Category Archives: Book Reviews

“Between a Rock and a Hard Place” is the third in a series of Potting Shed mysteries by Marty Wingate. I have read all three and also her debut mystery in another series. After four books, I know and am comfortable with her style.

In this story, the relationship between our gardening sleuth, Pru Parke and her beau, Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse, have progressed and wedding bells are in the future. In the meantime, Pru has accepted a temporary position in Edinburgh, doing research and writing a to-be-published paper on the subject.

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“Unleashed” is the second in a series of mysteries about Dr. Kate Turner by Eileen Brady. Kate is a veterinarian who has moved to Oak Falls to fill in for the established vet, who is off on a prolonged vacation. She has been in her position for a number of months and is settling in quite well.

In this story, Claire, the owner of Toto, a Cairn terrier who is one of Dr. Kate’s patients, has committed suicide… or has she? While almost everyone in town is willing to accept her death, Kate has lots of questions. Further, she is fairly indiscriminate as to who she is asking the questions of. She starts getting caught up more and more in trying to figure out how Claire actually died and if murder might actually be involved.

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“The Red Book of Primrose House” is the second in the series of Potting Shed mysteries by Marty Wingate. I must admit I much preferred the first book. There is a bit of a sophmore slump in this second book.

Our sleuth, Pru Parke has finally gotten the job she needs in order to stay in England. She is a recent transplant from Texas and had given herself a year to settle in and find a job. The only drawback to the job is that it puts her at a distance from her new boyfriend, a detective in London that she met in the first book in this series.

Pru seems to have rather quickly adopted the lingo of her adopted country as well as their habits. To tell the truth, this is one of the things I object to in this story. I think it would be much better to have Pru speak in her Texas “voice” and have her habits contrast with that of those around her. I worked with many British individuals and was told that they generally have a lot of disdain for expats who come across too native too soon. They can tell that it is not natural and they simply don’t like it. At one point in the story, Pru hides the fact that she is making iced tea because it is too different from what her friends would do.

Pru has turned on the waterworks in this story. She has become a crier and is frankly too dependent on her boyfriend. I like a stronger woman in my mysteries and hope that the author firms up Pru’s backbone in the future. She is also acting fairly young for a woman in her fifties. One would think that time and experience would have given her a more resolute spirit.

Apart from that, it was a decent cozy mystery. The whodunnit was not too difficult to figure out and from that point on, waiting for Pru to come up with the answer was about two thirds of the book. Perhaps that is why some of the character issues became more prominent to me. All I was relying on at that point was the charm of the story and some of it lost its charm pretty quickly.

The book ends a little strangely from my point of view. Hopefully, it will make more sense in the follow on book in this series. I also hope that Pru grows up, grows a backbone, and starts acting her age and her own person.

This is the first book in the Potting Shed Mystery series by Marty Wingate. From what I have read, “The Garden Plot” is also the first mystery that Ms. Wingate wrote. I recently read “The Rhyme of the Magpie” which is a first in another series by the author and enjoyed it so much, that I sought out her previous books. I am certainly glad to have done so. For a first book, “The Garden Plot” is an excellent cozy mystery.

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“Remember Mia” is the story of a woman who has literally lost her seven month old daughter. It is also a story about the deep postpartum depression a woman can suffer from following birth. The first third of the book moved a little slowly and, frankly, I had a hard time reading about Stella’s inability to care for her child. I was blessed not to suffer from this after my children were born and reading about it was very difficult to do.

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“Morgue Drawer: Clink or Cooler?” is the fifth and latest entry in the Morgue Drawer series by Jutta Profijt. I have read the entire series and have enjoyed all of the books. The latest one is one of my favorites. All of the characters are well-established, so there isn’t a lot of time being spent explaining their back stories – the book concentrates on the murder mystery and the whodunnit.

Speaking of which, I was able to figure out the whodunnit fairly early on but I was stymied by the whydunnit. That kept my interest piqued as I read through the story.

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“Killer Jam” is the first in the new Dewberry Farm mystery series by Karen MacInerney. This is the book I have read by Ms. MacInerney. It does well as an introduction to a new series, which by its nature, is a little more involved than sequels. We are being introduced to all of the characters and that takes some time and explanation which in turn takes time and pages away from the rest of the story.

The author is able to pull this off really well and so we get to know our sleuth, Lucy Resnick quite well. Lucy is an ex-newspaper journalist from Houston who was downsized out of her job (print newspaper) and decides to put her savings into following her dream. She buys Dewberry Farm, which is her old family home which appears to be somewhere between Houston and Austin (her grandparents Vogel owned it until it was sold to the current owner.)

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It has been a number of years since I have read one of the Inspector Lynley books by Elizabeth George. It was surprising to pick up the latest “A Banquet of Consequences” and find that it fit my mood and my remembrances like a well-worn glove.

I stepped back during my read (be aware that this is a fairly long book at almost 600 pages), and took a look at some of the intervening books that I had missed. I was surprised to see that the reviews tended towards the average. If that is the case, then Ms. George is back on the mark with this book as it was truly an excellent and nicely long read.

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