Jamie Orsini

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“The Great British Baking Show” meets Knives Out in The Golden Spoon, Jessa Maxwell’s delicious, atmospheric debut.

Celebrated baker Betsy Martin has hosted her popular show “Bake Week” from the grounds of Grafton, her Vermont family estate, for the past decade. This year, change is in the air: The network has foisted a new co-host on her, and Betsy had less input than ever before when selecting which six contestants would compete for the show’s coveted Golden Spoon award. Still, “America’s Grandmother,” as Betsy’s known among her fans, chooses to push ahead with the new season. When the competition gets underway, things start to go haywire. The contestants believe someone is sabotaging their bakes—and when a dead body is discovered, everyone in the baking tent becomes a murder suspect.

The Golden Spoon is impossible to put down, especially for fans of shows like “The Great British Baking Show.” Maxwell expertly unspools her mystery, switching among the perspectives of all six contestants, plus Betsy. The bakers’ voices and observations are a high point of the novel: Each character is distinct and well drawn, with their own motivations for joining the show and secrets to hide. There’s Stella, a former journalist and the most inexperienced baker; Hannah, the youngest contestant, who hails from a small town; Gerald, a rigid teacher who compares recipes to mathematical formulas; Pradyumna, a tech millionaire with nothing to prove; Lottie, a retired nurse with a special connection to Grafton; and Peter, who specializes in the reconstruction of historic buildings.

The novel begins with an eerie prologue from Betsy’s perspective before jumping back in time to when “Bake Week” first started filming. Readers know from the prologue that a gruesome discovery awaits, but most of the book—80%!—is devoted to following the characters through “Bake Week” and getting to know their motivations for competing. It’s not until the last fifth of the book that Betsy’s initial discovery is revealed, and from there, the plot quickly unfolds. Mystery genre fans may find many of the twists easy to spot, but Maxwell’s expert characterization and lyrical prose make The Golden Spoon a delight to devour.

Jessa Maxwell’s expert characterization makes her baking show-set mystery, The Golden Spoon, practically impossible to put down.
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Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto is a delightful cozy mystery that brims with humor and heart while introducing an unforgettable lead character.

The titular Vera leads a quiet life. She runs a tea shop in San Francisco’s Chinatown that rarely sees customers and spends her days cyberstalking her son, who often ignores her calls. Vera’s routine is disrupted when she discovers a corpse in her store. She springs into action—outlining the body with a Sharpie, just like she’s seen on TV; tidying up her shop and making tea to impress the police; and most notably, swiping a flash drive from the dead man, Marshall Chen. She’s not sure the police will take his death (which is clearly a murder, to her “CSI”-trained eyes) seriously. So Vera uses the information on the flash drive to identify four suspects: Oliver, Marshall’s brother; Julia, Marshall’s widow; and Sana and Riki, who claim to be journalists investigating the suspicious death. All four have something to hide, but as Vera investigates, the group comes together in unexpected and surprising ways. Is a killer truly among this newly found family of hers?

Vera is a tour-de-force creation. She’s feisty and meddlesome, with a big imagination and bigger heart. She’s riotously funny, often without trying to be. She spends a great deal of time dispensing tough love and sage advice, and is almost always correct, much to the annoyance of her new friends. Sutanto also delivers well-drawn, memorable secondary characters, particularly Julia and her daughter, Emma. As Vera worms her way into her suspects’ lives and hearts, so, too, will the characters of Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers endear themselves to readers.

The mystery itself is intriguing, with well-placed clues and foreshadowing. Marshall left behind a trail of lies and enemies, but Vera proves herself up to the task of solving his murder. And along the way, she even helps many of his friends and family heal and become better versions of themselves. Sutanto hits all the right notes in this cozy mystery, perfectly blending meddling, murder and found family.

Jesse Q. Sutanto hits all the right notes in Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, a cozy mystery worth reading for its hilariously meddlesome titular character alone.
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Tempest Raj, author Gigi Pandian’s magician/sleuth, has an intriguing new locked-room mystery to solve in The Raven Thief.

Tempest is still getting used to working for her family’s business, Secret Staircase Construction, when she’s invited to a client’s home for a mock seance. Lavinia Kingsley hired the company to redo her home and erase all traces of her cheating ex-husband, mystery writer Corbin Colt. To celebrate the work’s completion and her new life as a single woman, Lavinia has a seance to purge Corbin from her life. Tempest, her grandfather Ashok “Ash” Raj and her magician friend Sanjay Rai are among the eight guests when disaster strikes. With everyone seated around a table and holding hands, Corbin’s body literally crashes the party, seemingly falling from the ceiling onto the table below.

The police deduce that Corbin was alive only moments earlier, so the only suspects are the seance attendees. When it comes to light that Grandpa Ash had a history with Corbin, Tempest’s beloved grandfather becomes the prime suspect. She and her friends quickly get to work to clear his name and find the real killer.

The Raven Thief is a worthy sequel to Under Lock & Skeleton Key, with all the magic, misdirection and intrigue that fans are hoping for. Tempest is an exciting, engaging lead whose knowledge of stagecraft, magic and classic whodunits, combined with her devotion to her family and friends, allow her to solve a seemingly impossible crime. Genre fans will appreciate Pandian’s many nods to golden age mysteries and their writers, and there are even some delectable recipes at the book’s end.

The Raven Thief is a worthy sequel to Under Lock & Skeleton Key, with all the magic, misdirection and intrigue that fans are hoping for.
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Colleen Cambridge’s Mastering the Art of French Murder is a delightful cozy mystery set in post-World War II Paris with a cast of American expats, including Julia Child.

Tabitha Knight is settling into life in Paris, living with her grandfather and Oncle Rafe. Tabitha spends her days exploring the City of Light, tutoring her fellow Americans in French and learning how to cook from her best friend and neighbor, student chef Julia Child. When a young woman with ties to the Child family is found murdered in their apartment building—killed by a knife from Julia’s kitchen, no less—the police turn their attention to the chef-in-training. The investigation is further complicated when a note written by Tabitha is discovered in the victim’s pocket. To clear both their names, Tabitha sets out to discover who killed the woman and why. 

Cambridge skillfully blends fact with fiction in Mastering the Art of French Murder. Julia Child, along with her husband and sister, really did live in Paris in 1949, but Tabitha and her family are fictional characters. Cambridge captures Julia’s joie de vivre and passion for French cuisine, transporting readers into her kitchen during her early years at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school. Cambridge’s Julia whips up several meals during the mystery, each more mouthwatering than the last. 

A figure as iconic as Julia could overshadow the rest of the characters, but Tabitha is a charming protagonist. She’s brave, resourceful and fiercely loyal to her friends and family, and while the former factory worker isn’t a perfect detective, her instincts are sharp. Her charming chemistry with the lead detective, Inspecteur Merveille, is an added bonus that will have readers rooting for their relationship to deepen in future books. 

Mastering the Art of French Murder is a love letter to the sights, sounds and delights of Paris, from the small daily markets to the thriving nightlife. Readers will enjoy navigating the city alongside Tabitha as she untangles the mystery, as well as getting to see a whole new side of the beloved Julia Child.

The charming Mastering the Art of French Murder follows Tabitha Knight—who just so happens to be Julia Child’s best friend—as she unravels a mystery in post-World War II Paris.
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The women of the Marlow Murder Club are back in business in Death Comes to Marlow, the delightful second installment of Robert Thorogood’s cozy mystery series.

Life is returning to normal for Judith Potts. She became something of a local celebrity after she and her friends Becks and Suzie helped solve a series of murders in their quiet town of Marlow, England. But now the 78-year-old woman is back to her usual routine: setting crossword puzzles for the local paper, swimming nude in the nearby Thames during the day and enjoying a glass of scotch (or two) at night. When Sir Peter Bailey, a wealthy Marlow resident, offers Judith a last-minute invitation to his pre-wedding festivities, something about the gesture makes Judith uneasy. Convinced something foul will occur, she attends the party but is still shocked when Sir Peter himself is killed. Local police believe his death was an accident—after all, Sir Peter was alone in a locked room when a heavy piece of furniture fell on him. When Judith, Suzie and Becks launch their own investigation, however, they find that just about everyone close to the aristocrat may have had a motive to kill him. But how did the perpetrator pull off such a seemingly impossible murder?

Judith is a charming protagonist; she’s witty, warm and bulldozes her way into a police investigation with ease. Becks, the vicar’s rule-following wife, and Suzie, a free-spirited dog walker turned local radio personality, may be unlikely companions for Judith, but their friendships are rooted in respect. The ways the trio challenge and complement one another are not only highlights of the book but also the things that help them successfully solve the mystery.

In Death Comes to Marlow, Thorogood expertly crafts a locked-room mystery reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s well-plotted stories. Readers will enjoy piecing together this engaging puzzle alongside members of the Marlow Murder Club.

This engaging cozy mystery is an homage to Agatha Christie with a trio of warmhearted friendships at its core.
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Charlotte Illes’ detective days are behind her. At least, that’s what she keeps telling herself—and anyone who will listen. When she was younger, Charlotte gained fame as Lottie Illes, world-class kid detective. She solved mysteries big and small, nabbing an elementary school crayon thief and helping the British Museum recover a stolen artifact. But Charlotte stopped answering her official detective landline in high school and, at the ripe old age of 25, considers herself officially retired from the mystery-solving business. But then Charlotte’s older brother convinces her to look into some threatening notes his girlfriend received, and Charlotte ends up in the middle of a union-busting scheme, a missing persons case and a murder investigation. 

Katie Siegel’s Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective has a wonderful, engaging premise: What happens when a precocious child detective grows up? How do they figure out who they are when the world only knows them as a wunderkind? Relatable, imperfect, funny and brave, Charlotte is a high point of the novel. She’s witty and eager to improvise but more than a little lost in her personal and professional lives. She’s still grappling with the fame she earned before her high school diploma, and more than anything, she doesn’t want to let anyone down.

Siegel surrounds her titular sleuth with memorable secondary characters, especially Charlotte’s hilarious friends Gabe and Lucy. Siegel’s dialogue is fresh, funny and authentic to her Gen Z characters as the trio takes on the case while also navigating relatable topics such as dating, queerness, job fulfillment, gender identity and the struggle to find reliable roommates. Longtime genre fans may anticipate some of the twists, but the mystery is still thoroughly entertaining. Charlotte Illes is definitely a detective, and a pretty good one, too.

Katie Siegel’s Charlotte Illes Is Not a Detective has a wonderful, engaging premise: What happens when a precocious child detective grows up?
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Kirsty Manning’s new cozy mystery transports readers to 1938 Paris, where glamour and decadence collide with murder.

Australian reporter Charlotte “Charlie” James has just accepted her dream job: She’s the new Paris correspondent for a major international newspaper. After a devastating personal loss, Charlie is looking forward to starting anew in Paris and jump-starting her career. Her first assignment is to ingratiate herself with well-connected members of Parisian society while covering the extravagant Circus Ball, hosted by British expats Lord and Lady Ashworth. The lavish ball is a smashing success—until a wealthy investor is found murdered. Charlie covers the crime for her paper and her investigation reveals a growing list of suspects, all wealthy and powerful. As Charlie closes in on the truth, she brings herself closer to a murderer who may strike again.

Manning highlights the opulence and decadence of interwar Paris in this engaging and delightful mystery. The City of Light comes alive through her descriptions of haute couture and Parisian cuisine. Charlie is an engaging sleuth, too: She’s intelligent, empathetic and a skilled reporter. She’s keenly aware that the 1930s news industry is a male-dominated profession, but she refuses to let that mindset hold her back. Her relationship with Inspecteur Bernard, the French detective heading up the murder investigation, is also a highlight. Journalists and police officers often find themselves at odds in mysteries, especially cozy mysteries, but Charlie and Bernard quickly strike up a cordial working relationship that benefits them both. 

The Paris Mystery is a fizzy, fast-paced caper full of glitz, glamour and intrigue.

The Paris Mystery is a fizzy, fast-paced caper full of glitz, glamour and intrigue set in the interwar City of Light.
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Richard Osman tackles more than murder in The Last Devil to Die, his emotional latest installment of the Thursday Murder Club series.

The sleuthing pensioners of the Thursday Murder Club—Elizabeth, a former MI5 agent; Joyce, a retired nurse; Ibrahim, a psychiatrist; and Ron, a longtime union leader—are ready to enjoy a quiet Christmas season when they learn that a friend of theirs has been murdered. Antiques dealer Kuldesh Sharma helped the group unravel their last mystery; now, he’s been shot execution-style after receiving a suspicious package. The gang quickly launches an investigation, headquartered at their Coopers Chase Retirement Village. DCI Chris Hudson, PC Donna De Freitas and Bogdan Jankowsi return to help the Thursday Murder Club as they interview drug dealers, art fraudsters and professors while trying to figure out who killed Kuldesh and why.

The Last Devil to Die offers more than the tightly plotted mystery that readers have come to expect from Osman’s work. Elizabeth, who usually spearheads the pensioners’ investigations, takes a step back in this novel to spend time with her husband, Stephen, while they grapple with his progressing dementia. Rather than focusing on the life and death stakes of a murder investigation, Elizabeth and Stephen’s story is a meditation on love and grief. Osman delivers some of the most poetic and emotionally resonant writing of the series with their storyline.

Elizabeth’s absence means that Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron step into new investigative roles, with delightful results. Their humor and lighthearted banter carry the novel through the deadly investigation to its satisfying conclusion. And happily, it seems another Coopers Chase resident is joining the group. Bob Whittaker, aka Computer Bob, doesn’t seem fazed by his new friends’ dangerous interests—a sure sign he’ll fit right in with the brave, meddlesome Thursday Murder Club.

The Last Devil to Die is equal parts well-plotted mystery, scintillating repartee and deep reflection on what it means to love and live.

The Last Devil to Die is equal parts well-plotted mystery, scintillating repartee and deep reflection on what it means to love and live.
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When Peregrine Fisher receives a mysterious letter from The Adventuresses’ Club of the Antipodes, she’s the definition of down on her luck: Grieving the death of her mother, she has just been fired from her latest job and is living in a van. The letter’s mention of an inheritance piques Peregrine’s interest, and even though she doesn’t know what The Adventuresses’ Club is or who would have left her money, she eagerly makes her way to Melbourne, Australia, to find out.

Peregrine discovers that the Adventuresses are a group of exceptional women, all highly skilled in their respective fields, and that she’s the niece of Phryne Fisher, a brave private investigator who’s gone missing in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Her long-lost aunt’s will indicates that Peregrine should inherit Phryne’s fortune: her home, car and, most importantly, her seat in the Adventuresses’ Club. When another member is accused of murder, Peregrine sets out to prove her innocence, live up to her aunt’s reputation as an investigator and earn her spot in The Adventuresses’ Club.

Just Murdered is the novelization of the first episode of “Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries,” a spinoff of the TV show based on Kerry Greenwood’s popular Phryne Fisher mysteries. While Phryne’s stories take place in the 1920s, Peregrine takes up the investigator’s mantle in the ’60s, and author Katherine Kovacic does an excellent job placing readers in the swinging decade with references to music, fashion, cars and more. 

A fun, fast-paced read, Just Murdered also has a great heroine. Peregrine is intelligent and independent, and her jack-of-all-trades background allows her to cleverly unspool the threads of the mystery. The other Adventuresses make for intriguing characters, too, like former spy Birdie Birnside and Dr. Violetta Fellini, a renowned scientist. While Peregrine begins the novel simply hoping her mysterious inheritance will offer some financial security, she finds a much-needed family in her fellow Adventuresses and a calling in detective work. Just Murdered will leave readers anxious to get their hands on Peregrine’s next case so they can follow more of the Adventuresses’ exploits.

Just Murdered is a fun, fast-paced introduction to Peregrine Fisher, the niece of beloved sleuth Phryne Fisher, as she solves mysteries in the 1960s.
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Blackmail, jealousy and murder haunt a luxury ski resort. Can two sleuths crack the case before a blizzard traps them alongside a killer?

Darby Piper and Tate Porter are still getting used to working together as PIs when they agree to take on a case brought to them by Tate’s ex-girlfriend, Cecily Madd. Cecily’s husband, wealthy dermatologist Dr. Garret Madd, has received several threatening anonymous notes. Dr. Madd dismisses them as nothing more than a nuisance, but Cecily isn’t so sure. She wants Darby and Tate to investigate the threats during a conference that Dr. Madd is hosting at Garden Peak Lodge, a luxury ski resort. The pair agrees to go undercover, but problems begin almost as soon as they arrive. Cecily suddenly refuses to hand over the notes, an unscrupulous paparazzo threatens to blow Darby’s cover and Dr. Madd is soon found dead on the ski slopes. Darby and Tate’s harassment case is now a murder investigation.

Frozen Detective is the second installment in Amanda Flower’s Piper and Porter Mystery series, but readers need not be familiar with the first book to enjoy this whodunnit. Flower plunges her sleuths straight into the action: There’s very little rehashing of the previous installment, with necessary information for newcomers expertly weaved in as Darby and Tate get cracking on the case. Both characters are likable protagonists who, after only one previous case together, are still finding their groove. They struggle to develop shorthand as partners and trust each other’s instincts, but despite these realistic growing pains, their chemistry and shared sense of humor shine through. Garden Peak Lodge is a superb setting, and with multiple guests with motives for murder and an impending blizzard added in, the result is a particularly engaging cozy mystery.

Amanda Flower’s second Piper and Porter mystery is an engaging cozy with a glamorous ski resort setting.
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Ann Claire’s deeply enjoyable Dead and Gondola transports readers to the fictional mountain village of Last Word, Colorado, where snow is falling and murder is in the air.

Ellie Christie has just moved back home to help her older sister, Meg, run the Book Chalet. The shop has been in their family for generations, and now the two bibliophile sisters are ready to make their mark on the business. When a mysterious man interrupts their weekly book club meeting and leaves behind a rare edition of an Agatha Christie novel, the sisters are puzzled. Spotting him in a crowd the next day, Ellie and Meg try to get his attention to return the book, but by the time they catch up with him on the gondola, the man is dead. Even though the sisters aren’t related to the famed Christie, they grew up reading her novels and are determined to put their sleuthing knowledge to good use by figuring out who the man was, who killed him and why.

Dead and Gondola is a lighthearted, fast-paced cozy mystery with a cast of likable characters. Besides Ellie and Meg, the Christie family includes their beloved Gram, who’s keen to trade baked goods for gossip, and Meg’s tech-savvy daughter, Rosie. Their bookshop cat is also a delight, with a personality as strong as any human’s—she’s named Agatha, of course.

Claire effectively heightens the stakes for the Christie women at the very start of the book, when an unexpected storm cuts off Last Word from the outside world. No one can get in or out, which means Ellie, Meg and their family are trapped in the small town with a murderer. In spite of this, Claire makes Last Word sound awfully appealing: Who wouldn’t want to ride a glass-domed gondola to a historic bookshop and cozy up by the fire with a good read?

Ann Claire’s lighthearted cozy mystery, Dead and Gondola, transports readers to a deeply appealing mountaintop town in Colorado, complete with gondola and historic bookshop.
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The sleuthing pensioners of the Thursday Murder Club are back and better than ever in Richard Osman’s The Bullet That Missed.

Life in the idyllic Coopers Chase Retirement Village is far from quiet, especially for the Thursday Murder Club. The group’s four members—Elizabeth, a retired MI5 agent with connections across the globe; Joyce, a former nurse with a knack for solving puzzles; Ibrahim, a well-mannered psychiatrist; and Ron, a retired union leader who never backs down from a fight—are trying to crack the cold case murder of TV presenter Bethany Waites. Ten years ago, Bethany was investigating a multimillion-dollar fraud operation. She told colleagues that she was close to unraveling it all, but before she could file her story, Bethany’s car was pushed off a cliff, and her body was never recovered.

As The Bullet That Missed begins, Osman’s septuagenarian sleuths have picked up the mantle. They’re working to uncover who’s behind the fraud and Bethany’s murder, not to mention the more recent deaths of two suspects in Bethany’s disappearance. In a parallel plot, Elizabeth’s past catches up with her when a mysterious man tasks her with carrying out an assassination. If she doesn’t comply, her and her friends’ lives will be forfeit. To protect herself and the people she loves, Elizabeth reconnects with an ex-KGB colonel (and former lover) to lay a trap for the man threatening her. 

This intricately plotted novel weaves its multiple mysteries together with aplomb, all while bringing back familiar faces from previous installments such as Police Captain Donna De Freitas; her partner, Detective Chief Inspector Chris Hudson; and Bogdan, who’s still fiercely loyal to Elizabeth and the group. Osman’s wry humor continues to shine, especially in the sections of the story told through Joyce’s lively diary entries. 

If there’s a flaw in The Bullet That Missed, it’s that readers need to be familiar with the previous books to fully appreciate some of the characters’ motivations and deepening relationships. However, with only two previous books in the series, it’s easy to get caught up. And mystery fans should absolutely do so, because this latest entry in the Thursday Murder Club series may be the best one yet.

The latest entry in Richard Osman's wry and hilarious Thursday Murder Club series may be the best one yet.
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Fans of Laurien Berenson’s long-running Melanie Travis canine mysteries will be thrilled with Peg and Rose Solve a Murder, the first entry in a new spinoff series featuring Melanie’s engaging aunts, Peg Turnbull and Rose Donovan.

Peg and Rose are not friends. They’re sisters-in-law, linked by their love for Peg’s late husband, Max, who was Rose’s brother. After 40 years of fighting, Rose shocks Peg with an olive branch: an invitation to join the local bridge club as partners. Peg and Rose are surprised to find that they can enjoy each other’s company, but just as they begin to build a tentative friendship, a member of their bridge club is killed. As the newest members, the sisters-in-law are considered suspects. To clear their names, they must work together to solve the murder—before another is committed.

Readers don’t need to be familiar with the rules of bridge to enjoy Peg and Rose Solve a Murder; the actual gameplay takes up very little space, with the bulk of the story devoted to introducing Peg and Rose to new readers and, of course, solving the mystery. Fans of the Melanie Travis series are already very familiar with these sisters-in-law, and in Peg and Rose Solve a Murder, they stand on their own as capable, witty women who are more than up to the task of crime-solving. Berenson’s fans will also enjoy seeing Peg in action as a dog breeder, owner and show judge, as her passion for poodles features heavily in the book.

While Peg and Rose work together to clear their names, they must also come to terms with decades of infighting, grudges and hurt feelings. When the women finally begin to trust each other, readers can see a great friendship starting to blossom—one that will hopefully form the backbone of this new cozy series.

Laurien Berenson's new spinoff series will thrill fans right out of the gate thanks to its capable, witty sleuths.

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