Traces
by Patricia L. Hudson

Historical fiction telling the story of frontier life from Rebecca Boone’s perspective
 
 

Murder under a Red Moon
by Harini Nagendra

Kaveri the woman detective of Bangalore has a new mystery — brought to her by her disapproving mother-in-law. The owner of a local mill is sure someone is embezzling. Only he, his wife, his daughter, and his daughter’s fiancé (mill manager) have access to the money and ledgers. Kaveri arranges a meeting, but the time is abruptly pushed up an hour. Something seems fishy. Kaveri brings her police detective friend with her to the new time. The mill owner is shot just as they arrive. Good thing Kaveri brought an alibi. When framing her doesn’t work, the villain(ess) tries to murder Kaveri. She solves the mystery with the help of her many friends — women and children from all castes — and their contacts. This is the second in The Bangalore Detective Club series. The are the best continuation of the spirit and characters from the Nancy Drew mysteries that I’ve read. Kaveri isn’t titian-haired but she is definitely a plucky girl detective ready to right any injustice.
 
 

Sweet Tea & Wedding Rings
by Rachel Hanna

Book 4 of the Sweet Tea stories
 
 

Death of an Author
by Aidan Marchine

It’s . . . interesting. A prominent Canadian author is murdered. There’s no gun, no witnesses. A scholar of her work is invited to her invitation-only funeral, questioned by the police, harassed by a reporter, and accused of murdering the writer. And someone impersonating him has been emailing the writer for months. This novella about creative AI was 95% AI written. (Aidan Marchine is an AI-generated pen name for the combined efforts of Stephen Marche and his several AI co-writers.) More interesting than the plot is Marche’s short essay on how he created this novella and his thoughts on creative AI technology. So it’s worth reading for both the mystery story (spoiler: the ending is not quite satisfying) and for the afterward.
 
 

A Distant Music
by B. J. Hoff

The story of struggles & hopes in a small KY coal mining town
 
 

File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents
by Lemony Snicket

Lemony Snicket narrates 13 early cases during his apprenticeship to the Secret Organization. These are mini-mysteries predating the Unfortunate Events series. The mysteries and their solutions are separate files to prevent them falling into the wrong hands. I assume in the book the solutions are in the back. The audiobook has them on the last disc after all of the mysteries. It probably works better in the book. I definitely recommend the book, not the audio, to fans of A Series of Unfortunate Events. Listening to this has actually inspired me to reread those books. (Maybe listen to the first few on audio because I know them so well and because Tim Curry was the original narrator.) This audio has the odd solution on the last disc problem. It's also read by 13 different people. Which is odd to listen to because all of the stories are told in first person narration by Lemony Snicket. Having different readers feels like a marketing gimmick that failed. But definitely read the book.
 
 

Deceitful Vows
by Brook Wilder

Sweet and innocent (Photographer Paige) meet mysterious and handsome (Bratva Boss Andrei) Paige’s life gets turned upside down after a brief but scary encounter with Andrei at a wedding she was hired to photograph. Pretty good read.
 
 

Sweet Tea And Honey Bees
by Rachel Hanna

Quick read in Sweet Tea series by this author. Feel good story as the sisters find new ways to continue their mother’s legacy
 
 

Sweet Tea Sunrise
by Rachel Hanna

Continuing story of sisters & their relationship
 
 

Sweet Tea B&B
by Rachel Hanna

Sweet story of siblings making connections they didn’t know had existed