Amy Myers is known for her short stories and historical novels featuring Victorian chef Auguste Didier and chimney sweep Tom Wasp. Her contemporary series feature ex-cop Peter Marsh and Daughter and classic car detective Jack Colby, and she is currently working on a new series starring Cara Shelley who runs a café in the grounds of stately home Tanton Towers.
Website: www.amymyers.net
Susan Isaacs is known for her many bestselling novels, for her witty, pacy writing and her many awards. She is also a past president of Mystery Writers of America. All that, and so it’s not surprising that her new novel Takes One to Know One is a fantastic read.
Corie Geller, its narrator, was until three years ago working full-time for the FBI. Now, happily married to Federal judge Josh and with a young stepdaughter to look after, she still does some FBI contract work but ostensibly she is a freelance for literary agencies and specialises in assessing Arabic fiction. Near her home in Long Island, a local group of freelancers in differing fields meets every Wednesday for lunch and there is one member of it who attracts her attention. This is not because there is anything overtly odd about him – in fact the contrary is the case – and not because her intuition tells her that something might be amiss. It’s because of her FBI training.
Pete Delaney seems to tick all the boxes for the packet designer he is by trade, and yet Corie decides to find out more about him, and enlisting the help of her father, formerly of the New York police, and that of her best friend, she sets out to do so. The plot builds slowly, but the pace never suffers because the reader is with Corie sharing her investigation and her daily life every step of the way until the final explosion into the truth. A novel to savour and enjoy.
