Archaeologist Verity Grey is working at a site in Scotland when she hears what sounds like horses galloping outside her window. Since there aren’t any horses in the area she isn’t surprised when she feels that someone is watching her at the dig site. It’s an ancient Roman campsite that has it’s own Sentinel ghost protecting it. There are other strange things happening that involve paranormal activity and romance. I enjoyed the Scottish slang used by the locals and Verity has to buy a Scottish book to help her translate.
This is the newest of the Aunt Dimity cozy mystery series. Lori Shepherd takes her twin sons and a friend, Bree Prym, to Skeaping Manor. It’s a museum full of curiosities. Lori meets a young girl named Daisy who tells some interesting stories. When Daisy and her mother disappear suddenly Lori is determined to find out why. As usual Aunt Dimity, who is a ghost, helps Lori solve the mystery. I never get tired of reading these books, they are a nice break from the usual murder mysteries.
I’ve been reading a lot of books set in France with vineyards and wine as the theme. Maybe I should visit one day. This is the third in the Verlaque and Bonnet series. Three women have been murdered and there is a wine thief on the loose. As usual there is a lot of wine and food sampled and an interesting part about the Citroen automobile. A nice summer read.
After the death of Polly Portman, whose award-winning pies put the town of Ipswitch, Pennsylvania, on the map in the 1950s, her devoted niece Alice and Alice’s friend Charlie investigate who is going to extremes to find Aunt Polly’s secret pie crust recipe. Includes fourteen pie recipes.
A cute little mystery, a good book to get started on the genre if you’re young. I did enjoy reading it, even if I did have the culprit figured out fairly early! And I’ve got to admit that I want to try some of those recipes, they looked scrumptious.
When Solly and Rachel Slabaugh, along with Solly’s brother Abel, are found dead in a hog pit, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder investigates the gruesome scene. Once again teaming up with Agent John Tomasetti, Kate reveals that the death may not have been accidental, but one of the most horrific hate crimes ever to befall the Amish community of Painter’s Creek.
When Connor Swann, the dissolute son-in-law of renowned and influential Sir Gerald and Dame Caroline Asherton, is found floating in a Thames River lock, the circumstances eerily recall a strangely similar tragedy. Twenty years ago, the Ashertons’ young son, Matthew, a musical prodigy, drowned in a swollen stream while in the company of his sister Julia — Connor Swann’s wife.
Police Superintendant Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James quickly discover that Connor’s death was no accident, and that nothing in the Asherton family is as it seems. Connor, though estranged from Julia for more than a year, still lives in her London apartment, where his exploits with women and gambling suggest plenty of motives. The Ashertons are far more attached to Connor than to their own daughter, and these are only the first of the secrets that haunt the suspects. New lies cover older lies, as Kincaid finds himself dangerously drawn to Julia Swann, and Gemma must confront her own troubling feelings for Kincaid.
Maisie Dobbs must catch a madman before he commits murder on an unimaginable scale It’s Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister’s office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met-and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard’s elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane’s personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie’s trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia’s abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men.
What secret lies hidden in the mechanical doll? Why are two men so eager, suddenly, to buy them? And isn’t it strange, that both men have exactly the same name? Nina has always loved her father’s antique shop–full of odd mysterious things. And the old dolls have always been like her friends. But something very strange is going on! Muffin and Nina aren’t sure what it is, but they do know that the silent friends are in danger…
Scotland Yard detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James investigate the bizarre murder of a woman who was dying anyway, her body ravaged by disease. As they sift through the woman’s history, a troubling puzzle begins to take shape.
The perfect, nude corpse of a beautiful woman washes up on a pristine Miami Beach — her body tanned and shapely, her nails elegantly manicured. The problem is that the victim, Kaithlin Jordan, was murdered ten years ago. And her convicted killer — her husband, R. J. Jordan, scion of a wealthy and powerful South Florida family — sits on death row, just weeks away from his execution.Newspaper reporter Britt Montero recalls the high-profile murder trial that heated up a volatile tropical city like the merciless August sun. Even without a body, the prosecution’s case against Jordan seemed airtight and the jury enthusiastically bought into it. Now R.J. is preparing to walk — benefiting from the murderous “largess” of whoever drowned his wife in the ocean off Miami Beach — and Britt’s boundlessly curious nature is energized once more by a slew of questions that suddenly need answers. Did Kaithlin frame her husband for murder –
Offered a second chance by the Atlanta Police Department to catch a serial killer who has eluded them for years, former FBI profiler and alcoholic Keye Street begins a deadly cat-and-mouse chase with an adversary who has taken a personal interest in her.
A week after giving birth, Lindsay Boxer is investigating two cases: a grisly murder where the main suspect is an NFL player and an eccentric professor who thinks his dreams of a murder are real. Will Detective Lindsay Boxer be pushed to breaking point? An eccentric professor walks into Lindsay’s homicide department to report a murder that hasn’t yet happened. A convicted serial killer wakes from a two-year coma. He says he’s ready to tell where the bodies are buried, but does he have a much more sinister plan in mind? Lindsay doesn’t have much time to stop a terrifying future from unfolding. But all the crimes in the world seem like nothing when she is suddenly faced with the possibility of the most devastating loss of her life.
Gillian Flynn’s wildly popular novel does pull the reader right into the psychological mystery of the disappearance of Amy Dunne on her 5th wedding anniversary. Did Amy runaway? Did her husband, Nick, kill her? Did one of her stalkers kidnap or kill her? As the inspiration of a wildly successful children series, Amazing Amy, Amy has had a number of stalkers during childhood and adulthood or has she? Switching narrators between Amy’s diary and Nick’s thoughts and conversations with the police, his in-laws and his twin sister, Margo, the reader is led on a series of events that slowly unwind into a tangled, twisted web. Nick is definitely not husband of the year material either. Pushed by Amy’s doting parents and her best friend, that Nick didn’t even know Amy had, the police follow the winding trail of clues back to Nick. But is he the real killer? And if he didn’t kill her, where is Amy?
Though the writing is quick and clever and the mystery definitely sustains your interest some of the author’s details are out of whack. There really is a town of Carthage, Missouri, but it is on the opposite side of the state from St. Louis and it is not a river town. The Mississippi River features prominently in the story as do St. Louis and Hannibal and their proximity to “Carthage” is important in the plot. The Ozarks are described as flat land, while the region is well known for it’s hills and valleys. If you enjoy details of the setting of a story and know this and also know that the author is from Missouri, which I did, these repeated inconsistencies are grating. Also, the authors description of people who live in the Midwest is far from complimentary. Most of these descriptions do come from Amy, who loves her previous life in New York City and did not want to move to Missouri, but even general descriptions aren’t kind. As a well-educated and life-long resident of Missouri, who does not consider herself in any way a “hick” this grew very tiresome too.
For me the conclusion was also very unsatisfying. I didn’t guess what was going to happen, which is usually a plus for me. The more mysteries I read the harder it is for an author to surprise me, but what does happen was so upsetting to me that it totally ruined the surprise factor for me.
Just before summer begins, 13-year-old Ali finds an odd photograph in the attic. She knows the two children in it are her mother, Claire, and her aunt Dulcie. But who’s the third person, the one who’s been torn out of the picture?
Ali figures she’ll find out while she’s vacationing in Maine with Dulcie and her four-year-old daughter, Emma, in the house where Ali’s mother’s family used to spend summers. All hopes for relaxation are quashed shortly after their arrival, though, when the girls meet Sissy, a kid who’s mean and spiteful and a bad influence on Emma.
Strangest of all, Sissy keeps talking about a girl named Teresa who drowned under mysterious circumstances back when Claire and Dulcie were kids, and whose body was never found. At first Ali thinks Sissy’s just trying to scare her with a ghost story, but soon she discovers the real reason why Sissy is so angry. . . . Mary Downing Hahn is at her chilling best in this new supernatural tale that’s certain to send shivers down her readers’ spines.
He was busy reading the drugstore bulletin board when Madigan first saw him. He sure was good looking! His hair was dark and he had a full beard with a mustache that curled up on the ends and hid his mouth, just as his silver sunglasses hid his eyes. Then he walked right up to the soda fountain where Madigan and her friend Angie were sipping cherry Cokes, and asked for directions to Madigan’s house! Now the handsome “mystery man” is renting a room in her very own home — and Madigan is about to take some dangerous risks to find who he is.
I’ve never eaten any truffles, probably couldn’t afford to, so this book was interesting since the main subject is truffles. The main character, Bruno chief of Police, finds a friend murdered who is a truffle cultivator and seller. Bruno asks: “Do you see truffles as a motive for murder?” Apparently they are worth a lot of money to French restaurants. Bruno is again looking out for his fellow villagers when the local mill closes and leaves workers jobless just before Christmas. Could this be another motive?
Why were people warned to not go on Superstition Mountain? Was there really a lost gold mine there? Whose skulls were lined up on the ledge? Simon, Henry, and Jack couldn’t pass up the temptation to explore and had a very exciting adventure. Looking for historical information in the library introduced them to a new neighbor, Delilah, who also wanted to explore. Unfortunately, she had an accident on the mountain, which led to finding a hidden canyon and another mystery. This was an exciting book that was hard to put down (even as an aging adult).
A horrible family tragedy that may not be what it seems . . A past encounter with an infamous killer turns deadly today . . . An ordinary man must risk his own family to find the truth. Jay Erlich’s nephew has been found at the bottom of a cliff at Morrow Bay. It’s all just a tragic suicide, until secrets from the past begin to rear up again. Did a notorious killer, jailed for many decades, have his hand in this? Years ago, Jay Erlich’s older brother, Charlie, a wayward child of the sixties, set out for California, where he fell under the sway of a charismatic but deeply disturbed cultlike figure. Tragedy ensued and lives were destroyed, but as the decades passed, Charlie married and raised a family and lived a quiet, secluded life under the radar. Yet the demons that nearly destroyed him never completely disappeared. When Jay heads out west to help his grieving brother, he is pulled back into Charlie’s past-and begins to suspect that his nephew’s suicide may not have been that at all. With eyes wide open, Jay puts his own life at risk to uncover the truth, a quest that goes beyond the edge of madness and a family haunted by a secret past . . . and into the depths of evil. Drawing on two real-life experiences from his own past, Gross has crafted a richly personal, yet utterly terrifying tale of two brothers, one successful, one wayward, trying to bridge the gap of what tore them apart.
A collection of poems that start with the thoughts of our murder victim, high school teacher, Mr. Chippendale, right before his untimely demise. Each poem that follows is the thoughts or police interview with students, teachers, neighbors and the police detectives themselves. The finale poem reveals who the murderer is with clues along the way in the poems to point you in that direction.
Kay Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones confronting her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names-and the pen may be poised to write in her own.
As I go back and fill in the books of hers that I have missed (something I tell my students not to do!) I try to unravel the storyline from the book I previously read and try to see why certain comments were made or how the relationship between the characters became what it did. This book had a lot of strings come together that were not evident in the telling of the tale but made you wonder enough to make inferences. Of course, the biggest string came with an ending I didn’t even suspect until the very end. Good story if you like her books.