I Shall Not Want by Julia Spencer-Fleming
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I discovered Julia Spencer-Fleming and her wonderful series just after the first book was published. I Shall Not Want, the sixth title in the series proves that this author is getting better with every book. The plots are becoming more involved and all the characters, not the principle ones, are finely drawn. All the books titles are taken from hymns - (the most unusual title being A Fountain Filled with Blood). The books take place in upstate New York, in the Adirondack mountains, in the mythical town of Millers Kill. Clare Ferguson is an Episcopal minister and Russ Van Alstyne is the chief of police. They strike up an unlikely friendship even though they appear to have little in common. Clare is young and single and compassionate and Russ is older, married and suspicious. Somehow they manage to remain just friends although there is a growing attraction between them.
In this book, Clare puts herself and her church on the line to help provide the basics to the Hispanic migrant workers in the area. When one of the men stumbles across a dead body and then two more bodies show up in rapid succession, Russ and his deputies work overtime to find out what’s going on before more bodies appear. Clare in the meantime is trying to protect the migrant workers while getting information that may be helpful to the police. I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but the characters are the real stars of the story. Start at the beginning of the series to watch Clare’s adjustment to being a minister in a small northern town as well as the growing friendship and affection between Clare and Russ. I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Karen - Fort Mill ISBN 9780312334871
I don’t usually read historical novels. I like my fiction firmly rooted in the present, but even though An Incomplete Revenge is set in 1931, I enjoyed the interesting plot and the strong, independent, intelligent protagonist. This is the fifth book in the series by Winspear all featuring Maisie Dobbs, a young woman who grew up in a poor working class family but got a chance at a first rate education and is now a psychologist and investigator working on her own in London. In this book, she is called upon to investigate a small village that is plagued with minor acts of vandalism including a string of fires. She must break through the silence that surrounds the town and find the secrets they are hiding. Maisie walks a fine line between where she came from and how she lives now. Her experiences as a nurse in the war has made her sensitive to many different people in many different situations and she is able to command respect in a time that single women were often dismissed. I think if you try this series you will enjoy meeting Maisie Dobbs and reading about her life in London almost eighty years ago.
What’s better than a haunted house mystery? A book about a haunted house on a haunted Florida Key by Stephen King. Slow to start, this book is vintage Stephen King but better. His main character is an owner of a very successful construction business in Minnesota until a horrific accident takes among other things, his right arm. His therapist suggests he take up a hobby and he decides he’d like to paint as he did when he young before family and work got in the way. He rents a house on Duma Key, one of the smaller keys off the coast of Florida, and he begins to paint. He hires a young college student to help with driving and with chores and meets the man up the beach who has his own story to tell. Completely fascinating and almost impossible to put down the 600 page book will keep your interest until the final page.
C.J. Box has departed from his Joe Pickett series to write this stand alone novel set in Idaho. Idaho is no longer the home to every militia group in the country. If this book is to be believed, it is home to everyone who wants to get away from Los Angelos and can afford to do so. 
Ali Reynolds is a former journalist and tv reporter who lost her job and her husband on the same day. Devastated by the betrayal of her husband and her boss, she started a blog about her experiences and found a lot of kindred spirits along the way. This book, the third in the series, focuses less on the blog than the other two books but it’s still part of the plot. Through a series of events, Ali gets involved with two cases of child molestation, one current and one fifty years in the past. She is able to help but winds up putting herself in danger at the same time. Ali is a strong and forceful character who always manages to be able to survive. Exactly the characteristics you need in the heroine of a suspense novel.
When an author writes a long running series, often the later books become stale, as if there is nothing new for the character to do or nothing new for the author to say. This is not the case with Sue Grafton. In my opinion, Sue Grafton is getting better and better. The latest in the series, number 20 if I’ve counted correctly, is all about Kinsey and her landlord Henry and their neighbor Gus. Kinsey doesn’t usually spend much time with her neighbors, but this time, with her caseload light, she turns her attention to Gus, the crankiest guy in the neighborhood. Gus has fallen and needs help when he gets out of the hospital. His only relative is across the country and hires a companion for him, who tries to empty his bank account and sell his belongings, until Kinsey finds a way to stop her. It’s an exciting book that gives you a lot to think about. Fraud, elder abuse, and who will take of you when you’re old and feeble.
Archie Sheridan is on a task force for ten years trying to catch a serial killer operating in Portland Oregon and the surrounding states. He pays a visit to the home of Gretchen Lowell, a psychologist who has offered to help only to be drugged and secreted away by Gretchen who is not a psychologist but the killer. All this has happened in the past as the book opens and we find Archie alive but severly changed by his experience. He is chosen to head up another task force, to find a killer before anymore young girls are kidnapped and murdered. Uncharacteristicly, Archie has invited a reporter to follow the him and the task force as they look for the killer. The young reporter, Susan Ward, gets so involved she almost becomes a victim instead of an observer. This is Chelsea Cain’s first mystery and she has created a novel with very interesting characters… characters I hope to see again in another book. 
For those of you who love a good mystery and southern fiction this book is for you! Set in the low country near Edisto Island three cousins unravel the suspicious death of a man in their Great Aunt Augusta’s Plantation home. Their aunt has opened her home to tours, but refuses to refer to people visiting as tourists, preferring instead to call them “guests”. Was this “guest” pushed down the attic stairs or did he fall? Why is there a huge cage in the attic and is there really a ghost at Pinckney Plantation? Grab a glass of tea and this book to find out.
I’ve found a great mystery author that I want to tell everyone about. If you’ve never read Greg Iles, you should check him out. Having just finished Turning Angel, I’m definitely going back for more. This gripping legal mystery is set in Natchez, Mississippi. Penn Cage - lawyer and author - has just learned that his best friend, Dr. Andrew Elliott, was the secret lover of a beautiful 17-year-old high school senior found raped and murdered. Though Penn is upset with Drew for this shocking and inappropriate relationship, he signs on to represent him in court and unearth the real murderer. Before he can begin, however, both men are drawn into a the dangerous territory of blackmail, drug trade and violence. Other people start to die and the secret lives of the town’s high school students are revealed. Cage learns that these kids are not the innocent babes of his youth. There are some lurid scenes of pornography, drugs and sex that provide powerful depictions of teenagers’ lives today. I found the plot entertaining and educating while also keeping me on the edge of my seat. If you like James Patterson, then you will like reading Greg Iles. Iles’ writing is a little more graceful than JP, but his plot twists, contemporary settings and hard-edged suspense are just as satisfying. York County Library also has Turning Angel available in Large Print, audio CD or audio cassette.
