Reviews

Olivia Blacke: A Fatal Groove

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Record Shop #2

This kick ass new series delivers on plot, character and setting.  I was a fan of book one (Vinyl Resting Place), and this sophomore effort from Blacke is just as strong.  Set in small town Texas, sisters Junie, Tansy and Maggie run a combo coffee-vinyl record shop, drawing collectors from nearby music capital, Austin.  As this book opens, Sip & Spin is manning a booth at the local bluebonnet festival (google an image, Texas bluebonnets are stunning), selling coffee and DJing in between live music sets. read more

Allison Montclair: The Lady from Burma

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Sparks & Bainbridge #5

July has been almost too delicious for words.  First was the long awaited return of Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry series; and then, just as eagerly anticipated (by me) is the new book in Allison Montclair’s Sparks and Bainbridge series. Five books in, fans of the series know that Gwen Bainbridge and Iris Sparks run The Right Sort marriage bureau in postwar London.  Iris did undercover work during the war; Gwen lost her husband, fell apart, and was literally declared a lunatic by her husband’s family, who have custody of her child and have put the portion of the family company she’s inherited from her husband under the control of the lunacy court.  It looks like, in book five, that the form of purdah Gwen finds herself in is about to be lifted. Her lawyer is hopeful and so is Gwen. read more

Leslie Budewitz: Between a Wok and a Dead Place

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Spice Shop #7

As I hadn’t read this series before, it took me a minute to navigate both characters and setting, but once I did, I was all in.  Set in Pepper Reece’s spice shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the setting in this book was a character all on its own.  This book focuses on the “CID” (I had to look that up), or Chinatown International District during Lunar New Year celebrations, and Pepper is enjoying them with her buddy Seetha.  She runs into an acquaintance (connected to her present boyfriend in a labyrinthine manner), Roxanne, who is coming out of a building looking completely freaked out.  She’s found a dead body. read more

Alex Hay: The Housekeepers

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Alex Hay’s debut novel, The Housekeepers, is a tale of an all female heist in 1905 London. After Mrs. King, respectable housekeeper of a fine house, is let go, she’s all ready for revenge. Suspected of visiting a boyfriend in the middle of the night, but actually searching for secrets above stairs, Mrs. King wastes no time recruiting a team. Soon the plan to rob the house of all its contents, on the night of the Madame’s costume ball, is in motion.

But Mrs. King is hiding things, even from the reader. A con artist hired on at the house mysteriously, she was never what she seemed. Her compatriots aren’t exactly upstanding either – former fellow employee Winnie, her half sister and seamstress Alice, crime lord Mrs. Bone, washed up actress Hepzibah – but they’re all brought in pretty easily. Alongside Mrs. Bone’s most trusted women, and her fleet of men, they’re a force to be reckoned with. read more

Victoria Gilbert: A Cryptic Clue

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Hunter & Clewe #1

This novel has a very meta set up.  Jane Hunt, a retired librarian, has found a job cataloguing the library of Cam Clewe, a wealthy young man with a huge collection of books, many of them mystery novels.  Jane is 60, and she’s downsizing because her daughter has left home (and her house was too expensive).  She’s found an apartment, one that sounds like something Kinsey Milhone would feel comfortable living in, a tiny but charming space over the carriage house/garage of a retired reporter. read more

Sujata Massey: The Mistress of Bhatia House

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Perveen Mistry #4

The much anticipated return of Sujata Massey’s Perveen Mistry is well worth the wait.  It opens with this wonderful sentence: “Sisters will fight. It’s true whether they are raised together or meet as sisters-in-law in a joint family household.”  It sets the tone and theme for the novel, which is about the power of female connection.  And murder, of course.

Perveen the only female lawyer in 1920’s Bombay, lives with her family after a disastrous marriage.  As the book opens, she’s attending a fund-raising party for a new women’s hospital at Bhatia House. Her sister-in-law and former best friend, Gulnaz, has just given birth to the family’s first granddaughter, and she cannot attend.  In her stead, Perveen is bringing Gulnaz’s donation. read more

Meri Allen: Fatal Fudge Swirl

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Ice Cream Shop #3

As summer heats up this year, cozy fans should really consider staying cool by enjoying Fatal Fudge Swirl by Meri Allen. The Udderly Delicious ice-cream shop owned by Riley Roades is the place to be in Penniman, Connecticut, even as it celebrates Halloween. Perhaps the surge at the store is because when winter comes in, ice-cream shops go out, and no one wants to miss out on their last cone of the season. Riley isn’t upset about it, though, as she already has several plans to fill the time off. There is also a major event in town as formal child star Cooper Collins is filming a romantic comedy in town and his socialite mother Diantha is having an extravagant Halloween themed wedding at the local Inn on the Green. read more

Amy Lillard: A Murder of Aspic Proportions

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Sunflower Cafe #2

In Amy Lillard’s second outing of her Sunflower Café series, we follow Sissy Yoder in the town of Yoder, Kansas as she helps her Aunt Bethal at her café. Sissy is finding her own voice, writing a little advice column in the local paper under an alias, and integrating herself into the new community. She and her aunt also have taken to solving murders about town, primarily to clear Sissy of any suspicion from the previous book. Sissy’s sleuthing streak continues as she goes to Walt Summer’s field to check out the possibility of some ‘to die for’ tomatoes for the café menu, only to find a very literal take on that reputation when they find Mr. Summers dead in his growing shed. Because she and her aunt are the ones to find the body, that puts them smack dab at the top of Detective Earl Barry’s suspect list. Again. read more

Barbara Ross: Hidden Beneath

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Maine Clambake #11

In Barbara Ross’ Hidden Beneath, Julia Snowden is pulled into yet another investigation, but this time it is because her mother, Jacqueline Snowden, needs her help. The victim this time is Jacqueline’s old childhood friend Ginny Merrill – while there is no body, after five years Ginny has been declared legally dead. When this happens, Jacqueline is asked to come and speak at a memorial service by the ladies of the Wednesday Club. The members were friends of Ginny since childhood, but not particularly close with Jacqueline. However, things seemed off at the service, and Jacqueline is determined to get to the bottom of it. Or, more specifically, determined to help Julia get to the bottom of it. read more

Dianne Freeman: A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder

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Lady Harleigh #6

A Newlywed’s Guide to Fortune and Murder is the sixth book in Dianne Freeman’s delightful Countess of Harleigh mystery series set in London in 1900.  Frances, the American-born Countess of Harleigh, is newly married to her beloved George Hazelton.  She has found the happiness in her second marriage that she did not find in her first, to a philandering aristocrat who married her for her money and who died under mysterious circumstances in his mistress’ bed.  In the first book in the series, A Lady’s Guide to Etiquette and Murder, she solves the mystery of her first husband’s death, and it is this case that brings Frances and George together.  They have become partners in crime-solving as well as in life, and it is very much an equal partnership, even though George objects to accepting money from Frances’ father and that becomes a point of tension between them early in the book.  But never fear, the tension doesn’t last very long. read more