Alphabetical Index of Mystery Reviews

The Question of the Dead Mistress

Fifth in the Asperger’s Mystery series, which started with The Question of the Missing Head by E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen four years ago, The Question of the Dead Mistress is as enjoyable as any in the series, simply due to the character interactions. Samuel, who has Asperger’s syndrome, runs an agency called Questions Answered. Each of the volumes is spurred by an unusual question, which usually leads to a murder to solve. In this case, the question is, “Is […]

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Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s

Mystery fans, if you’re interested in learning more about the history of the medium, there’s a super-sized — over 1100 pages! — volume coming out this fall you’ll want to check out. Classic American Crime Fiction of the 1920s reprints four significant mystery novel launches, plus the inspiration for one of the classic gangster movies. And they’re all annotated by Leslie S. Klinger, who did The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (and is responsible for getting Holmes into the public domain). […]

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Dreadful Company

Dr. Greta Helsing, monster doctor, and her friends are back in Dreadful Company, the followup to Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw, and this book is better than the first. (You can read it without the first, as well, since only the characters continue, and you’re given what you need to know about them.) Greta is in Paris for a medical conference about treating the supernatural. Her vampire friend Ruthven is taking her to the opera, but that’s the last bit […]

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Last Looks

Out this week is a Hollywood-set mystery that puts a green spin on the weirdo obsessive detective type. Last Looks by Howard Michael Gould introduces Charlie Waldo. He was an LA police detective before something bad (but predictable) happened, driving him to live in a tiny house in the woods in solitude. He’s decided, in order to minimize his impact on the world, that he can only own 100 things at any time. (Don’t feel too sorry for him. Those […]

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The Mystery of Three Quarters

It’s a wonderful world we live in, where you never have to accept that you’ve reached the end of a favorite series. If you have enough friends with similar tastes, there’s always more money to be made from a franchise extension. Even if swapping creators or eras means something isn’t as good as it once was. The latest example is the third new mystery starring Agatha Christie‘s Hercule Poirot, as written by Sophie Hannah. The Mystery of Three Quarters, out […]

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The Con Artist — Death at San Diego Comic-Con

Fred Van Lente knows comics. He’s been writing them for over a decade, with credits that include Action Philosophers, Marvel Zombies, Cowboys & Aliens, and The Comic Book History of Comics. Now, he’s written The Con Artist, a murder mystery set at the San Diego Comic-Con. Need a thriller to read on the plane to the show? Or something to remind you why you’re actually glad to not be attending this year? This is the book for you! Mike Mason […]

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Read Herring Hunt

The sequel to The Plot Is Murder by V.M. Burns is just as much a pleasant, undemanding diversion. I won’t remember much of Read Herring Hunt, but I didn’t regret spending an hour or so with the characters. There’s not as much in the bookstore this time around. Instead, Sam (the owner and our protagonist) and her overactive grandmother Nana Jo help Sam’s assistant Dawson when he’s accused of murder. He’s the quarterback for the local college football team, and […]

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The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss

The Questionable Behavior of Dahlia Moss is the third in the series of mysteries featuring an accidental hipster geek detective, after The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss and The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss, all by Max Wirestone. I liked it best, because the heroine and the series both seemed to have calmed down a little, focusing on figuring out what’s gone wrong instead of dropping trends to a distracting degree. Dahlia has been enlisted as an industrial spy, only […]

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