Shirley Rousseau Murphy: Cat Chase the Moon Friday, Apr 26 2019 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:03 am

Readers know that any series that can stretch to its 21st installment must have a good following for a resason. Shirely Rousseau Murphy’s Cat Chase the Moon brings her Joe Grey cozies back with a new case that will involve the entire cat community, those that speak and those that don’t.

If you haven’t read a Joe Grey book yet, now’s the time to get acquainted with Joe and his partner, Dulcie, and their brood. Able to speak to several humans who keep their secret, Joe and Dulcie prowl around their town of Molina Point when their teenaged kitten Courtney goes missing. Stolen by Ulrich Seaver and ensconed in his pretty antique shop, Courtney doesn’t understand at first that her pampering days will soon lead to something far more dangerous. Soon the entire town in involved in a cat hunt for the pretty missing calico.

At the same time, a young woman is discovered in a shallow grave, left for dead. She’s rescued in time to be saved, and while under police protection, gives details of a theft ring that ties in to a family in town known for their spectacular domestic arguments. Unfortunately, a young girl is lost in the middle of these hostile parents who had managed to arouse angry feelings in their neighbors. But how far do their activites go beyond their own troubles?

Joe is the one who understands how these disparate threads are woven together as the humans investigate with a little help from their feline friends. Perfect reading for cat lovers, fans of Mandy Morton’s Hettie Bagshot series, or anyone looking for an inside look into the world of cats who can talk, framed in a cozy mystery from the author who has received eleven national Cat Writers’ Association medals for Best Novel of the Year.

 

Jan McCanless:The Opera House Murders Wednesday, Mar 27 2019 

amateur sleuth and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:50 am

Please welcome Jan McCanless, whose two series are filled with humor, to describe her newest book, The Opera House Murders:

The Opera House Murders is the 15th book by award-winning author Jan McCanless. Her Beryl’s Cove Mystery series has been hugely popular, as has her Brother Jerome books. This is the third in her Brother Jerome series, and all those endearing characters are back, along with some visitors from Beryl’s Cove, including Dawg and Elvis.

This time around Abbot Jerome, everybodys favorite misfit monk, is called to England by his feisty, favorite relative, his Aunt Jessie. She has a family secret she wants to impart to “Chip”, the Abbot, but, somehow she can’t seem to get around to it. Someone has killed the Lord of the manner, Lord Julian Spencer, and everyone is a suspect. Her Ladyship proves to be a formidable character herself.

Things that go bump in the night, and hidden rooms are in the offering, as Chip tries to remain the one ‘adult in the room.” Once back at the Monastery of the Blue Ridge, in North Carolina, things don’t improve any, as the Abbot is called to Charlotte by his Bishop, due to things being amiss in the diocese. Chip is just the one to solve the mystery, the Bishop thinks.

With hardly a moment to himself and his misfit monks, Chip’s life is complicated further by a fire that destroys the monk’s barn, and the appearance on the scene of a comely female Episcopal priest, in the mountains on retreat.

How Abbot Jerome balances all this turmoil and solves his crises of faith makes for another interesting, fun read by Author Jan McCanless.

The book is available in area gift shops ( Statesville and mid western gift shops expecially), the public library, Amazon.com, and can be purchased at Jans website : http://www.janmacbooks.com

ALSO AVAILABLE ON KINDLE

 

Two thrillers: Ryan and Margolin Friday, Mar 15 2019 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:59 am

Auntie M’s been down with strep throat but starting to rally. Here are the other two thrillers for your reading pleasure:

Chris Ryan’s action-packed Red Strike brings readers his fourth installment with Porter and Bald, the wise-cracking unlikely duo.

With Ryan’s own SAS time bringing terrific realism to the page, this timely plot swims along with his insider knowledge as the two try to comlete thier mission, bringing down a suspected russian agent before a secret meeting.

How their mission runs connects with that of a Russian agent who defected to the UK is only part of the tense action. Nilolai Volkov has been poisoned but the assassination was botched and he’s on the run after being kdnapped from a safe house by the Russians.

Personal motives sometimes interfere but help spur the two heroes on as the pace rises higher and higher. This is the kind of action perfect for the cinema, especially with the ending that will leave readers gaping.

Phillip Margolin’s legal thrillers return with The Perfect Alibi, a nicely twisted plot that will captivate readers.

This is a twisted tale of a rapist, possibly wrongly convicted, and a murder conviction that young lawyer Robin Lockwood is convinced should be dismissed as self defense.

This is the second book featuring Lockwood, a former MMA fighter who’s a good investigator, too. Burdened with the heaviness of both of these cases, she manages to somehow navigate a sea of lawyers, rapes, threats, lies, and murder–– and then some. There will be legal dilemnas, twists and turns, and one feisty gal at the heart of it all.

This is an intricate plot with lots of characters, but it all comes together to a satisfying conclusion with Lockwood at its core.

 

Deanna Raybourn: A Dangerous Collaboration Tuesday, Mar 12 2019 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and historical saga and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:26 am

Deanna Raybourn continues her Veronice Speedwell series with the compelling entry A Dangerous Collaboration.

The fourth in the Victorian-era mysteries to follow the intrepid lepidopterist, Veronica and her colleague Stoker, the adventurous brother of a titled Lord. When said brother, Tiberius, asks Veronica to accompany him to a house party thrown by his oldest friend in Cornwall, Veronica readily accepts with the promise of a rare species of butterfly to add to her vivarium. She’s turned her attention to preserving the species instead of pinning them.

That she must pretend to be Tiberius’s fiancee` for the Catholic Lord Malcolm Romilly doesn’t bother the broad-minded and modern Veronica, until Stoker shows up and she finds her self juggling the brothers and their egos.

It soon becomes clear that under the guise of a house party, Lord Romilly has assembled several of his extended family who were present on his wedding day when his bride disappeared, wedding dress and all. Locals on the remote Cornwall island are only too happy to invoke the piskies and other spirits that might have taken the lovely Rosamund away, but Veronica knows the woman’s disappearance has a more human culprit.

It’s not quite the party Veronica had imagined, but the island is ruggedly beautiful and the locals gossip easily, twigging her sleuthing antenna. Soon she enlists Stoker’s help. Before it’s over, there will be deeply-held secrets revealed that affect them all, as well as seances destined to bring out the spirit of the presumed-dead Rosamund.

With a nicely twisted plot and more than a touch of romance, the era’s details are accurate and pleasing, as is Veronica’s independence. She’s an intelligent woman to admire, as well as a daunting sleuth.

 

Three Thrillers: Berry, Margolin,Ryan Sunday, Mar 10 2019 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Uncategorized Auntie M Writes Crime 12:09 am

For your reading pleasure this March, as the rains come and the winds blow: three thrillers certain to keep your mind off the weather! Watch this spot for Margolin and Ryan later this week!

Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone thriller, The Malta Exchange, has been compared to Brown’s The Da Vinci Code with its ties to the Vatican, but it has a more complex plot that will capture your attention.

Malone sure does get around, and readers have to hope Berry and his wife, who are co-founders of History Matters, a non-profit that preserves historic sites, manage to get in some travel to the places Malone does when Berry is doing research for a new novel.

In Italy on Lake Como, Malone is trying to track letters between Churchill and Mussolini. Having disappeared in 1945, these could literally change our experience of the history of that time. But as if that alone is not enough of a storyline, of course Malone is not the only one who’s on their trail.

This is all happening at the same time a conclave is in progress to elect a new pope. Kastor Cardinal Gallo, however, is off looking for a document in Malta that stretches back to the 4th Century, but are his motives pure?

The two trails will soon merge. Readers will learn the older history of the Catholic Church as well as the more recent the role of the popes during the rise of Fascism and Mussolini in Italy. The Knights of Malta play an important role and readers learn their history (they exist to this day), as one of the smallest sovereign nations in the world. All the settings are well described, readers will feel they have been there, without it ever coming across as a travelogue.

Because the story starts a day before the Conclave is about to begin, that time constraint adds to the fast pacing. There are older characters readers know, like Stephanie and Luke, but also new ones, including twin brothers. Sure to delight readers new to the series and repeaters.

 

Mary Daheim: A Case of Bier Sunday, Feb 24 2019 

amateur sleuth and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:02 am

Mary Daheim’s Bed-and-Breakfast Mysterys now number an astounding thirty-one with the publication of A Case of Bier!

The bed-and-breakfast Judith McMonigle Flynn runs with her husband, Joe has been turned over for the week to her neighbor so she and Joe can travel with her cousin Renie to the Canadian Rockies. Renie’s Bill and Joe have booked a nice fly-fishing jaunt their first weekend. It’s a trip they are all looking forward to, if they can get Renie awake and in the car.

Off they go, only to find their expected lovely stay has been booked in not quite the place they imagined. No matter. While the men rest, the ladies take a walk along the river.

They find members of the Stokes family camping out, waiting for the patriarch’s demise so he can have the sendoff he’d requested, at just this spot on the Bow River on a bier, borrowed from a local funeral home.

At their motel, the gals meet the Odells, other members of the Stokes family. It’s a weird gathering when on their walk the next morning, the campsite is filled with crying family members. Codger has died, it would seem.

But wait! He’s actually been murdered! Stabbed twice in the back while he slept. Who would have bothered to kill an old man waiting to die?

It’s too much for Judith to leave alone. And then it appears the dead man might not be Codger at all.

Another fun entry in this long-running cozy series, the quirky case is filled with wry humor and wit.

 

Peter Robinson: Careless Love Wednesday, Feb 20 2019 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:24 am

Peter Robinson’s 25th Inspector Banks novel, Careless Love, adds to his string of hits with a complex mystery at its heart.

When a young student’s body is found in a car on a lonely road, waiting to be towed, it first appears to be a suicide, but it soon becomes apparent the victim died elsewhere, raising questions about who else was involved.

At the same time, man in his sixties is found dead at the bottom of a gulley, his neck broken in a fall. Did he slip and fall, or was he pushed? Another suspicious death soon has Banks and his team sharing duties to figure out if these could possibly be connected, while waiting for forenscis tests.

And then a third victim is found, this one a clear murder, with ties to the first two victims, and the case heats up and extends.

The stakes get higher when an old foe of both Banks and his long-time patner, Annie Cabot, is found to be back in England. This side twist occupies both of their minds as the two head the team that will take them into the world of students and high finance to find what really happened to these victims.

Any fan of police procedurals will appreciate the solid police work amongst the Yorkshire setting. One of the delights of this series is the three-dimensional characters who populate it, and how readers see the threads of their investigations brought together to a rewarding conclusion.

Banks’s devotion to music has always been a hallmark of the series, and readers will learn about his preferences, from classical to 60s rock. Auntie M confesses to seeking out a classical violinist Banks recommended, and was thoroughly rewarded. The loner detective who yearns for companionship is never more attractive than here, seeking to understand poetry, playing his music to suit his moods, and figuring out the details of a complex murder investigation.

Highly recommended.

 

Ausma Zehanat Khan: A Deadly Divide Wednesday, Feb 13 2019 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:27 am


Asuma Zehanat Khan returns with the fifth in her series featuring Canadian detectives Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty in A Deadly Divide.

Bearing her hallmark observation of each character’s story, imbuing each with realistic emotion, Khan’s elevates her novels from simple crime stories. While increasing the suspense as the book progresses, she manages to tell all sides of complex human rights issues, a nod to her background in international law.

This time the Community Policing detectives are called to a mass shooting at a mosque in Quebec. The local priest, found with a weapon in his hands, is released, while the Surete` detain a young Muslim helping the wounded on the scene.

But this is not a typical hate crime, and Khattak and Getty try to keep raging emotions calmed in a community reacting with fear, their efforts thrwarted by both a heavily right-wing university group and a right-wing radio host who inflames the popoulation.

Also at work are young Muslims trying to counteract his efforts with their own radio show, but there are secrets being kept from all of the detectives from all of these factions. And within the Surete` a mole is at work, adding to the fractures of the community with ill-timed leaks.

As if it isn’t enough to have this tension of political and religious differences, it soon becomes apparent that Esa and those he loves are in the crosshairs of someone else, someone egging him on and anticipating his moves and shadowing his circle.

How these things are connected is only half of the situation, as the two detectives grapple with their personal lives at the same time, making this a well-rounded portrayal of characters with emotional lives outside their jobs. Their very humanness, from postive to negative thoughts and actions, helps readers see everyone as fully fleshed. There are no cardboard characters here.

This ability to people her novels with characters who hold passionate beliefs, coupled with her thought-provoking, suspenseful plot, quietly educates readers while at the same time illustrating the complexities of living in the Western world as a Muslim.

Highly recommended.

 

Hot Thrillers for a Chilly Day:Leather, Quirk, Hurwitz,Krentz Saturday, Feb 9 2019 

complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:15 am

With the arctic chill hovering over so much of our nation, here are new action-packed thrillers for your reading enjoyiment. Stay home with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate!


Stephen Leather’s fast-moving Spider Shepherd and his photographic memory are back. The series includes Tall Order now available in paperback, where Spider is present at a suicide bombing at a football ground. With Spider knowing that the killer looks like, he’s the logical choice to track him and his cell. Topical and addictive.

Leather’s new thriller Last Man Standing, takes readers on one wild ride and into the world of SAS trooper Matt Standing, who will call on old friend Spider to help him save his own friend.

When Standing hears from the sister of the navy SEAL who once saved his life that he’s needed, he flies to LA to help Bobby-Ray Barnes.

Barnes is now working as a bodyguard, but the tables are turned when the man he was guarding is killed, along with three other bodyguards. With Barnes accused of the murders, he’s in hiding for his life.

The dead client turns out to be none other than a Russian oligarch, whose Kremlin connections made him a target. But who actually is behind the murders, and the framing of Barnes?

These are the questions Standing must answer as he calls on his network of friends and that includes Spider. Before it’s over, there will be torture, crashes, and non-stop twists in what turns out to be often brutal action. Leather’s in-depth characterizations are present with Matt Standing as one to watch.

The Russians are at it again in Matthew Quirk’s The Night Agent, this time with a mole in the White House.

FBI Agent Peter Sutherland is working in the in the White House Situation Room at the night desk, determined to leave his father’s breach and downfall behind. That alone puts Sutherland at a disadvantage, but he’s fought to do things by the book, until a call comes that changes everything.

Rose is the caller and she brings him news that will start a chain of events Sutherland will rise to master, without knowing who he can trust.

Tough and realistic, and in current times, believeable, this is non-stop action with the threat of foreign influence reaching deep inside our government. Anyone in the White House could be the secret agent, a deeply unsettling thought.

With its topical storyline, quick action, and moral dilemnas, this is one to grab.

Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series has a huge following who have eagerly awaited the new installment, Out of the Dark.

Evan Smoak is Orphan X, who’s recast himself as The Nowhere Man, someone who helps those who have desperate problems. But this time he’s after the killer of his mentor, when the remaining Orphans, along with their trainers, are being eradicated.

The man behind this trail of murder is none other than the current President of the US, a man surrounded by Secret Service agents at all times. With a very small coterie of help available to him, Evan must outwit all of the President’s counter moves in an effort to save himself, just as the Nowhere Man receives his next call.

With nearly constant action and a tight plot, this is one action thriller that piles complication upon repeated twists in breatahless fashion.

Jayne Ann Krentz has moved into the thriller category with several books and brings readers Untouchable as her latest entry. FBI Consultant Jack Lancaser was raised in a cult until a fire changed everything he’d known.

Drawn to cold cases where arson is involved, his expertise has become his ability to crawl inside the mind of the killers. The satisfaction he feels at closing these old cases also bring him closer to the person from his past who is to blame for that original fire, long presumed dead.

Quinton Zane is that person. With vengence his motivating thrust, Jack is in his sights as the prime target who could threaten his future plans.

Before it’s over, there will be romance, family entanglements, and an adoptive father. This can be read as a stand-alone, but readers of Krentz will see ties to two others with several of these characters in this series.

Quirky characters keep readers’ interested, and there’s plenty of clever dialogue.

 

Bernard Minier: Night Thursday, Feb 7 2019 

Award winning novelist and complex mystery and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and police thriller and thriller Auntie M Writes Crime 12:02 am

The fourth Commander Servaz thriller, Night, brings the Toulouse detective under the scrutiny of all of those around him after a death-defying opening, with its resultant effects.

In a church in Norway, a woman’s body is found on the altar. A female detective, Kirsten Nigaard, is investigating that case due to her own name being discovered. Then she becomes coupled with Martin Servaz, when photos of the French detective are found on the offshore oil rig where the dead woman worked.

Both feel this is the work of serial killer Julian Hirtman, Servaz’s nemesis, the most dangerous man Servaz has encountered. Indeed, the Daily Mail has called Hirtman “…a villain possessing the intelligence of Thomas harris’ immortal Hannibal Lecter…”

It’s a chase throughout Europe, from France to Austria, in search of Hirtman and young boy in his custody who desperately needs to be saved. Along the way, they will encounter acolytes of Hirtman, and foes in the form of parents of his victims, until the ultimate surprise is coupled with a huge betrayal.

This has a complicated and complex plot, with fast action and yet Minier never stints of the emotions behind several of the main characters. It’s easy to see why this was a number one bestseller in France, where Servaz’s first case, which introduced Hirtman, was made into a six-part series now available on Netflix.

 

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