Books Read May 2014
Archer, Connie
Fiction. First in a cozy mystery series set in a small Vermont ski town. Lucky Jamieson owns a soup restaurant that features the cooking of her star chef, Sage. A woman enters Spoonful to pick up a to-go order, and when Sage sees her, he has a strange reaction and ducks back into the kitchen. Lucky doesn’t understand why, but she starts to wonder when the woman is found dead in the alley behind the restaurant.
Ash, Maureen
Fiction. Mystery set in Lincolnshire, England during the Middle Ages. Templar Knight, Bascot de Marins, and his servant, a mute boy named Gianni, are living in Lincoln Castle working for the sheriff and his wife, Nicolaa de la Haye. One day a young squire is found hanged in the forest next to a slaughtered deer, and Lady Nicolaa charges the Templar to find the boy’s murderer.
Befeler, Mike
- Senior Moments Are Murder
Fiction. Third in the Geezer-Lit Paul Jacobson cozy mystery series. Paul suffers from a short-term memory issue that causes him to begin each day not knowing anything that happened in the previous six years, including the fact that he’s about to be married. While out for an early morning walk along the canals in Venice, California, he looks down and sees a dead body. Murder and mayhem run rampant in the artist colony, and Paul is right in the middle of it.
Castle, Richard
Fiction. First in the Nikki Heat police procedural. Nikki and reporter Jameson Rook are hot on the heels of a murderer who shoved a wealthy entrepreneur off his sixth floor balcony.
Charles, Ann
Fiction. Third in the humorous paranormal cozy mystery series set in South Dakota. Violet Parker is trying to drum up business so she can keep her job at Calamity Jane Realty. One day, a strange Abraham Lincoln-look alike shows up in the realty office looking for her. His request: to buy a haunted hotel, and Violet knows just the one to show him.
Connolly, Sheila
Fiction. Second in the cozy mystery series set in County Cork, Ireland. Maura is getting used to owning a pub she inherited from a family friend she never knew. Another American woman bursts into the pub and announces she is looking for an old portrait painted by a famous artist and asks Maura for her help in locating the manor house she believes the painting is in. The next morning, a gardener is found dead at the manor house, and Maura can’t help but think that the American woman has something to do with it.
Fluke, Joanne
Fiction. Mystery set in snowy Minnesota. Marian waits at home for her husband and daughter, Laura, to return from an afternoon of snowmobiling. They’re late, and she’s getting worried. Her worry turns to fear when the police cruiser pulls into her driveway.
Galbraith, Robert
Fiction. First in the Cormoran Strike mystery series set in London. Cormoran is a wounded veteran who now works as a private investigator. He is hired by the brother of a young woman who was found dead after jumping from her balcony. The young woman happens to be a famous model worth millions of pounds. Who will benefit from her death?
Gerritsen, Tess
Fiction. First in the Rizzoli & Isles police procedural/medical mystery series, on which the TV show is based. Rizzoli is struggling to make a name for herself on the homicide squad, but being the only woman surrounded by chauvinistic males, she’s chosen a difficult profession. Dr. Catherine Cordell is trying to piece her life back together after a horrific attack. Her attacker, who she believed that she’d killed that night, suddenly makes a comeback and more women are targeted. How can that be?
Jaffarian, Sue Anne
Fiction. Fifth in the Granny Apples paranormal cozy mystery series. Kelly is home in California for spring break and goes to a party with her old high school friends, one of whom is a professional ventriloquist. While he is showing off for their friends, Kelly notices a shimmer on the face of the grandmotherly dummy. A shimmer that forms into the face of a ghost.
Fiction. Sixth installment in the Ghost of Granny Apples paranormal cozy mystery series. Asked by her fellow medium, Milo, to drive to Las Vegas to assist him with a ghost, Emma Whitecastle visits with his mother, Dolly, a former showgirl, whose house seems to be haunted. Multiple ghosts link the present to an old casino theft and murder, as Emma tries to save the lives of some of her new friends.
Fiction. Fourth in the Ghost of Granny Apples paranormal cozy mystery series. Granny has gone to visit Kelly at college and assists her in helping a young woman who is bothered by a ghost.
Kingsbury, Kate
- A Bicycle Built for Murder
Fiction. First in a cozy mystery series set in WWII England. Lady Elizabeth Hartleigh Compton is the lady of the manor trying to keep her estate from falling to pieces. As she travels the narrow road from the village to Manor House, she is flagged down by a tenant. The woman says her daughter has gone missing, and Lady Elizabeth is determined to solve the mystery.
Kress, Nancy
- Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint
Non-fiction. Information on writing characters that ring true, the use of emotions in writing, and how to use the different POVs.
Landis, Jill Marie
Fiction. First book in a cozy mystery series set on Kauai. Emily and her Uncle Louie own a bar on the North Shore. As part of their entertainment, they host a weekly luau complete with kalua pig baked in an imu. The festivities crash to a halt when Louie’s next door neighbor and nemesis is found face down in the oven, and Em and the oddly eccentric resident hula troupe must find the killer before another murder takes place.
Parra, Nancy J.
Fiction. Second in the Gluten-Free Bakery cozy series. Toni keeps busy baking fresh goods at her bakery and also spending time with her family. Her grandmother Ruth is quite a handful, and Toni gets dragged into her many schemes, though Toni refuses to get involved with investigating any more murders...until her grandmother ends up as the prime suspect.
Patterson, James
Fiction. 6th book in the Alex Cross mysteries. Alex is trying to hold onto his relationship with Christine, who is having trouble dealing with her recent kidnapping and Alex’s pre-occupation with his job. In this new case, a series of bank robberies seem to be linked together, and Alex is hot on the trail of The Mastermind.
Roberts, Anthony
Fiction. Historical fiction account of a young boy’s experiences during the Iranian Revolution, as told from the points of view of all concerned parties.
Silva, Daniel
Fiction. First in the thriller series starring Israeli Gabriel Allon. Part time art restorer, part time assassin, he is called out of retirement to help the Office take down the Palestinian spy who planted the bomb in the car Gabriel’s wife and son were in. He enlists the help of a famous fashion model to infiltrate the enemy.
Speart, Jessica
Fiction. Wildlife agent, Rachel Porter, has recently been assigned to work in New Orleans. As the newest rookie, she has the least exciting assignments, and as a woman working in a typically male environment, she has to work harder to prove to her boss that she can do the job. After a night in the swamps trying to catch a duck poacher, she just wants to rest, but her phone rings with another assignment. A stripper has been found murdered in her apartment with a very unusual pet chained in her bathroom.
Sprinkle, Patricia
Fiction. First in a mystery series revolving around a woman trying to solve several mysteries through genealogy. While trying to trace the origin of an ancient bronze circlet, Katharine Murray, who is dealing with an empty nest, an absent husband, and recent deaths in the family, gets involved with mysteries old and new and finds a new passion.
Styers, John J.
Non-fiction. Instruction manual used by the Armed Forces for close combat techniques including bare hands, knives and sticks.
Tan, Amy
- The Hundred Secret Senses
Fiction. Olivia is half-Chinese, half-Caucasian and grow up with her two brothers in San Francisco. When she is twelve, Olivia finds out that she has an older half-sister in China Her father had another family before hers. Her sister, Kwan, travels to the US and moves in with Olivia’s family, and Olivia tries hard to accept the cultural differences, as well as Kwan’s insistence that she sees ghosts. Their sisterhood has strange twists and turns, and Olivia only really gets to know her sister when they travel back to China.
Thomas, Rob
- The Thousand-Dollar Tan Line
Fiction. First in the Veronica Mars mystery series. Veronica is holding down the shop as her father recuperates from his injuries, and she’s worried about the bottom dollar at Mars Investigations. The city of Neptune is host to Spring Break, and students from numerous colleges converge on the town for a week of drinking and debauchery. While attending a lavish party at a mansion, a college coed is seen partying it up with one of the party hosts but goes missing.
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