OUT OF THE BLUE (Isabel Wolff)

Faith and Peter Smith have been comfortably married for 15 years, though lately things have been a little less than blissful due to Peter's stressful job situation.  Faith's glamorous friend Lily suggests that Peter is showing classic signs of infidelity when he forgets their anniversary and sends her flowers to apologize.  As circumstantial evidence piles up, Lily, a glossy magazine editor with and annoying dog named Jennifer Aniston, offers to pay for a private detective to tail Peter as part of an article on infidelity.  When Peter finally confesses to a fling with his head hunter, Andie, Faith is devastated, throws him out, and reluctantly embarks on a new life as a soon-to-be divorced woman.

Wolff's style is light and appealing.  Her characters can, intentionally, I think, border on stereotypical, but the sympathetic ones are likeable and the reader will find herself rooting for a happy ending.

MRS. MALORY WONDERS WHY (Hazel Holt)

Like Jeanne Dams with her Dorothy Martin series, Holt manages to create a strong sense of place in her Sheila Malory series.  Mrs. Malory is a widow who lives in the cozy village of Taviscombe with her grown son, Michael.  She discovers Miss Graham dead one afternoon after her elderly friend has asked her to stop by so she can share some important and disturbing news.  What appears to be a heart attack turns out to be murder, and suspects abound.  Was porr Miss Graham poisoned by Dr. Cowley, the greedy physician with questionable ethics who wants to turn her building into a nursing home?  Could it have been her wimpy and ineffectual nephew Ronnie, who stands to inherit, or his exasperated wife, Carol?  What about "Mrs." Wheatley, the woman of questionable reputation rumored to be friendly with Dr. Cowley?  Mrs. Malory, in the great tradition of Miss Marple, cannot resist investigating the crime.  There are some surprises at the end.  If you enjoy a good English cozy, you will love Mrs. Malory.

THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG (Alan Bradley)

Flavia de Luce is back!  When famous puppeteer Rupert Porson and his assistant Nialla arrive in Bishop's Lacey, murder soon follows, and Flavia is on the case.  Flavia possesses a beguilingly childish curiosity combined with the deductive powers of Hercule Poirot and the scientific savvy of Alfred Noble.  In this, Bradley's second mystery featuring the 11-year-old detective, the reader is treated to 2 intertwined cases: the supposedly accidental hanging of young Robin 5 years before and the electrocution of Rupert during a perfromance of "Jack and the Beanstalk."  Flavia, with the aid of her bicycle, Gladys, manages to solve both mysteries, much to the chagrin of Inspector Hewitt.  I'm not sure how Alan Bradley manages to channel an 11-year-old girl in 1950 so well, but he does.  I look forward eagerly to the next installment in Flavia's life as an amateur detective!