Rudolph, New York, is the place to be for Christmas - the town goes all out to welcome tourists to America’s Christmas Town. Merry once again doesn't win the best float in the Santa Claus parade, but all the shops in town are bustling. Also a new neighborhood has moved in across the street, but Mrs. D'Angelo thinks something is up. She never sees them and they won't answer the door when she tries to drop off cookies. Mrs. D'Angelo is one of those nosey neighbors and even asks Merry to mention the elusive new-comers to the police. Then Mrs. D'Angelo disappears and Merry realizes the older woman might have taken her snooping too far. Eventually, Merry finds Mrs. D'Angelo relatively unharmed - and a dead body.
The killer is pretty easy to guess in this one, as is the motive, but the characters are fun to spend time with. Merry's family and friends are appropriately quirky and her dog...
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...
I love pizza, but I will admit that my favorite is Ohio Valley-style, which is about as far from Delilah's gourmet deep-dish pies as you can get. My favorite pizzeria, does not take Valentine's Day reservations, mostly because it doesn't have tables, just a bench for you to sit on while you're waiting for your box.
It's the slow season in Geneva Bay, Wisconsin and about all Delilah has on her plans is trying to drum up business for Valentine's Day so she can continue to make payroll and ice fishing with her great aunt. Then, she and Aunt Biz find a body in the ice. Delilah's boyfriends, Detective Calvin Capone (yes, he’s related to the mobster) is ordered to stay away from the case, so of course Delilah has to do the investigating.
The murder mystery delves into past history and present events. Geneva Bay's history holds mob connections that the town is trying to use to promote tourism, but now...
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...
I love the concept in Mrs. Christie at the Mystery Guild Library. Agatha Christie appears in a specialty mystery library in NY in contemporary times saying that she’s taking a break from a rather dull afterlife to help amateur sleuth and book conservator Tory Van Dyne solve a murder that hasn’t happened yet. The future victim? Tory’s sister Nic’s agent—who ends up being pushed in front of a subway train.
Mrs. Christie, aka Mrs. Mallowan, is charming and insightful. She does a good job of encouraging the rather quirky set of "detectives" to work things out for themselves. She also has a habit of quoting from her books, which is fun at first, but becomes a bit overdone as the book goes on. The supporting cast seemed a little quirky for quirky's sake. Tory is pretty bland - she does have a reason, but we don't know it until well into the book, but she she does wear a lot of...
