Hard Rain by Samantha Jayne Allen

April 22, 2023

Samantha Jayne Allen won the Tony Hillerman Prize for her debut novel, Pay Dirt Road. Hard Rain is the sequel. Allen brings back Annie McIntyre, waitress turned apprentice in her grandfather’s private detective agency. These novels, set in a small Texas town,...

Kindred Crimes by Janet Dawson

April 19, 2023

I have a new addiction, Janet Dawson’s Jeri Howard PI novels. Kindred Crimes is the first in the series, winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America Best First PI contest. The book came out in 1990, and went on to be nominated for the...

The Things We Keep by Janet Dawson

April 18, 2023

Janet Dawson’s The Things We Keep is the kind of private investigator novel I’m always hoping to read. I don’t know why I missed the first in the series, Kindred Crimes, when it came out in 1990. It won the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye...

Dark Angel by John Sandford

April 11, 2023

John Sandford’s second Letty Davenport novel, Dark Angel, is so convoluted that the descriptions online are confusing. I’ll admit that my review may sound a little messy as well because there are secrets that Letty doesn’t know that would reveal too...

An American in Scotland by Lucy Connelly

April 04, 2023

In the last months of 2022, the best mysteries I read were often cozies. Cozy mystery authors, including Lucy Connelly, have added a depth to their books, sometimes a darkness and reality, that wasn’t always present in cozies. An American in Scotland is an...