Jeanne Reviews: The Fool Dies Last by Carol Miller

Sisters Hope and Summer run a shop in Asheville, NC, where they specialize in New Age items.  Summer is known for her teas and tinctures, while Hope reads palms and, until last February, Tarot cards.  Their day is interrupted by a man who claims that Summer’s potions are dangerous and accuses her of trying to kill his patient.

It turns out that the doctor is one Dylan Henshaw, the son of their grandmother’s beau, Morris.  Their day only goes downhill from there, with a shocking surprise for Summer, and the sudden death of an elderly lady who appears to have been poisoned. To make matters worse, the woman has a Tarot card—the Fool.

With their reputations at stake, the sisters have to try to solve the murder.

This is the first in the Fortune Telling Mysteries by Miller.  I had enjoyed her previous series, The Moonshine Mysteries, and had high hopes for this one.  I’m afraid I was underwhelmed with the characters and actively dislikes Dylan, who is being proposed as the love interest of one of the sisters despite being condescending and arrogant.  There was a kernel of a good idea in the mystery but I wasn’t quite sold on the solution.

The upside is that there is some interesting information on the Tarot and—even better—a very promising plot thread about the shop itself. The latter didn’t appear until near the end, but it did much toward redeeming the story for me.

This is a first in series book, so allowances must be made.  There’s a lot to do in setting up characters, relationships, and setting, so I’ll reserve judgment until I’ve read at least one more.

The books to date are:

The Fool Dies Last’

Death Rides a Pony 

The Moonshine Mysteries are:

Murder and Moonshine

A Nip of Murder

An Old Fashioned Murder

Jeanne Reviews: Potions are for Pushovers by Tamara Berry

Pseudo psychic Eleanor Wilde has decided to settle down a bit after her successful case at Castle Hartford.  She’s given up her ghost-busting career for the moment and is hawking elixirs and charms to the locals of a little English village.  Eleanor is in a sort of relationship with Nicholas Hartford III, the wealthy son of a family for whom she recently cleared up a mystery—or a haunting.  Tomayto, tomahto. She’s determined to make her own way, however, and isn’t accepting handouts from the lord of the manor.

Unfortunately for Eleanor, one of her promised potions has gone spectacularly wrong, leading to a very angry customer. Not long after at a gathering, a woman accuses Eleanor of giving her the evil eye, after which the woman collapses and dies. Just when Eleanor thinks it can’t get any worse, she suddenly finds herself with two young apprentices whether she wants them or not—and she most definitely doesn’t, especially since one of them is the daughter of one of Eleanor’s critics.

Oh, and her thatched roof is leaking.  A lot.

But all that pales when animals start disappearing—including Eleanor’s beloved cat, Beast.

I liked the first book in the series, so I moved ahead to the second.  It took me longer than usual to finish this one because I was nervous about the animal disappearances and deaths, afraid that there was something grisly in the offing. Most animal deaths take place off page, as it were. Still, there’s no denying there is a definite air of menace over the book. The apprentices are sure there’s a werewolf at work and are busily researching to prove their point.

Eleanor’s powers of observation aren’t quite as sharp this time around, or rather I should say her ability to placate people.  This skill was particularly handy as she read a room to make seemingly psychic announcements to the astonishment of her audience, who didn’t realize she was picking up on cues from them and from the environment. Still, she’s quick-witted and clever, and is good at putting on the witchy show people expect of her.  She feels she’s still very much an oddity in the village but she’s trying to build connections. As in the previous books, I liked the way characters are developed and while there’s a plot point or two I puzzled over, it ended up being an above average whodunit.  I’ll be reading the other two books in the series. While you don’t have to read in order, I certainly enjoyed having some of the background information from the first book before I read this one.

The books in order are:

Séances are for Suckers

Potions are for Pushovers

Curses are for Cads

Hypnosis is for Hacks

Jeanne Reviews: Vinyl Resting Place by Olivia Blacke

Juniper Jessup left her Texas hometown to work in the tech industry in Oregon, but when the business folds she finds herself at loose ends.  With no specific plans, she jumps at the idea of partnering with her two older sisters and Uncle Calvin to open a vinyl record store/coffee shop in their hometown.  It’s coming full circle in more ways than one:  the family had owned a record store in that same location years before and the sisters had helped out in their youth.  The sisters are hosting an open house to get the word out about the store, and the turn-out is gratifying—until a body turns up in a storage closet.

Things only get worse when the police pick up Uncle Calvin. The sisters put up the store to make his bail—only to have Uncle Calvin promptly vanish.  Can Juni and her sisters solve the case and save both Uncle Calvin and the store?

This is a first in series book, so there is a good deal of set-up.  Juni and her sisters are appealing characters and there’s a good dynamic between the three of them.  Naturally, Juni is reconnecting with some people from her past as well, including the semi-requisite boyfriend who broke her heart. Being in Texas, it’s no surprise there are some larger than life characters, including Uncle Calvin who loves a good (or bad) practical joke.  One subtle clue I picked up on quickly and admired it, but I won’t divulge it here. I do like a good clue.

Overall, this is a promising start to a new series.  Music fans will enjoy all the references and as someone who grew up with vinyl, it does my heart good to have people talk about liner notes and covers as well as music.  I have reservations about one of Juni’s potential love interests (yes, as with most cozies there are at least two suitors in the picture) but will wait to see how it plays out.  There is indeed a cat as promised on the cover. The second in the series, A Fatal Groove, is due out in July, 2023.

Jeanne Reviews: A Murderous Persuasion by Katie Oliver

Alarmed at the prospect of Aunt Wendy selling her inn, Professor Phaedra Brighton proposes a Jane Austen immersion week as a way of drumming up business.  Phaedra is a Jane Austen enthusiast, to say the least. Not only is she an Austen scholar, but she insists on wearing Regency clothing in her everyday life on the grounds that it helps her students understand life in the era. Menus are set, period appropriate activities are planned—including a country dance and an archery competition—and a murder mystery in which the guests will play a role. There is even a best-selling author of Regency Romances in attendance. 

Unfortunately, by the time the mystery part of the week rolls around, there is already a murder—and more than one mystery.

This second in the Jane Austen Tea Society Mystery series, following Pride, Prejudice, and Peril.  It has a good premise and some solid supporting characters, including a number of interesting suspects.  The plot is well thought out.  However, there were a few things that marred my enjoyment.  One was the number of times a piece of information was repeated: defining a loose pocket, for example, or noting at least twice that the townspeople are used to seeing Phaedra wander around in Regency dress, or pointing out that Professor Mark Selden is British. At least the repeated references should have been farther apart. I have noticed the same thing in other recent cozy mysteries, so this isn’t an anomaly.

There were also a few aspects of the investigation that didn’t hold water for me, such a Phaedra finding a note on the body, removing and reading it, and having the police officer forgive the transgression by saying that at least the note wasn’t overlooked. If the police are incompetent enough not to search a body, then maybe they do need Phaedra’s help.

In the first book, I was charmed by the author’s adapting certain Austen characters for the contemporary mystery. Here they are actually assigned roles of playing various Austen characters instead. A few of the plotlines seemed rushed as well. Most of my quibbles probably could have been taken care of with a bit of editing. And it does help if you are a Jane Austen fan, but I don’t think that would be a requirement.

According to the endpapers, a third book is in the offing, Cyanide and Sensibility, and I do plan to read it.

Jeanne Reviews: Murder Hooks a Mermaid by Christy Fifield

Glory is the proud co-owner of a souvenir shop in Keyhole Bay, Florida, and the not quite as proud owner of a grumpy and sometimes profane parrot named Bluebeard.  Both are courtesy of her late Uncle Louis whose will left bird and shop to Glory and her cousin Peter. However, there is some evidence that perhaps Uncle Louis isn’t entirely gone from the store.  Some of the things Bluebeard says can’t possibly be things that he’s heard previously, and the voice he uses for those pronouncements sounds very much like Glory’s late Uncle Louis.  Is it possible for a parrot to be possessed?

Figuring that out is going to take a backseat to a more immediate mystery. Glory’s best friend Karen is still close with her ex-husband, Riley, and his family.  Riley’s brother Bobby is now in big trouble for borrowing Riley’s boat to take some divers out on an excursion, except that these divers turn out to be smugglers.  Not only is Bobby arrested on suspicion of taking part, but Riley’s boat is impounded.  Glory and Karen are both convinced that Bobby is innocent—he’s an idiot but he’s a careful idiot who wouldn’t take on the risks of smuggling--or murder.

This is the second in the Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery series.  The characters are engaging, and the unusual premise of a haunted parrot is entertaining. There are a number of likeable characters and the obligatory couple of ones the reader loves to hate.  The setting is well done, with some local color.  The mystery itself was okay; clues were not followed up at times (why have a psychic parrot if you aren’t going to listen to what he says?) and there were some clichés in evidence.  Much time was devoted to dinner and dinner recipes and discussion about the “Southerness” of some of the dishes. Romance is definitely in the air as well.

I was enjoying the characters and the setting so I had planned to go back and read the first in the series, but the author kept revealing parts of the previous plot (including the murderer, the victim, the aftermath, how Glory was nearly killed, etc.) to the point I no longer felt it necessary. I do plan to read the rest in the series, though.

There are five books in the series:

Murder Buys a T-Shirt (2012)

Murder Hooks a Mermaid (2012)

Murder Sends a Postcard (2014)

Murder Ties the Knot (2015)

Murder Buys a Lemon (2022)

(Note: there was a seven year hiatus between books four and five.) 

Jeanne Reviews: Gertrude, Gumshoe: Slam is Murder by Robin Merrill

Gertrude is an elderly lady who lives in a trailer packed with all sorts of things she has pack-ratted away and well as her clowder of cats.  She’s decided that she is a detective and uses “Gertrude Gumshoe” as her alias.  Now that Gertrude has a few solved mysteries under her belt, she is ready for more.  Unfortunately, her small town just hasn’t produced any juicy murders lately so she’s taken to scouring the papers for something she can stick her walker into. She thinks she’s spotted something suspicious in the deaths of two young people: although the deaths happened several days apart and have been ruled accidents, Gertrude notices that they both attended the same poetry slam.  Now all she has to do is to convince her understandably irascible friend Calvin to drive her to Portland and let her snoop her way around. 

This is the fourth in the Gertrude Gumshoe series. While I’ll admit this isn’t the most polished book I’ve read and there’s a lot of suspension of disbelief, it’s also very funny.  Gertrude is headstrong, determined, and a bit of a bully.  She’s not above a little blackmail to get what she wants.  She also sails along in serene assurance that she can rise to any occasion, be it compete in a poetry slam or learning to drive. If she doesn’t quite make it, well, Gertrude sees that as a minor setback at worst, and is probably due to someone else’s incompetence.  She should be the sort of character who annoys me, but instead I find myself giggling—and very grateful that I don’t live anywhere near her.

This is the second book I’ve read in the series. I don’t think they need to be read in order, though the first one does give a bit more background on Gertrude. I like that the books are available in large print paperback.  They’re short, breezy, and funny—perfect for a treadmill walk.

Books in the series are:

Introducing Gertrude Gumshoe

Gertrude Gumshoe: Murder at Goodwill

Gertrude Gumshoe and the Vardsale Villain

Gertrude Gumshoe: Slam is Murder

Gertrude Gumshoe:  Murder at the Thrift Store

There are also two novella and a spin-off series when Gertrude decides to relocate to South Dakota.  With the cats, of course. 

Jeanne Reviews: Witch and Famous by Angela M. Sanders

Wilfred, Oregon is usually a fairly sedate place, which is just how Josie Way likes it.  She’s gradually learning to control her magic with help from the books and letters left by her grandmother, but still has a lot to learn.  The arrival of movie star Daphne Morris really shakes things up.  The glamourous actress is in town to interview assistant librarian Roz about Roz’s new book, The Whippoorwill Cries Love, for Daphne’s book club. It’s soon apparent that Daphne dazzles every male in sight, including Josie’s crush and Roz’s long-time love interest.  Emotions are running high, so it’s not really a surprise when a body turns up.

This is the third in the Witch Way Librarian series.  Josie draws her magic from books, and I love the way the books participate in the magic.  They also let Josie know who needs that particular book—an ability I would love to have! The characters don’t have a lot of depth, but most are likeable and there is some humor. The townspeople do tend to see their library as part of the community which is both good and bad:  good that they rely on it, bad when they decide it is something other than a library, like a café. Josie spends as much time herding people as she does being a librarian.

I don’t think you need to have read the others in the series to understand this one. There are some changes to relationships, changes of which I wholly approve, and I think it will make the series more interesting going forward. It also helps at times if you can suspend disbelief and just go with the flow—and not just with the magic.

Books in the series are:

Bait and Witch

Seven-Year Witch

Witch and Famous

Witch Upon a Star (2023)

Jeanne Reviews: A Doomful of Sugar by Catherine Bruns

Leila Khoury left Vermont after a broken engagement, intending not to return.  Her father’s murder brought her back to Sugar Ridge, at least temporarily.  She plans to go back to her teaching job in Florida but her father’s will changes all that:  he has left Sarah his farm and business, asking that she work it for at least one year before she decides to sell. Sarah is shocked; she’d thought if Sappy Endings was to be left to anyone, it would have been either her mother or her brother Simon. It’s not as if she had helped her father a lot at the maple sugar farm, or knew about tapping trees.

Still, her father wanted her to try and Leila wants to find out who killed him. It looks like a robbery gone bad, but some things puzzle her enough to start asking questions—and maybe drawing out a killer.

This is the first in the Maple Syrup Mysteries, which means it can be a little uneven.  First in series books have a lot of territory to cover:  setting has to be established, characters introduced, and of course there has to be a mystery to be solved.  I tend to cut such books some slack. I like the basic premise.  The maple syrup process is interesting.  I especially that Leila and her family are of Lebanese descent; I enjoy the little touches of another culture, revealed mostly through food. I also liked the complicated relationship between Leila and her mother and the slight progress they have made toward reconciliation.  I also adore Toast the cat.

What I didn’t particularly care for what the way Leila kept jumping to conclusions and accusing everyone.  That got old pretty fast. It’s often a cozy feature but not one I care for.  She also let her insecurities cause a lot of friction with her family and her employees.  I’m hoping she will have it a bit more together in the next book.

Finally, I had some quibbles about the ending but overall, it’s a good effort and I’ll be looking forward to the next in the series.

Jeanne Reviews: Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

In the third of the marvelous and magical Rivers of London series, magician’s apprentice Peter Grant finds himself involved in an international incident.  American college student James Gallagher is found murdered in the tube near Baker Street.  The complications include not only vestige, signs that magic was involved in the murder, but also James Gallagher was the son of a U.S. Senator and an FBI agent is on the way to investigate.  It’s going to take a lot of finesse to keep the supernatural aspects way in the background until Peter and Inspector Nightingale (the last registered wizard in England) figure out just who or what caused Gallagher’s death.

It’s a trail that is going to take Peter back through several generations of a tangled family history, through underground tunnels, sewers, and other fun places

I’m trying to pace myself with this series because I enjoy the books so much and am going to be sad when I get caught up and have to wait a year or two for the next book to appear. I love the way Aaronovitch takes folklore and bends and blends it to make something fresh and new. I also love the way he drops in bits of London and British history as well as some social commentary along the way.  Most of all, I love the way he mixes adventure, magic, and humor.  For example, Peter has let slip to his West African mother that his work also involves the supernatural, which she likes because “she considered witchfinding a more respectable profession than policeman.”

My only quibble with this one had to do with jacket copy, not the book itself.  The jacket says that the FBI agent is “a born-again Christian apt to view any magic as the work of the devil. Oh year—that’s going to go well.” The phrasing led me to believe there would some fireworks or confrontation which never materialized. Sure, Peter is anxious to keep the magic aspects from her but I would expect that he’d be circumspect about magic around anyone he didn’t know well.  As I said, it’s a quibble.

This is a series you will want to read in order.

Jeanne Reviews: Knits, Knots, and Knives by Emmie Caldwel

Lia Geiger is looking forward to seeing the Civil War re-enactment held near the Crandalsburg Craft Fair where Lia manages a booth for her knitting group. A newcomer to the area, this will be Lia’s first exposure to the annual event, though she and her fellow knitters have been making garments for the re-enactors.  Some of them are real stickers for authenticity, wanting their attire to be era- appropriate right down to their socks.  Lia’s neighbor Jack is one of those, and is upset by an upstart participant with deep pockets who seems to be trying to take over the group. Some members welcome a relaxation of the rules while others remain traditionalists, causing some friction within the group. When someone ends up dead after the mock battle, Lia finds herself once again trying to unravel a mystery.

While this is pretty much a traditional cozy, there are several features that make it a standout for me.  The first is that Lia is a middle-aged widow with a grown daughter who isn’t as likely to go off on a tangent. She’s more careful—well, most of the time—and thoughtful in her process.

There’s a hint of mature romance that began in an earlier book and the pace is appropriate, with the right amount of consideration and is blessedly free (so far) of the romantic angst so common with younger heroines. 

Lia has a good relationship with her daughter who is equally sensible and who has a budding romance of her own. There’s a good set of supporting characters, including a policeman who is tolerant of Lia’s snooping.

I consider this more of a fair-play mystery than some cozies, which withhold clues until the very end when there’s a huge information drop that almost instantly solves the case except for the semi- mandatory “heroine confronts killer alone” scene. Not a fan of those, so I’m grateful if the author can avoid them.  While this one did withhold some information, there was enough available for me to figure out several of the plotlines so I was satisfied.

On the downside, the aforementioned confront the killer scene did show up and with what I considered a very flimsy excuse on Our Heroine’s part as to why she rushed in where angels fear to tread. For me, it was a formulaic mistake, but that’s just me.  I’m sure others would be clamoring for such a scene.

This is the third in the series and I think can be read as a standalone. I have read the other two, but I feel a new reader wouldn’t have any trouble getting up to speed.  If you want a fast-paced thriller, this is not going to be your cup of tea but if you like a domestic themed mystery with a leisurely pace then this may be one you want to pick up.

And having the adorable feline Daphne doesn’t hurt!

I’ll certainly plan to read any new entries in the series, but since this one just came out it may be a while.

The titles in series order:

Wicked Yarn

Stitched in Crime

Knits, Knots, and Knives

 

Jeanne Reviews: Death Perception by Victoria Laurie

Psychic Abby Cooper and her boyfriend, Dutch, are in a good place now—mainly because Dutch has finally accepted Abby’s psychic gifts.  They’re going to need them when Dutch gets a call that his cousin Chase has disappeared, apparently kidnapped with a client for whom he was acting as a bodyguard.  A lot of blood found at the scene, but even more worrisome is that there has been no ransom demand.  Abby and Dutch hop a plane to Las Vegas to try to find out what happened, with Dutch being more than a little close-mouthed about some aspects of Chase’s disappearance.  While Abby’s powers aren’t going to pinpoint where he is, she is sure that he’s still alive—at least for now.

This is the sixth in the Psychic Eye Mystery series and while I have read one or two previous entries, I don’t feel this is one that you need to read in order.  One of the series’ strengths is in the way it tries to convey what it’s like to have a psychic vision, at least for Abby: much symbolism which can be open to interpretation and how a psychic’s own emotional involvement can make things more difficult.  Since Laurie herself professes to be a psychic, I assume she’s drawing on personal experience.

This entry had more international intrigue than I had expected and while some plot elements had been touched on in other books, I didn’t have any trouble following because the author did a good job of filling in the backstory without dragging things out. The story was well-paced and while I had figured a few things out, there were still some surprises.

While the story is serious, there are some madcap moments when Abby’s sister and friend show up in Vegas to help out.  This section was a lot of fun, despite the stakes being very high.

I’ll be dipping back into this series again, and maybe try one of her other series as well.

Titles in the Psychic Eye Mysteries are:

Abby Cooper, Psychic Eye

Better Read Than Dead

A Vision of Murder

Killer Insight

Crime Seen

Death Perception

A Doom with a View

A Glimpse of Evil

Vision Impossible

Lethal Outlook

Deadly Forecast

Fatal Fortune

A Sense of Deception

A Grave Prediction

A Panicked Premonition

Fated for Felony

Amazon Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3YLHbnX

Jeanne Reviews: Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch

 

The second book in the Rivers of London series finds Peter Grant firmly ensconced in The Folly, learning magic from Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, the last policeman/wizard in London.  While progress is being made, Peter is still trying to master some of the basics.  He is getting good at recognizing vestiga, those hints of magic imprinted in places after incidents. This comes in handy when he’s called to the scene of a crime and hears snatches of jazz music as part of the vestiga. A few inquiries reveal that there have been several jazz musicians who have died suddenly in recent weeks.  An amazing coincidence? Perhaps not.

There are also reports of a woman who has been assaulting me in a.. um.. unique manner that definitely sounds out of the ordinary.  With his boss needing to stay on the sidelines after a near-fatal incident, Peter is snooping about on his own.

This follow-up to Midnight Riot (US title) is just as amazing as its predecessor.  Aaronvitch creates memorable characters.  Peter is modern, cheeky, and impetuous while Nightingale is definitely old school, as in World War II.  The combination reminds me a bit of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, which is not a bad thing. The supporting characters are also well defined, though they are viewed through Peter’s perspective.

Personally, I love all the information on London and its history that Peter tosses out as he goes, usually in an amusing fashion.  This is similar to what I love about Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May:  Peculiar Crimes Unit series, and they also investigate crimes that may or may not have a supernatural origin.  The big difference is that Aaronovitch commits completely to the concept that there are magical things afoot (or afloat) while Fowler sometimes gives plausible alternate explanations and lets the reader decide if there was anything supernatural going on.

I also like folklore, so I thoroughly enjoy how Aaronovitch takes such elements and puts a twist on them. 

I’m finding the series to be highly addictive, and I’m ready to take on the third book in the series.  At some point I’m also going to check out the graphic novel version, but I harbor suspicions that I’m going to prefer the version I see when I read rather than someone else’s interpretation.

Books in the series to date (best read in order):

Midnight Riot aka Rivers of London

Moon Over Soho

Whispers Under Ground

Broken Homes

Foxglove Summer

The Hanging Tree

Lies Sleeping False Value

Amongst Our Weapons

Jeanne Reviews: A Trip with Trouble by Diane Kelly

When Misty Murphy’s marriage ended, she decided to live her dream by purchasing a lodge in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Business has been steady, but she knows it will definitely slow in the winter months so she’s very pleased to have rented all her rooms for a week to an all-female motorcycle club. She’s a bit surprised to see what a wide variety of riders show up, from young women to grandmothers.  They’ll enjoy the fall foliage and try some of the twisty routes so beloved by bikers such as the Tail of the Dragon (318 curves in 11 miles!)

What should have been a wonderful get-away turns sour when one of the riders ends up dead.  But was it really an accident?

If you have to seriously ask yourself that question, you obviously haven’t read enough mysteries! This second in the Mountain Lodge Mystery series builds on the set-up in the first, making good use of the supporting characters we met there.  Misty is a likeable lead, and carries a lot less baggage than many cozy heroines:  her divorce was amicable, she has a good relationship with her adult sons, etc. She is also competent and organized.  I also like that she is an adult—though she does make her age (50) sometimes sound a lot older than it is. 

Kelly does a good job of giving the reader a sense of place.  She describes the setting well, name-drops and describes local attractions without sounding too much like a travel-brochure, and invokes regional delicacies (grits, biscuits and gravy, etc.) to add to the ambiance.

There’s also a hint of romance in the air as Misty and Rocky, her handyman, navigate romance as older adults.  Misty is hesitant because she doesn’t want to move out of one relationship and straight into another, even though her previous marriage had ended as friends rather than lovers. Rocky is more willing, but he also has family obligations to consider.

There are a couple of mysteries to be solved in this one, and they may or may not be related.  (No spoilers!) While I may not have been totally satisfied at some of the answers, I did like the storytelling and characters enough to give that a pass.  Animal lovers will be pleased with Rocky’s Molasses, a Bernese mountain dog.  Misty has a cat, Yeti, who takes some of the narrating chores, but is depicted as snobbish and egotistical, leaving all the charm to the canine.

Books in the series:

Getaway with Murder

A Trip with Trouble

Jeanne Reviews: Night of the Were-Cat by Eileen Watkins

For professional cat groomer Cassie, life is pretty sweet right now.  Her business is thriving and her personal life is going well—she’s still dating handsome veterinarian Mark. A date is interrupted when Mark is called to the clinic because of a break-in. An employee is injured and drugs are stolen from the clinic.  It seems to be part of a pattern: several clinics have been hit. There has also been a rise in reports of a date rape drug being used: ketamine, a drug often used to sedate animals. It can also be deadly, and a young woman has died recently because of it.

With his staff under suspicion, Mark is stressed and unhappy.  Cassie is anxious to help him clear his employees and also wants to catch the people who distributing the drugs.  Can the cat groomer help the police once again?

This is the sixth in the Cat Groomer Mystery series, but you don’t have to read them in order.

These books always have stunning covers and this time is no different. A magnificent black smoke Maine Coon graces the cover and does indeed play a part in the book.  A subplot has Cassie helping with a pet photo contest of non-canines for a were-wolf lookalike competition.  The idea was inspired when Cassie is hired to look after Maine Coon Quentin, named after the were-wolf in the old TV show “Dark Shadows.”

That’s one of the things I really enjoy about this series.  Each book has spotlighted a different cat breed, and Watkins seems knowledgeable about them all. There are some books with cats that leave me wondering if the author has ever actually interacted with a cat.  I don’t have any such concerns here.  Also, while the cats may not always be center stage, they do always play a role in the story.  They aren’t just on the cover to sell books.

I also like that Watkins takes up a different problem each time as part of the plot, offering a little education with the entertainment.  Previous books have taken on such things as community cats and TNR (Trap, Neuter, and Release), animal hoarding, and unscrupulous animal breeders; this time, it’s theft of controlled substances from vet clinics and the rise in the use of ketamine (usually a drug used to sedate animals) as a party and date rape drug.

The books in the series are:

The Persian Always Meows Twice

The Bengal Identity

Feral Attraction

Gone, Kitty, Gone

Claw & Disorder

Night of the Were-Cat

Jeanne: Bayou Book Thief: A Vintage Cookbook Mystery by Ellen Byron

Ricki James-Diaz has been through some hard times of late, going from riches to rags some might say.  She was married to a man who made a living doing crazy stunts for social media, until a stunt went fatally wrong and he died.  She worked as a book curator for billionaire with an astonishing collection of first editions, but then it turned out his financial advice was more Ponzi scheme than true investments.

Hoping to make a fresh start, Ricki has come back to New Orleans, the city of her birth—although right after her birth she was abandoned by her teenaged mother. A nurse at the hospital took the baby (dubbed Miracle) in and gave her a good and loving home, moving to California. 

New Orleans, Ricki is finding out, is a whole new world but she’s excited about her employment opportunity:  operating a gift shop at the Bon Vee Culinary House Museum.  Using her book background and her love of cookbooks (but not cooking), she plans to stock the shop with vintage cookbooks and accessories.

Her arrival is met with some acclaim and some consternation.  Not everyone is happy to see her and even less happy when the shop begins to succeed.  She catches a popular tour guide pilfering and calls him out on it, much to the annoyance of Theo, one of the museum’s directors and nephew of the owner.  Other staff members whisper that the guide was not the most trust-worthy person, but that doesn’t help Ricki when she opens a trunk of donated books to find the guide’s body inside—and the murder weapon looks very much like a can opener from Ricki’s stock.

This was my first book by Ellen Byron, though I have read several in the Catering Hall Mysteries, a series she writes under the name Maria di Rico. I enjoyed the humor, so I thought I’d give this series a try.

As with many first in series books, this one has to spend time in setting up the characters and location.  I loved the description of New Orleans and the culture.  California bred Ricki has a little trouble acclimating at first, both literally (her air conditioner goes out) and figuratively.  The characters are well drawn, and Ricki is both sympathetic and believable.  I also enjoyed the bits about the cookbooks, especially those that draw from the 50s and 60s, when Jell-o was an important ingredient in a lot of dishes and nobody spared the butter—or the Crisco. I also liked the “behind the scenes” look at how such museums operate, having toured a few private ones such as Hemingway House.

While not as funny as the Catering Hall series, this is a solid cozy with a strong setting and well done characters.  The second title is Winedand Died in New Orleans, and is due out February 7, 2023—just a couple of weeks before Mardi Gras.  Let the good times roll!

 

Jeanne Reviews: Midnight Riot aka The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

Peter Grant is a young mixed race probationary constable in London.  He and his friend Lesley are hoping for better assignments but at the moment they’re on call as extra warm bodies when needed—as they are one blustery evening when a body turns up in Covent Gardens. The somewhat inebriated discoverer of said body believed at first it was just a passed out drunk until he noticed it was missing a notable feature—namely, its head.

While trying to not freeze to death waiting on the Murder Investigation Team to do its work, Peter catches sight of a potential witness to the crime, one Nicholas Wallpenny.  He begins with his best interview techniques and the gentleman turns out to be a veritable fount of information:  he saw the whole thing and can describe exactly how the crime took place and even offer a description of the murderer.

There’s just one problem:  Nicholas is a ghost. Which he proves by vanishing.

The next thing Peter know is that he’s been assigned to Inspector Nightingale as… well, an apprentice.  Because apparently ghosts are real, magic is real, and the Things That Go Bump in the Night are also real—and dangerous. Nightingale is a one man department, so it’s not exactly a plum assignment but since the alternative was the Case Progression Unit (in which one sits and types in reports for other officers all day), Peter is willing to give it a shot.

He’s going to be for a heck of a ride.

By the way, Nightingale is a wizard—not like Harry Potter.

One of the first things I noticed was how funny this book is.  It’s not slapstick, but wry observations on London, the police, and life in general.  I also got caught up in the storylines, even if sometimes I didn’t quite understand what was going on. (The titular Rivers of London have personas and complicated relationships.)  I really wanted to know how it all was going to turn out.  Aaronovitch has a strong grasp of folklore and the history of London which he uses to full advantage.  I was also enchanted by the mini-tours of various sections of London as commented on by Peter.  It reminds me a bit of the wonderful Christopher Fowler series The Peculiar Crimes Unit aka Bryant and May.

Fun and addictive, I think I’ll be reading the whole series.

 Rivers of London aka Midnight Riot 

Moon Over Soho 

Whispers Under Ground 

Broken Homes 

Foxglove Summer 

The Hanging Tree 

Lies Sleeping 

False Value 

Amongst Our Weapons (April 2022)