I was on vacation the last two weeks, coming back to summer. Although we were at Disney World, with all the busyness that suggests, I did read a lot.

The Unsettling Crime . . . by Terry Shames was the first of her books I read. And it was very very good. So good I have already ordered the first one in the series.

In this one, Craddock, a very young lawman in Texas, gets pulled into the execution style murders of a black family squatting nearby. No one will talk to him, When a friend from ‘Darktown’ is arrested by another agency, Craddock jumps in with both feet to free the innocent man and see justice done. A+

Another excellent mystery is Deborah Crombie’s A Killing of Innocents.

A young woman, a doctor in training, hurries across London. A man bumps into her, and a few steps later Sasha collapses and dies on the sidewalk. Who could possibly want to kill her? The roots of the crime are hidden in the past. Another stellar mystery.

Julia Kydd leaves London for New York City and her half-brother. Phillip controls her inheritance but she is due to receive it in a few weeks when she turns twenty-five. But Phillip has begun a legal case designed to show their father did not intend to leave half his estate to her. The murder of a suffragette offers Julia the chance to prove the death was murder and thus win a wager, and her inheritance, with her brother. Only the case proves much more involved than Julia could have guessed. Another great mystery.

Saffron Everleigh wants to be a botanist like her father but in the 1920s it is a struggle. But when her mentor, Dr. Maxwell, is accused of poisoning the wife of another academic, Saffron jumps in to prove his innocence, She almost dies trying. Light, frothy and with a dash of romance.

In 1920s Bangalore, the British are still a formidable presence. Kaveri’s husband Ramu is a doctor; they are invited to the Century Club for a mixed gathering. A man is found stabbed to death outside. That sends Kaveri on a hunt for the murderer.

Charming, joyful, exotic. I loved this book.

Finally, I read number fourteen of the Hannah Ives series and it is another winner. Hannah and her husband Paul buy a small cottage on the shore, While the renovations are going on, the mummified corpse of a baby is found hidden in the chimney. Hannah begins investigating, trying to determine the identity of the baby and understand exactly what happened. One of Talley’s strengths is weaving in serious subjects (in this case, racism) and still keeping the book fun and not too dark.

On to fifteen.