Time for my reading summary for February 2020. I got a lot of reading in this month. Not sure why I have gotten so much in, but I'm not complaining. My to be read mountain range is still way too high.
The index is updated. I find that a little surprising given how busy my job has been.
As always, the links take you to my full review.
All ratings are on a scale of 1 (bad) to 5 (great).
Martha Rose’s neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley of
Southern California used to be peaceful and quiet until a local private school
built a baseball stadium in the open space that used to boarder her
street. She and her neighbors have tried
to fight it, even after it was built, but no one is willing to listen to them. While out for a walk one morning, Martha
finds the dead body of Dax Martin, the school’s baseball couch. The police begin to quickly focus on her
neighbor Ed Pappas, who had a fight with the victim recently, but Martha
doesn’t believe he is guilty. Can she
prove it?
Quilting doesn’t play as big a part of this mystery as it
did the first in the series, but it is still an active part of Martha’s life,
as are her quilting friends. It’s hard
to complain since this book is filled with a strong mystery. Martha strikes out early, which only adds to
her drive to solve things, and makes the solution more satisfying for us when
she does. Some of Martha’s attitude and
actions early on were a little frustrating for me, but it made me appreciate
the character growth we saw in her later in the book. The rest of the cast are great, and I enjoyed
spending time with them, returning characters and new characters alike. When I read the first book in the series, I
found some needless political comments off putting, but they were absent in this
book. The plot does bring up a few
political issues as a natural part of the plot, but they are kept in the
background here – the book never stops to peach and they only come up very
briefly. As a Los Angeles resident, I
enjoyed seeing places I know pop up in this book, especially a few key scenes
that took place near where I played ultimate Frisbee for years. Overall, this is a fun second mystery that
will please cozy mystery readers.
It’s 1795, and Will Rees has spent the last few years as a
traveling weaver while grieving his wife.
He’s left his son and his Maine farm in the care of his sister and her
husband, but his most recent trip home leads to the discovery that they’ve been
abusing that trust, and his son, David, has run away to a Shaker community over
a day’s travel away. Will goes to try
to repair their relationship only to find himself involved in a murder. One of the Shaker women has been killed in
their community, and the Elders have asked Will to find the killer. His problem, however, is that he is an
outsider. Will anyone trust him enough
to share the information he needs to solve the case?
I’m always on the lookout for a good historical mystery, so
I was quite eager to pick this one up.
I’m not familiar with the Shakers, so that was also an interesting
aspect of the book. The plot is good
with plenty of twists and a logical conclusion, however, I felt like the pacing
could have been better. That might have
just been me since Will could only talk to a couple of people at a time if he
had to travel far to talk to them. This
is a historical mystery, after all. That
travel time may have helped lead me to feel like things were slow. The characters are strong. I really came to care for Will and several of
the others. The characters were just as
strong, and I had no trouble keeping them apart. However, as Will begins to find complex
family relationships, I had a hard time keeping all of those straight. The everyday details of life in the time
period were strong and helped make me feel like I was back in time when I was
reading the book. I am definitely
planning to visit Will again to find out what happens to him next.
Liv Olsen has spent a few years working on a popular true
crime podcast, but now she’s decided to risk everything to start her own, Missing
or Murdered. Working with her
stepsister, Camry Lewis, she’s identified her first case. Just over ten years ago, Amelia Clark
disappeared from Santa Maria, a town on central California’s coast, a week
after an embarrassing video of her was posted on YouTube. The trail has long gone cold, but the retired
detective who worked the case reached out to Liv, hoping that publicity would
bring forward a new clue. As Liv begins
to interview people who knew Amelia, she gets more questions than answers. What happen to Amelia all those years ago?
It’s always fun when a mystery opens with something other
than a murder, and that’s what we get here.
The missing person case was compelling, and it seemed the further I
read, the more confusing the case became.
However, everything came together for a satisfying solution before it
was all over. The characters are
charming, and I fell in love with them immediately. I appreciated the character growth we saw
here, and I can’t wait to see how these relationships grow in future
books. The suspects are just as real and
do a great job of confusing us. I did
find out character who speaks with a stutter annoying, and there were a couple
of scenes I could have done without, but these are both minor issues. On the other hand, I appreciated the book’s
humor and found myself laughing several times.
This is a delightful debut, and I will definitely be back when the sequel
drops.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Army ranger Van Shaw hasn’t been home in ten years, and he
has no plans to return until he gets a letter from his estranged grandfather,
the man who raised him, asking him to return.
Van arrives to find his grandfather on the floor bleeding from a very
recent gunshot wound. Van knows he is
the best person to find out what happened to his grandfather. The man made his living as a thief, something
he was training Van in until Van turned his back on that life and joined the
army. But Van still knows the old man’s
friends, and they might tell him things they wouldn’t tell the police. Can he use his contacts to find out what
happened?
This book is definitely darker than my typical cozies, but I
knew that when I picked it up. While I
didn’t find the violence or sex excessive, I did feel the foul language could
have been toned down some. The plot was
a little slow to hook me, and some flashbacks to Van’s childhood didn’t really
help that feeling. However, I did get
hooked and was along for the twists, turns, and action sequences we got. I was on the edge of my seat by the time I
reached the end. The characters are all
solid, which helps. I don’t normally
like rooting for criminals, but since Van is reformed, it is easy to root for
him. The rest are very real and I
enjoyed getting to know them. I’m glad I
gave this debut a chance, and I definitely plan to move on to the next in the
series.
Battered by G. P. Gottlieb (Whipped and Sipped
#1) – 4
Alene Baron runs Whipped and Sipped with her best friend,
Ruthie Rosin. Together, the two have
turned the café and coffee shop into a healthy choice with a loyal clientele. They serve only the best coffee, and most of
their items are vegan, even the sweet treats, that is popular in their
neighborhood in Chicago. Alene lives a
few blocks away from the café in a condo she shares with her father and her
three children. Her world is a little
chaotic, but it gets more so when she finds one of her neighbors dead one
afternoon. It is clear that he was
murdered, and soon Alene is casting everyone in the role of killer. Since she knows everyone who might be a
suspect, can she figure out what really happened?
This book has a couple of twists on culinary cozies that I
enjoyed, the healthy food that is served and the large city setting. Author G. P. Gottlieb still manages to keep
this book feeling cozy despite that setting, and I enjoyed spending time in a
bigger city. There are a lot of
characters, and their relationships are complicated. There is a list of characters before the book
starts, but it didn’t take too long for the character’s personalities to come
through and it became easy to keep them straight. There are some prickly characters in the book,
and it was actually easy to root for one of them to be the killer. We get a bit of a backstory dump early on,
which makes it a little slow to get going.
We do need some of this information as the plot unfolds. Once the murder happens, we’ve got several
good clues and red herrings. I thought I
figured things out early, but I was surprised by the climax. There are a total of thiry recipes in this
book, with them leaning toward the healthier side of things thanks to the vegan
theme of the café. This book features a
slightly different take on the culinary cozy mystery, one I ultimately enjoyed.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
Nell Valenti has turned her love of food and her training as
a chef into a career helping establish farm to table cooking schools. When she is offered a job setting up a school
for Chef Claudio Orlandini in Tuscany, she jumps at the chance. Not only is she looking for some changes in
her life, but Chef Claudio is her culinary idol. However, Nell is shocked upon her arrival to
discover that the villa Chef Claudio owns is in worse disrepair than she
expected, meaning the transformation is going to be more work than she’d expected. Then comes the news that a kick off dinner
with some local dignitaries is scheduled for the next evening. Even worse, the dinner ends with some of the
guests dead and Chef Claudio missing.
What has Nell gotten herself into?
I picked up this book with high hopes. It’s fun to see a cozy in a new setting, and
Tuscany appealed to me. Unfortunately,
the language barrier made the book hard to get into initially. Yes, we need bits of Italian, and not all of
the characters are going to speak English, but it felt like too many Italian
words and phrases were thrown out, and we had to wait for the translation to
appear or figure out what was meant in context.
While it took a bit longer to be hooked than I would have liked, it did
happen once the plot kicked into high gear.
We are treated to a great mystery with plenty of suspects. As Nell pieces things together, I was in awe
of just how well the clues were laid out for us. Nell is a good main character, and the core
cast also comes to life for us as well.
There are some laugh out loud funny scenes here, and, of course, we get
a delicious sounding recipe at the end.
The characters, plot, and setting make this a fun debut.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
Mia Carina has returned home after her adulterous husband’s
mysterious disappearance to work in the family business. Or, I should say, the family’s new business. Her father, reputed mobster Ravello, has
recently acquired the Belle View catering hall in the Queens borough of New
York City, and Mia is going to help him run it as a 100% real business. Her first week on the job, Mia is in charge
of a bachelor party when disaster strikes.
Not only does the stripper not jump out of the cake, she’s dead in the
cake. With the police showing interest
in the new business and especially her father, Mia begins poking around, hoping
to figure out what happened. Can she do
it?
The mob? New York
City? Yes, this is indeed still a
cozy. While those are the elements that
help make up this different take on the genre, they only help provide the
background. The heart of the book is
still a great puzzle and charming characters.
Mia already knows some of the supporting players in the book, and we can
tell right away how much they love each other.
The rest of the characters are entertaining, and the suspects are
strong. The plot weaves in some
interesting directions before we reach the logical and satisfying
conclusion. We get some great humor as
Mia deals with a return home that isn’t as smooth as she thought it would
be. Being a culinary cozy, we get some
delicious sounding recipes at the end and a fun party idea. I took advantage of a lazy Sunday afternoon
to finish this book, and I enjoyed every page of it. I’m already anxious for the sequel. It would be a mistake to refuse this
excellent debut.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Crypt Suzette by Maya Corrigan (Five
Ingredient Mysteries #6) – 5
Val Deniston’s granddad has taken on another boarder, a
young woman named Suzette Cripps.
Suzette spends most of her time in her room, but she is planning to
participate in the literary themed costume contest to celebrate the town’s new
bookstore. The morning after the
contest, Suzette is dead, killed by a hit and run driver. The police are investigating, but they think
it was an accident. Val can’t help but
think it was more than that. Is she
right?
The mystery starts out quickly, and it is easy for us to
share Val’s suspicion that this wasn’t an accident. There are plenty of suspects, and I felt like
it took a little while for me to keep them all straight. This is a minor complaint, however, as they
did get developed as the book went along.
I’m in awe at how the clues were sprinkled into the book, and as Val
used them to piece things together at the end, I felt foolish for not picking
up on them myself. The book is set at
Halloween, and the fall atmosphere is a lot of fun. We get a creepy Halloween inspired scene near
the end as well. Val’s granddad is a
hoot, and I really enjoyed his sub-plot involving ghost hunting. There are five more five-ingredient recipes
at the end of the book. While it would
be fun to read this book at Halloween, it works well at any season of the
year. I enjoyed it in February, after
all.
Stella Wright is taking a break from the Wick & Flame,
her candle shop on Nantucket, to attend a perfume conference in Paris with her
mother, Millie, who is one of the speakers.
The conference ends abruptly, however, when Stella and Millie are part
of a crowd that witnesses a man being stabbed right in front of them. After being questioned by the police, they
return home to the island, assuming their only connection to the crime is
behind them. Stella quickly begins to
think that trouble has followed them home.
Is she correct? What might their
connection to the murder be?
When I first heard this book was going to start in Paris and
move the action to Nantucket, I was worried the author wouldn’t be able to pull
it off. From the pacing standpoint, I
didn’t have any issues with this book since the story picked up quickly. The book uses a MacGuffin to ignite the plot,
and that’s where my issue was. I just
couldn’t buy into it. Having said that,
I still found the story compelling since the stakes were personal for
Stella. I flew through the book in a
couple of days because I had to know what was going on. The climax is a bit over the top, but it fits
the plot well. Due to the nature of the
story, we don’t see as much of the supporting cast from the original, but the
new characters more than make up for it.
They are perfect at being suspicious without being obviously the
villain. Unfortunately, there are also a
few timelines issues in the story, but nothing that affects the plot, just
stuff that annoys me. We get some tips
for making candle molds and a delicious sounding cranberry pie recipe at the
end of the book. Even with my issues, I
was glad I read this book.
NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.
Life is going well for Lena London. Her latest collaboration with bestselling
novelist Camilla Graham is doing well, she and her fiance, Sam West, are just
starting to plan their wedding, and she enjoys spending time with her new
friends in Blue Lake. The only shadow is
the new factory that is being built just outside of town. It looks like the building is going to be an
eye sore, and Lena is not happy about it and other ways it might change this
area she considers home. However, a cold
wind blows in when someone vanishes.
Soon, Lena and her friends are caught up in another race to figure out
what is happening before things turn deadly.
Will they solve things in time?
I thought this novel’s beginning was weak, but it was the
weakest part of the story. Even then,
that is a minor complaint since I was hooked from the very first page and could
hardly put the book down until I reached the end. If real life didn’t interfere, I could have
easily finished it in one sitting. I did
see one or two twists coming, but there were plenty others I didn’t suspect,
but they made perfect sense by the time we reached the end of the story. I love Lena and her friends, and we got
plenty of time with them in these pages.
Their relationships are fantastic.
Each chapter starts with a quote from the projects that Lena and Camilla
are currently working on, and I found they helped me better understand just how
this series works Gothic elements into each book. Honestly, I’d love to read their books if
they were real. It is best to read this
series in order since some events of previous books are spoiled by
necessity. That’s not an issue since all
the books in this series are great. Set
aside plenty of time when you pick up this book because you won’t want to put
it down until you’ve read every thrilling page.
NOTE: I received a copy of this book.
