Tag: books

Review: Murder on the Poet’s Walk by Ellery Adams

Kimberlee MooreLeave a comment

Description (from cover): “When corpses clutching poems begin turning up around Storyton Hall, Jane Steward is on the trail of someone exercising poetic license to kill and is determined to keep her fairytale resort from turning into a southern gothic…

As Jane eagerly anticipates the wedding of her best friend Eloise Alcott, Storyton Hall is overrun with poets in town to compete for a coveted greeting card contract. They’re everywhere, scrawling verses on cocktail napkins in the reading rooms or seeking inspiration strolling the Poet’s Walk, a series of trails named after famous authors. But the Tennyson Trail leads to a grim surprise: a woman’s corpse drifting in a rowboat on a lake, posed as if she were “The Lady of Shallot.”

When a second body is discovered, also posed as a poetic character, a recurring MO emerges. Fortunately, Jane is well versed in sleuthing and won’t rest until she gives the killer a taste of poetic justice.”

My Thoughts:

See the reviews for other books in this series: Murder in the Mystery Suite, Murder in the Paperback Parlor, and Murder in the Secret Garden.

If you have not yet had the chance to read a cozy mystery by author Ellery Adams, you are missing out. Adams has a unique way of creating cozy mysteries that engage the reader and capture their hearts with the most endearing characters. She has numerous mystery series that I have read over the years, and her books never disappoint. In this eighth installation of the Book Retreat Mystery series, Jane Steward, the owner of Storyton Hall, is hosting a contest to award one poet an employment contract with a new greeting card company. Poets are all over the grounds of Storyton Hall, writing and engaging with each other, and competing to win the grand prize. That is until one of the poets is found dead in a rowboat on one of the property’s lakes staged in death as “The Lady of Shallot.”

Of course, finding the murderer and keeping her guests safe is of the utmost importance to Jane and her team of friends and family, all while making sure the secret collection of books, ancient writings, and papers remains safe. When another guest is discovered murdered in “poetic” circumstances and a missing handwritten poem of Walt Whitman comes to light, Jane pulls the team together to protect the remaining guests and Storyton Hall as best as she can. Will she be able to solve the murder before the guests leave for the weekend or will a killer be allowed to escape justice?

This book was all about character development for the future books in this series: Jane’s best friend, Eloise is about to get married; Jane’s uncle has what appears to be medical events happening that makes him forgetful and foggy-minded; and Jane’s relationship with Edwin seems to be getting serious. I really have come to love this series and the characters really feel like family. I am always eager to return to this series as I know I will never be disappointed. This book was a great addition to this already fantastic series, and I hope that every mystery lover reads this series and enjoys it as much as I do.

Overall Rating: 5+ stars

Author: Ellery Adams

Series: Book Retreat Mystery #8

Publisher: Kensington Cozies

Publication Date: September 27, 2022

Pages: 354

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.

Review: A Questionable Character by Lorna Barrett

Kimberlee MooreLeave a comment

Description (from cover): “The murder of a local contractor may be the final nail in the coffin for Tricia Miles in the latest entry to Lorna Barrett’s New York Times bestselling Booktown series.

It’s a busy summer in Booktown. Contractor Jim Stark is in great demand: he’s overseeing a number of projects, including Angelica Miles’ newly constructed building on Main Street, finishing up the new brew pub, and gutting a stone mansion off Main Street that Angelica bought to be the world headquarters for Nigela Ricita Associates. It’ll house office space where her marketing staff and the rest of the NR Associates clerical personnel will work.

Tricia Miles and Angelica arrive at the mansion before their workday to see how the construction is going. They find the place unlocked and Stark’s right-hand man, Sanjay Arya, dead — bludgeoned to death. The loss of the contractor’s top man threatens all the projects in the works, which would effectively ruin the expensive marketing plan that the Chamber of Commerce has been working. Is Jim a suspect? (He’d be stupid to kill the person he depends on to keep the projects going.) But Stark also thinks his wife, who was very chummy with Sanjay, might have been cheating on him with the second-in-command, making him a likely suspect.

Once again Tricia finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation, but can she find the killer before he or she has the chance to bring the hammer down?”

My Thoughts:

See my reviews of other books in this series: Not the Killing Type, Book Clubbed, A Fatal Chapter and Clause of Death.

When I think about my favorite cozy mystery series, The Booktown Mystery series, is one that instantly comes to mind. Tricia and her sister, Angelica, and all of their coworkers, friends and other townspeople have become family over the years. Lorna Barrett never fails to amaze this cozy reader and I am sure that this series is a favorite of other readers as well. In this newest addition to the series, Angelica is renovating an old mansion in town to house the employees of her lucrative business, Nigela Ricita Associates, which has been very influential in bringing commerce and creating jobs in the small town. When the local contractor’s main man, Sanjay, is found dead at the mansion, Tricia just can’t keep herself from trying to discover who had the motive, means and opportunity to commit this murder.

Tricia is soon off to solve a murder and when the new intern at the Chamber of Commerce, David, begins to involve Tricia in his own investigation, they decide to team up and investigate together. Two heads are better than one right? Rumor around town is that Sanjay was involved in an affair with his boss’ wife and had several relationships with other ladies around town. Was one of them the murderer, or did someone else have it out for Sanjay? Angelica is less than pleased that Tricia has involved herself in yet another murder mystery and is less than forgiving towards Tricia regarding the budding relationship with the much younger intern. Will this mystery finally drive the sisters apart?

Another fantastic, well-written and engaging installment from Lorna Barrett. She never disappoints with her mysteries. While this book lacked some of the intrigue that we saw in other installments, this was still a great read and one that I couldn’t put down. If you are a cozy mystery reader and you haven’t discovered this series yet, then what are you waiting for? I promise you will not be disappointed.

Overall Rating: 4.5 stars

Author: Lorna Barrett

Series: Booktown Mystery #17

Publisher: Berkley

Publication Date: July 18, 2023

Pages: 331

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.

Review: The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

Kimberlee MooreLeave a comment

Description (from cover): “Forty years ago, Steven “Smithy” Smith found a copy of a famous children’s book by disgraced author Edith Twyford, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. When he showed it to his remedial English teacher Miss Isles, she believed that it was part of a secret code that ran through all of Twyford’s novels. And when she later disappeared on a class field trip, Smithy becomes convinced that she had been right.

Now, out of prison after a long stretch, Smithy decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. In a series of voice recordings on an old iPhone, Smithy alternates between visiting the people of his childhood and looking back on the events that later landed him in prison. But it soon becomes clear that Edith Twyford wasn’t just a writer of forgotten children’s stories. The Twyford Code holds a great secret, and Smithy may just have the key.”

My Thoughts

I read Janice Hallett’s book The Appeal and reviewed it on this Blog on March 3, 2022. You can read the review for The Appeal here.

This book is much like Hallett’s other book The Appeal in that it is an epistolary novel. In The Appeal, it was written by letters, emails, and text messages. In this book, the story is told through transcripts of recordings mainly recorded by the main character on his son’s old iPhone. Steven Smith, known as “Smithy” to all his friends, has just been released from serving his prison sentence for his involvement in a heist. During his stint in prison, he learned how to read and spent much time thinking about the mysterious disappearance of his childhood remedial English teacher.

Upon his release, he is determined to contact his childhood classmates to learn exactly what happened to Miss Isles on that fateful day. It appears that his memories from that time and everyone else’s memories are vastly different. Determined to find out what happened to the missing Miss Isles and learn more about the book she was determined contained a secret code by the author, Edith Twyford, Smithy must sift through his broken memories and try to figure out what happened all those years ago.

This book lacked the suspense and the connection with the characters that The Appeal had. This book wasn’t terrible and it was a little hard to follow along with at times, because of the way the recordings were transcribed in the book. I felt that I didn’t really connect with the main character in this book and that the storyline was a little fractured. Nonetheless, I love Hallett’s continuation of writing books that are epistolary in nature because they bring a fresh new writing style to the table.

Overall Rating: 2.5 stars

Author: Janice Hallett

Series: N/A

Publisher: Atria Books

Publication Date: January 24, 2023

Pages: 333

Genre: Mystery/Thriller

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.

Review: Clause of Death by Lorna Barrett

Kimberlee MooreLeave a comment

Description (from cover): “Tricia Miles and her sister, Angelica, are the co-presidents of the Stoneham Chamber of Commerce. Things are changing in the booktown, and some merchants would say not for the better. They grumble that too many non-book-related stores are moving into the village, taking up the most visible storefronts on Main Street, diluting the “Booktown” moniker. Of course, the members with other businesses, like the latest, The Bee’s Knees, are fine with other businesses moving in. No matter what side of the argument they’re on, all the business owners agree on one thing: Tricia and Angelica are to blame.

Still, it’s a pretty typical day in the life of a small-town Chamber of Commerce until one of the disgruntled bookstore owners is killed — Eli Meier from The Inner Light Bookstore, the most vocal of the Chamber complainers. He sold religious and other spiritual books, but also stocked books on wild conspiracy theories and sold incense, crystals, etc. Eli had never been a member of the Chamber until Angelica recently convinced him to join. He hit on her and she, having good taste, turned him down. He hounded (but not stalked) her, and some might think that was a motive for murder.

Stoneham’s new police chief is an old friend of Tricia’s, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to go easy on her sister. One might even say that he’s going to throw the book at her.”

My Thoughts:

Booktown seems like the perfect place to live. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by books in a quaint New England town? The only downside to Booktown: all the murders. Tricia has long been a resident of Stoneham, New Hampshire which is known for its love of all things books. Her and her sister, Angelica, have made a name for themselves in the small town with their successful businesses and being co-presidents of the local Chamber of Commerce. That being said, some of the other members of the Chamber have different ideas for what businesses should be allowed to open up in Booktown. The most vocal about his discontent at the Chamber meetings is Eli Meier. Eli owns a shop that is known for selling books that champion conspiracy theories and he is known to be a little off his rocker himself. Not one to promote good working relationships with other Chamber members, it is no surprise when Eli is found dead, by Tricia nonetheless.

Tricia is known in the town for being the village jinx as she has stumbled over many murder victims since she moved to Stoneham. When she comes across Eli’s body, she is determined to sit this one out, but with her curious nature and knack for solving murders, she can’t help but investigate. With a new police chief in town and the help of her family and friends, she is determined to find justice for Eli, despite not liking the man at all. This book is the 16th installment of the Booktown mysteries. I fell in love with this series many years ago and anytime a new book is released, you can guarantee that I will be reading it. The characters are so well-developed and feel like your own family. This book does not disappoint and the ending will leave you on the edge of your seat waiting anxiously for the next installment.

I ended up devouring this book in one day. I couldn’t put the book down as the plot was so suspenseful and engaging throughout each page. Another fantastic delivery from Lorna Barrett that doesn’t disappoint. I have found that readers of this series, continue to come back to this well written and spectacular series and simply cannot get enough. If you haven’t discovered this series yet, what are you waiting for?

Overall Rating: 5+ stars

Author: Lorna Barrett

Series: Booktown Mystery #16

Publisher: Berkley

Publication Date: June 7, 2022

Pages: 334

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Get It: Amazon

Disclaimer: This book was given to me by the publisher, through NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review. I reviewed this book without compensation of any kind. All thoughts and opinions are solely mine.