Reviews

Kim Taylor Blakemore’s brand of historical thrillers not only bring to life a long ago time, but they also elucidate how relevant yesterday is to today and how that can and will affect tomorrow. By centering her female characters in plots that are very much of their...

Kia Abdullah is a London-based author who has forged her own career path by releasing a series of excellent legal crime standalones that challenge readers to contemplate exigent legal situations from the perspectives of all the individuals involved – victim,...

The thriller genre is especially adept at weaving in current societal fears into compelling narrative fiction. Given that global warming and climate concerns are one of the most pressing catastrophes facing the world today, it is no surprise that thriller writers are...

Jessica Fellowes is most well-known for writing several companion books for her uncle’s television smash, Downton Abbey, and for her own series of historical mysteries featuring the Mitford sisters. Today marks the release of her first stand-alone domestic suspense...

Tampering with any icon is risky business, but fortunately in Marple, the anthology of new short stories featuring Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, the invited authors respect the reverence readers feel for this character while also managing to infuse their own styles...

At this point, Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope has become one of the most beloved crime fiction characters of all time. Vera has appeared in nine novels, many short stories, and a highly successful television series where she is vividly brought to life by the legendary...

When the writing duo behind Michael Stanley (Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip) first introduced Detective Kubu in 2008, the crime fiction community and fans of the genre immediately took notice. Here was a character who was iconic as he was original, solving crimes...

With Complicit, critically acclaimed author Winnie M. Li once again taps into her own past to tell a story that will resonate with readers everywhere. Unlike many of the #metoo-inspired novels flooding the market in recent years, Winnie M. Li dares to pull back that...

Alice Feeney continues her impressive string of unpredictable suspense novels with the unforgettable Daisy Darker. Readers who have read Sometimes I Lie, His & Hers, or Rock Paper Scissors will already anticipate how impossible it is to predict what Alice Feeney...

“The Woman on the Island” is Ann Cleeves’ most recent short story. While the tale is extremely brief, it does help to fill in some backstory on Vera Stanhope’s past relationship with her father, Hector. Needing a respite from her police duties, Vera takes what she...

Night Shadows is the third book in Eva Björg Ægisdóttir’s Forbidden Iceland series. Following both The Creak on the Stairs and Girls Who Lie, Night Shadows continues the evolution of Detective Elma and her family, friends, and colleagues, while also documenting the...

Lauren Wilkinson’s “A Scandal in Brooklyn” is a clever short story that updates the Sherlockian mythos for a more modern and diverse audience. Here, Irene Adler is a Black woman in the midst of divorcing her tech billionaire husband, when a girlfriend asks Irene to...

Zac Bissonnette is releasing his debut cozy mystery, A Killing in Costumes, at a time when the current publishing marketplace is celebrating diversity of all kinds. Through planned intent or lucky happenstance, Bissonnette’s novel capitalizes on this trend with what...

Carol Goodman is one of those rare authors readers can always rely on to present a gripping story, well told – regardless of each particular novel’s chosen subject matter. As such, many fans will flock to her newest novel eager to see what Goodman has in store this...

Between his underrated Tuva Moodyson series and his critically acclaimed stand-alone The Last Thing to Burn, Scottish author Will Dean has proven himself more than astute at writing from the female perspective. This trend continues in what might be his most powerful...

The innate ability to know how a story needs to be told is a skill that is typically honed over years, but in the case of Jennifer Hillier, this key storytelling tool seems to be part of her DNA. From the start, with the deliciously unsettling Creep (and the follow up...

Simon Toyne burst onto the literary landscape with his unique Sanctus trilogy – a DaVinci Code style narrative with deeper characterization and superlative narrative skills. Toyne followed this with a minor pivot when he released his Solomon Creed duology (The...

After translating all of Agatha Christie’s novels into Icelandic for publication in his home country, Ragnar Jónasson launched his own crime fiction career with two highly-regarded series – the Dark Iceland books, which I dubbed as “cozy noir,” for their unique...

Sandra SG Wong’s first foray into crime fiction was with her alternate-history, semi-paranormal trilogy featuring private investigator Lola Starke. Now she is making a pivot and her new book, In the Dark We Forget, is an unusual blend of mystery, domestic suspense,...

J. M. Miro’s Ordinary Monsters is a debut Fantasy novel from an established author working under a pseudonym. With time Ordinary Monsters will be reflected back upon as the start of an incredible epic fantasy. Dickensian in scope (with the Victorian details of...