Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

I’m a fan of the Jaya Jones mystery series. It is like Indian Jones and Amelia Peabody rolled into one and set in a current day setting with a feisty sleuth.

Jaya is a professor who seems to like to venture outside of the classroom to solve mysteries (Jones and Peabody in one!) She always seems to be put into the heart of the action whether she wants it or not (but she usually is happy to be right in the midst of it.)

In this book, we are given nine short stories which feature Ms. Jones. She is given a series of “unsolvable” mysteries and guess what? Does she solve them? Well, you’ll have to read the book for yourself.
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I have read all of the books in this series and have enjoyed every one. This one is a good one but not one of my top favorites. I think the reason is because the long term story takes a sharp turn.

It’s not that I mind the turn it’s because of how abrupt it is. I can understand that the author may have been less inspired by potential storylines including certain characters and saw more from others. However, readers have come to know and care for these characters after five books and, perhaps, the change could have been accomplished with a little more care.

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I’ve read the books in this series and enjoy this new one as a solid entry. It isn’t my favorite but it is a fun and fairly quick read.

Penelope Sutherland is once again the caterer on a project that her best friend/roommate, and rising star, Arlena, is involved in.

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I got this book as I enjoy both coloring books and mysteries. I expected the mystery to have a lot of coloring references which didn’t really happen. There were references to drawing and to the group which meets to color but coloring was not the focus of the mystery.

The main sleuth of the story, the manager of Color Me Read, is Florrie Fox who is also a coloring book illustrator and artist. She works through mysteries which her drawing abilities as well as weighing the evidence.

In this book, a friend of the group meets an untimely death after finding a rare item. The story takes off with lots of twists and turns.

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I’m fairly new to novels by Anne Perry, having just started reading them in the last year. This is a short novel about a young boy, Worm, who is a character in at least one other series by the author.

Worm has just found his place in a women’s home. The bookkeeper there is, Squeaky, a former criminal who is meticulous in what he does.

Worm runs across a woman in distress and gets Squeak to help him to help her. Squeaky does but at the same time is aware of the possible heartbreak young Worm may find.

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I have read almost all of the books in this series. I enjoy the plot lines and the characters. The whodunnits almost always keep me guessing until the end. However, in addition to the great writing, I really enjoy that the series is set in Maine (the state my husband is from) and that it involves needlework as the “hook” that grounds the series.

I am a needleworker and can verify the the needlework comments are spot on. When I ask my husband about points regarding to Maine, he tells me Ms. Wait really knows the state.

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This is the sixth book in the Kenni Lowry Mystery series. I have enjoyed reading every single one of them and this book right up there as one of my favorites. While I think the story can be read stand-alone, there is so much involved with character and plot building, I highly recommend reading the series in order.

It’s Christmas time and Sheriff Kenni Lowry is trying to wrap things up so she had her boyfriend can head out of town to visit his family for the holidays. Between Kenni’s mother wailing about the first Christmas they will be apart and the threat of the snowstorm of the century, Kenni is trying to stay optimistic about actually getting out of town.
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This is a series that I have read for a while. I find that each book adds to the continuing story and presents and different and unusual whodunnit to solve.

In this story Zoe Chambers, our sleuth, is trying to solve the mystery of a murder at an assisted living facility. Her boyfriend Pete Adams, who is the chief of police, is also concerned as his father is a resident at the facility.

While their investigation coincides, they don’t work side by side. The story follows each of them as they put clues together.

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I’m fairly new to books by Anne Perry but what I have read so far, I have enjoyed. “Dark Tide Rising” is the first in the William Monk series that I have read.

The plot was interesting as well as the characters. The characters are extremely well-rounded but makes me want to go back and read the earlier books to see where they came from to get to this point.

The plot, while interesting and well-written included a “whodunnit” that I found fairly easy to solve. I read a lot of mysteries, so that may be why it proved to be so. The caliber of the writing and the characters more than made up for my guessing the ending so soon.

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This is the first series I have read by Dean Koontz. With each new novel, I find myself drawn more and more to the strong female character, Jane Hawk.

She is fighting against an enemy that is bigger and much more well-funded than she is. Though she is far from by herself. Though it feels that way to her. The truth is, as time goes on, more and more people are becoming aware of a sub-current that is going on in the world. She finds help in unexpected places.

Such is the case as Jane fights against the clock to save her young son from being found and killed (or worse) by the sick society that is trying to take over.

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