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Maureen Stapleton, a writer and journalist, has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Radio Times, Heat, and many others. She is the associate director of the Greenwich Book Festival, and is a prize manager for the Comedy Women in Print Prize. As a proud holder of both British and American citizenship, she is bilingual in hot drinks (coffee and tea).
Detective Sergeant George Cross returns, this time to solve the murder of a Bristol tailor.
The Tailor by Tim Sullivan is Cross’s eighth outing, detailing his investigative work in the Avon and Somerset Police. Cross’s idiosyncratic investigation style is due to his being on the Autism spectrum, while his colleagues help smooth over any awkward interactions.
Sullivan’s talent lies in exploring and explaining a new profession in every novel. This time, he goes into great detail about the tailoring process. Cross, who is as particular about his police methods as he is about ... View Full Review
A magical chateau in France (where delicious food appears just when you need it), a magical young woman (with a talent for witchcraft) and a magical love triangle (with two irresistible suitors) all come together in this charming tale.
Curses, Keys and Secret Societies by Breanne Randall tells the story of Eléa Deniz, a young woman trying to make sense of her (magical) life. She has returned home to France after four years in California, only to learn that her home has been turned into a graduate school for witches called the Shadowcraft Academy and her father ... View Full Review
British Archaeologist Carla James returns to Jericho College in the United States to solve another murder mystery.
Grave Intent by Sarah Ward features both Jericho College and Carla James for the third time. As the police detective notes, “Jericho has seen a lot of killing in the last year.” It’s anyone’s guess why she would want to return to the site of such mystery and death. (Though it is very difficult to find jobs in higher education these days.)
This time, James has put together a week-long summer course to study burial practices in ... View Full Review
Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett has five thousand square miles to patrol in his district. Unfortunately for him, there’s trouble around every corner, but luckily for readers, they get taken along for the ride.
The Crossroads by C.J. Box again shows the malfeasance in Twelve Sleep District, Pickett’s jurisdiction. This time, though, Pickett is not the one pursuing the criminals after he is shot in the head and left for dead. (This isn’t a spoiler. Pickett is found slumped over his steering wheel in the first chapter.) The investigation is left to ... View Full Review
It’s a beautiful summer evening in the Lake District. The water is lapping at the shore. The sun is glowing golden. A squirrel is frolicking by the lake. A dead body is underneath a boat.
Nothing like a dead body to kill the fun summer vibe.
But that’s only the first of two mysterious deaths D.I. Kelly Porter must investigate in Cruel Truth by Rachel Lynch. This marks the thirteenth outing for D.I. Kelly Porter, and Lynch has sold more than one million books worldwide.
Both dead bodies have a connection to a ... View Full Review
The many secrets of the rich and powerful lead to murderous mayhem during a weekend celebration on a Greek island.
Natasha—Tash to her friends-- is rich. Very rich. Rich enough to own a villa on a remote Greek island with a marble kitchen, a private beach, a yacht, and staff on call. But, exactly one year before, her sister had disappeared and is now presumed dead. Natasha thinks she’s still alive.
Now Tash, her family, and her friends gather at the luxury villa to celebrate her son’s 21st birthday, and she hopes she ... View Full Review
Natural science takes centre stage in this whodunnit, set in the Scottish Highlands in the 1970s.
The Beasts of the Black Loch by Gay Marris features all the tropes a reader seeks in a good mystery. Car crashes. Poison. Theft. Imposters. But this one also comes with added midges and other creatures of the Scottish Highlands, all of which prove crucial to solving the mystery.
Zoologist Dr Ava Dickens arrives at Dorcha Hall in the wake of a tragedy—the death of her friends in a car crash. This leaves their son and her godson, Alistair and his new ... View Full Review
Gisela Klien was charming, clever and beautiful. She was also a spy.
A Model Spy by John Rory Maclean tells her fascinating story, which spans British high society, the fashion world, Oxford, World War II and many glamorous locations, including London, Paris, Cairo and the South of France.
This being a spy story, there is no shortage of intrigue and drama, including close calls with authorities, questions about her heritage, and even poems used to break encryption codes.
Gisela’s many romantic entanglements aided in her espionage, chief among her long love affair with the MP John ... View Full Review
Take one young woman working in the Air Ambulance Service, add a dashing pilot, multiply it by many complications and misunderstandings, and it all equals a beguiling love story set in World War II.
Courage for the Flying Nightingales by Vicky Beeby follows the story of nursing orderly Ruby Morris, who volunteers for the Air Ambulance Service during World War II. Ruby, a nursing school dropout for reasons that become clear late in the novel, doesn’t fear the flying, but the responsibility. She finds herself falling for one of the air ambulance pilots, Flight Sergeant Laurie Foster, ... View Full Review
A shadowy network of criminals and a healthy dose of police corruption in Liverpool propel the story forward in Better Off Dead by Sean Watkin.
It’s the second novel featuring DCI Winifred de Silva of Merseyside Police, the rule-breaking investigator with a complicated past. With his rule-following ways, De Silva’s partner, Detective Sargent Ben Barclay, plays good cop to her bad one.
The pair are tasked with solving the cold case of a murdered man with a missing middle finger found in Formby Woods. The missing middle finger is the murderer’s calling card, ... View Full Review
A murdered child found in a cemetery kicks off the fourth outing of the brilliant (but prickly) pathologist Dr Jack Cuthbert of Scotland Yard.
The Shadows and the Dust by Allan Gaw includes all of the highlights of his previous outings. Compelling mystery. Historical detail. Fully-formed supporting characters. Most important of all, using pathology and science to solve the mystery, along with some good old-fashioned police work.
The mystery begins when Cuthbert visits the hastily-dug grave of the murder victim. He is wrapped in white cotton and laid on a bed of plants and flowers in the cemetery of ... View Full Review
Readers will be on a wild ride from start to finish in Mimik, a German thriller by Sebastian Fitzek.
Hannah Herbst, Germany’s most experienced facial expression expert, learns that she needs to solve the mystery of her family’s murder, but there’s a big problem: she’s watching herself confess to the crime on video, and she has no memory of anything.
Readers will be piecing together the mystery at the same time as Herbst. Meanwhile, can Herbst’s account be trusted? Or can she trust any of the people ... View Full Review
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