I liked Fatality in F a little more than the previous one in the series. It's back to more solid ground, or at least as solid as it can be when a ghost is around. Gethsemane is one of those amateur sleuths who has a knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and usually discovering a dead body in the process. This time around a rose show has come to Dunmullach and one of the competitors, who is also Gethsemane's friend Frankie's main rival, is found dead with a pair of garden shears sticking out of his back. In the meantime, Frankie is receiving bouquets reminiscent of the Flower Shop Killer of decades ago.
The plot moves along at a nice pace. We had several suspects, clues, red herrings, and several secret agendas. We also learn a bit about the language of flowers and plant-based pharmaceuticals.
I like Gethsemane. She a brilliant musician. She's strong and independent....
The Queen is travelling to Italy and one of her entourage witnesses a body dump while traveling on the train. Initially it is thought that the witness was drunk, but the more time that passes, the more they are realizing that it might have actually happened. The Queen, along with her assistant private secretary, Joan McGraw, decide they need to look into the case, maybe give the official investigation a nudge or two.
This time around, as the title suggests, we get a little Cold War intrigue along with the murder mystery, While some of the household are reading James Bond thrillers, the Queen is dealing with her own potential international incident. I love the Queen in these books. She's a working woman, with an unusual job with unusual constraints, but still a job, in addition to being a wife, mother, daughter, sister. She's also a woman in a man's world, surrounded by people who try to protect her when...
I love the Ruby Vaughan series. The 1920s setting, the characters, the touch of the paranormal, along with well plotted mysteries, keep me engrossed. This time around Ruby and her employer/father-figure, Mr. Owen, are spending the holidays in Oxford at a a meeting of antiquarians. In addition to her duties for Mr. Owen, Ruby is spending time catching up with an old friend, Leona.
When local curiosity museum owner Julius Harker doesn’t show up for a planned presentation of Egyptian artifacts and is instead found murdered, Ruby gets pulled into the investigation. Leona, it seems, was close to both Harker and the man arrested for his murder, his business partner Herr Mueller.
The mystery was good enough. We have several possible culprits, and since we didn't know a lot of these cast of side characters from the previous books, we don't know who to trust. Ruan is in town too, at Ruby's (written when drunk) invitation, but his support is of course...
It's Christmas time, which in Mistletoe, Maine, means another murder. This time around, the dead woman is in town with a antiques show, and was caught earlier on the evening she died trying to steal an antique decoration from a bakery. When the bakery owner, Alice, comes under suspicion, Holly want to help. Holly's husband, Sherriff Evan Gray, wants her to leave the mystery to him, especially since she's pregnant.
It annoyed me how everyone treated Holly with kid gloves. Yes, she needed to pay attention to her blood pressure, but that's for her and her doctor to worry about - and maybe Evan, but definitely not everyone in town. She's an adult woman with five solved murders to her credit. She doesn't need baby sitters and constant reminders to watch what she eats. I'll grant you, it frustrated her too, and she did tell her friends and family to back off, but so much of the story was wasted on...
I had high hopes for A Matter of Pedigree. I like starting a series at the beginning and Carole and Frank Capobianco sounded like a good couple to base a series around. Turned out I was not a fan.
Carole and Frank are newly wealthy, thanks to a toilet Frank invented. They make a too high offer on a fancy apartment, but are rejected as "not the right people." When the property owner is found dead, Frank becomes a suspect and Carole takes it upon herself to prove his innocence.
While I loved Frank's parents and the delicious Italian foods they cook, Carole and Frank themselves were annoying. I think Carole's supposed to be funny and quirky, but she's mostly just self-centered and I got tired of hearing about all of the luxury brand items she wore/used. I could have liked her dog, Poopsie, but she was not a great dog owner. She basically drugged the poor puppy so it would stop barking. I understand reactive...
The Cupcake Bakery mysteries are fun, light mysteries with a bit too much romance but plenty of delicious cupcakes. I typically listen to this series on audio that I've borrowed from the library, which is how I read Vanilla Beaned, too. This time around Mel, Angie and Tate traveling to Las Vegas in an attempt to open a bakery franchise. Mel's still not thrilled with the idea and is underwhelmed when the prospective owner turns out to be a showgirl, Holly Hartzmark. Throw in an Elvis impersonator contest, a potential stalker, and a murder and plans quickly go awry. Someone seems to be willing to kill to stop a Las Vegas location from becoming reality, but is the violence aimed at Holly or Mel? Happily Marty and Oz make the trip to Vegas to help out.
I enjoy spending time with these characters, even if I'm tired of Mel's romantic life story line and Tate and Angie are a bit too...
