A Modest Independence (2019) Mimi Matthews (Parish Orphans of Devon) Set in England, Egypt, and India in 1860 Solicitor Tom Finchley has worked his way up from nothing. He craves security, which is why he puts up with a job that often leaves him feeling uncomfortable, since the men he represents aren’t always good people. […]
The Haunted Heart: Winter (2013) Josh Lanyon This isn’t really supernatural; it’s a ghost story. But I didn’t have a better category for it. Flynn Ambrose is living in the house he inherited from his uncle on Pitch Pine Lane while he sorts through the antiques and other items collected over a lifetime. I said, […]
Secrets in the Mist (2016) Anna Lee Huber Set in England in 1812 Ella Winterton has spent the past four years dealing with loss and grief and anger. The deaths of her mother and brother sent her father into an alcoholic decline, and being jilted by the man she thought she loved while still in […]
Death at Sea: Montalbano’s Early Cases (2014/2018) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli These stories are set during the 80s, when Montalbano would have been in his 30s. Room Number 2 Double Investigation Death at Sea The Stolen Message The Transaction Standard Procedure The Apricot The Honest Thief There are eight stories, and look back […]
The Potter’s Field (1989) Ellis Peters Set in England in 1143. The local potter named Ruald, abandoned his wife to take monastic vows. When a body is discovers in the field where the both once lived, it is assumed to be Generys. (H)e could have his freedom to go and become a monk, but his […]
Wolfsong (2016) TJ Klune (Green Creek) Ox was twelve when his daddy told him that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road. Joe talked and talked and talked, but Ox found out later the boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years. […]
Castaway Dreams (2012/2016) Darlene Marshall Set in the Atlantic ocean and England in 1817. Alexander Murray is returning home after serving for years as a naval surgeon. The war brought advances in surgery and medical techniques, some he’d experienced firsthand, but it was time to catch up on those other innovations uncovered by his brother […]
Criminal Past (2018) Gregory Ashe What. The hell? The previous books needed an editor to a level that was annoying, but not insurmountable. This book? Holy shit–it was all over the place, and none of it was good. First and foremost in the bad: Out of nowhere, we suddenly have chapters–as in more than one–of […]
Skin and Bone (2019) TA Moore (Digging Up Bones) Oh Cloister. You deserve to be treated well. Damnit. Cloister had been more than happy to make a fool of himself over Javi the last few months, up until he decided to see what would happen if he screwed everything up instead. He couldn’t even remember […]
Bone to Pick (2017) TA Moore (Digging Up Bones) Cloister Witte is a K9 deputy. He also has a problem with authority and recurring nightmares from his childhood. He was tanned the color of whiskey, and his hair was wet and honey streaked, dripping onto his shoulders. Ink scrawled up over his ribs, but the […]
How to Be a Normal Person (2015) TJ Klune This is a silly and utterly ridiculous story. It also had me laughing ridiculously on multiple occasions. The Internet was vast and had men with disproportionately large testicles. Gustavo Tiberius isn’t normal. He was not a firework. Or, if he was, he was those black snake […]
Inspector Hobbes and the Gold Diggers (2014) Wilkie Martin The third Inspector Hobbes / Unhuman book. Andy Caplet is still living with Hobbes, and slowly (slowly) becoming a better human. Hobbes might not be human, but he’s good at being human. We finally discover things about Hobbes! ‘I expect,’ said Sid, with a glance at […]
Who Slays the Wicked (2019) C.S. Harris Set in London in 1814 Lord Ashworth has been discovered naked and repeatedly stabbed in what looks like a crime of passion. But finding the murderer is a daunting prospect. “Do you have any idea who might have killed him?” he asked Stephanie. “Someone who disliked him?” she […]
Scandal Never Sleeps (2015) Shayla Black and Lexi Blake Gabriel Bond is burying his best friend. Power and wealth has always been his, and he and his friends learned to wield that power from a young age. But that didn’t stop Mad from dying, and it isn’t going to stop someone from trying to frame […]
An Artless Demise (2019) Anna Lee Huber Set in London in November 1831 Kiera and Sebastian are in London, trying to settle into married life, but murder and body snatchers are reminding people who Kiera left in the first place, and Lord Gage is reminding Sebastian that his marriage to Kiera would bring this down […]
Reasonable Doubt (2018) Gregory Ashe Ugh again with the editing issues. Somers freaks out when he discovers a twelve minute phone call that Hazard will make a couple chapters later. Years ago my husband and I watched Fight Club and Snatch, and after that we joked about only watching a movie if Brad Pitt got […]