Lesa's Book Critiques: Chasing the Ring by Lauren Rowe

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Chasing the Ring by Lauren Rowe

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Nanny’s Handbook for Magic and Managing Difficult Dukes by Amy Rose Bennett

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Nanny’s Handbook for Magic and Managing Difficult Dukes by Amy Rose Bennett

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Murder at Somerset House by Andrea Penrose

 

Murder at Somerset House (Kensington, 30 September 2025) is the ninth book in the Regency historical mystery series by Andrea Penrose. Set in late March 1815, England is enjoying a spell of peace now that Napoleon is sequestered on the island of Elba off the coast of Italy. Charlotte Sloane is hopeful that her household can focus on family matters for awhile. Her hopes are doomed, as her husband the Earl of Wrexford is asked to assist in the investigation of the death of a scientist who was killed outside the headquarters of the Royal Society in Somerset House a few hours after a presentation that claimed that electricity and magnetism were related forces. His ideas were met with open anger and Scotland Yard first assumed the murder was personal.

Wrexford declines at first and then is pulled into the larger puzzle surrounding the homicide when England learns that Napoleon has escaped and is marching on Paris, pitching the nation back into war. Spies report that the French are also looking into the practical uses of electromagnetism and were believed to have developed an early form of the telegraph, which would give them advanced communications capability on the battlefield. Suddenly the death of the scientist takes on broader potential meaning.

Fact is woven invisibly into the investigation. During their inquiries Charlotte and Wrexford meet the young Michael Faraday who established the principles of electromagnetism. The budding stock market and the financial equations that explain the impact of stock profits and losses on the overall economy are explored. The early use of messenger pigeons as a communications device also is examined.

Like the St. Cyr series by C. S. Harris, these books are as much history as they are mystery. The Regency was a fascinating time, socially, politically, and scientifically. Fans of historical mysteries will want to look at this latest adventure.

 

·         Publisher: ‎Kensington

·         Publication date: September 30, 2025

·         Language: ‎English

·         Print length: ‎368 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎149673999X

·         ISBN-13: ‎978-1496739995

 

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/4nRVi5G

 

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2025

 

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Trinket for the Taking by Victoria Laurie

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Next Deadly Chapter by V.M. Burns

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Next Deadly Chapter by V.M. Burns

Lesa's Book Critiques: Murder in an Irish Garden by Carlene O’Connor

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Murder in an Irish Garden by Carlene O’Connor

Lesa's Book Critiques: A Lethal Walk in Lakeland by Nicholas George

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A Lethal Walk in Lakeland by Nicholas George

Lesa's Book Critiques: Mrs. Claus and the Nightmare Before New Year’s by Liz Ireland

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Mrs. Claus and the Nightmare Before New Year’s by Liz Ireland

Lesa's Book Critiques: HAUNTING LICENSE BY CAROL J. PERRY

Lesa's Book Critiques: HAUNTING LICENSE BY CAROL J. PERRY

Lesa's Book Critiques: A VERY WOODSY MURDER BY ELLEN BYRON

 Lesa's Book Critiques: A VERY WOODSY MURDER BY ELLEN BYRON

Lesa's Book Critiques: THE DIVA GOES OVERBOARD BY KRISTA DAVIS

 Lesa's Book Critiques: THE DIVA GOES OVERBOARD BY KRISTA DAVISnullnull

Aubrey Nye Hamilton Reviews: Runner by Tracy Clark

Tracy Clark’s fourth book about Chicago private investigator Cassandra Raines is a fine mystery and a devastating take-down of the nation’s foster care system.

In Runner (Kensington, 2021) recovering addict Leesa Evans asks for Cass Raines’ help in finding her daughter Ramona. Evans lost custody of Ramona during the worst of her struggles with her addiction but she’s clean now and working hard to save enough money to make a home for her daughter. Ramona has been in foster care for five years, moved from family to family, regardless of how well she is doing in any one place. Evans has filed a missing persons report with the Chicago police but feels that her race and social status are keeping the police from taking her seriously. (The Washington Post reported on May 23, 2022, Health and Human Services Inspector General findings that foster children are typically missing more than a month before they are found. In a grim coda, the Post goes on to state that thousands of foster children are never found at all.)

The police think Ramona ran away. Raines is overwhelmed with the idea that anyone should be outside during a brutal Chicago winter. As she talks to the police, case workers, foster families, anyone who might help find the girl, she reminds them to look out their window and remember how cold it is. In a wonderfully done sequence Raines hitches a ride with her nun friend Barbara who distributes supplies to street people at night, hoping to find someone who has seen Ramona or knows where she might be. She jumps from the bus to chase a potential informant, frightening her friend and the elderly nun driving the bus. When she returns, the wrath of the tiny bus driver intimidates Raines far more than anyone else she’s encountered so far.

Strong writing and a concise straightforward narrative made this book a read-all-at-once title. Readers don’t need to start with the earlier books, this one stands well enough on its own to be read out of order. Highly recommended.

Starred review from Publishers Weekly. Winner of the 2022 Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Shortlisted for Anthony Award for Best Novel.

 

·         Publisher: ‎ Kensington (June 29, 2021)

·         Language: ‎ English

·         Hardcover: ‎ 304 pages

·         ISBN-10: ‎ 1496732014

·         ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1496732019

 

Aubrey Nye Hamilton ©2022

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Murder on the Last Frontier by Cathy Pegau

Murder on the Last Frontier by Cathy Pegau (Kensington, 2015) is the first of three books about Charlotte Brody, a journalist and suffragist who leaves her comfortable life in New York to start over again in a new place after a failed romance. Set in 1919 when Alaska was not yet a state, the journey itself involved a cross-country train trip to Seattle and then a week-long boat ride up the west coast. Her destination was Cordova, a settlement of about 1000 people including the Native Americans, where her physician brother had gone the year before in response to an advertisement for doctors in the Alaskan Territory.

Cordova lacked the structural amenities Charlotte took for granted in New York. Dirt streets and few automobiles meant dust or mud everywhere. The sight of trousered women startled her at first. However, the mountains and the glaciers behind the town were glorious. Her planned articles for a magazine back in New York were almost going to write themselves, she could tell. Her thoughts took a different direction when the badly beaten body of one of the local prostitutes was found a couple of days after her arrival. Her journalistic instincts led her to turn amateur sleuth, despite the disapproval of her brother, the deputy marshal, and the leading ladies of the town.

This book should not be mistaken for a cozy. It has a detailed description of an autopsy. The assaults on women demonstrating on behalf of the vote come up more than once, as well as Charlotte’s personal experience with them. Abortion is discussed as a viable form of birth control.  Prostitution is one of the few ways women could earn money at the time and is acknowledged as such.

This appears to be Pegau’s first mystery; she has published romances previously. The mystery is the weakest part of the plot. Multiple suspects were identified but only a couple of them had a serious motive. A red herring subplot didn’t divert my attention for long. Still, there is a lot to like about this book. A scenic location well described, fresh characters with a realistic mix of strengths and shortcomings, a strong sense of contemporary social mores and customs, and an interesting time in the history of Alaska. For fans of historical mysteries and amateur sleuths.

 

·         Publisher: Kensington (November 24, 2015)

·         Language: English

·         Paperback: 288 pages

·         ISBN-10: 1496700546

·         ISBN-13: 978-1496700544

 

Aubrey Hamilton ©2021

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Reviews: Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico

Lesa's Book Reviews: Here Comes the Body by Maria DiRico

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: The Off-Islander by Peter Colt

The Off-Islander by Peter Colt (Kensington, 2019) is the first in a projected series of private investigator mysteries with Andy Roark, a Vietnam veteran with PTSD. Set in Boston in 1986, 10 years after the fall of Hanoi, Andy is still having trouble assimilating into the civilian world. He tried college, he tried the police force, and he’s fallen into collecting evidence for divorce filings and following up on personal injury cases. Nothing challenging but it’s a paycheck. His high school friend, now lawyer, Danny Sullivan throws work his way occasionally and brings him in to find Charles Hammond, who walked away from his family some 30 years ago. The client, Hammond’s daughter, is not interested in re-uniting with Hammond but she is worried about potential fallout that could affect her husband’s political career. She wants to know what he’s been up to so she can nip whatever trouble there might be in the bud.

The major clue is the list of addresses to which the Veterans Administration has mailed his pension checks for years. The West Coast locations were investigated without success so Roark decides to look into the only East Coast address. This involves lots of driving back and forth between Hyannis and Boston in heavy traffic, offering plenty of opportunity for commentary on the region. The Hyannis place turns out to be the site of a former commune run by an artist who paints in the style of Georgia O’Keefe. She doesn’t remember Hammond among the dozens of people who came and went during the 70s. Still, when the house and outbuildings are burned to the ground a week or so later, along with the artist, Roark knows he’s hit a nerve.

The ending is surprising enough to be satisfying. Colt has a gift for descriptive detail, which he uses as much for wartime flashbacks as he does for the investigation underway. As much as half of the book is devoted to Roark’s memories of Vietnam, which I certainly hope will decrease in future titles. I am more than a little tired of veterans with PTSD as protagonists.

It will be interesting to watch how well Colt manages the technology changes that are about to turn the world on its ear, with the internet becoming public in 1991, a short five years after the timing of this debut novel. The first cell phones became widely available to the public in the mid-1980s, about the time of this story. Personal computers were already in use, if not especially common.

If Colt can develop more substantial plots and reduce the wartime ruminations, this series will be one to watch.

·         Hardcover: 240 pages

·         Publisher: Kensington (September 24, 2019)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 1496723414

·         ISBN-13: 978-1496723413

·         Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/41nJH67 

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.

Lesa's Book Critiques: Sconed to Death by Lynn Cahoon

Lesa's Book Critiques: Sconed to Death by Lynn Cahoon

Lesa's Book Critiques: Antiques Ravin' by Barbara Allan

Lesa's Book Critiques: Antiques Ravin' by Barbara Allan

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Plot is Murder by V.M. Burns

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Plot is Murder by V.M. Burns

Lesa's Book Critiques: Grand Slam Murders by R.J. Lee

Lesa's Book Critiques: Grand Slam Murders by R.J. Lee

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Forgive Me by Daniel Palmer

Forgive Me by Daniel Palmer (Kensington, 2016) is a stand-alone thriller from my Bouchercon book bag, which seems to have been light on genuine mysteries this year. Angela DeRose’s investigation agency in Arlington, Virginia, specializes in locating runaway children. Her interest in helping at-risk teens and their families stems from the disappearance of her best friend in college just before they graduated. No clue to her fate ever surfaced, and Angie is determined that no other family will suffer the same sense of loss and grief if she can help it.

Workaholic Angie is devastated when her mother dies suddenly. In sorting through her mother’s possessions and papers, she finds an older photograph of a small child with the words “Forgive me” and a string of numbers written on the back. Her father doesn’t know anything about it and Angie is haunted by this secret in her mother’s life. Her search for the child’s identity and the meaning of the numbers on the back of the photo forms the overarching framework of the book. The investigative work that leads Angie to the little girl’s name and location is well done and the plot twist at the end that explains Angie’s mother’s connection to the child is explosive, surprising, and plausible.

Nearly half of the story however is consumed with the detailed and graphic description of the seduction and coercion of a 16-year-old into a sex trafficking ring, and Angie’s search for her. This unflinching narrative reads as if it were taken from actual case records.

I find it interesting that the publisher’s blurb makes no mention of the sex trafficking thread which forms a significant part of the book, focusing only on the photo of the unidentified little girl.

However, I had the feeling that this is two separate stories folded into one book, one being extraneous to the other, making it a mildly disorienting read. Action-packed with physical and sexual violence.

·         Hardcover: 416 pages

·         Publisher: Kensington (May 31, 2016)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 075829347X

·         ISBN-13: 978-0758293473

Aubrey Hamilton ©2018

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.