Archives de catégorie : Mystery

CONTEMPLATION OF A CRIME de Susan Juby

Buddhist butler and reluctant investigator Helen Thorpe bands together with her fellow butler school graduates to rescue her very wealthy employer and his son.

CONTEMPLATION OF A CRIME
by Susan Juby
HarperCollins Canada, June 2025

Butler Helen Thorpe is not one to judge, but the participants in Close Encounters for Global Healing are astonishingly unpleasant.

The five-day program brings together people from across the political spectrum with the goal of helping them bridge their ideological and personal differences. The motley assortment of participants includes a burned-out environmental activist, an internet troll, a clued-out consumerist, an alleged white nationalist, and a man who was arrested at the Freedom Convoy. No one seems interested in a civil conversation, much less global healing, and each person has shown up with their own secret agenda.

No rapprochement between the warring or at least endlessly bickering parties seem possible. But when something deadly happens, they must learn to work together. First, they must figure out who among them can be trusted.

Susan Juby is the award-winning, bestselling author of many novels, including Mindful of Murder and A Meditation on Murder, the first two books featuring Helen Thorpe.

IT’S HARD TO BE AN ANIMAL de Robert Isaacs

A hilarious and clever upmarket love story and cozy mystery with a strong thread of magical realism, for readers of Carl Hiaasen’s Squeeze Me looking for a bit more tenderness, or of Shelby Van Pelt’s Remarkably Bright Creatures.

IT’S HARD TO BE AN ANIMAL
by Robert Isaacs
Grand Central, Spring 2026
(via Frances Goldin Literary Agency)

Henry Parsons is walking through Central Park on a date with Molly Bent, the quirky, sweet, and endlessly interesting woman that his colleague set him up with. After a long spell of loneliness, he is feeling hopeful for the first time in years when a sweet little warbler tells him to f*** off.

A gentle soul already troubled by the rancor and insensitivity of humans in the city, Henry tries to brush it off as a hallucination. But suddenly he can hear the voices everywhere: dogs mocking their owners, sparrows fat-shaming each other, snakes pontificating about misogyny and gender politics, police horses profiling attendees of a street fair: the man who never speaks up for himself is suddenly surrounded by animals who do.

It’s all fun and games until he overhears three rats discussing a corpse in the New York subway. Unsure what to do, he lets it slip to Molly. She’s keen to investigate, and Henry is desperate for another date. Together they descend into an abandoned tunnel under the West Fourth Street station where they find a body… and the murderers find them.

For the first time in Henry’s careful life there’s no way to duck confrontation: he’s being hunted, and must find the courage to face the Scottish gangsters stalking him across the city. Of course, that same assertiveness might transform his chances with Molly too. Inspiration arrives, unexpectedly, from his roommate’s pair of feuding beta fish on an enemies-to-lovers arc, and the neighbor’s yapping Pomeranian whose wisdom changes Henry forever.

Robert Isaacs’ writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon.com, Hindsight and The First Line. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University with a dual thesis in fiction and nonfiction. In his checkered past he’s also worked as a musician (Grammy nominated singer, conducted at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, etc.) and street-performer (juggling, unicycling, plate-spinning, and so on.)

For the first time in Henry’s careful life there’s no way to duck confrontation: he’s being hunted, and must find the courage to face the Scottish gangsters stalking him across the city. Of course, that same assertiveness might transform his chances with Molly too. Inspiration arrives, unexpectedly, from his roommate’s pair of feuding beta fish on an enemies-to-lovers arc, and the neighbor’s yapping Pomeranian whose wisdom changes Henry forever.

Robert Isaacs’ writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Salon.com, Hindsight and The First Line.  He earned his MFA in Creative Writing at Columbia University with a dual thesis in fiction and nonfiction. In his checkered past he’s also worked as a musician (Grammy nominated singer, conducted at Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, etc.) and street-performer (juggling, unicycling, plate-spinning, and so on.).  

THE WHARTON PLOT de Mariah Fredericks

Mariah Fredericks’ mesmerizing novel follows renowned novelist Edith Wharton in the twilight years of the Gilded Age in New York as she tracks a killer.

THE WHARTON PLOT
by Mariah Fredericks
Minotaur Books, January 2024
(via Levine Greenberg Rostan)

New York City, 1911. Edith Wharton, almost equally famed for her novels and her sharp tongue, is bone-tired of Manhattan. Finding herself at a crossroads with both her marriage and her writing, she makes the decision to leave America, her publisher, and her loveless marriage.

And then, dashing novelist David Graham Phillips―a writer with often notorious ideas about society and women’s place in it―is shot to death outside the Princeton Club. Edith herself met the man only once, when the two formed a mutual distaste over tea in the Palm Court of the Belmont hotel. When Phillips is killed, Edith’s life takes another turn. His sister is convinced Graham was killed by someone determined to stop the publication of his next book, which promised to uncover secrets that powerful people would rather stayed hidden. Though unconvinced, Edith is curious. What kind of book could push someone to kill?

Inspired by a true story, THE WHARTON PLOT follows Edith Wharton through the fading years of the Gilded Age in a city she once loved so well, telling a taut tale of fame, love, and murder, as she becomes obsessed with solving a crime.

“Superb . . . Thanks to a literary plot laced with arch wit and precise put-downs, appearances by Wharton’s famous friends (including Henry James and the Vanderbilts), and an eclectic assortment of the upper crust in the waning days of a varnished era, Fredericks hits this one out of the park.”―Library Journal (Starred Review)

“THE WHARTON PLOT a vivid, fascinating, entertaining mystery. Readers looking for a bit of history with their suspense will be gripped.”―Publishers Weekly

« Fredericks’ elegantly written narrative gives a lively look at an author way ahead of her time. »―Kirkus Reviews

« Written with grace and wit, THE WHARTON PLOT is a pleasure to read. »―Wall Street Journal

« Based on the real murder of Phillips, Fredericks’ latest will especially appeal to bibliophiles, who will enjoy reading tidbits about the real-life authors who appear. »―Booklist

Mariah Fredericks was born, raised, and still lives in New York City. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history. She is the author of the Jane Prescott mystery series, which has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award, as well as several YA novels.

Le cozy mystery MANGO, MAMBO AND MURDER de Raquel V. Reyes bientôt adapté en série

Le studio de production mexicano-américain Gato Grande/Amazon MGM Studios adaptera le cozy mystery MANGO, MAMBO AND MURDER de Raquel V. Reyes, premier volet de la série Caribbean Kitchen Mysteries, en série TV sous le titre Miami Spice. A l’origine du projet, le scénariste et producteur cubano-américain Art Alamo qui a travaillé sur la série New York Police judiciaire.

D’après la PDG de Gato Grande, Carla Vargas Gonzalez, Miami Spice sera une série latino-américaine captivante à l’esprit mordant, comparable à Big Little Lies. (Lire l’article de Variety)

Dans le roman, Miriam Quiñonez-Smith, chercheuse en anthropologie de l’alimentation, met de côté sa carrière universitaire pour aller s’installer dans le quartier de Coral Shores à Miami avec son mari et son fils. Après avoir trouvé un emploi temporaire en tant qu’experte en cuisine caribéenne dans une émission de télévision matinale, elle se retrouve mêlée à une affaire de meurtre. Les soupçons se portent sur un herboriste cubain controversé, et l’inspecteur chargé de l’enquête requiert son aide pour infiltrer la communauté hispanophone et le milieu social de Coral Shores, ce qui la met elle-même en danger.

“Raquel V. Reyes’s series debut, MANGO, MAMBO, AND MURDER, furthers my belief that the cozy mystery has become one of the most diverse, and most vibrant, in contemporary crime fiction.” —The New York Times

« A vibrant, diverse, LGBTQ-inclusive cast and Raquel Reyes’s deft balance of sensitive topics and frothy intrigue make this a standout. » —BookRiot

“[A] refreshing debut and series launch . . . [with] well-defined characters and [a] vibrant social scene. Mouthwatering recipes round out the volume.” —Publishers Weekly

Les droits de langue française des trois tomes qui composent actuellement la série sont disponibles.

THE CLOCK STRUCK MURDER de Betty Webb

One woman’s trash is another woman’s—lost Chagall masterpiece?!?

THE CLOCK STRUCK MURDER
by Betty Webb
Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks, April 2024

Expat Zoe Barlow has settled well into her artist’s life among the Lost Generation in 1920s Paris. When a too-tipsy guest at her weekly poker game breaks Zoe’s favorite clock, she’s off to a Montparnasse flea market to bargain with the vendor Laurette for a replacement. What Zoe didn’t bargain for was the lost Chagall painting that’s been used like a rag to wrap her purchases! Eager to learn whether Laurette has more Chagalls lying about like trash, Zoe sets off to track her down at her storage shed. With no Laurette in sight, Zoe snoops around and indeed finds several additional Chagalls—and then she finds Laurette herself, dead beneath a scrap heap, her beautiful face bashed in.

With Paris hosting the 1924 Summer Olympics, the police are far too busy with touristrelated crimes to devote much time to the clock seller’s murder. After returning the paintings to a grateful Marc Chagall, Zoe begins her own investigation. Did the stolen paintings play any part in the brutal killing? Or was it a crime of passion? Zoe soon discovers that there were many people who had reason to resent the lovely Laurette. But who hated the girl enough to stop her clock permanently? When Zoe discovers a second murder victim, the pressure is on to find the killer before time—and luck—run out.

As a journalist, Betty Webb interviewed U.S. presidents, astronauts, and Nobel Prize winners, as well as the homeless, dying, and polygamy runaways. The dark Lena Jones mysteries are based on stories she covered as a reporter. Betty’s humorous Gunn Zoo series debuted with the critically acclaimed The Anteater of Death, followed by The Koala of Death. A book reviewer at Mystery Scene Magazine, Betty is a member of National Federation of Press Women, Mystery Writers of America, and the National Organization of Zoo Keepers.