The Lady of the Ravens by Joanna Hickson

 

 The Lady of the Ravens by Joanna Hickson. HarperCollins, 2020. Historical fiction.

Joan Vaux has grown up near royalty and now serves the queen, the former Elizabeth of York. King Henry VII holds the throne amid intrigues and treachery. Their young family including Arthur, Henry, and daughters are central to Joan's life. Joan marries Sir John Guilford and her story at court and in London is told with detail and compassion. 

If you enjoy this title, look for more books by Joanna Hickson about the Tudors. 

The Cloisters: A Novel by Katy Hays

 

 The Cloisters: A Novel by Katy Hays. Blackstone Publishing, 2022. Large Print edition(not edition shown). Adult fiction.

When Ann Stilwell moves to New York City from Walla Walla, Washington, she does a summer internship at The Cloisters, the medieval museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her boss, Patrick, and Rachel, another young researcher who works there, become major influences on Ann's life and work. Rachel is wealthy and seems too good a friend to be true. Leo, a gardener there, is handsome and mysterious. Ann is not sure she believes some of the new theories she is learning about tarot cards and determining fate in pre Renaissance times. 

The descriptions are marvelous. This will probably be a terrific movie. But, it reads as a cautionary tale of a young adult who is trying to decide who deserves one's trust and how to leave the past behind and find a future. 

The Wise Women: A Novel by Gina Sorell

 

 The Wise Women: A Novel by Gina Sorell. Harper, 2022. Adult fiction.

The Wise family women: mother and long time advice columnist Wendy; daughter Barb, an architect who has ventured too much in her business and whose partner Jill is cheating on her; and daughter Clementine, mother of six-year-old Jonah, and in desperate straits since her husband, Steve, did not invest Barb and Clementine's money in a home as they thought, but in his risky AquaVeg flavored water business. The girls have long been estranged from their mom in Boca, but Wendy thinks she can help now.  The Wise women come together at last and find that they all have hidden talents and can pull together for new beginnings and a future maybe better than the ones they had dreamed. 

Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah

 

 Closed Casket (The NEW Hercule Poirot Mystery based on Agatha Christie's classic character) by Sophie Hannah. William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins, 2016. Adult mystery.

Poirot and Scotland Yard detective Edward Catchpole have been invited to a elegant estate in Ireland by Lady Playford. The wealthy woman is about to announce that she is leaving all she has, not to her adult son and daughter as expected, but to Joseph Scotcher, an employee who apparently is dying of liver disease. Of course, someone must die and Poirot, in a drawing room scene with everyone but the dead person present, solves the crime and ties up all the loose ends after leading readers on a trail of clues.

Hannah was successful with her first Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders. The family of Agatha Christie is thanked with the dedication and endnotes so apparently Hannah is the heir apparent to continuing the characters into the future. The novel is beautifully put together with wallpaperish dividing pages and even a great map of the Lillieoak mansion. Her details about Poirot are spot on.

The Thursday Murder Club book series by Richard Osman

 

These three mysteries by Richard Osman involve the residents of an upscale retirement community. Elizabeth, a former spy, is friends with Joyce who writes diary entries. Ron and Ibrahim round out their Thursday Murder Club to discuss cold cases. The humor can't be beat and the plotting is fast and moves the stories along briskly. 

The foursome are on the trail of more murder and this time diamonds are involved. Can they solve the crimes? Again, the laughs are included in this geriatric romp. Elizabeth's chess playing husband, Stephen, is increasingly forgetting things and this sweet romance adds a bittersweet touch. 

  Former associates of Elizabeth's add zingers to this third book in the series. Elizabeth is told she must kill or be killed. Viktor of the Russian Cold War era really has a crush on her...when he is not trying to kill anyone. Ron has found Pauline, a makeup artist for the local tv news, and their visit to a massage parlor is worth the whole book! 

Family Patterns by Kristin Eckhardt

 

Family Patterns by Kristin Eckhardt. Patchwork Mysteries series. Guideposts, 2010.

Set in Maple Hill, Massachusetts, this is the tale of Sarah Hart, a friendly retirement aged woman who restores vintage quilts. When her son and his family move into Sarah's grandparents' old house in town, her twin granddaughters find a formerly hidden passageway and a baby quilt belonging to Sarah's own father. The family mystery has long been that the woman who made this quilt, Molly Drayton, disappeared one night in 1920. Sarah begins to search for clues about what might really have happened to her grandmother. With the help of the local librarian, neighbors, the quilt store owner, and others, the plot thickens into a quite satisfying mystery. The Christian beliefs are successfully woven into the story and should not be offensive to anyone.