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Hello historical fiction/gentle mystery with a strong female heroine fans!  I’ve just discovered the first book in what I’m told will be a new mystery series, originally published in the winter of 2016.  A Front Page Affair is set in the early 1900s just after the sinking of the Lusitania and as the United States sits on the brink of

Lisa Jewell is a best-selling novelist from London, with thirteen books to her name.  I recently discovered her with the help of a colleague.  She has a new novel out, but while waiting for it, and itching for another thriller, I gave The Girls in the Garden a try.  The “garden” is in the center of a housing complex in London.

Sara Sheridan is a UK author and journalist, reporting for the BBC and blogging for the Guardian and the London Review of Books.  Her Mirabelle Bevan Mysteries have a loyal following “across the pond” and should garner a growing fan base here in the US if Brighton Belle tells me anything. Described by the Sunday Herald as “one part Nancy

The best-selling author of Admission returns with another college campus novel.  Naomi Roth is appointed the first female president of Webster College  (a fictitious school, but think NESCAC).  Until her appointment, Naomi was a Webster professor; she is Jewish, a feminist,  a once upon a time protester, and a single mother. Her only daughter attends Webster.  One of Naomi’s first challenges

WOW!  That is my first reaction. Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is a fantastic and timely novel. The story begins when Eitan Green, an Israeli neurosurgeon, is driving home from a lengthy shift in the ER.  Instead of going straight home, he decides to take a night-time drive in the desert in his SUV, following the same road the people of

Swimming Lessons is a cleverly written novel about Gil, a slightly eccentric, charming, dazzling…and philandering English professor.  Perhaps you know the type.  Wonderful to be around but you wouldn’t want to date him!  His wife Ingrid died over a decade earlier, presumably by drowning while swimming in the ocean.  One day, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid, and tries to follow

The “girl” is Jane.  She needs a fresh start after a personal tragedy, and looks to rent a nice but affordable place.  She is introduced to One Folgate Street, a house designed by Edward Monkford,  a famous architect who makes his tenants apply to live in this minimalist and dweller sensitive home.  Jane’s application is competitive and includes an exhaustive survey

For fans of Susan Elia MacNeal’s Maggie Hope mysteries and Amy Stewart’s Kopp Sisters novels…oh wait, that is me!  Greer Macallister introduces us to Kate Warne, a little known but actual person from the 1800s. Kate is recently widowed, without children, and suddenly in need of a job to support herself.  She fancies herself quite clever with detective work, and

The Roanoke Girls.  Here is a novel about a big mid-western family with a whole ‘lotta crazy.  I have admittedly found it hard to stop reading psychological thrillers-I don’t enjoy violence or sex in them but the building tension and a surprise at the “ah-hah” moment has been very satisfying lately! Lane Roanoke is living day-to-day in Los Angeles when

Amidst my psychological thriller phase, I revisited the work of Flannery O’Connor, with the help of a brief course taught by a retired English teacher.  Each week we read three stories, listened to a lecture, and discussed our various takes on her work, most notably using the themes of faith, violence and retribution, justice; we also considered the external factors