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Rooted in Deceit–the value of a painting
Rooted in Deceit
by Wendy Tyson
Wendy Tyson’s Rooted in Deceit is another stellar cozy mystery in The Greenhouse Mystery Series. Megan is the owner of Washington Acre Farms, a farm that supplies organic produce for her own café and organic store in Winsome as well as several restaurants in Philadelphia.
Tyson dumps the reader into the story immediately with four major plot pieces. Megan’s mini-enterprise is almost ready to expand as her crew puts the finishing touches on the long awaited pizza farm restaurant. Her father Eddie and his wife of two years, Sylvia, arrive from Milan on business, swirling up lots of emotions and relationship issues. They will be staying in nearby Dartville at Peaceful Summit Yoga Retreat Center and Spa which may be competition for Megan’s café. Thrown into this mix is an artist and middle school friend of Megan’s, Thana Moore, whose work will be on display at the center.
Before you know it, Megan is up to her eyeballs in a murder investigation, without the help of boyfriend, veterinarian Denver, who is called to Scotland when his sister is in a serious accident. Megan has to come to grips with her feelings about her own family past as well as middle school shenanigans that come back to bite her and her former friends.
You’ll enjoy watching the plot unfold as Megan follows various leads. Some go to dead ends and others branch off into new possibilities. There’s never a dull moment in Rooted in Deceit.
I would like to extend my thanks to Edelweiss and to Henery Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #4 in The Greenhouse Mystery Series, but works as a standalone
Publication: September 4, 2018—Henery Press
Memorable Lines:
The day was hot and humid, a soupy late August afternoon that teased a cooling rain but delivered little more than sweat and sunburn.
“You and I both know people do inconceivable things for rational reasons, and conceivable things for irrational reasons. Crime rarely makes sense.”
…the right choice wasn’t always obvious at the time you were forced to make it. Life got complicated.
Stabbed in the Baklava–secrets and more secrets
Stabbed in the Baklava
by Tina Kashian
Author Tina Kashian draws heavily on real life for background and details as she composes her Kitchen Kabab Mystery Series. Like Lucy, her heroine, Tina Kashian grew up working all the various necessary jobs in her parents’ Armenian restaurant on the New Jersey coast. She later worked as a lawyer honing her investigative expertise. Now she puts all of her skills together to create mouth-watering cozy mysteries.
In Stabbed in the Baklava, when Lucy Berberian and her staff cater a celebrity wedding reception, a murder victim is found. To save Lucy’s head chef, Lucy and her friend Katie work hard to find the perpetrator amidst a lot of possibilities. It seems everyone has a secret, and the secrets cause a lot of pain and misunderstandings. Lucy has to get to the bottom of the puzzle to save lives and satisfy justice.
This is a fast-moving cozy mystery with lots of twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. Several times the author uses Lucy to clearly review the complicated plot as the events appear at that point in the story—not a bad technique of summary and clarification. The ending unravels in a surprising and satisfying conclusion.
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: This second book in the Kitchen Kabab Mystery Series works well as a standalone. The author fills the reader in on background from the first book in the series thoroughly but not tediously.
Publication: August 28, 2018—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
A chrome and black Harley-Davidson motorcycle was in the driveway, its engine purring like a large contented beast. A tall, good-looking, dark-haired man wearing faded jeans and a leather jacket walked out of the garage and halted by the Harley. Lucy couldn’t see his eyes from this distance, but she knew they were as bright blue as the sky on a sultry, summer day at the beach.
A knot tightened in Lucy’s stomach, and she struggled with an unexpected uncertainty. If she was getting better at misleading people in order to gather information, what did that say about her?
Lucy’s mind had seen what it expected to see rather than seeing the truth.
Southern Discomfort–murder in the kitchen
Southern Discomfort
by Caroline Fardig
Southern Discomfort introduces the sweet and naive Quinn Ballandini, who was raised by her grandmother to have impeccable Southern manners. She and her more rebellious sister help their grandfather manage a successful bed and breakfast in Savannah, Georgia, where Quinn does most of the cooking.
Quinn discovers the dead body of a friend’s brother. This too trusting B & B manager tries to transform herself into an amateur sleuth to get her friend and potentially herself cleared. She is pretty bad at it, but she is persistent. There are lots of interesting characters including her magician grandfather, Papa Sal, her mother who is into drugs and auras, her older sister Delilah, and her Uncle Frank’s ghost who appears to Delilah and Papa Sal. Additionally, former high school football star Tyler re-enters her life with a love-hate relationship. There are also a lot of suspects Quinn has to interview to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Southern Discomfort was a satisfactory read but not as well written as the one other book by Caroline Fardig that I have read from a different series. I would be willing to read the next book in the series, but the extent of the paranormal in the next book will determine further readings in this series.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Random House (Alibi) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery, Women’s Fiction
Notes: 1. #1 in the Southern B&B Mystery Series.
2. There are some paranormal elements that I found more amusing than offensive.
3. A few delicious sounding recipes are included at the end of the book.
Publication: March 6, 2018—Random House (Alibi)
Memorable Lines:
Well, I’d had a fleeting moment of calm, thinking it might not be so bad to tell my sad story to my old friend Rufus. But with Detective Angrypants staring me down, my nerves frazzled again.
I’d always thought culinary reviewers were highfalutin foodies who savored their food morsel by morsel so as to taste every note and nuance of whatever they were eating. This guy was a inhaling his food. There was a no way he was savoring anything at that pace.
Her words stung me and brought tears to my eyes. Why did she have to be so stinking mean all the time? It was like I was back in high school again, getting picked on by the cool kids.
education pathways 