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Advent of Mystery, Day 5: The Christmas Murder Game
I first found Alexandra Benedict’s The Christmas Murder Game while trying to find Golden Age stories for this series last year. At the time, I was intrigued – puzzle hunt + country house + closed circle mystery + cold case seemed right up my alley. I had to table it, since it wasn’t Golden Age…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 2: The Christmas Guest
Day 2 of the Advent of Mystery 2023 and we’re going even darker. Today we’re taking a look at The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson. This recent novella has both straight and epistolary prose, following a cold case from the perspectives of two women on the scene. The crimes took place over a fateful Christmas…
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Advent of Mystery, Day 1: The Mistletoe Murders by P.D. James
It’s Year 2 of the Advent of Mystery! Over the next 12 days, I’ll share (short and sweet) thoughts on 12 crime and mystery books that are set at Christmas or have a Christmas theme to them. Like last year, I’ll work through both the quality of mystery and the actual Christmas coverage. This year,…
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Sleeping Murder, Part 2: How to ruin a Miss Marple story
In my read through of Sleeping Murder, I noted that my initial impression of this story was not a great one. I also noted my surprise at this fact on re-read, as Sleeping Murder is, in so many ways, Peak Marple. But, having watched through the adaptations, I think I can confidently blame it on…
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Sleeping Murder, Part 1: The Epitome of Marple
We made it to the very end of the series! I’ll be honest – when I first started this journey, I had no idea it would take me this long. And I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy Sleeping Murder, in particular. In my memory, it was a little silly. And to be fair,…
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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…
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Murder in the Family: Cara Hunter plays at investigation
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a modern mystery novel must have a recommendation from Janice Hallett to stand any chance of success. OK, so maybe this isn’t strictly true. But Murder in the Family is the second book to cross my path this month with such a recommendation on the cover. And like…
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Grave Expectations: a spooky, cozy sensation
So I have a teeny-tiny confession to make: I’ve been deliberately avoiding one of my reading challenges. Specifically, I owe a paranormal cozy mystery for my Cruisin’ Thru the Cozies Challenge. But I have simply… not read any this year. In large part this is because I already find myself so frustrated by the lack…
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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…
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The Three Dahlias: an adventure for Golden Age mystery-lovers
I have this hypothesis that many modern “mystery” novels are actually adventures with a mystery skin on top. It may just be that I have a stricter definition of “mystery” than others, but in my opinion, a true mystery must be clued up by the author. An adventure, on the other hand, can involve as…