Reviews

Cate Conte: Shock and Paw

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Cat Cafe #8

In Shock and Paw, Cate Conte’s Cat Café books, Maddie James lives on the New England coast’s Daybreak Island. She runs a cat café with her cat JJ, Junkyard Johnny, and has developed quite a reputation as an amateur sleuth. Given that she lives with her grandfather, who is retired from law enforcement and is now a PI, it isn’t too shocking that she knows how to investigate properly. But Maddie’s true passion is pets, especially the cats at her café looking for a forever home, which can be difficult when designer pets are being advertised all over the island on fliers. Her friend Katrina isn’t exactly thrilled about them either, and is ready to sprint into battle against breeders, dragging Maddie along with her. Luckily Maddie’s own level headedness wins out and she manages to talk Katrina down from rushing off to do anything too rash – at least for the moment. read more

Ellie Alexander: Sticks and Scones

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Bakeshop #19

Ellie Alexander’s nineteenth Bakeshop Mystery, Sticks and Scones, focuses on the theater. It’s time once more for Shakespeare in the park and other theatrical exploits in Ashland, Oregon. Lance, her friend and the artistic director of the Shakespeare festival, has even started a brand new pet project known as The Fair Verona Players. Always one for the dramatic, Lance is going all out for opening night. Their first play will debut on the new vineyard he partners on with Carlos, Juliet’s husband. There will also be lots of tasty treats provided by Juliet’s bakery, Torte. With so many projects going on, it’s no wonder that Juliet is starting to feel a little overwhelmed, so much so that her physical health is being affected, and strange bouts of dizziness keep throwing her off balance. Determined to delegate some responsibilities and give herself some more down time, Juliet isn’t overly concerned about it just yet. read more

Donna Andrews: Between a Flock and a Hard Place

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Meg Lanslow#35

Donna Andrews’ 35th book in her Meg Lanslow mystery series, Between a Flock and a Hard Place, focuses on a local home that is getting renovated by a brand new home renovation show, as well as a large group of wild feral turkeys. Someone took a whole flock of the large birds and released them into a neighborhood. For those that don’t know a lot about turkeys beyond their making a wonderful meal, turkeys are also territorial, aggressive, and huge in size. They also can, and will, chase you for as long as they want before they are satisfied that you have learned your lesson. Meg’s father is more than ready to lend a hand, and is excited at the prospect of getting his hands on so many turkeys to work with at the zoo, although he seems to be the only one enthusiastic about them. No one wants to prepare for combat just to check the mail, and they certainly aren’t thrilled with what the turkeys are doing to their yards – or anything they find irritating, such as stealing a windshield wiper blade from a car. read more

Leslie Budewitz: To Err is Cumin

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Spice Shop #8

I’m a real fan of this series, two of the biggest reasons being the setting and the complexity of the characters.  Set in Seattle’s vivid Pike Place Market area, heroine Pepper Reece owns a spice shop.  Pepper is in her 40’s, divorced, and dating a fisherman who is away much of the time (fishing).  At the moment she’s helping to redecorate the house her parents have bought in the area and she spies the perfect wingback chair on the curb.  Being a big city dweller she claims this piece of street treasure and gets an SUV owning buddy to come pick her, and the chair, up.  When she takes a closer look at the lumpy seat she finds it’s stuffed with cash. read more

William Kent Krueger: Spirit Crossing

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Cork O’Connor #20

I have read every Cork O’Connor book to date, and it’s a series that’s managed to stay fresh and entertaining through it’s now long (and classic) run.  The books follow Cork as sheriff in Aurora, Minnesota, as he raises his family, loses his wife, remarries, and leaves law enforcement and becomes a private investigator. However, I don’t think of these books as P.I. novels.  I think of them primarily as family novels.  I think the combination of Cork’s family story and the action and mystery Krueger brings to the table make these appealing to both male and female readers, something not always true in mystery novels, which tend to skew toward one gender or another in terms of readership. read more

Frank Anthony Polito: Haunted to Death

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Domestic Partners in Crime #3

If you’re from southeast Michigan, these books really should be a must read.  This zippy cozy series is set in Pleasant Ridge and features Michigan details like Shinola watches and Sanders bumpy cake, but even if you aren’t from the mitten, these are still fun reads.  Main characters and life partners PJ and JP are, among other things, hosts of an “HDTV” home renovation series, where they take old houses and restore them to their former glory.  This charming gay couple reminds me strongly of my favorite couple on HGTV’s Detroit based Bargain Block, and like it or not, their faces have attached themselves to my reading of the books. read more

Alyssa Maxwell: Murder at Vinland

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Gilded Newport #12

Murder at Vinland is the twelfth book in Alyssa Maxwell’s Gilded Newport series set among the social elite in Newport in the late 1890s-early 1900s.  The first book, Murder at the Breakers, was recently made into a TV movie by Hallmark.  I enjoyed the movie, which was better than some of the reviews would indicate, but the books are even better.  Maxwell’s heroine is Emma Cross Andrews, a journalist and poor relation of the Vanderbilts.  Emma grew up in reduced circumstances, which gave her a great sympathy with the poor, but, because of her illustrious relatives, she also is familiar with the world of the Four Hundred, the elite who lived in New York and spent their summers in Newport.  Supposedly, they were called the Four Hundred because that was the number of people who could fit inside Mrs. Astor’s ballroom. read more

Rhys Bowen: The Rose Arbor

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Standalone

Rhys Bowen’s latest standalone mystery spans time and space with story elements set in 1943 Tyneham (a village in Dorset) and 1968 London. Reporter Liz Houghton struggles to solve the mystery of a missing child in 1968 that might be connected to missing children who disappeared in 1943. Led by information from her policewoman roommate, Liz begins exploring Dorset for clues about Little Lucy that lead her to suspect the missing child might be held in the ruins of Tyneham, a village requisitioned and destroyed by the Army in 1943. What unfolds are parallel tales of villagers displaced from homes their families had lived in for generations, children displaced by the war, and displaced children lost in the wartime shuffle from city to country. During her investigation, Liz meets the son of the displaced Lord of the village manor and together they explore surprising yet believable clues that tie Liz to Tyneham. read more

Sarah Stewart Taylor: Agony Hill

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Series debut

Sarah Stewart Taylor starts a new series with Agony Hill, following Detective Franklin Warren as he tries to start his life over again. Set in the tiny Vermont town of Bethany in the 1960s, the novel immediately plunges the reader into small town, rustic life, and realities of the struggling farmers there. The characters are rich, and each of the three point of view characters especially get filled out into living, breathing people.

When Warren arrives in town, he gets little time to settle in, or even unpack. Immediately, there is a barn fire up on Agony Hill. At first, it seems like a clear-cut suicide. The victim, Hugh Weber, was always one for making statements, and he was deeply against the highway set to go through town. The barn was latched from the inside, too. With no alternate exits, it seems clear that Weber got drunk and took his ideals a little too far. read more

Jess Lourey: August Moon

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Murder by the Month # 4 (re-release)

August Moon is the fourth installment in Jess Lourey’s twelve installment Murder by the Month series, recently re-issued. Librarian Mira James feels that she has outgrown the small town of Battle Lake, Minnesota. The catalyst for this: her latest attempt at romance has gone bust. Feeling like there isn’t any future for her in the small town, Mira plans to return to the Twin Cities to go to school. She has become a rather beloved figure in town and plenty, especially her employees, do not want to see her go, including her eccentric and highly entertaining, if not cantankerous, employee Mrs. Berns. While receiving books is her primary job, Mrs. Berns also sees it as her job to help Mira navigate social situations and stay on track at the library. Staying on track does not include Mira leaving, so finding a replacement becomes an adventure on its own. However, all of Mira’s plans get put on hold when her library assistant is murdered. Lucy Lebowski was a well-loved member of the community and Mira can’t stand to think that whoever killed her might get away. read more