The Marlow Murder Club

tags: mystery 

⭐⭐

From GoodReads

To solve an impossible murder, you need an impossible hero…

Judith Potts is seventy-seven years old and blissfully happy. She lives on her own in a faded mansion just outside Marlow, there’s no man in her life to tell her what to do or how much whisky to drink, and to keep herself busy she sets crosswords for The Times newspaper.

One evening, while out swimming in the Thames, Judith witnesses a brutal murder. The local police don’t believe her story, so she decides to investigate for herself, and is soon joined in her quest by Suzie, a salt-of-the-earth dog-walker, and Becks, the prim and proper wife of the local Vicar. Together, they are the Marlow Murder Club.

When another body turns up, they realise they have a real-life serial killer on their hands. And the puzzle they set out to solve has become a trap from which they might never escape.

The novel is a new cozy murder mystery series set in England with 3 female amateur sleuths solving murders. It is a less entertaining parroting of The Thursday Murder Club. I find the story and characters too contrived and blah. I was able to guess the murderer/s early on. And the motive, hint: Strangers On A Train, a brilliantly written murder mystery.

Sorry Mr. Thorogood, but I regret to say, I have to take a pass on the future installments. Mr. Thorogood is the creator of the popular British telly series Death In Paradise which I have never seen. I know what it is about but for some reason, I was never interested in the series.

Breathless

tags: mystery, spiritual, supernatural

⭐⭐⭐⭐

From GoodReads

#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz delivers a thrilling novel of suspense and adventure, as the lives of strangers converge around a mystery unfolding high in the Colorado mountains—and the balance of the world begins to tilt….

In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificent Irish wolfhound Merlin step from shadow into light…and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring all the forces of a government in peril to her door.At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness. In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable.On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder. Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past begins a trek toward his destiny.

In a novel that is at once wholly of our time and timeless, fearless and funny, Dean Koontz takes readers into the moment between one turn of the world and the next, across the border between knowing and mystery. It is a journey that will leave all who take it Breathless.

Breathless is one of Dean Koontz books that I skipped reading because at the time the synopsis sounded the same as his other books. I was wrong to presume that Breathless has the same old same old supernatural sci-fi mystery. Good against evil is ever present but the story is more spiritual IMHO. Maybe I'm wrong but that's my opinion. The novel dismisses the belief of man's evolution and I agree with the novel that there is a creator. Grady Adams and his friend Camilla believe that the animals with human like intelligence that suddenly materialized in the woods belong to a new "created" species and did not evolve from some organism. Puzzle and Riddle, the names given to them by Grady Adams, are not only cute like small children, but very intelligent and adapt quickly to humans and the Irish Wolfhound. Although they cannot speak, they have their own way of communicating.

Cleopatra's Dagger

tags: mystery-ish

from GoodReads

A journalist in nineteenth-century New York matches wits with a serial killer in a gripping thriller by the prizewinning author of the Ian Hamilton Mysteries.

New York, 1880. Elizabeth van den Broek is the only female reporter at the Herald, the city’s most popular newspaper. Then she and her bohemian friend Carlotta Ackerman find a woman’s body wrapped like a mummy in a freshly dug hole in Central Park—the intended site of an obelisk called Cleopatra’s Needle. The macabre discovery takes Elizabeth away from the society pages to follow an investigation into New York City’s darkest shadows.

When more bodies turn up, each tied to Egyptian lore, Elizabeth is onto a headline-making scoop more sinister than she could have imagined. Her reporting has readers spellbound, and each new clue implicates New York’s richest and most powerful citizens. And a serial killer is watching every headline.

Now a madman with an indecipherable motive is coming after Elizabeth and everyone she loves. She wants a good story? She may have to die to get it.

I was encouraged by Amazon First Reads last month and was eager to read this highly rated First Reads for April 2022. Alas, it is back to normal FR because the novel is lamentable. Why oh why do these authors insist on being woke instead of writing a mystery suspense novel that everybody will appreciate, not just for the stupid virtue signaling millennials and maybe some ignorant older folks.

"Gripping thriller"...where in the book? There is very little suspense because the author was preoccupied writing about clothing and New York City images in the 1880s, Elizabeth family's wealthy privilege which Elizabeth abhors and feels her moral values is compromised🙄🙄🙄, the obligatory and clichéd beautiful, elegant but cold-as-ice mother, etc. etc. I also detested the unnecessary sexual assault to make the assailant a red herring. Writing style is also not very good as she contrived to sound 19th century.

Ugly. Not recommended for normal sane people.

Razor: Becoming a Hero

tags: fantasy, mystery, supernatural

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

A mourning husband can’t live with his guilt… ... he decides to die, not by his own hand, but in heroically helping the vulnerable.

Since the peaceful Cotswold countryside offers limited opportunities for heroism, despite the presence of some weird and dangerous inhabitants, he ventures further afield.

To his annoyance, new and unlikely friends mysteriously appear everywhere he goes, foiling his plans and sending him back to square one.

Will he succeed or will he come to terms with his grief first? Was his wife as blame free and perfect as he thought or will lurking suspicions of infidelity be proved right?

'It was ironic that having nothing left to lose except his life, his life had become interesting again.'

The book is from the same author of Inspector Hobbes. Ray/Razor finds it is not easy to kill oneself specially when odd people start appearing to interrupt him while he is helping other people. He hopes to be murdered instead of the people he tries to rescue. 

The book is equally funny and sad. Ray's misadventures in committing suicide becomes a bit repetitive towards the middle but the story picks up and is still enjoyable. 

Don't Call It Mystery

tags: comedy, dorama, Japanese, mystery, philosophy, police procedural

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from AsianWiki

Totono Kuno is a university psychology student. He has curly hair, which he has a complex about. He doesn't have any friends or a girlfriend. His memory and observation skills are very good and he is also skilled at making conclusions from a given set of facts. A murder case takes place in a park near Totono Kuno’s home. The victim is a university student that attended the same school and Totono Kuno becomes a suspect in the murder. He is interrogated by detectives at the police station. During the interrogation, Totono Kuno becomes aware of hidden clues behind the student's murder and also the personal worries of the detectives. But a weapon, which contains Totono Kuno’s fingerprints, is found.

This Japanese series is almost perfect IMHO. Only 4 episodes have been aired so far but I am rating it 5 stars because it has the perfect balance of comedy, mystery, and drama with great background music. During police interviews on the first episode, Totono Kuno ends up interviewing the detectives and learns about their personal problems and the same time is able to find the true murderer. He uses philosophy and psychology to solve the mystery. The ongoing joke is he prepares his favorite curry but as soon as he sits down to eat, he gets interrupted by either the door bell or his cellphone. The viewers never get to see him eat his curry dinner.

I can't wait to see the next episodes. Japanese doramas usually have only 10 or 12 episodes which I like as the story is not stretched with unnecessary plot twists.

Inspector Hobbes and the Blood

tags: fantasy, humor, mystery-crime

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads, emphasis mine

As a crime wave breaks in the quiet Cotswold streets, Andy Caplet, a failed reporter, is reluctantly immersed in Inspector Hobbes's investigation. Allergic to danger and exercise, Andy is thrown into grave confusion as he discovers not everyone is human. Not only must he come to terms with Hobbes's extreme oddness, and the tooth-collection of Hobbes's housekeeper, the indomitable Mrs. Goodfellow, but he must work out if a suicide, a murder, and several robberies are connected? And what is the connection? Hobbes goes missing. The cops decide he's big and bad enough to look after himself, but Andy, striving against deep-rooted incompetence and clumsiness, sets out to find him. With a big bad dog to assist, armed only with a leg of lamb, and despite losing his trousers, he discovers the key to the mystery is in the blood. But whose blood? Where is Hobbes? And can he catch vampirism off false teeth?

This is the first in Wilkie Martin's unhuman series of fast-paced, comic fantasy crime adventures, with lashings of great food.

'I ought to tell you, dear, he can get rather wild when he's hungry'

I loved the strangeness of both Inspector Hobbes and his housekeeper, Mrs. Goodfellow. Hobbes is a huge person and looks beastly but is very gentle, intelligent and polite, does not tolerate bad language, and he and Mrs. G never forget to say grace before having the delicious dinners she prepares. I laughed out loud several times regardless of the annoying narrator, Andy Caplet. Andy is extremely gullible, physically unfit, lazy, incompetent, naive, accident prone, jealous of his handsome co-worker, and obsessed with a girl co-worker (whom he describes as not pretty at all). I want to smack him upside the head and am wondering why the good Inspector keeps him around. He redeems himself toward the end of the book and I kinda forgive him. I'm looking forward to reading the next book.

Highly recommended for urban fantasy and mystery readers.

The Man Who Died Twice

tags: MI5, murder mystery, septuagenarians

⭐⭐⭐⭐

From GoodReads

It's the following Thursday.

Elizabeth has received a letter from an old colleague, a man with whom she has a long history. He's made a big mistake, and he needs her help. His story involves stolen diamonds, a violent mobster, and a very real threat to his life. As bodies start piling up, Elizabeth enlists Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron in the hunt for a ruthless murderer. And if they find the diamonds too? Well, wouldn't that be a bonus?

But this time they are up against an enemy who wouldn't bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can The Thursday Murder Club find the killer (and the diamonds) before the killer finds them?

From the first book, The Thursday Murder Club 

In a peaceful retirement village, four unlikely friends meet weekly in the Jigsaw Room to discuss unsolved crimes; together they call themselves The Thursday Murder Club. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron might be pushing eighty but they still have a few tricks up their sleeves.

The Man Who Died Twice is the second book of a new mystery series, The Thursday Murder Club. I read it because the first book is not available yet from the library. The story is a stand alone but there are recurring characters aside from the 4 septuagenarians. 

The story-telling is straightforward without flowery language which I like and the story is full of surprises. I figured out who the murderer is about 2/3 into the book. Just a wild guess and I was right. 

Good read. I recommend for murder mystery fans.

Silverview

tags: mystery, spies, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

From GoodReads

In his last completed novel, John le Carré turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past sixty years—the secret world itself.

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.

When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea . . .

Silverview is the mesmerizing story of an encounter between innocence and experience and between public duty and private morals. In his inimitable voice John le Carré, the greatest chronicler of our age, seeks to answer the question of what we truly owe to the people we love.

Silverview is the last novel by John le Carré published in 2021. I can tell that the book was written many years before he died in December 2020. The book is very short, a novelette, but packed with espionage mystery that has a distinct le Carré voice and style. I hated Agent Running In The Field so I was wary that Silverview might be the same. Thankfully, it is not and I loved it!

Highly recommended for John le Carré fans. 

Hue And Cry

tags: classics, mystery

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

In six months, Marion “Mally” Lee will wed the dashing Roger Mooring and become mistress of Curston, his family estate. Determined to enjoy her freedom before she becomes a married woman, Mally impulsively accepts a position as governess to the young daughter of a shipping magnate.
 
But when she arrives at the Peterson townhouse in London, Mally has the strangest urge to flee. Sir George Peterson, whose wife left him for an itinerant artist, is an enigma. His sister, Lena Craddock, is nice enough, but Mally’s young charge, Barbara, hates Lena’s nephew, Paul, with a passion. When Mally is suddenly branded a thief and spy after valuable papers and a priceless diamond pendant disappear, she does the only thing she can: run away.
 
With her fiancé believing the worst of her and private investigators hot on her trail, Mally goes on the lam, feeling like a fugitive from justice. But she’s stumbled upon a dangerous criminal conspiracy led by men desperate to get back the missing documents before a critical encrypted message is decoded.

The stand alone novel was written by Patricia Wentworth in 1927, a year before she created Miss Maud Silver. The tone and style is a tad different from Miss Silver books although the author's favorite word "frightful" is scattered all over the novel. It is a short but amusing and delightful novel. 

 

Some readers find Mally a frustrating character and I agree a little bit, but I do like her a lot. She is one of the funniest young female characters I have read. She is hardly meek, always speaks her mind, and does whatever she wants. Her scary but funny adventure dodging her pursuers, real and imagined, made me smile and it leads her to the truth and finding love. The man she chooses is not her handsome and debonair fiancé but a young man that she describes as hulking and ugly.

Highly recommended.   

Hit & Run

 

tags: espionage, Israel, mystery, Netflix streaming

9 episodes,  40 - 45 minutes

in English and Hebrew

⭐⭐⭐

 from IMDB;

A happily married man's life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious hit and run accident in Tel Aviv. Grief-stricken and confused, he searches for his wife's killers, who have fled to the U.S. With the help of an ex-lover, he uncovers disturbing truths about his beloved wife and the secrets she kept from him.

So many dead people in this Israeli and American produced mystery espionage series. I liked it enough to rate it 3 stars but it has serious flaws. The script is implausible and acting is stiff as if the actors are reading. The mystery is engrossing though and the reason for the 3 stars.

I'm hoping Season 2 is better written and comes soon because the cliff hanger is sooo frustrating. I wanna know what happened to Ella!

Constance

tags: clones, mystery

⭐

from GoodReads

In the near future, advances in medicine and quantum computing make human cloning a reality. For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying.

After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her?

The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again.

The book is one of Amazon's First Reads choices and as expected, it is disappointing. The book is touted as science fiction and thriller but I find there's very little science fiction besides the cloning of the rich people who can afford it. The novel is nothing but a mediocre murder mystery with mediocre writing.

The premise is intriguing but the author does not deliver. On top of that he insists in making it annoying mentioning the ethnicity of ALL the characters, major and those who appeared just once. Who writes like that? It's distracting and does not add anything to the story except the author appears to be trying hard to sell this book to woke Hollywood hoping it will get noticed because it is populated by the obligatory "diverse" characters. Give me a freakin' break. My new pet peeve in modern fiction that I find more awful than f and c bombs. And the clones? Forgeddaboutit! The ending reads like a chaotic slapstick comedy trying hard to be serious. And the worst part is, this is book 1 of a series. Yikes! This novel is one big Con job. Sorry, I couldn't resist. 😉

Not recommended.

Katla

Katla streaming on Netflix

8 episodes, 40 - 50 minutes

In Icelandic with English subtitles 

tags: drama, fantasy, Iceland, mystery, science fiction, supernatural

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Netflix

A year after Katla's eruption, the shattered survivors are still grappling with the aftermath. Suddenly, an ash-caked woman appears on the glacier.

The drama mystery series from Iceland, although not a crime mystery, reminds me of the Welsh crime drama series Hinterland and the Russian movie How I Ended This Summer for its beautiful but bleak scenery. The mystery of the naked woman covered in ashes emerging on the glacier is captivating right from episode 1. More ash-caked people emerge. Fascinating watch.

Highly recommended.

On Episode 5, the little boy who died 3 years earlier appears as one of the ash-caked creatures but his father knows he is not his real son. The mother runs away with him and on the road realizes he is not who he is so she abandons him in the middle of the road. On Episode 6, he is shown looking at a downed small airplane. With his outfit -blue coat over light colored sweater and pajama pants, and his boots - he looks like the Little Prince. Then he starts talking to the dying sheep. Definitely an allusion to The Little Prince novel and maybe a clue as to his origin. 

Spoilers

Patricia Wentworth's Miss Silver Mystery Series

from GoodReads

Patricia Wentworth--born Dora Amy Elles--was a British crime fiction writer. She wrote a series of 32 classic-style whodunnits featuring Miss Silver, the first of which was published in 1928, and the last in 1961, the year of her death.

Miss Silver, a retired governess-turned private detective, is sometimes compared to Jane Marple, the elderly detective created by Agatha Christie. She works closely with Scotland Yard, especially Inspector Frank Abbott and is fond of quoting the poet Tennyson.

I've read a few Miss Silver mystery novels many years ago. Recently, all the 32 Miss Silver book series became available to borrow, eBook or Kindle, from the library. I started reading them from the beginning and have so far finished 10 books. I have given them 3 up to 5 stars.

Miss Silver doesn't always "solve" the mystery. She doesn't even appear until over halfway into the novel unlike Agatha Christie's Poirot or Ellis Peters's Brother Cadfael or Dorothy L. Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey. Readers might not like Wentworth's Miss Silver but I do like her quiet character over Miss Marple, and the stories that are more focused on the protagonists and antagonists are always interesting.

I read these in order the past few months. They are short novels, between 300 to 400 pages. Look for them in Hoopla if your local library has the service. These novels are a better reads than the latest books Amazon is giving for free. The Amazon First Reads for 2020 and up to the present are all dull and not worth a second of your time.

1. Grey Mask

2. The Case Is Closed 

3. Lonesome Road 

4. In The Balance 

5. The Chinese Shawl 

6. Miss Silver Deals With Death 

7. The Clock Strikes Twelve 

8. The Key 

9. She Came Back 

10. Pilgrim's Rest

Project Hail Mary

tags: mystery, science fiction, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission--and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, he realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Alone on this tiny ship that's been cobbled together by every government and space agency on the planet and hurled into the depths of space, it's up to him to conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And thanks to an unexpected ally, he just might have a chance.

Part scientific mystery, part dazzling interstellar journey, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian--while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

I loved Andrew Weir's The Martian but his second novel Artemis failed to entertain me. Project Hail Mary has redeemed him in my eyes. He is back in this fascinating science fiction adventure with a lovable and admirable character who is enthusiastic, witty, and has a great sense of humor, to finish his job regardless of his current situation. 

Ryland Grace is forced chosen to go on a space trip mission to save the sun, earth, and humankind. The sun is losing power because of tiny organisms sucking up its energy. [Nope, not by crazy creepy Bill Gates who wants to shield the sun to stop bogus climate change.] Ryland is alone in a small spaceship with his memory gone but slowly regaining them. He becomes a friend/ally with a non-earthling during this desperate suicide Hail Mary mission and the two of them work together for the same goal - to save their planets. Ryland calls the space alien Rocky who is the very definition of adorable. Rocky reminds me of Baby Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy because he/it acts like a cute genius child. There are loads of math and science stuff going on but they are interesting instead of boring, just like The Martian. The ending is a little bittersweet because EE can't phone home.   

Highly recommended for science fiction fans.

**********************************************************************************

From Wiki

Hail Mary refers to the Hail Mary pass, a very long forward pass in American football, typically made in desperation, with great difficulty of achieving a completion. Due to the small chance of success, it makes reference to the Catholic Hail Mary prayer for help.

Oxygen

tags: mystery, Netflix streaming, science fiction

from Netflix

A young woman wakes up in a medical cryo unit. She doesn’t remember who she is or how she ended up sequestered in a box no larger than a coffin. As she’s running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.

I was bored to death watching this French science fiction dreck but I finished it hoping the ending will be mind blowing like Oblivion and Vanilla Sky. Unfortunately, it isn't. I had to friggin' endure 91 minutes of mediocre script, acting, and movie set. The actress constantly licking and biting her lips is so irritating. 😒

The reason why she is in a small box with oxygen running out doesn't become clear until almost at the very end. This has been done before but with better story, writing, deeper meaning, more suspense, and obviously better actress. Is there any point to this movie? None that I can think of. It is pure garbage IMHO. Goose egg.

Avoid. It's Ugly.

Arsenic And Adobo

Filipino author, murder mystery, new series

⭐

from GoodReads

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She’s tasked with saving her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she’s the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila’s left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block.

I really really wanted to like this mystery novel by a Filipino author. Unfortunately, I hated it, really really hated it. *Sigh*

A lot of Filipino food are mentioned throughout the book and a few recipes at the end. It is understandable because the main character Lila works in her Aunt's Filipino restaurant. But the food got too distracting. 

What I didn't like

• The writing style and first person narration.
• The author tried too hard to make Lila witty and funny. I didn't find her witty nor funny. Lila comes out as character who lacks empathy by making light of someone's death that happened right in front of her. The scenario is utterly unnatural. She barely reacted to the second death and the head injury of her frenemy.
• Lila's lawyer and the detective investigating the murder are both incompetent and inconsistent. 
• Lila mentioned a few characters related to her and her current circumstances but they never showed up nor were explained further.
• The author tried to add romance into the murder mystery with boring people.
• The author's wokeness which is in-your-face obvious with the "diverse" characters, just like several  insufferable Hollywood movies that include all races in the universe for inclusiveness. The author probably had a checklist of all the necessary people aside from Filipinos that she believed should be in her first book: Japanese, Pakistani brother and his lesbian sister, lesbian Mexican, mixed Korean/White, Black, Greek. 🙄🙄🙄
• The baddies are pure white which she emphasized very early on. Yes, she said pure white. Sheesh! Two of her ex boyfriends are no-goodnik white people, one was the murder victim. Remember, white people are bad, bad, bad. Others are fine, noble, and if flawed, are redeemable.
• Story is not compelling; no real tension; amateurish. 

Do not read if you like murder mysteries. It is awful and will give you a headache due to excessive eyerolling. 

The Unkindness Of Ravens

tags: mystery, new series, M E Hilliard

⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

Greer Hogan is a librarian and an avid reader of murder mysteries. She also has a habit of stumbling upon murdered bodies. The first was her husband's, and the tragic loss led Greer to leave New York behind for a new start in the Village of Raven Hill. But her new home becomes less idyllic when she discovers her best friend sprawled dead on the floor of the library.

Was her friend's demise related to two other deaths that the police deemed accidental? Do the residents of this insular village hold dark secrets about another murder, decades ago? Does a serial killer haunt Raven Hill?

Though Greer admires the masters of deduction she reads about in books, she never expected to have to solve a mystery herself. Fortunately, she possesses a quick wit and a librarian's natural resourcefulness. But will that be enough to protect her from a brilliant, diabolical murderer?

And even if Greer manages to catch the Raven Hill killer, will living with her conscience prove a fate worse than death?

I probably have found a new mystery fictional character to replace M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin. Greer Hogan, like Agatha has the unlucky habit of finding dead bodies. Her natural interest in solving the murder opens herself to becoming a victim also. There are other similarities between Agatha and Greer that are worth noting:

• have a police officer as a friend/ally - Agatha has Bill Wong and Greer has Jennie Webber 
• moved from city to a quiet village - Agatha to the Cotswolds, Greer to Village of Raven Hill, a small town in Connecticut 
• had high-paying jobs before quitting - Agatha was in public relations in London, Greer was a buyer for a cosmetics company in New York
• have a bit of sense of humor but Agatha is funnier, more biting and politically incorrect which I love, Greer is also funny but tamer, IMHO

I like this first of a series. It held my interest and I finished reading (336 pages) in one sitting. Although it reads like a cozy mystery, the murderer turned out to be a truly evil character. My only complaint, and the reason for the 4 stars, is there are too many red herrings, 2 of which are completely unnecessary.  I hope the succeeding books will be much tighter and have more humor.

Recommended for mystery readers.

  

The Kingdom

tags: Jo Nesbø, mystery, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads 

In a rural village deep in the mountains, mechanic Roy leads a quiet, simple life, but when his little brother Carl, an entrepreneur, returns with a proposal for a grand hotel to revive the struggling town, dark secrets from their childhood threaten to resurface. As children, Roy defended his little brother against schoolyard bullies and vicious rumors, but his loyalty to family is tested when greed and betrayal saturate Carl's plans--not to mention when Roy's sister-in-law Shannon catches his eye. The farther he goes to protect Carl, the more Roy finds himself dredging up the town's shocking past. And when the town sheriff starts looking into Roy and Carl's parents' tragic deaths, Roy will have to reckon with how far he will go to protect his brother.

A tale of the worst family dysfunction I've ever read. Roy and Carl have a sort of love-hate relationship. Roy loves his younger brother and will do everything to protect him, including murder, but he also envies and covets whatever Carl has, almost like a Cain and Abel jealousy. But they stick together for better or for worse like a married couple.

Jo Nesbø again delivers with this new stand-alone novel which has lots of twists and turns. Roy gets out of all unfortunate situations with lots of luck and brilliant planning. 

Highly recommended for Jo Nesbø fans.

Elsewhere

tags: parallel multiverse, mystery, sci-fi, thriller

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from GoodReads

The fate of the world is in the hands of a father and daughter in an epic novel of wonder and terror by Dean Koontz, the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense.

Since his wife, Michelle, left seven years ago, Jeffy Coltrane has worked to maintain a normal life for himself and his eleven-year-old daughter, Amity, in Suavidad Beach. It’s a quiet life, until a local eccentric known as Spooky Ed shows up on their doorstep.

Ed entrusts Jeffy with hiding a strange and dangerous object—something he calls “the key to everything”—and tells Jeffy that he must never use the device. But after a visit from a group of ominous men, Jeffy and Amity find themselves accidentally activating the key and discovering an extraordinary truth. The device allows them to jump between parallel planes at once familiar and bizarre, wondrous and terrifying. And Jeffy and Amity can’t help but wonder, could Michelle be just a click away?

Jeffy and Amity aren’t the only ones interested in the device. A man with a dark purpose is in pursuit, determined to use its grand potential for profound evil. Unless Amity and Jeffy can outwit him, the place they call home may never be safe again.

Dean Koontz does it again. The highly entertaining yet scary novel is a short sci-fi thriller with some horrific people and machines alike. Father, daughter, and a new friend face danger while travelling in parallel universes. Dean Koontz is clever by subtly reminding free people what antifa fascists are up to and to be vigilant. Amity's pet domesticated mouse accidentally activates the "key to everything" and travels with Jeffy and Amity to a parallel city. It's cute and a welcome change to Dean Koontz favorite golden retriever.

Highly recommended for Dean Koontz fans.

Laplace's Witch

tags: Japanese, murder mystery, sci-fi, thriller, Takashi Miike

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

from Asianwiki

Two people are poisoned to death by hydrogen sulfide at hot springs located in different regions. The police ask Aoe Shusuke, a geochemistry professor, to determine whether the deaths were caused by freak accidents or were murders. While investigating the cases, Aoe Shusuke comes across a young woman, Uhara Madoka who guesses correctly that a natural phenomenon will take place. The police begin to suspect Uhara Madoka might be related to the deaths.

Takashi Miike directing a murder mystery movie based on a novel by Keigo Higashino - how can I not love it. It's a 2-hour movie full of twists and turns, and a lot of intelligent dialog. It's hard to guess the who and why and my early assumptions are all proven wrong. As in Higashino's previous novels, the story uses mathematics and science, hence the title Laplace's Witch, from the writing by French scholar and polymath Pierre-Simon Laplace, Laplace's Demon. 2 young people who underwent procedures to have precognitive abilities as described in Laplace's Demon help in solving the murders.

Highly recommended.