Wined and Died in New Orleans by Ellen Byron

February 11, 2023

When Ellen Byron launched the Vintage Cookbook Mystery series with Bayou Book Thief, I complained that amateur sleuth Ricki James was a bit of a mess. She’s still a little too impulsive for my taste, but she’s growing on me. And, I love the cast of...

A Killing of Innocents by Deborah Crombie

February 07, 2023

It has been several years since fans have been able to catch up with Duncan Kincaid, Gemma James, their police teams, and their family. A Killing of Innocents, the nineteenth in the series, doesn’t disappoint. Detective Sergeant Duncan Kincaid noticed the young...

Encore in Death by J.D. Robb

February 06, 2023

I would have expected that J.D. Robb’s Encore in Death, a police procedural set in the world of Broadway and Hollywood, would have been one of my favorites in the series. But, it wasn’t quite up to the tension of Desperation in Death, the previous book in...

Of Manners and Murder by Anastasia Hastings

February 04, 2023

It seems this is the season for “Agony Aunt” mysteries. Although Mary Winters’ March release, Murder in Postscript is set twenty years earlier than Anastasia Hastings’ Of Manners and Murder, both books feature young women tasked with writing...

Frozen Detective by Amanda Flower

January 23, 2023

I wonder where Amanda Flower would have taken the characters of the Piper and Porter cozy mystery series if Hallmark Publishing hadn’t closed down. Frozen Detective follows Dead-End Detective, the mystery that introduced private detective Darby Piper and her...