If I could read this over again for a first time I would. Riveting and keeps you sucked in the whole time. Absolutely love this authors writing. I will be looking for more from her.

Absolutely loved it!! Did not disappoint and I’ve now found a new favorite authors. This book kept me guessing and had me gasping out loud. Pulled on the heart strings so hard but just enough to be pleasant.

What’s true? Dorothy Sayers founded the Detection Club for the best of the best mystery fiction writers of the time. May Daniels, a young English nurse, disappeared while on a day trip to France. Sayers and her reporter husband, Mac, investigated May’s disappearance and probable murder. Marie Benedict takes these facts and creates a locked room mystery solved by the all-star Queens of Crime: Sayers, Agatha Christie, Emma Orczy, Ngaio Marsh, and Margery Allingham. At first the investigation is a bit of a lark, a way to prove their worth by solving a mystery the police and their fellow (male) mystery writers can’t. But the queens bond as they learn about the sweet, naive person May was. The press describe a very different woman, turning public opinion against the victim. She had it coming. The police jump at any excuse to unofficially stop investigating (since they aren’t getting anywhere). Only the Queens care about justice for May, and all of the expendable young women like her.

Bought for me as a birthday gift and I couldn’t be happier either it! Tina Kent is all about the spice!!

Caldwell’s gritty realism tale of the squalor of Depression Era Georgia. Jeeter Lester is not a Rockwell romanticized humble cotton farmer enduring against all odds. He is mean and petty, pathetic and starving. He can’t remember the names of his 17 children, but almost all ran away as soon as they could. He is hopelessness and inertia when people value the cotton mills far more than the cotton crops.

Dorian's mother died in torment in a 19th century asylum -- per his grandfather's orders. Okay, maybe the old earl didn't actual order the torment, but he probably approved of it. Because he did not approve of Dorian's mother. Or of Dorian, for that matter. Dorian seems afflicted with the same wasting brain disease that lead to said torment and death. And with the old earl and most of the rest of the family now dead, it's up to Dorian to marry and ensure an heir. Fortunately Gwen is interested in medicine even she can't be a doctor. If she marries Dorian she'll have access to his wealth to build her own hospital and her very own dying madman patient to study. The Mad Earl's Bride is fun, fast-paced, and silly.

Mary Kenney is a video game developer writing to encourage girls and women to bring their talents to her industry. She addresses Gamergate and her own experience with misogyny in gaming early on. The women included go back to Mabel Addis Mergardt who designed a game for an IBM educational program in 1963. Kenney’s message is clear: women have been integral to the video game industry from day 1. The only thing I dislike about this book is the order. The short bios seem arranged in whatever order Kenney thought of the women to include. Maybe chronologically would have made more sense.

I’m a big fan of the Meg Langslow Mysteries. The series has gotten maybe a little too cozy with too many delightful side characters who have to make an appearance in every book. I like to go back and re-read the really good earlier books in the series, like No Nest. Meg and fiance Michael host an eXtreme croquet tournament on their new sprawling property. Members of the local historical society make up a team as do their arch-enemies the real estate developers. A disgraced former professor had history with both teams (and Michael). And now she’s dead.

Steve Smith is recently out of prison. He’s sworn he’s not going back to his old life, not going back to prison again. He has an adult son he’s never met. And Steve has memories of the book he found on a bus that led to a favorite teacher disappearing when he was 14. We follow Steve through transcripts of recorded notes he left on his phone. Because in trying to find out what happened to Miss Iles (or “missiles” per the transcription software) Steve falls down the vast Twyford Code conspiracy rabbit hole. Was Twyford just a children’s author? Or a spy who hid messages to other WWII spies in her books? Maybe she was a double agent? Did she help the Nazis steal Britain’s gold reserves? Or did she save the gold via bluffs and double bluffs? Her code (does it even exist?) leads to the stolen (or possibly saved) gold. Or to a supervirus and it’s vaccine. Or aliens. Or it’s the biggest internet conspiracy hoax ever. Who knows what? Who’s lying about what they know? And what did happen to Miss Iles in 1983?

Donovan explores board games from ancient Egypt (senet) and Ur (the royal game of Ur) up to the biggies of the 21st century (Pandemic, Catan, and Ticket to Ride). He describes some less than ethical dealings by the big US game companies, but seems to downplay them. Trying to play nice, maybe? His chapter on Monopoly portrays the execs of Parker Brothers as being unfortunately duped instead of deliberately squashing The Landlord Game and its creator, Elizabeth Magie. It’s All a Game even touches on Google’s AlphaGo defeat of a (human) grand master go player, one of the big steps in AI development.