Book Reviews – Page 63 – Carol's Notebook

The Christmas Train by David Baldacci

December 3, 2020December 10, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

The Christmas Train has just about everything: romance, adventure, mystery and holiday cheer. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a great seasonal read, maybe a little cheesy in parts, but that's okay for a Christmas read. Our main character is Tom Langdon. Tom used to be a war correspondent but he had had enough of war. He now was doing fluff pieces but is still always on the move, going her and there to research stories. Tom has been dating a Hollywood voice over actress for about 3 years off and on in a long distance sort of relationship. So, it was almost Christmas and he needed to get from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles to spend the Holiday with his girlfriend. He wasn’t allowed to fly due to a slight “misunderstanding” with airport security. Tom was distantly related to Mark Twain and it was Tom’s father’s dying wish for Tom to write a piece about train travel, something Mark Twain had attempted...

The Hour of Death by Jane Willan

December 2, 2020December 3, 2020 by Carol2 Comments

I picked up The Hour of Death because of its Christmas-time setting. It's the second in the series, but the first I've read and it worked fine. I felt like I got to know the characters well. I got enough background but not too much. I enjoyed Sister Agatha for the most part. She's smart and tenacious, if a bit overly suspicious. Amateur sleuths pretty much have to be though. I could have done without her constant reference to other fictional detectives. Don't get me wrong, I adore Gamache and Jessica Fletcher, but she referred to them way too often. She stands on her own well, she doesn't constantly need to refer to other detectives. The nuns are an interesting group of women. While they do pray and sing and worship, they also make cheese and text each other and have an artist as a tenant. I think the Advent touches were some of my favorites: the hymns, the idea...

The Diva Wraps It Up by Krista Davis

November 25, 2020November 24, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

It's Christmas time in Old Town, usually a wonderful time of year for Sophie and her neighbors, but this season we have a sprinkling of murder and mayhem. Horace Scroggins falls from a balcony during his office Christmas party. Baxter Babineaux, Sophie's neighbor falls off of his ladder decorating his house for the Annual Christmas lighting Contest. And then, at the annual Christmas Cookie Swap hosted by Gwen Babineaux, tempers flare when Gwen snaps unflattering pictures of Natasha, Sophie's rival domestic diva and girl friend of Sophie's ex-husband Mars. After the cookie Swap, Gwen is found murdered, wrapped up like a Christmas present complete with a bow in Natasha's garage. Obviously, Natasha comes under suspicion, but it turns out that there is more than one person who may have had a motive. Apparently Gwen has several secrets and what if the other accidents were not actually accidents. Sophie and her friends need to find out who in their neighborhood is...

Murder at the Gorge by Frances Evesham

November 24, 2020November 24, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

Murder at the Gorge is number seven in the series, but the first I've read. It worked well as a stand-alone, but I feel like I might have been more invested in the relationship between Max and Libby and their wedding preparations if I had read the series from the beginning. Max Ramshore, a former financial advisor, and his fiancée Libby Forest, a baker and chocolate maker, have formed a private investigation agency and are sometimes called upon by the police to assist in local inquiries. They met later in life, both having been married with families before, and now are looking forward to their wedding in a few weeks' time. Then Max gets a call from his ex-wife, who he hasn't talked to in years. She wants his help; she thinks she's being stalked. Of course, Max agrees to meet her at a local park and then, on his way back to his car, he finds a dead body....

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

November 22, 2020December 18, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

The Man in the Brown Suit has been on my list to read for a while. I've read a lot of Agatha Christie's, but this is a Colonel Race book, and he has never been my favorite of her characters. Honestly, I should have read it earlier. Anne Beddingfield, our amateur sleuth, is awesome. She's practical, but full of grit and she doesn't frighten easily. She's also a hopeless romantic. Anne was raised by her anthropologist father, a well-known academic but a poor man more wrapped up in the dead than the living. After he dies, Anne refuses a more "suitable" arrangement and determines to find adventure. Then it happens - a man on the train platform near her falls to his death after seeing something that frightens him. The doctor who tends to the man wears a brown suit, and after he leaves hurriedly, Anne has her suspicions as to whether or not he is actually a doctor. She...

Dying in a Winter Wonderland by Vicki Delany

November 21, 2020November 19, 2020 by CarolNo Comments

We were at Barnes & Noble a couple weeks ago and they had a display table out of Christmas cozy mysteries. David should be pleased that I only picked Up Dying in a Winter Wonderland and not all of them. Maybe I should go back? This is the first in the Year-Round Christmas series that I've read, but I felt like I was able to jump right in. I adored Merry and her family and kind of wished I lived in a town like Rudolph. The other characters, friends, employees, boyfriend, are a quirky group, in a fun way. Merry is ready to celebrate another magical Christmas in her hometown and business at her store is booming. However, Luanne arrives to throw everything into chaos. For some unknown reason, Merry had agreed to style Luanne's July wedding, but Luanne's just informed her that she's moved the wedding up- to February! But when the fiance turns up dead and Merry's brother is the...