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Latest Reading

  These are three of my latest reads, A Christmas to Remember and Hard As You Can were both courtesy of the NJ Romance Writer’s conference.  Romance is not my go-to genre for reading but I do read it sometimes, usually romantic suspense.

A Christmas to Remember is  a collection of short stories that are Christmas themed and are written by popular romance authors.  These were fun and quick to read, something to put the reader in the Christmas spirit.  I feel like Kristen Ashley’s story really doesn’t work as a stand alone, you need to have read some other books set in her universe to “get” the whole story.  I have read one of her other books and so pretty quickly had a handle on the characters, the relationships and the world they inhabited. My favorite of the stories was Molly  Cannon’s Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas.  I liked the character development, evident even in a short story and the plot was interesting.  A variety of styles of romance in one collection, a little something for everyone!

Hard as You Can is actually the 2nd in a series and I will admit that I did not read the first.  The story is set in a dark universe of gangs and organized crime, strip clubs and sex slavery.  The protagonist is trapped in a life due to circumstances beyond her control and the damaged ex-special forces hero swoops in to save the day, not initially but eventually.  This had a fast paced plot, with building tension along with the budding romance.  Sexual situations, torture and abuse are all warnings for this book.  Good escapist read.

Brass in Pocket was the monthly read over at the English Kindle Mystery Club on Goodreads.  I nominated it because the title and the concept, references to late 70’s music interested me, having lived through them.  The protagonist, Inspector Drake, is an intriguing character with some time of OCD condition.  His partner just seems to muddle along ignoring it for the most part.  The book starts off with a bang, and a double homicide of two police officers on a lonely Welsh road.  The pace rushes along from that point on slowing occasionally.  I thought that it felt a little rushed rather than fast paced.    I also found that the relationship between Inspector Drake and his family was uneven, there seemed to be tension and then there wasn’t with no real explanation.  Perhaps this is because this is the first in a series and the family relationships will be expanded upon later.

My biggest issue with the book actually is the hook that got me to buy it, the songs.  There are multiple references to the songs in relation to the murders but the lyrics or even lines from the song that the characters are reading are not in the book.  I guess  this was due to some copyright laws, but it was immensely distracting for me.  Every time they mentioned a song I wanted to stop reading and google the lyrics, so it pulled me out of the story. Overall, I liked Inspector Drake and the mystery plot itself, but some of the other characters and family relationships were weak and the book seemed short and rushed. I am not sure if I will read another.

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Capable of Murder & Better Off Without HIm

  I read these two on my Kindle.  Capable of Murder was this month’s read at the Kindle English Mystery group on Goodreads and Better Off Without HIm was a recommendation for me.

Capable of Murder is the first in a series with Belinda Lawrence as a protagonist.  An older aunt dies and leaves her a cottage with an interesting garden history.  Belinda doesn’t believe her aunt’s death was an accident and engages in some cursory sleuthing.  There is a pair of odd siblings living next door, a somewhat sleazy real estate broker, a lawyer who seems to disappear when she needs him most, and some other interesting characters.

The idea behind the mystery was really interesting, however the execution was lacking.  The book was too short coming in at just over 200 pages and this make the plot seem rushed and relationships between the characters happened too quickly.  On top of that the antagonist was pretty  obvious even with attempts at red herrings, but the main issue was that Belinda had instincts about characters and then in the next scene just seemed to ignore those gut feelings and be best friends with them and trusted them.  It didn’t really work for me.  If you are interested in gardening history and mysteries, try Anthony Eglin’s work instead.

Better Off Without HIm is an older chicklit, so maybe hen lit.  Husband unexpectedly announces he wants a divorce and leaves the heroine for a much younger, chic French woman.  Mona is distraught at first, but then begins to realize the wisdom in her crew of friend’s words, “You’re better off without him.”.  Mona is a hard protagonist to feel sorry for or even connect with.  She is wealthy in her own right even without her husband’s money.  She has a dream job, romance novelist, a beach house, and a plethora of hunky men waiting to help her pick up the pieces.  High on romance and a “you go girl” vibe, but low on realism.  Overall, an okay, quick read.

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Three reads…

These are my latest three reads, State of the Onion was this month’s read for the Cozy Mystery Corner on Goodreads. This was an okay cozy mystery, more action or tension than the average cozy and less character development.  I think this is mainly due to the White House setting and all the attendant security and political issues.  The book was well written and paced, however some of it seemed to push hard at the boundaries of belief suspension.  Many readers do enjoy this series and so I am inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt and think about reading another in the series.

Stirring the Plot is the third in the Cookbook nook series by Daryl Wood Gerber, who also writes the Cheese Shop Mysteries that I like under the name of Avery Aames.  This book has a Halloween setting and witches abound, all in good fun until one of them ends up dead.  The witches, a charitable group, and others come under suspicion and the twists and turns uncover secrets and misdirect the reader and Jenna, the sleuth.  The romance subplot begun in earlier books continues to develop here as does Jenna’s life and immersion in the community, which she moved to in order to recover from her husband’s death.  I heartily recommend this fun, fast paced cozy mystery.

Making Marion was an impulse pick up for me from the library. I was scanning the new arrival shelves and the cover popped out at me.  This book handles the topic of childhood neglect and its impacts sensitively without being maudlin.  Marion is still, as an adult, dealing with the rejection from her mother and the resulting selective mutism, but has bravely chosen to strike out on her own in search of answers about her beloved father who died when she was a child.  She meets a motley crew of campground characters and makes her way into their unconventional “family” with the help of Scarlett, the owner.  Lovely happy ending after some bittersweet moments, themes of loving yourself, forgiveness and family are all explored in this charming book. I will definitely look for more by this author, Beth Moran.

I “read” another book besides these three this week, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death.

I read this as the November read for the Kindle English Mystery book club.  I use the word read lightly.  This book is organized into a series of loosely connected short stories with recurring characters.  I read the first one and then skipped around and read another.  Finally, I skimmed most of it.  For whatever reason, I just couldn’t get into the character or the book.  To be fair I don’t really read many historical fictions and very few with religious undertones, so it might work for other readers.

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By Cook or By Crook by Maya Corrigan

Just finished this new cozy mystery, first in the series of Five Ingredient Mysteries.  I enjoyed reading this one, more than I expected.  The cover drew me in…I know, I’m shallow, but the idea of  5-ingredient recipes is not, on its own, a big draw for me.  The protagonist, Val,  has crashed and burned from her big city life as a cookbook publicist and has arrived at her grandfather’s home, ostensibly to get the house packed up, sold, and him moved, but really to work on her own cookbook and find her footing again.

Her day job is in  a fitness club cafe and on the side she is working on her own recipes.  Her grandfather is somewhat of a typical grouchy old man with a heart of gold.  He seems to have her best interests at heart, although he is not against finding something in it for himself.  There is a lot going on between real estate deals, tennis fanatics, affairs, disguises, gambling rings, fraudulent business practices, and murder.  There is also a romantic subplot with two love interests to choose between.  Aside from the main murder mystery and the romantic subplot, there is also a mystery from Val’s past which  she is trying to work through but can’t quite remember due to the side effects of a concussion.

Lots going on and lots to think about making for a fast, fun cozy read.

And as an aside the recipes were not what I thought.  When I think of the 5 ingredient recipes, I think bland, tasteless food or worse the classic …”start with a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup” recipes and these didn’t seem like that.  I am tempted to try out the crab cake recipe because it really sounds good.

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Rebel Without a Cake by Jacklyn Brady

  I really enjoy this series set in New Orleans with Rita Lucero as the protagonist, bakery owner and reluctant sleuth.  In this outing Halloween is fast approaching, Edie is pregnant and not dealing well, Miss Frankie is volunteering Rita for things without her consent and there is still more discontent in the bakery mainly coming from Ox, who still seems to harbor resentment about Rita’s ownership and management of the Zydeco bakery.

Rita gets drawn into a “field trip” with Miss Frankie and her neighbor Bernice to a small remote town and there she stumbles over a body.  The mystery  plot twists and turns alternating with other story lines involving Edie and Miss Frankie and the not very likable Evangeline Delahunt.  The settings of both New Orleans and the isolated Baie Rebelle are well described and help draw the reader into the story.

Fun, cozy mystery read probably best read in order with the rest of the series.

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The Art of Adapting by Cassandra Dunn

I picked this up on impulse at the library last night and once I started it I couldn’t put it down.  The story ostensibly revolves around Lana, a woman whose husband has left her with two teenage children, but the real star is Matt, Lana’s brother who has Asperger’s.  It is through his observations and interactions that the story really comes to life and evolves. Matt, through his own “too fast moving mind”, is able to piece together clues and avert disasters and forge stronger family bonds.

The whole story is charming, but still believable and the characters are well drawn and interesting.  I really enjoyed “meeting” the whole family and watching them overcome their hurdles.  This novel comes across as much more polished and complex than the average debut women’s fiction.  I very much enjoyed it.

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Insomniac Reading: To the Grave, Deadly Advice and Don’t Look Back

I suffer from early rising insomnia and usually give up trying to go back to sleep and read instead.  Last night I read two of the above and read enough of the third to realize I had already read it.

Deadly Advice is a cozy mystery series I have wanted to read for a while.  I grew up with a fascination for Dear Abby and advice columns in general.  I read Dear Abby with breakfast almost every morning and always turned to the advice columns in all my mom’s magazines…Can This Marriage be Saved…dun dun dunnnnn.

I really liked the main character here, Rebecca, a psychologist who also writes advice columns.  Her neighbor commits suicide or so it seems and the victim’s mother begs Rebecca for help proving it isn’t so.  The characters are really well done and the take on the mental health issues make for an interesting backdrop for the mystery and the side plots. The mystery has multiple twists and suspects with very probable motives to make it  challenging to solve.

This series is, to my knowledge, discontinued, which is really a shame.  Very well written and really quite fascinating, it is a great addition to the cozy mystery genre.  Deadly Advice has been released on Kindle and that is how I bought and I hope the other couple will be released that way as well.  I think that perhaps this series suffered from that fact that it didn’t quite fit into the cozy mold.  The sleuthing uncovers lots of alternative sexual practices and on top of that the book deals with mental illness and suicide, perhaps it was a little dark for readers looking for the typical cozy?  I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

To the Grave is this month’s read over at the Kindle English Mystery Book Club on Goodreads.  I read this one with some trepidation as it had been put forth as a WWII book and I have to say that is a period that I usually never read.  I am happy that I did decide to participate and read it.  The WWII elements are just one part of a story that flashes back and forward.  The flashes are done well, so the reader doesn’t get lost and can keep the story lines straight.  The protagonist is a family historian/genealogist who is looking for an adoptee’s missing mother, Mena.

We learn what has become of Mena and her Danny, in bits and pieces revealed through letters and flashbacks.  Meanwhile, there are deadly forces at work that do not want Mena’s story and all the secrets exposed.  The murders continue as the search for Mena becomes more desperate.  The ending resolves all the bits and pieces very nicely, albeit sadly.  I enjoyed To The Grave and would be interested to read more by the author.

I have read other books, out of order, by Karin Fossum. I picked up this one, Don’t Look Back, and started to read it and almost from the outset recognized the book as one I had read in the past.  I couldn’t quite remember the resolution so I skimmed through until it came back to me.  Fascinating excellent example of Scandinavian crime fiction, I can’t wait to read more in this series.

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The Fat Woman Mystery and One Dead Cookie

  These are my two latest cozy mystery reads.  I got The Fat Woman Mystery on my Kindle for $2.99 after seeing it advertised.  I enjoyed it, especially the realistic discussion of the differences between the casual dieter, 10 to 20 pounds to lose, and the life long dieter with serious issues with food in the obese to morbidly obese category.  The main character, Margaret, is very likable and easy to relate to, at least for me.  She doesn’t want pity or sympathy from her friends, other members of her diet club, as she deals with the death of her husband.  She is in a not so small case of denial about her grief.

The mystery was interesting and tied together lots of pieces very nicely.  My first issue with this is that I found that the book seemed short, either that or it was a very quick read.  The second is that I found the theme really similar to another series that I really, really love by JB Stanley AKA Ellery Adams, the Supper Club Mysteries.  I couldn’t help compare the two, with the Supper Club Mysteries coming out on top as far as character development and richness of setting and story line.

One Dead Cookie is the fourth book in a Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery.  I really enjoy this series.  The main character, Olivia owns the shop and lives above it with her dog.  She is busy dealing with baking for her best friend Maddie’s engagement party.  The party gets wilder when a B list celebrity arrives and the murder occurs.  The murder is connected to people who stayed in the area and to an old unsolved crime.  On top of the murder, there are other smaller crimes occurring muddying the waters.  I really do enjoy this series, but I will say this was not my favorite it it so far.  I am looking forward to reading the next one nonetheless.

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A Second Helping of Murder by Christine Wenger

This is the second in the Comfort Food Mystery series.  I read the first one, Do or Diner, as a book of the month for the Cozy Mystery Corner on Goodreads.  I really like this series, almost as much as I love comfort food.  This book ties together an older murder from Trixie’s youth, with a current murder in the guest cottages.  Trixie investigates with her maybe love interest Deputy Ty Brisco.  The diner staff are still on as recurring characters along with some of the townsfolk.

The mystery is an interesting twisting and turning plot although I did guess who did it about two thirds of the way through.  It was more of a hunch though not really based on facts I picked up on.  Having an idea who did it did not hamper my enjoyment of the story.

The characters are friendly and likable.  The love interest is a hunk.  The setting is fully developed with lots of detail about the diner, the cottages and the surrounding area.  The mystery has lots of details and plot lines that are tied together.  Fun cozy mystery read.

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The Wolfe Widow & Crime Rib

  These are the latest two cozy mysteries I have read.

The Wolfe Widow is the third in the book collector series by Victoria Abbott. I really enjoy this well written series.  I will say I got a little nervous in the beginning which starts out with our protagonist, Jordan, losing her position with the difficult to please Vera Van Alst. I was afraid that the whole tenor of the series was about to change.   The mystery is an interesting twist on this series that usually revolves around stolen books in that the books take more of a back seat here.  Jordan follows up on clues about the suspected villain with the help of Uncle Kev, but the rest of her side kicks seem to have disappeared.  All is explained in a neatly wrapped up conclusion after many twists and turns.

A very well written series, good mystery plot with excellent pacing and tension building, I would highly recommend this book (but start with the first in the series).

I am happy that I gave Crime RIb a chance.  I really wasn’t going to read it because the first in this series Death Al Dente didn’t really work for me,  but I kept hearing good things about the second book.  The mystery was well done and kept you guessing until close to the end.  I liked the characters much more than I remember liking them.   The food and festival details were fun and certainly kept me interested.

This was definitely a case of the series improving as it progressed or maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood when I read the first one.