The Library of Lost Dollhouses by Elise Hooper

April 04, 2025

How could I go wrong with a novel about dollhouses, miniatures, and a librarian? Elise Hooper’s The Library of Lost Dollhouses has all those elements, along with an artist to root for. Readers who don’t care for alternating timelines will not be happy with...

A Lesson in Dying by Ann Cleeves

March 24, 2025

Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves gave readers the Inspector Ramsay series. Despite 1990 publication in the United Kingdom, the first book in the series, A Lesson in Dying, is only now available in the U.S. It’s a village mystery, with Ramsay only on the...

A Lethal Walk in Lakeland by Nicholas George

January 20, 2025

While I enjoy the premise of Nicholas George’s series, and I like the protagonist, there’s just something off about this latest book, A Lethal Walk in Lakeland. I was just disgusted with the over-the-top behavior of the Uptons, a family of Texans on the...

The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime by Vicki Delany

January 14, 2025

In the tenth book in Vicki Delany’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery series, The Incident of the Book in the Nighttime, the author packs up bookstore owner Gemma Doyle and her friends and sends them to London. You would think West London, Massachusetts would be...

The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin

September 23, 2024

In 2021, Madeline Martin’s The Last Bookshop in London was one of the best books I read that year. I just finished her historical novel, The Booklover’s Library, and it’s going on this year’s list. Martin knows how to tell an emotional story of...