This debut novel, a mystery thriller, is set in the fictional but entirely plausible Point Mettier, Alaska. Only a couple hundred people live there year-round, and they all live in one apartment building. Then body parts begin washing up on shore…
REVIEW: Murder After Christmas
First published in 1944 (the same year it is set), it intertwines the reality of Britain at war and a delightfully unserious tone. Amidst food rations, petrol shortages, and city evacuees are hidden mince-pies, vapid couples, and a doddering lawyer.
REVIEW: The Album
The setting is The Crescent, an enclave of five old houses inhabited by five old families. Although it is now firmly in the 1930s, these families live apart from most modern cares, employing Victorian traditions in their Victorian mansions. Then someone is murdered…
REVIEW: These Names Make Clues
Chief Inspector MacDonald is invited to an unusual party. Each guest is sent around the country estate with cryptic clues, full of puzzles and puns, to unravel, which will lead them to the next clue. Unfortunately for the players, a brief electrical outage reveals a dead body in the telephone room.
REVIEW: Sister Novelists
Before Jane Austen or the Bronte sisters, or the historical novels of Walter Scott, there were the Porter Sisters. Devoney Looser traces the fascinating, if difficult, lives of the influential authors that have been largely overlooked.