PORTRAIT OF A WITCH UNDONE, charming and fun and amusing

PORTRAIT OF A WITCH UNDONE
K.S. SHAY
Erewhon Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$22.95 ebook, available now

The Independent Press Top 40 Bestsellers: Fiction For the week ending September 2, 2026

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Thirteen stolen works of art. One haunted marsh.
And a Boston witch willing to risk everything for the friend she’s already failed.

An atmospheric, eerie debut for readers of Starling House and A Discovery of Witches, Isabella Stewart Gardner art heist aficionados, witchy girls, burnt-out former gifted kids, New England history buffs, the coven curious, ride-or-die friends, folklore fanatics, and anyone who’s ever wanted to wander through the looking glass.

Once, Maeve Ryan was the strongest witch of her generation. But Maeve messed up a spell to contact the Lady of the Fens, an eerie Revenant who lures the unwary to their deaths in the brackish marshlands of the North Shore. Maeve destroyed her reputation, hurt her best friend Ash, and tainted herself with unbound, wild magic that transforms witches into insane Revenants.

With unbound power eating away at Maeve’s mind, all she wants is to get rid of her magic. Forever. But Ash’s research into how the spell went awry leads in an unexpected direction: the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and a link between the Lady and a decades-old art theft worth $500 million. When Ash disappears through a stolen painting’s empty frame, Maeve has to follow.

Inside is the Other Marsh, a haunting, deadly realm where only the Lady’s rules apply. Within this half-world lie secrets about North Shore’s history, Maeve’s failure, and the fate of the masterpieces that disappeared over three decades ago. But as Maeve fights toward the truth, she risks her friendship, her coven, and her life against enemies hiding in plain sight.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: The hardcover might be preferable to order, y'all:

Are these endsheets to die for or what?

And then there are the seven maps that this bloody program will not let me upload; just know that they'll enhance your reading experience for the mappish among you, like me. They're there because this is an undertaking to explain the long-ago, still unsolved, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist. After almost forty years, I think it's safe to say the solution presented here...it's magic...might as well become the final word. Nothin' else but the death of some powerful people will bust open the truth and maybe not even then, so heck...why not magic?

Maeve, all of twenty-three during this story, is a really interesting magical practitioner. She's filled with insecurity after very publicly failing at an important working that unintentionally hurts her bestie in the Salem coven. This is the woman who still comes to her rescue when the cursed apartment she lives in is overrun by frogs...without harming the frogs. It was refreshing. Not a frog-fancier, me, but I do get the joke about witches who famously use frogs in magical working that don't turn out well for the frogs subverting that silly stereotype. Also subversive of stereotypes is the way these witches actually *fly*on*their*brooms* and still don't play it for a cheap snigger.

There's a male main character. He is Maeve's "love interest." Nothing about this part of the plot adds anything very interesting to the story. I'm moving on. The interplay among the coven members really exemplifies the use...bordering on overuse...of the miscommunication among people who have one big thing in common but little else drawing them together. It's a problem as the mystery of the art heist steadily takes over the coven's activities; the stolen artworks are, like much art, imbued with magical capability of being bridges between worlds. Maeve is forced to do her best magic in the scenes where she's working to focus everyone on the common goal of regaining these stolen portals. May not be all spells but it's for sure magic.

Maeve has the chops innate in her to be a leader, but she's twenty-three. The action spins out of her control as we-the-reader watch, amused and bemused, while the coven attempts solving the heist for their own, not-law-enforcing, purposes. It is clear Maeve could become the focus of a series with her coven as they redress imbalances and resolve mysteries. I hope they all come back soon. I also hope potential future lovely, fun reads will show Maeve grow into her leadership and not rely on the chaos that comes from poor communication again. Magic carries in its basis the wildness and chaos of Life, untrammelled; Maeve can shape that, can form it...if she's written that way.

Debuts seldom come with this much promise. Hope it's pointed in a positive way.

A MURDER MOST CAMP, cozy amateur-sleuth mystery with added queerness!

A MURDER MOST CAMP
NICOLAS DiDOMIZIO
Poisoned Pen Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$9.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: The Guncle meets Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies in this fun, twisty mystery following a spoiled nepo baby forced to work at a struggling summer camp who stumbles into a real-life murder mystery he has no choice but to solve.

Rustic cabins. Lakefront bonfires. A painfully hot lifeguard. And a murder? Summer has never been this camp.

Mikey Hartford IV has coasted through his twenties in a distracted blur of yachts and sex and partying. But when his father discovers his latest million-dollar impulse buy and changes the terms of his trust, the party's finally over. Now, unless Mikey can make a positive contribution to the world before his thirtieth birthday—one that doesn't involve throwing cash at his problems—he'll never see another yacht again. (Or even so much as a canoe.)

Enter: Camp Lore, a struggling summer camp in upstate New York where Mikey has to work as the oldest, least-qualified staffer to prove that he can "do good" alongside his twelve-year-old aunt. (Yes, aunt.) But Mikey isn't sure he'll be able to survive the camp's ramshackle living conditions, let alone the gaggle of preteens who won't leave his side. And when his campers become obsessed with a local legend set at an abandoned cabin on the grounds, Mikey's chances of not making it through the summer become dangerously real—because it turns out there's a murder hidden beneath Camp Lore. And someone there will stop at nothing to keep it that way.

Solving a decade-old cold case will surely be enough "good" for Mikey to earn his inheritance. He just has to stay alive long enough to do it…

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: What a hoot! This is one of those reads you, as a member of a group being threatened with ever-worsening life outcomes by the very government holding power over you, really, really can use right about now. I was completely prepared to roll my eyes and smile. I needed the hit of "it will be okay, smile more" energy I expected from the description.

I got that. I also got a fun mystery to solve. (Which...well...I've been readin' mysteries since 1967, hard to pull the wool over my eyes.) And a grossly overprivileged trust-fund workshy queenie-queen gets thrown into existential panic as my whipped cream topping on the sundae of this story.

I deliberately avoided using the "cherry" metaphor for reasons I hope are obvious.

What happens is kinda not the point of the story, it's what Mikey becomes in dealing...for the first time...with what happens when his woefully unprepared self is the one in charge of handling what happens. A pillow princess by avocation, Mikey is not at all accustomed to using the space in his brain around his movie trivia and his taste for hot gold-diggers for much of anything. It's "cute" in a young guy. (I don't think so, but that's conventional wisdom.) Mikey's dad isn't havin' it as a life for his soon-to-be-thirty son. Mikey gets a job as his aunt's kind-of carer. The twist is his aunt is twelve. (Go Gramps!) And the job's at a summer camp for her.

He, the laziest human imaginable, is about to be responsible for everything a camp counselor does. Without having been to camp.

*gleeful hand rubbing*

It goes like you'd expect: Poorly.Except, of course, not really. Lurching from crisis to problem to rebellion, Mikey finds the way out of leading teens by example is following his own teen passion for filmmaking. Telling people the story of a long-ago counselor who vanished without a trace and is rumored to have been murdered...his aunt's a true-crime nut, no one in the 2020s has not encountered the genre pervading our culture, and really honestly in our heartiest of hearts are any of us utterly immune to the appeal? Real people fall into awful circumstances and never receive justice because there are so many who need it and so few who know how to deliver it.

Opportunity practically uses a tactical battering ram on Mikey's door. He's now leading by example, helping his aunt find purpose, and attracting the kind of man who's more than physiologically a man...a strong, capable, grounded person with a man's anatomy.

So here's my reservation, and the lost fifth star's explanation. Jackson is a hottie with a heart. Sofar so good. He's way out of Mikey's league, but people cross those lines all the time because "the heart wants what it wants or else it doesn't care." (Bless you, Emily Dickinson!) It's the...unearned-ness...of Jackson's love for Mikey, it's the way Mikey really doesn't set out to become Jackson's man but kinda selfishly just accepts it is happening, that sticks in my craw. It's consistent and fully supported in the storyline, it's clearly how Mikey would have to receive the loving attention of a man like Jackson as a gift, but theres something off about that dynamic for me.

But that's what reviews are about, right? I'm here to say "the story worked but..." so you'll have a picture of how you think you'll respond not just what events you can expect to occur. If you want a book report ask a chatbot for one.

Only real people have opinions.

D. P. LYLE'S PAGE: The Jake Longly series 2

CULTURED (Jake Longly #6)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Money, sex, power. Jonathon Lindemann offers it all—just don’t mind the missing girls.

Jake Longly, ex-pro baseball player turned restauranteur, is back where he belongs: relaxing on the beach in front of his restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His peace is interrupted, however, when he receives a call from his private investigator father—April Wilkerson has gone missing from Lindemann Farms, the rustic, yet posh, resort built by self-help and financial guru Jonathon Lindemann.

Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM), recruits wealthy people to join his program, charging a hefty entry fee but in return promising huge financial gains and self-enlightenment. Jake’s celebrity status makes him the best person for the case.

When Jake and his girlfriend, Nicole, go on an undercover visit to Lindemann Farms, some suspicious activity makes them wonder about the legitimacy of TLM. Soon, a private conversation with one of the girls hired to work at the resort reveals their unorthodox, and immoral, recruitment methods.

As the layers peel away, darker edges appear. Does Jonathon truly make money for his investors, or is he a scam artist? Is April merely the latest in a series of missing young women? Jake and Nicole need to find her, and soon, before TLM catches wind of their true reasons for visiting the farm.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: My, how Epsteinesque, how very similar to Madoff's financial scams, how end-stage capitalism and awful pedophile-adjacent this entry in the series is.

It's book six; I say start with any of the first three. I started with #3, Sunshine State; it was an easy lift to get the basic idea of the series at that point. By #5, The OC, things are a great deal darker and the humor won't read as well for a newbie.

This entry in the series is darker still, it's much more threatening and anxiety-inducing to be around people disappearing; the smooth, unctuous face of the organization is so offensively slick it's just horrible to read. As always, Jake has snark to spare, unleashing it on these dreadful lying sacks of shit.

As the deeply weird cultists try to smarm Jake and Nicole into believing they're the good guys, the hairpins keep falling. The dynamic duo are pretty experienced by now. They can smell rats from a closed car ten miles from the nest; what that talent gets then in this case is unhappy certainty of unpleasant things. The actual resolution is a gut punch. I does not come from a simple direct relationship to the set-up, though. It takes you through the weeds. It makes you think about people's deepest motivations, more often than not greed prominent among them.

I'd love to tell you I didn't think this actually happens. I can't.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

UNBALANCED (Jake Longly #7)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$18.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Jake Longly is never saying yes to his father again

It was a simple task. Five minutes tops.

Ex-pro baseball player Jake Longly and his girlfriend, Nicole, are asked by Jake's father, Ray, a private investigator, to pick up some papers from a realtor for his business. Jake would rather be lying on the beach outside of his Gulf Shores restaurant, but he begrudgingly agrees. It'll only take a few minutes.

But somehow, things are never simple in Ray's world. When Jake and Nicole reach the office, they find it empty—except for the dead body of the realtor lying on the floor, a single gunshot wound to his head. Who could've wanted him dead? The long suspect list and the numerous possible motives make untying the knot difficult.

Working with the police department, Jake, Nicole, Ray, and their friend Pancake dive into the deceivingly simple investigation, which grows more complex by the minute. With millions of dollars at stake, weeding through the realtor's entanglements requires all hands on deck, and yet again, Jake is dragged into the PI business he can't seem to escape.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Anyone who's ever bought property knows the feeling of rage and frustration that accompanies this complex process. Multiply that many times over for large investment properties, and you can relate to someone putting a bullet into this guy's head.

Only he wasn't a bad guy, he was actually a helpful soul...and Jake's dad Ray (the ex-military black ops dude) trusted him enough to work with him...only to have the dude accuse him of embezzlement! So what gives?

Naturally Jake and the ever-perfect Nicole need to find out. Clues build up, there seems to be some kind of offshoring of sizable sums of cash. There also surfaces an entire separate life the guy was leading that he definitely could not afford to have his family know about.

Jake is his usual snarktastic self. It was nice to be back in more salubrious surroundings after the last story! It's not quite by-the-numbers yet, but it's treading familiar paths.

It agrees with me, so I'll keep going until it doesn't anymore.

D. P. LYLE'S PAGE: The Jake Longly series

SUNSHINE STATE (Jake Longly #3)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$16.00 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Serial killer’s message to PI Jake Longly: Two of those seven murders I confessed to are not mine—but I won’t tell you which two.

Jake Longly and Nicole Jamison are confronted with the most bizarre case yet. Serial killer Billy Wayne Baker now denies that two of his seven murders were actually his work. An anonymous benefactor, who believes Billy Wayne’s denials, has hired Longly Investigations to prove Billy Wayne right. Billy Wayne had confessed to all seven. Not only did the confessed serial killer have the motive, means, and opportunity for murder, but his DNA was found at each crime scene. Bizarre doesn’t quite cover it.

Jake and Nicole travel to the small Gulf Coast town of Pine Key, Florida, where three of the murders occurred. The local police, FBI, state prosecutor, and crime lab each did their jobs, uncovered overwhelming evidence of Billy Wayne’s guilt—and even extracted a full confession. Is Billy Wayne simply trying to tweak the system to garner another fifteen minutes of fame? It’s likely all a game to him, but, if he’s being truthful—someone out there is getting away with multiple murders. How? Why? And most importantly, who?

Dark clouds loom in the Sunshine State.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Third book in a series now seven books in...first one I read...have now read them all.

Is that enough to cause that one-click to go into buy mode? No? Well, retired baseball player and private investigator Jake, his gal-pal Nicole, and dad/employer/owner of investigations agency Ray, land up in a tatty little Florida burg to solve a series of murders...again...as the serial killer who confessed now says there were two he confessed to that were not his crimes. Then he went all coy and refused to say which ones weren't his, or who really committed them. Though he says he knows that, too. And why's he saying it to Ray? Because someone rich wants the truth told about these two crimes. We do not get to know who.

Reluctantly leaving his retirement career as a bar owner—again—while he helps his dad and old friend Pancake (so nicknamed for his astonishing capacity for 'em) look into the likeliest place for a copycat to be found: the one town where three victims were killed not just one.

Nicole is absolutely not a reluctant sidekick, she is an eager participant in this investigation. Her uncle is a rich producer who helps out the scoobygroup by "filming a documentary" about victim's families in the aftermath of a serial killing. Perfect cover, holds up on all checkable points.

What will sell you on the read or repel you from it is the narrative: almost all in Jake's voice, reflecting his moods, reporting his impressions of friend and foe alike. He doesn't stop himself from saying when he thinks one of the friends makes a bonehead mistake to them or to us if he can't to them right away. It's not to everyone's taste. I like it because I like Jake, as when he observes,"The air held a salty must, and a gentle breeze came off the water. The sky was blue and pock-marked with wads of fluffy clouds." It's not poetic, it's a regular guy looking at the world his regular way. It's also exactly like the Gulf Coast.

The main feature that caps my rating at four stars is the fantasy-fulfillment of Nicole being the hot, funny babe who wants sex with Jake All. The. Time. I got adept at recognizing the signs of an impending...romp...and skipped ahead. I'm just not interested in that.


I was interested in the resolution, which surprised me with how well it was misdirected. It's logical; it's not obvious. What more can you ask for?

Fun in the sun for wintertime escape sound good? Here's a series to follow.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

RIGGED (Jake Longly #4)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$16.00 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Love triangle—motive for double murder?

First loves are never forgotten. Ever. Certainly not for Tommy "Pancake" Jeffers. His first-kiss, sixth-grade love, Emily, who he has not seen since grammar school, is sliding toward divorce in the artsy Gulf Coast town of Fairhope, Alabama. Longly Investigations has been charged with looking into the finances involved. When Emily doesn't appear for their nervously anticipated meeting, Pancake's radar goes on high alert. Her body, along with that of Jason—one of two guys she has been dating—is found murdered, execution-style, Pancake calls in Jake, Nicole, and Ray.

Who would have done this? Could it be the soon-to-be ex, who has an ironclad alibi; the other guy Emily was seeing—jealousy being a motive for harm; or do the drugs found in Jason's pocket indicate a drug-related hit? That world yields a host of suspects. As they peel back the layers of this idyllic community, dark secrets come to light and convoluted motives and methods of murder are revealed.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: We start with Jake in trouble. An incident at Captain Rocky's, his bar, requires Jake to call in his lawyer (who happens to be the same one who cleaned him out when his ex-wife divorced him) so he needs money. Luckily Ray, his dad, and Pancake, his dad's deputy muscle and Jake's kidhood pal, have a case. Nicole, Jake, and the scoobygroup head to Alabama to find out why Pancake's grade-school crush did not show up for their meeting. The discussion wasn't going to be about their long-ago first kiss but her need to know what her soon-to-be ex-husband is hiding from her financially.

That's a meeting she'd keep if she was on her deathbed. Not if she was dead, though. The way she and her paramour are murdered makes the entire group sit up and take notice. Was she a victim of wrong-place-wrong-time bad luck or do the drugs found on her paramour (one of two...maybe more) show a slightly more sordid side to her death?

Banter, fun asides, a murder to solve that's got more layers than you think it will have...this is what I was hoping and looking for from this series. It's here in abundance, along with icky straight-people sex. I was really amused by the invisible Tammy (Jake's ex) whose presence as a thorn in his side is all telephonic. It is a good way to add very quick hits of comedy that require little set-up but can change a mood immediately.

There is the preponderant first-person PoV from Jake, the expected moments of interpolation from different others in third person, and a satisfying resolution that comes from information the reader has already been given.

A winning entry in a good (oversexed, though) series.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

THE OC (Jake Longly #5)
D. P. LYLE
Oceanview Publishing (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$16.99 paperback, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Thrill-a-minute crime fiction—infused with wry humor

Restaurant owner and former professional baseball player Jake Longly is hoping for a few weeks of fun with Nicole Jamison in the warm Orange County, CA sun—The OC, baby. After that, they’ll be on their way to LA for the filming of Nicole’s sure-to-be-a-hit screenplay.

On arrival, they discover that Nicole’s friend Megan Weatherly, a local TV reporter, has picked up an anonymous stalker. Megan downplays any real danger, but her new intern Abby, as well as Jake and Nicole, don’t agree. Bit by bit, as the harassment escalates and the shadowy man invades Megan’s world, Jake calls in the big guns from back home in Ray and Pancake. But will Ray’s military black ops experience and Pancake’s technical skills be enough to expose the predator in time?

The stalker is no fool and likely has a predatory history. He makes no mistakes and manages to cover his trail completely. So, how do you identify and locate the untraceable? How do you protect Megan from a potentially lethal phantom?

Suddenly the sunshine and safety of The OC seem more facade than reality. Jake and crew must punch through that facade and dig into the dark world of celebrity stalking. The clock is ticking.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: More daffy fun with the scoobygroup in the sunny surfside locales they favor. Only this time the water's frigid: The Pacific is so huge and so deep it's colder than their usual Gulf of Mexico bathwater warmth even in Southern California.

Pancake shines in more ways than size and muscle this outing. Stalking is a very real problem in the modern world. As Jake and Nicole hit the vacation spots in the OC, they're worried about Nicole's old friend having a stalker in escalation mode. Pancake's cyberskills show that her stalker is very cybersavvy. No usable traces in the threatening emails. Jake's dad Ray dusts off the black-ops military training that got him into the private investigation world in the first place, because everyone except old-friend Megan, who (understandably) tries to cope with the anxiety of being stalked by downplaying it. It's her good luck that everyone around her says "uh-huh" and moves right along investigating the stalking.

It all comes about for the scoobygroup because Nicole's screenplay, sold at last, is now being filmed! Murderwood is coming to life! In this way we're really prepared for Jake to be a plus-one on the entire action. He still narrates a lot of it but is more or less our eyes and ears instead of a mover and shaker. It is not as light-hearted as the earlier entries because the subject isn't really one where too much humor is available. After violence is done it's not retractable, so laughing doesn't feel as...inappropriate, awkward...as when one's trying to prevent violence.

Never fear, series fans, Jake's his irreverent self, only at two-thirds strength. The stalker is identified at last and all is well—it's a series, ma'at must be upheld at both ends—so we don't feel unsatisfied. It's fun; it's darker; it's got Nicole experiencing the moviemaking life at last.

It felt like a good time was had by all, in spite of the crazy person doing crappy things to a woman.

REVENGE, SERVED ROYAL, third in the Lady Petra Inquires series

REVENGE, SERVED ROYAL (Lady Petra Inquires #3)
CELESTE CONNALLY
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$14.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in this dazzling third instalment to the captivating Regency-era Lady Petra Inquires mystery series.

September, 1815. Autumn is in the air as Lady Petra Forsyth and some of the most illustrious members of the ton descend upon Windsor Castle for a week of royal celebrations, with the highlight being Queen Charlotte’s inaugural patisserie contest for the best bakers employed by England’s finest houses. Not only is Lady Petra’s own cook one of the contestants, but Her Majesty has requested that Petra herself serve as one of the judges.

Petra’s happiness at tasting delicious cakes and biscuits only increases at finding her beloved Aunt Ophelia in attendance at Windsor, as well as Sir Rufus Pomeroy. As England’s most famous former royal chef-turned-cookbook author, Sir Rufus is slated to present his best recipes to the Queen during the festivities, with Petra being granted an early viewing in the royal library.

Yet upon arrival, Petra instead encounters a frantic housemaid pointing to a body of one of Her Majesty’s guests—and to the valet still tugging at the silk ribbon used to strangle the victim. What’s more, the valet turns out to be Oliver Beecham, the ne’er-do-well brother of Petra’s own lady’s maid, Annie. But as Oliver is hauled away to the dungeons, he protests his innocence, claiming the late guest argued with several aristocrats, including the Prince Regent and Petra’s Aunt Ophelia, and boasted about hiding a potentially scandalous document within the vastness of Windsor Castle.

When some poisoned tea meant for Petra is consumed by one of her fellow judges, it’s clear the real killer is still walking the castle’s halls. Indeed, in order to prove the innocence of Annie’s brother and find the incriminating document, Petra will need to act like a lady, eat like a chef, and think like one of Her Majesty’s best spies before a murderer can turn the celebrations from sweet to royally deadly.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I experienced this as GBBO in 1815, featuring a much, much nastier Paul Hollywood in Sir Rufus Pomeroy. While Petra is his co-judge (there are others but I forget who they are) in Queen Charlotte's version of a baking contest, I'm more inclined to call her kindly, sweet Mary Berry than Prue Leith.

When Sir Rufus is offed, ugly secrets come out about him causing Lady Petra to reconsider her lifelong attachment to him. Everyone decides to blame Oliver (Lady Petra's maid's brother, so feudal family)for the death. The hunt is on for the real killer...and it's quite a hunt. Lots of people, including me and Lady Petra's Aunt Ophelia, had hard words about and with Sir Rufus. No one is sorry he's dead. We're at Windsor Castle with the Royal Family in residence. There is an immense pool of people to draw suspects from. One person exempt from that was Duncan, Lady Petra's honeybunch. He's offscreen a lot this iteration, too much so for my taste.

The sheer complexity of the naming conventions, thus styles of address, among the titled cluttering up the pages requires attention to be paid. "Lord Doohickey" is also "His Grace the Duke of Thattaway"; forgetting that can lead to great confusion. The shifts were tonal, representing different situations and relationships. I'd love a peek at Author Connally's spreadsheets to see how this all nested together in the writing process. Another thing I'd love to see is this anachronistic GBBO clone on screen! The glorious descriptions of the foods, the added bonus of silly royal pageantry, everyone dressed to the nines all the time...wouldn't Netflix do this right? Hmm?

There is the upholding of Ma'at, there is the outing of the real actor behind the masks worn by multiple people, maybe even too many, but of course the crime is punished. It's why mysteries appeal to readers: the crime is punished.

This time quite fairly in my view. Enjoy the first two books before this one if you want a bit of a leg-up with the characters' names; if not, you'll work a little harder but still have good fun.

ELLE COSIMANO'S PAGE: Finlay Donovan series 1 through 3

FINLAY DONOVAN IS KILLING IT (Finlay Donovan #1)
ELLE COSIMANO
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$9.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: "Getting the job done" for one single mom takes on a whole new meaning in Finlay Donovan is Killing It.

Finlay Donovan is killing it . . . except, she’s really not. She’s a stressed-out single-mom of two and struggling novelist, Finlay’s life is in chaos: the new book she promised her literary agent isn’t written, her ex-husband fired the nanny without telling her, and this morning she had to send her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an incident with scissors.

When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.

Fast-paced, deliciously witty, and wholeheartedly authentic in depicting the frustrations and triumphs of motherhood in all its messiness, hilarity, and heartfelt moment, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It is the first in a brilliant new series from YA Edgar Award nominee Elle Cosimano.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: As part of a relaunch of the series, or so I've assumed, I got the entire series to date from Minotaur Books. I binged them. It's not far from the truth to say I mainlined them. I badly needed to laugh, and feel as though the shreds of my happy mind could indeed be brought back into contact with each other. That is what reading Finlay Donovan's absurd, impossible antics did for me. Please, dear Thalia, Muse of Comedy that you are, conspire with Calliope of the eloquence brief to get these stories onto a small screen near me!

The pleasures of absurd, impossible situations like a mystery writer on deadline becoming a contract killer are many. Subversion of the rational order of things, the permanent disposal of rotten-souled people who badly need killin', the sheer red-in-tooth-and-claw joy of imposing your own will on an otherwise uncooperative and indifferent cosmos...all are present.

That the perpetratrix is also a mom, a caregiver, an ex-wife with a grudge, means we have before us an exemplar of (pardon my Freud) someone in control of her id in a time where that is not on public display. It is good to be reminded this is, in fact, a desirable thing. So my happy gauge is pegged out after this read. Even better is knowing enough of y'all agree about the happy-making qualities of the read to turn it into an ongoing series! I mean, starting off with a Jane Austen-inspired sentence like: "It is a widely known fact that most moms are ready to kill someone by eight thirty A.M. on any given morning" is gutsy and clever and a gauntlet thrown for your readerly attention.

The alchemy of a cozy series mystery is not, ironically, mysterious: the sleuth must be an amateur; must be within suspension of disbelief as one who knows about crime, usually murder; must have some scoobygroup of supporters and another pride of predatory enemies, usually exes and/or officious bureaucrats; should have a complicated love life or be starting over, falling for a cop or other law-adjacent source; have some figleaf profession that makes this outsider believably (if you squint) able to ask people questions. From there it's a free-for-all. Probably the most consistent downfall of a series is the sidekick, either not interesting or absent entirely or something else that makes one bored with the relationship. No danger of that in Vero! As sidekicks go, she's perfect: Finlay's awful ex-husband hates her, she's great with Finlay's kids (as a nanny I should hope so), and cracks wise with the best screwball-comedy heroines. Vero also asks questions that make sense for her character to ask as well as move the plot forward. That, my olds, is a whole lot harder to do, and rarer to see as a result, than you realize. Vero is the secret sauce on this double-meat, double-cheese, burger of a read.

The ending, while definitely supported by the story, didn't wow me. I had to dock a half-star in spite of the pain it caused me.

I know a lot of us need distraction from *gestures* everything. Here is a solid, enjoyable, engaging distraction that won't leave you sour or unsatisfied.

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FINLAY DONOVAN KNOCKS 'EM DEAD (Finlay Donovan #2)
ELLE COSIMANO
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$9.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead―the hilarious and heart-pounding follow-up to Finlay Donovan is Killing It.

Finlay Donovan is―once again―struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she's dealt with lately is that of her daughter's pet goldfish.

On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he's a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of hit-women disguised as soccer moms, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she'd like.

Meanwhile, Vero's keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life. He may be a hot cop, but Finlay's first priority is preventing her family from sleeping with the fishes... and if that means bending a few laws then so be it.

With her next book's deadline looming and an ex-husband to keep alive, Finlay is quickly coming to the end of her rope. She can only hope there isn't a noose at the end of it...

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I'm sad to do this, but the idea that a cheating, lying sack of shit is a "good father" is too big a leap for me...no way does this story get past four stars. A father is an example of how to be, or what to want in, a man to his children. The example Steven the scumbag sets is terrible, his behavior to Finlay and, not coincidentally, Vero is misogynistic and patronizing, so no way in hell do I think Finlay's Stockholm syndrome-based protection of him from being the subject of a hit is necessarily good. It's morally correct, of course, saving a human life is always that, but...some people just need killin' and he is one.

It stinks to believe human lives should be saved even when they're scumbags. But here we are.

How Finlay and Vero go about this self-appointed task, the people they hate dealing with but who are central to their intended result, and the emergence of Finlay's acerbic, tart-tongued mom, Susan, into the scoobygroup, made this a read I enjoyed...more mutedly...than the first one. Susan is the only possible mother for Finlay, her mode of relating to the world absolutely explains the way her daughter became the woman she is...such a treat to learn, since I like the daughter so much.

Oh, and for the completist readers, y'all's fetishistic "start-with-#1" behavior is completely and utterly the only way to go in this series. A lot would make sense, but not hit the right notes, without the background established in Finlay Donovan is Killing It. Truly this is a series, first and foremost.

There's the required "romance" with, in this book, two unrealistically perfect guys...cop and aspiring lawyer...vying for her attention. Color me unimpressed.

Resolving the threat to Steven, much as I disagree that it's actually truly necessary, does take some turns, deliver some surprisingly unknown dirt, and end in a way that's totally condign. It is, like reality itself, a little less than utterly satisfying...Steven isn't rescued from being eaten by sharks only to fall into a lion's mouth, dammit...but a whole lotta laughs, witty banter, sassy crosstalk, and fun.

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FINLAY DONOVAN JUMPS THE GUN (Finlay Donovan #3)
ELLE COSIMANO
Minotaur Books (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: From USA Today bestseller and Edgar-Award nominee Elle Cosimano, comes Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun—the highly anticipated, hilarious, and heart-pounding next installment in the beloved Finlay Donovan series…

Author and single mom Finlay Donovan has been in messes before―after all, she's a pro at removing bloodstains for various unexpected reasons―but none quite like this. When Finlay and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they had "borrowed" in the process of saving the life of Finlay's ex-husband, the Russian mob did her a favor and bought the car for her. And now Finlay owes them.

Mob boss Feliks is still running the show from behind bars, and he has a task for Finlay: find and identify a contract killer before the cops do. The problem is, the killer might be an officer themself.

Luckily, hot cop Nick has just been tasked with starting up a citizen's police academy, and combined pressure from Finlay's looming book deadline and Feliks is enough to convince Finlay and Vero to get involved. Through firearm training and forensic classes (and some hands-on research with a tempting detective), Finlay and Vero use their time in police academy to sleuth out the real contract killer to free themselves from the mob's clutches―all the while dodging spies, confronting Vero's past, and juggling the daily trials of parenthood.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: When the Russian mob does you a favor, you better know the repayment's gonna be steep.

Like "find a hitman we can't find ourselves" steep.

Of course this is silly, like the people in the killing for profit industry...and specific market-segment leaders...couldn't do this in their collective sleep. You shouldn't read these expecting real-life scenarios (or out of order!) and anyone who does: "Welcome to Earth! I am the Leader, will gladly accept bribes for favors."

Off to hot-cop Nick's well-timed, brand new citizen's cop school go Vero and Finlay. As you'd expect, there's a lot of raillery and badinage; there's a lot of hectic running around; and the mystery, when solved, makes sense and makes it clear we'll have still more adventures ahead. Vero's past is coming to light a bit more. Finlay seems to be inching towards making an emotional commitment to Nick, poor Julian the student-lawyer is fading...for now. The kids are, realistically, being handfuls for Vero the nominal nanny (but really co-parent with Finlay by now) and their mom to ride herd on. Steven the nasty ex-husband is nasty. Mrs. Haggerty, the nosy neighbor, is still clueless and curious and pushy.

If you're on the fence about diving in, get the relationship dynamic clear: These women are the Lucy-and-Ethel of the 2020s. They egg each other on. They get each other's jokes. They have each other's backs. They've got men, but none matter as much as each does to the other. It's a series that centers them, centers their wild and woolly ride through a fantasy universe where there's no statistical crime mapping, no Child Protective Services, no hint of any of the real-world crap we all want to escape from.

So do it with Finlay and Vero, and get them to ease some stress off your shoulders as they set the world to rights for you.