
by Sandra Murphy
Cynthia Chow
This week we have some more Penguin mysteries for your May reading–Gone with the Witch: A Wishcraft Mystery by Heather Blake, Berry the Hatchet: A Cranberry Cove Mystery by Peg Cochran, Mrs. Malory and Death is a Word by Hazel Holt, and Hearse and Gardens: A Hamptons Home and Garden Mystery by Kathleen Bridge.

by Sharon Tucker
Prior to reading Hazel Holt’s Mrs. Malory mysteries, it hadn’t particularly occurred to me that literary critics would make first rate detectives. It does make sense though if you consider that critics “pluck out the heart” of a writer’s mystery as a matter of course. Critics have a discerning intelligence that would prove invaluable to the police and private detectives as would understanding motivations, analyzing character and making logical inferences.