City of Dark Corners by Jon Talton

May 10, 2021

I loved Jon Talton’s standalone, City of Dark Corners. Before you jump to get it at your local library or bookstore, though, you need to know it’s set in Phoenix and the Valley of the Sun in 1933. I lived in the Valley for 8 1/2 years, and I recognize the...

People of Abandoned Character by Clare Whitfield

April 26, 2021

Remember that title, People of Abandoned Character. There’s really no one in Clare Whitfield’s debut historical mystery that I would care to know, not even the narrator. However, the more I thought about the book, the more I realized it did just exactly...

Death of a Showman by Mariah Fredericks

April 25, 2021

I don’t know if Mariah Fredericks’ Death of a Showman is that much better than the other three Jane Prescott mysteries or if it’s my passion for Broadway that makes this one shine. She excels at the behind-the-scenes machinations of a Broadway...

The Sign of Death by Callie Hutton

April 12, 2021

Callie Hutton’s The Sign of Death picks up exactly where A Study in Murder leaves off. If you haven’t read the first one, I definitely recommend it before picking up the second Victorian Book Club mystery. The characters in the humorous historical mystery...

To the Dark by Chris Nickson

February 27, 2021

If you like realistic historical fiction, atmospheric with sometimes grim details of daily life, you might want to try the third Simon Westow mystery, Chris Nickson’s To the Dark. When the snow melts in the dirty factory town of Leeds, England in February 1823,...