Crime Fiction Review

Thus With a Kiss I Die by Christina Dodd

Cover shows flowers, bowls, daggers, and a crowned skull against a purple background mimicking Elizabethan embroidery. Kensington
Published June 26, 2025
Reviewed by Meredith Frazier

In spite of what you think you know, it turns out that Romeo and Juliet did not die but, instead, lived happily ever after, producing wine and raising a large family. Their eldest daughter, Rosaline, has successfully deflected several marriage proposals, but as the story opens in Thus With a Kiss I Die, she is tricked into becoming betrothed to Escalus, the prince of Verona. To put it mildly, she is not pleased, but the betrothal is just the beginning of her troubles. Soon, Rosie finds herself hunting for an assassin, dealing with the ghost of her future father-in-law, coping with the violent unrest brought to Verona by the disciplinati, and trying to get a decent meal out of the prince’s kitchen.

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The Dark Library by Mary Anna Evans

Cover of The Dark Library shows a stack of books topped by an apple with a bite taken out of it. Poisoned Pen Press
Published June 24, 2025giv
Reviewed by Barbara Fister

In some ways, Estella (who prefers to go by her first initial, E) is ahead of her time. The United States has just entered World War II and she has taken a job as a research assistant at the local college after earning a doctorate at Yale, a rare accomplishment for a woman, teaching courses after all but the oldest faculty have left to enlist. But in other ways she’s old-fashioned: Her dissertation was on the Gothic novels she loves, and the home she has returned to is a dilapidated mansion on the cliffs above the Hudson river, a brooding pile of stone built below an even more grandiose ruin. While it’s a setting that fits her old-school romantic streak, it’s also a burden. She had to rush home from Boston, summoned by their long-term housekeeper, to discover her father had suffered a massive stroke and her mother is missing. So is the fortune her luxury-loving parents had spent so lavishly. Then the dean of the college, shortly after meeting with her to turn down her request for a proper office, falls to his death – an apparent if inexplicable suicide.

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Death on the Island by Eliza Reid

Cover of Death on the Island shows a rocky headland jutting into the sea with a lighthouse shining out to sea under a cloudy sky. Poisoned Pen Press
Published May 13, 2025
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing

This is a light mystery novel, in spite of it being set on an isolated Icelandic island during a very bad storm that has ferry service interrupted. It has a classic locked room feel to it, with no one character being central to the plot, but rather all being under suspicion when a murder takes place. The cast of characters includes the local mayor, a Canadian ambassador and his entourage, an artist, a writer, a local industry magnate and his wife, and the chef who created a gourmet meal followed by a fiery cocktail reveal during which one guest was murdered. Each character is developed well enough that they can stand on their own, which is quite an accomplishment with nearly a dozen separate character threads to follow. Each of the characters acts badly enough at one point or another that any is feasible as a culprit.

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Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman

Cover shows a tour boat in a winding river with a splash in the water by its bow. William Morrow
Published June 17, 2025
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing

I so enjoyed meeting Lippman’s main character, Mrs. (Muriel) Blossom, in this France-based mystery. Some years after her husband passes on, Mrs. Blossom decides to take advantage of a windfall and bring a lifelong friend along on a cruise along the Seine. Unlike her friend, she isn’t thinking of finding a man, but she nonetheless manages to make a connection in the airport that ends up engaging her in light romance, much self-reflection, and sets off a convoluted mystery. Even though she has a background in investigation, Mrs. Blossom (who is referred to that way throughout the book) remains naïve and gullible as first a man who jumps in to help her navigate the intricacies of European travel and then a man who claims to have her better interest at heart seem to take advantage of her.

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Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall

Cover of Death at the White Hart shows a road at night with a car approaching, seen through a pair of deer's antlers Pamela Dorman Books
Published June 10, 2025
Reviewed by Barbara Fister

Nicola Bridge, a Liverpool detective, has just relocated to the rural village of Fleetcombe in an effort to save her failing marriage when she’s landed with a shocking murder. A naked corpse has been found tied to a chair in the middle of a country road with a set of antlers affixed to his head like some sort of folkloric figure. She needs to solve it quickly before it becomes tabloid fodder, and she has to prove herself even though she’s given very little to work with. She only has two detectives to assist her: DC Harry Ward, who is young and inexperienced if keen, and Mel, who is glum and reluctant to leave his desk.

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So Far Gone by Jess Walter

The cover of So Far Gone has a pastoral drawing of trees and hills beside a lake with a small sign warning "turn back now." Harper Collins
Published June 10, 2025
Reviewed by Barbara Fister

Though this novel is not marketed as crime fiction, it does include several crimes, including a murder, and it has the twists, turns, and outbreaks of violence to make it thrilling, though it’s shorter than most thrillers these days. It’s the latest novel by Jess Walter, whose first book was nonfiction about a Christian fundamentalist anti-government sect (Every Knee Shall Bow, 1995, based on his reporting as he covered the Ruby Ridge standoff with federal agents). His second book was a mystery set in Spokane (Over Tumbled Graves, 2001). Ever since, he’s written fiction in a variety of styles. In this case, he has seized on the moment and written about our deep political divisions and how they affect one family, caught up in a religious anti-government cult. But it is not a standard political thriller, with good guys riding the rescue when the bad guys need a comeuppance. It’s a lot more complicated than that – and in some ways, much simpler.

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A Shipwreck in Fiji by Nilima Rao

Cover of Shipwreck in Fiji shows a man in a sailboat foundering on rocks near a tropical coastline Soho
Published June 10, 2025
Reviewed by Barbara Fister

Sergeant Akal Singh, a Sikh policeman assigned to Fiji in 1915, is back after 2023’s series debut, A Disappearance in Fiji. Still assigned to the sleepy capital city of Suva, he’s amused when wet-behind-the-ears Constable Kumar reports from Levuka Station that rumors are flying about Germans approaching shopkeepers at the remote outpost. This seems highly unlikely, as Germans at war with the British in Europe would have little interest in such a minor colony on the other side of the world. But when his unpleasant English boss assigns him to escort the sister and niece of the local newspaper editor to Levuka, he also orders him to look for suspicious Germans – an insultingly pointless wild goose chase.

This all seems like a waste of time, but once Akal sets out with his trusted Fijian friend and colleague Taviti, he’s goaded by the extremely attractive niece, Katherine, who wants to become a reporter, to take her with him as he looks for German spies. Of course, that’s impossible: It would be against the social code for a young Englishwoman to spend time in the company of an Indian (as Akal knows all too well from his own scandalous past). She’s bitterly disappointed and pouts, but Akal is glad she’s not with them when he goes to interview the shopkeeper who first raised the alarm and find the shop has been ransacked and its owner has been murdered.

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A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant

The cover of A Murder for Miss Hortense shows a black woman in a yellow coat walking across a path made of dominoes against a dark blue background. Pantheon
Published June 10, 2025
Reviewed by Barbara Fister

Miss Hortense is trimming her Deep Secrets rose bush (planted years earlier as a reminder of something she can never forget) when her hypochondriac friend Blossom stops by to tell her Constance Brown has died. This is momentous news, because Constance has been the Pardner Lady for the past thirty years, after taking that role over from its founder, Hortense. When Blossom wonders aloud if Constance may have been murdered, Hortense dismisses it – but only to avoid her friend joining her in an investigation that might lead to danger.

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Return to Sender by Craig Johnson

Cover of Return to Sender shows the silhouette of man in cowboy hat against a rugged landscape. Narrated by George Guidall
Viking / Recorded Books
Published May 27, 2025
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing

Craig Johnson has allowed Walt Longmire to age over the course of this series, and in Return to Sender (#21 in the Longmire series) age plays an important factor. Over the past few books, Longmire has been stepping away from his day-to-day job as Sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming, as his second-in-command, assumed successor, and romantic partner Victoria Moretti takes on more of that work. This has allowed him the time to conduct more personal investigative work.

This latest in the series finds Walt searching for a missing postal worker in the vast open spaces of the Red Desert in Wyoming. The investigation starts out as a personal favor for his deceased wife’s brother, the postal inspector for the area, and becomes even more personal as he gets to know the characters involved. The book is filled with bizarre and kooky characters, including a dangerous cult with a focus on UFOs, the ex-hippie postal worker, a frequently drunk and combative biker, a group of elderly followers of the cult, and many more. What it is not filled with are Walt’s usual supporting characters, his family and law enforcement team. This may be a disappointment for those who follow the series, but it does make the book very accessible for those who want to jump straight into this book. The narrator, George Guidall (one of my favorite readers), voices Walt and other characters extremely well. There is a cadence to Walt’s ruminations and conversations that is very unique and appropriate for a seventy-ish Western sheriff, and which brings his character to life.

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Cold Burn by A. J. Landau

Minotaur
Published April 29, 2025
Reviewed by Sharon Mensing

Cold Burn is the second in the A.J. Landau National Parks Thriller series, and it is just as good as the first, Leave No Trace. In both books, the series name with its plural “parks” is appropriate given the multiple settings. This time around, the book’s action moves from Alaska to New Orleans to Fishers Island in New York to the Everglades, and even underwater to a nuclear submarine, immersing us in each of the settings with descriptive and evocative language.

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