Mystery 
By Its Cover: Murder in Bollywood
After spotting this mystery novel’s cover, I read the book blurb: ” ‘Someone at this table has killed before, and someone at this table will kill again.’ Nikhil Kapoor, Bollywood’s biggest film director, made this shocking proclamation to his friends one night. Sameer Ali Khan, Bollywood’s badshah, seethed with rage. Nyra Oberoi, filmdom’s queen-in-waiting, turned… Read More ›
By Its Cover: Death on Demand series
How important is it for a book series to maintain the same look and feel? The open gateway to a cemetery—with either a church or mausoleum beyond the visible graves—first drew my eye. This nighttime scene with its full moon creates a chilling tone suggestive of the supernatural or otherworldly. And then there’s the title:… Read More ›
Blog Tour: Mystery Author Maia Chance
Fairy tales in their original forms can be quite…grim. These short tales full of wonder, magic, and “happy endings” continue to inspire our imaginations and our literature. In 2014, Snow White Red-Handed debuted with the opening/first lines: “Miss Ophelia Flax was neither a professional confidence trickster nor a lady’s maid, but she’d played both on… Read More ›
Top 10 Mysteries in 2015?
Now that we’ve rung in 2016, let’s take a moment to look back at the most popular mysteries of 2015. Based on circulation figures at the library where I work, these were the most checked out mysteries in 2015. One author in particular dominated this list. *** The Scam by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg— The 5th… Read More ›
Death of a Witch
Catriona Beldame has come to the village of Lochdubh in the Scottish Highlands. The superstitious locals think she’s a witch, and Catriona doesn’t dissuade them from that opinion, claiming that she supplies “therapy and herbal treatments.” She’s bewitched the men who often visit her at night. The women, however, stay away and are surprisingly tight-lipped… Read More ›
The Blight Way
Bo Tully, the Sheriff of Blight County, Idaho, has his own way of doing things, thus the Blight Way. “That’s because Blight County is thirty years back in time, and Famine is at least fifty years back,” says Bo’s father, Pap. This quote is so suitable in describing the fictitious county—and the very small “town”… Read More ›
By Its Cover: Dreamless
The first thing I saw wasn’t the man running, looking behind him as if he was being chased. No, my eyes focused immediately on the familiar image below. It is the scene of a nightmare haunting a woman. Iconic images or famous works of art on a book’s cover can set the mood for the… Read More ›
Is Fat Bob Dead Yet?
Welcome to Bank Street in London, Connecticut. “It would be wrong to say it’s a good day on which to die, but surely one can imagine worse days.” Though the narrative is a bit heavy on description at the beginning–describing the New London scene from a bird’s eye view–it soon narrows the focus on hapless… Read More ›
By Its Cover: Red Line
A lone figure, his back to us, stands by the shore beneath an expanse of bridge. The bridge is ablaze with lights as dusk deepens in the background. A literal red line bleeds through the title. Colors matter. Vibrant colors catch our eye and make us notice them. The lights on the bridge drew my attention… Read More ›
Live Read: Macaroni and Freeze
Today, The Poisoned Martini‘s is reading Christine Wenger’s Comfort Food Mystery, Macaroni and Freeze. This 4th book in the series released in July 2015 from Penguin books and their Obsidian Mystery imprint. A famous TV chef and former Sandy Harbor resident returns to her hometown to judge a mac-and-cheese cook-off fundraiser. When the chef turns… Read More ›
The Poisoned Martini 