mystery

Review – A Palette for Murder by Vanessa A. Ryan

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

A Palette for MurderSynopsis: Lana Davis arrives in New Mexico from Los Angeles, planning to look up a former boyfriend and take in some sightseeing. But this all-expense-paid trip is not a vacation. She’s here to find Antonio Chavez, last seen in Santa Fe. He’s the missing beneficiary of a large life insurance policy her company issued. The heat is on because a disgruntled heir insists he should receive the proceeds instead. However bogus his claim is, the public relations nightmare he causes for her company is real. If Lana doesn’t find Antonio, her job is on the line.

Lana’s search for Antonio brings her into the inner circle of a powerful art gallery in Santa Fe, owned by the daughter of a wealthy family. Although Lana’s knowledge of art is limited to the one art history class she took in college, she soon discovers that when art and greed collide, the result is deadly. Her knack for finding dead bodies makes the police nervous–and finding herself a target for murder is more than she signed up for.

Genre: Cozy Mystery
My rating – *** (3 stars)

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Guest Post from Author Rodney Page

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

Hello everyone. Please join me in welcoming Rodney Page, author of recent release “The Fourth Partner” (available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble), to The Book’s the Thing.

The Fourth PartnerAll Detective Leroy Meriwether wants is to coast to retirement and restore his ’65 GTO, but Billy Howell will change all that.

Howell, a well-liked local business owner, disappeared in 1991, the presumed victim of a boating accident. When his skeleton is discovered in a shallow grave on Saint Simons Island, Leroy’s considerable but underutilized talents are put to the test.

Initially, the cold case investigation goes nowhere. But the hardheaded and persistent detective is soon bedeviled by a ‘high class’ problem: too many suspects…Howell’s wife, his estranged teenage son, his bookie, his clients and the shadowy ringleaders of a nineties drug-smuggling operation.

Leroy gets closer to the truth and runs afoul of his boss. Trumped-up sexual harassment charges lead to his suspension, but Leroy continues to pursue the investigation at his own peril. 

The murderer is determined his twenty-five year-old secrets must never be discovered.

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Death Among the Doilies – Blog Tour and Giveaway (ENDED)

~ Erika K ~ 9 Comments

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Synopsis: For thirty-something blogger Cora Chevalier, small-town Indigo Gap, North Carolina, seems like the perfect place to reinvent her life. Shedding a stressful past as a counselor for a women’s shelter, Cora is pouring all her talents—and most of her savings—into a craft retreat business, with help from close pal and resident potter Jane Starr. Between transforming her Victorian estate into a crafter’s paradise and babysitting Jane’s daughter, the new entrepreneur has no time for distractions. Especially rumors about the murder of a local school librarian . . .

But when Jane’s fingerprints match those found at the grisly crime scene, Cora not only worries about her friend, but her own reputation. With angry townsfolk eager for justice and both Jane’s innocence and the retreat at risk, she must rely on her creative chops to unlace the truth behind the beloved librarian’s disturbing demise. Because if the killer’s patterns aren’t pinned, Cora’s handiwork could end up in stitches . . .

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A Free “After the Funeral” Podcast, and a New Poirot Novel!

~ Erika K ~ 6 Comments

 

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Listen to After the Funeral by Agatha Christie

A Free Serialization of the Complete Audiobook in Eight Parts

Presented by Sophie Hannah

Throughout the serialization, Sophie informs listeners on the crucial distinction between the truly impossible and the deeply unlikely, points out the magic of a very personal motive, and explains her belief that “the best stories are the ones that would only ever happen once.”

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Hercule Poirot is called on to investigate the murder of a brother and sister, in this classic Agatha Christie mystery now available in an updated edition with a foreword Sophie Hannah.

“He was murdered, wasn’t he?”

When Cora Lansquenet is savagely murdered, the extraordinary remark she had made the previous day at her brother Richard’s funeral suddenly takes on a chilling significance. At the reading of Richard’s will, Cora was clearly heard to say, “It’s been hushed up very nicely, hasn’t it. But he was murdered, wasn’t he?”

Did Cora’s accusation a dark truth that sealed her own fate? Or are the siblings’ deaths just tragic coincidences?

Desperate to know the truth, the Lansquenet’s solicitor turns to Hercule Poirot to unravel the mystery. For even after the funeral, death isn’t finished yet .

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Cracked to Death by Cheryl Hollon – Blog Tour and Giveaway (ENDED)

~ Erika K ~ 10 Comments

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Synopsis

When a treasure hunt leads to deadly plunder, it’s up to glass shop owner Savannah Webb and her trusty investigative posse to map out the true motives of a killer . . .

It’s the dog days of summer in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Webb’s Glass Shop proprietor Savannah Webb has an eco-friendly plan to help locals escape the heat–a recyclable bottle-crafting workshop taught by reticent store manager Amanda Blake. Turns out, the class is a bigger smash than expected, thanks in part to a pair of staggeringly old bottles brought in by snorkeler Martin Lane . . .

Linked to a storied pirate shipwreck, the relics definitely pique Savannah’s interest. But intrigue turns to shock when Martin’s lifeless body washes ashore the next morning, another glass artifact tucked in his dive bag. With cell phone records connecting Amanda to the drowning, Savannah must voyage through unchartered territory to exonerate her colleague and capture the twisted criminal behind Martin’s death . . .

Keep reading for a chance to win a print copy!

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The Crepes of Wrath by Sarah Fox – Blog Tour

~ Erika K ~ 3 Comments

 In the debut of a delightful cozy mystery series, Sarah Fox introduces a charming new heroine who finds herself in a sticky situation: stacking pancakes, pouring coffee, and investigating murder.

When Marley McKinney’s aging cousin, Jimmy, is hospitalized with pneumonia, she agrees to help run his pancake house while he recovers. With its rustic interior and syrupy scent, the Flip Side Pancake House is just as she pictured it—and the surly chef is a wizard with crêpes. Marley expects to spend a leisurely week or two in Wildwood Cove, the quaint, coastal community where she used to spend her summers, but then Cousin Jimmy is found murdered, sprawled on the rocks beneath a nearby cliff.
 
After she stumbles across evidence of stolen goods in Jimmy’s workshop, Marley is determined to find out what’s really going on in the not-so-quiet town of Wildwood Cove. With help from her childhood crush and her adopted cat, Flapjack, Marley sinks her teeth into the investigation. But if she’s not careful, she’s going to get burned by a killer who’s only interested in serving up trouble.

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Some Cool Reads for a Hot Summer

~ Erika K ~ 6 Comments

I don’t know what the weather might be like where you live, but in the greater Chicagoland area, we are experiencing a heat wave. It’s much hotter, and more humid, than I am happy with! I can dream about going somewhere cooler, but I’ve about used up my vacation time for this summer. (Those of you who are regular readers might have noticed that I’ve been absent a lot over the past month or so.) I can read about someplace cooler though, and live vicariously through a story’s characters as they don their sweaters, add an extra blanket to the bed, or trudge through the snow. With that in mind, here are some cold-weather titles I’ve come up with. These are all new to me, so if you’ve read one, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Cozy Review – A Dark and Stormy Murder by Julia Buckley

~ Erika K ~ 4 Comments

A Dark and Stormy Murder (A Writer's Apprentice Mystery #1) An aspiring suspense novelist lands in the middle of a real crime, in the first in a captivating new series by the author of the Undercover Dish Mysteries.
 
Lena London’s literary dreams are coming true—as long as she can avoid any real-life villains…
 
Camilla Graham’s bestselling suspense novels inspired Lena London to become a writer, so when she lands a job as Camilla’s new assistant, she can’t believe her luck. Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she’ll get to live rent-free in Camilla’s gorgeous Victorian home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana.

But Lena’s fortune soon changes for the worse. First, she lands in the center of small town gossip for befriending the local recluse. Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without—a dead body, found on her new boss’s lakefront property.

Now Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla’s books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist’s mysterious estate—before the killer writes them both out of the story for good…

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Cozy Review – Reading Up a Storm by Eva Gates

~ Erika K ~ 4 Comments

Reading Up a Storm (Lighthouse Library Mystery #3) Misfortune blows into North Carolina’s Outer Banks when a dead body in a boat on the shore leaves local librarian Lucy Richardson racing to solve a strange new mystery….

After a successful party at Bodie Island’s Lighthouse Library, librarian Lucy Richardson is ready to curl up with her cat, Charles, and a good book. But her R and R is cut short when she notices some mysterious lights leading a small boat to crash into the coast.

The two shipwrecked seafarers survive the ordeal—but one of them shows up dead ashore a few days later. Lucy finds herself again roped into a murder investigation and navigating a sea of suspects, all of whom had motives to deep-six the deceased. And this time, she has a sinking feeling that finding the real killer won’t be so easy…

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Calamity Cafe by Gayle Leeson – Blog Tour and Giveaway (ENDED)

~ Erika K ~ 5 Comments

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The Calamity CafeAspiring chef and small-town Virginia native Amy Flowers is ready to open her own café offering old-fashioned Southern food. But her dream may go up in smoke when someone kills the competition…

Tired of waiting tables at Lou’s Joint, Amy Flowers doesn’t just quit—she offers to buy the place from her bully of a boss, so she can finally open the café of her dreams. Amy can’t wait to serve the kind of Southern, down-home treats and dishes that her grandmother always loved to the kooky cast of regulars at the restaurant. She knows her comfort food will be the talk of the sweet, small town of Winter Garden, Virginia.

At first Lou Lou refuses to sell, but when she seems ready to make a deal, she tells Amy to come see her.  Showing up at the eatery ready to negotiate, Amy is shocked to find her former employer murdered. As the prime suspect, Amy will have to clear her name by serving up the real killer—and with Lou Lou’s stack of enemies, that’s a tall order.

Includes delicious Southern recipes!

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