The Unkindness of Ravens by M.E. Hilliard

April 13, 2021

Anyone who read the girl detectives, Nancy Drew or Trixie Belden, will appreciate the opening of M.E. Hilliard’s debut mystery, The Unkindness of Ravens. Hilliard, who went back to school to become a librarian, introduces Greer Hogan, who went back to get a...

Killer Content by Olivia Blacke

January 31, 2021

Olivia Blacke’s debut mystery, Killer Content, introduces a spirited amateur sleuth in an atmospheric mystery. We all know how much I love debut mysteries. This one has unconventional characters and two charming animals. It’s an upbeat mystery, despite a...

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

September 21, 2020

“Killing someone is easy. hiding the body, now, that’s usually the hard part.” It’s even harder to keep that killing a secret when The Thursday Murder Club takes an interest. In his funny, sometimes poignant debut mystery, Richard Osman...

The Body in the Garden by Katharine Schellman

April 06, 2020

Crushed. I was just crushed when I went to review Katharine Schellman’s debut mystery for a mystery column, and someone else had been assigned to the book. They better write a good review, because I loved this debut, and I’m looking forward to the next...

An Old Man’s Game by Andy Weinberger

December 07, 2019

It’s sort of disturbing to realize Amos Parisman, a retired PI in Los Angeles, is only a few years older than I am. He was a Marine in Vietnam, then a private investigator for forty years. He and his wife, Loretta, are aging in a retirement home when he’s...