Secret rooms, a dead body hidden behind wall, a family curse, and magicians? All this and more are included within Under Lock & Skeleton Key. Tempest is from a family of magicians. She had a successful act in Las Vegas until she is betrayed by her jealous assistant. Tempest hasContinue Reading
Secret Identity is an exposé of comic publishing in the 1970s by someone that was there. But it also is a feminist statement and a full-blown female noir. I can’t imagine a better book for my tastes. It’s 1975. New York City is at its grimy and murderous best. CarmenContinue Reading
My Review Cozy mysteries have a familiar structure. A woman runs her own business with support of her family and friends. She has a habit of finding dead bodies early in the plot and then feeling compelled to find the murderer herself. Casino Queen has few of those elements. Instead,Continue Reading
Thirty-four relatives of employees at a Nevada state prison are traveling by bus to the prison’s annual inmate vs. guard baseball game. The bus driver is shot and the bus veers off the road before coming to a stop. A man calls the prison’s warden. He wants all the prisonersContinue Reading
My Review Koby and Keaton are male/female twins who were put into foster care at age two. Keaton was soon adopted. But Koby spent the rest of his childhood in foster care. His best friend and foster brother is Reef. Now grown up and reunited, Koby, a chef, and Keaton,Continue Reading
“Quantum Girl Theory: Once she is gone, a missing girl becomes everything that everyone thinks she might be; our theories create her fate.” Mary is a psychic in 1961. She is trying to help find a missing girl in North Carolina even though she is eyed with suspicion by theContinue Reading
From the outside, Matthew and Marissa appear to be The Golden Couple. They make a fateful decision to do couples therapy with Avery. Avery has lost her therapist license for her unusual therapeutic techniques. In just ten sessions, she can send your marital partnership in a new direction. But itContinue Reading
Ellen blames Kieran for her son’s death. So, she kills him. Imagine her surprise when she sees him two years later standing on a nearby building. Surprise soon turns to murderous rage as Ellen decides to kill Kieran again in The Heights. I usually love this author’s books. However, TheContinue Reading
Chilling! Thrilling! Sundial is a genuinely frightening tale of a family gone horribly wrong. If everyone around you is mad, is the best response to go mad yourself? Rob is worried. Her daughter, Callie, is acting strangely. Her husband, Irving, is cheating on her…again. Unfortunately, Rob can’t divorce Irving becauseContinue Reading
Jill is the owner of Coffee, Books, and More in the small coastal California tourist town, South Cove. She is the new fiancée of the town’s police chief, Greg. Jill also has a habit of finding dead bodies. In Wedding Bell Blues, Jill finds the new owner of Exquisite GownsContinue Reading
It’s New Year’s Eve 1999. Ella is in the bathroom after working The Night Shift at a New Jersey Blockbuster Video store. When she comes out, the rest of the staff is dead. She is left for dead but recovers. Fifteen years later, a similar event occurs as an iceContinue Reading
The Paradox Hotel sits near the world’s only time travel airport. The uber-rich can vacation in ancient Egypt or Renaissance Italy. The TEA ensure that nothing crucial is changed in the past by the bumbling tourists or stealthy smugglers. January was a crack agent in the TEA. Unfortunately, she gotContinue Reading
Batten Down the Belfry combines two of my favorite things to do: read cozy mysteries and watch house flipping shows. Whitney and her cousin Buck flip unusual properties. This time they buy an abandoned church and parsonage, which they plan to make an entertainment venue and restaurant, respectively. Not onlyContinue Reading
Gina and Duncan are a newlywed couple on a belated honeymoon touring Europe. Gina is recovering her memories after an accident. The reader soon suspects that Duncan is hiding something from Gina. What can it be? How will Gina respond if the truth is revealed? The answers lie in theContinue Reading
My Review In A Killer Sundae, Win, the owner of the Crewse Creamery ice cream parlor, has a new food truck. Her time at the local Harvest Time Festival is well spent selling ice cream until she is accused of murder by nut. It seems her frenemy and television reporter,Continue Reading
A Houston reporter-turned-mixologist mixes it up with murder in this series debut from Michelle Hillen Klump, superbly catering to fans of Diane Mott Davidson and Lee Hollis. Bad news for Samantha Warren: The plucky Houston, Texas, reporter lost her job and her fiancé in rapid succession. But Sam has aContinue Reading