I received both of these titles in exchange for fair reviews from NetGalley.

The Candy Cane Caper is the 13th book in the A Culinary Mystery Series by Josi S. Kipack.  I have not read any of the previous books, but I found that I was able to pick up and enjoy this book without the benefit of the knowing all the backstory of the family and the town.  Sadie is a former private detective and a baker, who is preparing for the holiday season.  As part of her preparations, she is visiting a friend in a nursing home, who happens to own a very rare collection of ornaments.  When some of the ornaments go missing, Sadie puts herself on the case to retrieve them to give her friend one final joyous holiday.  An unusual mystery in that the central crime is theft, not murder.  There are plenty of suspects and clues and it is an intriguing case.  Well paced cozy mystery with a fun holiday theme.

So the Doves involves a journalist called back to the area where his mother lives to report on a body that has been discovered.  The body’s discovery is initially thought to have some political implications or perhaps be linked to a missing policeman.  As Marcus has returned to the scene of his youth, the story alternates between present day, and 1989, when Marcus was a child expelled from his posh school and the disappearance of his friend, Melanie.

The child Marcus and the story line told through his eyes is a little naive or vague, I suppose it is to highlight that our memories from childhood are not exactly as things really were.  Perhaps we don’t really understand every thing that was really happening around us and as such our recall was not accurate and our judgement of events can be called into question.  The modern day story involves Marcus’s career and his big expose that has been cast into doubt.  It also concerns his relationship with his mother and his relationships in general.  I don’t really want to say anything more because this is a layered book with the reader needing to make inferences and connections as they go along.  The themes explored most obviously throughout are memory, guilt, shame, and secrets.

I received a copy of Last Pen Standing from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

Last Pen Standing is the first in a new series, the A Stationery Shop Mystery Series, by Vivian Conroy.  This series is set in scenic Montana.  Delta is just moving to Montana as the new co-owner of a stationery store business with her friend Hazel from college.  Hazel has also moved her troubled brother Finn to the small town for a fresh start and soon the three of them find themselves embroiled in a open murder case.  Hazel, desperate to clear her business partner and  Finn, seeks the help of a group of the store’s crafting customers and an ex-cop with his retired K-9. A fun group of characters and a beautiful setting added to a well constructed mystery plot make for a really well done cozy mystery!

No Cats Allowed is installment number 7 in the A Cat in the Stacks series with librarian Charlie Harris and his Maine Coon Diesel.  In this book, there is a new interim library director who seems bent on making everyone in the library miserable, so much so that when he ends up being murdered there is quite a long list of possible suspects.  Charlie uses his research skills and his contacts to investigate.  Meanwhile, in Charlie’s personal life his relationships continues to develop, his son is getting married and he is looking forward to being a grandfather.  This was a great outing in this series, we see a lot of growth in Charlie’s character over the course of this book.  I am looking forward to the next book in this series!

The Blood of an Englishman is number 25 in the Agatha Raisin series. In this installment, Agatha finds herself dragged along by Mrs. Bloxby to an amateur dramatics night that ends with a rather gruesome murder.  Agatha gets hired to investigate to clear the chief suspects name. The regular cast of recurring characters appears here with Charles, James, Toni, and the Bloxby’s. I found this installment to be a bit darker and less humorous than usual.  This was a good read,  just not one of my favorites in the series.

The Missing Dough is book 6 in the Pizza Lovers series by Chris Cavender.  the series surrounds two sister sleuths Maddie and Eleanor running a pizza parlor together after the death of Eleanor’s husband.  In this installment, Maddie’s ex-husband comes to town only to get himself murdered, putting Maddie, Eleanor and their respective significant others  right in the middle of the case.  This installment had plenty of suspects and clues to keep the reader engaged in the story, but the strength of the this series is always the relationships between the sisters and their  group of friends/co-workers/neighbors.

This is book 9 in the Hannah Swensen Mystery Series.  I had stopped reading these for a while because I wasn’t sure I was so happy with the tone of the love triangle.  But I have heard that the triangle resolves at some point and  a friend encouraged me to pick them back up so I have started reading the series again.  This was a really good installment in the the series.  Hannah is a judge at Fair baking contest and when one of the other judges is murdered and Hannah is the one to find her body,  she finds herself right in the middle of an investigation.

Norman is still working on the dream house.  Mike has proposed and is hoping for an answer and Hannah’s mother seems to have a secret of her own.  The mystery is well paced and has a variety suspects for the reader to consider.  I liked everything about this from the mystery story line, to the interactions between the recurring characters, to the theme elements (recipes/cooking and baking references).  I am happy that I picked the series back up again and I will continue to read it.

First in a new to me series. Piper has just broken up with her fiance and moved to the small town she spent childhood summers in to open up a shop selling all things related to related to pickling, the spices, jars, recipe books, and pickled products. She is excited for the new venture and for joining into life in her new home town.  The Cloverdale Fair gives her a chance to exhibit her wares and meet more of her neighbors, until someone ends up dead, right in her stall!

Piper, along with her Aunt and Uncle and employee Amy make a nice cast of what I am sure will be recurring characters.  The theme is fun and interesting.  I used to make a lot of my own pickles and chutneys and I don’t remember seeing any other cozies with this theme.  The mystery has plenty of possible suspects for the reader to think about and law enforcement has their own suspect right from the start.  Fun, well written, fast paced cozy.

This is book 1, in the A Costume Shop Mystery series.  Margo has returned home from Las Vegas to help out her dad at the family business, a costume shop.  Dad is having some health issues and Margo’s return home is just temporary until he is back on his feet again.  A local wealthy scion is looking to outdo all his friends with his birthday party and hires the costume shop and Margo’s friend to plan the party.  Unfortunately, the party ends with the guest of honor lying dead on the floor.

Dad takes off on an unauthorized trip costume hunting, Margo’s friend is the chief suspect, and Margo doesn’t really know what to think.  Feeling forced to investigate to clear everything up, Margo teams up with a couple locals Tak and Grady, although she is not quite sure of who she should trust.  Fast paced, fun cozy with an interesting theme and setting.

I have read most of Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway series and really enjoyed it, so when I saw this stand-alone I decided to pick it up.  Clare Cassidy is a single mother, who teaches high school English, in a school building with a rather gothic history of madness and death.  Clare’s colleague in the English department is murdered and as the case is investigated, Clare is dragged further and further into the mystery. 

DS Harbinder Kaur and DS Neil Winston are the detectives on the case.  Harbinder is the lead detective, she, Clare and Clare’s daughter Georgia are the main characters the reader gets to know through their thoughts and diary entries.  I really liked Harbinder and her backstory, she is a really well drawn character.  I did guess who the culprit was pretty early on, but still enjoyed the read.  A mystery for those who enjoy gothic-style mystery reads.

Arsenic and Old Books is the 6th installment in the A Cat in the Stacks Mystery series.  This is a really intriguing outing in the series, as Librarian Charlie Harris delves into the past through a set of documents donated to the library.  There are political shenanigans afoot though, and Charlie, with Diesel by his side,  and the documents find themselves in the middle of it all. Well done mystery plot, lots of intrigue, and clues to keep the readers guessing.  Highly recommended cozy mystery series.

I have to admit that I really enjoy all of the series that I have read from Miranda James/Dean James/Simon Kirby-Jones/Honor Hartman, but A Cat in the Stacks with sleuth Charlie Harris sticks out as my favorite of them all.

I was going to buy The Plot is Murder, because the description sounded so intriguing, but my Library Extension let me know that my local library actually had 5 copies of it, so I was able to borrow one right away.  A shameless plug for the Library Extension for Chrome – I love it and use it all the time!

The Plot is Murder is the first in a new cozy mystery series with the theme of a mystery book shop, this is what pulled me into wanting to read it.  Well, that and the two poodles on the cover, I used to have a chocolate brown poodle many years ago.  The sleuth is Samantha Washington, a retiring teacher, recent widow, new mystery bookshop owner and aspiring mystery writer.  Just as everything seems to be coming together for her, a crooked realtor has the nerve to die on her doorstep.  Samantha doesn’t have to investigate on her own, she has her grandmother and a set of sleuthing seniors for support.

The story is interspersed with sections of the book that Samantha is writing and while sometimes I can find this device annoying, it does work well here, especially as it directly links into the murder Samantha is working.  The mystery was well paced and interesting with enough going on to keep the reader guessing.  There are  interesting dynamics among the characters. I am looking forward to reading the next in this series.

Cinnamon Toasted is book 3 in Gail Oust’s A Spice Shop Mystery  series.  In this installment, Piper Prescott, the sleuth, owner of the spice shop, ex-wife and a mother, is busy as ever.  Not only with her business to run, an Oktoberfest in town, her ex-MIL getting involved in a business opportunity, she now also has a dead man in Melly’s basement and it is not looking good for Melly.  Piper investigates, sticking her nose in where it doesn’t belong trying to clear Melly’s name and find the real killer.  Lots of red herrings and misdirection here, I am not sure that the reader could have determined the killer ahead, but maybe someone who pays better attention than me could have. 🙂

Overall, a solid installment in a cozy series with a theme I enjoy.  Certainly, helps to hold me over while I wait for Leslie Budewitz’s Chai Another Day, due out in June, from her Spice Shop Series.

I received a free copy of this title from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I was so excited to see this available to request on NetGalley.  I really love the Vera series and was really looking forward to a new series and The Long Call with Detective Matthew Venn does not disappoint.   Detective Venn has moved back to Devon as he has recently married Jonathon, but the area holds many memories for him as he grew up there within a strict religious order.  He has been estranged from his family since renouncing his faith and his same sex marriage means he won’t be welcomed back anytime soon. Detective Venn’s team includes Jen, a sharp minded single mum of teens detective, and Ross, pretty much a Dude-bro type character who grows on you as he appears more vulnerable as the book progresses.

The case starts with a body on a beach.  The more that is uncovered about the man, the more questions that are raised.  As Detective Venn and his team work on the murder, the case gets  complicated as further crimes are committed.  Themes of religious extremism, guilt, redemption, abuse, and love, especially parental, are all woven into the plot. Well paced mystery, great writing, with a whole new cast of engaging characters.  I can’t wait to read the next one in this new series!