Category Archives: Book Reviews

I liked the premise of this story – a young female journalist travels to Alaska at the turn of the century around 1900. Unfortunately, the reality of the mystery was not up to the premise.

(more…)

As a tea drinker, the title of this mystery “Death by Tea” caught my attention. It turned out to be the second in a series of books but I was able to pick up the story line fairly easily and enjoy the book on its own. After finishing this book, I did go back to purchase the previous book in the series so I could catch up on the back story and be prepared for the next book in the series once it is published.

(more…)

Perhaps it was the premise of the story that Aggie Mundeen is on the search for a way to stay young (perhaps forever) and that her quest was driven by her desire to be appealing to the man of her dreams, but for some reason, I was almost immediately put off by the character in this story. I have not read the first two books in the series and those may have a deeper explanation of why Aggie is obsessed with the unattainable and isn’t looking for deeper reasons for her unhappiness with herself.

Apparently, the author is aware of these flaws in her character and has other characters point out some of the problems, including Sam, the man that Aggie wants to spend her life with. By the end of the story, I felt that Aggie was perhaps on her way to finding out her true feelings and issues and I found that I liked her better for it.

(more…)

“Low Country Bordello” is the fourth book in this funny series about a private detective, Liz Talbot, who has a nasty habit of getting involved in solving murder cases – and oh, by the way, almost getting herself killed at the same time.

Liz is days away from her wedding to Nate, her business partner and soul mate when she gets a call from one of her best friends, Olivia. Olivia is dead sure she has stumbled across the body of her husband in a house of ill-repute. Olivia is a pretty high strung individual and wants Liz to come and help her in her hour of need. Thus starts the story and it all gets crazier from that point on.

(more…)

Nichelle Clarke is back to her sleuthing ways as she does her best to get the goods on the latest murder before her rivals (both television and internet.) Nichelle has the more challenging media with a print newspaper.

How do you stay ahead of other media sources that can broadcast 24 x 7? Nichelle makes it look almost easy – well except for having to work crazy long hours that make a personal life almost impossible. Almost but not quite if you have a kind of boyfriend who may be involved in a crime family and who can set his own hours to match yours.

(more…)

This is the first book I have read in the Rosato & DiNunzio series. It was interesting to dive into what is obviously a well-developed series. It turned out to be a very easy read in that sense as the author used a major step back in time to give background for the case and relationships in the book. I think this is a very easy to read book as a stand-alone but the quality of it makes me want to go back and read the prior books.

It is a legal thriller and there is considerable court procedure in the book. While that might ordinarily be a bit of a snooze-fest, I found it really interestingly portrayed. It gave me the feeling of being in court and watching the “battle” of the attorneys as they presented their sides of the case.

(more…)

In this book, Eli Marks is a magician who assists his uncle with the running of his magic store. He also lives in the apartment above the store which happens to be situated in a way that Eli can see into the projectionist’s booth at the movie theater next door and does so regularly to try to see what movie is being played. One evening, Eli is surprised to see what looks like a body and the story takes off from there.

(more…)