What I'm Reading
October/November 2024
It’s been a great month or so for my reading. A trip to Europe provided lots of reading time on my flights and during my inevitable sleep interruptions due to jet lag. The reason for my trip was the wedding of a person dear to my heart. And the wedding was as beautiful as she is. Here are a few photos from my trip, just because.
Now, let’s get down to business! Here’s what I’ve been reading.
From “the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat,” the line was Howard Cosell’s, the famous sports commentator from the 1950s until the 1980s, but it might as well have been Kate Green’s, the fictitious sports reporter in DANGEROUS PLAY, the second in the Kate Green series by Elise Hart Kipness.
Kate, a former Olympic Soccer player, is on her home turf, covering the US Women’s Soccer Team during a New York City Olympics as it tries to make a comeback and win the Gold. Kate is looking to make her own comeback after a viral video imperiled her career and the hunt for a killer too close to home nearly cost her everything.
But the team has been dogged by drama this year, with a controversial player, Quinn, who keeps making waves. And Kate has her own drama brewing below the surface as well. Her former teammate, and biggest rival, Savannah Baker is coaching the team.
As if this weren’t enough, Kate stumbles across Savannah and the controversial player who have just discovered a body in the ice baths of the team locker room after a very satisfying win. And the body is that of another former teammate.
Kipness brings her knowledge of sports broadcasting to this tightly-plotted and atmospheric thriller, by turns evoking the high-stakes stress of Olympic try-outs to the high-spirited exultation of a win on the world stage; from the opulence of a Yankee Stadium private box to the grittiness of the streets of Queens. This is a wildly entertaining thriller that sticks its landing. I can’t wait to read the next in the series!
THE PUZZLE BOX, the follow up thriller to THE PUZZLE MASTER by Danielle Trussoni, is an international romp in the world of puzzle enthusiasts that collides with female samurai and the world of technological surveillance. Mike Brink, the world’s greatest puzzle master, has set out to solve the most fabled puzzle box in the world, the Dragon Box. It is also the most dangerous. Most have never seen it. No one has ever solved it. Other puzzle masters have lost fingers trying. More than one has died. No one knows what is in it, only that it is a precious treasure.
As Mike races across Japan, from Imperial compounds to historical temples, dark forces gather, intent on stealing the treasure, posing just as much of a threat to Mike as the lethal Dragon Box. Crafted as beautifully and intricately as a puzzle box, this thriller had me locked in tight from the beginning, heart-pounding with each twist and turn of the puzzle, until the jaw-dropping conclusion.
In the latest installment of the Cheese Shop Mysteries, FONDUE OR DIE, Willa and her friends find themselves in the middle of a fall festival murder mystery. As they get ready for the Dairy Festival in the neighboring town of Lockwood, Willa and her team at Curds and Whey find the Dairy Days Pageant organizer, Nadine, under a pile of old ceramic dairy jugs in the town museum storeroom. The police think it’s an accident, but Willa thinks otherwise.
With a potential murderer loose at Dairy Days, Willa, Archie, Baz and Mrs. Schultz work together to find the murderer before there are any more deaths.
Korina Moss’s series is a joy to read. Even if you know something about cheese, you’ll learn more interesting details, not to mention the delectable recipes Moss includes! And the camaraderie between the characters is very satisfying. This time Willa gets to work with Detective Heath, instead of against him, which is a nice change of pace, and hopefully a good sign for their future.
Released just in time for Spooky Season, but fun any time of the year, Olivia Blacke’s supernatural mystery features an unlikely crime solving team, the very young (not even “old enough to drink”) and aptly-named Ruby Young and the recently departed Cordelia Gray. The “roommates”, Cordelia is still hanging around her old apartment, which Ruby now rents, band together to solve the murder of their neighbor Jake, despite all manner of obstacles, the fact that Ruby cannot hear or see Cordelia being chief among them. Nonetheless, the two are creative and determined in their quest. Hijinx and real danger ensue.
This highly original mystery is an enormously entertaining and engaging read. Told from both Ruby’s and Cordelia’s points of view, Blacke creates two heroines you cannot help but root for. The twist at the end is both surprising and satisfying. And happily hints at a second in this series. (Bonus points to Blacke for including the reference to PD James’ main character from AN UNSUITABLE JOB FOR A WOMAN, a personal favorite.)
When a social media personality goes missing on a sparsely populated island in the middle of a mostly frozen Saint Lawrence River in the dead of winter, Shana Merchant suspects foul play. But a potential murderer on the loose is not the only danger. The remote location and the deadly nature of the frozen river all create their own threats. The case reminds Shana of a cold case from her past that she decides to revisit.
THE COLDEST CASE is the 6th book in Wegert's Shana Merchant series, and it's my favorite yet. Wegert's plot and prose are as taut as ever. I could not put it down. But the way she weaves the cold case into the current case is incredibly satisfying. Buy this book. You won't be disappointed. And don’t you just love that cover?!
For fans of Bridgerton and Agatha Raisin, this cozy mystery set in Regency London, while the final battle with Napoleon is playing out, is such fun! Celeste Connally’s ALL’S FAIR IN LOVE AND TREACHERY follows Lady Petra Forsythe, an early feminist of the noble class, who has some very forward-thinking ideas. When the matron of a home for orphan girls is found murdered, the Queen asks Lady Petra to find the killer. Meanwhile, her paramour, the dashing but very mysterious Duncan Shawcross, has disappeared, leaving some very difficult questions in his wake.
This mystery was such fun to read. The action moved quickly and the characters were colorful. I highly recommend it!
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