Storymusing - A Colorful Scheme (A Pen & Ink Mystery Novel) by Krista Davis

A Colorful Scheme: A Pen & Ink Mystery Novel

by Krista Davis

Our book club theme for June was “Secrets & Lies.” This one fell solidly into that category, but with a fairly lighthearted manner, at least as much as murder can be. The cover itself is a “Color-It-Yourself” cover. I’m thinking I might do a little coloring this weekend now that I’m done with reading the book. (But I also like to pass books on, so maybe not.)

Our amateur sleuth is Florrie Fox, a bookstore manager and coloring book creator. She lives on the grounds of the Maxwell Mansion, and her boss, Professor Maxwell, also owns the bookstore.

As the book opens, her boss is getting remarried in a lavish wedding. Little bit of a hitch, the bride is missing. Florrie soon finds her under very odd circumstances. But the party gets underway, with the wedding as a surprise to most of the party goers.

The surprise for the party throwers is a dead body in the swimming pool, come morning. It’s one of the guests and there’s a little more to his death than drowning.

The book has a warm tone with details of the surroundings and dress and food of a wedding. But there are also secrets abounding, from the innocuous, to those simply made up in the minds of people like the wannabe reporter, Cara, and understandably suspicious police officers.

As with any cozy mystery, there’s a second body drop. This one is more immediately identifiable as a murder, and somewhat gruesome. The bumbling nature of the police officer investigating is a tiny bit overdone, imho.

There’s a light romance too, as Florrie is dating a handsome police officer named Eric. There’s even a butler named Mr. Dubois, but I was impressed with how fully his character is treated as a person instead of simply window dressing.

It’s a very privileged world, and the author does gloss over the financial aspects of running a business, especially one that seems as busy as this bookstore. Do people still leave keys outside where anyone could find them? I’m sure some do, but it seems a bit convenient.

I really did enjoy this story and it would make a lovely light, summer read for anyone. I recommend for cozy mystery readers. 

 

Storymusing Review: A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor Darci Hannah

 

A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor

A Food & Spirits Mystery

by Darci Hannah

Our theme for March was “Feasts and Feasting” at my thematic book group so I went to our handy Hoopla catalog and searched. This cozy mystery popped up and it sounded both intriguing and relaxing.

Bridget “Bunny” McBride is a chef on a food network. She loves her job but her boss is a bit jealous of her popularity and offers her the opportunity to have her own show – Food & Spirits. She’s led to believe it will be a travel show where she will work with the food of the place she is visiting and her co-host will handle the “spirits.”

Her obvious assumption is that spirits means alcohol. Of course, it has another meaning. One which Bunny is not okay with. You see, Bunny died in a boating accident in her home country of Scotland when she was about eighteen, but was revived. Her twin brother did not survive. 

It isn’t until she arrives at a meeting about the upcoming show that she learns what is really going on. She will be making meals to entice the “spirits” into manifesting while her co-host, ghost hunter Brett, tries to get proof of their existence. 

This is the last thing Bunny wants to be involved with, but she is in too deep to back out now. She is particularly unhappy to learn their “psychic medium” Giff is no medium at all, but an actor. Her own gran actually is a medium, so Bunny knows how real and serious this is. 

Bunny goes with the team to Bramsford Manor in England and throws herself into the cooking, determined to avoid the ghost side of things. Of course, they stick her in the very bedroom where the “Mistletoe Bride” is purported to manifest.” (That was a bit of a plot hole to me since the ghost hunting team should want to set up and monitor equipment in there.)

It becomes even more serious when a present day inhabitant of Bramsford Manor is murdered with one of Bunny’s chef knives, and Bunny becomes a suspect.

One of the really bright spots in this book is Bunny’s gran, who she calls to bail her out when she is arrested as the main suspect in the murder. Gran arrives and helps set things to right, getting the show back on course.

Another thing that I really liked about the book was that while Bunny can be a little overwrought she doesn’t just lie down and take it, she fights back.

Overall, this is a fun romp of a paranormal cozy mystery. More than anything, this story reminds me of Scooby Doo, where the whole “gang” is investigating the murder.

The mystery is well developed with a real investigation going on and lots of good interaction between the characters, as well as misdirection.

The actual writing itself could use a little more editing, but it didn't keep me from enjoying the story.

The writing and the reader on the audio can be rather melodramatic, but it certainly held my attention. I don’t think I’ll listen to another one right away, but I would certainly come back to it when I need something light to take my mind off other things.

Storymusing: Mango, Mambo, and Murder: A Caribbean Kitchen Mystery by Raquel V. Reyes

 

For book club this month, we had the theme of “summer heat” and what could be better than going south to Miami, Florida? I picked up a fantastically funny new series by Raquel V. Reyes set in Miami, called Caribbean Kitchen Mysteries.

The Spanish blended throughout with the English had my brain synapses firing and remembering words I’d long thought I’d forgotten from high school. I even found myself internally responding to things en Español. “Claro que si!”

Miriam is a food anthropologist who plans to publish a book, but in the meantime, she is on side quests to manage a move with her husband and child to Miami from New York, raise her sweet little boy Mani, AND do a weekly cooking spot on a talk show.

Her best friend from her teen years, Alma, is a very successful real estate broker and on a mission to reintroduce Miriam to the area. Miriam couldn’t manage half so well without her.

It’s Alma who gets her the guest spot on UnMundo doing a cooking segment. At first Miriam is dead set against it, being a scholar rather than a television personality or even a chef, but Miriam eventually realizes she is able to educate the masses about her beloved topic through this medium.

Alma also wants to introduce her to the successful people in the area. That means getting her in at the country club that Miriam’s mother-in-law belongs to. Of course, someone goes face first into their lukewarm mayonnaise and soggy chicken salad at the first luncheon she attends.

Miriam is sitting next to the unfortunate woman when it happens. The official story is the young woman died of a heart attack due to her drug use history, but Miriam is bothered by it all and can’t let it rest.

The author manages to keep things alternating between serious and humorous, alleviating the tension with great characters who have interesting reactions to serious situations.

Her mother-in-law becomes more clearly antagonistic, racist, and classist as the books progress. It’s presented as funny, but it’s serious too.

“…My mother-in-law appeared in my unfurnished living room. My mouth was faster than my good sense. ‘Did I leave the door unlocked?’”

The humor is real and relatable.

Then there’s the situation with her husband, Robert, who she refers to as Roberto. He’s always been a good guy but now he is working long hours and takes a job with a corporate firm, the antithesis of his goals as an environmental lawyer.

Miriam is understandably very worried when she begins to suspect that her husband is being pursued by a former girlfriend that her mother-in-law approves of far more than her.

It’s a very fun, fast-paced, and humorous cozy mystery series. There’s already two more— Calypso, Corpses, and Cooking and Barbacoa, Bomba, and Betrayal. I think they get better as they go along. I’m looking forward to the next book this fall. And the audio es perfecta! 

Storymusing: Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano

 

Finlay Donovan series by Elle Cosimano

What do I like about this series?

In part, it’s the reader – she does an AMAZING job of differentiating the voices. I was wondering how she does it so seamlessly. Does she do different tracks then put them together? I think it’s just plain talent and hard work. From male voices to female, and child to adult, she changes voices at the drop of a hat.

It does remind me a little bit of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series that started with One for the Money, but that may be because the main character, Finlay Donovan, regularly hears from her agent, Sylvia, and her nanny sidekick, Vero, is from New Jersey. However, there’s cops and mobsters and lots of fun back and forth too.

The characterization by the author is wonderful. I enjoy the fact that the main character, Finlay Donovan, is a divorced mom of two little ones under the age of five who writes for a living.

The plots are also quirky, fun, and fast-paced!

The series starts with Finlay Donovan is Killing It, as Finlay gets drawn into a real-life crime thriller when she is mistaken for a hit woman while talking about her latest book plot with her agent, Sylvia, in a Panera. Finlay is approached to dispose of a problem husband. Obviously, the answer is no. But she gets to wondering what would be bad enough for someone to pay a hit man, or woman, to take out a husband? She goes to check things out, not intending to do anything at all, but sees the guy slipping a woman a roofie.

Finlay can’t stand idly by and let the guy get away with what he is doing. She soon ends up with him in the back of her minivan, knocked out, driving home, not knowing what to do. She goes inside for a minute and when she comes back out to her garage, he’s dead. Her former Nanny, Vero, shows up and helps her dispose of the body.

Of course, there’s more to this than meets the eye, starting with what the guy had been up to and his ties to the mob.

The complications ramp up and continue into the next book, though there is a satisfying conclusion at the end of each book, no worries there.

The series continues with—

Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘em Dead- Someone puts a hit out on Finlay’s ex-husband, Steven, and the Russian mob is once again getting too close.

Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun- Finlay and Vero join the citizen's police academy to sleuth out the real criminal and free themselves from the mob's influence.

Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice- Finlay Donovan and her nanny/partner-in-crime Vero plan a trip to Atlantic City to negotiate a deal with a dangerous loan shark, save Vero’s childhood crush Javi, and hunt down a stolen car. Finlay’s ex-husband Steven and her mother insist on coming along too.

I’m looking forward to more in this series but, in the meantime, I looked up the person who reads the books and chose another series she voices. It certainly makes the drive go quickly.

Storymusing: Bogs, Brews, and Banshees by Rowan Dillon

 

Bogs, Brews, and Banshees: A Skye O’Shea Paranormal Cozy Mystery

by Rowan Dillon

This was a great, light read – just what I look for in a cozy mystery.

Skye O’Shea is an American nurse having a hard time finding a new position so when her gran sadly dies, and leaves her some property in Ireland, Skye flies off to her grandmother’s home, nervous but ready to take on a new adventure far away from her troubles. (Including the depressing failure of her previous marriage and the interference of her ex-husband.)

Sadly, but fortuitously, she has inherited her gran’s pub and guesthouse. Of course, there’s lots of work to be done, but before she can even begin, a dead body appears in one of her outbuildings and strange things begin to occur as Skye learns about her surroundings and the supernatural goings on.

Skye receives her grandmother’s car keys from the solicitor in Dublin. “The back logo said Suzuki Splash. I’d never even heard of that model. Perhaps it aspired to be a car someday. When it grew up.”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and couldn’t wait to open it each day to read a little more. I liked the aspect of learning how the magic in this world works along with Skye as she is introduced to the strange happenings and realizes that the stories her grandmother used to tell her were not so made up.

Skye has always experienced the world a little differently. “I’d always heard bits of music in my head. However, I’d also long since learned not to mention it to anyone. Same with seeing colors on people. My weird brain often played tricks on me.”

The characters speech patterns and descriptions of Ireland transported me on a vacation to the Emerald Isle, along with the traditional tales and folk lore described in the book. The cat in the book, Faelan, is a bit unusual as well, which I enjoyed.

Of course, there is some unpleasantness, or it wouldn’t be a murder mystery, but it’s in keeping with a cozy mystery.

There’s even a little spark of possible future romance. It promises to be an enjoyable series with lots of potential for future developments.

A Musing Round-up of Stories

 

What I’ve been reading….

Because I read and adored The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, by Gabrielle Zevin, I was wildly excited to see that they had made a movie of it last year. (Bonus, it stars Kunal Nayyar, best known for his role as Rajesh Koothrappali on The Big Bang Theory.) I haven’t watched it yet, but I decided to see what else the author had written in the meantime. I found All These Things I’ve Done, a YA novel about a young woman in the future who is the daughter of a Russian American chocolate manufacturer, the Balanchine family. It’s sort of a mob situation as chocolate and coffee are illegal in the U.S.. Her parents are long gone and her older brother suffered a traumatic brain injury sometime ago, while her younger sister is a genius, and her grandmother is dying. Anya is trying to take care of everyone and keep it altogether. It’s intriguing as the situation progresses, if a little melodramatic. Sadly, the performance of the book was a little one note on the audio recording. I might have enjoyed it a lot more if I’d been reading a physical copy. I gave it just 3 stars.

The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware - This one is worth a solid 4 stars. Fascinating, engaging, kept me guessing a good bit, and very well read by the actors. A thriller and the first book I’ve read by this author, it did not disappoint. Hal is a tarot reader on the Pier. She took over the booth to make ends meet after her mother was killed in a hit and run, but it hasn’t been quite enough and she borrowed money from a loan shark. Things are looking quite dark when a letter arrives about an inheritance. Hal figures it’s a mistake, but the details fit enough that she might be able to claim enough money to get her out of the dangerous hole she’s in. It’s worth a shot, but she doesn’t take into account the emotional toll of suddenly having a long lost family, or what some other people may be willing to do to keep things the way they were.

Paper Cuts: A Secret, Book, and Scone Society Book by Ellery Adams. It’s always a pleasure to pick up the latest in this series. I had pre-ordered it and devoured it in just a few days. I’m a bit sad it’s over. Nora runs a thriving bookstore in Sulphur Springs, a resort town in North Carolina. Her friends are three local women who have had heartaches of their own but come together to support each other and all are thriving. Then a ghost, or two, arrive from Nora’s past. One is the woman who her husband left Nora for years ago. The woman, Kelly, has come to make amends and ask a favor. Nora pushes her away but then regrets. She knows Kelly is sick and dying. She decides to go talk to Kelly but it’s too late. Kelly has been murdered, putting Nora and her boyfriend, Sheriff Grant McCabe, on opposite sides of a line as Nora is the main suspect at first. It’s a great story with wonderful characters and details. I highly recommend this book and the series. 4.5 stars.

I’m still processing Drama Free: A Guide to Managing Unhealthy Family Relationships by Nedra Tawwab, and reading The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D.. The latter is a dense book and I have underlined a LOT. (Don’t worry, this is a personal copy, it doesn’t belong to the library.)

I’ve been enjoying leafing through Honey, Baby, Mine: A Mother and Daughter Talk Life, Death, Love (and Banana Pudding) by Diane Ladd and Laura Dern, and reading some of their conversations. Though I often don’t care for books about celebrities, I find the ones in their own words can be illuminating and this has a central theme that I was interested in.

For light-hearted fair, I’ve picked up Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers, a favorite mystery author of mine. It’s an old book and I may have read it before but if I did, I don’t recall, so it’s a good time to pick up a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery and this is the first in the series.

I’ve also just gotten The London Séance Society by Sarah Penner in audio for my drives. So far, it’s quite intriguing. She wrote the very enjoyable upmarket Lost Apothecary. I’m sure this one will be no less diverting.

Anyone reading anything good? Let us know in the comments.

Review: Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries by Amy Boyles

 

Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries

by Amy Boyles

Well, shrimp and grits! This is a total fluff but it was just the right kind of fluff I needed to relax while driving during the holiday season. I didn’t have to focus too hard on it, just let the words wash over me.

Apparently there are 26 books in this series but Hoopla only has the first 5 on audio. Those 5 are pretty fun and a good enough series run for me. There isn’t enough depth to warrant reading more than that for me, at least not right now. I do wonder how the series has developed though, and might pick up some further along in the series at some point. I figure no writer is static in their skills and if this was good enough to enjoy now, it could get a lot better later on.

Sweet Tea Witch Mysteries are everything you expect in a paranormal cozy mystery. There’s witches and wizards, and as the series progresses there are werewolves, dragons, vampires, etc. Characters are larger than life, laugh out loud funny, and the reading gives them the perfect spin.

Pepper Dun doesn’t even know she’s a witch when the series starts but the author keeps you reading and laughing as the worst day of Pepper’s life unfolds. She loses her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend. (Sounds like a country song but it seems to me she isn’t losing much in any of those situations.) Strangely enough, she doesn’t seem too happy to find out that she’s a witch. I would be!

Then, after a wizard threatens her and a talking cat helps her escape, she sets out on the road to Magnolia Cove, Alabama. In Magnolia Cove she finds her long lost granny and a ready-made family of cousins, plus she finds out she has inherited a pet store.

One thing that confused me was how she was allergic to animals, and particularly cats, with all the big symptoms, trouble breathing, and itching, etc., but she just kind of gets over it. The writer could have at least had her grandmother create Pepper some kind of magical antihistamine. If she did, I missed it.

In book 1, she is accused of murdering the man who wanted to buy her pet store, which is pretty strange seeing as she wanted to sell it to him. She meets a handsome man named Axle and they have an instant attraction, standard stuff.

The series is a bit repetitive. There isn’t a lot of depth here, but it’s silly and fun. In book 2, her grandmother is accused of murder and in book 3 she receives a baby dragon but a magician tries to buy him and she ends up under scrutiny, again, for murder.

There are things that are trite and absolutely overdone in the type of book. It’s almost a reverse Scooby Doo where the main character IS supernatural.

However, I the southern setting and the idea of the witch owning a pet store for familiars. Her ability to read the limited thoughts of animals was a nice touch and useful in the stories.

The author did pick some unusual phrases to repeat for certain characters, like Pepper sort of sliding a shoulder down the wall in book 5. It gave me pause every time she said it. I think the author was trying to give her a character tag to repeat every time she was in a scene, but that one, along with some others at different times over the five books I read, just didn’t quite work.

Some people suggested that she must not be southern but I wouldn’t know it. She clearly loves all things southern as all her books are set there.

It’s a fun series and I’d give what I’ve read a solid 3 stars, maybe 3.5.

Some other cozy mysteries I’ve enjoyed and reviewed - 

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2022/11/storymusing-chillers-and-thrillers.html

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2022/05/a-merry-month-of-may-multitude-of-book.html

Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-little-bookshop-of-murder.html

Swamp Spook: A Miss Fortune Mystery by Jana DeLeon https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-swamp-spook-miss-fortune.html

The Nina Quinn Mysteries by Heather Webber https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/04/book-review-nine-quinn-mysteries-by.html

Death in Avignon by Serena Kent https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/07/book-review-death-in-avignon-by-serena.html

The Witchcraft Mysteries by Juliet Blackwell https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/05/book-review-witchcraft-mysteries-by.html

Death By Dumpling: A Noodle Shop Mystery by Vivien Chien https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2021/03/book-review-death-by-dumpling-noodle.html

Say Cheese and Murder: A Lemington Cheese Company Mystery by Michelle Pointis Burns https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/12/book-review-say-cheese-and-murder.html

Disappearing Nightly: An Esther Diamond Novel by Laura Resnick https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-disappearing-nightly-esther.html

 

Motherducking Magic by Michelle Fox https://storymusing.blogspot.com/2020/08/book-review-motherducking-magic-by.html

Storymusing: Chillers and Thrillers

 

Our Sticky Notes Thematic Book Club read “Chillers and Thrillers” for October. I read two. One, long and involved, the other short and sweet.

Ghostwritten : A Novel by David Mitchell

I absolutely adore David Mitchell’s writing. He weaves stories that cross times and distances with a virtuosity that I can only aspire to. And yet he does this by focusing on one scene at a time, picking out minute details to emphasize certain aspects of the image he wants the reader to focus on. With this book, he crosses the globe, hopping from one character to the next, with an imperceptible connection at first. It’s only as the story goes on that the connections become clear. There’s definite science fiction, and some supernatural elements, involved, but not at first. His writing reminds me a little of Haruki Murakami – lyric prose and tenuous connections.

Okinawa – 32 pages: A young male terrorist who has taken the name “Quasar” becomes embroiled with cult that orders him to plant a bomb on a subway train. He’s very denigrating of the “unclean” people around him as he describes his work. He escapes to an island and though he hears news about how his group has been discovered and how they are being broken up, he never once doubts the leader.

Tokyo – 30 pages: This section is a tad less depressing and more about love, both young and long term. 18-year-old Satoru works in a jazz album store, he’s the son of a prostitute who has been deported and an unknown, assumed to be wealthy, 18-year-old man. A young woman comes in with her annoying friends but she seems different. She comes back a week later and they connect. A businessman named Mr. Fujimoto frequents the shop and says “Since the gas attacks on the subway…I’ve been trying to understand . . . . Why do things happen at all?” He posits the only answer might be love. Sakuro says, “I’d rather be too young to have that kind of wisdom.”

Hong Kong – 44 pages: Neal is a foreigner working in Hong Kong who thinks he has a ghost in his apartment, and who takes up with the aggressive cleaning lady after his wife goes home to London. He has also given in to a scheme to make a lot of money which is very, very illegal.

“Unless you’ve lived with a ghost, you can’t know the truth of it. … It’s more like living with a very particular cat… For the last few months I’ve been living with three women. One was a ghost, who is now a woman. One was a woman, who is now a ghost. One is a ghost, and always will be.” Soon he may be joining the latter.

Holy Mountain – 40 pages: A young girl who works in a tea shack on the side of Holy Mountain with her father is raped by a warlord’s son. She bears a child which is sent to live with family in order to spare them the shame. She believes a tree talks to her as the years unfold, revolutions coming and going. It’s a hard life and riveting though sad.

Mongolia – 50 pages: Here we are introduced to a hitch-hiking presence in the body of a young man backpacking through Mongolia. “So many times in a lifetime do my hosts feel the beginnings of friendship. All I can do is watch.” The spirit transmigrates from person to person, seeking a story that marks the beginning of their memory. The presence transmigrates into a Mongolian named Gunga who realizes it is there and goes to a Shaman. They strike a pact.

Petersburg – 58 pages: In Petersburg, we hear a sordid tale from the perspective of a woman who has survived by debasing herself to men – or is she taking advantage of them? She has a man she loves named Rudi and they have been squirreling away money by stealing famous paintings and replacing them then selling the originals on the black market. They only have so much access to the museum because she is screwing the head curator. Then it all goes wrong when a Mongolian criminal comes into the picture.

London – 56 pages: Marco is boozing it up and sleeping around as he deals with the news that Poppy is pregnant. He reflexively saves an Irish woman from getting run over by a cab. Marco goes on to his job, as a ghost writer, then ends up on a wild ride of a night.

Clear Island – 62 pages: An Irish scientist who was saved from getting run down by a cab goes home to her family, as she waits for the American government to find her and insist she join them with the AI algorithms she has created. She could run, but she would have to keep running because they will stop at nothing to get her black book.

Night Train – 48 pages: My favorite chapter. Bat Segundo on Night Train FM has an odd caller, (though they’re all odd,) called “Zookeeper.”

Underground – Back to Quasar and his escape from the train he left the device on. Or did he?

 

Arsenic and Adobo: A Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery by Mia P. Manansala

Lila Macapagal, a young Filipino-American woman, moves back to her hometown from Chicago in order to help her aunt and grandmother with the family restaurant. She gets caught up in the middle of a murder when her ex-boyfriend Derek, who had become a rather mean-spirited food critic, dies right in their restaurant. Complications? He was poisoned, a bag of arsenic laced rice is found in their kitchen, and a bag of money and drugs is found in Lila’s locker. Plus, the local cop seems intent on Lila as his main suspect. This was a delightful story, and the audio was a joy to listen to, allowing me to hear the correct pronunciation of names and words that I wouldn’t have otherwise known. Truly, the perfect cozy mystery, complete with recipes.

A Merry Month of May Multitude of Book Musings (Too much?)

 

This month I’m taking a page from some friends and sharing what I’ve been reading, what I liked and didn’t like about the books, and any musings about them. I guess I’ve hit a few genres this past month.

What I’ve been reading - 

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow – This book brings together a wide variety of elements in a single masterful alternate timeline historical novel. The three Eastwood sisters represent ancient archetypes of mother, maiden, and crone. Agnes Amaranth is a single mother to be, working in a sweatshop, who falls in love with a man who has used his own limited witchcraft to advocate for worker’s rights. Beatrice Belladonna is a librarian who, far from a spinster yet, finds romance with a female journalist, if she can trust herself. James Juniper is a young maiden with a deadly secret. The three find each other again and themselves embroiled in the fight for the woman’s right to vote and to practice witchcraft, after fleeing their father’s farm. I’ve read everything else written by this author to date and just love her style and depth. I highly recommend this book, without reservation.

The Vanishing Type by Ellery Adams – I love this series for so many reasons, not the least of which is because I love books in general. As a librarian, reading a mystery series where the main character is a former librarian turned bookseller who adores books and recommending them to patrons in her store, is just my idea of heaven. She mentions so many books that I recognize, and so many I don’t, that even the non-mystery portion of the story is fascinating. I also adore how she often finds books to help people with troubles in their life, something called bibliotherapy. With this story, Adams builds layer upon layer of mystery into the story. Nora is the owner of Miracle books, while her friends from the Secret, Book, and Scone Society include Hester, Estella, and June. They’ve come to trust and rely on each other. They do so again as Hester’s secret about the baby she gave up for adoption comes out into the open just as her boyfriend proposes. It’s a bumpy ride but Adams keeps us on the rails.

The Nobel Lecture in Literature 1993 by Toni Morrison – This lecture begins with Morrison relating a folk tale that she has heard in numerous cultures, about young people challenging an old blind person and that wise person putting them in their place. But then she extends the tale, asking, what if the wise person and the young entered a dialog to better understand each other – how much more could come of it? I had the sense that I would need to read it again and again to find the meaning within it. The second part was a simple acceptance speech of the award and thoroughly inspiring to me because it spoke about the writers of the future. Perfect for any aspiring writers.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler – I picked this book up thinking that the title indicated a comforting read. For some reason, the description didn’t disabuse me of the notion. I started reading and it was intriguing, if a bit lackluster. After a while, something reminded me of another book I’d read and I realized I’d read one other book by this author and didn’t care for it. I hate to put a book down and kept reading, soon finding that this book was really about one of the most dysfunctional families I’ve ever read about. The writing is interesting, it draws you on, your mouth drops open on a regular basis at the things people do. It’s not my cup of tea but the book is well written. If you like a slice of life about dysfunctional families, then this book is for you. I found it . . . unsatisfying.

The Taming of the Few: Guardians of the PHAE Book 1 by Rowan Dillon – Though this is a first urban fantasy for this author, it is not her first book. I admit that she is a member of my writer’s group and I have enjoyed her historical fantasy stories for years. The characters in this tale are thoroughly entertaining, from irascible Max with his Vietnam era PTSD and ability to talk to the wind, to swim coach Anna’s growing ability to convince the water to do her bidding, as iridescent scales slowly cover her arms. It seems a shift in the magnetic poles has caused magic to come to the surface in many people. These latent abilities have stirred fear in some and there is brewing resentment as factions move toward unrest and armed conflicts. I’m thoroughly enjoying the tale, though I’m only 30% of the way in.

Book Review: Princess Elizabeth’s Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery by Susan Elia MacNeal

 

Princess Elizabeth’s Spy: A Maggie Hope Mystery

by Susan Elia MacNeal

I chose this book because our book club theme this month is espionage, because I wanted something from our digital collection to read on my ereader, and because the cover appealed to me. I know, I know, but an appealing cover is a factor when I’m deciding, I admit it.

The main character is Maggie Hope, a plucky secretary to Churchill who grew up in America and becomes a British spy. She is sent undercover as a math tutor to Windsor Castle during World War II, when a plot to kidnap or kill the princesses is suspected.

This was a pleasant mystery, as much as anything that involves murder and World War II can be. The descriptions of unpleasant things are kept rather matter of fact, giving it more of a cozy mystery feel than a gritty realistic one.

I would consider this a formula mystery with some good historical trappings. I enjoyed the characters, particularly the sweet characterizations of the two young princesses, though everything was somewhat one dimensional. There was a bit of a romance, but rather perfunctory of the No, no, we mustn’t variety.

It was a bit simplistic at times, some of the thoughts and actions of the main character didn’t quite make sense, they seemed there to serve the plot without being true to the character. Maggie leaps to conclusions regarding her father that are clearly not warranted. Her father sends her a book with a message and she’s not even curious about it, even though she recently found a secret message in another book. Then, when she’s angry at him, sure she knows he’s done something awful, she picks it up to read just to distract herself. Most people wouldn’t touch it at that point. 

The historical trappings are interesting, though the author goes pretty far afield from what actually happened. They mentioned Operation Edelweiss several times but never really went into what it was. At one point, I thought it was a plan to kidnap Princess Elizabeth, but on looking it up, I discovered it was much more complicated and had nothing to do with the book I was reading. It was just a point of historical reference.

Would probably appeal to fans of Jacqueline Winspear. A relaxing type of murder mystery with just enough intrigue to draw me on throughout the book, but not enough to convince me that I want to read the rest of the series.

In conclusion, meh, it was okay. A good series to buy for your grandmother to read, or if you are looking to just relax.

Book Review: Little Bookshop of Murder by Maggie Blackburn

 

Little Bookshop of Murder: A Beach Reads Mystery

by Maggie Blackburn

I’m honestly not sure how this book has a 4 star average review on Amazon. I did read it on Kindle, as a free download from our library digital catalog. Was the editing of the Kindle edition so different from the editing on the hard copy? There are a good number of 1 to 3 star reviews that echo my own thinking.

The premise is an intriguing idea. Summer’s mother, Hildy, dies and Summer returns to her beach resort hometown to tie up the loose ends and decide what to do with Hildy’s book store. Hildy is an interesting character, though not even present, a free spirit and a town pillar, helping many people in her too short life. Summer has an interesting problem beyond the murder, her arachnophobia led to an unfortunate video taken of her which the faculty at her college are using to pressure her to conform to their expectations. (From what I’ve heard that can be a problem at some colleges, with or without the arachnophobia.) Summer soon begins to suspect that Hildy was murdered but she has history with the town police chief and he refuses to take her seriously.

There are some lovely descriptions of the area - “The moon lit the now deep purple-black water, sparkling silver where the light hit the surface.”

I love the relationship that evolves between Summer and the parrot, Darcy, as she learns to care for him.

There was some good interactions between characters, but there are also incredibly awkward character interactions that just don’t make sense to me. There are also a huge number of typos – missing words, poor word choices, wrong words, wrong word form or tense, and just plain missing words. Things like “She stopped when Summer’s eyes met eyes met hers.” Or, “had taken the opposite tact in her life” instead of opposite tack, which derives from the phrase about changing the position of the sail on a boat.

In the first couple chapters, we even have –

"There was the Aunt Hildy she knew and loved. Her mom's only sister, Agatha garnered no foolishness. Never had. In fact, it was one quality Sumer loved about her. She was quite the opposite from Hildy." It's obvious she changed who was Hildy at some point and didn't catch all the changes properly.

 “I just wasn’t thinking and signed the wrong papers,” Hildy said. She sat next to Summer. “The autopsy results on Hildy aren’t back yet.” I believe this is Aunt Agatha speaking.

There is a lot of repetition and things are said that are later forgotten in some way. For example, Doris tells Summer that her husband is ill and Summer says that she is story to hear about her husband. Then, three chapters later, Glads mentions it, “Doris’s husband isn’t having a good day,” and Summer asks, “Is he ill?”  

I can rarely guess who the killer is in a mystery but this one was completely obvious to me from about halfway through the book.

I think this book had a lot of potential, but it needed some good beta readers to point out the plot and characterization flaws then a good editor to catch all the mistakes.

Honestly, I’m really surprised it made it to publication with all the mistakes. My husband suggested that perhaps they had uploaded the wrong version to the Kindle, but that would be easily rectified and certainly should have been done by now if they were paying any attention at all. I downloaded this book around mid-June of 2021. If they have updated it since, then it may have improved significantly. I really hope so. I see they have another one planned, but I don't see myself reading it.

Book Review: The Witchcraft Mysteries by Juliet Blackwell

 

The Witchcraft Mysteries

by Juliet Blackwell

This is a long running series with the 11^th set to come out soon, which I found via my library’s digital catalog. I’ve now read through the sixth book, A Vision in Velvet, and don’t find myself tiring of it at all. It’s a cozy paranormal mystery with a light touch of romance.

Lily Ivory is a natural witch who just happens to have settled in San Francisco and opened a vintage clothing store. She doesn’t shy away from using her witchcraft but not indiscriminately. For example, Lilly can sense some of the past of the owners of the garments, and she uses her magic to cleanse them of those impressions before she resells them. Brewing is her area of expertise, using supplies from the garden she seems adept at nurturing.

Lily had a difficult childhood, growing up in a town with people who were not okay with her natural talents, and her parents were not nurturing. Her grandmother raised her and taught her, but the town ran Lily off before she could finish her training, so Lily has a lot of learning left to do.

One of her closest friends, who runs an herbal counter out of her vintage clothing store, is Bronwyn. She is a witch too, but of a more conventional nature. Through her store, Lily begins making good friends for the first time in her life.

Over the course of the first few books, there are several romantic entanglements with several different men as Lily searches for someone she can be herself with. She also acquires a rather unusual familiar who is part gargoyle and goblin but transforms into a potbellied pig. He can be a bit unethical but he’s very cute.

If I were pressed, I’d say the one thing that slightly annoys me with the books is the way the author information dumps details that don’t change from book to book, such as who and what her familiar is, her friends like Bronwyn, and the store itself, instead of weaving the information into the story. It’s a minor irritation and soon past.

Each book brings Lily up against a mystery, a demon, other witches, and a wide variety of difficulties. Each story is unique, picking up on urban legends, history of witch hysteria, or love curses. Each story has offered something different and I can’t really say which one was my favorite of those I’ve read. I can say that I think Lily ends up with the right guy. I just hope they manage to stay together, since I still have several books to read in the series.

The books that I’ve read has been thoroughly enjoyable, engrossing, and satisfying. There is just enough depth to make the story satisfying while staying light enough to make it relaxing. A perfect cozy mystery.

 

Secondhand Spirits

A Cast Off Coven

Hexes and Hemlines

In a Witch’s Wardrobe

Tarnished and Torn

A Vision in Velvet

Spellcasting in Silk

A Toxic Trousseau

A Magical Match

Bewitched and Betrothed

Synchronized Sorcery (forthcoming)

 

 

Book Review: The Nina Quinn Mysteries by Heather Webber

 

The Nina Quinn Mysteries

by Heather Webber

I enjoyed that last book I read by Heather Webber that I went right back looking for more by her. I was pleased to find she has written many other books, both magical realism and cozy mysteries. The magical realism cost considerably more than the mysteries so I went for the first in her Nina Quinn mystery series and it did not disappoint.

There are half a dozen books and a two weeks later I’ve already read five of them. I’m not sure how that happened.

A Hoe Lot of Trouble

Trouble in Spades

Digging up Trouble

Trouble in Bloom

Weeding out Trouble

Trouble Under the Tree

The Root of All Trouble

The only thing keeping me from jumping right into that 6^th book is the fact that Jenny Lawson’s latest book, Broken in the Best Possible Way, came out and my husband has already read it. I figured I better get on it before he couldn’t contain himself any longer and started leaking spoilers.

In fact, I’ve already bought the sixth and am looking forward to it once I finish laughing until I can’t breathe and sniffling over Jenny Lawson’s book.

Why am I enjoying the Nina Quinn Mysteries so much? What’s not to love? They are the perfect cozy mystery. They have a strong female lead, literally, because Nina runs a landscaping business.

There are great side characters – from her soon to be cop ex-husband, who is not remorseless and is not a total waste of space, to her stepson, to the ex-cons who work in her landscaping business, each one a fantastic character in their own right, and her family. Oh, plus, the octogenarians who live in her neighborhood. Plus, each of the characters has evolved over the series. They aren’t the exactly the same people we meet in the beginning. Her main foreman, Kit, at the landscaping business is a huge, shaved-headed, skull-tattooed, tough guy with a heart of gold whose girlfriend won’t let him have a dog. With characters like that, how can you go wrong?

The mysteries can be serious but at the same time there are humorous little mysteries running throughout the series. One great example is in the sixth book when someone keeps putting cheerfully tacky and BIG Christmas decorations on her mother’s lawn or house. Her mother is freaking out over it so Nina sets out to discover who is doing it. At the same time, there is a much more serious murder mystery taking place.

This series has just been the best possible escapist cozy mysteries. It doesn’t demand too much of you, you can just go along for the ride, and it’s a fun one, I promise.

Book Review: Death in Provence by Serena Kent

 

Penelope Kite is a divorced British woman who left the coroner’s office when her boss retired. After a difficult Christmas with her stepchildren, she decides to take an extended vacation for a couple weeks in Provence. She finds herself looking at potential properties.

“Perhaps she shouldn’t have drunk all that delicious rose. It had made her bold.”

Boldness is decidedly what she will need, as she purchases a property that needs a good deal of TLC to bring it back to life. There are wasps, and crumbling plaster, villagers who greet her with some reservation, along with a dead body in the clogged pool.

But Le Chant d’Eau has marvelous views, old stones, and beautiful atmosphere. Penny is not going to be run off easily, not by a difficult “Chef de Police” or a movie star handsome mayor.

One dead body isn’t that much of a problem. Call the police, have it removed, and have a service clean out the pool and make sure it is sound.

The problems, however, don’t quite end there, and as fast as Penny meets people who become friendly in the village, there are also mounting dangers.

As a former employee of a genius coroner, Penny is not without a certain amount of knowledge in investigations, even if she is an amateur. She definitely has “le courage.” Will it be enough? It must, because this is a cozy mystery. But how will we get to the satisfactory conclusion? What twists and turns will we find along the way? That is the joy of a cozy mystery and it is well accomplished here, along with a healthy dose of armchair travel to Provence. I highly recommend this one.

I find it interesting that Serena Kent is actually the pen name for a husband and wife writing team, much like on of my favorite fantasy authors, Ilona Andrews. I’ve also enjoyed humorous adventure books written by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer. These male/female writing teams bring something special to the page that I really enjoy. If you’re looking for some more reading, check them out.

Book Review: Death by Dumpling (A Noodle Shop Mystery) by Vivien Chien

 

Death by Dumpling

A Noodle Shop Mystery

by Vivien Chien

Sometimes, when life is a little hard, you just need a nice cozy murder mystery to relax with. They’re safe, predictable, somewhat, and you know the hero/heroine is going to win in the end because he or she has to. They just do. (You can’t start a book series by killing off your main character.)

That doesn’t mean they don’t have to suffer a little along the way. But I really like it when they have a healthy sense of humor about it all.

“You know in the movies, where someone says ‘You can’t fire me, I quit!’ . . . maybe don’t do that in real life. Unless you don’t mind working as a server in your parents’ Chinese restaurant for the rest of your life.”

Lana Lee is in her late twenties, recently broken up with her boyfriend, sharing an apartment with her best friend Megan, has quit her job, and gone back to work at her parent’s restaurant, the Ho-Lee Noodle House in Cleveland, Ohio.

“I’m half English, half Taiwanese, and no, I don’t know Karate. I’m definitely not good at math and I don’t know how to spell your name in Chinese.”

Reading about Lana is like meeting your next best friend and bonding, or reminiscing about your twenty-something years – post college, short on money, living in an apartment, meeting new guys who “might” be of interest, sister annoying the heck out of you, etc.

She even has the cutest little dog, a black pug named Kikkoman. (Awww.)

Of course, into every cozy murder mystery, there must be added a murder, and this one is no different. Lana delivers lunch to an older family friend who manages the plaza their restaurant is in. Hours later he is dead.

Who did it? How? Why?

There are a few suspects and Lana finds herself on that list, along with her old friend Peter.

Obviously, she needs to clear their names, right?

This is a perfect light, fast-paced cozy mystery and I am thoroughly enjoying the series.

Book Review: The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams

 

The Book of Candlelight

Secret, Book, and Scone Society Novel: Book 3

by Ellery Adams

 

I really enjoyed this book, it is everything I want in a cozy mystery.

The western North Carolina resort town of Miracle Springs is known for its healing waters, but the really special thing about this book is the characters.

Nora Pennington owns a small bookshop, Miracle Books, housed in a renovated train station and lives in a renovated caboose. She offers books, shelf enhancing little collectible antiques, and a coffee bar. (The coffee bar also offers book pastries made by her friend, Hester, from the Gingerbread House bakery.)

Nora is known for her bibliotherapy, recommending books to help people with their problems, just as June works at the therapeutic springs, Hester makes baked goods that bring people special memories, and Estella offers beauty treatments that make people feel good about themselves.

The many titles Nora recommends to different people for different issues are offered here along with the explanation of why she chose them, as well as books just recommended for enjoyable reading. (I recognized about half to three-quarters.)

At the beginning of this book the town is deluged by rain which bring with it a mess of problems, from Nora’s accident on her bike to a body found in flood waters, and a mysterious stranger committing petty but scary crimes against Nora and her friends.

Nora and friends rally around Marie, the pregnant young widow of the man found in the flood waters, to help her handle her grief and keep her putting one foot in front of another. Nora, of course, can't help trying to solve the mystery of his death too.

There’s a new character that Nora hires on to help with the book store, and new people in town, as well as old favorites like the sheriff. They bring conflict, strife, and sometimes dead bodies to the town, which is what a murder mystery is all about.

I adored the new character of Sheldon Vega, who wears a pink bowtie, a sweater vest, and a fedora at their first meeting.

“Don’t you get tired of that noise?” asked a doppelganger for Colonel Sanders. He removed a gray fedora and shook it out, his gaze moving from Nora’s face to her torn pants. “Honey, you’re a hot mess. What can Sheldon do to help you?”

Just like all the characters, he has his flaws and problems, which bring depth to the story. They feel pretty well-rounded for a cozy mystery.

Sheldon brings Nora into contact with the women running the old guest house where he is staying, and the mysteries that surface there as they renovate the old place. 

Not every little mystery connects in this book, but enough do and in logical ways to make it a great read.

There’s also a romance between Nora and handsome paramedic, Jed, which adds complications to the story very nicely.

I’m really loving this series. The first one was a 4 star for me, but this one I’d give a 5 star to. I’ll be going back to read book 2 now and I’m looking forward to book 4 coming out in a month or so.

Book Review: Say Cheese and Murder: A Lemington Cheese Company Mystery by Michelle Pointis Burns

 

Say Cheese and Murder

A Lemington Cheese Company Mystery

by Michelle Pointis Burns

 

Mystery reviews can be some of the toughest to write because I don’t want to give away too much information. Also, I have to be completely honest here - I’ve read this book before. The author is a member of my local author’s group. However, I can honestly say I thoroughly enjoyed re-reading this cozy mystery. It is pure fun.

I love a good mystery. Set it in a British manor house on New Year’s Eve and it harkens back to some of my favorite books by Marjorie Allingham and Agatha Christie.

Tensions are high. Add in an ice storm that traps all the partygoers there for the night, and you can feel something is going to go wrong.

Obviously, it does, in a big way. Someone is murdered during the night.

Cassandra Haywood wakes up the next morning with a mystery on her hands. She’s a regular, modern day, working girl, handling business matters in her Aunt’s cheese company. Effectively told from the limited viewpoint of Cassandra, we can only know what she knows, but she doesn’t sit on her hands. The scene where she overhears that she is a suspect is at once humorous and full of great sensory details.  

All the big themes have a place here - love, honor, justice, friendship, and betrayal. The love of refined manor life, and cheese, as well as strong writing skills shine through in this debut novel.

With character names like the vile Baron Von Pickle and a butler named Fartworthy, who is conversely not quite what you would expect from a butler, there is definitely humor here, both overt and less in your face.

As every good mystery demands, this one is brought to a very satisfying conclusion. Cassandra is no shrinking violet and her confrontation with the murderer is well thought out and will have you cheering her on.

I can honestly recommend this book.

 

Description from Amazon

“Happy New Year . . . or is it?

Cassandra Haywood hopes her aunt, Lady Lemington, the CEO of Lemington Cheese Company, will behave tonight. With the help of a large household staff, they are hosting an elegant holiday gala for friends, local merchants, and rival cheese company owners. Scarves and secrets swirl around Cassandra as the clock counts down.

When an unexpected ice storm traps guests and staff within the modern English estate, someone dies in the great halls of the house that cheese built. After Cassandra realizes she has become the head detective’s number one suspect, she must overcome self-doubt to discover the truth and clear her name.

The first book in the Lemington Cheese Company Mystery series serves up intrigue, red-herrings, and humor, alongside several kinds of cheese. This culinary, cozy mystery introduces readers to Cassandra Haywood. She loves scarves, has a knack for business, and unexpectedly adds "amateur sleuth" to her resume following a possible crime at the manor.”

The Author: Michelle Pointis Burns juggles mothering her ten children, homeschooling (the oldest five have now graduated college), living her Catholic faith, and writing. She loves to research topics of all kinds, read British authors (especially Jane Austen and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), quote movies in regular conversation, and drink hot chocolate from elegant teacups. When asked how she manages it all, she has been known to reply, “Prayer, caffeine, and a sense of humor.”

Michelle has been a devoted member of the NY Chemung Valley Mothers of Twins Club (she has two sets of twins), and the Corning Area Writers’ Group. Born and raised in Queens, NY, Michelle currently lives in Upstate New York on a working goat and sheep farm with her husband and more than half of her children. Say Cheese and Murder is her first novel.

www.michellepointisburns.com