Cruisin' thru the Cozies Reading Challenge discussion
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BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 1, PART 1
Bedeviled Eggs (Cackleberry Club #3), by Laura Childs
finished 1/5 ★★★★
Getting ready for Halloween, the ladies at the Cackleberry Club café are busy carving jack-o-lanterns, stocking up on candy and baking pumpkin bread. But someone’s jumped the gun on the tricks. As mayoral candidate Chuck Peebler leaves the café, he gets struck with a crossbow arrow and is killed instantly. When another murder occurs on the historical society’s Quilt Trail, there’s no disguising it – a murderer is running loose in the town of Kindred. Now Suzanne’s on the beat to sniff out one bad egg.
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Murder Most Frothy (Coffeeshop #4), by Cleo Coyle
finished 1/6 ★★★
Clare Cosi’s new friend, millionaire David Mintzer, has an offer no New York barista could turn down: an all-expenses-paid summer away from the sticky city. At his Hamptons mansion, she’ll relax, soak up the sun, and, oh yes, train the staff of his new restaurant. So Clare packs up her daughter, her former mother-in-law, and her special recipe for iced coffee – for what she hopes will be one de-latte-ful summer.
Soon, Clare tends the coffee bar at her first Hamptons gala. But the festivities come to a bitter end when an employee turns up dead in David’s bathroom – a botched attempt on the millionaire’s life. Thanks to the Fourth of July fireworks no one heard any gunshots, and the police are stuck in holiday traffic. Concerned for everyone’s safety, Clare begins to investigate. What she finds will keep her up at night – and it’s not the java jitters
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What the Cat Dragged In (Jacques & Cleo #1), by Gilbert Morris
finished 1/8 ★★
Introducing … Jacques the Ripper: A tough-minded feline – fierce, enormous, with a very inquisitive mind. And … Cleo: A multicolored cuddler with long, silky hair. Cleo is as affectionate as Jacques is tough, and her favorite mode of transportation is draped over the shoulder of the nearest human.
In their debut mystery, Jacques, cleo and the humans the own – Kate Forrest and her son, Jeremy – move to a beautiful beach house in White Sands, Alabama, left to Kate by a distant relative. The catch is that another distant relative, wannabe novelist and bonafide cat-her Jake Winters, has also inherited an interest in the house. Undeterred, Kate and Jeremy move in the downstairs quarters while Jack takes the separate apartment upstairs.
Then, when a murder occurs, young Jeremy is the prime suspect .. but was he framed? And just what did the cat drag in that might prove Jeremy’s innocence – and unmask the real killer?
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The Body in the Library (Miss Marple #3), by Agatha Christie
finished 1/10 ★★★★
Colonel and Mrs. Bantry are shocked when they wake on earning to find the dead body of a young platinum blonde on the floor of their library. Nobody in the village of St. Mary Mead seems to know who she is, but everyone has a theory about the crime. The ensuing investigation follows a twisted trail from this quiet village to an upscale hotel in the nearby town of Danemouth, where the victim worked as a ballroom dancer and bridge hostess. As the local inspectors sift through emerging clues to identify a suspect, Miss Jane Marple, St. Mary Mead’s resident sleuth, always seems to be one step ahead of them.
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In Plain Sight (Ivy Malone #2), by Lorena McCourtney
finished 1/13 ★★★★
Ever wonder how a little old lady with possum-gray hair could wind up on a homicidal hit list? Well, nothing is too outlandish for Ivy Malone. She's back and she's brought her mutant curiosity gene with her. And ever since the evil-intentioned Drake Braxton and his family threatened to make road kill out of Ivy, her life has been crazier than ever! With the ever-present threat of looming Braxtons, Ivy decides to get out of Dodge for a while. But for someone who slides down banisters and drives a T-Bird, hiding from the mob does not come easily. And when strange things start happening to her new neighbors, Ivy's snooping sense kicks into overdrive. Will she unravel the mystery? Or will the threats to her safety scare her away?
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A Body to Die For (Bailey Weggins #2), by Kate White
finished 1/14 ★★★
After her last adventure, Bailey Weggins is one tired reporter in need of R&R. So when an old family friend invites her for a free weekend at the Cedar Inn in rural Massachusetts, she jumps at the chance to leave Manhattan for some major pampering.
At the elegant mid-nineteenth-century hideaway, with its Asian-inspired spa, bailey is soon luxuriating to the hypnotic sound of water spilling over stones and the soothing scent of green-tea candles. Yet mayhem is mere steps away, as Bailey discovers when she literally stumbles across a corpse wrapped mummy-style in a treatment room.
Suddenly, her time-out is transformed into a full-tilt murder investigation. Bailey hadn’t expected to meet anyone other than socialites slathering their cellulite with shea butter, but now she’s dealing with a list of suspects dirtier than a mud bath: a spurned lover, a shady husband, and a group of employees who seem to be hiding something. And against her better judgment, she can’t seem to keep her own hands off the sexy homicide detective assigned to the case. Desperate to help her mother’s friend, the owner of the spa, Bailey will find herself chasing clues across state lines just as another death sweeps her into the sights of a vicious killer. And this time, the body in the mud wrap could be her own.
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Nowhere to Run (KEY News #6), by Mary Jane Clark
finished 1/20 ★★★★
Botulism, anthrax, smallpox, plague. As the medical producer for television’s highly rated morning news program Key to America, Annabelle Murphy makes her living explaining horrific conditions to the nation. So when a KEY News colleague dies with symptoms terrifyingly similar to those of the latest scourge, she knows the panic spreading through the corridors of the Broadcast Center is justified. As one death follows another, Annabelle’s coworkers look to her for assurance, but she finds it hard to give comfort. To her, the circumstances of the infections begin to suggest that they may be diabolical murders. And when the authorities lock down the Broadcast Center with the identity of the killer still unknown, no one can be sure who to trust, and neither the victims nor the murderer can escape.
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Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody #1), by Elizabeth Peters
finished 1/24 ★★★
In Victorian England a woman wasn’t supposed to be an archaeologist or a detective. Amelia Peabody was both.
Thirty-one year old Victorian gentle woman Amelia Peabody has inherited her father’s strong will as well as his considerable fortune. On her way to Cairo to indulge her passion for Egyptology, she picks up Evelyn Barton-Forbes as a traveling companion. Evelyn has a tarnished past but both she and Amelia believe that it won’t come back to haunt her. That belief is shattered when Evelyn is attacked by a walking homicidal mummy.
Amelia enlists the aid of Radcliff Emerson, a prominent Egyptologist, to help unravel the plot against her friend and decipher the clues left by the mummy. Between grave digging and academic sparring she manages to save his life. But with the treat of an ancient curse closing in, Amelia must resort to outrageous methods to prevent the mummy from making corpses of them all.
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The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23 Mysteries #1), by Debbie Viguie
finished 2/5 ★★★★
Cindy s church is getting ready to celebrate Easter, and Jeremiah s Temple is preparing for Passover when Cindy literally stumbles over the body of an unknown man lying dead in the sanctuary. The church was locked, and a bloody cross necklace on the floor seems to be the only clue. The killer is likely a member of the congregation, but there are hints that similar deaths have happened in the past. Are Cindy and Jeremiah dealing with a serial killer? They have to unravel the clues before Easter Sunday arrives and more people die. Cindy and Jeremiah come from two different worlds, even though they work right next door to each other. Cindy is a strong Christian who lives a normal but somewhat dull life, working as a church secretary. Jeremiah is a Reformed rabbi with a mysterious past full of danger and excitement. But one eventful Easter/Passover week, the two find themselves working together to solve a murder and stop a serial killer from striking again. Solving the mystery should put an end to their alliance, but the church secretary and the rabbi quickly find themselves enmeshed in another mystery. Soon the two form a friendly alliance and friendship, exploring personal history and faith and growing closer with each passing adventure. Despite their differences Cindy and Jeremiah find a lot of common ground.
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One Hot Murder (Victoria Square #3), by Lorraine Bartlett
finished 2/13 ★★★
Katie Bonner, the reluctant manager of Artisans Alley in the quaint shopping district of Victoria Square, is no stranger to ambivalence. Things have been going hot and heavy with pizza maker Andy Rust – so much so that Katie has moved in over his pizza parlor. But now that summer’s ushered in a heat wave, an apartment above pizza ovens without an air conditioner is making Katie hot and bothered.
At the height of the heat wave, a tragic fire strikes Victoria Square. Wood U, a small store selling wooden gifts and small furniture, is destroyed. But the fire may just be a smoke screen—for murder. A body is found among the charred wreckage, and the victim didn’t die from smoke inhalation. He was shot. Now – despite making Detective Ray Davenport hot under the collar – Katie is determined to smoke out a coldhearted killer.
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Never Sorry (Leigh Koslow #2), by Edie Claire
finished 2/15 ★★★
In this zoo, the most dangerous species isn't behind bars…
With her fledgling advertising business a little short on cash, copywriter Leigh Koslow decides that a part-time job at the local zoo might be just what she needs. Unfortunately, stumbling onto a grisly crime scene behind the tiger run is not. When she realizes that the victim was her new boyfriend's ex, things look bad. But when the police discover that she was also Leigh's high school nemesis, things get worse. Getting out of this jam will require more than a little help from her friends, because if the law doesn't put Leigh away--the real killer well might!
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BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 1, PART 2To Have and to Kill (Piper Donovan #1), by Mary Jane Clark
finished 2/15 ★★★★
Piper Donovan, an actress who has been having a hard time of it living in Manhattan, has returned home to her parents’ small town in New Jersey. She’s been helping out at her mother’s bakery, which makes it perfect that Piper’s close friend, Glenna Brooks, has asked her to prepare the cake for her upcoming wedding. However, things aren’t as perfect as they seem, and when there is a murder, Piper is determined to figure out what happened and protect her friend.
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Easter Bunny Murder (Lucy Stone #19), by Leslie Meier
finished 2/18 ★★★★
Lucy has always loved covering the annual Easter egg hunt for the Pennysaver. Hosted by elderly socialite Vivian Van Vorst at Pine Point, her luxurious oceanfront estate, it’s a swanky event where the grown-ups sip cocktails while their children search for eggs that are as likely to contain savings bonds as they are jelly beans. But when Lucy arrives with her three-year-old grandson, VV’s normally welcoming gates are locked, and a man dressed as the Easter bunny emerges to drop dead moments later.
Lucy discovers that the victim is Van Vorst Duff, VV’s grandson, and soon learns that not all is as it seems at idyllic Pine Point, where the champagne and caviar seem to be running dry. Always a social butterfly, VV has been skipping lunch dates with friends, and much-needed donations to local charities have stopped with no explanation. Maybe she’s going senile, or maybe her heirs are getting a little too anxious to take over her estate.
As Lucy gathers a basketful of suspects, she’s convinced that someone’s been hunting for a lot more than eggs. And she’ll have to chase the truth down a rabbit hole before the killer claims another victim.
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My second set of 13 books will go here.
2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13
PROGRESS, SET 2: 13/13
✔ 1 - Zoned for Murder (Sound Shore Times #1), by Evelyn David , finished 2/21
✔ 2 - Dead as a Scone (Royal Tunbridge Wells #1), by Ron & Janet Benrey, finished 2/22
✔ 3 - Hearse and Buggy (Amish Mystery #1), by Laura Bradford, finished 2/25
✔ 4 - Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen #16), by Joanne Fluke, finished 2/26
✔ 5 - The Cold Light of Mourning (Penny Brannigan #1), by Elizabeth J. Duncan, finished 2/28
✔ 6 - Killer Librarian, by Mary Lou Kirwin, finished 3/3
✔ 7 - Our Husband, by Stephanie Bond, finished 3/11
✔ 8 – Do You Want To Know A Secret? (Key News #1), by Mary Jane Clark, finished 3/15
✔ 9 – Guns Will Keep Us Together (Bombay Assassins #2), by Leslie Langtry, finished 3/17
✔ 10 – On the Run (Ivy Malone #3), by Lorena McCourtney, finished 3/21
✔ 11 – Never Preach Past Noon (Leigh Koslow #3), by Edie Claire, finished 3/25
✔ 12 – Birds of a Feather (Maisie Dobbs #2), by Jacqueline Winspear, finished 3/28
✔ 13 - Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #1), by Jana DeLeon, finished 3/29
***** 2nd SET OF 13 COMPLETED 3/29 *****
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 2, PART 1
Zoned for Murder (Sound Shore Times #1), by Evelyn David
finished 2/21 ★★★
Former Newsweek reporter Maggie Brooks has two kids, a dead husband, a mortgage to pay, and a lot of competition when she tries to get back into the shrinking newspaper business. Landing a job with a local paper, she's bored to tears covering bake sales and Little League games. But when a developer tries to build an outlet mall in a neighboring town, what starts out as potentially a great clip for her resume, suddenly turns dangerous and ugly. Someone will do anything to block the mall's construction. Dirty money, nasty politics, and shady land deals abound as Maggie pursues the scoop that might jumpstart her career. When murder is added to the mix, she realizes that meeting her deadline might be the last thing she ever does.
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Dead as a Scone (Royal Tunbridge Wells #1), by Ron & Janet Benrey
finished 2/22 ★★★
Nigel Owen is having a rotten year. Downsized from a cushy management job at an insurance company in London, he is forced to accept a temporary post as managing director of the Royal Tunbridge Wells Tea Museum. Alas, he regrets living in a small city in Kent, he prefers drinking coffee (with a vengeance), and he roundly dislikes Flick Adams, PhD, an American scientist recently named the museum’s curator.
But then, the wildly unexpected happens. Dame Elspeth Hawker, the museums chief benefactor, keels over a board meeting the apparent victim of a fatal heart attack. With the Dames demise, the museums world-famous collection is up for grabs, her cats, dog, and parrot are living at with Flick and Nigel and the two prima donnas find themselves facing professional ruin.
But Flick who knows a thing or two about forensic science is convinced that Dame Elspeth did not die a natural death. As Flick and Nigel follow the clues including a cryptic Biblical citation they discover that a crime perpetrated more than a century ago sowed the seeds for a contemporary murder.
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Hearse and Buggy (Amish Mystery #1), by Laura Bradford
finished 2/25 ★★★★
Claire Weatherly has fled a high-stress lifestyle for a slower pace – in Amish country: Heavenly, Pennsylvania. She only planned a short visit but instead found herself opening an Amish specialty shop, Heavenly Treasures, and settling in. Claire loves her new home, and she’s slowly making friends among the locals, including Esther, a young Amish woman who works in the shop. So when the store’s former owner, the unlikable Walter Snow, is murdered, and the man Esther is sweet on becomes a suspect, Claire can’t help but get involved. Newly returned Detective Jakob Fisher, who left Heavenly – and his Amish upbringing – as a teenager, is on the case. But his investigation is stalled by the fact that none of his former community will speak with him. Claire’s connections make her the perfect go-between. As Claire investigates, she uncovers more than she wanted to know about her neighbors. And suddenly, everything she had hoped to find in this peaceful refuge is at risk .
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Red Velvet Cupcake Murder (Hannah Swensen #16), by Joanne Fluke
finished 2/26 ★★★
Because this is a new release, I've hidden part of the plot in a spoiler. Read at your own risk!
It’s a hot, muggy evening and the last thing Hannah wants to do is squeeze into a pair of pantyhose for the Grand Opening of the refurbished Albion Hotel. But with Hannah’s famous Red Velvet cupcakes being served in the hotel’s new Red Velvet lounge, she can’t bring herself to back out. The party starts off with a bang with the unexpected arrival of Doctor Bev, a Lake Eden legend who left town in shame after she two-timed her fiancé one too many times. Bev’s splashy appearance on the arm of a wealthy investor is the talk of the night. But the gossip comes to a screeching halt when a partygoer takes a mysterious dive off the hotel’s rooftop garden. The victim is the sheriff’s secretary, Barbara Donnelly, and she is barely clinging to life. The question is, did she fall — or was she pushed? As the police investigate, the only one who isn’t preoccupied with the case is Doctor Bev. She’s too busy trying to stir things up with her old flame Norman, who’s reunited with Hannah. (view spoiler)
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The Cold Light of Mourning (Penny Brannigan #1), by Elizabeth J. Duncan
finished 2/28 ★★★
The picturesque North Wales market town of Llanelen is shocked when Meg Wynne Thompson, a self-made beauty who has turned out to be something of an unpopular bride, goes missing on her wedding day…and turns up dead. The last person believed to have seen her is manicurist Penny Brannigan, an expatriate Canadian who has lived in North Wales for almost twenty-five years. When Penny notices that something is not quite right at the funeral of her dearest friend, she becomes emotionally invested in the case, and sets out to investigate. It seems that several people, including the bride’s drunken, abusive father, had reasons to wish Meg dead, but when the trail leads to her groom’s home, an explosive secret will shake the small town.
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Killer Librarian, by Mary Lou Kirwin
finished 3/3 ★★★★
Champion of the mystery section at a small-town Minnesota library, Karen Nash is about to embark on a dream trip to London—a literary tour inspired by every murderous intrigue, wily suspect, and ingenious crime found in the pages of the British mysteries that she devours. But she’s clueless why the love of her mid-life, Dave, would dump her hours before takeoff—until she spies him at the airport with a young honey on his arm! She decides the best revenge (for now) is to get on that plane anyway . . . and entertain schemes for Dave’s untimely demise while crossing the pond.
After touching ground in the hallowed homeland of Christie, Sayers, and Peters, she checks into a cozy B & B run by charming bibliophile Caldwell Perkins. Soon she’s spilling tears in her pint at the corner pub, sharing her heartbreak saga with a stranger. That night, a B & B guest drops out of circulation—permanently. And when Dave and his cutie turn up in London, Karen realizes they are an assassin’s target. With the meticulous attention to detail that makes her a killer librarian, Karen sleuths her way through her own real-life mystery—in which library science meets the art of murder.
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Our Husband, by Stephanie Bond
finished 3/11 ★★★
They're three women with one thing in common... Our Husband.
When they found out about his cheating heart, they wanted to get even. But how even? Fate has just thrown a curveball at the women in Raymond Carmichael's life--all three of them. When they meet at his hospital bed, they discover they're all married to the same man. And when Raymond suddenly dies, the police suspect that one of these spunky ladies has committed murder....
The Socialite: Blond, post-menopausal, and mad as hell, Beatrix always suspected Raymond married her for her daddy's money....twenty-one years ago.
The Doctor: Smart, small-town family physician, thirty-five-year-old Nathalie had ironically insisted on only one thing from her husband of seven years....absolute honesty.
The Stripper: Twenty-one and an exotic dancer, Ruby would have chalked up her brief marriage to a learning experience....if she hadn't been pregnant.
Now they're three women left with a man's betrayal--and worse, each other. But one thing they each insist--they didn't kill Raymond. What can they do? Something outrageous and probably impossible: stick together to catch a murderer.
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Three times, huh? Well, I've added a few to my tbr, I suppose next time I check I'll be adding a few more :)
At the rate I'm going, I'll probably get through four or five sets of 13! I *really need to stop starting new series and concentrate on finishing some of the ones I've already started *sigh*
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 2, PART 2
Do You Want To Know A Secret? (Key News #1), by Mary Jane Clark
finished 3/15 ★★★★
Eliza Blake is a newswoman on the rise. Wll liked and respected by her colleagues at Key News, She’s entered a stage where everything seems to be going right. She’s finally come to terms with her husband’s death and risen above the depression that had temporarily overwhelmed her. She’s happy spending time with her adoring young daughter, and a budding romance is making her believe in love all over again. Then Bill Kendall, a senior anchorman, dies unexpectedly, and Eliza is thrust into the limelight – offered her biggest opportunity ever.
Everything seems right – and yet wrong. As Eliza starts to suspect that Kendall’s death has ramifications beyond the set of the TV show, she begins to unravel a plot of murder, greed and jealousy that involves players as high up as the White house. Do You Want to Know a Secret? is a thrilling story of the behind-the-scenes machinations in today’s TV media.
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Guns Will Keep Us Together (Bombay Assassins #2), by Leslie Langtry
finished 3/17 ★★★
Dakota Bombay prided himself on his blond Bond image – bad-guy killer by day, lady-killer by night. Then his life gets both shaken and stirred by an irate grandmother demanding a marketing plan for the family assassination business, a precocious six-year-old son Dak never knew he had, and a mysterious redhead who's erased his decades-old preference for blondes.
Suddenly the perennial playboy is knee deep in pie charts and thinking he may have found the perfect mom for his boy. She's smart, funny, and directs a funeral home no less – what could be better? Now if he can just take out a team of rival assassins without getting killed himself, they can all live trigger-happily ever after.
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On the Run (Ivy Malone #3), by Lorena McCourtney
finished 3/21 ★★★★
Super senior sleuth Ivy Malone is spunkier than Miss Marple, with a curiosity that just won't quit. That inquisitiveness has gotten her into plenty of trouble, including murder, mayhem, and a place on a mini-Mafia hit list. Now Ivy's headed across the country in a motor home, with a stray cat and God as her only companions. But just when she thinks she's safe, two dead bodies turn up – discovered by Ivy, of course. A flock of emus, a survivalist outpost, and paintball are just a few of the strange things Ivy has to deal with in order to solve this latest crime. But will anyone believe the truth? On the Run, the third book in the Ivy Malone mysteries, is a mix of great fun and great suspense. Readers will love Ivy's latest lively adventure.
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Never Preach Past Noon (Leigh Koslow #3), by Edie Claire
finished 3/25 ★★★★
Saints, sinners, and snoops!
Leigh Koslow's thrice-married Aunt Bess always was the black sheep of the family. That's why when Bess breaks her ankle falling down a flight of stairs in the middle of the night, Leigh isn't too surprised to discover that the stairs were someone else's. But when she discovers that the stairs belonged to Bess's happily wedded pastor, and that his house was burning down at the time, she can't help but be concerned.
The First Church of the New Millennium has problems--and Bess, with Leigh as her reluctant aide, is intent on solving them. Is the charismatic reverend Reginald Humphrey a saint among men, or a soulless con artist? With arson, burglary, and a possible abduction on the bulletin, Leigh enlists the aid of her favorite detective, Maura Polanski, to keep her aunt from becoming the next offering. But Bess isn't one to give up on a good cause, even when the postlude is murder.
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Birds of a Feather (Maisie Dobbs #2), by Jacqueline Winspear
finished 3/28 ★★★
An eventful year has passed for Maisie Dobbs. Since starting a one-woman private investigation agency in 1929 London, she now has a professional office in Fitzroy square and an assistant, the happy-go-lucky Billy Beale. She has proven herself as a psychologist and investigator, and has even won over Detective Inspector Stratton of Scotland yard’s Murder Squad – and admirable achievement for a woman who worked her way from servant to scholar to sleuth, and who also served as a battlefield nurse in The Great War.
It’s now the early spring of 1930. Stratton is investigating a murder case in Coulsden, while Maisie has been summoned to Dulwich to find a runaway heiress. The woman is the daughter of Joseph Waite, a wealthy self-made man who has lavished her with privilege but kept her in a gilded cage. His domineering ways have driven her off before, and show she’s bolted again. Waite’s instructions are to find his daughter an bring her home. When Maisie looks into the disappearance, she find a chilling link to Stratton’s murder case, and to the terrible legacy of The Great War.
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Trouble in Mudbug (Ghost-in-Law #1), by Jana DeLeon
finished 3/29 ★★★★
Maryse Robicheaux can’t help heaving a sigh of relief at the new that her not-so-beloved mother-in-law has kicked the bucket. The woman was rude, manipulative and lording over everyone as the richest citizen of Mudbug, Louisiana. Unfortunately, death doesn’t slow Helena Henry down one bit.
Being haunted – or more like harried – by Helena’s ghost isn’t even the worst of Maryse’s problems. Close to making a huge medical breakthrough, she’s suddenly been given an officemate, and the only thing bigger than Luc LeJeune’s ego is his sex appeal. Maryse would bet her life the hot half-Creole is hiding something. Especially because it seems someone’s out to kill her. But getting Luc to spill his secrets, while avoiding Helena’s histrionics and staying alive herself will be the ultimate bayou balancing act.
My third set of 13 books will go here.
2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13
PROGRESS, SET THREE: 13/13
✔ 1 - Killer Honeymoon (Savannah Reid #18), by G.A. McKevett, finished 4/4 ★★★★
✔ 2 - The Underdog and Other Stories, by Agatha Christie, finished 4/10 ★★★
✔ 3 - Stake & Eggs (Cackleberry Club #4), by Laura Childs, finished 4/13 ★★★★
✔ 4 - Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince (Aunt Dimity #18), by Nancy Atherton, finished 4/18 ★★★★
✔ 5 - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1), by Alan Bradley, finished 4/23 ★★★★
✔ 6 - Classified as Murder (Cat in the Stacks #2), by Miranda James, finished 4/26 ★★★
✔ 7 - Buried in a Book (Novel Idea #1), by Lucy Arlington, finished 4/29 ★★★★
✔ 8 - Double-Booked for Death (Black Cat Bookshop #1), by Ali Brandon, finished 5/3 ★★★
✔ 9 - The Moving Finger (Miss Marple #4), by Agatha Christie, finished 5/4 ★★★★
✔ 10 - A Broth of Betrayal (Soup Lovers #2), by Connie Archer, finished 5/6 ★★★
✔ 11 - The Dog Park Club (Max Bravo #1), by Cynthia Robinson, finished 5/14 ★★
✔ 12 - Love Lies Bleeding (China Bayles #6), by Susan Wittig Albert, finished 5/21 ★★★★
✔ 13 - Make, Take, Murder (Kiki Lowenstein #4), by Joanna Campbell-Slan, finished 5/22 ★★★★
***** 3rd SET OF 13 COMPLETED 5/22 *****
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 3, PART 1
Killer Honeymoon (Savannah Reid #18), by G.A. McKevett
finished 4/4 ★★★★
Savannah and Dirk we hoping for a little honeymoon excitement, but eye witnessing a cold blooded murder wasn’t exactly what they had in mind. To their surprise, the recently deceased is none other than Amelia Northrop, the popular L.A. anchorwoman whose super sexy looks landed her a super wealthy husband. Savannah’s no expert, but she’s pretty sure Amelia won’t be hosting tonight’s evening news; she’ll be the lead story.
When the local police make it clear that they don’t want Savannah’s help, she decides to do a little digging on her own – and what she discovers could blow the case wide open. It seems Amelia led a far more twisted life than her cheery on-screen persona suggested, and crossed more than a few powerful people along the way. The question is, who hated Amelia enough to shoot her dead in broad daylight? Savannah isn’t sure, but she suspects Amelia found out the hard way that fate has a way of settling old scores – and karma can be a girl’s worst enemy.
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The Underdog and Other Stories, by Agatha Christie
finished 4/10 ★★★
With his sparkling eyes, egg-shaped head, waxed mustache, and waspish manner, Hercule Poirot seems too dandified to discover "whodunit." But in this lively collection he jauntily jettisons false leads and red herrings to unmask three killers.In "The Under Dog, " Sir Reuben Astwell has been bludgeoned to death in the tower room of his mansion, and his nephew Charles stands accused. As always, Poirot discovers a web of deceit before calmly fingering the murderer. In "The Dream, " an eccentric millionaire who requests Poirot's help in deciphering a violent dream turns up dead. "Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds" has Poirot investigating a man whose demise seems curiously linked to a deviation in his eating habits.
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Stake & Eggs (Cackleberry Club #4), by Laura Childs
finished 4/13 ★★★★
When a snowmobile crashes into the woods behind the Cackleberry Club café, Suzanne finds her town’s most-hated banker beheaded by a wire staked in the snow. Now some of her best customers are prime suspects with a bushel of motives, and the murder investigation is snowballing. An elusive young runaway may be the Cackleberry Club’s only way to crack the case…provided Suzanne can keep her head long enough to track down the cold-blooded killer.
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Aunt Dimity and the Lost Prince (Aunt Dimity #18), by Nancy Atherton
finished 4/18 ★★★★
It’s a cold, dreay February in the sleepy village of Finch and Lori Shepherd has two stir-crazy seven-year-old boys on her hands. So when her good friend Bree Pym suggests an outing to Skeaping Manor, the bizarre Jacobean-house-turned-museum, Lori leaps at the chance. There she meets Daisy Pickering, a sweet (if a little odd) nine-year-old dressed in a shabby pink parka who regales Lori with a wild tale about the Russian aristocrats who once owned the priceless silver pieces on display.
A few days later, When a finely wrought silver sleigh figurine turns up in the pocket of a shabby pink parka at her thrift shop Lori recognizes it instantly as the object that mesmerized Daisy at Skeaping Manor. Hoping to avoid any real commotion, Lori tries to track down Daisy’s mother, only to find that the Pickering family has disappeared without a trace. Stranger still, it seems that one of Daisy’s imagined Russian princes may be very real – and in desperate need of help.
With Aunt Dimity’s otherworldly guidance, Lori’s search for the sleigh’s true owner and the fate of the Pickering family begins to unravel a tangled web of secrets stretching from England’s finest country estates back to the blood-drenched soil of the Russian Revolution.
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The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce #1), by Alan Bradley
finished 4/23 ★★★★
It is the summer of 1950 – and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
Did the stranger die of poisoning? There was a piece missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia commits herself to solving the crime – even if it means keeping information from the village police, in order to protect her family. But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to free him of suspicion. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luces’ murky past.
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Classified as Murder (Cat in the Stacks #2), by Miranda James
finished 4/26 ★★★
Everyone in Athena, Mississippi, knows Charlie Harris, the good-natured librarian with a rescued Maine coon cat named Diesel that he walks on a leash. Charlie’s returned to his hometown to immerse himself inn books, but finds danger lurking right around the corner. Suspecting that someone is stealing from him, the aging and eccentric James Delacorte wants Charlie to do an inventory on his rare book collection. Soon after they begin, Delacorte is found dead at his desk, leaving Charlie with the bigger task of solving his murder. Immediately Charlie is suspicious of Delacorte’s own family, and relies on the help of Diesel to paw around for clues. The cat-and-house game heats up after a highly valued copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane goes missing and a second murder occurs. Now Charlie and Diesel must solve the case before the killer strikes a third time – and hope curiosity doesn’t kill the cat.
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Buried in a Book (Novel Idea #1), by Lucy Arlington
finished 4/29 ★★★★
After receiving her first pink slip at the age of forty-five, former newspaper journalist Lila Wilkins is desperate for work, even if it means taking a pay cut. After combing through the classifieds, Lila accepts an internship at A Novel Idea, a thriving literary agency in the utopian town of Inspiration Valley, North Carolina.
Lila can’t imagine anything better than being paid to read, but with a crew of quirky co-workers and a sky-high stack of query letters, she doesn’t exactly have time to discover the next great bestseller – especially when a penniless aspiring author drops dead in the agency’s waiting room.
No one else seems too concerned about the man’s demise, but when Lila uncovers a series of threatening letters, she’s determined to uncover what – or who – killed the man’s dreams of literary stardom.
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BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 3, PART 2
Double-Booked for Death (Black Cat Bookshop #1), by Ali Brandon
finished 5/3 ★★★
As the new owner of Pettistone's Fine Books, Darla Pettistone is determined to prove herself a worthy successor to her late great-aunt Dee...and equally determined to outwit Hamlet, the smarter-than-thou cat she inherited along with the shop. Darla's first store event is a real coup: the hottest bestselling author of the moment is holding a signing there. But when the author meets an untimely end during the event, it's ruled an accident-until Hamlet digs up a clue that seems to indicate otherwise.
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The Moving Finger (Miss Marple #4), by Agatha Christie
finished 5/4 ★★★★
A series of poison-pen letters has shattered the peaceful wa of life inn the quiet village of Lymstock. No one is safe from the scathing accusations and alarming threats contained in those vicious notes, and everyone is wondering who the sinister mind is behind them. Neighbor suspects neighbor, and it seems that no one is free of motive – not the village doctor, not the vicar, not the servants, not even the newcomers, narrator Jerry Burton and his sister, Joanna. The stakes are raised when one victim, apparently distraught over the content of the letter she received, takes her own life. Fortunately, Miss Jane Marple is staying on as the vicar’s houseguest. With her keep insight into the mysteries of human nature, she is the only one able to sort through the finger pointing and put an end to the terror.
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A Broth of Betrayal (Soup Lovers #2), by Connie Archer
finished 5/6 ★★★
A protest to stop the construction of an ugly car wash in the middle of the town’s picturesque Village Green is interrupted by the discovery of a skeleton that may date back to the Revolutionary War. While the remains pose a historical mystery, a present-day murder shakes the town to its core when local auto mechanic Harry Hodges is found dead in his shop.
Straining the patience of Chief of Police Nate Edgerton, Lucky soon finds herself in the soup again when her dear friend Elizabeth, the Mayor of Snowflake, goes missing. No matter how much trouble she has to stir up, Lucky is determined to use her noodle to uncover a killer and recover her friend.
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The Dog Park Club (Max Bravo #1), by Cynthia Robinson
finished 5/14 ★★
Max Bravo is a mid-rung opera singer with a diva's towering ego. And he doesn’t do favors. Not until the day he visits a troubled friend in Berkeley and offers to walk her dog. Max quickly discovers the local dog park. It’s an odd, private little world — a preserve for neighborhood crackpots and lay-abouts, and, incidentally, their dogs. But, the park regulars are friendly. Clubby. They even serve beer. Before long, Max can’t stay away.
When one of the regulars disappears, Max’s interest in the dog park turns to obsession. Amy Carter – beautiful, adored, pregnant – has vanished. The circumstances bode the worst. What happened to Amy? The dog park club has brewed up a theory. And they mean to prove it.
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Love Lies Bleeding (China Bayles #6), by Susan Wittig Albert
finished 5/21 ★★★★
As a Texas Ranger, Roy Adcock outwitted plenty of dangerous characters. But now the retired Ranger has been shot dead – with his wife’s gun. The case hits close to home for China, since Dolores Adcock had been at the herb shop just that morning. But what hits even closer to home is when China’s longtime boyfriend starts behaving strangely after hearing the news – and China overhears a secret phone conversation between him and another woman.
Now, as the clues mount and accusations fly, China must question both the Adcock marriage and her own relationship – and avoid getting caught in a deadly maze of suspicion and betrayal.
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Make, Take, Murder (Kiki Lowenstein #4), by Joanna Campbell-Slan
finished 5/22 ★★★★
Dumpster diving for her lost paycheck is definitely the low point of Kiki Lowenstein's day--that is, until she finds a severed leg thrown in with the trash. Who'd toss a body part in the garbage outside the scrapbook crafts store where Kiki works?
Accompanying the grisly "gift" is a creepy computerized voice message, a warning to the store's "rich and snotty" female shoppers. Kiki soon discovers that the leg belonged to Cindy Gambrowski, a customer with a tyrannical and violent husband--who's now harassing Kiki. Combing through Cindy's scrapbook projects for hidden clues, Kiki tries to find the killer. Was it a crime of marital malice, or did someone else beat Cindy's husband to the punch?
My next set of 13 books will go here.
2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13
PROGRESS, SET FOUR: 6/13
✔ 1 - Larceny and Old Lace (Den of Iniquity #1), by Tamar Myers, finished 5/23 ★★
✔ 2 - Decaffeinated Corpse (Coffee House #5), by Cleo Coyle, finished 5/25 ★★★★
✔ 3 - Wedding Cake Killer (Fresh Baked #7), by Livia J. Washburn, finished 5/28 ★★★★
✔ 4 - Dragonwell Dead (Tea Shop #8), by Laura Childs, finished 5/29 ★★★★
✔ 5 - The "M" Word (Bel Barrett #1), by Jane Isenberg, finished 6/1 ★★★
✔ 6 - Old World Murder (Chloe Ellefson #1), by Kathleen Ernst, finished 6/1 ★★★★
✔ 7 - Ready, Scrap, Shoot (Kiki Lowenstein #5), by Joanna Campbell-Slan, finished 6/6 ★★★
✔ 8 - A Brush with Death (Penny Brannigan #2), by Elizabeth J. Duncan, finished 6/9 ★★★★
✔ 9 - Chocolate Dipped Death (Candy Shop #2), by Sammi Carter, finished 6/20 ★★★
✔ 10 - 'Til Death Do Us Part (Bailey Weggins #3), by Kate White, finished 6/21 ★★★★
✔ 11 - The Long Quiche Goodbye (Cheese Shop #1), by Avery Aames, finished 6/24 ★★★★
✔ 12 - The Quick and the Thread (Embroidery Mystery #1), by Amanda Lee, finished 6/26 ★★★
✔ 13 - Mama Rides Shotgun (Mace Bauer #2), by Deborah Sharp, finished 6/29 ★★★★
***** 4th SET OF 13 COMPLETED 6/29 *****
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 4, PART 1
Larceny and Old Lace (Den of Iniquity #1), by Tamar Myers
finished 5/23 ★★
As owner of the Den of Antiquity, recently divorced(but never bitter!) Abigail Timberlake is accustomed to delving into the past, searching for lost treasures, and navigating the cutthroat world of rival dealers at flea markets and auctions. Still, she never thought she'd be putting her expertise in mayhem and detection to other use – until crotchety "junque" dealer, Abby's aunt Eulonia Wiggins, was found murdered!
Although Abigail is puzzled by the instrument of death--an exquisite antique bell pull that Aunt Eulonia never would have had the taste to acquire--she's willing to let the authorities find the culprit. But now, Auntie's priceless lace collection is missing, and somebody's threatened Abby's most priceless possession--her son, Charlie.
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Decaffeinated Corpse (Coffee House #5), by Cleo Coyle
finished 5/25 ★★★★
At the Village Blend, Clare Cosi’s best baristas may refer to a decaffeinated espresso as a “why bother?”, but Clare knows a good percentage of her customers prefer the neutered brew. So when an old friend of her ex-husband develops the world’s first botanically decaffeinated coffee beans and smuggles it into the country, Clare believes it’s a business opportunity she needs to investigate … at least until the first dead body shows up.
With casualties piling up and a complicated blend of old and new loves muddying the waters, it’s up to Clare to find the murderer before one of her near and dears takes the fall. Otherwise, he latest addition to the menu will prove to be a real buzz killer.
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Wedding Cake Killer (Fresh Baked #7), by Livia J. Washburn
finished 5/28 ★★★★
After all the planning—and the cake tasting—the big day has arrived. Eve Turner, one of Phyllis’s boarders—and her best friend—is moving out and getting married to the affable Roy Porter. While she’s sad to see Eve go, Phyllis is more than happy to host the event in her house and to bake the bride and groom a delicious three-tiered coconut wedding cake. Even though a snowstorm in the forecast seems like a recipe for disaster, the day runs as smoothly as butter cream.
But the marriage doesn’t last long past the honeymoon. When Roy’s found dead at a Weatherford bed-and-breakfast, Eve’s the top suspect. Now Phyllis must find out who iced Roy before her friend finds herself behind bars.
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Dragonwell Dead (Tea Shop #8), by Laura Childs
finished 5/29 ★★★★
It's springtime in Charleston and just about every species of South Carolina's flora is in full and glorious bloom at the Spring Plantation Ramble. Once a year, the upper crust open their sprawling gardens to the public, the site of flower shows, rare plant auctions, and a contagious spring fever. Although Theodosia Browning barely knows a Phalinopsis from a Bog Rose, she still enjoys the Ramble, especially since she can pour tea and promote her Indigo Tea Shop-and her latest concoction, Dragonwell Sweet Tea.
The festivities come to a screeching halt, though, when commodities broker Mark Congdon wins a bid for a rare monkey-face orchid – and promptly dies. It looks like a simple heart attack but both Theo and his widow suspect that someone purposely turned his green thumb blue. There’s Faye Hamilton, his scored assistant, whose treasure chest holds suspicious mementos. And there’s the Orchid Society member who openly envied Mark’s collection. Some eyes even turn to Theo herself, who poured Mark’s possibly poisoned tea.
But someone thinks Theo should mind her own business…
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The "M" Word (Bel Barrett #1), by Jane Isenberg
finished 6/1 ★★★
With a sensibility shaped in the sixties and kids born in the seventies, Jersey City community college professor Bel Barrett hit the big five-O in the nineties. The patronage politics of urban academia and the dreams and demands of city students threaten to burn Bel out but it's hot flashes and a fancy fundraiser that really turn the heat on. Before Bel has a chance to do justice to the tempting display of calorie-laden food, her slim and attractive boss, college president Dr. Altagracia Garcia, pops a few goodies, crumples to the floor, and is pronounced dead.
The murder is pinned on one of Bel's students, but Bel isn't buying it. The accused is a Culinary Arts major whose best grade in English was an "incomplete," but the boy is no killer. Although President Garcia had made her presence felt at the college, she'd ground her stiletto heels into a few administrative toes in the process. But most students and faculty adored her, and finding out who wanted the assertive lady out of the way is the least Bel can do--even when it means chasing through a maze of phony clues and false leads that challenge her mid-life memory...and learning that she herself has become the target of someone majoring in murder.
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Old World Murder (Chloe Ellefson #1), by Kathleen Ernst
finished 6/1 ★★★★
Trying to leave painful memories behind her, Chloe Ellefson is making a fresh start. She's the new collections curator at Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor ethnic museum showcasing 1870s settlement life. On her first day, Chloe meets with an elderly woman who begs her to find a priceless eighteenth-century Norwegian ale bowl that had been donated to the museum years ago. But before Chloe can find the heirloom and return it to her, the woman dies in a suspicious car crash.
Digging up the history and whereabouts of the rare artifact quickly turns dangerous. Chloe discovers that someone is desperately trying to cover up all traces of the bowl's existence--by any means necessary. Assisting Chloe is police officer Roelke McKenna, whose own haunting past compels him to protect her. To catch the covetous killer, Chloe must solve a decades-old puzzle . . . before she becomes a part of history herself.
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BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 4, PART 2
Ready, Scrap, Shoot (Kiki Lowenstein #5), by Joanna Campbell-Slan
finished 6/6 ★★★
With bills piling up and a brassy new partner at her scrapbooking shop, the last thing Kiki Lowenstein needs is a surprise visit from her browbeating mother. But when shots fired into the crowd narrowly miss Kiki at her daughter’s May day pageant, it’s another mother – St. Louis’s wealthiest matriarch – who winds up dead.
While creating a memorial album for the murdered beer heiress, Kiki becomes bait in a dangerous trap as threats from her old foe mount against her. With help from friends in high places, including hunky beau Chad Detweiler, Kiki finds herself facing a grave ultimatum: catch the killer or be cropped out of her own family album.
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A Brush with Death (Penny Brannigan #2), by Elizabeth J. Dunca
finished 6/9 ★★★★
When Penny Brannigan inherits a charming, old-fashioned cottage in the North Wales town of Llanelen, she soon realizes she has come into more than what real estate agents like to describe as a desirable period property: She’s also acquired memories, mystery, and an unsolved, decades-old crime.
As Penny sorts through the belongings of her benefactor, a deceased teacher, she comes upon a packet of letters from a promising young Liverpool artist, A. Jones, who was killed in an accident in 1970. An artist herself, Penny sets out to discover who killed this painter, and is helped by a small group of townsfolk, including her business partner, Victoria Hopkirk. While at a retrospective art exhibition in Liverpool, Penny recognizes what she believes to be a watercolor painted by Jones. But it is attributed to another artist, leading her to suspect that art theft was at the heart of the case, and that Jones’s death was no accident.
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Chocolate Dipped Death (Candy Shop #2), by Sammi Carter
finished 6/20 ★★★
No visit to Paradise, Colorado, is complete without a stop at Divinity candy shop for a little taste of heaven. For owner Abby Shaw, it's a sweet deal, too. When her aunt Grace passed away, Abby Shaw inherited Divinity – and with it the opportunity to leave her career as a corporate lawyer and dump her cheating husband. Now she spends her time serving up delectable treats – and performing the occasional deductive feat.
There's no sugarcoating it – no one in Paradise can stand Savannah Horne. The former local girl is now the trophy wife of a ridiculously wealthy businessman. And she's swept back into town just in time to enter Divinity's Tenth Annual Confectionary Competition--and stir up trouble. But someone bent on sweet revenge will guarantee that Savannah won't make it out of Paradise alive, trapping Abby in a case stickier than her gooey taffy.
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'Til Death Do Us Part (Bailey Weggins #3), by Kate White
finished 6/21 ★★★★
True crime writer and sometime-sleuth Bailey Weggins took the world by storm in Kate White's sexy and suspenseful debut novel, If Looks Could Kill. Now, in Bailey's latest outing, she takes the plunge into a world of domestic divas and deadly nuptial doings...
When she gets a call from Ashley Hanes on a frigid night, Bailey expects to be hit up for fashion show tickets. Instead Ashley reveals that two bridesmaids from Peyton Cross's wedding have recently died in freak accidents...and Ashley is terrified she's next. A bridesmaid herself - with the dress to prove it - Bailey dashes off to Ivy Hill Farm, the home of Peyton's catering empire in Greenwich, Connecticut. Bailey's barely warmed up after the cold drive before another bridesmaid takes a walk down the aisle of no return.
Now following a dangerous trail of clues that will take her from New York's trendy Lower East Side to a fabulous oceanfront hotel in Miami, Bailey could become the headline of the next true crime story: Four Funerals and a Wedding.
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The Long Quiche Goodbye (Cheese Shop #1), by Avery Aames
finished 6/24 ★★★★
Welcome to the grand opening of Fromagerie Bessette. Or as it's more commonly known by the residents of small- town Providence, Ohio-the Cheese Shop. Proprietor Charlotte Bessette has prepared a delightful sampling of bold Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, delicious tortes of Stilton and Mascarpone, and a taste of Sauvignon Blanc - but someone else has decided to make a little crime of passion the piece de resistance. Right outside the shop Charlotte finds a body, the victim stabbed to death with one of her prized olive-wood handled knives.
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The Quick and the Thread (Embroidery Mystery #1), by Amanda Lee
finished 6/26 ★★★
When Marcy Singer opens an embroidery specialty shop in quaint Tallulah Falls, Oregon, she throws a soiree and a Stitch-In. Soon, Marcy's sign- up sheet for embroidery classes fills up and everyone in town seems willing to raise a glass-or a needle-to support the newly-opened Seven Year Stitch.
Then Marcy finds the shop's previous tenant dead in the store-room, a message scratched with a tapestry needle on the wall beside him. Now Marcy's shop has become a crime scene, and she's the prime suspect. She'll have to find the killer before someone puts a final stitch in her.
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Mama Rides Shotgun (Mace Bauer #2), by Deborah Sharp
finished 6/29 ★★★★
Before Mama ties the sacred knot of matrimony for the 5th time, she coerces daughter Mace to saddle up for some country-gal bonding on the Florida Cracker Trail. The six-day trek gets off to a good start. At least until the wealthy rancher hosting the riders keels over in his Cow Hunter Chili. A one-time beau of Mama's (and, really, who isn't?) Lawton Bramble had a bad ticker and a ton of enemies who might have "spiced" the cattleman's chili. Was it son Trey, as flawed as he is handsome? The young widow, whose grief seems well-rehearsed? Or maybe the childhood friend, wronged by Lawton in love and business? Mace's worried sisters join the ride, and sexy Detective Carlos Martinez returns to complicate matters. But Mace's miserable love life pales as a problem next to a planted rattlesnake, a tent sliced to shreds, and a spooked horse named Shotgun. When Mama gallops into danger, Mace is determined to corral the killer stalking the Florida trail.
My next set of 13 books will go here.
2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13
PROGRESS, SET 5: 13/13
✓ 1 – A Royal Pain (Her Royal Spyness #2), by Rhys Bowen, finished 7/11 ★★★
✓ 2 – Never Kissed Goodnight (Leigh Koslow #4), by Edie Claire, finished 7/13 ★★★
✓ 3 – Assaulted Pretzel (Amish Mystery #2), by Laura Bradford, finished 7/17 ★★★★
✓ 4 – Gone with the Win (Bed & Breakfast #28), by Mary Daheim, finished 7/21 ★★★
✓ 5 – Top O' the Mournin' (Passport to Peril #2), by Maddy Hunter, finished 7/23 ★★★
✓ 6 – Trouble in Spades (Nina Quinn #2), by Heather Webber, finished 7/27 ★★★★
✓ 7 – The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce #2), by Alan Bradley, finished 7/29 ★★★★
✓ 8 – Not the Killing Type (Booktown #7), by Lorna Barrett, finished 8/1 ★★★★
✓ 9 – Stand By Your Hitman (Bombay Assassins #3), by Leslie Langtry, finished 8/1 ★★★
✓ 10 – Mama Gets Hitched (Mace Bauer #3), by Deborah Sharp, finished 8/4 ★★★★
✓ 11 – The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne, finished 8/6 ★★★
✓ 12 – One Coffee With (Sigrid Harald #1), by Margaret Maron, finished 8/15 ★★★★
✓ 13 – Unsolicited (Booklover’s Mystery #1), by Julie Kaewert, finished 8/18 ★★★★
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 5, PART 1
A Royal Pain (Her Royal Spyness #2), by Rhys Bowen
finished 7/11 ★★★
The Queen of England has concocted a plan in which Georgie is to entertain a Bavarian princess? and conveniently place her in the playboy Prince's path, in the hopes that he might finally marry. But queens never take money into account. Georgie has very little, which is why she moonlights as a maid-in-disguise. She must draw up plans: clean house to make it look like a palace; have Granddad and her neighbor pretend to be the domestic staff; un-teach Princess Hanni the English she's culled from American gangster movies; cure said Princess of her embarrassing shoplifting habit; and keep an eye on her at parties. Then there's the worrying matter of the body in the bookshop and Hanni's unwitting involvement with the Communist Party. It's enough to drive a girl crazy.
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Never Kissed Goodnight (Leigh Koslow #4), by Edie Claire
finished 7/13 ★★★
Leigh Koslow may have found happiness in her new marriage--but her cousin Cara's life seems to be nothing short of perfect. She has a knockout figure, an adorable son, and a rich, devoted--not to mention gorgeous--husband. She and her family have even been featured on television for their ideal lifestyle. But if Cara's life is so wonderful, why does she show up at Leigh's apartment in the middle of the night with tears in her eyes?
It appears that Cara's perfect husband, Gil, has been lying, sneaking around, and simply not acting like himself. For Cara, the telltale signs of cheating are obvious, but with her background in advertising, Leigh knows that there's always more to the truth than meets the eye. And after a little investigation through the quiet streets of Pittsburgh, even Leigh is shocked to find out what Gil's secret really is.
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Assaulted Pretzel (Amish Mystery #2), by Laura Bradford
finished 7/17 ★★★★
Claire Weatherly found the simple life she always wanted when she opened a gift shop in Heavenly, Pennsylvania—a small town in the heart of Amish country. But when murder disrupts her Heavenly home, it’s up to Claire and Detective Jakob Fisher to find the not-so-simple truth.
The quiet town of Heavenly is buzzing with excitement over the latest guests at the local inn, Sleep Heavenly. Toy manufacturer Rob Karble is in town to meet the members of the Amish community who will soon be crafting a new toy line for his company. But when word gets out that Karble intends to use the Amish designs without employing the Amish to make them, someone sends the interloper to his final reward. No one wants to believe anyone from the Amish community could commit such an act, but as Claire and Detective Fisher have learned, no one is above sin – or suspicion
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Gone with the Win (Bed & Breakfast #28), by Mary Daheim
finished 7/21 ★★★
Judith McMonigle Flynn has vowed never ever to find a dead body again (at least not for a while). But despite warnings from Cousin Renie, she can't turn down a suspicious guest reservation from Mary Smith of New York City. There must be many real Mary Smiths, especially in a place as big as NYC.
Unfortunately, Judith already knows the woman who shows up at Hillside Manor. She's none other than Ruby Tooms, the world-weary barmaid the cousins met at Oktoberfest in Little Bavaria. Fearing that Judith wouldn't accept her reservation if she used her real name, Ruby arrives with some unexpected baggage—a cold case she dumps on Hillside Manor's Persian carpet. Ruby's mother was strangled after she divorced Jimmy Tooms, Ruby's father. Jimmy was in the clear, behind bars at the time for stealing Judith's wallet when Dan McMonigle's ill-fated Meat & Mingle Café went bust. Ruby wants to know if Judith can use her sleuthing skills to finger a murderer from fifteen years ago.
Judith is about to say no when her husband, Joe Flynn, tells her that the homicide case was his former partner and old pal Woody Price's first murder investigation. Now the game is afoot, and for once Joe is more than willing to help his wife turn a cold case into a hot chase in pursuit of a long-ago killer.
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Top O' the Mournin' (Passport to Peril #2), by Maddy Hunter
finished 7/23 ★★★
WHEN IRISH EYES ARE LYIN'...Emily Andrew is earning some much-needed green by navigating the twisting roads of Ireland with a group of seniors, including her beloved Nana. But once the hearty troupe from Iowa lands on Irish sod, trouble starts brewing: there's a death-defying incident with a horse-drawn carriage . . . and a gender-bending encounter with Emily's ex-husband Jack, now known as Jackie. No wonder Emily has come down with a smarting case of hives.
The plot thickens like Irish stew when the group settles into Ballybantry Castle, where a ghost is said to wander the halls. But it's no blarney when a very real corpse turns up in one of the guest rooms. While the murderous malarkey has Emily step-dancing as fast as she can, one sure thing emerges from the mists: not even St. Paddy himself could drive out the spiteful serpent that slithers among them.
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Trouble in Spades (Nina Quinn #2), by Heather Webber
finished 7/27 ★★★★
Landscaping is Nina Quinn's business, but trouble seems to be her middle name. Saddled with a recently expelled, faithless local-cop husband, a teenaged terror of a stepson, and the yappiest, most unhousebreakable Chihuahua in captivity, Nina needs a respite – and the backyard makeover she's undertaking for her sister Maria and Nate, Maria's fiancé, may do the trick.
But, of course, Nate vanishes mysteriously, and Nina's gardening magic inadvertently turns up a corpse. And with a thief on the prowl who's preying on the neighborhood elderly, a suspicious Pandora's Box of a package arriving on her doorstep, and yet another body inconveniently turning up, Nina's going to have to dig into her community's dirtiest little secrets to regain her peace and sanity – if she can manage to stay alive long enough to enjoy it.
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The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce #2), by Alan Bradley
finished 7/29 ★★★★
Flavia de Luce is a dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders. This time, Flavia finds herself untangling two deaths—separated by time but linked by the unlikeliest of threads.
Flavia thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacy are over – and then Rupert Porson has an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. The beloved puppeteer has had his own strings sizzled, but who’d do such a thing and why? For Flavia, the questions are intriguing enough to make her put aside her chemistry experiments and schemes of vengeance against her insufferable big sisters. Astride Gladys, her trusty bicycle, Flavia sets out from the de Luces’ crumbling family mansion in search of Bishop’s Lacey’s deadliest secrets.
Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What of the vicar’s odd ministrations to the catatonic woman in the dovecote? Then there’s a German pilot obsessed with the Brontë sisters, a reproachful spinster aunt, and even a box of poisoned chocolates. Most troubling of all is Porson’s assistant, the charming but erratic Nialla. All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve – without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head?
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BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 5, PART 2
Not the Killing Type (Booktown #7), by Lorna Barrett
finished 8/1 ★★★★
It’s November in Stoneham, New Hampshire, and that means it’s time for the Chamber of Commerce elections. The race is already a bit heated, as the long-standing Chamber president is being challenged by a former lover—Tricia’s own sister, Angelica. Then local small business owner Stan Berry throws his hat in the ring.
Unfortunately, it’s not there for long when he’s found murdered in the Brookview Inn. The murder weapon is a brass letter opener belonging to the inn’s receptionist. Tricia knows there’s no way the receptionist is a killer. And when Angelica asks Tricia to help clear her name and win the election, she sees little choice except to start snooping. She soon uncovers a ballot box full of lies and betrayals, and a chamber full of people who had grudges against the victim. But were they serious enough to lead to murder? And who truly had something to gain? Tricia will have to do some serious sleuthing before she pulls the lever on a killer.
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Stand By Your Hitman (Bombay Assassins #3), by Leslie Langtry
finished 8/1 ★★★
Missi Bombay is the Bombay Family's inventor. With twin sons about to go to college, she's happy just blowing things up in her lab on her private island. That is, until her next assignment from the family business which just happens to be assassination. As a contestant on a cheap, Canadian knockoff of Survivor, she has to find the bad guy and take him out, while fighting off feelings for Lex, the sexy stuntman.
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Mama Gets Hitched (Mace Bauer #3), by Deborah Sharp
finished 8/4 ★★★★
It may be Mama's fifth try at tying the sacred knot, but that's no reason to tastefully scale back. She's planning the Wedding of the Century in little Himmarshee, Florida – complete with a "Gone With the Wind" theme, her daughters in Scarlett O'Hara dresses, and a ring-bearing Pomeranian sporting a satin vest and top hat.
But what's a bridezilla to do when her caterer is fatally stabbed in the VFW kitchen? With a suspect list as long as the bride's gift registry, daughter Mace must find the real killer before Mama's Special Day turns especially deadly.
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The Red House Mystery, by A. A. Milne
finished 8/6 ★★★
Far from the gentle slopes of the Hundred Acre Wood lies the Red House, the setting for A. A. Milne’s only detective story, where secret passages, uninvited guests, a sinister valet, and a puzzling murder lay the foundations for a classic crime caper. When the local police prove baffled, it is up to a guest at a local inn to appoint himself "Sherlock Holmes" and, together with his friend and loyal "Watson," delve deeper into the mysteries of the dead man. This classic example of Golden Age crime writing is a lost gem from a time before Tigger and a perfectly crafted whodunit with witty dialogue, deft plotting, and a most curious cast of characters.
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One Coffee With (Sigrid Harald #1), by Margaret Maron
finished 8/15 ★★★★
A new series featuring NYPD homicide detective Sigrid Harald There was more than coffee in Professor Quinn's morning coffee. Someone in the art department office had slipped in a spoonful of poison. Among the suspects are a young secretary, an enraged Hungarian maintenance man, and a colleague who had an affair with Quin's wife. NYPD detective Sigrid Harold is called in to find the killer with an artistic temperament and an aptitude for death.
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Unsolicited (Booklover’s Mystery #1), by Julie Kaewert
finished 8/18 ★★★★
London's Plumtree Press has a world-class bestseller of a novel. And the sequel is earmarked to get this old family firm out of the red. But its anonymous author, known to Plumtree only as "Arthur," has apparently vanished, leaving the crucial last five chapters undelivered. Alex already knows they reveal the identity of the characters who smuggled British children to America during World War II. But, of course, this is fiction. So when a lead critic previews the book as a nonfiction exposé, Alex is shocked. Even more so when the critic is murdered...and Alex finds himself the target of a ruthless hunt for the manuscript and bizarre attempts on his life. Ducking newshounds, government officials, and the sniping of jealous publishers, Alex knows only one thing: If he can't find Arthur and untangle the truth, his next season's list may be a posthumous one.
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2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13PROGRESS, SET 6: 7/13
✓ 1 – Your Chariot Awaits, by Lorena McCourtney, finished 8/20 ★★★★
✓ 2 – The Xibalba Murders (Archeological Mystery #1), by Lyn Hamilton, finished 8/29 ★★★★
✓ 3 – Candy Apple Red (Jane Kelly #1), by Nancy Bush, finished 9/1 ★★
✓ 4 – The Curse of the Pharaohs (Amelia Peabody #2), by Elizabeth Peters, finished 9/1 ★★★
✓ 5 – Lost and Fondue (Cheese Shop #2), by Avery Aames, finished 9/3 ★★★
✓ 6 – Cloche and Dagger (Hat Shop #1), by Jenn McKinlay, finished 9/8 ★★★★
✓ 7 – Dead Man's Puzzle (Puzzle Lady #10), by Parnell Hall, finished 9/14 ★★★
✓ 8 – The Alpine Fury (Emma Lord #6), by Mary Daheim, finished 9/23
✓ 9 – Cupcakes Aren't Just for Eating (Trixie Pristine #3), by Laina Turner, finished 9/24
✓ 10 – Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (Agatha Raisin #8), by M.C. Beaton, finished 9/24
✓ 11 – I Shot You Babe (Bombay Assassins #4), by Leslie Langtry, finished 9/25
✓ 12 – The Silver Needle Murder (Tea Shop #9), by Laura Childs, finished 9/27
✓ 13 – Buttercream Bump Off (Cupcake Bakery #2), by Jenn McKinlay, finished 9/30
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 6, PART 1
Your Chariot Awaits, by Lorena McCourtney
finished 8/20 ★★★★
In the course of one week Andi McConnell turns sixty, loses her job, breaks up with her boyfriend, and receives an unexpected inheritance from an eccentric rich uncle--a sleek black stretch limousine with bulletproof windows. She knows it's totally impractical--yet the limo has an allure that Andi can hardly resist. The allure is considerably dampened, however, with the discovery of a dead body in the trunk. So Andi joins forces with a nosy but charming former TV private eye in a bumbling and often hilarious attempt to find the killer.
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The Xibalba Murders (Archeological Mystery #1), by Lyn Hamilton
finished 8/29 ★★★★
Lara McClintoch, her marriage ended and her antiques business sold, eagerly embarks on a trip to Mexico to help an old friend solve a mystery. On arrival, her friend puts off their meeting and then disappears. After Lara witnesses a brazen robbery of a valuable statue of the ancient Mayan civilization and stumbles on a corpse in a museum of antiquities, she becomes a police suspect. Afraid of the police and unsure whom to trust, Lara follows clues pointing to black marketeers and zealous revolutionaries. This dangerous trail takes her to remote archaeological ruins, lush jungles, and bustling streets filled with revelers. Lara engages in a thrilling battle of wits and courage to unmask a killer and stop a tomb-robber in the shadowy world of Xibalba, the Lords of Death.
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Candy Apple Red (Jane Kelly #1), by Nancy Bush
finished 9/1 ★★
Jane Kelly is through following men. She left Southern California for the murky quaintness of Lake Chinook, Oregon, apparently so she could trade her bartending skills for much more glamorous work process serving. And the boyfriend, of course, is long gone. But things have been looking a little brighter lately. Her hobby doing PI work is kind of fun, especially when she lands a real case – that pays real money. But the case is about Bobby Reynolds, best friend of Tim Murphy, the only guy she's never gotten over. Everyone except Tim believed Bobby murdered his young family - isn't that why he vanished? Now Tim's coming home and Jane's on her way to talk to Bobby's father. Looks like Jane'll be trailing men after all - this time with a tape recorder and a camera. To top it off, she's being trailed by a homely pug named Binky, left to her by a distant relative. With a job she's learning as she goes along and her ex back in town, Jane's life just went from stress-free to completely stressed-out. And then there's the dead body ...
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The Curse of the Pharaohs (Amelia Peabody #2), by Elizabeth Peters
finished 9/1 ★★★
Victorian gentlewoman Amelia Peabody Emerson does not relish the joys of home and hearth. For while she and her husband, the renowned archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson, dutifully go about raising their young son, Ramses, Amelia dreams only of the dust and detritus of ancient civilizations. Providentially, a damsel in distress – coupled with a promising archaeological site – demands their immediate presence in Egypt. The damsel is Lady Baskerville, and the site is a tomb in Luxor recently discovered by Sir Henry Baskerville, who promptly died under bizarre circumstances. Amelia and Radcliffe arrive to find the camp in disarray, terrified workers, an eccentric group of guests...and a persistent rumor of a ghost on the grounds. Now the indomitable Amelia must battle evil forces determined to stand between her and her beloved antiquities and make her foray into the truth a most deadly affair.
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Lost and Fondue (Cheese Shop #2), by Avery Aames
finished 9/3 ★★★
The fair town of Providence has settled down to normal after last year's murder. Jonquils are in bloom. The Cheese Shop is thriving. and Charlotte's romance with Jordan is flourishing. But when her friend, Meredith, decides to throw a fund-raiser to create a liberal arts college out of a long-abandoned winery--a winery that is rumored to hold not only buried bodies but buried treasure--Charlotte's joie de vivre deflates like a bad souffle.
Charlotte's fears are realized when an art student is found dead in the wine cellar, and Meredith's niece is the main suspect.
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Cloche and Dagger (Hat Shop #1), by Jenn McKinlay
finished 9/8 ★★★★
Not only is Scarlett Parker’s love life in the loo – as her British cousin Vivian Tremont would say – it’s also gone viral with an embarrassing video. So when Viv suggests Scarlett leave Florida to lay low in London, she hops on the next plane across the pond. Viv is the proprietor of Mims’s Whims, a ladies’ hat shop on Portobello Road bequeathed to both cousins by their beloved grandmother, and she wants Scarlett to finally join her in the millinery business.
But a few surprises await Scarlett in London. First, she is met at the airport not by Viv, but by her handsome business manager, Harrison Wentworth. Second, Viv – who has some whims of her own – seems to be missing. No one is too concerned about the unpredictable Viv until one of her posh clients is found dead wearing the cloche hat Viv made for her – and nothing else. Is Scarlett’s cousin in trouble? Or is she in hiding?
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Dead Man's Puzzle (Puzzle Lady #10), by Parnell Hall
finished 9/14 ★★★
Sherry is off on her honeymoon when Chief Harper comes to Cora Felton, asking her to solve a crossword puzzle found on the body of Old Man Overmeyer. Small problem. Cora is the Milli Vanilli of cruciverbalists. Her niece, Sherry, writes the crossword puzzle column for her.
Cora pokes into Overmeyer’s death, hoping to prove he died of natural causes. She learns the cranky hermit was the sole surviving member of a forty-year-old stock pooling agreement, and before she can say “capital gain,” the town is full of heirs. Complicating things is Sherry’s ex-husband, Dennis, who is playing detective in the hopes of impressing his ex-wife. With Sherry out of town, her restraining order against him is moot, and he is taking full advantage of the fact.
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BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 6, PART 2
The Alpine Fury (Emma Lord #6), by Mary Daheim
finished 9/23 ★★★
For generations the venerable family-owned bank has served the old logging town in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains. But suddenly Marv Peterson, bank president and family patriarch, seems unnaturally distracted; his heirs and employees are jittery. And when a banker from Seattle comes to town, allegedly on a fishing vacation, Emma Lord, editor and publisher of The Alpine Advocate, decides to do a bit of fishing herself.
Abetted by her unsinkable house-and-home editor, Emma snoops for a story and ends up investigating murder – the strangling death of the bank's sexy blonde bookkeeper after a rendezvous at a local motel. Did she die because of whom she knew or what she knew? Sheriff Milo Dodge hasn't a clue, but Emma and The Advocate get set to roll with the shocking reality and the biggest story in history.
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Cupcakes Aren't Just for Eating (Trixie Pristine #3), by Laina Turner
finished 9/24 ★★
Trixie, Berklie, and Sophie are enjoying the success of their bookstore/coffee shop/wine bar, Read-Wine, and planning for Sophie’s upcoming wedding when they start receiving hang up calls. At first they chalk it up to a wrong number but soon the caller reveals himself. It’s Stephen making good on his threat. He wants his money back. The fact that the police confiscated it doesn’t matter to him. He wants it back and has given them a deadline. A deadline they need to meet before anyone else ends up dead. Finding out Sophie’s fiancé isn’t who he says he is a shock but his alter ego might come in handy getting Stephen to leave them alone. But with this much money at stake will he? Or are they in danger?
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Agatha Raisin and the Wizard of Evesham (Agatha Raisin #8), by M.C. Beaton
finished 9/24 ★★
After a home dye job ruins her hair, Agatha Raisin, the prickly yet lovable amateur sleuth, turns to the wonderful new hairdresser in the neighboring town for help. And as Agatha soon learns, Mr. John is as skilled at repairing her coiffure as he is at romancing her heart. But the charming Mr. John isn't all he appears to be. According to gossip around the salon and the village, some of his former clients seem to be afraid of him. Could Mr. John really be a ruthless blackmailer? When a murderer strikes at the busy salon, Agatha must discover the truth and the killer's identity before it's too late.
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I Shot You Babe (Bombay Assassins #4), by Leslie Langtry
finished 9/25 ★★
Life is good for Cy Bombay. He travels from town to town, living off the grid in his tricked out RV with his guinea pig named Sartre. Cy likes balancing his lives as a carney and assassin by exploring fighting styles all over the world. This time, he's off to Mongolia to compete at the Naadaam festival in wrestling, he thinks he has life totally pegged. That is, until he meets Veronica Gale - a naive grad student who can't understand why he doesn't work in his Ph.D field. Throw in a couple of Bombay Family "assignments," and Cy definitely has his hands full.
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The Silver Needle Murder (Tea Shop #9), by Laura Childs
finished 9/27 ★★★★
The Charleston Film Festival has brought Theodosia Browning and the staff of the Indigo Tea Shop a busy week of catering jobs. First up is the opening night gala at the historic Belvedere Theatre. Tinseltown and local luminaries seem to be mingling happily in the glamorously renovated lobby, but Theo notices that the atmosphere backstage is tense. Then famous director Jordan Cole is shot on his way to the podium, and the entire audience witnesses his death silhouetted across the scrim. Never has a festival started off with this big a bang.
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Buttercream Bump Off (Cupcake Bakery #2), by Jenn McKinlay
finished 9/30 ★★★★
Melanie Cooper and Angie DeLaura's Fairy Tale Cupcakes bakery is gearing up for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately someone has iced Baxter Malloy on his first date with Mel's mother. Now Mom's a suspect, and Mel and Angie need to find time around frosting to dig into the man's shady past and discover who served him his just desserts.
And I'm going to see if I can get in one more set of 13 before the end of the year :)
2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13PROGRESS, SET 7: 7/13
✓ 1 – State of the Onion (White House Chef #1), by Julie Hyzy, finished 10/3 ★★★★
✓ 2 – The Whole Enchilada (Goldy Schulz #17), by Diane Mott Davidson, finished 10/4 ★★★★
✓ 3 – Oolong Dead (Tea Shop #10), by Laura Childs, finished 10/6 ★★★★
✓ 4 – Death on Demand (Death on Demand #1), by Carolyn Hart, finished 10/6 ★★★
✓ 5 – Truly, Madly (Lucy Valentine #1), by Heather Webber, finished 10/7 ★★★★
✓ 6 – If You Can't Stand the Heat (Poppy Markham #1), by Robin Allen, finished 10/11 ★★★★
✓ 7 – Edited for Death (Amy Hobbes #1), by Michele Drier, finished 10/11 ★★.5
✓ 8 – Cat on the Edge (Joe Grey #1), by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, finished 10/12 ★★★
✓ 9 – Crazy in Paradise, by Deborah Brown, finished 10/15 ★★★.5
✓ 10 – Christmas Carol Murder (Lucy Stone #20), by Leslie Meier, finished 10/15 ★★★★
✓ 11 – Stranded (Ivy Malone #4), by Lorena McCourtney, finished 10/16 ★★★★
✓ 12 – A Novel Way to Die (Black Cat Bookshop #2), by Ali Brandon, finished 10/19 ★★★
✓ 13 – The Ghost and Mrs. McClure (Haunted Bookshop #1), by Alice Kimberly,
finished 10/24 ★★★★
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 7, PART 1
State of the Onion (White House Chef #1), by Julie Hyzy
finished 10/3 ★★★★
Introducing White House Assistant Chef Olivia Paras, who is rising-and sleuthing-to the top. Includes recipes for a complete presidential menu Never let them see you sweat-that's White House Assistant Chef Olivia Paras's motto, which is pretty hard to honor in the most important kitchen in the world. She's hell-bent on earning her dream job, Executive Chef. There's just one thing: her nemesis is vying for it, too. Well, that and the fact that an elusive assassin wants to see her fry.
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The Whole Enchilada (Goldy Schulz #17), by Diane Mott Davidson
finished 10/4 ★★★★
Goldy Schulz knows her food is to die for, but she never expects one of her best friends to actually keel over when she's leaving a birthday party Goldy has catered. At first, everyone assumes that all the fun and excitement of the party, not to mention the rich fare, did her in. But what looks like a coronary turns out to be a generous serving of cold-blooded murder. And the clever culprit is just getting cooking. When a colleague—a woman who resembles Goldy—is stabbed, and Goldy is attacked outside her house, it becomes clear that the popular caterer is the main course on a killer menu. With time running out, Goldy must roll up her sleeves, sharpen her knives, and make a meal out of a devious murderer, before that killer can serve her up cold.
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Oolong Dead (Tea Shop #10), by Laura Childs
finished 10/6 ★★★★
While riding her horse in a race through the South Carolina Lowcountry, Theodosia Browning finds her arch nemesis, Abby Davis, dead. What's more, the victim's brother is Theodosia's old flame. Who'd have guessed they'd be reunited through cold-blooded murder? Theodosia's investigation takes her from the Lowcountry thicket to the backstage maze of a darkened theater where a maestro of murder waits for the next cue. All proving that when it comes to high drama, Theodosia can give Verdi a run for his money.
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Death on Demand (Death on Demand #1), by Carolyn Hart
finished 10/6 ★★★
At Annie Laurance's Death On Demand bookstore on Broward's Rock Island, South Carolina, murder most foul suddenly isn't confined to the well-stocked shelves. Author Elliot Morgan's abrupt demise during a weekly gathering of famous mystery writers called the Sunday Night Regulars is proof positive that a bloody sword is sometimes mightier than a brilliant pen. With Annie in the unenviable position of primary police suspect, the pretty young mystery maven and her wealthy paramour, Max Darling, embark on an investigation into a classic locked-room mystery with high stakes. For failing to unmask a brutal and ingenious killer could mean prison for Ms. Laurance. While success could mean her death.
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Truly, Madly (Lucy Valentine #1), by Heather Webber
finished 10/7 ★★★★
Lucy Valentine is as smart as can be, as single as you can get, and so not qualified to run a matchmaking service. But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it’s Lucy’s turn to step up and help out—in the name of love.
Plus, her rent is due.
Here’s the problem: Lucy doesn’t have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read “auras” and pair up perfect couples. But not Lucy. Her skills were zapped away years ago in an electrical surge, and now all she can do is find lost objects. What good is that in the matchmaking world? You’d be surprised. In a city like Boston, everyone’s looking for something. So when Lucy locates a missing wedding ring—on a dead body—she asks the sexy private eye who lives upstairs to help her solve the perfect crime. And who knows? Maybe she’ll find the perfect love while she’s at it…
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If You Can't Stand the Heat (Poppy Markham #1), by Robin Allen
finished 10/11 ★★★★
Poppy Markham practically grew up at the family restaurant in Austin, Texas, and, until recently, worked as a sous chef under her surly stepsister, Ursula. Poppy's not sure if her dad will ever forgive her for leaving the family business to become a public health inspector-the most reviled figure in the restaurant industry-but when he asks her back into the kitchen to help out during the restaurant's grand re-opening, she can't refuse. Chaos ensues when the guest of honor, Michelin-rated chef Évariste Bontecou, is found stabbed to death with Ursula's knife. Sacrebleu!
Sorting through everyone who had it in for the hot-headed, philandering French chef is worse than deboning a Coho salmon. Could it be the bad-boy sous chef eyeing his chance at the top or the conniving waitress rumored to be Évariste's paramour du jour? The closer Poppy gets to solving the mystery, the hotter things get. And as everyone knows: if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
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Edited for Death (Amy Hobbes #1), by Michele Drier
finished 10/11 ★★.5
Amy Hobbes never expected to solve anything more than a crossword puzzle. When she left her job as a journalist in Southern California, she planned to give the adrenaline a rest. But she needed a job when her husband announced a move to Chicago with his pregnant girlfriend. A meeting with the local newspaper publisher netted her an offer to be the Managing Editor.
She relies on her friend and police reporter, Clarice Stamms, for support and stories. After a respected Senator and World War II hero dies and two more people turn up dead, the news heats up. Both victims had ties to a hotel owned by the Senator’s family. Research into the family uncovers a shadowy figure, also a World War II veteran, linked to the Senator. The third victim at the hotel is a surprise. It’s a cousin of the current owner—and grandson of the Senator—who’s fallen, or been pushed, from the attic. Visiting the hotel, Amy and a friend meet an urbane European, a Holocaust survivor who’s spent sixty years tracking down Nazi loot. Amy learns that three people have just died to keep the secret of a stolen da Vinci drawing.
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Thanks for such helpful info, Barb. I'm glad Carolyn Hart, which I've collected and at last will read soon, at least got 3 stars. Happy Thanksgiving. We celebrated tonight! Carolyn.
Happy Thanksgiving to you! We'll celebrate ours in about six weeks :) I suspect my 3-star rating for Death on Demand is simply due to the first-in-the-series issue, but I won't know for sure until I read the next book :)
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 7, PART 2
Cat on the Edge (Joe Grey #1), by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
finished 10/12 ★★★
It's been quite a week for Joe Grey. First the large, powerful feline discovers that, through some strange, inexplicable phenomenon, he now has the ability to understand human language. Then he discovers he can speak it as well! It's a nightmare for a cat who'd prefer to sleep the day away carefree, but Joe can handle it. That is, until he has the misfortune to witness a murder in the alley behind Jolly's Deli -- and worse, to be seen witnessing it. With all of his nine lives suddenly at risk, Joe's got no choice but to get to the bottom of the heinous crime -- because his mouse-hunting days are over for good unless he can help bring a killer to justice.
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Crazy in Paradise, by Deborah Brown
finished 10/15 ★★★.5
When Madison Westin inherits her aunt’s beachfront motel in the Florida Keys, or so she thinks. Tarpon Cove is not your typical sleepy beach town: Seduction, drunks, ex-cons and fugitives are not the usual fare for someone looking to start a new chapter in their life. Wrestling control of the property from both the lawyer and the conniving motel manager will be no easy feat. But Madison likes living on the edge so she feels right at home. Bullets fly, a dead body turns up, a kidnapping and blackmail. Madison really has to learn not to leave home without her Glock or it could get her killed.
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Christmas Carol Murder (Lucy Stone #20), by Leslie Meier
finished 10/15 ★★★★
It's Christmas in Tinker's Cove, Maine, and Lucy Stone is excited about her acting debut in the town's production of A Christmas Carol. But a real life Scrooge has everyone feeling frosty, and with a murderer on the loose, Lucy will have to unwrap her sleuthing skills faster than she can say, "Bah! Humbug!"
Lucy normally loves planning for the holidays, but this year, Tinker's Cove has fallen on hard times. With so many residents struggling to make ends meet, Christmas festivities are a luxury some can't afford. But the story's not so bleak at Downeast Mortgage, whose tightfisted owners, Jake Marlowe and Ben Scribner, are raking in profits from everyone's misfortune. Half the town is in their debt, so when the miserly Marlowe is murdered, the mourners are few and the suspects are many. . .
It's hard to feel merry amidst all the yuletide chaos. Between her reporting duties at the Pennysaver and nightly rehearsals for the Christmas play, Lucy hardly has time to search for a killer--especially one whose victim left behind so many possible culprits. Scribner believes Marlowe's ghost has come to warn him of his own impending demise, and when he starts receiving death threats, Lucy wonders if there's more to the omen than the ravings of a bitter old pinchpenny. . . Can Lucy solve the case and deck the halls before the killer strikes again? In a season of giving, receiving a deadly Christmas present is definitely not what Lucy had on her wish list this year.
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Stranded (Ivy Malone #4), by Lorena McCourtney
finished 10/16 ★★★★
Super sleuth Ivy Malone's inquisitiveness has gotten her into plenty of trouble, including murder, mayhem, and a place on a mini-Mafia hit list. Still on the run from the mob, Ivy ends up in a small town in the Pacific Northwest with a broken-down motor home, a young traveling companion running from a violent husband, and a stray cat. With no way to fix their vehicle, Ivy and her companion are invited to stay in an old Victorian house by a compassionate young woman attorney. But when Ivy discovers that the former resident was murdered and that the prime suspect happens to be Ivy's kind benefactor, she's on the case-digging up clues and getting into plenty of trouble along the way.
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A Novel Way to Die (Black Cat Bookshop #2), by Ali Brandon
finished 10/19 ★★★
As the owner of Pettistone’s Fine Books, Darla is settling nicely into her new life, even reaching an uneasy truce with Hamlet. Unfortunately, when she needs to hire a new clerk, the finicky feline decides to lend a paw to the hiring process. He chases away applicants who don’t meet his approval, finally settling on an unlikely candidate: Robert, a book-loving Goth kid who has a secret only Hamlet knows. And Hamlet can’t seem to stay out of trouble. One of the bookstore’s regular customers, a man who is renovating a local brownstone, claims he’s seen Hamlet prowling the neighborhood. When the man’s business partner is found dead, Darla discovers that Hamlet may have been the only witness to what could be murder. With the crafty cat’s help, she wonders if they just might be able to pounce on a killer.
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The Ghost and Mrs. McClure (Haunted Bookshop #1), by Alice Kimberly
finished 10/24 ★★★★
Penelope Thornton-McClure manages a Rhode Island bookshop rumored to be haunted. When a bestselling author drops dead signing books, the first clue of foul play comes from the store's full-time ghost-a PI murdered on the very spot more than fifty years ago. Is he a figment of Pen's overactive imagination? Or is the likable, fedora-wearing specter the only hope Pen has to solve the crime?
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I wondered about Ali Brandon's series. Three stars eh? I love Alice Kimberly's!
The first one in the Ali Brandon series wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either. This one, the second, was better -- probably more like 3.5 stars?
So the first was less good. I hem & haw about Ali Brandon because the protagonist isn't bonded with the cat. Also, as much as I adore critters I like well-written stories. Putting in a cat just to be cute or follow a trend wouldn't do.I enjoyed Alice Kimberly's introductory volume so much, I am excited about the successors, which I own. Lovely discussing novels with you Barb. :)
C. wrote: "So the first was less good. I hem & haw about Ali Brandon because the protagonist isn't bonded with the cat. Also, as much as I adore critters I like well-written stories. Putting in a cat just to be cute or follow a trend wouldn't do."I suspect that the bond with the cat will grow as the series progresses. There were things in book #2 that helped in that regard :)
The main thing, is it one of these 'trying to be cute' trendy novels, or is it well-written?
I don't think it's trying to be cute, the cat *is important to the story. I'm not the best judge of whether or not a story is well-written, but I didn't tear my hair out over grammatical/editing errors -- which happens a lot with some books!
Well-written can mean impeccable grammar, which the world can use more of! But I also mean a great story in some way, that makes you interested to read it through. Despite 3 stars for volume 1. ;) If you found it creative/original/suspenseful.... you were willing to read volume 2 and liked it better so maybe it's worth buying.
Yeah, I know, but I really don't pay attention to the writing itself when I read a book -- unless it's full of those grammatical errors :) If the story entertains me, if it makes me want to pick the book up again after I've had to stop reading, if (as you said) I want to read the next in the series, then I consider it to be well-written. If you look at my Read shelf, you'll see that I'm *very stingy with stars in my ratings. I rarely give five stars to a book, although I would probably give a lot of 4-1/2 star ratings if I could.
Yes, that's it! Many of my reviews say I've been happily surprised by a genre or age-group I don't hang around. You can't go by identical gauges. Well-written means you were glad to read and continue further. I agree!If you're a picky judge, I think you sold me on Ali Brandon. I just prefer someone who adores cats/animals automatically. To be hesitant about one with whom she lives? Not my kind of person.
I don't think Darla, the main character, dislikes cats/animals in general, it's this particular cat -- she inherited the cat along with the bookstore, and it's a rather ... temperamental cat, so she has to learn how to get along with it. Due to some events in book #2, she's learning how to do that :)
Temperamental.... I am 'mother' to seven. I understand a strong-willed mind. Heeheehee. They are all close to my fiancé & I, very involved in our life and affectionate. But opinionated! One is clawing for me to get off the PC right now.
LOL Our 23-yr-old daughter is still living at home -- no decent jobs around here, even for college grads -- so of course, her kitty is part of the family too. Can't count how many times Miss Lily has parked on Daughter's keyboard saying "that's ENOUGH of staring at that screen! Now pay attention to ME!" :D
Funny! A *different* cat (my frisky, 13 year-old Siamese) is meowing behind me. Then I hear him sneaking in & out of an empty box, hoping I'll chase him. I just heard the lid fall.Congratulations to your daughter. With me paying off university at low wages, I couldn't move out till 27. My 20 year-old kitty went with me then, made it another year still. :)
Pets make our lives interesting, that's for sure :)
Uncanny. Now a third cat is competing for my bowl of soup. This 'Mom' can't complain that they don't visit me!
They know you're talking about them? LOL
2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13PROGRESS, SET 8: 13/13
✓ 1 – Cooking the Books (Sloane Templeton #1), by Bonnie S. Calhoun, finished 10/28 ★★★
✓ 2 – The Sudoku Murder (Katie McDonald #1), by Shelley Freydont, finished 10/30 ★★★★
✓ 3 – Gilt Trip (Scrapbooking Mystery #11), by Laura Childs, finished 11/2 ★★★★
✓ 4 – Unlucky, by Jana DeLeon, finished 11/4 ★★★
✓ 5 – Artful Dodger (Maggie Kean Mis-Adventure #1), by Nageeba Davis, finished 11/7 ★★★.5
✓ 6 – The Fatal Funnel Cake (Fresh Baked #8), by Livia J. Washburn, finished 11/14 ★★★.5
✓ 7 – Blessed Is The Busybody (Ministry is Murder #1), by Emilie Richards, finished 11/15 ★★★.5
✓ 8 – If Fried Chicken Could Fly (Country Cooking School #1), by Paige Shelton, finished 11/17 ★★★.5
✓ 9 – Thistle and Twigg (Thistle & Twigg #1), by Mary Saums, finished 11/21 ★★★
✓ 10 – Murder With Peacocks (Meg Langslow #1), by Donna Andrews, finished 11/23 ★★★★
✓ 11 – Till the Cows Come Home (Stella Crown #1), by Judy Clemens, finished 11/26 ★★★.5
✓ 12 – Death Overdue (Killer Librarian #2), by Mary Lou Kirwin, finished 12/3 ★★★★
✓ 13 – Read It and Weep (Library Lover’s #4), by Jenn McKinlay, finished 12/8 ★★★★
BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 8, PART 1
Cooking the Books (Sloane Templeton #1), by Bonnie S. Calhoun
finished 10/28 ★★★
After her mother dies from a heart attack, Sloane Templeton goes from Cyber Crimes Unit to bookstore owner before she can blink. She also "inherits" a half-batty store manager; a strange bunch of little old people from the neighborhood who meet at the store once a week, but never read books, called the Granny Oakleys Book Club; and Aunt Verline, who fancies herself an Iron Chef when in reality you need a cast iron stomach to partake of her culinary disasters. And with a group like this you should never ask, What else can go wrong A lot! Sloane begins to receive cyber threats. While Sloane uses her computer forensic skills to uncover the source of the threats, it is discovered someone is out to kill her. Can her life get more crazy?
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The Sudoku Murder (Katie McDonald #1), by Shelley Freydont
finished 10/30 ★★★★
Professor P.T. Avondale is found murdered at his desk at the Avondale Puzzle Museum. Katie McDonald, master puzzle-solver, has returned home to save her childhood mentor's museum from being auctioned off when she learns of the Professor's death. Now she finds herself curator of the museum and in charge of the Professor's newest mentee, a fourteen-year-old runaway. Katie is now faced with working to solve the puzzle of the Professor's murder before a ruthless killer applies his own deadly solution.
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Gilt Trip (Scrapbooking Mystery #11), by Laura Childs
finished 11/2 ★★★★
Louisiana businessman Jerry Earl Leland served only a fraction of his five-year sentence for white-collar crime, thanks to some political connections and a few greased palms. But he won’t have long to enjoy his freedom…
After Jerry Earl’s early release, his wife, Margo—a much-married Garden District doyenne—throws an extravagant Get Out of Jail Free Party, complete with a Zydeco band, champagne ice luge, and waiters in ties and tails. The guest list includes many prominent New Orleans socialites, as well as scrapbook shop owner Carmela Bertrand and her best friend, Ava Gruiex. But sometime during the swirl of partying and drinking, Jerry Earl is brutally murdered—then stuffed inside a clothes dryer.
Carmela has earned a reputation around town for solving murders, and when the grieving widow turns to her for help, she can’t say no. But Jerry Earl took a lot of people to the cleaners with his underhanded business tactics, so Carmela’s going to be hard-pressed to identify which of his enemies was steamed enough to kill him. As she sorts through Jerry Earl’s dirty laundry, she needs to collar the killer before another victim is set to tumble dry.…
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Unlucky, by Jana DeLeon
finished 11/4 ★★★
Mallory Devereaux is known throughout the town of Royal Flush, Louisiana as a walking disaster and her luck just got worse. She needs to raise ten-thousand dollars in one week to keep the IRS from seizing her adopted fathers business where she works as the demolition foreman. When the opportunity to cool cards at her uncle's casino comes up, Mallory hopes her luck is changing. But when she realizes her uncle has assembled a tournament of criminals, she wonders what she's stepped in the middle of.
FBI agent Jake Randoll needs to take down a money launderer and the poker tournament is the last chance he'll get before the criminal flees the country. Jake obtains the position of dealer with Mallory as his table assistant, but he's not prepared for the mojo that Mallory can serve up in a single touch.
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Artful Dodger (Maggie Kean Mis-Adventure #1), by Nageeba Davis
finished 11/7 ★★★.5
Take one funny, wise-cracking artist, one gorgeous, sexy detective, throw in a grizzly murder, a little amateur sleuthing, and you have the makings of a wild, romantic, mis-adventure. Art teacher and sculptor Maggie Kean thought she was having a rotten day, burning her toast, stubbing her toe, and all before eight in the morning. Things just couldn't get any worse. At least, until the dead body clogs up her toilet. To make matters worse, Maggie becomes the prime suspect. Now all she has to do is evade the police, clear her name, trap a killer...and deal with one mouth-watering, hunky detective who drives her crazy while making her hormones do the happy dance.
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The Fatal Funnel Cake (Fresh Baked #8), by Livia J. Washburn
finished 11/14 ★★★.5
It’s time for the State Fair of Texas—and cooking contests galore! Fryers are heating up and stomachs are growling. But Phyllis Newsom had better watch out. Someone’s brought an appetite for murder.
Phyllis and her friends Carolyn and Sam are ready to whip up their best dishes and win some ribbons in Dallas. And they’re excited to learn that one of their favorite celebrity chefs—Joye Jameson of The Joye of Cooking—is broadcasting her TV show from the fair. When Phyllis’s funnel cake is picked as one of the best of that category, Joye invites her and the other finalists to prepare their delicious recipes live on the air. But Phyllis’s moment in the spotlight is spoiled after Joye suffers a deadly allergic reaction from one bite of her funnel cake. Now she’s gone from top entry to top suspect. So in order to clear her name, Phyllis will have to turn up the heat on this investigation before the real killer slips through her fingers.
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Blessed Is The Busybody (Ministry is Murder #1), by Emilie Richards
finished 11/15 ★★★.5
Meet the unconventional Aggie Sloan-Wilcox, a minister's wife with her own calling: helping troubled souls in need of justice. When the naked body of a murdered woman turns up on Aggie's front porch – and suspicion falls on Aggie's husband – she doesn't have a prayer of clearing his name unless she can uncover the truth in a town not known for confessing its sins.
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BOOK SUMMARIES AND RATINGS - SET 8, PART 2
If Fried Chicken Could Fly (Country Cooking School #1), by Paige Shelton
finished 11/17 ★★★.5
At Gram's Country Cooking School, Betts and Gram are helping students prepare the perfect dishes for the Southern Missouri Show-Down, the cook-off that draws the first of the summer visitors. Everything is going smoothly until they discover the body of local theater owner Everett Morningside in the school's supply closet, and Everett's widow points an accusatory finger at Gram. Now, Betts has to dig deep into Broken Rope's history to find the modern-day killer before the last piece of chicken is served.
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Thistle and Twigg (Thistle & Twigg #1), by Mary Saums
finished 11/21 ★★★
Jane Thistle is a widow who has just settled down in Tullulah, Alabama, after a long and happy life with her husband, a career military officer whose job took them all over the world. But now that she's on her own, she's just as happy to have found this delightful small Southern town to call home. Her new best friend is Phoebe Twigg, also a widow, who has lived in Tullulah all her life. Phoebe is about as different as could be from the worldly and refined Jane Thistle, but her colorful personality and warm, welcoming Southern nature make them quite a team.
The two ladies become fast friends when they stumble on a dead body while on a walk in the woods near Jane's new house. And that's not all of the mysteries interrupting the slow life in Tullulah: Someone seems to be threatening Jane's neighbor, a local old recluse who seems to have more interest in the land than in its inhabitants; a firebomb explodes in Phoebe's kitchen; and unexplainable sounds and objects turn up at the strangest times in Jane's house. Jane and Phoebe quickly become partners in investigation in Mary Saums's funny and charming – and surprising – debut mystery.
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Murder With Peacocks (Meg Langslow #1), by Donna Andrews
finished 11/23 ★★★★
So far Meg Langslow's summer is not going swimmingly. Down in her small Virginia hometown, she's maid of honor at the nuptials of three loved ones – each of whom has dumped the planning in her capable hands. One bride is set on including a Native American herbal purification ceremony, while another wants live peacocks on the law. Only help from the town's drop-dead gorgeous hunk, disappointingly rumored to be gay, keeps Meg afloat in a sea of dotty relatives and outrageous neighbors.
And, in whirl of summer parties and picnics, Southern hospitality is strained to the limit by an offensive newcomer who hints at skeletons in the guests' closets. But it seems this lady has offended one too many when she's found dead in suspicious circumstances, followed by a string of accidents – some fatal. Soon, level-headed Meg's to-do list extends from flower arrangements and bridal registries to catching a killer – before the next catered event is her own funeral.
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Till the Cows Come Home (Stella Crown #1), by Judy Clemens
finished 11/26 ★★★.5
Stella Crown works hard and loves her life. She runs her own dairy farm with the trusted help of longtime assistant Howie, rides her Harley on the weekends, and has enough friends to suit her just fine.
But on her twenty-ninth birthday, things start to change. A neighborhood child dies from a strange and threatening illness, a string of mysterious disasters place Stella and her farm in peril, not to mention her friend Abe showing up with a new woman on his arm, creating confusing emotions all around. Electrical outages, flooded barns, and cows running loose in the countryside are bad enough, but when her livestock begins turning up dead, Stella knows someone, or something, is out to get her.
Though doctors quickly announce the discovery of the neighbor child's cause of death, another child dies before they can declare victory over the illness, sending the community into a state of near panic. While trying to solve the mystery behind her own troubles, Stella begins to think she alone might hold the answers to the children's deaths.
Striking out on her own, afraid to trust anyone -- friends, neighbors, or the gorgeous stranger she's fallen for -- Stella must find her enemy before anyone else, including herself, ends up dead.
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Death Overdue (Killer Librarian #2), by Mary Lou Kirwin
finished 12/3 ★★★★
Spunky librarian Karen Nash is back in London and planning to open a bookstore with her beau, Caldwell Perkins, who owns a B&B. Unexpectedly, Sally, Caldwell’s tall, gorgeous, and blonde ex-girlfriend shows up—possibly to reclaim the B&B—and just maybe Caldwell, too. Sally’s current boyfriend, Alfredo, joins her, and they take a room.
That night, Karen is awakened by a horrible crash. Caldwell isn’t in bed with her. She rushes out to the hall to find him standing in the doorway of the inn’s library with a look of horror on his face. Inside the room all Karen can see is a woman’s hand sticking out from under a massive pile of pages and wood. While Sally’s death appears an accident, Karen finds it hard to believe. How did the heavy oak bookshelf topple over? Karen fears Sally has been murdered. The detective on the case comes to the same conclusion and decides Caldwell is the most likely suspect.
In order to save her boyfriend, Karen must figure out what Sally was looking for in the library and what Caldwell was doing up in the middle of the night. A story of intrigue and revenge, Death Overdue is a page-turning mystery featuring a loveable heroine who loves books almost as much as she loves her man.
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Read It and Weep (Library Lover’s #4), by Jenn McKinlay
finished 12/8 ★★★★
Answering Shakespeare trivia comes with the job description for library director Lindsey Norris. But when the Briar Creek Community Theater mounts their newest production of the Bard, she has no intention of leaving the stacks for the stage. Unfortunately a villain is waiting in the wings.
Former Broadway actress Violet La Rue is holding auditions for A Midsummer Night’s Dream—and everyone from the sour spinster librarian Ms. Cole to Lindsey’s youthful library pages are trying out for parts. Brought in to play the mischievous Puck is the flirtatious professional actor Robbie Vine, who seems to have eyes for Lindsey. Before her blush has faded, the Bard’s dream turns into a nightmare—when one of the cast is poisoned. Now Lindsey and her crafternooners must take center stage to unmask the culprit before the final curtain call.
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And I'm calling this one finished! This is one of my favorites, so I've already signed up again for 2014 :)
Hi Barb! Per our discussion previously; animals understand everything we say without a doubt. It's a matter of whether they feel like obliging a request. haha Guess what? Folks will take a bit to find out but I added 3 new reading challenges to the community! :)One for anything spiritual, paranormal; one for ANY mystery (all the cozy we do together, even author biographies & how-to's); one pair of word games from which to choose. I've been meaning to let Yvonne know. As I become a new hostess, I take what I learned from great ones like her. http://cmriedel.wordpress.com/riedel-...
Good luck with your new challenges! I'll check them out after work today :)
Cruisin' thru the Cozies Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Read It and Weep (other topics)Death Overdue (other topics)
If Fried Chicken Could Fly (other topics)
Murder with Peacocks (other topics)
Thistle and Twigg (other topics)
More...
2013 SUPER COZY SLEUTH, 1/1 - 12/31/13
PROGRESS, SET 1: 13/13
✔ 1 - Bedeviled Eggs (Cackleberry Club #3), by Laura Childs, finished 1/5
✔ 2 - Murder Most Frothy (Coffeeshop #4), by Cleo Coyle, finished 1/6
✔ 3 - What the Cat Dragged In (Jacques & Cleo #1), by Gilbert Morris, finished 1/8
✔ 4 - The Body in the Library (Miss Marple #3), by Agatha Christie, finished 1/10
✔ 5 - In Plain Sight (Ivy Malone #2), by Lorena McCourtney, finished 1/13
✔ 6 - A Body to Die For (Bailey Weggins #2), by Kate White, finished 1/14
✔ 7 - Nowhere to Run (KEY News #6), by Mary Jane Clark, finished 1/20
✔ 8 - Crocodile on the Sandbank (Amelia Peabody #1), by Elizabeth Peters, finished 1/24
✔ 9 - The Lord Is My Shepherd (Psalm 23 Mysteries #1), by Debbie Viguie, finished 2/5
✔ 10 - One Hot Murder (Victoria Square #3), by Lorraine Bartlett, finished 2/13
✔ 11 - Never Sorry (Leigh Koslow #2), by Edie Claire, finished 2/15
✔ 12 - To Have and to Kill (Piper Donovan #1), by Mary Jane Clark, finished 2/15
✔ 13 - Easter Bunny Murder (Lucy Stone #19), by Leslie Meier, finished 2/18
***** 1st SET OF 13 COMPLETED 2/18 *****