A Cineaste’s Bookshelf
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REVIEW: Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife
Six guests are invited to Midwinter Trust, an upscale, exclusive resort in the North Pennines. Fieldstone buildings, cozy fireplaces, gourmet meals, a quiet place to enjoy the holiday. The perfect setting for a few people to start dying under mysterious circumstances.Read More »
REVIEW: The Language-Lover's Lexipedia
The author has scoured arcane dictionaries, language guides, and encyclopedias to find interesting idioms and items.Read More »
REVIEW: A Case of Life and Limb
Just a few months after Ward solved the Case of Mice and Murder, he is called on once again to investigate mysterious happenings at Inner Temple. As December snows soften the clatter of cobblestones and edges of brickworks, select members of the bar are the unlucky recipients of horrendous gifts.Read More »
REVIEW: The Martians
In the early 1900s, many very smart people were convinced there was life on Mars. Not just some bacteria or algae -- actual intelligent creatures that built civilizations on the face of the Red Planet. For a time, Mars and Martians became all the rage in science, culture, fashion, and literature. The most fascinating part of this mania is that it's not as crazy as it sounds.Read More »
REVIEW: 640 to Montreal
Agatha is a writer whose first novel was insanely popular. These days she struggles to get any words on the page, paralyzed by the pressure of creating something even remotely as successful. Her husband surprises her with a first-class ticket to Montreal, a six-hour train ride with drinks, snacks, and quiet -- and no Wifi or cell service.Read More »
REVIEW: 10 Marchfield Square
Celeste rules her kingdom with an iron fist. Her kingdom being a courtyard surrounded by three buildings converted into flats. Little escapes her notice, sitting from her perch in front of a large window overlooking the fenced square. When one of her tenants is murdered, she hires two residents to act as private sleuths.Read More »
REVIEW: Before the Fact
Lina has never been one to catch the eye of men. She is, by her own admission, rather plain and disinterested. She had resigned herself to the life of an old maid until she is charmed by a suave and handsome Johnnie Aysgarth--and his happy-go-lucky veneer is hiding some dark elements.Read More »
REVIEW: The Last Spirits of Manhattan
Carolyn agrees to act as the family representative at an old family home for a party hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. She is amused to learn they want everything left in its charmingly cobwebby condition--and they want to be visited by a ghost. Much to her surprise, one does oblige. It turns out to be an ancestor.Read More »
REVIEW: Ghosted by Alice Vernon
Vernon uses the parapsychological topics--haunted houses, séances, poltergeists, ghost labs--to explore their place in the realm of spirit studies and how they contribute to (or degrade) to discourse of ghost hunting.Read More »
REVIEW: Fear Stalks The Village
Before Grantchester, there was Father Brown. And before Miss Marple's poison pen letter, there was Ethel Lina White and her novel of misgivings.Read More »
Two Cozy Mysteries Abroad
It's all about literary murder abroad in these two cozy mysteries -- one in a French chateau and on aboard the most famous train in the world.Read More »
REVIEW: The Art of a Lie
In Georgian London, a widowed Hannah Cole is determined to keep her business afloat. She became sole owner of the confectioner's shop in Piccadilly after her husband was found murdered. The story takes the reader to the underground rivers of London, pleasure gardens, a magistrate's office before the days of a police force.Read More »
REVIEW: The Hounding
It's a searingly hot summer in an unnamed year in the English countryside. And then people start hearing the howling, and someone claims to see something unnatural. Superstition and fear bake and crack in the summer sun as odd happenings continue.Read More »
REVIEW: The Dark Library
The Dark Library is a grown-up Nancy Drew with a WWII homefront twist. Estella enlists the help of her friends -- a librarian, a fellow scholar, a dressmaker, and a young man who just might be worthy -- to hunt for clues of how her father spent more money than he earned and what might have happened to her mother.Read More »
REVIEW: The Cat Who Saved the Library
The Cat Who Saved The Library is a worthy volume in this delightful series. Tiger the talking tabby cat is back with a teammate to rescue stolen books from oblivion.Read More »