Category Archives: Mysteries/Crime

Sometimes, when I’m reading a novel by Ruth Rendell, I wonder why I even try reading modern mysteries and thrillers by anyone else. Sure, I’ve found a few people I like, but let’s get real — you never have to … Continue reading →

Weirdly, I read this book, and it has nothing to do with the current film by Guillermo del Toro! Instead, it’s an Italian mystery by Andrea Camilleri, the first of a series starring Inspector Montalbano. A few months ago, I … Continue reading →

When Dustin Tillman was 13 years old, his parents and his aunt and uncle were murdered. At the trial, Dustin and his cousin, Kate, testified against his adopted brother, Rusty. He claimed that Rusty was into Satanic rituals—it was the … Continue reading →

Caroline Fawley has retired from doing sitcoms and theatre — “Thank God!” she says. Her charming, attentive partner, Marius, has set her up in a lovely manor in the small town of Alderley, near Leeds, as his mistress. He is … Continue reading →

My favorite Laurie King novels are those about Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes, but I’ve enjoyed her standalone novels as well, so I was glad to get a copy of her new book, Lockdown through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program even … Continue reading →

Donna Leon began writing her series of Venetian police procedurals when I was in college (1992, if you’re counting) and has written one every single year since then. (Twenty-seven of them. Whew.) Death at La Fenice is the first of … Continue reading →

This is the seventh of Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache books, and it finds us back in the Québecois village of Three Pines, after the explosive events of the last two novels. Aftershocks from those events are still affecting the characters, … Continue reading →

Juniper Song is your fairly typical Korean-American mid-20s post-college student (if you can imagine that graduate being pretty rich.) She’s not doing much, just some part-time work and some socializing, taking in the LA scene, a pile of high heels … Continue reading →

It’s 1996, 15 years after the events of Black Water Rising, and Jay Porter is still an attorney in Houston. Now a widower and a father of two, he’s made a career of helping people fight big corporations, usually involving environmental regulations, … Continue reading →