Paper Cuts (2023) Ellery Adams (A Secret, Book, and Scone Society) A couple has opened a tea shop in town, and when Nora and her friends visit, she discovers one of the owners somehow seems to know her–and is distraught by the fact. There were a surprising number of editing and continuity errors in this […]

The Moving Finger (1942) Agatha Christie (Miss Marple) This is the third Miss Marple mystery, and one I’ve reread multiple times, yet this time through I picked up some things I’d not noticed before. Which isn’t unusual, but is fascinating, as things I have learned elsewhere shine a different light upon things I’ve read before. […]

The Vanishing Type (2022) Ellery Adams (Secret, Book, & Scone Society) One of the things I particularly like about this story is the variety of the characters within. And that those traits don’t define the characters: Sheldon is ace but also Hispanic and Jewish and someone who suffers from chronic pain, and also someone who […]

Homicide and Halo-Halo (2022) Mia P. Manansala (A Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery) Lila Macapagal is supposed to be getting ready for the opening of the cafe she is opening with her best friend. But instead she is guilted into judging the Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant, which she won as a teenager. And, of […]

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 […]

The Tropic of Serpents (2014) Marie Brennan The second novel in the Lady Trent series finds Isabella preparing to go on another scientific journey–this one to Eriga, where they hope to document other types of dragons. The warnings delivered in my first foreword continue to apply: if you are likely to be deterred by descriptions […]