Carol – Carol's Notebook

An Enemy in the Village by Martin Walker

October 3, 2025October 3, 2025 by Carol1 Comment

I've read a couple of the earlier books in the Bruno, Chief of Police series and enjoyed them. This one was boring. Bruno does a lot of riding and eating. We see a lot of his dog. The death takes place at the beginning of the book, but while Bruno talks to some people, the investigation doesn't really accomplish much until the last chapter or two, when it all falls in to place too quickly. In the meantime, we get a bunch of village life and some territorial disputes among the various police forces and some bad behavior among the gendarmes. Bruno is a likeable character. He truly cares about the people of his village and doing his job. The food descriptions were wonderful and tempting. I just need more from the plot. Maybe if I had read the series from the beginning and cared more about the characters I wouldn't have minded so much, but I kept asking when we...

A Brew for Chaos by Esme Addison

October 2, 2025October 2, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I remember liking the first two Enchanted Bay Mysteries, which is why I picked up A Brew for Chaos, but looking back at my comments now, I definitely enjoyed the first more than the second. As for A Brew for Chaos, I really should have skipped it. It's fall in Bellamy Bay and Oktoberfest is coming up. I was hoping for all the fall vibes and a cozy mystery, which is not what I got. And I should have been prepared based on how I felt about the second, but I only remembered the cute town, the close-knit family, the bit of mermaid magic. Instead I got more paranormal than cozy and more government conspiracy than killer down the block. The characters are mostly well-developed and the topics it brings are worth discussing, especially in light of the political climate, but it did have me rolling my eyes occasionally at how outlandish some of the plot was. I think this is...

October Cloak and Dagger Link-Up

October 1, 2025October 1, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

Happy October! Is anyone reading anything spooky this month? I'm thinking maybe a little light horror, like Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. Anybody have any favorite spooky books, whether Cloak and Dagger reads or not? I read The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre earlier this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. Link you Cloak and Dagger reads below or in the comments. You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter...

Death at Silent Pool by Benedict Brown

October 1, 2025October 1, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

This is the 14th entry in the Lord Edgington Investigates series, but I have only read a few here and there. Lord Edgington is a famous retired detective, a bit cold and arrogant, but he's usually accompanied by his twenty year-old grandson, Christopher, who is both our narrator and Edgington's apprentice. Christopher is clever, but also friendly and charming. Lord Edgington is looking into the disappearance of Patience Hindmarsh, the wife of a member of parliament, but her husband/main suspect in her disappearance is being uncooperative, until his own life is threatened. There are a lot of murders in this one, which makes getting to the solution difficult. The Hindmarsh family patriarch is an abusive man and when he is killed all of the children are viable suspects. It's not a light mystery. It's dark and sad, different from the others I've read in the series. We've got several twists and turns on the way to the solution. I listened...

Armstrong and Oscar Cozy Mysteries #1 – 4

September 25, 2025September 25, 2025 by Carol4 Comments

I was looking for a book set in Italy and found Murder in Tuscany. It was fun and I ended up listening to the first four in the series, one right after the other, from the library. Retired DCI Dan Armstrong is a fish out of water at a writing retreat in Tuscany. Yes, he's an aspiring writer, but definitely not of erotica. Then someone is killed and he's helping the local police solve the crime between writing classes and sight-seeing. I loved the setting, a large villa in the Italian hills. We have a closed circle of suspects, several of whom are hiding secrets. Dan is a bit sexist and a bit mopey, but it's a quick read and the dead guy was not a good person, by any stretch of the imagination. Dan is staying in Tuscany, has a house and a dog and everything. He agrees to help the local chief and his friend Virgilio catch the killer,...

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer by Ragnar Jónasson

September 24, 2025September 23, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I have not read anything by Jónasson, including the first in this trilogy, which maybe was a mistake. We get enough background that I knew what was going on, but at least one subplot is carried over into this one and I might have been more invested in the characters. Famous crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir is missing and our Detective Helgi is assigned the case. Helgi is a fan of Golden Age mysteries and turns to them for inspiration occasionally, which I enjoyed. Helgi interviews those her friends, in the hopes of solving the case before the press find out and we get bits and pieces of an interview she gave in 2005 that has yet to be published. Maybe she's just taking some time away, which she's done before. The book also shows us a bank robbery that took place in 1965 that probably has a connection to the disappearance because why else would it be introduced. I didn't...