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TCO Reviews: Death Comes to the Costa del Sol by M.H. Eccleston
When I’ve got the January blues, I find myself longing for sunshine and warm beaches. So when I came across Death Comes to the Costa del Sol by M. H. Eccleston, I was excited to escape endless rain to the seaside resort of Estipona. (Thanks to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for the digital review…
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TCO Reviews: Crime and Punctuation by Kaitlyn Dunnett
When it comes to linguistics, I go back and forth between prescriptivist and descriptivist. I know, intellectually, that language flows with the people, and forcing “correct” rules on it ignores how languages evolve to accommodate new needs. Still, there’s part of me that loves the clear meaning that you get with a well-defined, broadly accepted…
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TCO Reviews: VenCo by Cherie Dimaline
Since I was a young girl, I’ve loved fantasy novels, especially those in urban settings. It was never Big Battles that did it for me – instead, I preferred to see magic used in daily life, on human scale. To this day, I prefer this juxtaposition of the ordinary and extraordinary – whether it’s a…
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The World of Pondside: Cozy mystery with a video-game twist
I’ve always loved the idea of video games as interactive art. Growing up, cozy puzzle-solving games like Professor Layton were a welcome interactive escape. Later, in college, I discovered channels like Extra Credits that got me thinking critically about how the interactivity of games sets them apart. And Cozy Grove, with its wholesome story of…
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TCO Reviews: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
I was really excited to get the chance to read Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson. Many thanks to the publisher for the gift! This fun take on the manor house mystery will release January 2023, and I honestly liked it so much that I’ll probably buy myself a copy to…
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TCO Reviews: Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorogood
In addition to mystery novels, I am also an avid fan of word games. I particularly love crossword puzzles: I regularly race my friends to complete the New York Times crossword, and got into cryptic crosswords over the pandemic. I’m still terrible at them – I can’t solve anagrams to save my life – but…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 7: Hercule Poirot’s Christmas by Agatha Christie
And so we’ve made it to Christmas Eve, to Nochebuena. Later today, my family will be gathered around the Christmas tree, sharing cocoa and buñuelos and laughing as the family unwraps my husband’s prank gift boxes, But before we get there, it’s time for one last Christmas mystery to wrap up 2022. And of course,…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 6: An English Murder by Cyril Hare
As we’ve read through Christmas mysteries this week, things have stayed on the reasonably light-hearted side. (At least, as light-hearted as you could expect with murder in the mix). Because house parties often involve friends and family, the genre is a great way to explore family tension. most of these stories limit their suspect pool…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 5: Murder for Christmas
Continuing our exploration of Christmas Manor House Mysteries, we’re looking at Murder for Christmas by Francis Duncan, featuring aging amateur sleuth Mordecai Tremaine. Before we get into the details, let’s take a moment to admire the immaculate cover art for this one. It’s the perfect design to evoke a Manor House Christmas in the Golden…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 4: The Santa Klaus Murder by Mavis Doriel Hay
So far, many of the the stories this week have been Christmas-adjacent. (Somehow, even having Christmas in the title is not enough to guarantee a Christmas-centric timeline.) That ends today. From here on out, it is straight manor house closed-circle mysteries that take place on Christmas. Some poor unfortunate soul invites a bunch of friends…