Books Read June 2014

Aames, Avery

• The Long Quiche Goodbye

Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery series centered around a cheese shop in Providence, Ohio.  Charlotte Bessette and her cousin, Matthew, run Fromagerie Bessette and the attached wine shop.  Her grandmother is the town mayor, and with the next election coming up soon, stakes are raised as her grandmother’s rival begins casting aspersions on the mayor.  What could be worse than her grandmother being accused of murder?  

Abbott, Victoria

• The Sayers Swindle 

Fiction.  Second in a cozy mystery series starring Jordan, who works as an assistant to the most hated woman in town.  Vera Van Alst’s Dorothy L. Sayers’ collection has been stolen, and it’s Jordan’s job to recover it.  One that leads her into all kinds of trouble.

Andrews, V.C.

• Flowers in The Attic

Fiction.  First in the Dollanganger series.  Corrine and Chris are living a wonderful life with their four precious children.  Flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, the neighbors call them the Dresden Dolls.  When the police come to tell Corrine that her husband has been killed, she panics and flees back to her childhood home, a home that she’d been banished from years ago.

• Petals on The Wind

Fiction.  Second in the Dollanganger series.  The children have escaped and try to rebuild their lives with the help of Paul Sheffield, a doctor who takes them in.  Catherine is eaten up by hate and the need for revenge against the mother that treated them so badly, but Chris wants to put the past behind them and move forward.  Carrie, who suffered so badly, struggles to make friends in their new home.

• If There Be Thorns

Fiction.  Third in the Dollanganger series.  Life has changed for Cathy and Chris.  Paul, Bart and Julian are dead.  Chris has moved the family to Northern California, where he works as a physician.  Jory, Julian’s son, is growing up kind and healthy, but his half-brother, Bart, lives inside his own fears and hatred.  Jory knows there is a secret that haunts his mother and step-father, but he is also afraid of learning the truth.  A mysterious veiled woman rebuilds the mansion next door, and Bart can’t resist finding out more about her.  He finds much more than he expected.

• Seeds of Yesterday 

Fiction.  Fourth in the Dollanganger series.  Cathy, Chris and their children have returned to Foxworth Manor, which Bart has inherited from his grandmother.  The Sheffields plan only to spend a few weeks there before moving to Hawai’i, but tragedy strikes, putting their plans on hold indefinitely.  A surprise guest awaits them at Foxworth, a long-lost brother of Corrine who had been thought dead.  He moves in with a fanatical religious zeal that he learned from his parents, and Cathy is worried that he wields too much power over Bart.

• Garden of Shadows

Fiction.  Fifth and final book of the Dollanganger series.  This prologue tells the story of Olivia Foxworth, how she met Malcolm Foxworth and became the mistress of Foxworth Hall.  Though she expected to have a warm and loving marriage, she suffered through many disappointments and heartaches with few moments of joy to see her through.

Bradbury, Ray

• Zen in the Art of Writing

Non-fiction.  Collection of his essays having to do with his writing process.

Childs, Laura

• Steeped in Evil

Fiction.  Fifteenth book in the Tea Shop cozy mystery series set in Charleston, SC.  Theodosia and Drayton are invited to a local winery for a wine tasting.  As the oak barrel for the winery’s newest creation is being opened, a slight accident causes the barrel to tip over revealing an even greater sensation...a dead body.

Christie, Agatha

• The ABC Murders

Fiction.  Captain Hastings is back from Argentina on business and to visit with his good friend Hercule Poirot, who has recently retired from solving mysteries.  A letter arrives address to Poirot and announcing a murder that will take place an Andover, where someone whose name begins with A shall be the victim.  It’s the beginning of a series of murders that follow the alphabet, and time is running out for Poirot to find the killer.

Cohen, Nancy J

• Permed to Death 

Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery series set in Florida and starring Marla Shore, proprietor of the Cut ‘N Dry beauty salon.  As if dealing with a vindictive ex-husband and his equally annoying girlfriend isn’t enough, Marla begins the day working on her nemesis, Bertha, a wealthy older woman for whom blackmail is a pastime.  When Bertha demands a cup of coffee while waiting for her perm to set, Marla fixes it with Bertha’s special cache of powdered creamer.  A few minutes later, when Marla returns from the back room, she finds Bertha dead in the chair, her coffee cup in pieces on the floor.

Evanovich, Janet

• Top Secret Twenty-One

Fiction.  Stephanie Plum works as a bond enforcement agent in her cousin Vinny’s bail bonds office.  She also moonlights with Rangeman, a high-tech, high-end security company.  Along with Lula, she has to figure out who is killing members of a poker game, who keeps bombing Randy Briggs’ apartment, and how to help Ranger stop a Russian terrorist.

Fifield, Christy

• Murder Hooks a Mermaid 

Fiction.  Second book in a paranormal cozy mystery series set in the Florida panhandle.  Glory Martine owns Southern Treasures, a souvenir shop in the small fishing town of Keyhole Bay.  Her friend, Karen, needs Glory’s help in trying to get Karen’s ex-brother-in-law out of jail, but his troubles are just beginning when murder charges are added, and Glory and her friends, along with the help of her deceased Uncle Louis in the form of her parrot, must scramble to solve the case before danger comes for them. 

George, Anne

• Murder on a Bad Hair Day

Fiction.  Second book in a cozy mystery series set in Alabama.  Two sisters in their 60’s attend an art show gathering where Mary Alice introduces Patricia Anne to the owner of the gallery.  The next day, they find out that the owner has been found dead of an apparent heart attack, but that diagnosis is altered when digitalis is found in her system, a drug she doesn’t take.

Golden, Karen

• The Cats that Surfed the Web 

Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery series that begins in New York and ends up in Indiana.  Katz Kendell’s great aunt died and left her a fortune, a gorgeous old house, and a cat.  The stipulation is that Katz has to move into the house and take care of the cat.  With the sudden loss of her job, there’s nothing left for her in New York, so she heads west with her three cats to start a new adventure...one that begins with a murder.

Harris, Charlaine

• Shakespeare’s Christmas 

Fiction.  Third in the Lily Bard cozy mystery series set in Arkansas.  Lily’s sister is getting married, and Lily needs to reconcile with her family in order to attend the wedding.  When her significant other, Jake, follows her to town,  he tells her that he’s working on a kidnapping case and is looking for a young girl.  The man that Lily’s sister, Verana, is about to marry has a young daughter of the right age and coloring, and it’s up to Lily to figure out if her sister is about to marry a kidnapper.

Herr, Michael A.

• Is “Chicken Skin” A Local Delicacy?

Fiction.  A second collection of stories about the locals on Kaua’i staged around Primo’s Bar.  

Hoffman, Alice

• The Museum of Extraordinary Things

Fiction.  Odd and depressing story of two people who grew up with strange lives who finally find each other, as a lotus that rises out of the mud.

Jaffarian, Sue Ann

• Baited Blood

Fiction.  Second in the Madison Rose Vampire cozy series.  Madison is living with the Dedhams, working for the California Vampire Council and attending college classes.  It keeps her busy, though she gets lonely for human contact.  Early one morning after an all-night Council meeting, she walks outside to relax before heading up to bed when she finds a body floating in the pool, a body with a stake through the heart.

• Murder in Vein

Fiction.  First in a paranormal cozy mystery set in California.  Madison Rose is a full-time waitress and part-time college student with no family.  Coming out of the foster care system, she’s been working hard to find her place in the world.  One night changes her entire life, when she’s kidnapped and beaten and in her dizzy haze, watches as her attacker is attacked by a creature in black, one that changes everything.

Landis, Jill Marie

• Two to Mango

Fiction.  Second in the Tiki Goddess series.  Things are back to normal, as normal as they can be, at the Tiki Goddess bar.  The Hula Maidens are quarreling, Sophie is tending bar, and Em is trying to make sure the bar brings in more money than it sends out.  Roland, the hunky fire dancing detective asks Em for help in trying to solve two murders that nobody believes have happened.  As part of the ruse, she needs to convince the Hula Maidens to enter a hula competition, one that they did very poorly in several years ago, so Em has to work to talk them into it.

Books Read May 2014

Archer, Connie

• A Spoonful of Murder

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

• Death of A Squire

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

• Heat Wave

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

• Dead Case in Deadwood

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

• Scandal in Skibbereen 

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

• Winter Chill 

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

• The Cuckoo’s Calling

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

• The Surgeon

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

• Dummy of a Ghost

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.

• Ghost of a Gamble

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.

• The Silent Ghost

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

• Mai Tai One On 

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.

• Murder Gone A-Rye

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

• Roses Are Red

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

• Sons of The Great Satan

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

• The Kill Artist 

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

• Gator Aide (1997) 

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

• Death on the Family Tree

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.

• Cold Steel

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.

Books Read April 2014

Abbott, Rachel

• Sleep Tight 

Fiction.  3rd in a mystery series starring DI Tom Douglas.  A woman is waylaid outside a pub on her way home, while someone watches from the dark.  Soon after begins a long and winding series of crimes surrounding the woman and the man in the shadows.

Castle, Angela

• Tiger Mine 

Fiction.  An Australian woman is getting over her recent divorce by moving back to her grandfather’s old cabin in the mountains, when she suddenly finds herself sharing the space with a very large Siberian tiger.  The next day, the tiger is gone, but a knock at her door brings her face to face with a mesmerizingly handsome man with a Russian accent who is in need of work.   The cabin needs quite a bit of work done on it, so she hires the man, not knowing that he will bring danger to her doorstep.

Fifield, Christy

• Murder Buys a T-Shirt

Fiction.  1st in a paranormal cozy mystery set in the Florida panhandle.  Glory Martine owns an antique/souvenir shop left to her by her great-uncle Louis.  Bluebeard, the irascible blue parrot, in also part of the inheritance.  While out bargain-hunting with her best friend, Karen, they come across the scene of a terrible accident, one that has claimed the life of the star football player.  Bluebeard has other ideas about the cause of the crash.

Harkness, Deborah

• A Discovery of Witches

Fiction.  First in a trilogy.  Diana Bishop is a hereditary witch who refuses to use magic or witchcraft, instead relying upon science as defining the basis of life.  Her beliefs are sorely tested when she encounters a strange and alluring man, a fellow scholar, who happens to be a vampire.  In a world populated by humans, witches, vampires and daemons, the two come together in an explosion that rocks the entire scope of life on the planet.

Hillerman, Tony

• Dance Hall of the Dead

Fiction.  Joe Leaphorn, Navajo policeman, is searching for a young boy who has disappeared, seemingly either a murderer or an innocent bystander.  Leaphorn is caught up in the Zuni mystical beliefs, as he traces the footsteps of this boy in the sand.

Hinton, S.E.

• Hawkes Harbor 

Fiction.  A young man is delivered to a mental asylum in a straitjacket and in the back of a police cruiser.  Dr. McDermitt sees Jamie Sommers as a patient rather than a criminal, but wonders if he can repair all the damage Jamie has suffered over the years.  From pirating in the South China sea to a haunting wreck of an old mansion, Jamie’s past and present collide the day he meets The Monster.

Hugener, Rosy & Carl

• Xtabentum

Fiction.  Saga of a wealthy Mexican family and the servants they thought of as family.

James, Miranda

• Out of Circulation 

Fiction.  4th book in the cozy mystery series set in Athena, Mississippi.  Charlie and Diesel, his 36-pound Maine Coon cat, find themselves embroiled in yet another murder and must go back in time to find the killer.

Johnson, Craig

• Death Without Company

Fiction.  3rd in the Longmire series set in Wyoming.  Sheriff Walt Longmire is called in by his longtime friend and predecessor to investigate a seemingly natural death.  He wasn’t planning on investigating it until his friend tells him who the woman is.  Still not convinced that a murder has been committed, Walt decides to do some basic sleuthing that uncovers a horrendous story that began fifty years in the past that affects lives from the present.

Kempton, Gloria

• Dialogue 

Non-fiction.  Instruction on how to create good dialogue in our stories.  Do’s and don’t’s, examples, and exercises.

King, Stephen

• The Green Mile 

Fiction.  Two young girls are raped and murdered, and the man found clutching their torn bodies soon ends up on death row.  Head guard, Paul Edgecombe, has seen many prisoners walk that last mile to the electric chair, but he’s never met another one quite like John Coffey.

MacAllister, Katie

• You Slay Me

Fiction.  First in a paranormal mystery series.  Aisling Grey is couriering an extremely valuable gold dragon to its new owner in France, only to find the new owner dead, hanging from a chandelier.  Perhaps Aisling should have heeded those feelings of absolute dread she had when she approached the building.  Things get ever worse as Aisling is suspected of being the murderer.

McClendon, Lise

• The Bluejay Shaman 

Fiction.  First in the Alix Thorrsen cozy mystery series.  Alex owns an art gallery in Jackson, Wyoming with her partner, Paolo.  She is hired to authenticate and research a truck full of artwork that was seized by the police in her hometown of Missoula, Montana.  Staying with her sister and her brother-in-law while she works there, Alix suddenly finds out that a woman has been murdered, and her brother-in-law has been arrested for the murder.  Native spirituality, New Age spiritualists, and local academics come together in this tale.

McCourtney, Lorena

• In Plain Sight 

Fiction.  Second in the cozy mystery series staring Ivy Malone.  Ivy is contemplating leaving town to escape the family of thugs who are stalking her after she sends one of them to prison.  Serendipity shines, when her niece and her husband accept a job transfer to Hawai’i, leaving their house in Arkansas empty.  Ivy jumps at the chance to not only watch over the house, but also to keep tabs on her great-niece who wants to finish the school year with her friends.  Ivy’s curiosity about an aloof neighbor gets her into trouble when that neighbor is found murdered, and Ivy is the one who finds her.

Mucha, Susan Polonus

• Deadly Deception 

Fiction.  1st in the Elia Christie/Luis Echevarria mystery series.  From Georgia to Peru, this fast-paced story begins with a murder on a golf course and is tied up with the illegal drug industry and ancient South American artifacts.

Meier, Leslie

• Valentine Murder 

Fiction.  6th in the Lucy Stone cozy series set in Maine.  Lucy arrives to her first meeting as part of the library’s board of directors, only to find that this meeting is complicated by the discovery of a body.

Olson, Karen E.

• The Missing Ink

Fiction.  1st in a cozy mysteries series set in Las Vegas.  Brett owns an upscale tattoo parlor, and a woman enters asking for a devotion tattoo.  She says her name is Kelly Masters and makes an appointment for the next day, but she never shows up.  The next thing Brett hears is that a Kelly Masters has been murdered, only it’s not the woman who came to her shop.

Salinger, J.D.

• The Catcher in the Rye

Fiction.  Classic.  Manic look into the mind of a male going through puberty with a touch of schizophrenia.

Salzmann, Cyndy

• Dying to Decorate 

Fiction.  Christian cozy mystery without deaths.  A group of friends gather together once a week for the Friday Afternoon Club (FAC).  They support each other and go on adventures.  One of them inherits a house, and while cleaning it out, they discover a hidden room, one that contains many secrets.

Stabenow, Dana

• Dead in the Water

Fiction.  3rd in the cozy mystery series set in Alaska.  Kate Shugak has been assigned to investigate the disappearance of two crab men off the ship Avilda.  She signs on to work the crab pots, though it’s not often that women are allowed on the boats due to the hard physical labor, the male chauvinistic view of the men on board, and the trouble having a female working among them can cause.  Kate works hard to combat all of those issues, but finds herself in real danger.

Stowe, Lisa

• The Memory Keeper

Fiction.  Mystery set in picturesque Wallace, Idaho.  Cody misses the grandfather she’d only known for two months before his death and travels to his hometown of Wallace to find people that might remember him, so that she can get to know him better, and perhaps herself as well.  Old secrets die hard, as Cody comes to find out when a dying man stumbles across her path.

Woodworth, Deborah

• Death of a Winter Shaker

Fiction.  First in a cozy series set in a Kentucky Shaker village.  Sister Rose, trustee of North Homage, works hard to keep to the Shaker ways while still recognizing that they need to compromise in some ways with the outer world, while the elder of the village wants to return to the old, and very austere, ways.  Gennie, a young orphan who has not yet taken the oath to join the community, enjoys her work in the Herbal House, but is horrified one day to find it has been desecrated by a body.

Good grief!

Gosh, I haven't made a regular blog post since the end of last year!  What have I been doing?  Reading mostly, obviously, by my reading challenge post, but I also submitted two poems to contests, one of which didn't win, and the other I'm still waiting to hear on.

I've also been busy writing short stories inspired by pictures I've downloaded from the Internet.  Our writing group began these at the end of last year and have had fun challenging ourselves with it.  

This month is Camp NaNo, and although I haven't written as much as I'd have liked to by this point, I've been working on four different story lines, two inspired by pictures, one by a dream and one by another book.  Rather than working on one novel for the entire month, I opted to write short stories and poetry during Camp.

My goal for the next year is to get ready to make the move to Washington state.  I've wanted to live there for years, and next spring is my plan.  Between now and then will be a lot of sorting, donating and re-packing to minimize what I'll be taking with me.  I'm so looking forward to the move!

Books Read March 2014

Adams, Alina

• Murder on Ice 

Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery about ice skating.  Bex, a news researcher acts as referee between a married couple and former Olympic champions who now work as announcers.  All of their bickering about fair and unfair voting among the ice skating judges raises the stakes when one of the judges is found dead.

Allen, Sarah Addison

• The Girl Who Chased the Moon 

Fiction.  Magical tale of two women living in a small North Carolina town.  The younger one, just seventeen, has just lost her mother and come back to her mother’s hometown to live with the grandfather she never knew she had.  The other woman was born and raised in the town and returned only to sell off her father’s restaurant after his death then planned on moving back to Baltimore.

• The Sugar Queen 

Fiction.  Josey Cirrini lives in a big, elegant house with her domineering mother.  Her family is wealthy and well-thought of by the townsfolk.  Josey should be happy, but she spends most of her time alone in her room with a secret stash of sweets hidden in her closet.  One day she opens the door to find something else in her closet, or rather, someone else.

• The Firefly Dance

Fiction.  Collection of short stories written by four authors, anchored by the last story by Sarah Addison Allen.  The other three authors are Phyllis Schieber, Kathryn Magendie and Augusta Trobaugh.

Bell, James Scott

• Plot & Structure 

Non-fiction.  One in the Write Great Fiction series.  Excellent, easy to read, and clear suggestions on crafting a novel.

Bishop, Erzabet

• Beltane Fires

Fiction.  Novella about a woman’s journey to a Beltane celebration after the breakup of her relationship.  While everyone else is enjoying the festivities in the fields, she feels lonely...until she takes a walk and meets The Forest Lord.

Blackwell, Juliet

• Home for the Haunting 

Fiction.  Mel Turner is volunteering as house captain for Neighbors Together, building a ramp for a wheelchair-bound man.  She’s distracted by the ghostly faces peering at her from the house next door...a house she comes to find out is known in the neighborhood as The Murder House.

Blake, Heather

• The Good, the Bad and the Witchy 

Fiction.  3rd in the paranormal cozy mystery series that takes place in Enchanted Village near Salem, Massachusetts.  The village, populated by a variety of Crafters, is a magical place to visit, but for some it can be downright deadly.

Boneham, Sheila Webster

• The Money Bird 

Fiction.  2nd in the cozy mystery seres about an animal photographer/dog trainer who finds something unusual in the viewfinder of her camera while photographing water dog training.  What is a rare parrot doing in the Indiana countryside?  The mystery deepens as a fellow photographer is found dead in the vicinity.

Carl, JoAnne

• The Chocolate Cat Caper

Fiction.  1st in a cozy mystery series set in Michigan.  After running away from her marriage, former trophy wife, Lee, finds herself working at her aunt Nettie’s chocolate shop.  A delivery she makes to the home of a much disliked lawyer sets her right in the path of a murder.   

Castle, Angela

• The Purrfect Plan 

Fiction.  Shapeshifter erotica set in Australia.  Storm Wellington wants a baby in the worst way, but she has no interest in a relationship, so she travels to Black Town to find a man for the night.  Unbeknownst to her, Black Town is Australia’s shifter town, populated by cat shifters and led by the alpha male, River Black.  Storm first has her eyes set on his twin brother, but the moment she sees River walk into the bar, they only have eyes for each other.

Charles, L.J.

• The Knowing 

Fiction.  Nia’s visions have happened during the last snowstorm of the past three years.  In each vision, she sees through a murderer’s eyes as he hunts and down kills his victims.  It’s early spring, and the last snowstorm has been predicted.  In her panic to stop the visions and the murders, she escapes the North Dakotan winter to fly to sunny Hawai’i.  Unfortunately, the murderer is already there.

Cohen, Nancy J.

• Writing the Cozy Mystery

Non-fiction.  Short book on the craft of writing cozies.

Dunning, John

• Booked to Die 

Fiction.  First in the Cliff Janeway cozy mystery series set in Denver, Colorado.  Janeway is a police detective called to investigate the murder of a local man who is well known in the booktrade business.  Janeway’s own interest and expertise in the book business comes in play as he learns that he and the victim have mutual acquaintances, complicating the investigation.

Evans, Christy

• Sink Trap 

Fiction.  Georgiana Neverall had to give up her high-tech high-stress job in San Francisco and move back home to Oregon.  Surprisingly, she’s found a new career as a plumber’s assistant.  While trying to unclog a sink in a house being renovated before sale, she finds an antique broach that looks very familiar, and she knows the owner treasured it very much.  She wants to return the broach, but the owner has mysteriously disappeared.

Fluke, Joanne

• Blackberry Pie Murder 

Fiction.  21st in the cozy mystery series set in Lake Eden, Minnesota where Hannah Swensen owns The Cookie Jar.  A thunderstorm is raging as she drives her business partner back to work from the auto body shop where Lisa has left her car to be worked on.  Nervous to take the highway back to town in the deluge, Hannah makes the decision to stay another route, one that leads her directly into danger.

Gaarder, Jostein

• The Orange Girl 

Fiction.  15-year-old Georg Roed is given a letter written to him by his father, the father who had died 11 years ago.  In it, his father tells a magical story of how he met the elusive Orange Girl, and where their journey led.

Gustainis, Justin

• Evil Ways 

Fiction.  Children are begin murdered again, this time for a very particular purpose.  Black versus white magic comes into play as Libby and Quentin gather their resources and allies to fight the darkest kind of magic, one that calls upon the Demon Lord, Himself.

Hall, Parnell

• A Clue for the Puzzle Lady

Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery series that combines crossword puzzles with mysteries.  Sherry Carter is a puzzle constructor, but unable to get anyone to buy her puzzles, she created the persona of The Puzzle Lady, a gentile, kindly little old woman, with her aunt, Cora Felton, as “The Puzzle Lady”.  Unfortunately, Cora is an unabashed alcoholic, whose habits her niece is constantly trying to hide from the public.  A girl is found dead in the local cemetery with what appears to be a puzzle clue in her pocket.  The police chief asks The Puzzle Lady to help him solve the case.

Herman, Julie Wray

• Three Dirty Women and the Garden of Death

Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery trilogy set in the South starring three friends who run a landscaping company together.  Unfortunately, during one job, they dig up the body of the soon-to-be ex-husband of one of the women.

Jenkins, Suzanne

• Dream Lover

Fiction.  The life of a woman who believes she has the perfect marriage is rocked to the core when her husband dies on a train of a heart attack, and it's found that he has AIDS.  As if that weren't enough for her to deal with, she finds out that she is also infected with the disease AND that her husband has had a dozen long-term mistresses, some affairs lasting over twenty years.  In trying to deal with all of these body blows, she decides to get to know the woman and one man who shared her husband's life for so many years.  The story is told from the point of view of each of the participants in the story.

Kimberly, Alice

• The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library 

Fiction.  3rd in the paranormal cozy mystery series.  Penelope and her aunt Sadie are offered a chance to pick up a collection of rare books from the home of Sadie’s long lost love.  He insists that they pick up the books that day, and Pen and Sadie drive through a wicked rainstorm to reach the dilapidated mansion that looks like a set of a horror movie.  Along for the ride is Pen’s friend and confidante, the ghost of the long dead PI who haunts her bookstore.

Norman, Michael

• Skeleton Picnic

Fiction.  Second in the BLM Ranger J.D. Books series.  Rolly and Abby Rogers are pot hunters, illegally digging up ancient grave and village sites in Utah and selling the artifacts for money.  During one excavation, they find themselves in trouble, and it’s up to J.D. Books to find out what happened to them. 

Parker, Kate

• The Vanishing Thief 

Fiction.  First in a Victorian-era cozy mystery series set in London, England.  The proprietor of an antiquarian bookshop fights her own demons as she works with the Archivist Society to help people solve mysteries.  Along the way, she meets up with a dashing and dangerous duke, but can’t make up her mind whether he’s trying to help her or if he is actually the villain.

Sanford, Roxane Tepfer

• The Girl in the Lighthouse

Fiction.  Post-Civil War era mystery involving a young girl who grows up as the daughter of a lighthouse keeper on remote islands off the coast of Maine.  She knows her parents are keeping secrets from her, secrets of their family that she wants to uncover.  One tragedy leads to another until she meets the grandmother she never knew existed, and the love of a man spoils, launching her into even more dangerous and dire circumstances.

Tope, Rebecca

• A Cotswold Killing 

Fiction.  Thea Osbourne has her first job at housesitting in the small Cotswold village of Duntisbourne Abbots.  After a very stressful year since her husband’s death, she’s hoping that the three-week assignment will bring her out of her doldrums and help her adjust to life as a single woman.  Accompanied by her spaniel, Hepzibah, she sets off with high hopes of a peaceful trip.  That peace is immediately shattered when she is woken from a deep sleep by a scream.

Books Read February 2014

Allen, Sarah Addison

• Lost Lake

Fiction.  Wonderful tale of love, loss and recovery spanning several generations of a family.

Arlington, Lucy

• Books, Cooks, and Crooks 

Fiction.  3rd book in the cozy mystery series set in the small town of Inspiration Valley.  Lila, one of the literary agents working at the Novel Idea Agency, and her co-workers have set up a food-related bibliophile festival.  Chefs and authors have come to speak on panels and promote their newest books.  Things quickly get out of control as an explosion in the new Arts Center rocks the building and a body is found in the ashes.

Baldacci, David

• Zero Day 

Fiction.  Book one in the John Puller, Army CID series.  An Army colonel and his entire family is murdered, and Puller is challenged to figure out why and who the murderer is.  With the help of a female deputy sheriff, he works tirelessly to uncover the truth, which he will hopefully do in time to save an entire town.

Balzo, Sandra

• Bean There, Done That 

Fiction.  3rd in the Maggy Thorsen cozy mystery series.  Maggy, owner of a coffeehouse, is surprised when Rachel, the young wife of Maggy’s ex-husband, Ted, approaches her to ask for Maggy’s help in finding Ted’s new mistress.  Ironic, because Ted cheated on Maggy with Rachel during Maggy’s marriage.  Not sure why she’s helping Rachel, Maggy decides to find out if the rumor is true, while her own relationship with Pavlik suffers because of her decision.

Barrett, Lorna

• Chapter & Hearse 

Fiction.  Tricia is kept busy overseeing not only her own business, but also both the cookbook shop and the cafe across the street that belong to her sister, Angelica, who is away on a book tour.  If that isn’t enough, she soon finds herself involved in yet another murder, one that comes much too close to home.

Berry, Steve

• The Romanov Prophec

Fiction.  Fascinating blending of truth and fiction delving into the mystery of the last of the Romanov family.  An Atlanta lawyer travels to Russia to help broker a deal raising the new Romanov tsar, only to find that his own life is in danger, and his quest leads him around the world leaving a trail of deaths behind him.

Burke, Kealan Patrick

• The Hides 

Fiction.  Second in the Timmy Quinn paranormal series.  Timmy is now a teenager trying to deal with all the usual teenage angst as well as his crippling special “gift” of attracting the dead with a vengeance.  The last time almost killed him.  This time the danger once again touches his family.

Charles, Ann

• Dance of the Winnebagos 

Fiction.  First in a cozy mystery series set in Jackrabbit Junction, Arizona at an RV camp.  Claire is there keeping an eye on her grandfather as he meets up with his former Army buddies and serious skirt-chasers.  Henry, her grandfather’s beagle runs up to her carrying an old bone he’s found in the desert, which sends her off in an adventure that just might cost her life.

de la Cruz, Melissa

• Diary of the White Witch 

Fiction.  Prequel to the Witches of East End series.  Ingrid quits her job as archivist at the university and travels home to take on a new job.  Along the way, she is assaulted by forces of evil that begins the family’s new struggles.

Franklin, Ariana

• Mistress of the Art of Death 

Fiction.  First in a mystery series set in England in the 1100’s.  Adelia, a mistress of the art of death, is sent from Salerno, Italy to help solve a series of child murders taking place in Cambridgeshire, England.  Violent, distasteful, and surprising, the story is well-woven, and the author’s obvious authority on the life and customs of the era are proven in this story of death and the clashes of religion and class.

Galenorn, Yasmine

• Crimson Veil 

Fiction.  Book 15 in the Otherworld series.  Menolly, youngest of the D’Artigo sisters, vampire and owner of the Wayfarers Bar and Grill, is stunned when her bar goes up in flames.  In searching for the arsonist, she leads her extended family on a dangerous hunt, one that could easily end up in the deaths of her loved ones.

Goldberg, Natalie

• Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within 

Non-fiction.  The art of practice writing with Zen overtones.  

Rowling, J.K.

• Quidditch Through the Ages 

Fiction.  This history and development of the ancient game of Quidditch and an overview of the thirteen professional teams across the world.

Smith, Alexander McCall

• Tears of the Giraffe 

Fiction.  Cozy mystery set in Botswana.  2nd in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series.  Mma Ramotswe is approached by an American women whose son went missing ten years ago.  She hires Mma Ramotswe to find out what happened to him.

Books Read January 2014

Adams, Ellery

• Pecan Pies and Homicides 

Fiction.  Ella Mae’s Charmed Pie Shoppe is in a bit of a slump, so Ella Mae cooks up some of her special pies to liven things up.  She had the other women get word that an arsonist has destroyed a grove in Tennessee, so they do what they can to help out the victims, knowing all the while that an arsonist and a murderer might be among the newcomers.

Avey, Sydney

• The Sheep Walker’s Daughter

Fiction.  Three generations of women star in this story of love lost, distanced relationships and finding connections while they two younger women solve the mysteries of their family history in the Basque Country.

Ball, Donna

• Vintage Ladybug Farm 

Fiction.  The ladies struggle through ups and downs of starting their new winery, Noah’s and Lori’s graduations, Lori’s upcoming wedding, and Noah’s surprise decision.  Lindsey and Dominic are drawing closer, and Paul and Derrick find that having a house built isn’t always what it’s cut out to be.

Befeler, Mike

• Living with Your Kids is Murder

Fiction.  2nd in this Geezer-Lit cozy mystery series.  Paul Jacobsen moves from Hawai’i to Boulder, Colorado to live with his son’s family.  Before he even arrives, he’s already embroiled in another murder, and that’s just the beginning of a wide spree of crimes for which he is suspected.  With the help of his precocious granddaughter who aspires to be a lawyer, he begins investigating the crimes.  A reunion with his old love sparks the beginning of a whole new adventure for him.

Bevill, C.L.

• Disembodied Bones

Fiction.  2nd book of the Lake People trilogy.  Intricate, original, very creative and spooky!  Little Leonie Simoneaud finds herself on a mission, one that has lasting consequences into her adult life, as she finds herself, once again, running and fighting for her life.

Charles, Ann

• Optical Delusions in Deadwood 

Fiction.  2nd in the humorous paranormal cozy mystery set in Deadwood, SD.  Realtor Violet is trying desperately to sell a house, any house, when she is approached to sell a house located in Lead next to a defunct mine.  The house is supposedly haunted, and Violet will need the assistance of her sort of beau, Doc, to sniff out the ghosts, if any.  

Chase, Deanna

• Haunted on Bourbon Street 

Fiction.  Jade Calhoun has just relocated to New Orleans to live near her best friend Kat.  The apartment she moves into is attached to a strip club and a cafe, and she fills in at each when the owners need help.  She finds herself drawn to the handsome co-owner of the strip club, but her feelings are complicated by the equally handsome ghost who haunts her dreams. 

Childs, Laura

• Eggs in a Casket

Fiction.  6th in her Cackleberry Club series about the cafe that specializes in eggs run by three women in their 40’s-50’s.  Suzanne and Toni are delivering flowers to the local cemetery when they come across an open grave...but it’s not empty.

Daheim, Mary

• Just Desserts 

Fiction.  1st in her Bed and Breakfast series about a woman who turns her family home into a bed and breakfast and the odd family who descends on her for a night while their home is being fumigated.  Judith might have to have the bed and breakfast fumigated after the weekend is over following  the murder of one of her guests.

Dams, Jeanne M.

• Shadows of Death

Fiction.  14th in the cozy mystery series starring Dorothy Martin, an American woman in her 60’s married to an English ex-policeman, and their adventures in solving mysteries.

Hunter, Maddy

• Bonnie of Evidence

Fiction.  8th in the cozy mystery series about an Iowan tour guide who leads senior on trips around the world, some of whom end up as murder victims.  The group is traveling through Scotland in this book, as the bodies start to stack up.

Jaffarian, Sue Ann

• Gem of A Ghost 

Fiction.  Emma Whitecastle is contacted by an old acquaintance who needs her help in getting rid of the woman’s ex-husband.  The problem is...he’s dead.  Emma’s daughter, Kelly, is good friends with the woman’s daughter, Lainey, and calls Emma one night to tell her that Lainey has attempted suicide and needs her help.  Is her dearly departed father to blame for the girl’s suicide attempt, or is there another force at work?

Linn, Denise

• Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines into Your Everyday Life

Non-fiction.  Wonderfully inclusive book about the history, creative, uses and care of altars in the home.

Riggs, Ransom

• Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Fiction.  Odd and haunting tale of a teenager who struggles with nightmares after the mysterious death of his grandfather, and his journey to a small island off the coast of Wales to fulfill his grandfather’s last wish.