There are so many reasons to recommend “Other People’s Houses” by Clare Mackintosh; when a mystery features characters who are so likable and relatable that their situation and relationships become equally as important as the actual mystery, you know it’s going to be a winner. And on top of that, jumping in to read the third book in the series without having read the first two books did not feel as if anything was missing.
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“A Dark and Deadly Journey,” may be the third installment of Julia Kelly’s Evelyne Redfern Mysteries, but it’s the first time Evelyne travels internationally in her job with British Intelligence. She must investigate the disappearance of a trusted informant from Portugal. Because the novel is set in the middle of WWII, and Evelyne and her partner David are sent to Lisbon to find this important informant, Evelyne’s first person narration gives us an on-the-ground look at what life was like in Portugal because of its neutral status during the war.
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A really good series, like Melinda Leigh’s Bree Taggert series, has novels that stand alone but also has characters who grow and change from the first novel through the procession and the progression of stories. This series story arc, combined with the individual gripping novels, is what keeps readers coming back to read book after book. With this series, author Melinda Leigh manages to accomplish all that and more. In addition to a really likable, vulnerable but strong main character, sheriff Bree Taggert, there is a romantic partner, and a family. And one of the things I love about this series is the dogs, lots of dogs. Rescue dogs. Rescue dogs who save lives.
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Author William Kent Krueger’s latest novel, the twenty-first entry in his Cork O’Connor series about that small-town sheriff and detective, is filled with fascinating, superbly drawn characters, but it’s certainly more than just a character study. It’s a complex and puzzling murder mystery featuring so many likely suspects that we readers are as stumped as O’Connor himself in trying to figure out not only who committed the murder, but where to even begin the investigation. The most confusing situation is that the murder he must solve happened twenty-five years before the present day.
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In this treasure trove of humor, information, wisdom, and fascinating, poignant memories, author Claire Cook once again presents us with convincing evidence of the reasons she remains a delight for her vast audience of female readers. “Bonus Time: Still Got It,” this second entry in her “Bonus Time” series, once again describes in vivid detail the lives, adventures, and even thought processes of the series’ three protagonists: Glenda, who doubles as the first person narrator, Jan, and Harmony, the three forever friends who have moved to beautiful St. Simons Island, Georgia, both to escape from the many issues that have characterized and sometimes plagued their lives in Massachusetts and to reinvent themselves in a brand new setting.
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Like many others, I love James Ponti’s City Spies series, and “City Spies: London Calling” is no different. There’s so much to like about the novels, including two wonderful adults and the six spy-children, the clever plots that take them around the world, the strengths and vulnerabilities of all the characters, and the unexpected twists that keep us turning the pages.
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Featuring main characters who are senior citizens definitely makes novels attractive to readers, shall we say, of a certain age. Like me. With Mrs. Plansky, Spencer Quinn has created a main character who is not only a senior citizen (she qualified for Medicare six years ago), but she’s got some of the same aches and pains and elder-problems that we face. However, unlike some other older main characters in recent novels, Loretta Plansky had not been an assassin nor a CIA agent.
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With “The Mystery of Locked Rooms,” author Lindsay Currie introduces us to three best friends, middle school kids who love solving escape room puzzles, and who, at the start of the novel, beat the time to escape from the second-hardest escape room. It’s a feat only a few other teams have accomplished. Sarah Greene is pretty happy, but as the end of Chapter One says, “If I didn’t have to go home, this day would be perfect.” So we know life isn’t great for Sarah.
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Rachel Howzell Hall is an accomplished author, and her newest novel, “Fog and Fury,” is the start of her first series, aptly called “Haven Thriller.” The setting is an idyllic California coastal town which some people are aiming to turn into a posh tourist destination and which has the nickname “Mayberry by the Sea.” But things are not as harmonious and peaceful as the movers and shakers in town would have people believe.
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In many ways, Mary Alice Monroe’s “Where the Rivers Merge” is an ode to the ACE Basin, a place in South Carolina where three rivers join. The main character, Eliza Rivers, shows us the beauty of this place as we learn about her life growing up at Mayfield, a large property that belonged to her father’s family.
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“The Vanishing Kind” is definitely the kind of book that you might want to read in one sitting to find out how the enthralling action ends, yet I found myself doing the opposite. Alice Henderson creates characters so likable, a plot so gripping, and a setting so idyllic, that I just didn’t want it to end. I kept putting off finishing the book because I wanted to stay with main character Alex Carter in the New Mexico desert setting just a bit longer.
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Women of a certain age (of whom I am one) loved Deanna Raybourn’s “Killers of a Certain Age,” and its sequel, “Kills Well With Others,” is just as brilliantly conceived, wonderfully executed, and thrilling as its predecessor. It features the same deadly sexagenarians, Mary Alice, Helen, Natalie, and Billie.
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