Mistletoe and Mishigas (2023) M.A. Wardell (Teachers in Love #2) Not only is Sheldon moving to a new school in the middle of the term, he has also discovered the wedding invitation from his ex. Who broke up with Sheldon last year. On Christmas Eve. Sheldon’s favorite time of the year. But Sheldon is nothing […]
Bidding for the Bachelor (2021) Jackie Lau (Fong Brothers #2) Cedric Fong was a success with his first book, but hasn’t been able to get further than chapter 5 on anything he’s started since. Brian Poon is a party boy whose father cut him the previous year after learning he dated men as well as […]
Do Me a Favor (2024) Cathy Yardley Willa, still picking up the pieces after her husband’s long illness and death, moves out to the house she inherited from her great-aunt, in the hopes it will help her get back on her feet. What was it going to do to her? Her bank account was minuscule […]
The Little Lost Library (2024) Ellery Adams (A Secret, Book, and Scone Society #7) It’s not that the mysteries are bad, because they aren’t. It’s that Nora keeps doing idiotic things. She had her own secrets. And even though she knew the damage keeping secrets could cause, she wasn’t ready to share them just yet. […]
Murder on a Mystery Tour (1987) Marian Babson I had a lot of trouble getting into this story, because I could not figure out when it was set. Part of the setting is an old English manor turned into a hotel that hosts weekend murder mysteries set in the 1930s. That part I got. But […]
Galaxies and Oceans (2018) N.R. Walker Grief was like the great Southern Ocean; it moved in ebbs and flows, often turbulent and rough, or peaceful and settled, and even over time when I could navigate the waters, the tide never stopped. Sometimes you have to listen to the silences. When things aren’t said. That’s where […]
Corpse at Captain’s Seat (2024) Josh Lanyon (Secrets and Scrabble #8) Finally, the Captain’s Seat is remodeled enough for visitors! Watery light flooded from the overhead windows, moodily illuminating the gleaming patchwork of ship’s timber flooring and old paintings on the white oak panels, and the banisters built to look like the row of cannons […]
Curio (2024) C.S. Poe Llewellyn and his aunt Julia run the Curio Cabinet Sunday between noon and six o’clock was basically when Curio made any money at all—lockets with broken chains, weathered vintage postcards, vinyl records sans sleeves, and creepy doll heads missing one eye were the bad decisions locals made after one too many […]
And Nothing But The Truth (2024) Charlie Cochrane (Lindenshaw Mysteries) The body of a man is discovered by a woman out for a run, but he has no identification and he doesn’t match any missing persons reports. This mystery has an unknown man (who is eventually named) and dead wife who doesn’t seem to be […]
Waiting for the Flood (2015/2024) Alexis Hall (Spires) This is both a reissue and a revision, with Marius’ story–Chasing the Light–added, along with bonus material and an epilogue short story. I wanted (and this is straying perilously close to analysing my own work so please take this with a mine full of salt) to explore […]
Loud and Clear (2016) Aidan Wayne This is probably one of my favorite novellas, one I reach for when I’m feeling terrible and need to get out of my own head. “Don’t bother,” he said, nodding at the notepad. Caleb looked up at him and frowned. “I mean. You can write, if you wanna, if […]
Lock, Stock and Peril (2022) Charlie Cochrane (Lindenshaw Mysteries) Thia ia set during the second year of the pandemic. Campbell had never been so fit and healthy as over the past year. They’d walked miles with him, singly or together, and when they’d been able to form a bubble with Adam’s mum, she’d volunteered to […]
A Carriage of Misjustice (2020) Charlie Cochrane (Lindenshaw Mysteries) I still find it odd how a story that is perfectly adequate but nothing special can work so well as a comfort read. Possibly it’s just the sheer decency of the two main characters. Like any parish, Lindenshaw had its share of people who would prefer […]
Best Laid Plaids (2020) Ella Stainton (Kilty Pleasures) Set in Scotland in 1928 said scholar had annihilated his reputation as one of the Empire’s most learned folklorists by publicly insisting that he chatted with ghosts. The steel tip of his walking stick twanged, punctuating each step in the way he’d grown accustomed in the ten […]