March 28, 2025
New Fiction
The Four Queens of Crime by Rosanne Limoncelli – 1938, London. The four queens of British crime fiction, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham, are hosting a gala to raise money for the Women’s Volunteer Service to help Britain prepare for war. Baronet Sir Henry Heathcote has loaned Hursley House for the event, and all the elites of London society are attending. The gala is a brilliant success, despite a few hiccups, but the next morning, Sir Henry is found dead in the library. Detective Chief Inspectors Lilian Wyles and Richard Davidson from Scotland Yard are quickly summoned and discover a cluster of potential suspects among the guests, including an upset fiancée, a politically ambitious son, a reserved but protective brother, an irate son-in-law, a rebellious teenage daughter, and the deputy home secretary. Quietly recruiting the four queens of crime, DCI Wyles must sort through the messy aftermath of Sir Henry’s death to solve the mystery and identify the killer.
A Mother’s Love by Sara Blaedel – When innkeeper Dorthe Hyllested is found murdered, the police are surprised to discover a concealed nursery in the upstairs apartment of her quaint woodside bed-and-breakfast. The recently widowed Dorthe was childless – so who lived in this secret toy-strewn room? Detective Louise Rick has just taken on a new job as head of the brand-new Mobile Task Force, charged with solving Denmark’s most difficult cases. With Dorthe’s murder as her first investigation and the clock ticking to find a missing child, Louise must cobble together an unproven team from a group of officers she’s never met. Perhaps worst of all, the case will necessitate collaborating with the Missing Persons Department, which will mean working closely with Louise’s former fiancé, Eik, who abruptly broke things off last year. With no real leads and an untested and potentially untrustworthy team behind her, Louise finds herself grasping at unlikely connections – but the twisted story she begins to uncover turns out to be darker and more dangerous than she ever imagined.
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue – Set over a single day, as the morning train travels from the Normandy coast to the capital. Men, women, and children from all over the world take their seats in the passenger cars, which are divided by wealth and status. Among the passengers is an anarchist intent on destruction, a young boy travelling alone, a pregnant woman fleeing her home village for the anonymity of the big city, a medical student who suspects a girl may have a fatal disease, and the railway crew, devoted to the train, to the Company, and to each other. Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs.
A Map to Paradise by Susan Meissner – With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open window. He’s her sole confident, though, as she and her house-keeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation. Then early one morning Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone? As they try to find out whether something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own. But it’s a fragile pact, and one little spark could send it all up in smoke.