The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant

The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant by Liza Tully:

On the night of her sixty-fifth birthday party, Victoria Summersworth somehow fell over her balcony railing to her death on the rocky shore of Vermont’s Lake Champlain. She was a happy woman—rich, beloved, in love, and matriarch of the preeminent Summersworth family. The police ruled her death a suicide, but Victoria’s daughter Haley thinks it was murder.

Merritt (detective) and Olivia (new assistant) soon discover that the Summersworth family is complicated web of lies, ambitions, and resentments. As the list of suspects grows, Olivia makes one apparent mistake after another. 

Tully has written an entertaining mystery novel, however, it would have been a better book without the anti-fat bias and homophobia running through the plot.

Tully, Liza. (2025). The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant. New York: Berkeley.

Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery #1)

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala is the first book in her Tita Rosie's Kitchen culinary cozy mystery series.

When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she's the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila's left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block… [fantastic fiction]

Manansala, Mia P. (2021). Arsenic and Adobo. New York: Berkeley Prime Crime.

A Death in Cornwall (Gabriel Allon #24)

A Death in Cornwall by Daniel Silva is the 24th book in the Gabriel Allon series - following the life of an art restorer and now-retired Mossad agent. 

Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into London to attend a reception at the Courtauld Gallery celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. But when an old friend from the Devon and Cornwall Police seeks his help with a baffling murder investigation, he finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary.

This is my favorite thriller/mystery/espionage series. Gabriel Allon is a great character. Daniel Silva is an amazing writer. If you like books, check out this series.

Silva, Daniel. (2024). A Death in Cornwall. New York: Harper.

Titanium Noir

Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway is a genreblend of science fiction and detective series. 

Cal Sounder is a detective who works with the police on sensitive cases - those involving Titans. Titans are the superrich who have taken T7 therapy to expand their lives, a side effect of which is to make people extremely tall. 

When Roddy Tebbit, a professor and Titan is found dead, Cal is called. Tebbit does not fit the usual profile of a Titan but his height says he is one. How did someone on a professor salary pay for the ridiculously expensive therapy? Why did Stefan Tonfemecasca, the man who controls the technology and who gets to use it, allow Tebbit to become a Titan?

Harkaway has created a moody noir setting in both the underbelly of the city and in the supertalls where the Titans live. This is a great combination of noir and science fiction. Fun read!

Harkaway, Nick. (2023). Titanium Noir. New York: Knopf.

Remarkably Bright Creatures

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt is a delightful novel. 

Tova Sullivan works the Sowell Bay Aquarium night shift – cleaning up after the visitors who come during the day. She talks to the sea life as she goes, never thinking that there is someone who understands her. 

Marcellus is a giant Pacific octopus. He has been at the aquarium for most of his life, but still longs for the openness of the Puget Sound. At night he roams the various tanks looking for snacks, but careful not to eat so many that his captors do not notice. 

One night Tova has to help Marcellus back to his tank. He has been caught in a cord while raiding the lunchroom. This starts a unique friendship that will lead to Tova solving a mystery that has haunted her since 1989. 

If this first book is a hint as what is to come from Shelby Van Pelt, we can only hope that she becomes a prolific writer! Buy a copy of this book today – you will likely loan it to everyone you know to share in the delight.

Van Pelt, Shelby. (2022). Remarkably Bright Creatures. New York: Ecco.

A Sunlit Weapon (Maisie Dobbs #17)

A Sunlit Weapon by Jacqueline Winspear is her seventeenth book featuring detective and psychologist Maisie Dobbs. 

October 1942. ATA pilots ferry planes to bases and around the United Kingdom. These female pilots make sure the planes are where they need to be for the male pilots to use on bombing runs.

Jo Hardy is shot at while ferrying a plane to Biggin Hill. A friend a is later shot down in the same location. When Jo drives back to the area to investigate, she finds a US soldier tied up in an old barn. 

Hardy hires Maisie to find out who is shooting at the planes and why. When Maisie needs to interview the US soldier, she runs into both US bureaucracy and racism, as well as her husband's job. 

Maisie Dobbs is probably my favorite fictional character! Winspear is a wonderful writer who fills her books with accurate history, fully formed characters, intrigue and a real sense of being there. If you are a fan of history, mystery or just good writing, buy the first book in series today.

Winspear, Jacqueline. (2022). A Sunlit Weapon. New York: Harper.

The Lola Quartet

The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel follows journalist Gavin Sasaki as he heads from New York City to his hometown of Sebastian, Florida for a story.

While in town on a story of how the wilds of Florida are both getting closer to people's homes as development expands and is getting more dangerous as exotic pets are released when their humans cannot handle them anymore, Gavin has dinner with his sister Elio. Elio is a real estate agent who deals with foreclosures. 

While in a house, Elio saw a young girl who looked exactly like her. When she asked the girl's name, be suspected that the little girl was Gavin's with his high school girlfriend. Elio took a photo of the girl.

The photo has two different effects. Gavin begins a search for his ex-girlfriend - who never told him that she was pregnant. And the woman with whom the girl was staying thinks she has been found by a man that has been hunting for her most of her life. 

Mandel has written a tense, twisty novel that follows Gavin's search for his high school girlfriend. Told in flashbacks as he interviews the people he grew up with, a story unfolds of both circumstance and choices. Mandel is a masterful storyteller.

Mandel, Emily St. John. (2012). The Lola Quartet. New York: Unbridled Books.

The Guide (Sequel to The River)

The Guide by Peter Heller is a fishing murder mystery where the guide might be in deep water. Heller fans will recognize Jack from The River. 

Kingfisher Lodge, located on the a mile and a half of the best fly fishing in the world, plays host to the wealthiest of clients. And now, during the latest of a series of world-wide pandemics, it is one of the last places to get away.

Jack has been hired to finish out the season when a river guide quits with no notice. He will be in charge of one to two clients at a time. And he is about to be thrown in as his first client is arriving in the morning.

Alison K is a well-known singer, taking a break from touring to recover. She is a seasoned fisherperson, having grown up in the Carolinas in a fishing family. She arrives with a security guard who assesses the lodge before he signs off on her week of rest.

But something strange is going on here. Each edge of the property is very clearly marked - one with a Don't Get Shot sign, and the other with a Beware Dogs will eat you vibe. 

What follow is Peter Heller at his best (which he is at in each of his books!). A suspenseful ride that will keep readers up until the last page. If you have not yet read Peter Heller, start today with any of his novels. You will quickly consume them all!

Heller, Peter.(2021). The Guide. New York: Alfred A Knopf.

The Rose Code

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn is about the women who broke codes for England during World War II and the person who betrayed them.

Bletchley Park recruited from anyone who might be able to help break codes - mathematicians, puzzle aficionados, men and women.

Three code breakers who were inseparable during the war are brought back together in 1947 when one of them receives a coded message in the mail - using a cypher they used to pass notes during the war. 

Osla, a German speaker is a debutante who dated Prince Phillip. Mab is from Shoreditch and took a secretarial course to get out and help her family. Beth is a master at crosswords and seeing patterns.

They are called to crack one more code - one that will save the lives of two of them. 

Quinn is a storytelling mage. Her historical fiction puts the reader right in the thick of it. Choose any of her books and you will be up well past your bedtime thoroughly engrossed.

Quinn, Kate. (2021). The Rose Code. New York: William Morrow.  

Magic for Liars

Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey is the story of Ivy Gamble being hired to solve a death at a high school for magic students - the same high school in which her sister teaches.

Ivy and her twin sister kinda went their separate ways when Tabitha started doing magic. You are either born with magic or you are not. Now Tabitha is a teacher at a prestigious magic school and Ivy is a hard-drinking private detective.

Ivy will have to investigate in a setting she does not understand. Her knowledge of magic is better than most, in that she knows it exists. But that is where her knowledge stops. She will have to decide who to trust to teach her as she interviews teachers and students to discover what happened to the woman who was divided in two in the library.

Gailey is a creative storyteller. Their books never go quite where you expect. If you need a book Sarah Gailey is always a great author to pick up.

Gailey, Sarah. (2019). Magic for Lairs. New York: Tor. 

The Consequences of Fear (Maisie Dobbs #16)

The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear is her sixteenth book featuring the amazing Maisie Dobbs, private detective and psychologist. London, October 1941.

Freddie Hackett, a boy who runs messages through the blackout, witnesses a murder during a bombing raid. He then delivers his message to the same man he saw stab someone.

When the police do not believe him, Freddie goes to Maisie Dobb's office. He has run messages for her for her war work and knows she solves crimes. 

Winspear is a masterful writer whose research (including within her family history) makes for scenes in which you can feel the bombs drop. If you like mystery, historical fiction or just damn well written books, read this series. 

Winspear, Jacqueline. (2021). The Consequences of Fear. New York: Harper. 

Piranesi

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is one of my favorite books of the last few years. It is a story that can be read a philosophy, a look at the human condition, or just a beautiful story of the awe people see in the world around them.

The House has hundreds of rooms and vestibules, all filled with statures. All room's statues are different than those of the other rooms. And the House makes up the entirety of the world.

A few rooms have collapse into the sea and become the Drowned Rooms where you can fish, collect seaweed and watch the birds.

Piranesi knows the house. He has explored and mapped his world. He knows the tides that sometimes close off sections. He has made a life with what his world has to offer.

The only other living person in this life, simply called the Other, meets with him twice per week. He is researching a Great and Secret Knowledge. He and Piranesi could not be more different in their approach to life.

This is all I can say without giving too much away. I absolutely love this book. Buy a copy today from your favorite local bookshop. 

Clarke, Susanna. (2020). Piranesi. New York: Bloomsbury.

Once You Go That Far (Roxane Weary #4)

Once You Go That Far by Kristen Lepionka is the fourth book in the mystery series featuring PI Roxane Weary. 

Roxane has decided to exercise more. Her hard drinking and odd hours investigating need a balance. But when she starts out on a trail, she hears a scuffle. A woman has fallen / was pushed down a steep hill. 

School nurse Rebecca Newsome's daughter hires Roxane to investigate what really happened. She is sure that her mom's ex-husband must have done it. As Roxane pieces together Rebecca's last days, they don't add up.

Lepionka has created a wonderful, flawed character. Her writing will pull you in immediately and her twists and turns will take you by surpirse.

Lepionka, Kristen. (2020). Once You Go That Far. New York: Minotaur Books.

House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City #1)

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas is the first book in her Crescent City series, a fantasy series that also includes technology of our world (cars, computers, guns, etc...).

Bryce Quinlan is half Fae and half human. She lives in Lunathion, also called Crescent City, and is known as a partier. Her best friend Danika Fendyr is the leader of a pack of wolf shapeshifters. Bryce works at an auction house that deals in rare to forbidden art, books, artifacts, and is owned by a sorceress who is reported to turn those who annoy her into animals.

A brutal murder changes Bryce's life forever. Due to her relationship to the victims and her attempt to kill the demon who did it, she is tasked to help find who summoned the demon. She is assigned a bodyguard / partner who is a fallen angel known as the Shadow of Death.

Their investigation takes them to all levels of the city, into their own dark pasts, up against incredibly powerful creatures.

This first in Maas's new series will not disappoint. She has quickly grown to become on of the most loved fantasy authors. Her books are cleaver, fast, twisty and sexy.

Maas, Sarah J. (2020). House of Earth and Blood. New York: Bloomsbury.

The Clockmaker's Daughter

The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton is a beautiful mystery / ghost story.

In 1862 a group of artists spend the summer at a house in the countryside on the Upper Thames, a house called Birchwood Manor. What is supposed to be a time of creativity is ruined by a murder and disappearance.

150 years later an archivist, Elodie Winslow, receives a satchel found in a closet. It contains a sketchbook and a sepia photo of a beautiful woman. The two do not seem to be related and the satchel is from a later era. One of the sketches in the book is of a house that looks exactly like the house is a story Elodie's mother told her as a child.

Weaving together the two time periods, Morton weaves a tale of mystery, family secrets and a beautiful manor by the river. This is a beautiful story, read it today.

Morton, Kate. (2018). The Clockmaker's Daughter. New York: Atria Books.

The Last Woman in the Forest

The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets is murder mystery in which the main character reaches out to a detective because she has questions about her boyfriend.

Marian Engstrom works with the National Parks on studies. She began her first job in the frozen oils sands of northern Alberta. Working with rescue dogs to study endangered wildlife, Marian falls for her trainer, Tate.

Between studies, employees stay at The Den in Colorado. Training dogs who are on breaks as well, keeping them in top form from the next job. Tate is on another assignment and Marian is at The Den when she hears of his death.

Something does not sit right with Marian and she reaches out to a retired forensic profiler, Nick. Not about Tate's death, but about something he told her that does not add up. Tate says he found one of the victims of the Stillwater Killer, a man who is believed to have killed four women and left them in the wilderness.

Combining a fascinating career in wildlife studies with a brutal serial killer mystery, Les Becquest has written another novel in which the outdoors plays a main roll. Her books are an interesting combination of thriller/suspense and the psychology of both killers and their victims. This is a haunting novel of hope and fear.

Les Becquets, Diane. (2019). The Last Woman in the Forest. New York: Berkley.

The Wild Inside

The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo is a mystery in which the detective learns as much about himself as the case.

Ted Systead is a special agent with the National Parks system. He is a detective that comes in to help out when the local rangers need it.

It has been twenty years since he has set foot in Glacier National Park. As the age of fourteen, Ted was camping when they were attached by a grizzly. His father a killed.

Now a case that looks like a bear attach has his back at Glacier. Not only will he need to solve the case of who tied a man to a tree where he was eaten by a bear, but deal with the memories of his childhood trauma.

Carbo has written a psychological thriller for the main character, embedded into a mystery in a beautiful setting. It is as much a story of man against nature as it is a mystery. This is the first book in her Glacier Mystery series.

Carbo, Christine. (2015). The Wild Inside. New York: Atria.

A Minute to Midnight (Atlee Pine #2)

A Minute to Midnight by David Baldacci is the second book in his mystery thriller series featuring FBI agent Atlee Pine.

After intercepting a kidnapper in the process of stealing a teenage girl, and beating him silly, Atlee has been offered some time off. Since Pine is not much for being idle, she decides to work on her sister's cold case.

Pine and her assistant, Carol Blum, head to Andersonville, Georgia. Atlee has not been there for nearly 30 years. As a child, a man came into her room and kidnapped her twin sister Mercy, while leaving Atlee in the hospital with a massive head injury. There has been no sight of Mercy since that night.

Atlee plans to interview her parents friends and anyone else who is still around and may remember something. But her visit seems to have set someone off - as she practically trips over a dead body in town.

Baldacci writes great mysteries and thrillers. Atlee Pine is a determined, focused FBI agent who will never stop looking for her sister.

Baldacci, David. (2019). A Minute to Midnight. NY: Grand Central Publishing.

The Painter

The Painter by Peter Heller is a book of pain, loss and art.

Jim Stegner is an artist who lives in the desert in rural Colorado. Though he paints what he wants, sometimes without conscious thought, he is a popular painter in the Santa Fe scene and his agent loves him. His art is how he processes emotions and the pain in which he lives.

Jim's other passion is fishing. He is an avid fly-fisher on all of the rivers of the Southwest. 

One day while leaving the river, he stops a man from beating his horse. Now Jim has the horse and the man and his friends are on a mission to make Jim's life miserable. 

The Painter is the story of a man who is trying to live a quite life in the middle of nowhere, a man whom violence seems to follow. This is a compelling and haunting tale that will stick with you far after you return it to the shelf. Heller has a way with words that will make you a loyal fan after the first chapter in any of his novels.

Heller, Peter. (2014). The Painter. New York: Knopf.

Paradise Valley (Cassie Dewell #3)

Paradise Valley by C.J. Box is the third book in his series featuring Cassie Dewell, a police investigator working (currently) in Bakken County, North Dakota. In this case, two of Cassie’s previous cases will collide, endangering a boy she cares about and involving a man she has been hunting for years.

Dewell, with the aid of an FBI task force and a district attorney from the East Coast, has set a trap for a serial killer who uses the highways as his hiding place. The Lizard King has been at large for years. He has been questioned twice but has not been arrested for the suspected murder of dozens of women across the country. He is a long-haul trucker working on his own and traceable by no one.

Over the years, Dewell has posted jobs on a board for truckers looking to fill empty space as they drive. The only way the independent drivers make money is by hauling a full load. Now, finally, the man for whom she has been searching has agreed to pick up a load. Better yet, they have surveillance of him picking up a woman as a truck stop – a woman who did not leave the truck before the truck drove away. If they time it right, they can catch him and save the woman.

On the same day as the setup, Kyle Westergaard, age 15, disappears along with his best friend. Did they run away like a note says or did something else happen.

Dewell is a character who follows her instincts, even when logic dictates otherwise. Read this series for an enjoyable mystery / suspense series.

Box, C.J. (2017). Paradise Valley. NY: Minotaur.