Mystery

Jordan Stratford has taken a neat idea—young Mary Shelley and young Ada Lovelace team up to solve mysteries—and crafted a juvenile adventure story that's so much fun, it threatens to burst out of the book jacket and shoot off the pages like a cannon ball.

The year is 1826. Fourteen-year-old Mary Godwin, the sensitive and curious daughter of feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and free thinker William Godwin, is beginning her tutelage alongside the brilliant but temperamental and eccentric 11-year-old Lady Ada Byron, daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron. Their tutor is the young, handsome Peebs

Following The Hidden Man and Breach of Trust, The Wrong Man is third in the Jason Kolarich mystery series. To help out a colleague, Kolarich agrees to defend a homeless Iraqi war vet on a charge of murder, fully expecting he will only be going through the motions. However, the more he digs into the case, the more he thinks his client is innocent. There is plenty of legal maneuvering but it doesn’t hinder the plot from moving along. This thriller is well paced, humorous and entertaining!

For those who have been enjoying the Temperance Brennan Mysteries by Kathy Reichs, Bones Never Lie brings forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance Brennan and Detective Andrew Ryan of Canada back together in the search for a serial murderer.

Temperance is called in to help solve a cold case that she and Detective Ryan worked on 10 years ago when the killer just slipped through their fingers and escaped. Using advances in DNA research and files and clues from the former murders in Canada, they have linked murders in Vermont and N. Carolina to the string of old murders in Canada. Now Temperance

Ten strangers have come together on a remote English island under false pretenses. Each one bears a dark secret that they have hidden from the world. Stranded on the island and as the guests begin to die one by one, they discover that someone in the company has uncovered those secrets and is willing to make them pay.

Before this classic plot became prominent in both literature and film, it was brought to the forefront by Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. Previously titled Ten Little Indians (changed and edited to make it more PC), it is not like any of the other Agatha Christie

What more could you ask for in a book about people who love words and communication and the preservation of that communication? When I started reading The Word Exchange I had no access to a dictionary and definitely needed one. I almost gave up right away but decided to pick my adult children's brains and see if I could continue.  Nope, they didn't know those words either, so I continued to read.  I was fascinated by how the book drew me in and made me want to learn the meaning behind the words, but I definitely felt lost a time or two. The book begins with the story of Ana and her father

Private Detective, Cormoran Strike gets roped into taking a case by Leonora Quine to locate her missing husband, with a somewhat dubious promise of payment by Quine's editor. In pondering why he's taken on such a ridiculous case, Strike comes to realize that he did it out of sheer boredom. Coming off the fame of solving the headline grabbing murder of Lula Landry (see: Cuckoo's Calling), Strike has made a bit of a name for himself amongst the rich and want-to-be famous. Trouble is, the only investigative needs they have are following philandering spouses and girlfriends. When what appears to

Second in the Walter Day series, The Black Country finds Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad called to a small mining town to investigate the disappearance of a child and his parents. Secrets, superstition, and massive amounts of snow are only a few of the challenges Day and his colleagues face once they arrive in The British Midlands. The town is in the grips of a plague, pulling Dr. Kingsley away from the case, not only to treat the ill, but re-educate the town doctor as well. As the city slowly sinks into the elaborate network of mines beneath, The Murder Squad races for clues, never knowing who

James Swain has written a series of novels featuring Tony Valentine as the main character. Mr. Lucky is the fifth in a series that has been one enjoyable read after another. Tony is a retired Atlantic City policeman who runs his own consulting firm that assists casinos in determining if they have been victims of fraud.  There is a lot in these novels about the culture of casinos and gambling which I find interesting.  In Mr. Lucky, a new and different scam unfolds for our entertainment.  Mr. Lucky is a guy (Ricky Smith) who wins at every casino game, and Tony Valentine must figure out how he

Things have been complicated for Hannah Wagnor since her best friend Lillian died six months ago, because her best friends ghost still haunts her, and because someone in their sleepy town is killing girls and leaving their bodies in the woods behind Hannah’s house. Lillian has become obsessed with the murders and to appease her friend’s spirit, Hannah begins to investigate the crime scene photos developed at the photo store where she works. The girls notice similarities between the murders that the police haven’t released to the public, a eerie paper valentine left with each body, the sign of

With the recent release of Gone Girl in theaters and Halloween just around the corner, now is the perfect time to read Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

The novel features Libby Day, a bitter and psychologically damaged young woman whose family was seemingly randomly murdered when she was 7 years old, with the blame falling to her older, devil-worshiping brother. Now 24 years later, Libby happens upon a group who call themselves the Kill Club, who obsess over famous massacres and crimes. The group convinces Libby that her brother may not have been the murderer after all, which leads Libby to

Mystery Mile is the second book in Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion series.  The Crime at Black Dudley is the first, but it features the detective Campion only incidentally.  In Mystery Mile, Campion’s playful insouciance and faux-insipid charm is in full effect.

Albert Campion is a golden age of detective fiction staple. He’s featured in 21 books, spanning the years from 1929 to 1970.  That was reason enough for me to begin reading, but in case you need more reasons, here are several:  Campion is a totally charming and unexpected young man; he’s apparently non-threatening and depends on

Marco, a 15-year-old boy, just wants to be a regular citizen and go to school. But his uncle, who is head of their clan, only sees these dreams as trouble. Forced to steal and beg for money on the streets, Marco secretly does all he can to better himself and learn as much as he can. When he overhears plans to cripple him, forcing him to abandon his dreams and tow the line, he knows he must escape. In his hours hiding from his Uncle and the rest of the clan, Marco makes a terrible discovery. Wanting to do the right thing brings his path  across Carl's more than once.

The Marco Effect is the

The improbably-named Cormoran Strike, a war-wounded vet with overdue bills to pay, has an equally improbable day; his fiancé dumps him, he accidentally hires a new secretary, and the biggest case of his career walks through the door.  This is how Robert Galbraith’s (aka J.K. Rowling’s) book The Cuckoo's Calling starts out, and thankfully, it gets much better from that over-the-top introduction.  When young model Lula Landry falls to her death from her balcony, family members deny it was a suicide.  Strike is brought in to prove that someone killed Lula, and he digs up family secrets and plenty

I’ve long enjoyed reading Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series. So long that I barely remembered what happened in the first book, Dead Until Dark. Instead of rereading it, I decided to listen to the audio. I’m glad I did.

The narrator, Johanna Parker, captures the essence of Sookie in all her different moods – perky, angry, scared, nervous, ecstatic, and so on. It was a treat to hear Sookie come alive.

I’m always in awe of how one person can sound like many different people. Ms. Parker does a creditable job of making all the different characters have a different voice – tone, pitch

Jake Fisher notices an obituary online and is swept up in a maelstrom of events.  Six years before, Jake’s girlfriend Natalie married an “old boyfriend”, makes Jake promise to leave them alone and then disappears!  When Jake sees an obituary for Natalie’s husband, he thinks it’s a new ballgame. But Natalie is nowhere to be found. Everything Jake does to find his missing love seems believable, and the mystery of Natalie evolves. Once Harlan Coben sets the hook, I just keep turning the page, and so will you!

Lori Shepherd knows everything about the town of Finch, the small English village where she lives. Recently, the big news is that recluse Hector Huggins has passed away, and everyone in the village attends the funeral. A stranger arrives at the funeral who, it happens, is Hector's nephew, Jack MacBride from Australia, who is in Finch to finish his uncle's affairs.

When Jack starts to clean up Hector's overgrown garden, he discovers a wishing well, and the mystery begins. The wishing well is where the residents of Finch sneak to at night to make wishes. When those wishes come true, Lori asks

Cormoran Strike is a private detective who has just broken up with his on-again/off-again girlfriend of fifteen years. He's living in his office, where he gets almost daily calls asking for the money he owes for the business.  Robin is a temp sent from an agency to help run his office, although she quickly discovers that there's not much to do because there's not much business. Out of the blue, in walks a man asking Strike to investigate the death of his sister, Lula Landry. She was a famous supermodel whose official cause of death was suicide, although her brother believes she was murdered

A year after the horrific rape and murder of his one true love, Ignatius Perrish got drunk, did terrible things, and woke up the next morning with horns growing from his forehead.  Horns that compel others to confess their true, worst thoughts, and makes them seek permission to do the terrible things they always wanted to do.  Ig may resemble a demon, but real demons reside everywhere, much to his horror.

I picked this book up on the suggestion of a friend, who said that I was the only person he knew who could appreciate how utterly twisted it was.  And it is delightfully twisted.  Horrific

Tagged as a magical crime thriller, the movie Now You See Me is about four magicians (illusionists) who call themselves the Four Horsemen who get together to pull off some of the greatest tricks the world has ever seen.  Unfortunately, most of the magic tricks happen to be of a criminal nature.  Thus, the scenario sets up a fast-paced plot of cat and mouse between an FBI super sleuth (played by Mark Ruffalo) and the Four Horsemen (played by Isla Fisher, Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, and Dave Franco).

Now You See Me is by far the most entertaining DVD I have seen in quite a while.  The

Callander Square is the second book in the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series by Anne Perry. Set in the late 1800s, this novel tells the story of multiple mysterious deaths in a posh area of London. Thomas, a police inspector, is called to the central garden of the high-society Callander Square after two baby corpses are found buried among the flowers. Immediately suspecting a poor servant girl, Pitt begins to investigate each household, causing an uncomfortable mood to hang over the residents of the square. The heads of household wish to be left alone, leaving Pitt with several hurdles to

Sophie awakes in utter fear. She is in the woods & blood is everywhere. Her best friend Mina is beside her -- bleeding, choking, gasping, dying. The flashback of a masked man stepping out of a car, pointing a gun, and shooting her dearest friend pounds in her head. In the hospital the shock is over powering & at home the reality is too much to bear. Who would kill Mina? Why had Mina driven down the wooded road? Why hadn't Sophie asked more questions? Did the masked man really say, "I warned you?Sophie tries to piece the details together. So do her parents & so do the police. Why were the two

The Sinclairs spend every summer on their private island, Beechwood. Born within a few short months of each other, 3 of the Sinclair grandchildren and one friend of the family spend the summers thick as thieves, calling themselves The Liars. Cadence, Johnny, Mirren and Gat are inseparable every year, but the summer of their fifteenth year, things start to change. Cadence begins to fall in love with Gat (a friend of the family who is invited to Beechwood every summer) while the Sinclair family falls apart around them.

The summer ends in a tragic accident when Cadence is found in the shallow

This is the first book in the Phryne Fisher Mystery series, a charmingly written series set in in early 20th century Melbourne, Australia. The atmospheric and well-researched details in these novels create an engrossing view into 1920s Melbourne society at all levels. The cast has its regulars, like Jack Robinson, the long-suffering and orchid-loving policeman, Cec and Burt, the wharfies who hope for a socialist revolution, and Lin Chung, the well-to-do son of Chinese immigrants. Included in each book is an ever-changing variety of folks from all walks of Australian life, who round out the

The Devil's Workshop is the third in Grecian's Murder Squad series. Inspector Walter Day, and his partner, Nevil Hammersmith are joined by Day's former mentor, retired detective inspector Adrian March. After a train derails and sets loose convicted murderers on the London streets, these three inspectors must investigate the accident and prison, trying to determine just how many former prisoners are now on the loose. One of these escapees is the former police tailor, turned murderer, Cinderhouse, which Hammersmith and Day captured in The Black Country. Unsure whether they are looking for 4 or 5

The London Eye Mystery is about a peculiar moment in time where a young boy named Salim steps into one of the 32 pods of the infamous London Eye but never steps off. His cousins Ted & Kat saw him get on. He turned around and waved to each of them. Ted and Kat didn't move. The waited, watched, and even counted as the pod slowly made it's way up, up, up, up up then down, down, down, down, down. After 30 stretched out minutes, Salim's pod was back to where it started. The doors opened and people filed out -- everyone except Salim.  Vanished into thin air? Abducted by Aliens? Or worse?  Ted, using

Samantha is discovered stumbling along a highway, dirty, dehydrated and bloody, three days after she and her best friend Cassie went missing. Cassie still hasn't been found and Samantha suffers from amnesia and can't remember anything before the police picked her up. 



Samantha tries to return to her normal life, the daughter of an old money family in a east coast town, hoping something in her old life will trigger memories to help the police find Cassie before it is too late. But soon she discovers that her old life isn't something she wants to return to. A classic mean girl, Sammy and her

This is a very well-written thriller!  The action starts when a plane goes down and Robert Harland, the only survivor, hears a cell phone ringing in the East River.  He wades to the sound and finds his old friend from the CIA dead. Harland uses the phone and takes his friend's wallet, which just happens to contain some discs, for his widow.  Robert Harland is a former British spy, now working for the UN.  The explanation for the crash does not ring true to him and he suspects sabotage. But why? The answer lies in Harland's past!

The plotting is first rate, grounded and realistic. The action

In a spotless suburban home in Ireland, a man and two children are found dead, and a badly-wounded woman is rushed to the hospital. They are residents of Broken Harbor, a nearly-abandoned new development left in the lurch after the housing crisis. This is how Detective Mick “Scorcher” Kennedy finds the Spain family, and has his chance to be top detective on the murder squad. In addition to taking on the biggest case of the year, he has a rookie, Richie Curran, to break in.

Detective Kennedy, a scrupulous man who holds fast to the rules, seems to be the one for the job. His new man, Curran, is

Necromancy student Tara Abernathy has been thrown out of her school--literally--only to be recruited by the stern Ms. Kevarian to work for the international necromantic firm of Kelethres, Albrecht, and Ao. Brother Abelard is a naive, chain-smoking priest of Kos, god of the city of Alt Coulumb, who has discovered that his god is...dead. Tara and Ms. Kevarian arrive in Alt Coulumb to bring Kos back from the dead, and that's when things get really complicated.

Max Gladstone has created a rich, colorful world where gods are real and make deals with mortals through complicated contracts

NYPD Detective Kat Donovan finds herself in a place where her past, present, future and current case all merge.  It took years for her to recover from her father's murder which was shortly followed by her fiance calling it quits and disappearing, but Kat is finally ready to enter the dating scene and sets up an account through an online dating website.  As she is scrolling through possible matches she encounters her ex-fiance! When she messages him he acts like he doesn't remember her.  Strange.  Approached by a teen whose mother is "missing" but still communicating via text, Kat is drawn back