eARC – Page 16 – Carol's Notebook

Egg Drop Dead by Vivien Chien

February 19, 2020February 19, 2020 by Carol4 Comments

I actually don't read many foodie cozy mysteries, but the Noodle Shop Mysteries are an exception. First, I do love Chinese restaurant food. When I was pregnant, we ate at the same Chinese restaurant in the mall that the woman who owned it gave us a baby present. Second, it takes place in Cleveland, Ohio, and I always enjoy it when a story is set somewhere I've been and Amber's college is about 30 minutes away. Third, Lana's a good character and her family is a hoot. Lana's first catering job is going well - until the murder of course. Donna Feng, a long-time friend of the Lee family, is clearly the most likely suspect to have killed her nanny, but she asks Lana to help prove her innocence by figuring out who the killer actually was. This is Lana's fifth "investigation" but this time she may be in over her head. I do think this would work as a stand-alone,...

Mailbox Monday – 11/11

November 11, 2019January 6, 2020 by Carol12 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 this one thanks to NetGalley....

Beyond a Reasonable Stout by Ellie Alexander

October 9, 2019October 9, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

I'm not a beer drinker, but my husband and our friends are, so I hear a lot of beer talk. Fall is his favorite time of year for beer, and I think that was part of the reason I was attracted to Beyond a Reasonable Stout. I enjoyed learning a bit more about the brewing process; it's interesting and while I realized a lot had to go into it, I've never really read anything about the process. Oktoberfest is over and Sloan and Garrett are starting to work on their winter beers. Leavenworth is a town whose livelihood is the tourist industry and that centers around their craft breweries and their Bavarian-style town. It actually sounds like it would be a fun place to visit. And then Kristopher Cooper gets killed. Granted, just about everyone in town was angry at the anti-alcohol platform he was running on for re-election to city council, but who took it all the way to...

Haunted House Murder by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross

September 19, 2019September 25, 2019 by Carol6 Comments

I love seasonal novella collections! Haunted House Murder contains three cozy mystery novellas. Each is part of series, but they all worked well as stand-alones for me. Out of the three, the only one I really enjoyed was Hallowed Out by Barbara Ross. Haunted House Murder, the first in the book, was lacking in a real plot. New people move into town, they're weird, let's all judge them. The amount of time Lucy spent complaining about having to take care of her grandson was annoying and I don't understand why her husband seemed to be incapable of helping at all. The mystery itself wasn't really much of a mystery, just people jumping to conclusions with little to no actual evidence. In Death By Haunted House, new people move into town, they're weird, let's all judge them. And guess, what? They haven't killed anyone either. Sorry, that was a spoiler but not a surprising one. At least this time, there actually was...

A Purrfect Alibi by Leighann Dobbs

August 29, 2019August 29, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

In A Purrfect Alibi, the Oyster Cove Guesthouse is full of psychics, mediums, tea readers, etc. all hoping to speak to the ghost of Jedediah Biddeford and find his treasure. Josie doesn't believe in ghosts and is really just happy to have paying guests, until—surprise, surprise—one of them ends up dead. Nero and Marlowe, the guest house cats, have a case to solve, and a ghost to deal with, because Jed is hanging around now, even if Josie doesn't know it. It's a cute enough story. The cats and Jed are fun. The killer's a little obvious, even if I didn't catch the motive until it was revealed. The Oyster Cover Guesthouse series is light and breezy. The books are perfect for lazy summer afternoons. This counts as 4 pts in the COYER Treasure Hunt (the last book in a series)....

A Whisker in the Dark by Leighann Dobbs

August 14, 2019August 29, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

A Whisker in the Dark was a fun, easy, silly read. Josie owns a guesthouse where people keep ending up dead. Well, this time around the first dead body is a skeleton from 300 years ago, but we end up with a murder soon enough—and it's probably no surprise with so many folks thinking there's a treasure buried on the guesthouse's property. So, the cats, Nero and Marlowe and their friends, are the real detectives here, although Josie does some investigating too. In Josie's defense, she's got a lot on her mind, with running the guesthouse, trying to learn how to cook, and flirting with the building inspector. The cats are pretty darn smart, and cats can get into places people can't and eavesdrop without being noticed. I'm still getting used to the cats talking to each other, but it does make the series stand out. The book is really about the characters, both human and feline. The mystery itself is...