From time to time, we put together group posts where our writers each share thoughts, writing challenges, books we’ve enjoyed or our Maine adventures. This month we’re talking about books we’ve read.

Kate Flora: For Valentine’s Day, my husband gave me The Berry Pickers, a story of a missing child, and First Nation people coming every summer to Maine to harvest blueberries. It is a great book, and I’m enjoying remembering blueberry raking to earn money for school clothes and a transistor radio back when I was thirteen.

Kaitlyn Dunnett/KathyLynn Emerson: I’m still rereading the long-running J. D. Robb “In Death” series, and have just finished Golden in Death (#50 of 60 titles). I don’t know how Robb (who is also Nora Roberts) does it, but even at four books a year (two in this series), she keeps the storytelling fresh and the pages turning. I particularly enjoyed this entry because she worked in the Irish heritage of her police detective’s husband. All the books can stand alone, but rereading them in order has given me a new appreciation of story arcs and of the importance of interesting recurring secondary characters in a series.

Read a few weeks ago but worth a mention is John Scalzi’s Starter Villain. The first few chapters are, well, ordinary, and then, BOOM! I can’t even begin to describe what a wild (and laugh-out-loud funny) ride this book is. You’ll just have to read it for yourselves.

I’m just getting started on a historical mystery by Christina Dodd (A Daughter of Fair Verona) that has an intriguing premise. The amateur detective is the eldest daughter of Romeo and Juliet. Yes, that Romeo and Juliet. It seems they didn’t succeed in killing themselves after all. So far, I like it. The first person narration is lively and full of fun references to Shakespeare’s version of events.

Rob Kelley: I’m 2/3 of the way through Liz Moore’s God of the Woods, and it’s everything I’d expect from her, with the twisty, slow burn suspense development that’s become her trademark. I’ve been an avid reader of Liz’s work since she joined Margot Anne Kelley and me as our fiction editor when we were running The Maine Review. But don’t take my word for how amazing her writing is. Her prior novel, Long Bright River, was a New York Times bestseller (like God of the Woods), it was on Obama’s reading list, and has been adapted into a miniseries streaming right now on Peacock starring Amanda Seyfried!

Matt Cost: As I have a new book coming out in April with a new publisher, I have decided to meander my way through some books by other authors also published by Level Best Books. The first was Blaze Orange. Allison Keeton has created a setting in the fictional Maine town of Secretly that is one of the strongest characters of the book. The dynamics of the locals, those from away, and the secrets all swirl together to make a rich chowder of the New England variety. Through this wonderful setting strides Raven Ouellette, business owner, wife to the local law, and daughter to a former Boston cop who deserted her and her mother, only to return in her adult years wanting to make amends. The setting is luscious and gritty, the characters are real with flaws, and the plot speeds rapidly toward a dizzying conclusion like the toboggan races in Camden. Don’t just read this book, immerse yourself.

The second was Murder on a Silver Platter by Shawn Reilly Simmons. This was my first foray into the Red Carpet Catering Mysteries but it won’t be my last. Penny Blue is an iconic character from the get-go. A mysterious death in a snow storm, a series of accidents, and a twist of intrigue makes this a deadly cocktail of deceit and deception. The backstage scenes of a movie set are brought wonderfully to light, the food is tantalizingly delicious, and the relationships are loving and complicated. Grab yourself a silver platter of murder and buckle in for the ride. It is worth it.

The third is Cruel & Bitter Things by our very own Joseph Souza. Gwynn Denning is a complicated antihero of the best kind. Souza makes it impossible to not root for her as she does bad things, such as killing people, while at the same time running a home for abused and neglected children. The plot weaves a perilous journey, thickening and thinning at a furious pace, leaving the reader on pins and needles for what the next page will hold.

The final book I recently read was The Last Few Miles of Road by Eric Beetner. When Carter McCoy learns he has a disease he can’t pronounce that will soon lead to his death, he becomes a modern-day Robin Hood, but instead of robbing the rich and giving to the poor, he kills the bad to protect the weak and abused. With an antique hunting rifle, an old red truck, and his trusted sidekick, Chester the old hound dog, McCoy sets about righting the wrongs committed by the bad and protecting the innocent in the process. He struggles with the killing much more than the reader does, as I found myself rooting for him to mete out justice that has been ignored. Great characters, tightly woven plot, and a setting that sucks you in like quicksand, this is not a book to be missed.