Category Archives: Mystery
By The Time You Read This by Giles Blunt
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Hardcover (available in mass market), 308 pages, 2006 Rating: 9/10 Reason for Reading: I read and loved two of Blunt’s previous novels, Forty Words for Sorrow and The Delicate Storm. Synopsis: When Detective John Cardinal loses someone close to him, he refuses to believe it was suicide. The nasty, taunting notes he […]
The Overlook by Michael Connelly
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Mass market, 277 pages, 2008 Rating: 8/10 Reason for Reading: New book in the Harry Bosch series! New book in the Harry Bosch series! Synopsis: It’s the middle of the night when LAPD detective Harry Bosch receives a call about a murder – a doctor with access to radioactive substances was found […]
The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Hardcover (available in trade), 382 pages, 2006 Rating: 9/10 Reason for Reading: Bet you can’t read just one. Synopsis: Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, along with the other members of the Nursery Crime Division, is hot on the trail of a fresh crime, this time involving a missing journalist nicknamed ‘Goldy,’ some bears, […]
Twelve Sharp by Janet Evanovich
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Hardcover, 310 pages, 2006 Rating: 9/10 Reason for Reading: Why stop now? Synopsis: Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter, of the klutzy, mistake-prone sort. When the daughter of the oh-so-hot Ranger, one of her colleagues (if someone a thousand times more talented can still be referred to as a colleague), goes missing, […]
The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Hardcover (available in trade), 386 pages, 2005 Rating: 9/10 Reason for Reading: I’ve loved all of Fforde’s books. Synopsis: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall…or did he? Detective Inspector Jack Spratt is looking into the possibility that the hard-living, womanizing egg was actually murdered, with possible […]
Secondhand Smoke by Karen E. Olson
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Hardcover, 259 pages, 2006 Rating: 7/10 Reason for Reading: I read the first few paragraphs and decided it was enough to make me want to read the whole book. Synopsis: Annie Seymour is a journalist who’s about to discover the hard lessons of covering a story that’s too close to home. When […]
Messenger of Truth by Jacqueline Winspear
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Hardcover (available in trade June 2007), 322 pages, 2006 Rating: 8/10 Reason for Reading: I really enjoyed Pardonable Lies. Synopsis: In 1931 England, a young woman named Georgina comes to private investigator Maisie Dobbs with a dubious but heart-felt case: that her brother’s death wasn’t an accidental fall, but a murder. Her […]
Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Hardcover (available in trade), 364 pages, 2005 Rating: 9/10 Reason for Reading: I had no idea until I saw this book that Carolyn Keene was a pseudonym, so curiosity made me pick up Girl Sleuth to see who was behind a series I often read when I was younger. Synopsis: While the […]
My Very Own Murder by Josephine Carr
Reviewed by L.D.Y. Trade, 258 pages, 2005 Rating: 9/10 Reason for Reading: The ‘hearing voices’ premise almost scared me away, but I decided to go for it because I’ve heard Carr is a good writer. Synopsis: Anne Johnson is settling down into a lazily cozy existence – she’s fifty, living alone in a plush apartment […]