I love Michelle Diener’s historical suspense mysteries. They are all based around actual events, with delightful characters and a side dish of romance. A Dangerous Madness is connected to her previous novels; The Emperor’s Conspiracy and Banquet of Lies since we see characters from those novels but all are standalone and can be read in any order.
I love crime novels, mysteries and serial killers! Mix in supernatural elements and I am drawn to these stories like moths to a flame. Delia’s Shadow is the first novel in the Delia Martin series by Jamie Lee Moyer. Set against the historic city of San Francisco, Moyer drew me in with her easy writing style, dark descriptions and engaging characters. Mini review: Dark and suspenseful. Old school detective work with a rich plot that kept me captivated as Moyer balanced darkness with light.
In 2012, I read Betty Lee Crosby’s novel Spare Change and absolutely fell in love with the characters in the small town of Wyattsville. I enjoyed it so much I gifted it to friends and family that Christmas. At the time, the book was a standalone, but Betty told me that, Jubilee’s Journey, came to her and I am delighted that it did. In Jubilee’s Journey, I was once again transported back to the apartment complex and reconnecting with Ethan Allen and Grandma Olivia. Mini review: Touching, engaging and heart-warming. The characters spring to life and wrap themselves around your heart.
Earlier this year I enjoyed the first Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery novel, The Bughouse Affair, by authors Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini. Set in 1800’s San Francisco it features two detectives and the cases they encounter. I was thrilled to enter their world once again in the Spook Lights Affair. While each can be read as a standalone, there are overall arc threads. Mini review: suspenseful, and engaging with spirited characters. A thoroughly entertaining mystery.
Diane Chamberlain’s novel Necessary Lies, set in rural North Carolina, some fifty years ago, was a moving and beautiful tale capturing both the horror and beauty of this period. I knew going into this book, that it was going to be heartbreaking but what I didn’t expect was to fall in love with these characters and hold them so close to my heart. This is a poignant tale of one of the worst atrocities perpetrated by a governing body in the name of humanity. Three word reviewing: gripping, beautiful and heartbreaking.
