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Nov 4, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Michelle Carpenter |Doreen Sheridan
Right off the heels of the success of Everyone on this Train is a Suspect, Benjamin Stevenson has done it again. This time, however, with some holiday flair. Stevenson’s newest installment of the Ernest Cunningham series is “a festive mystery” titled Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret. With a clue for every day in December, the reader has until Christmas to solve the crime right along with Cunningham. “With all that in mind, this whole thing’s best treated as an advent calendar.
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Apr 30, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan |Michelle Carpenter |Crime HQ |John Valeri
I am a sucker for a good postmodernist novel, and Scarlett Thomas’ The Sleepwalkers is just that best sort of brain candy for readers like myself. I should have known from the Contents page alone that this was going to be a book that dropkicked to the curb the well-worn tropes of privileged tourists uncovering murder and mayhem in an exotic foreign locale. And while there are plenty of the trappings of an escapist beach read to enjoy here, there’s also so much more.
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Apr 29, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Michelle Carpenter |John Valeri |Doreen Sheridan |Janet Webb
This astonishing crime novel—inspired by the Tudor era—takes the reader into the world of Kate Parker, who has just married billionaire Hank Tudor when a headless body is discovered near their summer home. Read on for Michelle Carpenter's review! The Tudor monarch mystery that I never knew I needed came to life in Karen E. Olson’s An Inconvenient Wife. Taking the classic history of King Henry VIII’s six wives and setting them in modern day, Olson creates a truly clever novel.
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Mar 1, 2024 | 
aam-us.org | Michelle Carpenter
This article originally appeared in Museum magazine’s March/April 2024 issue, a benefit of AAM membership. Docent programs that evolve with the times will continue to serve their museums and communities well. Twenty-three years ago, I sat in the second row of a docent training class unsure of what I had signed up for.
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Feb 27, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Crime HQ |Carola Lovering |Janet Webb |Michelle Carpenter
The casual babysitting of an infant takes a heartbreaking turn when two lifelong friends find their once intimate bond tested to the extreme, as they explore how the haunting remnants of childhood trauma contribute to their strained relationship.
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Feb 23, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Crime HQ |Janet Webb |Michelle Carpenter
Tell us about Off the Air. What inspired you to write it? Off the Air introduces Jolene Garcia, a local TV reporter in Phoenix, Arizona, trying to cover real issues in a world that seems more interested in reels, clicks, and likes. When a controversial radio talk show host dies, Jolene’s managers are ecstatic because she conducted his last interview. They’ve got the advantage. But not for long.
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Feb 14, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Janet Webb |Michelle Carpenter |Crime HQ
If you enjoy reading mysteries and you follow national politics with interest, The Busy Body will head your must-read list. It’s a roman à clef. Imagine being a fly on the wall of Hillary Clinton’s home after the 2016 election—the mind boggles. Meet Dorothy Gibson, the most revered and/or vilified woman in the United States, depending on your perspective. She ran as an Independent in the recent (fictional) presidential election and lost.
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Feb 12, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Jeff Ayers |Doreen Sheridan |Michelle Carpenter
Set in a small Montana town in 1959, The Smoke in Our Eyes by James Grady is an action-filled, coming of age novel about love, vengeance, corruption, and justice from the acclaimed author of Six Days of the Condor. Read on for Jeff Ayers's review! Grady, known for his spy thrillers, takes an unexpected turn and delivers a coming-of-age novel set in a small town in Montana in 1959.
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Feb 7, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Doreen Sheridan |Michelle Carpenter
A psychological thriller with a twist, Almost Surely Dead is a chilling account of how one woman’s life spins out of control after a terrifying―and seemingly random―attempt on her life. Dunia Ahmed, like many other single New Yorkers her age, looks forward every morning to the mild flirtation she has going on with a cute guy who happens to take the same subway line as she does into work.
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Feb 6, 2024 | 
criminalelement.com | Michelle Carpenter |Doreen Sheridan |Janet Webb
Welcome to New York City, where Carole McCann is the first female mayor, and now her 15-year-old son has gone missing. Normally one would expect that this situation calls for a citywide search with all NYPD precincts scouring the streets. However, McCann instead calls in the help of private investigator Bill Smith. And with that, so begins The Mayors of New York – the next Bill Smith and Lydia Chin mystery by renowned author S.J. Rozan.
