

Review of The Return of Ellie Black by Emiko Jean
I'm intrigued by a missing-persons story, and I'm a fan of Emiko Jean's writing. The Return of Ellie Black was a disturbing setup...
Sep 17, 2024


Review of A Tempest of Tea (Blood and Tea #1) by Hafsah Faizal
The first installment in Faizal's Blood and Tea series offers intriguing secrets, a swirling mystery, terrible betrayal, heartwarming...
Aug 21, 2024


Review of The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby is a historical fiction art-focused mystery told in two timelines. I found the story immensely...
Aug 13, 2024


Review of All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker
Whitaker offers several interconnected storylines, and while each one individually appealed to me, I felt a growing lack of connection to...
Jul 23, 2024


Review of The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant
Grant's thriller is set in the wilds of Idaho, with a wilderness expert of a main character who has fought to trust others and be...
Jun 18, 2024


Review of Only If You're Lucky by Stacy Willingham
Only If You're Lucky centers around a group of South Carolina college students who don't truly know each other--and the unpleasant...
May 14, 2024


Review of The River We Remember by William Kent Krueger
I was intrigued by the post-World War II repercussions on small-town Minnesota and by the dark secrets coming to light, but found myself...
Apr 18, 2024


Six More Four-Star (and Up) Mysteries I Loved in the Past Year
Six Four-Star (and Up) Bossy Mystery Reads If you want more favorite-mystery lists, check out round 1 of last year's Bossy favorites. And...
Apr 12, 2024


Review of The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
Katherine Arden, author of the captivating Winternight trilogy, here shares a mysterious, haunting historical fiction story with a...
Apr 9, 2024


Review of Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
Listen for the Lie offers a fascinating story structure, dark humor, and deeply flawed characters as main protagonist Lucy works to...
Mar 13, 2024


Review of The Spy Coast (The Martini Club #1) by Tess Gerritsen
A former CIA operative retires to small-town Maine--along with other former agents--to live out a quiet existence, until figures from the...
Feb 28, 2024


Six Four-Star Mysteries I Loved Reading in the Past Year
Six Four-Star (and Up) Bossy Mystery Reads This is the time in the year when you may be asking yourself, "Is she going to just keep...
Feb 23, 2024


Review of Maisie Dobbs (Maisie Dobbs #1) by Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie Dobbs is a formidable, dogged, whip-smart investigator working to ferret out the truth in the aftermath of World War I in this...
Feb 20, 2024


Review of All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby
I didn't feel drawn into this novel of the horrifying serial killing of children of color in a small Virginia community and the...
Feb 14, 2024


Review of The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
The Heiress is set on a North Carolina estate that's always felt claustrophobic to Cam. But his adoptive mother Ruby, an infamous...
Jan 23, 2024


Review of Lone Women by Victor LaValle
LaValle mixes a Western setting with strong feminist messages, magical realism, haunting elements, and the terrifying, freeing truth in...
Jan 17, 2024


Review of A Power Unbound (Last Binding #3) by Freya Marske
Marske's quirky, funny, richly imagined magical world, complex character-building, relationship exploration, and storytelling continues...
Jan 16, 2024


Review of The Running Grave (Cormoran Strike #7) by Robert Galbraith
In what's possibly my favorite book yet of the seven in the Cormoran Strike series, we see some emotional growth, potentially...
Dec 19, 2023


Review of Happiness Falls by Angie Kim
Angie Kim's sophomore novel is a mystery, but Happiness Falls is primarily an exploration of a complicated, loving, messy family and each...
Nov 14, 2023


Review of Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
ICYMI: Morton masterfully weaves together timelines, threads of family history, and long-held secrets now revealed, while her main...
Nov 1, 2023
