Riccardino (2020/2021) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli (Inspector Montalbano Mystery) Andrea Camilleri died in 2019. He had written this book and sent it to his editor, to be published after his death. This is the final novel with Inspector Montalbano as its protagonist. I first started writing it in July 2004 and finished it […]
The Mystery of the Spirits (2021) C.S. Poe (Snow & Winter) This is the fifth Snow & Winter mystery. Sebastian and Calvin are happily married, and Sebastian has managed to avoid getting involved in murders–until now. “We should get one of those OSHA scoreboards for the shop. You know, for recording accidents? Except we record […]
A Holiday By Gaslight (2018) Mimi Matthews Set in England in 1861 I love a good novella / short story. I have tremendous respect for an author who can build characters and an immersive story in under 200 pages. What I particularly liked about this story is Sophie has a complex relationship with her family, […]
Blood of the Earth, Audio Edition (2016) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (A Soulwood Novel) After helping Jane Yellowrock rescue a vampire and abused women from the compound of her former church, Nell Ingram has been waiting for the help Jane said might be coming. Because the church men are becoming more of a […]
Aunty Lee’s Delights (2013) Ovidia Yu (Singaporean Mystery) After Rosie “Aunty” Lee became a wealthy widow, instead of shopping and gossiping, she opened a cafe where she could cook and gossip. During her step-son’s wine tasting dinner the discussion is on a body discovered on the beach that morning. But no one except Aunty Lee […]
Check, Please! Book 2: Sticks & Scones (2020) Ngozi Ukazu Jack has graduated and gone to the NHL. Bitty remains at Samwell, still playing hockey, and unable to talk about his relationship–both for fear or jeopardizing Jack’s career and because he still hasn’t come out to his own family. OMG IT IS SO SWEET! This […]
Check, Please! Book 1: # Hockey (2018) Ngozi Ukazu Eric Bittle may be a former junior figure skating champion, vlogger extraordinaire, and very talented amateur pâtissier, but being a freshman on the Samwell University hockey team is a whole new challenge. It is nothing like co-ed club hockey back in Georgia! I love this comic […]
Snuff (2011) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) This is the last Sam Vimes book. I’d put off reading it for years, but now I’ve read it, and I’m almost done with Discworld. Vimes has been ordered to take a vacation, but (to the surprise of no one) he managed to find crime while at Sybil’s ancestral home. […]
Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) The Preservation Alliance is a peaceful planetary area–which is why most people don’t know what to make of Murderbot. (T)he humans on the Station wouldn’t have to think about what I was, a construct made of cloned human tissue, augments, anxiety, depression, and unfocused rage, a killing […]
Black Arts (2014) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock) Publisher: Audible Studios Rating: 8/10
Body at Buccaneer’s Bay (2021) Josh Lanyon (Secrets and Scrabble) This was delayed, and delayed, and delayed. However, a brief check of her website made it clear that she (like the rest of us) was struggling with the pandemic, and would be unable to meet her publishing schedule. Which, good for her for realizing that, […]
Lore Olympus: Volume One (2021) Rachel Smythe Hades & Persephone, but today. Hades is lonely. But he does have some awesome dogs. Well, mostly awesome. I am very glad this is a web comic, but I need to know what happens and can’t wait until July to find out. Trigger Warnings: Sexual assault Publisher: Del […]
If the Fates Allow (2021) Rainbow Rowell This is surprisingly complicated for just 38 pages. That is, of course, because it’s about Christmas, but it’s also about the pandemic. “Hey there!” a man called. Reagan looked up, and her foot hit a patch of ice. She went down quick, landing on one knee— and then […]
Goblin Fruit (2019) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in England in 1924 Lizzie has taken a job for the ministry, hoping it will allow her and her sister to survive–especially since her work during the war hadn’t helped her to get any other jobs. Carillon also does work for the ministry, and keeps a public […]
Mango, Mambo, and Murder (2021) Raquel V. Reyes (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) Miriam Quiñones-Smith has finished her PhD in food anthropology, but instead of becoming an author or education, she has moved back to Miami, where her husband was able to find a better paying job closer to support from his family. “I’m a food […]
Off the Grid, Audio Book (2015) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock) A novella that takes place between Black Arts and Broken Soul, and introduces Nell, whose series begins with Blood of the Earth. Security was so much easier in the modern day, with access to so many public records protected by such […]
Blood Trade, Audio Book (2013) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock) Natchez, Mississippi is overrun with rogues, and the Master hires Jane to come help him solve this problem. But when she arrives, things are even worse than she expected. I hacked in amusement. I am bigger. I like bigger. Would like to […]
The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book (2014) Marie Brennan Narrated by Kate Reading (A Natural History of Dragons) This is such a delightful book, and the audio is just as good. if you are likely to be deterred by descriptions of violence, disease, foods alien to the Scirling palate, strange […]
Last Night at the Telegraph Club (2021) Malinda Lo Set in San Francisco, mostly in 1954-1955 I frequently try to start a book not knowing anything about it. It keeps me from having preconceived notions and all that. But once in awhile I start a book and realize it’s not what I thought it was. […]
Unseen Academicals (2009) Terry Pratchett (Discworld) I’ve owned this book for years (as well as the following two) but I didn’t read. First, because I wasn’t reading a lot of fantasy. Then, because I knew there wouldn’t be any more Discworld books, and I wanted to save the reading of them. Which meant I never […]
Perfect Rhythm (2017) Jae (Fair Oaks) Leontyne Blake grew up wanting nothing more than to escape the small town where she grew up, and now she has that, as pop start Jenna Blake. But at the end of her tour she receives a call from her mother, that Leo’s father has suffered a stroke and […]
The Heartbreak Bakery (2021) A.R. Capetta Syd is finishing up high school while working full time in the Proud Muffin–the bakery and community space that is a second home for so many LGBT teens and adults in Austin. But when Syd is dumped by their girlfriend, the accidentally bake Break-Up brownies which not only breaks […]
A Marvellous Light (2021) Freya Marske (The Last Binding) Set in England prior to The Great War. Maybe 1906 or 1907. After his parents were killed ina car wreck, Robin Blyth has to pick up the pieces of the life they left him and his sister. “You don’t talk about your parents much.” “I am— […]
Outcrossing (2018) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in alternate England in 1922. Rufus returned from The Great War unscathed, to a village that doesn’t understand why he returned when their sons and brothers and fathers didn’t. (T)hey found him even more suspicious and – just wrong, one of the wives had called him. “Nothing natural […]
The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks (2021) Mackenzi Lee (Montague Siblings) Nearly 20 years have passed since Monty (and then Felicity) fled England and their father. In the mean time, their younger brother has grown into an adult–but one with his own problems. Adrian has struggled with his mind his entire life, but after […]
The Quid Pro Quo (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in 1920 Walter met Sylvia when they were both working at the same hospital at Royaumont. They only got the worst cases here now… had done for a while, since the brass had worked out that the lady doctors had a better surgical […]
A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (2020) Manda Collins (A Lady’s Guide) Set in England in 1865 Lady Katherine Bascomb inherited The Gazette after the death of her husband, and has come to thoroughly enjoy running it–including writing articles of her own. Two years ago, her husband, George, had been alive and making her […]
The Fog of War (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in the summer of 1919. Dr Sylvia Marks returned to the village where her father had been the local doctor, after the end of the war and her time as a surgeon at Royaumont, where she was later joined by Walter, a nurse […]
Murder Most Actual (2021) Alexis Hall Liza and Hannah are having a bit of struggle with their marriage. A struggle that Hannah tried to help by scheduling a vacation for just the two of them: no internet, no cell services, just the two of them in the wilds of Scotland. Except that Hannah didn’t consult […]
Murder Most Fair (2021) Anna Lee Huber (Verity Kent) Set in England in 1919. I’ll be honest, I haven’t enjoyed this series as much as the Lady Darby series, and have been borrowing the books from the library because of that. But this book I very much enjoyed. The Ardmore problem is mostly in the […]
Dead Dead Girls (2021) Nekesa Afia (Harlem Renaissance Mystery) Set in Harlem, NYC in 1926 Louise Lloyd became famous as a teenager, when she escaped a man who had kidnapped her and two other girls–girls who would have been ignored because they were Black and in Harlem. Ten years later, someone is killing young women, […]
Pickled Petunia (2021) Dahlia Donovan (Motts Cold Case Mystery) The third Motts mystery finds a young woman at Motts’ door, asking for help in finding her mother. It also find the London detective in charge of the cold case from Motts’ childhood worried that the person who killed her best friend as a child has […]
Faces (2021) A.M. Rose Dorian was born blind, but that blindness came with a gift–the ability to draw the soulmates of those whom he touches. The portrait I draw is the image of the soulmate the way they look when the person sees them for the first time” Hayden knows that soulmates exist–his parents were […]
The Severed Streets (2014) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) When the Secretary of the Treasury is killed violently and inexplicably, Quill’s group is certain the case falls to their remit–even if they are the only ones who know it. ‘We’ve been given access to … advanced sensor … techniques, the details of which we can’t go […]
Sweetest in the Gale (2020) Olivia Dade (There’s Something About Marysburg) This is actually three novellas, all set in the town of Marysburg: “Sweetest in the Gale”, “Unraveled”, “Cover Me” “Sweetest in the Gale” Griff Conover has worked with Candy Albright since moving to Marysville, and he’s always had his eye on her. But his […]
London Falling (2012) Paul Cornell (Shadow Police) Me, to myself. “I haven’t read the Shadow Police series in awhile”. Also me, “It’s really dark.” “I know it’s dark! I read it and listened to it!” “Are you sure you’re up for that right now?” (stomps off in a huff to read London Falling.) Oh. Yeah. […]
The Love Study (2020) Kris Ripper To say that Declan has commitment issues is an understatement. He left his boyfriend (and best friend) at the altar, and refuses every offer of permanent employment he receives, preferring to remain with the temp agency. What I especially like about temping at offices: never feeling like I’m trapped […]
Bodyguard (2021) Dassy Bernhard (The Bodyguards) An orphan. With secret superpowers. Who works as a bodyguard. Tang Jun-young had hoped that saving the K-Pop boy band he was guarding flew under the radar, with people paying attention to the musicians rather than the nameless man who saved them. But no such luck, as the chairman […]
The Charm Offensive (2021) Alison Cochrun I am having a really hard time writing this review. Because I keep diving back into the book and reading passages an getting sucked back in. Charlie Winshaw was forced out of the company he helped found, and now he’s hoping to rehabilitate his image by appearing on a […]
Fortune Favors the Dead (2020) Stephen Spotswood (Pentecost and Parker) Set in New York in 1945. Will Parker ran away to join the circus, to escape her abusive father. But an event one night in 1942 in NYC changes everything, and she ends up working for Lillian Pentecost, a private investigator. “I trust you to […]
Network Effect (2020) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) MURDERBOT Murderbot has gone off on a research expedition with several of Dr Mensah’s family members. Thiago: “You trust it that much?” Mensah: “With my life, literally. I know what it will do to protect her, and you, and the rest of the team. Of course, it […]
A Natural History of Dragons: A Memoir by Lady Trent, Audio Book (2013) Marie Brennan narrated by Kate Reading After Michael admitted that he hadn’t read A Natural History of Dragons, I decided that would be our next listen. Isabella loves dragons. As a child she got into trouble trying to see one, and her […]
Trailer Park Trickster (2021) David R. Slayton (Adam Binder) Do you know what I hate? Cliffhangers. Do you know what this book had? Yup. A cliffhanger. Adam and Vic have had no chance to work things out, because Adam took off for Oklahoma in an attempt to save his aunt. He didn’t save his aunt. […]
Death’s Rival, Audio Book (2012) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock) Vampires are getting sick. Which is not something that should happen. And since Jane put her foot in it by calling herself Leo’s Enforcer, she now gets to help deal with the vampire plague. A lot happens in this book. Some of […]
Raven Cursed, Audio Version (2012) Faith Hunter narrated by Khristine Hvam (Jane Yellowrock) Jane is sent to Asheville NC to provide security for a visit by Gregoire to judge if the Master of Asheville, Shaddock, deserves his own territory, after one of his turned vampires came out of the devoveo in only two years. But […]
Madison Square Murders (2021) C.S. Poe (Memento Mori) Everett Larkin works for the Cold Case Squad. And even among that group he’s considered odd. But he’s good at his job, even if he is often a bit overly emotional. I was initially distracted by the appearance of Neil Millett, Sebastian Snow’s ex, and someone I’m […]
Team Phison Forever (2019) Chace Verity (Team Phison) Tyson Falls loves Phil and wants to propose. But the discovery that he has a half-sister–and a sister who is apparently loved by the father who disowned Tyson–makes him doubt the concept of family and his own suitability for having one. “Things are good the way they […]
The Remaking of Corbin Wale (2017) Roan Parrish After his life blew up around him, Alex headed back to his home town to take over (and reinvent) his parent’s coffee shop. Down a boyfriend and a job in forty-eight hours, Alex hadn’t been sure which had been the bigger blow. Everything about this story is […]
Death at the Crystal Palace (2021) Jennifer Ashley (A Below Stairs Mystery Book) Set in England in 1882. Kat is visiting the Crystal Palace on her day off with Lady Cynthia and her friends (as well as with her daughter), when a woman comes up to her and claims that she is being poisoned, and […]
Hither, Page (2019) Cat Sebastian (Page & Sommers) Set in England in 1946. Leo Page works for a government agency that kept him going all over the continent–first to try and keep England from war, and then trying to help get them out of it faster. He has no illusions about what he does, and […]