A Lesson in Dying by Ann Cleeves

March 24, 2025

Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves gave readers the Inspector Ramsay series. Despite 1990 publication in the United Kingdom, the first book in the series, A Lesson in Dying, is only now available in the U.S. It’s a village mystery, with Ramsay only on the...

Murder in an English Village by Jessica Ellicott

October 31, 2017

Jessica Ellicott introduces two delightful characters in the first in a new series, Murder in an English Village. Travel back in time to 1920, just after the First World War, or The Great War, as it’s called in England. Beryl Helliwell is a famous American...

The Witches’ Tree by M. C. Beaton

October 15, 2017

I’m a latecomer to M. C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin series. To be honest, I’m not a big fan of a character who is man-hungry and doesn’t feel as if she’s complete without a man in her life. I’ve read and reviewed the books when there...

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

June 06, 2017

Anthony Horowitz’ clever, beautifully pitched Magpie Murders is one of the two best books I’ve read so far this year (Lori Rader-Day’s The Day I Died is the other.). Horowitz’ voice is perfect for a “British whodunit with a country...

Shiver Hitch by Linda Greenlaw

June 03, 2017

It’s been nine years since Linda Greenlaw’s last Jane Bunker mystery, Fisherman’s Bend. Now, she brings back the former Florida police detective who left for Maine. Jane, insurance investigator and Assistant Deputy Sheriff, narrates the story of a...