The Root of all Trouble by Heather Webber

I read all of the Nina Quinn series years ago and was a little sad when Heather Webber (Blake) abandoned Nina to write other series. Even though I love all of Heather's characters, Nina was my favorite. Then, because good things come to those who wait (and stalk on Facebook), a new Nina Quinn showed up available for my Nook.

Nina Quinn is a master gardener who transforms yards while the owners are gone for the day. She hires ex-cons recommended by her parole officer cousin and they are all a loyal family. As a favor to her across the street friends, Nina plans to re-do their backyard until a tree falls down in a storm and a body falls out. Nina is sure that her cop ex-husband has arrested the wrong person and sets out to figure out the mystery.

Thrown into the mix is the new coroner who looks just like the first boy Nina liked, a boy whose whole family died in a small airplane crash when he was just 15. 

I recommend that you read all of this series in order. The characters are just that, characters and the mysteries are not that easy to solve.

A Witch Before Dying by Heather Blake

A Witch Before Dying  by Heather Blake is the latest installment in the Darcy Merriweather Wishcraft series.  Darcy and her sister, Harper, are newly arrived residents of the Boston, Massachusetts enchanted village.  In other words, everyone who lives there has magical powers or they are married to someone with magical powers or they wish they had magical powers and they expect to trip up the magical residents and learn about magical powers.  My only magical power is the ability to procrastinate.

In my opinion, Heather Blake is one of the top five cozy mystery writers around.  She also writes under the name of Heather Webber and her gardening series is one of the first series I read.  The thing I like about cozies is that they are easy reading, fun, there's always a hunky guy, and, because they are quick reads, it's okay to can put them down and actually do other things.

In this episode, Elodie Keaton hires Darcy to clean her missing mother’s home (can you say hoarder) and sort the good from the bad so Elodie can sell.   Unfortunately, on the first day she's there Patrice's body is found inside a suitcase and beneath piles of old newspapers and stuff.  As the police investigate, Darcy is attacked and stalked by persons unknown. 

Truly, Madly by Heather Webber

Truly, Madly is the first in a promised series of books about Lucy Valentine, by Heather Webber; hopefully, it will not be the last.

Lucy's family owns Valentine, Inc., a matchmaking business in Boston. The thing is, the family doesn't so much match make as use their love-related physic ability to find the perfect love matches. Unfortunately for Lucy, a lightening strike when she was 14 zapped the ability to make matches, but left her with the ability to find lost objects.

When Lucy's father suffers a minor heart attack, Lucy gets roped into working at Valentine, Inc. While meeting with her first client she gets a physic vision of a dead body and sets out to solve the mystery with her hunky upstairs neighbor.

Truly, Madly is a quick read. It is a cozy mystery with a physic theme and the characters are nice people who are a little bit flawed. So basically, they are like all the rest of us mortals.