Monthly Archives: April 2015

“The Ghost Fields” is the seventh book of an on-going series by Elly Griffiths and is the first book I have read by this author. I often start series mid-way through and one of the tests is whether or not I can enjoy the book without the earlier books in the series. In this regard, this book ranks excellent. While it is obvious that there is a long history between several of the characters, the author was able to bring me up to date without long recitations of what has happened previously or providing too much of a spoiler that makes it difficult to go back and read the previous books.

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“Shadow Waltz” is the third book in the Marjorie McClelland Mysteries by Amy Patricia Meade; however, it is the first book I have read in this series and, indeed, the first book I have read by Ms. Meade. I often chose to start a series mid-way through in order to judge whether it can be read stand-alone enjoyably or if it needs to be read as part of the series. While I did enjoy reading the book, I think it would be more enjoyable to have read it as part of the series. There seems to be many references to people, places, and occurrences which happened in the first two books. While I was able to figure out a good number of them by the end of the book, while I was reading it, I was puzzled by some of the references.

The story itself was definitely a fun and cozy mystery. Marjorie McClelland is a mystery writer who lives in Connecticut during the 1930’s. The country is still fairly deep in the Great Depression and there are signs that a good number of people are struggling. Thankfully for Marjorie and her fiance, Creighton Ashcroft, that is not their situation. Marjorie is making a nice living from her books and Creighton appears to be very wealthy indeed.

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“Eeny Meeny” is a an interesting debut to what is going to be a series of some sort (there is an excerpt in the book for the second book “Pop Goes the Weasel” to be released in October 2015. While there was a good portion of the book that I enjoyed, I also felt that perhaps there was a little too much going on. That is probably because the author was busy introducing a number of characters who will continue on in the next book.

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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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