eBook – Carol's Notebook

A Death in the Dark by Ellie Alexander

May 27, 2026May 27, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

This is the second in the Novel Detectives series, which is a spin off of another series, but I think it be easily read as a stand alone. Annie and Fletcher run both a bookstore and a detective agency. Thankfully, they have solid employees at the store, so can take the time they need for their investigations. This time around they are in the office early, when running coach from the local high school arrives, covered in blood, with no memory of the night before. He wants their help figuring out what happened. Of course, it's not long till they find a dead body and start to wonder if their client is a murderer. Our mystery centers around the high school and the track team. We have a couple of solid suspects and Annie gets to use some of their new techy purchases to gather clues. It's pretty easy to guess the killer though. As always, I love Annie and Fletcher....

The Antique Hunter’s Murder at the Castle by C.L. Miller

May 15, 2026May 15, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

Murder at the Castle is the third of the Antique Hunter's mysteries. I do think these work best if read in order. You'll get a better sense of who the characters are and what they're doing. This time, Bella, the one of the team most likely to go rogue, has disappeared while following a forgery lead at a Scottish castle. Freya and Carole head to the castle to try to pick up Bella's trail, but instead the find the owner dead and a collection of silver pieces missing. Bella is implicated in the murder and the whole Lockwood team has to do what they do best - find the killer and recover the antiques. I like the characters. They make a good team, each with their own strengths and weakness. Bella is a bit reckless, Sky is a wiz at technology, Carole is warm and motivating, Freya is level-headed and I'm not a huge fan of how Freya and...

The Killer Question by Janice Hallett

February 10, 2026February 10, 2026 by Carol4 Comments

The Killer Question is a clever book. The shtick is that it's all told through texts, emails, police interview transcripts, and assorted documents. The story's frame is that Dominic is trying to sell his aunt and uncle's story to a streaming service to make into a documentary. Sue and Mal operated a small pub that ran a Monday evening trivia contest. Were not surprised when a body is found in the river near the pub - after all, something made Dominic think it was a story worth pitching, but we'll have several good twists and at least one actual surprise by the end. We have a lot of characters to keep track of and we don't get to know any of them well. That's not a complaint, it's the nature of the style and important to the plot. I think this is one of those books that will either work for you or won't. I enjoyed it, but I'm not...

Murdered on Halloween by Daisy Landish

October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 by Carol1 Comment

This is a short read at only 50 pages, so not much time to develop the characters or plot. Jane and Kennedy attend a fancy Halloween party and someone wearing a similar costume to Kennedy is killed. Kennedy is later attacked and realizes who the culprit is. My main complaint is that I wanted it to be longer. I wanted to get to know Jane and Kennedy better and have an actual mystery rather than Kennedy just recognizing them. Also, while it was set in London, its language is very American....

Murder at Castle Vyne by Louise Marley

July 21, 2025July 28, 2025 by Carol2 Comments

Fourteen years ago Natalie Grove found her older sister, Sarah, dead in a lily pond at Castle Vyne. The murderer was never caught and now Natalie, a best-selling author, has written a book based on the mystery. She wants to find the truth about what happened to Sarah. If you've read and enjoyed Marley's other English Village Mysteries, this one, while it takes place in the same area, happens before the other book and features different characters. I thought I might find that disappointing, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The new characters are fully developed, if not all that likeable, and the setting still feels like a claustrophobic small town. Natalie has certainly stirred a hornet's nest by redrawing attention to her sister's death. There are so many twists here. The town, her friends, her family are all holding on to major secrets, and just when you have some idea of what's going on, there's another surprise. It kept me...

Murder Most Wilde by Helen Golden

July 20, 2025July 19, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I love a good theater mystery. This time around, Perry is paying Algernon in an amateur production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Theaters are one of my favorite mystery settings, by the way. Actors are usually fabulously dramatic and I like the glimpses behind the curtains. But, this being the 12th Right Royal Cozy Investigation, of course someone ends up dead- Noel, the actor playing Jack. The police are stretched thin and ask for Bea and Perry's help. This one does work as a stand alone, but they are all such fun characters that really you should read some of the others too. The whole gang gets to work on the case. Perry has insider info from being on the cast and Bea sits in on the police's interviews. Simon, Perry's husband/former detective/crime writer/chef, and Rich, Bea's fiancé/police superintendent, add the professional perspective, as always. I like how everyone works together so well. And of course Daisy, Bea's...