Purchased – Page 51 – Carol's Notebook

Malice at the Palace by Rhys Bowen

January 7, 2020January 6, 2020 by Carol4 Comments

I've been on a bit of a Royal Spyness kick lately. They're light and easy to follow when I'm doing other things. Georgie is delightful as always. This time around, Georgie is staying at Kensington Palace and showing Princess Marina around London. She is the fiancee of the King's sons, George. And then a dead body shows up in the courtyard, a woman who had plenty of lovers including George himself. Georgie gets roped into helping the detective due to her position, but also does a fair amount of investigating on her own. The mystery was fine with a few suspects and some red herrings. Malice at the Palace touches on the plight of unwed mothers at the time, too. The characters are really the highlight. Georgie is fun and caring and smart. She's a bit naive, but I'm not sure how, given the behavior and talk of her mother and her best friend, both of whom are far from innocent....

Mailbox Monday – 12/23

December 23, 2019February 5, 2020 by Carol10 Comments

Mailbox Monday is the gathering place for readers to share the books that came in their mailbox during the last week. Warning: Mailbox Monday can lead to envy, toppling TBR piles and humongous wish lists. Tell us about your new arrivals by adding your Mailbox Monday post to the linky at mailboxmonday.wordpress.com. I received a wonderful package from by Bookish Secret Santa, Adam at Roof Beam Reader. I also picked up Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke....

Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey

December 18, 2019December 18, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

Apple Cider Slaying is the first book in a new series. I've read a couple books by this author (under her pseudonym) before and enjoyed them well enough, but what drew me to this one was the Christmassy setting. Winnie has returned to her hometown, Blossom Valley, West Virginia to help Granny turn around the family business. She has plans to open a cider shop, allowing Granny's orchard to make money year-round, but she needs a loan. While leading the banker on a tour of the property, she finds the neighbor dead in the cider press, the neighbor who was in a decades-long feud with Granny. Winnie decides she has to do some investigating because she can't bear the thought of her grandmother being accused. She and the sheriff butt heads a bit, but he's the potential love interest, so of course he's mostly concerned with her safety. In the meantime, she decides to go ahead with a Christmas Festival...

Cadaver on Candy Cane Lane by Leighann Dobbs

December 17, 2019December 16, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

Cadaver on Candy Cane Lane is a fun, quirky mystery novella. Christmas Village is Christmas village. It's where elves make toys, a pear tree grows in the middle of winter, swans swim in the lake, and reindeer talk. A lot of the activities are for tourists, tourism is big business for Christmas village, but so is toy-making and shipping. Alfie, the murdered elf, was the Union Rep at the toy factory and a strike was on the horizon. There are a lot of feelings, and motives, on both sides of the issue. Our amateur detective is Ember from Dobbs' Silver Hollow series, which I haven't read. The idea of the mash-up is cute and I didn't feel like I missed anything from not having read the other. Ember is sweet and trying to prove that she is a good detective too. She's in Christmas village helping her aunt Phoebe, the candy lady, get enough stock ready for the holidays, and one...

An Ale of Two Cities by Sarah Fox

December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 by CarolNo Comments

I picked up An Ale of Two Cities thanks to Kensington's November Mystery launch party on Facebook. I had not heard of the Literary Pub series before, but it sounded like a fun idea. Sadie, our amateur sleuth runs a bar, the Inkwell, that serves food and drink with book pun names and the shelves are full of her book collection. I wish we had a place like that in our town. This is the second in the series, but it worked fine as a stand-alone for me. I skipped to #2 because it's set around Christmas, which was the second draw for me. It's Winter Carnival Time in Shady Creek, Vermont. One of the highlights is the ice sculpture contest and one of Sadie’s employees, Mel, has entered. One of the other contestants is a local man who made it big in Boston and is now a famous chef. He's a jerk and treats everyone in town like...

The Christmas Egg by Mary Kelly

December 9, 2019December 9, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

Three days before Christmas, Inspector Nightingale is called to the scene of a suspicious death. An elderly woman has been found dead in her bed. It may have been natural cause, but she has been robbed. Nightingale discovers she was a Russian princess who had fled to Britain during the Revolution, bringing with her jewelry and valuable pieces of art. There has been a recent spate of burglaries and Nightingale suspects this is another by the same group. We know from the beginning that the princess's grandson is probably involved and there's never really any doubt that it's connected to the other thefts. The bulk of the book follows Nightingale and his sergeant as they identify and catch the thieves. While the story takes place around Christmas, it's not very Christmassy. There are no interrupted celebrations, no warm feelings. There is a bit of present buying, but even that turns out questionable, and traipsing through the snow can be deadly....