Murder While You Work by Susan Scarlett, for Dean Street December

Lively and attractive Judy Rest has given up nursing but is still determined to do her bit for the war in this WWII mystery by Susan Scarlett, aka Noel Streatfeild. Judy is heading to the country to work at a munitions factory, and has a meet cute on the train when a studious-looking young man obligingly crawls about on the floor retrieving the lipstick she dropped. 

The Jazz Barn by John Gennari - review for Nonfiction November

In The Jazz Barn: Music Inn, the Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz in American Life, author John Gennari captures an exciting time in jazz at an unexpected place – not a smoky night club but a converted carriage house and barn that were turned into a concert space and casual inn. 

Gone Before Goodbye by Reese Witherspoon & Harlan Coben

Gone Before Goodbye is an unusual collaboration by actress/producer Reese Witherspoon and mystery/thriller writer Harlan Coben, and the product is a thriller that takes the reader from Baltimore to New York to Russia to Dubai and France. Maggie McCabe is a former Army combat surgeon whose life has fallen apart after a series of personal tragedies caused her to lose her medical license.

Searching for Shona by Margaret J. Anderson, a WWII evacuation story

Marjorie Malcolm-Scott leads a lonely but privileged existence in Edinburgh, living with her Uncle Fergus, who has been gone for months (war work?) and his disagreeable housekeeper, Mrs. Kilpatrick. Sometimes when she is sent outdoors to play, she goes to the local park and observes the rough and tumble orphans from St. Anne’s. 

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

This is an unusual novel told in letters, primarily from the perspective of Sybil Van Antwerp, a divorced grandmother in her 70s, who had a distinguished career as a lawyer. Sybil started writing letters as a child and takes pride in her correspondence but there is a dramatic contrast in her ability to communicate through writing vs her inability to maintain relationships with her immediate family. 

Final Appeal and Lisa Scottoline in Boston

Last month, the Friends of the West Roxbury Library hosted mystery writer, Lisa Scottoline (right), in conversation with Maureen Corrigan, the NPR book critic (left). They chatted about legal thrillers and single motherhood and Lisa’s love of libraries (much appreciation from this audience).  Both were amusing and enjoyable.  Lisa said she has always been an avid reader, starting with Nancy Drew, and reads a lot of suspense fiction as well as many other genres. She joked that being divorced twice and not having a social life means more time to read! She also advised aspiring writers to keep on trying – she got rejected for years before Everywhere That Mary Went was published in 1994. That is about an unappreciated associate (is there any other kind?) in a Philadelphia law firm and was nominated for an Edgar.  That is the major award for crime books.  

The Librarians - a mystery by Sherry Thomas

When Hazel Lee moved back to Austin after years in Singapore, her grandmother suggested she get a job at the library and she finds one at her own childhood branch. Hazel is welcomed by Astrid, one of the librarians; Sophie, the branch administrator; Jonathan, the program director; and several clerks. They think Hazel is elegant and slightly mysterious but have no problem with her work ethic:

The House at Mermaid's Cove by Lindsay Jayne Ashford - a WWII historical set in Cornwall

Sometimes a book is so annoying one cannot sit back and enjoy the setting, even when it turns out to have been inspired by a place one has visited. I don’t think my friend Cath recommended this historical novel set in 1943 Cornwall but I wish she had read it so we could critique it together. The heroine, Alice, is an Irish nun, sent back in disgrace from the Belgian Congo because she became too attached to orphaned twins whose lives she saved. I suppose that is plausible but surely her superior, Sister Clare, knew that the war made traveling dangerous? So, surprise, Alice’s ship to Ireland is torpedoed in the English Channel and she washes up on shore where she is found by a TDS*.

The School at the Chalet by Elinor Brent-Dyer, for the 1925 Club

Madge Bettany, just 24, and her twin, Dick, have been responsible for their younger sister, Joey, since their parents died. Dick is home on furlough but works in Forestry in India, so Madge has come up with a scheme that will support her and Joey – she tells her brother she wants to establish a school in the Austrian Tyrol, where they once spent a summer, about an hour from Innsbruck:

Emily Climbs by L. M. Montgomery, for the #1925Club

When I was about 13, my family went to Martha’s Vineyard to spend part of a weekend with my father’s law partner. His children were younger so I begged to be taken to the local library (What, you say, you needed an excuse?). And what do you think I found on a discard table near the Chilmark Library door but a three-book series I’d never heard of by the author of Anne of Green Gables - also set on Prince Edward Island but about a different orphan. They were first edition hardcovers; unfortunately falling apart, but I have cherished them anyway. All three are delightful page-turners.

The Dower House by Patricia Wentworth, for the #1925Club

Amabel Grey, a young widow living on a tiny income, is anguished when her daughter Daphne demands £200 so she can travel with friends to Egypt. She simply doesn’t have it. But when she visits her lawyer, she overhears an old acquaintance, Mr. George Forsham, complaining that three sets of tenants have left the Dower House he owns, claiming it was haunted. He asks the lawyer to find a caretaker who will stay for six months and, after he storms out, Amabel takes on the assignment, securing payment in advance.

Greenery Street by Dennis Mackail, for the #1925Club

Greenery Street is a gentle comedy of manners about an upper middle class British couple enjoying their first year of marriage on an idyllic street in London. Ian Foster is an infatuated young man, with a low-level job at an insurance company that pays £250/year, and his new wife, Felicity Hamilton, is an indulged younger daughter with no sense of money management (he realizes early on this is not going to improve but accepts it – it may not be so winsome in five years).

The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen

I have enjoyed Tess Gerritsen’s current series, The Martini Club, about retired CIA agents trying to escape their pasts in Maine, so decided to go hear her speak recently at a local library. A former physician, she is best known for her medical thrillers – her books have sold more than 40 million copies worldwide – including the Rizzoli & Isles books that became a hit TV show.

Mrs. Endicott's Splendid Adventure by Rhys Bowen

Ellie Endicott is stunned when her husband of 30 years tells her he wants a divorce to marry a “smart, pleasant,” much younger colleague. Once she has recovered from her shock and humiliation, she admits – to herself, at least – that she didn’t love him. As Ellie wonders what is next for her, Mavis, her cleaning lady, persuades her to consult a solicitor:

Two 2025 Novels

Some light reading:

Say You’ll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez (2025)

When Samantha Diaz brings a stray kitten to the neighborhood vet, she is shocked to be told it needs expensive surgery and should be put to sleep. Annoyed with the unfairly handsome vet, she vows to raise the $10,000, which she does on social media. 

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths

When Griffiths concluded her Ruth Galloway mystery series (of which I am a big fan), I expected she would concentrate on characters already introduced in her other books. Instead, she has launched an intriguing new series with another quirky, outspoken heroine, a police detective who finds herself in the midst of several mysteries.

At Bertram’s Hotel by Agatha Christie #ReadChristie2025

Sometimes even Miss Marple needs a break from St. Mary Mead, and when her nephew, Raymond West, and his wife offer to treat her to a holiday, Miss Marple asks them to send her for a week or two to Bertram’s Hotel in London. She had stayed there as a child and heard from friends who’d stayed there recently it was like stepping back into an Edwardian idyll. 

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson

Last week, I participated in a focus group on “Financial Attitudes,” and spent an interesting two hours with a small group of women, all single and all contemplating how to finance their retirement. Due to some of the questions from the two moderators, the pessimism was contagious – we all began to think we’d never be able to afford to retire and read all day – so I was in a very suitable mood to begin this book and deeply sympathize with its heroine.

The Spring of the Ram by Dorothy Dunnett

1460: The second in The House of Niccolò series begins with the youngest de Charetty: Catherine, who has been sent to Brussels to stay with family friends and acquire some polish. Big mistake, Marian! Catherine immediately falls for a handsome entrepreneurial-type, Pagano Doria, who is no better than he should be (but has very nice teeth). We know this because he persuades this child to elope with him; presumably he knows she is an heiress.

A Case of Mice and Murder by Sally Smith

This debut mystery, set at the turn of the 20th century at London’s Inner Temple, brings to life the arcane, fascinating world of Britain’s legal elite. Sir Gabriel Ward is a quiet but brilliant barrister, sometimes overlooked by his colleagues because he spends all his time in his Temple rooms or his professional chambers, just yards apart. His routine is upended one morning when he finds a dead body on the threshold of his chambers - the Lord Chief Justice, whom he has known since childhood.