Reviews

From the Booking Desk: Occasionally, I get so behind on telling you all what I am reading that I don't have time to post full-length reviews of each. But I do still want to make you aware of the many gems I have discovered in my consumption this Fall. So, here you...

Midsummer Mysteries (edited by Martin Edwards) is a short story anthology produced by members of the Crime Writers’ Association. Despite that organizations aim toward celebrating British crime writing, their anthologies often include authors based in other...

On paper, Burn This Night would seem like an impossibly complex tale more inclined to confuse than to entertain, so the fact that Alex Kenna successfully makes it work while also managing to maximize the emotional payoff is testament to her skills as a writer. Readers...

Granite Harbor is the latest novel from Peter Nichols, a critically-acclaimed writer of non-fiction and other works. This is a crime fiction work that straddles the line between genre and literary in a successful way. Granite Harbor is a quiet community located in...

It has been nearly two years since readers were last able to visit Armand Gamache and the residents of Three Pines via a new book from Louise Penny. That alone makes the publication of The Grey Wolf a significant literary highlight of 2024, but considering that this...

Celebrity-written works have long been criticized by those looking for reasons to place shame and blame on the publishing community. As recently as last week there was condemnation of works that some view as straying outside of the artist’s primary lane, but frankly...

With The Vampire of Kings Street, Asha Greyling sets herself up for the challenging task of bringing something new to the canon of existing tales about the undead. She mostly succeeds—certainly setting herself up for a complexly evolving series—while also paying...

After the massive and unexpected success of Hidden Pictures, Jason Rekulak returns with a novel that is completely different, while still displaying vast innovation and complex characterization all wrapped up in a compelling plot—making for one the most unforgettable...

Some books seem to get all the marketing attention based on what publishers believe will be the biggest titles of the season. However, these are human decisions, and sometimes excellent books aren’t afforded the marketing push they deserve. This is actually great news...

In her new historical mystery anthology, All God’s Sparrows and Other Stories, Leslie Budewitz entertains as she educates. This collection is comprised of three previously available short stories and one newly written novella, all of which feature Mary Fields—an...

Columbia Jones is a celebrated novelist known around the world. While on tour, she speaks to huge crowds as her daughter Darian (who is also her publicist/personal assistant) and Riley Carrington (a journalist working on a major profile of the author) watch from the...

Ann Cleeves has written ten Vera Stanhope novels, all of which have been adapted by the Vera television series. It was announced earlier this year that the Vera television adaptations starring the one-and-only Brenda Blethyn would come to an end after the next season....

With Death at the Sanatorium, Ragnar Jónasson continues to entertain readers with crime stories that feel both classic and contemporary simultaneously. Like last year’s Reykjavik—which he co-wrote with the Prime Minister of Iceland, Katrín Jakobsdóttir—the mystery at...

Julia Dahl began her writing career with an excellent and fascinating series of novels that gave crime fiction readers a glimpse into the Hasidic Jewish community in New York City (Invisible City, Run You Down, and Conviction). She followed this success with a...

There’s No Murder Like Show Murder is the debut of a new cozy mystery series from M. S. Greene. This is a penname for a successful playwright, so it makes sense for the mystery series to center on the theater industry. Typical of the cozy sub-genre, the setting is a...

Stuart Neville’s The Twelve (aka The Ghosts of Belfast) hit the crime fiction world like a ton of bricks in 2009, ushering in a fresh new voice for the genre. For the past fifteen years, Neville has continued to release work that pushes the boundaries of crime...

Brian Panowich instantly joined the pantheon of great Southern Noir Crime Writers with the release of his unforgettable debut novel, Bull Mountain. While not as prolific as some in the field, he has continued to mine the depths of rural crime and Appalachian...

And There He Kept Her is the debut novel by Joshua Moehling. On the surface, this book reads as a traditional blend of police procedural and standard thriller (even down to the “ticking time bomb”—not literal—which is a hallmark of that genre. What makes Joshua...

Picking up a Carol Goodman novel, readers know they are about to join a strong female lead character as she is immersed in a dark and brooding landscape filled with smart literary allusions and traditional Gothic elements. This is an author who knows her brand and...

In January 2022, Juneau Black—the pen name used by collaborators Jocelyn Cole and Sharon Nagel—launched the Shady Hollow Mystery series. It’s the perfect blend of traditional police procedural, cozy mystery aesthetic, and anthropomorphic woodland creatures. For those...