GRITTY NOIR with a richly detailed Belize setting offers heart-stopping plot twists, quirky/seedy characters.

COMPLEX WEBS of crime and a vividly depicted Quebec setting make this multivocal mystery a winner.

STYLISH, ATMOSPHERIC mystery with a Manhattan setting: compelling, if mildly improbable. Impressive first novel!

LESBIAN SLEUTH/RESTAURATEUR Jane Lawless’s 18th outing offers tensely plotted scenes, but too much backstory.

CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT new Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries? If so, Jill Paton Walsh’s continuations will delight. SOLID B

ATTENBURY EMERALDS
Minotaur Books
2011

FOR BARBARA VINE FANS ONLY! Starts off well, w/ interesting kinky-Tory premise, but dissipates into non-sequiturs. B minus.

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT by Barbara Vine
March, 2009
New York: Shaye Areheart Books