Justice, San Francisco Style

No Justice for the Deceived by Nancy Herriman

A high-society engagement, a masquerade ball, a poisoning, and the death of an innocent young woman are the building blocks upon which Nancy Herriman has constructed her new historical mystery, No Justice for the Deceived (book 6 in the Mysteries of Old San Francisco). And what a mystery it is!

Two wealthy families are about to be joined in matrimony, and it’s the type of engagement that engenders the juiciest gossip in town. One reason for all the gossip? The groom. He’s a philanderer. And worse than that, he’s been accused of being behind a vicious assault on one of his many former amours.

The bride-to-be is a beautiful young woman with a substantial fortune—a fortune that will belong entirely to her husband as soon as they are man and wife. Her dream is to open a women’s clinic similar to Celia’s, but her betrothed has indicated his strong disdain for the project and has no intention of using the money to pay for it.

So it comes as no surprise when someone tries to poison the groom. Unfortunately, the poisoning goes awry and an innocent woman dies instead. Suspects abound.

No Justice for the Deceived brings Celia and Nick, everyone’s favorite San Francisco detective, together again, this time to figure out who wanted the groom dead. As always in this series, it’s a delight to watch Celia and Nick interact. Their banter is witty and sharp and despite Nick’s frequent annoyance with Celia’s attempts to investigate the crime, their deep feelings for each other are clear.

Besides the relationship between Celia and Nick, this book has plenty of twists to keep the reader engaged. And I’m always amazed at the amount of research that the author must put into each book in this series, and I learn something new and fascinating about San Francisco’s history with each successive mystery.

One puzzle remains unsolved at the end of the book—Nick has been receiving strange and disturbing packages in the mail, and he doesn’t know who they’re from or why he’s receiving them. I guess we’ll have to wait until book 7 to get an answer!

I would highly recommend No Justice for the Deceived to anyone who loves historical mysteries, old San Francisco, and great tension between characters.

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And speaking of historical mysteries, Cape Menace, book 1 in the Cape May Historical Mystery Collection, is on sale for $1.99 through April 15, 2024! Don’t forget—you can always gift someone an ebook. Here are the links to each retailer, so pick your favorite … you know what to do.

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple

Google Play

See you next time!

Amy

Black River, Black Deeds

Black River by Matthew Spencer

Two murders of young women in an upscale area of Sydney (Australia) have local residents on edge. The crimes bear significant ritualistic similarities, enough to classify the perpetrator as a serial killer. BMK, he’s called. The Blue Moon Killer.

When a third young woman’s body is found on the grounds of an elite private school during the summer break, there are some indications it could be the work of BMK. But there are differences, too. What do those differences mean? Is BMK toying with the police? Is there a copycat killer out there? Is he altering his modus operandi?

Detective Sergeant Rose Riley, a member of the task force trying to find BMK, is on edge. She’s got this case on her mind night and day. More than anything, she wants justice for the victims. Her quest to do right by the murdered women and their families not only leads her to the hallowed halls of power and money, but also to the sickening depths of human depravity and straight into the sights of a killer.

She and her team need help, and they find it—more or less—in the form of Adam Bowman, a reporter who likes his booze and has a murky connection to the school where the third body was found. Rose and her team feed Adam exclusive but limited information, and his stories serve to rile up certain persons of interest.

The question is this: can Rose and the task force, with Adam’s help, figure out who BMK is before he strikes again?

If you’re looking for a page-turning thriller, this book should be in the running. The action moves at a fast clip and there’s always a lead that needs to be investigated. Rose’s boss is a hard-driving Detective Chief Inspector who lives and breathes the work of the task force. He trusts Rose and gives her the support and freedom she needs to pursue leads and theories. It’s a great working partnership, and that was one of my favorite things about the book.

For the most part, the book alternates between two points of view: Rose’s and Adam’s. I liked getting to know each character in more depth, but at the same time I felt like I knew all the other characters pretty well, too (which is not to say I liked them all—some of them are despicable). Many readers don’t like books that oscillate between points of view, but I find it exciting and a great way to get inside characters’ heads.

The author of this story, Matthew Spencer, is a former journalist who clearly knows his way around a newsroom as well as the ins and outs of working with police and other authorities. His experience shines in the book and gives it an overall aura of authenticity. He’s Australian, too, and readers from elsewhere in the world have an opportunity to learn some Aussie phrases and culture.

I highly recommend this thriller to anyone looking for a book with well-developed characters, a fast pace, and an alternative to the more ubiquitous American or British police procedural.

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House of the Hanging Jade is on sale for $1.99 this week only! The sale ends at midnight EDT on Friday, 3/15/24, so if you haven’t read it, grab your copy now! Click HERE to go to my website, where you can be redirected to your favorite online bookseller.

My publisher owned the rights to the book until last year, when the rights reverted to me. So I revised the story and had a new cover designed for it (I LOVE the new cover). The new version currently has no reviews on Amazon, so I’d love to see some reviews! Thanks!

See you next time!

Amy

Where They Lie…and lie

Where They Lie by Joe Hart

When a private plane carrying the family of Kaylee Volk, vlogger* and social media influencer, plummets into the ocean, Nora McTavish is the one trying to figure out how it all happened. The only survivor of the crash has a story to tell, but Nora isn’t so sure she’s getting the whole truth.

*vlogger: one who blogs via video

Nora is a case worker with the state child protective services agency and she’s familiar with the Volk family: Kaylee and her husband Justin, along with their three foster children. Nora has even had occasion to investigate the family—someone at school has reported that one of the siblings has bruising around the neck, and that child has confirmed that another sibling is responsible.

Nora is devasted by the loss of the three foster children in the plane crash. Her compulsion to continue investigating the case after the children’s deaths has as much to do with her feeling of unease about the whole situation as it does with her personal history of familial abuse and the foster care system. She is a survivor, and it’s her mission to help other kids survive, too.

What I liked most about this book was Nora’s tenacity. She continues to look for answers on behalf of the three kids despite being suspended from her job, a violent personal assault, and a horrifying attack on her home.

The book is told from Nora’s point of view, though occasionally chapters are interspersed with snippets of Kaylee’s vlog, both on-screen and off. There have been reviewers who believe the snippets are extraneous, but I think they serve an important purpose—they show Kaylee’s family as the rest of the world sees them, but they also show a bit of behind-the-scenes tension between family members as Kaylee shoots her videos.

This book is a thriller, no doubt about it. It moves at a rapid pace, unfurling twist after twist as Nora rushes to find answers in the face of increasing risks and soaring stakes.

Where They Lie isn’t just a thriller—it also offers a commentary on the foster care system and the positives and significant negatives of child protective service laws and related state agencies. There’s also a dark, albeit fictional, look at the culture of social media influencers and how society interacts with them.

One thing that’s important to note: if you’re triggered by child abuse, this might not be the book for you. It deals with some pretty heavy topics. But it’s a good read, and one that I recommend if you’re looking for a thriller to keep you up at night.

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A Traitor Among Us: A Mystery of Revolutionary America, is on sale for 99¢/99p this week only! The sale ends at midnight EST on Friday, 2/16/24, so if you haven’t read it, grab your copy now! Click HERE to go to my website, where you can be redirected to your favorite online bookseller.

See you next time!

Amy

But First, a Word from Me

Hello there! It’s good to be back. Last year I really dropped the ball with respect to my blog and my newsletter, in large part because I couldn’t think of things to say and I was buried in work. My reading pace slowed considerably and I wasn’t able to continue reviewing mysteries as I had been doing.

With that in mind, this year has brought with it a new focus in my business. And at the very heart of that focus is the mystery-loving community: you. Perhaps in future blogs I will tell you more about it, but that’s really the domain of my newsletter. I’ll let you know below how to sign up for it if you’d like to get more information.

But for now, here’s my plan: twelve months, twelve mysteries, twelve blog posts with reviews. If I can get to it, I’ll review more often and blog more often. But if I can’t, at least by the end of the year I will have provided you with recommendations for twelve terrific mysteries.

Have you signed up for the Goodreads 2024 Reading Challenge? I’ve pledged (to myself) to read 52 books this year. I didn’t meet last year’s challenge, but I stopped logging books at one point and never got back to it. Last year I pledged to read 65 books. I don’t know how many books I actually read, but it wasn’t quite 65, so this year I took it down a notch. To join the challenge, go to goodreads.com and click on the banner at the tippy-top of the page.

And now for the January book which, like January, was chilling…

THE SHADOW BOX by Luanne Rice

This domestic thriller is the first book I’ve read by Luanne Rice, and I’ve promised myself I’m going to read more of her stuff. Lots more.

Set against the old-money, seaside backdrop of Connecticut politics, the book is about Griffin Chase and the inner circle of family and friends working to get him elected as the next governor of Connecticut. It’s also about the lengths they’ll go to in order to achieve that goal.

Claire Beaudry Chase is Griffin’s second wife, an artist trapped inside a marriage marked by terrifying psychological abuse where her every move is like walking on eggshells.

But Claire has discovered one of her husband’s deepest, darkest secrets, one she’s suspected for a long time. And he knows it.

And they both know she holds his future in her hands—that is, if she lives long enough to tell anyone about the secret.

This book grabbed me from the first sentence and never let go until I hit the last one. The entire story moved at a fast clip, which kept me turning pages well after my bedtime.

The story is told from multiple points of view, so if you’re not a fan of head-hopping, be aware of that (and there are a lot of characters, though not all of them get chapters to themselves). It’s also told along a jagged timeline, meaning chapters don’t necessarily go in chronological order. It adds a layer of complexity to the story, but could also be a bit confusing for some readers. It’s up to the reader to keep things straight, but I believe the author does an excellent job of telling the reader exactly what day it is and who’s talking or thinking.

At its heart, the story is about the horrors of physical and psychological domestic abuse and it shines a light on the issue in a manner that held me rapt. It examines the issue from many angles—victim, family, friends, the authorities, and, importantly, children.

The author does a brilliant job with the setting, making the reader feel as if she’s right there in the thick of things. Rice also delves deeply into several of the characters’ psyches, helping the reader to understand what drives them to act and make certain decisions.

There is a superficial storyline of class and politics, but I believe the point of it is really to hold up the main plot. These characters move in a world most of us will never be a part of, and to be dropped into a story involving great wealth and status is fascinating. Is it cliché? Maybe. But I don’t care. I loved the book. It’s got an important lesson to teach and it does so thrillingly. I give it 5 enthusiastic stars.

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I mentioned above that I would tell you how to sign up for my newsletter to get more from me, including exclusive content and special access to things like cover reveals and special deals on books. It’s easy: go to www.amymreade.com and right there on the home page, click the link that says “Join my VIP lsit,” and it’ll take you to the sign-up page. As I said, there’s a new website waiting in the wings and it’s got some cool stuff on it. More to come!

The Third Annual Cookie Exchange

It’s been a while since we spoke! I’m hoping to change that in the new year, but for now I hope you’ll take part in the blog hop for cookie recipes! At this time of year, it’s always good to have a repertoire of cookie recipes at your fingertips, and this cookie exchange promises to provide you with some great ones!

Scottish Shortbread 

Yields 16-24 cookies 

2 c. flour 

2 T. cornstarch 

1/3 to ½ c. sugar 

1 c. butter (2 sticks), at room temperature 

1 t. cool water 

Grated zest of one orange 

_________________________________________________ 

Combine the flour, cornstarch, and sugar in a large bowl. Using your hands, gently rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly (crumbs about the size of a grain of rice, though I’ve had a few larger pieces). Blend in the water. If desired, blend in the orange zest. 

Pat the dough into an ungreased 9” square baking pan. To make the surface as even as possible, it helps if you can press on the dough with the bottom of another 9” square pan (but no worries if you don’t have one. Just eyeball it) 

Refrigerate dough for 15-30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 325 F. 

Prick the dough with a fork in 12-15 places. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake until golden, about 45 minutes. If the edges are browning too fast, use strips of tin foil to cover them. 

Cool shortbread on a baking rack until it’s lukewarm, then cut into 16 (I make 24) pieces. Allow to cool completely. 

I wish you all joy and peace this holiday season.

Until next time,

Amy

Two FREE Juniper Junction Books!

For a limited time, you can get the first two ebooks in the Juniper Junction Cozy Holiday Mystery Series FREE! Just click here to grab yours!

Need a refresher? Here’s what they’re all about:

The Worst Noel

On the busiest shopping day of the year, Lilly opens her jewelry store to discover it’s been burgled. Then she trips over a body. Talk about a Black Friday.

When a second victim is murdered, Lilly finds herself squarely in the crosshairs of suspicion. The clock is ticking as Lilly tries to unwrap the mystery of the real killer’s identity.

As the bodies pile up like so much snow, Lilly is shocked to discover her ex-husband has returned to town after a fifteen-year absence. Could his reappearance have anything to do with the murders? One thing is sure: Lilly doesn’t want him anywhere near their two teenage kids, neither of whom remember him, or her mom, whose mental health is declining.

Can she figure out who killed the victims before she becomes one herself?

Find out if Lilly is about to have herself a merry or scary little Christmas in this cozy, small-town mystery. Recipes included!

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Dead, White, and Blue

It’s bad enough when the owner of the new bistro in town drops dead at the Independence Day celebration, but when Noley, Lilly’s best friend, is charged with the murder, things start to heat up.

And speaking of heat, there’s a firebug on the loose in Juniper Junction. Houses in town are going up in smoke and when the fires hit a little too close to home, Lilly is pulled into the investigation to uncover the identity of the arsonist.

Can Lilly clear Noley’s name and figure out who’s starting the fires before she becomes a victim herself?

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire in this cozy holiday mystery. Find out if Lilly gets burned as she deals with murder, mayhem, her mother’s dementia, and a coming-of-age issue under her own roof.

Recipes included!

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I am trying to spread the word FAR AND WIDE for this sale! Please help by forwarding this to anyone who might enjoy reading the books! Thanks in advance for your support.

One more time—here’s the link! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SV5593Q

A Page-Turning Thriller

The Accident by Chris Pavone

If you’re looking for a unique and heart-pounding thriller that checks all the boxes of intrigue, an international manhunt, CIA black ops, rich and powerful businessmen, and a whole lot of conflicted and morally compromised characters, do yourself a favor and check out The Accident.

My husband read this book first and insisted I read it as soon as he was done. I’m so glad I did. I loved the book’s fast pace, but I especially loved the crux of the story, which is an anonymous manuscript that, if published, has the power to destroy both careers and lives.

Here’s a quick summary: an anonymous writer has penned a manuscript that threatens to reveal buried secrets of some very powerful people. The writer sends it off to an agent, who quickly realizes she’s holding a ticking time bomb. The writer has insisted that no one make copies of the manuscript, but as more people realize what the agent has,…predictably, copies are made.

But someone out there knows who has copies, and that someone will not rest until every person with a copy of the manuscript is dead.

From the streets of Manhattan to the Hamptons of Long Island, from Switzerland to Austria to Paris, the hunt is on to find the person responsible for writing the tome that will destroy lives and livelihoods.

But is that person already dead?

You’ll have to read the book to find out.

I loved this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who loves a twisty thriller with plenty of action and excitement. It’s not as meaty as your typical thriller, so it’s a fairly quick read and very entertaining. Note: for those readers who prefer books without sex and violence, this is not the book for you.

The Art of Short Stories

Vermeer to Eternity by Anthony Horowitz

This was a great read by an internationally known and highly respected mystery writer. Anthony Horowitz weaves a fun and engaging story about a widow with a painting that is allegedly a Vermeer and the art critic who initially determines it to be a forgery.

There is something about Anthony Horowitz’s work that keeps readers turning pages and investing themselves in the outcome of the story. His characterization is definitely part of the appeal, and in this book I found the choice of narrator to be fascinating. The narrator, James, is a neighbor of the widow and an old university friend of the art critic. James’ presence in the story allows the reader to see the widow and the critic from an outsider’s point of view—this adds a terrific element of relatability for the reader. As James’ story unfolded, I found myself agreeing with his assessment of the characters and with the situation they found themselves in.

Ghosts and karma play big roles in this story, and even if you’re not a fan of ghost stories, I urge you to read this one. Because who isn’t a fan of karma??

The book is 23 pages long and you can read it in a jiffy. It’s also just 99¢ on Kindle (not available in any other format) or free if you’re in Kindle Unlimited.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a great short story with a fun twist at the end. Thanks to Veronica Cline Barton for recommending this book on her blog!

The Body in the Water

The Maid’s Diary by Loreth Anne White

This book is billed as “psychological suspense,” but that description doesn’t fully capture the incredible layers of suspense—and psychological twists and turns—the story offers.

The plot of the book is complex and involves an intermingling of the past and the present in a way that’s shocking and totally satisfying for lovers of psychological thrillers. There is a tight cast of primary characters: a former Olympic gold-medal skier, his pregnant wife, the wife’s pregnant friend, an elderly lady with dementia, the lead investigator on this mind-bending case, and, of course, the maid.

Trying to summarize the plot of the book would be giving away too much of it, so I’ll just reiterate what the Amazon blurb says: the story is about a maid, Kit, with a snooping problem and a client with a past the color of onyx. Kit is about to get herself into a very dangerous situation, one from which she knows she might not survive. Because someone will stop at nothing to keep that dark past hidden.

There’s a lot to unpack in the book. At its heart is the notion that things are never as they seem. People offer carefully curated illusions of themselves and present those illusions to the world as fact. The rest of the world is drawn in by the beauty and perfection and fairytales people create, and don’t bother (or perhaps don’t want) to look further, to see the beast hiding behind the beauty or the ogre hiding in the fairytale.

The book is written from multiple points of view: an unknown person, the maid, the elderly woman, the lead investigator, the skier, his wife, and a photographer. I found the head-hopping easy to follow because the characters are all so different, but people who do not love head-hopping should be aware of this. There are scenes that address brutal sexual assault, though not in graphic detail. Readers who are particularly sensitive to this topic also need to be aware of it.

There are enough twists in this book to give one whiplash, and I loved it. The story unfolds at just the right pace, with bits of backstory being tantalizingly fed to the reader as the chapters progress. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves psychological suspense, to people who like mysteries told from various points of view, and to anyone who wonders what really goes on in the lives of people we follow online.

Locked Room Mysteries

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This Agatha Christie classic, often referred to as the bestselling crime novel of all time, is a fun read that is baffling in all the good ways. It’s usually considered a locked room mystery, which means it takes place in some type of confined space, the cast of characters do not enter or leave the space once the mystery begins, the mystery seems almost impossible to solve, and the solution to the mystery does not involve paranormal or any kind of ghostly assistance.

Even though And Then There Were None doesn’t take place in an actual locked room, it is set on a remote and largely inaccessible island. The setting conforms to the most important elements of a locked room mystery: no one comes to or leaves the island once the mystery begins, there is no way to get back to civilization once everyone has arrived, and there is no one else on the island except the characters in the story.

Here’s a short summary of the story:

The new owner of Soldier Island has invited an unlikely hodge-podge of guests to spend some time at the mansion on the island. Each invitee has received a letter providing a different reason for the invitation. The reasons are many: one is invited to visit a new seaside retreat, one is invited to reconnect with old war buddies, one is asked to accept temporary secretarial position on the island, etc. The reasons seem logical and plausible to the recipients, so no one seriously questions the sender’s real motives.

The first night on the island, it becomes clear that everyone has been tricked into coming by their host, who is unknown to each of them. Following their first dinner together, they are assembled in the dining room when a disembodied voice startles the party. With methodical and ghastly precision, the voice accuses each guest of causing the death of another person or persons at some point in the guest’s life. The voice provides scant details, but delivers its accusations with certainty and conviction. The guests, strangers to each other, feel the stirrings of paranoia, fear, and distrust.

One by one, the guests are eliminated over the ensuing hours and days. One drowns, one is poisoned, one is bludgeoned. No one knows who’s responsible, or who’s next. It seems inexplicable…until you get to the end, when the person and the blood-chilling motive behind the ruse is revealed.

This locked room mystery is a classic for a reason: it’s ingenious, brilliantly told, and timeless. Originally published in 1939, the book does include some elements of language and punctuation that seem aberrant today but were common during that era—I think those elements only make the book more special. And before you decide not to read the book because you’ve seen the television mini-series or any of the movies, think again! The book is better (and has a different ending, in many cases).

Even if you’ve read this book before, as I have, I urge you to read it again. It’s one of those tales that reveals something new each time you read it. You’ll find clues you never noticed and details you had forgotten.

I would recommend And Then There Were None to anyone who loves Agatha Christie, locked room mysteries, and mysteries in general!