Reviews

Celeste Connally: Murder of a Merry Gentleman

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Lady Petra Investigates #4

Murder of a Merry Gentleman is the fourth book in Celeste Connally’s Lady Petra Investigates series of Regency mysteries, featuring Lady Petra Forsyth, an intrepid, unconventional noblewoman who is an expert horsewoman, carries a dagger and a set of lockpicks, and uses her brilliant mind to solve crimes.  After the suspicious death of her fiancé in the first book in the series, Petra has sworn never to marry, but her vow has been put to the test by the handsome Duncan Shawcross.  For the time being, she has defied social convention by sleeping with Duncan outside of wedlock, and not bothering to hide the relationship, but it is clear Duncan wants to marry her, and it seems her resistance may be slowly breaking down, but I will not say any more about how the relationship develops.  I will say that Duncan is largely absent from this book, away on a secret mission for the government, so Petra is left to her own devices in solving the murder. read more

Vikki VanSickle: The Mystic and the Missing Girl

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Vikki VanSickle has had a long career as a children’s author (and bookseller), and this is her first foray into the world of adult mystery writing.  As I read the book I was thinking “this is kind of like a grown up version of Nancy Drew,” and after reading VanSickle’s biography, it makes sense. The main character, Drew Benson, has inherited her Aunt Hannah’s metaphysical shop, as well as the building it was housed in, which includes an apartment.  Like many another cozy heroine, Drew has returned back home to find herself after a mainly unsatisfying job in the city. read more

Alex Erickson: Death by Red Velvet Latte

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Bookstore Café #16

Bookstore café owner Krissy Hancock has her hands full. In addition to running her shop (Death by Coffee in Pine Hills, Ohio), she’s preparing for her wedding, and she and her best friend/co-owner Vicki are getting ready to open a second store in California. She’s also dealing with out-of-town guests and trying to find a baker to make her wedding cake.

Krissy and her fiancé Police Officer Paul Dalton have decided on a red velvet wedding cake (and red velvet lattes, as the title suggests), but they have not decided on a baker. They interview two competing local bakers who provide samples and resumes. The next morning when Krissy goes to the bakery to inform the winner, she finds both men dead, apparently after an epic fight that ended in mutual destruction. To make matters worse, just as Krissy picks up a rolling pin spattered with red velvet cake, an assistant baker walks in and assumes Krissy is the murderer. read more

Daryl Wood Gerber: A Classic Case of Murder

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Literary Dining Mystery #3

It’s Christmas time in Bramblewood, NC and personal chef and caterer Allie Catt is getting ready for a special literary dinner party with a Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol theme. What makes the event so special? An actual first-edition of Dickens’ famous novella will be on display.

The setting is the Amber Lantern, an inn owned by Noeline Merriweather (mom of Allie’s best friend Tegan); there’s a snowstorm; most of the major characters are staying at the inn… it’s a classic Mousetrap setup, just as the title indicates! There’s also list of characters at the beginning of the book. The only Golden Age element missing is a map of the Inn and Bramblewood. read more

Carlene O’Connor: Bury the Wren

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County Kerry #5

I’m a big fan of this series, and I love the folklore that illuminated this particular instalment.  The books are set in tiny Dingle, Ireland, where veterinarian Dimpna Wilde has returned home from the big city of Dublin to run her father’s veterinary practice. While the veterinary parts of this novel were not as front and center as they are in some of the other books, the St. Stephen’s Day celebration that sets the story makes the book a memorable read.

In Ireland, on St. Stephen’s Day (December 26), the townsfolk celebrate with parades and pub crawls, centered on the “Wren Boys” who are dressed in straw and paint their faces green.  In folklore, the wren betrayed St. Stephen’s hiding place by chattering.  Wrens are carried in effigy by the wren boys (in modern times, stuffed versions, though wrens used to be actually hunted).  That sets the scene when Dimpna finds a taxidermized wren on the steps of her practice, and it gives her a chill as she starts off to town to meet her boyfriend, Cormac, to watch the parade. read more

S.J. Bennett: Death on the Royal Yacht

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Her Majesty the Queen Investigates #6

To read this book, I had to violate one of my “rules” – no circuses, no ships, no fairs (state or world).  This is one of my favorite series, however, so I was forced to make an exception. Along with Allison Montclair, Bennett writes one of the smartest, most tightly plotted series around.  If you love the golden age schematic but welcome an update, these are the books for you.  Set on the Royal Yacht in 1966, we follow the Queen’s tour of the Caribbean. As always the central character is the Queen’s personal assistant, Joan McGraw, but also as always, when a dead body crops up, it’s the united efforts of the Queen and Joan that solve the crime. read more

Louise Penny: Miss Wolcott’s Ghost

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Chief Inspector Gamache #21

It’s been a while.  I wasn’t a huge fan of the last two Gamache books, or of the more recent thriller co-written with Melissa Fung, but with Miss Wolcott’s Ghost Louise Penny has returned to the form that has made me a giant supporter of her work.  I’ll never forget the spell put on me by her first novel, Still Life, and that reading rapture was gifted to me again with this book.  When I hit the three-quarter mark, I was glued to the pages and didn’t leave my chair. read more

Katherine Reay: The Undercover Bookshop

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This thoroughly enjoyable read is set in postwar Britain, and follows young Gemma Brown as she attempts to make a life for herself in the small Cotswolds village of Great Rollright.  In London, Gemma had been lonely in her boarding-house, and wanting to find a sense of community she couldn’t find in the big city, so she answers an advertisement for a shop clerk in Great Rollright simply because the job offers the perk of a bedsit. She settles into her new life pretty quickly, getting to know the villagers when they shop in the store, and developing friendships at the pub each night. read more

Tamara Berry: The Claus Conspiracy

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Seven Ponds #2

Berry’s formula for this novel is not a totally new one, but it is an enjoyable one, to which she adds her own twist.  20 something Amber Winslow has left her private eye boyfriend and moved to Arizona, where she’s near her grandmother and her grandmother’s bossy and intrusive retirement community friends.  Between them, they’ve started a very of the moment true crime podcast, Death Comes Calling.  In this second instalment in the series, a mystery lands at their literal doorstep. read more

Mariah Fredericks: Murder on 34th Street

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What Fredricks has put under the tree for her readers this year is an instant Christmas classic, the kind of book you might reach for every December – but only if your taste runs to a few murder victims in Santa’s bag.  Set in 1932, main character Grace Verlander is in charge of much of the big Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade, an event as big in 1932 as it is today.  Her biggest headache is that someone has threatened Santa Claus, and she must do everything she can to keep the big fellow safe despite the chaos of the parade. read more