Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

Murder by Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage

by Carol2 Comments
I remember watching the Golden Girls back in the '80s and '90s when I was in high school and have caught reruns occasionally since then. It's not one of my favorite tv shows necessarily, but it's fun and the actresses are fabulous. So, of course I had to pick up Murder by Cheesecake for the nostalgia alone. In this first of the series, Dorothy goes on a very awkward first date with a guy. She doesn't plan on seeing him again. At the same time, Rose's niece is getting married in Miami instead of St. Olaf, and in the midst of the pre-wedding festivities, a dead man is found in the freezer - Dorothy's date, which makes her a prime suspect. The four women have to solve the murder to clear Dorothy's name while also helping Rose with the wedding. The book is set in the 1980s and I felt like the author was true to both the tv and...
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A Death in the Dark by Ellie Alexander

A Death in the Dark by Ellie Alexander

by CarolNo Comments
This is the second in the Novel Detectives series, which is a spin off of another series, but I think it be easily read as a stand alone. Annie and Fletcher run both a bookstore and a detective agency. Thankfully, they have solid employees at the store, so can take the time they need for their investigations. This time around they are in the office early, when running coach from the local high school arrives, covered in blood, with no memory of the night before. He wants their help figuring out what happened. Of course, it's not long till they find a dead body and start to wonder if their client is a murderer. Our mystery centers around the high school and the track team. We have a couple of solid suspects and Annie gets to use some of their new techy purchases to gather clues. It's pretty easy to guess the killer though. As always, I love Annie and Fletcher....
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Murder with a Side of Shrimp and Grits by Skylar Warren

Murder with a Side of Shrimp and Grits by Skylar Warren

by CarolNo Comments
I almost quit reading Murder with a Side of Shrimp and Grits during the first chapter. The Mayor comes into the Honeybee Cafe during their anniversary celebration, has a couple bites of his usual shrimp and grits and dies of an allergic reaction. This book is nothing if not overly descriptive, which was a bit much for me with a death from anaphylactic shock immediately followed by glares of suspicion directed towards Jessie, cook/owner of Honeybees, from the rest of the customers, many of whom had known her since she was a child. And Jessie immediately begins to catastrophize the situation. Turns out she wasn't too far off, but the immediate overreactions all around didn't make sense to me. I mean reacting to the death makes sense, it's the immediate suspicion and "they're all going to hate me" that didn't. As I mentioned, we get log details descriptions of everything, which sometimes worked and sometimes felt like the author threw every...
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The Book Club Murders by Maggie Allswell

The Book Club Murders by Maggie Allswell

by CarolNo Comments
I genuinely disliked this book. The set up is good - a book club that typically reads serial killer book finds a real life murder that needs solved. Wendy, a local librarian, is dead - the police have decided it's a suicide, but Judy, the book groups oldest member, is sure it was murder and convinces everyone that they need to investigate. I even like the characters for the most part. The group consists of mostly women and one man. They are a variety of ages and have a variety of occupations, several of which are useful in their hunt for clues. I was annoyed with how the author portrayed Judy. She's only in her sixties and works at least part time, but she can't even text? There are several text/ WhatsApp messages throughout the book. I listened to the audio and the narrator actually handled them well. And I honestly don't know any women of that age who have...
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Murder at Raven’s Gate by Louise Marley

Murder at Raven’s Gate by Louise Marley

by CarolNo Comments
I thoroughly enjoy this series. Raven's Edge is a village that has a leaned into its past and maybe embellished it a bit. It leans into the spooky, and witchy, and ghostly. We've got two mysteries this time around. A "ghost" has been haunting Blackheath Hall, where two older sisters, Lady Peony and Rose, live. Lady Peony is far from a scared, little old lady. She knows fully well that the knocking is not really a ghost, but someone trying to scare them out of the house. She hires Kieran Drake to figure out who is behind it, so he and Milla Graham have set up shop at the hall to keep watch. In the meantime and not too far away, DS Harriet March's date with Misha from the coffee shop, is cut short when, while on a ghost tour, they find a dead body in a shallow grave. I like that Harriet was leading the investigation this time around,...
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