Sometimes you need a break from serious reading…I do, when I am exceptionally busy, ill, or when the sun is out! I grabbed The Family Way by Rhys Bowen from TCPL’s new mystery book area. It’s a Molly Murphy mystery– Molly being a ‘retired to marriage’ private detective living in New York City in the [...]
I have lost count of how many times I’ve recommended author C.J. Box to other readers-his Joe Pickett series is top notch. Box’s newest effort, Breaking Point, does not disappoint and has game warden Joe trying to figure out why an acquaintance of his named Butch has went off the deep end (or more accurately, [...]
I am attracted to the settings in novels, and very much so when a book is set in a familiar place. In this case, Vicki Delany’s More than Sorrow, is set in Prince Edward County, an island county in the province of Ontario Canada. Now a very popular area for country homes for Toronto’s rich [...]
Jo Nesbo calls Anne Holt, author of 1222, “the godmother of modern Norwegian crime fiction” and I know why! Her work is wonderful and I am so delighted that her Hanne Wilhelmsen detection novels are beginning to be translated into English. 1222 is the 3rd of the Wilhelmsen novels. The first two are being translated [...]
I frequently enjoy novels in which literary figures appear. Such is The Neruda Case, by Roberto Ampuero. Pablo Neruda, beloved Chilean poet, womanizer, and Nobel Laureate, cajoles a neighbor, Cayetano Brule, to become a private detective and solve a mystery deeply hidden in Neruda’s personal life. To add to the literary ambience, Neruda insists that [...]
It’s hard to think of a more stellar master of the British police procedural than Peter Robinson and his Inspector Banks series. But there is so much more to Robinson’s work, than his series titles. Nowhere is that more obvious, than in his latest page-turner, Before the Poison. Set in Yorkshire, this mystery follows Hollywood [...]
Boston Cream is the third novel in a mystery series by Canadian writer, Howard Shrier. All three books including High Chicago and Buffalo Jump feature the antics of secular Jewish private detective, Jonah Geller. As I enjoy mysteries with rich settings, I was attracted by the title, seeking to see if it was similar to [...]
In my opinion, the best writer of Nordic noir is Jo Nesbø. I first encountered his writing with his third novel, Redbreast, and was electrified by its complex plot moving between contemporary life and the last days of World War II. I’ve just finished The Snowman, Nesbø’s latest novel, and I will never view this [...]
Craig Johnson once again hits a home run with Hell is Empty. If you are unfamiliar with his mystery series starring Sheriff Walt Longmire, I highly recommend it and you do not have to read the series in order. Although similar to C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett series, I am beginning to prefer Johnson (Box’s recent [...]
I’ve always wanted to visit Iceland. I haven’t got there yet, but I do vicariously visit by reading fiction set in the land of fire and ice. A new series by Quentin Bates, a UK journalist who lived in Iceland for 10 plus years, recently caught my attention. Cold Comfort is the second Officer Gunnhildur [...]