Murder at the Mansions by Sara Rosett

Murder at the Mansions by Sara Rosett

It appears that there has been a murder in Olive's building and it seems highly likely that someone on her floor is dead. The trouble is that there is no body and no one seems to be missing. Olive's friend, Minerva, is not one to imagine things though. She's practical and intelligent and she saw a foot sticking out of the end of a wrapped rug, so Olive takes the case and together they are determined to get to the truth. Murder at the Mansions is a fun little mystery. Olive is smart and clever as always. I liked that it was set in her building which has a nice variety of people and their pets living in it. We get to meet some new characters, but Jasper is still around and I like their relationship. He helps her out, but she is definitely the one solving the case and the romance doesn't take over the book. I really like this series....
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Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman

Last Call at the Nightingale by Katharine Schellman

For Vivian, dancing at the Nightingale, and the occasional free drink, is a way to escape the dullness and monotony of her life. She and her sister, Florence, barely make enough to live on as seamstresses. They live in a crowded tenement building and life is tough. This is not a glitzy, sparkling 1920s setting. The bobbed hair, bootleg liquor, and dance halls are there, but so are the poverty, racial oppression, and police raids. We see Vivian's squalid building, but also the opulent homes of the rich. Vivian and her best friend, Bea, a waitress at the club, find a dead man in the alley outside the back door. Vivian becomes our amateur sleuth, with a gentle nudge from Honor Huxley, the club's owner. Honor knows how important, and deadly, information can be. The mystery has several twists and turns and the ending surprised me. I liked the diversity in the characters and that the Nightingale was a place that allowed...
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A Killer Sundae by Abby Collette

A Killer Sundae by Abby Collette

A Killer Sundae might be my favorite of the series so far, which is good since I wasn't thrilled with the first two. The only reason I picked this up is because it was immediately available to download from the library and I didn't hate the others. This time around a local reporter, and old high school classmate of Win's, has been killed. Win reluctantly becomes involved, mostly at the insistence of her friends - she has a bit of a reputation by now. The plot was well done, with plenty of suspects and several twists - and some delicious-sounding ice cream flavors. There's also a mystery involving a cookbook that seemed a little silly for Win to get so obsessed over. Win is smart and caring. Her friends were a little more realistic this time, and I love how loyal and helpful her family is. It's a good bunch of characters, and I feel like I should enjoy them more than...
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Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler

Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries edited by Otto Penzler

I love collections like this. These stories are all "locked room" mysteries, where a murder is committed in circumstances under which it was seemingly impossible either for someone to commit the crime or to evade detection. The list is a who's who of Amerian mystery authors from the era. Anthony Boucher — ElsewhereFrederic Brown — Whistler’s MurderJohn Dickson Carr — The Third BulletJoseph Cummings — Fingerprint GhostMignon G. Eberhart — The Calico DogErle Stanley Gardner — The Exact OppositeMacKinlay Kantor — The Light at Three O’ClockC. Daly King — The Episode of the Nail and the RequiemStuart Palmer — The Riddle of the Yellow CanaryEllery Queen — The House of HauntsClayton Rawson — From Another WorldCraig Rice — His Heart Could BreakManly Wade Wellman — Murder Among MagiciansCornell Woolrich — Murder at the Automat Some I enjoyed more than others. Surprisingly, Carr's The Third Bullet was my least favorite - too long, and rather boring compared to the others. My favorites might...
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Peril at the Exposition by Nev March

Peril at the Exposition by Nev March

One of the strengths of Murder in Old Bombay, the first in the series, was the setting, 1890s India. In Peril at the Exposition, Chicago and the World's Fair are richly drawn and vividly described, but didn't have quite the same draw for me. It made sense for Diana and Jim to emigrate to America, but it lost some of the charm of the first. This book, told mostly from Diana's point of view, does give us her memories of places and people in India, but at times they feel forced. Jim, now working as a private investigator, is missing in Chicago. Diana heads off to find him. Diana is determined and strong in her own way, but definitely in over her head. She can be melodramatic and puts herself and others in dangerous situations. As Diana digs deeper into the case Jim was working on, she realizes there's a plot involving anarchists, labor union disputes, and maybe a bomb. There...
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The Paper Caper by Kate Carlisle

The Paper Caper by Kate Carlisle

I assumed I would enjoy The Paper Caper. The main character, Brooklyn, restores books and does paper art and the story is set during a Mark Twain festival. This is the first I've read in the series and maybe that's the problem, maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I knew the characters better. I love that Brooklyn restores books but I couldn't quite get a hold of her character. This is #16, so presumably she's helped solve at least sixteen murders. But she seems really young and her husband seems to humor her more than take her thoughts on the case seriously. I'm assuming she's seen several dead bodies, but watching a video of a car crash is almost too much for her to handle? The whodunnit was a bit obvious and therefore disappointing. The twist I was assuming there would be regarding who the killer was just never happened. Overall, it was just a little too silly. Some...
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