I liked The A.B.C. Murders because it departed from the usual Christie assembly of likely killers all in one room. In some ways.

AND it gave Hercule Poirot more trouble than usual.

By the end of the book I was disappointed in the A.B.C. killer. Surprised he lasted as long as he did.

Quite an amazing plot. Based on a true story. A mammoth missile launcher, hidden in the woods and aimed at the US.

Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn’t cry wolf. His boundless sense of adventure and vivid imagination mean he has a tendency to concoct stories so extraordinary and so far-fetched that no one can possibly believe him.

But when Laurent disappears, former Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true.

So begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. And what Gamache uncovers deep in the forest leads back to crimes of the past, betrayal and murder, with more sinister consequences than anyone could have possibly imagined . . .

Google Books

I’d never heard of this popular murder mystery series set in rural France.

This 1st novel in a long series was first published 2008.

Martin Walker is a journalist, having worked for The Guardian for 28 years. A Brit, he now lives in the Périgord/Dordogne in Southern France.

Benoît “Bruno” Courrèges, a passionate cook and former soldier who was wounded on a peacekeeping mission in the Balkans, who never carries his official gun and who has “long since lost the key to his handcuffs” is the village policeman in sleepy St. Denis.

Like Three Pines in Quebec, astonishing things keep happening in this tiny rural village.

The book is an easy read. Bruno an entertaining and enjoyable character.

I’ll try more in the series.

Amazon

James Patterson loves to write with other authors.

This time it’s Nancy Allen, who practiced law for 15 years in Missouri.

Jailhouse Lawyer is a 2-book series, unrelated from one another. And both quite entertaining.

What ties them together is a revealing look at how small town law in the southern U.S. is still backwards. And unjust.

Happily, the female protagonists in each tale win in the end. Both stories are uplifting.

NOTE – It’s easy to tell which book webpage summary writer has actually read the books by seeing whether or not they mention that Jailhouse Lawyer is 2 books — not many. 😀

The March 2022 book about Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett is in the context of global pandemic.

It’s very good.

A day before the three Pickett girls come home for Thanksgiving, Joe is called out for a moose poaching incident that turns out to be something much more sinister: a local fishing guide has been brutally tortured and murdered. 

At the same time, Marybeth opens an unmarked package at the library where she works and finds a photo album that belonged to an infamous Nazi official. Who left it there? And why? …

Meanwhile, Nate Romanowski is on the hunt for the man who stole his falcons and attacked his wife. 

CJBox.net

Any author named Prose MUST be good. 😀

And her character “Molly Maid” is both likeable and amusing. Somewhere on the autism spectrum.

“I am your maid. I know so much about you. But when it comes down to it: what is it that you know about me?”

Molly Gray is not like everyone else. She struggles with social skills and misinterprets the intentions of others. Her gran used to interpret the world for her, codifying it into simple rules that Molly could live by.

Since Gran died a few months ago, twenty-five-year-old Molly has had to navigate life’s complexities all by herself. No matter—she throws herself with gusto into her work as a hotel maid. Her unique character, along with her obsessive love of cleaning and proper etiquette, make her an ideal fit for the job. She delights in donning her crisp uniform each morning, stocking her cart with miniature soaps and bottles, and returning guest rooms at the Regency Grand Hotel to a state of perfection.

But Molly’s orderly life is turned on its head the day she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find it in a state of disarray and Mr. Black himself very dead in his bed. Before she knows what’s happening, Molly’s unusual demeanor has the police targeting her as their lead suspect.

She quickly finds herself caught in a web of deception, one she has no idea how to untangle. Fortunately for Molly, friends she never knew she had unite with her in a search for clues to what really happened to Mr. Black—but will they be able to find the real killer before it’s too late?

NitaProse.com

Nita Prose is vice president and editorial director at Simon & Schuster Canada.

After the success of Kane and Abel and The Prodigal Daughter, Archer published a revised edition of Shall We Tell the President? (1986), replacing Kennedy (in real life a senator and a presidential candidate but never president) with the fictional character Florentyna Kane (who became president in The Prodigal Daughter) in order to link it with the other two novels. …

I enjoyed the two pseudo sequels — but this book is quite different. Stand alone — but set in the timeline of Prodigal Daughter.

President Kane is about to be assassinated for her support of a gun regulation bill.

Note that the U.S. government has still not done much to reduce gun violence in the decades since.

I am enjoying a series of books by Grainger featuring Norfolk Detective Sergeant DC Smith. SO decided to try the 1st book of another of his series — set in Cornwall.

BUT as much as it is very well written, I prefer the DC Smith character.

Detective Sergeant Chris Waters gets his first assignment as crime scene manager — the murder of a young woman.

The plot is rather dull as murder mysteries go. Most of this book details the people investigating the crime. Their relationships. Their motivations. The slow bureaucracy.

Shockingly, this book is set in Arizona close to the Mexican border.

Far, far away from Cork O’Connor’s northern Minnesota.

His new bride Rainy Bisonette receives a desperate phone call from her son, Peter.

The connection is terrible but before the line goes dead, they hear Peter confess to the murder of someone named Rodriquez.

The following morning, Cork and Rainy fly to southern Arizona, where Peter has been working as a counselor in a well-known drug rehab center. When they arrive, they learn that Peter was fired six months earlier and hasn’t been heard from since. So they head to the little desert town of Sulfur Springs where Peter has been receiving his mail. But no one in Sulfur Springs seems to know him. …

As they gather scraps of information about Peter, Cork and Rainy are warned time and again that there is a war going on along the border. “Trust no one in Coronado County,” is the most common piece of advice they receive, and Cork doesn’t have to be told twice.

To him, Arizona is alien country. The relentless heat, the absence of water and big trees and shade all feel nightmarish to him, as does his growing sense that Rainy might know more about what’s going on than she’s willing to admit …

williamkentkrueger.com