by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 16, 2022 | RELAX: Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi, RELAX: Historical Fiction, RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
In A Rip Through Time, Kelley Armstrong creates Vancouver police detective Mallory Atkinson. Mallory is visiting her gravely ill grandmother in Edinburgh, Scotland. The year is 2019. Until one evening when Mallory goes jogging and unexpectedly finds herself waking up...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 5, 2022 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
John Searles creates a captivating and genre-defying story in his upcoming book, Her Last Affair. Skyla Hull is a widowed former nurse who’s losing her eyesight, and might just be losing her mind as well. Her property includes two small houses, and as the book opens...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 3, 2022 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead is a multi-layered book. The publisher promotes it as, “… a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.” And yes, all of that is in there. But Whitehead also waxes philosophical about...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Sep 9, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Steve Robinson taps into the genealogy craze in the first book of his Jefferson Tayte series, called In the Blood. The tracking of family trees is an inherently nerdy hobby. But, especially with the advent of DNA testing, more people are investigating than ever. And...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 26, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
S.A. Cosby is a master of suspense and thrills in his 2020 novel, Blacktop Wasteland. He combines intensity, rapid pacing, and a command of the sentence that boggles my mind. This is a heist thriller, and its action sequences sizzle like hot metal on pavement at 120...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jul 8, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Summer is a time to escape, even if you don’t vacation at that time. Around the July 4th holiday, I chose two mysteries as summer escape reading. One is formulaic and the other has some twists at the end that turn typical formulas on their head. Because the author...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 15, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Viveca Sten starts a new mystery series in Still Waters. Sten is Swedish and thus her story is too. First published there in 2008 and then translated to English in 2015, the Sandhamm Murders series is a sensation. Nine books are available in English, and there’s even...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 6, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
The Maidens from Alex Michaelides is an erudite, binge-worthy mystery. Set in Cambridge, England among ivy-covered buildings many centuries old, it draws from Greek tragedy and mythology. But the murders at the story’s heart are definitely in the here and now. It’s...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jun 5, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Debut author Mia P. Manansala starts a cozy foodie AAPI mystery series with Arsenic and Adobo. Set in small town Shady Palms, main character Lila Macapagal works for her auntie, Tita Rosie. Lila left Shady Palms to attend college in nearby Chicago, but recently...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 11, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Liz Moore writes a tribute to unconventional motherhood in her 2020 novel Long Bright River. Or maybe my mind is just on that topic with the recent Mothers’ Day holiday. Either way, the story here centers around two sisters, Kacey and Michaela (Mickey) Fitzpatrick....
by Barbara the Bibliophage | May 2, 2021 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Liese O’Halloran Schwarz crafts a family drama / mystery in What Could Be Saved. It’s set in current day Washington, D.C. as well as early 1970s Bangkok, Thailand. The Preston family—parents Genevieve and Robert and siblings Bea, Laura, and Phillip—go to Bangkok for...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Mar 23, 2021 | RELAX: Historical Fiction
Author Lauren Willig just didn’t deliver what I hoped for in The English Wife. It’s historical fiction and mystery, set in The Gilded Age of New York City, Newport, Rhode Island and country houses. The Van Duyvil family is “old money,” having come to America from...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Feb 6, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Danielle Girard introduces readers to Dr. Annabelle Schwartzman, Medical Examiner in a new series. This first book is called Exhume and it includes a variety of themes. First, of course is the world of morgues and autopsies. Second, is the way her role of gathering...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Jan 10, 2021 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
Author Kerry Greenwood introduces a new mystery heroine in her 2012 book, Cocaine Blues. Phryne Fisher is different from a typical late 1920’s female sleuth in many ways. First, she’s based in Melbourne, Australia instead of the more typical New York, London, or...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 29, 2020 | RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
The Red Lotus is another strong entry in the mystery / thriller genre from Chris Bohjalian. And this time, he chose an oddly prescient topic for a 2020 release. The story centers around Alexis Remnick, a New York City ER doctor. She’s on a bicycling trip to Vietnam...
by Barbara the Bibliophage | Dec 26, 2020 | RELAX: Historical Fiction, RELAX: Mystery-Thriller
C.J. Sansom creates an unlikely hero in his character Matthew Shardlake. In Dissolution, the time is Tudor England, and Shardlake is a lawyer working in the service of Thomas Cromwell. He’s just two degrees from King Henry VIII. But he’s still just a lowly guy charged...
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