A Ghost of Childhood Past

In Jeffrey Ford’s latest novel, The Shadow Year, a young boy’s life is forever changed when his schoolmate disappears and he and his brother decide to investigate the strange going-ons in their small town.
With shades of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury, Ford brings to life the nameless narrator’s loving, funny but dysfunctional family that [...]

How a liar tells the truth

Early one day in 1984, three twelve-year olds set off into the local woods. Late that night, only one is found – mute, with blood on his socks and no memory of what happened. Twenty years later, he’s a detective for the Dublin police and still remembers nothing. When he and his partner [...]

Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

In Philippe Claudel’s By a Slow River, a small-town policeman recounts the murder investigation of an angelic young girl during WW1. The investigation coincides with the suicide of the beautiful but enigmatic new schoolteacher, and the death of the narrator’s beloved wife during childbirth. His description of how the town’s local residents respond to the [...]

Beverly Connor does it again…

Dead Past, the newest Diane Fallon Forensic Investigation mystery by Beverly Connor, keeps you guessing until the end.  The story opens with a bang as a meth lab in an apartment building basement explodes.  As the police order an evacuation of the closest homes, including Diane’s, she encounters a gun-toting student missing his right hand.  The suspense [...]

A Detective with a Heart

In 1940 London, Johnny Hawke is just scraping by as a Private Investigator. Discharged from the army after loosing an eye in rifle training, the former constable is hired to look for a couple’s missing daughter. As he starts to dig, Johnny discovers their daughter may have been living a double life connected [...]

Mavis has her baby!

I love the mix of murder, romance, and humor that author J. D. Robb has in her “in Death” futuristic mystery novels. The lastest, Born in Death, ends with Mavis having her baby but only after her best friend, Lieutenant Eve Dallas of the New York Police and Security Department, investigates two brutal torture-murders [...]

If you enjoy historical mysteries…

I recommend Some Danger Involved, the first in a series by author (and librarian!) Will Thomas. Set in Victorian London, young Thomas Llewelyn is down on his luck and in desperate need of a job. After a strange interview process, he becomes the assistant to the enigmatic “enquiry agent,” Cyrus Barker. These enjoyable mysteries are [...]