Remember Lynne Truss’s book Eats, Shoots & Leaves? In it, she argues for the importance of proper punctuation, especially commas.
In Kemp’s new book, I, Spy, the cleverly placed comma takes away the notion of the childhood game and alludes to the identity of the protagonist.
Kendal Carter left her spy life behind when her lover was killed and she became a mother. She has embraced raising her daughter, Rosie, away from what she calls “The Game.”
Then her quiet life is upended when her safe location is exposed, and running with Rosie for their lives, she turns to her old contact Rico for help and security.
Ensconced in London in a tony safe house with Rosie, with the perfect school nearby, Rico extracts his quid pro quo for Rosie’s safety: mentoring a rookie in his Bon Temps espionage agency who he’s placed at a tech firm. Using her ‘mother’ cover, what starts out as an easy cover job soon turns fraught with PTA dates wrapped up in its own form of betrayals and secrets.
It soon becomes a top-notch high stakes thriller connected to Rosie’s school, putting them both in danger yet again.
This first in a planned new series promises feminine skills and thrills galore with a dose of humor and lots of action.
Sally Smith calls on her barrister background and intimate knowledge of the Inner Temple to debut a mystery series set in 1901 that introduces reluctant sleuth Sir Gabriel Ward KC. Rich in historical details of the insulated Inner Temple and its workings, Smith also gives readers a cogent look at Edwardian London with its class and societal workings and restrictions of the era.
Gabriel is so preoccupied with his case, a dispute over the authorship of a children’s book with a mouse as protagonist and set in Temple Church that has taken readers by storm, that he almost doesn’t notice the body on his doorstep. This turns out to be the Lord Chief Justice of England, who currently has a silver carving knife stuck in his chest. And several candidates longing to replace him . . .
Soon Gabriel finds himself pushed into investigating the murder while still researching his case. His OCD tendencies make this even more difficult, as does the fact he wants nothing to do with the investigation, but has been threatened with losing his lovely set of rooms where he’s lived for entire career—and thus, a reluctant but completely charming amateur sleuth is born.
It’s an absorbing story with both plots cleverly wound together. Told in prose that sounds lifted off pages from the time period, with the setting lovingly described, I highly recommend this to readers for the complex character of Gabriel alone, but also for the nicely twisted plot Smith created.
I was at Temple Church years ago for the memorial service held there for my mentor, PD James, and delighted in walking the lovely area, so I really enjoyed taking a trip back to the cloistered legal world it services. And to my delight, Sally Smith agreed to be interviewed for Auntie M!
Auntie M: Knowing the Inner Temple setting as well as you do really helped the setting come alive as I read. Did you find using an area you loved made it easier for you to describe to readers? Were there any parts you deliberately left out? (Auntie M notes that for those who’ve never visited, there is a very helpful plan of the area in the front of the book.)
Sally Smith: I love the Temple and so of course I enjoy describing it. My book is set in 1901 and the Temple sustained severe bombing during the Second World War. So now some of it is as it has been for centuries and some of it has been rebuilt post war.
It was fun to knit together what I see with my own eyes every day with what I know (from maps and pictures) it looked like in Edwardian times. I did not leave anything out but I did add in a few fictional doors and windows!
AM: I once attended a memorial service in the chapel, an important place in your book, and you brought me right back to that day. Did you have to obtain any permissions to use the site?
SS: You are right, there are some detailed and loving descriptions of the church in the book. It has an amazing history, built by the Knights Templar in 1185. I happen to have a flat in the Temple and I am a member of the Inner Temple, but anyone can visit the church during visitor hours and write about it. Many tourists do so, particularly from the USA, and they are more than welcome.
AM: Your prose is lovely and fits the era well. Did you read books set in your time period to acclimate that voice as if you were there?
SS: I am delighted you think the prose fits the era. It may be that I chose the Edwardian era because I know I write in a fairly formal way but I do not really do it on purpose; a lifetime as a lawyer meant it just developed naturally. The only thing I did consciously was not to use actual words and phrases that were not used in 1901. Other than that it just comes naturally to me.
AM: How difficult was it for you to design such interesting yet realistic characters? Are any based on people you know?
SS: Everyone wants to know that! There is no one in the book completely modelled on anyone I know but the characters are all amalgams of many personalities I have met.
AM: Now that’s a barrister’s careful answer if I ever heard one! Please tell readers Sir Gabriel Ward will return soon with another mystery to solve.
SS: Sir Gabriel Ward is returning with another mystery to solve in A Case of Life and Limb, published in the UK in July and a bit later in the USA.
AM: When you’re not plotting or promoting, who do you like to read for relaxation?
SS: I am a real Golden Age detective reader; my favourite of that period is any of Dorothy L. Sayers; I also like PD James. One of my desert island books is Donna Tartt’s The Secret History, which I think is wonderful, and I find something new in it every time I read it. Coming forward, I loved Janice Hallett’s The Appeal.
I read huge amounts of nonfiction; I love biographies, and don’t care who they are about. Real lives are more fascinating than anything made up!
Sally, thank you for a very interesting interview. Sally’s book is available from Bloomsbury Publishing or Amazon, in ebook, hardcover, and on Audible as of today! Don’t miss it~
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.
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.
Meet the Skelf’s, an Edinburgh family of three strong women who will engage readers in Doug Johnstone’s winning A Dark Matter.
Matriarch Dorothy is struggling with her grief after her husband Jim dies suddenly. Running a funeral home and a private investigation business is a strange dichotomy.
Jim’s unusual assistant helps with the mortuary side of things, while divorced daughter Jenny moves home and steps in to help by taking on several of the PI cases her father started.
Granddaughter Hannah, a university student, has her own grief, dealing with the loss of her grandfather while she grapples with the disappearance of one of her roommates, Mel.
When Dorothy discovers that Jim was making monthly payments to an unknown woman, and needs to find out the secrets he kept. Was he not the upright husband and man she’d known and loved?
Meanwhile, Jenny’s adultery case takes on the several twists as she investigates and doesn’t find what she expects. And Hannah leans on her father when it comes to light at the friend she thought she knew had her own cadre of secrets.
There will be a murder, twists that stand everything on their head, and a wry humor that brings out Johnstone’s deft touch.
Auntie M loved this book and hopes it will be the start of a series featuring the Skelfs. Don’t miss this entertaining, completely absorbing read–highly recommended.
Please welcome Abigail Keam, who writes two mystery series:
Hi. I’m Abigail Keam and I write the Josiah Reynolds Mystery series about a woman who makes her living as a beekeeper and is an amateur sleuth in the lush Bluegrass horse country—a world of Thoroughbreds, oak-cured bourbon, and antebellum mansions.
The Josiah Reynolds Mysteries are a little different from the usual cozy. While there is very little violence, sex, or swearing in the storylines, they are a tad darker than most cozies. Josiah is not your typical sweet heroine. She has a bite to her and does not suffer fools gladly.
I try to make these stories as much fun as possible and have given Josiah some quirky friends that can only be found in the South. There is Josiah’s ancient next door neighbor, Lady Elsmere, who married an English lord and came back to live in the Bluegrass. Josiah’s daughter, Asa, claims she is an art insurance investigator, but everyone knows she works for the CIA. There is also Baby, Josiah’s 200 pound English Mastiff, and Glory, an American Paint horse who has a penchant for throwing Josiah off.
As I am a beekeeper, I love weaving beekeeping facts into my mysteries as well as historical facts about Kentucky, which has a fascinating past.
My twelfth JR Mystery—Death By Stalking—recently received a Readers’ Favorite award in the category of Murder Mystery. I was thrilled to receive the award alongside such other talented authors.
I currently released a new series—The Mona Moon Mysteries are a historical rags-to-riches series taking place during the Great Depression. Mona Moon is a cartographer, counting pennies when she learns that she has inherited her uncle’s vast wealth and a horse farm. She thinks her worries are over until someone tries to kill her. Oh, dear!
Award-winning author Abigail Keam has just released her new mystery series—the Mona Moon Mysteries—a rags-to-riches1930s mystery series which includes real people and events into the storyline. The new series is about a cartographer who is broke and counting her pennies when there is a knock at her door. A lawyer, representing her deceased uncle, announces Mona has inherited her uncle’s fortune and a horse farm in the Bluegrass. Mona can’t believe it. She is now one of the richest women in the country and in the middle of the Great Depression!
Abigail Keam is an award-winning and Amazon best-selling author who writes the Josiah Reynolds Mystery Series about a Southern beekeeper turned amateur female sleuth. The Last Chance For Love Series tells of strangers who come from all walks of life to the magical Last Chance Motel in Key Largo and get a second chance at rebuilding their lives, and The Princess Maura Fantasy Series.
One thing Miss Abigail loves to do as an author is to write real people and events into her storylines. “I am a student of history and love to insert historical information into my mysteries. My goal is to entertain my readers, but if they learn a little something along the way—well, then we are both happy. I certainly learn a lot from my research, and I hope my readers come away with a new appreciation of beekeeping from my Josiah Reynolds Mysteries.”
AWARDS
2010 Gold Medal Award from Readers’ Favorite for Death By A HoneyBee
2011 Gold Medal Award from Readers’ Favorite for Death By Drowning
2011 USA BOOK NEWS-Best Books List of 2011 as a Finalist for Death By Drowning
2011 USA BOOK NEWS-Best Books List of 2011 as a Finalist for Death By A HoneyBee
2017 Finalist from Readers’ Favorite for Death By Design
2019 Honorable Mention from Readers’ Favorite for Death By Stalking
PASSIONS
Besides loving history, Kentucky bourbon and chocolate, Abigail loves honeybees and for many years made her living by selling honey at a farmers’ market. She is an award-winning beekeeper who has won 16 honey awards at the Kentucky State Fair including the Barbara Horn Award, which is given to beekeepers who rate a perfect 100 in a honey competition.
A strong supporter of farmers’ markets and local food economy, Miss Abigail has taken her knowledge of beekeeping to create a fictional beekeeping protagonist, Josiah Reynolds, who solves mysteries in the Bluegrass. While Miss Abigail’s novels are for enjoyment, she discusses the importance of a local sustainable food economy and land management for honeybees and other creatures.
Ann Cleeves, the celebrated author of the Vera and Shetlands series, creates a new series that take readers to the area of North Devon where she grew up in The Long Call.
Introducing DI Matthew Venn, we see his own complicated family history in the area. Leaving an evangelical family made Matthew an outcast to his family, and so he’s on the periphery at his own father’s funeral. The book’s title refers to the call of a herring gull that has always sounded to him like someone in pain, a window onto his brooding nature.
Matthew barely has time to examine his grief when he’s called away to the site of a murder on the beach. A man has been stabbed to death and Matthew heads the case with his new team.
Living in a cottage with his husband, Jon, Matt is chagrined when this case becomes tied to The Woodyard, an arts and crafts centre Jon runs that contains a day center for disabled adults where the murdered man was a volunteer.
The dead man, Simon Walden, had been rooming with two young women while hiding secrets of his own. A recovering alcoholic with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck to remind him of prior guilt he carries, Simon is a cipher that Matt must learn.
With his more formal dress hiding an introspective bent, Matt is a different kind of detective, still feeling his way around his unit and having pangs of insecurity he hides from his team. But it’s his strong mind and ability to line up clues that make him stand out and ultimately figure out who would have wanted to kill Simon Walden.
As the investigation advances and people connected tangentially to both The Woodyard and to Simon are interviewed, Matthew starts to form his impression of what has happened while getting used to his new team. His DS in particular, Jen Rafferty, is a strong character in this atmospheric story that deals well with Down’s Syndrome adults. And when one of these adults goes missing, the tension ramps up.
A complicated plot adds to this character-driven procedural that brings an enticing new detective to follow. Highly recommended.
Allison Montclair’s new series starts off with a delightful bang with the charming The Right Sort of Man.
The second World War has just ended in 1946 London, and two young women who couldn’t be more opposite are thrown together. Iris Sparks is the unmarried, savvy woman with an Oxford education and a shady past; Gwen Bainbridge is the war widow with a young son, still grieving the loss of her handsome husband, and subjected to living with her staid in-laws.
The two meet at a wedding and agree to start a new business to cement their independence, and do it in one of the Mayfair buildings that escaped bombing with The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. They approach it in an organized manner, trying to match suitables, and even have had a few marriages from their pairings.
New client Tillie La Salle sets off Iris’ warning bells as someone who might have her own checkered past, but the women set her up with her first date. Then Tillie is found murdered, and the man arrested for the crime is Dickie Trower, the man they matched to Tillie, who claims he never met with her at all.
Now the duo have a two-fold problem: try to rescue Dickie from the hangman’s noose, and try to reclaim the reputation of their new business. The two will ennlist their friend, Sally, a budding playwright who reminded Auntie M of Stephen Fry, to cover the office as they take turns sleuthing Tillie’s life.
The thing that struck Auntie M about these two well-developed characters (make it three if you include Sally) was their snappy dialogue, which hums and zings off the page. The period details are spot on, and the the light-hearted feel is contrasted with moments of the realities of a post-war nation.
An assured start to what promises to be a wonderful and interesting series for fans of historicals, this one will be snapped up and not put down until it’s done.
Starting a new series set in Sacramento, Say You’re Sorry is perfect for fans of high-octane thrillers with more than a hint of romance, the hallmark of author Karen Rose.
Main characters Daisy Dawson and FBI Special Agent Gideon Reynolds both hold secrets of their pasts that have affected their relationships. Their paths cross when Daisy thwarts a would-be attacker, in the process tearing off a necklace he wears.
That locket holds the key to the personal cold case Gideon has been investigating that revolves around his own upbringing and family. The two join forces to outwit the serial killer, who’s reach is far more than either expects. All they know is that this forensically-savvy killer carves certain letters into his victims.
Told from all three of these points of view, and laces with a few steamy scenes for the romantics out there, Rose gets into the mind of a serial killer with a fondness for dogs.
All of the characters have extended backstories, a great setup for the start of a new series, making this start intense and filled with suspense in a character-driven story.
Louisa Luna’s knockout Two Girl’s Down introduces two highly original characters readers will want to follow.
California PI Alice Vega finds herself on a plane to a small town in Pennsylannia when two young girls disappear. Having built up a reputation for finding missing children, the girl’s aunt has contacted Vega to assist the local police.
Max Caplan is a disgraced cop trying to make a living as a PI while raising teenaged daughter, Nell, after a divorce. When Vega contacts him to be her local contact and work the case with her, an unlikely partnership develops.
The local police are less than helpful, and with Cap’s history, the two strike out on their own at first. With the FBI’s invovlement, an uneasy truce is struck on sharing information and the two go to town.
Vega is unlike any other investigator Cap has known. Tough and smart, strong and feisty, she has contacts he doesn’t. But Cap has the local knowledge she needs as the fast plot crackles with suspense.
All of the characters are well-drawn, from the distraught family to the witnesses the duo encounter. It’s a read that will keep you rooted to the page, cinematic in its detailed view. You can hear the screenwriters sharpening their pencils.
The twists keep coming with an ending that flips back on itself and brings even more surprises. Readers will be clamoring for more Vega and Cap. This is Auntie M’s first Highly Recommended of 2019.
Auntiemwrites Crime-Mystery Author M K Graff 