Tag Archives: mystery

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 →

Copycat – Betsy Brannon Green

Mark and Kate Iverson are living the southern dream in Haggerty, Alabama. Now the parents of two adorable children, they have everything they’ve ever wanted. Along with being an FBI agent, Mark is now the bishop of their ward, and so he’s gone a lot, but Kate has learned to deal with her husband’s absences, and besides, she always has Miss Eugenia to help her when she gets a little overwhelmed. Kate’s sister Kelsey has come for a visit, contemplating whether she should divorce her husband. She’s four months pregnant, but her husband doesn’t know, and she’s not sure if … Continue reading →

Book Awards: The Edgar

The Edgar Award is named after Edgar Allen Poe, and is awarded to authors who have distinguished themselves in the genre of mystery. It’s sponsored and awarded by the Mystery Writers of America and has been since 1946 with the first recipient, “Watchful at Night” by Julius Faust. The first step in the awards process is the selection of the General Awards chair. He/she then chooses chairs for each of the individual Edgar categories and one for the Mary Higgins Clark award. Then those thirteen chairs select four additional judges, but for the Novel of the Year, they choose eight … Continue reading →

Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat – Lynne Jonell

Appearing today in stores everywhere, “Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat” is a must for your reading list for ages 9+. I read it in one sitting and came away entertained and enchanted. Emmy is a very good girl who does everything her nanny, Miss Barmy, tells her. She is a straight A student, she never gets in trouble, and she never talks back. You might think she’s this way because she’s impeccably well-mannered, and she is – but her underlying reason is this – she wants her parents to like her more. If she never gets in trouble, maybe … Continue reading →

Thale’s Folly – Dorothy Gilman

Dorothy Gilman is most famous for the “Mrs. Polifax” series, but the stand-alone novel “Thale’s Folly” is equally as enjoyable, although it’s a story rather than a mystery. Andrew Oliver Thale is a young man of twenty-six who survived a terrifying plane crash, coming out with a number of broken bones and post-traumatic stress disorder. Once a budding novelist with two books under his belt, he has lost his ability to write fiction and has taken a job writing newsletters for the company where his father holds a place as vice-president. He can’t sleep without having nightmares about the crash, … Continue reading →

The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey

Alan Grant is an English police officer, and at the moment, he’s not a happy one. While chasing a suspect, he fell through a trap door, and he’s going to be in hospital for a very long time, flat on his back. His friends have sent him flowers and books, but he can’t concentrate on any of the novels because he’s so tired of staring at the ceiling. He badly wants to be up and around again. One afternoon, a lady friend named Marta brought him something a little more interesting. She went round to the print shop and bought … Continue reading →

Guardian of the Horizon – Elizabeth Peters

As we’ve gone through the Amelia Peabody series volume by volume, we’ve occasionally seen gaps from one book to the next, where the “editor” says that certain volumes of Amelia’s journals have gone missing. In “Guardian of the Horizon,” we are informed that one of those missing journals has been recovered, and we are given the story contained in that journal in this book. I’m not sure why Elizabeth Peters chose to do this – perhaps she came up with the idea for the plot afterward and decided to come back and interject it, who knows – but this volume … Continue reading →

Jade and Jeopardy – Lynn Gardner

We’ve seen Allison Allan fight terrorists with her husband Bart at her side. This time, she’s on her own. As the newest member of Anastasia, the anti-terrorist organization run by her parents, she is the least experienced and the least trained, and she’s just been given an assignment she’s not sure she can handle. Coming home from an afternoon of running errands, she gets a phone call – she is to leave the house immediately, taking nothing with her but some money, fake IDs, and credit cards. She knows she has minutes to get out, but what can she do … Continue reading →

Holes (2003)

This movie, based on the book by Louis Sachar, was very odd. Shia LeBeouf stars as Stanley Yelnats, a teenage boy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. While walking home from school one day, a pair of sneakers comes sailing and hits him on the head. His dad is a scientist, working on a formula for foot odor, and so he picks up the shoes, thinking his dad can use them. However, it turns out the shoes were donated to a homeless shelter by a famous basketball player as a fundraiser, and as Stanley was the … Continue reading →

Children of the Storm – Elizabeth Peters

World War I has come to an end, and it’s no longer dangerous to travel to Egypt. Walter and Evelyn are glad of this – they’ve been away for too long and can’t wait to return to the land of the Pharaohs. Amelia and Emerson are no less delighted that they are coming, and they’re bringing with them David and Lia. The whole group will be reunited at last. One peculiar addition to the party is Sethos, Emerson and Walter’s half-brother. Walter doesn’t know he’s related to the Master Criminal himself – there just never has been a good time … Continue reading →