Carol Miller: The Magician’s Deception

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Fortune Telling Mysteries #4

Disclosure: this is the first book of this series I have read. Apparently the theme of each Tarot-themed book comes from the main card of a Tarot reading done at the beginning of the book. Although Amazon describes the series as “hilarious,” that was not my impression. It’s fun and cozy, but not laugh-out-loud funny.

Sisters Hope and Summer Bailey run Bailey’s Boutique, a mystic shop in Asheville, North Carolina which features palm and tarot readings, tea, and mystical gemstones. When Hope does a one-card Tarot reading for a customer, her Gram peeks at the next undrawn card. It’s the Magician, which means “beware the deceitful stranger.” It’s enough to give Gram pause and for her to consider cancelling her school reunion trip with her boyfriend “Because it’s almost Halloween, my dear, and everything is turned around on Halloween.” read more

Jack Anderson: The Return of Moriarty

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If you’re a fan of Sherlock Holmes, you need to read this book. It’s like all the pastiches we love but the twist is that supervillain James Moriarty is the detective.

Thanks to Holmes, Moriarty’s criminal empire has been destroyed so after surviving the plunge over the Reichenbach Falls Moriarty assumes the identity of a wealthy inventor named Hugo Strahm. Spoiler: Moriarty does not change his evil ways when stealing this man’s identify. That’s to remind us we’re still dealing with an essentially evil character. read more

Ragnar Jonasson: The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer

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This is the kind of terrific book that gets you to the middle and you aren’t sure what’s coming next. It’s the follow up to the excellent Death at the Sanatorium, though it’s billed as a standalone.  In fact, it picks up right where Death at the Sanitorium left off, resolving the question of what happened to the main character, Helgi. In the last book, Helgi was working on a master’s thesis based on an old crime; in this novel, he’s no longer a student, but a member of the Icelandic police force. read more

Fall Book Clubs: The Stars Turned Inside out and Sarah Stewart Taylor

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Join us for our fall meetings on zoom!  Message me for a zoom link if you’d like to attend, all are welcome.  In October we’ll meet on Sunday, October 19 at 2 p.m. to discuss The Stars Turned Inside Out by Nova Jacobs.  Publisher’s description: Deep beneath the ground outside of Geneva, where CERN’s Large Hadron Collider smashes subatomic particles at breathtaking speeds, a startling discovery is made when the tunnel is down for maintenance: the body of Howard Anderby, a brilliant and recently arrived young physicist, who appears to have been irradiated by the collider. But security shows no evidence of him entering the tunnel, and for all of the lab’s funding, its video surveillance is sorely lacking. read more

Mariah Fredericks: The Girl in the Green Dress

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I love the way Mariah Fredericks writes. Her prose sings.  And if you are going to write about one of the greatest of all prose stylists, F. Scott Fitzgerald, you’ve got to have game yourself. While Scott and the lovely Zelda are not the main characters in this novel, they certainly inform it in every possible way.  The main character is a much lesser-known writer of the time, Morris Markey.  Markey, a friend of James Thurber’s and James M. Cain’s, wrote for The New Yorker and wrote extensively (for the purposes of this novel) about the still unsolved murder of James Elwell in 1920, a “swell” found shot through the head in his library.  His house happens to be across the street from Markey’s and he is one of the last people to have seen him alive, very early the morning of his death. read more

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