Publishers Weekly
03/28/2022
In Atherton’s gentle 25th paranormal cozy featuring Lori Shepherd, a self-described “friend, neighbor, gossip-monger par excellence, and community volunteer,” and Lori’s confidante, the late Dimity Westwood (after 2019’s Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold), the residents of the Cotswolds village of Finch are all atwitter, because a mysterious man has bought Pussywillow Cottage. The house is said to be enchanted, and it’s believed that anyone who lives there is destined to find true love. Unfortunately, the new owner, Crispin Windle, a 75-year-old retired professor with an air of sadness, doesn’t live up to the locals’ expectations. Aunt Dimity, who communicates via elegantly handwritten messages penned in an old blue journal, urges Lori to offer the elderly man her friendship. This act leads to Lori’s discovery of a harrowing secret buried in Finch’s past. Those who want to escape into a world where all problems can be resolved through kindness, without the need for fisticuffs or firearms (or much crime solving), will be satisfied. Those seeking action, excitement, or a knotty puzzle should look elsewhere. Agent: Annelise Robey, Jane Rotrosen Agency. (May)
From the Publisher
The caring community, its quirky characters, and the warm depiction of family life will appeal to readers of Donna Andrews’ Meg Langslow cozies.”—Booklist
“Those who want to escape into a world where all problems can be resolved through kindness, without the need for fisticuffs or firearms…will be satisfied.”—Publishers Weekly
Library Journal
12/01/2021
In a series starter from the ever-popular Armstrong, homicide detective Mallory is in 2019 Edinburgh when she experiences A Rip Through Time and winds up in one of the city's alleyways in 1869, inhabiting the body of strangled-if-not-quite-dead housemaid Catriona Thomson and soon hunting for a killer (50,000-copy first printing). In Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage, the redoubtable sleuth and her English-village neighbors fail in their attempt to befriend standoffish newcomer Crispin Windle until they discover the ruins of a Victorian woolen mill—and the graves of children who worked there, whom they seek to identify (30,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for July 2021). In Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride, crusty but beloved widow Nonna Maria—who lives on the isle of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples and was inspired by the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Carcaterra's grandmother—intervenes when a young bride-to-be declares that she's afraid of her fiancé. In Haines's Lady of Bones, Mississippi-based Sarah Booth Delaney of the Delaney Detective Agency is attending a party alit with jack-o-lanterns when she's approached by a woman seeking her vanished daughter, who has been investigating the disappearance of young women in New Orleans every Halloween for the last five years (40,000-copy first printing). The internationally best-selling author of the "Dark Iceland" and "Hulda" series, Jónasson sets his new standalone during an Icelandic blizzard, with four frantic friends sheltering in an abandoned hunting lodge and facing a reignited tragedy that likely makes them wish they were all Outside (50,000-copy first printing). In Klingborg's Wild Prey, Inspector Lu Fei of the Chinese Police travels to a remote region of Myanmar to find a missing 15-year-old girl in a case involving the illegal trafficking of exotic animals (50,000-copy first printing). In Robert B. Parker's Revenge Tour, Lupica assigns PI Sunny Randall the thankless task of investigating actress friend Melanie Joan Hall when Melanie's manager turns up dead, her bank account looks to be wiped out, and details of her past suddenly seem more imagined than real. In Paretsky's Overboard, a seriously injured teenage girl discovered by V.I. Warshawski on Lake Michigan's rocky shore subsequently vanishes from the hospital, and the iconic detective must chase down a monstrous conspiracy with pandemic-ridden Chicago as backdrop (100,000-copy first printing). Pursuing a massive drugs-and-weapons shipment being shepherded across the U.S.-Mexican border by former cops with the warning "You talk, you die" written on their bodies, Patterson/Paetro stalwart Sgt. Lindsay Boxer suddenly has 22 Seconds to decide what her fate will be. Second in the new series from librarian Weaver, who launched her writing career with the delightful Amory Ames mysteries, The Key to Deceit has breaker-and-enterer Ellie McDonnell again approached by stuffed-shirt good-guy Major Ramsey in World War II London: he wants her to discover which side the female spy found bobbing in the Thames was on (40,000-copy first printing).
AUGUST 2022 - AudioFile
Narrator Christina Moore transports listeners to the Cotswolds in south-central England. American expat Lori and her friends and neighbors seek to uncover the story behind a resident who has recently moved to their village. Moore’s talent for accents and characterizations shines in this cozy as she seamlessly moves between Lori’s American accent and a variety of English accents, plus a New Zealand accent, with each one sounding authentic. Her characterization of Crispin Windle, the new resident, is particularly strong as she helps listeners imagine his transformation from reluctant neighbor to enthusiastic friend. This is the 25th in the series; however, Moore’s narration helps introduce new listeners to the key characters. K.J.P. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
