Tag Archives: mystery

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. here 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.

God’s Country, by William Kent Krueger*****

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“In the myth of Windigo, there is only one way to kill the creature. A man has to become a Windigo himself.  His heart has to turn to ice. The danger is in the possibility of that man remaining a Windigo forever. What must happen is that once he’s killed the monster, someone has to be waiting with hot tallow for him to drink, to melt his icy heart.”

God’s Country is the 21st entry in William Kent Krueger’s long running Cork O’Connor series. My thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for the review copy. This book will be available to the public August 18, 2026.

The regular characters are all here; we have the (now retired) cop himself, along with his wife, who is a member of the Ojibwe (Chippewa) tribe. His grandson, affectionately called Waaboo, has visions, and has recently dreamed of a wolf eating Cork’s heart. The boy is shaken, and the family takes it seriously; after a trip to the doctor and some tests, Cork has the green light to proceed with the trip into his favorite wilderness area, known as the Boundary Waters. He goes along with generations of other men in his family, but not until he has first seen Henry, the tribe’s centenarian wiseman, with whom Cork has a close bond. But Henry isn’t big on straight answers; he merely asks Cork whether Cork himself might be the wolf.

A side note: is this an established practice within the tribe, that the men all go to the wilderness while the women all stay home? I’ve read a few of the books in this series, and though they are written with respect for women, the roles are always sharply divided by gender.

Moving on.  

The expedition hasn’t traveled far when they find an alarming sight. Various aspects of their first camping location show that someone has been there before them, and that it hasn’t gone well. Cork concludes that the previous group is led by Cordell Bishop, a close friend; Cork believes his friend may be in danger, and the group trip is aborted, with the other men herding the young boys safely back home while Cork searches for his friend and whoever is with him.

From this point, I won’t tell you much except that in addition to confronting the enemies that lurk in the Boundary Waters, Cork also is forced to confront the enemy within himself. In that respect, this book differs from the earlier ones, and I can see the sense in it. Most of these books have featured Cork going off into the wilderness and meeting up with baddies. I’ve enjoyed all of them, but breaking up the trend before it becomes monotonous was smart thinking on Krueger’s part.

From previous experience, I knew this was going to be a solid mystery, and so I shook off the summer doldrums by jumping over some galleys with earlier publication dates to get to this one. I’m not one bit sorry, either.

Highly recommended, whether you’re a faithful fan of the series, or heading into it brand new.

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.

Murder at the Spirit Lounge*****

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I would follow Jess Kidd anywhere! Murder at the Spirit Lounge is her sixth release in the U.S., and the second book in the Nora Breen series. My thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for the invitation to read and review; this engaging little mystery will be available to the North American public on June 16, 2026.

The time period is the late 1940s. We join Nora, a former nun who left the convent in order to find the whereabouts of the young nun that she mentored, and who had then left the order and disappeared. Her mission accomplished, Nora is still living in the rooming house, a cheap place that has terrible food and a grouchy proprietor, in a little seaside village called Gore-On-Sea. Nora left the convent with very little money and few possessions, and now she has even less money. In search of work, she finds a position at the local newspaper, working for an editor named Miss Hartigan:

Nora, having braved the smell of damp and mice to climb the narrow stairs of the Herald offices, finds the editor hunched over her ancient typewriter like a toad with a fly. Surrounded by empty booze bottles, stacks of back-copies. She turns a bull’s eye on Nora, who is reminded, curiously, of her former mother superior at High Dallow monastery. Perhaps it’s the same air of combative ruthlessness. Neither woman, in Nora’s estimation, would suffer fools gladly.

But Breen is soon sidetracked by a murder that occurs during a séance at the Spirit Lounge, and the medium is the victim—that is, the first victim. Since Nora has trained and worked as a nurse during her earlier life, she is summoned to the scene, and soon we’re off on another investigation. Inspector Rideout, the local man in charge of law enforcement, appears to be on the killer’s list, and as he and Nora have formed a warm friendship, she cannot allow that to happen!

Jess Kidd’s voice shines through here, and I love it. I would have liked to see more of the wit she’s displayed in some of her other novels, because she’s made me laugh out loud, but instead, we see greater depth of character development, and that’s crucial, particularly in a series. I wholeheartedly recommend this book, and this series, to those that love the genre. It can certainly be read as a stand-alone mystery, but once you’ve done that, you’ll want to scoop up the first as well.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8433245382

Road Trip, by Mary Kay Andrews***-****

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3.5 stars rounded upwards.

Road Trip is a new spring romcom novel by prolific author Mary Kay Andrews. My thanks go to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for the invitation to read and review. This book will be available to the public June 2, 2026.

The premise is that two sisters must bury their late mother and deal with her estate. Maeve is the good girl who put her life on hold to care for their mother during her final illness; Therese is an actor, and hasn’t even called home for a good long time. The sisters have become estranged over the years, but now they are back in the home they grew up in. Their mother left behind a painting that she says was done by a famous artist, and should be worth a great deal, but to establish its origin and its worth, they must go on a road trip in Ireland together. In fact, neither of them gets a dime if they don’t! She’s left them very little but the painting itself and some travel money. They aren’t happy about it, but they go.

The first half of this story just about wore me to bits. It seemed formulaic, and I felt like my IQ became lower with every tiresome page. The effect was heightened by the narrator, Kathleen McInerney, whose high-pitched little girl voice grated on me. I reminded myself that I’ve encountered this narrator before while reading the same author, and I eventually got used to her voice, and so I soldiered on, vowing to finish this thing, write my review, and stay away from this author in the future unless I was reading her Christmas novels, which always please me. I promised myself that next time, I’d only use the digital review copy, thereby bypassing the narrator.

But then a funny thing happened in the second half. Gradually I found myself warming to the story—and yes, I became more acclimated to the narrator as well. By the seventy percent mark, I was actively looking forward to it. And this is the reason why I have rounded my rating upwards; I would much rather have a book start out a bit slow and build to something bigger, than to have it start out like gangbusters and then fizzle later on.

I suspect that the author’s faithful readers will like this book just as much as her others; for those not previously initiated, you may enjoy this if you need something on the light and breezy side. It is to those readers that I recommend this story.

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 Red Queen, by Martha Grimes**

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What a shame. I was initially delighted to see a new installment of this long running series, but something has gone badly wrong here. Nevertheless, my thanks go to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

The Richard Jury series was wildly successful for decades; I first began reading it in the 1990s. I was pleased to see the familiar characters, particularly Wiggins, the hypochondriacal assistant to our protagonist, as well as Jury’s friend Melrose Plant—with a brief showing of Plant’s domineering and pretentious Aunt Agatha—and Cyril the Cat, the feline that makes Jury’s boss apoplectic, yet is never truly banished. And that’s about all of the joy I found here at all.

Was there an editor involved at any point in this process? Because it sure doesn’t look like it. What a miserable jumble of elements. I couldn’t tell who was coming and who was going. At first I thought it might just be me, so I backtracked, but…nope.

I had access to an audio galley, and if there had been anything here to save, the reader probably could have done it, but the reader couldn’t rewrite the book.

Diehard fans, stay away from this thing. It will break your heart.

A Good Person, by Kirsten King***

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A Good Person is the debut novel of Kirsten King. This is one of those rare times when I decide to read a book based largely on the cover. My thanks go to NetGalley and Putnam for the review copy; this book will be available to the public March 31, 2026.

Lillian is lonesome. She has few friends and no love life. When she spies Henry in a coffee shop, she decides to change all of that, and she propositions him; from there develops a relationship that Lillian’s friend Jamie regards as a “situationship,” meaning a hook-up situation, but Lillian is determined will become true love.

That’s not really how it shakes out, though.

The thing about Lillian is that she’s abrasive. In fact, she’s a walking, talking ball of snark and negativity. She doesn’t like most people, and they feel the same about her. But when Henry says he doesn’t want to see her anymore, she does and says rash things, and unfortunately, some of it unfolds on social media. When Henry is found dead, she is an immediate suspect. And while I find Lillian to be about as toxic a main character as I’ve found in many years, I can’t help but root for her to be exonerated, because whatever else she is, I am certain she’s no killer.

Because of the hilarious looking cover, I expect this book to be humorous in a dark sort of way, but I am mistaken. In fact, it proves to be darker than I am up for. A little more than halfway in, I find myself counting the pages. The ending has an interesting twist to it, and King has crafted a credible anti-hero. The narrative unfolds in the first person, and that makes it darker still. Foreshadowing is deft and in just the right amount.  But while there are some nice moments, I can’t say I enjoy this novel, nor can I recommend it.

The Tree of Light and Flowers, by Thomas Perry****

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The Tree of Light and Shadows is the eleventh and final entry in the iconic Jane Whitefield series by Thomas Perry.  My thanks go to NetGalley and The Mysterious Press for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

For those unfamiliar, Jane Whitefield is a Seneca Indian woman with a past avocation of helping people that need to disappear. The person in question might be a woman running from an abusive relationship; an innocent person that’s inadvertently run afoul of the mafia or some other dangerous group or individual; or someone that has been wrongfully convicted of a crime. Jane combines her Native tracking skills with modern methods of blending in or hiding away. However, in recent years she’s given it up, eschewing the danger for a normal life with her husband, who is a physician, and their baby girl, May in Amherst, New York.

However, the universe has other plans for her right now. Clare, a young Indian girl who has stabbed her rapist, has learned that she is wanted for murder. The dead man was Caucasian, and he moved in powerful circles. Knowing she is unlikely to get a fair shake in an Oklahoma courtroom, she heads for New York to find the distant relative that she’s heard will help people like her.

At the same time, a Russian woman named Magda has been hired by someone with a vendetta to find and kill Jane.

The dual storylines are deftly handled, which doesn’t surprise me, since our author is Thomas Perry. But there is one misstep that happens early on that niggles at me for the rest of the book. When Clare finds Jane, Jane decides the girl is too young to be established on her own, so she tells her husband that she wants Clare to remain with them. Clare will go to school and help with the baby. And then—here it comes—she runs out to do errands and leaves the baby with Clare! Would someone as seasoned and astute as Jane leave her infant daughter in the care of someone that might be attacked by people from her past, and do so before the girl has been in her home for even 48 hours? I find this so jarring that I am unable to entirely forget about it for the duration of the novel.

Nevertheless, the book holds my interest, and I look forward to my session reading it each day. When the conclusion is near, I can’t walk away from it until I see how it ends. This doesn’t happen often. I am lucky enough to have been given access to both the audio and digital review copies. I haven’t been able to learn who the narrator is, but whoever he is, he’s good.

I just read of Perry’s sudden death while writing this review. He was such a force within the world of mystery writers that I can hardly believe it. While this book wasn’t the best thing he ever wrote, it is still quite good.