The Shining Skull by Kate Ellis

December 16, 2016

Kate Ellis’ books are not easy to come by in the U.S., but if you have the chance to pick them up, they’re worth it. She combines history with contemporary crime, has a team of police officers in Tradmouth in Devon, England, and includes details of the...

No Pity for the Dead by Nancy Herriman

August 03, 2016

Nancy Herriman’s No Comfort for the Lost was one of my favorite books last year. Now, she takes us back to San Francisco in 1867 in No Pity for the Dead. It’s another atmospheric mystery that brings the city, its life and politics, to life. Celia...

A Front Page Affair by Radha Vatsal

May 26, 2016

I made a serious mistake while I read Radha Vatsal’s debut mystery, A Front Page Affair. I found myself criticizing Kitty Weeks, the young journalist/amateur sleuth for her naïveté. And, then I realized a nineteen-year-old young woman, brought up in Europe prior...

Delivering the Truth by Edith Maxwell

April 16, 2016

Edith Maxwell launches a new historical mystery series with an outstanding, character-driven book. Set in 1888, in the author’s hometown of Amesbury, Massachusetts, it’s a wonderful introduction to a lifestyle, religion, and profession most of us are...

Home by Nightfall by Charles Finch

November 14, 2015

I hadn’t read any of the previous Charles Lenox mysteries by Charles Finch. Now that I’ve read his ninth, Home by Nightfall, I regret missing the the previous books. At the same time, Finch makes it remarkably easy to pick up the series at this point....