The 9th DI Clare Mackay is a tightly-plotted winner, chockfull of Todd’s twists and page-turning events.
Intelligence indicates a serial killer known as the Choker, who targets gay men, is heading for Clare’s corner of Scotland, St. Andrews. Clare’s team swings into action, with covert actions, undercover work, and long surveillances.
Then a young man is murdered near a nightclub with all the hallmarks of this serial killer. Could Theo Glancy’s murder be connected to the nightclub as his family run it, or is this the newest case of the Choker?
Even worse than catching a new murder case, Clare finds the nightclub is attached to her nemesis, Val Docherty, who has shrugged off previous charges like a duck sheds water. Will this be the time Clare finally gets to see Val behind bars, and if so, at what cost?
This is a tight police procedural, with Clare’s team functioning well under her lead. Her personal life is on smooth sailing, too, until her sister brings her attention to her aging father’s issues. It’s time for Clare to have a few moments of personal reflection, all while searching to stop a serial killer before he strikes again.
Auntie M is a huge fan of Todd’s atmospheric series, gobbling up each installment. If you haven’t found this series yet, reach for it now. Better yet, start with the first, See Them Run, to follow Clare’s personal life. And now I have to wait for the next one…
Auntie M’s 2025 gift to you readers. Happy New Year! And three greats to read:
Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce Mysteries, set in the 1950s, are currently in production in the UK, based on the first in this wonderful series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The books are a revelation, and when Bradley created his young genius sleuth, 11 in the first book, he hit on a magnificent creature, at turns smart and wily.
So Auntie M was delighted to find a new adventure for Flavia, now 15, and her prodigious brain growing in leaps and bounds, in What Time the Sextion’s Spade doth Rust. Mentoring her live-in cousin, Undine, described as “odious” and “moonfaced,” Flavia attempts to channel Undine’s potential for trickery to her own uses in her investigations.
This time a former hangman dies after eating poisonous mushrooms, and the de Luce’s own cook is suspected. With her chemistry expertise (something Auntie M admires add wonders how Bradley gets his information), Flavia sets out to clear dear Mrs. Mullet and uncovers some surprising and disturbing truths about her own family along the way. Clever humor balances the darker bits. Terrific.
I recommend Doug Johnstone’s Skelf series all the time and often give one for gifts. This family of three generations of strong Edinburgh women have been through the wringer and keep chugging along, and that is at the forefront of Living is a Problem.
Running a funeral home and private investigation agency from their home, their personal lives become entwined in the stories. Matriarch Dorothy, a skilled drummer, too, tries to help her boyfriend who is suffering from PTSD, when a Ukrainian member of the refugee choir that Dorothy’s band plays with goes missing.
Her daughter, Jenny, is conducting a funeral when it’s attacked by a drone, and Jenny sees gangland interference. She and Archie, their funeral home helper, are becoming closer, despite their differences. And her daughter, Hannah, a scientist, finds her interests changing, while supported by her wife.
This series is consistent, with an uplifting story that doesn’t shrug away from life–and death–yet leaves the reader uplifted and wanting more Skelfs.
Peter Lovesey closes his long-running Peter Diamond series with Against the Grain. The stubborn Diamond has solved more than his share of cases using his wiles and wit, with some surprises along the way.
In Against the Grain, Diamond travels to the country for a holiday with his partner, Paloma, at the invitation of his former colleague Julie Hargreaves. It’s no secret that Diamond is contemplating life after detecting, and he must decide to retire or solider on.
But he’s no sooner in the lovely village of Baskerville when Julie’s ulterior motive is revealed: a horrific accident at a grain silo has resulted in a manslaughter conviction for the dairy farm’s owner, and Julie is convinced that not only was there a miscarriage of justice, but that the real killer is still at large. He soon finds unfamiliar village customs come to the forefront of his days.
Diamond finds himself up to his elbows, literally, in things he couldn’t begin to imagine, that delight readers and perhaps Diamond himself. And uses his experience and his knowledge of human nature to a stunning climax.
It’s always sad to say goodbye to beloved characters, and readers can only hope Lovesey will keep Diamond going in a story or two. A wonderful series amongst Lovesey’s other fiction, Diamond is but one of Lovesey’s creations who linger with readers and deserve to be investigated.
Auntie M is a huge fan of Taylor’s Sweeney St. George and Maggie D’arcy mysteries, so I was excited to plunge in to AGONY HILL, the first in her new series set in 1960s Vermont.
Former homicide detective Franklin Warren, barely coping with a painful past, moves from Boston to the small rural town of Bethany, Vermont to work with the state police during a time of upheaval in the nation and in this small corner of the world.
He hasn’t settled in when he’s thrust into his first case, a death on a remote farm where a barn has burned with the owner, Hugh Weber, locked inside. Was this suicide from the hermit who wanted to live off the land, and whose family, including his pregnant wife, are now set adrift?
Warren tackles the investigation using all of the skills he’s brought with him, stumbling across the many secrets his neighbors and even the widow try to hide. It’s a jumbled dance as he put the pieces of the puzzle together in a highly satisfying read.
Taylor is skilled at using her settings, whether it’s Ireland in the Maggie D’arcy series or this rural corner of Vermont. Setting the book at the time of the Viet Nam war brings the outside world in to this cloistered area, too. Her cast of characters, some of whom we hope to see again, shine.
After the success of A TRAITOR IN WHITEHALL, Kelly brings back typist Evelyne Redfern who has just returned from ‘spy’ school and is anxious for a real field agent case.
She’s decidedly unhappy that her first foray is an assignment to do what seems an easy security test at a manor house requisitioned for the war in rural Sussex, one expecting a visit in a few days from none other than Winston Churchill. Her handler, David Poole, equally frustrates her and amuses her, but Blackthorn Park is the site of a secret munitions facility and they agree to the mission.
She’s learning the lay of the land when she discovers one the chief engineer murdered in his office, and she and David quickly become conscripted into a murder investigation, hampered not only by the reticence of the staff, who have all been cautioned to be secretive about their work, and also by the layers of deception at hand that have far reaching effects.
Kelly’s historical details are spot on, as is the dicey relationship between Evelyne and David, who make a good detecting couple even as they dance around each other as Evelyne proves herself his equal. There are many aspects to their investigation, from the actual munitions being made to the personal relationships hidden amongst the staff that all play into the plot.
And it’s all under the time threat of the impending visit from Churchill.
Highly readable and well-plotted with a nice dose of feminism to boot.
Chouinard’s bright and witty mystery shines with a cast of quirky characters and a portrait of San Francisco in all her guises that makes the city a character of its own.
Capri Sanzio has a business taking tourists on local tours, including the sites of several serial killers. With her grandfather William known as “Overkill Bill,” Capri has always believed him to be innocent.
But then a copycat murder strikes, with a second one just after her ex-mother-law cuts off Capri’s daughter’s tuition. Of course her daughter, herself, and her ex are all suspects. This is the perfect time, she decides, to not only clear her family but to investigate who might have really committed the crimes attributed to her grandfather.
Through a podcast, an eventual book, and far too many escapes of her own as she investigates, Capri slowly unravels what really happened to the victims, past and present.
The first of a planned series, Capri will easily handle more books. Chouinard mixes high society in this one with the dense fog only San Franciso can bring.
Charming, with a compelling plot and nicely done ending twist.
Fiona Barton introduced DI Elise King in LOCAL GONE MISSING, when the detective is recuperating after a mastectomy and called into a case sooner than expected.
At the time I was struck by how this idea of a woman detective recovering from something so many of us will face (I am a breast cancer survivor myself) hadn’t been tackled before; and of how well Barton gave us a picture of a woman reeling after being left by her long-time partner to face this alone, with all of the concurrent things that medically and emotionally are attached to it.
In TALKING TO STRANGERS, Elise is back at work with her chemo hair growing out but still affected by ‘chemo brain’ she hopes her team don’t notice. Her second-in-command and friend, DS Caro Brennan, is aware of the missing memory synapses and helps cover for her as she heals. It’s not a good feeling to think she’s not operating on all of her cylinders, especially when a new case arrives the day after Valentine’s Day.
A body found in Knapton Woods by walkers is soon identified by Elise herself, recognizing local hairdresser Karen Simmons from the small seaside town of Ebbing where she now lives. As the investigation heats up, links to a dating site emerge and the suspects are too numerous to be easily eliminated.
The death resonates strongly with another character, Annie Curtis, former nurse now a part-time medical receptionist, as her young son was found dead in that same woods fifteen years before. But this new killing brings the horror of that time and all of its agony to the forefront of Annie’s mind, and she finds herself drawn back to the woods and to the mother of the young man accused of her son’s murder.
How Barton brings these two threads together will take your breath away. She has a gift for strong characterizations that allow the reader to feel their emotions, whether it’s Elise’s lack of confidence or Annie’s deep searing pain that bind them to the reader.
And in her usual fashion, Barton also manages to create a whopper of an ending–which she then turns of its head. Brilliant and not to be missed.
Crombie’s 19th Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James was worth waiting for, with The Killing of Innocentsthe 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.
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.
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.
Hear the name Marcia Clark, and some of us think back to her work for the LA DA’s office prosecuting such trials as that of Robert Bardo and OJ Simpson.
But there’s so much more to this talented author, with two series in print that feature strong female lawyers, one a prosecutor (the Rachel Knight series) and one on the defense side (the Samantha Brinkman series).
So when a chance came to read her new stand alone, FALL GIRL, I was excited to crack this one open but not prepared for the wild ride she would take me on.
Charlie Blair leaves Chicago and assumes a new identity for very good reasons, moving to the Santa Cruz DA’s office to start over and protect her family. Assigned to work a murder case with high profile prosecutor Erika Lorman, Charlie tries to keep away from the limelight, even as she feels she’s being sidelined and soon start poking her investigative nose into their most recent case with surprising results. She starts to question who she can trust.
At the same time, the man who she lives in fear of, after devastating her family, is making his presence known…
This is a fast-paced legal thriller, but even more so, a nuanced look at the question: What is justice and how do ethics figure in? How does morality reside alongside one’s conscience?
With deep characterizations and troubled pasts for both lawyers, the cat-and-mouse game these strong, intelligent women play with each other is as fascinating as their drive. At one point you can’t see any way there can be a a satisfying outcome, and yet, Clark managed to do just that.
A strong, quickly-paced read, with excellent legal scenes balanced by the action that takes place out of the courtroom.
Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff 