Mystery Book Reviews

The best mystery book reviews. Mysteries are typically crime stories in which readers follows a detective or amateur sleuth attempting to solve a criminal puzzle. Compared with “crime thrillers,” mysteries often feature less graphic violence and shocking subject matter.

Gallery Pieces by Larry Witham

Book Review – Gallery Pieces: An Art Mystery, by Larry Witham

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The Bottom Line: A thoroughly absorbing and masterfully crafted mystery about stolen art, family and greed. After a failed sting operation to nab Russian art smugglers in SoHo, a collection of curiously marked art catalogs is discovered. Julian Peale, the budding art sleuth at the heart of Gallery Pieces, finds himself immersed in a historically significant investigation that has gone unsolved for decades. As sleuths go, author […]

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Workman's Complication by Rich Leder

Book Review: Workman’s Complication, a Mystery by Rich Leder

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The Bottom Line: An honest-to-goodness charmer about a reluctant female detective trying to solve her father’s murder. You’ll fall in love with the whimsical, scrappy PI at the heart of this hilarious mystery. Highly recommended, especially for fans of Janet Evanovich. Rule #1: Don’t do murder. It doesn’t pay, and somebody’s already dead. Murder leads to more murder. Maybe yours. So begins a series of

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Book Review: Framed and Burning, a Cozy Mystery by Lisa Brunette

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The Bottom Line: This cozy mystery about a family of psychically gifted amateur sleuths possesses enough magic to keep you hooked from the first page until the last. When Amazing Grace and her granddaughter travel to Miami for a family visit, they quickly learn that crime never takes a vacation. In this second installment of Lisa Brunette’s Dreamslippers series, Grace’s younger brother, Mick, becomes the

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The Grownup Book Cover by Gillian Flynn

The Grownup: A Story by the Author of Gone Girl

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Gillian Flynn’s short story is about a canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama

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Murder Over Kodiak, a Crime Thriller by Robin Barefield

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The Bottom Line: A riveting whodunit set against the breathtakingly beautiful and perilous Alaskan landscape. A must for your winter reading list. When a floatplane goes down in the vicinity of Kodiak, Alaska, it appears that the tragedy will be most notable for ending the life of a U.S. senator. But for research biologist Jane Marcus, the crash hits much closer to home. Among the

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Pretty Girls by Karen Slaughter

Book Review: Pretty Girls, a new Crime Thriller by Karen Slaughter

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The Bottom Line: After completely slaying us with the greatness of  Cop Town, Karen Slaughter manages to top herself with Pretty Girls. Prepare to have thy sleep disturbed by this chilling police procedural. Highly recommended. More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is

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The Crossing by Michael Connelly

The Crossing, a new Crime Thriller by Michael Connelly

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Detective Harry Bosch has retired from the LAPD, but his half-brother, defense attorney Mickey Haller, needs his help. A woman has been brutally murdered in her bed and all evidence points to Haller’s client, a former gang member turned family man. Though the murder rap seems ironclad, Mickey is sure it’s a setup. Bosch doesn’t want anything to do with crossing the aisle to work

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Death by Romance book

Book Review: Death by Romance, a Mystery by Anne Kennison

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The Bottom Line: Death by Romance has it all: a deliciously devious criminal enterprise, a loathsome antagonist and a detective that will have you quickly wrapped around his finger. Janet Evanovich fans will find their new obsession in Anne Kennison. Richmond Homicide Detective Ryan Hamlin may be just a few months from the mandatory retirement age, but he’s hardly looking forward to spending his golden

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Jack Reacher - Make Me by Lee Child

Make Me, a new Jack Reacher Thriller by Lee Child

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“Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have

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Finders Keepers Stephen King

Book Review: Finders Keepers, a Crime Thriller by Stephen King

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The Bottom Line: A more-than worthy follow-up to King’s Mr. Mercedes, Finders Keepers is an intense, addictive and even touching morality tale. Those who fell in love with Retired Detective Bill Hodges in King’s previous outing will do so all over again. Finders Keepers begins with the tragic story of John Rothstein, an iconic author who created a famous character, Jimmy Gold, but who hasn’t

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