The Summer Guests by Tess Gerritsen

In The Spy Coast, one of my favorite books of 2025 to date, Gerritsen introduced an appealing group of retirees, led by former spy, Maggie Bird. After years of restless traveling, trying to escape painful memories, Maggie wound up in Purity, Maine, where she had several friends from her CIA days. 

Catrin in Wales by Mabel Esther Allan – Reading Wales 2025

The sun was shining brilliantly and the hedgerows in the lane I had just left had been covered with half-open hawthorn. It was the third of May and I was in Wales, my mother’s country. Wales! I, Catrin Drury, aged just eighteen, was alone and entirely free for the first time ever, with a map in my hand, a few necessities on my back, and the future somehow fluid and unseeable.

The Night in Question by Susan Fletcher

Florrie Butterfield has cherished her independence all her life, so losing a leg in her mid-80s was devastating. Forced to leave the cottage she loved, she found a residential community in Oxfordshire that accepted people in wheelchairs, Babbington Hall. But just as Florrie has settled in, things start to go wrong. When the story begins, she is mourning Arthur Potts, a friend who fell out a window and died four weeks earlier.

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells by Rebecca Rego Barry – 16/20 of Books of Summer

When a former colleague, Deb Englander, mentioned this book early in 2024, the subtitle – Investigations Into A Forgotten Mystery Author – immediately caught my attention and I asked the Boston Public Library to order a copy.

Two's Company - set during the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg

Whe Claire Farrell left New York, heading south in her new convertible, it was ostensibly to visit her grandparents in Williamsburg, but really to pursue a handsome actor, Whit Bowdon, performing in summer theater. Whit is sophisticated and willing to do whatever it takes to advance his career, in contrast to Philip Young, a young architect boarding with the Farrells, who is focused on the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg – and enjoys teasing Claire about her lack of interest in history.

Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge by Spencer Quinn

Loretta Plansky is a tennis-playing retiree in Florida; she is comfortably off but misses her deceased husband. She has a demanding family: a 98 year-old-father whose unruly behavior in assisted living is about to cost her additional thousands per month, a daughter who wants money for a start-up (and her new fiancé), and a son who wants her to fund a dubious business venture. It is easier to say yes than to argue, also she's generous.