Audiobook – Page 5 – Carol's Notebook

Coconut Drop Dead by Olivia Matthews

December 13, 2023December 14, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Coconut Drop Dead is the third in the series. I've read them all in order, which I think gives a fuller picture of Lyndsay, her family, and their community. I do think this would work as a stand alone though, and to be honest it might be the best so far. Lyndsay Murray and her family are busy with the Caribbean American Heritage Festival when Camille Abbey falls to her death down a flight of stairs. Camille is the lead singer of DratonFlyZ an up-and-coming reggae band and seemed like an honestly nice woman. Lyndsay's cousin, Manny, certainly thought so. He is devastated by Camille's death and sure it was murder, so Lyndsay and the rest of the family decide to look into it. Lyndsay is a great main character and is becoming more confident as the series continues. I like how the author incorporates the food and culture of the West Indies. Their heritage is important to the people in Little...

Baking Spirits Bright by Sarah Fox

December 11, 2023December 11, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Baking Spirits Bright is a pretty typical cozy mystery, which I mean in a good way - I enjoy the formula. We have a cute small town setting, a culinary theme, a cop as the potential love interest, two mischievous cats, and this time around it's Christmas. I did not read the first in the series, but I didn't feel like I missed much. Becca has moved back to her hometown and is busy preparing holiday sweets for the family chocolate shop. Her best friend and sidekick, Dizzy Bautista, convinces her to enter the annual Baking Spirits Bright competition, but the excitement of the contest is dampened when one of the bakers is murdered. Even though her friend, Sawyer Maguire, who is on the local police force, tells Becca to stay out of it for her own safety, Becca can’t help but launch her own investigation into the death. The dead woman was not a nice person, so we have plenty...

The Twelve Books of Christmas by Kate Carlisle

November 30, 2023December 14, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

I've read a couple of the previous Bibliophile Mysteries and enjoyed them well enough, so since I'm a sucker for Christmas cozy, I picked up The Twelve Books of Christmas. This time around Brooklyn gets a call on Christmas Eve from her good friend Claire, who is in Scotland. Claire is preparing to marry Cameron, a castle laird, on New Year's Day and wants Brooklyn and Derek to be there. So the couple, along with Brooklyn's parents, fly to Scotland. Claire also hopes that while she's there Brooklyn will help solve a mystery- a dozen Christmas-related books, some quite valuable, have gone missing from the castle library. Of course, there's trouble. Most of the women in town, including the castle's new librarian, seem to be anti-Claire. Then, Brooklyn and Derek find a dead body in one of the castle's closets. They, of course, have to investigate the murder in addition to the missing books - which may or may not be...

The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong

November 29, 2023December 20, 2023 by Carol2 Comments

The Curse of Penryth Hall is engrossing. Ruby, our protagonist, is a disgraced heiress living in exile in Exter. There she works for her landlord, Mr. Owen, who sells rare books. Ruby is jaded, drinks too much, and is rather reckless. She's also generous and stubborn. As the book opens, Mr. Owen sends her with a box of books to a small village in Cornwall. The books, it turns out, are for Ruan Kivell, the town's Pellar, a wise man/witch/folk healer character. After making her delivery she stops a Penryth Hall to visit Tamsyn, an old friend with whom she has a complicated history. It's clear at dinner that Tamsyn's husband is not a good man. The reader is not surprised when he ends up dead the next morning, a victim of "the curse" according to the locals. Ruby doesn't believe in curses, but she does believe in protecting her friend and uncovering the truth. Cornwall is a superstitious, suspicious place still...

Enchanted Hill by Emily Bain Murphy

November 20, 2023November 20, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

Brimming with Old Hollywood glitz and mystery, Enchanted Hill follows two outsiders, an aspiring private investigator and an alleged thief/murderer, as they infiltrate the estate of Truman Byrd, newspaper owner and Hollywood producer. The story takes place during a week-long house party with a group of movie stars, political figures, and powerful "friends" all vying for fortune, prestige, and power. The estate is lovely and exotic and filled with hidden spaces and secret doors. The atmosphere is both sparkling and privileged and claustrophobic. Cora, our PI, is runing out of time to gather the evidence she needs when the last person she ever imagined seeing again shows up with a new name and dyed hair - Jack. Their history is complicated and the author does a good job dealing with the tensions and attractions between them. I went into the book expecting a historical mystery, which it is, but for me it felt more like a romance or romantic suspense....

The Twelve Days of Murder by Andreina Cordani

November 13, 2023November 13, 2023 by CarolNo Comments

A group of friends who met at university were members of The Masquerade Murder Society where they played immersive murder mystery games. The last Christmas Masquerade ended on badly when Karl, the "victim," disappeared from a locked room and was never seen again. The police were called in but never found any solid leads. The group disbanded but twelve years later, Karl's sister, Ani, has invited them all on a Christmas getaway to a remote Scottish hunting lodge, for one more Christmas murder mystery. When the guests arrive, Ani hasn't shown up yet, but everything has been planned and the murder mystery starts as scheduled. The theme this time around is The Twelve Days of Christmas with characters like Lady Partridge, Lord Leapworth, and Mr. Gold. The group, along with the caterer, is snowed in and, of course, tensions rise and secrets are revealed. Then one of them is found dead and it becomes clear that one of the group...