Four Mysteries I Couldn’t Put Down

When I was a media specialist (school librarian) I always planned special “March is Reading Month” activities to promote reading and books  for my students. To celebrate Reading Month this year, I thought I’d share some book recommendations with you.  When my friends tell me about a book they’ve enjoyed, I put the title and author in “Notes” on my iPhone. That way when I go to the bookstore or the library, I have great recommendations at my fingertips. Go ahead, write these down. Then leave me a comment with one or two of your favorites.

The House on Tradd Street by Karen White

An author friend recommended this book because it has so many elements and motifs similar to one of my books, The Cavanaugh House. I love the atmosphere of Southern charm and gentility played against the protagonist and her stubborn, modern ways. Melanie Middleton is far from perfect – and that’s one reason why she’s so compelling. She has experiences with ghosts similar to my character’s, but her reaction to them is quite different. Jack Trenholm is a cad…but he’s not…but maybe he is. It’s a formula ripe for romance. A well-crafted suspense that I could not put down.

Blurb:

Practical Melanie Middleton hates to admit she can see ghosts. But she’s going to have to accept it. An old man she recently met has died, leaving her his historic Tradd Street home, complete with housekeeper, dog—and a family of ghosts anxious to tell her their secrets.

Enter Jack Trenholm, a gorgeous writer obsessed with unsolved mysteries. He has reason to believe that diamonds from the Confederate Treasury are hidden in the house. So he turns the charm on with Melanie, only to discover he’s the smitten one…

It turns out Jack’s search has caught the attention of a malevolent ghost. Now, Jack and Melanie must unravel a mystery of passion, heartbreak—and even murder.

 

Echoes of Terror by Maris Soule

Fast-paced and thrilling, Echoes of Terror grabbed me on page one and never let go. Ms. Soule’s finely crafted mystery does not waste one word as she develops an atmosphere of danger and dread. Pay attention to every detail in this intricately woven tale of revenge, romance, and redemption. I read it like I watch scary movies: with my hands over my eyes, peeking through my fingers.

Blurb

Katherine Ward is assigned the case, never expecting it to parallel her own kidnapping experience seventeen years before. In Skagway, Alaska, the usual crimes faced by the police department’s small force are DUIs and missing bikes. With the chief in the hospital and one officer missing, they’re not prepared for the kidnapping of a billionaire’s daughter.

Misty Morgan thought running off with a college boy would get her father’s attention. Now she and another teenager are praying for their lives. Stuck in China, Misty’s father knew his daughter was up to something, so he asked his longtime friend Vince Nanini to fly to Alaska and stop Misty. Problem is Vince arrives too late. The college boy is dead, Misty is missing, and the police aren’t eager to let him help.

When Katherine realizes the same man who kidnapped and raped her years ago is the one holding Misty and the other teenager, the terror of those months resurfaces. Vince finds her drunk and in tears, and he’s with her when she realizes the kidnapper has struck again. Together they must figure out where this man has taken three people, and they must find him fast.

 

Ghost Gifts by Laura Spinella

Just like when I finished reading Water for Elephants, I had to go back and reread the first chapter of Ghost Gifts when I finished it. This Rita Award finalist weaves the tale of a missing girl’s murder twenty years earlier with Aubrey Ellis’s gift as a psychic, and a romance that was meant to be. This is the kind of book I can’t put down, and when I must, I can’t wait to get back to it. I loved that Ms. Spinella’s characters weren’t perfect. I loved her treatment of the ghosts who appear in the story. I love her ability create characters who play before me like holograms. A Great Read!

Blurb

All Aubrey Ellis wants is a normal life, one that doesn’t include desperate pleas from the dead. Her remarkable gift may help others rest in peace, but it also made for an unsettling childhood and destroyed her marriage. Finally content as the real estate writer for a local newspaper, Aubrey keeps her extraordinary ability hidden—until she is unexpectedly assigned the story of a decades-old murder.

Rocked by the discovery of a young woman’s skeletal remains, the New England town of Surrey wants answers. Hard-nosed investigative reporter Levi St John is determined to get them. Aubrey has no choice but to get involved, even at the terrifying risk of stirring spirits connected to a dead woman’s demise and piquing her new reporting partner’s suspicions.

As Aubrey and Levi delve further into the mystery, secrets are revealed and passion ignites. It seems that Aubrey’s ghost gifts are poised to deliver everything but a normal life.

The Quiche of Death M.C. Beaton

This cozy mystery is the first book in the Agatha Raisin series. One of the joys of listening to an M.C. Beaton mystery on audiobook is being immersed in the narrator’s British accent, and Penelope Keith’s narration is fantastic.  This cozy mystery introduces Agatha Raisin, who is far from the perfect protagonist. She is fussy, rude, and condescending. What’s not to love? But Ms. Beaton draws her so lovingly, that I couldn’t help but admire, even like her. With the colorful characters who are now Agatha’s neighbors, the plot thickened and time flew by as I read.

Blurb

Putting all her eggs in one basket, Agatha Raisin gives up her successful PR firm, sells her London flat, and samples a taste of early retirement in the quiet village of Carsely. Bored, lonely and used to getting her way, she enters a local baking contest: Surely a blue ribbon for the best quiche will make her the toast of the town. But her recipe for social advancement sours when Judge Cummings-Browne not only snubs her entry—but falls over dead! After her quiche’s secret ingredient turns out to be poison, she must reveal the unsavory truth…

Agatha has never baked a thing in her life! In fact, she bought her entry ready-made from an upper crust London quicherie. Grating on the nerves of several Carsely residents, she is soon receiving sinister notes. Has her cheating and meddling landed her in hot water, or are the threats related to the suspicious death? It may mean the difference between egg on her face and a coroner’s tag on her toe…

Each of these mysteries is so different from the others, but I loved them all from cozy to ghostly.  I’d love to add to my list, soooo…

What good mystery have you read lately?