Hemlock Needle

Alaska lawyer Maeve Malloy finds herself in trouble again as she faces a disbarment hearing. It stems from a case in the previous book and causes huge concern for her. In Hemlock Needle by Keenan Powell,  a friend asks Maeve to find her missing daughter. 

Esther Fancyboy walked out of a party during a blizzard and disappeared. Maeve and the boy's grandmother know Esther would never leave her son, Evan, so Maeve is positive something bad happened to her.  The police seem uninterested, treating it as another party girl getting herself in trouble, but Esther was a conscientious mother and a hard worker. 

When Maeve is called into her mentor Arthur Nelson's office, she is stunned to learn she is being accused of negligence in her previous case. She is also being sued for malpractice by the spouse of someone killed because of the outcome of the case. Maeve is devastated because she has worked so hard to overcome her alcoholism and prove she is worthy of Nelson's belief in her. 

Pushing her own issues to the back burner, Maeve sets out on the trail to find Esther. She starts with Esther's work place Neqa, a cooperative of villages in western Alaska, where she meets CEO Xander George. He says Esther worked for Turner International, a sister company. He insists Esther anazlyzed data for a water system project the companies were working on, but he claims he doesn't really know her that well.  Annoyed by the brush off, Maeve doubles down on the feeling something is fishy about Xander, Neqa and Turner International. 

When Esther's body is found frozen in the snow several days after she disappeared, Maeve's investigation leads her to fraud, deceptive business practices, a murderer and much more. An excellent look at life in Alaska.


Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher. 

Where I'm From - a Poem of Remembering

Where I'm From: A Morning Edition Crowdsourced Poem of Remembering

This poem was heard on Morning Edition on NPR and will be a continuing segment featuring Kwame Alexander and Morning Edition host Rachel Martin.

The poems draw on all five senses with vivid detail and gauzy memories. They are only between 5-10 lines. On MapYourMystery blog, I will publish the first 10 poems posted in the comments.No prize. Just do it for the fun of it.

I am from travelers and adventure
from "Be seen, not heard!"
from ritual and plainsong
from England and exile
from mint sauce and lamb.

I am from casseroles and canned tuna
Kennedys and Saturday morning cartoons
I am from Tang in a Daffy Duck glass
from wall phones with mangled cords stretched during private calls in a room too far
I come from popcorn ceilings
dining rooms of glossy mahogany

I am from bed sheets
Draped over our dining room chairs.
from the trees Littering the backyard
The sweet taste of mulberries Staining my fingers red
I'm from big hats under rainbow umbrellas
Buckets of wet sand and unstable castles
I'm from orange and vanilla custard
with a pizza slice the size of your chest
From hot July days and cool summer nights
I am from Sunday night pizza and Monday Night Football

I am from marbles
From empanadas cooking in the street
I am from orchids and mango trees
I am from la torta tres leches and ruana
I am from happy and serious
From hard work and sweat

I'm from grit, respect, and discipline.
from big family reunions and endless laughs.
I am from houses never locked
from the projects in Brooklyn
and dominoes in the park
I am from salsa and the car horns blaring

I am from diners and malls and accents that put an "aw" in coffee.
from silky lingerie and sweat socks, bruised knuckles and scars I gave myself
from longing to be someone, somewhere else.
I am from a mother who was still a girl;
whose beauty kept her shy
I am from dirt and fences
from strength and toughness

I am from ashes flicked into the tray
the despair of divorce
bonds gone unappreciated
eviction and being thrown away
running and begging to stay
I am from a little girl who just needed a break

I am from a time when my mother went to the hospital and never came back;
when my toys were in a box by the curb as we drove away.
I am from singing in the darkness of night
Putting myself to sleep with the sound of my own voice.

I am from playing backyard baseball with tennis balls, Wiffle balls, even roundish gourds.
from weekend sleep-overs
from orange push-ups
from fallen leaves kicked up in swirls on walks to school,
from early morning radio announcements of a snow day — no school!

I am from the South and the North.
from immigrant grandparents and Civil War soldiers.
I am from the red dirt clay of Virginia
From the sounds of the fiddle to the beauty of a choir
From the jig and the reel
to the cloggers and the dancers.
From collard greens and fat back,
chitterlings and white bread
I'm from hymns learned on Sundays,
hypocrisy displayed on Mondays.

I am from Tom Petty
and baby oil in the hot sun
rye bread and salami.
I am from black cows,
tacos, bicycles, and
The gentle lure of crickets.

I am from James Brown and Santana.
from Groovin' on a Sunday Afternoon
and Crystal Blue Persuasion.

I am from endless steps,
from California and Texas, and Durango, Colorado.
From unknown ancestors of the ancient Southwest,
cliff-dwellers and puebloans.
I am from the earth --

from from cityscapes and sleepy suburbs
from cicada clicks and firefly sparks
from the call of books and breathing through struggles.
I am from you

and you are from me
We are love

We are home
We are from this day forward.

A Golden Grave

Rose Gallagher never dreamed a girl from the Five Points area of New York City would be learning to throw a man over her shoulder using jujitsu. In A Golden Grave by Erin Lindsey, Rose has joined a special branch of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency dealing with paranormal activities. Not everyone is thrilled to have her on board. (A Golden Grave will be released on September 17 by Minotaur Books.)

When young upstart Theodore Roosevelt is unexpectedly nominated for mayor of New York City at a Republican convention, Rose discovers six delegates were murdered at the convention. Worse yet, the police have no idea how they died. There was no trace of violence or illness on the bodies.

What worries Rose is that the next target could be Roosevelt himself. Not one to back down in a crisis, Roosevelt refuses to reduce his campaign events and makes it difficult for the Pinkertons to protect him.

Hunting down a killer with powers she and her partner Thomas Wilshire have never encountered before leads to the brownstones of the rich and powerful, into the Bowery saloons and to a gala campaign dinner. On the way, they seek help from Nikolai Tesla, the mad electrical genius; Samuel Clemens; and the Statue of Liberty.

Rose is struggling with her new role; not two years ago she was a maid in the Wilshire household,. Now she is attending formal dinners with the richest of the rich. Not comfortable in either the society world or the Five Points world, Rose also struggles with her growing feelings for Thomas. She's concerned they will interfere with the job she is growing to love.

If you want to know how Samuel Clemens, Nikolai Tesla and the new Statue of Liberty figure into the solution of the mystery, you'll have to read A Golden Grave. An excellent addition to the Rose Gallagher mysteries.



Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. 

Judge Thee Not

Rose Carroll's marriage plans are moving at a glacial pace, but the midwife has several patients that can take her mind off her upcoming (she hopes) marriage. In Judge Thee Not by Edith Maxwell, among Rose's patients is the very young second wife of the local banker Irvin Barclay. (Judge Thee Not will be released by Beyond the Page Publishing on September 10.)

The trouble begins with one of Rose's close friends. This friends leads an unconventional lifestyle and there are some in the community who speak boldly about her in negative terms. Bertie Winslow, the postmistress, cohabitates with another woman and tongues are wagging, especially from the mean-spirited and very judgmental Mrs. Mayme Settle. With no room to judge others, rumor has it her son impregnated the gardener's daughter and abandoned her, She died in childbirth, but her child survived, and then there's her own unmarried daughter, who lives across the state far away from home  Mrs. Settle is especially rude to Jeanette Papka, who although blind, speaks several languages and works as a translater in the courts.

Despite having misgivings, Rose agrees to join the evening Ladies Circle being held at Mrs. Settle's home. The Circle was supposed to be knitting blankets for the Alms Farm, but when Rose arrives no one is knitting and everyone is enjoying tea and nibbling dainty sweets. There she watches Mrs. Settle humiliate her husband over a minor interruption in front of everyone.

The next day Mrs Settle is find dead in her bed under suspicious circumstances. While Rose's friend Detective Donovan is called in investigate, Mr. Barclay conveniently places Bertie near the home of Mrs. Settle the night she died.

Rose knows Bertie didn't kill Mrs. Settle and she hopes she can help Detective Donovan prove she didn't. There are plenty of other suspects, but Rose has too many pregnant women to deal with to do much investigating.

Another terrific Quaker Midwife Mystery. I am so happy Beyond the Page Publishing picked up this series and plans to continue it.

Fall Gardening Tips

By Sally Handley

August is not too early to begin making a To-Do List of gardening chores for the Fall. Whether you have a small -raised bed, a large vegetable patch, or just a few flower beds, there’s lots you can do to either extend your gardening season or prepare your gardens for next year.

If you love a tidy garden, you may be tempted to deadhead or cut back all your dead or dying

Photo 1

flowers. Before you do that, you might want to consider leaving a few stalks standing for the birds to feast on, especially your monarda, zinnias and coneflowers. You really don’t need fancy bird feeders to attract hummingbirds, goldfinches and cardinals to your garden. If you didn’t include those flowers in your garden this year you might want to put them on your Spring To-Do list. And, oh yes, do clip a few dead heads and save them in paper envelopes or glass jars for your Spring plantings. My experience, especially with zinnias, is to just spread the dead heads, cover them with a bit of soil and then get out of the way.

Photo 2

Fall is the best time to start your compost pile. If you’ve been buying compost and you’ve never tried to compost yourself, I highly recommend you give it a try. If you think you don’t have the room, think again. I moved from New Jersey , where I had a big yard, to a condo in South Carolina, where I have only foundation flower beds, and I still compost. I use the Geobin (photo 1), which you can buy on-line. I love this composter because in the Summer, I reduce it to its smallest size and hide it behind a tomato plant. In the Fall after I clean up all the dead plants, I increase the bin to its largest size and include leaves I steal from the piles the landscapers make on their weekly rounds. All Winter I add coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable peels, etc. and I sprinkle some lime on top occasionally to assist in the composting process. Compost is gardener’s gold. You’ll thank me next Spring.

Photo 3

While Fall signals an end to the growing season, it also is a great time for new beginnings. September and October are the perfect time to get a few crocuses, daffodils, tulips and hyacinths into your flower beds. I always regard planting bulbs as an act of faith. But again, I promise you, you’ll thank me next Spring.

But you don’t need to wait until then. Now is also the perfect time to start some of those cold-weather-loving plants like lettuce, cauliflower and broccoli. You can start them indoors now and put into the ground you clear next month for a lovely Thanksgiving harvest.

If you don’t feel up to Fall planting, you can instead start planning next year’s garden. Assess what worked and didn’t work this year and make some notes. And if you think you have to keep your flower beds and vegetable gardens separate, think again. Above you see my garden bed where marigolds are great companion plants that will keep the aphids away from your tomato plants (Photo 2). Dahlias and black-eyed Susans grow quite happily below a Butternut Squash Vine that has taken over my trellises (Photo 3)

Photo 4

I’ll be enjoying the squash all Winter, long after the flowers are gone. And some vegetables produce beautiful flowers, too. See those yellow flowers (Photo 4)? Those are the flowers of my okra plants!

My gardening sleuths, Holly and Ivy Donnelly, and I wish you a awesome Autumn and a bountiful Spring!


For a review of Full Bloom click here. 


About the Author

President of the Upstate South Carolina Chapter of Sisters in Crime, Sally Handley is author of the Holly and Ivy cozy mystery series. Sally’s sleuths are middle-aged, sisters who love to garden. A resident of Mauldin, SC, Sally devotes her time to writing cozy mysteries and gardening and also writes a blog “On Writing, Reading and Retirement” at www.sallyhandley.com.

The Satapur Moonstone

Palace intrigue at its height in The Satapur Moonstone by Sujata Massey. Parsi lawyer Perveen Mistry, the only female lawyer in Indian, is sent to the state of Satapur to try to settle a dispute between the dowager maharani and her daughter-in-law.

With the death of maharaja two years before and the death of the teenaged heir apparent, Satapur's next maharaja is a 10-year-old. His mother wants him educated in England; his grandmother wants him to stay at home. Perveen is sent because the women follow purdah and do not speak to men.

As Perveen sets off to the remote kingdom, she first arrives at the British circuit house of the Kolapur Agency, the overseer of the princely and feudal states in Western India. There she learns the British Colin Sandringham had tried to visit the palace, but had been unsuccessful and she learns something about the history of the royal family.

His Majesty Mahendra Rao died from cholera, but there is some

question about how his son died. Maharaja Pratap Rao was thirteen and on a hunting expedition with his uncle Prince Swaroop when he became lost in the woods and was mauled by a wild animal. Now the second son Jiva Rao is the target of a tug of war between his grandmother and his mother and possibly a murder plot.

Perveen hopes to reason with the women and come to a mutual agreement, but once she arrives at the palace, she realizes it will be more difficult to resolve the education situation than she had thought. The animosity between the women crackles with electricity and their respective "camps" are at suspicious of each other and will barely listen to what Perveen has to say.

The richness of Indian culture - warts and all - is splendidly described in this excellent novel.

Full Bloom

Holly and Ivy Donnelly travel to Catskills in New York to visit Kate Farmer when they find themselves involved in a murder. In Full Bloom (A Holly and Ivy Mystery) by Sally Handley, no sooner do they unpack their bags when they discover the body of Kate's next door neighbor Chuck.

It seems someone put an axe into his back and left him for dead. Kate's next door neighbor Chuck has been murdered and the sisters decide they will try to solve the case. But there is more to this murder then meets the eye.

There have been a rash of burglaries in town and the officious Sheriff Cyrus Bascom has his sights set on 17-year-old Tommy Cranston and his friends, not only for the burglaries, but now for the murder. Tommy's mother Raquelle appeals to the sisters for help in clearing her son.

There are other suspects including Boyd Leggett, the not so trustworthy son of Kate's next door neighbor. While his mother is rehabbing from a broken hip in a nursing home, Boyd and his lowlife friends have been drinking and blasting music, plus burning some toxic-smelling stuff in the back yard.

Another suspect is Chuck's ex-wife Flo, who seems inordinately happy that her ex is dead and gives Holly and Ivy an urn with his ashes.

While Holly tries to solve the murder, Ivy attempts to decipher what caused the break up between her sister and New Jersey detective Nick Manelli. With their investigating, they find themselves in the middle of something dangerous and scary.  An enjoyable mystery with two sisters who act just like sisters do in real life.

A Dangerous Engagement

Excited to be heading to New York for the wedding of her childhood friend, Amory Ames is looking forward to being a bridesmaid. Her husband Milo isn't as enamored with the idea because Prohibition is in full swing in the United States. In A Dangerous Engagement by Ashley Weaver the household is looking forward to the wedding although the bride's father has some questions about his future son-in-law. (A Dangerous Engagement will be released on September 3 by Minotaur Books.)

Tom Smith has some shady characters as friends, including groomsman Grant Palmer, but Tabitha seems happy with him, so the wedding is going forward as planned. Although there have been some concerns about Mr. Alden's business, he seems to be willing to spend money for his daughter's wedding.

As for Grant, he has an air of mystery and danger surrounding him, and everyone seems to think he is associated with gangsters, especially the notorious Leon De Lora. It's rumored he is involved with a speakeasy and with bootlegging operations. As much as Milo wants to stay clear of any involvement with gangsters or a mystery, Amory would love to "meet" a real gangster.

When Amory overhears a telephone conversation between Grant and Tabitha, she is worried that the concerns for the Alden fortune might be valid. She hears Tabitha say, "I've told you not to press him on this." Does she mean her father or her finance? Tabitha confides in Amory that she is thinks her father is in some type of trouble.

But Amory's concerns are doubled when Grant is gunned down on the front stairs of the Alden house in the middle of the night. The local police believe it was a mob hit by the local police, but Amory believes there might be a murderer among the bridal party. Amory decides to investigate and it takes her to the De Lora speakeasy and an actual meeting with the gangster.

A tantalizing look at the New York Underworld in the 1930s before Prohibition was repealed.




Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley. 

Relative Fortunes

Traveling to New York to finally claim her portion of her inheritance, Julia Kydd is surprised to learn she might not be receiving that inheritance after all. In Relative Fortunes by Marlowe Benn, Julie's half brother Phillip has decided to challenge the inheritance, three weeks before her 25th birthday, the day she is to receive it. Relative Fortunes is published by Lake Union Publishing.

Julia has lived in London for many years and has begun to make her way as a small independent publisher. She needs the inheritance money to make her dream come true. On the ship traveling to New York, Julie is reacquainted with an old friend named Glennis Rankin. Glennis practically adopts her and takes her on a whirlwind tour of New York including parties, a seance, a suffragette rally and dinner with her family.

During a dinner party, Madame Sosostris performs her seance and at the end she says she seems someone with "lovely eyes, orbs of sapphire" who cannot find her way. Suddenly Glennis leaps up and screams "Naomi." The room erupts into near panic sending glasses tumbling to the floor and a number of crashes and thuds in the dark. Glennis urges her brother to check on the welfare of their sister Naomi.

When Glennis receives the call that Naomi is dead, apparently by her own hand, she refuses to believe it and goes so far as to say her brother killed her. Julia has her own issues with which to deal, and she doesn't want to get involved in a family affair, but Glennis pleads with her and she relents. Naomi had been a leader in the suffragette movement, to the consternation and mortification of her family. Could this be what lead her to take or life or did someone kill her?

While she waits for her brother's attorneys to come to a judgment on the contested will, Julia decides to investigate. In a rash moment, provoked by her brother, she bets her inheritance on her ability to solve the crime.

This Jazz Era mystery portrays the struggles of women - married or unmarried - to overcome discrimination of all forms. It is an excellent look at life in the 1920s.



Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

Interview with J.L.Doucette

What is the title of your newest book? How many books have you published?
My new book, the second in the Dr. Pepper Hunt Mystery Series, is called "On A Quiet Street". 

J. L. Doucette

How did you develop your character and choose your location? 
My main character, Dr. Pepper Hunt, is a psychologist who works with a local detective to solve crimes. I am a psychologist and I was inspired by Jonathan Kellerman's psychological mysteries featuring the fictional Dr. Alex Delaware.

I decided to create a female psychologist protagonist. I've gotten a lot of feedback from reviewers and readers that suggest the other lead character. Detective Beau Antelope, should have equal billing because of his role in the books. I did have a hard time deciding if I wanted the main character to be male or female and I think the strength of Antelope's character development indicates that I never really resolve that issue. The two characters, Hunt and Antelope, and their differing gender perspectives, are equally important to the stories.

The location was easy because it was central to the story in the first book. I relocated with my husband and baby daughter to a small town in Wyoming right after we finished graduate school. It was an incredible culture shock after studying and living for years in Boston and Cambridge. Everything was so different, and not in a good way. I wanted to leave as soon as we arrived and that feeling of having landed on another planet stayed with me for a long time. But the place, in the sense of a physical place, got to me and though I moved away, I couldn't stop thinking about it. Partly it was because I made friends and found my place there and started to write there. But mostly it's the power of the landscape, it's windswept emptiness, the huge sky, the sanctuary and silence that seems such a perfect home for the kind of stories I write. It's a place where complicated humans can get themselves in all kinds of trouble.

What do you enjoy about the author’s lifestyle? What do you not enjoy? 

I still have a full-time psychology practice so I can't say much about the author's lifestyle except that for me, writing happens in the time before I go to my day job. My life is very busy and I wish I had more time for each part of it. From the time I started writing my first book until it was released in 2017, the publishing world changed dramatically.

The writer's lifestyle includes more time devoted to the business of writing especially social media promotion. Talking with readers has been an unexpected joy.

Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know? 
Pepper Hunt is loosely modeled on me in that we share the same profession. There are many facets of the character as she is written that are very different from me.

If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be? 
My younger writing self was pretty wise, I think, so I'm not sure what else I have to offer. I followed a career path recommended by the poet William Carlos William's, maintained a full-time career as a physician. I wanted to do work that would bring me into close proximity with human suffering. It felt important to me to do some direct good in the world through healing. But working as a psychologist also gave me access to the private lives of patients which has expanded and enhanced my own life experience hugely. And that's a good thing for a writer. If anything, I would advise watching the balance and tilting more in the direction of writing.

If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character? 
Definitely, Julianne Moore for Pepper Hunt. They have the same intelligence, wit and also hair color.

Who is your favorite author? 
Andre Dubus III, especially, "The House of Sand and Fog". He's a New Englander of French Canadian and Catholic origins, as am I. All of those weighty demographics have their say in his prose and stories

If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be? 

I would invite my other favorite authors and enjoy hearing about their experience of writing - Willa Cather, Billy Collins, Junot Diaz, Tana French, and John Updike.

If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
If I couldn't be an author, some other careers I would enjoy, besides a psychologist, are being a journalist or a private detective. I've actually done both of those on a part time basis. I can't seem to get away from writing and people.