Jun 09, 2025

Review — Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose

Home is Where the Bodies Are
By: Jeneva Rose
Release Date: April 30, 2024
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Award: Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery/Thriller (2024)
Rating:


Jeneva Rose’s 2024 novel Home is Where the Bodies Are by Jeneva Rose is a captivating tale of mystery and suspense that will hook readers of literary fiction and family drama from start to finish. The front cover of the hardcover edition perfectly draws readers in—it looks like a VHS tape. However, the contents are not nearly as bloody or horrific as the cover may suggest.

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May 23, 2023
From Our TBR Pile

Review — The Cloisters by Katy Hays

The Cloisters
By: Katy Hays
Release Date: November 1, 2022
Publisher: Atria Books
Rating:


Art historian and author Katy Hays’s debut novel The Cloisters is an intensely gothic, gripping tale that oozes suspense. Protagonist Ann Stilwell finds herself in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with an internship lined up for the summer. Unfortunately, these plans fall through when she learns her would-be boss is off in Europe. Despite the unexpected circumstances, Ann still has a coveted internship, though not at the MET proper.

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Mar 21, 2023
From Our TBR Pile Uncategorized

Review — The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji

The Decagon House Murders
By: Yukito Ayatsuji
Translator: Ho-Ling Wong
Release Date: December 3, 2020
Publisher: Pushkin Vertigo
Rating:


Author Yukito Ayatsuji is known for supporting a return to classic detective fiction—the sort of fare produced by the likes of Christie and Doyle—and his novel The Decagon House Murders is no exception. In fact, this novel is credited with beginning the shinhonkaku movement, a literary movement in Japan to restore Golden Age mystery novel plotting and style, while at the same time, influencing anime as well.

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Mar 18, 2023
From Our TBR Pile Uncategorized

Review — We Lie Here by Rachel Howzell Hall

An old yellow car parked diagonally on a road We Lie Here
By: Rachel Howzell Hall
Release Date: July 12, 2022
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Rating:


Rachel Howzell Hall is no stranger to mystery and thriller novels, in fact being a former member of the board of directors for the Mystery Writers of America. Her latest book isn’t another installment in the Detective Elouise Norton series but a standalone novel titled We Lie Here.

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Feb 20, 2023
From Our TBR Pile

Review — Death and the Conjuror by Tom Mead

Top hat floating over a magician's magic wand with the London skyline in the distance. Death and the Conjuror
By: Tom Mead
Release Date: July 12, 2022
Publisher: Mysterious Press
Series: Joseph Spector (#1)
Rating:


Tom Mead’s Death and the Conjuror isn’t the first story in which the character Joseph Spector has appeared, formerly appearing in several of the author’s short stories. Here, however, his prowess and intellect shine in a novel-length work, the first in a series.

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Aug 03, 2022

Review — Dreaming Darkly by Caitlin Kittredge

A skull made of smoke hovering over a manison Dreaming Darkly
By: Caitlin Kittredge
Release Date: April 9, 2019
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Rating:


Gothic horror holds a special place in many people’s hearts. Examples of the genre can be found everywhere, from popular TV shows to classic literature and, of course, young adult fiction. Caitlin Kittredge’s Dreaming Darkly is a great example of young adult gothic horror. All of the staples of the genre are present—an old house that’s both huge and spooky, family secrets, odd happenings that could be either natural or supernatural occurrences, and old mysteries that haunt the present.

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Jul 28, 2022
From Our TBR Pile

Review — Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun and Translated by Janet Hong

Silhouette of a woman in a yellow dress Lemon
By: Kwon Yeo-Sun
Translator: Janet Hong
Release Date: October 7, 2021
Publisher: Apollo
Rating:


Lemon is a slow, introspective story about a cold case murder expertly written by author Kwon Yeo-Sun and translated from the original Korean by Janet Hong. Despite being focused on a cold case, this isn’t so much a whodunit, traditional murder mystery, or thriller. Instead, we find a slowly paced, introspective tale featuring a myriad of people left behind after the murder of the nineteen-year-old Kim Hae-on: how they cope and do not cope, how they move on and how time stops in that moment forever.

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Jul 07, 2022
From Our TBR Pile

Review — Rizzio by Denise Mina

Front cover of the novel Rizzio by Denise Mina Rizzo
By: Denise Mizio
Release Date: September 2, 2021
Publisher: Pegasus Crime
Series: Darkland Tales
Rating:


Denise Mina’s slim novel Rizzio packs one hell of a punch within a mere 118 pages. The multi-award-winning author brings us a new novel centered on a crime—the murder of Mary, Queen of Scots’, private secretary, David Rizzio. This is an utterly outstanding work of literary and crime fiction, one that will keep you at the edge of your seat regardless if you know the true-life story of David Rizzio and Mary, Queen of Scots.

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Jun 16, 2022
Graphic Novels

Review — Moonstruck Volume 1: Magic to Brew

Front cover of graphic novel Moonstruck Volume 1: Magic to Brew Moonstruck Vol. 1: Magic to Brew
By: Grace Ellis, Shae Beagle
Illustrator: Caitlin Quirk, Clayton Cowles
Release Date: February 14, 2018
Publisher: Image Comics
Series: Moonstruck (Volume 1)
Rating:


Graphic novel series Moonstruck is a young adult series that combines fantasy and mystery with an LGBTQ+ cast. Written by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle and illustrated by Caitlin Quirk and Clayton Cowles, this is a series that has graced many “best of” and “you need to read this” lists on professional and fan sites for several years.

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