s excellent writing, witty dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humor elevate each scene, and the well-plotted mystery will keep readers guessing until the end. It’s easy to root for the entertaining Jodie, who’s still exceedingly capable as a detective despite having left the force. Detective Chief Inspector Nathan Withers, the lead investigator, is both annoyed and impressed with Jodie, and watching their budding chemistry is a delight. Leitch also ably explores the bittersweet, complicated nature of Jodie’s return to Penstowan: While she’s happy to live closer to her mother, a firecracker with a busy social life and wicked sense of humor, Jodie’s still coming to terms with living in the shadow of her late father, who dedicated his life to protecting the village as chief inspector.

Murder on the Menu will delight cozy mystery fans, especially those who want just a touch of melancholy amid all the crime-solving fun.

Fiona Leitch’s excellent writing, witty dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humor elevate each scene in this cozy mystery set in the Cornish countryside.
Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

A lively Victorian murder mystery

Review by bookpagedev

Anne Perry’s new Victorian murder mystery, Half Moon Street, begins in classic style, with the finding of a body. But this one isn’t in the drawing room of a country mansion; it’s in a small boat drifting against a London dock. It is the body of a man. His hands are manacled, and he is shockingly attired in a woman’s dress.

The constable who finds the body warns our hero, Superintendent Thomas Pitt, the head of the Bow Street Police Station, that scandal is waiting in the wings. He fears the body is that of a missing French diplomat. Soon Pitt is caught up in a tour of the dark underside of Victorian London, trying to find out where the worlds of diplomacy and the theater have crossed paths — and why the encounter ended in murder. The tour is far-ranging and allows the author to paint a mural of the times.

Although Anne Perry is not the only contemporary author to set mystery novels in the foggy, charming days of Sherlock Holmes, nonetheless, she has made the era her own. Because of her chosen milieu, Perry is predictably compared to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Charles Dickens. Actually, although she shares their taste for the grotesque, she lacks their easy humor and writerly sensitivity to language. Her style is plain and straightforward, her emphasis on the social interactions of a busy period.

What amuses Perry is to populate her novels with prominent figures, and give us glimpses inside the lives of the people that made the era so significant in history. In the case of Half Moon Street, they include Oscar Wilde, William Butler Yeats, and some of their illustrious colleagues. The surprising element in these mysteries is that the secondary characters are deeply engaged in social issues and the arts, thereby pulling Pitt into controversies outside the world of crime. For example, when Pitt attends a play, he finds himself immersed in the feminist issues of the day.

These are topics usually overlooked or ignored in period mysteries, and they lend Perry’s books a lively cultural tone. Readers get to experience the pace of a changing world through the eyes of intelligent observers such as Thomas and his wife Charlotte, all while piecing together clues and moving closer to the author’s famously satisfying denouements. It’s a powerful combination and, after two decades, explains Perry’s still-growing reputation.

Anne Perry's new Victorian murder mystery, Half Moon Street, begins in classic style, with the finding of a body. But this one isn't in the drawing room of a country mansion; it's in a small boat drifting against a London dock. It is the body…

Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

A Deadly Bone to Pick

Review by Jamie Orsini

Mystery fans and dog lovers alike will enjoy Peggy Rothschild’s A Deadly Bone to Pick, the first in a new cozy mystery series featuring former police officer-turned-dog trainer Molly Madison.

Looking for a fresh start after the death of her husband, Molly makes a cross-country move to California. With her loyal golden retriever, Harlow, at her side, Molly hopes to heal and put down roots in the coastal town of Pier Point. On her first day there, she befriends a slobbery Saint Berdoodle (named Noodle) and volunteers to train him after learning that his owner can’t properly care for him. But when her new charge digs up a severed hand on the beach, Molly quickly goes from new kid on the block to murder suspect.

Readers will enjoy Rothschild’s fast-paced and well-plotted mystery, especially its small beach community setting. In Pier Point, the locals keep tabs on their neighbors, and everyone has a secret to hide. The town is filled with memorable characters, including Miguel Vasquez, the handsome detective investigating the murder, and Ava, Molly’s precocious 8-year-old neighbor who’s in need of tips for both training her dog and making friends her own age.

Molly’s lessons to other Pier Point residents and their dogs blend seamlessly into the central mystery, and animal lovers will appreciate seeing the reality of loving and living with pets depicted on the page. Rothschild shows that while it’s easy to love our dogs, they can also be a lot of work: There’s no sleeping in for Molly, not when Harlow needs to be let outside or fed. A Deadly Bone to Pick is a satisfying debut that will leave readers eager for more adventures with Molly and her canine companions.

Mystery fans and dog lovers alike will enjoy Peggy Rothschild’s A Deadly Bone to Pick, the first in a new cozy mystery series featuring former police officer-turned-dog trainer Molly Madison.
Mystery & SuspenseSuspenseHistorical MysteryCozy Mystery

Whodunit: November 2021

Feature by Bruce Tierney

The Shadows of Men

Calcutta, 1923: Then, as now, the state of Muslim-Hindu relations evoked an image of a short-fused powder keg, awaiting only the striking of a convenient match. The murder of a prominent Hindu theologian provides said spark, setting the stage for Abir Mukherjee’s fifth novel, The Shadows of Men. Police Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee are tasked with unraveling the circumstances of the homicide before holy war breaks out in the streets and alleyways of West Bengal’s most populous city, Calcutta. Things take a complicated turn almost immediately, as Banerjee finds himself framed for the aforementioned murder and thus removed from the state of play, at least in any official capacity. But he and Wyndham have never been what you’d call sticklers for the rules, and this time will prove to be no exception. Their investigation, at times in tandem but more often in parallel, will carry them to Bombay, which is unfamiliar turf to both of them. There they will discover that there is more afoot than just age-old cultural and religious enmity, and that certain third parties may harbor a keen—albeit covert—interest in fanning the flames of mutual intolerance. The narrative is first-person throughout, switching from Wyndham’s perspective to Banerjee’s in alternating chapters, an unusual and clever approach that keeps readers dead center in the melee, while at the same time poised on the edges of their seats.

All Her Little Secrets

Wanda M. Morris’ debut novel, All Her Little Secrets, is a multilayered, atmospheric thriller with subplot atop subplot. In a 200-odd-word review, I can barely scratch the surface. The main characters are Atlanta corporate attorney Ellice Littlejohn, a Black woman who is the lead counsel for a thriving transport company; her brother Sam, a ne’er-do-well who skates very close to the edge of legality, and sometimes over the edge; her auntie Vera, once a ball of fire, now laid low by advancing episodes of dementia; and CEO Nate Ashe, a Southern gentleman who might be looking out for Ellice’s interests but who also might be a corrupt businessman attuned to the optics of displaying a minority woman in a position of power. Then there is a murder, and another, and it becomes next to impossible for Ellice to determine who is in her corner. Examinations of racism, sexism, ageism and classism (and probably other -isms I have forgotten about) abound, making All Her Little Secrets a very timely read, in addition to being one heck of a debut.

Psycho by the Sea

A handful of pages into Lynne Truss’ hilarious new installment in her Constable Twitten series, Psycho by the Sea, I found myself imagining it as a BBC TV series with an eccentric “Fawlty Towers” sort of vibe, perhaps with a screenplay penned by Graham Greene. The characters are delightfully overblown, the storyline whimsical (well, if a cop killer who boils his victims’ severed heads fits your notion of whimsy).The novel is set in 1957 in the English seaside town of Brighton, which is not the sort of place that jumps to mind as crime central. Still, a number of locals make a good living pushing the boundaries of the law, including Mrs. Groynes, the lady who makes the tea at the Brighton police station. Privy as she is to the daily departmental goings-on, she ensures that the constables will be conveniently far from wherever her crimes are set to take place. When the severed-head-boiling killer escapes from the psychiatric detention facility he has called home for several years, perhaps aided in that getaway by a staff psychotherapist, all manner of ghoulish things begin to take place in the otherwise somnolent resort. While Psycho by the Sea is not the most suspenseful story on offer this month, it is easily the funniest, the quirkiest and the most entertaining read of the bunch. 

★ Silverview

When John le Carré passed away in December 2020, he left a gift behind for his readers: Silverview, one last novel from the master of espionage. The story goes that le Carré began work on the book nearly a decade ago, but it was held for publication as the author “tinkered” with it (a sly nod to his 1974 book Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy?). The tinkering paid off. Silverview is one of his best works, an intricate cat-and-mouse tale in which just who is the feline and who is the rodent is up in the air until the final pages. When bookshop owner Julian Lawndsley meets Edward Avon, he is virtually bowled over by the larger-than-life demeanor of the elderly white-haired gentleman. Together they hatch a plan to expand Julian’s bookstore. Meanwhile, British intelligence has launched an investigation into a long-ago incident in Edward’s life, one that suggests he may still be in the spy game. If this is true, it’s anybody’s guess who his employer might be, for it is certainly not the home team. Not that the home team could even remotely be considered the good guys, mind you. But I suppose treason is treason, irrespective of the morality of the players. Perhaps even more world-weary in tone than the le Carré books that preceded it, Silverview will make readers look askance at the sort of things their countries do on the world stage.

The Shadows of Men

Calcutta, 1923: Then, as now, the state of Muslim-Hindu relations evoked an image of a short-fused powder keg, awaiting only the striking of a convenient match. The murder of a prominent Hindu…

Cozy Mystery

Two winning mysteries

Feature by Joanne Collings

It is fascinating how two mysteries with first-person narrators, similar settings (small towns) and heroines (women struggling over whether to divorce their husbands) can be so different. Working Stiff goes for laughs, while For Better, For Murder tugs at the heartstrings.

In Working Stiff, set in Wisconsin, Mattie, a former nurse, has just started working as a coroner after finding her surgeon husband in a compromising position with another nurse. Since the house she shared with her husband is right next door to her new place, Mattie can’t help spying on him, and one night she witnesses him arguing with the other woman. Shortly afterward, Mattie is called to a murder scene: the victim is the other woman, making her husband the primary suspect.

Mattie has earthy sensibilities and big appetites; despite her unresolved marital situation, she finds herself very attracted to the detective investigating the case. Unable to contain her own curiosity, fueled by her need to know if her husband is guilty of more than infidelity, Mattie, in her new role as deputy coroner, starts her own investigation. Since she knows everyone in the victim’s world, she can do this with some ease. Both Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie are invoked, and several funny episodes occur on the way to Mattie solving the crime and coming to a decision about her marriage.

Here’s hoping Annelise Ryan will give us more of Mattie’s mother (“a modern day Nostradamus” and “many-times honored member of the Disease of the Month club”) in the next installment.

Meanwhile, in Lisa Bork’s For Better, For Murder, set in New York’s Finger Lakes, Jolene Asdale is struggling to keep her car business alive when a dead body falls out of the Ferrari she is showing to a customer. That’s bad enough, but the victim is a man she briefly dated and recently had a widely witnessed (and wrong interpreted) discussion with about business zoning. The man who is investigating the murder is the husband she hasn’t been able to bring herself to divorce even though she left him three years before. And then Jolene’s bipolar sister, who has been overhearing threats to Jolene (or are they just more of her voices?), disappears from the state psychiatric facility. Is she now part of a team robbing local convenience stores? Jolene’s husband Ray is convinced Jolene knows more about everything than she is admitting. Meanwhile, she’s trying “not to notice that Ray still carries a picture of [her] in his wallet.”

Jolene turns detective to save herself and her sister, giving Bork a chance to explore what’s it’s like to own a small business in a small town where everyone knows your business. Like Ryan, she includes gay characters while taking care to point out that there are still difficulties with being gay in a small town. Jolene, whose family history of mental illness haunts her, is a touching character. The plot is a little complicated, but the series has promise and the book ends with a happy twist.

Joanne Collings cozies up with a good book or two in Washington, D.C.

It is fascinating how two mysteries with first-person narrators, similar settings (small towns) and heroines (women struggling over whether to divorce their husbands) can be so different. Working Stiff goes for laughs, while For Better, For Murder tugs at the heartstrings.

In Working Stiff, set in…

FictionMysteryCozy Mystery

Sweet treats with a side of murder

Feature by Sheila M. Trask

Fresh settings, quirky characters and original twists abound in our favorite new cozies. Whether you prefer to sample exotic recipes, explore antique-filled English mansions, take a little break at a charming B&B or create a custom floral bouquet, a delightful adventure awaits in these books—oh, and murders, too. But don’t worry: The strong, determined and often hilarious women at the center of the action are sure to figure things out before it’s too late—if only just.

J.J. Cook, the beloved author of the Sweet Pepper Fire Brigade mysteries, moves from the hills of Tennessee to the streets of Mobile, Alabama, for the first in her new Biscuit Bowl Food Truck mysteries. Death on Eat Street is a quirky and entertaining mystery that centers on the backstabbing backside of the food industry.

Thirty-year-old Zoe Chase defies her parents by quitting her bank job to open, to their great dismay, a diner and a food truck. It’s not only her parents’ disapproval that Zoe has to deal with, though. Her new digs aren’t in the nicest part of town, and food truck vending turns out to be a cutthroat business. When a competitor is found dead behind the wheel of Zoe’s Biscuit Bowl truck, she finds out just how serious things can get.

Zoe and the delightful cast of supporting characters, including a lazy but lovable Persian cat named Crème Brulée, lend a light mood to this ever-escalating murder mystery. Zoe’s life is threatened at every turn, but she’s undaunted. She’s much more interested in sharing her famous deep-fried biscuit bowl treats with everyone from office workers to the men at the homeless shelter. Her kind heart and intrepid determination carry the day, along with her nourishing recipes, several of which are included.

BAD NEWS AT THE B&B
If you’re still hungry after your breakfast bowl with Zoe Chase, you might consider lunch at a new bed and breakfast, the Dixie Dew, where polite Southern chats over tea and cakes can carry a sinister undertone.

Award-winning author Ruth Moose makes her cozy debut with Doing It at the Dixie Dew, another tale of a woman reinventing herself. Instead of a food truck, Beth McKenzie is rehabilitating her family home and turning it into a warm and friendly B&B. Once the first guest is booked, she thinks she’s on her way, but things quickly take a grim turn when that guest turns up dead the next morning. Trusting the small-town gossip grapevine more than the local police to solve this crime, Beth follows a trail of precious jewels and deadly poison that leads her directly into the clutches of the astonishing culprits.

Along the way, she bakes muffins, falls a little bit in love with her handyman and stencils the heck out of her new tearoom. Beth’s bright optimism remains throughout, even when more murders are discovered and many of the clues appear to lead straight back to the Dixie Dew. Instead of dwelling on the implications, Beth and her friends make dark jokes—maybe the motto for the B&B should be “Rest in Peace,” they suggest—and move on. With Doing It at the Dixie Dew, Moose sets the stage for further adventures for the new innkeeper and her comrades; you never know who will come through the door next.

MOTHER-DAUGHTER MYSTERY
For afternoon tea, might we suggest a stop in the English countryside? In Murder at Honeychurch Hall, Hannah Dennison’s first novel outside of the popular Vicky Hill series, a thoroughly modern woman—television personality Kat Stanford—is tossed deep into the history of Honeychurch Hall. This 600-year-old estate holds many secrets, the latest of which is a missing—and possibly murdered—nanny.

The setting, the murder . . . none of it would even be on Kat’s radar if it weren’t for her mischievous mother, Iris, who has confounded her daughter’s respectable plans for her retirement by setting up housekeeping in a rundown carriage house on the premises. As exasperated Kat attempts to talk her reckless mother down from her latest adventure, the two share their aggravation and affection for each other in equal measure. Their entertaining banter anchors the fast-paced action, as readers come to suspect nearly everyone on the estate. Everyone has something to hide, from the stately Lady Edith to her fanciful grandson Harry. Even Iris has a few skeletons in the closet, leaving Kat to wonder about her own mother’s culpability.

Dennison keeps the twists and turns coming fast and furious, alleviating the tension periodically with humorous scenes involving the underwhelming local constabulary and unusual antiques like Kat’s beloved vintage Jerry mouse. In the end, it’s all connected, but readers will have a hard time putting it all together until the very last pages.

TILL DEATH DO US PART
It’s flowers and cupcakes for dessert at the romantic Rose in Bloom, a truly charmed flower shop in the small town of Ramble, Virginia. Owners and cousins Audrey Bloom and Liv Rose have an untarnished reputation for providing the perfect bridal bouquets, with the arrangements based on the Victorian meanings of flowers. These ladies are so good that not one of the couples wedded with their bouquets has ever gotten divorced. Just as the local paper is set to celebrate their success, tragedy strikes their latest customers: The groom turns up murdered, with flower petals from Audrey’s shop strewn over his body. Audrey has little faith in the local police, and when suspicion for the murder starts to turn her way, she relies on a strong network of friends and family to help her sleuth out the truth.

Bloom and Doom is the first Bridal Bouquet Shop mystery from Beverly Allen, who also writes as Barbara Early. Allen’s casual dialogue captures the camaraderie among Audrey and her co-workers, as they band together to design funeral flowers instead of wedding sprays. The central mystery definitely intrigues, although it may be a secondary mystery that holds the most surprising outcome. Both are revealed slowly, as Audrey and company realistically, and often comically, go through their everyday life accompanied by a charming parade of small-town characters, like the attractive cupcake chef from the bakery two doors down and Audrey’s crazy, escape-artist cat, Chester. Ramble is a town full of such characters, and there will surely be more for Audrey to discover in upcoming volumes.

 

This article was originally published in the May 2014 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Fresh settings, quirky characters and original twists abound in our favorite new cozies. Whether you prefer to sample exotic recipes, explore antique-filled English mansions, take a little break at a charming B&B or create a custom floral bouquet, a delightful adventure awaits in these books—oh, and murders, too. But don’t worry: The strong, determined and often hilarious women at the center of the action are sure to figure things out before it’s too late—if only just.

FictionMysteryCozy Mystery

Bookish heroines solve mysteries one page at a time

Feature by Sheila M. Trask

Who better than authors and booksellers to follow every story to its conclusion, no matter how unexpected? Mystery writers and bookshop owners star in these stories featuring amateur—but determined—sleuths. These intrepid ladies aren’t afraid to poke their noses into remote farmhouses, secluded island communities and the long-held secrets of their own small towns, and they won’t stop until they reach The End.

FAR FROM THE TREE
The mother-daughter writing and sleuthing team in Antiques Swap may share genes, but their methods are poles apart. Fans of the Trash'n'Treasures Mystery series will recognize the entertaining way level-headed narrator Brandy Borne’s sensible tone clashes with her mother's cheerful disregard for the rules. When an old flame’s vindictive wife is found dead, Brandy rushes to clear her own name, while mother Vivian gathers material for their next book. And she’s really hoping for a reality TV series. The little town of Serenity, Iowa, turns out to have plenty to work with, as Brandy and Vivian uncover the most surprising games played by the town’s elite, with the highest of stakes.

BETWEEN THE LINES
Semi-retired bookstore owner Claire Malloy is back with her signature snark in this witty 20th installment of Joan Hess’ series. Though the distractible Claire can’t be bothered to address the alarming rate at which her bookstore inventory walks out the door on its own, she is more than willing to throw herself into a murder investigation when the prosecutor makes a grievous error: He humiliates Claire in public. That’s all it takes to put her firmly on suspect Sarah Swift’s side, though the evidence paints Sarah guilty of killing her husband. Throw in a surly teenage daughter, a husband who happens to be the Deputy Police Chief and the impending visit of her mother-in-law, and you’re caught up in the chaos that is Claire Malloy’s life. None of this stops her, of course, from sneaking down back roads, climbing into dusty attics or taking seriously a 4-year-old boy’s zombie sighting. Her willingness to consider all sides of the story ultimately solves the complex case.

BEST LEFT UNWRITTEN
Best-selling author Alex Griffith has mined his childhood home, Broward’s Rock, for all it’s worth, fictionalizing the island’s secret affairs, dirty deals and suspicious deaths in his novel Don’t Go Home. The golden boy is out of ideas, though, which is how he lands in the hands of bookstore owner Annie Darling. The Death on Demand proprietress is happy to help, until she learns what he has in mind: a nonfiction book that will reveal the real names of his characters. His plan leaves Alex with plenty of enemies, and when he is murdered on the eve of his planned press conference, the list of suspects is long. Annie, however, has a native’s knowledge of the island, and she’s read Alex’s book; she can find out who had the most to lose from his tell-all. Author Carolyn Hart sets Annie on a winding path into the past, carefully curating the intricate plot twists that ultimately lead to the truth.

Who better than authors and booksellers to follow every story to its conclusion, no matter how unexpected? Mystery writers and bookshop owners star in these stories featuring amateur—but determined—sleuths. These intrepid ladies aren’t afraid to poke their noses into remote farmhouses, secluded island communities and the long-held secrets of their own small towns, and they won’t stop until they reach The End.

MysteryCozy Mystery

Quirks and crimes

Feature by Barbara Clark

Literary references and messages from the stars add wit and wisdom to three cozy mystery debuts, wherein leading ladies go toe-to-toe with the odd, the cultish and the rapacious.

TO THE COAST
Katherine Bolger Hyde puts a new spin on classic crime with Arsenic with Austen, the first in a new series that mixes old-fashioned romance and danger with a dose of very contemporary greed. Emily Cavanaugh’s aunt has left her a fortune, which includes much of the land in Stony Beach, Oregon. When Emily returns to the quiet coastal town where she spent many childhood summers, she finds the villagers divided by their ideas for the town’s future. The boorish mayor, a greedy real estate developer and Emily’s sort-of cousin try to convince her to develop the town with a luxury resort and fancy boutiques. Soon a murder hits close to Emily’s doorstep, and along with Luke, her former childhood love, she sets out to discover the killer’s identity, even calling into question whether Aunt Beatrice may have been “helped” into her grave. Puzzler fans and literary junkies alike will enjoy the fun as passages from Jane Austen’s novels bolster and embellish Emily’s investigations.

WHAT THE STARS SAY
In Connie di Marco’s The Madness of Mercury, astrologer Julia Bonatti knows that Mercury retrograde is a planetary aspect with plenty of dangers. As author of the local newspaper’s horoscope column, Julia has been targeted as a witch by cult leader Reverend Roy and his Prophet’s Tabernacle, who are not averse to threats or vandalism. To make it worse, someone has passed the word to law enforcement to lay off the so-called prophet’s case. Julia seeks safety by moving in with her friend Dorothy and helping to care for Dorothy’s elderly aunts, but trouble mounts when Aunt Eunice runs off to join up with the volatile Reverend. Danger figures in the stars for Julia, along with mixed astrological energies, some wolves in sheep’s clothing and an amiable stranger with a down-under accent.

LIBRARY CRIMES
In Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli’s series debut, A Most Curious Murder, characters and scenes from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland take on a zany, modern-day aspect. In the small, peaceful town of Bear Falls, Michigan, the Little Library—its only library—is vandalized and destroyed. The demise of the small structure, lovingly set in place by Jenny Weston’s mother, causes dismay among the townsfolk, and Jenny turns sleuth to discover the perpetrator. She’s aided, like it or not, by her next-door neighbor Zoe, a little person with a big penchant for quoting children’s literature. Zoe becomes a person of interest when a murder takes place in her garden—of the very person suspected of vandalizing the library. Lewis Carroll is practically another character in this offbeat, talky tale. There’s even a touch of romance—for Jenny, he’s the “kind of friend a woman needed at times like these.”

 

This article was originally published in the July 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

It’s Private Eye July at BookPage! All month long, we’re celebrating the sinister side of fiction with the year’s best mysteries and thrillers. Look for the Private Eye July magnifying glass for a daily dose of murder, espionage and all those creepy neighbors with even creepier secrets.

Literary references and messages from the stars add wit and wisdom to three cozy mystery debuts, wherein leading ladies go toe-to-toe with the odd, the cultish and the rapacious.
MysteryCozy Mystery

Whip-smart amateur sleuths

Feature by Barbara Clark

It’s Private Eye July at BookPage! This month, we’re celebrating the sinister side of fiction with the year’s best mysteries and thrillers. Look for the Private Eye July magnifying glass for a dose of murder, espionage and all those creepy neighbors with even creepier secrets.

Secrets make for good reading in three new cozy mysteries set against colorful backdrops, from 1913 prewar New York City and Boston’s lively North End in 1937 to an abandoned mansion in present-day Maryland.

In Murder in Greenwich Village, 20-year-old Louise Faulk has a painful secret, one that follows her to New York City in 1913 as she seeks work and a new life. She has a new roommate and friend, the lovely Broadway wannabe Callie, and the two run smack into a gruesome murder committed in their Greenwich Village apartment. As she gets involved in searching for clues, Louise discovers her own talent for problem-solving and detection, and she finds she has a taste for police work that’s both intimidating and inviting. First-time novelist Liz Freeland lures readers in with her tense, escalating plot, droll humor and the possibility of an unexpected romance. Readers are never bludgeoned with the obvious or overly dramatic. This new series is sure to be a hit on all fronts.

BOSTON GLAM
Cream-filled cannoli from the North End, the golden dome of the State House, bells ringing from the Old North Church—there’s atmosphere galore in Murder at the Flamingo, the opener of Rachel McMillan’s new Van Buren and DeLuca Mystery series, set in 1937 Boston. The murder happens nearly 200 pages in, but in the meantime, the story revolves around two characters, runaways of a kind, who eventually pair up to sleuth and maybe even fall in love. Well-to-do Regina “Reggie” Van Buren and young lawyer Hamish DeLuca are each about to turn a corner in their lives when they are swept up in the orbit of Hamish’s cousin Luca Valari, a young man of charm, ambition—and many secrets. Adventure and a quick coming of age are at hand when Luca’s new nightclub, the Flamingo, opens its doors to champagne, glamour and shady doings, as the youthful pair encounters the darker side of Boston’s glitzy nightclub scene.

HOMETOWN HOMICIDE
A formerly thriving industrial town falls victim to changing times, but a spirited young woman rides to the rescue—at least that’s where things seem to be headed in Murder at the Mansion, the first book in the Victorian Village Mystery series by Sheila Connolly, the beloved author of more than 30 mysteries. The story centers on a lovely old Victorian mansion that may hold the key to the struggling Maryland town’s rejuvenation. Kate Hamilton, who works in hospitality management at a tony Baltimore hotel, returns to her hometown of Asheford at the behest of an old friend to discuss ways to get the town back on its feet. Of course there’s a caretaker at the mansion, and of course he’s attractive. When the two tour the place, they stumble over a dead body—but since when did murder impede a budding romance? Readers who like inheritance drama will enjoy this diverting story.

 

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Secrets make for good reading in three new cozy mysteries set against colorful backdrops, from 1913 prewar New York City and Boston’s lively North End in 1937 to an abandoned mansion in present-day Maryland.

Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

Cozies: October 2021

Feature by Heather Seggel

Not one, not two, but all three of the books in this month’s cozy column received starred reviews!

★ Mango, Mambo, and Murder

Miriam Quiñones-Smith has just relocated from New York City to tony Coral Shores in Miami. A former food anthropologist, she lands a gig teaching Caribbean cooking on a morning show and works to grow a social circle, but at her very first meeting of a women’s club, one of the attendees keels over. Mango, Mambo, and Murder has everything you look for in a cozy mystery but also feels like a breath of fresh air. Author Raquel V. Reyes fills this story with details that make it feel real, despite there being a character named Sunny Weatherman. Cuban American Miriam and her family, friends and co-workers are well-rounded personalities whom readers will be eager to learn more about. Miriam’s attempts to find a killer take her to strip malls filled with questionable folk healers and incredible restaurants serving Cuban American standards like ropa vieja and pollo a la plancha. Reyes incorporates Spanish into characters’ dialogue throughout, adding authenticity, while subtly providing context so that readers who aren’t Spanish speakers won’t miss a beat. Dig into this inviting, suspenseful feast for the senses.

★ The Man Who Died Twice

It’s impossible to single out any one feature that makes The Man Who Died Twice such an absolute treat. The plot is a crackling mystery: Septuagenarian retiree and amateur sleuth Elizabeth gets a coded message from someone in her past asking for help, as he’s stolen a lot of diamonds from some very angry people. When two people are killed, the hunt is on for the killers and the diamonds. English TV presenter and comedian Richard Osman creates real magic with his characters. They are frequently laugh-out-loud hilarious but also entirely real and three-dimensional. There’s also dogged police work, tradecraft most devious, a lot of cocaine and those diamonds. If possible, this sequel is even better than the Osman’s charmer of a debut, The Thursday Murder Club. This series is both a load of fun and an ode to how the power of friendship is important throughout one’s life but especially during the final stretch. Don’t miss it.

★ Seven-Year Witch

Seven-Year Witch finds Josie Way settling into life as a librarian in rural Wilfred, Oregon, and deepening her powers as a witch, thanks to letters left to her by her grandmother. The old mill in town is set to be turned into a lavish retreat center, but rumors that the site is cursed raise local hackles, especially when the disappearance of one of Wilfred’s inhabitants is followed by the discovery of a bloody weapon. Josie’s love interest, FBI agent Sam Wilfred, returns to town, but things between them are complicated by the news that he’s married with a baby. Author Angela M. Sanders uses the eerie atmosphere to great effect and also plays with the assumed charms of a small town. For example, the locals lose some of their warmth when there’s a killer in their midst. Josie’s witchcraft plays into solving the mystery, but the story feels realistic overall. Full of false leads and truly surprising reveals, this terrifically plotted mystery is hard to put down.

Not one, not two, but all three of the books in this month’s cozy column received starred reviews!

Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

Murder at the neighborhood watering hole

Review by Joanne Collings

The English invented the cozy mystery and Simon Brett—creator of famous characters Mrs. Pargeter and Charles Paris—is a master of the form. The Poisoning in the Pub, the 10th book in the Fethering series, demonstrates the author’s inventiveness within an established genre.

Jude (no surname), an alternative healer, and Carole Sedden, a retired civil servant, have discovered in earlier Fethering books that despite their obvious differences, they are a formidable team when it comes to solving mysteries. On a day when some “off” scallops are served in their local pub, the Crown and Anchor, they are among the group who gets food poisoning. Jude and Carol are friends of the pub owner Ted Crisp and his staff, and given the high standards the kitchen adheres to, they smell something fishy.

In an attempt to attract more visitors to the pub, Crisp lets his mate, Dan Poke—a has-been comic—arrange a comedy night. The event draws the (negative) attention of the neighborhood association and its leading light, Greville Tilbrook. When the show attracts a big crowd, including a number of bikers, an inevitable parking lot melee occurs. The result is in the death of young Ray, a developmentally disabled man employed by Ted.

Already disturbed by what they’ve learned while looking into the scallop incident, Jude and Carole redouble their efforts to find Ray’s killer and uncover the motive behind all the trouble. They eventually discover a pattern linking these crimes to those at other pubs. Another possible murder does nothing to discourage our heroines. They may be “women of a certain age,” but time has done nothing to wither their curiosity or resolve. They are cut from true cozy detective material. I loved Mrs. Pargeter, but I could become very fond of Jude and Carole.

Brett is always readable and often drolly amusing, and he is a man with opinions. In The Poisoning in the Pub, he tackles many social issues: the disappearance of the independent English pub and its conglomerate-owned cookie-cutter replacements; the Iraq war and the treatment of its veterans when they return home; and health and safety standards gone mad (no hanging plants or children playing with conkers lest anyone get hurt).

Finally, although Brett follows the usual cozy rules (no sex or overt violence on the page, etc.), there is considerable vulgarity in one notable scene. Consider yourself warned.

Joanne Collings cozies up with a good book in Washington, D.C.

The English invented the cozy mystery and Simon Brett—creator of famous characters Mrs. Pargeter and Charles Paris—is a master of the form. The Poisoning in the Pub, the 10th book in the Fethering series, demonstrates the author’s inventiveness within an established genre.

Jude (no surname), an…

Mystery & SuspenseCozy Mystery

The mystery of a dog’s mind

Review by Barbara Clark

Arf! Can you read your pet’s mind? That’s exactly what happens when professional dog walker Ellie Engleman is with her dog, Rudy, or in fact with any of her canine charges—whenever they allow her into their minds. Begging for Trouble is author Judi McCoy’s fourth “dog walker mystery,” and it will engage both canine aficionados and lovers of a good ongoing romance.

The romance portion involves the overly curious Ellie, who’s deeply involved with her handsome, workaholic and by-the-book cop boyfriend, Sam. He’s leery of Ellie’s involvement in recent crimes—she seems to have played a part in several of his past murder investigations, and it’s put her at personal risk. Sam’s instinct to protect his woman vies with his hard-earned knowledge that she’ll go her own way no matter what he suggests, and the two go on a merry chase during their separate investigations, while at the same time finding deep contentment in each other’s arms.

The dog-and-mystery show belongs to Ellie’s canine friends, as she becomes party to their thoughts while whirling them on their early spring walks through Manhattan’s streets and parks. Ellie’s just found out that one of her dog-owner clients, Rob, is a well-known drag queen, and she and Sam are in the audience one night to watch him perform when a deadly stabbing is committed offstage. Rob is found bending over the body of his understudy, Carmella, and becomes suspect numero uno. Rob’s tiny pup, Bitsy, is stashed in a carrier under the dressing table throughout the horrendous event, and witnesses her owner’s arrest amid the blood and mayhem. She could provide a clue to the real murderer’s identity if she could describe what happened, but she’s too traumatized to remember.

Ellie and Sam trip over each other’s feet as they wend their own ways toward solving the crime. Ellie’s unorthodox ability to interact mentally with her canine friends is a well-kept secret—who would believe her if she told someone?—so she treads on shaky ground as she searches for clues, and even takes Bitsy to visit pet psychic Madame Orzo. A swarm of New York apartment dwellers of every stripe and type, along with Ellie’s offbeat friends and family, add great color to the story—but the real kudos in this lively whodunit belong to the four-legged animals, who yap their way comfortably through the action.

Arf! Can you read your pet’s mind? That’s exactly what happens when professional dog walker Ellie Engleman is with her dog, Rudy, or in fact with any of her canine charges—whenever they allow her into their minds. Begging for Trouble is author Judi McCoy’s fourth…

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