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Mischief, Murder, and Merlot–Hallow Wine Weekend
Mischief, Murder, and Merlot
by J.C. Eaton
I enjoyed returning to Two Witches Winery along with Norrie Ellington who is again taking care of the family winery while her sister and brother-in-law fly off to the Philippines in search of a rare insect. She is just in time to manage her part of Lake Seneca’s Hallow Wine Weekend at the same time media arrives to learn about the area’s outstanding Merlot produced this year.
There are shenanigans centered around the cauldron of her winery’s Hallow Wine welcoming display, but the other wineries have vandalism as well. It isn’t too bad until Norrie discovers a fourth person in her display. There were originally only three, and this addition can only be described as dead.
This mystery rates high in complexity as there are several people with possible motives for the murder, including the victim’s wife, mistress, and girlfriend. There are business associates that could be involved and a few of them disappear. Fortunately, Norrie has a great crew who keep the winery, tasting room, and café running as Norrie tries to track down the criminal. She also has a lot of friends who support and help her from neighbors Theo and Don to the gorgeous Stephanie who can distract men with a flip of her hair.
I enjoyed the book; the mystery was well plotted with humor sprinkled throughout. The thing that kept it from being a five star book for me was the number of times Norrie stepped over lines of legal and ethical conduct. As Norrie herself says, “The hamburger bounced around in my stomach the more I thought about what I was going to do. Words like illegal, felony, and incarceration came to mind and they were only a sampling.” A lot of cozy mysteries have the protagonist edging up to conduct that is dangerous and deserves rethinking. Norrie goes too far, and she involves others in activities that could cost them their livelihoods and reputations.
I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Mystery, Cooking, Humor
Notes: 1. #8 in the Wine Trail Mysteries, but could work as a standalone as the authors are good at explaining the background and characters.
2. The “season” is Halloween and two of the characters are participants in paranormal activities, but the book is definitely not a paranormal book. All of the other characters roll their eyes at and disregard the actions and thoughts of those two characters.
Publication: August 30, 2022—Beyond the Page Publishing
Memorable Lines:
“And you know what the worst part is?” “All the nutcases it will bring out?” “Nope. All the suspects. It’ll be like one big knotted ball of yarn that gets more tangled as soon as someone tries to unravel it.”
I dreamt Donovan’s wife, mistress, and girlfriend had taken over our cauldron, making Macbeth’s witches look like Disney princesses.
Fortified by a second pot of coffee, the six of us sketched out a surveillance plan that we thought would work. Funny, but on paper it was logical and feasible. In reality, it was neither.
The Cat Who Played Post Office–mystery in the mansion
The Cat Who Played Post Office
by Lilian Jackson Braun
In an effort to mix things up a bit, my book club chose to read a quick and easy mystery written by Lilian Jackson Braun, famous for her popular The Cat Who series. We rather randomly selected The Cat Who Played Post Office. The choice didn’t matter to me because I had read one in the series decades ago and had not not enjoyed it. After reading our selection, I can only say that clearly my tastes have changed, or I previously chose the one book in the series that was not a good match for me.
I found The Cat Who Played Post Office delightful. The main character Jim Qwilleran has just inherited a lot of money and a large estate. He formerly was a newspaper journalist with a talent for criminal investigations. Equally important to the story are Koko and Yum Yum, his Siamese cats. The book begins in the middle of the tale drawing the reader into who Qwill is and why he is in the hospital. Then the author takes us back and later forward in time—in this case a very effective technique.
As a journalist, Qwill has an extensive vocabulary which Braun puts on full display in a way that doesn’t seem pretentious at all. Qwill uses words like ailurophobe, postprandial, and sybaritic in his conversations and descriptions. Logophiles will enjoy his use of language.
Yum Yum is a typical Siamese, but Koko is extraordinary. He uses his sixth sense to lead Qwill to clues that warn of danger or alert him to important facts. Qwill is honest and good hearted. He has a love interest in this book in the practical Dr. Melinda Goodwinter, and he makes friends easily in his new town where he immediately becomes involved in civic and charitable interests. Koko brings the mysterious disappearance, five years prior, of the free spirited Daisy to Qwill’s attention. As he begins to ask questions about this young lady, dangerous things happen. When mail arrives through the door slot, the cats attack the fluttering envelopes, and Koko selects particular letters to bring to Qwill’s attention which might help him learn more about Daisy and her fate. The characters and setting in this book are interesting, but the mystery remains central.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Mystery
Notes: #6 in The Cat Who series, but I had no problem reading it as a standalone.
Publication: 1987—Penguin (Jove Books)
Memorable Lines:
Koko, as he grew older, was developing a more expressive voice with a gamut of clarion yowling, guttural growling, tenor yodeling, and musical yikking.
They could talk freely. Their booth was an island of privacy in a maelstrom of ear-splitting noise. The animated conversation of happy diners and the excited shrieks of children bounced off the steel girders and concrete walls, and the din was augmented by the Tasty Eats custom of pounding the table with knife handles to express satisfaction with the food.
Qwilleran wondered whether she was listening. He had spent enough time at cocktail parties to know the rhythm of social drinking, and Penelope was exceeding the speed limit. She was also sliding farther down on the slippery sofa.
A Midwinter’s Tale–love the dogs as characters!
A Midwinter’s Tail
by Bethany Blake
Daphne Templeton, owner of Lucky Paws Pet Sitting Service and of Flour Power, a bakery specializing in pet treats, is surrounded by four-legged friends in A Midwinter’s Tail. Bethany Blake brings her readers quickly up to date on her series’ background as Daphne finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation. CeeCee French wants to return to her hometown, which caters to pets, bringing her flagship mega pet store with her. The potential for destroying the local pet-related businesses looms large. CeeCee was also involved in conflict going all the way back to high school. Are these threats related to current issues or metaphorical ghosts of the past?
You will either love the way this story is told or you won’t. Each of the animals is truly a character in this tale. My favorite is the Basset hound Socrates. Rarely aroused, he is Daphne’s patient, laid-back sidekick. He expresses his emotions and opinions subtly, but Daphne can interpret them easily. Other characters include Snowdrop, a fashionable trained poodle; Tiny Tim, a mischievous pug; Tinkleston, a disdainful feline; and my least favorite, Sebastian, her friend Moxie’s white rat. Each one is truly a developed character and plays an important role in the story. The dogs accompany Daphne almost everywhere she goes and contribute in many ways to the story, including acting as a sounding board for Daphne. I think this way of telling the story works well in the Lucky Paws Petsitting Mystery Series. I have particular fondness for Basset hounds, and so I particularly enjoy the character of Sebastian. Although perhaps the effect is slightly exaggerated, Sebastian is portrayed fairly accurately for a Basset. It is almost impossible not to attribute feelings and thoughts to Basset hounds as they are so responsive to human emotions.
Clues abound and the spotlight shines on a variety of characters, some more likable than others. The plot has twists and turns but is never dull. Grab this cozy with a Christmas setting for an entertaining evening of mystery with a little romance thrown in.
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: 1. #4 in the Lucky Paws Petsitting Mystery Series, but the author does a fantastic job with background so it works well as a standalone.
2. Pet treat recipes are included in the back of the book.
Publication: November 27, 2018—Kensington Books
Memorable Lines:
Piper looked like she wanted to thunk her head against something, while Socrates lay down, whined, and placed his paws over his muzzle. Snowdrop, who was unfamiliar with Fidelia—but who had barked with disapproval at the accountant’s droopy cardigan—appeared confused.
Her tone was so vitriolic that Snowdrop stood up and backed nervously away on her delicate white paws. Socrates rose, too, stepping gallantly between the poodle and the woman who continued to glower at her.
The heart of the storm had passed overnight, leaving Sylvan Creek glittering like a town in a softly swirling snow globe, and I went to the French doors to look down at Market Street, where icicles dripped like jewels from the storefronts and the Bijoux’s marquee was glowing.
Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir
Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir
by Jean Guerrero
Crux: A Cross-Border Memoir attracted my attention because I live part of each year in Mexico and part in New Mexico, U.S.A. After five years of cross-border experiences, I have such mixed feelings because I love the U.S. with its fairly balanced mixture of freedom and order, but I also have enjoyed the kindness and diverse cultures of the Mexican people.
Crux, however, addresses cross-border experiences on a whole different level. The author Jean Guerrero is the daughter of a Puerto Rican mother and a Mexican father. Guerrero survives a dysfunctional childhood to become a journalist. This book is an effort to understand herself through an attempt to understand her father, a brilliant man who at various times is addicted to drugs, and alcohol, believes the C.I.A. is performing experiments on him, and is schizophrenic according to her mother, a medical doctor.
Guerrero longs for her father’s affection. She received it when she was very little, but most of her memories are of an unpredictable and often hateful man who occasionally dropped in and out of her life. Guerrero tries to win her mother’s affection and approval through scholastic achievement. In the process of becoming an adult, she is always introspective but she experiments in dangerous arenas—drugs at raves, trips to dangerous areas of Mexico, bad boys and sexual exploration, and the occult. The occult is tied in with her heritage as she had a great-great grandmother in Mexico who was a healer and diviner and other Mexican relatives who were involved in similar activities.
Crux contains a lot of family stories: Guerrero’s own memories, interviews with her father and his mother, and trips to Mexico to discover the truth of her roots. It also includes some of her philosophical thinking at various times in her life as well as information from her neurological studies in college. She minored in neurology as a part of her efforts to understand her father’s schizophrenia and her genetic predilection to become schizophrenic herself.
As a cross-border tale, Crux is sprinkled with Spanish, some of it translated, some not. I am not fluent in Spanish, but I appreciated the authenticity added to Crux by including Spanish. I do wonder, however, if understanding the book would be affected by a reader’s not being able to translate as they read. One could, of course, use an online Spanish dictionary to help, but that would definitely interrupt the flow.
Crux is a very personal memoir exploring the raw feelings of the author. The point of view changes in the latter part of the book as Guerrero addresses her father. There is also a maturity and cohesion in that part of the book not present in the first. Perhaps that is appropriate as she was initially relating experiences as remembered from a child’s point of view. Readers who enjoy history will receive historical background to provide context; it is interesting and succinct. All in all, Crux is a good read. There are very few heart-warming moments, but that was her life.
I would like to extend my thanks to netgalley.com and to One World (Random House) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 4/5
Category: Memoir
Notes: There are some sexually explicit portions and offensive language in Crux. The treatment of women is particularly disturbing.
Publication: July 17, 2018—One World (Random House)
Memorable Lines:
Life was not turning out as we had hoped. Creativity was a crime. Innocent creatures were mortal. Fathers left their daughters and broke their mother’s heart.
I had grown accustomed to the idea of my father as dead. If he was dead, he wasn’t willfully ignoring us. This belief had become a sinister source of comfort.
He persisted without pausing for protest, the same anger he had directed at me when he was driving me to my riding lessons as a teenager. I stared at the table, steeling myself. The numbness came naturally—a habit of my adolescence.
education pathways 