Cate Conte: Claws Out

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Cat Café #9

Maddie James, cat café owner and animal enthusiast,  works closely with family and friends to run her café, find felines new families, and solve mysteries. The solving mysteries part is Maddie’s secondary passion, as her first love will always be helping the poor kitties find their forever homes and making sure they are well cared for in her keeping. Her café, J.J.’s House, is located on Daybreak Island off the New England Coast. J.J. is Maddie’s cat and mascot, as well as a demanding socialite. Maddie has been contemplating expanding her operation beyond the one café on Daybreak Island, and is presented with a timely and interesting opportunity in the form of a donated food truck. read more

Ellie Brannigan: Death at an Irish Village

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Irish Castle #3

For those who enjoy a little Irish mystery, Ellie Brannigan’s Irish Castle Mystery series are a must read. In Death at an Irish Village, the third in the series, cousins Ciara Smith and Rayne McGrath have been tasked by their late Uncle to save Grathton Village and the McGrath castle. Not a very small thing to ask, especially with a year’s deadline attached. Of course, if they fail, they just have to sell everything and split the money between them. While that doesn’t sound like a very bad deal, it is for those who value their heritage and would like nothing more than to preserve it. Both women are a little daunted and overwhelmed with the task, but are determined to succeed. It hasn’t been a very smooth start, with several murders already hindering things, and Rayne’s crazy ex making her life hectic as she tries to continue to run her sewing business Modern Lace. read more

Maddie Day: Murder at Cape Costumers

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Cozy Capers Book Group #7

Maddie Day’s cozy capers book group series celebrates its seventh addition with Murder at Cape Costumers. Makenzie “Mac” Almedia run a bike rental and repair shop known as Mac’s Bikes in Cape Cod. She has extensive family there, and lives with her husband, Tim, and her African Grey Parrot, Belle. Mac and many of her friends are part of the cozy capers book group. While the group does spend time discussing the books they read, they also indulge in some investigations of their own when the need arises, often times to help clear the name of a member of the club, family member, or a friend in the community, of suspicion. read more

Darcie Wilde: The Heir

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Series debut

I’ve read many books by Darcie Wilde (aka Sarah Zettel), but this may be my favorite.  The writing and pacing are crisp and the character development seems to utilize all the things Wilde must have learned writing her other books.  It’s exquisite.  While this is a pretty familiar story to a history buff, like any good historical novelist, Wilde shines a new light on history, illuminating the facts with her perceptions of the characters in the story.

The main character, Queen Victoria – Princess Victoria at the time of this novel – is living under the “Kensington System,” an elaborate and restrictive set of rules that governed Victoria’s life until she became Queen.  She never had a moment alone, had to sleep in her mother’s room, and every movement and thought she had was determined by her mother and her mother’s aide, Sir John Conroy. The result in both fact and fiction was that Victoria wanted nothing more than to shed the rules imposed on her and to try and evade them. read more

Katarina Bivald: Just Another Dead Author

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Just Another Dead Author is Katarina Bivald’s follow up to her charming Edgar winner, The Murders in Great Diddling. Set in Lyon in the French countryside, Chateau des Livres is the setting for a literary retreat featuring main character and author Berit Gardner. Berit is a very pragmatic, inquisitive, and creative individual. Her dear friend Emma Scott, literary enthusiast and former bookstore owner, has managed to convince her to agree to be a speaker at the literary retreat. While speaking to large crowds and mentoring other authors isn’t Berit’s idea of a party, she is determined to help her friend. read more

Rhys Bowen: Mrs. Endicott’s Splendid Adventure

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Rhys Bowen’s annual standalone is a WWII novel about a woman who turns her life around after a surprising divorce and finds an unexpected new life in France just before the Nazis invade.

In 1938 Ellie Endicott is stunned when her husband of 30 years suddenly asks for a divorce because he is in love with another, younger woman. Ellie quickly gets advice from a solicitor and demands half their assets instead of the flat he offers her. Instead of taking this love-nest her husband once shared with his mistress, she demands a substantial settlement, then takes his Bentley and heads to France. read more

Jennifer Ashley: A Silence in Belgrave Square

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Below Stairs #8

I was entranced by book 7 in this series, Speculations in Sin, and am now a hard core fan.  If you are a fan of the late, great Victoria Thompson, this might also be the series for you.  Set in Victorian London, the main character, Kat Holloway, is a cook for a wealthy family.  While I have read many Victorian mysteries, this is the rare series that focuses on the servants rather than the aristocrats upstairs.  They are the minor characters, while the downstairs characters – cooks, maids, delivery men, urchin boys – are the main feature. read more

Ellen Crosby: Deeds Left Undone

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Wine Country #13

Winemaker Lucie Montgomery is having a rough harvest season. An employee is seriously injured in a vineyard accident leaving her short-handed. To make things worse, wine manager Frankie’s husband Paul Merchant is found dead at the bottom of his swimming pool, leaving Lucie yet another employee short. Both deaths happen just as all hands are needed to harvest and process delicate Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, a task that can’t be left to the untrained.

Was Paul’s drowning accidental? Lucie starts to wonder when she realizes that Violet Rossi, Paul’s predecessor as leader of Don’t Pave Paradise, also died under mysterious circumstances. Could someone want the rural roads paved badly enough to kill? And why does the name of socialite Eleanor Blake keep popping up? Is there a connection to her death eighty years ago in a theater fire? read more

Sarah Stewart Taylor: Hunter’s Heart Ridge

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Franklin Warren and Alice Bellows #2

Hunter’s Heart Ridge is the second in Sarah Stewart Taylor’s Detective Frank Warren and Alice Bellows series, and it sees both of them returning with new challenges. Alice and Warren (no one seems to call him Frank) are neighbors, and have become good friends in the three months that have passed since the first book. Frank is still very much settling into his professional role, but he’s already become a fixture in this small community. He and his partner in crime solving, Pinky, are working well together, and he’s become familiar with everyone in town. Alice, on the other hand, is happy in her retirement and hosting a dinner party that includes Warren as a prominent guest. read more

Roz Noonan: That Missing Piece is Killing Me

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Alice Pepper Lonely Hearts and Puzzle Club #2

Roz Noonan’s main character is Alice Pepper, a librarian, and she also has a club known as the Lonely Hearts and Puzzle Club. Her group spends many a relaxing evening working on puzzles together, sharing good food and company. Sometimes they puzzle over mysteries, too. Alice also has a rather complicated home life, with an estranged daughter, two grand kids that grew up with her as the most stable influence in their lives, an ex-husband, and a new romance on the horizon. Starting her life over as a librarian had seemed daunting when she left the restraint business, but she has found her spot and is thriving in her new community. read more