Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

This is the ninth book in the Maggie Hope mystery series. In this story, Maggie has turned her life upside down. Because of her spying efforts in the War, and because of her near miss at being one of a serial killers victims, she has turned to something other than fighting the war.

She is still doing her part by diffusing unexploded bombs that litter the landscape in London. It is a hard job and one that is generally filled by conscientious objectors. A number of these are the British citizens of Italian descent. Rather than fight their families in the war, they turn to other ways of helping.

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It’s the holiday season in Sun City West, the retirement community where most of the action in this series takes place. It starts with Halloween, moves rapidly to Thanksgiving and finishes off with Christmas.

What better way to celebrate the season than dressing up your dog to be a contestant in the Precious Pooches Holiday Extravaganza costume contest? At least, that is what Sophie Kimball (know to most as Phee) finds that is her mother’s way of celebrating the holidays.

Streeman, the dog in question, throws everything for a loop when he finds a dead body in the backyard of the house just behind his owner’s. Phee is brought in to investigate even though she is just an accountant at a private detective agency. That doesn’t make a bit of difference to her mother who insists Phee must have some investigative skills that rubbed off in the course of her work.

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This is a series that I started mid-way through and had no problems picking it up. I did go back and read a couple of the first books as well. Having said all of that, I believe that this book is more transitional and it would be helpful to read some of the earlier books first. You can read it stand-alone but some of the nuances of the relationships might be better understood with a background of the storyline.

Mattie is medicolegal death investigator (medical examiner) who assists the forensic pathologist in figuring out cause of death. In her case, she is also responsible for assisting the police with forensic evidence found at the scene if a crime has been committed.

Mattie teams up often with her husband, Steve, who is a homicide detective. In this story, she doesn’t work with him as much as previous books. She is more or less out there on her own and it proves to be a serious issue.

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This is the first book I have read by author Karen Baugh Menuhin. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I am glad I took the chance with the book.

It was both funny and a good whodunnit cozy mystery. I laughed out loud many times during my reading and, while I figured out the whodunnit, I wasn’t quite so sure of the whydunnit.

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I will start by saying that the characters in this book are way over the top. They are almost too much to be believed. At first, I was put off by it but then, I realized that it was meant to be that way.

I took it as a book that was like the first black and white movies, where the good guys were really good and the bad ones were horrible. Once I started looking at it from that point of view, I was able to relax and enjoy it as a bit of comedy mixed in with an interesting mystery.

Felicity is rich and incredibly smart. Maybe the smartest person you will ever meet (see what I mean?) She is pulled away from her home in England to look into murders which have occurred in Placer, Montana.

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This is the first book I have read in the Casey Duncan series. It is not, however, the first book I have read by author Kelley Armstrong.

With little information about what the book and series were about, I had some problems with the overall concept and with some of the dialog.

I think if I had started with the first book and read through, this book would make complete sense. However, as I often dive mid-stream into series, I am used to trying to figure out things on the fly. I was able to but some of the story was not as well explained for a first time reader.

Casey Duncan and her husband Eric Dalton (who has an incredible case of selective potty mouth) have gone off for a break in the woods. Casey comes across a dead woman who has a baby in her arms who is still alive.

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This was an interesting story. While as a mystery, I found it very easy to solve, I was surprised by the use of journaling as a way to make a living on social media.

Or not. Mandy Meadows and her daughter are becoming more highly ranked on a video social media platform (you can guess which one, though the author never said so.) For all the followers that they have, they are making only a few hundred dollars a month. Kind of puts making your fortune on social media in the right perspective.

There is a murder and Mandy is a suspect. She goes from doing her videos and selling stickers to her job as a barista at a hospital to trying to scrounge enough money to keep heart and home together.

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This is the story of Sienna Scott. Ten years before, she found a murder victim. Because of the stress involved with having seen the crime, she left home and headed for England and stayed there for ten years.

She decides to head home again to pick up the pieces of her old life. She has conveniently forgotten the pain of living with her mother, who has mental illness and causes much distress for her daughter.

There are three big reveals in this book, the whodunnit and two others. I solved all three within a page or two of meeting the pertinent characters. I don’t think it was too difficult to do so.

However, Sienna doesn’t seem to see the troubles lying ahead. Also, she falls into a physical relationship with someone she really doesn’t know and then, as quickly, falls in love with him.

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This is the second in a series set in an Amish Cupcake shop. Jane Delight is the sleuth, along with her roomies and buddies, a pair of older sisters, Eleanor and Mathilda.

Jane was previously Amish and has run own to her sister, Rebecca who is still in the faith. Jane lives above the shop with her friends and helps Rebecca to help pay her way.

Jane’s ex-husband, Ted, is a rather slimy lawyer and when he hits town with his new wife, Cherri, Jane is forced into meeting him regarding some papers he is attempting to force her to sign. Jane is smarter than that.

However, in the midst of their meeting at a local and expensive restaurant, a man is murdered. When suspicions fall on her ex, Cherri begs Jane to help solve the mystery and find the real killer. Jane agrees both because she feels for Cherri and because Mathilda and Eleanor are itching for a new murder to solve.

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Valentine Harris, known as Val to just about everyone, has come to San Nicholas to build a new life with her fiance. Part of that is opening a pie shop using her recently passed away mother’s family recipes.

The engagement has already been broken as the book begins. Val is trying to rid herself of the last reminder of their time together, her very expensive and unused wedding dress.

Still, she is making a go of running her shop, known as Pie Town. This, in spite of her next door neighbor, Heidi, who is running a gym and hates that people eat sugar. Heidi seems to simply hate Pie Town and Val as well.

A customer drops dead in Pie Town, after eating one of her homemade pies. Because of that, Val becomes a suspect when it is found out that he died of poisoning.

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