A curious case of a disappearing pig. A murdered historian. A sassy senior sleuth.
If Cat Caliban’s not your favorite crime-solving grandma, you just haven’t met her yet!
Meet Cat Caliban — sixty-something widow, proud cat lady, and budding private eye. She’s traded in her old life as a housewife for something far more exciting: solving crimes. But nothing in her sleuthing career has prepared her for this.
When a local historian begs Cat to find the villain who stole her beloved pig — Gertie, a cupcake-loving micro-mini with a mischievous streak — Cat figures it’s a simple petnapping. Sorry, pignapping. Until the trail leads to a dead human body.
With the city gearing up for its bicentennial celebrations, Cat finds herself tangled up in a complex mystery involving missing historical papers, a children’s book about a detective with trotters . . . and a cunning killer who’s determined to keep the past buried.
Cat must crack the case, bring home the bacon, and catch a murderer, before she becomes the next victim of Cincinnati’s deadliest – and oinkiest – celebration.
D. B. Borton is the author of two mystery series—the Cat Caliban series and the Gilda Liberty series —as well as the standalone mystery novels Smoke and Bayou City Burning and the humorous science fiction novel Second Coming.
In graduate school, Borton converted a lifetime of passionate reading and late-night movie-watching into a doctorate in English. She is Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Wesleyan University.
Borton currently lives with Zoe the cat in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she gardens, practices aikido, a martial art, and, of course, reads.
My thoughts: I really like this series, I love Cat and her rag tag band of associates, from Kevin the bartender to Winnie the dog, Moses the former cop and Leon the purveyor of terrible greetings cards.
This is probably the most shocking case Cat has taken on so far. From a pignapping, she follows the clues to a terrible piece of local history via a writer whose husband (and possibly her brother) had her committed to an asylum, possibly in order to keep her quiet.
The revelations Cat and Moses uncover have repercussions for modern day residents of Cincinnati, which may have lead to a murder as well as the pignapping.
The blend of humour, crime and history is intriguing and interesting, I was hooked from the off, it was such a compelling case. This series just gets better and better.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Reader beware; this story tackles serious themes and does not flinch from them.
Fed up with female characters playing the victim? Like a bit of a laugh with your pitch black drama? Then ‘A Murder of Crows’ could be right up your alley.
At nineteen-years-old Jade Crow is fed up being the victim, so gives her abusive boyfriend a hand down some steep stairs. She gets away with it.
With the help of a rather flamboyant mentor… and Felice is a woman with her own incredible backstory, Jade embarks upon a very successful career in stage-managing ‘accidental deaths’. Until she kills the wrong man.
Then Jade finds herself in a kitchen, somewhere in France, fighting for her life and the chance to escape to paradise with the man she loves.
As dark as it is funny, this thriller is not for the faint hearted.
B C Harris lives in Dumfries & Galloway with her husband and their two dogs. Surrounded by hills and forests, she has plenty of space for walking, and plotting new and interesting ways to murder her characters. Conspiracy of Cats, published in 2021 was her first book. In 2023 she followed that up with Making Sacrifices. A Murder of Crows is her latest release.
My thoughts: I really enjoyed this, I liked Jade and I loved the outrageous Felice. This is very funny and very entertaining, although if you don’t find jokes about murder and mayhem funny, it might not be for you.
Jade Crow has survived a horrible childhood in care, and is stuck in a wretched relationship with an abusive thug. She works as a home carer, her only highlight is visiting her client Felice, an elderly woman who has lived quite a life.
Felice is worried about Jade and after she dies unexpectedly, comes back as a ghost, to begin with only Jade can see her. And together they embark on a new life for Jade, with some help from Felice’s old life.
Years later, Jade has been very successful in her new career with Felice as her very own secret weapon. But unfortunately her last job has got her onto the radar of the security services and that brings with it consequences that Jade might not be able to escape this time.
I won’t spoil things for you, but I wasn’t happy with the ending, I think I even boo’d. Out loud. Like a lunatic. I had enjoyed it that much and liked the characters enough that I wanted more adventures for them.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Moscow, 1958. At the height of the Cold War, secretary Lois Vale is on a deep-cover MI6 mission to identify a diplomatic traitor. She can trust only one man: Johann, a German journalist also working covertly for the British secret service. As the trail leads to Vienna and the Black Sea, Lois and Johann begin an affair but as love grows, so does the danger to Lois.
A tense Cold War spy story told from the perspective of a bright, young, working-class woman recruited to MI6 at a time when men were in charge of making history and women were expendable. Authentic details are provided by the 1958 diary kept in Moscow by the author’s own mother, who worked for British intelligence.
Deborah Lawrenson spent her childhood moving around the world with diplomatic service parents, from Kuwait to China, Belgium, Luxembourg and Singapore. She read English at Cambridge University and worked as a journalist in London. She has written ten novels, including two Death in Provence mysteries as Serena Kent, and her writing is praised for its vivid sense of place.
My thoughts:This was utterly gripping and really, really good. I’ve had a bit of a love of Russian history since my A Levels and a very memorable trip to the country (the hotel we stayed in is mentioned in the book!) and it was interesting to read something set during an infamous period of time – when the Cambridge spy ring was being unmasked.
It was also really interesting to have the story from a female perspective, inspired by the author’s mother’s own role as a secretary at the British Embassy and as an MI6 operative. Most spy thrillers are full of gungho action and men who are either very dashing or the extreme opposite (like Jackson Lamb from Mick Herron’s Slough House series), they are very rarely female.
Lois is indeed a secretary, but she’s also under orders from MI6, and her job is a cover. She’s been sent to see if she can work out if anyone on the embassy staff might be passing information to the Russians. She’s been told not to trust anyone but German journalist (and fellow spy) Johann.
At times she feels completely out of her depth, and her very strange flatmate and colleague doesn’t help matters. There are important things to do, possible defectors to locate, Russian tails to shake off, and the very real possibility of romance.
Things do go somewhat awry, and far from anyone she can ask for advice, Lois has to essentially wing it. But can she do the job?
I really liked Lois, I liked her determination, the way she wanted to stay the course, even when things were going wrong all over the place. She’s level headed and practical, willing to improvise to get the job done. A really enjoyable, intelligent thriller.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Inspector Henry Tibbett is taking a much-needed holiday from his job at Scotland Yard with his wife Emmy. Headed for a spot of skiing in the Italian Dolomites and some first-class people-watching, Tibbett’s worries blissfully melt away. That is, until a fellow guest who boards the ski lift alive at the top of the mountain is found dead when the lift touches bottom. Another dead body turns up, and then another, and it becomes clear that Murder has come to the mountain.
Patricia Moyes (1923-2000) was an acclaimed British mystery novelist, best known for her long running series featuring Inspector Henry Tibbett. The tenth book in the series, Who Saw Her Die?, was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe award, and Moyes was inducted into The Detection Club, presided over by Agatha Christie, in the same year. Her early career also included work as a radar operator in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force; as a screenwriter – with credits including the Robert Hamer film School for Scoundrels and Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected –; as an assistant editor for Vogue magazine; and as a translator.
My thoughts: This was a lovely classic crime story, set on a mountain in Italy. Asked to assist when one of his fellow travellers is murdered, DI Tibbett and his wife Emmy start investigating the other hotel guests. Among the people on the mountain is a murderer.
Uncovering all sorts of other dodgy goings on in this supposedly quiet and peaceful place, Tibbett sets a trap for the killer, he’s pretty sure he’s worked it all out.
Highly enjoyable and at times quite funny, I particularly liked Emmy, I can’t wait to see how crime ruins the Tibbetts next holiday.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Atlantic City’s shady history comes to life when a magician with a mysterious past races to discover her friend’s killer before he strikes again, but finds herself falling for the prime suspect, who holds the secret to her true identity.
ZIGZAG GIRL by Ruth Knafo Setton is a noir-tinged feminist thriller where The Prestige meets Knives Out in Atlantic City’s haunted magic underworld. When brilliant young magician Lucy Moon discovers her best friend murdered inside the infamous sawing box that killed a performer decades ago—a black rose stuffed in her mouth, the same signature from Lucy’s own buried past—she’s thrust into a deadly game where every suspect is a master of deception and the killer seems to know secrets about her she’s spent a lifetime hiding. Racing to unmask a murderer before they strike again, Lucy must navigate Atlantic City’s shadowy criminal networks, resist falling for a charismatic magician who might be the killer, and confront the ghost of a glamorous 1940s assistant whose unsolved murder in that same box echoes through time—all while performing the most dangerous trick of her life: discovering who she really is before her past catches up with her. With its intoxicating blend of illusion, murder mystery, and gothic atmosphere, this cinematic thriller delivers a visually stunning world of stage magic, a complex heroine forced to unmask herself to catch a killer, and a powerful exploration of women who create their own magic to survive in a world designed to make them disappear.
Born in Morocco and raised on tales of djnoun and desert wonder, I’ve sailed around the world three times teaching university students aboard ships, studying magic and collecting stories of the impossible. I’ve been sawed in half and in thirds, broken free from straitjackets, and learned the art of illusion from masters across the globe. I transformed these adventures into Zigzag Girl, a thriller set in Atlantic City’s glittering casinos and the haunted Pine Barrens of New Jersey—where I stood at the grave of the Jersey Devil and felt the dark heart of my killer. In this shadowy landscape where magic meets menace, my protagonist must use every trick she knows to survive.
My thoughts: This was a clever and at times chilling murder mystery set amongst the late night magic crowd in Atlantic City. Lucy is the daughter of a famous magician and set to introduce her new act with two of her best friends when one of them is brutally murdered.
Despite being warned off by the cops, Lucy investigates, and as she does, she learns the truth about her own origins and the ghost of a murdered magician’s assistant from the 1940s that haunts her.
Full of twists and turns, untrustworthy people and masks, Lucy must navigate her way between truth and fiction to draw it the killer without falling victim herself.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
A man’s body is found in a Kentish hop field, his brutal death marked by horrific injuries.
As Detective Kay Hunter begins to investigate, the case quickly reveals itself to be anything but routine. The local farming community is tight-lipped, the victim’s background is unclear, and the evidence uncovers a trail of conflicting stories and long-held secrets.
With the media and her superior officers demanding answers, Kay must navigate the lies and unravel the truth to solve one of the most complex murder investigations of her career.
In a landscape shaped by tradition and silence, some secrets are buried for a reason.
What Evil Hides is the fifteenth book in the bestselling Detective Kay Hunter series, and perfect for readers who love twisty murder mysteries.
Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant. She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction with over 30 crime novels and short stories featuring spies, detectives, vigilantes, and assassins. A keen traveller and accidental private investigator, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship. You can find out more about Rachel and her books at http://www.rachelamphlett.com.
My thoughts: Some farm workers harvesting hops discover a murdered man, his body cruelly disfigured amongst the bines. The police can’t work it out, it looks like it might be ritualistic, but there hasn’t been anything else locally.
As they investigate both the farm where the body was found and the deceased’s life, they’re left with more questions than answers. There are traces of three suspects, and the farm has a few disgruntled former employees. Was the victim chosen intentionally or at random? Is the farm being attacked or something else? An area of poisoned crops raises more questions.
Can the team solve it before headquarters passes it over to another DI to try to unravel the answers?
Another clever and interesting case from Rachel Amphlett, one of the best crime writers around.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Winter’s Season by R.J. Koreto unfolds against a city shaped by wealth, secrecy, and social division. The story follows a man whose work places him at the fault lines of power and danger, where private lives intersect with public consequence and justice is anything but assured.
When a young woman of means is found murdered, the crime sends quiet shockwaves through a society invested in keeping its truths hidden. Captain Winter is drawn into the case not because it is public, but because it is dangerous to ignore. A former soldier hardened by war, Winter now serves as Whitehall’s discreet emissary, navigating influence and violence without the protection of formal law.
His investigation forces him into uneasy alliances. A nobleman from his youth grants access to elite circles, while a brilliant Jewish physician brings insight grounded in careful observation rather than assumption. The case takes a more perilous turn with the return of Barbara Lightwood, a former lover whose intelligence and social reach place her close to information Winter cannot obtain elsewhere. Her refusal to fully share what she knows reopens unresolved history and clouds Winter’s judgment at the moment he can least afford it.
As the truth reaches further than anyone dares admit, Winter must confront both the crime and the personal cost of pursuing justice alone.
R.J. Koreto has been a merchant seaman, book editor, journalist and novelist. He was born and raised in New York City and decided to be a writer after reading “The Naked and the Dead.” He and his wife have two grown daughters and divide their time between Rockland County, N.Y., and Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. Visit R.J. at his website and on Facebook and Instagram.
Excerpt
The captain said goodbye to his colonel and a few other officers, and the butler saw him out. He walked to the nearest stand and engaged a hackney cab to Bow Street Court. A few heads turned as he entered the building, but no one accosted him. A clerk gave him the barest nod but said nothing as he entered a room.
A few minutes later, the captain came out. He was no longer in his regimentals, but in rather shabby outfit, almost rural, with a slouch hat. Down the hall, he entered another room, where a squad of Bow Street Runners awaited—constables, employed by the local court at Bow Street, to keep order and seize felons. Winter suppressed a grimace. They were poorly trained and poorly paid, but it was pretty much all London had for law enforcement. Many still thought the idea of a formal professional constabulary too much government interference—too un-English. So, the Runners would have to do. At least they were willing and obedient.
“We have already gone over where you should be standing,” said the captain. “You know how important it is you aren’t seen.” There was more than instruction in his voice—there was menace.
“Yes, sir,” said the most senior constable present.
“Then take your places. I’ll be along shortly.”
Moving quickly, he left the building and walked along dark streets that became progressively dirtier and more dangerous. He saw men hiding in the shadows, those who preyed on the weak and unaware, but nothing happened to him.
Eventually he came to a building that was well-lit, at least by the neighborhood standards. It was certainly the noisiest venue in the street. The cracked and faded sign marked it as The Three Bells.
The Captain entered—a few were eating off dirty plates, and almost everyone was drinking beer, or something stronger. Slatternly women laughed and tried to slip away from the half-drunk men who loudly pursued them. Some allowed them- selves to be caught, and there was more laughter and then a talk of money. The whole room smelled of smoke and grease, and the floor was sticky from weeks of spilled ale.
Few paid attention to the captain, but a fat man walked up to him surprisingly quickly for someone of his bulk.
“Oh captain, I am so pleased, do you think—”
“Shut up. Where’s Sally? She was suitable last night, and she’ll be suitable tonight.”
“Sally—oh there she is.” He pointed to a tallish girl wearing more makeup than an actress. A large man in worker’s clothes, probably a stevedore, thought the cap- tain, had grabbed her and placed her on his lap. She didn’t seem to mind.
The captain strode over, grabbed the woman by her wrist, and pulled her off the man’s lap.
“Come, my girl, we have an appointment as you well know.”
She yelped with surprise, then gave a shrug and followed. The large man stood up.
“See here—I saw her first,” he said. His accent wasn’t London, which explained everything.
“Good for you,” said the Captain, and pulled the girl across the room. The big man started to follow, but two of his friends grabbed him.
“Now Jake, no need to cause trouble,” said the first, who was clearly local.
“Cause trouble? I’ll flatten him—” “No, you won’t. You don’t know, you’re new here. For God’s sake, that’s the Captain, a soldier, they say he was, and you don’t want to start something with him—I’ve seen what happens to those who do—”
“That’s right,” chimed in the other friend, also a Londoner. “Remember Big Nick—used to be here, no one stood up to him, but he challenged the Captain…” he shuddered.
“And what happened?” asked a skeptical Jake. Both men look their heads.
“We never saw him again. He wasn’t arrested. They didn’t find his body—he was just…gone. So just stop thinking about it. There are plenty of other girls.”
But Jake still felt he had to make a show of standing up for himself. “So, you’re telling me it would be a mistake to call him out?”
“Your last mistake,” said the first man. Then very softly, as if he was afraid of his words, he said, “He’s called Winter. If you’re thinking of staying in this part of London, you would do well to remember that name.”
From the author
“Every generation thinks it invented sex” is a quote attributed to science fiction writer Robert Heinlein. That becomes the fun part of historical fiction! I write mysteries, but I typically have a romantic subplot, and I enjoy imagining what love affairs were like at different times.
In Winter’s Season, my latest book, army veteran Captain Winter investigates crimes in Regency-era London. He’s a ladies man—a type very much around today! But the cultural differences of the time put restrictions on how any romance could proceed. Winter comes from a modest background, but his bravery in the face of an accident elevated him to the gentry. We don’t think about this much anymore: Catherine, Princess of Wales, did not come from royalty or even the aristocracy.
But this is 1817, and Winter’s love life is as unmoored as his social position. His landlady introduces him to her farmgirl niece, Charity. They share a background, and when she shows some shrewd insights into his personality, it looks like this romance is going somewhere. But she knows Winter’s closest friend is an earl, and she is a woman who makes preserves and helps cows give birth. She bursts into tears just imagining if she married Winter: trying to fit in at a dinner presided over by a Regency-era countess.
It doesn’t work well at the other end either: As part of his investigations, Winter wrangles an invitation to the most elegant ball of the London Season. Darkly handsome, he catches the eye of more than one debutante. Lady Mary Salmonberry is entranced by him and can’t stop blushing in his presence. But Winter knows it cannot go further. “Mothers sent their daughters here to find an appropriate husband. And that won’t be someone of my background.”
The world changes, however. I wrote a novel that takes place partly at the end of World War I and into the early 1920s. What separates the classes now?
In this book, we have another earl and another commoner: A military nurse and one of her patients fall in love at an army field hospital. On the wards, there is nothing to indicate that he is an aristocrat and that she is the daughter of a bookkeeper. Those distinctions, I found as I researched, started falling apart under the Kaiser’s guns. They never disappeared entirely—they’re still around—but the lines blurred.
And so, the nurse and the earl marry after the armistice. A friend visits them in the 1920s and the new countess opens the door to admit him, being the first countess to do that herself. No butler? No footman? Of course not: they were all dead on Flanders Field. Unlike Captain Winter’s farmgirl, the nurse fits right into the manor house. She doesn’t have to worry about presiding over elaborate dinner parties and slipping into elaborate dresses; those are all in the past. And no one has to teach the nurse-turned-countess how to open the door herself.
Love has not changed. But the new world makes it a lot easier to manage. And at the end of the day, that’s what I like about writing historical fiction: placing emotions like love, which never changes, into the context of a world that changes radically and frequently.
One final word: love comes in all forms. In an Edwardian-era series I wrote, I introduced two young women. They are close friends—indeed, they love each other. They have independent incomes and are not looking for husbands. At the end of the book, for companionship, they buy a house where they can live together
“Umm…are they lesbians?” asked my editor.
“They love each other, and that’s enough,” I said. Were they lesbians? I don’t know and I’m the author. When it comes to love, even my fictional characters deserve some privacy.
Jane Trevally is walking her dogs on her country estate one May afternoon when a small white dog appears. The teenaged girl that had been staying nearby with the dog is nowhere to be found, and Jane decides to return it to his registered owner hours away in London, in the deepest backwaters of Hampstead. But when Jane arrives, she is immediately unsettled—because she has a dark history with this house.
The man who answers the door tells her the dog, Hugo, must have been stolen from the Heath, but Jane very much doubts that is true. Through the window, she catches a glimpse of a haunted-looking woman, not the missing girl she’d hoped to find.
Facing a crossroads similar to the one that first led her to this home twenty-five years ago, Jane knows that the house holds the key—to the missing teenager, to the lost dog, and to dark secrets they’d all rather leave buried.
Lisa Jewell is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-four novels, including Don’t Let Him In, None of This Is True, The Family Upstairs, and Then She Was Gone, as well as Invisible Girl and Watching You. Her novels have sold more than fifteen million copies internationally, and her work has also been translated into over thirty languages. Connect with her on X @LisaJewellUK, on Instagram @LisaJewellUK, and on Facebook @LisaJewellOfficial.
The villagers of Westleham are excited for the first village cricket match since the end of the war. But Martha Miller has more pressing concerns – namely, the sudden reappearance of her husband, Stan, missing for two years and acting as though nothing has happened.
Martha doesn’t know what to feel, especially now that his return threatens her growing fondness for the kind-hearted village vicar, Luke. Yet she’s not the only one unsettled by Stan’s return…
As the match begins and the crowd cheers, Stan suddenly collapses – dead before he hits the ground. And all eyes turn to Martha.
To clear her name, she must uncover the truth about Stan’s missing years and his sudden reappearance. But in a village this small, everyone has something to hide.
Will Martha’s amateur sleuthing find the real killer or will she pay the price for someone else’s deadly deed?
Let the investigation commence!
Find out if Martha and Luke can catch the killer in a brand new Martha Miller mystery from bestselling author Catherine Coles, perfect for fans of Lee Strauss and Beth Byers!
Catherine Coles writes bestselling cosy mysteries set in the English countryside. Her extremely popular Tommy & Evelyn Christie series is based in North Yorkshire in the 1920’s and Catherine herself lives in Hull with her family and two spoiled dogs.
My thoughts: The sudden reappearance of husband Stan sends Martha into a spin, he’s accompanied by two friends and has apparently been happily living in Brighton for the last two years. He swears he’s come to put things right, put her cottage into her name, and is very shocked to discover that the money he sent her through the village solicitor never reached Martha.
And when he suddenly drops dead on the Cricket Green in the village’s first match in several years, everyone looks at Martha. The spouse is always the first suspect after all. But there are plenty of other people who might have felt strongly enough to do away with Stan, and Martha is determined to prove her innocence.
A clever and highly enjoyable slice of historical crime fiction set in the English countryside, where murderers lurk and the police always need a hand solving the case!
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
Someone pushed my boyfriend under a train. Everyone thinks it was me.
The police say he took his own life. But there were four other people at the tube station that day – and I know one of them killed him.
So I flee to Tidesong, my family’s crumbling clifftop house in Cornwall. Here I can grieve Marcus. Come to terms with his betrayal. And work out what really happened. I think I’m safe here. Then the message flashes onto my laptop: Marcus didn’t jump. He was pushed. I know it was you. Someone’s watching me. Someone has followed me here. Someone knows my secrets – or thinks they do. And they won’t stop until I pay for what they think I’ve done.
Sadie Ryan is the bestselling psychological author of three novels. Alongside her writing she works fulltime, and loves to take walks in the Cheshire countryside where she lives with her rescue dog. In her past re-incarnations she was a model, worked in advertising and ran a coffee shop. She speaks fluent Spanish a little French and adores Italy and Italian food—lots of Italian food, and is partial to a an odd glass of wine or two!
My thoughts: This was really good, tense and compelling. Told from multiple perspectives, the narrative builds up to a dramatic confrontation between all our different narrators, bringing their versions of events together, hoping to get at the truth of not just what happened to Marcus on that Tube station platform, but also Sophie, who died in Bibby’s arms some years before and whose death has haunted several people all this time.
Bibby has retreated to her family’s house in Cornwall to mourn but the events of Marcus’ death have followed her and so have the other people who were on the platform the day he died, and they want answers. Can Bibby satisfy their demands or will this sad story claim another victim?
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 