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Thrillers

High Crimes in High Society in Shepard’s “Reputation”

In some murder mysteries, we struggle to figure out who the killer is because everybody’s alibi seems so darn plausible — we keep looking for holes. But in Sara Shepard’s newest novel Reputation (Dutton), nobody’s story rings true.  Even Kit, the character who pretty much launches the whole plot, begins…
Sherri Daley
December 2, 2019
Fiction

A Jack the Ripper Romp with Arthur Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle teams up with radical social critic Margaret Harkness to find and apprehend the yet-unnamed Jack the Ripper. Along for the ride is Doyle’s former professor, Joseph Bell, a masterful surgeon who just so happens to be the inspiration for the character of Holmes. Now…
Jeff Daugherty
July 29, 2019
Fiction

Ridin’ with Biden in “Hope Rides Again”

Andrew Shaffer’s highly innovative and hilarious Hope Never Dies burst onto the literary scene last summer as a high-action mystery putting Joe Biden and Barack Obama in the role of amateur detectives. It provided a perfect escape from the state of affairs in politics. Now, Shaffer is at it again,…
BookTrib
July 8, 2019
Fiction

Tall Poppy Review: A Meet-Cute Turned Deadly

A thought-provoking, beautifully written portrait of marriage and motherhood is entwined with a propulsive, page-turning psychological mystery in Jessica Strawser’s Almost Missed You (St. Martin's Press). The novel starts with a clever and twisty set up – the romantic back story of how Violet and Finn meet cute, lose track…
Kelly Simmons
July 4, 2019
Thrillers

Mysteries and Middle Age Woes in “Pilate’s Blood”

Everybody slows down in their forties. Shouldn’t the same go for action heroes? This is the sort of commentary with which author J. Alexander Greenwood subverts the mystery series formula in Pilate’s Blood. John Pilate returns home to Cross Township to accept a position as the town constable while they…
Jeff Daugherty
June 13, 2019
Thrillers

Detective Team Unveils Mystery in 1930s Chicago

Michelle Cox suspects she may have once lived in the 1930s. Perhaps that is why she writes about the period so adeptly. Chicago is the setting for her award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series, engaging plots that charm us with modern-minded characters enmeshed in a world full of social expectations,…
Anne Eliot Feldman
June 12, 2019
Thrillers

“The Wife Between Us” Meets “Rebecca”

Since high school, Claire Prescott planned her life. From the first time she saw university professor Byron Prescott speak about literature at her high school, she knew he would be a part of it. Even though everyone told her Byron was too old and his first wife, Colleen, seemed to…
Missi Gwartney
June 10, 2019
Thrillers

War, Criminality, and “The Right Sort of Man”

“Did your hunch prove correct?” asked Gwen. “It did,” replied Iris, as she began typing her notes of the interview. “What was it about?” “Her stockings.” “Were her seams not straight?” “The seams were straight,” said Iris. “The girl is crooked.” It is June 1946 in London. The war is…
Neil Nyren
May 31, 2019