Murder in an Irish Bookshop (Irish Village Mystery #7) by Carlene O'Connor

 Murder in an Irish Bookshop (Irish Village Mystery #7) by Carlene O'Connor-304 pages

This is the latest in the Irish Village Mystery series by Carlene O'Connor. I just finished the first in the series ("Murder in an Irish Village"). The story of Kilbane and the O'Sullivan Six continues. In this latest installment, a new bookshop opens up in Kilbane and the owners are selective about who gets inside to shop. The owners, Padraig and Oran McCarthy, host an event with 3 Irish authors who try to impress an agent in order to sign with him. However, one of these authors, Deirdre (the others are Lorcan Murphy and Nessa Lamb) is murdered. Who murdered her and why? I enjoyed reading this and I enjoyed the ending. I started this for last month's challenge, but didn't finish in time. I would recommend this to anyone who likes M.C. Beaton and/or Agatha Christie. 

Murder in an Irish Village (Irish Village #1) by Carlene O'Connor

Murder in an Irish Village (Irish Village #1) by Carlene O'Connor-353 pages

This is the first novel in the Irish Village series. It's another "cozy mystery" and crime novel. I am expanding my horizons when it comes to reading new authors. I have always had an affinity for Ireland and I do have a wee bit of Irish ancestry, so this piqued my interest. The O'Sullivan Six lost both their parents in a car accident a year prior to the events of this story and Siobhan has taken the role of mother of the brood. A body is found in the bistro operated by the O'Sullivans and the oldest, James, is suspected of the murder. Siobhan is bent on clearing her older brother's name and finding the real killer. She gets herself into the business of her neighbors and asks all kinds of questions of them in search of the murderer. Will Siobhan find the murderer and clear her brother? I enjoyed reading this one and I look forward to reading the newest one in this series "Murder in an Irish Bookshop." 

Death of a Liar (Hamish Macbeth #30) by M.C. Beaton

 Death of a Liar (Hamish Macbeth #30) by M.C. Beaton-307 pages

Another (slightly earlier than "Death of a Ghost") novel in the Hamish Macbeth Mystery series by M.C. Beaton, I enjoyed "Death of a Liar." In this entry, the reader finds Hamish Macbeth trying to solve the mystery of the murder of a woman from a nearby village who had "cried wolf" too many times. When the woman leaves a frantic voice message for Hamish one night hysterically exclaiming that a man is trying to break into her cottage he doesn't immediately believe her. However, the next morning, feeling guilty, Hamish decides to check in on the woman and that's when he finds her dead body in her garden. More murders and mayhem commence in the months following this initial crime, but Hamish eventually solves the case (with a little help) as usual. 

Death of a Ghost by M.C. Beaton

Death of a Ghost by M.C. Beaton-256 pages

 This is a Hamish Macbeth Mystery (book #32 in the series) and I enjoyed reading it. It's a light read and one that could be called a "cozy mystery." Police Sgt. Hamish Macbeth is called to Drim (in the Scottish highlands) to a castle now owned by a former police superintendent who has been hearing strange noises and thinks the castle might be haunted. The castle is not haunted, but a dead body of a Professor John Gordon is found on the grounds and a mystery is afoot. More people are found dead soon and the question becomes whether or not the same person murdered all of them or if it was more than one murderer. I read this because NoveList suggested M.C. Beaton as a read alike to Agatha Christie and I would mostly agree. If you like Agatha Christie, then you would probably like M.C. Beaton. Also, I've been to Scotland and the Scottish highlands setting of this novel and series intrigued me. 

Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Glass Houses: A Novel by Louise Penny --- 391 pages with Author's Note

"There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts." 
--- Mahatma Gandhi

Penny’s 13th novel featuring Chief Superintendent. Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec is as riveting a tale as Penny's many fans have come to expect. The novel opens with Gamache, the chief witness for the prosecution of a  brutal murder, being grilled by the Crown Prosecutor in a stifling hot Montreal courtroom. 

The presiding judge Maureen Corriveau, who’s trying her first homicide case, is taken aback by the animosity between the Crown Prosecutor and his own witness. She begins to suspect that something untoward is going on in her courtroom. 

The story of the murder, committed in Gamache's home village of Three Pines, is slowly revealed in flashbacks. It begins at a Halloween party, where the evening's merriment is disturbed by the presence of a silent figure robed and masked all in black. The next day the figure shows up in the middle of the village green, standing silent, motionless, and staring. And the next day, and the next. The entire village is unnerved. Then, the figure is gone, as mysteriously as it appeared. The village begins to relax --- until Madame Gamache finds a black-masked and robed body in the cellar under the village church. 

The shocking death brings back memories of other misdeeds that plagued the village in the distant past and seems to be related to Gamache's current preoccupation: the out of control opioid epidemic and the violent drug cartels fighting to control the trade are overwhelming the forces of law and order.  

All the familiar and much-loved characters from Three Pines and the Sûreté are present and each contributes in his or her own way to the shattering climax.

Click HERE to read an interview with Louise Penny from CBS News.

Click HERE to read a review from the Seattle Times.

Click HERE to read a review from the Washington Post.

Click HERE to read a review from the Christian Science Monitor.

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith

Career of Evil: A Cormoran Strike Novel by Robert Galbraith --- 492 pages

The third novel in the Cormoran Strike series of crime novels by J.K. Rowling writing under the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith, is equally suspenseful as its predecessors, The Cuckoo's Calling and The Silkworm.

This time out, Strike and his assistant Robin Ellacott, are in pursuit of a sociopath serial killer who is stalking Robin because of a long festering grudge against Strike. The trouble is, Strike can think of at least four men from his past who could be twisted, sick, violent and vengeful enough to qualify as suspects.

Adding to the tension in the office is Robin's ambivalent attitude about her relationship with her fiance, the insufferable Matthew, and the wedding lurking on the horizon. In the course of the investigation we learn more about both Robin and Strike's backstories, which helps explain a lot about their difficult partnership.

A real page turner, almost impossible to put down, and once finished, you'll want to go back and pick out the clues you missed the first time through.

Click HERE for the Chicago Tribune review.

Click HERE for the National Public Radio review.

Click HERE for the New York Times review.

Click HERE for the Boston Globe review.

Blood on Snow by Jo Nesbø

Blood on Snow: A Novel by JoNesbø; translated from the Norwegian by Neil Smith --- 208 pages

In this novella by the author of the Harry Hole police thrillers, Nesbø takes as his unlikely hero a "fixer" named Olaf. Olaf became a "fixer" (a contract killer) because, he tells us, he failed miserably as a getaway driver, a pimp and a drug dealer. But he's very good at killing people, mostly because he can work alone and at his own pace. 

But now he's been ordered to fix his mobster boss's beautiful, unfaithful wife. Olaf is leery of doing this job, because it will mean he has a hold over his boss. That will make the boss anxious; and who's to say he won't decide to relieve that anxiety by getting rid of Olaf?

Olaf is the narrator of the story, so we see things from his point of view --- which may or may not be entirely reliable. Reportedly the book has already been optioned as a vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio, and the strong visual elements and escalating tension seem ready made for film. (Although DiCaprio would not be my choice for the lead.)

If you haven't read Nesbø before, this would be an intriguing introduction to his brand of  Nordic Noir. It's short enough to read in one sitting, and compulsive enough to make that likely. I certainly couldn't put it down.

Click HERE to read a review from The Guardian.

Click HERE to listen to a review on NPR.

Click HERE to read an opposing viewpoint from the New York Times.

Click HERE to read a review from the Boston Globe.

The Last Taxi Ride by A.X. Ahmad

The Last Taxi Ride; A Ranjit Singh Novel by A. X. Ahmad --- 361 pages

The second book in a new mystery series featuring an ex-Indian Army captain who now ekes out a living driving a taxi in New York City.

The story involves an Indian film star fallen on hard times, the Mumbai mob's efforts to infiltrate the large East Indian expatriate community in New York, and an ingenious new form of human trafficking. Both the taxi driver brotherhood and the
vibrant culture of the East Indian neighborhoods are vividly portrayed. The story is an interesting combination of crime fiction and a romantic subplot straight out of a Bollywood film.

The author was born and raised in India, educated in the United States, and has worked as an architect. The first book in the series is The Caretaker.

Click HERE to check out the author's web site.

The Son by Jo Nesbo

The Son by Jo Nesbo; translated from the Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund --- 402 pages

Jo Nesbo is a musician, songwriter and economist as well as an award-winning Norwegian writer of gripping psychological crime novels.

He describes his new book, The Son, as a biblically-themed story of love, betrayal, vengeance and redemption.  I read it in one day; once I started, I was unable to put the book down until I finished it. Kudoes not just to the author but to the translator!


Cllick HERE to read a review of The Son.

Rustication by Charles Palliser

Rustication: A Novel by Charles Palliser --- 323 pages

Ron Charles, reviewing Palliser's latest Victorian thriller in the Washington Post (Click HERE to read the full review) sums it up pithily:

"Getting suspended from college is a bummer. Coming home to find your mom and sister have moved into The House of Usher is worse."

Palliser's specialty is the Victorian era with all of its repressed sexuality, rigid class distinctions and morbid fascination with violence. The tale is told through the journal entries of seventeen-year-old Richard Shenstone, who has been sent down --- rusticated --- in disgrace by his college in Cambridge for reasons he would prefer not to admit to his mother and sister. They too have been "rusticated" --- driven from their home and deprived of their respectable position and income by the disgrace and death of their clergyman husband and father. They have taken refuge in a dilapidated old house on the edge of a marsh near a small village not far from their former abode in Thurchester, which Richard's mother says she inherited from her own father. But one thing soon becomes clear amongst all the complexities of this story, and that is that nothing is as it seems and no one is telling the whole truth, not in Richard's family, not amongst the other inhabitants of the village, not in Cambridge and not in Thurchester.Atmospheric and absorbing, this is the kind of story that will keep you up reading half the night, with all the lights on.

Charles Palliser was born in the U.S. but has lived in the U.K. since he was three years old. He holds dual American and Irish citizenship. A graduate of Oxford University, he lives in London and writes full-time. Rustication is his fifth published novel.

Watch this Youtube REVIEW of Rustication by British author Michael Johnston

Little Green by Walter Mosley

Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley --- 291 pages

The twelfth volume in Mosley's acclaimed crime noir series featuring his iconic P.I. Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins and set in Los Angeles in the fifties and sixties.

Readers last saw Easy in Blonde Faith (2007), comatose after his car plunges over a cliff into the sea.  In this new story, the indomitable World War II veteran and streetwise investigator has regained consciousness and is back on the street searching for a young man gone missing in the drug-fueled free love counterculture of the Sunset Strip, where peace and love can turn on the spin of a dime into murder and mayhem. A trip back in time to the mean streets of 1967 L.A. during a time of social upheaval, Little Green powerfully explores Mosley's signature themes of good and evil, guilt and redemption.

Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashino

Salvation of a Saint; A Novel by Keigo Higashino, translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith with Elye Alexander --- 330 pages

The author is one of Japan's most popular novelists; this is the second book in his Detective Galileo series, following The Devotion of Suspect X, and followed by A Midsummer's Equation.

"Detective Galileo" is the nickname of Professor Manabu Yukawa, a physicist at the University in Tokyo, who uses his scientific method and knowledge to assist his friend, Tokyo Police Detective Kusanagi, and solve cases that are baffling the police.

In this book, the case involves the death by poisoning of a successful businessman, found dead alone in his own home. The most obvious suspect is the man's devoted wife. After only a year of marriage, he had just announced his intention of filing for divorce. To add insult to injury, he was having an affair with his wife's protege', had gotten the girl pregnant, and intended to marry her.  

But when the murder occurred, the wife was hundreds of miles away visiting her parents. And the police face another problem: determining just how the poison was administered. It seems to be the perfect crime: implausible, methodical, unsolvable. Even when, with painstaking effort, Kusanagi reluctantly builds a case establishing who committed the crime, it will take all of Yukawa's brilliance to help Kusanagi discover just how it was contrived.