Mystery

Lightning Strike (Cork O’Connor, #0) by William Kent Krueger

4.5 stars

This is a touching, well-written historical fiction mystery/thriller set in 1963 Minnesota. Twelve-year-old Cork O’Connor has a good life. He is half Native American (on his mother’s side) and half Irish (on his father’s side) and is being raised to honor both heritages. His small town of Aurora is near a reservation, and tension is high between the Native Americans and white residents that live in the area.

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December 27, 2021 0

I Have Something to Tell You by Susan Lewis

This is a pretty good contemporary mystery/thriller. Jessica “Jay” Wells is a high-profile criminal defense attorney outside of London. She is married to Tom, a criminal barrister, and they have two college-aged children. When Edward Blake, a well-known architect and developer, is arrested for allegedly killing his wife, Jay is hired by the family to represent him. The family insists that there is no way that Ed killed his wife, and are desperate for Jay to free him.

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December 25, 2021 0

Billy Summers by Stephen King

This is yet another fantastic book by Stephen King. I’m too chicken to read horror books, so I’ve only read King’s non-horror ones. Reading his books are effortless, even ones with over 500 pages.

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December 13, 2021 0

The Widow by K.L. Slater

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4

This is a pretty good mystery/thriller set in a tiny village in northern England. Kate Shaw’s husband Michael stepped in front of a lorry after being questioned by police in the disappearance of a young mother that lived on the estate he managed. To the outside world, it appears Michael committed suicide rather than be caught for the crime. But Kate knows her husband and doesn’t believe he’s done anything wrong.

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November 21, 2021 1

A Christmas Legacy (Christmas Stories #19) by Anne Perry

This is a heartwarming Christmas Historical Fiction story set in Victorian England. Gracie, Thomas and Charlotte Pitt’s former maid, left service years ago to get married and care for her family. When her good friend’s daughter Millie shows up on her doorstep frightened and asking for help, she can’t refuse. Something is wrong in the household Millie now serves and when things go missing from the kitchen, she can’t risk being accused of theft and thrown into the streets without a reference.

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November 10, 2021 0

The Grimrose Girls (Grimrose Girls #1) by Laura Pohl

This is an ok YA Fantasy Mystery/Thriller set in an elite boarding school in Switzerland. When the new school year starts, three best friends discover that their fourth best friend drowned in a lake on school grounds. The police rule it a suicide, but the girls believe differently.

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November 7, 2021 0

1979 (Allie Burns #1) by Val McDermid

This is a good historical fiction mystery thriller set in 1979 Scotland. Allie Burns is an investigative journalist at a newspaper in Glasgow, Scotland. She’s living in a “man’s world” and struggles to make her way and write the kind of stories she wants to write. Allie teams up with a co-worker to follow the trail of an illegal tax evasion scheme. From there the story escalates to much bigger issues that could cost Allie her life.

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November 1, 2021 0

Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

This is a good historical fiction mystery set in Harlem in the early 1960s. Ray Carney came from nothing and with his drive and ambition he’s opened his own furniture store selling reasonably priced furniture. Money is always tight, so if his cousin Freddie drops off the occasional piece of jewelry, he doesn’t ask questions, and neither does the jeweler he takes it to.

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October 31, 2021 0

Murder at Mallowan Hall (Phyllida Bright Mystery, #1) by Colleen Cambridge

This was a fun, cozy historical fiction/mystery set in England during the 1930s. Phyllida Bright is the housekeeper of a great manor owned by Max Mallowan and his wife, Agatha Christie. She is smart, elegant, efficient and runs the house with an iron first. When a guest is killed during a dinner party, Phyllida determines she must solve the mystery herself when she sees how inept the local police are in investigating the case.

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October 31, 2021 0