P. D. James was an astonishing author for several reasons. First in my mind is that she wrote literary mysteries, second, her output was over 20 books, and third, she managed to write while holding a full-time, high-level government job for a large portion of her career.

            Did I mention that she was the family breadwinner, had two children and a mentally disabled husband? This is where the rest of us whining about not having enough time to write should be humbled. 

            Adam Dalgliesh, the contemporary detective is also a poet, although he doesn’t spout verse while investigating. The pace of her novels is deliberate and cerebral like Dalgliesh himself, although there is gore for those who want it. 

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I met Ivy through an author’s group where we read and reviewed each other’s work. It was there that I became immersed in the thrilling “Overboard” that takes the main character across continents in search of identity and ultimately revenge.

Ivy Ngeow was born and raised in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. She has been writing since she could hold a pencil but turned serious after graduating from Middlesex University with MA in Writing. Here she won her first international competition, the 2005 Middlesex University Literary Press Prize out of almost 1500 entrants worldwide. 

In 2016, she was awarded the International Proverse Prize in Hong Kong for her debut “Cry of the Flying Rhino “(2017). Author of four novels, among them “Heart of Glass” numerous short stories and several mini how-to lifestyle guides, she lives in London. 

Her most recent mystery thriller is “Overboard.”

Click on the cover to get a preview.

It is inspiring and humbling to know that Ann Cleeves had been writing steadily for 20 years before attaining recognition for her work. As a newlywed living on a remote island with her ornithologist husband, she wrote the first of the Vera Stanhope novels that have been made into a long-running television series. 

While I enjoy both those books and the dramatic interpretations, I have been drawn into the Shetland Island series with Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez. You can almost hear the waves crashing against the shore and feel the wind as the melancholy Perez methodically peels back the layers of the mystery at hand. Deeply atmospheric with a good dose of the culture of living on an island, I highly recommend the Shetland series. 

For Vera Stanhope, start with the first:

For Jimmy Perez:

Ellis Peters, author of the Brother Cadfael mystery series, is one of my favorite writers. She has the ability to combine historical reality with memorable fictional people many of whom have a strong moral or religious character. Obviously one of them is the lead personage, Brother Cadfael, a Welsh-born former soldier who comes to his calling late in life at the Benedictine monastery of Shrewsbury. This English border town and castle are a perfect setting during the contested bid for monarchy in the 13^th century where several battles actually occurred; it also highlights the Welsh/English cultural conflicts that exist to this day.

            As Edith Pargeter she also wrote The Brothers of Gwynedd Quartet, a thoughtful reimagining of kingship of 13^thcentury Wales again with strong characters, family conflict and competing alliances. It’s a terrific read. 

            The first in the Cadfael series, about a quarrel over the relocation of a saint’s relics, A Morbid Taste for Bones, has a twisty plot and a good dose of irony.

            A continuation of the Compendium of Authors series, I find myself behind schedule, and so shamelessly will profile myself as the Indie Author of the Week. Born in New York and educated at Syracuse University with a BA and MA, I relocated to North Carolina for further graduate study at Duke University. I fell in love with the countryside, a man soon to be my husband, but Duke not so much. 

We moved to Tucson, Arizona where I became involved in freelance writing for local and regional publications many of which sadly no longer exist. After a long stint in City government, I returned to writing and published four in the DEADLY Series and a standalone about politics, water issues, and romance in the Southwest.

            Coming in September: The Berkshires Cozy Series, a historical mystery set in the 1930s in Western Massachusetts with, of course, a female sleuth.

Below is the first book in the DEADLY series located in North Carolina.

            Elizabeth Peters’ main character, Amelia Peabody, stands out as one of the most distinctive voices in the mystery genre. A feminist, single woman in the 1880s, Amelia has just inherited a fortune and sets out to participate in the heyday of British Egyptian archaeology.

            Amelia meets her archaeologist husband, Radcliffe Emerson, and between the stilted Victorian dialogue emerges a passionate love story, accurate references to actual Egyptian digs, and of course a mystery to be solved. 

            Elizabeth Peters wrote twenty Amelia Peabody books, another series featuring Vicky Bliss, art historian, several non-fiction texts about Egypt under her real name, Elizabeth Mertz, (Ph.D. University of Chicago) as well as other fiction under the pen name Barbara Michaels. 

            I confess that I have only read a handful of the Peabody series but found them delightful, full of references to archaeologists and sites with smart dialogue and a brisk pace. I’m going to go back and read more of them.

            You can start with her first, The Crocodile on the Sandbank. (What a cover!)

When my children were small, there were still independent bookstores in our city and a number of used bookstores, as well. It was in one of these that I first discovered Ngaio Marsh, a New Zealander who sits firmly in the classic mystery tradition and is often referred to as one of the Queens of Crime. (I’ll settle for the moniker Marquesa of Mystery, thank you very much.)

Marsh was active in theater production while living in England in the early 1930s where she wrote her first mystery, A Man Lay Dead, introducing the detective Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. Compared to some of the amateur sleuths or pompous private investigators of the mystery genre, Alleyn is a professional and Marsh elevates him along with a literary style that gives her books depth.

As a theater producer and enthusiast, it is not surprising to find Ngaio Marsh used those references in her titles such as Opening Night or the Shakespearean A Surfeit of Lampreys. 

Why not start at the beginning with the 1934 first in series?

The Indie Author of the week is Scarlett Moss, a pen name for author Scarlett Braden’s Cozy Mystery books. Scarlett is from the southern United States, but currently lives in the Andes mountains of Ecuador. She lives with her husband and Ecuadorian pound puppy, a Schnoodle, named Picasso. Picasso has the self-proclaimed job description of writer’s assistant, and husband Ron works promoting Scarlett’s books. 

When she’s not writing, Scarlett loves enjoying the many festivals in her new adopted home, walks along the river, and sharing a coffee with friends. She does spend a little too much time on Social Media and loves hanging out with her readers in her Facebook group, Scarlett’s Cozy Couch.

Join the readers group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ScarlettsSafeRoom/
Sign up for Scarlett’s newsletter and receive free books including the prequel to the House Sitters Cozy Mystery here: https://www.subscribepage.com/mosscozymysteries

Check out her books here:https://www.amazon.com/Exposed-Edinburgh-House-Sitters-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0836DZKS9/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=Scarlett+braden+moss&qid=1626390020&s=digital-text&sr=1-2

If there is such a thing as a writing machine, Janet Evanovich is it. And that is meant as a compliment. She started in her 30s beginning with serious novels that didn’t get published before diving into romance where she was productive and successful. She then developed the character for which she is most well-known, Stephanie Plum, a New Jersey bounty hunter with quirky friends and family. As of this writing, she has published 27 books in that series with number 28 coming out in November of 2021. 

Remarkably, she has at least three other series: Fox & O’Hare, Wicked, and Knight & Moon written solely or in collaboration with others. What distinguishes her writing is its fast-pace, large doses of humor, snappy dialogue and action that have made her a #1 Bestseller for years. 

She even has her own company!