WITTY, SASSY COZY mystery with a funky rural Florida setting, high society shenanigans. Lots of fun! B PLUS

A SECONDHAND MURDER
Coffeetown Enterprises, Inc.
2013

A good cozy mystery can be hard to find, despite the enduring popularity of the genre. The most critical element of a successful cozy is creating a likable amateur sleuth; in A Secondhand Murder, Lesley A. Diehl more than succeeds with her protagonist, Eve Appel.

Eve’s found a new home in rural Florida, and a new career as co-owner of a secondhand store located far away enough from the glitter of moneyed coastal communities for broke socialites to resell their glitz on the down low. She’s tough and direct, but has a soft heart for her disaster-prone business partner, and for her beloved grandmother. Eve’s appealing right from the start, and her courage and humor are a winning combination.

The book’s setting, “cowboy country” Florida, is distinctive and engaging, and Diehl’s deft in catching details of local color. The mystery’s plot is clever without being convoluted, and the pacing is admirably brisk. This book is the first in a promising series, and I’m looking forward to more of Eve Appel’s adventures!

WITTY, SASSY COZY mystery with a funky rural Florida setting, high society shenanigans. Lots of fun!

A GLORIOUSLY, RICHLY IMAGINED fantasy world is the setting for a haunting tale of love and death. Beautiful. A MINUS

A STRANGER IN OLONDRIA
Small Beer Press
2013

WONDERFUL AS EVER, the great Agatha Raisin detects again in one of her best English village mysteries yet. B PLUS

SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMEONE DEAD (AGATHA RAISIN MYSTERIES)
Minotaur Books
2014

A UNIQUE FAMILY STORY, funny, poignant, surprising as hell. An astoundingly masterful novel. Just amazing! A MINUS

WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY BESIDE OURSELVES
A Marian Wood Book/Putnam
2013

THE IRISH REBELLION OF 1641, and the impact its events (and their interpretation) have had through centuries. B PLUS

THE SHADOW OF A YEAR: THE 1641 REBELLION IN IRISH HISTORY AND MEMORY
University of Wisconsin Press
2013

ENCHANTING AND INFORMATIVE “time traveler’s guide” to Elizabethan England packs in lots of facts, lots of fun. B PLUS

THE TIME TRAVELER’S GUIDE TO ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
Viking Adult
2013

COMPELLING DYSTOPIAN FUTURE noir focuses on rebels scratching out a living without mandated brain implants. B PLUS

NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR
Grimbold Books
2013

Paige Daniels’s NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR starts with a great premise. In her imagined dystopian future, governments mandate high-tech neural implants as a way to make social processes, from economics to national defense, move more smoothly. Those who reject the technology are exiled to a Non-Compliance Sector, a combination ghetto, refugee camp, and frontier settlement.

Set against this intriguing backdrop, Daniels creates a complex outlaw heroine. Shea Kelly is a tough lady, a skilled computer and electronics hacker, and a fiercely loyal friend. She’s ready to fight when she needs to, which in the rough world of the Non-Compliance Sector is often, but she’s also capable of love, trust, and even yearning. It says a lot for Daniels’s skill that she’s found new twists to put on the noir hero(ine)’s outsider code, and the nuances of Shea’s rebellion and resistance are compelling.

NON-COMPLIANCE: THE SECTOR is a fast-paced read that delivers plenty of action along with its intriguingly imagined world. And it has a sequel, NON-COMPLIANCE: THE TRANSITION, for those wanting further Shea Kelly adventure!