Mysteries Galore.com

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Hubert Schuze is a potter and mild mannered shop keeper in Albuquerque who is also known to some as “The Pot Thief.” Expelled from the University of New Mexico for digging outside the official dig site (even though –or maybe because, he found some great artifacts), Hubert has none the less, put his knowledge and talent to good use over the years. While selling legitimate pots in one shop, he also sells reproductions he makes in a neighboring shop. And what is Hubert’s side business? That’s where it gets interesting. Because Hubie has been known to “reacquire” pots from collectors and return them to their rightful owners-while making a bit for himself as well.

In The Pot Thief Who Studied Ptolemy, Hubert is approached by Walter Masoir, a professor forced out of the University because he disagreed with the department chair on returning all artifacts back to the native peoples. Masoir believes that when the various artifacts were eventually returned, some very old pots from the San Roque Pueblo were in fact kept by the same department chair who forced him out. He believes that Ogan Gerstner has the pots in his loft and he wants Hubert to steal them so that they can be returned to the Pueblo. That sets up the mystery for Schuze to solve. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

When teenager Jennifer Maidment is murdered and mutilated, Tony Hill, criminal profiler is called to Worcester to help with the case. It is revealed that Jennifer and her friends are fans of the social network Rigmarole. Jennifer left her friend to meet with someone she had connected with on Rigmarole and was not seen again alive. The person Jennifer went to meet is known as ZZ. Jennifer is the first teenager to disappear but she will not be the last.

Meanwhile back in Bradfield, Detective Chief Inspector Carol Jordan is still heading up the Major Incident Unit but has been put on notice by the new Chief Constable that her team is on a three month trial and at the end of the three months, there might be major changes in the unit. The Chief Constable also informs Jordan that Tony Hill is too expensive and if a profiler is necessary, she needs to request one from the newly trained profiling unit.

A teen-aged boy is reported missing in Jordan’s district. The boy’s body is found and he has been victimized in the same manner of Jennifer Maidment. The boy also has a connection to Rigmarole and has a special friend on the network who goes by just initials. Tony and Carol are both investigating along the same lines but unable to share information with each other. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Nancy Eaton

Nurse Bess Crawford is returning to England with a number of severely wounded soldiers from the battlefields in France. Among them was a severely burned victim, a pilot. His bandages had to be changed every hour and the way he looked would be enough to make anyone cringe due to the fact that he had several open burn wounds. It was believed that the one thing that kept this soldier alive was the photo of his wife that was pinned to his tunic.

While at London’s Waterloo train station, Bess notices a woman and a soldier. The woman appears to be very upset and crying. Bess could not get over the fact that the soldier did not seem to reach out to the woman to provide some kind of comfort. As Bess caught a glimpse of the woman’s face, she could not believe what she saw. There was no mistake about it. This woman is the same person in the photo the burn victim has pinned to his tunic. What is going on?

Almost by accident, Bess discovers that the mysterious woman has been murdered. The murder happened the same day that Bess saw the woman and the soldier at the train station. When her husband is told this tragic news, he commits suicide. Bess is granted leave to give her information to Scotland Yard. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Melanie Cooper, and her long time friend Angie DeLaura have opened Fairy Tale Cupcakes thanks to the financial backing of Tate Harper. They have done everything right. The décor is oh so retro with its pretty pink and gray. They’ve come up with a popular array of signature cupcakes such as Tinkerbells and Blonde Bombshells and are even offering classes in making specialty drink flavored cupcakes (think Mojitos). While more customers by the day are finding the cupcakes irresistible, the owner of the other bakery in town is not a happy. In fact, she is nearly stalking the place in her pink van. Unfortunately, that is not the only problem the girls are going to have.

When Tate convinces his fiancé to have cupcakes for their wedding, Mel and Angie have to work with the control freak perfectionist Christie. Christie wants exclusive cupcakes flavors for her wedding-five different kinds, and she wants samples to evaluate by the end of the week. When Mel goes to the meeting with her, she finds Christie dead. Immediately she becomes the number one suspect. Working to clear her name and save her business, Mel soon finds any number of other viable suspects. Despite her reputation as a top designer, Christie was not a popular person. The problem is, the evidence keeps piling up against Mel-or at least against someone connected to Fairy Tale Cupcakes. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

In this the sixteenth book with Anna Pigeon as the protagonist, Barr takes a break from the wilds of the National Parks as readers are used to and puts Anna on administrative leave in New Orleans. Before even settling in to her friend Geneva’s guest cottage, Anna becomes involved in an incident retrieving a wayward dog for a strange young man. Jordan, the young man was not at all appreciative of the gesture.

But before readers get too comfortable following this plot line, they are whisked off to Washington State and meet Clare on arguably the worst night of her life. She returns home from a quick errand to find her two girls missing. What follows is not for the faint of heart.

Eventually, the two threads twist together creating a heart wrenching, though grim tale that could only take place in a city like New Orleans. Where costumed people wandering around at all hours are considered perfectly normal and voodoo shops abound. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Fire and Ice brings together Jance’s two most popular protagonists uniting Seattle’s J.P. Beaumont and Cochise County, Arizona’s Joanna Brady. When they were last pulled in on the same case, there was a bit of electricity between the two both professionally and personally leaving readers wanting more. And now we have it.

Beaumont’s case involves a string of brutal murders of Hispanic women killed, then dumped and burned. Brady is investigating a cold-blooded attack on the caretaker for an ATV Park located in a Dunes area. Was the attack random or by an environmentalist group? There is also quite an ugly eldercare issue involved. Unlike their first joint venture in Partners in Crime, Jance takes her time merging the separate cases together in this book, leaving readers with a constant shift between two seemingly unrelated cases being handled by two very different departments. The shift between the two cases often occurs within the same chapter as well, giving readers the feeling that they are literally reading two books at once until quite deep within the book. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Following How to Host a Killer Party, How to Crash a Killer Bash finds event planner Presley Parker planning a major fundraiser for the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The director has requested a murder mystery theme for the party so guests arrive decked out in costumes of their favorite detectives. They are then given little spy glasses and notebooks to aid them in their quest to “solve” the crime they are to witness. The stage is set for the crime to happen and the “real” detectives straight out of crime fiction are introduced to the audience. The crime is staged with all of the appropriate screams and blood with everything seemingly humming along nicely-that is except for the part where the victim really is dead. Before long, Presley’s assistant becomes the main suspect and Presley is left to find the real killer.

Presley Parker is a protagonist that readers can’t help but like. She’s been down on her luck but lands on her feet when she comes up the idea for an event planning business. For a mystery series, it’s a near perfect occupation. Presley will be doing something different in each book and will then have an entirely new set of supporting characters each time out. Warner uses real places around San Francisco to set the stage for her series which gives the reader a definite sense of place. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Caryn St. Clair

Bones of Contention is a great start to a fresh new series. In what is essentially a house party mystery, readers are introduced to Dinah Pelerin who has travelled to Australia to be with her dying uncle in his final days. The family, called together to await his death, is made up of a large group of people related (or not) through a complicated series of step parents and half siblings-or nonsiblings, as the case may be. It is also a family that does not get along. There is not an average run of the mill person among this group with each one of them hiding some sort of secret or plotting another agenda altogether. The family is so dysfunctional that their behavior teeters on slapstick in some cases. In fact, the dying man may not actually be dying at all, as some family members believe, but is instead is playing out some sort of fanciful scheme with them all. Throw in that he is extremely wealthy and is redoing his will causes things heat up fast. Oh, and there are two murders to be solved along the way as well.

The book is set in the Australian Outback and the author has used the culture, language and landscape of the Outback to give the book a very realistic feel. As an example, Dinah’s own desire to pursue a career in anthropology was derailed, but she is quick to pick up the Aboriginals’ idea of song lines. This plot line was extremely interesting. The basic idea is that things in nature possess parts of the soul of the peoples who “sang” the land into existence and therefore the landscape holds the footprints of your people’s ancestors. The author arcs this idea over to Dinah’s search to find out her own family “song line,” a story thread not entirely resolved by the end of this book. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

Savannah Stone creates math and logic puzzles that appear in more than forty-two papers. Zach, Savannah’s husband, was the police chief in Charlotte, North Carolina before an on the job injury forced him into early retirement. Zach is trying to use his expertise as a police chief to start his own consulting business.

A phone call from Davis Rawles who stepped into Zach’s position sets Savannah on edge. She feels that Rawles has been soliciting too much free advice from Zach. Rawles informs Zach that Mayor Grady Winslow is receiving threats that seem to be tied to an unknown suspect that had already committed two murders. He asks for Zach’s help before the Mayor becomes another victim in the string of murders. Read the rest of this entry »

Reviewed by Patricia Reid

A giant man called Zeus is arrested for the murder of Benjamin Kuros, a famous evangelist. Zeus is accused of beating Kuros to death with a wooden cross. People are protesting and wanting Zeus punished.

Rick Bullock is a former advertising executive who is now director of a homeless shelter. This homeless shelter is where Zeus has made his home. Rick is convinced that Zeus is just not capable of hurting anyone let alone beating someone to death with a cross.

Rick sets out to prove Zeus is innocent. His sidekicks are a couple of very different characters and their trip to Florida where Zeus is being held is nothing short of hysterical. Rick has asked Dr. Douglas Kool who works with the United Way for help in financing the trip. Doug agrees but only if Rick will see that a mobster’s niece travels with the group. The mobster has obtained a job interview for Twyla Tharp, his niece, at Universal Studios in Orlando and Rick is to see she makes it to the job interview. Read the rest of this entry »