Tag Archives: mysteries

Caught Dead: A Dean Constable Mystery, by Jayne Self

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Dean Constable is a Presbyterian minister and a former cop. He lives alone with his dog, Hamlet, but as the story opens he has a house guest: his father, who’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

It’s midnight, there’s a freezing rain storm outside, and his father says there’s a car in the cemetery next door.

Caught Dead, by Canadian author Jayne Self, is a cozy mystery and a two-time finalist in the Best New Canadian Christian Author contest. You can read chapter one online at the Presbyterian Record site.  The novel will run as an online serial. [Edit: perhaps the easiest way to keep up with these weekly installments is to start at the Caught Dead page, where you can find each chapter’s listing. Note that the newest one will always be at the top.]

Jayne and I have been classmates at numerous Write! Canada sessions, and I admire her work. If you like mysteries, I hope you’ll check this one out. I think we’re in for a good read.

Review: Beguiled, by Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand

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Beguiled, by Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand (Bethany House, 2010)

Rylee Monroe is a dog-walker and pet-sitter for the elite in Charleston, South Carolina. Unfortunately she’s also a key suspect in a rash of thefts by the “Robin Hood burglar,” since most of the victims happen to be her clients.

Journalist Logan Woods wants an inside scoop on the burglar for his paper, but it’s even more important for the book he’s writing on local criminals.

The two meet when one of Rylee’s charges mistakes Logan for an attacker and chases him. Despite first impressions, the two team up to catch the thief, since the police don’t seem to be making much headway. But faced with a growing attraction, can Rylee and Logan trust the other’s motives?

The authors deliver a page-turning mystery that’s not too scary to read before bed. The one problem might be putting it down to get your sleep. I’m unfamiliar with Charleston, but they claim to have reproduced the South of Broad neighbourhood with only very few touches of artistic license.

Rylee, Logan and their friends are sympathetic characters that I was rooting for from the beginning. The opposition is strong as well, and interesting.

I chose this book because of the back-cover blurb, before seeing the cover art. Based on sight and title, I’d have passed it up as a straight romance and missed a good read. (Not that romances aren’t good reads! I just like something extra thrown in.)

Deeanne Gist and J. Mark Bertrand are each novelists in their own right. Deeanne’s most recent historical romance is A Bride in the Bargain, and Mark’s first crime novel, Back on Murder, releases July 2010. Beguiled is their first collaboration, and I hope they’ll do more.

Beguiled is available now at your favourite bookseller from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group. For reviews, audio and video interviews and all kinds of reader tidbits, visit the Beguiled page at Bethany House.  You can read an excerpt here, or if you’ve already read it you may want to check out the discussion questions here.

Review copy provided by Graf-Martin Communications Inc.

Christian Mystery Novelist Sara Mills

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sara_mills_b_wSara Mills is the author of two 1940s-era PI mysteries featuring Allie Fortune, a “female Sam Spade” operating in New York City. Sara is a wife, mother, writer, freelance editor and motorcycle racing enthusiast. She loves animals, raises Golden Retrievers, has a house full of hamsters, guinea pigs, turtles, puppies and any other stray that makes its way to her door. (from her website — click here to read the rest, or you can read interviews with Sara at Cara Putman’s blog or Novel Journey) And I discovered today that she lives in Canada. I’m always looking for more Christian authors in Canada.

I’ve wanted to read Miss Fortune and Miss Match for some time. Wish I had a happier reason for deciding to order them now, but here it is: Sara’s husband Keith died suddenly last week, and she’s now a widow with three young kids. (For more details, see a recent post at Novel Journey.)

Some of her good friends at American Christian Fiction Writers have organized a blog tour to show their support and love. Her friend Ronie Kendig’s blog explains, “This isn’t an attempt to trivialize Keith’s death–I’d actually think he’d be thrilled to see so many throwing their support behind his beloved wife and the mother of his children.” (You can read the whole blog post at Craving the Supernatural)

Sara, I’m praying for you and your children.

About the books:

miss-fortuneMiss Fortune (book one)

They call her the P.I. Princess.

Allie Fortune is the only female private investigator in New York City and she’s one of the best.

When there’s a knock on her office door at four in the morning, Allie’s first inclination is to ignore it. Someone out on the streets in the middle of the night is usually trouble, either causing it, or being chased by it, and Mary Gordon is no exception.

You can read more here or read the first chapter here.

miss-match


Miss Match (book two)

FBI agent Jack O’Connor receives a letter from Maggie, a woman he used to love, saying she’s in trouble in Berlin. The FBI refuses to get involved, so Jack asks Allie Fortune to help him investigate. Allie and Jack pose as a missionary couple who want to bring orphans back to the United States.

Youcan read more here or read the first chapter here.

Both books should be available in your local bookstore or online at Chapters, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com or  Christianbook.com.

I’m a winner!

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Guess who won one of the books in the latest Mainly Mystery blog draw? The ladies there, Cynthia Hickey and Nancy Mehl, have lots of book reviews and interviews, mainly about… mysteries.

Stop by and get some ideas of what to read next.

I’ll be reading Dawn’s Light by Terri Blackstock, and I have to find Jill Elizabeth Nelson’s Reluctant Smuggler too. I’ve enjoyed the previous books in each author’s series.