Gone for Gouda is the second of the Cheese Shop Mysteries. This time around Willa and the other small business owners of Yarrow Glen are gearing up for the harvest festival and parade. In addition, Willa is hosting a book and cook event for Phoebe Winston, a celebrity vegan chef, at her cheese shop, Curds & Whey. Phoebe, it turns out, is quite a diva and the even is going to take more effort and money than Willa expected. Then, photos show up online of the chef eating ribs and just a few hours later she's found dead in her rental house. And Archie, Willa's employee, was the last person caught on the security system's camera.
The mystery was solid. Phoebe had connections to several people in town in addition to her assistant, Thomas, who came with her but is staying at the Inn, not the rental house. Willa can't just stand back and let the police blame Archie. This time,...
Cheddar Off Dead is the first of the Cheese Shop Mysteries and it was fun. Willa has recently opened her cheese shop, Curds & Whey, and is hoping a good review from the local food critic, Guy Lippinger. His visit to her shop does not go well though. Even worse, later that evening, Willa finds him dead in his car, stabbed with a knife from her shop. When Willa realizes the cops are looking at her as a viable suspect, she starts poking around on her own.
We have all the typical cozy mystery ingredients - amateur sleuth with an interesting job, in this case a cheesemonger; a pet fish; a small town - Yarrow Glen; quirky friends; and an attractive detective. I liked Willa. She is not great at the whole sleuthing thing yet, but she's nice, makes delicious cheesy recipes, and is someone I can root for. I don't love the potential love triangle that's developing - those...
Murder at Mallowan Hall takes us to the fictionalized home of author Agatha Christie and her second husband, archaeologist Max Mallowan. I will admit to being a huge Christie fan, which is why this series caught my eye.
Our amateur sleuth is the housekeeper, Phyllida Bright, who is extremely competent at her job. She is the one who finds the body in the library. The murdered man was an uninvited guest at the Mallowans' house party, and Phyllida questions whether local police are capable of solving the crime. So, between serving the demanding guests and managing the nervous staff, she starts investigating on her own.
I thoroughly enjoyed the characters in this one - not the guests, but the staff. Phyllida is shrewd and charming. The butler has his own views on the way things should be run, but has her back when push comes to shove. The chauffeur is a good foil for Phyllida - irreverent, mysterious, always getting...
Every time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies is a great title and the setting is fabulous. Bestselling author Eleanor Dash is on a book tour in Italy with several other authors, her ex-lover, and about 20 contest-winning fans. A fictionalized version of the ex-, Connor, is one of the main characters in Eleanor's mystery series, and he has been using that to his advantage for years. Now, however, Connor is convinced someone is trying to kill him. Of course, Eleanor does want him dead, but only the fictional version of course.
This book was fun enough. We've got murder, lies, gorgeous scenery, and even a touch of romance. Eleanor is a good character. She's writing the story that we're hearing. (I listened to the audiobook.) She breaks the fourth on a regular basis, either pointing something out to the reader or reassuring us. She also includes a lot of footnotes, but on the audio, they just blended in to the...
Paris during the 1924 Olympics is a wonderful setting. Zoe, an artist, has been living in the city for 6 years, since she was exiled from Alabama. She has a lot of backstory, almost too much for one character. Anyway, she stumbles across a stolen Chagall painting and then the body of a murdered woman. She takes it upon herself to try to track down more of the paintings and also starts asking questions of people who knew Laurette.
The plot was fine even if the killer was a bit obvious. It's also a who's who among the expats in Paris at the time. We either meet or hear gossip about Marc Chagall and his family, poet Blaise Cendrars, Ernest and Hadley Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and Pablo Picasso and his first wife. We're also introduced to several members of the American swim team. The author shoves a lot in to this book.
I actually liked Zoe. She's...
Deadly Summer Nights is set in 1953 in the Catskills. Elizabeth Grady, a bookkeeper in New York City, was convinced by her mother, Olivia, to manage Haggerman's Resort, which Olivia recently inherited. Elizabeth has her work cut out for her dealing with guests and staff, then, to top it all off, one of the guests ends up dead, murdered and left floating in the lake. The local police find a copy of The Communist Manifesto in the man's cottage and the rumors that the resort is harboring communists start flying. Elizabeth is anxious to solve this mystery as soon as possible and save the resort's reputation.
The setting is so fun. I love the resort with all its activities and entertainment. The clothes and drinks and slang were perfect, too. Elizabeth is a good protagonist, smart and level-headed, but not unemotional. Her mom, Olivia, a former actress, is a blast. She knows how to exude charm and when to offer free...
