Tag Archives: mystery

Big Time

I thoroughly enjoyed many things about Big Time by Ben H. Winters (publication day March 5, 2024)! Winters brought me in to the story immediately–we learn that Allie, a teacher with a young child, has been abducted by a woman who is taking her . . . somewhere. Allie escapes in Maryland, not without doingContinue reading “Big Time”

Mad Honey

Mad Honey (2022) by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, was the library book group’s February selection, and, as sometimes happens, I started reading with no background or expectations about the book. I’ve read other Picoult books (which I generally enjoyed), but I wasn’t familiar with the second author. I was immediately hooked! We meetContinue reading “Mad Honey”

Remarkably Bright Creatures

I was absolutely delighted by Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (2022)! I am happily in the majority of people who loved this book, the story of widowed Tova Sullivan who lost her teenage son Erik thirty years before, and Cameron, annoying screw-up, man-child, who shows up in Sowell Bay, Washington, looking for hisContinue reading “Remarkably Bright Creatures”

Now You See Us

Now You See Us (2023) is the newest novel written by Balli Kaur Jaswal (Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, The Unlikely Adventures of the Shergill Sisters) and is just as good as the others of hers that I’ve read, in a completely different way. Set in Singapore, Jaswal tells the story of a murder throughContinue reading “Now You See Us”

Scorched Grace

Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy (2023) is a mystery that intrigued me for the unlikeliness of its primary amateur sleuth–Sister Holiday, guitar teacher at St. Sebastian’s School in New Orleans. Sister Holiday is the former Holiday Walsh, the queer (but not practicing), tattooed, former punk rocker and addict, who joined the Sisters of the SublimeContinue reading “Scorched Grace”

The Old Woman With the Knife

The Old Woman With the Knife (2013, audiobook released 2022) by Gu Byeong-mo, translated by Chi-Young Kim. The author is a popular South Korean writer, but this is the only book she’s written that has been translated into English, that I could find. Hornclaw has spent her career as a “disease control specialist,” the euphemisticContinue reading “The Old Woman With the Knife”

Rebecca

Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier is considered a classic of modern gothic fiction, and was voted Britain’s favorite book written since 1800, but I hadn’t read it until late 2022, having felt guilty that I had never picked it up. I should not have felt guilty, as I had a near-instant strong dislike ofContinue reading “Rebecca”

Amy Among the Serial Killers

I didn’t know that Amy Among the Serial Killers (2022) by Jincy Willett was the third book in a series that begins with The Writing Class and Amy Falls Down when I picked it up at the library, but it worked as a standalone. Carla is just fine; she is a grown-up former child starContinue reading “Amy Among the Serial Killers”

The Maid

In The Maid (coming 4 January 2022), Nita Prose has created a quirky, socially awkward character, Molly, a hotel maid who finds a murdered guest, who is reminiscent of another quirky character–Eleanor in Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. Molly works at a boutique hotel and has been all alone since her GranContinue reading “The Maid”