Reviews

Simon Brett: A Messy Murder

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Decluttering mysteries #4

I’m not sure why I haven’t read this series before, but this book is so good it makes me want to go back and check out the first three installments.  Main character Ellen Curtis is a “professional declutterer,” a job that sounds very silly but really isn’t.  As the story begins she’s working for a husband and wife looking to downsize, with the wife being all for it and the husband, a fading former TV host, not so enthusiastic.  Ellen is a widow, having lost her husband to suicide, and when the husband, “Humph” to his friends, dies, apparently a suicide as well, Ellen’s skills  and familiarity with grief come to the fore. read more

James R. Benn: The Phantom Patrol

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Billy Boyle #19

War is hell. In his gentle, narrative manner, James R. Benn has demonstrated through 19 and counting Billy Boyle novels this harsh verity. All of them, in their own way, are excellent, some of them more traditionally structured mysteries, like the locked room puzzler The Red Horse (2020) or the English village set Proud Sorrows (2023). But they all take place during WWII and feature at least one bravura battle or action scene.  Book 19 is set during the Battle of the Bulge, and even though hostilities would end several months later, Billy finds himself still in the thick of things. read more

October Book Club: Better the Blood

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For October, we’ll meet on zoom on Sunday, October 20 at 2 p.m., and we’ll be on zoom only until spring.  We’ll be reading Michael Bennett’s terrific debut, Better the Blood.  Anyone is welcome to join, just message us on facebook or email us at store (at) auntagathas.com. My review of the book:

Great debut novel introducing New Zealand detective Hana Westerman. She’s caught a series of gruesome murders which eventually become linked, and she’s caught them through her own excellent detail work at the crime scenes. Hana is a Maori, a single mother, and interestingly, an artist who likes to make drawings at crime scenes and autopsies (sometimes to the annoyance of the professionals involved). Her daughter is a rebellious 17 year old and her ex is also a police, remarried, with a new family. The author lays in this ground work of her character really nicely and without getting in the way of the story. read more

Ann Cleeves: The Dark Wives

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Vera Stanhope #11

This is the eleventh book in Cleeves’ now classic Vera Stanhope series, and as always, the books are a slow burn with a smasher of an ending.  This book begins with an extremely compelling set up:  Vera is called to a local care home where one of the workers has been found murdered and one of the residents, a 14 year old girl, has vanished. Vera and her team aren’t sure whether she’s a suspect or a victim, but she’s 14 and missing, so the hunt is on to locate her.  Vera is under a bit of a cloud – at the end of the last book (The Rising Tide) she’d lost one of her team, Holly.  She’s hired a replacement for the strait-laced, disciplined Holly that’s as different as she can be.  Rosie Bell is brash and likes a drink with the girls after work, but she proves to have some unexpected qualities as the investigation proceeds. read more

Laurien Berenson: Pumpkin Spice Puppy

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Melanie Travis #30

Laurien Berenson’s thirtieth addition to the Melanie Travis Mysteries is Pumpkin Spice Puppy. Melanie Travis is enjoying the arrival of the fall season in Connecticut. The private school she teaches at, Howard Academy, is holding a treasure hunt to raise donations and engage the children. Pumpkin spice muffin tokens are hidden all over town, and there are prizes for the kids and their grades. Everyone really seems to be having fun with it. Shop owners loving finding different places to hide them, and kids thrilled at their found treasures. At least that’s how it all seems until local pet store owner calls with a complaint — an unidentified complaint, which Melanie is tasked with following up on. Only to find that Mr. Willet has a bigger issue than her fundraiser, namely the knife sticking out of his back, and his poor Chow Chow, Cider, locked in a storage room, trying to battering ram his way to his owner. Luckily the poor doggy is prevented from further trauma because Melanie knows to warn people to not release or agitate the dog. read more

Darci Hannah: A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor

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Food & Spirits #1

Paranormal cozies are tricky things because the author has to balance a mystery that is solvable by the very corporeal detectives, while working in elements of myth and legend that often provide incorporeal clues. Darci Hannah starts off a new series with A Fatal Feast at Bramsford Manor. At first, I wasn’t sure when the paranormal was going to play in, as the main character Bridget “Bunny” MacBride is a chef on a cooking show under the main host. She is then offered a new contract where she will be the primary chef on a series that will be called Food & Spirits. Now, Bunny made one rather large mistake when accepting this particular job – she didn’t explore the contract thoroughly before signing. If she had, she might have seen that the ‘Spirit’ part of the show was not referring to beverages but to the dearly departed. Her main role is to be preparing meals to attract sprits to the table. Needless to say, she was far from pleased with that turn of events, but decides to stick with her contract and make the best of it. She keeps her fingers crossed that nothing spooky happens to her. read more

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