Category Archives: detective fiction

Split Second, by Janet Evanovich*****

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Split Second: Thirty-two Switcheroo is the latest installment in the iconic and generally hilarious Stephanie Plum mystery series. For the uninitiated, Stephanie is a bounty hunter. Her cousin Vinnie runs a bail bond business; Stephanie’s job begins when they fail to turn up in court. It’s her job, and that of her close friend and side kick Lula, to hunt them down and bring them in. She works on commission, so to speak, and so she’s motivated, though not always skillful. Here’s a sample of Evanovich’s prose that describes Vinnie:


“The back door to the office crashed open and Vinnie walked in. Vinnie is the human equivalent of a ferret in a sharkskin suit with tight pants and pointy-toes shoes. His hair is black and slicked back. He cheats at cards. He cheats on his wife…He’s a boil on the backside of my family, but his skill as a bail bondsman is unquestionable. His father-in-law, Harry the Hammer, owns the bail bonds agency, and he also owns Vinnie.”

My thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for the review copy. This book will be available to the public on Tuesday, November 10.

For as long as the series has existed, Stephanie has been in her current position, and when she gets in over her head, she calls one of the two men in her life for help. Joe Morelli is a cop; Ranger, whose actual name nobody knows, runs a security firm. And for the first 30 books, she has vacillated between one man and the other romantically. Sometimes that’s great fun, but of late, most reviewers have found it to be monotonous. This reader has read all of those books except for #31, which turns out to be a bad one to have missed, as Stephanie has finally chosen between them. This book begins with her married to Joe Morelli, but it isn’t going well. She’s not domestic; the Italian elders in his family have huge expectations that she’s not meeting.

But her work is heating up, and she’s tasked with bringing in a couple of guys that are seriously scary. They’re both worth solid amounts of money if she can carry it off, and she needs money, and so this book is primarily about her pursuit of Ziggy Zucker and Greb Tuti, as well as her extra job moonlighting for Ranger as a bodyguard for the child of a wealthy customer. The kiddo gets kidnapped, and so now she’s scrambling to rescue Mia as well.

This book cheers me in that it retains the series’ humor while also breaking the log jam, at least to an extent. I won’t spoil it for you by being specific, but Stephanie does something more serious than she’s previously done in her work, and it clicks perfectly.  I love this series, and as long as Evanovich writes it, I’ll read it. If you haven’t read the others, you can hop in here without becoming confused, but it will make you want to round up the rest right away! Highly recommended.

The Big Cats Dance Party, by Alexander McCall Smith*****

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One of the best things about autumn is looking forward to a new installment of The #1 Ladies Detective series by Alexander McCall Smith.  The Big Cats Dance Party is the 27th in this wonderful series. By this stage, some long-running series become stale or revert to an obvious formula, but that has never happened with this one, and I doubt it ever will. My huge thanks go to NetGalley and Random House for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

There is a standard format to these stories, which is that two problems get dealt with at once, and it takes place so seamlessly and naturally that I can only shake my head in wonder. Sometimes there are two mysteries; sometimes there’s a mystery and also a personal dilemma. In this book, the agency’s owner and proprietor, Precious Ramotswe, goes on a trip to an elephant sanctuary that is under attack from unknown forces; she is accompanied by her husband and the other detective, Grace Makutsi.

While they are away, Charlie, who is training to become a detective, is left in charge of the agency. Charlie is a tremendously dynamic character, and was originally an apprentice in the auto repair shop owned by Mr. J.L.B. Matakoni, Precious’s husband, but he wasn’t cut out to become a mechanic. Over the course of the series, we’ve seen Charlie get into one scrape after another, generally of his own making, but he’s gradually grown up, matured, and now Precious believes he is ready to take on responsibility. What happens while he is in charge is the more important of the two problems in our story, and it is riveting. To say more might ruin it for you, so I’ll leave it there, except to say that this is how the book’s title comes about.

What has stayed with me after the last page has been turned and I’ve read other books is the disconnect between the understanding we in western cultures have of the elephant’s plight, and the efforts to save it, as opposed to that of people that live in its path. Many of us, myself included, might have imagined that to inadvertently come across an African elephant would be pure magic; this happens to Precious, who steps out into the night for some fresh air while she is on her trip, but for her, it’s not magical. It’s terrifying! The elephant has wandered into her host’s yard, and now it’s between her and the house. She sees “a creature that could end her life with a swipe of its trunk or a single nudge from its great head.” And indeed, the attacks on the sanctuary are suspected to be from a local man that lost an uncle to an elephant attack while he was working in his field. There’s a condition that occurs annually called “musth,” which is the male elephant equivalent of being in heat, and it makes them aggressive. If an elephant has had negative experiences with humans—say, if someone has taken potshots at them or otherwise harmed them—it’s even worse, since elephants are so intelligent. And as the person from the sanctuary points out, it isn’t the elephant’s fault; the elephant is just being an elephant. Of course we want to save the elephants, but a little knowledge and compassion toward those more directly affected wouldn’t go amiss, either.

Before I close, I want to point out that this series is so successful, and so widely loved, not only because of the things it includes, but also because of the things it doesn’t. At one point, Grace is conversing with someone about the ways in which businesses are sometimes misunderstood, and she points out that every now and then, someone calls the agency to report a crime. But, she points out, “We are not law enforcement,” and so the caller is referred to the police. Our detectives don’t share information with cops, as a rule. There are no buddies on the force; there are no wild car chases. Nobody kidnaps the detectives or their loved ones, and there are no serial killers featured. Rather, this series focuses on basic human behavior, and it carries with it the understanding that people are, as the late Anne Frank said, inherently good. Sometimes all it takes is a gentle nudge to get someone to do the right thing.

Get this book, and if you like reading at bedtime, this is your story. Fall asleep with a smile on your lips and at peace with the world. How many novels can do this for you?

Don’t Cross Mo Ellery, by Birdie Horne**-***

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Don’t Cross Mo Ellery is a wacky girl detective novel by Birdie Horne, which is a pen name used by co-writers Eden Robins and MW Garguilo. Mo is a twenty-something hot mess. The story opens with her simultaneously getting dumped by her better-off boyfriend of ten years and getting fired from her job. It’s loaded with cringe humor and appears to be a new series entering the general lane of Stephanie Plum and Finlay Donovan, only not as good.  Nevertheless, I thank NetGalley and William Morrow for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public August 11, 2026.

The book starts with sex, ends with sex, and has sex in the middle. There’s awkward sex, hot sex, and interrupted sex, with a fair amount of crossover between these types and between genders. Oh, there’s also sex with just one person. I’m not using the word for this. There are some that will enjoy it, or at least find it funny, but it leaves me with a mild headache from rolling my eyes so often.

The premise here is that Mo gets a job as a crossing guard because that’s all she can find. In the course of her duties, she is harassed by a difficult driver who then dies behind the wheel while she’s on the job. In order to find out who killed him, she teams up with an insistent older neighbor and a (precocious, of course, of course, of course) elementary school student, which she doesn’t realize is illegal and unprincipled until midway through. I believe none of these characters even slightly.

It’s possible that I am in the wrong demographic for this book. My memory harks back to the early female detective series that were well written and empowering. At a time when young women needed to hear that they could do anything, including occupying traditionally male occupations, these were a balm. Mo Ellery, on the other hand, can’t find her butt with both hands.

There are poodles in this thing, and they are the characters that I enjoy.

The narrator is Cia Court, who does as good a job as is probably possible.

So there you are. If you still want this thing, you can pre-order it; as for me, I’m out.

Killer Vibes, by Jack Friday*****

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Peter Key is an ambition-free stoner dude living in a pal’s garage until he pushes a boundary or two and gets tossed out on his butt. His parents are gone, his sister’s had it with him, and he has nowhere to turn. That is, until the uncle he barely knew dies and leaves him a whole lotta assets, a whole lotta debts, and a whole lotta questions. This remarkable debut novel by Jack Friday is one of the best parts of my summer, and you want it in yours, too. Trust me.

My thanks go to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the invitation to read and review. This kick-ass mystery is for sale today!

Peter’s late uncle lived in Austin, and since Peter is now homeless and Uncle Forrest has left him a house, that’s where he goes. The house is a mess, and his uncle was past due on the mortgage. Everyone, whether in real estate or not, pressures him to sell. Do it now, before it’s too late! But Peter digs in his heels. He’s never owned a house before, and his late uncle’s demise has left him with too many questions, one of which is, given Forrest’s credentials in daredevil racing, how was it that he *suddenly* lost control of his car and tumbled over a cliff to his demise?

This book is fast-paced, at times hilarious, and at other times incredibly intense, like a true thriller ought to be. In the course of things, he tries to hire a detective that worked for Forrest; the detective counters that he will only take the job if Peter comes on board to work for him. Peter resists at first, but the thing is, he’s a natural. A young man that has never had, or even wanted, a marketable skill beyond peddling drugs has found his calling. And of course, he’s also made powerful enemies, a fact that bothers him hardly at all.

I was lucky enough to have access to both the digital and audio galleys, and though I begin with the digital, the audio is so well done that it becomes my go-to. Narrator Max Meyers does such a splendid job that he makes a great read even better. In fact, I used this book to make myself do some dreaded yard work, because I found that I didn’t want to stop slaving away in the July sun when I knew it meant turning off the book once I came back in the house. This doesn’t happen often!

This novel is captioned “Peter Key Mystery Series #1,” which is great news because it means there will be more, and when the next one becomes available, needless to say, I’m in.

Don’t miss it.

Marion, by Leah Rowan*****

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Marion is the kick-ass debut novel for author Leah Rowan, and it’s hugely addictive! My thanks go to St. Martin’s Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public June 2, 2026.

The story is a retelling of the 1960s smash, Psycho. I am not generally a fan of retellings unless they’re brilliantly done, and as it happens, this one is. We have two points of view here; one is Marion, and the other is Hannah, a budding private detective searching for a missing girl that was last seen near the motel. However, Marion is the protagonist.

Her real name isn’t Marion, but she adopts it as an alias early on, and so it might as well be. When we meet her, she’s an overworked and underappreciated office worker, and she’s also a concerned sister. Her older sister Lauren is in an abusive marriage, and cannot afford to leave for at least a year. Marion is frantic, trying to protect Lauren. Their parents are gone, and her mother made her promise to become the big sister and look after Lauren. It is that good intention from which everything else arises.

When her bus breaks down before reaching her destination, and when all of the nicer lodgings fill up with other stranded passengers, our protagonist is guided to this motel—yes, that motel. And that’s where things get real. She adopts the name Marion because she doesn’t want her boss to know where she is, but as things become more intense, she has additional reasons for remaining anonymous.

Eventually, Marion and Hannah meet.

That’s all I’m going to tell you, because surprise is everything here, but I do want to give a shout out to the audio narrators, because they are how a very good book becomes a great one. Natalie Naudus and Tawny Platis do exceptional jobs. I did most of my reading this way, pulling weeds with ear buds in, and I stayed out in the sun way too long, because I knew that once I was in the house, I had to stop listening!

The whole thing winds up with a couple of surprising twists at the end that make it even better.

Highly recommended to anyone that likes a scary book with some dark, feminist moxie.

A River Red with Blood, by John Connolly*****

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A River Red with Blood is the 23rd book in the wildly popular Charlie Parker series. Like the books before it, this one owned me from the first page until the last. My thanks go to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler books for the review copy. This book will be available to the North American public June 2, 2026. Frankly, I don’t know how you’re going to wait that long!

For the uninitiated, Parker is a former cop that decided to rely on extralegal means to avenge the murders of his wife and daughter. He left the force, tracked down the killers, and has worked since then as a private detective, albeit one with a private arrangement with an agent of the government.  As one of the bad guys muses, “the private investigator…has a deserved reputation for tenacity, resilience, and violence.”

Now he is looking into the death of Scott Theriault, a young man that died after escaping from The Spero School, a tough-love environment to which parents sometimes sent their recalcitrant teens. Parents don’t know, however, that the school is run by some of the baddest of the baddies. Dante Santopietro is its principal and founder, and his favorite source of recreation, when not working, is to travel to far flung places with a compatriot and find a young woman to kidnap and kill. This dark source of pleasure is known to himself and his partners as “the Game.” But of course, Parker doesn’t know this at the outset. He’s trying to find out why Scott died, and also what happened to Mallory Norton, the girl that Scott had been ducking out of school to meet, and who is now missing.

One of the greatest joys of reading this series is the recurring cast of characters that keeps Parker company. His two closest friends, Louis and Angel, are rough men, unafraid to use force as needed, but also fiercely loyal to Parker. Like Parker, they are no longer young; Angel is being treated for cancer, and Louis has recently learned there is a contract out on him. And it is Parker’s dead daughter, Jennifer, that comes to Louis to warn him. Jennifer is also a recurring character, and a dynamic one. The melding of these additional threads is done expertly and seamlessly.

Sometimes additional muscle is needed, often for the purpose of guarding someone involved in the storyline, and that is when the Fulci brothers are called in. The Fulci brothers are refrigerator sized men that add a unique combination of humor and satisfaction, and as with Angel and Louis, I smile whenever they reenter the narrative.

I could go on, and will do so with even the slightest encouragement, but my descriptions pale in comparison to what the novel itself does. For those that love the genre, this story, and this series, is highly recommended.

Missing Sister, by Joshilyn Jackson****-*****

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“We all have a little monster in us.”

Missing Sister is the newest thriller by one of my favorite authors, Joshilyn Jackson. My thanks go to William Morrow and NetGalley for the review copies. This book is for sale now.

Penny Albright is a rookie cop, a vocation she chose after her twin sister, Nix, died of an overdose. Nix was raped by a group of three men that she knew; Penny wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, but soon after it happened, Nix’s personality changed. She moved to the city, isolated herself. Before the rape, Nix had never used street drugs. Penny is too late to save Nix, but she hopes to be able to spare others the same horrific fate.

Then she and her trainer, who’s also her partner, are called to a murder scene. The victim turns out to be one of the three men that raped Nix, and Penny forces herself to show no reaction, to keep her cop face on, but inside, she is exultant.  Then, while canvassing the area, Penny inadvertently comes upon the killer, holding the murder weapon and covered in blood. She and the woman lock eyes, and then, rather than arresting her, Penny lets her go. After that, she becomes obsessed with learning the woman’s story; she is certain that the killer had a similar experience to Nix’s, or that the killer had a sister that did. She vows to hunt the killer down in order to find out what happened.

The first half of the book is frustrating. The story is told in the first person, and after hearing Penny’s determined plan to learn the killer’s story over and over again, on a never-ending, somewhat circular loop, I want to smack her upside the head and tell her to get on with it. Leave that dangerous woman alone! She can’t bring your sister back, and you can’t either, I want to tell her. A part of me felt let down, because Jackson doesn’t usually have a weak first half, or any weak part at all in her novels. But just as I’m beginning to think, what a shame, everything changes, and the story becomes a true, grab-you-by-the-hair thriller. The ending is a complete surprise, and what’s more, it makes sense. The second half more than makes up for the first half.

I was lucky enough to have both the digital and audio review copies, and Jackson reads her own story, which makes it even better.

This story smacks of a possible series, and if that’s the plan, it explains why readers have Penny’s motivation beaten into us. That motivation may be the basis for who knows how many books to come; many, I hope! For those that are able to wade through the first half to find the reward in the second, this book is highly recommended.

The Hadacol Boogie, by James Lee Burke*****

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The Hadacol Boogie is the 25th in the Dave Robicheaux series, and in some regards, it is the best. My great thanks go to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the invitation to read and review. This book is for sale now.

All of the books in this series boast complex plots and resonant characters. Particularly rich is the relationship between Dave and his former cop partner, Clete Purcel, whom he has known since early childhood. In most stories, Clete is a loose cannon—the reason he is no longer a cop, but a private eye—and Dave is his moderating influence.  “For whatever reason, Clete could not resist swatting a hornet’s nest wherever he went.“  But this story presents a shift, in which Dave is not fully in control of his own behavior. I have never seen anyone else, whether writing fiction or nonfiction, refer to a “dry drunk,” which is when a recovering alcoholic, without having consumed alcohol, exhibits the behaviors of a drunk, with terrible impulse control and bouts of rage. Dave does some of that here, and Clete is the one to rein him in.

But that isn’t the greatest thing about this story, to be honest. I’m ready to be done with mysteries involving alcoholic protagonists, and so Burke’s excellent writing skills prevent me from throwing up my hands or rolling my eyes, but the “dry drunk” isn’t a compelling part of the narrative for me. No, apart from the fact that Burke is a compelling craftsman—the Denver Post once called him “America’s best writer”—this particular novel is interesting to me because Burke has, at last, developed a female character that doesn’t fit into the Madonna-whore dichotomy that marks most of his earlier work. (An earlier exception is Dave’s boss, Helen, but it feels as if Burke is cheating a little bit there. I enjoy reading about Helen, but it’s clear that the one and only reason she isn’t dying to hop in bed with Dave, like every other female character has, or has wanted to, is because she is a lesbian.) Valerie Benoit is Dave’s new partner. It doesn’t take long for us to be aware that Detective Benoit has a thing for Dave. She’s young, he’s 60, but damn, he’s such a hot guy. At this point I’m ready to toss my reader across the room. Please, no! No! But the story doesn’t follow the trajectory that other women tend to do in Robicheaux’s books. Benoit wants Dave badly, yes, and I wish he’d left that out of this, but he didn’t. The thing that makes this story different is that Benoit is developed as a character should be; her love for Robicheaux isn’t all that we learn about her, nor necessarily the most important. And she and Dave don’t land in bed.

How cool is it for a highly successful writer to show this kind of growth when he’s past 80? I am so damn impressed, and I hope that we continue to see Benoit, not as his wife or his lover, but as a separate character with an independent identity.

I confess that I have never understood the culture of the place where this story unfolds; there are social formalities and intricacies mentioned that simply don’t apply in 2026 Seattle. I suspect these niceties also apply to the author, so it’s just as well I haven’t met him; I have no doubt I’d stick my foot in it, probably sooner rather than later.

Like the other books in this series, this one will appeal most to readers that lean a bit to the left, and that enjoy a literary mystery. There’s plenty of action here, but those that don’t want descriptive settings and allegory should probably go find themselves something else to read.

This book can certainly be read as a standalone, but it will resonate even more to the faithful that have read some or all of the series, as it does build on earlier events. Highly recommended.

Jigsaw, by Jonathan Kellerman****

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Can you think of a mystery series that is as long running and reliably entertaining as the Alex Delaware series, by Jonathan Kellerman? This is his 41st, and it’s going strong. My thanks go to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the review copy. This book will be available to the public February 3, 2026.

After so many installments, the regular characters in this series feel like old friends. When homicide detective Milo Sturgis careens into the kitchen of his longtime bestie, Dr. Alex Delaware and raids the fridge like a huge, gay version of Dagwood Bumstead, I can’t help smiling. Milo, Alex, it’s good seeing you again! Most episodes begin this way. Unlike many well-established series, however, we don’t take a great deal of time for character development, because there are three murders here and they cannot wait!

The first appears to be obvious; a young woman is found murdered in her home, and the cigarette butts nearby bear the DNA of her boyfriend. But it’s not as it seems. Next, an elderly woman—a former cop—is missing, and a welfare check finds her dead, dismembered, in her freezer. Yikes! The chief suspect, her developmentally disabled daughter, is later also found dead. And the woman in the freezer is a colleague, known to Milo.

The interesting part about this one is that the victim, the former cop, is a hoarder. Who knew? Nothing about her suggested that her home would be jammed full of trash, but here we are. Piles of newspaper, food wrappers, mouse droppings, paper sacks full of money, magazines…more bags full of money…

Huh?

Like all of the books in this series, this is a quick read. Partly that’s because it’s fast paced and interesting, and partly it’s because it’s chock full of snappy dialogue. Whereas I miss the humor that is frequently injected into these stories, I appreciate the trend away from the twisted sexual situations that appeared for a few years. All told, this is an excellent entry into a series that has never failed to engage me, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to you.

The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2025, by John Grisham and Otto Penzler*****

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John Grisham and Otto Penzler have teamed up and compiled a delightful, high-quality collection of short mystery stories to entertain you. My thanks go to NetGalley, High Bridge Audio, and Penzler Publishers for the review copies. You can buy this book now.

All told, there are 20 stories that made the cut, plus a “bonus” story at the end. This mystifies me; why not just say there are 21 stories? Maybe there’s a tradition of only selecting 20. At any rate, I liked all of them except one, which I’ll explain in a moment. They are all well written, and they encompass a wide variety of subgenres. My favorites are “Home Game,” by Craig Faustus Buck; “Only a Story,” by Kai Lovelace; and “Effie’s Oasis,” by Casey Stegman. I had never even heard of any of these writers, so now I have three new authors to watch for. I was not as fond of “Dream Stuff,” by Lou Manfredo, but that’s because I dislike noir mysteries for the way that women are disrespected. Here’s an example: “Mary Lou, my previously noted overpaid secretary, poked her cute little head into my office…” and it goes on in that vein. I haven’t deducted anything from my rating, because I know that the aspects that I find problematic are part and parcel of noir mysteries, and so I can’t see penalizing this one author in the collection, or Grisham and Penzler, when I know that there are a considerable number of readers that love these stories, and not all of them are men.

One other minor irritation is that I was provided with both the digital and audio versions of the galley, but the stories aren’t in the same order in both books, which led to a fair amount of panicked flipping around my digital copy to try to match up with the story being read. If they’re going to edit the order in one format, I’d appreciate it if they would do it in both so that they match; hopefully this is straightened out in the finished copies.

 But while I’m talking about the audio version, I should also mention that the readers, Marnye Young and Jamie Renell, are top notch. There’s a great deal of dialogue in most of these stories, and they are both pitch perfect in reading the characters’ voices.

Whether you prefer a print or digital copy to read with your eyes, or an audio book that can follow you around while you do other things, you can’t go wrong with this collection. Highly recommended to all that enjoy the genre, and perfect for Halloween.