Charlotte Gibson Mysteries #1-3

Charlotte Gibson Mysteries #1-3

by CarolNo Comments
I was surprised by how fun this one was. Charlie is in her late 20's and doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. At the beginning of the books, she is working as a clerk at a jewelry store, but that job doesn't end well. Now she's back home in Maui, living with her mother and working at an ice cream shop. Her new plan is to collect the $100,000 reward for solving the murder of a high-powered developer, whose last stop before his death was Charlie's ice cream shop. Rosie and Dot are two senior citizens who are also looking for the murderer and when they end up chasing the same clues, they decide to team up. Jake, hot cop, is not happy when they seem to be one step ahead of him and his partner. Charlie and her friends, including Dot and Rosie, are fun and also the type to attract trouble. The women are all intelligent,...
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Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley

Sleep in Heavenly Pizza by Mindy Quigley

by Carol2 Comments
Sleep in Heavenly Pizza is the fourth in the Deep Dish Mystery series but the first I've read. I knew it centered around a pizza shop, obviously, but had a different kind of restaurant in my head. Delilah & Son is way fancier than our pizza places generally. Of course, I live in the land of Steubenville/ Ohio Valley pizza and my favorite pizzeria doesn't have any place to sit and eat, either inside or outside, but they do have a stack of napkins on the counter in case you want to eat in your car. They certainly wouldn't be catering the upscale Chrismukkah party the book opens with. The party winds down a bit early when the hosts' family drama gets out of hand and glassware is broken. The next day one of the guests is found dead in a pile of snow being used for a sculpture competition, and of course the guests and catering staff come under...
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Between a Flock and a Hard Place by Donna Andrews

Between a Flock and a Hard Place by Donna Andrews

by CarolNo Comments
I've been putting off writing a post about Between a Flock and a Hard Place because I really don't have much to say about it. I've read a few in the Meg Langslow series, but not enough for me to quite understand her character. She's a blacksmith, which doesn't come up in this one. She's also the mayor's assistant of some kind. Maybe because she always has her nose in everything in town so she might as well get paid for it? And I don't understand why the titles are all bird themed. Granted the wild turkeys are funny. We do eventually get to the murder. Mrs. Smetkamp is dead and there are several people with motive to have killed her. And several others who just seem shady. I do like the secondary characters, from Meg's kids to the townspeople. They're a quirky bunch and they do make me laugh. I listened to the audio and the narrator did a...
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Fondue or Die by Korina Moss

Fondue or Die by Korina Moss

by CarolNo Comments
This time around, Willa and her cheese shop employees are spending the weekend in the neighboring town of Lockwood, which is holding its annual Dairy Days festival. Curds & Whey has a booth there, and both Archie and Mrs. Schultz have been roped into helping with the Miss Dairy beauty pageant. The pageant director, Nadine, has has been running the show for years, ends up dead, and Willa and her friends don't think the local cops are doing a good job with the investigation. The mystery was good. We have several potential suspects with a variety of motives. There were a couple if twists I didn't see coming and I didn't guess who the killer turned out to be. As always, I enjoy the friendship and banter between Willa, Archie, Baz, and Mrs. Schultz. It was also nice to see Willa working with Detective Heath again. He's not officially on this case, it's not his town, but that doesn't mean he's not...
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Case of the Bleus by Korina Moss

Case of the Bleus by Korina Moss

by Carol2 Comments
Case of the Bleus might have been my favorite in the series so far. This time around some of Willa's former co-workers are in town for the Northwest Cheese Invitational. They will also be attending the reading of Max Dumas' will along with his formerly estranged daughter. The daughter is supposed to inherit Max' cheese shop. The big question is who will inherit the secret to Church Bleu Cheese - how it's made and where it's aged. Instead, all they get is a clue they have to figure out. Then one of the cheesemongers is killed, and Willa and her friends decide they need to "help" find the killer. So we have two mysteries - who is the killer, and what is the secret to the cheese. The plot itself had several twists. The visitors to town each have their own angle and were definitely potential suspects. How the woman died was clear right away, but the who was more difficult...
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Death by Bubble Tea by Jennifer J. Chow

Death by Bubble Tea by Jennifer J. Chow

by CarolNo Comments
Death by Bubble Tea is the first in a series featuring Yale Yere and her cousin, Celine. Yale is not thrilled that Celine is in town for a visit and is even less excited when her father suggests the two of them work together at his restaurant's food stand at the night market in their neighborhood. The evening surprisingly goes well, until Yale finds a dead body on her way home. The young woman is lying next to one of the distinctive glasses that Yale and Celine served their drinks in, so the police view them as suspects. Of course, Yale and Celine decide they need to do some snooping around and find the cops better people to be interested in. I really wanted to like this book, but I found Yale annoying. She doesn't have a cell phone. She doesn't drive because of her mother's death. She doesn't seem to have any friends and she's given up cooking. Celine, who...
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