Book Rec

All She Wrote by Josh Lanyon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Giving screwball mystery a whole deadly new meaning.

All She Wrote:Holmes & Moriarity, Book 2

A murderous fall down icy stairs is nearly the death of Anna Hitchcock, the much-beloved "American Agatha Christie" and Christopher Holmes's former mentor. Anna's plea for him to host her annual winter writing retreat touches all Kit's sore spots—traveling, teaching writing classes, and separation from his new lover, J.X. Moriarity.

For J.X., Kit's cancellation of yet another romantic weekend is the death knell of a relationship that has been limping along for months. But that's just as well, right? Kit isn't ready for anything serious and besides, Kit owes Anna far too much to refuse.

Faster than you can say "Miss Marple wears boxer shorts", Kit is snooping around Anna's elegant, snowbound mansion in the Berkshires for clues as to who's trying to kill her. A tough task with six amateur sleuths underfoot. Six budding writers with a tangled web of dark undercurrents running among them.

Slowly, Kit gets the uneasy feeling that the secret may lie between the pages of someone's fictional past. Unfortunately, a clever killer is one step ahead. And it may be too late for J.X. to ride to the rescue.

Warning: Contains one irascible, forty-year-old mystery writer who desperately needs to get laid, one exasperated thirty-something ex-cop only too happy to oblige, an isolated country manor that needs the thermostat cranked up, various assorted aspiring and perspiring authors, and a merciless killer who may have read one too many mystery novels.

All She Wrote is book two in the Holmes and Moriarity series. I didn't think anything could take the place of the Adrien English books but I have to admit that Kit and J.X. have filled the void in a most special way. I love the dynamic between these two men. Josh Lanyon has created two great characters who are polar opposites struggling through their many differences in one memorable scene after another. The dialogue was great; the sex scenes utterly satisfying. The murder and mayhem were secondary for me, but well thought out, and resolved with satisfaction. I can't wait to see what the author has in store for us with the next book in this series. Highly recommended.