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Jennie – Susan Evans McCloud

“Jennie” is the story of a young woman who goes to work as a nanny in the town of Concord. As an aspiring writer, Jennie is entranced by walking the same streets as Louisa May Alcott, Thoreau, and Emerson. She enjoys the children in her care, but doesn’t so much enjoy their parents, who are obsessed with work and their position in society. As she looks for friendship in her new town, she meets the delightful Cornelia, who regales her with stories of a bygone era and quickly becomes a good friend. When Cornelia’s grandson Nigel comes for a visit, … Continue reading →

Smell of Death – F. M. Meredith

“Smell of Death” is a great cozy mystery starring the fictional Rocky Bluff Police Department. Our main officer is Stacey Wilbur, a widow, a young mother, and a woman devoted to her job. When called out to investigate a crying baby and a non-responsive mother in an apartment complex, she knows what she’ll find almost before she opens the door – the mother has been repeatedly stabbed. When Stacey goes to tell the victim’s mother what has happened and to arrange for childcare, she discovers that woman, also dead, but this time shot. Stacey believes the two murders are connected … Continue reading →

Murder on a Girls’ Night Out – Anne George

“Murder on a Girls’ Night Out” is a slightly irreverent but completely hysterical cozy mystery. Patricia Anne is our point of view character, a sixty-year-old woman of slight stature who is often called by her childhood nickname of “Mouse” by her sister, Mary Alice. Mary Alice is the exact opposite of Patricia Anne in every way. She’s big and brash, uses terrible grammar, and has lots of money. Together these women are an unstoppable team, reading each other’s minds and finishing the other’s sentences. This premiere book in the series won the Agatha Award for Best First Mystery Novel, and … Continue reading →

The Daughter of Time – Josephine Tey

Alan Grant is an English police officer, and at the moment, he’s not a happy one. While chasing a suspect, he fell through a trap door, and he’s going to be in hospital for a very long time, flat on his back. His friends have sent him flowers and books, but he can’t concentrate on any of the novels because he’s so tired of staring at the ceiling. He badly wants to be up and around again. One afternoon, a lady friend named Marta brought him something a little more interesting. She went round to the print shop and bought … Continue reading →

The Aunt Dimity Series – Nancy Atherton

Aunt Dimity is as savvy as they come. She’s observant, persistent, intelligent, can see through a lie a mile away – there’s just one slight problem. Aunt Dimity is dead. That’s right, she’s dead. But that doesn’t stop her! She has found a way to communicate with her niece Lori, and that’s by writing in a journal. Whenever Lori opens her journal and writes down her problem, Aunt Dimity can write back, and her answers appear in the journal. It’s pretty convenient, really. The series begins with the novel, “Aunt Dimity’s Death,” where we see Lori “meet” Aunt Dimity for … Continue reading →

The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries – Emily Brightwell

After enjoying and reviewing “Mrs. Jeffries Takes the Cake” last week, I decided to go to the beginning of the series and read the book that started it all. Today’s selection is “The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries,” by Emily Brightwell. When we start this book, we can see that Mrs. Jeffries has already been working for the Inspector for a while and helped him with a few cases, so this first book in the series is not the first case she ever helped him solve. However, in this book we get more of a backstory on the major characters and … Continue reading →

Mrs. Jeffries Takes the Cake – Emily Brightwell

An installment in the “Victorian Mysteries” series, “Mrs. Jeffries Takes the Cake” is the first Emily Brightwell novel I have read, but it will not be the last. I was quite taken with the premise and the characters and will return again soon. Inspector Witherspoon is a hard-working Scotland Yard detective with a superb record for cases solved. He has received much acclaim for his amazing ability to see through to the heart of the case and solve the most difficult mysteries. What his adoring public does not realize is that the good Inspector wouldn’t know how to solve a … Continue reading →

The Last Suspect – Susan Evans McCloud

Inspector Callum MacGregor has been called out to investigate the murder of one Archibald Linton, businessman, playboy, and now, dead. Found in a glass-enclosed gazebo on his property, the only known person to have been on the premises that night was his business partner, a timid man named Clarence Thomas. From their first meeting, Callum can’t believe that a man such as Clarence could have committed this murder, and so he sets out to investigate every other possibility, further fueled by the need to protect Archibald’s daughter, a girl named Rosetti, now in the care of her spoiled step-mother. Meanwhile, … Continue reading →

The Serpents Trail – Sue Henry

Sue Henry is the award-winning author of “Death Trap.” Whenever I see that someone has won an award, I am interested to see what they have written, so, “Death Trap” being unavailable, I picked up “The Serpents Trail,” which features a retired lady named Maxine McNabb. Maxie, as she is known to her friends, owns a Winnebago and enjoys taking long road trips with her Dachshund doggy Stretch. With a rifle tucked securely away in a secret panel, she’s not intimidated by the fact that she’s alone; in fact, she relishes it. In this adventure, she has left her home … Continue reading →

Owls Well That Ends Well – Donna Andrews

Meg Langslow is a unique woman with a unique talent – she’s a blacksmith. For the time being, however, she’s had to put her forge aside and forge ahead with something even bigger, in the form of a fifteen-family yard sale. She and her boyfriend Michael have purchased an older home on the outskirts of the small town of Caerphilly, and all the things that were in the house now belong to them. Most of it junk, some of it collectable, they’ve decided to have a yard sale and all the relatives decided to join them and bring their own … Continue reading →