The Naming of the Birds by Paraic O’Donnell

January 05, 2025

The Naming of the Birds, Paraic O’Donnell’s sequel to The House of Vesper Sands, hooked me from the beginning. I will say, though, that Inspector Henry Cutter was a little too pedantic for my taste. Although I read almost all of his lengthy lectures, I...

A Scandal in Mayfair by Katharine Schellman

August 20, 2024

At the time I wrote this (in March), there was no cover art available for the book, so the formatting for Katharine Schellman’s A Scandal in Mayfair may be a little off. The London season is just beginning in the fifth in the Lily Adler mystery series, set in...

The Mayfair Dagger by Ava January

April 23, 2024

The cover makes this appear to be an ordinary historical mystery, but I can assure you there is nothing ordinary about Ava January’s The Mayfair Dagger. It’s the funniest historical mystery I’ve read. When the judge refers to the courtroom scene as a...

The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan

April 02, 2024

I may be wrong. I often am when it comes to “Best of” lists at the end of the year. I suspect The Murder of Mr. Ma by John Shen Yen Nee and SJ Rozan will be on a number of those lists. Deservedly so. The novel has a brisk pace, an intriguing background,...

The Innocents by Bridget Walsh

March 27, 2024

Anyone who enjoyed Bridget Walsh’s first Variety Palace Mystery, The Tumbling Girl, will want to return to Victorian England for the second historical mystery, The Innocents. Readers really should pick up the first book before this one, though, with the return...