Small talk

Review : Mary Higgins Clark Presents Malice Domestic (Malice Domestic #2)

Review : The Crime of Miss Oyster Brown and Other Stories by Peter Lovesey

Review : Willy & Alvirah by Mary Higgins Clark

Plot summary ( from Audible ) Follow the adventures of lottery winning couple Willy and Alvirah Meehan through these best selling short stories . The couple is targeted and pursued by ex-cons after winning the lottery in ” Plumbing for Willy ” , they discover the body of actress Fiona Winter in their New York apartment in ” The Body in the Closet ” , and they help Cynthia Lathem solve the murder…

Review : An Elderly Lady Is Upto No Good by Helene Tursten | Translator : Marlene Delargy

Plot summary ( from Goodreads ) Maud is an irascible 88-year-old Swedish woman with no family , no friends, and . . . no qualms about a little murder. This funny, irreverent story collection by Helene Tursten , author of the Irene Huss investigations , features two-never-before translated stories that will keep you laughing all the way to the retirement home . Ever since her darling father’s…

The Murder of My Aunt by Richard Hull ( British Library Crime Classics #4 )

Richard Hull ‘ s brilliant debut ( first published in 1934 ) is considered a masterpiece in the inverted detective fiction sub genre and features Edward Powell , a narcissistic , conniving young man with whom the elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top . Edward lives with his Aunt Mildred in the Welsh town of Llwll . But Edward and Aunt M . are at opposite poles for almost everything that it…

Review : The Hog ‘ s Back Mystery by Freeman Wills Crofts ( British Library Crime Classics #3 )

Plot Summary ( from Goodreads ) : Dr . James Earle and his wife live in comfortable seclusion near the Hog’s Back , a ridge in the North Downs in the beautiful Surrey countryside . When Dr . Earle disappears from his cottage , Inspector French is called in to investigate . At first he suspects a simple domestic intrigue – and begins to uncover a web of romantic entanglements beneath the couple’s…

Review : The Sanatorium by Sarah Pearse

Plot Summary ( from Goodreads ) : You won’t want to leave . . . until you can’t .Half – hidden by forest and overshadowed by threatening peaks , Le Sommet has always been a sinister place . Long plagued by troubling rumors , the former abandoned sanatorium has since been renovated into a five-star minimalist hotel .An imposing , isolated getaway spot high up in the Swiss Alps is the last place…

Plot Summary ( from Goodreads ) : Detective Kyoichiro Kaga of the Tokyo Police Department has just been transferred to a new precinct in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo . Newly arrived , but with a great deal of experience , Kaga is promptly assigned to the team investigating the murder of a woman . But the more he investigates , the greater number of potential suspects emerges. It isn’t long…

Review : The Christmas Card Crime and Other Stories ( editor : Martin Edwards )

My next read for the holiday season is The Christmas Card Crime , an anthology of Christmas mysteries edited by Martin Edwards . The individual stories have been rated ( check out the stars next to the title for the rating ) . Also , there are only quick holiday season references and no detailed delving into the festivities of the season . Still , I would say that there are some gems here which…

My next read for the holiday season is Sleep No More : Six Murderous Tales by P . D James which can be a companion read for my previous holiday read . Each of these tales has a murderer committing the ‘ perfect ‘ murder in Agatha Christie ‘ s dictionary – the murder that goes unpunished by law . But can the definition of ‘ the perfect murder ‘ be that simple ? We have few murderers having a…

Review : The Mistletoe Murder And Other Stories by P . D . James

We are halfway through December and I have still not got into the spirit of Christmas which is why I decided to pick up some Xmas themed books ( any genre but primarily suspense ) . This anthology of four short stories by P . D James is my first pick . The Christmas themed stories do not elaborate on the ” good old fashioned English Christmas ” traditions – rather these traditions seem to happen…

Plot Summary :

The Crooked House sits on a snowbound cliff overlooking icy seas at the remote northern tip of Japan . A curious place for the millionaire Kozaburo Hamamoto to build a house , but even more curious is the house itself – Hamamoto ‘ s Ice Floe Mansion is leaning at an angle of about 5 or 6 degrees – but that might be the least bizarre thing about it given its nickname . It ‘ s…

Review : Rules for Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

Plot Summary ( from Goodreads ) :

A chilling tale of psychological suspense and an homage to the thriller genre tailor-made for fans : the story of a bookseller who finds himself at the center of an FBI investigation because a very clever killer has started using his list of fiction’s most ingenious murders .

Years ago, bookseller and mystery aficionado Malcolm Kershaw compiled a list…

Review : Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

Plot Summary ( from Goodreads )

In a peaceful retirement village , four unlikely friends meet up once a week to investigate unsolved killings .

But when a local property developer shows up dead , ‘ The Thursday Murder Club ‘ find themselves in the middle of their first live case .

The four friends , Elizabeth , Joyce , Ibrahim and Ron , might be pushing eighty but they still have a…

Review : Playdate by Alex Dahl

Plot Summary ( from Goodreads )

It was meant to be your daughter’s first sleepover. Now it’s an abduction .

Lucia Blix went home from school for a playdate with her new friend Josie . Later that evening , Lucia’s mother Elisa dropped her overnight things round and kissed her little girl goodnight .

That was the last time she saw her daughter .

The next morning , when Lucia’s dad…

Reviews : Jane – Emily & Dolly

Jane – Emily

Emily was a selfish , willful , hateful child who died before her thirteenth birthday . But that was a long time ago .

Jane is nine years old and an orphan when she and her young Aunt Louisa come to spend the summer at Jane’s grandmother’s house , a large , mysterious mansion in Massachusetts. Then one day . . . Jane stares into a reflecting ball in the garden — and the…

Review : The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

Plot summary ( from Goodreads ) :

On a cool June morning , a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach . Before she can stop him , the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick , but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister . . .

The next morning , three women in and…