Storymusing about The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective by Jo Nichols

 

The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective: A Mystery

by Jo Nichols

The Marigold Cottages are owned by Mrs. B, Golda Bakofsky. She and her husband, who is no longer living, built them years ago and now they seem to be her sole source of income, though she is very generous in what she asks people to pay.

She is also very selective about who she rents to. There are five people – Sophie, Hamilton, Ocean, Lily-Ann, and Nicholas. Sophie is still skittish from a horrible stalking situation in college. Hamilton has agoraphobia and never leaves his apartment. Ocean is a single mom of two, a teen daughter and a fourth-grade son, who teaches art. Lily-Ann is an elegant and organized proposal manager for a transport company who has left her husband. Nicholas works in the city planning department.

Then Mrs. B adds in an ex-con named Anthony with very badly drawn tattoos and Sophie creates a group chat with her former small group of neighbors., just in case of anything.

A few weeks later, “anything” happens – a man is murdered in the yard and Anthony is taken in for questioning by a detective who assumes it’s very cut and dried.

Then Mrs. B convenes a meeting and asks the small group of neighbors to help clear Anthony of the crime. When that doesn’t happen fast enough, she confesses to the murder and is taken into custody.

Now they have to clear her too.  

It turns out the murdered man was checking out the cottages with the intention of buying and developing the property with another local man. But just who killed him and why?

Of course, each character has their own little idiosyncrasies and even secrets. They are very distinctive and the story is told in alternating very short chapters following each in turn. I find this type of ensemble cast very enjoyable and it keeps the pace driving forward as little bits of information are revealed.

The humor is very evident, from Mrs. B’s dotty old lady act at times to Hamilton’s random fact additions to the group chat. Even the way Nicholas refuses to get involved with the other tenants is humorous. It’s nearly impossible to pull out just one little bit so I highly recommend you give this one a try if you like humorous murder mysteries.

Jo Nichols is actually a pen name for a husband and wife duo, which is often means good writing to me. All the books I know of that were written by spouses are well done.

I definitely want to read more by this duo.

Storymusing on The Black Wolf: A Chief Inspector Armand Gamache novel by Louise Penny

 

The Black Wolf

by Louise Penny

Our theme for my book club in February was “Enemies” and this book fits that bill to a T. The question of just who the enemy is, and if there are multiple, reverberates throughout the book.

This is the 20^th book in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. Most of the series builds on previous story lines, but Penny does a great job of building in back information so that you won’t feel adrift if you pick up this book out of order.

In the last book, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his senior agents Beauvoir and Lacoste thought they had uncovered the extent of a terrible plot to poison the water of Montreal and arrested the responsible parties. But is there more? Did they get the right person? Was that even the end game?

The three are in agreement, We have a problem.

As Gamache’s deafness and the ringing in his ears continue to plague him, clouding both his communication and thinking, he has just two notebooks and a few numbers on a tattered map of Quebec to lead him forward.

The three dig deeper into the evidence they have and what it means. They discover there are deeper layers beneath the dark web of the Internet. Down deep where the conspiracies thrive and multiply, there is more danger than they could have anticipated. And more meanings in the notebooks and map that a young biologist left behind for them.

Chief Inspector Evelyn Tardiff  is clearly meeting with crime boss Don Joseph Moretti and he is clearly involved in every bit of crime his syndicate can control, but where does she really stand?

The prime minster seems to know more than what he is saying and a friend in the U.S. military is also struggling with what to tell them without becoming a traitor to his own country.

Thankfully, Gamache is surrounded by the warmth and love of all his friends and family in the Quebec village of Three Pines. There is definite comic relief here from the elderly poet Ruth Zardo and her swearing duck, Rosa. There’s a parallel quest for clarity in the form of painter Clara Morrow as she attempts to create a painting that captures the moment just before something momentous happens.

As Gamache’s hearing suddenly becomes clear like a moment of insight, the revelations come in fits and starts and backtracks, like a rabbit running around a snowy hillside.

For me, this book tethers us in the village of Three Pines as it explores the darkest part of what conspiracy theories and power brokers are doing. I love the style and pacing of the book. It’s a relaxing read even though the story has a great deal of tension.

I would highly recommend it and I even might read it again, or at least listen to it on audio.

Storymusing - Glory Be: A Glory Broussard Mystery by Danielle Arceneaux

 

Glory Be: A Glory Broussard Mystery

By Danielle Arceneaux

I admit I picked up this book based on the cover and the title, not knowing much about it. It just looked good. I enjoy novels set in the Southern part of the United States and this did not disappoint.

Glory Broussard felt real and relatable, from her tired body due to years working labor intensive jobs to her tired mind from the various difficulties life has thrown at her. She has a number of prescription pill bottles on her bedside table, though she doesn’t often take them, another sign of depression sometimes.

I was amused to find that Glory is running a thriving business as a bookie through a local coffee house. I loved how she insists her clients observe the niceties before sliding the money across the table in an envelope, discreetly. In contrast, she is strongly invested in her church.

Glory is in the coffee shop when she hears that her best friend, Sister Amity Gay, has been found dead. The police seem all too willing to declare it a suicide but there are many red flags that Glory latches onto.

Thankfully, her daughter, a sharp lawyer, is in town. Glory is glad to have her help with the investigation into Amity’s death, not so happy to have her sorting out her house so that it doesn’t get condemned after someone anonymously tells the town it’s a health hazard.

The settings are well chosen and described – including the coffee shop, Glory’s house in town, a house in the country owned by a well-to-do drug lord, a nominally desegregated country club, the church, and an old, abandoned mill.

Most characters are well developed with back stories of their own. Elements are brought to light at appropriate intervals that illuminate each character in a well-planned trajectory. Of course, the murder of Glory’s friend Amity makes Amity a focal point as Glory wonders what her friend was caught up in that led to her death and what Glory might not know about her life. But Glory herself, and her daughter, are revealed through thoughtful interactions with a variety of people plus well-chosen flashbacks.

Racial disparity is a major theme here, with how people are treated when they are victims of a crime and the lack of opportunities for many people. There’s also the insidious nature of the drug culture and the difficulty of getting out of it and staying out of it. An interesting theme for me was the question of why people belong to a church, the connection to others, both emotionally and networking. Another major theme is people craving connection and love.

There is naturally going to be conflict when someone is investigating a murder and Glory is definitely not conflict averse, though she can be politic when she wants to be. There’s a subplot conflict with her sister over Glory’s house that ups the conflict quotient.

There’s a saying that easy reading is hard work to write. This story read extremely smoothly and was easy to take in. The pacing is perfect, keeping the story moving without overwhelming the reader with facts. The overall impact is a cozy read that is relaxing while still tackling some harsh realities.

I will definitely want to read more by this author.

“Danielle Arceneaux is the winner of the Lillian Jackson Braun for her debut mystery, GLORY BE, which was reviewed and chosen as a best mystery of the year by The New York Times and The Washington Post.” – from https://www.danielleatwork.com/new-bio

Storymusing: The Author's Guide to Murder: A Novel by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

 

The Author’s Guide to Murder: A Novel  

by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White 

This novel was unexpected and ended up being funnier than I thought it would be.  I was looking for a murder mystery, liked the title, and needed something for my drive home from work, so I just jumped in.  

The book takes us to Kinloch Castle in Scotland where Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead in a somewhat scandalous tableau. Bit of a wild name, I don’t know many people named for Saffron and Presley always makes me think of Elvis. 

Three American authors are at the castle, ostensibly as a writing retreat to cowrite a novel. Sounds like a fun way to spend some time! 

I loved the way the three are revealed a little bit at a time. At first, they seem like caricatures of genre writers – Cassie Pringle is a sweet Southern writer of cozy mysteries, Kat de Noir is a sharp and sexy erotica writer, while Emma Endicott is a very proper writer of historical novels. They claim to be best friends. 

“We bonded instantly.” 

Nothing could be further from the truth. They barely tolerate each other, and they have no idea of the deeper secrets each is carrying. I enjoyed how their relationships developed and their back stories are revealed to each other, building their friendship over the course of the book. The way each was involved with the murder victim is a developing thread as well, with some things not revealed until close to the end. 

Cassie is the only one who is happily married, though that happiness is shown to be in jeopardy as the plot progresses. However, Emma and Kat are both single, leaving lots of room for romance with a couple of local men. That too begins rather prosaically. One ends that way too, for my money, but the other takes an interesting turn. 

The authors do a marvelous job of doling out the clues and information as the story progresses to keep the readers guessing. I can safely say I didn’t have a clue who the murderer was, which is the way I prefer it. 

The setting of a castle and a Scottish village was interesting, and I thought rather well developed, based on my watching of BBC television, but then maybe people in Scotland would disagree or even take umbrage. It worked for an American who has never been there. 

Overall, I’d call this murder mystery by three authors about three fictional authors highly entertaining.  

Storymusing: Against the Currant - A Spice Isle Bakery Mystery by Olivia Matthews

 

Against the Currant: A Spice Isle Bakery Mystery

by Olivia Matthews

I needed a nice light read and the cover of this, plus the title, appealed perfectly. It doesn’t hurt that two of my favorite cozy mystery authors, Mia P. Manansala and Raquel V. Reyes, wrote endorsements.

Lyndsay Murray is holding the soft opening of her family-owned Spice Isle Bakery in Brooklyn, which serves West Indian pastries and main course food when a local baker and businessman, Claudio, shows up to try to intimidate them into closing. Lyndsay and her elegant grandmother are minding the front of the store while her parents and her brother handle the baking. Lyndsay assertively tells Claudio to go tend to his own business.

Unfortunately, Claudio soon turns up murdered and Lyndsay’s bracelet is at the scene. The police seem to think that Lyndsay is their absolute best suspect. She is distraught, certain that if she doesn’t figure out who did this she will end up on trial and her bakery dream will go up in flames, crucified in the court of public opinion.

Things I loved about the story – there was lots of flavor and color through the descriptions of food and clothing. Lyndsay’s grandmother, who also works in the bakery, always seems to have a beautiful outfit put together. Her mother and father are also there, though mostly shown through their fears for their daughter and about how fast everything is moving. They aren’t comfortable with her applying for a festival, though her grandmother and brother, Dev, are all for it.

A humorous thread running through the story is that while Lyndsay is a good cook, providing main dishes like curried chicken, she’s not a very good baker. However, her grandmother is giving her lessons and she does improve through the book.

Another neat thread is Lyndsay’s kickboxing. She’s mainly in it for exercise but it serves her in self-defense and confidence, but she’s not too sure when a former classmate encourages her to enter a competition.

Because this is a new series, there’s a lot of time spent introducing us to the characters and neighborhood, so the story moves relatively slow. But that impression could also have been influenced by how I was reading it over the Thanksgiving holiday. It might have gone faster if I had bigger chunks of time to devote to it.

I also enjoyed the cast of characters but at the same time kept confusing two of them. There were so many people coming into the bakery to buy baked goods and meals. Again, that may have just been my brain and the disjointed way I was reading the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely pick up another to read. I’d love to hear a version on audio.

 

 

Storymusing: My Friends by Fredrik Backman

My Friends

by Fredrik Backman

A patron at the library where I work had told me for years that I should read A Man Called Ove. I said sure but I put it off, thinking it would be very literary and possibly boring. Man, was I wrong. It was one of the funniest and most beautiful books I’ve ever read. (Albeit a lot of dark humor, which I very much appreciate.)

My husband and I both loved it, then we watched the movie, and that was fantastic. (The one with Tom Hanks is good, but if you love Backman’s writing, watch the Swedish film with the subtitles. It’s worth it.)

I’ve read a couple other books by Backman since then, and loved each one. I haven’t read all he has written, but this book, My Friends, is so painfully beautiful and so funny, that it may well beat out A Man Called Ove for me. I have read it with excruciating attention, not skipping a word, and in short bursts to make it last.

There is a piece of advice for writers that is purported to come from film writer Joss Whedon which says, “Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.”

For my sensibility, Fredrik Backman has created the perfect blend of heart-breaking stories with humorous and heart-warming interactions and moments of beautiful connection between people. It’s almost a tall tale, in some ways, but gritty and real in others. In that way, it reminds me a bit of Big Fish.

The story begins with Louisa, who is nearly aged out of her foster home, and has run away while grieving the loss of her friend Fish. Fish, “fled from reality, down into bottles, out into the fog.” They kept each other safe for a long time, but “…the most dangerous place on earth is inside us,” and so Louisa determines that “Fish was murdered by reality.”

Louisa goes to an art show to see the piece of art that has captured her imagination for years, a painting that everyone says is of the sea, but she knows it’s really a painting of something else entirely. There she runs straight into the story of the painting and a couple of the people who are part of it. She runs into the artist, literally, but it is Ted who she ends up taking an amazing journey with. As they travel, he tells her story after story about the friends in that picture.

I adore the narrator’s interjections as well. “Adults really are out of their minds.”

As writers we are often admonished to make sure we show instead of telling the story. Backman is the type of master who can take a rule and break it in just the right way.

So many times, while reading this book, I have had the urge to write a note to the author, just to thank him for writing this book. I doubt he’ll ever see this blog, but I do thank him for this book. It is the type of book that tells beautiful truths through fiction. I will be buying it for Christmas, for whoever of my family and friends that I think will read it.

We also have an author talk with Fredrik Backman in our Library Speakers Consortium listing that you might enjoy. https://libraryc.org/ssclibrary/22473 

 

Storymusing: Five Humorous Murder Mystery Reads

 

The Game is Afoot

by Elise Bryant

September was a great month for reading mysteries, I’m amazed at how much reading I did. I picked up the first cozy mystery on a whim, mostly based on the cover art. I am pleased to say that I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

It is a cozy mystery, but there is real depth and layers here. I loved the main character’s humorous way of looking at things and the mom perspective was very relatable for me.

Mavis is divorced but working hard to co-parent their daughter, Pearl, with her ex, Corey. Corey, has been a bit of an absentee dad but he has made big changes in his life, like working hard on his own mental health. It’s a very affirming depiction of a divorced dad and a welcome change from the deadbeat dad image that is so common.

Mavis has some work to do on her own mental health and well-being. Her job has been taking advantage of her for about eight years now and when she gets totally fed up, she quits in the middle of a meeting. She knows that’s not the best way to go about changing jobs, but when she crunches the numbers, she finds it will be okay untilshe finds a new position.

The voices are each individually distinctive and very believable.

The conflicts were many and varied. Sometimes a little over the top, but still believable. As with her boss, who passes her over for promotion and keeps explaining how she’d “love to pay you a million dollars but….” As if any kind of raise is tantamount to a million dollars. (Grrr.)

There was conflict with other mothers, including the one trying to sign her up for a pyramid scheme and the ones who didn’t appreciate her catching one of them in an illegal situation in the last book.

She has conflict with the ex because she doesn’t want him butting in to her life or taking off again, which she suspects might happen.

She’s even in conflict with her dad over his planned podcast.

Each conflict is appropriately resolved at the end of the story, but not necessarily in the way you might expect. I especially loved the new understandings she comes to with her father and her ex-husband.

The writing style is humorous, breezy, and the pacing is brisk. The overall impact is an entertaining and fast-paced read with an interesting mystery. I would highly recommend this book and definitely will read more from this author.

Others I’ve read recently—

The Ex-girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria Chao

Our book club picked the theme “spicy” for September, and this book has spice in spades. Kathryn Hu thinks she has the perfect boyfriend. For example, he shows up with donuts for the entire lab to make up for it to help her smooth things over one day. Then one day she thinks she hears him practicing proposing to her. She bursts out of the bathroom, only to find he is proposing to a different woman. Yikes!

Kathryn and Olivia bond then find there’s a third woman! The three of them

decide to trash his apartment – bringing frogs, because he’s deathly afraid of them, and smearing poop everywhere. They do this, but then they find Tucker’s dead body in a closet. Yikes again!

The three take off, but Kathryn goes back to clean it all up, to keep them from being connected to the murder. Enter the hunky cop.

There are SO many great twists and plot points in this book, it’s a perfect funny murder mystery. There’s maybe even a little too much going on.

But the biggest problem I had with this was the repetitive and obnoxious interludes of the podcast “A Dish Best Served Hot.” To be fair, I don’t know if it would have hit me the same way if I’d been reading it instead of listening to it. Plus, the character is supposed to be obnoxious, I believe. If I’d been reading it in hard copy, I probably would have started skimming those parts.

I’ve also read some other great books this month.

Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto – fantastic! I adore the main character and the way she has of bringing people together. Even better than the first book in the series.

 The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell – a mystery set in an American version of The Great British Bake-off. The characterizations were fantastic, and the plotting was tight. I couldn’t put it down.

Then I picked up Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon which has been riveting, and I LOVED listening to it in the car. Couldn’t wait to get back to it every day.

Honestly, I’m amazed I read so much in the past month. It’s mostly down to the books being riveting. I hope you give one a try.