Category: TCO Reviews

  • TCO Reviews: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

    TCO Reviews: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson

    One of my very first ARC reviews was Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. I still remember inhaling it on the plane last year, amazed at every new twist and turn. It had been so long since a modern mystery excited me, and I felt so lucky to be reading it. And…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman

    TCO Reviews: West Heart Kill by Dann McDorman

    Mystery stories exist on a spectrum. Some are adventures, masquerading as mysteries: they set up a puzzle that can’t be solved with the textual information. Others are “pure” mysteries – the only puzzle is the plot, with all the focus on figuring out whodunnit. And then a third, rare category adds another set of layers…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: Last Word to the Wise

    TCO Reviews: Last Word to the Wise

    You can tell that after weeks of reading spy stories and fantasies, I’m in the mood for something cozy. So I’m delighted that the Christie sisters returned for some more bookshop-based sleuthing in Last Word to the Wise. Like any good cozy + Agatha fan, I had a great time with Dead and Gondola, the…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

    TCO Reviews: The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

    I love stories about magic. I love stories abut mystery. And I love stories of adventure. So when I came upon The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft, I knew I had to give it a try. (Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit for the gift copy!) The Hexologists follows a wife-and-husband duo of adventurers, the Wilbys, who…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

    TCO Reviews: Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

    Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies is an Autumn book in spirit, but not in practice. Despite the academic vibes, the book actually takes place over a dark, frigid, Norwegian winter. But the latest entry in the series, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands is a perfect fireside material. (Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

    There’s nothing like a good Evil Villain scheme to get Autumn well on its way. As the leaves turn and the wind gets nippy, it seems like the world itself is starting to plot against us. And while I may not be able to impact the earth’s movements around the sun, I can at least…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: Board to Death by CJ Connor

    TCO Reviews: Board to Death by CJ Connor

    The exploration of the small-business cozy mystery continues, with a different “flavor” of the subgenre. We’re moving from an ode to independence in Color Me Murder to a more nuanced look at the small business experience (and some of the other beats that ride along). And Board to Death, a recent release by CJ Connor,…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: Thief Liar Lady by D. L. Soria

    TCO Reviews: Thief Liar Lady by D. L. Soria

    The Summer of Scandal continues, and in this review we’re taking the downstairs to the top of the house. I love a good fairy tale retelling, and I love a good con, so I was extremely excited to get a gift copy of Thief Liar Lady to read. (Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine!) The story…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: A Most Agreeable Murder

    TCO Reviews: A Most Agreeable Murder

    I was lucky enough to find not just books but ARCS for my Summer of Scandal! For this week’s edition of “rich people behaving badly”, we’re rewinding to the Regency era with A Most Agreeable Murder by Julia Seales. (Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the gift copy!) I was so excited to sit…

    Read on…

  • TCO Reviews: The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

    TCO Reviews: The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer

    Between my epistolary reading challenge and my love for books, I’ve been reading a lot of “books about books” lately. (So much so that I’ve added a new tag just to track all my metafictional adventures.) It should come as no surprise, then, that I’ve been excited to read Meg Shaffer’s The Wishing Game since…

    Read on…