Sharon Short

Aurelia came to Trouble Island hoping to escape her past, but Trouble Island is aptly named and has brought danger instead. Aurelia is a sevant to Rosita, a woman in solitude, mourning the murder of her son a year ago. The women have one thing in common: they are gangsters’ wives. A limited staff lives in the mansion on the island that serves as the gangsters’ stopping off port between Canada and United States. Everyone is surprised when Rosita’s husband Eddie shows up unannounced one show more frigid day with an entourage of his own. They are even more surprised when Eddie announces that he is forcing Rosita to sell her island to Marco, a rival gangster. It seems Eddie needs money, and cares not that Rosita must leave her chosen refuge. But there will be bloodshed, lots of it, before the deal comes to fruition. If it ever does. This exciting thriller is a page-turner. The time period, 1920s and early 1930s, as well as the setting, are well defined, and the characters are well developed. Aurelia is a complex character, and her desperate situation as she fears for her life will have readers hoping for the best for her. There are many surprises along the way, twists and turns that are quite unexpected. The suspense just keeps building from the beginning to the astonishing conclusion. A masterfully written thriller, this just might be Sharon Short’s best book yet.

I received a complementary copy from the author through Minotaur Books for which I am grateful, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. show less

Breezy in tone and action, cozy in style and readability. Chock full of small-town-isms: Now, in a small town, many things are Automatically Known. Like who is cheating, who is lying, who is purely sweet, and who is just pretending. … I reckon all of us in a small town trail around our invisible mantles of family history.

Josie Toadfern inherited the local laundromat from her uncle, along with his house and autistic son, Guy, who lives in a care center nearby. She sells the house, puts the show more proceeds in a trust fund for Guy, and moves into the apartment over her laundromat in Paradise, Ohio. The biggest employer in town is the family-owned Breitenstrater Pie Company; and pies are at the heart of this mystery.

All sorts of Paradisites inhabit the pages of this story, from quirky to endearing, friend to foe, black sheep to blue blood. And if a fun, fast read isn't enough, the back pages are stuffed full of Stain-Busting secrets, so – there you go! show less

Patricia Delaney is a detective, one who does most of her investigating on the internet. What I find especially fun about this book is that it and its companions were written in the 1990s, when the internet was new, and either exciting, or a reason to laugh at Al Gore--and Sharon Short knew what the internet really could and couldn't do. You could find a lot on the internet. Some of what you could find on the internet was where to go look at the print or microfiche records that weren't on show more the internet. In 1995, Yahoo! was in its infancy, just a year old, and Google wasn't register as a domain name until 1997. Internet research required skills. Patricia Delaney has those skills.

When retired opera singer Carlotta Moses becomes the target of a sleazy tabloid tv show, Patricia Delaney is the person to find out who in the singer's past wants to trash her reputation.

Someone is claiming Carlotta Moses had a son, and gave him up when he was four years old. Carlotta says she was unable to have children because of a medical condition. She also has an adopted son, a husband who is devoted to her, a granddaughter. Patricia investigates the tabloid show host, and, of course, Carlotta. Who knew Carlotta at the time she would have had this son, and can either confirm she wasn't pregnant, or would have a reason to try to harm her now?

Meanwhile, just when she needs to concentrate on this case, Patricia's father turns up on her doorstep. He's a violinist who never made a go of it professionally, and made his career elsewhere. He's got a huge crush on Carlotta Moses. He'd like to protect his daughter, to a degree that isn't possible for an adult, much less one making her living as a detective. And he has shown up so suddenly because he has suddenly left her mother, Margaret, with whom his relationship, in the eyes of their children, has always seemed perfect.

Patricia is juggling family problems and a major, complicated case simultaneously. Carlotta proves to be a difficult client, with some unexpectedly nasty secrets in her past. The tabloid show host is also not a nice guy, and he has nastier friends.

It's good, well-developed story that "plays fair" in that all the clues are there, if you pay attention, but with enough complications that you may not put them together before Patricia does. It's tightly plotted, and the characters are interesting. The world around Patricia is developed with enough texture and depth that I never had moments of, for instance, wondering where the cell phones were. This was, as with the web, just before cell phones were going to be everywhere, and smartphones were not yet a gleam in their developers' eyes.

A really good mystery, with really good characters. Recommended.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the narrator, and am reviewing it voluntarily. show less

Having loved this author's Kinship historical mysteries written under the name of Jess Montgomery, I really looked forward to Trouble Island, but the book fell flat for me. The setting and the historical detail were excellent, and the winter weather on that remote island kept me frozen to the bone-- especially since Aurelia would actually go swimming in the lake almost daily.

Where did the book fall flat? I think it was a personal reaction more than anything else. I never warmed to any of show more the characters. Aurelia seemed a bit too naive and unobservant, and Rosita the high-handed diva was the sort of person I'd walk ten miles out of my way to avoid. Also, I wasn't in the mood to guess the true identities of each person on the island. If I'd read Trouble Island while in a different mood, it's altogether possible I would have liked it more-- which means your mileage will probably vary from mine.

(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley) show less