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.