|
|
| Bryant & May: Hall of Mirrors by Christopher FowlerThe setting: an English country house in 1969, where a weekend party gets cut off from the rest of the area due to military exercises.
What happens: Police detectives with London's Peculiar Crimes Unit, Bryant and May follow a playboy star witness to the manor, and are soon trying to suss out a killer in their charming 15th outing, a prequel to the series.
Why you might like it: The quirky, delightful duo are hard not to love and the plot is twisty and tight as a drum. |
|
|
The golden tresses of the dead : a Flavia de Luce novel
by C. Alan Bradley
Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop’s Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce’s sister Ophelia is at last getting hitched. “A church is a wonderful place for a wedding,” muses Flavia, “surrounded as it is by the legions of the dead, whose listening bones bear silent witness to every promise made at the altar.” Flavia is not your normal twelve-year-old girl. An expert in the chemical nature of poisons, she has solved many mysteries, sharpening her considerable detection skills to the point where she had little choice but to turn professional. So Flavia and dependable Dogger, estate gardener and sounding board extraordinaire, set up shop at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, eager to serve. Little does she know that their first case will be extremely close to home, beginning with an unwelcome discovery in Ophelia’s wedding cake: a human finger.
|
|
|
The paragon hotel
by Lyndsay Faye
The year is 1921, and "Nobody" Alice James is on a cross-country train, carrying a bullet wound and fleeing for her life following an illicit drug deal gone horribly wrong. Desperate to get as far away as possible from New York City and those who want her dead, she has her sights set on Oregon: a distant frontier that seems the end of the line.
She befriends Max, a black Pullman porter who reminds her achingly of Harlem, who leads Alice to the Paragon Hotel upon arrival in Portland. Her unlikely sanctuary turns out to be the only all-black hotel in the city, and its lodgers seem unduly terrified of a white woman on the premises. But as she meets the churlish Dr. Pendleton, the stately Mavereen, and the unforgettable club chanteuse Blossom Fontaine, she begins to understand the reason for their dread. The Ku Klux Klan has arrived in Portland in fearful numbers--burning crosses, inciting violence, electing officials, and brutalizing blacks. And only Alice, along with her new "family" of Paragon residents, are willing to search for a missing mulatto child who has mysteriously vanished into the Oregon woods.
|
|
Good Books You May Have Missed |
|
| Buried in Books by Kate CarlisleWhat it's about: San Francisco book restoration expert Brooklyn Wainwright is getting married (to a hunky ex-MI6 agent)! But pre-wedding events are complicated when her two feuding former besties both show up, she discovers a rare book forgery, and a murder occurs.
Read it for: quirky characters, bookbinding details, and recipes.
Series alert: This is the 12th Bibliophile book (the 1st is Homicide in Hardcover, and newcomers may want to start there); look for the 13th entry, The Book Supremacy, in June. |
|
| Death by Chocolate Cherry Cheesecake by Sarah GravesWhat happens: Opening a chocolate-themed bakery in a coastal Maine village, Jacobia "Jake" Tiptree and her friend Ellie have their launch hindered by a hurricane and the murder of a health inspector.
Series alert: Jake also stars in Sarah Graves' Home Repair is Homicide series, but this is the 1st Death by Chocolate novel (recipes included). The follow-up, Death by Chocolate Malted Milkshake, arrives this month.
For fans of: Katherine Hall Page, Diane Mott Davidson, and Leslie Meier. |
|
|
|
|
|