Grab yourself a cuppa, and settle in with the first Lane Winslow historical mystery, A Killer in King’s Cove. Set in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada (near Nelson, BC), the novel has the feel of a classic British village cozy mystery. The series lead is a British expat and ex-intelligence officer who decides to settle in a remote Canadian town for a quieter life, away from the intrigue and double-dealing that her former job required.

The first few chapters begin like many British cozies, with Lane meeting her new neighbours over cups of tea, and getting an initial peek into the various relationships and intrigues amongst the townsfolk. There are nods to the Canadian wilderness setting, mostly in people doubting Lane’s ability as a single woman to rough it in the bush without a big, strong man at her side. But mostly, the atmosphere is gentle and genteel, and you just know there’ll be more to these neighbours than meets the eye.

Indeed, a few chapters in, a dead body is found in the creek, with Lane’s name on a paper in his pocket. It turns out that the dead man is linked to Lane’s former job. The author gives us glimpses of his story leading up to his fateful trip to Canada, and the corresponding response of British intelligence to the news. All this adds intriguing hints of international espionage to the plot, a la Maisie Dobbs, but overall, the novel maintains its intimate, cozy mystery feel. I’m personally glad it did, because I’m more a fan of village cozies than spy thrillers, and the author has given us plenty of intrigue as it is, amongst Lane’s neighbours.

I love the touches of feminist commentary that the author includes in the novel. One of the reasons Lane slips so easily under the radar as an intelligence officer is that, because she’s a woman, people easily believe she held a boring office job during the war. There’s also a subplot involving a young man who is thrilled to see a woman his age moving into town, and things unfortunately turn ugly when Lane declines his advances.

Mostly, though, there is the contrast between a man from Lane’s past, and Inspector Darling, her likely future love interest. Lane remembers the man from her past as hiding things from her. He is older, and now, with the benefit of hindsight, Lane can see how much she looked up to him, and how patronizing his attitude actually was. At one point, he describes Lane to another character as being “compliant,” which he means as a compliment, and if Lane had been around to hear it, I like to think she would’ve slapped him for that.

In contrast, Inspector Darling respects Lane as an equal. He recognizes the validity of her theories, and even teases his assistant, Constable Ames, that he should learn from Lane’s methods. In perhaps the loveliest bit of romance in the novel, Darling tells Lane, referring to the man from her past, “Miss Winslow, he cannot hold a candle to you.” His wording surprises Lane, because she would have expected him to say the man was “not worthy or not worth it,” meaning that she should just move on from him. Instead, Darling’s phrasing sets her up as the man’s equal, and “she could not remember ever being compared equally to a man, especially not by a man” (397-398). It’s a pointed reminder of the time this story is set, and it also sets the stage for a potential new kind of relationship for Lane, one where she is valued not just as a woman, but as a human being. I’m all for this Inspector Darling / Lane Winslow romance, and I can’t wait to see how it develops over the rest of the series.

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Thank you to Touchwood Editions for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Eden Paternoster goes into Tesco to buy cat litter while her husband Niall looks for parking, but she never comes out, and none of the staff remember her at all. DS Roy Grace, DI Glenn Branson, and their team are assigned the disappearance, and their investigation reveals that nothing is as it originally seems.

Left You Dead is a twisty mystery with a quiet feel. The truth behind Eden’s disappearance seems straightforward at first, but as any long-time mystery buff knows, that usually means there are a lot more secrets to uncover. I love the way Grace, Branson, and their team work to uncover clues. They work really well together, and even the minor side characters are given enough of a personality to make a mark, such as DS Norman Potting who mostly provides comic relief but is battling health issues, and Sharon Orman, whose lip-reading skills provide vital clues. There’s also a subplot about an incompetent and corrupt boss who seems to have it in for Grace, that seems like it’ll have effects on Grace’s career down the road.

The heart of this story, however, lies not in the mystery, but in a subplot concerning Roy Grace’s personal life, and a very difficult decision he needs to make. The subplot turns this into an emotional read, but James treats it with a very restrained touch. The author also makes sure to interweave this through scenes about the investigation, which are much less fraught. Long-time series fans and casual readers alike will feel for Grace, and will wonder about the questions regarding this that James strongly hints at, but deliberately leaves unresolved.

Overall, the subplot makes it tough to call this book a fun read or even an entertaining one. But it is a good one, both a pivotal instalment in the Roy Grace series and a fascinating mystery to unravel. I have an especially soft spot for Reggie, Eden and Niall’s cat, who reveals a hilarious and vivid personality in the few scenes he’s in, and I’m glad to see how the story turns out for him.

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CW: death of a child

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Thank you to Publishers Group Canada for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

We all know Asian aunties are awesome, and in Dial A For Aunties, Jesse Q. Sutanto asks the all-important question: Would your aunties cover up a(n accidental) murder for you?

This book was an absolute delight, from page one all the way to the very end. It’s absolutely, ridiculously absurd, so leave your disbelief at the door, and turn yourself over completely to enjoying the ride. Beyond the humour, Dial A For Aunties is also very much full of heart. Meddy Chan and her aunties are all ride-or-die for each other, and as odd as it may be to think about a book with a murderous cover-up, this is a really sweet and heartwarming family novel.

It all begins with Meddy’s mom sets her up on a blind date, who turns out to be a handsy a-hole. Meddy accidentally kills him in self-defence, and her mom and aunties leap to help her dispose of the body. Except that it’s bad luck to hold a funeral before the wedding, and the blind date happens on the eve of a major wedding that the family will be attending. The five women run a wedding business — “Don’t leave your big day to chance, leave it to the Chans!” Big Aunt bakes the wedding cake, Second Aunt does the hair and makeup, Meddy’s mom does the flowers, Fourth Aunt provides the entertainment, and Meddy is the photographer.

To avoid bad luck for the bride and groom, Meddy and her aunts decide to hide the body in one of Big Aunt’s coolers, and wait till the wedding is over before burying it. Except that Big Aunt oversleeps, and the cooler with the body is sent to the wedding’s island venue along with the other coolers that hold the actual cake. Their attempts to get the body back before their crime is discovered are hilarious! It’s one madcap caper after another, with sibling rivalry going head to head with common sense (guess which wins?), and the aunties’ various schemes getting ever more absurd as the wedding day unfolds. The novel begins with the burning question — will Meddy and her aunties get away with murder? But the more you see them in action, the more confident you become in their ability to outsmart, well, everyone else. These aunties deserve all our applause, and best of all, Meddy also eventually comes into her own and discovers her inner Asian auntie, which just about rounds all five women into a kickass, formidable team.

I also love the romance. Meddy has grown up knowing all about the family curse, where the men in their family either leaving or dying in unlucky circumstances. She’s too savvy to believe it, exactly, but then lives out her version of the curse when she breaks up with her college boyfriend Nathan before graduation. The wedding reunites Meddy with Nathan, and the feelings between them have clearly not diminished with time. The development of their relationship in this novel, interspersed as it is with the murder cover-up and wedding day drama, is really sweet, and by the end, we see not just how good Nathan and Meddy are together, but also how wonderfully Nathan will fit in with Meddy’s family. There’s also a wonderful conversation between Meddy and her mom about the family curse, which was just heart-meltingly sweet.

Beyond all this, I love how absolutely steeped in Asian and Asian-diaspora culture this is. There are the little comedic touches, like the groom being named Tom Cruise Sutanto, which I love because it’s so very Asian. But also, there are a lot of books that tackle the sense of displacement Asian immigrants feel when living in America, so I very much appreciate how the author also explores the cross-cultural identities in Asian families immigrating within Asia, and the further complexities of identities when these families then move to America. The Chans are Chinese immigrants in Indonesia, who then immigrate to Los Angeles. At the most basic, yet also very telling, of levels, this means that Meddy is most comfortable with English and her attempts at Mandarin and Bahasa Indonesian hurt her aunties’ ears, while her mom and aunties are most comfortable with varying mixtures of Mandarin and Indonesian, and have varying degrees of fluency with English. It’s a simple detail, but one that plays out in beautifully complex ways that reveal so much about each woman’s identities and relationships to various aspects of their heritage.

This is a wonderful, delightful book, and I’m so thrilled to have met Meddy and her aunties. Even better? From the author’s note, the book is being adapted for a Netflix movie, and from the excerpt at the end, there will be an equally hilarious and heartwarming sequel.

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This book comes to me courtesy of Another Story Bookshop and a gift card from Penguin Random House Canada, which I won at an online contest to celebrate independent bookstores and the important work they do. In gratitude for this opportunity to read such a wonderful story as Dial A For Aunties, I invite you to check out this map that Penguin Random House Canada has compiled of independent bookstores across Canada. Find your local indie and show it some love!