The Castle in the Glen

An absorbing, dual-plotted mystery that resurrects a cold-case murder investigation from Scotland.

Two intricate plots encompass The Castle in the Glen, an ambitious, absorbing historical mystery by Rhys Bowen. 

The primary story is set in 1965 Scotland, where Emma Callander--an Australian writer stalled in her career--is tasked with completing the final installment in a series of mystery novels written by Iris Blackburn, a lauded Australian expat now losing her memory. Iris’s book centers on a murder that occurred in the early 1900s on the Isle of Sky: two young lovers drown under suspicious circumstances, but it’s the disappearance of another woman called “Wild Girl” who emerges front and center. 

As Emma begins to unravel the material Iris has mapped out on the page, she discovers the story might actually be true—a real-life mystery that’s remained unsolved for 50+ years. With the help of Iris’s handsome lawyer, Tony Gordon, Emma joins forces with him as they set off through the Scottish Highlands to learn more, unearthing long-buried family secrets, red herrings, and a host of suspects who might just bridge the past and the present. 

Readers are in for a real treat through atmospheric Scotland, as Bowen (Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure, From Cradle to Grave) entangles a large cast of well-drawn characters amidst two dark and dangerous plots that entwine to form a well-rendered, intriguing conclusion.

Castle in the Glen by Rhys Bowen

Lake Union Publishing, $28.99 hardcover, 9781662527210, 429 pages

Publishing Date: August 4, 2026

To order this book on Bookshop.org, link HERE

Learn more about Rhys Bowen HERE

The Locked Room

A police investigation during the Covid-19 pandemic--a quest to solve a series of stymying suicides--unearths the past and puts a noted forensic archaeologist and her 11-year-old daughter in grave danger.

Dr. Ruth Galloway is a (fictional) forensic archaeologist--a smart, captivating British heroine created by author Elly Griffiths--who always finds herself embroiled in murder and mystery.

Over the course of 13 novels, this bright, British amateur sleuth and college professor has dealt with discoveries such as child remains (The Crossing Places), unidentified corpses from WWII (The House at Sea’s End) and secret underground tunnels (The Chalk Pit) ... among other life and death dilemmas. She’s traveled to Italy (The Dark Angel) and despite being an avowed atheist, she’s even dealt with aspects of religion (The Woman in Blue). Readers have grown along with Ruth Galloway, seeing her through life changes and challenges that have included romance, motherhood, grief and loss. It’s most fitting, then, that Griffiths has set her latest Ruth Galloway mystery, The Locked Room, (the 14th in the series) during the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

 

Just as Covid-19 is about to turn the entire world upside-down, Ruth and her 11-year-old daughter, Kate, are suddenly forced into lockdown at Ruth’s old childhood home, a cottage in Norfolk, where Ruth had been trying to tie up unresolved fragments from her late mother’s life. Forced into isolation, mother and daughter are befriended (at a safe distance) by a seemingly kind, nurse neighbor, Zoe, a frontline worker. In the midst of them all sheltering in place, Ruth’s on-again, off-again love interest, DCI Harry Nelson (and his team) enlists Ruth’s help in trying to solve clues from a decades-long investigation of stymying suicides by local women. Amidst the investigation--and limitations imposed by the lockdown--clues from the past, including prior ties to an old pandemic and spooky folklore, weave their way into dark danger that ultimately puts Ruth, Kate--and Zoe, a woman who might not be all she appears to be--deep into hot water.

 

A cast of recurrent, familiar characters and their dramatic personal dilemmas--along with chillingly authentic details of pandemics, past and present--add to the suspense of Griffiths' well-conceived, brilliantly executed cozy that delivers a shocking plot twist.

 

The Locked Room: A Ruth Galloway Mystery Series (Book 14) by Elly Griffiths

Mariner Books, $18.99 paperback, 9780358671398, 384 pages

Publication Date: June 28, 2022

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

Mango, Mambo, and Murder

When a food anthropologist moves from New York City to Miami, she suddenly finds herself in hot water created by a double-murder plot. 

Mystery writer Raquel V. Reyes plunges a lovable, quick-witted Cuban-American amateur sleuth deep into hot water in her fun, first cozy mystery novel, Mango, Mambo, and Murder.

 

Miriam Quinones-Smith, an academic-turned-food anthropologist-turned-cooking expert on a Spanish-language morning TV program, moves from New York City to Miami with her restless husband and adorable young son. When her best friend, Alma, drags her to a Women’s club luncheon, a socialite at the event face-dives into a pile of chicken salad…and dies. When another woman dies soon thereafter, all hell breaks loose. Miriam’s curious mind and meddling sweeps her into an investigation that delves into the Miami social scene and soon upends her life—and the lives of those she loves. Can her amateur super-sleuthing figure a way out of--and solve--the mayhem?

 

Reyes delivers a fast-paced, spicy debut--replete with rich details of Cuban-American culture--that will satiate the appetites of foodies and cozy mystery lovers alike.

 

Mango, Mambo, and Murder (A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery) Raquel V. Reyes

Crooked Lane Books, $26.99 hardcover, 9781643857848, 336 pages

Publication Date: October 12, 2021

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

Aunt Poldi and the Vineyards of Etna

The second novel in a fun, cozy mysteries series about a Bavarian expat-turned-amateur-sleuth on a quest for justice in her adopted Sicilian hometown. 

Sicily's most obstinate Bavarian expat--a retiree turned amateur sleuth--lands in more hot water in the second installment of Mario Giordano's clever, cozy mystery series. Readers were first introduced to Isolde Oberreiter (aka "Poldi")--a spirited, sensual, 60-year-old widow--in Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions. Poldi relocated to a peaceful Sicilian village intending to live out her days while drinking herself to death. Instead, her handsome handyman was murdered, she became swept up in the search for his killer and sparked a romance with Detective Chief Inspector Vito Montana.

Murder and mayhem find Poldi again in the second book, as Mount Etna spews ash, the water supply to Poldi's community is cut off and a neighbor's dog is killed by poison. When an anti-Mafia district attorney dies from a blow to the head with a full bottle of locally produced wine, Poldi deems it part of a larger conspiracy. She's led to the vineyard, where another body is found. Inquisitive, Vespa-driving Poldi goes in search of answers--and justice. Amid her (mis)adventures, she tangles with the locals, the owner of the vineyard, her now-jealous beau and even the Mob. 

Poldi's story is narrated by her nephew--an unemployed, aspiring novelist who is often summoned from Germany when Auntie Poldi is in trouble. He, along with a cast of lovable, madcap characters, becomes embroiled in a plot with as many strands as a pasta bowl heaped with steaming spaghetti. Giordano's passion for the dramatic absurdity of Sicilian life, culture and traditions overflows with fun and wit.  

Aunt Poldi andthe Vineyards of Etna (An Aunt Poldi Adventure: Book Two) by Mario Giordano, translated by John Brownjohn

Houghton MifflinHarcourt, $26.00 Hardcover, 9781328919021, 368 pages 

Publication Date: March 5, 2019

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (March 26, 2019), link HERE

Murder at the Mill

A portrait painter turns amateur sleuth when a corpse is discovered on Christmas Day in an idyllic English town.

M.B. Shaw is the pen name of British writer Tilly Bagshawe, who has written several contemporary romance novels (Scandalous), as well as thrillers for the literary estate of Sidney Sheldon (Sidney Sheldon's The Tides of Memory). Murder at theMill is the first installment of her smart, lively mystery series; in it Shaw probes the secrets of an idyllic Hampshire village.

The book opens in December. Iris Grey--a 41-year-old portrait painter--has fled her home in Clapham and her estranged husband, Ian McBride, a once successful playwright. After several years of failing to conceive a child via in vitro fertilization, the couple--heartsick and broke--has split up. Iris had hoped that by settling in to Mill Cottage in Hazelford ("Alone. Like a mad cat lady, only without the cats") she would "paint and hide and lick her wounds." Shortly after her arrival, however, she's commissioned to paint a portrait of resident Dominic Wetherby, a charismatic and famous crime writer. During the Wetherbys' posh Christmas party, a corpse is discovered in the river. The shock leaves the family, townsfolk, gossipmongers and the paparazzi reeling. Speculations abound. Was the death an accident--or murder?

Shaw has created a wise and winning sleuth in Iris. Her keen, observational skills honed from her artistic sensibility allow her to detect subtle nuances of human emotion and motivation. This, along with an intricate, cozy plot--and fully realized characters embroiled in a dynamic whodunit and why--will keep readers guessing, and eager for future installments. 

Murder at the Mill: The Iris Grey Mysteries (Book One) by M.B. Shaw

Minotaur Books, $27.99, Hardcover, 9781250189295, 400 pages

Publication Date: December 4, 2018

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (January 15, 2019), link HERE