Betsy Thornhill had a face lift. It worked so well that she now passes for her mid-thirties, instead of 51. After decades in London, she moves back to Manhattan a few months after 9/11. Within days, a man who came on to her is dead, and she's the main suspect.

I didn't like this book or Betsy. I couldn't believe that all the male characters would throw themselves at her—she looks great, but her per­son­al­i­ty and confidence are lacking. Im­plau­si­bly, Betsy fails to think about her estranged daughter, Franny, for 160 pages, despite the …continue.

We saw Shake­speare in the Park's production of Twelfth Night at Seward Park last week, which prompted me to re-read this book.

Fifteen years ago, Theophilos, an agent of the Fool's Guild, then working in his guise as Feste the Jester, initiated the events roughly described in Shake­speare's play, and foiled Saladin's agent, Malvolio. Now the duke of Orsino is dead under suspicious cir­cum­stances, and Theo goes back, disguised as a German merchant.

Theo is witty, quick-witted, and po­lit­i­cal­ly astute, making for an engaging narrator of this medieval mystery.

Sugawara Akitada has been appointed as the governor of a remote northern province in feudal Japan. Aided only by a handful of retainers, he is beset by his own doubts and hostile locals. Winter is closing in and he must exert his fragile authority to rein in a mutinous baron, while also in­ves­ti­gat­ing some mysterious deaths and righting old wrongs.

Parker evokes the spare, stark beauty of Japan, in a well-written historical mystery.

King Richard III, hunchback, last of the Plante­genets, one of Shake­speare's blackest villains, and long decried as the murderer of Princes in the Tower. But did he really murder his nephews to cement his hold on his throne?

Inspector Grant, confined to a hospital bed, is given a portrait of Richard III, and finds that he cannot believe that this was the face of a cold-blooded villain. Aided by a young historial researcher, he conducts an inquiry from his bed, and makes a convincing case that another was the murderer.

More at …continue.

Sequel to Club Dead.

A coven of evil, powerful witches has moved into the area, and are causing havoc amongst the local su­per­nat­u­rals. The local vampire boss has been bespelled and lost his memory, and Sookie has to look after him. He's very attractive and she's on the rebound. And her brother has gone missing.

Sookie is a nice gal, struggling with a disability -- telepathy causes more trouble than it solves -- and trying to survive on the edges of the dangerous world of …continue.

The Rev. Merrily Watkins is the "de­liv­er­ance consultant" -- a euphemism for exorcist -- for a diocese on the Welsh border. A Wiccan couple move into a long-de­con­se­crat­ed church in a remote village, and the local fun­da­men­tal­ist-style Anglican priest leads a witchhunt.

The viewpoint characters are all en­ter­tain­ing: level-headed Merrily; her smart-alec teenager, Jane; their old codger neighbor, Gomer; and the two Wiccans, Betty and Robin. The plot is both page-turning and un­hur­ried­ly developed: the first body takes 250 pages to appear. We learn something about con­tem­po­rary village life, Wales, An­gli­can­ism, Wicca, …continue.

As Dr. Watson famously said of Irene Adler, "To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman." Carole Nelson Douglas has parlayed Irene Adler into a series of books.

In Spider Dance, Irene and her friend, Nell Huxleigh, are in New York City, trying to find out who Irene's long-lost mother was. The infamous Lola Montez is the most likely contender. Holmes is also in town, in­ves­ti­gat­ing a grotesque murder at the Vanderbilt mansion. Inevitably, the two cases become tangled up.

Even by the standards of Sher­lock­iana, the plot is improbable: rogue Ul­tra­mon­tanes, lost …continue.

Molly Murphy, an early twentieth-century private detective, returns from New York to her native Ireland, in order to track down her client's long-lost sister. Along the way, she encounters a dead body in her cabin, rev­o­lu­tion­ar­ies in Dublin, and (briefly) James Joyce.

Molly is engaging and quick-witted, with a contrarian streak that gets her into trouble. Bowen evokes the early 20th century from bustling New York to the social strat­i­fi­ca­tions of a liner, to British-occupied Dublin.

The book is marred by some elementary ge­o­graph­i­cal errors: the River Liffey, not …continue.

Two separate police in­ves­ti­ga­tions take place in Portsmouth at the same time. DI Joe Faraday is called over to the Isle of Wight to in­ves­ti­gate the headless body found washed up at the base of a cliff. Suspicion falls on an ex-soldier who runs a nursing home, a man with a dangerous reputation.

DC Paul Winter becomes involved with a callgirl who has ties to a prominent busi­ness­man, who won't take no for an answer. Winter's poor judgement may be due to the crippling headaches he's developed of …continue.

Maureen O'Donnell wakes up in her Glasgow flat after passing out drunk and finds her lover tied to a chair, his throat cut. Douglas was a therapist, married to another woman. The police think she's guilty but can't prove it: she has a history of mental illness, her mother's an alcoholic, and her twin brother's a drug dealer.

Mauri is feisty but flawed, coping fairly re­al­is­ti­cal­ly. She manages to find the real murderer and uncover a nasty case of sexual abuse, against a backdrop of domestic violence, alcoholism, and poverty. Her friend Leslie …continue.