Tag Archives: murder

A Kiss before Dying (1956)

“A Kiss before Dying” is a murder mystery/suspense movie starring Robert Wagner and Joanne Woodward as college lovers Bud and Dorie. When Dorie tells Bud she’s pregnant, he sees his dreams for his future go up in smoke. Dorie comes from a rich family, and his plan had been to worm his way into her father’s heart, become the darling of the family, and take over the financial interests of the family mine. But now, with Dorie pregnant, he knows he’ll never get on the father’s good side. (Too bad he didn’t think about that before . . . ) … Continue reading →

Murder on a Girls’ Night Out – Anne George

“Murder on a Girls’ Night Out” is a slightly irreverent but completely hysterical cozy mystery. Patricia Anne is our point of view character, a sixty-year-old woman of slight stature who is often called by her childhood nickname of “Mouse” by her sister, Mary Alice. Mary Alice is the exact opposite of Patricia Anne in every way. She’s big and brash, uses terrible grammar, and has lots of money. Together these women are an unstoppable team, reading each other’s minds and finishing the other’s sentences. This premiere book in the series won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel, and … Continue reading →

I Heard That Song Before – Mary Higgins Clark

Fans of Mary Higgins Clark rejoiced to hear that she released a new novel earlier this year. There’s almost nothing we like better than a new Mary Higgins Clark. Kay Lansing is the daughter of a landscaper, the employee of a rich family by the name of Carrington. One afternoon, six-year-old Kay went to work with her father and wandered into a forbidden part of the house to hear a woman and a man arguing. She doesn’t tell anyone about it because she doesn’t want to get in trouble for wandering off, but later, a woman who had been at … Continue reading →

Peace Like a River – Leif Enger

Wow. I came to the end of the book and had to pause a minute to absorb everything I had just read. “Peace Like a River” is the best book I’ve read so far this year. Rueben Land is an eleven-year-old with a horrible case of asthma. Swede is his nine-year-old sister, and they have an older brother, Davy, already in his teens. Their father, Jeremiah, has been single for years, and is an amazing man. Deeply connected to his faith, he has literally performed miracles, and Rueben has seen him do it. The family is poor, but they are … Continue reading →

Charade (1963)

Regina Lampert (Audrey Hepburn) is a young married woman who’s not sure she ought to be married. Her husband, Charles, is keeping something from her; she just knows it, and she can’t live with the uncertainty. She goes on a trip to try to sort things out, and while gone, she meets Peter Joshua, (Cary Grant) a fascinating man who seems interested in her. She, however, is interested in keeping her distance. My favorite line in the movie takes place when she’s meeting Peter for the first time and asks him if he’d like to get to know her. She … Continue reading →

The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries – Emily Brightwell

After enjoying and reviewing “Mrs. Jeffries Takes the Cake” last week, I decided to go to the beginning of the series and read the book that started it all. Today’s selection is “The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries,” by Emily Brightwell. When we start this book, we can see that Mrs. Jeffries has already been working for the Inspector for a while and helped him with a few cases, so this first book in the series is not the first case she ever helped him solve. However, in this book we get more of a backstory on the major characters and … Continue reading →

The Case of the Amorous Aunt – Erle Stanley Gardner

Having just met author Erle Stanley Gardner in our author review yesterday, I thought it would be fun to take a closer look at one of his novels. “The Case of the Amorous Aunt” begins as most Perry Masons do, with a client coming in to the office to visit the famous California lawyer. This time it’s a young engaged couple, Linda Calhoun and George Latty. Mason receives them in his private office, with his confidential secretary Della Street sitting nearby, notebook at the ready. Miss Calhoun’s aunt Lorraine has been corresponding with a gentleman friend for some time, and … Continue reading →

Mrs. Jeffries Takes the Cake – Emily Brightwell

An installment in the “Victorian Mysteries” series, “Mrs. Jeffries Takes the Cake” is the first Emily Brightwell novel I have read, but it will not be the last. I was quite taken with the premise and the characters and will return again soon. Inspector Witherspoon is a hard-working Scotland Yard detective with a superb record for cases solved. He has received much acclaim for his amazing ability to see through to the heart of the case and solve the most difficult mysteries. What his adoring public does not realize is that the good Inspector wouldn’t know how to solve a … Continue reading →

The Last Suspect – Susan Evans McCloud

Inspector Callum MacGregor has been called out to investigate the murder of one Archibald Linton, businessman, playboy, and now, dead. Found in a glass-enclosed gazebo on his property, the only known person to have been on the premises that night was his business partner, a timid man named Clarence Thomas. From their first meeting, Callum can’t believe that a man such as Clarence could have committed this murder, and so he sets out to investigate every other possibility, further fueled by the need to protect Archibald’s daughter, a girl named Rosetti, now in the care of her spoiled step-mother. Meanwhile, … Continue reading →

Spindrift – Phyllis A. Whitney

Gothic romances have been around for decades, declining a bit recently in the wake of romantic suspense, but were very popular during the 1970’s and 1980’s. The premise is always the same: young woman finds herself embroiled in a mystery deep within the recesses of an old house which is overseen by a harsh master or mistress who dislikes the young woman. Her life is threatened in various different ways and she can’t get the help she needs because no one will believe her. Often, the villains try to make her out to be insane, and then when the nefarious … Continue reading →