Carole E. Barrowman, English professor at Alverno College, Author, and reviewer brings us three mysteries for March. Here is her picks and why she likes them in her own words:
1. Red Queen by Juan Gomez-Jurado (Minotaur)
I’ve been waiting a long time to write this. I think this international thriller, Red Queen, the first in what is already a phenomenal best-selling series in Spain, is even better than The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Red Queen is brilliantly plotted around a series of impossible and disturbing crimes with a main character, Antonia Scott, who can read a crime scene with an uncanny ability. The writing is smart, dark, and witty. The chapters short and pithy. The pacing… well… its supersonic.
2. Double the Lies by Patricia Raybon (Tyndale House)
I enjoyed every element of this entertaining mystery, its compelling main character, Black amateur detective, Annalee Spain; its unique setting, a Colorado mountain town; and its authentic historical time period, 1924. Annalee gives her handkerchief to a distraught white woman in the local library. Bad idea. Suddenly Annalee and her pastor boyfriend are caught in web of murder, corruption and dangerous family secrets, including a few of Annalee’s own.
3. The Sanctuary by Katrine Engberg (Scout Press)
I’ve been reading a lot of mysteries set in secluded places recently and this was one of my favorites. Set on a tiny island in the Baltic Sea, near Copenhagen, this is a stellar, twisty story packed with engaging characters, all of them in some way confronting how their past choices continue to haunt their lives. The main characters are an author researching a book about a famous anthropologist, and a grieving detective trying to reset his life after a failed love affair.