Posts by Vicki J Kondelik

Moonflower Murders is the sequel to Anthony Horowitz’s clever mystery-within-a-mystery Magpie Murders. Like its predecessor, it is really two books in one. The first is set in the present day and features book editor Susan Ryeland. The second is a classic mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, set in the 1950s and featuring detective Atticus Pünd, the creation of the fictional, deceased author Alan Conway, whose murder Susan solved in Magpie Murders. As with the previous book, the fictional mystery set in the past provides clues to the “real” mystery set in the present.

Crocodile on the Sandbank is one of my favorite mystery novels of all time. It's the first in a series about Amelia Peabody, an unconventional Englishwoman in late 19th century Egypt. She and her traveling companion, Evelyn, meet the two Emerson brothers at an archaeological site, and sparks fly between Amelia and the older brother, Radcliffe Emerson. A walking mummy haunts the camp at night, and various accidents happen. Will Amelia figure out what's going on?

The Beekeeper's Apprentice is an outstanding mystery novel set in 1915-1919, featuring Sherlock Holmes and his new partner in crime-solving, the brilliant teenager Mary Russell. In this first novel in a long-running series, they are faced with a criminal mastermind who is targeting Holmes and everyone associated with him. This year marks the 30th anniversary of this novel, which is one of my favorite books of all time.

This is a biography of the famous scientist Marie Curie that focuses on her relationship with her two daughters, Irène and Ève, who led fascinating lives in their own right. Irène followed in her mother's footsteps as a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, and Ève became a pianist, author, and humanitarian. It is a perfect read for Women's History month.

This is a charming, heartwarming mystery novel about Vera Wong, a widowed Chinese woman in her sixties who finds a dead body in her tea shop in San Francisco's Chinatown and decides she will do a better job than the police at solving the crime. She rounds up four suspects, and then makes friends with them, cooking them delicious Chinese meals. Which one of her four new friends is a murderer?

This is a wonderful historical mystery and thrilling courtroom drama, inspired by actual events, about Martha Ballard, a midwife in 18th century Maine. When a dead body is found in a frozen river, Martha identifies the dead man as a prominent resident of the town, who was accused of rape. She defies the court system to find justice for the rape victim.

The Appeal is a brilliant mystery novel, told in emails and text messages, about a community theater group in a small town in the UK. They launch a fundraising appeal for cancer treatment for their leader's granddaughter, and tensions arise, leading to murder. Two law students sift through the correspondence to discover the truth of what happened.

This is the first part of an immense 2800-page novel which continues the adventures of the four musketeers--Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and d'Artagnan. As the young French king, Louis XIV, comes of age, the musketeers help restore Charles II to the English throne and become involved in the intrigues of the French court.

Shutter is a thrilling, suspenseful novel about Rita, a Navajo woman who is a forensic photographer and who can see and talk to ghosts. Her unique ability helps her when investigating crime scenes, but she has to keep it secret. The ghost of a murder victim haunts Rita and insists that she find her killer, or she will make Rita's life a misery. The murder story is interspersed with the story of Rita's childhood on the Navajo Reservation and her relationship with her grandmother.

Dance Hall of the Dead is the second book in Tony Hillerman's best-selling mystery series featuring Navajo policeman Joe Leaphorn. (It can easily be read without having read the first.) Leaphorn investigates the disappearance of two boys, one Zuñi and one Navajo. The strength of Hillerman's writing is in his descriptions of the locations in New Mexico and Arizona, and of the religion, mythology, and ceremonies of the Navajo and Zuñi. A beautifully-written book!