Freebie – Carol's Notebook

Murdered on Halloween by Daisy Landish

October 31, 2025October 31, 2025 by Carol1 Comment

This is a short read at only 50 pages, so not much time to develop the characters or plot. Jane and Kennedy attend a fancy Halloween party and someone wearing a similar costume to Kennedy is killed. Kennedy is later attacked and realizes who the culprit is. My main complaint is that I wanted it to be longer. I wanted to get to know Jane and Kennedy better and have an actual mystery rather than Kennedy just recognizing them. Also, while it was set in London, its language is very American....

Mozzarella Murder by R.M. Murphy

February 26, 2025February 28, 2025 by CarolNo Comments

I love pizza - extra cheese, no pepperoni if it's from DiCarlo's, add some veggies if it's from another pizza place, which is more or less why I picked up Mozzarella Murder. Denny, our main character/amateur sleuth, is a widower in his 40s who has left his job as a copy editor to open a pizza truck. He is back in his hometown in Eastern Pennsylvania to sell pizzas at the annual Summerfest. His first stop in town is at the cheese shop run by his old friend Ruben. In the shop, the two find the dead body of motivational speaker and former classmate, Charlie Sampson. Denny decides he needs to investigate because it looks like Ruben might be the chief suspect. It turns out Charlie had more than one enemy. Denny has been out of town for a while, but he reconnects with several old friends and knows enough people in town that he still fits in well. He has...

Turkeys and Thanksgiving by Leena Clover

November 21, 2023November 21, 2023 by Carol2 Comments

Turkeys and Thanksgiving was my first visit to Pelican Cove, but it was a cute story. Mr. Harrison's prize turkey is missing and he asks Jenny, our amateur sleuth, to find it after the police don't take him seriously. Jenny and her friends, the Magnolias, seem fun and like the type to get into predicaments. I like how the town seems to pull together, like for a Thanksgiving potluck. The mystery itself wasn't terribly complicated, but this is a novella so I wouldn't expect it to be. It was a good holiday read and a nice introduction to the series for me....

The Snowman Killer by Wendy Meadows

October 24, 2022October 24, 2022 by Carol4 Comments

I have to admit I was less than impressed by the beginning of The Snowman Killer. It was a bit confusing at first. Sarah, a former homicide detective, has moved to a small town in Alaska for a fresh start. She now owns a coffee shop and writes mystery stories under a pseudonym. But someone is using the plot of her own book to threaten her. And there's a new detective in town who knows more about her than she's comfortable with. Once I settled into the story though it was enjoyable enough. The plot moves along quickly and takes some twists and turns or jumps depending on how you look at it. There are several characters to keep straight and we don't really get to know them well because it is so short. It was free, which was nice too. As a series, it has potential. I'll probably at least give the next one a read....

It Burns by Marc Fennel

August 20, 2019August 20, 2019 by Carol3 Comments

I am not a fan of hot things. I don't like my salsa above medium, I avoid jalapenos. I am a wuss when it comes to spicy things. But It Burns was one of the free Audible Originals this month and for some reason the app was having trouble downloading the book I actually used a credit on. (I finally got Bleak House downloaded. It's going to take forever to listen to - 45 hours. Anybody out there love it?) Apparently, the pepper business and the whole hot pepper community is crazier and more cutthroat than I would ever have guessed. It's a whole world that I never knew existed. This audiobook is short, under three hours, but full of people hurting themselves and finding themselves through peppers. It's really rather fascinating in a dark, bizarre way. Marc Fennel narrates It Burns, but it's not a traditional book. We get to hear his interviews with growers fanatics, even his mom. His style...

The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

April 26, 2019May 4, 2021 by Carol10 Comments

The Dispatcher was one of the the free Audible Originals this month and since I'm a Scalzi fan of course I picked it up. At heart it's a mystery. A man is missing, probably kidnapped based on the evidence at his home. One of his co-workers is coerced by the investigator on the case to help her, since he knows the ins and outs of the victim's job better than she does. The kicker is that the man was a dispatcher. In a world where it's almost impossible to be murdered—you can die of natural causes or an accident, but those who are murdered come back 99.9% of the time—dispatchers provide a second chance. They kill you if an operation goes awry, if you're injured beyond hope in a car accident. Then, you wake up at home, naked, but otherwise fine, just like you were in the few hours before the trauma. Tony is a good guy, at least at the...