• The Expectant Detectives, Kat Ailes
• The Brothers Hawthorne, The Grandest Game, Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• You’d Look Better as a Ghost, Joanne Wallace
• The Scenic Route, Katie Ruggle
• The Line Between, Tosca Lee
• The Thin Woman, Dorothy Cannell
• The Murders in Great Dibbling, Katarina Biva
• Big Sky, Kate Atkinson
• The Gatekeeper, Deadlock, James Byrnes

Kat Ailes’ The Expectant Detectives is definitely a horse of a different color. Essentially a cozy mystery, it’s still full of surprises. Alice and Joe move to a small village to prepare for the birth of their first child. It’s hard to say which surprise is bigger: the village, after living in an urban area, the state of pregnancy, which is new and a shock to Alice, and the unnerving pre-natal class where Alice hopes to find friends. It’s an oddly assorted group, with only the one thing in common, and the group is further shocked when a murder occurs during a session. Alice is a scattered personality, and it’s hard not to wish she’d get her act together, but it’s also charming that she persists in becoming friends with the other moms. And helps to solve a murder!

I’m a big fan of Jennifer Lynn Barnes, whose books I’d categorize as young adult. I recently reread this series from the beginning (first book is The Inheritance Games) and added the two newer ones into the story. Strong personalities, plot twists, and the very convoluted character of the dead grandfather rule these books, and they’re very enjoyable and exciting. I highly recommend these books.

I’ve read a lot of female serial killer books lately, so I suppose it’s a trend. You’d Look Better as a Ghost is compelling read about a young woman whose character has been damaged since she was very young. Claire is a part-time serial killer, and we know much more about her as the book goes on. She takes offence easily, and her retaliation is extreme. But when someone starts blackmailing Claire, she has to curb her ways while she finds out who’s watching her. This book is weirdly funny and really compelling. You really can’t help but root for Claire.

I’m a big fan of Katie Ruggle’s, and I had a happy time reading The Scenic Route, one of the Pax Sisters novels. Felicity is hot on the track of her felonious mother (that’s the big backstory) but so is private investigator Bennett Green. The two reluctantly (mostly) join forces, and the adventure starts to escalate. All the charm you’ve come to associate with Ruggle, I’m glad to say.

The Line Between is an excellent thriller with many twists and turns. I’m not going to spoil any of these, except to say it’s about cults and ancient seeds and brave woman and men. Seriously, it’s really good.

Dorothy Cannell’s The Thin Woman is still one of the best mysteries I’ve ever read. It’s cozy, it’s delightful, the characters are sharply drawn and believable, and the basic premise – a youngish woman must lose a lot of weight to get her inheritance – will ring a lot of sympathetic bells with many of us. This book is a classic, and I enjoyed every minute of rereading it.

The Murders in Great Dibbling is quite a bit deeper than the traditional English cozy mystery, the characters more nuanced, and the plot thicker. But as traditional mysteries tend to go, awful Reginald absolutely deserves to die, and we’re not sorry when he does. (He asked for it.) If you love books, if you are interested in small villages, if you are happy to hang around with a writer who’s got a huge writers’ block and her new assistant, if you automatically side with people who own many many books . . .  this is one you should read. Thanks, Katarina Biva.

Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie books are among my favorites. Brodie’s character is so relatable . . . while being better and more persistent and more sympathetic than normal, he’s also very human. And his detection skills are great. Big Sky features the detective at the point in his life where he’s sometimes got his son, a teenager, who is grumpy and uncommunicative and surly all at the same time, but then suddenly does something brilliant to show he’s an actual human being. Like all Kate Atkinson’s books, this is writing at its best.

I read The Gatekeeper almost at random, and was so impressed I immediately read its sequel Deadlock. I had the great good luck to sign next to James Byrne/Dana Haynes at Bouchercon, and I made goo-goo eyes at the one ARC of his third book he was holding . . . and it worked, he gave it to me! And it’s just as good as the two preceding books. I am very full of myself, and also an out-and-out fan of these books. Desmond’s persistent good cheer and resourcefulness are just intoxicating, and the situations he can get out of are terrifying tight. You go, Desmond Limerick!

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In addition to my reading I’ve listed above, I also reread the Adam Hall “Quiller” books. Adam Hall wrote over two hundred books under several names, but the Quiller books, cold war spy novels, are unlike anything else in the genre. Hall required the reader to pay attention and move along with him. The action is sudden and almost incomprehensible, then it’s over and you can only sigh with relief that Quiller lived through it. This agent is an adrenaline junkie, and he knows it.  He also knows that sooner or later, in some foreign land, he won’t make it out. But he’s resigned to that, though he fights against it with frantic strength. If you can find any of these books, please try one. I hate to feel that a writer who had so much impact on me will simply fade into the background.

My final Gunnie Rose novel, The Last Wizards’ Ball, will be out next year. That means for the first time in decades, I won’t have a book this year. Real life intruded, with a vengeance. I’m writing something completely different now, and that is always a shot in the arm.

I had a good time at Bouchercon in Nashville, though the hotel (Opryland Gaylord) was quite an experience. Unfortunately, my books were not in the book room, due to several last-minute problems with the vendor. But I was not alone, and I still had plenty of books to sign, all old. I got to see some friends, I got to catch up with bff Paula, and after a terrible airport day, I did get home. Along the way, I learned that All the Dead Shall Weep had won the Dragon Award for Best Alternative History Novel, and that was such great news to get! I can hardly wait to get the actual award, so I can stare at it in wonder.

On my horizon? Work on the new book, a family wedding, a friend’s funeral, and maybe more surgery. Life just keeps on rocking. I hope all of you are doing well and reading wonderful books!

Charlaine Harris