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A Deadly Eclair–weak in the deduction department
A Deadly Eclair
by Daryl Wood Gerber
This is a book I really wanted to like. The main character Mimi is a nice and capable person. She owns a restaurant, Bistro Rousseau, and an inn, Maison Rousseau, in Napa Valley. This is a second chance at happiness in her personal life and success in business. She is an understanding boss who has hired an interesting staff. She is creative, has good taste, and is a lover of Impressionism.
As the story opens Mimi is preparing for an out-of-towners’ dinner party for a celebrity wedding also scheduled to take place at the inn. One of the best parts of the book is the presentation of delicious sounding gourmet items on the bistro’s menu. The book closes with recipes the characters have shared.
The focus of the mystery is a murder. When it occurs, Mimi turns into an amateur detective. Unfortunately she is a pretty bad one. She discretely interviews lots of potential suspects, many of whom are guests at her restaurant and inn. They lie to her and she takes what they say at face value and bases her theories on those lies. She also places far too much emphasis on trying to read people’s lips or watch their reactions. Then she draws conclusions willy nilly based on whole conversations that she mentally fabricates.
A Deadly Eclair has a great setting and interesting characters. Past that, I was disappointed in the plot and its resolution, which for me is not very believable.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 3/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #1 in the new French Bistro Mystery series
Publication: November 7, 2017—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
Next, I worked as sous chef to a celebrated chef—celebrated was code for crazy—at a snazzy restaurant.
A strong woman is one who is able to smile this morning like she didn’t cry last night.
Of course, there were a lot of ifs in my speculation.
Much Ado About Murder–Shakespeare in a Civil War era setting
Much Ado About Murder
by Elizabeth J. Duncan
England comes to the U.S. in Much Ado About Murder. Charlotte Fairfax is a costume designer formerly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Audrey Ashley is an actress from a famous English dramatic family; she insists on a particular English director. Set in the Catskills, a production of Much Ado About Nothing is anticipated to draw crowds of tourists to help sustain the town and local hotel. Add in a few Corgis and a lot of tea to round out the British ambiance.
Unfortunately, trouble plagues the production with conflicts, injuries, a murder, and lots of suspects. Charlotte and her wealthy friend Paula, chairperson of the theater board, bear major responsibilities for ironing out difficulties and investigating the murder. Charlotte has support from her boyfriend Ray, the chief of police.
I enjoyed this cozy mystery with its interesting characters and setting. As a drama fan, I particularly appreciated that focus and found that it was integral to the plot rather than contrived. Reading about the difficulties of staging a professional production on a restricted budget in a more remote location got my attention and added an element of fun to the mystery.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #3 in the Shakespeare in the Catskills Mystery Series, but worked well as a standalone for me
Publication: November 7, 2017—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
Audrey shook her head as the server placed a generous slice of apple pie, its latticed crust golden and flaky, warm, cinnamon-laced chunky apple filling oozing onto the plate, in front of each diner. It was accompanied by scoops of homemade French vanilla ice cream and slices of mature cheddar cheese.
Theater rehearsal rooms are almost always closed to outsiders. They’re meant to be safe places where actors can try on a role and wear it for an hour or a day, experiment, do anything and everything to find the heart and voice of a role, make mistakes, indulge in whimsy and nonsense, until they understand where their character has come from and what he seeks and why he wants it. They do this by playing off other actors, and gradually, as they work out the mechanics of the play and the technical aspects, it comes together as the words are lifted off their pages and take on a life of their own.
Bones to Pick–vegan delight
Bones to Pick
by Linda Lovely
Based on the cover of Bones to Pick, I expected a light-hearted mystery featuring a pig. Instead, I found Linda Lovely’s first book in her new Brie Hooker Mystery Series to be a humorous cozy mystery with a tangled plot. The pig has only a very minor role, and the focus is on Brie Hooker, an MBA carrying former banker turned vegan chef. A lot of the humor in the book is derived either from her food preferences or her relationships to two “hunky” guys who are also best friends, Paint and Andy.
The death of a beloved aunt segues into a story of spousal abuse, murder, corrupt cops, mysterious investments, death threats, and a very old feud. Brie has to sort her way through small town South Carolina politics and relationships with the help of her family and friends to solve this mystery. Helping out with a large goat farm and producing award-winning cheese that only a non-vegan could love may not be part of Brie’s original dream, but she now has lots of reasons to make Ardon County her new home.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Henery Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery, General Fiction (Adult)
Notes: #1 in the Brie Hooker Mystery Series
Publication: October 24, 2017—Henery Press
Memorable Lines:
Even minus an introduction, I figured this tall glass of sweet tea had to be Paint, the legendary owner of Magic Moonshine. Sunlight glinted off hair the blue-black of expensive velvet. Deep dimples. Rakish smile.
As usual, Dad had sole custody of the TV remote. Did Mom even know how to use it?
Pools of water camouflaged the potholes that occupied half the graveled roadbed. My bouncing headlamps lit up the rutted drive like a reverse Rorschach ink blot test. The water appeared as blobs of shimmering yellow splattered across a black canvas.
Cold As Ice–trying to cover mistakes
Cold As Ice
by Julie Mulhern
At 6:30 on a Friday evening, Ellison Russell sensed Disaster, but what about her daughter going on a date to see Benji with a handsome, polite young man from their social group or her attending a cocktail party with her best friend Libba? Who could have foretold the disastrous sequence of events that would occur over the next several days?
As expected, Cold As Ice, Julie Mulhern’s sixth novel in the Country Club Mystery Series is a winner. It jumps right into the current story while catching up readers who are new to the series. With a lot of legitimate suspects, Ellison stays busy following leads as she tries to save a failing bank which is her daughter’s inheritance from Ellison’s licentious, now dead, husband and negotiate landmines in her relationships with her domineering mother and her teenage daughter. Meanwhile two love interests, a lawyer and a detective, provide aid in her investigations while vying for her affections.
All of the investigation occurs in the midst of family chaos and is delivered with a heavy dose of wry humor. Mr. Coffee continues to be the only man Ellison can truly depend on. The setting is decorated with multiple authentic touches of the seventies. It is a book I didn’t want to put down, but I didn’t want it to end either.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Henery Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery, General Fiction (Adult)
Notes: # 6 in The Country Club Murders; works fine as a standalone
Publication: October 17, 2017—Henery Press
Memorable Lines:
“How was your date?” A silly question, since animated songbirds perched on her shoulders and whistled.
Perhaps the expression I allowed into my eyes stilled his tongue. It was one of Mother’s best. It spoke of impending pain and suffering and icy fury.
“Hi.” His voice was as delicious as s’mores made in the fireplace on a snow day. Melty and warm and addictive.
We need to talk. Has anything good ever followed those four words?
Twelve Slays of Christmas–a holiday treat
Twelve Slays of Christmas
by Jacqueline Frost
If you are someone with magical memories of Christmas, you will enjoy being immersed in the first Christmas Tree Farm Mystery. We are taken to a Christmas wonderland where the Whites try to keep the family business, Christmas Tree Farm, open in spite of dwindling tree sales by offering a twelve day tourist Christmas extravaganza in the little town of Mistletoe.
Holly returns home after nine years in the big city when her fiancé dumps her a week before the wedding. Murder threatens what should be a happy season for the tourists and locals. Both Holly and the tree farm are in danger. Sheriff Evan Gray makes a believable love interest as they get acquainted quickly through her investigations of several crises. The plot is interesting, the main characters are likable, and the setting is as Christmasy as you can get in a murder mystery.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Crooked Lane Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #1 in the Christmas Tree Farm Mystery Series
Publication: October 10, 2017—Crooked Lane Books
Memorable Lines:
“I have two cups of Santa’s cinnamon tea, one spicy apple cider, and a peppermint twist hot cocoa,” I said, setting the mugs on the table surrounded by rosy-cheeked women wearing matching holiday sweaters. They leaned forward at the sight of my mother’s specialty drinks. I slipped cinnamon sticks into the tea and cider, then popped a candy cane into the cocoa.
“Everyone’s capable of something they never thought they could be.”
“You have to make things happen, not wait around hoping something might happen to you.”
Fireworks in Paradise–fireworks for TJ and Kyle
Fireworks in Paradise
by Kathi Daley
TJ Jensen transported her sisters, good friend Kyle, grandfather, and his friend Doc, along with a menagerie, across the country to help a family friend for the summer. They are suddenly recalled to the resort the family owns in Paradise Island by a car accident that puts TJ’s father in the ICU.
Fireworks in Paradise is a good cozy mystery that ties in a cold case with vehicle tampering and local politics. Despite personal problems, TJ and her family’s resort host a number of the town’s Fourth of July celebrations. I enjoyed the tale but there are a lot of nuanced relationships that play into the story. The author does a good job of bringing the reader up to date, but there are also a number of new characters incorporated into the eighth novel in this series. Although I enjoyed Fireworks in Paradise, I don’t think this mystery would work as well as a standalone as some of the others in this series.
I do recommend the book and the series, but I have some residual hesitation about a 100% endorsement of this mystery. I found the amount of time TJ spent solving the crime to be unrealistic given other issues she should have been addressing. I know she felt like she could help her father most by finding the saboteur, but having rushed across the country you would think her focus would be spending time with her dad at the hospital or filling in at the resort’s Fourth of July activities for him. In spite of that, I did like the book’s underlying theme of the importance of family and friends.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Henery Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #8 in the TJ Jensen Mystery Series
Publication: October 10, 2017—Henery Press
Memorable Lines:
Love isn’t something you have to dissect and analyze. It’s something that just is.
…you never knew when someone or something in the background of an otherwise unspectacular photo would provide you with just the clue you needed to solve a case.
Dead on the Bayou–great setting, but…
Dead on the Bayou
by June Shaw
Sunny and Eve are identical twin sisters in the cozy mystery Dead on the Bayou. The sisters try to keep their home repair and renovation business going while exonerating themselves and friend Dave Price from murder charges. Sunny is the narrator of this tale and shares with the reader in endless repetition her attraction to Dave and how she stifles it because her twin sister is also attracted to him. Much information about her investigation is also repeated to the point that as a reader I wanted to yell “I know. I was there!”
The plot idea is good. The ending is a surprise, but in a disappointing way. There are no clues to lead Sunny and Eve in that direction at all. The setting is well executed with descriptions of the bayou and Louisiana food. Even better are the descriptions of the living facility where the twins’ mother resides. Accurate details include little groups of chatting ladies, assigned tables with self-assigned seats at early mealtimes, and seniors with walkers who by necessity are totally focused on keeping themselves upright and headed to their destination. Unfortunately the author, June Shaw, keeps returning the twins fruitlessly to this home to investigate even though the residents have little more than rumor to offer and usually are not even available. The twins are not honest, being willing to bend truth and fabricate stories to cover themselves. I found myself looking for diversions each time I finished with a chapter or two. Dead on the Bayou is not a page turner.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Lyrical Underground (Kensington Press) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 3/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #2 in the Twin Sisters Mystery Series
Publication: August 22, 2017— Lyrical Underground (Kensington Press)
Memorable Lines:
…she reminded me of my first-grade teacher, who didn’t know about my dyslexia any more than the rest of us did at that time. Every time I read a few words or a group of numbers in class, she gave me that same hard shake of her head and finger wag as though I had been a really bad puppy. She would end this display of negativity toward me by speaking my name with a sharp tone and say, “No, you are wrong. Again.” No wonder I hated my early schooling.
Bless my third-grade teacher, who figured I was dyslexic and had me tested.
Eve must have read my mind since she called me the instant I sat in my truck and pulled out my phone. Maybe that was an occurrence with a lot of people, but over our lifetimes my twin and I so often received the same vibe at the same time that our connection was hard to discount.
A Toast to Murder–mystery set in a bar
A Toast to Murder
by Allyson K. Abbott
There are suspects galore. The wannabe detective actually gets unwanted official recognition. The setting is interesting—a bar whose owner caters to the Capone Club, an informal crime solving group, by providing a room in the bar for their gatherings. There is a lot to like about this book.
You know what’s coming up next…a medium sized “but.” Yes, I liked the book, but it was not an “I just can’t put this down” mystery despite the fact that lives were hanging in the balance. This is not a case of book bashing because a serial book does not work well as a standalone: A Toast to Murder can stand on its own. The author actually does a good job of bringing the reader up to speed, but it is a constant process and becomes slightly intrusive. Because this mystery seems to occur over several books, it just doesn’t have a comfortable cohesiveness. Another problem I have with the book is that many of the suspects are not fleshed out enough for the reader to invest interest in the probability of their being the criminal. There are two love interests for bar owner Mack, but I had a hard time caring about her relationship with either of them. Perhaps that would be different if I had read previous books in the series.
On the positive side, the main character, Mackenzie “Mack” Dalton, has an interesting neurological disorder called synesthesia. In Mack’s words, “It causes one’s senses to get mixed up or cross-wired so that any sense I experience—smell, for instance—is manifested through a second sense at the same time. For instance, I not only hear people’s voices, I often taste them.” Although this disorder can be stressful for Mack, she has learned to use it to her advantage in solving crimes. The author deserves kudos for her creativity in constructing a plot that would focus on Mack’s skills in this area.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: 1. #5 in Mack’s Bar Mystery Series
2. Bonus section with mixed drink recipes
Publication: July 25, 2017—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
They hung around for an hour or two, chatting about the letter writer, speculating about motive, comparing whoever was behind it to Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis, Professor Moriarty. By inference, it meant they were comparing me to Sherlock Holmes, and I had to admit that I found the analogy a little flattering.
Knot What You Think–piecing together a mystery and a quilt
Knot What You Think
by Mary Marks
Martha Rose takes center stage in the cozy mystery Knot What You Think by Mary Marks. Martha has been quilting with a small group of friends in L.A. every Tuesday for seventeen years. They also form her support group as she investigates mysteries that come her way. She is an observant Jew, and so there are a lot of Yiddish phrases that spice up the writing with meanings inserted in a non-intrusive way. There are two love interests: Arlo Beaver, the straight shooting LAPD homicide detective and “Crusher,” a secret ops/undercover ATF agent.
This cozy mystery swirls with personal threads—weddings, funerals, ex’s, health issues, quilting, swindles, and dogs in fancy dress. Usually that would be too much distraction for me from the main point of the book: discovering the identity of a murderer. Surprisingly, Mary Marks is able to put it all together and make it work. The side issues are, in fact, important to Martha’s process of investigation. In spite of the fact that I was reading it during some traveling, I always enjoyed coming back to it until the mystery was solved.
There were interesting notes about quilting scattered through the story. The book ended with an epilogue that tied up some of the personal stories with promise of more to come.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #5 in the Quilting Mystery Series and good enough as a standalone to make me want to read more in the series.
Publication: July 25, 2017—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
I found endless fascination in the geometry of traditional quilts. Depending on how you placed quilt blocks next to each other in the top, secondary overall patterns could emerge.
Besides, even if I did want to get married, whose proposal should I accept? A generous, laid-back undercover ATF agent with a secret life and Israeli connections he refused to discuss or an upright, uptight LAPD detective with Native American roots, whose life was an open book? A future filled with anxiety and uncertainty or one that was reliable and predictable but not as exciting? A three-carat flawless diamond sitting in a black fuzzy box or my favorite German shepherd?
I was less interested in the hapless Kaplan and more interested in reading the whole three-volume story passing over Beavers’s face.
Killer Party–a good one!
Killer Party
by Lynn Cahoon
I had read the eighth book in the Tourist Trap Mystery Series by popular cozy mystery author Lynn Cahoon and was not excited as it focused more on extraneous details of the main character’s personal life and less on the mystery. I am so glad I gave this series and author another chance with Killer Party.
Set at The Castle, a luxurious resort/museum in South Cove, a small town in California, this tale finds Jill Gardner, owner of Coffee, Books, and More celebrating the upcoming marriage of her boyfriend Greg’s old college buddy. Cahoon does a great job of familiarizing the reader with old characters and introducing new ones, while jumping right into the plot. My favorite new character and coffee shop employee is Deek, who initially appears to be a disaster in the waiting. Despite calling everyone “Dude,” Deek is a talented, well-educated young man with great enthusiasm for his work.
There are lots of suspects and threads to the plot. Greg, who is the local police chief, is forced to investigate informally with Jill since he is a friend of the victim. Side issues evolve with Jill’s Aunt Jackie who is planning her own wedding.
Killer Party is fun, interesting and an all-round good cozy mystery. What’s next, Ms. Cahoon? I’m ready!
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Kensington Books for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #9 in the Tourist Trap Mystery Series, but works as a standalone
Publication: July 18, 2017—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
Actually I wasn’t sure why I was apologizing to this woman I’d never met before. I’d read a book that said one of the ways women give up their power is by saying I’m sorry for things that weren’t their fault.
I needed to have one good meal before we started skirting the law. It was part of the investigators handbook. Or at the least the one I was going to write someday after I made all the mistakes first.
I liked doing laundry. It calmed me in some weird way. Take something dirty and stained and make that all go away. Too bad life wasn’t like that.
education pathways 