This is a nice little cozy set in the Scottish Highlands. Four friends arrive to set up house and open up a bookstore, teashop, and bed and breakfast, but all of their plans go out the window when a body is discovered in the shed. Fun characters, lots of interesting developments, and beautiful covers make this a series I am sure I will be returning to.
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I am currently reading Roast Mortem, book 9 in Cleo Coyle’s Coffeehouse Mystery series. Cleo Coyle is the pen name of award-winning author Alice Alfonsi, collaborating with her husband, Marc Cerasini. It is obvious from what I have read so far that they did plenty of research to get all of the details of the firefighters and coffee-making business right. Even as a non-coffee-drinker, you might find yourself salivating over the descriptions of the perfect cups of espresso, lattes, and every other variation on coffee that you can think of.
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I have just finished The Battered Badge, a Nero Wolfe Mystery by Robert Goldsborough. This is the first of Goldsborough’s series that I have read, but I am familiar with the original Nero Wolfe Mystery series by Rex Stout (although noting that it is 45 books long, I suspect I have not read all of them!
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I have read several of Lorna Barrett’s Booktown cozy mystery series in the past, so was happy to return to the fictional village full of bookstores (what kind of a dream town would that be?) with Not the Killing Type, book #7 in the series. So nice to get back to Tricia, her employees Mr. Everett and Pixie, and of course her cat, Miss Marple in the Haven’t Got a Clue mystery bookstore.
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I don’t usually read romance, so this one is a bit of a divergence from my usual. I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella is a rom com with a unique plot-line, focused as much on Fixie’s relationships with her brother and hilariously vague sister and managing the family store. Being a rom com there are, of course, two men in her life, one that’s right for her and one that’s not. The storyline is interesting and the characters not the run-of-the-mill.
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Junior Bender is a burglar, not a private investigator, so maybe I can’t properly classify it as hard-boiled or noir. But the atmosphere and the colorful language and descriptions are as familiar as any Sam Spade. The characters are colourful, fun, and described well. This twisty little mystery is a great read so far, I will definitely read more of the series.
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This week’s read is Cat Under Fire, the second book in Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s Joe Grey Mystery series. I’ve read a couple of other books in the series. They’re a lot of fun. Murphy’s cats do break a few physiological rules as well as being anthropomorphic speaking and thinking cats. They see in colour. They sweat. And, of course, they solve murders. Most of the humans are not too stupid, but they don’t seem to have the same drive to track down the killers as Joe and Dulcie.
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I’ve done all kinds of themed posts and book lists here before, but one that I haven’t done is prison breaks!
This topic was prompted by my latest release, On the Slab Pie, which revolves around a prison break.
As I was brainstorming for this book, I started to wonder how many people Erin Price had ended up putting in prison in the first seventeen books of the series. And… it’s a fairly significant number. There are a couple of books where no one ended up going to prison for one reason or another, and other books where two or more people end up there. So I decided it was time for a reunion with a few of these villains!
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Set Sail for Murder is a classic murder mystery. We have the unhappy family full of suspects stuck on a cruise ship, tempers flaring, feelings hurt, and millions of dollars on the line. Sound familiar? The characters are interesting and the scenery compelling. There has not yet been a murder, but there have been three attempts. I assume one of the heirs will eventually succeed!
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I just finished reading Darius the Great is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram. A great showcase of Persian culture, family relationships, and depression, this YA book would definitely be on my recommended reads. The descriptions of the buildings and historic sites in Iran, Persian cuisine, and tea are rich and fascinating. As a teen living in a dual-culture home suffering from mental illness, the relationships are often fraught as Darius tries to find his way in the world.
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