🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Wow. Layered with so many velvety bands of literary texture and nuance, this is an absorbing, mesmerizing, haunting read, leading the reader deep into the hidden lives of two families, — the stories untold, the fears blindly enacted, the words not spoken but festering, for years, and even decades,…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 If living (vicariously) on a small island community, ensconced with colorful neighbors, your local pub, a whole lot of baking, tea, and of course, whiskey, calls out to you — consider now adding a spirited mystery, an intricate and engaging plot, and a cast of characters you will want…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 An enthralling read by the Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson, the first of his that this reader has experienced, but certainly not to be the last. This sequel to “The Darkness” can be read and enjoyed successfully as a standalone novel, (as I did,) with the loss of some backstory…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 The first I’ve read in this immensely popular series, featuring Lt Eve Dallas, — this will definitely not be the last. With an appeal that crosses genres, this story is as much about Dallas and her “tribe” - beginning with her ongoing romance with her spouse, the mega-rich and…
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 A complex story of crime, revenge, and, underneath it all, love of the highest order, written by one of my all-time favorite authors, that is so slowly-building immersive it will take a mind-muddled reader a heroic effort to shift sticky gears back to “real” life. Book 2 in the…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Written with her customary finesse, this is an author that always proves impeccable. With this, a typically densely-plotted, engrossing mystery, and #11 in the Vera series, we are back with all our favorite characters, and a new one to size up, at the same time. As DI Vera Stanhope…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 Peppered with the author's signature dry (and often laugh-out-loud) humour, this is PI Jackson Brodie, former cop and always wise guy, at his most unflappable. Hired to track a stolen painting, lifted from a country estate by a mysterious woman who just may have many more crimes up her…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 An unrelenting read that works its way deep inside your head, leaving thoughts and impressions that have lingered with this reader, beyond the page. Knife River, a small town in NY, based in a valley between two forests, is the setting for this atmospheric tale of sisters tormented by…
🌟🌟🌟🌟 Darkly themed, this Scottish crime story is brutal, intense, and layered with police procedural details that ring with authenticity. DC Jazzy Solanki, — recently demoted from Sergeant to her new lowly rank on the D-team, has lived through some hard times. Still suffering from the effects of her traumatic…
🌟🌟🌟🌟💫 An engrossing, engaging and comfy (more so than cozy) story, set in gorgeous Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where small-town charm, coastal ocean views, and the singularities of island life provide the perfect backdrop to a complex mystery. Detective Gordie Maclean is fifty-three years old, a police veteran with the…