Everyone in This Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson

June 26, 2026

Everyone in This Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson

After the publication of his third book, Ernest Cunningham and his fiancee Juliette are seeking a bank loan to open a detective agency. But when they arrive at the bank for their appointment, they learn that rather than discuss a bank loan, the bank manager wants Ernest to take on a new case.

Another locked-room mystery in the Ernest Cunningham series, this time set in a bank. All of the mysteries follow the rules of the Golden Age mysteries, such as not introducing a new character who turns out to be the villain late in the story, and a parlor-type reveal at the end. This one was really twisty, with ten suspects and ten thefts. The characters are quirky, there is a lot of dry humor, and the ending is unexpected, although it took a long time to get there. I did think the center of the book dragged. Will appeal to fans of Knives Out or Glass Onion.

Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West

February 8, 2026

Making Friends Can Be Murder by Kathleen West

Personal trainer Sarah Jones moves to Minneapolis where she quickly meets a group of women all named Sarah Jones. But when another woman named Sarah Jones is found murdered and a friend is suspected, Sarah the personal trainer finds herself involved with finding the killer. At the same time, FBI agent George Nightingale is trying to track down a con artist operating in the Minneapolis area.

One of the book's "quirks" was that a number of characters including the murder victim have the same name and were distinguished by their ages. I know a lot of readers found this cute and fun, but I thought it was just confusing. Two of the "Sarahs" played almost no role. 30 year old Sarah, the main narrator, was on the naive side and instantly bonded with everyone she met, especially the people who had the same name as her, even with a number of people telling her to be careful and less trusting. I was more interested in what happened to George's childhood friend who went missing. Cute cover. If you like mysteries with a lot of offbeat characters who are all over the place, this may appeal to you.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

The Searcher by Tana French

February 3, 2026

The Searcher by Tana French

Wanting to get as far away as possible from his former life, Cal Hooper, a retired Chicago detective, buys a small house in rural Ireland and sets about restoring it. He just wants a quiet life but is soon drawn into a missing person's case by a local family, and Cal agrees to ask a few questions. But someone (or more than just one someone) doesn't want him investigating and he starts to wonder why.

This story moves really slowly. It seems to take forever to get through the first hundred or so pages, although the story does pick up once the reader meets Trey. It keeps on at a slow pace which I presume is meant to reflect life in rural Ireland. There are a lot of conversations with people who either don't know anything about the missing boy, or are trying to tell Cal something without telling him anything, which got frustrating. I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happened to the missing teen and why, but I did a lot of skimming in the last half of the book. An editor could have whacked out about a hundred pages without damaging the story. Not sure if I'm going to reach the next book. Recommended only because it's Tana French.

Rural Ireland

Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

September 1, 2025

Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

When their mother dies from cancer, three adult children reunite for her funeral. Their mother's lawyer has all the information on her last wishes, and the three siblings figure it won't take one to settle her estate. But while going through their mother's belongings, they find a VHS tape that shows their parents disposing of the body of a missing local girl, which reopens old mysteries and raises questions about who their parents really were.

Who would you kill or hide a murder for? That is the ultimate question here. This was a fast read for the Labor Day weekend, the last official weekend of summer. Is Daddy a serial killer? Where is Daddy, since we're talking about him? And why didn't Mom spend more time looking for him after he disappeared? The book is relatively short and it probably could have been even shorter if an editor had cut out some of the unnecessary scenes. BTW, Michael is an entitled asshole, not that either of the sisters is all that likeable. If you enjoy a family drama where you're not sure who (if anyone) is telling the truth, this will appeal to you.

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

July 26, 2025

The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Minerva is a graduate student at a New England university, dependent on scholarships and on-campus jobs to afford staying there. She is originally from Mexico, and there is a history of witchcraft passing down through her family from her great-grandmother Alba. Minerva loves horror fiction and become fascinated by an obscure horror writer who attended the same university. While researching the writer's life and work, Minerva becomes aware of strange forces haunting the campus and the town.

Not your typical story of witches and warlocks. Three main characters: Alba, Beatrice, and Minerva, each with her own timeline, which can be a little confusing. Overall creepy, dark, and atmospheric. I am not a huge horror fan (although I read more horror than I think I do), but I really enjoy Moreno-Garcia's modern gothic fiction. I could not put this one down. Will appeal to readers who enjoy horror mixed with folklore and multigenerational stories. 4.5 stars

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

July 19, 2025

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

Mary Pat Fennessy spent all her life living in a housing project in South Boston. She raised her children there the same way that she was raised, with the belief that the Irish of her South Boston neighborhood were better than other people. The residents of South Boston have always lived a certain way and they want things to stay that way, and they want those they consider to be outsiders to stay out. But it's 1974 and change is coming whether they want it or not, and they can't stop it, beginning with the integration of the local high school that they all attended and that their children now attend. Mary Pat's daughter Jules is one of the students affected by the plan to bus white students to a Black neighborhood, but when Jules disappears just days before busing is supposed to begin, Mary Pat's focus switches to finding her daughter, whatever it takes. 

Gritty, violent, compelling. Dennis Lehane a great writer, no question. Mary Pat is not always a likeable character - she has a lot of hateful beliefs. But she is a bad ass who will fight for her child, even though you know she is on a collision course with disaster. Filled with morally ambiguous characters, class struggle, hypocrisy and broken dreams, it's a story of bigoted violent adults raising bigoted violent children. Sensitive readers should take note that there are scenes of violence, and brutality, child abuse, racism, drugs, crimes against women. Will appeal to fans to Don Winslow and Jeffery Deaver.

Busing protest in South Boston in the 1970s

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger

July 10, 2025

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger

Lila Pereira is an unconventional mother, focusing on her career as the executive editor of a major newspaper and leaving the raising of their daughters to her husband Joe and household help. But her youngest daughter Grace yearns for a regular mother who goes to PTA meetings, bakes cupcakes and takes her to soccer practice. After Lila's death, Grace receives a letter that Lila left her, telling her to go find out what really happened to Lila's mother, who disappeared when Lila was a toddler. Grace realizes how little she actually knows about her mother's family and wonders if you can ever know yourself if you don't know your past.

Part 1 is Lila and Joe's story, and I loved it. But the last 2/3 of the book is mostly about Grace, the youngest daughter, a real whiner and completely unlikeable, probably the least interesting character in the book. When I first started reading it, I thought it would appeal to readers who enjoyed Ann Patchett or Ann Napolitano, but the last two thirds morphed into something more like Sally Rooney, with a bunch of characters under 30 who are completely self-centered and unaware (putting your life on hold for five years to start a podcast???? Or "I can't ask her to marry me until she gives me the signal"???? What does that even mean????). It takes until around the 85% mark for the search for Lila's mother to begin, and then it is anti-climatic. Disappointing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell

July 6, 2025

Dead of Summer by Jessa Maxwell

After 12 years, Orla O'Connell returns to Hadley Island, her childhood home, to get her family's old house ready for sale. She left the island after her best friend Alice mysteriously disappeared. Orla is shocked to find her teenage crush David Clarke is in residence at his family's summer home, along with his beautiful girlfriend Faith. But David is busy with work, leaving Faith plenty of time to snoop around and investigate the town and David's family.

A quick read, the kind of thing you can read/skim in one day. Atmospheric, although somewhat predictable and it dragged at times. Familiar themes: rich nasty family, poor girl with secrets in her past hooking up with a rich guy, a woman return to her hometown after years away, small town with suspicious residents who know everyone and their business, odd local man who is a natural target, lots of secrets. The characters were all shallow and unlikeable, the narrators somewhat unreliable. The premise appealed to me since I usually like a cold case mystery, so I was disappointed in this one. Suitable for a beach or poolside read, or an at-home read when it's 90+ degrees outside and you're stuck in the house.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

May 22, 2025

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Patch McCauley (whose real name is Joseph) is a 13 year old living in a small Missouri town with his mother Ivy. His best friend is Saint, who live with her grandmother Norma, a bus driver in the town. Patch has only one eye and has always been obsessed by pirates since he wears an eye patch over his missing eye. Nothing much happens in their town until one morning on his way to school, Patch sees a man attempting to abduct his schoolmate Misty. Misty gets away but all the police can find of Patch is his missing eye patch and a lot of blood.

Disappointing. It took me forever to slog through this. This is another of those love it or hate it books. I heard that it meandered around a lot and that it was more literary fiction than mystery, which is fine with me if I know what to expect. I loved the first hundred or so pages, thought the characters were great, but it lost me when the two kids were locked in the basement. The center section of the book just drags, and it's way too long. I skimmed the last 2/3 of the book and then read the ending. Didn't miss much. I came to hate most of the characters, too. It's like the author had ideas for a couple of different storylines and decided to just jumble them together. An editor should have cut out a couple of hundred pages and made it a better book. Reminded me of Demon Copperhead, which everyone else loved and I didn't. I should know by now that whenever a book is selected by a celebrity or TV book club, I'm probably going to hate it. But at least those book clubs get people who otherwise never read a book, to pick one up. Can't get those hours back.

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

February 1, 2025

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

Charlotte Cross is an assistant curator for the Egyptian Art department at the Metropolitan Museum. For 15 years, she has spent her days cleaning up after the head curator, heading off problems that he regularly creates (and enjoys doing). Now she believes she has discovered information that overturns his work. But getting the necessary proof requires her to return to Egypt, where she suffered a tragedy 40 years earlier.

Although I have enjoyed several of the author's other books (The Dollhouse, The Address), I didn't care for this one as much. Too much drama, everything like an overwrought soap opera. A lot of the things that happened were completely outlandish (like a waitress with no experience landing a job as assistant to a major designer for the social event of the year). I know I'm in the minority here, since so many readers have given it rave reviews. I hope Fiona Davis' next book is better.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

An example of an ancient Eqyptian collar piece like the one featured in the book

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

January 5, 2025

Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney

Grady Green is at the top of his writing career, with his latest book climbing The New York Times bestseller list. The his wife Abby, an investigative journalist, goes missing while driving home, and his life goes to hell. He has no idea what happened to her: no goodbye letter, no suicide note, no ransom note, no body. After a year of drifting and not writing a word, his agent offers him the use of a cottage in the Hebrides off the coast of Scotland. He and his dog Colombo make the long drive north from London, and once he arrives, he begins to see Abby everywhere.

The good news: Colombo the black Lab is safe all the way through the book. I have enough people who call me while reading a book, asking if the dog is okay at the end, because otherwise they won't be finishing the book, that I know to include this right away. Feeney's trademark suspense featuring the ever-popular unreliable narrator. It's a slow plot for almost 2/3 of the book. The twist and the island's backstory start at this point. The real twist is at the 90% mark. This is the third Alice Feeney book I've read and I always figure out at least part of the "twist" well before we get there - with Daisy Darker, I think I figured it out by page 20. The only reason I keep reading is to see if I'm right or to fill in the gaps. Maybe I read too much. I think I'm done with Feeney. Readers who enjoy Freida McFadden will enjoy Alice Feeney's style as well.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Outer Hebrides village

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

 November 25, 2024

The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong

Tao is a traveling fortune teller, roaming the countryside in her wagon with her mule Laohu. She tells what she refers to as small fortunes: what day will the cow have her calf, what day is the best to go fishing, who will the barmaid go to the dance with. Once she told a "large" fortune that had dire consequences, and someone she loved ended up dying. Since then, Tao has vowed to tell only small harmless fortunes. But when two mercenaries and later a baker end up joining her on her travels for their own reasons, Tao learns that family and home can be whatever you choose them to be.

A sweet and heartwarming cozy fantasy in the same vein as Legends and Lattes, or The Spellshop, although I thought both of those novels had more developed characters and stronger plotlines. Leong's novel is like a palette cleanser when you need a break from heavier fantasy fiction or genres. Recommended for readers of fantasy, cozy mysteries, or romantasy.

Tea leaf fortune telling, Tao's favorite method of fortune telling

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

October 15, 2024

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

The Van Laar family own a large swath of land in the Adirondacks region of upstate New York, where they employ many of the local residents to run their exclusive summer camp. The camp is mainly for the children of their wealthy friends. But when their daughter Barbara goes missing from the camp, panic erupts immediately, because she isn't the first Van Laar child to go missing.

There were around 800 holds on this at the library, so I was skeptical about whether it would be worth the wait, but it totally was. I never went to summer camp, but if it was anything like this, I probably would have hated it. That said, this was a really enjoyable book as well as a quick read that kept me turning the pages. Good storytelling, interesting characters with many different viewpoints, and a dual timeline with two linked mysteries. The reader gets the backstory of many of the characters, which helps explain their actions and motivations. Many of the female characters could have been a little stronger, a little smarter, but they were a product of their upbringing and the time they lived in. The 1970s were a time when women were just starting to break out of the stereotypes of the 1950s and 1960s (aka the dark ages). Even when I graduated from high school in 1971, there were three acceptable career path for women who were college educated: teacher, nurse, or secretary, and those were only acceptable until you got married and had a family. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys a good story.

Pan, the god of the woods, source of the word panic

The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard by Michael Callahan

September 14, 2024

The Lost Letters from Martha's Vineyard by Michael Callahan

After being nominated for an Academy Award, starlet Mercy Welles suddenly vanished without a trace from Hollywood. Sixty years later, Kit O'Neil and her sister are cleaning out their late grandmother's house on Martha's Vineyard when Kit comes across photos of her grandmother that look suspiciously like the missing actress.

I didn't love this as much as many other readers have. I thought this was going to be a really good end-of-summer read, and I usually love books about old Hollywood, but something about this one didn't sit right with me. Maybe because it was written by a man, and he was fixated on what the women in the story look like, especially whether they are slim or frumpy or the kind of woman a man (like him) wouldn't look at twice. Also, there are a lot of familiar over-used tropes, like the struggling unknown actress who is suddenly nominated for an Oscar and catapulted to stardom, the wealthy dysfunctional family, the pile of family secrets in the attic that somehow no one else has discovered, among other things. The story is also overly long and the plot drags. Although billed as a mystery, there isn't much mystery and a lot more romance. Recommended for readers of romantic suspense.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Martha's Vineyard

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

August 26, 2024

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager

On a summer night in 1994, two 10 year old boys camp out in a tent in one of their backyards, as they did every Friday night. One of the boys disappears in the night, never to be seen again. Thirty years later, the surviving boy, now a 40 year old man, reluctantly returns to his childhood home. Almost immediately, strange things begin happening that indicate that someone knows what happened to the missing boy.

The premise was interesting, which is why I picked up this book: people who grew up on the same cul-de-sac reuniting as adults to solve the mystery of what happened to one of their friends. But the text got repetitious quickly: the reader is reminded every other page that Billy was taken in the middle of the night, that he was obsessed with ghosts, there are repeated descriptions of Ethan's dream, the lights coming on and off in the neighborhood, descriptions of the ominous mansion just a mile from where they lived. Lots of family secrets, but I didn't really care because the characters were flat and two-dimensional, and it took forever to reveal the secrets. Not terrible but not great, either. I started skimming about halfway through. Fans of Freida McFadden will enjoy Sager's latest novel. I think I'm done with both of them.

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

March 16, 2024

How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin

When she was 17 years old, Frances Adams was told by a fortune teller that she would be murdered. She and her two best friends Emily and Rose had their fortunes told at a county fair but Frances was the only one who really took the fortune to heart. Although the three girls are inseparable, Emily is more of a frenemy than a real friend, wanting everything that Frances has - she is a typical mean girl (yawn - so tired of high school BS). She scoffs at Frances' concern over the fortune, then ironically, Emily is the one who goes missing a year later. 

Frances spent her life on her husband's country estate, guarding herself from others and perceived threats.  At the reading of her will, her heirs discover that Frances' money will go to the one who solves her murder - and they have a week to do it.

Clever Agatha Christie-esque premise that doesn't quite pan out, particularly disappointing since I am a fan of mysteries set in country houses. There is a large with a large cast of characters past and present that were hard to keep track of. The plot got muddled from the sheer number of characters past and present, with many of them part of family groups that have common last names. Annie, the main character, got a little annoying with her fainting at the sight of blood, syringes, etc. - I did wonder how she managed her monthly period. I would have like to know what Frances was up to for the last 50 years. There are hints that she meddled in the lives of others (including her niece Laura) but there is no follow up to these hints. There are also a number of dangling mini-plots that are left, well, dangling. Real fans of cozy mysteries who are less picky than I am will enjoy the setting and the characters.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Hemlock, which turns out to be a complete red herring

What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris

February 20, 2024

What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris

Lawyer Deena Wood's life is in tatters: her marriage has gone down in flames, she lost her prestigious job in Atlanta, and she is still reeling from her mother's death. She returns to her hometown of Brunswick, Georgia, where her father married her mother's close friend Ruth a few months after her mother's death. Trapped in a dead-end job, living in her childhood home, Deena is trying to re-make her life, when she encounters an elderly man living on one of the islands off the Georgia coast. When he goes missing, she feels compelled to find out what happened to him.

I don't particularly care for mysteries with a supernatural element, but if that's your jam, you'll probably like this one. For me, it was just okay. I did not find Deena to be a likeable or sympathetic character: she is almost completely self-focused (which she should have grown out of, since she's almost 40), and has little empathy for anyone else. She views her dad's second wife as someone who always coveted what her mother had. It doesn't occur to her that her dad is lonely after his wife's death, or that maybe her mom's best friend misses her too. Unbelievably, a GUY has to explain this to her. 

The plot focuses on the difficulties of lower and middle income people (particularly in the South) when it comes to proving ownership and inheritance of property that has been in their families for years, yet there is no paperwork to support their claims. The author's plotting can be complicated at times. There are also a lot of characters, and it's hard to keep them all straight. I figured out about halfway through the book who the real mastermind was. 

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Brunswick, Georgia

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

February 6, 2024

All Good People Here by Ashley Flowers

After years away, Margot returns to her home town to care for her Uncle Luke. The day after she arrives, a child goes missing, and the case is eerily familiar to the case of a six year old girl who went missing in 1994 when Margot was growing up. The little girl happened to live across the street from Margot's aunt and uncle and was Margot's best friend. Twenty years later, Margot is sure that the two events are linked and sets out to discover who is responsible.

This was just okay. I am a fan of Flowers' podcast Crime Junkie, so I was interested in reading her mystery. I am usually a sucker for missing person stories, especially when set in small towns (I love ID's Murder in the Heartland series), but this one missed the mark. The story is based not-so-loosely on the Jon-Benet Ramsey case - the little girl in the novel who went missing in 1994 participates in child beauty pageants, the parents are wealthy and immediately suspected, and there is no real resolution to the case. As other readers have noted, the ending (or non-ending) was disappointing. I think I'll stick to her podcast, which really is outstanding. 

Child beauty pageant queens - they're six, not sixteen

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

January 17, 2024

The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters

While her family is picking berries on a farm, a Native American child goes missing. Her family searches for her desperately without success. In alternate chapters, one of the little girl's brothers and a child named Norma tell the story of a family dealing with incredible loss.

A slow moving character driven story that asks the question, how much are we shaped by our heritage and culture? I found the storyline to be predictable - by the end of the third chapter, I was pretty sure how the story would unwind. Sad, filled with various types of loss. This would be a good book club choice since there are many topics to discuss. Will appeal to readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult or are in the mood for a good cry.

Pickers on a blueberry farm

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

October 27, 2023

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman

Sage Winters has always known that her twin sister Rosemary died of pneumonia when they were children. But at age 16, Sage learns that her sister didn't die and is living at the Willowbrook School, a school for children with special needs. She learns that Rosemary vanished from the school a few days earlier, and Sage is determined to go to the school to find her twin.

Based on a true story. My hair stylist's oldest sister was a resident at Willowbrook in the 1970s, which was how I originally heard about it. The first third of the book is mostly about how terrible the conditions were at the school, and it takes a while for the plot to get moving. The main character is pretty dense for someone who is supposed to be street smart. I started with this novel as an audiobook, but I switched to the ebook version because I could skim over the slower parts. The story moves a lot slower than in Wiseman's earlier books. Geraldo Rivera did a prize-winning expose about living conditions at the school, which were truly horrible, with most of the residents contracting hepatitis and other diseases due to the filthy living conditions and lack of care. Definitely has a YA feel to it. Meh.

Willowbrook State School, New York