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Death of a Dream Catcher, by Linda Norlander. is the fifth in the Cabin by the lake series. I think it is the least successful.

Jamie Forrest is a transplanted New Yorker to an inherited cabin by a lake in Minnesota. In this outing, she is engaged to Jim Monroe. He reveals that his older brother Eli, a high school athlete. went swimming with a group of friends and drowned. Now, with a high school reunion, the ghosts of that twenty year old summer have risen up again. On a camping trip to Bear Island, Jim goes off alone and when he returns he is in a dark mood. Jamie is so distracted worrying about this that she trips over a tree root and falls, breaking her arm. But Jim refuses to tell her the whole story,’for her safety.’ The reunion, which both Jamie and Jim attend, only deepens the mystery. What happened to Lucy, the sister of the housekeeper for the elderly lawyer Jamie has befriended? More concerningly, what is going on with Jim? He is acting out of character and refuses to tell Jamie anything.

The setting is, as usual, well portrayed and the mystery is interesting. But the relationship between Jim and Jamie raised a whole forest of red flags for me. He takes all his phone calls outside and behaves very secretively. He keeps warning her to stay out of it, ‘for her safety’. And after she follows him, and saves not only Jim but other characters as well, he blows up at her. I began wondering why she even wanted to marry the man.

So, a mixed review.

Currently Reading

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Dr. Jonathan Gray is a coroner/pathologist in New Orleans. He is elevated to the post unexpectedly when the supervisor, and his mentor, dies unexpectedly. Gray is quickly drawn into a several cases involving, first, the murder of two important New Orleans citizens. At the same time, the local priest asks him to talk to a couple who have retreated to the church for sanctuary. Gray, and the local NOPD Sprance, dive into the cases. A surprise confrontation with a journalist shocks Gray into digging deeper into his mentor. Gray, his wife, the journo, and others are soon in danger of their lives.

The beginning was a little slow moving as Gray treats the reader to a blow by blow description of an autopsy. Not needed. But once past the first few chapters, the action picks up and the book becomes unputdownable.

Recommended.

The Amberglow Candy store is a strange book.The first chapter concerns a high school student who worries her boyfriend does not love her as she loves him. A mysterious shrine leads to an equally mysterious path to a candy store. The proprietor is, as is soon obvious, a magical being. The sweets are also magical. Like many children’s stories, there is a moral at the end of each of the chapters, which are linked only by the candy store.. Recommended for the reader who wants the offbeat.

Currently Reading – and more

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An electrical storm last Thursday took out my electricity, briefly, and my cable. Six days later, we finally got it back. I have been on the verge of canceling and go to another provider for some time. This almost pushed me off the edge. Nothing the ‘agents’ suggested worked. We finally had to have a technician, which Optimum fought every step of the way, to diagnose the problem.

The real lesson is how dependent on this we are. I did as much as I could on the phone but believe me, a phone is not a replacement for wifi.

Anyway, I read several books.

Dying Cry, by Mitzushima, is the tenth book in the series. In this one, Mattie, Robo, Cole and family are on a vacation in the snowy Colorado mountains. They are snowshoeing when they hear a terrified cry ahead and shortly after a boulder comes crashing down and buries the body. The victim turns out to be Cole’s assistant Tess’s husband.

Murder or accident? Another captivating mystery.

History Lessons by Zoe B. Wallbrook, was a freebee at one of the conferences I attended. Daphne is a history professor on the tenure track at a prestigious college. When she receives a weird text in terrible French, she deletes it. But when the sender of that text is discovered murdered, she is drawn into the mystery of his death. Who would want to murder Sam, the golden boy of the anthropology department? It turns out, there are many many people with a motive. Daphne is assaulted and abducted before she uses her scholarly skills to solves the case.

Highly Recommended.

Currently Reading

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Sealed with a hiss is number 33 of the 34 Mrs. Murphy mysteries by Rita Mae Brown. In this outing, a car with the driver still in it is discovered on a stream near Crozet, Virginia. It is discovered by ‘Harry” and her band of animals, who are in the area to work on the restoration of an old segregated school. It was closed in 1959 when segregated schools ended. Harry, and the other regular characters, have been working to restore it as a sort of museum.

But the 15 acres behind the school is of great interest to a local realtor who presses the local history group to intercede with the mayor, who is opposed to developing the acreage, on his behalf.

The restoration work and the history, especially the racial history, of his area is fascinating. But the pacing for the mystery is off, with the solution at the end feeling rushed.

A disappointment.

This is number 9 of 11 of the Timber Creek K9 mysteries. This continues to be a wonderful series.

Just days from her wedding to Cole Walker, Mattie and her dog Robo are called to the Pacific Northwest to search for a missing 9 year old. Since his mother is a world famous actress, all hands are on deck to find the boy. But the dampness, constant rain, and thick undergrowth make for an even more difficult search than ever. But the information that there have been several missing children raises a red flag for Mattie.

Then one of the other search dogs becomes seriously ill, and Mattie is directed to an area with several dead wildlife animals and a possibly poisoned stream. And soon after, Robo finds the graves of two children.

As is the case with this series, what is supposed to be a simple search becomes something more serious and complicated. Highly
Recommended.

Currently Reading

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Standing Dead, by Margaret Mizushima, is the eighth installment in the Timber Creek K9 series.

It begins with Mattie, and her newly found sister Julia, traveling to Mexico to meet with their mother Ramona, She is the only eyewitness to the long ago case involving Mattie’s biological father Daniel Wray, his murder, and the allegations that he was part of a gang running guns and drugs into the US and Canada. But when the two women arrive at Ramona’s house, she and her husband are gone.

When Mattie arrives home in Timber Creek, she finds a note pinned to her back door, saying that “he is tied to a tree in the standing dead” at a nearby campsite. The note is signed Mattie and the sheriff’s team race over, and find Ramona’s dead husband tied to a tree.

Another note warns Mattie more is coming.

As Mattie, Robo and Brody race to discover who is behind this, where they are hiding, more of Mattie’s loved ones are threatened and/or captured.

Another winner. Highly recommended.

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Clarissa Bell is an Oxford trained archaeologist in the 1920s so no one takes her seriously. But her father’s wealth enables her to join a dig in Egypt. And her speciality on pottery and various Egyptian pigments quickly embroils her in a mystery involving missing artifacts, forgeries, and murder. She meets a charming rogue, Benedict Quinn, who may or may not be trustworthy. Events take a serious turn when she realizes some of the forgeries are designed to suppress information – and several groups do not want this to get out. She is threatened, kidnapped and almost killed before the murderer is discovered.

But the man behind the larger crime remains unknown.

This mystery had more than a whiff of Crocodile on the Sandbank (the first Amelia Peabody mystery by Elizabeth Peters.) Clarissa is an annoying protagonist, especially in the beginning; arrogant, a know-it-all and reckless to the point of foolishness. I almost didn’t finish the book because of her character. However, her flaws smooth out a little, and some explanation is given for her academic arrogance. The mystery is interesting and the setting can’t be beat. All the information on pottery and pigments was very interesting.

So, recommended, with the caveat I mentioned.

Currently Reading

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This week I read two books in series I’ve begun, and enjoy very much.

Striking Range is number 7 in the K-( Timber Creek series. Mattie Cobb and a federal officer, Jim Hauck, journey to the prison to interview John Cobb, the man who killed Mattie’s brother and tried to kill Mattie. But Cobb is found dead. The only clue is a map of Timber Creek with several Xs marked on it. Mattie is forced to return to the cave where Cobb kept her prisoner.

Before a thorough search can be accomplished, Mattie is called away. The body of a young woman has been found in a camp. Mattie recognizes her as a young girl who was pregnant just a day or two previously.

The two cases come together in a surprising way. Another winner!

Murder on the Vine by Camilla Trinchieri is the third in this series.

Nico and Maraschiello Perillo are having breakfast when they are called away. Laura Benati, the manager of the Bella Vista hotel, is worried about her barman, Cesare Costanzi. He has been missing for three days. Shortly after, Nico is called to assist a friend, Jimmy, who has run out of gas. One Wag, Nico’s dog, is fascinated by something in Jimmy’s trunk and a further investigation reveals the body of Costanzi. Has Jimmy ever even met the man? And what is Laura’s connection? She is far closer to Cesare than would be expected of a manager and an employee.

I love these books, for the mysteries and for the feel of the Tuscan countryside. Food plays a huge part and every dish is lovingly described. I just wish they came with recipes! Highly Recommended.

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This week I read two cozies, one I liked very much. The other not so much.

An A-list for Murder is the second in the Evelyn Gallagher series by Amy Patricia Meade. Evelyn is working on another movie with Hitchcock at the beginning of WWII. She meets a sobbing young woman, Phoebe Dillon, in the bathroom. The next day, the body of the young woman is discovered in an empty lot and soon after an article slandering her appears in the paper. Evelyn contacts her friend, Lt. Ziegler and is soon involved in questioning people who knew the girl. At an event, Evelyn meets Ted Dorton and he swears he did not write the article about Phoebe.And Alex, Evelyn’s love, makes a surprise appearance.

As Evelyn investigates, she discovered the girl’s murder had far more to do with world events than the movies, involving, among other things, the Nazi efforts to keep the US out of the war.

This one is even better than the first one was. Highly Recommended.

I also read Hiss me Deadly by Miranda James. Librarian Charlie and his cat Diesel are involved in another mystery. The return of an Athena native, who ran away at 16 and made a huge success of himself as a musician, has the town in a tizzy. Wil wants to talk to Charlie; the young man feels something is off and wants Charlie to look around. Charlie soon discovers that Wil’s success, breaking up a local band, has caused some hard feelings. When the lead singer of the high school band shows up at an event featuring Will and his current band, and is electrocuted, Charlie realizes that the situation is far more serious than he realized.

Several other murders occur before Charlie finally understands what is happening.

The beginning of this book was interesting (although I found Diesel not at all catlike.) However, about halfway through, the story got away from James. It read as though she’d put down the book and picked up the story later; it didn’t really hang together. So, not terrible, but not wonderful either.

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I picked up Lost and Found In Prague, by Kelly Jones, because I have been in Prague. It did not disappoint.

Dana Pierson receives a frantic note from her cousin Caroline, a Carmelite nun in Prague, that she needs Dana’s help. Dana and Caroline had gone to Prague some twenty years previously, arriving during the Velvet Revolution when the then named Czechoslovakia separated from Communist Russia. Dana had gone home but Caroline remained, having fallen in love with a Czech.

When she arrives, Dana has trouble meeting with Caroline. An old nun has died in the church and the nunnery is closed to outsiders. At the same time a priest, Giovanni Borelli arrives at the request of the church’s priest. They form a duo of sorts to investigate not only the nun’s death but the disappearance of the Infant of Prague. The local detective Damcek, who is investigating the assassination of a senator, becomes an unlikely ally.

The mystery becomes more intricate than I expected, involving a long ago murder, blackmail, political chicanery and more as well as the death of the nun and the disappearance of the religious artifact.And yes, Dana goes to many of the places I visited while in Prague.

Recommended.

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Burning Ridge is the fourth installment in this series by Mizushima. In this outing, a partially burned body is discovered on a high ridge in the Colorado Mountains. When Mattie Cobb and Robo are called in to investigate, the case spirals into something much more serious. Three more bodies are discovered and this time Mattie has a personal connection to the murders. But Mattie, Robo and Cole Walker persevere and not only identify the murderer but also a sprawling case involving drugs and human trafficking.

I love these books. The mysteries are great and the relationship between Mattie and Robo is wonderful. I also really like that Robo is a real dog, not an anthropomorphized animal as one sees so often in cozy mysteries.

Highly Recommended.

This is the second in the Tuscan mysteries.

A famous, but arrogant and unpleasant, wine critic drives off the road and is killed. But the tox screen reveals he has been poisoned by antifreeze. Nico is drawn into the investigation of the victim’s wife, and all the vintners who owed him money. All the regulars are here: Nico’s relatives who run the restaurant he works in, The Dante quoting Gogol, Perillo, and Daniele Donato.

The mysteries are great but even more appealing is the wonderful setting and the descriptions of the food. Read a chapter and you are hungry! My only criticism is I wish there was a glossary of the food names, most of which I had to look up.

Highly Recommended.