Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Farm to Trouble; The Bodies in the Library; and A Glimmer of Death

 Three quick reviews on cozy mysteries.

Solid story for a new series!! Shiloh Bellamy is being called back from LA to her Michigan farm home to help her ailing father out. But the farm is in shambles and she has a lot of work ahead of her. And her father is against the investor that Shiloh found to help with some expenses. Luckily for her, the investor is found dead the next day.

There are a lot of great characters in this new series and I can't wait to read the next one. A quirky diner and owner, long time friends of Shiloh's from before she ran away to LA, a persnickety police chief and mayor.... so many options for future mysteries and goings on in Cherry Glen, MI. And Shiloh's pug that she takes everywhere, Huckleberry.

I feel like this was a great little cozy and the mystery wasn't easily guessed. I hope that Shiloh can feel more comfortable to stand up for herself in future books. I dislike that sometimes the characters will just let people walk all over them instead of standing up for themselves. Four stars for me!


Hayley is a new curator of Lady Fowling's first edition library of mystery books. She is trying to breath new life into the library and estate and has agreed to let a group of fan fiction writers use a room each week for their meetings. And then one turns up dead in the room the morning after a meeting.

It took me some time to get into this book. Not sure if it was the stodgy narration in the audio version. It could have been that there was something going on at the time with me that kept me from getting interested in the novel as quickly as I usually can.

The series has some interesting characters, not the least of which is Glynis, the secretary of the Lady Fowling who seems to fight Hayley on almost everything that she is trying to accomplish with the library/estate. And Hayley doesn't have the experience with the mysteries in the library as she should being the curator so she is learning and reading the books as she can.

I'm not giving up on the series as it isn't the worst thing that I have read in the last year. Hopefully, my lack of enthusiasm was just a fluke. Just 3 stars for me.

Another first in a series! Looking forward to the next!

Odessa is mourning the loss of her husband and trying to keep her house and her catering business. She has started a new career in realty since her catering business has seemed to hit a snag, but she took a job in Charlie Risko's office and is dealing with his shadiness and mood swings. And then Charlie is found dead. Dessa has the gift of being able to read emotions and glimmers or auras and is using this to try and save the day and her catering business.

Very interesting characters and just enough details make me want to read the second in the series that is out this year (2021), but I hope that there are more characters to come that will have redeeming qualities that will make them feel like friends. I like that the friendship between Dessa and former-cop-now-BBQ-restaurant owner is starting very slowly because Dessa is still mourning the loss of her husband. I also like how Dessa is starting to want to bake again after her loss. I almost wish some recipes were included at the back of the book! Four stars for this one!



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