Recent Events

Monday 18 March 2024

Mysteries Set at Easter

ADAMS, Mathiya 2016 The Easter Evader (2016)
ALLAN, Barbara 2010 Antiques Bizarre 
ATHERTON, Nancy 2001 Aunt Dimity: Detective
BELL, Cindy 2018 Bunny Donuts and a Body 
BERENSON, Laurien  2022 Show Me the Bunny
BERRY, Linda  1998 Death and the Easter Bunny
BOTTOMS, David 1988 Easter Weekend
BOWEN, Rhys  2009 In A Guilded Cage
BROPHY, Grace 2007 The Last Enemy
BUCK, Sharon E 2018 The Faberge Easter Egg and Murder (2018)
CARL. JoAnna 2004 The Chocolate Bunny Brouhaha 
CARR, John Dickson  1968 Papa Le Bas
CLARK, Mary Jane 1999 Do You Promise Not to Tell?
COHEN, Nancy 2020 Easter Hair Hunt
COLE, Lyndsey 2017 Easter Buried Eggs
COLLIER, Christine E 2007 A Holiday Sampler
CONKLIN, Caroline 2001 Last Easter
CONNORS, Rose 2002 Absolute Certainty (1st)
CONWAY, Sara 2001 Murder on Good Friday
DAHEIM, Mary  1992 Holy Terrors
DALEY, Kathi 2014 Big Bunny Bump Off 

2017 Easter Escapade (2017)

2018 Hippity Hoppity Homicide (2018)
DEEB, Mary Jane 2012 Death of A Harlequin
DOHERTY, P C  2001 The House of Death (2001)
EVANS, Liz 2005 Cue the Easter Bunny
FLORA, Kate 1996 Death At the Wheel
FLORKIEWICZ, Lynn 2017 The Easter Mystery (2017)
FLOWER, Amanda 2019 Toxic Toffee (2019)

2019 Criminally Cocoa (2019)
FREMGEN, Amy Mull
Eila May and the Easter Kandy Kuller
GRADY, P J  2001 Deadly Sin
GRIFFIN, J M 2016 Hop 'Til You Drop
HADDAM, Jane  1991 Precious Blood
HARRIS, Joanne 1998 Chocolate
HARRIS, Lee  1992 The Good Friday Murder
HAYES, J M (Mike) 2009 Server Down
HYZY, Julie 2009 Eggsecutive Orders
HUNTER, Carolyn Q 2018 Killer Easter Pie (2018)
JACKSON, Bryant 2010 Easter Day Murders
JACKSON, Melanie 2011 Death of A Dumb Bunny
JOHNS, Madison 2019 Easter Eggs and Shotgun Shells
KASHIAN, Tina 2020  On the Lamb (2020)
KILLIAN, Diane 2010 Murder on the Eightfold Path 
KLEIN, Libby 2021 Beauty Expos Are Murder (2021)
KOZAR, Linda 2017 Bunny Drop
LANG, J A 2015 Chef Maurice and the Bunny Boiler Bake-Off
LEWIS, J G 2020 Forest of Souls (2020)
LOVESEY, Peter 1998 Do Not Exceed the Stated Dose
MACINERNEY, Karen 2019 Dyeing Season (2019)

2023 Basket Case
MAHER, Tegan 2019 Shot Cross Buns (2019)
MALLIET, G M  2013 Pagan Spring
MARTIN, Nancy 2004 Some Like It Lethal
MATTHEWS, Olivia 2019 Alibis & Angels (2019)
MEIR, Leslie 2012 Easter Bunny Murder

2021 Easter Bonnet Murder
MOORECROFT, M'Lissa 2020 The Chocolate Easter Baking Challenge 
NEWMAN, Sharan 1994 The Devil's Door
PENNY, Louise 2007 The Cruellest Month
PLIMP, Imogen 2020 The Easter Sunday Slaughter (2020)
RAMSAY, Frederick 2014 The Wolf and the Lamb (2014)
RICHEY, Sheri 2020 Chicory is Trickery (2020)
ROBINSON, David W 2013 The Chocolate Egg Murders
SCHWEIZER, Mark 2004 The Baritone Wore Chiffon (2004)

2006 The Soprano Wore Falsettos (2006)
SERRANO, Judy 2017 Easter's  Lily
SIGER, Jeffrey 2010 The Aegean Prophecy/Prey on Patmos (US)
SMITH, Julie 1986 Tourist Trap (1986)
SMITH, Lotta 2018 Wicked Egg to Crack 
STOUT, Rex  1958 And Four to Go/Crime and Again
STUART, John 2017 Easter Breakfast
SWANSON, Denise 2013 Nickeled and Dimed to Death (2013)
THEORIN, Johan 2011 The Quarry (2011)
ULMAR, Mari  2000 Murder at the Camposanto
VIGUIE, Debbie 2010 The Lord is my Shepherd (2010)
WELDON, Sarah Jane 2019 Baa'd to the Bone (2019)
WILSON, Robert 2003 The Blind Man of Seville
WOOD, Patricia Smith 2013 The Easter Egg Murder (2013)
WOODS, Rachel 2020 Easter Egg Hunt Murder (2020)

Sunday 17 March 2024

‘The Case of the Bereaved Butler’ by Cathy Ace

Published by Four Tails Publishing,
18 March 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-99055717-1

The four women of the WISE Women Enquiry Agency, Mavis, Christine, Carol and Annie, plus their honorary member, Althea, Dowager Duchess of Chellingworth, have established a successful business in the Welsh village of Anwen-by-Wye. They have tackled numerous cases of different levels of complexity and danger and they have formed good relationships with the local police and a solicitor who often recommends their services to his clients. It is this solicitor who suggests that the WISE agency could help a very elderly and very wealthy man to locate the hill farm where he had lived as a young evacuee during the Second World War. This is a difficult task as the client’s memories of that time are patchy and many farms have changed ownership and most of his contemporaries have died. Also official records of evacuees are incomplete, however the team are determined to do everything they can because it means so much to their client.

Annie and her partner, Tudor Evans, are about to move into a new and more spacious pub that belongs to the Chellingworth estate. Annie is frustrated by the slowness of the workmen who are renovating and decorating the new premises and then she realises that somebody is systematically stealing decorating supplies. Annie’s determination to track down the thief who has purloined her new toilet results in an unofficial case for her and her colleagues.

Another more serious pro bono investigation is the one that is referred to in the title of the book. It begins when the Duke and Duchess of Chellingworth become very worried about their butler, Edward, a long-term, faithful and extremely efficient senior servant. Edward has become distracted, which is not surprising as his only brother had died two weeks earlier, but he also appears to be worried about something. Mavis and Althea persuade Edward to confide in them and he explains that his late brother’s wife has told him she is convinced that her husband had been murdered by his partner in their business, which trains butlers, and she believes that she is also in danger of being killed.

 All of the WISE women are involved in working on this case, although the undercover work has to be done by Christine, the only one of the women who has the high-class background that will fool their suspect into believing she wishes to employ a butler. She does an excellent job, even though she and her fiancé, Alexander, are going through a difficult time. Both Christine and Alexander are keeping secrets from each other: Christine has concerns about her health and Alexander is dealing with a dangerous cyber-criminal.

All the WISE women are aware of the potential dangers of their work but it is while doing a very commonplace errand for Edward’s sister-in-law that one of the WISE women is placed in a potentially fatal situation.

The Case of the Bereaved Butler is the ninth book featuring the women of the WISE Enquiry Agency. It is a superb series, and this book is an excellent addition, with clever plot lines involving both major and minor cases and warm, engaging characters. The author has created a delightful community filled with likeable although far from perfect people. This book is a page-turner that I thoroughly recommend.
-------
Reviewer: Carol Westron

Cathy Ace was born and raised in Swansea, South Wales. With a successful career in marketing having given her the chance to write training courses and textbooks, Cathy has now finally turned her attention to her real passion: crime fiction. Her short stories have appeared in multiple anthologies. Two of her works, Dear George and Domestic Violence, have also been produced by Jarvis & Ayres Productions as ‘Afternoon Reading’ broadcasts for BBC Radio 4. Cathy now writes two series of traditional mysteries: The Cait Morgan Mysteries (TouchWood Editions) and The WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries (Severn House Publishers)

http://cathyace.com

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 8 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. interview

www.carolwestron.com
To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title
Death and the Dancing Snowman

Saturday 16 March 2024

‘A Body at the Séance’ by Marty Wingate

Published by Bookouture,
8 January 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-83790-958-2
.

The story is set in November 1921 and Mabel Canning has moved to London to assert her independence by working for the Useful Women Agency. This agency aims to find women willing to undertake any respectable task that the ladies that hire them are willing to pay for and this evening offers the most unusual assignment that Mabel has experienced.

Mrs Ivy Plomley has employed Mabel to accompany her to a séance in which she hopes to contact her late husband, Stamford, who died in a fire that completely destroyed his work shed some nine months previously. Before Mr Plomley’s death, he and his wife had attended a spiritual evening held by the medium who is holding the séance, the improbably named Madame Pushkana, and Mrs Plomley has reason to believe that she will receive a message from Mr Plomley’s spirit. Mabel is impressed by the size and elegance of Madame Pushkana’s house and thinks that, if it indeed belongs to her, she must be running a very profitable business. As a practical-minded person Mabel is sceptical about the authenticity of the séance she is about to attend but it she is excited at being present at an experience similar to those advocated by the famous author Arthur Conan Doyle.

Mabel is uneasy when she realises that all of her fellow guests know Madame Pushkana and each other well and she thinks that she can work out how most of the medium’s effects have been achieved. However, things change when the medium calls on Stamford Plomley and, when he answers, it sounds as if he is actually present in the room, which is unlike the earlier exchanges with Madame Pushkana’s spirit guide. Ivy and Stamford Plomley ignore Madame Pushkana’s attempts to interrupt their conversation but suddenly the chandelier above them rocks violently and a flash of intense light blinds Mabel and presumably all of the other participants and then  the room plunges into darkness.

When the light is restored, and with it some semblance of order, Madame Pushkana is discovered unconscious on a pile of curtains that have been pulled down. The medium is lifted up by her solicitous followers and Mabel discovers a body beneath the curtains. It is Stamford Plomley and it is evident that, rather than having died several months ago, he has been strangled within the last few minutes by somebody using a curtain tie.

It seems that the other guests, apart from Mrs Plomley and the butler, Perkins, are too preoccupied by fussing over the unconscious medium to notice Stamford Plomley’s corpse, so Mabel has to take charge. She orders Perkins to send for Detective Inspector Tollerton, a police officer that she encountered when she was involved in an earlier murder case. Although Mabel has done her duty in summoning the police, she cannot quell her curiosity regarding this extraordinary murder and cannot resist investigating. Although she thinks that Madame Pushkana has used tricks to manipulate her in an attempt to convince Mabel of her psychic abilities, Mabel is not convinced that she is guilty of murder, and she likes Perkins and hopes that he is also innocent. However, there are several more suspects for her to consider and she is determined to look into the background of all of the medium’s guests. Also, she cannot ignore the suspicious behaviour of her client and knows that Mrs Plomley has not been honest about what she has told Mabel.

With so many suspects, none of whom she can trust, Mabel is grateful to have her usual allies who live in the same block of flats. Two of these are Cora Portjoy, whose work in a hat shop means that she is expert in creating clever disguises, and Skeff, an investigative journalist. Mabel’s third helper is Park Winstone, an ex-police detective with whom she is developing a close relationship. At the moment Park is working in Paris and, however often Mabel tells herself that she is an independent woman, she really longs for his support in coping with this difficult investigation.

Fortunately, Park soon returns and immediately sets to work helping Mabel as she probes into the background and motives of all of the people who were present at the séance. Madame Pushkana schedules another spiritual evening, which all of her followers attend. Mabel is determined to be present too, but danger still surrounds the medium and other lives are in danger, including Mabel’s own life.

A Body at the Séance is the second book in the series featuring Mabel Canning. It has an interesting plot and warm and engaging characters who are developing in fascinating ways as the series continues. This is an excellent addition to a delightful series.
-------
Reviewer: Carol Westron

Marty Wingate is a Seattle-based author and speaker about gardens and travel. She is the author of The Garden Plot, first in the Potting Shed mystery series. There are now 7 books in the series. Marty’s garden articles appear in a variety of publications, including Fine Gardening, American Gardener, Country Gardens, and Gardening How-to. You can hear her on the podcast A Dry Rain, available free from iTunes. She leads garden tours to European and North American. The Bodies in the Library, published 9 October 2019 is the first in her new series.

martywingate.com/

Carol Westron is a successful author and a Creative Writing teacher.  Her crime novels are set both in contemporary and Victorian times.  Her first book The Terminal Velocity of Cats was published in 2013. Since then, she has since written 8 further mysteries. Carol recently gave an interview to Mystery People. interview

www.carolwestron.com
To read a review of Carol latest book click on the title
Death and the Dancing Snowman

Thursday 14 March 2024

‘The Dog Sitter Detective Takes the Lead’ by Antony Johnston

Published by Allison & Busby, 
25 January 2024.
ISBN: 978-0-7490-3010-0 (HB)

This is a follow up novel to Johnston’s, The Dog Sitter Detective, which was the first in his series featuring Gwinny, a sixty something actress, who also works as a dog sitter to keep the wolf from the door.

In this story, Gwinny has just landed a role in a West-end show, making for a lot of amusement as things aren’t quite as she thought. She also agrees to dog-sit Ace, a clever Border Terrier, owned by Crash, a legendary rock star, who is off to Dublin for the weekend to play a gig.

Crash lives on a houseboat in the beautiful scenic, Little Venice, a few boats away from his ex-wife and her cat.

This particular weekend is the annual carnival at Little Venice, and preparations are in full swing with people milling everywhere. However, trouble is afoot when after many phone calls and various people turning up looking, Crash has seemingly disappeared as he did not make his flight, nor has he arrived in Dublin.

As the carnival begins Gwinny discovers his body floating on the river near his boat.

Thus begins Gwinny’s investigation, with the help of border terrier Ace, and Gwinny’s good friend and ex detective Birch, along with his dog. As they delve into Crash’s personal life, they start to uncover a lot of secrets that the band had never exposed. Many twists, and hit walls follow, as well as another death. I thought I’d solved it, only to find I hadn’t, which is always a sign of a well-written who-dunnit.

Johnstone is a great writer; he knows how to amuse, and he knows how to keep us page-turning. Not surprising then that the first book in this series, The Dog Detective, won him the Barker Fiction Award.

Again, I loved this second book, but I would have liked the body to have been found earlier. However, I can guarantee if you are cosy crime reader and fan, you will thoroughly enjoy this story, which is cleverly plotted, and will keep you on your toes, or should I say paws.
-------
Reviewer: Linda Regan
http://www.lindareganonline.co.uk

Antony Johnston is a New York Times bestselling graphic novelist, author, and games writer with more than fifty published titles. The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde is based on his graphic novel The Coldest City. His epic series Wasteland is one of only a handful of such longform achievements in comics. His first video game, Dead Space, redefined a genre.  Antony’s other books and graphic novels include The Exphoria Code, The Fuse, Daredevil, Julius, the Alex Rider graphic novels, Dead Space transmedia comics, and the adaptation of Alan Moore's 'lost screenplay' Fashion Beast.  His video games include Shadow of Mordor, Blackwood Crossing, The Assembly, Dead Space Extraction, Zombiu, and more.  He lives and works in England.

Linda Regan is the author of nine crime novels. She is also an actor. She holds a Masters degree in critical writing and journalism, and writes a regular column, including book reviews, for three magazines. She also presents the book-club spot on BBC Radio Kent. She is an avid reader and welcomes the chance to read new writers. 

  To read a review of Linda's most recent book
 
The Burning Question
click on the title. 

www.lindareganonline.co.uk

‘The Exploit’ by Daniel Scanlan

Published by Head of Zeus Ltd,
14 March 2024.
ISBN: 978-1-80110787-7 (PB)

Daniel Scanlan’s latest book, The Exploit, sees the return of Special Agent Ericka Blackwood and her arch enemy, the power-crazed demon Dantalion.

Ericka Blackwood has been lying low since her first encounter with Dantalion came to a devastating conclusion.  Colleagues she worked with during the psychopath’s former reign of terror, believe she perished during the operation.  Even her best friend and work partner, Special Agent Tim O’Connell, doesn’t know whether she is alive or dead.  She was previously associated rather too closely with Dantalion, and this has tainted her reputation within the FBI along with other security agencies.  As a result, she has left her homeland and prefers to maintain her anonymity.  Ericka’s technological expertise matches that of her foe so when she discovers Dantalion is causing havoc again she longs to neutralise his nefarious dealings once and for all.  If she returns to the US though, she might be arrested by the very people she is trying to help.  

Demonic in nature as well as name, Dantalion is bruised but not beaten after his previous evil escapades.  He has seized control of military technology used by several of the world’s most powerful countries and can deploy vast swathes of sophisticated weaponry from his own computer.  It is only a matter of time before he causes mayhem in a live situation.  In the opening chapter, Dantalion intercepts a request for support from US Rangers within Afghanistan.  Reapers, drones with overwhelming fire power, are deployed to support the Rangers and what happens next confounds military chiefs across the globe.  It also threatens to begin a conflict of apocalyptic proportions.  Ericka realises she must enter the fray despite the personal risks she will undoubtedly face.

The ‘exploit’ in the book’s title is employed, by the author, as both a noun and a verb.  Dantalion’s aim is to perform an audacious, if ignoble, feat or exploit, by inciting an apocalypse.  Then, to achieve this feat, Dantalion, having discovered people’s flaws, uses this knowledge to exploit or coerce his hapless victims into committing appalling acts of treachery.

The Exploit is the second novel in The Ericka Blackwood Files.  It works perfectly well as a standalone and delivers a thought provoking and unsettling read.  The fast-moving narrative unfolds in  the space between two increasingly indistinguishable settings, those of the real and virtual worlds. Dantalion has the skills to exploit these technologies.  We are all becoming familiar with the ability of computer science to mislead by error or intent and the story explores the potential for a skilled operator to use such new technology to trigger a world-wide conflict.  It is a chilling scenario.

In The Exploit Daniel Scanlan has written the perfect follow-up novel.  The book recounts a futuristic tale of betrayal that oozes threat and terror on every page.  I loved it.
------
Reviewer: Dot Marshall-Gent

Daniel Scanlan is a lawyer who has practiced extensively in the areas of cybercrime, digital evidence, wiretap, smuggling, and money laundering. He wrote the non-fiction Digital Evidence in Criminal Law and was a contributing author to The Lawyer's Guide to the Forensic Sciences, winner of the Walter Owen Book Prize. He lives on Vancouver Island and enjoys ocean kayaking and hiking.  When not outdoors, he is reading and will read almost anything, except books about lawyers. The Hacker is his first novel. @DanielMScanlan

https://danielscanlanauthor.com

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.