“if you can’t pay with things, you could pay with skills,” said Sakina, motioning to the shadow. “Well, wait a minute,” said Alif, looking from the shadow to Sakina. “My skills are more or less limited to computers… I’m not sure how much help that is to an, ah, to a…” Effrit, said the shadow. I’m an effrit. And I’ve got a two-year-old Dell desktop in the back that’s had some kind of virus for ages. The screen goes black five minutes after I […]
The Glass Demon
Quick Synopsis: A teenage girl is plunged into a dangerous mystery over stained glass supposedly haunted by a demon Quick Review: A fast-paced mystery with interesting historical undertones, marred somewhat by a lack of likable characters Read the Full Review
Fargo meets Pretty Little Liars
I love this cover, and I would definitely wear that sweater. This is a funny mystery. It’s got a lot of Midwest charm, you betcha. It’s also got a bunch of great characters, especially the main character Kippy. She is trying to solve her best friend’s murder, while meeting resistance from the local sheriff, who believes that Ruth’s boyfriend killed her and refuses to look at any evidence to the contrary. Link to my full review is here.
Ghost story? Metaphors? Say what now?
Oy. First thing: the third star of this rating is entirely for Jack Davenport, the narrator of the audiobook, whose voice is like sex. When he talks, my ovaries try to leap out of my body like that tiny alien in Alien. I try to explain to them this is counterproductive, but it continues to happen. Second, this book was incredibly frustrating and I hope writing this review will help me to sort out why. I read Setterfield’s debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, several years ago, and […]
You, Too, May Strike It Rich
…The group is broken into teams of two unrelated “players,” and at the start each team is provided with an envelope containing several apparently random words and a check for $10,000. And that’s all. As the teams work together to solve the mystery (whatever it is), they must face disasters both natural and unnatural; personal crises — most of them turn out to have some connection with Westing, which they may or may not be willing to disclose, or in fact even realize; the vagaries […]
In which a dog does most of the legwork
“There is very little peace for a man with a body buried in his backyard.” A year after killing a man and burying him in his backyard, Jason Getty is just starting to come to terms with his actions and to get a handle on the guilt. As he begins to think that the body in the backyard will just be his dark secret, a landscaping crew unexpectedly uncovers two other graves in the front yard to Jason’s surprise. As the police swoop in to […]



