Murder Gets a Life

Sister and Mouse (Mary Alice and Patricia Anne) are back and meeting their match in Mary Alice's new daughter-in-law's family. The first introduction Mary Alice and Patricia Anne have to the new family is stumbling over a body in a trailer. Things just get better from there. When Sunshine (the daughter-in-law) disappears, the sisters have to find the solution to the puzzle before time runs out. Anne George's characters are a riot of fun and excitement. Sometimes the plot wanders but the characters make it well worth reading the books.

Sadly, the author, Anne George, passed away in 2001 from heart surgery complications. She was a celebrated poet as well as being a wonderful mystery writer.

Knots and Crosses

The streets of Edinburgh are being haunted by more than just ghosts. Girls are being kidnapped and murdered and the police have no suspects. Detective Sergeant John Rebus begins to receive notes from the killer which taunt and tease him with the same message and pieces of string tied into knots. Can he figure out who the killer is before his own daughter becomes a target?

As an interesting side-note, during the writing of Knots and Crosses, the author, Ian Rankin, briefly became a suspect in a murder case. The Edinburgh detectives had a real-life case on their hands which mirrored the plot of the story too closely for their liking. Once Rankin was able to prove that he had alibis for the relevant times, he was cleared of all suspicion.

Key Lime Pie Murder

Hannah Swensen, a wonderful baker and the owner of The Cookie Jar, has been asked to judge a baked goods contest. When one of the other judges is found murdered next to the remains of a key lime pie, Hannah must solve the crime before there is another murder. Sixteen wonderful recipes are scattered throughout the story. This book is the ninth in the Hannah Swensen series by Joanne Fluke.

Size 14 is Not Fat Either

Size 14 is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot (the sequel to Size 12 is Not Fat), like the first book, takes place in a dorm at New York College. Heather Wells, a former pop star, returns as an assistant dorm, I mean residence hall, director and amateur sleuth when a girl's head is found in the dorm's kitchen. Heather is a likeable character because she is not perfect. She was a teen pop star who is now "washed up" and battling with her self-image.

Heather becomes involved in the investigation because it seems like the police are not following up on important clues. At the same time, she has to deal with the attentions of her ex-fiance, his brother's (who is also Heather's landlord) lack of attentions, her jail-bird father's return, and, oh yeah, a murderer who is getting a little too close for comfort.

The Bookman's Promise

Cliff Janeway, former homicide detective and current bookman, returns in the third book written by John Dunning of the Cliff Janeway series, The Bookman's Promise. Since he quit the police and opened his own book shop, Janeway has become the “book cop,” the guy people go to when they need book mysteries solved. In this novel, Janeway is embroiled in a mystery about Richard Francis Burton, a nineteenth century explorer, Burton’s journal, the American Civil War, and a modern murder. He must find books stolen from Josephine Gallant more than eighty years ago. This book is a wealth of information about the book world and the pre-Civil War American South.