Book Reviews – Page 100 – Carol's Notebook

The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen

December 30, 2019December 30, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

The Twelve Clues of Christmas was such a fun mystery! I don't know why I have never read any of this series before, but this not only worked as a stand-alone, it was good enough that I've already picked up the next. Lady Georgiana Rannoch escapes her brother's bleak castle in Scotland by accepting a job as hostess at a house party held by Lady Hawse-Gorzley in the village of Tiddleton-under-Lovey. The house party is made up of mosty paying guests there to celebrate a traditional English Christmas, complete with caroling, parlor games, and some of the villages more peculiar customs. The problem is that people are dying, one a day, seemingly from accidents, but really how many accidents can occur in one small village? Of course they're murders. Although all the dead are villagers, Georgie feels she must do what she can to help stop the killings. Georgie is smart and independent, and flat broke. She's entertaining and just delightful....

A Rumpole Christmas by John Mortimer

December 20, 2019December 20, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

I have some books that come out every year with the Christmas decorations. Some I've read multiple times, like A Christmas Carol, and some I haven't gotten around to yet. This year I finally picked up A Rumpole Christmas from the stack and thoroughly enjoyed the stories. I'm familiar with Rumpole of the Bailey and "She Who Must Be Obeyed." I feel like I must have seen some episodes back when it was on PBS Mystery! which we used to watch almost weekly. Barrister Horace Rumpole, defender of the criminal class, loves his work. Fortunately, work finds him even during the Christmas holidays, whether it be spending Christmas at a health farm when a murder occurs, meeting former clients under interesting circumstances, or being booked into the same hotel as a judge. Rumpole character is funny, wry, and insightful, and some of his comments about terrorists and the Church could have been made now. He honestly enjoys defending his...

The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward

December 19, 2019December 19, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

The Christmas Pact was a short, sweet romance with a lot of Christmas decorations in the background. On the surface, it's a fun story. The couple meet after occasionally, accidentally receiving each other's work e-mails. Riley Kennedy and Kennedy Riley - you can see how that might get confusing. Riley is pretty sure Kennedy is a jerk, he insists on actually reading her e-mails and adding his two cents before forwarding them to her. They agree to pose as a couple over the Christmas holiday. It will help them both with family issues. Surprise, surprise, they actually start to have feelings for each other. I sound sarcastic, but the story was full of tender, endearing moments when they connected well. And of course, we get a happy ending. Riley was a good character, funny, insecure, cute. Kennedy, however, I wasn't actually fond of. When he was on his good behavior, he was sweet, amusing, and of course sexy, but his...

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...

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley by Leighann Dobbs

December 17, 2019December 16, 2019 by CarolNo Comments

Grievance in Gingerbread Alley is the second of the Christmas Village Cozies. They're both quick fun reads and I read this one right after the first. Gus is on vacation in Christmas Village, playing jazz piano at the North Pole Lounge. She knows Christmas Village can't be as perfect and cheery as it seems. While she's out and about she watches as a protester keels over, obviously poisoned, and she can't help investigating. The woman was protesting the treatment of the birds in Christmas Village: the partridge, French hens, geese, swans, turtle doves. There are lots of suspects in her death with the birds' caretakers and the philandering husband and his mistress, at the top of the list. The problem, at least for Gus, is that the local detective in charge was one of her teachers at the police academy. They apparently never got along well, and not Detective Winters is insisting Gus stay out of the way. So Gus, and...

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...