The too-much-for-her-time Lady Frances Ffolkes is back, but I recommend you read Death Among Rubies before Death on the Sapphire because a) you can (it gives you everything you need to know about the characters) and b) I liked this one better. That’s because it takes place in one of my very favorite mystery settings: the fancy house party. Frances, her supportive maid Miss Mallow, and her two very good friends Gwen and Tommie (who love each other, but not […]

I enjoyed greatly the first Asperger’s Mystery by E.J. Copperman and Jeff Cohen, The Question of the Missing Head, and its detectives, Samuel Hoenig and Ms. Washburn. The second, The Question of the Unfamiliar Husband, wasn’t as successful, in my opinion, so I wondered what I’d find in the third, The Question of the Felonious Friend, out next week. It’s as fun as the first. Samuel has Asperger’s Syndrome, which makes his narration particularly interesting, his observations alternately pointed and […]

The adorable pint-size private detective returns in Friday Barnes, Under Suspicion. (Her first adventure, Friday Barnes, Girl Detective, came out in January.) The eleven-year-old young woman is still struggling with her boarding school, as she’s not as polished or accepted as the more typical girls. Her disturbingly accurate powers of observation frighten the headmaster, although he benefits when she finds a missing student or solves a historical school mystery. R.A. Spratt’s approach is full of adventure, jumping into events with […]

Death on the Sapphire introduces Lady Frances Ffolkes, a proto-feminist and suffragette in 1906. It’s the first in a new series by R.J. Koreto. I liked the heroine more than the mystery. She struggles with the constraints on a “proper” lady in her time, but she still does what she wants — moving out of her brother’s house to live independently (accompanied by her ladies’ maid, Miss Mallow), handling her own finances (mostly an inheritance), and exploiting expectations of what […]

Arsenic With Austen features an older woman, Emily, a widow and a college professor who’s feeling burnt out. Then she gets the kind of news most of us can only dream of. The aunt with whom she spent summers as a teenager has passed away, leaving Emily an amazing house in a beach village, a well-stocked library, a grumpy housekeeper who’s an accomplished cook, and millions of dollars. Emily moves back and quickly finds herself set upon by a pushy […]

I enjoyed E.J. Copperman’s Asperger’s mystery The Question of the Missing Head so much that when I found out he was launching a new series, this time starring a female author, I jumped at the chance to read it. And I was not disappointed. Written Off features Rachel Goldman, a mid-list mystery writer who’s in revisions on her fifth book. Her series character is Duffy Madison, a Holmesian police consultant who is scarily skilled at finding missing people. He’s direct, […]

Murder at the Spa by Stefanie Matteson is the first of eight mysteries starring Charlotte Graham, an older actress. It was originally published in 1990 and is now out of print but available digitally through Open Road Media, along with the other seven books in the series. Charlotte is enlisted by an old friend, cosmetic mogul Paulina Langenberg (think Helena Rubinstein or Estée Lauder), to find out who is trying to sabotage her luxury spa. This was either the best […]

There have been female takes on Sherlock Holmes before, but A Study in Charlotte beautifully blends the traditional detective with a teen romance and a young adult boarding school novel. James “Jamie” Watson is a new student at the Sherringford boarding school in Connecticut. Although American by birth, he’s previously been living in London with his divorced mom. He wants to be a writer but has to play on the rugby team for his scholarship. He’s the latest generation of […]