The Colorado Kid by Stephen King
When you're as big a name as Stephen King, they really will just let you publish anything. The Colorado Kid is purportedly a mystery novel, but it determinedly disavows the conventions of the genre. What it actually is, is a tease. The novel takes the format of a conversation between two old … [Read more]
A Herring on the Nile by L.C. Tyler
Our mystery-writer protagonist, Ethelred Tressider, has booked himself a Nile cruise as a ‘research trip’ for his next novel. As he and his on again/off again girlfriend, Lady Anabelle, are in an off period, Ethelred’s cantankerous editor, Elsie Thirkettle, generously offers to take the second cabin … [Read more]
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
This book had been sitting on my TBR pile for years and I finally got to it this year. Not only do I get the satisfaction of finally finishing it, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that that I quite enjoyed it. Our first person narrator Susie Salmon is a 14 year old girl living with her family … [Read more]
Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie
The place is Thebes, the year is 2000 B.C. and the bodies are piling up! Death Comes as the End is an Agatha Christie mystery set in ancient Egypt; it is the only historical mystery Christie wrote, and the only one to feature entirely non-European characters. The novel kicks off with the family … [Read more]
The Witch of Babylon by DJ McIntosh
The back cover blurb for this book positions it as a sort of ‘DaVinci’s Code set in ancient Mesopotamia!’: mysterious and powerful ancient artifacts, a deadly conspiracy to keep these artifacts secreted, and an antiques dealer protagonist who is out to solve the mystery. John Madison is the … [Read more]
Diamonds at the Lost and Found by Sarah Aspinall
I bought a lot of memoirs on my vacation this summer and realized when I got home how many are about fraught mother-daughter relationships. I guess I'm working through something, or else I just like reading about dramatic psychological family structures. Either way, Diamonds at the Lost and Found … [Read more]
