Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson

Started: 2/26/2026

Finished: 2/24/2026

Year: 2024

Pages: 169

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing wiht series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones in this funny mystery. I’d hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

"So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters: masters of the art of misdirection.

"THE MAGICIAN

"THE ASSISTANT

"THE EXECUTIVE

"THE HYPNOTIST

"THE IDENTICAL TWIN

"THE COUNSELLOR

 "THE TECH

"My clues are even more abstract: A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there. A baffling locked room mystery committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens. And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it’s Christmas.

"If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

"After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn’t it?"

Opinion: The style of Stevenson's murder books are refreshingly different. A fun quick murder mystery with plenty of suspects.

Crafting for Sinners by Jenny Kiefer

Started: 2/24/2026

Finished: 2/26/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 312

Genre: horror

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job at New Creations—a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in Kill Devil.

"In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store—and attack her. As Ruth fights for her life using only the crafting supplies at hand, she plunges deeper into the tangled web of the New Creationists, who are hiding a terrible secret that threatens not only her but the entire town."

Opinion: I laughed at the gore and horror stuff-I usually laugh through horror movies too. As a former Michaels employee, the setting of a craft store was interesting...but more like Hobby Lobby instead of a Michaels. And btw, loving someone isn't a sin.

The Body Farm by Patricia Cornwell

Started:  2/22/2026

Finished: 2/24/2026

Year: 1994

Pages: 387

Genre: mystery

Grade: B

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series in order

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Dr. Kay Scarpetta travels to North Carolina to investigate the murder of an eleven-year-old girl, but the evidence does not add up, and she must conduct a gruesome experiment at a remote research facility to find the answers."

Opinion: I read this one SEVERAL years ago but remembered a lot of what happened. Good mysteries and introduction to new characters

Midnight Timetable: A Novel in Ghost Stories by Bora Chung

Started: 2/20/2026

Finished: 2/22/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 1881

Genre: horror

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book

Type: paperback

Blurb (from Amazon): "The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer’s goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels the lives of those who seek to possess it. Meanwhile a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee steals a cursed sneaker down the hall, but later finds he can’t escape its tread. The cat in Room 206 begins to reveal the crimes of its former family, wanting to understand its own path to the Institute’s dimly lit halls."

Opinion: Unlike some collections of short stories, these actually tie in with each other which makes them more enjoyable. I can always appreciate a good ghost story. None of them scared me or made me anxious.

Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke

Started: 2/17/2026

Finished: 2/20/2026

Year: 2009

Pages: 310

Genre: mystery

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book, continuing with series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Hannah Swensen, Lake Eden, Minnesota's finest bakery owner and amateur sleuth, discovers a body floating in a health club jacuzzi. When her part-time flame, Detective Mike Kingston, becomes the prime suspect, he recruits Hannah to find out whodunit."

Opinion: Too many policemen who have told Hannah not to get involved investigations now want her to investigate this particular murder-very unrealistic. Decent mystery but pretty easy to figure out whodunit

Brothers of the Gun by Mark Lee Gardner

Started: 2/15/2026

Finished: 2/16/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 246

Genre: Biography

Grade: B-

Reason for reading: library book

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday: Legendary gunfighters and friends who gained immortality because of a thirty-second shootout near a livery stable called the O.K. Corral. Their friendship actually began three years before that iconic 1881 gunfight, in the rollicking cattle town of Dodge City. Wyatt, an assistant city marshal, was surrounded by armed, belligerent cowboys. Doc saw Wyatt’s predicament from a monte table in the Long Branch saloon and burst out the door with two leveled revolvers shouting, “Throw up your hands!” The startled cowboys did, and Wyatt and Doc led them off to jail. Wyatt credited Doc with saving his life, and thus began their lasting—and curious—friendship.

"In this illuminating dual biography, the first about Earp and Holliday, the lives of these two men, one a sometime lawman and the other a sometime dentist, are chronicled in a swirling tableau of saloons, brothels, gambling dens, stage holdups, arrests, manhunts, and revenge killings. And while there’s plenty of gunsmoke in this saga, hero-worshipping won’t be found. Wyatt and Doc, just like anyone else then and now, had their flaws and failings, and the unsavory parts of their lives are here, too.

"In Brothers of the Gun, Old West authority Mark Lee Gardner reveals fresh information about Wyatt’s and Doc’s early lives, their famous friendship, the O.K. Corral gunfight, and Wyatt’s controversial “vendetta ride” following the assassination of his brother Morgan. Drawing upon new research into diaries, letters, court records, and contemporary newspaper reports, as well as firsthand observation at several historic sites, this is the definitive book on Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and their enduring bond. Brothers of the Gun is edge-of-your-saddle nonfiction storytelling at its best."

Opinion: This was more about Wyatt than about Doc so the title is a little bit misleading. Interesting history.

All My Bones by P.J. Nelson

Started: 2/11/2026

Finished: 2/14/2026

Year: 2025

Pages: 336

Genre: mystery

Grade: C

Reason for reading: library book, continuing series

Type: hardcover

Blurb (from Amazon): "Madeline Brimley recently inherited a bookstore in Enigma, Georgia, is embarking on her second career, after her first one (acting) founders upon the metaphorical rocks. Settling in, Madeline recruits her friend Gloria Coleman, the local Episcopal priest, to help her plant azaleas in the front yard of the old Victorian that houses the bookstore. Turning the soil, however, uncovers the body of one Beatrice Glassie, a troublesome woman who has been missing for the past six months.

"When her friend Gloria is arrested for the murder, Madeline is determined to prove her innocence and, as she quickly finds out, there aren't many people in town who hadn't wanted to kill Bea Glassie at one point or another. And the very expensive and rare first edition of a particular volume of Grimm's Fairy Tales―ordered by the victim and her sister is somehow tied to the grim death. With the help of her not-quite-boyfriend, a local lawman, and her deceased aunt's best friend, Madeline plans to set a trap to catch the real murderer―before she becomes the next victim."

Opinion: An okay mystery-not enough suspects. Interesting background of Gloria.