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Tag: Mystery

Book Review: The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

Book Review: The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

Reviewed by E. Kirshe

 

The Cousins is the newest YA mystery novel from bestselling author Karen M. Mcmanus (One of Us is Lying, Two Can Keep a Secret, One of us is Next). This standalone volume is full of twists and turns to pull readers through to the very end.

Teenage cousins Aubrey, Milly, and Jonah Story are mysteriously invited by the grandmother who disowned their parents to her New England island for the summer. They’ve never met her or heard from her, and no one knows why she suddenly disinherited and cut ties with her children. 

Figuring out why this happened, while navigating their own complex relationships with their parents and each other makes family the driving force behind the plot. As the moody cover says “family first, always”. 

The over-the-top plot twists make for a fun read while the characters themselves stay pretty grounded. The cousins feel believable and the history of the Story family fits right in with the old-school mystery full of high society and intrigue vibe. The book is told through first-person narration from each cousin (and occasional flashbacks from Milly’s mother to before the disowning) and the perspective shifts keep the story moving and engaging.

The parent-child relationships being dealt with through calls and texts while the cousins are on the island lends a good dose of reality and makes for fully drawn characters. The Nantucket-like setting and quick-moving plot made this book feel like a perfect summer read, though young mystery and other YA fans are sure to enjoy it any time of the year. 

 

The Cousins will be available December 1, 2020, from Delacorte Press

The Furious Gazelle received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Idyll Hands (Thomas Lynch #3) by Stephanie Gayle

Idyll Hands book Stephanie GayleReview by E. Kirshe

 

In Idyll Hands, police investigate two unrelated cold cases involving missing girls. Set in 1999, a body is found in the woods of Idyll, Connecticut. The murder is thought to be connected to a cold case from years earlier. Idyll Chief of Police Thomas Lynch agrees to put part-time cop Michael Finnegan on the case– if he allows the bored Lynch to look into the disappearance of Finnegan’s sister, missing since 1972.

 

The book is something of a slow burn. Stephanie Gayle really makes the reader appreciate the work that goes into solving a crime with little information- especially in a 1999 police station where typewriters are still used. Tracking down witnesses who haven’t thought about these crimes in decades and suspects who may no longer be recognizable makes for some engaging long-form police work.

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Book Review: Dead Spider, by Victoria Houston

Review by Tess Tabak

 

In Dead Spider, the 17th installment in Victoria Houston’s Loon Lake mystery series, Charles Pfeiffer, the wealthiest man in town is murdered. It’s up to police chief Lewellyn Ferris and her deputy coroner Paul Osborne to find his killer. Dead Spider is a standalone story, and Houston briefly tells you anything you need to know about the characters in the first few pages so you don’t need to read any of the other books in the series before picking this one up.

A fast moving story, Dead Spider is a good beach read. It’s a light, airy page turner with a well-crafted mystery. The book relies on some mystery tropes (the murdered man has a bitchy daughter-in-law and a gold-digging wife, for example), but colored with Houston’s charming cast of small town characters, and the active fly fishing economy, it feels fresh. Loon Lake is based on the small Wisconsin town where Houston grew up, and you can tell she has a deep love for the area. Continue reading

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