The LION's GAME by Nelson DeMille...

The Lion's Game by Nelson DeMille was published in 2002 by Grand Central Publishing and is the 2nd book in the John Corey series. 

John Corey is a veteran New York City police detective that does not follow protocol if he can avoid it. Wounded on the job the previous year, Corey is assigned to work with the Anti-Terrorist Task Force during his recovery. Unlike John, the team, comprised of FBI and CIA agents, follows protocol consistently. 

Asad Khalil, whose name means Lion in Arabic, has been in training for the past decade to exact revenge against America for the 1986 bombing of his country. He is now ready to strike. 

While Khalil is stalking his targets, finding and stopping him falls mainly on the shoulders of the irreverent John Corey. Corey's street smarts come in handy after the Lion successfully fulfills part of his personal war against the U.S. However, the ATTF team must first identify and find Khalil's next victim and thwart any further attempts at completing his self-imposed mission of murder.

John Corey's cheeky attitude toward authority, along with his sometimes indelicate turn of phrase, adds a touch of humor that offsets the severe and tragic events of the novel and brings this character to life. But, of course, like any good story, there must be a love interest, and this is a good story! Kate Mayfield, an FBI agent on the task force, fills that role perfectly. She's intelligent, beautiful, good at her job, and keeps John on his toes, which helps him keep his job. 

The Lion's Game is an action thriller at its best. DeMille fans will love this novel. And if you've never read one of his thrillers, you will find The Lion's Game an excellent initiation into this author's work.

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

STILL LIFE: (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny

Still Life: (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) by Louise Penny was published in 2005 by Macmillan Publishers. The story is set in the fictitious small Canadian village of Three Pines near Montreal. When a body is discovered in the woods, Chief Inspector Gamache of the Surete du Quebec and his homicide team are called in to investigate.

Jane Neal, a 76-year-old retired school teacher, has been found dead. While reviewing the scene, Chief Inspector Gamache finds a small puncture wound in her chest. He determines that Jane's demise came from the most unnatural cause. It seems that Jane was shot with a wooden arrow. Was it a hunting accident? After all, Three Pines is a popular spot for hunting. 

Ben Hadley found the body; according to him, Jane was well-liked and respected by everyone in the community. Jane's neighbor and best friend, Clara Morrow, informs Gamache that Jane entered a painting called Fair Day as her submission to a local art gallery opening just before she died. Gamache finds it odd that Jane has never shown her art to anyone before. He also finds it curious that another of Jane's friends, Timmer, died just a few weeks earlier of cancer and that Fair Day was painted at the same time as Timmer's death. What makes things even more curious to Gamache is that during Jane's lifetime, she never let anyone into her house beyond her kitchen. Now that she's dead, Jane's niece Yolande Fontaine will not allow Gamache to go into Jane's house... at all.

What goes on here in this small village? What's happening in Jane's house that seems such a well-guarded secret? Who is Timmer, and how is her death connected to Jane and her painting? Most importantly, who killed Jane... and why?

Still Life is the first novel in the Chief Inspector Gamache Series. Penny's descriptive writing and character development make this book a page-turner. I did not figure out 'whodunit' until the end. It was also the first Louise Penny book that I've read. Fortunately, it won't be the last!

My Personal Review Rating...⭐⭐⭐⭐

The QUICHE of DEATH by M.C. Beaton...

The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton was published in 2006 by St. Martin's Paperbacks. It is a cozy mystery and the first in the Agatha Raisin series of books. The story follows Agatha Raisin, a successful London public relation firm's owner, who decides to chuck it all in and retire from the business for a simpler life in the small village of Carsley in Cotswold. However, Agatha needs help fitting into her new community. Of course, it doesn't help that she steals her neighbor's housekeeper away within the first week of residence. 

When Agatha hears there is to be a baking competition in Carsley, her competitive nature kicks in. She decides to wine and dine the lecherous contest judge and his wife to get the inside scoop on the competitors and enter the competition herself. One problem...Agatha can't cook, so she buys a spinach quiche from a London quiche shop and submits it to the contest as her creation. Unfortunately, things go from bad to worse as Agatha loses the contest, and as it turns out, someone adds an extra ingredient to her quiche, killing the judge. The only way to get out of this pickle is for Agatha to investigate independently of the local police. Along the way, Agatha enlists the aid of her former assistant Roy from her days at the PR firm, her newly acquired housekeeper Gemma, and P.I. Bill Wong, who has a not-so-secret crush on her. 

If you like detective fiction, particularly of the British variety, that is not too heavy on the gore, along with some light comedy and romance, you might enjoy this series as much as I do.  

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

VERA WONG'S UNSOLICITED ADVICE for MURDERERS by Jesse Q Sutanto

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto is a cozy mystery. The story takes place in San Francisco’s Chinatown. It centers around Vera Wong, the owner of a local teashop called ‘Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse’ (named after the famous fashion designer with the hopes of drumming up more business). Vera is a lonely woman in her sixties who misses her late husband and feels neglected by her successful lawyer son. Vera lives upstairs from the teahouse that she owns and operates, which has seen better days, and she seems to be having a one-sided rivalry with the owner of the bakery shop next door.

One morning as Vera prepares to start her day, she discovers a dead man lying on the floor of her run-down shop. The police are called to the scene but are less than enthusiastic to include Vera in their investigation, no matter how many delicious delicacies and specially blended teas she tries to serve them. Not one to give up, Vera turns amateur detective. Finally, she decides to investigate independently when her teahouse suddenly attracts the attention of several individuals who seem interested in the dead man. The story continues as secrets are uncovered, suspects come and go, friendships are formed, and finally, the murderer is discovered. 

If you are looking for a mystery that does not include all the explicit gory details of the crime, has endearing characters, and will make you laugh out loud along the way, you should read this book.

My Personal Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

MAGPIE MURDERS by Anthony Horowitz

Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz is a mystery novel published in 2016 by The Orion Publishing Group. It's the first book in the Susan Ryeland series and an excellent introduction to it. The book uses a story within a story format, primarily focusing on the murder of a mystery writer.  

The main story goes like this, Susan Ryeland, a book editor, receives a copy of a manuscript by best-selling author Alan Conway. Unfortunately, Conway has a less-than-pleasant demeanor and is not exactly one of Susan's favorite clients. As a point of fact, Susan loves her job and only puts up with Alan because his books are so successful. And this latest story promises to be another triumph. However, the odd thing about this new manuscript is that as Susan nears its end, she notices that the book's final chapter still needs to be added. After all, who writes a murder mystery without an ending? And when Susan is told that Alan Conway has died of an apparent suicide, she suspects all is not as it appears. So she decides to investigate Conway's death to learn the truth and find the manuscript's missing chapter while at it.

Atticus Pünd, the 1950s fictionalized detective and the main protagonist of Conway's successful books, is charged with investigating a murder at a local manor house in this latest novel. However, the more Susan reads, the more convinced she is that another story is hidden in its pages. So can Susan solve the mystery in the final Atticus Pünd novel without the last chapter, or...can the fictional Atticus help Susan solve the mystery of Alan Conway's death? You'll need to read Magpie Murders to find out. This is a carefully crafted puzzler with an ending you won't see coming. And a must-read for anyone that loves a good mystery.

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

STATE of TERROR by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny

State of Terror is co-authored by Hillary Rodham Clinton & Louise Penny. The novel was published in 2021 by Simon & Schuster. It is a fast-paced, suspenseful political thriller. 

A group of Pakistani nuclear scientists traveling through three major European cities has been killed in local bus bombings. When a low-level State Department employee receives a strange message, rather than dismissing it as spam, she copies and decodes the note, believing it might have been written by her friend and former lover, who also happens to be the estranged son of the newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State. After realizing that another bomb attack on a bus is imminent, the staffer passes the message on to the Secretary of State, who discovers that her son is on the bus and sends him a warning. But did Madam Secretary's message get there in time? Was her son able to stop the bombing? The answers can be found throughout the pages of this absorbing book.

The two authors brought their A-game when collaborating on this novel. Louise Penny's fleshed-out characters and Hillary Rodham Clinton's political expertise gives the reader an inside look at how this nail-biting tale could have played out in real life. So if you're a political junkie and love a good thriller...this is it.   

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

NONNA MARIA and the CASE of the MISSING BRIDE by Lorenzo Carcaterra

'Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride' by Lorenzo Carcaterra, published in 2022 by Bantam, is a cozy mystery set on the island of Ischia off the coast of the Italian mainland. The main character is Nonna Maria, an elderly widow and Italy's answer to Miss Jane Marple. Like Jane, Nonna Maria is a friend to many of the residents on the island and someone they all turn to when there is trouble brewing, and the local police can't seem to help. 

When one of her close friends is murdered, Maria steps in to help the local carabinieri (police), Captain Murino, solve the murder and, hopefully, prevent the possible murder of Anna, a lifelong islander and the daughter of another friend. Anna is newly engaged to Andrea, a less-than-savory character with a previous marriage and a past that raises more questions than he's willing to answer. Maria steps in to help when Anna confides that she's afraid of her fiance.

Nonna Maria is one cagey grandma, as she brings a cast of characters she counts as friends to help her resolve one murder and hopefully prevent another. The story moves quickly and is one I thoroughly enjoyed. This is it if anyone is looking for a good mystery that isn't grizzly. This is the first book by Mr. Carcaterra to introduce this excellent character, and I hope she will reappear in future books by this author.

My Personal Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐