Little Shop of Homicide by Denise Swanson

Devereaux Sinclair returned to her hometown after she quit her job and right before her boss was arrested in a Ponzi like scheme.  She bought the local dime store and makes extra money making themed gift baskets. She's also acting as caregiver to her feisty grandmother who just may be in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's or she may just be faking to get her beloved granddaughter home.

When Devereaux's ex-boyfriend's fiancee is murdered in a bizarre manner, Devereaux becomes the prime suspect, and the investigating detective wants to take her down, mainly because he lost money in the Ponzi scheme.

I liked the series, but I found the names of the characters overdone.  Maybe it's just me, but what's wrong with a name you can remember.  

Corpse in the Crystal Ball by Kari Lee Townsend

Everything is going well for Sunny Meadows.  She's been cleared of the murder charge, Detective Mitch Stone is looking like a maybe in the romance department, the town in welcoming her with open arms, and her parents have gone back to NYC.   And then Mitch's ex-girlfriend, Isabel, shows up in town.  Beautiful, smart, and obviously wanting to get Mitch back.  Unfortunately, in no time at all she's dead and Mitch is the primary suspect. 

Suspended from his job, Mitch vows to investigate on his own.  The police department has other plans, they ask Sunny to look into the death and clear Mitch, if he can be cleared. 

Kari Lee Townsend's fortune teller series is one of my new favorite series.  The characters are funny, real, and  just the right amount of quirky.  If you like cozy mysteries, I recommend this one. 

Pleating for Mercy by Melissa Bourbon

Pleating for Mercy is the story of descendants of Butch Cassidy, all of whom have a special power.  For instance, Harlow's grandmother is a goat whisper and her mother can make plants grow and grow and grow and grow.  Harlow, on the other hand, has not yet found her talent. 

A designer in New York, Harlow moves home to Bliss, Texas, when her great-grandmother dies and leaves her home to Harlow.  She takes it as a sign that this is the time for her to open a design studio.  Her first customer is a childhood friend whose wedding is in two week and the bridal shop where she ordered her dress has packed up and left town, taking her money with them. 

The bride and bridesmaid come for their fittings and before Harlow can even start to sew, one of the bridesmaids is murdered out by Harlow's front gate.   The bride is one of the prime suspects and Harlow takes it upon herself to try to sort out what happened. 

Of course there is a hint of the romance that may blossom in future episode and Harlow discovers her hidden talent. 

This is a great start for a new cozy series.  The cast of characters are fun and interesting.  There's a little bit of SW history thrown in to the mix.  I'm looking forward to picking up books two and three. 

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.

Red Velvet Revenge by Jenn McKinlay

Red Velvet Revenge is the fourth book in the cupcake bakery series and in this installment, they take the cupcakes on the road.

When Melanie and Angie get the opportunity to escape the heat of summer by selling their cupcakes at the Juniper Pass rodeo, they jump at the chance.  After retrofitting Oz's new cupcake van, Mel, Angie, Tate, Oz, and Marty accept the invitation of Slim Hazard to join his legendary annual rodeo.  The rodeo starts with a parade, where someone shoots Slim in the shoulder.  While the local sheriff is investigating what is thought to be a stray bullet, the rodeo star is found murdered. 

I really like this series.  The character are not perfect and act like real people,  I love that the author set this mystery "on the road", as I always question just how many murders and murderers can a small town harbor. 

Cat Trick by Sofie Kelly

Kathleen Paulson is the head librarian at the Mayville Heights city library.  She has recently concluded supervising a complete rehab of the building and the library is thriving.   In between refurbishing the library, she and her cats solve murders, this is the third since she arrived in town.

In Cat Trick, Mike Glazer is back in town after a leaving Mayville when his brother died in a car accident.  Mike is the owner of a company that sells vacation packages and the town in hoping he will put Mayville on their list of places to see. When Kathleen stumbles upon Mike’s body in a demonstration tent on the boardwalk, she decides to do a little investigating of her own.  Unfortunately, Detective Marcus Gordon, would rather she stayed out of it and investigating on her own could jeopardize their almost relationship.

Kathleen does try to keep Marcus in the loop, but her two pushy magical cats sometimes make that very hard.

I like Sofie Kelly's books and quirky characters, I like cats, books, and 6' 4" good looking detectives.  I'm not all that fond of cats that talk to people and solve crimes.  I would like this series a bit more if there was less cat finding clues and more people interaction, but that's just me.   Still it's a really good cozy mystery. 

Buried in a Book by Lucy Arlington

I always like a mystery where the characters aren't 20 somethings (oh when did I get so old), and in this new series Lila Watkins (mystery solver) is 45, her soon to be love interest/cop is in his 50s, and they are both vital  and there's a spark almost immediately..

Lila is a survivor, on the day she gets laid off from her job at the local newspaper, she makes one phone call and gets a job as the intern for a small publishing company.  Unfortunately, on her first day at work a homeless man is found murdered in the lobby while Lila is out getting coffee.  Then her son and his friends drive her car onto the football field at the high school and wreck the car and the field.

So what does Lila do?  She decides to sell her house to pay for the damages and moves in with her mother the next day.  Say what?  Seriously? 

I think this could be a great series, but hopefully the next one will have more continuity and make more sense.  I want to like them, but these characters do really stupid things and aren't very believable. 

Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend

What a great cozy mystery!  The dialog reads like someone is actually speaking and the quirky characters are fun.

Tempest in the Tea Leaves takes place in Divinity, New York which is actually any small town USA.  Everyone knows everyone, everyone knows your business, and you can't get away with anything.  The books opens as 29 year old Sunshine Meadows packs up her on VW, moves out of her parent's penthouse in New York and, against their wishes, moves to upstate New York to open a fortune telling business in a haunted home she bought with her trust fund.  Needless to say, Sunny's lawyer mother and heart surgeon father do not approve of her lifestyle choices anymore than they approve of her changing her name from Sylvia to Sunshine.

Sunny's first customer is the town librarian.  While reading the tea leaves, Sunny tells the librarian that a man is going to murder her, and sends her on her way with some tea leaves to relax her.  She then calls the police to report the predicted murder, unfortunately she waits about 30 minutes to long and when the police detective arrives, the librarian is already dead, poisoned by the tea Sunny sent home.

Of course, Sunny is the number one suspect and, of course, the detective is good looking, and thinks Sunny is a flake and a murdered.  When the mayor tells the detective he must utilize Sunny's physic abilities to solve the crime, mayhem ensues.

A Killer Read by Erika Chase

A Killer Read by Erika Chase is not my favorite book this year, in fact, the only thing I really liked about it is the mystery was not easy to solve.  The characters were likable, but it honestly just felt like an advertisement for all the other cozy mystery writers.  Interspersed in the plot were quotes by other cozy writers, titles of other cozy mysteries recommended by the characters, book lists for all the characters of current cozy mysteries, with a few Agatha Christie, Dan Brown, etc., books.  It was a real turn off for me.

A Killer Read is set in Ashton Corners, Alabama.  The Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straw Society is meeting at Molly Mathews old Southern manor when a stranger is discovered lurking in the foyer.  He says he came in to use the phone, because his car has broken down.  After he uses the phone, he leaves, then is found shot to death by the members as they are leaving.   About the same time as the murder, a manuscript starts showing up in the middle of the night at Lizzie Turner's house.

As the members of the ACMR&CSS try to solve the murder, they uncover long buried secrets from the past, which have to be solved along with figuring out why the stranger was at Molly's and where he fits in with the town.

A Deal to Die For by Josie Belll

It's always fun to find a new series where the characters are not 25 years old.  You know, characters who are more like the people who are reading about them.  That's what Josie Bell, aka Jenn McKinlay and Lucy Lawrence, gives us in this series about a group of four women, who spend most of their free time looking for bargains.  

In A Deal to Die For, the second in the Good Buy Girls (get it) cozy mystery series, Maggie Gerber is just getting ready to open her new secondhand store right across from her arch nemesis, sleazy, man eater Summer Phillips. In order to stock up on merchandise, Maggie and the rest of the Good Buy Girls will be attending the local street fair where wealthy resident Vera Madison will be selling expensive vintage clothing.  When Vera ends up dead and a woman shows up and claims she is the rightful heir of Vera's home and property, Maggie and her friends set out to solve the mystery and ensure that Vera's daughter, Bianca, gets what should be rightfully hers.  

I like this series, but I would like to see a lot less of the interactions between Maggie and Summer.  We get it, they hate each other, let's move on to a healthy competition for customers and goods.  More mystery, more interactions with the group, and less mean girl fighting.  Make Summer a minor character and the series will be a lot more fun in the future.  Better yet, move her out of town. 

All Sales Fatal by Laura DiSilverio

All Sales Fatal is the second installment in the Mall Cop Mystery series by Laura DiSilverio and it is on sale for Nook and Kindle for just $1.99.  The mall cop in the title is E. J. (Emma Joy) Ferris, decorated war hero recovering from a catastrophic knee injury she got in Afghanistan, daughter of a famous movie star father, and granddaughter of a (kind of retired) CIA agent, who is making time at the local mall while she waits for a police job to open up for her. 

E.J. finds a murdered teenage boy with gang affiliations outside the mall, unfortunately the security cameras in that area have been sabotaged.  Shortly thereafter her boss disappears and E.J. sets out to find out what happened.  Was it one of his three ex-wives?  Is something nefarious taking place in that corner of the mall and did the boss discover it or was her perhaps in on it? Will Detective Hellend ever treat her with the respect she deserves and is there a spark?  Will she find out who the cookie man really is and is there a spark?  Some of these question will be answered in this installment, but for some we'll just have to read Malled to Death. 

Wall-to-Wall Dead by Jennie Bentley

Wall-to-Wall Dead is the latest in the home remodeling cozy mystery by Jennie Bentley.  It is my least favorite of all Jennie Bentley's books, I usually really like them.  In this installment, Avery and Derek are remodeling a 1970's style condo and planning their wedding (can I get an ahhhhh?). 

The lady downstairs is a nosy old busybody, who never leaves the window overlooking the parking lot.  On their second day of working on the condo, Avery gets worried because Hilda Shaw (the aforementioned busybody) is not at her post.  Derek, Avery, and one of the neighbors break into the condo and find Hilda dead from what appears to be an allergic reaction. 

Avery immediately suspects foul play (although why I can't figure out) and sets out to solve the murder before it is even classified as a murder.  She again puts herself in danger by following and confronting people she suspects of being culpable.  Interestingly enough every person in the small complex had something to hide and I'm starting to get suspicious of every neighbor in every apartment where I ever lived. 

I look forward to the next book in the series, I just wish I'd liked this one more. 

Die Buying by Laura DiSilverio and Bear

Die Buying is the story of a Emma Joy Ferris who was wounded in Iraq and after returning home the only job she is qualified for is as a mall cop.  She wants nothing more than to get a job in law enforcement, unfortunately her blown out knee keeps her from achieving her dream.

When she finds a naked, dead body in the window of a high end dress store in the mall, she starts to investigate, with reconnaissance help from her 81 year old, retired CIA grandfather.  Standing in her way, and offering no help whatsoever, is homicide detective Anders Hollend.  Yes, I see a romance in the making.

This is the first in a new series and I found the characters likeable and the ones who aren't supposed to be likeable are annoying, to say the least.  The author retired from the Air Force as an intelligence officer, so she knows law enforcement.  The book is also different than a lot of the cozy mysteries in that the main characters are usually in a field the chose and love and E.J. is there because she wants to work in law enforcement and can't.

On a totally different note, Bear had his teeth cleaned today and he is miserable.  He thinks he hates me, but he doesn't know for sure because he was knocked out during the procedure.  He does know that he was locked in a cage and that was totally not acceptable.  If I could just explain that it cost over $500, I think it would make him feel better.  Also, the fact that I had almost the same thing done last week (well just the cleaning) should make him less mad. 


 

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. 

Dead and Berried by Karen MacInerney

Cranberry Island in Maine sounds like a beautiful place, unfortunately people keep ending up dead.  In Dead and Berried, the second in the continuing saga of the Grey Whale Inn's owner, Natalie Barnes, her ex-fiance comes to try to win her back, a woman staying in the B&B is trying to learn how to run an inn, a ghost, a 100 year old murder, and Polly, the woman who helps out with the laundry and light housekeeping, ends up dead in the bog.  Oh yeah, and then there are the obligatory developers trying to buy up the bog and build a development.

Because the local policeman declares that Polly killed herself, Natalie decides to do some investigating on her own.  When a second person ends up dead, Natalie becomes a suspect and must try to clear her name and solve both murders.

I read the first installment, Murder on the Rocks, last year and liked the characters and the story.  I liked Dead and Berried, even more than I liked Murder on the Rocks. 

Written in Stone by Ellery Adams

 Written in Stone (A Books by the Bay Mystery) has a story within the mystery.  It also has older main characters, which is nice.  I don't have anything against twenty somethings, but it's nice to see older people finding a life partner and solving the mystery.

In Written in Stone Olivia Limoges gets summoned to visit Munin Cooper, a reclusive old woman also known as the Witch of Oyster Bay, who warns Olivia that death is coming.  Munin gives Olivia a homemade memory jug with tokens encrusted in the pottery which has clues to secrets in the community and possibly to Olivia's mother who died when Olivia was very young.  Shortly after they meet, Munin is found dead of a supposed snake bit.

Although Olivia is preparing for the Coastal Carolina Food Festival, she doesn't believe that Munin's death was accidental and she and the rest of the Bayside Book Writers investigate. As they start to identify the jug’s contents and unraveling secrets from the past, they also come face-to-face with a murderer.  

If you like cozies, I recommend this series by Ellery Adams.

Dire Threads by Janet Bolin

I usually like cozy mysteries, but this one just had too many quirky characters and they were more weird than they were quirky.  Plus I think the fact that I don't embroider anything made the fact that the main character embroiders everything she owns seem a bit over the top to me.  That's not to say that if you are a big fan of pictures and words all over your clothes and household items, you are not just as stylish as the person with the knitted hat and sweater, but if you start knitting your pants . . . the line is drawn.

Willow, the main character moves to a quaint town where her best friend, Haylee, owns a fabric store and Haylee's three mother figures own a knitting shop, button shop, and I can't even remember what the third shop sells.  They all give lessons to the locals and the tourists.  The only policeman is an inept old guy called Uncle Allen by everyone in town, the townswomen are all busybodies who don't like the newcomers, and all the eligible men are tall, fit, and handsome. 

Willow is suspected of murder and tries to solve the case with the help of her friends. 

The Silver Needle Murder

The Silver Needle Murder is the ninth Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs. Set with the backdrop of the Charleston Film Festival, Theo Browning is again embroiled in a murder.

This time it is director, Jordan Cole, and as Theo and Drayton try to prove that Timothy's granddaughter should not be a suspect, the festival continues and the danger intensifies.

While it took 240 pages for Theodosia to figure out the killer, I had it figured out quite early. Really though, that's why a cozy mystery is written, to entertain and pass time.

A Veiled Antiquity

While I sit here and wait for Barnes & Noble to send me the latest copy of the First Look Book Club book, I'll read A Veiled Antiquity the second in the Torie O'Shea cozy mysteries by Rett MacPherson.

Torie O'Shea is a genealogist and town historian in New Kassel, Missouri. She is also a wife, daughter of the woman who is dating the town sheriff, and the mother of two young daughters, and in her spare time she solves murders and centuries old mysteries.

Marie Dijon is found dead at the bottom of her basement stairs. The police rule the death an accident, but nosy Torie thinks there is more to the story, much more. Especially when she finds an envelope with some very old French documents and a key duct-taped to the underside of the kitchen table.

Murder Among Friends

was my latest book on the way to my 52 book goal for 2009. Written by Jonnie Jacobs it follows Kate Austen as she tries to solve the mystery surrounding the murder of her friend, Mona. The suspects include a bitter ex-husband, his bimboish fiance Bambi, an angry husband of a student, the daughter's boyfriend, a stranger who is hanging around the school, and the secretly married boyfriend or possibly his wife. That's a heck of a lot of suspects, isn't it?

In this second installment of the Kate Austen cozy mystery series, the author doesn't give away the killer until the last pages. The characters are interesting and a little quirky, the kind of people that are hanging around just about every neighborhood.

I'd definitely give this book a 3.5 out of 5 stars on the enjoyable meter.