From the back cover: The mystery writer Harriet Vane, recovering from an unhappy love affair and its aftermath, seeks solace on a barren beach—deserted but for the body of a bearded young man with his throat cut. From the moment she photographs the corpse, which soon disappears with the tide, she is puzzled by a mystery that might have been suicide, murder, or a political plot. … [Read more...] about Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers: B
Mystery
Booked to Die by John Dunning: C-
From the back cover: Denver homicide detective Cliff Janeway may not always play by the book, but he's an avid collector of rare and first editions. After a local bookscout is killed on his turf, Janeway would like nothing better than to rearrange the suspect's spine. But the suspect, sleazeball Jackie Newton, is a master at eluding murder convictions. Unfortunately for … [Read more...] about Booked to Die by John Dunning: C-
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters: B
From the back cover: Amelia Peabody, that indomitable product of the Victorian age, embarks on her debut Egyptian adventure armed with unshakable self-confidence, a journal to record her thoughts, and, of course, a sturdy umbrella. On her way to Cairo, Amelia rescues young Evelyn Barton-Forbes, who has been abandoned by her scoundrel lover. Together the two women sail up the … [Read more...] about Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters: B
The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine: B+
From the back cover: "It's crazy thinking I can tell her," says Genevieve Warner, thirty-two years old, thirteen years into a loveless marriage, and recently swept into her first passionate love affair. "She's so old. She'll have forgotten what sex is." But Stella Newland, the gracious, dignified, dying woman that Genevieve cares for in an English nursing home, has not … [Read more...] about The Brimstone Wedding by Barbara Vine: B+
The Private Patient by P. D. James: B
Book description: In James's stellar fourteenth Adam Dalgliesh mystery, the charismatic police commander knows the case of Rhoda Gradwyn, a 47-year-old journalist murdered soon after undergoing the removal of an old disfiguring scar at a private plastic surgery clinic in Dorset, may be his last. Dalgliesh probes the convoluted tangle of motives and hidden desires that swirl … [Read more...] about The Private Patient by P. D. James: B