While all this is happening, Molly discovers another treasure: her Gran's diary. The grandmother who raised her never discussed her mysterious past. Reading Flora Gray's story will give Molly unprecedented insight into her Gran's identity as well as her own.

I've enjoyed all of the books in Nita Prose's delightful Maid series, and this third outing is no exception, even if The Maid's Secret is my least favorite of the installments. This novel is a departure from its predecessors for three reasons: it's not a murder mystery, it's told from two points-of-view, and it uses an alternating timeline structure. The first one is no big deal; in fact, it's an effective way to change things up, keeping the series from getting too formulaic. Telling the tale in two different timelines in both Gran's and Molly's voices, though? Meh. Neither device worked well for me, I'm afraid. As much as I like Flora as a character (at least as a senior citizen—she's rather insufferable as a young woman), there's nothing original about her back story, which makes it fairly dull and predictable. Molly's unique personality and perspective is what gives this series its freshness, and she gets much less page time in The Maid's Secret than she does in the other books. I wanted to spend more time watching her solve the heist than learning about Gran's past. Like I said above, the book is still entertaining; I just didn't love it like I have the other books.

Because I was reading The Maid's Secret for book club (we read the first two books together and all of use enjoyed them), my husband decided to read it as well, even though he hasn't read the first 2 1/2 installments. His verdict? "It was okay, but there's nothing very original about it." A new member of my book club, who hasn't read the rest of the series, DNFd The Maid's Secret because she was bored, not really caring about the characters. Those of us in the book club who had read the previous books agree this newest one is our least favorite of the bunch, but we were still invested in the story because we have learned to love the characters (especially Molly) over the course of the series. Hence my warning at the beginning of this review. Although this book can be read as a standalone, it's much more enjoyable if you've read the previous books and already care about the characters. For me, I just hope Prose goes back to murder and more Molly in the next installment.

(Readalikes: the other books in the series, The Maid; The Mystery Guest; and The Mistletoe Mystery [a holiday novella])

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When the Detection Club—a society for British mystery writers—is created in 1930, its mostly male members balk at including too many women in their ranks. Dorothy L. Sayers, a prominent author of crime novels, isn't about to let that stand. To prove to her male counterparts that female mystery writers are just as capable and deserving of accolades as them, she invites four of her colleagues—Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh, Baroness Emma Orczy, and Margery Allingham—to join her in forming a secret club of their own. Calling themselves The Queens of Crime, they aim to solve a real murder mystery to prove their merit as amateur detectives and writers as well as to see a killer brought to justice.

The women take on the case of May Daniels, a young English nurse who disappeared from a train station restroom while on a quick holiday in France with a friend. Five months later, the woman's dead body was found in a park, along with a mysterious puddle of blood that couldn't have resulted from her death by strangulation. The authorities don't seem too interested in investigating the murder, but Sayers and her friends are determined to figure out who harmed May. It's not long before their digging unearths secrets that someone would kill (again) to keep buried. That someone is watching Sayers, threatening to reveal her own darkest secret if she doesn't stop poking her nose in where it doesn't belong. Is the women's increasingly dangerous investigation worth the risk to their own lives? How far will they go to find a killer?

I love a historical mystery that is inspired by real people and events. While The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict isn't entirely factual (naturally), it features a group of indomitable women who really lived and created names for themselves by succeeding in a male-dominated field at a time when ladies were not meant to have jobs or lives outside of home and family. I had only really heard of Sayers, Christie, and Orczy and only read Christie, so I was excited to learn more about each of the featured authors. To succeed as they all did, they must have been bold, clever, and tenacious. Unfortunately, their individual personalities don't shine through as much as I would have liked in this novel. However, the friendship and camaraderie that they create is my favorite part of the story. As they combine their skills to solve a murder, they also bond by encouraging, supporting, and uplifting each other, professionally and personally. I also like Benedict's portrayal of the authors' compassion and sensitivity. Tracking down May's killer isn't just a ghoulish game for them; they want justice for the young victim as well as for all the "surplus" girls like her who are so easily forgotten by society. Even though the novel mostly focuses on Sayers and Christie, it piqued my interest about Marsh, Orzcy, and Allingham as well, inspiring me to want to check out their work.

Some mystery lovers have found that The Queens of Crime moves too slowly for their tastes, which is fair. It's definitely not an adrenaline-fueled, edge-of-your-seat kind of read. There aren't any jaw-dropping twists and there's not much action to get your heart pumping. Slow and predictable though it may be, I found the novel to be quietly compelling. I never got bored with it. I kept reading because I liked the characters, I enjoyed their interactions, and the mystery moved along steadily enough to engage me throughout the story. As a bonus, the novel is a gentler read, cleaner and cozier than I expected it to be, something I always appreciate as someone who loves mysteries/thrillers but prefers them without graphic content. 

Overall, then, I very much enjoyed The Queens of Crime. It's an intriguing, entertaining read with both bookish and girl power vibes. You can't go wrong with that!

(Readalikes: Reminds me a bit of Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library, a forthcoming novel by Amanda Chapman)

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Our titular heroine is a young woman who lives on a barren island called the Rock. Her life is a simple, but not unhappy one. She spends her days washing windows at the duke's mansion, hanging out with her best friend Charlie (who's maybe more than just a pal, despite their very different social stations), and collecting cups sailors bring from faraway lands. As much as she might dream of something more, she doesn't really expect her routine life to change in any way. Until it does. When Charlie is sent away from their island, a devastated Tress risks everything to follow him. Stowing away on a ship, she soon finds herself on a vessel with a bloodthirsty captain at its helm. To avoid walking the plank, she needs to prove her worth. Luckily for her, the most dangerous job on the boat—a Sprouter—has just become available thanks to the untimely death of the sucker who previously held the position. With little other choice, she does the best she can to perform her duties well enough to keep her head above water. 

(Readalikes: Um, I can't really think of anything. Can you?)

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As the book explains, Bell continued to experience acts of blatant racism as he grew up, including being shadowed while shopping, getting shut down by teachers, name-calling from his peers, accusations of plagiarism, profiling by police, and more. He sought solace and escape in his art, where he found his voice as a political cartoonist/satirist. His pointed, provocative, and often controversial ruminations on politics, injustice, prejudice, racism, and more have earned him both accolades and death threats over the years. In 2019, he won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, the first Black person to do so. 

It's easy to see why Bell's work has earned so much attention. The illustrations in The Talk are top-notch, loose but also vivid and compelling. No less so are his words, which pair with his pictures to create an immensely powerful story. For me—the white mother of an adopted, bi-racial child—the most poignant, heart-wrenching chapter in the book is the final one, in which Bell's 6-year-old son asks his dad about George Floyd. Not having planned to deliver "the talk" until the boy is a bit older, Bell is forced to shatter his child's innocence by talking about the hard truths of living while Black. It's excruciating to read, especially since, in the cartoon face of Bell's child, I see mine. 

The Talk is many things: raw, angry, gut-wrenching, timely, impactful, and, yes, hopeful. Surprisingly, it's also funny in parts. I laughed out loud when Bell recalled his mom marching to his school in her bathrobe and curlers to confront the principal. Embarrassed, he pled, "Mom? Couldn't you at least get dressed before ruining my whole life?" While most of the book is very serious, there are moments like these that occasionally lighten the mood. Mostly, though, The Talk is a hard-hitting denunciation of racism and injustice. Like Bell, I also hope that the issues he addresses in the book can be overcome so that our Black children can live in a world that is safer, kinder, and more empathetic toward them. One step in that direction is to read this excellent book, take its message to heart, and use it to confront our own prejudices in order to create a better world for all of its people.

(Readalikes: Surprisingly, I haven't read a lot of other books like this. I should. Which do you recommend?)

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The next thing Mallory knows, she's waking up in a world that has tilted completely. She's still in Edinburgh, but, as she soon discovers, she's traveled back in time 150 years to 1869. To further complicate matters, she's no longer Mallory, at least not on the outside. She's now inhabiting the body of Catriona Mitchell, a saucy 19-year-old. A semi-reformed thief rescued from the streets by her employer's sister, Catriona works for a handsome undertaker named Dr. Duncan Gray. The kicker? Catriona is recovering from being strangled and left for dead—in the exact same spot where Mallory was attacked a century and a half later. 

As Mallory struggles to make sense of her new life while also trying to figure out how to escape it and return to her own time, a curious corpse is delivered to Dr. Gray, who moonlights as a medical examiner. The young man has been strangled. Just like Mallory and Catriona. Mallory's detective brain kicks into high gear; even though she knows it's essential for her to act the part of Catriona—an uneducated servant who doesn't know what a germ is, let alone understand forensic science—she can't help but tap into her own expertise. Anything to catch the cold-blooded killer who is stalking prey in two separate timelines. Desperate to return to the side of her beloved nana, Mallory hopes that solving the case will catapult her back where she belongs. Can the detective put the killer behind bars before he strikes again? Or will his next attempt on her life be final, for both Mallory and Catriona?

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for language (no F-bombs), violence, blood/gore, sexual innuendo, depictions of drug abuse (opium), and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love: I received an ARC of A Rip Through Time from the generous folks at St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

High schoolers Liam, Elayah, Jorja, and Marcie are close friends, just like their parents were back in the day. When the foursome learns about a time capsule their parents hid back in 1986, they decide to dig it up just for fun. Among the expected items—photos, mixtapes, newspaper clippings, old coins—the teens make a shocking discovery: a bloody knife and a note that says, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to kill anyone." Is it just a stupid joke? Or did one of their parents actually murder someone?

When other disconcerting things start to happen, the kids realize that they've stumbled upon a decades-old secret that someone does not want revealed. As they start poking around, digging into their parents' pasts, disturbing information comes to light. What really happened between their parents? Who died? And, most importantly, which one of the adults they all know and love is a murderer?

I'm always up for a dual-timeline mystery about secrets of the past coming to light. Time Will Tell, a YA mystery by Barry Lyga, gives the classic premise a fun spin by turning a group of teens into detectives investigating their parents' long-hidden secrets. At 421 pages, the novel is longer than necessary but it moves along at a fair pace. Not a fast one, but not a super slow one either. True, there's not tons of action; still, I zipped through the book, eager to know what was going to happen next. Many reviewers have complained that the tale is confusing because there are lots of characters and it's difficult to keep them all straight, especially the parents because they're referred to as "Mom/Dad" or "so-and-so's mom/dad." I get this, although I also understand that the obscured identities are necessary to keep the mystery suspenseful. Still, it does make the story confusing at times. For the most part, Lyga's story people are sympathetic and likable. I wanted good things for most of them. Plotwise, Time Will Tell isn't the tightest. There are several holes and things that just didn't make much sense to me. Overall, then, I didn't love this book. I did like it well enough, though. It kept me reading.

(Readalikes: Hm, I can't think of anything. Can you?)

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