Vicki Delany

Vicki Delany: Steeped in Malice

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Tea by the Sea #4

Steeped in Malice opens with Lilly Roberts on a mission to get her tea house, Tea by the Sea, some additional tea cups and saucer sets from a local antique sale. A Peter Rabbit themed tea set in a wicker basket causes her to bring home a lot more than she bargained for. Specifically, it causes a very irate and rude woman named Kimberly to come storming into her place of business, demanding to buy the basket and tea set back, and oddly enough she seems primarily interested in the basket. After much harassment, Lilly finally decides that surrendering the basket would be less trouble in the long run. When she does, however, Kimberly doesn’t take it, instead extracting an envelope from its lining and leaving. read more

Best of: Cozies 2022

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So many cozies – so little time!  Reading cozies for my Mystery Scene column has been a real joy, and an extra joy was that the column focused on my favorite of formats, the mass market paperback.  A long ago customer, a pilot during WWII, told me he learned to love Agatha Christie during the war as he was able to stick a paperback in his back pocket.  This format is slowly being squeezed out, but to me it’s the best way to have a little rectangle of affordable, portable happiness always on tap.  Hopefully this list will give you a place to start (not ALL on this list are mass markets, but most of them are). Dive in!   read more

Vicki Delany: Deadly Director’s Cut

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This is the second book in Delany’s series set in the Catskills in the 50’s.  While the Catskill resorts that served so many families back in the 50’s and beyond are now gone – even the great Grossinger’s is a ghostly version of itself – Delany nevertheless manages to make the area come alive for the reader.  She doesn’t dip into the pure historical novel category.  Instead, she provides period details that set the reader where she wants them to be, and she somehow manages to invoke the feel and atmosphere of a very specific place and time.  The fact that a Canadian writer who, I am thinking, did not spend her childhood summers in the Catskills, is able to do this with such virtuosity is one of those mysteries of the writer’s art.  The time period is close enough that with a little bit of yearning and nostalgia you are right back there with her. read more

Best of: Cozies 2021

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I read many books in a year, but I still can’t claim an encyclopedic reading of the cozies that were published in 2021.  These delicious morsels of storytelling are reason for joy, as the storytellers, even though they include murders, are in general optimistic.  You like the characters in these books, and would love to be friends with them.  These are my favorites this year.  For a really deep dive, check out Dru Ann Love’s blog, Dru’s Book Musings, which tackles everything in the cozy universe.  All of these titles are available on our website.  read more