Deadly Election by Lindsey Davis is the 3rd historical mystery in the Flavia Alba series set in Ancient Rome (available July 14, 2015). Deadly Election, Lindsey Davis’s latest novel of ancient Rome is a rewarding read, especially given how 2016’s potential candidates are already pontificating and bloviating. Television pundits (a dirty word—not unlike the term…
The Storm Murders by John Farrow is the first procedural thriller in a planned trilogy featuring the retired Montreal detective Emile Cinq-Mars (available May 26, 2015). Who was it that said the colder the climate, the more are the mysteries? Montreal, Canada sits at a latitude south of Paris while those Nordic cities many consider…
Trauma by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer is a medical thriller about a neurosurgical resident, who, after an awful mistake, retreats home, where her brother's PTSD offers an irresistible medical challenge (available May 12, 2015). Who isn’t captured by the horror of a single error yanking a life off the rails, and not one's own,…
The Winter Foundlings by Kate Rhodes is the third book starring forensic psychologist Alice Quentin who heads to a psychiatric prison to interview an inmate (available February 24, 2015). It’s hard not to draw comparisons to Silence of the Lambs when reading Kate Rhodes’ third novel, The Winter Foundlings, which continues the story of forensic…
RedDevil 4 by Eric C. Leuthardt is a futuristic thriller about a neurosurgeon brought to assist police with a series of horrifying murders in 2053's St. Louis (available February 4, 2014). Dr. Eric Leuthardt’s debut novel, RedDevil 4, is described as a medico-techno-thiller. It might be described also as speculative fiction, since this neurosurgeon and…
Through the Evil Days maintains Julia Spencer-Fleming‘s reputation for penning engaging police procedurals that feature strong characterizations. Plenty of bad actors people her new tale, one that soon expands out of closely-knit Millers Kill to a lake fifty miles north, during deep winter, a season Spencer-Fleming always evokes with great realism. Bitter cold backs every…
Crooked Numbers by Tim O'Mara is the second mystery featuring former NYPD cop turned Brooklyn teacher Raymond Donne (available October 15, 2013). A former officer and a gentle man. Tim O’Mara hit what many declared a long ball with his debut novel, Sacrifice Fly. He might be on a streak given his second, Crooked Numbers.…
Three Can Keep a Secret by Archer Mayor is the 24th procedural mystery featuring Joe Gunther and the Vermont Bureau of Investigation, in which the team is spread thin, along with the rest of law enforcement, in the disarray following Hurricane Irene (available October 1, 2013). The mountains are alive with secrets. Vermont’s Green Mountains…
Steve Hamilton’s latest, Let It Burn, drives series character Alex McKnight off Michigan’s UP (Upper Peninsula) and into Detroit. The city Alex deserted years ago is now half-empty, littered with vacant lots and empty buildings, yet retains a hold on him. The former cop returns there after hearing that Darryl King, a young man he…
Watching Stonemere go up in flames, I thought of Manderley. Yet it was a bright April afternoon when dozens of old ladies were carried by firemen and police from the hulking stone-and-shingle house. The women, on a greening lawn where they looked as helpless as newborn fawns, were wrapped in thin cotton blankets as the…
