Home » Posts tagged 'fire' (Page 2)
Tag Archives: fire
Flower Power Trip–flowers at the heart of a mystery
Flower Power Trip
by James J. Cudney
The third cozy in the Braxton Campus Mystery series does not disappoint its fans nor leave out new readers. It begins with a helpful Who’s Who briefly describing the characters in the series. The first chapter follows up with a summary of the action in the first two books as told by the main character Kellan, while getting the plot for the new book underway.
Kellan discovers a dead body and again finds himself in the middle of a homicide investigation. Flower Power Trip swirls delightfully with interesting characters, a multitude of clues, and humorous repartee. Several threads continue on from previous books: Kellan’s rocky relationships with his boss Myriam and Sheriff April Montague, Nana D’s bid for the mayoral seat, and Kellan’s presumed dead wife Francesca with ties to a mob family. There are also romantic conflicts and more than a little danger.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #3 in the Braxton Campus Mystery Series but works quite well as a standalone
Publication: March 30, 2019—Creativia
Memorable Lines:
Helena recently celebrated her birthday by doing a pub crawl across all four villages in Wharton County. Eight hours, eight bars, eight different drinks. I wouldn’t have survived that level of commitment.
…”you are nothing but a nosy, interfering, non-stop questioning, painful wart on the tip of my pinky toe that has aggravated me beyond any reasonable expectation.”
…you must always have more physical books than e-books. I wanted Emma to experience a multitude of technology at her fingertips from an early age, but she also needed to respect and cherish all that our country had accomplished in the history of bookmaking and printing.
Murder Made to Order–good basic cozy
Murder Made to Order
by Lena Gregory
If you have ever wondered what it would be like to move from cold, urban New York to small town Florida complete with snakes, alligators, and monkeys, try reading Murder Made to Order. In this cozy mystery, Gia’s diner, the All-Day Breakfast Café, is in danger of being shut down because of zoning regulations. When Gia finds the town council’s president dead, things get complicated.
Not even sure she wants to live in Florida, Gia finds herself in the middle of a forest fire, a tornado, and a murder investigation. On the plus side, however, are her supportive friend of ten years Savannah, her potential boyfriend Hunt, and a lot of encouraging townsfolk.
Author Lena Gregory draws the reader into Murder Made to Order with a good background, interesting characters, and surprising complications. Along the way you learn a lot of interesting things about life near the Ocala National Forest.
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: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #2 in the All-Day Breakfast Café Mystery Series, but works as a standalone.
Publication: June 19, 2018 — Kensington Press (Lyrical Underground)
Memorable Lines:
Gia stood in the middle of the living room and stared out the window. Rain pounded against the house. Lightning flashed, bolt after bolt, illuminating the yard. Mesmerizing. The tall, thin palm tree outside her front window bent in half.
“Twenty-one years old, barely old enough to drink, and he struts in like he owns the place. Drunk as a skunk and dumber than a bag of rocks, carryin’ on about how his daddy was going to own the place.”
Gia watched them walk away, realizing nothing united a community the way tragedy did. It seemed the need to help others brought out the best in people.
Whisper the Dead–complex mystery
Whisper the Dead
by Stella Cameron
Whisper the Dead starts off with anything but a whisper. The reader and Alex Duggins, owner of the pub The Black Dog in Folly-on-Weir, are thrown immediately into a violent scene which segues into fire and explosions. This cozy mystery focuses more on the mystery than the cozy as Alex finds herself caught up in a chain of events with threads that go off in multiple directions and soon become a tangle involving a real estate developer and his family, seemingly unrelated townspeople, and Alex’s own mother and her personal history. It’s hard to see initially how all of these can be related and understand how and why Alex can be at the center of it all.
Author Stella Cameron works magic with words, characters, and plot. If you have been following the series, you will be glad to reconnect with the locals of Folly-on-Weir. If not, you will find that you get to know them quickly, including the likable veterinarian Tony who is always Alex’s support and sounding board. Should you be searching for a complex mystery in the cozy mystery genre, look no further than Whisper the Dead.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to Severn House for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #5 in the Alex Duggins Mystery Series, but good as a standalone
Publication: April 1, 2018—Severn House
Memorable Lines:
Too much emotion had rushed in since yesterday and it muddied her thoughts. This pile up of personality clashes made a hard time harder.
Smoke from cottage chimneys rose straight into the still, pink-tinged, early-morning sky. Snow sliding from the bare branches of an oak tree swished to softly pepper the drifts below.
The windows, cranked open a measly half-inch, had lost any battle with the coating of hot air and thick, grimy steam that painted the glass. More falling snow closed away the scene outside, but they all knew it was as cold as hell wasn’t, and sleet was starting to strafe the land.
education pathways 