CONFESSIONS OF AN AMATEUR SLEUTH

The best way to write a self-help book on detective work is to start detecting.

In An Amateur Sleuth’s Guide to Murder (2025), Meg Gates returned home to Bainbridge Island, Washington, after her fiancé left her for her bridesmaid. After cutting up her wedding dress, she took one part-time job at her mother’s bookstore and another doing research for mystery writer Lilly Aster, all while solving a murder. Things are going well for Meg’s family: Her parents are divorced, her father remarried, and her brother, Junior, who works at their father’s accounting firm, is dating a colleague. Meg herself has developed a romantic relationship with longtime friend Dalton Hamilton. Even her dog, Watson, loves him. Meg’s latest involvement in crime begins when she meets restaurant reviewer Lee Anderson at a writer’s group and he asks her to join him for a working dinner. The meal is a disaster. Lee is rude and complains about everything, embarrassing Meg so much that she walks out. The next day, Meg goes out for a more congenial meal with Dalton, but it comes as a shock when they run into her mother—on a date with a local man. Afterwards, walking home, they notice police lights in the parking lot for the ferry to Seattle, and later find out that Lee Anderson has been murdered. Unsurprisingly, he’d made enemies of scads of restaurant owners with his scathing reviews, and Meg’s Uncle Troy, the police chief, wants to know about her involvement with him. Deciding this is a perfect way to gain knowledge for her book, Meg buckles down to investigate and finds yet more plausible motives for Lee’s murder.

Plenty of suspects and engaging characters add up to a diverting read.