Footsteps in the Dark (1932) Georgette Heyer Peter, Margaret, Cecelia and Charles (Cecelia’s husband) have inherited an old house in the country–the Priory. Some claim the house is haunted, and others claim to have seen the figure of a ghost on the grounds. But the four–and their aunt Lilian–refuse to be driven from the house […]
The Babylonian Codex (2010) C.S. Graham I found this book quite frightening, not because it was particularly suspenseful, but because the political scenario described so very well could come true. Toby is asked to do a remote viewing to see if she can discover where some of the artifacts stolen during the looting at the […]
A Night Too Dark (2010) Dana Stabenow Rating: 7/10 Published by St Martin’s Paperbacks
The Track of Sand (2007) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli Despite the fact he is quite frequently a right bastard, I am terribly fond of Montalbano. Salvo awakes from a bad dream, and so wanders out to the beach behind is house to clear his head only to discover a dead horse–a horse that […]
A Question of Belief (2010) Donna Leon It’s summer in Venice, and Brunetti wishes that all criminals would take a vacation with the rest of the country, to allow them to escape the oppressive heat. But even if the criminals were to take a break, two different problems that may or may not be crimes […]
The Anatomy of Deception (2008) Lawrence Goldstone Ephraim Carroll is a young doctor studying under the great William Osler (a doctor who would go on to be one of the founding professors at Johns Hopkins). Osler is a somewhat controversial doctor, who embraces the newest medical techniques including sterile surgery, and autopsy as a method […]
About Face (2009) Donna Leon Brunetti and Paola are invited to a formal dinner at her parent’s house. During the dinner, Brunetti is seated across from an arresting woman–her facial features are frozen–rumor says through too much plastic surgery. Brunetti is unsure how to take this woman, but when she begins to speak of books, […]
The Naming of the Beasts (2009) Mike Carey The last Felix Castor book, Thicker than Water, ended with the escape of Asmodeus. Not a very good point to end a story in my opinion, however, it was a logical conclusion to the way things were going, so I didn’t particularly mind. After all, the series […]
Bryant & May on the Loose (2009) Christopher Fowler At the close of Victoria Vanishes, the PCU was disbanded, the staff placed on leave, and Bryant remains at home, barely able to get out of bed and slowly slipping away. However, the accidental discovery of a body by a staff member at loose ends brings […]
Ghost of a Chance (2010) Simon R. Green I can’t help myself. I know it isn’t good for me, but I have this addiction to Simon R. Green’s Nightside. I’ve read the Eddie Drood novels, and they’re OK, but they just aren’t the same. But I keep ordering them, and when I saw he had […]
An Artificial Night (2010) Seanan McGuire How many miles to Babylon? Three-score and ten. Can I get there by candle-light? Yes, there and back again. If your heels are nimble and light, You will get there by candle-light. Things are not going well for Toby Daye. She sees an unpleasant harbinger, she’s getting calls from […]
Dark and Stormy Knights (2010) edited by P.N. Elrod I can’t help myself–I love anthologies. And fantasy anthologies with writers who write their fantasy with a healthy does of mystery? Sign me up! All anthologies have high and low points, but overall this was a fairly strong group of stories. The book starts off with […]
The Grimrose Path (2010) Rob Thurman I think I love Rob Thurman. Seriously. I’ve only read one book of hers I rated lower than an 8, and that one lost points for a cliff-hanger type ending. (Aside from the ending, it was an otherwise excellent book.) The Grimrose Path is the second book in her […]
Blameless (2010) Gail Carriger I loved Soulless, the first book in this series. I thought Changeless was good with the exclusion of the ending, which I despised, so I had mixed feelings about starting Blameless. Alexia is pregnant, and Lord Maccon–who is a werewolf and an immortal–has thrown her out, believing that the child cannot […]
Chasing Darkness (2008) Robert Crais Elvis seems to have recovered from the events in The Forgotten Man, however, life doesn’t seem to be interested in taking it easy on him. He’s sitting in his office when two cops storm on to demand his notes on a case from years ago. A man he had proved […]
Eye of Heaven (2006) Marjorie M. Liu After picking up a random Dirk & Steele book when I had accidentally left the house without one, I’ve been picking up the available books in the series as I come across them. For the most part this is not a fantasy series per se, in that you […]
Willful Behavior (2002) Donna Leon I really hate the way this series is released/re-released in the US. This book was originally published in 2002, but I wasn’t able to get my hands on it until this year. Which is frustrating, since it obliquely referred to events in the previous book, which was not the book […]
Thicker than Water (2009) Mike Carey Felix gets a call to come out to a crime scene–something that had not happened since he was accused of murder and became persona non grata with the police. Unsurprisingly, nothing good comes of the call, and Felix is embroiled in a mystery involving involving individuals from his past–way […]
The Watchman (2007) Robert Crais After the events in The Forgotten Man, Elvis is recovering, so Joe Pike takes center stage in this story (don’t worry, we get to spend time with Elvis). When he had to help Elvis recover Ben Cheney in The Last Detective, Joe made a deal with the men he used […]
Face Off (2010) Mark Del Franco Laura Blackstone is still living her multiple lives, and after the events in the last book, Skin Deep, relations between humans and fae, as well as between different fae groups, are making her job even harder, as she is forced to take on the persona of any already existing […]
Vanished (2009) Kat Richardson I finished Vanished last night with a sense of dissatisfaction, but it wasn’t until this morning that I was able to put my finger on what bothered me most. When I started reading the Greywalker series, I loved the fact they were mysteries with a paranormal element. Harper is a private […]
Dead Men’s Boots (2007) Mike Carey I’ve actually been waiting for this book for awhile. The American publishing and access to this series is… quirky. I was able to get the British copies of the two books that follow this, but I had to wait about a year for this to be put out by […]
Chimera (2010) Rob Thurman I love Rob Thurman. I really do. Which is why I pre-ordered this book without even having an idea what it was about. Imagine my disappointment when I read the back cover, “From Rob Thurman, national bestselling author of the Cal Leandros novels, comes a sci-fi thriller that questions what makes […]
The Interior (1999) Lisa See Liu Hulan is still in China working for the Ministry of Public Security–and pregnant with an unsanctioned child, when she receives a letter from a woman she hadn’t heard from in years, asking her to come look into the death of her daughter. David Stark is back in the US […]
Tracking the Tempest (2010) Nicole Peeler First off, there is a lot of boinking in this book. I’d forgotten about that in the time that had passed between this book and the first. Once I remembered that and was able to move myself into that frame of mind, I thoroughly enjoyed Tracking the Tempest. In […]
The Deep Blue Good-by (1964) John D. MacDonald Synopsis: Travis McGee works when he is running low on money. He finds things for people, that they might not otherwise be able to get back, then keeps half the value of what he recovers. He’s between jobs and enjoying his relaxed life on his boat when […]
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008) Stieg Larsson translated by Reg Keeland Yes, yes, yes. I know I’m late to the game. But I had a large backlog of books to read through first. I started reading this soon after I broke my ankle. Since it was very difficult for me to carry things […]
Ten Thousand Islands (2000) Randy Wayne White Synopsis: One of Doc’s neighbors shows up asking him to look out for a friend–a woman she’d known for years, who had lost her only child years before, and who now has people breaking into her house and searching–but not actually stealing anything. He agrees–and somehow Tomlinson ends […]
The Mangrove Coast (1998) Randy Wayne White Synopsis: The prologue makes it clear that things went badly for Doc when he went to Panama, then the first chapter opens with Doc discovering a dead body. Slowly… slowly!… we come to learn that Doc was doing a favor for a friend, and got himself involved in […]
The Forgotten Man (2005) Robert Crais Synopsis: Lucy is gone, and Elvis is struggling to keep himself together. The events of the last book made him the center of attention, and the notoriety is something he seems ill equipped to deal with, especially while also attempting to deal with his loss. When Elvis is called […]
The Last Detective (2003) Robert Crais Synopsis: Lucy has gone away for business, and Ben has been staying with Elvis. But within moments of Lucy touching down at the airport, Ben is snatched from Elvis’ porch, and a caller blames the kidnapping upon the time Elvis spent in Vietnam. While Elvis searches for Ben and […]
L.A. Requiem (1999) Robert Crais Synopsis: Although this is an Elvis Cole novel, the heart of the story is really about Joe Pike. As Lucy and Ben are settling into L.A., Joe asks Elvis to help him solve the murder of a women with whom he was once involved. In searching for the killer, we […]
Indigo Slam (1997) Robert Crais Synopsis: Three kids walk into Elvis Cole’s office, because they want to hire him to find their father. To make things more complicated, the book opens with the three children and their father being evacuated by the US Marshals as (we quickly realize) part of the witness protection program. The […]
North of Havana (1997) Randy Wayne White Synopsis: Dewey has come to visit Doc over the Christmas holidays, unfortunately, Doc also received a call from Tomlinson who is trapped in Havana because the Cuban authorities have confiscated his boat No Mas. Tomlinson wants Ford to bring him the money to get his boat out of […]
Captiva (1996) Randy Wayne White Synopsis: Doc Ford & Tomlinson are up in the middle of the night to watch the starts. Well, Doc is watching the stars, Tomlinson is looking for extra-terrestrial intelligence he believes is trying to make contact. Because they are awake, they witness an explosion that eventually kills the man involved. […]
Sunset Express (1996) Robert Crais Synopsis: A woman is found murdered, and her husband becomes the immediate suspect. However, when he hires a celebrity lawyer to defend him, stories start appearing in the case, and Elvis is hired to see if any of those hole in the case are real. And in the middle of […]
The Wild Road (2008) Marjorie Liu Why yes, this is a floating head & torso romance. However, as I am on crutches and spending a lot of time waiting, I needed a diverting book to keep in my purse, and since I enjoyed The Fire King (another floaty head romance book set in the same […]
Lullaby Town (1992) Robert Crais Synopsis: The 3rd book in the Elvis Cole series finds Elvis hired by a famous (and perhaps infamous) move producer, to find his ex-wife and son, who the producer abandoned soon after the birth of his son. Lucky Elvis: the producer is an asshole, the woman doesn’t want to be […]
The Man Who Invented Florida (1993) Randy Wayne White I found the 3rd Doc Ford book, The Man Who Invented Florida, to be a bit disappointing. Mostly it was because I didn’t particularly enjoy reading the point of view of Doc’s uncle, Tucker Gatrell. I’m not saying I disliked Tuck and his friend Joe, I’m […]
Clockwork Heart (2008) Dru Pagliassotti Two words for you: Steampunk Romance. Perfect right? I mean, isn’t the essence of Steampunk the romance of the Victorian era? OK, yes, the cool mechanical robots and stuff are a large part as well, but that’s also very much a romantic era of dress and manner social striation. So […]
Voodoo River (1995) Robert Crais Synopsis: Elvis is hired to find the natural parents of TV star Jodie Taylor, who was given up for adoption immediately after her birth, and whose adoption records remain sealed by the courts. The case takes a turn for the worse when Cole discovers there is a whole lot more […]
Strip Jack (1992) Ian Rankin When a raid on a brothel operating secretly in Edinburgh nets a local MP, Inspector Rebus thinks things feel a little off–Gregor Jack isn’t the kind of MP you’d expect to find at a brothel, and his reaction during the raid isn’t precisely what Rebus would have expected. From there, […]
The Heat Islands (1992) Randy Wayne White Synopsis: When the most hated man on the island is found floating, the list of possible suspects seems to be astronomical. Unfortunately, the most likely suspect seems to be Doc’s friend Jeth, and Jeth–who seems to be going through a personal crisis–doesn’t seem to be doing much to […]
Free Fall (1993) Robert Crais Synopsis: Jennifer Sheridan wants to hire Elvis to find out what is wrong with her fiancee. He’s a cop, and he hasn’t been the same for several months, and she thinks he’s in some kind of trouble and she wants Elvis to find out what it is–and if possible how […]
Stalking the Angel (1989) Robert Crais Synopsis: In the second Elvis Cole book, Elvis is hired to find a missing ancient manuscript. He doesn’t much like the guy hiring him, and he doesn’t much like the job he’s hired for, but he takes the job anyway. In doing so he learns a bit (nothing good) […]
Hide and Seek (1990) Ian Rankin After reading his anthology A Good Hanging, I decided to pick up another of Ian Rankin’s Inspector Rebus books. I had ’em in the house, just never got around to reading any further in the series, because the first two books I read were quite dark, and I wasn’t […]
Sanibel Flats (1990) Randy Wayne White Doc Ford has lead an exciting life, and he is more than ready for his move to the beach and second career as a marine biologist. Too bad for him that he receives a phone call from an old friend in trouble. Not a hard boiled mystery and not […]
The Monkey’s Raincoat (1987) Robert Crais Elvis Cole went to war, then he came back to the US and was a security guard for awhile, and then he became a private investigator, which is what he when Janet Simon drags her friend Ellen Lang into his office. Her husband and son have disappeared, and Ellen […]
The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (2010) Deborah Blum I think that anyone who enjoys mysteries has to be at least a little bit fascinated with poisonings and forensic medicine, and The Poisoner’s Handbook looks at the beginning of forensic medicine and the circumstances that allowed […]
A Good Hanging (1992) Ian Rankin A Good Hanging is a collection of Inspector Rebus short stories. I read Knots and Crosses a couple years ago, and although I enjoyed it, found it very dark, so I’ve been hesitant to continue in the series because I haven’t been in the mood for that much darkness. […]