Amateur investigator Dandy Gilver is an upper-class lady who solves upper-class crimes, along with her friend Alec Osborne. Her aristocratic approach gets a little tattered around the edges as she inserts herself into a household of folks who do not welcome her, but she has her breakthrough moments in Dandy Gilver and An Unsuitable Day for Murder, the sixth book in Catriona McPherson’s popular post-World War I series.

Dandy’s been called to the Scottish town of Dumfermline by a member of the Aitken family. She’s there to find young Mirren Aitken, whose family owns the Aitken Emporium, a solid, staid department store that’s celebrating its solid, staid 50th anniversary. Turns out the family’s afraid that Mirren has run off to elope with Dugald Hepburn, youngest son of the owners of House of Hepburn, the other department store in town. A major rivalry fit for the Capulets and Montagues keeps the two families far apart, each the other’s nemesis.

During the anniversary celebration at the Emporium, Dandy discovers Mirren horrifically dead, with her mother alongside holding a revolver. With this, the story is off and running, with a determined Dandy pursuing an elusive scenario well after the police have deemed the death a suicide.

Despite her aristocratic airs, Dandy is not above disturbing the crime scene, pursuing her own line of questioning and continuing to interfere in the lives of both the Hepburns and Aitkens after they’ve told her to get lost. Occasionally, she seems on the verge of noticing her behavior: “If anyone were ever to find out that Alec and I had come along like a pair of gangsters’ heavies and intimidated a grieving family this way after being told to leave them alone . . .  we would never work again,” she thinks. However, Dandy is not to be deterred from wresting a criminal from the depths of this sad, tortured family, even if it might be better to leave well enough alone.

Keep your Hepburn/Aitken family trees handy—they are conveniently provided—and your thinking cap on; you’ll need them, as confusion mounts in the “who’s who” of siblings and parents. What better place than this story to apply Sir Walter Scott’s famous line, “Oh, what a tangled web we weave / When first we practice to deceive.” Readers will keep guessing right up to the endgame in this startling tale.

Antiques Disposal, a new entry in Barbara Allan’s Trash ‘n’ Treasures mystery series starring Brandy and Vivian Borne, is a high-spirited foray into the lives of this mother-daughter amateur sleuthing team, and it’s peopled with an assortment of eccentric characters and a slightly disheveled storyline.

When Brandy and her flamboyantly attired mother, Vivian, win a bid for the contents of an abandoned storage unit near town, they anticipate finding a treasure trove of items to add to their booth in the antiques mall in downtown Serenity, a midwestern town vaguely located on the Mississippi River. But besides finding a bunch of boxes and an old beat-up horn, they’re left with a dead body—that of Big Jim Bob, the owner of the storage facility. The cops investigate and pronounce it murder most foul.

Shortly after the unit’s contents are transferred to Brandy and Vivian’s domicile, an intruder breaks in, attacking Brandy’s sister, Peggy Sue (well, she’s not really Brandy’s sister, but never mind), leaving her unconscious, along with Brandy’s beloved shih tzu, Sushi, who’s lying in a heap near the door (never fear, she recovers nicely). The only item that’s missing from the newly acquired cache is the horn . . . but it turns out to be another horn that the intruder has grabbed by mistake, leaving the newer one safely in their possession.

Not content to leave the mystery to the police—and curious about the coincidence of Jim Bob’s demise and their break-in—the dynamic duo begin an investigation on their own. What’s so valuable about that horn? There are some clues among the unit’s contents, and mother and daughter not-so-discreetly begin to find answers as they track down the unit’s former owners. Brandy and Viv must sort out the pieces, extracting answers from a reluctant police chief and from questionable lawyers, greedy antiques dealers, folks from a nearby neighborhood and a group of town retirees calling themselves The Romeos. Turns out that horn may be well worth the trouble.

Long digressions by Vivian or Brandy may test the patience of some readers, but those who enjoy such asides will relish the verbal competition between mother and daughter, each of whom claims to have a handle on the story. This installment will be welcomed by fans of offbeat cozies everywhere.

Hamlet is supremely aware of literary nuances, and can be counted on to pick just the right book from the shelves. Only thing is, Hamlet’s a cat, and his sleek moves are not always clear to his human companions at Pettistone’s Fine Books, now owned by one Darla Pettistone after her great-aunt Dee died and left her the bookstore in Brooklyn—as well as its resident cat.

Double Booked for Death is the first outing for the brand-new Black Cat Bookshop Mystery series written by Ali Brandon, one of several pen names belonging to Diane A.S. Stuckart, also known to readers as the author of the Leonardo da Vinci historical mysteries.

Darla is set to realize every bookstore owner’s dream after famed teen author Valerie Baylor agrees to sign her latest Haunted High YA novel at the store, and hundreds of screaming teens dressed in black capes crowd the sidewalk, waiting for the author (similarly known for her distinctive goth look) to arrive.

The feline sleuth seems to know his humans, too, arriving on the scene just in time to disrupt a counter display or two at opportune moments.

But a killer in—guess what?—black-caped attire intervenes, relegating Baylor to the status of murder victim. Too many suspects crowd the scene, from the writer’s odd entourage that includes a mysterious makeup assistant named Mavis, to a jealous bookstore employee, to a caped protestor accusing Baylor of plagiarism.

Darla and her tenant, friend and “store security” agent, Jacqueline (aka “Jake”), do what amateur sleuths usually do in fiction: mess around and interfere where it’s none of their business. Jake’s friend, police officer Reese, is heading up the official police investigation. But Hamlet’s on the case, albeit surreptitiously, and his timely interference and paws-on choice of reading material push the detecting in a new direction. The feline sleuth seems to know his humans, too, arriving on the scene just in time to disrupt a counter display or two at opportune moments.

Bookstore owners, current and former, may cringe a bit at the author’s somewhat pie-in-the-sky descriptions of the business of bookselling, but author Brandon’s clever casting saves the day. Readers are in for a treat if Brandon continues to develop her stable of promising characters, including bookstore manager Professor James T. James; antiques seller Mary Ann; and the very attractive Reese, whose broken nose adds a bit of intrigue to his curly blond hair and wraparound sunglasses. And, last but far from least, Hamlet himself, who deserves more respect from his colleagues next time around.

Clare O’Donohue has penned three previous mysteries in her Someday Quilts series, and like the others, her latest, The Devil’s Puzzle, is a haven for those who love a good mystery as well as the history and colorful ambiance involved in the craft of quilting. O’Donohue is also a television writer who has worked on shows for Food Network and the History Channel, and she was a producer for HGTV’s "Simply Quilts."

Twenty-something Nell Fitzgerald lives with her grandmother Eleanor in the small town of Archer’s Rest. There’s a hole being dug in their back garden, where rose bushes are planned as a gift to Eleanor, who, at 74, is about to receive a proposal. Instead, the landscapers dig up a skeleton. Reactions from the townsfolk follow on the heels (or bones) of that discovery, led by Jesse, Nell’s boyfriend and also the chief of police; various official (or officious?) town bigwigs who are planning the town’s 350^th anniversary celebration; and the Someday Quilters, an eclectic group of women friends—including Nell—who work in Eleanor’s quilting store, Someday Quilts, a landmark in the town.

Whose bones are these? What stories from the past must be dug up to uncover the history that will explain the strange discovery? The sleuthing that follows nicely mirrors the quilters’ work, as they choose pieces of bright cloth to stitch into a meaningful pattern that expresses a style or era from the past. Both real and wannabe quilters will be delighted at the lore and explanations of this historical craft that are inserted neatly into the text, adding color and depth to the plot.

The Someday Quilters and their extended families form a comfortable core for the series, and the story fans out from their daily interactions, as they meet at the aptly named Jitters coffee shop to mull over quilts and clues. The curious Nell must contend with the knotty politics that seal the lips of the librarian, town historian, old-time movie theater owner, mayor, witchy reclusive lady and other sundry characters who alternately impede and enhance her search for the skeleton’s identity.

Even though I can’t help but think that any smart police officer would jettison a nosy girlfriend who sticks her “civilian nose” into every conundrum and crime that happens in town—still, that’s what makes for a good story with a dash of romance to boot, isn’t it?

In 2003, television comedy writer Laura Levine created a female sleuth in the person of freelance copywriter Jaine Austen. Jaine soon became a member in good standing of a select club of wisecracking female detectives, including famed fictional P.I.s Stephanie Plum and Kinsey Milhone, all of the quick comeback school of detecting.

After penning her first book, This Pen for Hire, Levine went on to please mystery fans with her clever plots and wry humor. Now she has penned her 10^th installment in the series, aptly titled Pampered to Death, wherein Jaine heads off for a week of spa relaxation at The Haven, a dubiously named retreat that turns out to be a “fat farm,” or weight loss center, where weigh-ins are public torture and dessert consists of a wilted slice of mango.

The Haven becomes a perfect setting for Jaine’s hilarious brand of detecting, her one-liners as abundant as the book’s off-beat characters—including the sleuth’s cat, Prozac, a feline who’s dying for a bacon bit amidst all the lean cuisine. Equally comic are Jaine’s asides, when she shares what she imagines her compatriots are saying. In Jaine’s mind, the spa owner calls her “a tub of lard” when she’s really only calling out Jaine’s weight at the daily weigh-in, a number Jaine describes as a “carefully guarded national secret.”

The early pages are devoted to a spa-full of suspects—seems everyone at The Haven has a motive for wanting spa guest and B-list movie actress Mallory Francis out of the running . . . for good. The A-list of possibles includes Mallory’s disgruntled personal assistants; the pill-popping spa owner; former co-star Clint; and a jealous athletic instructor whose husband is dallying with the bodacious film star.

After the body is discovered—strangled with spa-healthy kelp—Jaine’s detecting begins in earnest. Her desire to escape the premises at the earliest possible moment is thwarted by the police, who want no one to leave town ‘til the murderer is apprehended. That’s plenty of incentive for Jaine to employ her detecting skills, even after she nearly becomes a victim herself, held under water by unknown hands in the spa’s Jacuzzi.

Unfortunately, there are distracting and un-funny e-mails scattered throughout the book. Minus those, this humorous send-up of health spas is sure to score high in reader caloric count—a tasty treat for Jaine Austen fans everywhere.

Leslie Meier has penned more than 14 Lucy Stone mystery novels, and her latest, English Tea Murder, has arrived just in time for her many fans to stash it in their summer beach bags and take it to the seaside. This book has a perfect title, invoking the surprise and thrill of murder as well as a British atmosphere of tea shops, country hedgerows, shadowy cathedral carvings and crypts and cozy row homes with tiny gardens.

Leave it to Lucy to be sitting across the aisle from a dead guy on an airliner en route to London. College teacher George Templeton expires in front of her eyes, after his asthma inhaler falls into a glass of water as he gasps for air. Lucy and three friends are on a group tour to London, and the deceased is (or was) the tour leader. The group includes a mix of students, parents and a few townies like Lucy and her friends, one of whom teaches a class in the college’s night school. Templeton’s death arouses odd and violent emotions in the group, but what’s their rhyme or reason? It begins to seem as though many people had a reason to cheer his death—including the tour guide sent to take Templeton’s place.  

Lucy, in her listening way, hears various stories from her tour-mates, and a rather skewed, crooked pattern (involving a near-death plunge off a pier in Brighton and, much later, another murder) begins to take shape. How do these incidents connect, and is there something—or someone—at the center, turning this wheel of misfortune?

There’s plenty here to please Meier’s followers and fans of cozy mysteries: Lucy and her friends shop their way about the countryside, and Meier pays homage to all the tried and true British high points, from the Tower of London and its resident ravens to tea shops, strawberry jam and Devonshire cream, to the glories of Stonehenge at sunset. Though it’s hard to believe that Lucy could be quite as naïve as she sometimes seems (after delving into, what, 14-plus crimes?), she does knit up the ravell’d sleeve of another one—but not without leaving readers guessing as to what the future has in store for her characters.

Goldy Schulz, the cannonball Colorado caterer, returns for an eventful performance, as she barrels through the 16th—we could almost call it edible—adventure in this witty series by Diane Mott Davidson.

Goldy’s long-suffering husband, Tom, a sheriff’s department investigator, has his hands full keeping his wife, whom he affectionately calls “Miss G,” from overloading the menu as she switches back and forth from chef to sleuth, trying to help her friend Yolanda, and Yolanda’s aunt Ferdinanda, who were burned out of the home where they’ve been staying. The home’s owner, ex-cop turned PI Ernest McCloud, has also been found murdered in a field nearby. Everyone loves Ernest, but he may have stuck a finger in one too many pies. To complicate matters, the arson thing has happened to Yolanda and her aunt before, and recently, too—their previous residence was also burned to the ground. The pair have come to stay with Goldy and Tom and their teenage son, Arch, as complications escalate.

Thus begins another flavor-filled episode in the Goldy Schulz mystery series, and although Crunch Time is overlong at more than 450 pages, it is full of satisfying real-life dialogue along with an alarming array of suspects. Goldy manages to skirt, if not break, the law several times in pursuit of some answers for her friends . . . and to keep herself safe as well.

This page-turner includes an elusive puppy breeder; long-missing jewels; upscale parties with assorted low-life guests; an electric skillet with lethal tendencies; plenty of local gossip; a lively bunch of beagle puppies; a wickedly funny refugee from Castro’s army who wields a wheelchair with finesse; and an assortment of tasty-sounding recipes sandwiched among the pages to offer culinary relief (the comic relief goes before and after). These ultimately serve up a delicious stew that will please Goldy’s many fans. At one point, that lady, who seems to be upstaging hubby Tom in the search for clues, realizes that “I had to keep my mouth shut.” Uh-uh, ain’t gonna happen in this book.

Hint for readers: look for the romantic twist that Tom adds late in the book when he asks his wife a mind-boggling question. Author Davidson writes with an assured hand, keeping her wild cast of characters just barely under control. Loose ends are neatly tied up, and there’s a mini-epilogue to whet readers’ appetites for the next go-around.

Fans of Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity series enjoy tagging along (and snacking along—every book in the series includes a recipe) with heroine Lori Shepherd on all her adventures, from the Colorado mountains to the beaches of New Zealand. But this reader prefers any installment that finds Lori in her beloved English Costwolds. Just as the lanes turn and curve to reveal tranquil scenes such as docile grazing sheep and wildflower-laden meadows, every turn of the page reveals yet another charming glimpse into the sometimes not-so-tranquil lives of the good people of Finch. 

In this 16th installment of Atherton’s delightful series featuring the special relationship between the deceased Aunt Dimity and her niece, devoted amateur sleuth Lori, things are once again looking absolutely unmanageable in the village of Finch. Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree begins when Lori’s father-in-law, William, moves to the village with plans to purchase and raise sheep on a diamond-in-the-rough estate. Through the efforts of skilled restorers, builders and plumbers, the house and grounds begin to come spectacularly together as the life of a beloved villager, Sally Pyne, falls spectacularly apart. While on holiday, Mrs. Pyne had such a marvelous time in Mexico that she forgot herself . . . quite literally. She met a worldly, dashing gentleman and led him to believe she was Lady Pyne in her home country, complete with a sprawling country estate and staff of servants. Instead, Sally is the proprietor of the village tearoom with only her spirited granddaughter Rainey as “the help” —and this mysterious man in on his way to visit her “estate.”

Sally turns to Lori and William for help. Lori, as is ritual, turns to the blue journal tucked neatly on a shelf in her study where she finds wisdom in the words of Aunt Dimity. A clever plan is soon hatched and all could be well again in the sleepy village . . . except for the odd behavior of the servants on William’s estate. Perhaps the original family members themselves have not yet moved out? Looks like Lori and Aunt Dimity have another mystery in Finch.

Cozy and charming as a cup of Earl Grey, Aunt Dimity and the Family Tree is a novel to be savored.

The first thing that Flavia de Luce, Alan Bradley’s 11-year-old sleuth, does in his latest mystery is set a gypsy fortune teller’s tent on fire. It gets worse from there, but this is a Flavia de Luce novel. So there’s a nasty bludgeoning followed by a gruesomely inventive murder and the discovery of yet another corpse, all on the de Luce property. We can count on the undaunted Flavia to get to the bottom of these crimes.

Because she’s an expert in poisons, which she sometimes uses to get non-lethal revenge on her mean sisters Ophelia and Daphne, Flavia solves her crimes through chemistry. The title may refer to the persistent and unexpected smell of fish around both crime scenes and persons of interest. But as Flavia knows, a fishy smell doesn’t necessarily mean fish. And let’s not forget the pair of fox andirons that belonged to Flavia’s long-dead Mum, Harriet. They seem heavy enough to smash in a skull or two.

A Red Herring Without Mustard is as hilarious, gripping and sad as the previous books in this enjoyable series. The comedy comes from a little girl pulling one over on a bunch of clueless grown-ups as she pretends to be as clueless as they are. It’s gripping because it’s a well-paced murder mystery, and it’s sad because Flavia’s family is so messed up. Her sisters truly, deeply, inexplicably hate her. Her father, as inurned in grief over his wife as ever, now has the extra burden of trying to keep up Buckshaw, the de Luce’s great pile of a house, and the acreage it sits on. It’s gotten to the point where he’s auctioning off the family silver—another detail the reader should keep in mind.

Bradley displays his usual insight into Flavia’s character, though I’ve always suspected the books are from the point of view of an old lady recalling an unusually interesting childhood, like Mattie in True Grit. Bradley’s also good with his minor characters, a colorful bunch that includes Dogger, the shell-shocked factotum; Mrs. Mullet, the de Luces’ voluble, no-nonsense cook; and Inspector Hewitt, the stoic detective who’ll never admit how much Flavia helps his cases. A Red Herring Without Mustard introduces the deeply troubled Bull family and Porcelain, the unstable granddaughter of the fortuneteller. The requisite, well, red herrings, are numerous enough to keep the reader guessing. Once again, Bradley succeeds. And so, of course, does Flavia.