Review: Truly Devious

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Series: Truly Devious
Genres: Young Adult, Mystery
Maturity Level: 3+
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Rating: ⋆⋆

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. 

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I was so excited for my first Maureen Johnson book, and this sounded so interesting, and I really *wanted* to love it, but I was just so indifferent to Truly Devious.

Review: The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra

The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra by Vaseem Khan

Series: Baby Ganesh Agency Investigation
Genre: Mystery
Maturity Level: 4
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆

On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries.

The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved. And the second is a baby elephant. As his search for clues takes him across the teeming city of Mumbai, from its grand high rises to its sprawling slums and deep into its murky underworld, Chopra begins to suspect that there may be a great deal more to both his last case and his new ward than he thought. And he soon learns that when the going gets tough, a determined elephant may be exactly what an honest man needs…

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Well this book was adorable. If you like cozy mysteries you have to give this one a read. It’s a nice blend of the grumpy retired man you come to expect from this type of novel with the exoticism of modern Mumbai.

Review: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

Series: No 1. Ladies’ Detective Agency
Genres: Mystery, Fiction
Maturity Level: 4
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆

Precious Ramotswe has only just set up shop as Botswana’s No.1 (and only) lady detective when she is hired to track down a missing husband, uncover a con man, and follow a wayward daughter. However, the case that tugs at her heart, and lands her in danger, is a missing eleven-year-old boy, who may have been snatched by witch doctors.

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As far as mystery novels go, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency doesn’t quite fit the usual mode. Instead of spending the course of the novel solving one huge mystery, Mma Romotswe solves one mini-case per chapter. It’s more like reading a Holmes novel than anything, because there aren’t really “clues” to help the reader play along, it’s more like watching Mma Ramotswe just do her thing.

Review: One for the Money

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich

Series: Stephanie Plum
Genre: Mystery
Maturity Level: 5 (Trigger warning, sexual assault)
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆

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You’ve lost your job as a department store lingerie buyer, your car’s been repossessed, and most of your furniture and small appliances have been sold off to pay last month’s rent. Now the rent is due again. And you live in New Jersey. What do you do?

If you’re Stephanie Plum, you become a bounty hunter. But not just a nickel-and-dime bounty hunter; you go after the big money. That means a cop gone bad. And not just any cop. She goes after Joe Morelli, a disgraced former vice cop who is also the man who took Stephanie’s virginity at age 16 and then wrote details on a bathroom wall. With pride and rent money on the line, Plum plunges headlong into her first case, one that pits her against ruthless adversaries – people who’d rather kill than lose.

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One for the Money  was written in 1994, and it did NOT age well. Aside from Stephanie Plum’s abhorrent fashion sense (biker shorts + hairspray) and the dated technology, the casual sexism, even from the female protagonist, is sure to offend any 21st century feminist.

But if you can get past all of that, this book is a lot of fun.

Review: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King

Series: Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes
Genres: Mystery, Historical Fiction
Maturity Level: 2
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆

Long retired, Sherlock Holmes quietly pursues his study of honeybee behavior on the Sussex Downs. He never imagines he would encounter anyone whose intellect matched his own, much less an audacious teenage girl with a penchant for detection. Miss Mary Russell becomes Holmes’ pupil and quickly hones her talent for deduction, disguises and danger. But when an elusive villain enters the picture, their partnership is put to a real test.

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This is one of those books that is going to be hard to write a review about because it was just so fine. Like, it was good, but there was nothing to really glow about. But there wasn’t anything bad to whine about either. So I guess I don’t have much to say.

Review: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Genre: Mystery
Maturity Level: 4
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

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Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others…

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Ohmygoshyouguys! This book was SOOOOO GOOOOOOD! It’s such a unique premise, it was executed so masterfully, and I could not get enough of it! I feel like I’m yelling at you, but I can’t help it!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Review: Death by Dumpling

Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien

Series: A Noodle Shop Mystery
Genre: Mystery
Maturity Level: 3+
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆

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The last place Lana Lee thought she would ever end up is back at her family’s restaurant. But after a brutal break-up and a dramatic workplace walk-out, she figures that a return to the Cleveland area to help wait tables is her best option for putting her life back together. Even if that means having to put up with her mother, who is dead-set on finding her a husband.

Lana’s love life soon becomes yesterday’s news once the restaurant’s property manager, Mr. Feng, turns up dead―after a delivery of shrimp dumplings from Ho-Lee. But how could this have happened when everyone on staff knew about Mr. Feng’s severe, life-threatening shellfish allergy? Now, with the whole restaurant under suspicion for murder and the local media in a feeding frenzy―to say nothing of the gorgeous police detective who keeps turning up for take-out―it’s up to Lana to find out who is behind Feng’s killer order. . . before her own number is up.

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This was my first cozy mystery, and it was everything I was hoping for. It was light, and sweet, and fun, and I couldn’t wait to find out who did it!

Review: Hope Never Dies

Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer

Genres: Mystery, Humor
Maturity Level: 3
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆

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Vice President Joe Biden is fresh out of the Obama White House and feeling adrift when his favorite railroad conductor dies in a suspicious accident, leaving behind an ailing wife and a trail of clues. To unravel the mystery, “Amtrak Joe” re-teams with the only man he’s ever fully trusted—the 44th president of the United States. Together they’ll plumb the darkest corners of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America’s opioid epidemic.

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If you’re looking for a funny, campy, bro-mance mystery, look no farther! Hope Never Dies is written like an old-time noir detective film, except that it’s starring Joe Biden. 

Review: Salt Lane

Salt Lane by William Shaw

Series: DS Alexandra Cupidi
Genre: Mystery
Maturity Level: 5
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆

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DS Alexandra Cupidi has done it again. She should have learnt to keep her big mouth shut, after the scandal that sent her packing – resentful teenager in tow – from the London Met to the lonely Kent coastline. Even murder looks different in this landscape of fens, ditches and stark beaches, shadowed by the towers of Dungeness power station. Murder looks a lot less pretty.

The man drowned in the slurry pit had been herded there like an animal. He was North African, like many of the fruit pickers that work the fields. The more Cupidi discovers, the more she wants to ask – but these people are suspicious of questions.

It will take an understanding of this strange place – its old ways and new crimes – to uncover the dark conspiracy behind the murder. Cupidi is not afraid to travel that road. But she should be. She should, by now, have learnt.

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I’m trying a lot of different mystery novels to see what kinds of things I like, and I discovered reading Salt Lane that crime is not my favorite sub-genre. It turns out that I am a lot less interested in the process of a police sergeant apprehending a murderer than a private detective.

Review: And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Genres: Mystery, Fiction
Maturity Rating: 2
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Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

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Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to a lonely mansion on Soldier Island by a host who, surprisingly, fails to appear. On the island they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own past lives. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die… 

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WHY DID I PUT OFF READING THIS BOOK FOR SO LONG?!?!?!?!?!

You guys, And Then There Were None was, hands down, the best mystery novel I have ever read. I was expecting to enjoy Agatha Christie, but I wasn’t expecting to gush every time I set the book down to whoever was in the room.