Tag Archives: mystery

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

I was thrilled to finally get to read The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store (2023) by James McBride, as I’ve loved his writing since reading his memoir The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother and the brilliant pre-civil war historical fiction The Good Lord Bird. In The Heaven and EarthContinue reading “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store”

Lady Tan’s Circle of Women

As usual, Lisa See has crafted an engaging historical fiction novel centering on women and their relationships in Lady Tan’s Circle of Women (2023). In the late 1400s, in China during the Ming dynasty, child Tan Yunxian witnesses her mother’s death because of infection in her bound feet and the lack of medical care forContinue reading “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women”

Bodies to Die For

I have mixed feelings about Bodies to Die For (publication date June 11, 2024) by Lori Brand. Many of the characters live their lives as fitness influencers, tracking every gram of carbs they eat every day, terrified of becoming fat. Gemma is the main character, and she is a former fat person, now a fitnessContinue reading “Bodies to Die For”

The Fox Wife

The Fox Wife (2024) by Yangsze Choo (The Ghost Bride, The Night Tiger) completely charmed me from the second page with these lines: I exist as either a small canid with thick fur, pointed ears, neat black feet, or a young woman. Neither are safe forms in a world run by men. Thus we meetContinue reading “The Fox Wife”

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”