Marilyn's Mystery Reads

Archive for December, 2025

Two key members of the Locard Forensic Institute, Dr. Ellie Carr and Dr. Rachael Davies, combine their skills in order to bring home the daughter of a celebrated rock star.  In their latest case, Rachael goes to the mansion belonging to Billy Diamond, formerly the lead member of the famed band Chimera, where he tells her his teenage daughter Devon is missing.

Devon dropped out of Yale with her boyfriend, and together they decided to go to a “life retreat” at a remote location in Nevada.  At first she was in contact with her father regularly, but now she’s totally out of touch.  And yesterday Billy discovered that her boyfriend is dead, drowned in a river near the retreat.

Ellie Carr, a former FBI agent, goes to the retreat to find Devon and convince her to reach out to her father.

The retreat is called Today’s Enlightenment and run (controlled might be a more accurate term) by a man who calls himself Galen.  Ellie, calling herself Ellen, is greeted by Angela, to whom she tells her false background story–her dead mother, her absent father, her recent dismissal from work–all these being the reasons she needs to make a new start.

Taking a guided tour around the utilitarian retreat, Ellie meets Galen.  The first thing he does is change her name, which unknown to him is already not her real name, to Nell because he thinks it suits her better.

One of the first sessions is for participants to list things they fear, and Ellie makes certain to write things that she doesn’t actually fear–being enclosed in small spaces, public speaking.  She’s not certain why she doesn’t want to tell the group her real fears, but she feels certain she should keep that information to herself.

Rachael, meanwhile, is finding out more about Billy.  Her late sister Isis was an event planner whom Billy had hired for special occasions, praising her ability to get “stuff” for him.  That knowledge makes Rachael more curious about her sister’s life, and she begins to go through the boxes of forms, receipts, and several USB drives she brings from Isis’ condo.

Most are simply routine, but one item is odd.  It’s a bill for $650,000 for a major event at Billy’s home.  It lists liquor, entertainment, musicians, and tents among other costs, but something about it doesn’t make sense to Rachael.  The date on the invoice lists the party as having been held on Thanksgiving Day two years earlier, but Rachael knows that Chimera was performing at the Hollywood Bowl that day, three thousand miles from Billy’s home.  It definitely makes her curious.  Why would Billy have arranged for a huge party when he wasn’t home?

Not What We Expected moves from Ellie’s stay at Today’s Enlightenment to Rachael’s involvement in Billy’s life and back again.  The author’s characters are perfectly drawn, not only the two protagonists but the people surrounding them.  In Ellie’s case it’s the needy and self-doubting participants in the spa, and in Rachael’s case it’s Billy’s dependence on drugs and alcohol and the people surrounding him.  The plot is tense, the settings are realistic, and the twist at the end is one I did not see coming.

You can read more about Lisa Black at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

It’s time for my list of the best mysteries published this year.  As always, there were so many excellent crime novels that came out in 2025 that it’s hard to choose among them, but I’ve picked a baker’s dozen, including one with an asterisk.

As has been true for the last several years, my choices range geographically around the world–the United States, Ukraine, England, Ireland–and various time periods–today, pre-World War II, the medieval period.  Both women and men are protagonists and villains, and both women and men are the authors featured.

A number of these books discuss topics that are so timely in today’s world–racism, ageism, anti-Semitism, for example–that one can hardly consider crime fiction as escapism.  Also interesting is that on my list are authors who have written many mysteries as well as authors who published their first book this year.  Following are my choices:

HAVOC by Christopher Bolen; CHAIN REACTION by James Byrne; EDGE by Tracy Clark; HER MANY FACES by Nicci Cloke; TOO OLD FOR THIS by Samantha Downing; MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH by Ariana Franklin*; THE QUEEN OF FIVES by Alex Hay; NEMESIS by Gregg Hurwitz; THE DEEPEST FAKE by Daniel Kalla; MIDNIGHT BURNING by Paul Levine;  HANG ON ST. CHRISTOPHER by Adrian McKinty; HOTEL UKRAINE by Martin Cruz Smith; THE MAILMAN by Andrew Welsh-Huggins.

The reason Ariana Franklin’s novel has an asterisk following it is because it was published in 2007.  I had never heard of the author until I serendipitously found it on a shelf in my local library, and I was struck both by the title and the cover art.  It’s great when that happens, just another reminder of how many wonderful mysteries there are yet to be discovered.  And if you’d like to send me a list of your favorites published in 2025, I’d be delighted to read it.

All my best wishes for a happy holiday season and a wonderful 2026.  And please do keep reading.

Regards,

Marilyn

Four graduates of Georgetown University are living in an elegant, if somewhat down-at-the-heels, row house in the Georgetown section of Washington, D. C.  Strangers before the housing lottery put them together, the young women, from different states and backgrounds, nevertheless fit together perfectly.  Now, a year after their graduation, they are still living together and sharing everything about their lives.  At least, that’s how it seems.

Lucy Ambrose, one of the novel’s narrators, is the woman who has not told the others the truth about her pre-college life.  Addie James is a track star from the nation’s capital, Estella Warbler is a party girl from California, Penelope Zamora is a medical student from D. C., and Lucy–well, we won’t find out about her until quite a way into the book.

The women always told each other their thoughts and plans until Addie begins acting mysteriously.  She starts to stay away from their Georgetown home for days at a time, isn’t reachable by phone, and ignores pointed questions from her housemates.

Finally, another friend sees her with Noah Egan, the handsome and charismatic television news anchor, and Addie can’t hide their relationship any longer.  Their romance is hot and heavy until there’s a breakup four months after it began; she will only say that Noah scared her in a way she never wants to be scared again, and that is the end of it as far she’s concerned.

Addie returns from a run with a bruise on her cheek and blood on her warmup jacket.  Finally, after much prompting from Lucy and a promise from her not to tell anyone, Addie says. “We collided on the towpath, and I thought, oh my God, it’s Noah.” And then, a few days later, a police detective arrives at the house, asking for Addie.  He says no one has seen Noah in days or knows where he is.  Then a mammoth snowfall hits Washington, and the city grinds to a halt.

Watch Us Fall is told in two voices, Lucy’s and Noah’s.  Lucy’s narrative is in the present tense; Noah’s is mostly in the past.  Both are keeping secrets that will impact all those around them.

Christina Kovac has written a tense thriller about the dangers of keeping secrets and loving too much.  Her characters are intelligent and strong but not perfect; each one reveals a flaw that is their undoing.

You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.

It’s Christmas time in Northshire, a picture-perfect village in Vermont that’s home to Mercy Carr; her husband Troy Warner, a game warden for the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department; and their infant daughter Felicity.  The entire town is celebrating the Solstice Soirée with food stalls, carols, and, of course, Santa Claus.  But this year’s event is different because not one but two Santas are killed in the midst of the gala.

Mercy and Felicity are almost at the front of the line, waiting for Mercy’s “Uncle Laz,” a last minute substitute Santa, to greet them.  Laz is Northshire’s acting mayor, a position he is much better suited for than portraying the man who lives in the North Pole.

However, there’s no one else available at short notice, so a reluctant Laz is pressed into duty.  Then his cell phone rings, and he jumps off his red velvet chair and heads for the woods.  Everyone is stunned, and Mercy hands Felicity to a nearby friend behind her in line and with her trusty Malinois shepherd she runs after Laz.  Minutes later she finds him, dead under a burning Yule log.

At the same time, Troy is also out in the woods, following the tracks of a poacher who is killing animals on posted privately owned land.  After a nearly twenty-four hour stakeout, he captures the man with the help of his friend Gil Guerrette of the Green Mountain Forest Service.  Then the fight suddenly goes out of the poacher, and he falls to the ground.  As Troy moves closer to the man, he sees what so alarmed him–almost buried in debris from the forest surrounding it is a human skull covered with antlers, with a bullet hole right between where his eyes would have been.

The following day the Solstice Soirée continues with a replacement Santa, a local whom everyone calls The Singing Plumber but whose real name is Tim Carter.  As the end of the concert nears, Tim readies for his final song but then simply stands voiceless in front of the choir.  He makes a painful face and falls down dead.

The Snow Lies Deep is the seventh mystery featuring Mercy Carr and the people in her life.  In addition to her husband, there are her mother and father; her friend Amy and her young daughter Helena who are living in the guesthouse on Mercy and Troy’s property; Mercy’s teenage cousin Tandie; and various members of the community.

Paula Munier has written another intriguing mystery featuring Mercy Carr.  The characters are realistic, the dialogue is true-to-life, and the setting is perfect for this time of year.  You can read more about the author at this website.

Check out the complete Marilyn’s Mystery Reads at her website.  In addition to book review posts, there are sections featuring Golden Oldies, Past Masters and Mistresses, and an About Marilyn column that features her opinions about everything to do with mystery novels.