Mother’s age: 68 Reading habits: My mom likes mystery/crime fiction, fantasy fiction, historical fiction. Other clues: My mom is an arts-and-crafts person. She quilts. Her education background is library science and law. Katherine Fletcher, London, Ont.

Dear Katherine, Has your mom read Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train yet? It’s a title with huge buzz, but (and I don’t say this often) it actually lives up to the hype. It’s not crime fiction in the truest sense of the genre, but a sort of mix of crime, mystery and thriller. Gone

Girl- esque, but it takes quite a bit longer to discover who the true sociopath is in this one. I haven’t met anyone who’s read it and wasn’t blown away!

This is going back a bit in terms of publication date, but last year I read Sarah Waters’

Fingersmith (in preparation for the release of Waters’ new novel The Paying Guests) and it’s stayed with me since. It’s a lovely blend of mystery and historical fiction — essentially a Victorian melodrama but updated for the 21st century. Erotically charged, exquisitely detailed, and as sly as its heroine. Fantastic read. In the same genre-bending vein, C.J. Sansom’s

Dominion takes tips from mystery, historical fiction and even fantasy. It’s a chilling look into a world where Hitler won the Second World War: a world that might have been, but also one that serves as a warning for our own time.

With a background in law and a penchant for crime fiction, a great bet would be William Landay’s Defending Jacob. A 14-year-old boy is charged with murder and the district attorney on the case is none other than the boy’s father (insert dramatic music here). There are certainly “twists and turns,” but that almost seems like too bland a phrase to use when describing the trajectory of this novel. It is wholly unpredictable. She’ll love it! Happy book buying! Cassie, Design