Tasha Alexander’s new book, Behind the Shattered Glass, is the eighth in her Lady Emily historical suspense series and one of the more enjoyable books this reviewer has read in some time. It is written with such a sure, smooth hand, it almost seems as if Alexander’s words arrive on paper without effort, and it illustrates why she has become a New York Times best-selling author.

Emily and her dashing husband, Colin Hargreave, get caught up in a new puzzle when Archibald Scolfield, a neighbor and the latest Marquess of Montagu, staggers into the library of their Anglemore Park estate and drops dead on the carpet. Not content to leave the murder investigation up to the police, they decide to find the killer themselves by retracing the events that led to his untimely death.

Since the Hargreaves live in the late Victorian era and can’t pursue the evidence via jet flight, SUV or Internet, the book proceeds at an enjoyable pace as Emily and Colin travel to neighbors’ homes on horseback or take a railway train or horse-drawn carriage to various picturesque English destinations to piece the story together.

It soon becomes clear that Archibald enjoyed the ladies—in particular, servant girls well below his societal status—and suspects galore begin to emerge as Emily traces the various female conquests the Marquess left in his wake. Suspicion also falls on the vicar’s daughter, who imagined herself betrothed to the man, as well as on his cousin Matilda, who stood to lose her right to live at the Montagu estate should Archibald decide to marry.

Britain’s rigid social hierarchy is a subject of high concern to both the “upstairs” and “downstairs” characters, and the story emerges in alternating up- and below-stairs narratives that dovetail nicely at the finale. The author is skilled at introducing small events that crisscross one person’s story with another’s, throwing suspicion in all directions. There are also some diverting romantic angles, including a set-to between two of the book’s most entertaining characters, Lady Matilda and her distant cousin Rodney, the (possibly illegitimate) new Lord Montagu.

Emily sometimes appears as a product of her times, while in other moments she seems to inhabit a more modern era as she looks with humor at the foibles and social misconceptions of an earlier time. In either case, her adventures go down easily and are a delight to read.

The Sound and the Furry is the 6th book in Spencer Quinn’s delightful and insightful Chet and Bernie mystery series. Bernie’s the human detective, while his canine partner, Chet, narrates each book, lending his singular methodology to the unique crime-solving team. Chet lives in every moment (we envy him), with few muddy introspections to divert him from the joy of the present, whether it’s riding shotgun with Bernie or the taste of bacon.

Chet and Bernie spring from the fertile brain of well-known crime fiction author Peter Abrahams, who kept his alter ego of Spencer Quinn a secret through the first few books of this series. Quinn/Abrahams, a serious dog lover himself, interprets and elaborates on the dog-human bond with great inventiveness, and Chet and Bernie’s separate skills make them a funny and surprisingly successful team. Who’s in charge? Hard to say. Bernie does the head work, but Chet smells the smells and hears the snaps in the bushes long before his human companion does, and his instinct for nosing out a bad guy is right on target.

Fact is, though, all this canine wit and wisdom would wear quickly without the added dimension of a good plot and well-drawn human characters with staying power. The Sound and the Furry scores high as a complicated and suspenseful page-turner. Here the duo has left their Southwest desert hometown to head for Faulkner country, deep in Louisiana. They’re looking for a missing man—a straight arrow, jazz-loving, dog-owning guy named Ralph who’s a member of the edge-of-the-law Boutette family.

The Boutettes have an ancient feud with the Robideaus across the bayou bridge, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are dudes with cowboy hats and dudes with facemasks, troublemakers from an oil company inaccurately named Green Oil, and an intense drug gang called the Quieros. And in one genuinely scary chapter, Chet faces a watery match with a frightening creature named Iko.

How does a shrimp heist tie in with a fatal drug overdose, oil-covered birds and Ralph’s mysterious disappearance? Readers will have a grand time piecing it all together with Chet and Bernie.

In her debut novel, Karen Keskinen builds an engaging mystery around her characters, the eccentric residents of Santa Barbara, California, who deal with the murder of a young girl in their city in very idiosyncratic ways. The first-person narrative brings the coastal community to life through the eyes of private investigator Jaymie Zarlin, finder of missing persons and champion of the misunderstood. As the story opens, Jaymie’s been hired to look into a murder committed in the waning hours of a traditional solstice celebration. Jaymie suspects just about everyone except the accused, Danny Armenta, a mentally ill young man found catatonic at the scene of the brutal crime.

A multi-dimensional psychological mystery focusing on the humanity of all involved.

In a refreshing departure from doggedly procedural crime stories, Keskinen doesn’t focus on weapons and timelines as much as personality and motivation. Jaymie’s investigation proceeds as she, along with readers, gets to know everyone from Danny’s poverty-stricken, plucky Aunt Gabi to the sharp-tongued oil heiress, Miss Delaney. Seemingly effortless, natural dialogue quickly reveals characters’ personalities without giving away their guilt or innocence.

Blood Orange is a multi-dimensional psychological mystery, focusing on the humanity of all involved. For instance, Keskinen gives Jaymie a fascinating backstory and an exciting, if complicated, love life. Readers will be intrigued by her reluctance to commit to devoted suitor Mike Dawson, the handsome deputy sheriff Jaymie clearly adores even if she won’t admit it. And they’ll definitely want to know more about Jaymie’s commitment to her lost brother Brodie, whose troubling story eerily mirrors that of Danny Armenta.

Keskinen makes sure readers care about her characters, and readers will enjoy collecting clues from the extensive cast and rooting for Jaymie to tie them all together. This she quite satisfyingly does, although it’s clearly not the end of the road for this private investigator, as Keskinen leaves plenty of room for further adventures.

In What the Cat Saw, multiple award-winning mystery writer Carolyn Hart has penned another can’t-put-down tale—the first in a series—and this one comes with a nice dash of romance.

Nela Farley has traveled out West to cat-sit—she’s filling in for her sister, Chloe, who was minding the cat upon the death of its owner, Marion Grant, one of her employers in the hotsy-totsy charitable Haklo Foundation in Craddock, Oklahoma. The plan is for Nela to perform Chloe’s secretarial duties at the foundation while the latter is sunning in Tahiti. She’s hot-footed it off with her boyfriend to the tropics, while Nela, still reeling from the death of her soldier fiancé, thinks a change of scene may be just the ticket.

The proverbial ticket, however, comes complete with an apartment break-in on the very first night of Nela’s arrival, and if that’s not enough, there’s Nela’s subsequent discovery of a glittering diamond and gold necklace in Marion Grant’s purse, left strangely untouched when the place was ransacked. To make matters even worse, are those the cat’s thoughts echoing around in Nela’s head? Jugs, the feline, appears to be communicating feelings of unease and dread that include the possibility that his former owner did not die accidentally.

To make matters even worse, are those the cat’s thoughts echoing around in Nela’s head?

The necklace and the circumstances surrounding Grant’s death form the backdrop for Nela’s first day at work. She learns of all the strange, angry occurrences that have occurred at the foundation over the past year, including the disappearance of—you guessed it—an heirloom diamond necklace belonging to the foundation’s trustee, Blythe Webster.

In practiced and satisfying fashion, Hart pulls in her readers, winding the threads of circumstance and drawing Nela in tighter and tighter as she gets to know the odd little group whose lives revolve around the foundation and whose lines of patience have been stretched with each small act of violence, culminating in another murder most foul.

Enter Steve Flynn, a rumpled, red-headed reporter for the Craddock Clarion. Steve’s eye for the truth, as well as his eye for Nela, enliven the activities, and after circling one another for a time, the two form a somewhat wary alliance to ferret out the culprit. This is a nicely fashioned whodunit guaranteed to keep readers’ interest right to the finish.