Perdition U.S.A. by Gary Phillips
I’ve written it in other reviews and I know it can come off as pandering so forgive me but one of racism’s many sins is that the Ivan Monk series isn’t more widely available. Yes it does have a certain niche following among those of us who peruse mysteries. But good God, I go to a mystery section at my local Barnes and Noble and there’s so…much…dreck (and Agatha Christie reprints which — to be clear — is not dreck but that estate really doesn’t […]
The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Alison Goodman
The historical detail of this book was incredibly pleasing (the afterword notes that she submitted 2/3 of it as her dissertation for her PhD!) and I am definitely in for reading more from this series. My favorite thing from this author that I’ve read by quite a large margin. I was pretty sure going in that this was a romance, because of the cover and the ladies in dresses, but like the cover (which hides its weapons amidst the folds of a dress) this book […]
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
Five years ago, Lucy was found wandering the streets, dazed and covered in the blood of her best friend. No one knows what happened, but everyone believes that it was Lucy who killed Savvy – until a podcaster comes to town to dig up the whole case again. I generally avoid the recent spate of mystery books that use podcasts as plot devices. For one, I’m not even a fan of investigative podcasts, and it’s always seemed more like a framing gimmick than anything else. […]
The Clementine Complex by Bob Mortimer
Hey y’all long-time-no-see! I’ve missed this so! Much like our trusty narrator Gary, I also script entire conversations with local squirrels when I walk through town. I have a regular rodent repartee while walking to the bookstore (I KNOW!) every day. Unlike Gary, I have not been pulled into a conspiracy involving novelty print socks, a shady detective agency, an elderly hacker, and a corn-cob shaped USB dongle. This certainly isn’t a complaint; I am quite happy in my lane at the moment and I […]
Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett
4.5 stars Spoiler warning! There will be some spoilers in this review for the first book in the series, so if you’re not caught up, stop what you’re doing and go read Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries immediately. This review will be here when you return. Emily Wilde is back at her university in Cambridge, pleased with the success of her Faerie Encyclopedia. The proposal from her best friend Wendell Bambleby is still something she needs to consider, but after having her suspicions confirmed, that […]
The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter by Theodora Goss
Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas
A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas
The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter – Theodora Goss Rating: 3 stars Mary Jekyll finds herself orphaned and nearly destitute. Most of the servants have to be let go, and she’s sold off most of what’s valuable around the house. She hopes she can get some money by tracking down Edward Hyde, her father’s infamous friend, but instead finds a young woman, Diana, who is apparently Hyde’s daughter. The girl was raised by nuns, with monthly financial support from Mary’s mother. Diana refuses to […]
