Reviews 
Whether it be a book, movie, or something else, here’s a critique.
For Your Eyes Only
“M replaced the stamp and the ink pad in the drawer and closed the drawer. He turned the docket around and pushed it gently across the desk to Bond. The red sans-serif letters, still damp, said: FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.” This meeting with M occurs in the title story featured in this collection of adventures… Read More ›
Chapter by Chapter: The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Read along with The Poisoned Martini each week and examine the the origins of mysteries in the earliest examples of the genre. In April 1870, Charles Dickens’ The Mystery of Edwin Drood began appearing in installments. It would be Dickens’ last novel and one left unfinished at the time of his death. Presumably this was… Read More ›
Josephine Tey’s To Love and Be Wise
Tey’s 3rd Inspector Alan Grant has to be one of the most ingenious mysteries ever written, and it begins with a good-looking young man arriving at a party… “Just inside the door, baffled apparently by the solid wall of talking and drinking humanity, was a young man, looking lost. He still had his hat in… Read More ›
A Cold Day for Murder
First, a young national park ranger has gone missing in Alaska. Then an investigator sent to find him has disappeared, too. Will it be a case of search-and-rescue or murder? The mystery begins with two men ski doo-ing their way to an isolated homestead, a log cabin that looked “more as if it had grown… Read More ›
Live Read: Dead Man Walker
The Poisoned Martini‘s is privileged to be reading Duffy Brown’s forthcoming mystery novella, Dead Man Walker. This 4th book in the Consignment Shop Mystery series releases as an ebook on February 3, 2015 from Penguin books and their Berkley Prime Crime imprint. A dead body is discovered in a bathtub and the discoverer turns to… Read More ›
Top 10 Fantasy Novels in 2014?
Reflecting on last year’s top mysteries made me curious to take a look at the fantasy novels of 2014. What were the most popular? Perhaps you may be surprised to learn that #1 was published over a decade ago! Now, this top 10 list includes a mix of high fantasy and urban/paranormal fantasy titles, all… Read More ›
Top 10 Mysteries in 2014?
2015 has certainly arrived, along with the cold. But I still find myself reflecting on the year that was. What were the most popular mysteries of 2014? Based on circulation figures at the library where I work, these were the most checked out mysteries in 2014. *** 10. Dust by Patricia Cornwell — Kay Scarpetta… Read More ›
12 Murder Mysteries for Christmas
Recommended Reads: 12 Murders for the Holidays In the mood for a little murder this holiday season? Stories set around the Christmas holiday season have a tendency to be lighthearted affairs with an “all’s well that ends well” conclusion. Many cozy authors churn out at least one Christmas story, and the season certainly lends itself to… Read More ›
Frozen
“In winter all this pleasure came to an end, for the windows were sometimes quite frozen over. But then they would warm copper pennies on the stove and hold the warm pennies against the frozen pane. Soon a little round peephole would appear, and through these holes beamed the soft bright eyes of a little… Read More ›
5 Thrillers for Halloween
Recently I put together a short list of recommended books for a “book beat” article I contribute to a local newspaper, The Eagle Bulletin. Appearing in the October 22, 2014 issue, the selected books appeared under the banner of “Some New and Well-Respected Horror Reads for Halloween.” Though not the title I’d originally chosen for… Read More ›
The Poisoned Martini 