Book Review: Send in the Clowns by Julie Mulhern (Country Club Murders #4)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun mystery with great characters firmly set in the 70’s

Cons: A couple of things bother me

The Bottom Line:

Death in haunted house

Who would want to kill a clown?

Fun with Ellison

Killer Clown in a Haunted House

There are too many good series out there.  That’s the only reason I have for not getting back to the Country Club Murders sooner.  Granted, I did read a novella in the series earlier this year, but it was nice to pick up Send in the Clowns and revisit Ellison Russell with a full-length novel again.

If you are new to the series, or it’s been a while, Ellison is a recent widow raising her teenage daughter in 1970’s Kansas City.  And, for the past few months, it seems everywhere she goes, she is finding dead bodies.

Case in point – being at the local haunted house wasn’t her choice for a Sunday night activity.  But as she finds herself navigating the various rooms, she finds a room with two clowns.  Ellison already isn’t a fan of clowns, but she quickly realizes that one of the clowns was just stabbed, and he dies in her arms after asking for Ellison’s help by name.  When Ellison returns with help, she finds the room completely empty.  Who was the victim?  More importantly, who was the other clown?

The book wastes no time but jumps right into the plot.  The investigation does unfold a little differently than in some of the books I read, but it works.  I was hooked the entire way through and couldn’t wait to see what would happen next.  The ending was a little weaker than I would have liked, or at least presented that way to us.  On the other hand, it did answer all our questions.

Part of this series is looking at how society was changing in the 1970’s.  Honestly, I’ve got to say how this book tackled that bothered me.  In other case, Ellison is dealing with all the men in her life (well, except Mr. Coffee) telling her what to do and thinking she needs a man to protect her.  I get it – that was a social issue of the time.  But it is beginning to feel repetitive at this point.  Additionally, we are once again running into changing morals about sex.  Again, I didn’t care for that.  This second issue is enough to keep this from being a cozy for me.

On the other hand, I truly do love the characters.  Yes, even the regulars who are supposed to be annoying are fun in how they annoy.   We also have a love triangle going on.  I know that has been resolved in future books, so I’m anxious to see how that comes about since I could honestly see either guy winning at this point.  Since it’s only been a couple of months (and four books), I’m not too annoyed by the love triangle at this point.

Anyway, the characters overall are wonderful.  They feel real, and we can understand where they are coming from even if we disagree with them.  The suspects aren’t quite as well developed as the series regulars, but we also don’t see quite as much of them, so it makes sense.

I was born in the 70’s, so I don’t have solid memories of that decade myself.  However, from pictures and TV shows, I feel like this book nails the period.  I always enjoy those little touches that ground me in the period.

I didn’t intentionally pick up this book to read in October, but that was a nice bonus.  The season definitely plays a part in the story as it unfolds.

And I have to also mention the humor.  There’s a certain snark to the narration that I enjoyed.  It’s not overdone, but it’s a very fun touch.  There are some fun exchanges between the characters as well.

I already have the next couple of books in this series, so hopefully, I can get back to visit Ellison again soon.  If you haven’t read Send in the Clowns yet, it’s a great read at Halloween or any time or year.

Enjoy more of the Country Club Murders.

Movie Review: A Case for the Winemaker - An Ainsley McGregor Mystery

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Charming characters in a good mystery

Cons: Writing at times, especially at the beginning

The Bottom Line:

Winery murder

Introducing characters

Enjoyable film

“I’ve Got to Get a Better Gate Keeper.”  “Wouldn’t Work on Me.  I’m so Small, I Would Slip Right Past Them.”

Since the Great American Family channel is trying to mirror Hallmark Channel, I figured it was only a matter of time before they started to create mystery movies.  It certainly helps that Candace Cameron Bure is the Chief Creative Officer for the channel.  So I wasn’t surprised that she is starring in the channel’s first movie franchise – the Ainsley McGregor Mysteries.  A Case for the Winemaker is the first movie, and it is off to a good start.

The series is set in Sweet River, Texas.  Ainsley’s moved there after an incident in Chicago, where she was a consultant with the police department as a criminologist.  Now, she’s teaching criminology at a nearby college and working to open Bless Your Art, an artisan market for local artists to sell their products.  Ainsely is thrilled that the market is finally ready to open.

In order to celebrate the market’s successful first day, her friend Shannon (Caitlin Stryker) invites Ainsley over for lunch.  Shannon and her husband, Michael, have a winery, but it isn’t doing as well as they think it should be doing, and someone is trying to buy it from them.  After lunch is over, the two find the potential buyer dead on the winery floor.  The police are quick to look at Michael.  Can Ainsley figure out what really happened?

The movie got off to a rough start.  The first issue is super obvious and super awkward exposition.  Yes, it gives us the background on the characters we needed, but it was so obvious what the writers were doing.  Then, after the body is found, we get a flashback to give some more background.  You know how much I hate flashbacks in this form.  Fortunately, this was just back one day, so it didn’t take us long to catch up to the present.

Once the movie got going, I started to really enjoy it.  The characters are fun and charming.  They are a little eccentric, but they are supposed to be.  This is a cozy mystery movie, after all.  I especially liked Jake (Aaron Ashmore), the love interest.  Their budding romance was cute.

The writing still needed a little work even at this point.  Some of the character relationships seemed overly harsh.  This was true of Ainsley’s relationship with her brother, Ryan (Robin Dunne), who also happens to be the sheriff.  Overall, I did like their relationship.  You can tell the two love each other and yet irritate each other at times.

So, how was the mystery itself?  It was good.  I did key in on the killer early, but there were enough red herrings to keep me entertained, and I didn’t have the motive figured out.  Everything made sense when we reached the climax, and I appreciated the way it played out.

The actors did a good job of bringing their characters to life.  There were some moments that felt a little awkward, but I blame that more on the writing than the acting.

The biggest question is will I come back for another one.  Absolutely.  Yes, I’ve picked on the writing.  Overall, I really did enjoy the movie.  The characters are charming, and I want to spend more time with them.  I hope the writing improves as the series goes along, but it wasn’t bad enough to ruin the movie.

One commercial I caught during the run of this movie talked about the second in the series coming in 2025.  As far as I am concerned, that’s great news.  I enjoyed A Case for the Winemaker, and I will be back to see what happens next to these characters.

Book Review: Pretty Lentil Liars by Cathy Wiley (Fatal Food Festival Mysteries #3)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters in a great mystery

Cons: Not even one lentil con

The Bottom Line:

Lentil festival

With mystery from the past

Another fun book

Can Jackie Find the Truth in a Town of Liars

I’m learning a lot from Cathy Wiley’s Fatal Food Festivals Mysteries. For example, I never would have guessed there would be a festival around lentils. Yet that’s where Jackie Norwood has landed in Pretty Lentil Liars, the third in the series. 

Jackie used to be a celebrity chef with a popular cable TV show until her struggle with alcoholism cost her her job and reputation. Now, she’s trying to rebuild her career by appearing as a judge and presenter at festivals all over the country. Sadly, murder seems to follow her as well. 

For this third novel, Jackie has landed in Holland, Washington for a lentil festival. Jackie quickly realizes it isn’t going to have the same crowd size as the more famous festival in Pullman. However, she’s not expecting the notes someone calling themselves “A” is leaving her.  These notes are hinting at something hidden from the past. 

Then her brother finds online articles about a high school senior who disappeared on prom night 12 years before. Might the notes be referring to more than the festival? What will Jackie and her team uncover?

I always appreciate it when a book sets things up in a creative manner, and that’s what we get here. Yes, it became clear early on exactly where the set up was going, but the story didn’t take any more time than necessary getting there. Jackie uncovers plenty of motives and suspects as she investigates. I thought I had the correct villain pegged early on, but the real solution made perfect sense to me. 

Jackie has a large group of friends who wind up showing up to support her. I’m happy to say that we get to see them again. One of these supporting players in particular got some great development here. I also like the growth we saw in Jackie. The suspects fit well into Jackie’s world. 

I can’t leave out the humor. There are some funny exchanges and some great puns in the book. 

And yes, we get some recipes at the end, all of which feature lentils. No surprise there, right?  They range from the usual suspects (soups) to the more surprising like vegetarian burgers or blondies. In total, we get 10 recipes, so if you like lentils, you’ll be especially happy. 

Each book in this series has been a treat. You’ll gobble down Pretty Little Liars quickly and be ready for Jackie’s next case. 

NOTE: I received an ARC of the book.

Movie Review: A Sprinkle of Deceit - A Hannah Swensen Mystery

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fun characters in a good mystery

Cons: A few things, but minor overall

The Bottom Line:

Deadly reunion

With Lonnie in the hot seat

Fun for movie fans

“When Has Anyone Ever Died of Natural Causes When You’re Involved.”

It’s looking like Hallmark is planning to end the year with a couple of entries in its two longest running still in production mystery movie series.  (At least I’m assuming this and next week are the last mystery movies we’ll get before they switch over to Christmas movies.)  While this coming Friday will see a new Curious Caterer Mystery, this past Friday, we got A Sprinkle of Deceit, a new Hannah Swensen Mystery.

Hannah’s business, The Cookie Jar, has been hired to cater a high school reunion.  Lonnie (Daylin Willis) is in charge of it, and since he’s Michelle Swensen’s boyfriend, Michelle (Tess Atkins) is making sure everything is perfect for him.  The night seems to go well, except for Darcy (Brittany Mitchell), one of Lonnie’s classmates, who clearly has too much to drink and is getting in constant fights with her boyfriend.  Lonnie winds up taking Darcy home, but when Hannah and Michelle head to Darcy’s house the next morning, they find her dead in bed.  Since Lonnie was the last one to see Darcy, he becomes a suspect, even being suspended from his job as a detective.  Can Hannah find the evidence to clear his name?

This movie is loosely based on Coconut Layer Cake Murder, one of the later books in the series.  Even so, I still can’t remember exactly what happened in the book other than Lonnie became a suspect in a high school classmate’s death.  But this series has veered wildly from the books, so even if I could remember, I’m sure things would have been different.

Speaking of which, why did The Cookie Jar move?  I’m a little confused as to why they needed a new set.  And I’m still confused as to why we now have the movie only love interest of Chad (Victor Webster) since they’d already introduced the other side of the love triangle from the books, Norman (Gabriel Hogan).  They could have just gone with him.  Instead, he doesn’t even appear in this movie.  Okay, deep breath.  I’ve got it out of my system now.

This is Victor’s second movie as Chad, and I’ve got to say, I’m warming up to him.  I’m still a little confused why the DA is so involved in solving murders and directing the sheriff, but if I’m going to question that, I should probably question why a baker keeps solving these murders.  So let’s not go there.

The mystery was well done, with several viable suspects.  I appreciated how Hannah was able to make a couple of the deductions she did.  They were perfectly set up and completely logical.  Speaking of which, the climax made sense as well.

The humor seems to be increasing as the series goes along, which I think is wonderful.  There were quite a few fun exchanges, and a sub-plot with Hannah’s mothers, Delores (Barbara Niven) was great fun as well.  I am also thrilled that Hannah’s middle sister, Andrea (Lisa Durupt) is a regular part of things again.  I like having all four of the Swensen women interacting.

And this humor doesn’t feel forced like I’ve complained about with some of the recent Hallmark movies.  Yes, Delores’s scenes can be a little over the top, but she is a supporting character, while in those other movies, we are looking at the main character being the over the top one.  Here, it’s fun and charming, in the others, it borders on annoying.

The low budget cheese factor is kept to a minimum.  The writing is decent, and the actors make the most of their scenes.  A couple of the suspects are a little weak, but overall, this is good.

Hannah’s movie fans will be happy with A Sprinkle of Deceit.  With a sprinkling of fun, you’ll be glad to watched it.

Book Review: The Sherlock Society by James Ponti (The Sherlock Society #1)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Fresh new characters and lots of fun in an inventive mystery

Cons: Some issues with the plot for me, but most kids won’t care

The Bottom Line:

New tween detectives

The story is uneven

But book is still fun

Solve a Case While Making New Friends

When I saw James Ponti was starting a new series, I was all in. Especially since it was called The Sherlock Society. That was pretty much all I needed to know. While I did enjoy the book, it did have some flaws. I’m sure the target middle grade audience won’t care. 

For this new series, we are heading to Miami Florida. The main character is Alex Sherlock, who attends middle school with his older sister, Zoe, and his friends Yadi and Lina. As the book opens, school is shutting down for the summer, and Zoe has a brilliant idea for a summer job - become detectives. While her plan doesn’t quite take off as they had envisioned, they are soon on an interesting case looking for a treasure. What will they find?

Right away, the book started out with one of my least favorite literary techniques - starting with exciting action and then flashing back to show us how the characters got there. It felt worse than normal this time to me for some reason. 

Additionally, the plot seems to wander quite a bit. Yes, I get that we are setting up the characters and the premise for the series at the beginning, but even then, I felt like we took longer than we should have to get to the heart of the book. 

Now, this isn’t to say that there isn’t plenty happening over the course of the book. I was intrigued by what the characters were finding. I also like the logical way they were taught to think about their cases. And the climax is great. 

Quite often in middle grade fiction, the characters have inattentive parents. That’s not the case here, and I appreciated how realistic the family dynamic felt. Alex and Zoe’s grandfather, a former reporter, does get involved in the case, and he was a fun addition to the core cast. The characters also face realistic consequences to their actions, which was nice. 

And the characters were fantastic. We get a feel for all of them, and one in particular got some nice growth. The story is narrated from Alex’s first-person point of view. As expected, the author once again creates a group of characters with a solid bond, and I enjoyed hanging out with them. 

Plus there’s the humor. The characters made me laugh multiple times as I was reading.

To be clear, I suspect my issues with the plot are more of an adult’s viewpoint of how things should be. I suspect that kids will be hooked from page one of The Sherlock Society and look forward to the next in this series. I’ll definitely be back for more myself. 

October 5th's Weekly TV Thoughts

Moonflower Murders – I’m not sure I have a lot of comment on with this one.  The story moved forward.  I am definitely interested in what is going on.  But I didn’t feel like there were any great revelations.  If this were real life, I think the missing woman would be dead by now, too.  But since this is fiction, she can still pop up alive.

Rescue: HI-Surf – Since the rescues are actually why I tune in, this was a disappointing episode.  The rescues were shortened in favor of the drama.  And those storylines are pretty predictable.

Survivor – Please, can we get rid of Rome already?  He is driving me up a wall, and I don’t have to live with him 24/7.  I don’t know how his tribe is doing it.  Glad he got rid of his idol already.  Granted, he couldn’t keep it, but still, it was nice to see it gone.  Hope he doesn’t find the next one.

The Challenge – I get the frustration from era 1.  I really do.  I’m rooting for them since I usually root for the underdog.  However, I get the strategy from everyone else.  Eliminating the era is a good thing.  Well, I guess it means if you don’t come in first you automatically go into elimination, so that might be bad.  Era 2 is going to be in trouble is the other two stay together. Since age plays a part in these types of challenges, I’m not surprised to see them winding up so decimated.  Yes, I was happy to finally see Michele fighting in an elimination.  Her arrogance irritates me, so I’m a little disappointed she survived.  But at least she had to step up for a change.

Scabble – I was curious how they were going to turn this into a game show.  It worked, but it didn’t work well enough for me to continue.  I feel like the person who goes second in the second round has an advantage.  Maybe I’m wrong on that, but they have more options in where to put letters and can use them a second time.  Anyway, my curiosity was scratched, and now I can move on.

Trivial Pursuit – This seems like more of a natural game show to me.  We have so many trivia based shows already, after all.  I liked the format and how it played on the game itself.  Not enough to keep watching it, however.  Part of that is the host.  I like LeVar Burton, but he doesn’t translate to a good game show host for me.  I hope all those who wanted him as Jeopardy! host are tuning in here, however, so they can keep watching him in action.

October 4th's Friday Post

Looks like I've been a bit negligent about doing Friday Posts.  Let's fix that this week, shall we?  I'll be linking up to:

Book Beginnings
First Line Friday
Friday 56
Book Blogger Hop

This week, I'll be featuring Send in the Clowns by Julie Mulhern.

This series is set in the 1970's.  It's a lot of fun, as you can see from the beginning.

I've tripped over a body.  I've run over a body.  I've even swum into a body.  I never imagined one would fall on me.

Then again, wandering around a place called The Gates of Hell, what did I expect?

See what I mean?  And when I read that opening, I knew I had to use it to restart my Friday Posts.

Meanwhile, on page 56, we find this:

"Jay and I had a nice time last night, and he mentioned he had four tickets to the ballet tonight. Would you join us?" She tried her best imploring look on me. I was impervious to that look. I'd seen it too often.

Unfortunately, Hunter was no as familiar with Libba's lexicon of expressions. "Of course we'll go." He fell for her please-it'll-be-fun-really-I-promise, hook, line, and sinker.

The ballet? Really?

"It sounds like fun," said Hunter.

No, it didn't.

Is going to the ballet fun?  I'll let you find out for yourself.  My review will be up on Thursday, so I hope you'll come back for it then.

Meanwhile, let's take a look at this week's Book Blogger Hop.  The question is:

Are there any books that you find creepy or unpleasant, even if they aren't horror novels?

The first thing that comes to mind are the Animorphs books.  These were a fantasy series aimed at middle graders about some kids who could morph into animals.  They'd been given the power to fight off an alien invasion.  And some of their encounters with the head alien were freaky.  I had to be careful what part of the book I read before I went to sleep or I'd have nightmares.  And I was reading these as a 20-year-old when they were aimed at people half my age.

(I read about half the series, then the final book came out, I saw how she ended it, and I lost interest since I didn't like the ending.)

That's it for me this week.  Have a great weekend!

Book Review: A Merry Little Murder Plot by Jenn McKinlay (Library Lover’s Mysteries #15)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Great mystery, fun characters, Christmas cheer

Cons: The book banning subplot annoyed me

The Bottom Line:

Visiting author

Combined with Christmas murder

Another fun book

A Shocking Christmas Murder

While we’ve had a book set in December in the Library Lover’s Series, it wasn’t a full-on Christmas book. As a result, I was looking forward to spending the holidays in Briar Creek with A Merry Little Murder Plot. 

It’s hard to believe it, but this is the fifteenth Library Lover’s Mystery from Jenn McKinlay. In that time we’ve really gotten to know Lindsey Norris, the director of the public library, and many other residents. As a fan, it’s always fun to jump in and see what everyone is up to. There are some references to past books, it nothing super spoilery, so if you wanted to jump in here you could. You’ll miss some of the fun character development, however, and you’ll want to go back to the earlier books when you see how much fun you have here. 

The library is hosting their first writer in residence this winter, and they are thrilled to have bestselling author Helen Monroe kicking the program off. She’s just killed off her popular FBI agent character, and she’s promised to reveal what she’s working on next at the end of her residency. 

However, Lindsey’s radar goes off when a stranger comes into the library very interested in meeting Helen. Since Lindsey has had a past experience with a stalker, she’s immediately on guard. But when the two of them meet, sparks fly in a completely unexpected way. Then Lindsey finds a dead body electrocuted by the town’s light display, Lindsey can’t help but ask questions. Will she find the truth?

Let’s get my issue out of the way up front.  There’s a character in this book who wants to ban books, including Helen’s.  Honestly, I’m a little surprised it’s taken this long for the topic to come up in the series.  This becomes a subplot in the book, and every time it was on the page, it annoyed me because it fell into the typical stereotypes.  This character is evil, and the librarians are wonderful.  One of them even fell into the logical fallacy of appealing to authority at one point, talking about how she took classes to curate the collection for the community.  Now, hear me carefully.  I am against banning books.  And I completely disagree with the character in this book.  But if you can buy a book, it isn’t banned.  And, we need to be able to have a conversation about age appropriateness of books.  And yes, there are some books that don’t belong in a library.  It certainly didn’t help that I was reading this right before Banned Books Week started, which always gets on my nerves.  Yes, there is nuance that should be had in this conversation, and this book didn’t even try to offer it.

Now that I’ve got that out of my system, let’s move on.  Because that really is a small part of the book.

The plot took me by surprise several times, including how it was set up.  I hadn’t read any description of the book before I started reading, so I didn’t know who the victim was going to be or anything.  I honestly could have seen a few different people being the victim, which is always fun.  There were several more good twists before we reached the climax, when things made perfect sense.

I’ve already talked about how much I like the characters in this series, and that holds true again here.  It was a blast to spend time with them again.  They are their usual charming selves, too.  There’s a large cast, and some stayed more in the background, but that’s how things usually are.  We still at least got to see everyone.  The new characters were good and we got to know them as the book progressed.

And there’s the humor.  I laughed multiple times over the course of the story, usually at the dialogue.  That’s always fun.

I also enjoyed the Christmas setting.  We get plenty of holiday events to enjoy as the book goes along, and it was a fun added touch for this entry in the series.

As usual, the book includes some extras, this time with a Christmas theme.  We get a discussion guide for a Christmas book, a fun ornament craft project, and two recipes.

Overall, I enjoyed my time in Briar Creek for A Merry Little Murder Plot.  Fans of Jenn McKinlay will be glad they picked this up, and if you want a fun Christmas mystery, this is a book you’ll enjoy.

Be sure to check out the rest of the Library Lover’s Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Movie Review: Deadpool 2

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Some humor, action, growth for Deadpool

Cons: Way too many jokes that were in poor taste and too much gore

The Bottom Line:

Pretty much like first

Which means mostly did not like

So don’t recommend

“What Am I Going to Do?”  “Probably Something Terrible.”

No, I didn’t especially enjoy the first Deadpool movie.  But with all the hype surrounding Deadpool & Wolverine, and the fact that I could watch it free on Disney+, I decided to go ahead and give Deadpool 2 a shot.  Yes, I had the same reactions to this movie I did the first one.

When the story begins, we find Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) out stopping human traffickers.  No, he’s not doing it the usual way of making sure they get arrested.  He’s flat out killing them.  Of course, the problem with that approach (or going after evil people in general) is that sometimes, your work can follow you home.  It happens to happen to Deadpool on his anniversary, with tragic results.

However, a devastated Deadpool can’t die, despite his efforts.  And, through a series of events, he finds himself with a new goal, helping a boy with powers (Julian Dennison) who is dead set on revenge.  Considering an assassin from the future (Josh Brolin) is after the boy, will he be able to do it?

My biggest issue with the first movie is back here in full force – the double entendre.  They are in full force almost the entire movie.  Okay, I’ll admit, I did like a couple of them, but most of them went too far and were too excessive for my tastes.

Which is too bad because I really enjoyed some of the other humor.  The movie once again breaks the fourth wall constantly, and most of those jokes are great.  I loved the meta humor as well.  These jokes definitely made me want to keep watching because I was enjoying that.

On the other hand, there is the excessive violence.  Yes, it is cartoony, but it wasn’t remotely in good taste in my opinion.  The excessive gore was quite disgusting.

But here’s where the movie made a big change from the original.  I actually liked Deadpool more than I did originally.  He wasn’t quite the antihero he was there.  That meant, I could get on board more with rooting for him to succeed in his goal, especially when he starts trying to help the boy in the second half.

And the action scenes themselves were usually pretty good.  Yes, that’s where the worst of the gore came in, but when it wasn’t reveling in that, they were fun.  We did get some obvious special effects during these scenes, but for the most part, I bought what I was seeing.

I will give the actors full credit for making us care about the outcome of the story as they brought the story to life.

You’ll definitely want to watch through the additional scenes during the credits.

At the end of the day, I’m not sorry I watched Deadpool 2.  But I also don’t plan to watch again and I don’t recommend it.

Book Review: Crime and Parchment by Daphne Silver (Rare Books Cozy Mysteries #1)

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Strong characters in an interesting, believable mystery

Cons: A bit too much at the beginning set up unrealistic expectations for me

The Bottom Line:

Hunting book treasure

Stumbling on dead body

In this fun debut

Family and Lost Books

I heard a lot of great things about Crime and Parchment when it came out last year.  It went on to win the Agatha for Best First Novel.  Now that I’ve finally made the time to read Daphne Silver’s debut mystery, I can see why.

This is the first book in the Rare Books Cozy Mysteries and introduces us to Juniper Blume, a librarian for the Library of Congress.  She is surprised when she receives a message from her ex-brother-in-law saying that he has information about the covers of the Book of Kells and insisting that Juniper meet him in Rose Mallow, Maryland, the small town where Juniper and her sister spent their summers with their grandmother.  Juniper is skeptical – what would these covers missing from Ireland centuries ago be doing in Maryland?

Still, Juniper can’t resist showing up.  Even if it means a painful reunion with her sister.  The two have grown apart, and there is plenty of blame to go around.  But when Juniper goes to the meeting, she only finds a dead body.  And her ex-brother-in-law is now missing.  What is going on?

This is a lot going on at this book, especially at the beginning.  Since this is the first book in the series, we are meeting all the characters, series regulars and suspects alike, plus being introduced to the main plot and the subplots.  The book does a good job of juggling all of that, and I was never lost.  Maybe it did too good a job.  I felt that the pace slowed down a bit as the book went along, but I think that was because there was so much at the beginning, I began to expect that pace to continue.  When I went back to think about things, the pace was actually pretty consistently steady.  So I think this is more my perception than reality.

I was impressed that the author provided a plausible explanation of how these covers could have been in Maryland instead of Ireland, where they were last seen centuries ago.  This added a bit of a treasure hunt aspect to things, which I really enjoyed.

And the plot was good.  It kept me engaged and guessing as Juniper went along trying to solve it.  I couldn’t wait to see how it was going to be resolved, and everything made sense when she pieced things together.

Juniper and her family have some things to work through, and I appreciated that part of this book as well.  It could have easily crossed the line into soap opera, but it doesn’t, which was nice.  Were things a little too easy?  Possibly, but I still loved where it went.  I’m certainly interested in seeing where things go moving forward for these characters.

Crime and Parchment really is a strong debut.  It’s easy to see why it got all the praise it did.  I’m looking forward to seeing what happens to these characters when the next book comes out.