all your Reads in Here

A new Monkeewrench novel by P.J. Tracy is always a treat. While the mother half, P.J., of P.J. Tracy died in 2016, Traci successfully keeps the series interesting. Some will want more of the Monkeewrench team in the current novel,  The Guilty Dead . As a fan of the police procedural aspect, I was perfectly satisfied with the latest book. A year after a junkie is murdered in Hollywood, that death kicks off a crime spree in Minneapolis. Homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth catch the case when the junkie's father dies. Gregory Norwood's death appears, at first glance, to be a suicide, but because the Minnesota businessman and philanthropist died of a single gunshot to the head a year after the death of  his son Trey, Magozzi is suspicious, and pushes the crime scene investigators to look further. While he and Gino focus on Norwood, Magozzi's partner, Grace MacBride, and her Monkeewrench team of computer geniuses are working on a prototype for a new software program...

There seem to have been an extraordinary number of weddings in mysteries this summer. No, librarian Kathleen Paulson isn't the one getting married in Sofie Kelly's  The Cats Came Back . But, she's part of the wedding party and planning throughout the book. It's not a major plot line, but the characters are important to the series. Kathleen's two magical cats, Hercules and Owen, are essential to the main storyline. There's a music festival going on in Mayville Heights, Minnesota, with a number of performers in town. It's just part of the town's ongoing promotions. Hercules and Owen are part of that, posing for Ruby, a photographer, for a fundraising calendar to promote the town. Hercules has a different focus one night at the marina, though. Ruby finally goes to see what Hercules is focused on, and finds a body. Kathleen and Ruby both assume it's singer Emme Finley. Kathleen's the first to realize it's Emme's lookalike assistant, Miranda. ...