I spent a few hours tonight that I should have been sleeping, reading instead.  Once I started this I could not put it down.  I have read a couple other Cat Sitter Mysteries and enjoyed them as well.  Dixie Hemingway, cat sitter and crime solver, stumbles first across an intruder in a client’s home and then a body.  This puts Dixie right in the thick of the investigation, whether she wants to be or not.  The plot twists and turns involving counterfeit goods, the FBI, Interpol, supermodels and more.

What sets this series apart from many cozies is the pacing, it is paced more like a thriller.  It keeps you turning the pages with the momentum of the story, however it still manages to pay attention to the cast of recurring characters allowing the reader to “get to know them” through their interactions with Dixie.  Excellent mystery series.  I would highly recommend it to fans of cozies or traditional mysteries.

Still not getting much reading done with work on the Save Our Cozies Readathon, PD for work and life in general taking up much of my time.  I did squeeze these two in, Hiss and Tell and A Premonition of Murder.

Hiss and Tell is a Sunny and Shadow Mystery and is book 4 in that series.  I really like the scenes in these books from Shadow’s perspective.  The mystery in this one centers on scandals, blackmail and a Kennedy-esque style family trying to desperately keep it all under wraps.  Sunny gets invited in as a reporter/investigator and Shadow tags along for the ride.  I really enjoyed this story with its multiple suspects and complex storyline.  Sunny showed more growth in this book than she had in the others, perhaps because we see her out of her comfort zone of her father’s house and the town for much of the book.  Good mystery and characters!  Recommended read for cozy fans.

A Premonition of Murder is book 3 in the A Dream Club Mystery.  This series is set in Savannah, Georgia and the setting is well established through local color used in the books.  In this book, Taylor and Ali are invited to an exclusive luncheon and meet a society dame, who is later killed.   The mystery includes theft, murder, and an old unsolved crime and of course, dreams and their interpretations.  A fun and engaging mystery with a really interesting theme.

This was a total impulse buy. I saw it on the counter at Booktrader of Hamilton and just picked it up.  I am so glad that I did!  Loved the characters, Rory and Zeke have a great relationship despite their ….umm ..differences.  The investigation was very well plotted, I did suspect who the culprit was but still fully enjoyed the book.  The tension and pacing was much more reminiscent of a thriller than the average cozy and that really kept me flipping the pages.   I don’t think that A Portrait of Crime Mystery is that popular a series, I read lots of book blogs and look on Goodreads and Amazon rec and had neve seen it before and I think that is because it does not fit so neatly into the “cozy genre”.

One death occurs “on screen” in the prologue and there is a decidedly  “not lighthearted fun” tone to the book that people have come to expect from cozies.  The characters are more realistic (other than one of them being a ghost) than the typical quirkiness that we associate with cozies.   Finally, Rory is a professional, currently working as a police sketch artist, she is still a detective complete with carrying a gun. I would highly recommend this book to both cozy mystery and other mystery fans.

  I have been very frustrated by a lack of time to read lately.  The Save Our Cozies Readathon admin. duties have been taking alot of free time and on top of that the end of school year stuff, Professional Development, and the veggie patch needs constant care right now.  ….Enough whining.

I did manage to finish Fudging the Books early this morning.  I love this series (and the whole idea of owning a cook book themed business).  This is book 4 in the series and the recurring characters are present and making themselves known along with a couple new ones related to the murder mystery in this book.  Fudging the Book opens with the simultaneous arrival of Pirate Week, a cookbook author and her editor.  Someone ends up dying, of course and Jenna investigates to clear a friend and find the killer.

The mystery had twists and turns to keep you guessing throughout the whole story.  The focus here was really on the mystery and the investigation, the side plots were less of an element.   I really enjoyed this one and look forward to the next one, which I already pre-ordered.