Category Archives: Book Reviews

Another great cozy mystery in the A Mad for Mod series. Madison is back with her buddies Tex and Hudson. She is still struggling to figure out if she wants a relationship and if so, is it with one of these two men. She’s been burnt before and is considerably gun shy of “being back in the game.” Tex is a detective with the Lakewood Police Department. Hudson is Madison’s number one handy man/contractor for help in her interior decorating business – which focuses on mid-century modern homes and furniture.

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“Lowcountry Boneyard” is the first book I have read by Susan M. Boyer. It is the third book in her series about private investigator Liz Talbot. I often start a series in the middle and am always curious as to whether or not the book relies too heavily on its predecessors. I was able to enjoy this book as a stand-alone; however, given how much I enjoyed it, I would suggest that readers read the series in order. I definitely plan to pick up the first two in the series in the near future.

Liz is in her early thirties and has been in the P.I. Business for more than a decade. She is hired to investigate the month old missing person case of a young, wealthy woman named Kent. The police have back burnered the case, feeling that the young woman has left the area voluntarily to get away from her controlling parents. The more Liz finds out about Kent’s extremely wealthy family, the more suspicious she becomes of them.

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I lived in a mid-century modern home for almost thirty years, so I could relate to the premise of this book. Also, while I am a fan of Doris Day, my youngest daughter was a “true” fan and would watch the videos over and over again. Which was okay with me, since I like those fun romantic comedies of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

“Pillow Stalk” is the first the the A Mad for Mod Mystery series and is the first book I have read by Diane Vallere. I love a good cozy mystery and that is exactly what I got in this book. The characters were well developed and the relationships between them made sense. I didn’t figure out the whodunnit until I was about 2/3’s of the way through the book – which is a pretty good pace for me. I admit cringing a few times as each of Madison’s vintage outfits bit the dust but apart from that, I enjoyed reading the book and got a few outright laughs as well.

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“The Figaro Murders” is the debut murder mystery by Laura Lebow. It is set in the late 1700’s in Vienna. Many of the characters are actual historical figures who made up the opera music scene of the day.

The sleuth is Lorenzo De Ponte, the theater poet of Emperor Joseph II. He is in the midst of writing the libretto with Mozart to their opera “The Marriage of Figaro” when he is suddenly pulled into solving a mystery of birth, a murder mystery, finding a spy, and other assorted unknowns that crop up throughout the book.

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