Review: Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge by Ovidia Yu

Posted on April 20, 2016April 19, 2016 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A- Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

Aunty Lee's Chilled Revenge (Singaporean Mystery, #3) by Ovidia Yu
Formats available: paperback, ebook, large print
Series: Singaporean Mystery #3
Pages: 368
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks on April 5th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

Rosie “Aunty” Lee—feisty widow, amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore’s best-loved home cooking restaurant—is back in another delectable, witty mystery set in Singapore.
Slightly hobbled by a twisted ankle, crime-solving restaurateur Aunty Lee begrudgingly agrees to take a rest from running her famous café, Aunty Lee’s Delights, and turns over operations to her friend and new business partner Cherril.
The café serves as a meeting place for an animal rescue society that Cherril once supported. They were forced to dissolve three years earlier after a British expat killed the puppy she’d adopted, sparking a firestorm of scandal. The expat, Allison Fitzgerald, left Singapore in disgrace, but has returned with an ax to grind (and a lawsuit). At the café one afternoon, Cherril receives word that Allison has been found dead in her hotel—and foul play is suspected. When a veterinarian, who was also involved in the scandal, is found dead, suspicion soon falls on the animal activists. What started with an internet witch hunt has ended in murder—and in a tightly knit, law-and-order society like Singapore, everyone is on edge.
Before anyone else gets hurt—and to save her business—Aunty Lee must get to the bottom of what really happened three years earlier, and figure out who is to be trusted in this tangled web of scandal and lies.

My Review:

I was introduced to the Aunty Lee series by this book. When I decided to be part of this tour, I figured that book 3 of a series wasn’t so far in that I couldn’t manage to catch up, so I was able to sink my teeth into the first two books in this delicious series, Aunty Lee’s Delights and Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials, and I’m glad I did.

Not that a newbie to the series couldn’t start with Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge. The author does a good job of catching readers up with the setting and cast of characters. But it does add a bit to the fun to see how everyone has changed from the beginning. Also how the writing has evolved. While I enjoyed both of the first two books, this is definitely the best one yet.

Aunty Lee is everyone’s favorite grandmother, although the reality is that she isn’t anyone’s actual grandmother. She was the late MK Lee’s second wife, and he already had two children. Aunty Lee never had any of her own, and her stepchildren have, so far, not managed to give her any grandchildren to spoil.

So Aunty Lee pretty effectively spoils the entire neighborhood, especially through her award-winning home-cooking restaurant, Aunty Lee’s Delights. Rosie Lee doesn’t need the money, but she needs the work to keep her occupied. And to help her get involved with solving murders.

With a sprained ankle keeping her on the sidelines, Aunty Lee is feeling depressed and slightly useless, until a murder walks into her restaurant.

Not exactly literally. Three old friends, including Aunty Lee’s business partner, are waiting at the restaurant to meet with the woman who is threatening to sue them. But she never arrives. Instead, the police come to say that the woman has been murdered, and the dead woman’s sister shows up a few minutes later, ranting and raving. As she generally does.

While Aunty Lee may be sorry that a woman is dead, and particularly sorry that her business partner is temporarily a suspect, she is energized by the thought of a murder she can help solve being delivered right to her doorstep.

She’s so happy, in fact, that she takes the dead woman’s sister home with her, hoping that in comfort and privacy the woman will reveal some of the secrets she is so obviously keeping. Meanwhile, Aunty Lee dives into the three-year-old incident that brought all the principals to her little cafe.

Back then, her partner Cherril was part of an animal rescue society, along with her friends Brian Wong and Jacqueline DelaVega. The woman who was planning to sue them, a British ex-pat, adopted a puppy from their rescue society. A few days later, when she decided that she didn’t want the poor puppy any longer, she had him euthanized instead of returning him to the shelter, as she had contracted to do. When Allison Fitzgerald went into repeated tirades at the police, the animal rescue society, and anyone else within earshot, she became the quarry of a horde of internet bullies. Not just because she killed a poor, defenseless little puppy, but also because she lied about it, violated a contract, and showed zero remorse. Allison and her family were hounded out of Singapore.

Now she’s back. And she’s dead. And her sister is accusing the animal shelter people she lied to three years ago. And the dead woman’s ex-husband. And anyone else she can think of.

It’s up to Aunty Lee to sort out the truth from layers and layers of lies and deceptions. Building a case is like putting together a new recipe – all the pieces have to fit just right. Aunty Lee is perfectly willing to tinker with all the flavors until they finally — do.

Escape Rating A-: Aunty Lee’s Chilled Revenge is the best book in the series so far. The recipe for the series has come together in a way that makes this dish especially flavorful. Or especially interesting, since we are, after all, talking about murder.

The title is a play on the old saying, “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” The case that Aunty Lee has to solve revolves around figuring out exactly who is getting revenge on whom, because at the outset there are plenty of options. And this was a case where, although I had figured out one part of the mystery, I was as lost as everyone else on who done it and why. But I couldn’t wait to find out.

Allison Fitzgerald, now calling herself Allison Love, sues the animal shelter principals, Cherril, Brian and Jacqueline, because she believes that the internet bullying they encouraged led to her divorce and estrangement from her children. She wants payback.

Allison’s sister Vallerie came to Singapore with Allison. Now that Allison is dead, Vallerie wants revenge on whoever killed her. And she’s certain that the murderers must be those same people. With the possible addition of Allison’s ex-husband.

Cherril, Brian and Jacqueline left the old case behind them long ago. Or did they? Cherril certainly has, she is now happily married and equally happily involved with Aunty Lee’s restaurant. But Brian and Jacqueline, not so much. Even after all these years, Brian is still in love with Jacqueline, and Jacqueline is still in love with…getting herself out of Singapore. She’s decided that Allison’s ex-husband is her ticket to a posh life somewhere far away.

It’s up to Aunty Lee to wade through the mess. She finds her way to a solution by learning about the people, mostly through what they eat, and especially through what they say while they are eating. And by being very, very nosy.

It works. And it works deliciously.

This post is part of a TLC book tour. Click on the logo for more reviews and features.

Review: For Dead Men Only by Paula Paul

Posted on April 14, 2016April 13, 2016 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B+ Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

For Dead Men Only by Paula Paul
Formats available: ebook
Series: Dr. Alexandra Gladstone #5
Pages: 202
Published by Alibi on April 12th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Goodreads

Hailed as “an intriguing mixture of mystery, romance, and history” by Lois Duncan, the Alexandra Gladstone series from award-winning author Paula Paul continues as an ominous horseman heralds the emergence of a secret society, hidden riches—and a string of chilling murders. The Temple of the Ninth Daughter sits on a hill at the edge of Newton-upon-Sea, an aura of mystery lingering over its tall, gray silhouette. Villagers whisper about the treasure housed inside, protected by local Freemasons who are bound by clandestine oaths. Dr. Alexandra Gladstone has no time for such nonsense. Between the patients in her surgery and the rounds she makes with her faithful dog, Zack, her days are busy enough. But Alexandra has no logical explanation when the Freemasons start dying, one by one, with no sign of foul play other than smears of blood on their Masonic aprons. And what to make of reports that a Knight Templar rides through the village before each passing? After the constable disappears in the midst of the crisis, Alexandra reaches out to her dashing, diligent friend, Nicholas Forsythe, Lord Dunsford, for assistance. Is someone after the treasure, or might a more sinister game be afoot? In order to solve this puzzle, Alexandra must somehow catch a killer who shows no remorse—and leaves no witnesses.

My Review:

The title is a clue, but one that won’t make sense to most readers, including this one, until after the murderer is caught.

In the tiny village of Newton-upon-Sea, it is the late 1800s, and the local doctor is a woman. She can’t be licensed to practice because of her sex, but, it’s a tiny and remote village and Dr. Alexandra Gladstone is all they have. That she is both the daughter and the apprentice of their previous doctor is the only thing that makes her remotely acceptable to some of her patients, even after several years of successful practice.

Alexa is lucky that no other doctor, no male doctor, seems to want to start a practice in her little village.

But Alexa doesn’t just practice medicine. When murder comes to her village, she also engages in a spot of private detecting. She’s not exactly trained at it, but a logical and intelligent mind will get a person fairly far at figuring out who done it, especially in a place where one knows most if not all of the possible perpetrators and their victims.

However, in this case, it seems like Alexa is surprised up until the very end. Breaking one’s leg, and setting it oneself, in the middle of a case will do that to even the most stalwart person.

It all begins when first one man, then a second is found dead in the local Freemason Lodge. Both men were members, and both were discovered in suspiciously similar circumstances. Posed in the exact same place and position in their Lodge, Neither body seemed to have any wounds, but both were dressed in their ceremonial aprons and both aprons had blood on them.

And both of the victims were relatively young. Certainly not nearly old enough to both suffer from heart attacks. But the local police constable dismisses any suspicion of murder and refuses to investigate. Then he decamps suddenly for parts unknown. Rumors begin to swirl – either he fears becoming the next victim, or he is the perpetrator.

The case becomes even more convoluted when rumors of an old Templar treasure buried under the Masonic Lodge resurface. And when what appears to be the ghost of a Templar is spotted riding around the village.

Events are already at a fever pitch when a young woman confesses to Alexa that she believes her father is responsible for the crimes. Her reasoning seems hysterical but plausible, until her father turns up dead in the next village. Whether he was responsible for the first crimes, or for his own death, he cannot be responsible for what comes after.

Just as Alexa begins to zero in on the killer, her own household comes under attack. Either she is closing in on the truth, or someone is afraid that she is. When she nearly becomes a victim herself, Alexa finally figures out what is really going on in Newton-upon-Sea.

Escape Rating B+: With its references to local myths and legends, ghosts of Templar horsemen, Masonic secret rituals and old-line family ties, For Dead Men Only has even more of a Gothic feel to it than the previous entry in the series, Medium Dead.

But just as with the earlier book, the real story here is firmly rooted in Newton-upon-Sea’s here and now. All the Gothic folderol is just a way for the murderer to cover up their series of crimes. And it works on both the protagonists and the reader quite well.

Just as in Medium Dead, the story rests on Dr. Alexandra Gladstone and her assorted household, with some able assistance from Lord Dunsford, who is both a practiced barrister and the local squire. He’s also sweet on Alexa, to the consternation and growling resentment of her faithful (and large) Newfoundland dog, Zack.

Zack correctly believes that Nicholas Forsythe, Lord Dunsford, is a rival for his mistress’s affections. He only declares a temporary truce when Nicholas is needed to rescue Alexa from her latest misadventure.

Although this is book five in the series, I believe that a reader could start the series here and find everything that they need to know about the personalities and positions of Alexa’s little band of irregulars contained within this story. Personally, I have only read books 4 and 5, and even though I’m terribly curious about previous events, it wasn’t necessary to have read the earlier books to enjoy the later ones.

The story, just like Alexa herself, is very much involved in the small doings of the community. Her practice provides her both with the opportunity to hear everything that is going on, and a whole lot of distractions when she reaches the point where she has to put all the clues together.

Alexa is all too often distracted or stymied by official prohibitions against a woman doctor, or even a woman professional. And she is equally condemned by unofficial but perhaps more dangerous social opprobrium against a woman who sees and does things that such “delicate creatures” are never supposed to engage in.

The author does an excellent job of making Alexa just enough of a woman of her time to experience the slings and arrows levied at her because of her sex, while at the same time making her modern enough for contemporary readers to identify with.

Readers who enjoy the slightly later adventures of Maisie Dobbs, Bess Crawford and/or Mary Russell will find a kindred spirit in Dr. Alexandra Gladstone.

Review: Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials by Ovidia Yu

Posted on March 24, 2016March 23, 2016 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Aunty Lee's Deadly Specials (Singaporean Mystery #2) by Ovidia Yu
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Series: Singaporean Mystery #2
Pages: 384
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks on September 30th 2014
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

Rosie “Aunty” Lee, the feisty widow, amateur sleuth, and proprietor of Singapore’s best-loved home cooking restaurant, is back in another delectable, witty mystery involving scandal and murder among the city’s elite.
Few know more about what goes on in Singapore than Aunty Lee. When a scandal over illegal organ donation involving prominent citizens makes news, she already has a list of suspects. There’s no time to snoop, though—Aunty Lee’s Delights is catering a brunch for local socialites Henry and Mabel Sung at their opulent house.
Rumor has it that the Sung’s fortune is in trouble, and Aunty Lee wonders if the gossip is true. But soon after arriving at the Sung’s house, her curiosity turns to suspicion. Why is a storage house she discovers locked? What is the couple arguing about behind closed doors? Where is the guest of honor who never showed up?
Then, Mabel Sung and her son Leonard are found dead. The authorities blame it on Aunty Lee’s special stewed chicken with buah keluak, a local black nut that can be poisonous if cooked improperly. Aunty Lee has never carelessly prepared a dish. She’s certain the deaths are murder—and that they’re somehow linked to the organ donor scandal.
To save her business and her reputation, she’s got to prove it—and unmask a dangerous killer whose next victim may just be Aunty Lee.

My Review:

For a book that uncovers a very serious topic, Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials still retains its feel as a cozy mystery. While so much of the trouble revolves around Aunty Lee’s catering business, the case she finds herself in the middle of deals with the very dark side of compensated organ donations and medical tourism.

A lot of the people involved in this case turn out to be really sick, and they didn’t get that way from eating Aunty Lee’s cooking – not that they don’t try to blame the whole thing on her and her catering. Aunty Lee would probably have involved herself anyway – she does that for fun – but attacking her catering business closes out her one method of dealing with loneliness and widowhood – by fixing other people food and fixing other people’s problems.

(Word to the wise – just as in the first book in the series, Aunty Lee’s Delights, Aunty Lee cooks a lot, and it all sounds exotic and positively yummy. Even the things that may seem very strange to us, like fried anchovies. Do not read this book when you are hungry – you will find yourself spontaneously raiding your own kitchen, and possibly kitchens for several houses around!)

The story begins with Aunty Lee scouring the newspaper, and having her friend and companion Nina scouring the internet, for news of a suicide victim. A young woman came to Singapore to find her missing fiance, and commits suicide when neither he nor his body can be found. Her young man disappeared after agreeing to come to Singapore to donate a kidney. This type of organ donation for cash is strictly illegal in Singapore, but the young couple needed the money to get married. When he disappears, she is left bereft and pregnant.

While at the beginning Aunty Lee’s nose for trouble seems to be leading her to something unrelated to her own life, as usually happens the case quickly draws closer to home, even though the police and everyone else urge her to drop it – sometimes with threats.

Things start out simple. Aunty Lee caters a party for a family that seem to be movers and shakers in the Singapore upper crust. One of the fun things about Aunty Lee is that while she acts as if she is just a caterer and restaurant owner, she herself is actually a member of that upper crust. And as is often the case, the people who are looking down on her for working are really people that she could buy and sell several times over.

The house party falls apart fairly spectacularly. First a young man gatecrashes the party looking for his missing friend. Then two members of the family are found dead after eating one of Aunty Lee’s more famous dishes, a delight that is notorious for poisoning diners if the dish is not prepared properly. Of course, Aunty Lee always prepares everything properly.

But even as she is cleared of any possible involvement in what now looks like a murder-suicide, the family is still determined to drive her out of business so that she publicly takes the blame for the mess. It seems to Aunty Lee that the family is moving heaven, earth and their powerful social network, in order to suppress any attempt to search for the real killer.

And that’s where Aunty Lee steps in, up to her neck. Her honor is under threat. And she is all too aware that she will be prey to loneliness and depression without her business (and her need to look into everyone else’s business) to keep her occupied.

As they say, curiosity killed the cat. And if Aunty Lee isn’t careful, she might find herself in the same pickle.

Escape Rating B: At the beginning the case, or Aunty Lee’s involvement in it, seems more than a bit shambolic. There are too many suspects, many too many motives, and no clear path to zeroing in on a single one of either. Even Aunty Lee comments to herself, or to the portrait of her late husband that she regularly talks to, that she has all the elements of a case but they aren’t fitting together quite right. This recipe is missing a key ingredient.

Which she doesn’t find for about the first third of the story. At that point, things start making more sense and the pace picks up considerably. We’re still not there yet, but you can feel Aunty Lee closing in on a solution.

Aunty Lee sometimes plays herself for comic relief, pretending to be a confused little old lady when in fact she’s sharp as a tack and surprisingly spry for her age. As well as quite well off. And the police commissioner is an old and dear friend, which always helps when you insert yourself into murder investigations on a regular basis.

But the underlying story in Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials is not funny at all. The world of compensated organ donation is ugly and brutal. While the results in this particular case are ultimately tragic, as well as deadly for too many people who didn’t even know they were on the fringe of this dirty business, the problems that are exposed are dire and have no good solutions. The needs of people who will do almost anything in hopes of a better life are easily exploited by those who have enough money to circumvent the rules. And because it all operates under the table, it becomes a criminal enterprise where even the innocent are at risk.

That part of the case leaves the reader, and Aunty Lee, with no good answers. Only hard questions.

Review: The Skeleton Garden by Marty Wingate

Posted on March 17, 2016March 16, 2016 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B+ Reviews> book reviews

The Skeleton Garden (Potting Shed Mystery #4) by Marty Wingate
Formats available: ebook
Series: Potting Shed #4
Pages: 233
Published by Alibi on March 15th 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Goodreads

USA Today bestselling author Marty Wingate’s Potting Shed series continues as expert gardener Pru Parke digs up a Nazi warplane—and a fresh murder.
Texas transplant Pru Parke has put down roots in England, but she never dreamed she’d live in a grand place such as Greenoak. When her former employers offer Pru and her new husband, former Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse, the use of their nineteenth-century estate while they’re away for a year, she jumps at the chance. Sweetening the deal is the prospect of further bonding with her long-lost brother, Simon, who happens to be Greenoak’s head gardener. But the majestic manor has at least one skeleton in its closet—or, rather, its garden.
Working on renovations to the extensive grounds, siblings Pru and Simon squabble about everything from boxwood to bay hedges. But when the removal of a half-dead tree turns up the wreckage of a World War II–era German fighter plane and a pile of bones, the arguments stop. That is, until a rival from Simon’s past pays a surprise visit and creates even more upheaval. It’s suddenly clear someone is unhappy their secrets have been unearthed. Still, Pru’s not about to sit back and let Simon take the fall for the dirty deed without a fight.

My Review:

The Potting Shed series has been fun from its beginning in The Garden Plot to its latest outing in The Skeleton Garden. And if you enjoy cozy mysteries with a little bit of a twist, or if you are a fan of the Rosemary & Thyme TV series, The Potting Shed is a terrific place to dig up a little gardening and a little murder.

In this book, series’ protagonists have turned a new leaf on their lives. Gardener Pru Parke, transplanted to England from Texas, has come to Greenoak to work with her long-lost brother Simon on the estate’s extensive gardens. Pru’s new husband, Christopher Pearse, has taken a step back from his very stressful job as a Detective Chief Inspector for the London Police and has become a hopefully much less stressed Special Constable near Greenoak.

Pru and Christopher are also house-sitting for friends, so they think they have a year to de-stress, get comfortable and put down roots in the community. Instead, Pru and her brother Simon are constantly at loggerheads, and, as seems to be unfortunately usual, Pru digs up a dead body.

In this case, it’s literal. When she and Simon investigate why one dying tree is not thriving, they discover that the poor thing’s shallow roots are right over, not just a body, but also a crashed World War II German plane. It only takes a little bit of forensics, and some historical archives, to discover that whoever the deceased was, he wasn’t the pilot. There was plenty of newspaper coverage of the pilot’s capture a mile or two from the plane way back when.

What’s difficult is that no one seems to be able to identify the body. But when Pru starts digging into missing persons cases from the war years, she stirs up a whole lot memories, including some that would have been better off remaining buried.

Someone wants that body, or at least its identity, to remain buried, and is willing to go to any lengths to keep it that way. And whoever it is seems to be way too active to be the original perpetrator. As Pru keeps digging, as she can never resist, she discovers that just because a secret is 70+ years old, that doesn’t mean it can’t still be worth killing for.

Escape Rating B+: As with all of The Potting Shed mysteries, this book really hit the spot. And also like the earlier books, I think it would be possible for a reader who was interested in this series to just start here. Pru and Christopher move around so much, and change their circumstances so often, that the things that do carry over from book to book are easily explained within the story.

One of those things is the strained history between Pru and her brother Simon. When Pru first comes to England in The Garden Plot, she has no idea that she has a brother in England. And Simon was told that his parents were dead. When they discover each other, it is a revelation for both of them. Now that Pru is in England for good, she has taken the opportunity presented to work with Simon, so that they can get to know each other.

The secondary plot in The Skeleton Garden is all about Simon and Pru navigating the skeletons in their own closet. They both have a whole wagonload of unresolved resentments at their parents. Simon is angry that Pru got to have them, Pru is angry that they lied about Simon, and Simon is angry that the aunt who raised him also lied to him. And as Simon’s wife puts it so well, since Simon and Pru did not get the chance to negotiate all their sibling rivalry and sibling in-fighting as children, they are going through all those stages now, and all at once.

But their issues with each other also link back to the mystery that they get caught in the middle of. It all goes back to the War. The reasons why Simon’s parents left him behind in England have direct parallels in the case they unravel.

The circumstances of the long-ago murder will be familiar to anyone who watched Foyle’s War. It’s all about the things that went wrong, sometimes criminally wrong, on the homefront while the war was going on. And that includes the problems of rationing and the black market. Also, there’s a parallel between Simon’s story and that of the young woman left behind and pregnant by the young soldier that old corpse used to be.

One of the lovely things in this particular story was the way that the past impacts upon the present, both because the war is still much closer to people’s memories in England than is in America, but also because everyone involved, or their descendants, are all still in the area. The past, as they say, isn’t even past.

This isn’t a flashback story, at least not after the opening scene. Instead, it’s all about the impacts. The events of the war are still affecting the lives of the people in the village today. Not just Simon and Pru and their unresolved issues regarding their parents’ actions during and after the war, but every single person and their descendants is still living with, or living out, their actions at that crucial time.

And that’s what made this story so much fun to read.

I’ve just discovered that there will be another book in this series! I am looking forward to seeing just what Pru and Christopher dig up in The Bluebonnet Betrayal this summer.

Review: Aunty Lee’s Delights by Ovidia Yu

Posted on February 26, 2016February 25, 2016 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> book reviews

Aunty Lee's Delights (Singaporean Mystery #1) by Ovidia Yu
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Series: Singaporean Mystery #1
Pages: 288
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks on September 17th 2013
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

This delectable and witty mystery introduces Rosie "Aunty" Lee, feisty widow, amateur sleuth and proprietor of Singapore's best-loved home cooking restaurant
After losing her husband, Rosie Lee could easily have become one of Singapore's "tai tai," an idle rich lady devoted to mah-jongg and luxury shopping. Instead she threw herself into building a culinary empire from her restaurant, Aunty Lee's Delights, where spicy Singaporean home cooking is graciously served to locals and tourists alike. But when a body is found in one of Singapore's beautiful tourist havens, and when one of her wealthy guests fails to show at a dinner party, Aunty Lee knows that the two are likely connected.
The murder and disappearance throws together Aunty Lee's henpecked stepson Mark, his social-climbing wife Selina, a gay couple whose love is still illegal in Singapore, and an elderly Australian tourist couple whose visit-billed at first as a pleasure cruise-may mask a deeper purpose. Investigating the murder is rookie Police Commissioner Raja, who quickly discovers that the savvy and well-connected Aunty Lee can track down clues even better than local law enforcement.
Wise, witty and unusually charming, Aunty Lee's Delights is a spicy mystery about love, friendship and home cooking in Singapore, where money flows freely and people of many religions and ethnicities co-exist peacefully, but where tensions lurk just below the surface, sometimes with deadly results.

My Review:

Following in the footsteps of Jane Marple, Mrs. Pollifax and Precious Ramotswe, Rosie Lee is a woman of a certain age who is constitutionally incapable of keeping her nose out of other people’s business – especially when that business is murder.

Everyone calls her Aunty Lee, and Aunty Lee’s Delights is the name of her restaurant and catering business. It seems to also be Aunty Lee’s delight to solve murders and fix people’s lives – to the point where she gets bored when running the restaurant is the only thing on her plate.

So it’s a real, if slightly perverse, treat when the body of a young woman washes up on the nearby shore. Aunty Lee can’t resist bringing up the mystery to everyone in her circle of family, friends and acquaintances, in the hope that someone knows more than the papers are telling about the late “Jane Doe”.

We also meet the cast of characters who both surround Aunty Lee and who are possible suspects in the case. Because it turns out that Aunty Lee, and everyone else involved in her stepson’s “wine and dine” business, knew the victim. The question hinges on which of them the late Laura Kwee knew much too much about.

And when another young woman’s body washes up on the shore, it’s up to Aunty Lee to expose the killer before he kills again – and before the police arrest one of their many possible suspects for a crime that they did not commit.

But in this case of secrets and lies, no one involved is quite who or what they claim to be, including the killer.

Escape Rating B: Aunty Lee’s Delights is the first book in the series by author Ovidia Yu. As a first book, it carries the weight of introducing all the continuing characters, as well as making Singapore come alive for readers who are not familiar with the city-state.

Her main character, Aunty Lee, is surrounded by family, friends and lifelong connections, some of whom are much more likeable than others. Rosie Lee is a bit of a different heroine – on the one hand, she is an elderly detective. On the other, she only acts old when it suits her purpose. At the same time, her lifelong membership in the upper class of Singapore gives her access to a wealth of social power and connections to people in high places.

Her own inner circle is close. Her companion and caregiver, Nina, helps her in the restaurant and with all her “cases”, sometimes whether Nina really wants to or not. Her stepson Mark is kind of sweet but completely ineffectual – he starts multiple businesses that never succeed, and Aunty Lee bails him out over and over. His wife Selina (Aunty Lee calls her Silly-Nah) seems to be a heartless bitch. I’ll confess to hoping that marriage doesn’t last.

The mystery is fairly cozy. Aunty Lee knows all the possible suspects, both of the victims and the police commissioner. Having friends in both high and low places is always helpful. All of the possible suspects have secrets, and Aunty Lee is an expert at ferreting out people’s secrets, whether or not they lead to murder.

This turned out to be a fun and interesting story. I enjoyed the Singapore setting, it is new to me but the author brought it to life in a way that draws the unfamiliar reader into Aunty Lee’s world. It was also a refreshing change to read a mystery where the case is resolved with brain instead of brawn – or firearms. If you are looking for a different kind of mystery in a fresh setting, Aunty Lee’s Delights is a treat. I’m looking forward to diving in to the next book in the series, Aunty Lee’s Deadly Specials.

Warning to readers – do not read this book while hungry! The descriptions of the traditional Singaporean dishes that Aunty Lee cooks throughout the story all sound absolutely scrumptious, whether familiar or not. You’ll want to try everything!

Review: Cat Shout for Joy by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Posted on February 25, 2016February 24, 2016 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B+ Reviews> book reviews

Cat Shout for Joy (Joe Grey #19) by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, large print, audiobook
Series: Joe Grey #19
Pages: 336
Published by William Morrow on February 23rd 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

Awaiting the birth of his first kittens, feline P. I. Joe Grey, his companion Dulcie, and their furry sleuthing pals must unmask a killer preying on some of the most vulnerable citizens in the charming California coastal community of Molena Point.
For Joe Grey and Dulcie, life is a bittersweet mix of endings and beginnings. While they joyfully await their first litter, they are also sad for their friend, the old yellow cat Misto, whose time on earth is drawing to an end. But Misto tells them an exciting future awaits: among the litter will be a little calico returned from the distant past who will be born with the same ancient markings, and the adventurous spirit of Joe Grey.
While the proud parents await the birth of their babies, their humans have their hands full with projects of their own. Kate Osborne has bought the old Pamillon estate and Ryan Flannery is building a new cat shelter as part of their volunteer rescue project. The criminals are busy, too. The Molena Point PD has stepped up patrols to apprehend a mugger attacking the local elderly. The case becomes a homicide when one of the victims dies, leaving everyone in the town—including Joe and Grey and his furry sleuthing companions—on edge, just when the kittens are about to arrive. When Dulcie gives birth, her little calico is just as Misto predicted, as if she has come back to the world from mythic ancient times.
But the celebrations will have to wait. A murderer is on the loose—and neither young nor old is safe until the culprit is found.

My Review:

I think the art on the cover of this entry in the Joe Grey series is intended to represent Dulcie and Joe Grey’s impending kittens. The calico is Courtney, the white cat is Buffin and the dark one is Striker.

Of course I could be wrong about the picture, but I’m right about the kittens. The joy in this book is that Dulcie is expecting, and part of the story is Joe Grey’s, and everyone else’s, reaction to Dulcie’s impending motherhood.

No one except the old cat Misto is certain whether the new kittens will be speaking cats like both their parents. Joe Grey is uncertain about which instincts will rule him, his intelligence or his feline instincts. He is more than smart enough to know that whatever happens, the kittens bring change.

This is also a story where one door closes, and another door opens. As Dulcie enters her last days of pregnancy, the old seer cat Misto breathes his last. All the humans and all the speaking cats love the old tom, and he and his sometimes otherworldly wisdom will be missed.

And in the midst of all of this emotional upheaval, Joe Grey, and Max Harper, the police chief, have a case. At first, it seems like someone is targeting the frail and elderly in Molena Point, for “shits and giggles”. At first no one is harmed and nothing is stolen. But a series of elderly residents are attacked from behind and knocked to the ground while their assailant runs away in glee.

But the attacks are on the frail, and as the list of “prank” victims rises, so does the accidental death toll. Until one of Ryan’s young assistants is shot on a job site, and it’s suddenly clear that whatever is going on, there is someone out there masking a killing spree with a series a nasty muggings.

Partly because he needs to distract himself from all of the emotional upheaval, and partly because he can never resist a good mystery or the opportunity to put away a bad person, feline detective Joe Grey puts himself into the thick of the investigation, sniffing out important clues and pretending to be an innocent kitty as he listens in to evil plots and evil people who plan to escape their consequences.

It is Joe who provides the vital links between the series of muggings and a heinous San Francisco crime, but it’s a force of nature that delivers the baddies to their just rewards.

Escape Rating B+: The fun in this series is watching the cats figure out ways to both investigate the crimes and to give the police the evidence they need without revealing themselves. In this age of caller ID and instant tracking of everything everywhere, concealing their identities is an ever increasing challenge.

And they know they must conceal themselves. Not only would revealing themselves to the police endanger any evidence they provide, but there is always a risk that someone will discover who and what they are and want to take them away for experimentation. The more people who know their secret, the greater the risk.

In this entry in the series, it’s the emotional issues that hold the forefront, and the case is often in the background. This book represents huge changes for the characters. Joe Grey and Dulcie now have kittens to train. While they are proud of their new family, the kittens also increase the risk. How does one teach an intelligent, curious and playful baby that it is not safe to talk or burble in front of the humans? Joe Grey and Dulcie discovered their voices in adulthood, they don’t know what it is like to raise speaking kittens. Assuming that they will have speaking kittens, which is not certain to anyone but old Misto.

At the same time, the passing of Misto is sad and beautiful. As is so often the case, Misto is ready to go, but his loved ones are far from ready to let the wise old cat leave. Readers who have experienced the loss of a beloved companion animal will need lots of tissues to get through his passing. Just thinking about this part of the story gets me in the feels.

The mystery takes a back burner in this entry in the series. As we discover, the killers and their rationale are both more than a bit nuts. Also, one of them is so completely unlikeable that readers will find themselves hoping she is guilty of something from the very beginning, just so she gets what’s coming to her. And that’s well before we think she’s guilty of anything beyond being a bitch. The ending of the mystery occurs offstage, and loses a bit of its cathartic value at being reported second-hand.

From the moment in the first book in this series, Cat On the Edge, when Joe Grey uses his new-found voice to order delivery from his favorite deli and charges it to his human, the big grey tom snagged a piece of my heart in his claws, and he hasn’t let go yet.I hope that there will be a 20th book in this marvelous series, and soon. I enjoy my visits to Molena Point, and I can’t wait to see what trouble the kittens will get themselves, and their parents, and their humans, into next!

Review: Counterfeit Conspiracies by Ritter Ames + Giveaway

Posted on February 15, 2016February 14, 2016 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Counterfeit Conspiracies (Bodies of Art, #1) by Ritter Ames
Formats available: paperback, ebook
Series: Bodies of Art #1
Pages: 214
on February 2nd 2016
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

Laurel Beacham grew up in wealth and society—until her grandfather died and her father gambled away the family fortune. Now with more pedigree than trust fund, she is the premier art recovery expert for museums that need to stay one step ahead of international thieves. Her latest assignment pits her against a mystery man, Jack Hawkes, who is not only her equal with blue bloods, but also seems to know where all the bodies are buried. Suddenly Laurel is racing against time to find a priceless art object before the enemy does, locate a missing art world compatriot with crucial information, and decide whether or not she wants to disentangle herself from this new male nemesis, Jack, who seems to know too much about her and her business.

My Review:

Although the story is set in the art world, Counterfeit Conspiracies has the feel of a caper story. While this somewhat madcap adventure is all about recovering a missing artifact and rescuing a missing agent, the adventure is more about, well, Laurel’s adventures than it is about the art she has to recover or the world where art is stolen, traded and sold.

The way that Laurel generally approaches her various jobs makes her feel more like a thief or a secret agent than anything so potentially staid as recovering stolen treasures – especially since she sometimes steals those stolen treasures back from the thieves who stole them in the first (or second) place.

It’s not necessary to know a thing about the art world to enjoy Laurel’s chase-and-be-chased across Europe and back again. She’s always hopping from plane to train to car, and always just one step ahead, or behind, her pursuers.

The other fascinating thing about Laurel’s adventures is one of those very pursuers. At the beginning of the story, we learn that Laurel has crossed paths with a nearly mythical master art thief multiple times, and that he usually gets the best of her. As her latest job goes pear-shaped, she crosses paths with Jack Hawkes, who knows entirely too much about her.

Jack is chasing Laurel, and catches her so frequently that he obviously has ties to too many police and security forces. But as he tails Laurel, catches her, loses her, and catches her again, it’s never clear whether Jack is truly on the side of the angels or is pursuing Laurel for his own ends.

As Laurel frequently opines, Jack regularly asks for her trust and cooperation, but he neither fully trusts nor fully cooperates with her. He has researched everything about her, but always deflects whenever she tries to learn the least little thing about him.

They have oodles of chemistry together, but no basis for anything beyond a partnership of expedience.

But when all the chips fall, Jack is the only one Laurel can turn to to get her out of her latest jam. Especially since it feels like he’s at least partially responsible for landing her in it.

Escape Rating B: Counterfeit Conspiracies is a solidly fun caper story. While Laurel may be operating on the side of the angels, she acts more like a thief than anything else. It’s just that the people she plans to steal from are thieves themselves.

Jack is an enigma from the very beginning, and neither we nor Laurel learn enough about him to trust him. The number of times he asks for trust but doesn’t reciprocate made my teeth clench right along with Laurel’s. It’s obvious that he’s hiding a whole bunch of somethings, but we never do find out what. At least not in this first book in the series.

The strained relationship between Laurel and Jack, as well as their chemistry, reminded me very much of the Vicky Bliss series by Elizabeth Peters. (While the series starts with Borrower of the Night, the mysterious John Smythe doesn’t appear to bedevil art historian Vicki Bliss’ life until the second book in the series, Street of the Five Moons)

So if you like Counterfeit Conspiracies, you’ll love Vicky Bliss. And quite possibly also Carla Neggers’ Sharpe & Donovan series, which starts with Saint’s Gate (reviewed here). In Neggers’ series her art historian is an FBI agent from a family of art recovery experts. Combine Sharpe & Donovan with Vicky Bliss and you get Counterfeit Conspiracies.

But if you’re looking for a quick caper story with a lot of twists and turns, Counterfeit Conspiracies is the fun start to what looks like an interesting series. I’m looking forward to the next book, Marked Masters, to see just what kind of hot water Laurel Beacham will fall into next, and whether Jack Hawkes will push her into it, fish her out of it, or both!

TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY

The tour is giving away a prize pack valued at $150: a signed copy of Counterfeit Conspiracies, a 7″ Kindle Fire HD, a movie DVD, a SAS SpyPen with hidden camera, and an Amazon gift card.

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Review: Cat Bearing Gifts by Shirley Rousseau Murphy

Posted on December 24, 2015December 23, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B+ Reviews> book reviews

Cat Bearing Gifts (Joe Grey, #18) by Shirley Rousseau Murphy
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, large print, audiobook
Series: Joe Grey #18
Pages: 320
Published by Avon on August 27th 2013
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

In this latest entry in Shirley Rousseau Murphy's award-winning series, feline P.I. Joe Grey and his four-legged cohorts are plunged into a nightmarish mystery.
On the way home from visiting their friend Kate Osborne, tortoiseshell Kit and her elderly housemates, Lucinda and Pedric Greenlaw, are hurt in a terrible car crash. The accident is terrifying enough, but then two dangerous men steal the Greenlaws' Town Car, making off with a secret hoard of jewels and gold—a gift bestowed from Kate's newfound treasure. A badly shaken Kit hides from hungry coyotes in the forested hills above the highway, waiting for Joe, Pan, and their human companions, Ryan and Clyde Damen, to rescue her.
Back home in Molena Point, yellow tomcat Misto, discovering a faded photograph of a child living fifty years ago, becomes lost in his memories of that past century—while Joe Grey and his tabby lady prowl an abandoned stone cottage where they've discovered two men hiding. The cats smell mildewed money and soon smell human blood, too. Though the cats know more than the thieves about the unique items stolen, their investigation is still in trouble as they claw their way to justice.

My Review:

Usually I would say that anyone who likes feline sleuths will not just love Joe Grey, but could start anywhere in his series. Although the whole thing is so much fun that starting with Cat on the Edge makes for a lovely bunch of binge reading.

However, while I definitely enjoyed this entry in the series, I don’t think it is a good place to start. Too much of the action in this one is dependent on events in the past, and on people who have been introduced in previous books. Also, unusually for the series, the focus is very much on the humans in this one. The cats take a back seat (sometimes literally) as crisis after crisis strikes their human families, and everyone rallies round to protect the most vulnerable and find the guilty parties.

Many of the events in Cat Bearing Gifts were set up in Cat Telling Tales (reviewed here). An acquaintance of Ryan’s from art school barges into Molena Point demanding free room and board for herself and her two daughters based on a short and not all that friendly relationship from several years back. Ryan packs Debbie and her two girls off to one of the houses that she and Clyde are rehabbing. While Ryan knows that Debbie won’t lift a finger for upkeep on the rent-free house, everyone involved feels sorry for Debbie’s younger daughter Tessa, who is bullied by her sister and her mother nearly to the point of abuse. Tessa is being watched out for by Pan, one of the intelligent, talking cats, and everyone is trying to find a better solution for her than either her mother or Child Protective Services.

Debbie’s mother Sammie was found murdered underneath her own house in Cat Telling Tales, but Sammie left her little bungalow to her friend Emmylou. Emmylou and Sammie were two of a kind, tough older women who lived alone and independently and took care of themselves and kept themselves mostly to themselves.

But Sammie’s brother Byerly wanders back to Molena Point several months after Sammie’s death. Byerly calls himself a hobo. He’s a wandering vagrant who has always touched base with his sister but never returned home to live. He’s also easily influenced and manipulated, and he returns to Molena Point with his ex-con friend Vic. With Sammie dead, Byerly and Vic break into a neglected cabin on the property and begin a mini-crime spree.

Vic also fences the stolen goods that Debbie shoplifts.

But the mini-crime spree turns maxi when Vic and Byerly cause a hit and run accident on the road from San Francisco back to Molena Point. They wreck their old truck, total a semi, and drive Pedric and Lucinda Greenlaw off the road. Vic beats up Pedric and Lucinda, and steals their car.

And that’s where the case really begins. Because little Kit is a witness to the original crime, and wants to make sure Vic gets his just desserts the minute she is rescued. And because the Greenlaws’ car is concealing all the mysterious, magical and valuable treasures that their friend Kate brought back from the dying world on the other side of The Catswold Portal.

A lot happens in this story, and at first it seems almost all bad. While Vic and Byerly thankfully don’t have the tools to discover the treasures concealed in the doors of the Greenlaws’ Lincoln Town Car, Vic has more than enough ambition (although not much sense) to take his possession of the big car and its keys and turn them into an invasion of the Greenlaws’ home as well as license to commit even more crimes as he hides the car all over Molena Point and tries to plot his way out of the town and his life as a hobo.

But the first thing he has to do is get rid of his injured partner Byerly. And the second thing he has to do is get one last score out of the disgusting Debbie. And last but certainly not least, Vic has to find a way to dodge the pursuit of all of the cats who are suddenly following him everywhere in town.

In the end, no one ever manages to get the better of Joe Grey, Dulcie, Misto, Pan and especially, Kit.

Escape Rating B+: Cat Bearing Gifts is quite a bit darker than many of the stories in this series. It is sad and scary to see the Greenlaws, who are fit and feisty but definitely in their 80s, brought down, even temporarily, by a nasty piece of work like Vic. There’s a certain amount of fear on the reader’s part, and definitely on Kit’s, that some of the damage may not be recoverable, or may cause lasting infirmities.

Kit is certainly forced to acknowledge that her chosen humans are elderly and that she will lose them someday in the foreseeable future, even if that day is not today. Kit discovers that one of the flaws of having human intelligence is that it means a little cat is able to see the awful stuff that’s coming. She is not happy about it, and neither are we.

Because Pedric and Lucinda are in the hospital recovering for a lot of this book, the humans are rightly taken up with that crisis. Everyone rallies round, but everyone is also too busy to pay attention to what the cats are doing. And the cats themselves are naturally distracted. They all care for the Greenlaws, and are worried. There’s also a certain amount of necessary deception on the part of both the cats and the humans to sneak Kit into the Greenlaws’ hospital beds, very much against medical orders.

So everyone is distracted and no one has the time or the energy to get together and compare notes about the strange doings the cats witness surrounding Vic, Byerly, Emmylou’s house and Debbie’s shoplifting. Everyone knows a piece of the puzzle, but there is no opportunity to put the pieces together.

While this was an interesting way for the plot to take care of what sometimes seems like feline omniscience, all the events that they watch are very sad and go on quite a while. The reader will want Debbie to get her comeuppance long before it finally does. And as is often the case where the detectives are very scattered, more than a few bad deeds occur because the puzzle pieces just don’t come together in time.

As a long-time reader of this series, I was glad to see the pieces finally connected between The Catswold Portal and Joe Grey. As someone who is fascinated by the relationship among the cats, it was really interesting to see the argument between Kit and Pan. While it is obvious that they are mates, they feel both in the human and the cat sense. Their argument about goals and purposes and futures was very human, but the motivation behind it was very cat. As was the resolution.

I’m looking forward to a happier story in this series in the next book, Cat Shout for Joy. Joe Grey and Dulcie are having kittens!

Review: Lowcountry Bordello by Susan M. Boyer

Posted on December 17, 2015December 16, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | A- Reviews> book reviews

Lowcountry Bordello (A Liz Talbot Mystery, #4) by Susan M. Boyer
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook
Series: Liz Talbot #4
Pages: 272
Published by Henery Press on November 3rd 2015
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads

The Charleston streets are dressed for the holidays in sophisticated Southern style: topiaries adorned with red ribbons, garland entwined with white lights, and poinsettias potted in gold planters. The high class bordello in a stately historic home is certainly no exception. When Private Investigator Liz Talbot’s dear friend Olivia swears she saw a dead body in the parlor of this bordello, one Olivia accidentally co-owns, Liz promptly comes to her aid.
With her wedding back home on Stella Maris less than a week away, Liz must juggle one elderly madam, two ex and future in-laws, three ghosts in the bordello, four giddy bridesmaids, five lovely courtesans, six suspicious patrons…and a partridge in a pear tree as she tries to keep her bridesmaid out of jail and live to walk down the aisle.

My Review:

I didn’t realize I was working on a theme when I started Lowcountry Bordello. Both the heroine of this book, and yesterday’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place, are brides who are heading to the altar sometime well after their 20s, and both women are planning their weddings while in the middle of solving murders.

I think that Pru Parke and Liz Talbot would probably get along like a house on fire.

But today is Liz’ day, at least for the book review. In the book, it almost isn’t Liz’ day to get married.

The Liz Talbot series (Lowcountry Boil, Lowcountry Bombshell, Lowcountry Boneyard) centers around the island of Stella Maris, just off the South Carolina coast near Charleston. Stella Maris has managed to remain a small and cozy town, in spite of its marvelous location and its proximity to bustling Charleston. Liz Talbot, and her entire family going back generations, are partially responsible for Stella Maris still being beautiful and livable. The other force that is responsible for keeping Stella Maris Stella Maris is currently named Colleen.

Colleen was Liz’ best friend when they were kids. But Colleen committed suicide when she was 17, and her ghost is the genius loci of Stella Maris. In other words, Colleen is the protective spirit of Stella Maris. (One is forced to wonder who has occupied the office before, and how they got there. A minor digression.)

So we have a mostly cozy mystery series with one slightly paranormal element. Liz sees Colleen, and Colleen occasionally helps Liz. And often still infuriates her. Because Liz’ presence on Stella Maris is deemed necessary by whatever powers that be, as long as Liz remains a Stella Maris resident and a member of the Stella Maris town council, she is Colleen’s liaison. And while Colleen is not supposed to directly help her friend, keeping Liz alive is important enough that the rules occasionally get bent.

Mostly in the manner of cryptic advice and instructions. Colleen can’t manifest and impact the world directly. At least not yet.

Liz’ matron of honor calls in the middle of the night that she’s found a dead body at her great aunt’s house in Charleston. By the time Liz takes the ferry, the body has been whisked away, as if by magic. No body, no evidence that there even was a body. Just Olivia, overdramatic as usual, insisting that she saw her husband dead on the floor of her great aunt’s house. Olivia’s husband Robert is home with the kids, wondering if all of his wife’s late night meandering is indicative of an affair.

And this is where things get interesting, as well as convoluted in the way that Liz business typically, and often dangerously as well as hilariously, does. Olivia’s great aunt is running a very high class whorehouse. A whorehouse in which Olivia “accidentally” became part owner upon the recent death of her other great aunt.

This story gets better. Or worse depending on who you are in it. Olivia is being blackmailed about owning the whorehouse. Not by just anyone, but by her own cousin, who is the handyman at said whorehouse, and mightily resents that Olivia has inherited the place instead of him.

But since Olivia’s husband is not dead, what happened to the body she saw? Or did Olivia imagine it? (Olivia is so much of a drama queen that it is entirely believable that she DID imagine it.) And then the body of a local politician turns up in the middle of a park, and suddenly Liz has a case to solve, less than a week before her wedding.

After all, it would ruin the ceremony if the police came to arrest her maid of honor before they get to the “I do’s”. Or even after.

In order to figure out who killed the politician, Liz has to find out what the man was doing at the whorehouse. And that’s where things get interesting. The solution hinges on discovering exactly who are the rich and powerful men who sponsor young women through college by setting them up in an expensive house with a big allowance as their “nieces”. There are a lot of dirty secrets involved (as well as one fascinating clean but kinky secret). And the men keeping those secrets have a lot to lose if they are exposed.

But which of them has enough on the line to kill for?

Escape Rating A-: Lowcountry Bordello, and the entire Liz Talbot series, always edge toward going over the top without actually getting there. Alternatively, the way that Liz’ life and family are portrayed is so much fun that the going over the top is part of the charm.

The stories are all told from Liz’ first person point of view. So we only see what she sees and know what she knows. So when the craziness is revealed to her, it is also revealed to us.

However, that first person point of view is sometimes especially poignant, particularly when it comes to Liz’ interactions with Colleen. Liz still misses her friend terribly, so when Colleen appears in the middle of the bridal party, dressed as one of the bridesmaids, as she absolutely would have been had she lived, it brings a tear to Liz’ eyes (and to the reader’s).

Part of what makes this series so much fun is Liz’ crazy family and equally crazy friends. But her friendships don’t just exist so that the author has a crazy person, in this case Olivia, to work with. Olivia and Liz are friends for excellent reasons that go back to the childhood they shared on Stella Maris. So much of what makes this series work, and makes the characters work together, are the relationships they built when they were kids.

The set up for this story is particularly hilarious. How does one come to accidentally own a whorehouse? Or even half a whorehouse? (It’s not often I get to use the word “whorehouse” in a review, I’m having a little too much fun with it.)

And yet, once Olivia’s place in this mess is established, it is so easy to see how things got out of hand. Her great aunts needed a way to keep their century-plus family home in the ritzy historical section of Charleston. Old houses need a lot of expensive upkeep. The old ladies started out taking in boarders, as one does. But then some of their kindly neighbors convinced them or colluded with them that it would be much more profitable for the old ladies if their boarding house was very exclusive and sponsored by gentlemen in need of a place for their “young nieces” to live while the girls attended college. Everyone benefits. Until they don’t.

That’s where Liz steps in. Once the secret starts unraveling, everyone near the unravel is in danger, especially the girls. Only Liz, with a little help from Colleen and the resident ghosts of the house, can get everyone to safety before it’s too late. But once Liz starts protecting the girls, the killer starts chasing after her.

While it would have been a damper for her maid of honor to be handcuffed, it would be a absolute showstopper if the bride were in a bodybag.

Review: Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Marty Wingate

Posted on December 16, 2015December 17, 2015 by Marlene Harris | Author : Marlene Harris | B+ Reviews> book reviews

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A Potting Shed Mystery by Marty Wingate
Formats available: ebook
Series: Potting Shed #3
Pages: 288
Published by Alibi on August 4th 2015
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo
Goodreads

Perfect for fans of Laura Childs, Ellery Adams, and Jenn McKinlay, Marty Wingate’s enchanting Potting Shed Mystery series heads to Scotland as Pru Parke plans her wedding . . . all while a vengeful murderer is poised to strike again. After her romantic idyll with the debonair Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse culminates in a marriage proposal, Pru Parke sets about arranging their nuptials while diving into a short-term gig at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. At hand is the authentication of a journal purportedly penned by eighteenth-century botanist and explorer Archibald Menzies. Compared to the chaos of wedding planning, studying the journal is an agreeable task . . . that is, until a search for a missing cat leads to the discovery of a dead body: One of Pru’s colleagues has been conked on the head with a rock and dumped from a bridge into the Water of Leith. Pru can’t help wondering if the murder has something to do with the Menzies diary. Is the killer covering up a forgery? Among the police’s many suspects are a fallen aristocrat turned furniture maker, Pru’s overly solicitous assistant, even Pru herself. Now, in the midst of sheer torture by the likes of flamboyant wedding dress designers and eccentric church organists, Pru must also uncover the work of a sly murderer—unless this bride wants to walk down the aisle in handcuffs.

My Review:

I love this cozy mystery series, and it was absolutely perfect for the mood I was in as I read it.

One of the reasons I love it so much is that the heroine, Pru Parke, is easy for me to identify with. While in earlier times Pru might have been coyly referred to as a “woman of a certain age”, the fact is that Pru is in her 50s and starting her life over in England. That she has found a realistic and romantic love on her journey just makes it that much more awesome.

Pru is a kind of itinerant gardener. For those who have watched the BBC series Rosemary and Thyme, Pru reminds me a lot of Laura Thyme. She is a trained gardener and garden manager, with a degree in horticulture and some experience teaching as well as working in respected botanical gardens back home. In Pru’s case, back home is Texas.

Also like Laura Thyme, wherever Pru comes to take care of a garden, she always digs up a dead body or two. Sometimes merely figuratively, but sometimes literally. She met her fiance, DCI Christopher Pearse, when her first case in The Garden Plot (reviewed here) became tied up with a murder investigation.

After Pru’s successful recreation of a famous garden in The Red Book of Primrose House (reviewed here), Pru and Christopher took off on a six-month sabbatical. At the opening of Between a Rock and a Hard Place, she is ready to go back to work and offers are pouring in.

Pru takes a three-month contract at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Her job is to verify (or debunk) the authenticity of a journal that was purportedly written by one of the great 18th century explorer-botanists, Archibald Menzies. While she’s in Edinburgh, she is also supposed to arrange her upcoming wedding to Christopher.

Nothing ever comes easy. While the wedding arrangements are mostly fraught with humorous, if nerve-wracking, disasters, the job is nothing like Pru expected it would be.

There is something underhanded about her appointment to the position, and the RBGE administrator pulls a vanishing act whenever Pru attempts to buttonhole him to discuss it. The staff member at the Garden who is supposed to work with Pru clearly resents her very presence, and with good reason. It is obvious that Iain Blackwell is more than qualified to handle the research himself, and there is no apparent reason why Pru was brought in. Iain’s continued disparagement of her credentials and his constant sniping about “buying the job” at first may seem like plain sexism, but are soon revealed to be very specific to the arrangement that brought Pru to Edinburgh – an arrangement that Pru had no part of, but that Iain believes she connived at.

When Iain is murdered, Pru is the obvious suspect. Everyone heard them arguing – frequently and often. But when the police start focusing on Pru as their sole suspect, Christopher drops everything at Scotland Yard and rides to the rescue.

While Pru and Christopher try to negotiate their upcoming nuptials, Pru can’t resist poking her nose into the murder of her frustrating colleague. As Pru is not the guilty party, someone else must be. It’s up to Pru to figure out who and why before the murderer finishes their plans to send Pru off the exact same way.

Escape Rating B+: This is a story with a lot going on, and almost all of the plot threads are fun to follow. And although this is the third book in the series, I think it could be read as a standalone. Pru moves around so much that except for Christopher, people don’t continue from one book to the next.

I like Pru and Christopher, and I enjoyed seeing this late-blooming couple negotiate both their marriage and their future together. One of the things that I love about them is that they are portrayed as being realistically hot for each other, and very willing to explore that fire. While their love scenes are of the “fade to black” type, the author makes it clear that these two 50-somethings enjoy sex with each other much and often. We don’t see enough romantic relationships between people who are both experienced, and we should. Love blooms at any age, and sex is wonderful with the right person. Pru and Christopher are clearly each other’s “right person” and it glows.

Arranging the wedding turns into a string of disasters, or adventures if the definition of adventure is that one about something either long ago or far away happening to someone else. Pru’s discomfort at going through the first bridal travails that normally happen for a woman at half her age is honest. The craziness along the way is all Pru.

Then there are the three mysteries. There’s the minor mystery about how Pru got the job in the first place. There’s the second minor mystery about whether or not the journal she is authenticating is the real deal. And there’s the major and deadly mystery surrounding Iain Blackwell’s death.

I found the first little mystery, the one about Pru’s appointment, to be frustrating and in the end, annoying. The dodgy administrator made things seem much more serious than they were, and the reason for that dodginess, and the whole way that Pru got the appointment, went too far down unrealistic lane for this reader.

The mystery about authenticating the manuscript, including why it had been suppressed in the first place, turned into a fascinating little piece of history. It’s too bad that this part of the story is entirely fictional. The way this worked out, I’d have loved it if it were true.

The big mystery, Iain’s death, was heartbreaking on a number of levels. Not just that a not-nice but certainly not-evil man was dead for not much reason, but the number of lives that were broken in both the cause of his death and the aftermath. I had started to zero in on the murderer before the reveal, but the why of it surprised and saddened me.

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