Crime Fiction: The Midwife’s Tale by Sam Thomas and Lady of Ashes by Christine Trent

Both of these historical mysteries focus on women with strong professional lives. But one of them works much better than the other.


Reflecting changes in society, mystery writers have expanded their venues from the days when books cast female protagonists as teachers or nurses. Now, it seems, the sky is the limit.

In The Midwife’s Tale, by Sam Thomas (Minotaur), widowed Lady Bridget Hodgson is

Crime Fiction: The Bones and the Book by Jane Isenberg

It’s not unusual for a historical mystery to be set within a contemporary one. But in The Bones and the Book (Oconee Spirit Press), Jane Isenberg
puts a twist on this configuration.

There is indeed an inner story and an outer one here. But this time, both stories are set in the past, which demands rather more of the reader.

The inner -- that is, older -- story concerns Aliza Rudinsk, a young

Way Too Much of a Good Thing

When I started reviewing books in the mid-1990s, I made no distinction between hardbound and paperback crime/mystery novels.

In fact, I found the general critical consensus on ignoring paperbacks to be elitist and rather offensive. Before I was a critic, I was a reader and, like most fans, I bought paperbacks. Most of the hardbacks I read were ones I took out of the library.

So it made sense,

Crime Fiction: Skeleton Picnic by Michael Norman

Pot hunting, the age-old business of digging up Native American pottery to collect or sell, is at the center of Skeleton Picnic (Poisoned Pen Press), the second book in Michael Norman’s series featuring J.D. Books, a law-enforcement ranger with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) working in the Southwest.

Books, whose life has left him with some pain and sadness, is a character worth

Crime Fiction: The Gilded Shroud and The Deadly Portent by Elizabeth Bailey

Elizabeth Bailey’s The Gilded Shroud (Berkley), published last fall, was billed as the first book in a new series. But it isn’t the sort of book I usually look for. From the blurb on the back cover, it sounded like romantic suspense -- a genre not at the top of my “must-read” list.

Still, I like English historicals, and this one is set during the Regency Period (1811-1820).

I picked the novel

Crime Fiction: A Play of Heresy by Margaret Frazer

Nobody does the Middle Ages better than the pseudonymous Margaret Frazer. Her 15th-century mystery series featuring Dame Frevisse (which began with 1992’s The Novice’s Tale) is an enchanting modern re-creation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

Her second, spin-off series, which focuses on Joliffe the Player, offers different challenges. The latest of those books, A Play of Heresy (Berkley)

Crime Fiction: Following Polly by Karen Bergreen

I know it sounds odd to call a book about a stalker “charming,” but that remains the best word to describe Following Polly (St. Martin’s Griffin), the debut mystery by lawyer-turned-comedian Karen Bergreen.

Usually stories about stalkers are too creepy for me, not the sort of thing I want on my bedside table. But this tale of Alice Teakle, a shy and rather forgettable woman who loses her