Category Archives: Mysteries

Snow Falling on Cedars

Posted on 1 February 2020 by Barbara Howe

The time: December 1954. The place: a courtroom in a small town on an island in Puget Sound. Kabuo Miaymoto, the American-born son of Japanese immigrants, is on trial for the murder of Carl Heine, an American of European descent. … Continue reading →

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The Case of the Missing Kitchen

Posted on 19 October 2019 by Barbara Howe

Suzie Emmett is having a bad week. It starts when she puts her hand through a window and needs stitches. It gets worse when her detective boyfriend takes her to a place she refuses to name, but that starts with … Continue reading →

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Before the Fall

Posted on 15 September 2019 by Barbara Howe

One summer evening a private jet takes off from Martha’s Vineyard, en route to New York City. There are ten people aboard: seven passengers and three crew. Among the passengers are the Bateman family: father David, mother Maggie, daughter Sarah, … Continue reading →

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Fallen Into the Pit

Posted on 6 April 2019 by Barbara Howe

Before there was Brother Cadfael, there was Inspector Felse. Ellis Peters is well known for her series of historical mysteries featuring the Welsh monk, Brother Cadfael. She began writing those in the late 1970s, but she honed her skills on … Continue reading →

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Witch

Posted on 1 February 2019 by Barbara Howe

The old house is perfect. Ellen March falls in love on first sight with the pre-Revolution farmhouse, sitting in a clearing surrounded by lilacs, apple trees, dogwoods, oaks, and maples. It doesn’t matter to her that the locals say the … Continue reading →

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Have His Carcase

Posted on 15 June 2018 by Barbara Howe

What would you do if you came across the body of a man with his throat cut, so recently dead that the still-liquid blood is running in a glistening stream down the side of the rock he is lying on? … Continue reading →

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Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body

Posted on 7 April 2018 by Barbara Howe

In Matters Arising from the Identification of the Body by New Zealand-born author Simon Petrie, hard science fiction intersects with another of my favourite genres, crime fiction. In a mining colony on Titan, Saturn’s moon, a young woman, Tanja Morgenstein, … Continue reading →

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Gaudy Night

Posted on 9 December 2017 by Barbara Howe

I’ve already written about Dorothy L Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, but Gaudy Night, the penultimate book in the series, deserves a post of its own. Gaudy Night does not conform to genre conventions. Yes, it is a mystery, but … Continue reading →

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Dorothy L Sayers

Posted on 25 November 2017 by Barbara Howe

Dorothy L Sayers is the writer most responsible for my ongoing love affair with British mystery novels. Her primary protagonist, Lord Peter Wimsey, may not be my favourite fictional detective—Brother Cadfael wins that honour—but he runs a close second. Written … Continue reading →

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Rivers of London

Posted on 3 November 2017 by Barbara Howe

In the first chapter of Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, probationary constable Peter Grant of the Metropolitan Police Service tries to take a witness statement from a man he doesn’t realise at first is a ghost. Pretty soon Grant finds … Continue reading →

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