aunt_agatha

Dana Stabenow: Not the Ones Dead

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Kate Shugak #23

Kate Shugak has been around for awhile now, and she’s made a space for herself on the planet.  She’s a fully realized, fully detailed character.  As I was reading this book, number 23 in a beloved series, I couldn’t help but think about the spectacular very first book, A Cold Day for Murder.  Dana Stabenow has always had a love for the traditional mystery in terms of plotting, and that hasn’t changed, though Kate’s universe has gotten more expansive.

At the moment, I’m re-reading (as time permits) Margaret Maron’s wonderful Deborah Knott series, and it struck me as I was reading that there were few series that actually resemble each other more.  Sure, Maron’s books are set in North Carolina, not Alaska, but the surrounding sense of community and family are very, very similar.  At this point I very much enjoy an outing with the “Aunties” or a look at the way Kate, Mutt and Trooper Jim spend their evenings.  But it’s a different type of read from the first couple of tightly plotted novels.  It’s more of a meander than a rocket. read more

Lucy Connelly: An American in Scotland

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I gobbled up this yummy first in a series book from Lucy Connelly.  As the title indicates, American doctor Emilia (“Em”) McRoy is fleeing a busy ER back in San Francisco as well as a relationship gone wrong, and headed to tiny Sea Isle, Scotland.  She discovers, as does the heroine in all fairytales, that she’s to live for free in a converted castle (I mean, church) and perks include free food everywhere in town as well as a free car.  The job also comes with a working brother and sister – Tommy does the gardening and the capable Abigail, who runs the office, as well as the new MRI machine that the “Laird” of the town has thought to provide. read more

Trish Esden: A Wealth of Deception

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I truly enjoyed this book, the second in a series featuring antiques dealer Edie Brown, whose business is on the brink of collapse.  Her mother is in jail for art fraud and Edie is a convicted felon herself, having (unintentionally) sold stolen art to an undercover agent.  This series set up happens in book one, The Art of the Decoy (2022).  I was able to jump right in with little trouble, though I do want to go back and read the first book.

The book opens with a description of what it means to be an “outsider” artist (think Grandma Moses).  For the novel, Esden creates an outsider artist named Vespa, an elderly woman whose disturbing, complicated collages have taken the art world by storm.  When Edie and her uncle Tuck head over to do an appraisal and purchase a few items from a woman named Annie, Edie is surprised to see what she thinks in an original Vespa on the wall.  Annie is clearing out her mother’s house, and insists the work is her brother’s “craft project.” read more

Paige Shelton: Fateful Words

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Paige Shelton’s Fateful Words follows Delaney Nichols as she is confronted with a plethora of mysteries, one of which is the death of local Inn manager. Delaney works at The Cracked Spine, an Edinburgh book shop owned by the locally beloved Edwin MacAlister. Unfortunately, an emergency takes Edwin away just as his special once a year tour is set to begin. He has Delaney cover for him and show his guests all the sights that he would have shown them himself. She is not pleased with this new task, afraid that she won’t be able to do it, or Edwin, justice. But she is both resigned and determined to make the trip a good one for Edwin’s guests. It also helps that all four visitors, while a little disconcerted and upset at first, are willing to stay and experience the Delaney tour. read more

Daryl Wood Gerber: A Flicker of a Doubt

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Daryl Wood Gerber’s whimsical cozy A Flicker of a Doubt blends the world of fairies and magic with the modern world. Anyone who reads modern fantasy novels knows that this is a very difficult thing to do effectively, and often times it comes off as childish or just simply difficult to believe. Fortunately, this is not the case here. This is the fourth book in the series, but not only are characters and setting clearly laid out for new readers, there is even a lovely index of who’s who and who’s what at the front. This is especially helpful when distinguishing between the cat named Pixy and the fairy named Fiona that both live with the main character, Courtney Kelly. The charming antics of Fiona and the other fairies, as well as their carefully worked in lore, accentuates and assists Courtney through her various adventures. read more

Erica Ruth Neubauer: Intrigue in Istanbul

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Intrigue in Istanbul is the fourth book in Erica Ruth Neubauer’s Jane Wunderly series, featuring an American war widow in the 1920s.  Each book has a different setting: the first takes place in Egypt, the second at an English country manor, the third on a transatlantic voyage on the sister ship of the Titanic, and the fourth, obviously, in Istanbul.  Neubauer makes great use of the setting in each of her books, and this is no exception.  She takes the reader to Istanbul along with Jane, as her intrepid heroine searches for her missing father as well as a legendary relic.  This is a tribute to Indiana Jones, but with some significant nods to Agatha Christie. read more

Korina Moss: Curds of Prey

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Korina Moss provides a savory take on food-themed cozies with the third addition to her Cheese Shop series. Curds of Prey follows cheese monger and owner of Yarrow Glen’s cheese shop Cruds & Whey, Willa Bauer. Willa is trying to navigate a potential new relationship with Roman, as well as catering to the wedding of two of the more powerful families in the town. The wedding involves the nephew of the Mayor, Nelson Trumbull, and Summer Harrington, daughter to one of the richest families around. While this may seem straight forward enough, there is violent chaos from the get go. Roman stops by to surprise Willa during a cheese testing for the wedding party, and gets into a fight with Nelson. While this does not ruin Willa’s chance at getting her cheese to the wedding shower, it does put Willa on guard – and not just about her cheese. Things only get more chaotic when the wedding shower is about to begin with yet another fight disrupting the set up. It isn’t until the wedding shower is called off that Willa dares to hope things might calm down, only to discover the body of the would-be-groom Nelson in the stables. Given the condition of his body, there is no question he is a victim of murder. Thus, she finds herself plunged into another murder mystery. read more

Harini Nagendra: Murder Under a Red Moon

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The second novel in Harini Nagendra’s charming series featuring new bride and fledgling detective, Kaveri Murthy, finds Kaveri struggling to get along with her mother in law, Bhargavi.  When Bhargavi asks Kaveri as a favor to look into an embezzlement at her cousin’s husband’s factory, she reluctantly agrees, even though she feels unqualified to take on this job.  When she goes to meet her mother in law’s cousin at the factory, the two women enter the factory, and find the man dead.  Somehow Nagendra manages to make this almost expected death shocking and terrible, and Kaveri is caught up in taking the grieving woman back home and getting her settled. Now that the embezzlement has turned to murder, Kaveri knows she wants to investigate. read more

Cate Conte: Witch Way Out

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Witch Way Out is the third book in Cate Conte’s A Full Moon Mystery series. Violet Mooney has had her life tossed upside down and sideways over the course of the past few books. For one thing, she’s had to face the sudden revelation that she is a witch. To clarify, a magic witch, not a woman with an attitude problem. Specifically, she’s a witch descended from two of the most powerful magical families around. Just because that wasn’t enough already, it appears that someone in her new magical community is out to get her and what remains of her family. Needless to say, Violet is in the midst of an emotional whirlwind when we join her in Witch Way Out. Things don’t slow down as it opens with her having to confront another magical crime. Luckily, she has her friend and mentor of all things magical, Blake, to keep her calm and help her figure out what to do next. But even he, an experienced witch as well as attorney, is unnerved by the discovery of another victim of genieing. This is a fun word referring to a genie’s curse that turns someone into a nasty pile of goo until either they run out of time and remain goo forever, or the curse is lifted and they get to return to normal. read more

Jacqueline Winspear: The White Lady

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Jacqueline Winspear’s The White Lady spans two wars. Despite this epic scope, the book has the feel of an intimate character study.  Luckily, the character at the center of the novel, Elinor White, is well worth a look.  As a little girl in Belgium with an British mother and a Belgian father, the book opens as the war begins and little Lini’s father is gone.  Somehow, even as a 10 year old, Elinor knows she will never see her father again, so she, her mother, and her older sister, Ceci, form a tight unit, a unit that becomes much tighter during the German occupation of their little village. When a strange woman asks them to help out, the two girls become a part of the resistance. read more