Mystery – Page 94 – Carol's Notebook

A Christmas Tartan by Paige Shelton

December 5, 2018March 11, 2019 by Carol3 Comments

I've read all three full-length books in the Scottish Bookshop Mystery series and enjoyed them all. Delaney is someone I would like to be friends with. And the other folks in the bookstore, including the owner are fun to spend time with. The bookstore also has a backroom full of various interesting objects and it's often these that lead to the mysteries. In A Christmas Tartan, Delaney is given a box of things that includes a copy of A Christmas Carol with a photo inside. She of course is curious and the photo leads her to an elderly woman in town whose granddaughter is missing. This one is slightly more paranormal than most of the series. The present is connected to the past and to some extent, Delaney sees both, or maybe she doesn't. Either which way, the mystery of what happened to the girl is well-done and the solution made sense. The ending scene made me smile. It's a warm holiday...

Santa Puppy by Lynn Cahoon

December 4, 2018November 13, 2018 by Carol4 Comments

Christmas and puppies and a mystery - how could I pass up Santa Puppy? I haven't read any of the others in the series, but I thought this worked fine as a cute standalone. Jill Gardner owns a bookshop (also an awesome thing) and has volunteered to host a Christmas party with the goal of getting pets adopted from the local shelter. One of the dogs, Baby, touches Jill's heart. Its owner, a homeless man, was found dead of a heart attack on the beach and Baby needs a new home. Jill, with the help and approval of her detective boyfriend, does some sleuthing to find out who the man was and if he had family who might take the dog. It was nice that Jill's boyfriend helped her and approved of her digging. Of course, there wasn't any danger involved, it was a natural death, the mystery was more about who the man was and how he ended up homeless. It...

Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

November 24, 2018 by Carol11 Comments

Jane Wilkinson wants to be rid of her husband, Lord Edgware. She asks Poirot to see him, to convince him to grant her a divorce. At the same time, she talks about how she would go about killing her husband if need be. As the title makes it clear, Lord Edgware does die. Jane, however has an ironclad alibi - but she was also observed at the scene of the crime. As always, Christie gives us several suspects and possible motives and two more dead bodies. She provides us plenty of clues, but also enough red herrings to keep us guessing. This time around we have several characters who are actors, which makes it even more difficult to tell who is lying. The final solution was well done, believable but with a perfect twist. Hastings is our narrator here, and I read the version narrated by Hugh Fraser, which was perfect. Hastings gets made fun of by Poirot for not understanding, but...

Much Ado About Murder by Elizabeth J. Duncan

November 14, 2018 by Carol8 Comments

I finished Much Ado About Murder a few days ago, but then I couldn't remember if I finished it or not. I had started another book on my Kindle, which meant I must have finished it, but then I had to look back and see who the killer was. The book obviously didn't leave much of a lingering impression, or at least the reveal didn't. I like the setting, a hotel/theater in the Catskills. I also like Charlotte. She's from England and is a very talented costume designer. Due to the turnover of directors and her friendship with the Director of the Board, she is to some extent in charge of the theater. Between the actors, director and costume staff, we've got a lot of characters, several of whom had motive for killing Edmund, because of course Charlotte's right—it was murder. I guess overall it was just fine. The characters were fine, each had their bit of backstory that made them possible suspects....

Cherringham #4-6 by Matthew Costello and Neil Richards

November 1, 2018 by CarolNo Comments

I enjoyed this second collection of Cherringham novellas. Cherringham itself is a good setting, a typical small English town with its bar and bakery, its quirky townsfolk and always a murder or theft or something going on. Jack and Sarah make a good team. They are both smart and talented in their own ways. Jack is a former police detective and knows the ins and out of solving crimes. Questioning people comes naturally to Sarah and as at least a semi-local she knows a lot of people, she's also the one who does the computer research and occasional hacking. In "Thick as Thieves," a potentially valuable artifact is found on a farm. It is put in a retired professor's safe but is stolen over night. Sarah had been covering the story of the artifact for the town's paper and is of course curious. Her computer skills definitely come in helpful here, as do Jack's stake out abilities. I can't say I...

Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie

October 26, 2018 by Carol6 Comments

I love the title Sparkling Cyanide. Christie's titles don't tend to be particularly noticeable, but Sparkling Cyanide stands out. It captures clearly the method of murder - cyanide in the champagne, and it's a bit glamorous. Rosemarie died a year ago, presumably suicide. She was a beautiful woman, but her death benefitted several people. Her husband, George, truly loved her, in spite of her affairs, and has come to believe that she was actually murdered. Any one who was at the dinner the night she died could have done it - her lover or his scorned wife, her sister Iris who stands to inherit, the husband's trusted secretary, or a rather shady "friend" who, a year later is making moves on Iris. George organizes a second dinner party, with the same people, hoping to force a confession. It all goes terribly wrong when George is killed too. Colonel Race, a friend of George's, helps in the investigation. He doesn't actually do much, but he is on...