100 Books Like Yesterday's Echo

This book takes place in the windy city of Chicago and Clark is adept at making you feel like you are right there in the midst of the fast-paced, gritty city as you read.

The plotting helps by kicking off with a bang – a priest and a gang member found dead in church. Questions abound. But what really kept me turning the pages of this book (or technically swiping since I read it on my Kindle) was Cass Raines, retired cop turned PI.

Her last case on the police force left her reeling and she struggling to deal with the aftermath.

It’s Cass that makes this book stand out amongst other PI novels, you care about what she’s going through, about this new trauma that has been introduced into her life, and that through it all she’s still working to get justice for people that are often overlooked and… show more.

Lark Chadwick is my kind of protagonist – gutsy, smart, and burdened with a past that won’t let go.

When the aunt who raised her dies, Chadwick refuses to believe that suicide was the cause. Digging into the circumstances surrounding one death she discovers the truth about the deaths of her parents who were killed in an accident that only she survived.

A fledgling journalist, Chadwick talks herself into a job with the local paper, a first step in the many adventures that follow her in an exciting series that takes her all the way to the White House. Author John DeDakis, a former veteran CNN journalist, infuses the award-winning series with real-life drama and authenticity.

My late husband was a child immigrant, and for many years I listened as he and his family shared their experiences of balancing the opportunities this country offered with the deep and abiding loss they felt for the world they left behind.

Perhaps that’s why The Streel struck such a deep chord. It’s a mystery –and the first book in an enticing new series – but it’s also the story of young Bridget Reardon, an Irish immigrant who gives up all she holds dear to build a new life for herself in the tumultuous America of the 1880s.

I empathized with Bridget as she ached for the past, cheered her on as she outsmarted a clever killer, and look forward to her continuing saga in Mary Logue’s next volume, The Big Sugar.  

At my daughters’ elementary school, sign language was part of the curriculum both for hearing and deaf students, so I was intrigued to see how A. F. Whitehouse used her knowledge and experience as a former sign language interpreter in Signs of Murder.

The book, the first in an intriguing new series, features Dana Demeter, a Chicago homicide detective who grew up hearing in an all-deaf family.

Demeter struggles with her grief over a miscarriage, her anxiety over the future of her marriage, her concerns for her aging parents, and a penchant to drown her sorrows in alcohol even as she searches for the person who killed her father’s deaf friend.

A solid and satisfying read, with a twisting trail of clues into a puzzling mystery and profound insight into the world of the deaf. 

Kaya Clark is the wild child I longed to be growing up. Although her family story is tragic and well-explored, how she inhabits her world of nature and allows it to inhabit her is stunning. Once again, she is a young woman who is an outcast who manages to rise above her limitations and those placed on her by society. 

Beyond the incredible storytelling and intriguing plot lines, I was mesmerized by the natural world of the North Carolina marshes, being as much a main character as Kaya herself. The intricate details of the lushness and cruelty of the natural world were incredible. In looking back at my favorite novels, one of the commonalities is the writing’s ability to come alive in my head and to take up a permanent space as much as my own lived memories. This novel is one of those.

Dani Pettrey is the master of suspense and romance! So if you’re wanting a story that will thrill you in alllllll the feels, this is it! It’s the first of a trilogy and has characters you will fast be drawn to. She doesn’t hold back on the action or the suspense. Pettrey provides us with a story that is fast-paced and designed to be read with your eyes half-closed holding your breath for the next high-octane moment. And her heroes? Don’t get me started. (insert all the heart emojis here)

Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie in Julie Klassen’s Shadows of Swanford Abbey. Rebecca is bidden by her recluse brother to get his manuscript published by an author residing at the abbey. A mysterious death occurs for which Rebecca is a suspect. Even worse, the man she used to care for is the presiding magistrate. Klassen is always faithful in detailing Regency elements in every single area of her work from the clothing, jury procedures, customs, architecture, etc. The mystery was seamlessly woven into the history.

This books is a delightful mash-up of romantic suspense, a spy thriller, and a cozy mystery. While I was reading it, I couldn’t help thinking how much more interesting James Bond would have been if he’d been paired with women who challenged him. And it’s funny. If an author can make me laugh out loud while reading, they have me hooked. Sandra does a masterful job of infusing her characters with all the best things we learn are important to a romance as we grow older: equality, mutual respect, and a desire to form true partnerships. 

Early on, what the then-publisher sought, and what the characters preferred apparently diverged, because a few of the titles have an “alternate universe” relationship with the main mystery world.

That didn’t bother me one bit, when the characters and the historical aspects of Napoleonic Britain are so well drawn. Grant is particularly adept at exploring the odd corners of this time period—the diplomatic convolutions, New World repercussions, and sociological upheaval in Britain itself following Waterloo.

As the series progresses, the main protagonists build a community of sleuths, and the relationships complexify right along with the politics. Absolutely wonderful!

Including novellas (two of them prequels), this series is closing in on 30 titles.

This 2022 psychological thriller was a fun read in so many ways. Like Maum’s novel, it takes a slightly unique approach to the typical affair story, following a young woman whose life is torn apart when her married lover and his wife die, and she is blamed for it (despite not knowing the man was even married!)

In this book, Collins explores the most archaic notion known to man: that people have been blaming women for things since the dawn of time. Literally, since Eve’s consumption of an apple in the Garden of Eden, through the twentieth century, women paid consequences, and men went on their merry way. Flora Collins gives this notion a modern twist. Yes, some things never seem to change—but technology has increased both the risks and the consequences of any relationship.

Vera’s entire life is destroyed by what happens to her; she can’t even return to… show more.