Tag: NetGalley

So much to love

There is so much to love in Ragnar Jónasson’s The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer that I have forgiven his cliffhanger of an ending.

My introduction to the acclaimed Icelandic author first came in his A Christmas Puzzle short story, where I felt as if I’d discovered a lost Christie or Marsh manuscript.

Those Golden-era crime fiction feels remain front and center in his current cozy, as we find our protagonist Helgi Reykdal tucked in at his late father’s bookshop, reading an Icelandic translation of Dame Agatha’s Peril at End House, during a visit home to be with his ailing mother.

Then comes a call from his boss at the Reykjavik police department, who offers him the chance of a lifetime — to solve the disappearance of Iceland’s preeminent crime writer, Elin Jónsdóttir.

With the help of some classic missing person mysteries to inspire him, Helgi sets off to solve the case that could make or break his career. With a rich cast of characters/suspects, lots of secrets, twists and turns, not to mention a Fatal Attraction–esque ex, The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer is an absolute delight, even if everything isn’t tied up in a bow. I look forward to reading the next installment of the series.

I highly recommend The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer to cozy, Golden-age and international mystery fans. I received an advanced reader copy of the English translation from St. Martins Press/Minotaur 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

The Golden Girls are back

Chaos ensues when Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia are on the case in Rachel Ekstrom Courage’s Murder by Cheesecake, the first installment of her Golden Girls cozy mystery series.

Eckstrom Courage captures the nuance of each of the ladies, so much so that, while I was a fan of the comedy that ran from 1985 to 1992, I wasn’t sure that I could read a whole book of perfectly timed banter and one-liners. I’m so glad I did. The throwback cozy was not only full of cheesecake and laughter but a solid mystery, as well with all the twists and turns of one of Rose’s stories.

Tasked with putting on a true St. Olaf-style wedding in Miami for Nettie, her niece, who is actually her cousin, with all of the cockamamie requirements of the hometown elders, so that Nettie can inherit her trust, Rose has her work cut out for her.

Just when it looks like she, with a little help from her roommates, will pull it off, the girls discover the body of the man Dorothy was going to bring to the wedding, frozen, face-down on top of one of Rose’s famous cheesecakes in fiancé Jason’s family’s hotel freezer. Rose isn’t the only one, who needs help, as Dorothy becomes the prime suspect and the roommates must prove her innocence.

I recommend Murder by Cheesecake to fans of the Golden Girls and cozy mysteries alike. I received an advance readers copy from Hyperion Avenue, 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

Bravo!

Bravo!

In A Long Time Gone, author Joshua Moehling delivers a beautifully written thriller full of mystery, emotion and suspense that leaves the reader sitting back in their chair saying, “Wow.”

Life hasn’t been easy of late for my favorite sexy detective. In this third book in the Ben Packard mystery series, we find our protagonist pulling court-security detail when a shooting puts him on leave and under investigation with too much time to think – not only about recent events and his future but his older brother’s decades earlier disappearance from the family’s lake house, as well.

After more details of that tragedy had come to light, a visit with his mother to visit the owner of his grandparent’s former home brings back memories. It also sends Packard on another investigation with life-threatening consequences.

Moehling should teach a master class on creating rich, fictional characters as real as they come. From Ben to his mother, his friends/coworkers and romantic interests, it’s all there with depth and easy, subtle strokes.

I highly recommend A Long Time Gone for mystery, thriller and LGBTQ fiction fans. I received this advanced reader copy of A Long Time Gone from Poisoned Pen Press, 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

Can’t-put-it down holiday whodunit


Leave it to an author with a name like Noelle Albright to pen a can’t-put-it down holiday whodunit with just the right amount of lightness and dark, humor and suspense, colorful characters, red herrings and a ghost in The Christmas Eve Murders.

I read it in one sitting and absolutely loved it!

Picture the bucolic glacier valleys of the Yorkshire Dales on Christmas Eve. Then imagine breaking down there in a snowstorm en route to Edinburgh to spend the holidays with the family. You realize you don’t have a cell signal when a strange man knocks on your window. That’s how journalist Maddie Marlow finds herself spending Christmas Eve with the locals at the Merry Monarch, just in time for the annual scavenger hunt.

Despite not knowing anyone, for Maddie, choosing teams for the evening’s festivities was easy. Choosing allegiances after a murder takes place in the snowbound pub is a whole other story. Who can she trust?

I highly recommend The Christmas Eve Murders to readers who enjoy humor and suspense in equal measures. I received this advanced reader copy from Quercus, courtesy of NetGalley. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

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 as I share my new holiday favorite reads, giveaways and more.

Meet my new favorite crime-solving duo

A Collection of Lies, A Kate Hamilton Mystery, by Connie Berry book cover
While USA Bestselling author Connie Berry’s A Collection of Lies is the fifth of her Kate Hamilton Mystery series, the story, the characters, the case to be solved works so perfectly as a standalone but with enough tease to the back-story that you’ll want to read the entire series. So much so that I have already ordered two of the earlier four installments.

In A Collection of Lies, we find American antiques dealer Kate Hamilton and her new husband, DI Tom Mallory, on their honeymoon in Devon, in southwest England. As a favor to a colleague of Tom’s, Kate agrees to put her antique textile expertise to the test exploring whether an old, bloodstained, lace dress could possibly be linked to a long-cold-case murder.

With the discovery of long-held secrets, a shooting at a local history museum gala and a very warm murder of a Victorian You-Tuber, to which Tom assists the local constabulary to solve, and the newlyweds are soon hot on the trail of a mystery with plot turns that keep you guessing.

My new favorite crime-solving duo, I love Kate and Tom’s rapport not to mention their abilities to follow clues and their senses to solve a satisfying caper. I can’t wait to go back and read their origin story in A Dream of Death.

I highly recommend A Collection of Lies to fans of traditional cozy mysteries, British mysteries, and partners in crime-solving duos.

I received this advanced reader copy of A Collection of Lies from Crooked Lane 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

Powerful historical fiction

In The Goddess of Warsaw, New York Times bestselling author Lisa Barr tells the powerful story of fictional Hollywood icon Lena Browning, her — unknown to fans — life before/in the Warsaw Ghetto as Bina Blonski, her resistance missions as Irina Zieliński and her escape to America.

When we first meet Lena in the prologue set in 2005 Hollywood, it seems like an over-the-top portrayal of an octogenarian Golden Age actress, not realizing that Lena was playing a character – herself. It’s a well-honed craft she used to not only survive the horrors of Nazi terror over Jews in WWII-era Poland but to battle them, survive and exact revenge.

With master strokes, Barr paints a picture of guts, determination and an unwillingness to surrender amidst the despicable and heart-wrenching events going on all around Bina Blonski, whose blonde hair and blue eyes were key to her survival. With Nazis in Hollywood, Lena’s self-appointed missions to combat them continue.

Barr seamlessly weaves all of the threads of Lena Browning’s life together for an emotional climax and while the actress may have had a ‘no tears clause’ in her film contracts, they poured down my face.

I highly recommend The Goddess of Warsaw to readers of WWII-era historical fiction, thrillers and spy novels. I received an advanced reader copy of the novel from Harper Collins Publishers, 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

So Much to Love in A Midnight Puzzle

There is so much for classic and cozy mystery fans to love in locked room mystery master Gigi Pandian’s A Midnight Puzzle, her third installment in her Secret Staircase Mystery series. 

First, there’s her amateur sleuth, Tempest Raj, whom I imagine as a beautiful Marvel superhero spinning her way to solving “impossible” mysteries. One who has a rich backstory and wonderful supporting characters.

Deadly booby traps in a spooky old theater, where Tempest’s mother had vanished years earlier, selkie folklore and nods to the greatest mystery writers of all time and there’s no doubt Pandian is deserving of all of her accolades, including having won the Agatha, Anthony, Lefty and Deringer awards as well as being a finalist for an Edgar award.

Even though I did guess the murderer early on, there were plenty of fun plot spins to keep me turning the pages so to be fair, I dinged it half a star.

I wish Tempest and Grandpa Ash were real. I wish he would come riding his bicycle in my neighborhood and bring some of his delicious Indian treats. If you’re like me, you’ll be delighted to learn that Pandian included a few recipes at the end of book.

Last but not least, I also wish Tempest and I could be friends and hang out with her and Ivy at the wonderful library where Ivy works. I’d also love it if she’d help me to build me a secret bookcase door for my bedroom.
I highly recommend A Midnight Puzzle to all cozy mystery fans and look forward to going back and reading previous installments of the Secret Staircase mysteries.

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

Cheers all around for Murder Uncorked

Murder Uncorked book on desk with antique typewriter, magnifying glass, phone, radio and lamp
If you enjoy a glass of wine and cozy mysteries by the fire this time of year, then cheers all around for a perfect pairing as the Edgar award-winning bestselling author Maddie Day launches Murder Uncorked, her first Cece Barton Mystery novel, set in Northern California’s beautiful wine country.

Cece, a widowed single mom with an estranged college-aged daughter, has recently moved to the fictional town of Colinas from Pasadena, where she is the new proprietor of Vino y Vida, the local wine bar. She has also moved to be closer to her innkeeper/real estate agent twin sister Allie, along with her smart and adorable twin nephews.

Just as she’s settling into her first busy harvest season in Sonoma County, frustration with the politics and leadership of the local wine association finds Cece in the middle of a murder investigation where she’s the prime suspect.

Day has a gift for seamlessly layering in clues to the murderer, all the while rounding out each of the characters and their relationships from Cece to her family and friends, making each feel real.

I enjoyed reading Maddie Day’s Murder Uncorked so much that after reading references to an earlier case, I was thrilled to discover that Cece Barton’s origin story novella Murderous Mittens was recently published with Lee Hollis and Lynn Cahoon. I loved that one too and can’t wait to read the next. Both books and a bottle of wine would make a perfect gift for your favorite cozy mystery lover, even if that’s you.

I recommend Murder Uncorked to cozy mystery fans. I received this Advance Reader’s copy of Murder by Degrees from Kensington Books, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Dr. Lydia Weston is 1875 Philadelphia’s newest amateur detective

In Murder by Degrees, Ritu Mukerji introduces us to Dr. Lydia Weston, a practicing physician in 1875 Philadelphia and instructor at the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, at a time when little faith and confidence was put in lady doctors by not only patients but her male counterparts as well.

Weston’s sharp eye, love of poetry and compassion for her patients and students puts her right in the middle of a murder investigation, when a patient is dragged from the Schuykill River and believed to have committed suicide.

With an undeterred fervor, she works alongside her mentor Dr. Charles Stanley and a reluctant police inspector and his sergeant to find the truth.

Mukerji, a practicing internist for 15 years, layered in beautifully explained medical details without losing the reader. She also came to know the City of Brotherly Love while attending the Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and well translated the marvels of the Philadelphia landscape.

The author also has a BA in history from Columbia University, so it’s no wonder that when this avid mystery reader decided to write her own crime fiction, it would be an historical mystery set in the city in its grand heyday, just before the Centennial Exhibition where the telephone, typewriter and sewing machine would be introduced.

This post-Civil War era also marks the early years of the women’s suffrage movement and is ripe with possibilities for Dr. Lydia Weston. With her protagonist now established, I look forward to Mukerji’s future installments of the series and the development of an even richer character, drawing even farther on lessons learned from her youth, as well as possible romantic involvement with a local police sergeant.
 
I recommend Murder by Degrees to mystery, historical mystery and medical drama fans. I received this Advance Reader’s copy of Murder by Degrees from Simon & Schuster, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

I love Agatha Raisin!

Handwritten review of Dead on Target on desk next to antique typewriter, phone and clock radio
Be sure to check out my Instagram reel for a humorous attempt at reading my review on the beach.

The hawk-eyed, sharp-tongued, insatiably curious and colorfully coutured Agatha Raisin and her entourage of friends and lovers—past and present—are back.

In Dead on Target, the London P.R. exec turned Cotswold Private Eye is investigating the murder of Sir Godfrey Pride, a lecherous landowner, whose body Agatha discovered with his pants down and an arrow through his chest, during one of those deadly English village fetes that cozy mystery fans read so much about.

Now fools Agatha doesn’t suffer wisely and that includes Carsely’s Detective Chief Inspector Wilkes, who believes our heroine is the prime suspect when in reality, she could just be the next victim.

Throw in a gangster, counterfeit merch, ballroom dancing and Agatha in God forbid a Mirchester United Hoodie and track suit and Agatha Raisin and cozy mystery fans are in for a treat – a few laughs, a twisty plot and a satisfying ending.

R.W. Green has done an outstanding job of not only capturing the essence of Agatha’s character but also her cohorts and the village of Carsely that the late M.C. Beaton created 34 books ago. Don’t skip the foreword!

I highly recommend Dead on Target for all M.C. Beaton/Agatha Raisin fans and lovers of cozy lighthearted, humorous mysteries. I received this advance reader copy from Minotaur Books, courtesy of NetGalley.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

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