My Review Jack, the 1940s deceased gumshoe, is back in The Ghost and the Haunted Portrait. This time the mystery involves a mysterious painting and a suspicious “accidental death.” A mashup of hard-boiled noir and a cozy mystery sounds like it wouldn’t work at all. But somehow this series doesContinue Reading
My Review Marygene is more southern than beignets. But she is also willing to gracefully cater her ex-boyfriend’s wedding to save her family’s beloved Peach’s Diner. Marygene and her best friend, Betsy, run into all kinds of trouble when the bride, Lucy, turns up dead for real in the murderContinue Reading
Hmmm…Hot Stew is the perfect title for this book. It has two completely different plots that are rubbing uncomfortably together like too tight shoes on bare feet. The first story is a brothel that is fighting gentrification in Soho, London. I liked the strong female prostitutes. There were no victimsContinue Reading
In The Kindred Spirits Supper Club, Sabrina has an unusual talent—she can see ghosts. Luckily, it only occurs in her hometown in the Wisconsin Dells. Unfortunately, after being fired from her Washington D.C. journalism job, she is forced to move back in with her parents. However, things are looking upContinue Reading
My Review In Knitted and Knifed, Tessa is recovering from a painful divorce by moving back to her New Zealand hometown. She is running her recently deceased grandmother’s yarn shop. When she finds the town’s new pop-up shop owner dead with a knife in his back, her brother, who isContinue Reading
Author Guest Post Inspiration from Movies As any author would tell you, inspiration for stories comes from all sorts of places. Mine began one evening while watching the Cary Grant movie, Arsenic and Old Lace. The Brewster sisters are a bit quirky and dark. Mortimer (Cary Grant) stumbles upon theirContinue Reading
My Review In A Game of Cones, Browyn is the manager of her family-owned ice cream shop in small town Chagrin Falls, Ohio. During a town meeting, a big city real estate developer mentions his plans to build a vertical mall in the historic town triangle. Later that day, heContinue Reading
My Review Just when you thought reality shows couldn’t get any cattier than RuPaul’s Drag Race, enter the world of Opera Divanation! In Double or Muffin, Merry and her business partner Pish host a competition show for aspiring opera singers in her castle in upstate NY. If you, like me,Continue Reading
Author Guest Post-To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question If I have a patron saint, it is surely Julia Child. After all, it was St. Julia of Child who famously said, “People who love to eat are always the best people.” I like that quote so muchContinue Reading
Guest Post-Short Wave Radio in World War II Short Wave Radio was used many different ways during World War II. This is as true for the U.S. and Britain as it was in the occupied countries, Berlin, and Tokyo. With today’s big screen TVs, cellphones, internet, and streaming video, weContinue Reading
Character Guest Post Oh, hello. It’s nice to see you here. I’m Lois Stone and I came to live in the small town of Fenwater last summer. My best friend, Marge, was already here and she encouraged me to come. She said I’d love the pace of life after theContinue Reading
Author Guest Post-From the Recipe Book of Nora Charles! Nora Charles, the heroine of the Nick and Nora mysteries, is not only a talented amateur sleuth, she’s also one heck of a cook! Here Nora shares some of her favorite recipes with you! Megan Fox (aka Monte Cristo) 3 slicesContinue Reading
Author Guest Post: A Renovation Adventure Okay, okay…as you can tell I normally don’t do guest blogs because other than write and take my kids to school—I have no life. Lol. I guess you can call the mom syndrome. Plus with the pandemic, I don’t leave the house. Even girlsContinue Reading
My Review: Perhaps it was my years as an Internal Auditor but it was obvious at first acquaintance which character at the bank was the bad guy. Be suspicious, very suspicious, of bank employees living beyond their means by way of unverified lottery winnings. However, I only suspected he wasContinue Reading
My Review At Suzanne, Petra and Toni’s restaurant, the Cackleberry Club, everyone feels as at home as I do whenever I read one of the books in this series. In Egg Shooters, Suzanne is bringing a meal of chili and cornbread to her fiancé Dr. Sam at the hospital. Suddenly,Continue Reading
Author Guest Post Chocolate, Community Coffee and Involuntary Autobiographical Memory If you’ve met me for five minutes, you probably know I’m really into coffee. I have an espresso machine at my house, and the first thing I do when I travel (pre COVID, and hopefully again someday soon!) is toContinue Reading