Cozy Mystery – Page 40 – Carol's Notebook

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...

An Ale of Two Cities by Sarah Fox

December 12, 2019December 12, 2019 by CarolNo Comments

I picked up An Ale of Two Cities thanks to Kensington's November Mystery launch party on Facebook. I had not heard of the Literary Pub series before, but it sounded like a fun idea. Sadie, our amateur sleuth runs a bar, the Inkwell, that serves food and drink with book pun names and the shelves are full of her book collection. I wish we had a place like that in our town. This is the second in the series, but it worked fine as a stand-alone for me. I skipped to #2 because it's set around Christmas, which was the second draw for me. It's Winter Carnival Time in Shady Creek, Vermont. One of the highlights is the ice sculpture contest and one of Sadie’s employees, Mel, has entered. One of the other contestants is a local man who made it big in Boston and is now a famous chef. He's a jerk and treats everyone in town like...

A Murderous Affair by Leighann Dobbs and Harmony Williams

November 26, 2019November 25, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

Lady Katherine is a non-traditional woman for her time. Her passion is solving murder mysteries, and only a few people know that's what she does. Most people believe she's a matchmaker. A Murderous Affair is the first I've read in the series. It works fine as a stand-alone, but I would probably know the characters better if I had started at the beginning. It's the Christmas season, but Katherine, along with a set of I presume recurring characters, is asked to investigate a more or less cold case. A maid was murdered six months ago, the same night as a terrible thunderstorm and a fire at the Hound and Ale Pub. Bow Street has dismissed is a random case of violence, and in all honesty, they're not terribly concerned about the death of a servant anyway. Two teams form, the men, Captain Dorian Wayland, Lord Annondale and Annondale's valet, Mctavish on one side with Lady Katherine, Prudence Burwick (Lord Annondale's...

Murder in High Places by Helen Marchmont

November 15, 2019November 14, 2019 by Carol4 Comments

I've been enjoying the Bunburry novellas, but I really think for Murder in High Places it's helpful if you've read a couple of the earlier ones. We finally meet Oscar! He comes down to visit, drawn by a party. To understand how kind of awesome that is, you need to know a little more about Oscar than this episode gives you. He's Alfie's best friend, but thinks living in the country and not London is ridiculous. And of course everyone in town acts like they already know him, since they've heard so much from Alfie. Alfie, Betty and Oscar go to the party. Alfie and Betty have some major communications errors and Alfie acts like an all-around jerk. Granted, Betty's not much better, but at least she isn't blatantly flirting with anyone else. And then we have a murder. Sergeant Wilson immediately arrests the most obvious suspect, but, since this is a cozy mystery, that's clearly not the right solution. The...

Drop Dead, Gorgeous by Helena Marchmont

November 14, 2019November 13, 2019 by Carol2 Comments

I was browsing Audible the other day and was happy to see Drop Dead, Gorgeous was out. This is just a fun little series. Alfie has inherited his aunt's cottage in the Cotswolds and has been living there for almost a year now. He's finally gathered the courage to ask the local beautician about getting a pedicure, something he enjoyed in London, but most men in Bunburry do not get pedicures. He meets the beautician while she is out walking her dog and they go back to the salon to set up the appointment only to find, what else? A dead body. Eve Mosby had been receiving a deluxe treatment, massage, hair, botox, the works, and the beautician had snuck out while Eve was napping, obviously not expecting her to be murdered while she was gone. Time for the Bunburry Triangle to take a look at the case. Alfie, Liz, and Marge toss around theories and go about asking questions as...