Can you believe it's time for another monthly reading summary? I sure can't, but here we are. And yes,
the Index has been updated as well.
All ratings are on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (great).
Magician Eli Marks and his uncle Harry are taking in a magic
act at the Mall of America since the magician is a former student of
Harry’s. The show is lackluster at best,
but it gets worse when the magician misses a cue at the end of the show. It turns out that’s because the magician is
dead, and soon Eli finds himself taking his place in an effort to help find the
killer. Will he learn anything useful?
Part of this book finds Eli learning a new trick and
interacting with his new co-workers, something that I felt overwhelmed the
mystery at times. Things were still
sprinkled in that helped lead us to the surprising and satisfying conclusion, however. And I loved seeing Eli interacting with his
new co-workers, so I had fun the entire way through the book. The cast of characters is fantastic as
always, including getting to see some regulars who were missing in the previous
book.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
When the fireworks show ends, party planning Liv McKay
thinks her day organizing her town’s Fourth of July festival is over. Unfortunately, someone finds the body of
councilman Bubba Rowland. Despite being
on the council, Bubba had his enemies, and one of them was Earl, her mother’s
new fiance. Can Liv help her mother by
clearing Earl’s name?
This book starts with a bang – of fireworks, but it isn’t
too long before we find Bubba’s body.
Unfortunately, the book does still have some pacing issues as Liv’s
party planning business slows things down.
I did find one sub-plot lots of fun, however. The mystery does have some good suspects and
twists before we reach the logical climax.
Liv’s family and friends, including best friend Di, are as charming as
ever. The suspects work, although we
don’t get to know them as well as we might in some mysteries. This is a fun cozy for a relaxing summer read
or any time of the year.
Things are hopping at Bistro and Maison Rousseau. Tourists have flocked to the Napa Valley for
Crush Week and the first Sweet Treat festival is being hosted on the grounds of
the hotel. Mimi is thrilled that both
hotel and restaurant are booked solid for the week. Things take a deadly turn when Renee, the
festival organizer and sister of Mimi’s head chef Camille, is found murdered in
Camille’s kitchen. Who had a reason to
murder the woman?
It was nice to return to the Napa Valley with Mimi as our
host. The book starts out strongly. While I did feel the pace lagged a time or
two, these were minor issues. The puzzle
was very good with some clues coming into play late in the mystery that I had
completely missed, yet they helped make the resolution completely
believable. I did have trouble buying
Mimi’s relationship with her friend and police chief Tyson, but the rest of the
characters were great. The food left me
drooling, so the recipes are the back are a welcome addition to this fun
mystery.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
There’s a mysterious project on an island off the coast of
Coast Rica. When John Hammond, the
owner, invites Drs. Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, and Ian Malcolm to visit the
island, they discover that Hammond has cloned dinosaurs and intends to open his
park for tourists to enjoy. However,
despite the high security measures that are in place, the visitors begin to see
potential problems. When the problems
become more than potential, will anyone survive?
It is hard to go into this book not knowing what is really
happening thanks to the movies, and that puts the reader of today at a disadvantage
since the book takes forever with the set up and big reveal. However, once the dinosaurs get free, this is
a page turning book that is impossible to put down. While the character names are the same, they
are different from how they are portrayed in the movie, and fans of the films
will recognize scenes from the sequels that originated here. Naturally, there are more great scenes and
tense moments than could be included in the movie, and the climax here is so much
better. I could have done without some
of the descriptions of the violence in the book, but they didn’t surprise
me. Some lectures, while giving us
something to think about, do slow things down again late in the book. Overall, this is still a very enjoyable read.
The car crash that killed Tracey Kendall was looking
suspicious from the start. She was
driving way too fast and didn’t break at all for example. Then the mechanic who serviced her car
vanishes, which definitely makes acting police chief Ruth Murphy suspect there
is more going on than a simple accident.
Unfortunately, this comes at the worst possible time with her permanent
promotion to police chief about to go through.
Can she navigate internal politics and still uncover the truth?
I was thrilled to finally make it back to Barbara Ross’s
debut mystery. The mystery is strong,
and the internal politics adds a nice layer to an already complex mystery. Ruth and her fellow police officers are
strong characters, and I also felt the main suspects were well developed. Some of the supporting players got a little
lost, but that is my only complaint about the book. This is a step away from the author’s normal
cozy mysteries, with a few four letter words and a touch more description of
the aftermath of violence. Still, most
of her readers will do just fine with this soft-boiled or traditional
tale. Anyone who enjoys a good mystery
should pick up this book.
This book features ten more chances to match wits with
Encyclopedia Brown. Up first, he’s
trying to figure out how to move a giant mousetrap that a would be criminal
left outside town hall when no one would buy it from him. The rest of the stories find Encyclopedia and
his partner Sally helping his friends and neighbors. They encounter Bugs Meany a few times when
Bugs tries to rig a drawing and again when he tries to set Sally and
Encyclopedia up with the police. They
also help a friend keep his business giving for golf balls to himself and save
the Left-Handers Club from sabotage.
These stories really are short, averaging about five pages
each, with the piece of information that Encyclopedia used to stop the crime
from taking place on another page at the end.
I never could solve these as a kid, but I managed to do pretty well as
an adult rereading this book. And no,
it’s not because I remembered what had happened. The stories are a bit dated but that
shouldn’t be too big an issue for today’s kids.
The characters are also thin because there really isn’t time for
character development, but again, kids won’t care. I certainly didn’t as a kid.
Lana Lee has landed back at her parents’ Chinese restaurant
as a waitress in an effort to get her life back together. She thinks she’s hit rock bottom, but she’s
wrong. Not too long after delivering Mr.
Feng his usual order of dumplings, the man is found dead. Somehow, he got shellfish dumplings instead
of the pork he ordered. With the police
looking at everyone at the restaurant, Lana starts poking around to clear
herself and the rest of the employees.
But is one of them really guilty?
This was a very fun debut.
The mystery is good, although the pacing does lag a bit in the
middle. It does pick up again in the
final third, giving us some great twists and turns before we reach the logical
climax. The characters are mostly
strong, which some room to grow as the series progresses. I did feel that Lana’s mother was the weakest
characters, and I hope she is fleshed out more as the series progresses. I will definitely be back for seconds.
When decorator Madison Night receives a five thousand dollar
bill in the mail, she realizes this rare denomination is a message from her
past. Sure enough, her ex-boyfriend Brad
is soon back in her life trying to reconcile even after he lied to her to get
her out of her life. But Madison has
other things to worry about, like the dead body she stumbled upon. What has Brad gotten her involved in?
Warning: allow plenty of time when you pick up this book
because you will not be able to put it down.
The story is filled with twists and turns that will keep you engaged
from start to finish. The plot is a bit
more teen sleuth than usual cozy murder mystery, but that’s not an issue at
all, and everything makes sense by the end.
This is combined with fantastic characters, led by Madison who gets some
real growth here. Fans of Doris Day will
spot a couple of winks to the movie That
Touch of Mink here, but if you haven’t seen the movie, you are still in for
a delightful read.
Pirate Vishnu by Gigi Pandian (Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt
Mysteries #2) – 5
Jaya Jones has yet to live down the fame of her first
treasure hunt when a man walks into her office with a second treasure map. This one appears to have the location of a
treasure in San Francisco, but it’s the connection to Jaya’s family that peaks
her interest. The map was drawn by her
great-granduncle. A dead body only
complicates Jaya’s quest. Can she stay
alive long enough to learn what is going on?
I always enjoy finding a twist on the murder mystery theme,
and this is a good one. The treasure
hunt is as important as figuring out who the killer is, and between the two,
the pages fly by. The twists get bigger
the further into the book we get. I did
think one stretched believability just a bit, but it was a minor deal. The characters are strong, and I’m curious
where the complications in Jaya’s love life will go.
Robbie Jordan, Pans ‘n Pancakes’ proprietor, has just opened
the few rooms she’s been working on as a bed and breakfast, and it’s just in
time for a visit from her father from Italy as well as the Bluegrass festival
being held in the area. The biggest
problem at the festival seems to be Pia Bianchi, a woman that annoys just about
everyone who gets to know her. Then
Pia’s body is found early one morning in a covered bridge in the area. With Robbie’s guests some of the police’s suspects,
she finds herself in the thick of things again.
Will she figure out what is going on?
This was a fun book in the series since it worked in several
sub-plots that have been woven through the series – Robbie’s father and opening
the bed and breakfast part of the business among others. These work themselves nicely into the
mystery, providing a reason for Robbie to be involved and giving her access to
gather clues. The suspects are great,
and they provide us with some good twists before we reach the creative
climax. The series has always featured
some local (to southern Indiana) expressions to provide local color, but a
couple of times, they started to annoy more than charm. Fortunately, those were rare moments that
were over quickly. If you find yourself
drooling over some of the food, you’ll be happy with the recipes at the end of
the book.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
When someone starts breaking into houses in the neighborhood
taking nick knacks and sweets, Poppy McAlister is shocked to discover that it
is her aunt Ginny sleepwalking under the power of some new medication. However, when a murder takes place a couple
of blocks away, the police zero in on Aunt Ginny as the culprit. The victim, unknown to both Poppy and Aunt
Ginny, seems like he could have been a nice guy or a complete jerk. Which was true?
This book spent quite a bit of time setting up the premise,
but once the murder took place, things really picked up. I enjoyed needing to learn what kind of guy
the victim was since it added a nice twist to the mystery. The suspects were strong, and I could have
seen any of them as the killer before we reached the climax. The love triangle is just heating up; I know
which guy I am rooting for, but I could see myself happy with either of them at
this point. I did find a couple of the
characters annoying, especially Poppy’s mother-in-law. Aunt Ginny provides lots of laughs, and the
gluten-free, paleo friendly recipes at the end sound delicious.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
