Who solves mysteries? That’s the beauty of the genre? Anyone can from detectives to private investigators to amateur sleuths.

We read them.

We write them.

We are fascinated with the mysteries that surround us.

And we depend on wonderful writers like Nina Romano, Carmen Amato, and CW Hawes to come along with their vivid imaginations and unravel, then solve the mysteries that confound us.

How does a mystery begin?

Let me count the ways.

Greed.

Revenge.

Jealousy.

Power.

Ambition.

And don’t forget love.

We can never have love without hate.

Who solves mysteries?

That’s the beauty of the genre?

Anyone can.

A detective.

A private investigator.

A librarian.

A school teacher.

A newspaper reporter.

A photographer.

A stranger passing by.

In today’s literature. it often seems that amateur sleuths far exceed professional sleuths.

And after a while, even the amateur is considered the professional.

Dark Eyes by Nina Romano

A former Russian ballerina and a police photographer, destined to be lovers, seek to unfold the murder mystery of two women.

Anya, an unwed mother of a mentally challenged child, meets Andrei, at a murder scene.

They strive to unravel the murders of a hotel worker and a doll-seller with a link to diamond smuggling in Soviet Leningrad.

The offbeat couple, in jeopardy, are stalked by a vicious detective with possible involvement in the murders, and in a taut reversal, the hunted become the hunters.

“Nina Romano’s latest historical novel, Dark Eyes, is a suspenseful, edgy, intense nail-biter. I couldn’t tear myself away from the story until the end—then I wanted to start over again to concentrate on the rich historical details and luxuriate in her dazzling prose. Another five-star tour de force from a top-notch novelist!”—Cynthia Hamilton, author of Spouse Trap and A High Price to Pay.

Pacific Reaper By Carmen Amato

Acapulco’s first female police detective feels the wrath of a voodoo-like cult in a riveting thriller that takes the award-winning Detective Emilia Cruz series into dangerously uncharted cartel territory.

In Acapulco’s remote Coyuca Lagoon, where Stallone filmed Rambo, Emilia and her partner find a dead man sacrificed to Santa Muerte, Mexico’s forbidden saint of death. Known as the Skeleton Saint, Santa Muerte is often worshipped by drug cartels.

By invoking Santa Muerte, the killer’s message of intimidation was clear.

But who was the message for?

The answer comes when a rival gang strikes back, displaying macabre crimes on city billboards. Gang warfare erupts and Acapulco’s streets run red with blood.

As Emilia investigates, everyone close to her has a brush with death. Bad luck? Or has Emilia been cursed by the Skeleton Saint?

When Emilia goes undercover as a worshipper on the eve of the Day of the Dead, she’ll find out the unholy truth.

And so will you.

Death Makes a House Call by CW Hawes

Ace Minneapolis private detective Justinia (“Tina”) Wright doesn’t like to work. But her brother, Harry, definitely likes a paycheck.

So when Tina sends Dr Merkman away, Harry decides he’ll take on the doctor’s case.

But when Merkman ends up dead, and Tina’s detective business is threatened, she accepts Lt. Swenson’s invite to consult on the case.

However, the investigation quickly turns into a game of motive, motive, who has a motive — and no one seems to have one.

Tina, though, has to find one and quick.

Because Merkman’s brother and sister want answers and they want them fast.

And if they don’t get them, they’ve vowed to make life very difficult for the ace detective.

Death Makes a House Call is the seventh book in the Justinia Wright, Private Investigator Mysteries series. If you like traditional mysteries, along the lines of Nero Wolfe or Hercule Poirot, with wise-cracking humor and enough thrills and spills to keep things interesting, then you’ll love this latest installment in CW Hawes’s page-turning series.