Cozy Mystery – Carol's Notebook

Murder with a Side of Shrimp and Grits by Skylar Warren

May 22, 2026May 22, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

I almost quit reading Murder with a Side of Shrimp and Grits during the first chapter. The Mayor comes into the Honeybee Cafe during their anniversary celebration, has a couple bites of his usual shrimp and grits and dies of an allergic reaction. This book is nothing if not overly descriptive, which was a bit much for me with a death from anaphylactic shock immediately followed by glares of suspicion directed towards Jessie, cook/owner of Honeybees, from the rest of the customers, many of whom had known her since she was a child. And Jessie immediately begins to catastrophize the situation. Turns out she wasn't too far off, but the immediate overreactions all around didn't make sense to me. I mean reacting to the death makes sense, it's the immediate suspicion and "they're all going to hate me" that didn't. As I mentioned, we get log details descriptions of everything, which sometimes worked and sometimes felt like the author threw every...

Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala

May 11, 2026May 11, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

Homicide and Halo-Halo is the second in the series, and while it would work as a stand-alone, Lila is still processing the events that happened in the first one a few months ago. Detective Park has given her the name of a therapist, but Lila is adamant that she doesn't need help - and worries how her aunt would view counseling. Lila has a lot going on. Not only is she dealing with PTSD, she is opening a new cafe with her best friend, Adeena, and Adeena's girlfriend, Elena, but is having trouble coming up with new recipes to serve, She's also a judge for the Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant, which takes up an absurd amount of time. Do place still have pageants like this? At least it involves things like community service and creativity. It also brings up some of Lila's body image issues and mixed feelings about her mother, who died when Lila was a child. We're...

Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

May 7, 2026May 7, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

I don't know why it's taken me so long to pick up this series. I love culinary cozies, especially when the food featured is not a style I'm familiar with. Lila has returned to her hometown after a bad breakup to help her Aunt Rosie run the family Filipino restaurant. It's not going well, though, and then a local restaurant critic/Lila's high school boyfriend ends up dead, poisoned after eating at the restaurant. Lila becomes the primary suspect, which is her reason for investigating. Every amateur sleuth needs a legitimate reason to nose into the investigation, at least for the first couple of books. Lila's family and friends, mostly women, are wonderful- supportive and quirky. We have tons of yummy food and a couple of recipes in the back. Lila herself is not my favorite, yet, but has potential. I need her to be a little more focused and I don't like the potential love triangle forming for her. The...

The Vanishing at Hallwood Hall by Helena Marchmont

May 6, 2026May 6, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

I love the Bunburry mysteries. They're short little reads/listens that are perfect when I'm not sure what I want to commit to next. This time around, Alfie is enrolled at a writing course at Hallwood Hall - perhaps not the best place for him to go back to. The writers are an odd collection and there's clearly tension in the air, so when one of them leaves suddenly but with no way to get to town or the station, Alfie is suspicious. Adding to my list of things to not do if I'm in a cozy mystery book: let someone take my phone away because it's a "distraction" The mystery here is good. It's only 3 1/2 hours long, but we get several suspects and a couple of nice clues. This time, it's up to Alfie and Emma to solve the mystery and I kind of missed Liz and Marge - they're around but not really integral. I do wish...

This Weekend Doesn’t End Well for Anyone by Catherine Mack

May 5, 2026May 5, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

Eleanor is attending a writer's conference in the Bahamas, with all the usual folks, and the first thing she finds is, of course, a dead body. This Weekend Doesn't End Well for Anyone is the third in the series and has a ton of returning characters, so you might be better off to read them in order. I find this series both entertaining and annoying. Eleanor is not the most likeable main character. Most of the attendees at the conference have a grudge against her of some kind, which actually seems reasonable. She's rather self-centered and jumps to conclusions easily. The story is told from her point of view but the schtick is that she constantly breaks the fourth wall and loves footnotes. I will say that both of those work really well in the audio version, presuming her whole personality and attitude doesn't bother you too much. The footnotes you can't even tell are footnotes, they just blend into...

Crime Rangoon by Vivien Chien

April 21, 2026April 21, 2026 by CarolNo Comments

I might be getting a little tired of this series. This time around Lana's favorite author is killed at an event at Asia Village’s bookshop, The Modern Scroll. Surprise, surprise, her boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, actually asks for her help this time. I like Lana and her roommate, Megan, but am annoyed by how mean they are to Kimmy, who seems like a decent, if annoying person. They want her help when they need it but otherwise leave her out whenever possible. There was too much of Adam in this one, and he really doesn't seem like the type to break some of the rules he does. The murderer is pretty obvious, not matter how many dead ends Lana complains about, even if the motive isn't. One of the red herrings just kind of fizzled out, which was a little disappointing. The most annoying thing, though, was how many times certain phrases were repeated. More people blew raspberries and flared...