Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff

The Lure of Bookshelves Friday, Feb 9 2024

writing process bookshelves, inspirations, writers, writing process Auntie M Writes Crime 3:35 pm

My bookshelves surround me with the words of writers I admire, whose influence I feel when I sit at my desk. The place we keep our treasured books varies from reader to reader, but who knew bookshelves were such an aesthetic trend?

According to Madison Malone Kircher in her New York Times article of Jan 16, 2024, social media platforms have been having a field day with people who own a huge number of books and how they “stage” them. The term “bookshelf wealth” is bandied about, too.

Here’s a direct quote: “If you’ve ever seen a Nancy Meyers movie, the look might ring a bell. Warm and welcoming. Polished, but not stuffy. A bronze lamp here. A vintage vase there (with fresh-cut flowers, of course). Perhaps there is a cozy seating area near the floor-to-ceiling display, with an overstuffed couch topped with tasteful throw pillows.”

What happened to buying books to READ by authors you admire or will come to enjoy, or for learning about something new, or for delving into someone’s life. (Big sigh) And if my shelves are sprinkled with family and friend and dog photos, it’s because those are the things I want near me when I work, not because of their price tag.

My three walls of bookshelves do not include the additional rack of those waiting to be reviewed by the side of my desk, nor the towering stacks in our bedroom, waiting for my insomniac reading. What they do have is the one thing I’d set my heart on when we built our house: a ladder from the Putnam Rolling Ladder Company in New York, which I convinced myself was practical for reaching the tops of the nine-foot shelves we were building into the library nook where our desk sits in the middle. Yes, I share a desk with my husband, an antique oak partner’s desk from the 1920s.

Another thing mine have: all of the book spines facing OUT so I can read the titles/authors and actually find the book I’m looking for. To me, this is a lovely part of a book’s cover. I cannot understand the new fashion of placing books with the pages out with no way to ascertain which book one is looking at. I recently emailed an HGTV show whose designs I admire, except for her habit of placing books with their spines against the wall. I asked why that was a trend as it negated any useful searching for actual reading. I actually received a reply from a production assistant, who explained when she asked said designer that they were worried about ‘copyright infringement’ if they displayed a book spine out without the authors’ permission.

That sounds hokey to me. What author would object to seeing his or her book on a television shows’ shelves, if they could even be distinguished at that distance? I thanked her for her answer but told her I knew plenty of authors who would gladly send a copy of their book to be displayed properly. She didn’t take me up on it…

And that makes me think that people who like this look backwards look (sorry if I’m mistaken) are not reading those books, keeping them to savor and re-read, or perhaps loan to a reading friend, but using them as a trendy sign of acquisition, that dreaded “bookwealth.”

I‘m likely dotty about books and papers, I’m the first to admit. I love a good pen and nice stationary and pretty notecards. I inhale the scent of a shelf of vintage books, the old inks and paper covers curled and maybe slightly moldy. The idea of spending time in a used bookstore thrills me, scouring for treasure.

A few years ago, one of my writing group members and myself visited Powell’s in Portland, the world’s largest independent bookstore. Heavenly. We separated and met in the main lobby hours later, hardly sated. When I lived in New York, I’d stagger out of a visit to The Strand under a burden of several book bags chock full of those that simply couldn’t be left behind. Plus a few journals or notebooks. And don’t get me started on pens. Both Michele Dorsey and Susan Breen have blogged about these items with good reason. We are smitten.

Wisdom in old shelves and books of Trinity College, Dublin

I find that photos of large and gorgeous libraries all over the world intrigue me, too, and frequently post them on my Facebook page. They go onto a bucket list in case I’m ever in that part of the world. Who wouldn’t want to visit the libraries in great cities, to simply look on in awe and take a deep breath of all of that goodness? One of my favorite places to stop by when I’m back in NY is the Morgan Library, for that aesthetic pleasure of being surrounded by all of those books in that gorgeous setting. And yes, I freely admit I almost swooned many years ago when taking the oath to read in the Bodleian Library’s Radcliffe Camera, surrounded by original broadsheets of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins.

It’s a sickness of sorts.

Our bookshelves are all oak and there are lot of them. After twenty years in this house, I recently did a nice cleanout and donated and gave away carton upon carton of books to our library and to reading friends in other states who would then donate them to their library. I kept my most favorite authors near me, but as my husband said, just made room for all the new ones I’d soon be adding in.

He’s right.

Then I decided all of that oak needed to be broken up, so I’ve been using swatches of peel and stick wallpaper in different designs to line just the back shelves. You can’t see a lot of them because they’re covered with, well, books. But when a bit of color peeks above a stack, I smile. It’s my way of personalizing all of that wood that supports the tangible thing I love most.

Readers, do you have a favorite library to visit? And what are your thoughts on the way books are placed on shelves? Be honest!

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Nita Prose: The Mystery Guest Thursday, Jan 25 2024

Uncategorized book-review, books, molly, mystery, nita-prose Auntie M Writes Crime 4:59 pm

Canadian Nita Prose’s first Molly Gray book, THE MAID, won all sorts of well-deserved awards, including an Anthony and Barry for best first mystery, as well as the Ned Kelly Award for International Crime Fiction.

Now she returns with Molly, elevated to Head Maid at the prestigious Regency Grand Hotel where she tries for perfection and trains and mentors new maids. The hotel’s tearoom has just undergone a spectacular renovation, and its inaugural event features the famous mystery author, JD Grimthorpe, who manages to spread mayhem of his own when he drops dead during his speech.

This is particularly upsetting to Molly, who has gloried in the tearoom upgrade. She has a credo of cleanliness is stickler for proper manners, and lives by the handbook of her department.

The mystery follows Molly trying to sleuth the murderer, after her success in The Maid, despite the case being handled by Detective Stark, who would like to find a reason to arrest if not Molly, then her new charge, Lily.

And Molly is hiding a past association with Grimthorpe, told in scenes that give readers a glimpse into her upbringing. Even her best friend, doorman Mr. Preston who watches over Molly, seems to have a secret.

This is first class crime writing, with a protagonist who you will come to adore. Molly is likely on the autism spectrum but that is never openly addressed, nor need it be. She is an original creation, one who can lead a series, and who has found a way to open her heart to love and will soon find her way into yours.

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Historical Sleuths Saturday, Nov 18 2023

Uncategorized Auntie M Writes Crime 2:36 pm

I’ve been gathering research for a stand alone mystery set in 1926, for writing next year, while at the same time working on getting the third Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery, Death in the Orchard, ready to print in the spring. Such is the life of a writer, juggling multiple balls and plot lines, and now, eras.

It’s my first foray into a non-contemporary novel, with the challenges of getting those period details, customs, social mores right, giving me even more increased respect for the historical writers I enjoy reading. It feels like wading into a different world, where things like cell phones and the internet didn’t exist, and the language and slang are different.

Historicals with women leads show their strength and independence, as they battle against societal expectations for women in their era. Here are a few of my personal favorites, characters whose authors have gotten it right:

Sujata Massey was born in England to parents from India and Germany, and has always been interested in international affairs. After writing a long series set in Japan, she created Perveen Mistry, a 1920s lawyer who is Bombay’s first female solicitor, and who works in the esteemed firm of her father, but is unable in 1921 to appear independently in court.

There are other considerations, too, of a social nature that Massey teaches us as we learn of the constraints of a working woman in 1920s India, finding her place within a traditional family. With an assured and evocative sense of place, wrapped within a challenging mystery, these are all winners that open a window onto what women of varied social strata faced.

The first Perveen Mistry novel, The Widows of Malabar Hill, won the Agatha, Macavity, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. The fourth and newest in the series, out now, is The Mistress of Bhatia House.

Deanna Raybourn’s Veronica Speedwell series feature a main character based on a real butterfly hunter from Victorian times.

As a lepidopterologist, the orphaned Veronica travels the world while maintaining a foot in what society expects of her. Financially independent, she finds herself embroiled in handsome men and fascinating mysteries.

A Curious Beginning starts this much read and loved series. Number nine in the series, A Grave Robbery, will be out in 2024.

I’ve spoken before of my fondness for the Josephine Tey series Nicola Upson writes, which has taken us to Mont St. Michel in Cornwall, to Suffolk and the Mystery of the Red Barn, to the theatre world Tey inhabited as the author of plays under the pen name Gordon Daviot.

Using the crime novelist’s pen name for the character she’s created, Upson brings Josephine through a series of British crimes in different settings in the UK. It helps that her good friend is Scotland Yard detective Archie Penrose.

The previous books have all been set in the UK until now, when Upson takes Josephine across the pond in 1939 so we experience a transatlantic crossing, to train west to Hollywood, where Alfred Hitchcock’s filming of Rebecca is in progress.

A murder investigation back in England has ties to the cast and crew of the filming. Upson’s meticulous research imbues the book with details of the filming of Daphne Du Maurier’s famous gothic novel. If you haven’t discovered this series of eleven books yet, the first is An Expert in Murder.

We jump to post World War II, where Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge have started The Right Sort Marriage Bureau to assure their own income and remain independent.

This readable series has it all, from the pressures brought on Gwen as a war widow from an upper class family, to the very modern Iris, with her complicated past work for the government and her romantic entanglements.

Each of the seven in the series lead the two friends to call on their prior experiences for a twisted mystery. Details of postwar London plus their interesting backstories of both women add to these well-plotted mysteries, that often revolve around clients who’ve come to their agency seeking a partner.

There are seven in the series by Allison Montclair, with Murder at the White Palace due in 2024.

You know you are in talented hands when an eleven-year-old girl can lead a series through eleven books and remain a constant character of interest.

Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series starts in 1950, and is a startling twisted mystery, full of the complicated chemistry that so delights and fascinates the precocious Flavia, and her dysfunctional family still grieving the loss of their matriarch.

Throw in a couple of older sisters, and a staff who love and support Flavia’s eccentricities, and you have a recipe for a delightful read that also has moments of sorrow. It’s an assured hand that can travel these roads, throw in complications, and retain a delicious mystery that a young girl can solve.

These will appeal to YA readers but the bulk of Flavia’s devotees are adult readers. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie starts this series, which won multiple awards with good reason.

Readers, who are your favorite historical women sleuths?

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The Psychologist’s shadow Saturday, Nov 18 2023

psychological mystery and suspense thriller and Uncategorized and writing process first person, psychological thriller, suspense, thriller Auntie M Writes Crime 7:00 am

The Psychologist’s Shadow by Laury A Egan

Please welcome Laury A. Egan, who will describe her journey with her new thriller, The Psychologist’s Shadow:

The Psychologist’s Shadow by Laury A. Egan

From the Beginning

The Psychologist’s Shadow is a portrait of Dr. Ellen Haskell, a compassionate, introspective therapist who finds herself in a dangerous struggle with an unknown stalker. The novel is a simmering suspense, one in which tension accumulates as the reader gains insights during sessions with clients—one of whom may be the psychologist’s shadow—and through the stalker’s journal entries, which serve as a discordant counterpoint.

The inspiration for the novel originated in my college interest in psychology. During my later years at Carnegie Mellon University, I selected all of my course electives in that field. Upon graduation, the head of the university’s counseling center, who had been one of my professors, urged me to embark on a career as a therapist. I was tempted but didn’t go that route, yet I continued to read books and to follow changes in psychology. When I began this manuscript in 1992 (a second novel), my goal was to meld my interest with my writing, depicting how a psychologist would react in sessions and what her thoughts would be during them as well as later, when she was alone and in private.

In other words, the story let me travel down the road I hadn’t taken, to try on the career I hadn’t chosen.

The novel is a semi-cozy suspense/mystery, set primarily in the counselor’s office in Princeton, New Jersey, and in her home on a forested property northwest of town—places I know well because I worked in Princeton and lived in a similar house. In addition to the familiar setting and my fascination with psychology, I was also attracted to the idea of writing about a light/dark dichotomy: the psychologist versus the disturbed, obsessive follower whose identity is unknown. Both are narrated in first person, thus allowing the reader (and me) to plunge into their minds, with a more in-depth concentration on Ellen Haskell.

Because one of my greatest pleasures as a writer is creating characters, the plot of The Psychologist’s Shadow allowed me rich opportunities to compose a sampler of diverse clients; to imagine their histories, personalities, and problems; how they would speak, behave, and dress, a process which was similar to writing case studies at university. I was also able to don a psychologist’s hat to “treat” each person, which provides the reader a voyeuristic perch from which to observe, analyze, and search for clues during therapeutic conversations. Wrapping Ellen’s story around her clients’ lives and interspersing the enigmatic journal entries by the stalker, was like being granted a chance to perform all the roles in a drama.

Throughout the years, I continued to revise the manuscript—almost forty times—and then, after publishing a number of other novels, I rolled up my sleeves, sharpened my red pencil, and attacked the manuscript with fervor, finally finishing the project. It now joins eleven other books on my shelf, several of which are in the suspense genre: A Bittersweet Tale, Doublecrossed, Jenny Kidd, and The Ungodly Hour.

However, unlike most authors, who usually concentrate on one genre, I tend to write whatever alights in my consciousness. This sometimes happens in a kind of channeling process when a character “comes through” while I’m sitting on my deck, looking out to sea, for example, or because a setting or “what-if” situation has inspired me. I’ve even tackled comedy: Fabulous! An Opera Buffa and young adult fiction, The Outcast Oracle and Turnabout. Perhaps I’m versatile or perhaps I love being all kinds of people, in all kinds of situations and places.

The Psychologist’s Shadow stayed with me for a long time, but it was ultimately a very satisfying creation. For those who have been in therapy or are therapists, for those who love solving mysteries, I hope this psychological suspense will be an intriguing read!

Published November 18, 2023 by Enigma Books, an imprint of Spectrum Books, UK

Available in paperback and eBook.

Amazon: https://mybook.to/thepsychologistsshadow

Laury A. Egan is the author of twelve novels, most recently The Firefly and Once, Upon an Island; a collection, Fog and Other Stories; four volumes of poetry; and numerous short fiction published in literary journals and anthologies. She lives on the northern coast of New Jersey. Website: www.lauryaegan.com

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Doug Johnstone: The Opposite of Lonely Wednesday, Oct 18 2023

Uncategorized Edinburgh series, female portagonists, mystery, strong women Auntie M Writes Crime 3:27 pm

Doug Johnstone’s Skelf series is a favorite of Auntie M’s and readers worldwide. The three generations of women in the Skelf family, who run a funeral home and PI agency out of their home, captured our attention with good reason.

He’s back with the fifth offering, THE OPPOSITE OF LONELY, and it’s another winner. Dorothy is the matriarch, who plays drums in a band, keeps the funeral home ticking over with an assorted crew she’s assembled from people who’ve needed her, and in this episode, as she plans to grow the kind of funeral the Skelfs offer, she adds to her crew. She’s also tasked with investigating a fire at a campground of travelers. What she unearths is terrifying.

Daughter Jenny works and lives at the house, after the dramatic events of the previous books. If you haven’t read them, you can read this now as Johnstone gives enough backstory for it to make sense, but then please do yourself a favor and go back to the beginning to watch a master author at work. The titles in order are: A Dark Matter; The Big Chill; The Great Silence; and Black Hearts. In this book, Jenny searches for her dead husband’s sister.

Granddaughter Hannah, married to Indy, the funeral home’s assistant funeral director, is completing her Phd in Physics, and has an opportunity to assist a female astronaut she admires when the woman complains of a stalker. She opens Hannah’s eyes to more than she bargained for, and puts herself in danger to do it for her idol.

The way Johnstone weaves these threads into one cohesive story, keeping an element of suspense alive, while imbuing the novel with pathos and emotion, is nothing short of masterful.

Along the way, he gives us an insider’s look to Edinburgh that has me aching to visit there again. I first came to know that city through Ian Rankin’s Rebus and then through other novelists including the wonderful James Oswald, who whet my appetite for a repeat visit, and Johnstone has just added to that urge.

Do yourself a favor. If you enjoy unique characters, tons of atmosphere, with a moving undercurrent and intelligent women protagonists, please read the Skelfs. I promise you’ll be a fan, too.

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Female Detectives To Die For Sunday, Aug 13 2023

Uncategorized Auntie M Writes Crime 2:36 pm

No, not Cagney and Lacey, although they remain a very popular team from television. Norwegian crime writer Anne Holt (ret. Inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen series), also a lawyer and former Minister of Justice, credits the duo with stirring her to write crime fiction, and gives a nod to Lynda LaPlante’s Jane Tennison for her gritty character, too. She says these women were all ” . . . tough, driven, and damn good” at their jobs.

Yet female detectives represent only approximately 26% of characters in crime fiction, according to a recent survey. That’s actually lower than I would have thought, as both of my prime protagonists in two series are women, Trudy Genova and Nora Tierney.

Yet women remain popular as lead characters—just look at Nancy Drew—despite many of these characters having to deal with entrenched male hierarchies, especially if they are within a police system. In my humble opinion, the sensitivity and empathy to victims that women bring to their investigations, whether an amateur sleuth or a professional detective, enhances their need to see justice done. Women are determined and resourceful, too.

So who are my personal favorites in crime fiction? Too numerous to count I see, as I look over my shelves of whose books grace them. I’ll likely leave out many I love, but here are that ones that pop out as I run my eye over my library:

Ann Cleeves’ DCI Vera Stanhope is mistaken for a bag lady in her first outing (The Crow Trap) and has gone on to remain a stable in the long-running series. Played on television by Brenda Blethyn, Cleeves has said the actor is the embodiment of the detective who suffers no fools and solves crime in Northumberland wearing her rumpled raincoat and trademark hat.

Miss Marple stands out, and I suspect features on many crime writers’ lists, appearing in 12 of Christie’s novels. The kindly spinster who seems totally unassuming, yet misses nothing, has a mind like a steel trap that makes connections of human nature. Joan Hickson remains my favorite Jane Marple on television.

Barbara Havers is on my list, too, from Elizabeth George’s long-running Inspector Lynley series, the endearing misfit who is badly dressed but see things others miss, and whose working-class background is a great contrast to the handsome and worldly Lord Lynley. She can’t help constantly rubbing against authority, and was ably played in the TV series by actress Sharon Small.

The character Josephine Tey of Nicola Upson’s historical series is based on Elizabeth McKinnon’s real life, but this Tey finds herself embroiled in crimes while navigating her own stormy home life. Elly Griffith’s archeologist Dr. Ruth Galloway is another favorite, her voice at once self-deprecating with a wry humor, but a mind like no other, as she assists in more ways than one as DCI Nelson solves crimes.

James Oswald’s DC Constance Fairchild is another gal whose brain serves her well, as does Jane Casey’s DS Maeve Kerrigan, and I can’t leave out Aline Templeton’s DI Marjorie Fleming, married to a sheep farmer who keeps her grounded.

Of course, in addition to her standalone, Val McDermid has her own stable of female detectives, writing strong women over five series: Carol Jordan, Kate Brannigan, Lindsay Graham, Karen Pirie, and the newest, reporter Allie Burns.

I’ll end with the Skelf women of Doug Johnstone’s remarkable series, three women in one family who run a funeral home and private eye agency. These books are so original and so heartwarming yet darkly funny, based around the women, their lives, and their cases. If you haven’t found Dorothy, Jenny and Hannah yet, you’re in for a treat.

Readers: who are some of your favorite women sleuths?

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Deborah Crombie: A Killing of Innocents Sunday, Mar 5 2023

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and police procedural and Series not to be missed detectives, murder, murder mystery, police procedural Auntie M Writes Crime 5:13 pm

Killing Innocents

Crombie’s 19th Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James was worth waiting for, with The Killing of Innocents the new case that starts in a Bloomsbury pub.

Sitting with his DS, Doug Cullen, Duncan notices a young woman wearing scrubs, obviously waiting for someone who never arrives. She leaves, and he is shocked to be called shortly after to a murder scene. The victim is the young trainee doctor he’s just seen, stabbed to death in Russell Square.

With Gemma working on a task force on rising knife crimes, she and her DS, Melody Talbot, aid their investigation, Soon all the familiar characters are in force, and the case takes an unlikely turn with relationships to people Duncan and Gemma know.

At first glance, Sasha Johnson looks like an unlikely victim: career-driven, single, without any history that would connect her to crime. Digging deeper reveals her secrets, but did they lead to her murder?

Then a colleague of Sasha’s is found dead, and the teams scramble to find a connection other than their work site. Could they have a serial killer on their hands? It’s all hands on deck as the pieces are gathered to form a picture of a murderer working in plain sight.

One of the many delights of Crombie’s novels is the way she investigates her setting and brings it to life for readers. Another is her inclusion of the family travails of two working detectives. It all adds to the realistic atmosphere of everyday stresses that must be handled even while investigating a murder.

At its heart, this is a very fine mystery, peppered with human-like characters you’ll want to return to, set within a complex plot that will have readers scratching their heads along with the detectives until the stunning climax.

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Kate Rhodes: The Locked-Island Mysteries Sunday, Jan 22 2023

complex mystery and Continued series winner and police procedural and Series not to be missed murder, mystery, police procedural Auntie M Writes Crime 1:38 pm

Kate Rhodes has been a favorite author of Auntie M’s, starting with her compelling Alice Quentin series. Now that’s she’s branched out to her Locked-Island Mysteries, set in the Scilly Isles, Auntie M caught up with the series that features local detective DI Ben Kitto, with the 5th and 6th in this compelling series.

Devil’s Table centers on the island of St. Martin’s, where young Jade and her twin brother, Ethan, are attacked after leaving their shared bedroom at night. Ethan escapes but Jade is nowhere to be seen, and an island-wide search starts with residents and police battling the incessant fog that permeates the island.

Then a body is found in a dramatic, posed fashion, and Ben and his small team scramble to redouble their efforts to find the missing girl, while at the same time searching for a killer amidst the seemingly innocent narcissi harvest. The juxtaposition between the fields of fragrant bulbs, to be picked and flown to the mainland for Christmas and New Years clashes with the tiny community burdened by suspicion.

Having grown up on nearby Bryher, Ben knows most of the people on St. Martin’s, who suddenly become suspects in this baffling murder of a man who is seen differently by people. Grudges held from long ago surface, and he must question everyone, regardless of his history with them.

A tense and gripping plot combine with an atmospheric mystery that make this an instant classic.

The Brutal Tide has Ben looking for clues to a set of old bones found during the excavation for a new outdoor activities center on Bryher, spearheaded by two locals who married and have returned home to complete this project.

Not everyone is a fan of the new center, and as Ben tries to find the identity of these bones, they suddenly disappear, and one of the loudest critics of the project is found dead.

At the same time, a young woman whose father has been a crime kingpin sets up a plot to take out the officers whose information sent her father to prison. Now dying, Craig Travis has constructed this plan for his daughter Ruby with a devious way to take his revenge on those he hates, all from his prison hospital bed.

Ben Kitto, whose undercover past has returned to haunt him with a vengeance, must search for a killer on his home island while he avoids being Ruby’s last victim—all while his partner reaches the end of her difficult pregnancy.

A taut, clever mystery, with a very real protagonist at the heart of this series, makes this a tense and beautifully written mystery.

Rhodes abilities as a poet surface in her lyrical prose and beautifully constructed descriptions and prose; her talents at creating tension have Elly Griffiths calling her “An absolute master of pace.”

Do yourself a favor if you haven’t already discovered the wildly talented Kate Rhodes, and immerse yourself in her wonderful sense of place and character, wrapped in stunningly good crime stories.

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Mariah Fredericks’: The Lindbergh Nanny Tuesday, Nov 15 2022

great read historical mystery, kidnapping, murder, mystery, suspense Auntie M Writes Crime 8:25 pm

Mariah Fredericks’ THE LINDBERGH NANNY takes readers inside the homes of Anne Morrow and Charles Lindbergh, exploring their marriage, their travels, and the horrific kidnapping in 1932 of their first-born child, Charlie, all from the point of view of the young nanny they hire, Betty Gow.

A Scottish immigrant learning East Coast etiquette after a disastrous affair, Betty is often put off by the eccentricities of Colonel Lindbergh. She admires Anne Lindbergh for her attempts to live up to her husband’s expectations, despite her shy and nervous manner. Coming from a monied family, the young couple live with the Morrow’s as they renovate a house in New Jersey.

Charlie is a darling child, sweet-natured and adventurous, and well as he gets on with Betty, Anne Morrow often worries he’s growing more attached to his nanny when she’s away on world-wide jaunts with her famous husband. At times not understanding how the parents can be away from Charlie for such extended periods, she nevertheless spends her own money on his clothing when he outgrows what she’s been left with. Yet she carves out a life for herself and even has a new beau.

Then when Anne is heavily pregnant with the couple’s next child, tragedy strikes, becoming one of the most celebrated international cases when young Charlie is kidnapped and his body eventually found.

Betty soon finds herself at the center of journalists and public scrutiny, when a suspect is arrested. She understands that to clear her name for the future, she must figure out what really happened that night when a loose shutter allowed the child she’d come to love to be abducted.

You may think they know this story, but Fredericks’ manages to bring readers into the closed off world of the Lindbergh’s and into Betty’s thoughts, as she adds a sense of tension and mystery to the story. The characters, real and fictional, are finely drawn. With its on-the-spot view, this is a book that speaks to the role of women in the 1930s and delves into what might have happened on that fateful night, and who was responsible. A gripping and suspenseful read.

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Ausma Zehanat Khan: BLACKWATER FALLS Tuesday, Nov 1 2022

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and debut and great read and new series and police thriller and Series not to be missed detectives, police procedural, Timely themes Auntie M Writes Crime 3:45 pm

Khan’s first in a dynamic new series, BLACKWATER FALLS, is set in Colorado and introduces readers to a fresh new protagonist, Detective Inaya Rahman, and her lieutenant, Waqas Seif.

Young girls from immigrant communities in the area have disappeared over the past months, but the sheriff seems disinterested in pursuing any real exploration of the situation. Then the body of a good student and Syrian refugee is found outside a mosque, hanging in a horrific crucifixion-like manner.

A right-wing evangelical biker group called The Disciples displays open hostility to any newcomer with their threatening attitudes, yet when Inaya and her team try to investigate, their efforts seem thwarted by the sheriff.

When their investigation uncovers links to the other missing girls, Inaya feels that Seif is obstructing their own case. It becomes difficult for her to understand his motives when she’s drawn to him, but she keeps her distance, instead gathering strength and help from her female colleagues. It’s a delicate balance when she doesn’t understand his true motives, which are revealed to the reader as the detectives race against time before another young girl is killed.

There will be connections to art, a layering of different interpretations of justice, with moments of terror balanced by poignancy. It’s a tour-de-force of timely fiction that teaches and educates, as it reflects how easily fears can escalate.

Khan gives us a clear picture of Inaya’s home life, and brings readers a deep perspective to cultural conflicts. She explores different expressions of faith contrasted with prejudices, all wrapped up in a strong and complex mystery.

With a PhD in international human rights law, Khan is the author of the Khattak/Getty series and also the Khorasan Archives fantasies. She has a clear talent for bringing a nuanced sensitivity to complex issues, including racial tension and police corruption.

Readers will be glued to the action and surprising twists, with deep characterizations that add to the tension. This reader is already waiting for the next in this evocative and insightful series. Highly recommended.

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Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff

The Lure of Bookshelves Friday, Feb 9 2024

Nita Prose: The Mystery Guest Thursday, Jan 25 2024

Historical Sleuths Saturday, Nov 18 2023

The Psychologist’s shadow Saturday, Nov 18 2023

Doug Johnstone: The Opposite of Lonely Wednesday, Oct 18 2023

Female Detectives To Die For Sunday, Aug 13 2023

Deborah Crombie: A Killing of Innocents Sunday, Mar 5 2023

Kate Rhodes: The Locked-Island Mysteries Sunday, Jan 22 2023

Mariah Fredericks’: The Lindbergh Nanny Tuesday, Nov 15 2022

Ausma Zehanat Khan: BLACKWATER FALLS Tuesday, Nov 1 2022

Death Unscripted: A Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery

THE GOLDEN HOUR shortlisted!

THE GOLDEN HOUR: The 4th Nora Tierney English Mystery

The Blue Virgin

Winner Best British Cozy

Death at the Dakota: A Trudy Genova Manhattan Mystery 2

The Scarlet Wench

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