Category Archives: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

“The Red Book of Primrose House” is the second in the series of Potting Shed mysteries by Marty Wingate. I must admit I much preferred the first book. There is a bit of a sophmore slump in this second book.

Our sleuth, Pru Parke has finally gotten the job she needs in order to stay in England. She is a recent transplant from Texas and had given herself a year to settle in and find a job. The only drawback to the job is that it puts her at a distance from her new boyfriend, a detective in London that she met in the first book in this series.

Pru seems to have rather quickly adopted the lingo of her adopted country as well as their habits. To tell the truth, this is one of the things I object to in this story. I think it would be much better to have Pru speak in her Texas “voice” and have her habits contrast with that of those around her. I worked with many British individuals and was told that they generally have a lot of disdain for expats who come across too native too soon. They can tell that it is not natural and they simply don’t like it. At one point in the story, Pru hides the fact that she is making iced tea because it is too different from what her friends would do.

Pru has turned on the waterworks in this story. She has become a crier and is frankly too dependent on her boyfriend. I like a stronger woman in my mysteries and hope that the author firms up Pru’s backbone in the future. She is also acting fairly young for a woman in her fifties. One would think that time and experience would have given her a more resolute spirit.

Apart from that, it was a decent cozy mystery. The whodunnit was not too difficult to figure out and from that point on, waiting for Pru to come up with the answer was about two thirds of the book. Perhaps that is why some of the character issues became more prominent to me. All I was relying on at that point was the charm of the story and some of it lost its charm pretty quickly.

The book ends a little strangely from my point of view. Hopefully, it will make more sense in the follow on book in this series. I also hope that Pru grows up, grows a backbone, and starts acting her age and her own person.

This is the first book in the Potting Shed Mystery series by Marty Wingate. From what I have read, “The Garden Plot” is also the first mystery that Ms. Wingate wrote. I recently read “The Rhyme of the Magpie” which is a first in another series by the author and enjoyed it so much, that I sought out her previous books. I am certainly glad to have done so. For a first book, “The Garden Plot” is an excellent cozy mystery.

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“Remember Mia” is the story of a woman who has literally lost her seven month old daughter. It is also a story about the deep postpartum depression a woman can suffer from following birth. The first third of the book moved a little slowly and, frankly, I had a hard time reading about Stella’s inability to care for her child. I was blessed not to suffer from this after my children were born and reading about it was very difficult to do.

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“Morgue Drawer: Clink or Cooler?” is the fifth and latest entry in the Morgue Drawer series by Jutta Profijt. I have read the entire series and have enjoyed all of the books. The latest one is one of my favorites. All of the characters are well-established, so there isn’t a lot of time being spent explaining their back stories – the book concentrates on the murder mystery and the whodunnit.

Speaking of which, I was able to figure out the whodunnit fairly early on but I was stymied by the whydunnit. That kept my interest piqued as I read through the story.

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“Killer Jam” is the first in the new Dewberry Farm mystery series by Karen MacInerney. This is the book I have read by Ms. MacInerney. It does well as an introduction to a new series, which by its nature, is a little more involved than sequels. We are being introduced to all of the characters and that takes some time and explanation which in turn takes time and pages away from the rest of the story.

The author is able to pull this off really well and so we get to know our sleuth, Lucy Resnick quite well. Lucy is an ex-newspaper journalist from Houston who was downsized out of her job (print newspaper) and decides to put her savings into following her dream. She buys Dewberry Farm, which is her old family home which appears to be somewhere between Houston and Austin (her grandparents Vogel owned it until it was sold to the current owner.)

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It has been a number of years since I have read one of the Inspector Lynley books by Elizabeth George. It was surprising to pick up the latest “A Banquet of Consequences” and find that it fit my mood and my remembrances like a well-worn glove.

I stepped back during my read (be aware that this is a fairly long book at almost 600 pages), and took a look at some of the intervening books that I had missed. I was surprised to see that the reviews tended towards the average. If that is the case, then Ms. George is back on the mark with this book as it was truly an excellent and nicely long read.

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“Double Mint” by Gretchen Archer is a mile-a-minute funny whodunnit mystery. While I had no problems picking up the action in this fourth in the series book (and my first read by this author), I highly suggest reading the books in order. I will be reading and laughing my way through the three prior books shortly.

Davis Way Cole is the top seniority casino security personnel at the Bellissimo Resort and Casino. She is also married to the casino manager but due to her job, no one (well, almost no one) can know who she is or see her in the casino managers suite of rooms. The suite of rooms she wishes she didn’t have to live in because it is an over-the-top representation of a New Orleans Mardi Gras nightmare.

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“Killing Secrets” is the latest entry in the Nan Vining mystery series by Dianne Embley. While it is the first of her books that I have read, it was not at all difficult to read it as a stand-alone book. I could tell from references in the story that there was a long and varied back history for the characters.

In this story, Detective Nan Vining is called to the scene of a possible murder-suicide. It turns out that Nan’s daughter and her daughter’s boyfriend were the ones to find the horrific scene. It also turns out that Nan had no idea that her daughter even had a boyfriend.

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“Wings in the Dark” is like a visit back to the old Hollywood version of the 1930’s where men were the tough and silent types who could take it on the chin and the women were good hearted dames who knew their way around an investigation or two.

Jake Donovan is a mystery writer (though previously a Pinkerton detective and a former police detective.) He and his newly married wife, Laura Wilson, are on their honeymoon in Hawaii. Laura is an up-and-coming actress who has a big fan base and, fortunately or not, the two of them keep running into those fans throughout the story.

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“Beyond A Doubt” is the second in the Carol Childs mystery series by Nancy Cole Silverman. Carol is a reporter for a local radio station which seems to be located in Culver City, California. While some of the directions to and from the station (and to a degree, around the Southland) seem a little off to me (I lived in Culver City for almost 30 years and got to know the lay of the land fairly well), the vibe and the personalities of the individuals in the story are dead on for the area.

In this story, Carol has been tasked with reporting on the rash of missing young women and girls who have disappeared in recent months. The story begins with her reporting of the finding of a body of one of the young women, the daughter of a local and prominent judge. The story involves the requisite “whodunnit” which is solved fairly early and then turns on the how and why it was done.

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