Summer is rapidly drawing to a close for me. So here are the early August reads.

Two by Linda Greenlaw, mainly because I read the first one and liked it so much I requested the second one immediately from the library. Slipknot and Fisherman’s Bend are first and second in the Jane Bunker Mystery Series. Jane Bunker is a ex-Miami detective recently relocated to Maine and starting a new career as a Marine Insurance Investigator. She has lots of water and boating experience as the author does in real life. In the course of her duties, she comes across crimes that she then investigates. The mysteries are well plotted and the action flows throughout the books. I would not really characterize them as “cozy” but they are not really gory or graphic either. Highly recommend, especially for anyone who enjoys Maine and/or boats.

Apple Turnover Murder is book 13 in the long running Hannah Swenson series, which I read more for the idea of revisiting the town of Lake Eden, Minnesota and its inhabitants than I do for the mysteries themselves. An unpleasant character from Hannah’s past turns up dead and Hannah investigates as per usual. Norman also has a subplot going on with a cliffhanger ending in this one, so I will have to wait for book 14 to see where that is going.

These Toxic Things, I believe was my Amazon First Reads choice. Mickie Lambert creates virtual scrapbooks from people’s memorabilia and stories of their lives. She is hired to create one for a woman who is having memory issues and wants it done before it is too late. The client dies and Mickie doesn’t want to leave the job incomplete, but uncovers more that what she expected when diving into the artifacts the client left her. There is also a side plot of Mickie’s own personal history that she uncovers during the course of the book. I don’t want to say too much because it would create spoilers. I did enjoy most of this and thought the idea was really good. I just figured out relatively early on what the “secret” was and that did sort of ruin the suspense for me.