Month: October 2024

A rich blend of history, mystery and murder


In The Coffee House Murders, masterful storyteller Ellis Blackwood, sets Abigail Harcourt and Jacob Standish on another captivating adventure bringing the post-Great Fire 1660’s London to life.

This third installment of the Samuel Pepys Mysteries finds the famed diarist, the Clerk of the Acts to the Navy Board and adviser to King Charles II, for whom the series is named, charging his young inquisitors with another mission – to find his missing pocket watch.

The seemingly innocuous task soon takes a dangerous turn when the pair put their sleuthing abilities to work upon discovering the murder of a wit and parliamentarian, which they had met in Rose’s Coffee House on the Strand, the very coffee house the two had frequented the previous night.

After the investigation leads to an adjacent royalist-clientele coffee house, the Gilded Bean, it becomes clear treachery is afoot. In order to protect the crown and Pepys, who has no idea of his inquisitors activities, they must break into Westminster. If caught, the consequences are deadly. If they do not break in, the consequences are the same, save for who will die.

I love the way Abby and Jacob’s confidence and skills continue to grow and though not yet romantic, how they’ve come to rely on each other.

In this third installment in as many months, Blackwood continues to impress with his ingenious plotting, characterization, and richly detailed setting, painting another brilliant whodunit. I highly recommend The Coffee House Murders to fans of historical fiction, historical mysteries and British mysteries.

I received an advance reader’s copy of The Coffee House Murders, courtesy of the author and Vintage Mystery Press. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

If you’re interested in learning more about Samuel Pepys, his diary is available online. Pepys’ diary entries from 1665 are also woven into the narrative of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated The Great Plague by Dorothy and Lloyd Moot (for which I was privileged to host a C-Span BookTV episode).

Review by Di Prokop
More Mystery Please

Secrets

National bestselling author Benjamin Stevenson’s fast-paced, fourth-wall breaking Christmas “special” – Everyone this Christmas has a Secret: A Festive Mystery is the third book in the Ernest Cunningham Mysteries series and finds said detective trying to clear his ex-wife of of murdering her rich philanthropist boyfriend.

Not having read the previous two books in the series, it took me a bit to catch up with the characters, and the more foretelling than foreshadowing style of the writing. Once I did though, I was rewarded with a clever plot, witty writing and a solid whodunit with a cliffhanger of a climax tied up in a bow by the 24th day of the Advent calendar.

I recommend Everyone This Christmas has a Secret to readers who enjoy humorous cozies, Christmas special installments, and detective fiction. I received this advanced reader copy from Mariner Books, courtesy of NetGalley. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop
More Mystery Please

*If you enjoy holiday mysteries as much as I do, be sure to check out the Second Annual More Mystery Please Santa Advent calendar, beginning December 1.

Crimes for Christmas

Edited by Otto Penzler, Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop: Twelve Tales of Seasonal Suspense Set in the World’s Oldest Mystery Specialty Store offers readers a grand collection of holiday murder and mystery short stories by noteworthy, award-winning and international bestselling authors, including Jason Starr, Lyndsay Faye, Loren Estleman, Ace Atkins, Rob Hart, Laura Lippman, Jeffery Deaver, David Gordon and Martin Edwards.

Some of these Christmas tales are treasures that take you back to the golden era of crime fiction. My favorite is A Christmas Puzzle by acclaimed Icelandic author Ragnar Jónasson. I felt as if I had discovered a lost manuscript of Christie or Marsh. The pacing, the subtle clues, the climax…perfection!

Aficionado of misdirection and the locked room mystery, UK author Tom Mead offers readers a fun holiday twist on an old theme in Hester’s Gift. Though other reviewers may give more details in an overview about the story, I don’t want to lay out any clues before your eyes reach the actual page.

Each of the stories has a different feel to it. In fact, Laura Lippman’s ironic tale, Snowflake Time, seems like it could be ripped from the headlines.

I own several of Penzler’s previous collections and enjoy pulling them out each year. This one is no exception. I highly recommend Christmas Crimes at the Mysterious Bookshop.

While I received an advance reader’s copy from The Mysterious Press, courtesy of NetGalley, I’ve already purchased a digital version so that I can re-read these wonderful stories. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop
More Mystery Please

*If you enjoy holiday mysteries as much as I do, be sure to check out the Second Annual More Mystery Please Santa Advent calendar, beginning December 1.

My new favorite Christmas mystery

I think USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Benedict may have just given me the gift of my most favorite Christmas mystery novel of all time – The Christmas Jigsaw Murders.

After receiving a parcel with six jigsaw pieces on her doorstep, Edie O’Sullivan, a crotchety octogenarian and renowned crosswords setter (whom I imagined as Stephanie Cole AKA Doc Martin’s Auntie Joan) must solve the most important puzzle of her life.

A cryptic note with the package read, “Four, maybe more, people will be dead by midnight on Christmas Eve, unless you can put all the pieces together and stop me.” Signed, Rest in Pieces.

Recognizing something worrisome pictured in one of the puzzle pieces, Edie shares some of what she knows with her nephew/adopted son, DI Sean Brand-O’Sullivan. When a man is attacked and left for dead with a jigsaw piece in his hand, Sean forbids Edie from investigating any further in an effort to protect her.

Needless to say, Edie — a self-proclaimed pain in the arse, who has always gotten in her own way but has always done everything she could to protect Sean — is determined that she is the only one who can solve the mystery but she will have to face her demons to do so.

Also author of The Christmas Murder Game and Murder on the Christmas Express, Benedict gives readers everything we need in a page-turner of a modern-day Christmas mystery. A ticking clock, characters with rich layers of back-story and humor, red herrings, suspects and true to the title, you need all the pieces to really solve the puzzle.

I ho-ho heartily recommend The Christmas Jigsaw Murders to fans of British mysteries, cozy mysteries, Christmas mysteries, LGBTQ+ mysteries and fans of anagrams, which Benedict has peppered throughout the novel, with nods to Dickens, Christine McVie and Fleetwood Mac.

I received an advance readers copy from Poisoned Pen Press, an imprint of Sourcebooks, courtesy of NetGalley. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

*If you enjoy holiday mysteries as much as I do, be sure to check out the Second Annual More Mystery Please Santa Advent calendar, beginning December 1.

Sweet story

The Maid has been on my TBR for some time now, so when I learned that Molly the maid and other characters from Nita Prose’s #1 New York Times bestseller were featured in a holiday-themed novella, I had to read it.

While The Mistletoe Mystery was a sweet story, ala O. Henry, I was disappointed that there was no real mystery. I liked the characters and kept waiting for something exciting to happen. It didn’t.

I recommend The Mistletoe Mystery for holiday romance fans or Nita Prose, who might just be happy to see some of their favorite characters in a holiday setting without needing the novella to be a true mystery.

I received this advanced reader copy from Ballantine Books, courtesy of NetGalley. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop
More Mystery Please

*If you enjoy holiday mysteries as much as I do, be sure to check out the Second Annual More Mystery Please Santa Advent calendar, beginning December 1.

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