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Mesmerizing Mysteries: Vengeance in Venice and Pomona Afton Can Totally Catch a Killer

7 Apr

Vengeance in Venice
by Erica Ruth Neubauer
Vengeance in Venice is Erica Ruth Neubauer’s seventh Jane Wunderly Mystery set during the 1920’s. Jane and her husband are finally getting to take their honeymoon in romantic Venice, but it is quickly derailed when an invite to a costume party ends in the murder of the hostess’s husband. This isn’t one of those mysteries where it takes half the book for the murder to happen. If you enjoy cozy historic mysteries especially those with a travel theme than this series will be a treat. Jane is an engaging amateur sleuth and the mystery had plenty of twists and turns and red herrings to keep me guessing. The series does not need to be read in order and I enjoyed the book without having read the previous books in the series. This was my first (but definitely not my last) time reading a Jane Wunderly Mystery.

Pomona Afton Can Totally Catch a Killer
by Bellamy Rose
Pomona Afton Can Totally Catch a Killer is the second in Bellamy Rose’s Pomona Afton series. I had found the previous novel Pomona Afton Can So Solve a Murder a delight so looked forward to reading this next entry. In the last mystery, Pomona secured her inheritance and started a charity; now she is throwing herself a birthday blowout fundraiser when one of her biggest donor’s is murdered. She will have to use her new found detective skills again. Also enjoyable is the romantic subplot about her relationship with her boyfriend who does not come from Pomona’s privileged background (he’s the son of her former nanny) and her various friendships which have evolved overtime as some of them have grown past their youthful party days. If you loved the 2 Broke Girls sitcom than you will definitely want to check out this series.

Written by:
Aimee Harris
Information and Digital Services Manager

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Riley Sager’s Next Stop after With a Vengeance

3 Feb Book cover for “With a Vengeance” by Riley Sager, featuring a dark night scene with a train crossing a tall stone bridge under a cloudy sky lit with red tones; the author’s name appears in large turquoise text.

I preface this blog, knowing that Riley Sager fans probably already read his latest and have their opinions, so if you are one of them consider this more of a look to the future and a return to what, in my opinion, made him a best-selling author. (And it’s coming in 2026).

Riley Sager’s latest, With a Vengeance, is a title in my humble opinion, every writer deserves the right to write once they’ve reached the top of Mount Career Author – a little ‘you’ve earned this’ from their publishing house after they’ve made it clear their ROI is high, and Riley has with such calling card titles as Home Before Dark, The House Across the Lake, Lock Every Door, Final Girls, and The Only One Left. 

During a pre-release chat at Union Square’s Barnes and Noble, Mr. Sager made it clear this was his stab at a ‘whodunit’ Agatha Christie-esque entanglement on a train. With a Vengeance was not a thriller mystery with supernatural elements readers grew to love in the previous titles mentioned. 

With a Vengeance fell flat, hindered by one dimensional characters, coincidences that seemed too good to be true, a protagonist who set up a way to elaborate a scheme where everything had to go right (and her pockets had to be deep). Even with suspension of belief, the originality of intent wavered mightily throughout, and honestly, but in the end the red flags were just too much to overlook. 

When he will return to those intriguing bump-in-the-night mysteries he’s built a following off of. The answer is known. The Unknown is slated for August 2026. 

A century ago, five vanished from a Vermont island, leaving behind only five dresses and a supernatural mystery. 

A century later, a struggling actress lands a role in a movie about the disappearance, her research trip to the island turns terrifying as strange occurrences and a sudden health emergency leave her and the cast stranded. A new wave of disappearances begins, and the race is on to decipher a century-old diary to prevent the island’s dark history from claiming them all. 

I’m ready for it, and I think (at least for me) this will put the sour taste of With a Vengeance out of my mouth. 

I strongly encourage these novels by Riley Sager though: Home Before Dark, The House Across the Lake, Lock Every Door, Final Girls, and The Only One Left. 

Book cover for “Final Girls” by Riley Sager, featuring a dark forest background with a lone woman in a blue dress standing beneath red title text.
Book cover for “Lock Every Door” by Riley Sager, showing a purple-lit apartment hallway with multiple doors and bold pink title text.
Book cover for “The House Across the Lake” by Riley Sager, depicting a brightly lit house reflected in dark lake water at night, with handwritten-style yellow title text.
Book cover for “The Only One Left” by Riley Sager, showing a large, ominous house perched on a rocky cliff against a red sky, with bold blue title text.
Book cover for “Home Before Dark” by Riley Sager, featuring a dark green haunted house silhouette surrounded by glowing lights against a shadowy background.

They all show his consistent truth as a writer – telling stories built around traumatized and unreliable narrators who must face a dark event or place that resurfaces from their past, forcing them to question the realism of their memories and perceptions of the world. We aren’t just trying to figure out who the real antagonist is but also grasping with the illusion of whether the person telling the story is even telling the truth. 

Each one of these is an addicting ride.

Which novel will you be checking out? Comment below.

Riley Sager’s name and cover images are linked to his author page on the BCCLS catalog to make it easy for you to reserve his titles. 

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Written by:
Sean Willey
Information and Digital Services Assistant

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