Fiction Review

Mystery Writers of America recently announced the nominations for the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Award.The nominees honor the “best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2024. The winners will be announced May 1, so you have time to read the books nominated. Check the Webstore for copies of the books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

Congratulations to all of the nominees. But, here’s a special congratulatory note to local author Isabella Maldonado, who appears regularly as an author and moderator at The Poisoned Pen.

BEST NOVEL

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Rough Trade by Katrina Carrasco
Things Don’t Break on Their Own by Sarah Easter Collins 
My Favorite Scar by Nicolás Ferraro
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera
The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Twice the Trouble by Ash Clifton
Cold to the Touch by Kerri Hakoda
The Mechanics of Memory by Audrey Lee
A Jewel in the Crown by David Lewis
The President’s Lawyer by Lawrence Robbins 
Holy City by Henry Wise

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL

The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle
The Vacancy in Room 10 by Seraphina Nova Glass
Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler
A Forgotten Kill by Isabella Maldonado
The Road to Heaven by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson

BEST FACT CRIME

Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figluizzi
The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson
A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau
The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy that Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen
Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America’s Second Slavery by Earl Swift
The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL

James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman
American Noir Film: From The Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl by M. Keith Booker
Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, and Television Shows by David Geherin
On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson
Ian Fleming; The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare

BEST SHORT STORY

“Cut and Thirst,” Amazon Original Stories by Margaret Atwood
“Everywhere You Look,” Amazon Original Stories by Liv Constantine
“Eat My Moose,” Conjunctions: 82, Works & Days by Erika Krouse
“Barriers to Entry,” Amazon Original Stories by Ariel Lawhon
“The Art of Cruel Embroidery,” Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine – July-August 2024

BEST JUVENILE

The Beanstalk Murder by P.G. Bell
Mystery of Mystic Mountain by Janet Fox
Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Stolen Key by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Spindle of Fate by Aimee Lim
Find Her by Ginger Reno

BEST YOUNG ADULT

Looking for Smoke by K.A. Cobell
The Bitter End by Alexa Donne
A Crane Among Wolves by June Hur
Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson
49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards

OTHER AWARDS

 ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD – Endowed by the family of Robert L. Fish.

“The Legend of Penny and the Luck of the Draw Casino,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, May-June 2024 by Pat Gaudet
“Head Start,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Kai Lovelace
“Murder Under Sedation,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, March-April 2024 by Lawrence Ong
“The Jews on Elm Street,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Anna Stolley Persky
“Sparrow Maker,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, November-December 2024 by Jake Stein 

THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD – Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster.

The Rose Arbor by Rhys Bowen
The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill
Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman
Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD – Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Disturbing the Dead by Kelley Armstrong
A Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh
Proof by Beverly McLachlin
A World of Hurt by Mindy Mejia
All the Way Gone by Joanna Schaffhausen
The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD – Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.

The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald
Death and Fromage by Ian Moore
Booked for Murder by P.J. Nelson 
Murder on Devil’s Pond by Ayla Rose
The Treasure Hunters Club by Tom Ryan

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, and critic Mark Athitakis, welcomed Kyle Paoletta to the bookstore to talk about his debut book, a nonfiction title called American Oasis: Finding the Future in the Cities of the Southwest. There are signed copies of the book available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/40nYXOK

Here’s the description of American Oasis.

An expansive and revelatory historical exploration of the multicultural, water-seeking, land-destroying settlers of the most arid corner of North America, arguing that in order to know where the United States is going in the era of mass migration and climate crisis we must understand where the Southwest has already been

Albuquerque. Phoenix. Tucson. El Paso. Las Vegas. Iconic American cities surrounded by desert and rust. Teeming metropolises that seem to exist independently of the seemingly inhospitable and arid landscape that surrounds them, belying the rich insight they offer into American stories of migration, industry, bloodshed, and rebirth.
??????Charting a geographic path through America’s largest and hottest deserts, acclaimed journalist Kyle Paoletta maps the past and future of these cities, and the many other settlements from rural town to urban sprawl that make up the region that has come to be called “the American Southwest.” Weaving together the stories of immigrants and indigenous populations, American Oasis pulls back the layers of settlement, sediment, habit, and effect that successive empires have left on the region, from the Athapascan, Diné, Tewa, Apache, and Comanche, to the Spanish, Mexican, and, finally, American.
??????As Paoletta’s journey into the Southwest’s history becomes inextricably linked to an exploration of its dependency on water, he begins to ask: where, ultimately, will cities like Las Vegas and Phoenix find themselves once the Colorado River and its branches dry up? Richly reported and sweeping in its history, American Oasis is the story of what one iconic region’s past can tell us about our shared environmental and cultural future.

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Kyle Paoletta’s reporting and criticism has appeared in The New York Times, Harper’s, New York Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, n+1, The Believer, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Baffler, High Country News, and Boston. Kyle holds an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University and previously worked at GQ and New York Magazine. He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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Paoletta reads from his book, and he and Athitakis discuss it. You can watch the event here.

Alice Feeney’s Beautiful Ugly is so hot at The Poisoned Pen that it’s sold out. Her appearance at the bookstore was the last on her recent book tour, and the audience certainly turned out to see her. Some had never been in the bookstore before, but with Feeney’s His and Hers coming out on Netflix this coming summer, more people will recognize her books. You can still order copies of her books through the bookstore. Copies are on order. https://bit.ly/3WsJbAR

Here’s the summary of Beautiful Ugly.

“Her best book yet.” —Harlan Coben
The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . .
. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.

“Magnetic and jaw-dropping.” —Mary Kubica, bestselling author
“Unforgettable.” —Chris Whitaker, bestselling author

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Alice Feeney is the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ugly, Good Bad Girl, Daisy Darker, Rock Paper Scissors, His & Hers, I Know Who You Are, and Sometimes I Lie. Her novels have been translated into over thirty languages, and have been optioned for major screen adaptations. Alice was a BBC journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in the Devon countryside with her family.

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Enjoy the conversation with Alice Feeney about her books.

Author Scott Turow recently appeared for The Poisoned Pen to discuss his latest book, Presumed Guilty. There are still signed copies available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4fWSFv6

Award-winning reviewer Oline Cogdill reviewed Presumed Guilty for the South Florida Sun Sentinel, and was willing to share her review here. Thank you, Oline.

‘Presumed Guilty’ by Scott Turow. Grand Central, 544 pages, $30

Scott Turow’s debut novel “Presumed Innocent” was one of the game changers for legal thrillers when it was published in 1987. Turow, along with a couple other authors, turned a new lens on the legal thriller, making the minutia of the law and its effects exciting and fresh.

“Presumed Innocent” was an instant best-seller, adapted into a popular movie starring Harrison Ford and is now Apple TV+’s most-watched drama series featuring Jake Gyllenhaal.

“Presumed Innocent,” with its myriad twists and stunner of a finale, was a novel about the law but also a story about marriage, infidelity, ambition and betrayal. The precisely plotted novel centered around prosecutor Rusty Sabich, but he was hardly a hero — brilliant but vain, a family man who was often disconnected from them. Yet Turow made Rusty infinitely interesting, and returns to this character for the third time with “Presumed Guilty.”

While “Presumed Guilty” certainly can be appreciated on its own merits as a stand-alone novel, readers may more deeply appreciate it knowing Rusty’s background and how far he has come.

Rusty is now 77, retired for a while as prosecutor of the fictional Kindle County, a thinly disguised area around Chicago. He seems to have found happiness with elementary school principal Bea Housley.

His plans for a small wedding, then a peaceful retirement, are stalled when Bea’s adopted son, Aaron, is arrested for his girlfriend’s murder. Aaron, who is Black, seems to be the logical suspect since he left his girlfriend in a forest following a fight. Aaron also recently broke the tight probation he received following his conviction for felony drug possession.

Rusty reluctantly agrees to defend Aaron, though he worries his experience as a prosecutor won’t translate to being a defense attorney.

Despite its heft, the plot of “Presumed Guilty” moves briskly as Turow looks at the law, racism, complicated families and, yes, the presumption of guilt. Rusty’s love of the law and his leeriness of its inequities loom large.

Turow’s penchant for twists that at first seem odd but are totally believable, and his intimate knowledge of the law, show how the author remains at the top of his writing skills in “Presumed Guilty.”

Behind the plot: Scott Turow’s “Presumed Innocent” was his first published fiction in 1987, but not his foray into writing. In 1977, his nonfiction book “One L: The Turbulent True Story of a First Year at Harvard Law School” was published. The title of this autobiographical book is self-explanatory.

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Want to know more? Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, recently talked with Scott Turow about his writing. You can watch that conversation here.

Congratulations to the nominees for the 2025 Lefty Awards. Interested in reading the books nominated? Check out the Webstore for copies. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

The Lefty Awards will be voted on at Left Coast Crime 2025 and presented at a banquet on Saturday, March 15, at the Westin Denver Downtown. Congratulations to all! 

Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel

• Ellen Byron, A Very Woodsy Murder (Kensington Books)
• Jennifer J. Chow, Ill-Fated Fortune (St. Martin’s Paperbacks)
• A.J. Devlin, Bronco Buster (NeWest Press)
• Catriona McPherson, Scotzilla (Severn House)
• Rob Osler, Cirque du Slay (Crooked Lane Books)
• Richard Osman, We Solve Murders (Pamela Dorman Books / Viking)

Lefty Nominees for Best Historical Mystery Novel
(Bill Gottfried Memorial) for books covering events before 1970

• John Copenhaver, Hall of Mirrors (Pegasus Crime)
• Robert Dugoni, A Killing on the Hill (Thomas & Mercer)
• Dianne Freeman, An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder (Kensington Books)
• Laurie R. King, The Lantern’s Dance (Bantam Books)
• Laura Jensen Walker, Death of a Flying Nightingale (Level Best Books / Historia)

Lefty Nominees for Best Debut Mystery Novel

• Peter Malone Elliott, Blue Ridge (Level Best Books)
• Cindy Goyette, Obey All Laws (Level Best Books)
• Audrey Lee, The Mechanics of Memory (CamCat Books)
• Jennifer K. Morita, Ghosts of Waikiki (Crooked Lane Books)
• K.T. Nguyen, You Know What You Did (Dutton)

Lefty Nominees for Best Mystery Novel
(not in other categories)

• Claire Booth, Home Fires (Severn House)
• Margot Douaihy, Blessed Water (Zando, Gillian Flynn Books)
• Rob Hart, Assassins Anonymous (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
• Leslie Karst, Molten Death (Severn House)
• James L’Etoile, Served Cold (Level Best Books)
• Duane Swierczynski, California Bear (Mulholland Books)

Mystery Writers of America recently announced this year’s Grand Masters, along with the Raven Award and Ellery Queen Award winners.

Congratulations to the new Grand Masters, Laura Lippman and John Sandford. If you’re not yet fans of these authors, check the Webstore for copies of their books. https://store.poisonedpen.com/

The 2025 Raven Award goes to Face in a Book bookstore in El Dorado Hills, California.

Peter Wolverton, Senior Editor at St. Martin’s Press, is the recipient of the Ellery Queen Award.

Congratulations to the winners of these prestigious awards!

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Here is the press release from MWA.

MWA Announces 2025 Grand Masters, Raven & Ellery Queen Award Recipients

Celebrates 80^th Anniversary in 2025

January 15, 2025 —New York, NY—Today Mystery Writers of America (MWA) announces the recipients of its special awards. The board chose Laura Lippman and John Sandford as the 2025 Grand Masters, the 2025 Raven Award recipient is Face in a Book Bookstore & Gifts, and Peter Wolverton of St. Martin’s Publishing Group will receive the Ellery Queen Award. They will accept their awards at the 79^th Annual Edgar Awards Ceremony, which will be held May 1, 2025, at the Marriott Marquis Times Square in New York City.

“Laura Lippman’s contributions to the mystery genre—as a writer, a teacher, and a role model for aspiring writers—especially women writers—make her a wonderful choice for Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master,” said MWA Executive Vice President Donna Andrews. “And, as someone who’s been a fan of John Sandford since the first few pages of Rules of Prey, I’m overjoyed to see him getting the well-deserved recognition of being named MWA Grand Master.”

MWA’s Grand Master Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in mystery writing and was established to acknowledge important contributions to this genre, as well as for a body of work that is both significant and of consistent high quality.

On being notified of the honor, Laura Lippman said, “It was a little humbling how many cliches rushed into my brain when I found out I was to be named a Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America. Things like ‘This is a dream come true!’ and ‘I can’t believe this is happening!’ were, alas, my initial responses. And even now that I’ve been given some time to absorb the news—it still feels like a dream come true. I have always been proud to be associated with the crime-writing community and MWA, both of which have given me so much over the past three decades. Truly—obviously—words fail me.”

Lippman is a New York Times best-selling novelist who has been named one of the “essential” crime writers of the last 100 years. She has published 25 novels, two short story collections, a book of essays, and one children’s book. Her work has won or been shortlisted for every major prize given to crime novelists working in English. A limited series, based on her 2019 novel Lady in the Lake, aired on AppleTV in 2024. She lives in Baltimore and New Orleans. 

Sandford is the pseudonym for the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Camp. He is the author of 35 Prey novels, the Kidd novels, the Virgil Flowers novels, and six other books, including three YA novels co-authored with his wife Michele Cook. Camp won the Pulitzer Prize in journalism in 1986 and was one of four finalists for the prize in 1980. He also was the winner of the Distinguished Writing Award of the American Society of Newspaper Editors for 1985.

On learning of the honor, Sandford said, “Believe me when I say I’m extremely flattered to be included in the company of so many great storytellers, people I’ve read and admired for years. My thanks to the MWA and all its members.”

Previous Grand Masters include Katherine Hall Page, R.L. Stine, Michael Connelly, Joanne Fluke, Laurie R. King, Charlaine Harris, Jeffery Deaver, Barbara Neely, Martin Cruz Smith, William Link, Peter Lovesey, Walter Mosley, Lois Duncan, James Ellroy, Robert Crais, Ken Follett, Sara Paretsky, James Lee Burke, Sue Grafton, Stephen King, Ira Levin, Mary Higgins Clark, Lawrence Block, P.D. James, Ellery Queen, Daphne du Maurier, Alfred Hitchcock, Graham Greene, and Agatha Christie, to name a few.

The Raven Award recognizes outstanding achievement in the mystery field outside the realm of creative writing. For 2025, Mystery Writers of America selected Face in a Book in El Dorado Hills, CA.

“We are utterly shocked, humbled and delighted to learn that Face in a Book is receiving the Raven Award from the Mystery Writers of America,” Tina Ferguson, store owner, said. “Face in a Book is proud to celebrate over a decade of dedicated service to the literary community. Since opening its doors in 2012, the bookstore has worked tirelessly to create a vibrant, welcoming space for both mystery writers and readers. Through special events, author signings, and a curated selection of mystery novels, Face in a Book has become a hub for fans of the genre to connect, discover, and dive deep into the thrilling world of whodunits, exotic locations, and complex characters.”

Previous Raven Award recipients include Crime Writers of Color, Eddie Muller, Lesa Holstine, Malice Domestic, Left Coast Crime, Marilyn Stasio, The Raven Bookstore, BOLO Books, Dru Ann Love, Sisters in Crime, and Oline Cogdill.

The Ellery Queen Award was established in 1983 to honor “outstanding writing teams and outstanding people in the mystery-publishing industry.” This year the Board chose to honor Peter Wolverton, who began his career 35 years ago at St. Martin’s Press. In that time, Wolverton has held many roles—from Editor to Associate Publisher to Editorial Director and now Executive Editor and Vice President—publishing many amazing authors such as John Hart, Donna Andrews, Arnaldur Indridason, Julia Spencer-Fleming and many, many more.

On learning he would receive the Ellery Queen Award, Wolverton said, “Mysteries have been a part of my publishing career from the first day I joined St. Martin’s and I was blessed to have Ruth Cavin and Tom Dunne as mentors.  35 years later it’s amazing to me that I’m joining Ruth and my great colleague Kelley Ragland as a recipient of the Ellery Queen Award.  Mysteries forever!”

Previous Ellery Queen Award winners include Michaela Hamilton, The Strand Magazine, Juliet Grames, Reagan Arthur, Kelley Ragland, Linda Landrigan, Neil Nyren, Charles Ardai, and Janet Hutchings.

“Working with Pete Wolverton for nearly twenty years has given me a deep appreciation for his skill as an editor and his passion for the crime fiction genre,” Andrews said. “How lovely to see him recognized with the Ellery Queen Award.”

The Edgar Awards, or “Edgars,” as they are commonly known, are named after MWA’s patron saint Edgar Allan Poe and are presented to authors of distinguished work in various categories. MWA is the premier organization for mystery writers, professionals allied to the crime-writing field, aspiring crime writers, and those who are devoted to the genre. The organization encompasses some 3,000 members including authors of fiction and nonfiction books, screen and television writers, as well as publishers, editors, and literary agents. For more information on Mystery Writers of America, please visit the website: www.mysterywriters.org

I know we’ve all watched the reports out of Los Angeles with horror – so many displaced people and animals. Author Michael Connelly, who sets his bestselling books in Los Angeles, and lives there, just had his own response on his website, https://bit.ly/408qtiQ. I’m going to share his comments.

Los AngelesI t’s hard to express what I am feeling but I feel I should express something. It’s just hard to come up with the words. Los Angeles has always had its ups and downs, from devastating earthquakes, fires, floods, mudslides, even riots. It is part of the bargain in living here. You trade immense beauty and opportunity for the possibility of calamity. But when the calamity comes, this place has always been resilient. It has always bounced back. I think that is one of the things I love about the place and why I write about it. This latest catastrophe raises the bar for sure. There is no one in this place who has not been hit by the devastation – either directly through life or property loss, or indirectly through the psychological hit of seeing the place you love burning and seemingly in chaos. You don’t have to be directly touched by the flames to not feel burned in some way. But I know we will bounce back.   I know so many people who have lost everything, who don’t know where to go, or what to do. Or what comes next. As I write this there are red flag warnings all over the place in regard to the winds picking up again. We may not be finished with this. But we will bounce back.   You can’t say anything about this disaster without mentioning the fearless work of the first responders and their efforts to combat mother nature. I watch the water-bearing helicopters fly over my house every day. Whether in the air or on the ground, they are heroes through and through. They inspire us. Already the outreach from the community to those who have lost from those who have not is growing exponentially. We are already bouncing back.   I write very contemporary novels. They are usually set in the year they are published. Last month I began work on a novel to be published in the fall. I set it in this month, with the start of the new year coinciding with a new challenge faced by the Lincoln lawyer, Mickey Haller. Now I must start over and rebuild the story to include what has happened here in the last week. I don’t want to be exploitive or merely put it in as background. I have to find a way to make it mean something in the story and maybe to the people who read it in the fall.   Meantime, the greater question I grapple with is what this means. Is this the new new? Will we need to face the possibility of nature turning against us again and again in these extreme ways? Are we now to pay the price for building a city in a desert so long ago? I have no answers. But I think that whatever happens, we’ll be ready and committed. I still love L.A. We always bounce back. – Michael Connelly, January 13, 2025 Ways To Help American Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles  California Fire Foundation  Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation  The Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s California Wildfires Recovery Fund Team Rubicon  World Central Kitchen

Thank you. Jane Davis Web Site Manager MichaelConnelly.com

Thomas Perry appears live at The Poisoned Pen this Tuesday, January 14 at 7 PM to discuss his latest standalone, Pro Bono. You can order signed copies of the book through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/4jeVoTm

Author Dana Stabenow shared her review of Perry’s Pro Bono.

Teenaged Charlie Warren rescues–mostly–his mother from a grifter who has married her for her money. Fourteen years later he’s a lawyer in L.A. when another woman who is being robbed of her savings walks into his office, who is then kidnapped outside his office but not for the reason any of them (or you) think.

And the chase is on. Charlie is a smart, capable hero whose bullshit detector is better than just about anyone else’s and which keeps him a step and a half ahead of everyone (who appear to be legion) who is trying to stop him from uncovering their crimes and recovering the money they have embezzled. A thrill-house ride from Perry this outing, who saves the creepiest part for the last chapters, but I won’t spoil. Recommended.

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Thomas Perry is the bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Murder Book, the critically acclaimed Jane Whitefield series, The Old Man, and The Butcher’s Boy, which won the Edgar Award. He lives in Southern California.

Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, calls Clare Pooley’s novel, How to Age Disgracefully, “a fun book”. You can order a copy through the Webstore, https://bit.ly/4gSYnj6.

Here’s author Dana Stabenow’s review of How to Age Disgracefully.

How to Age Disgracefully

by Clare Pooley

A London fable about five senior citizens looking for something to do other than bingo and the woman hired to organize a local seniors club who needs more help with her life than the rest of them put together. There is also Ziggy, a teenaged single father and M/Maggie/Margaret/Margaret Thatcher, a mutt suddenly orphaned when one of the club’s members dies at their very first meeting. But most of all there is Daphne, who has spent the last fifteen of her seventy years in seclusion for good reason, a woman who does not suffer fools gladly and who shakes up everyone’s lives for the better, including her own.

Fortunately there is a worthy cause to unite them. The building where the club meets is under threat of razing and redevelopment by the local council. Where will the antenatal group, the AA chapter, the child care center, not to mention the Senior Citizens Social Club meet if not there? By way of various activities, including a nativity play, a mysterious (not) character immediately dubbed Yarnsy, and a reality television show where M/Maggie/Margaret/Margaret Thatcher reveals unexpected dramatic talents…well, let’s just say everyone gets a happy ever after.

The dialogue is great and so is the situational humor, as here when Daphne buys a new phone, the previous one having been thrown into the Thames.

“I’ll need name, address bank details, date of birth, credit check, etcetera, etcetera.”

“I’m sorry, extremely young man, but we’ve only just met, and there’s no way I’m giving you all that  intrusive and sensitive information. This is a standard commercial transaction.. You tell me how much that phone costs, I give you the cash, you put it in a bag, and I go home…

Two hours later, the mobile-phone salesboy had a migraine and had to take the rest of the day off work.

When Yarnsy’s latest creation appears on the statue in front of the community center and an offended local official appears to remove it—

“STOP RIGHT THERE, EDWARD FUCKING SCISSORHANDS!” came a shout. Daphne. Obviously. She was brandishing her walking stick above the heads of the crowd like a sword.
“This needs removing,” said the man, as the crowd began to protest. “It’s disrespectful.”
“This is CREATIVITY! YOU UTTER PHILISTINE!”

When Ziggy is sucked back into the local gang and adjourns to the local pub to drown his sorrows—

She steered him toward the toilets. The ladies’ toilets. Then she propped him against a sink while she filled it with cold water. She took a handful of his hair and plunged his face into the basin.

He gasped and spluttered as she pulled his head out. Then she did it again…

“How DARE you?” she said, pulling his head up and shoving his face toward the mirror, so he could see what a mess he looked. “You have been given the gift of youth, of health, of a beautiful CHILD and you are pissing it all away.” Head back in the sink. “One day you will get to my age, if you don’t get murdered before then, and you’ll realize what an honor and a privilege you had, and how spectacularly you wasted it all.”

I mean, I’d join that club.

SJ Bennett is up to the fourth book in Her Majesty the Queen Investigates series. It was launched with The Windsor Knot. You can order all the books in the series through the Webstore. https://bit.ly/409rZkN

The latest book in the series is A Death in Diamonds. While author Dana Stabenow reviews the new book below, it’s also recommended by staff of The Poisoned Pen, including owner Barbara Peters, John Charles, and blogger Lesa Holstine. Here’s the link to order the new book. https://bit.ly/409rZkN

Here’s Dana Stabenow’s review of A Death in Diamonds.

A Death in Diamonds

by S.J. Bennett

It’s 1957, twelve years after the end of World War II, and the second Elizabeth sits on the throne of England, a woman of thirty who swore to God to serve her nation her whole life long, a husband who struggles with finding a role as her consort, and two children. Who takes precedence, the woman, the wife, or the queen? (Spoiler alert: The Queen. Always and ever, the Queen.)

She is also, in this construct, a pretty good detective. Her public appearances abroad are being sabotaged, which sabotage could only be organized by someone within her closest circle. There has also been a double murder in Chelsea, one of the victims a member of a high end stable of prostitutes hired because of their resemblances to famous women, including her sister Margaret. Worse, the circumstances of the murders may implicate someone in the royal family. 

Scotland Yard seems neither as enthusiastic or as capable as they should be in their pursuit of the murderers and Elizabeth is unfortunately beset by courtiers inherited from her father (nicknamed “the mustaches”) who are outwardly determined to protect her from every ill wind. She becomes aware that their tender concern might be more about concealing their master plan to keep the Queen from moving the throne into the twentieth century, instead keeping it and the United Kingdom safely mired in the imperial past.

The thing about the sabotage of her state visits was that it was an act against her job. It was a job she had sworn to do for the rest of her life, in Westminster Abbey, surrounded by the great and the good and watched by millions on television and, more importantly, God, and nobody on earth could take it more seriously than she did.

Bennett does a great job of writing about Elizabeth the woman as an attractive and intelligent and real human being, and ably depicts what must have been the constant tension between her public and private lives. There are other great characters, too, including Detective Sergeant Darbishire and typist and disgraced war hero Joan McGraw. The notes exchanged by Elizabeth and Joan are coded masterpieces worthy of Bletchley, Joan’s alma mater. MI5 gets involved and as is their wont manages to confuse everyone, except Elizabeth, of course.

Bennett does a wonderful job of mixing fact with fiction, displaying a level of craft comparable to the always superb Jane Austen mysteries by Stephanie Barron. Here Elizabeth, a jazz fan, is introduced to Duke Ellington.

The Queen beamed at him. “How wonderful to meet you, Mr. Ellington.”
“Likewise, ma’am.”
“Is this your first visit to London?” Philip asked him.
“No, sir…I remember I played four-hand piano with your uncle, the Duke of Kent.”
“Was he any good?”
“Not bad, for a prince.”

That meeting did happen, a year later, as Bennett says in her Afternotes. Like James R. Benn in his Billy Boyle series, Bennet writes a great and informative acknowledgment. Interesting  characters who all learn and grow over the course of the narrative, some truly awful bad guys, lots of great settings (love the French bringing Elizabeth the Mona Lisa while she’s sitting at a banquet in the Louvre so she can see it for the first time), and a solid plot that makes nothing but sense, especially Elizabeth’s solving of it and identifying the murderer. Just remember, it’s all about the women. Elizabeth does, and enacts a truly Solomonian and entirely Elizabethan (twentieth century style) justice on the perpetrators. It is certainly justice for what they tried to do to Joan, and I want to believe that is part of the Queen’s motivation. Recommended.