Love in the Afternoon

Title: Love in the Afternoon
Author: Karen Hawkins
Published: June 17th 2019 by Gallery Books
Format: Kindle, 126 pages
Genre: Paranormal Romance Novella
Series: Dove Pond #0.5

Be prepared for a hard cry. I never saw it coming, just when I thought that this would be a pleasant romantic novella as a placeholder before the next full book in the Dove Pond Series.

IT game designer and recluse, Jake Klaine, felt no need to leave his home for any more than groceries since his fiancé left him. He is perfectly fine on his own in a house that is being slowly choked of light by the roses that Heather had planted. He does not need anything; Jake is perfectly content with his work and the occasional visit from the ghosts that stop by. It’s when they stay, floating in his bathtub wearing nothing more than a blonde wig and a strategically placed washcloth, and giving unwanted advice that Jake gets bothered. Doyle can be annoying, but it’s the annoyance that Jake needs.

Recent widow and mother to Noah, Sofia Rodriquez moved in next door and is the new greenhouse manager for Ava Dove. On the spectrum, Noah’s days can be challenging, but they have set into a good rhythm. That is until a challenge from bullies on the bus puts Noah on Jake’s front porch and, as they say, the rest is history.

This beautiful novella opens the closed worlds of three people that desperately need hope, magic, and possibilities. People need to know good is out there and that with patience and understanding, they will be what each need at a time when they had nothing.

The Deep Deep Snow

Title: The Deep Deep Snow
Author: Brian Freeman
Published: January 14, 2020, Blackstone Publishing
Format: Kindle Edition, 307 pages
Genre: Police Procedural

This book has been sitting in my pile for a while, and I’m not sure why I kept putting it off since I have always loved Brian Freeman --but for some reason, it wasn’t calling to me. That was a big mistake. When I finally picked it up to get a little idea of what was to come, I found that I could not put it down. The author has a way of letting you think that you have it figured out, then there is a twist, not a totally out of the blue twist, just a nudge into a new direction and a new mindset, and you set off with a whole new set of what-ifs.

Shelby Lake is a firm believer in premonition, abandoned as an infant on the doorstep of the local sheriff, where she would have frozen to death if it wasn’t for the snowy owl that had landed on the boat and ruined his fishing plans and forcing him to returned home. Her arrival in Nowhere, Minnesota, is a bit of a mystery, but one that she doesn’t dwell on. She has enough going on with her father’s slow descent into Alzheimer’s and the sudden disappearance of young Jeremiah Sloan.

Told in a then and now format, this is a story of secrets. It appears that everyone has one, and now it is up to Shelby to unravel a disappearance by putting all the pieces together, while gently prodding her father and helping him to ease into a life full of unknowns. Aware of forewarnings, and as the pieces fall together, Shelby faces the daunting task of bringing everyone’s truths to light, which will leave the reader a little shattered and a family made whole again.

From what I can tell, this book is a stand-alone, but several jumping-off points could be the beginning of a new series for Mr. Freeman. Shelby Lake is a fascinating character that is deeply flawed and tends to put others first --even if they don’t necessarily want it, or ask. She is a watcher of signs and will take care of those that she loves, though one day, they won’t remember her.

A Killer Ending

Title: A Killer Ending
Author: Karen MacInerney
Published: June 30th 2020 by Gray Whale Press
Format: eBook, 210 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Snug Harbor Mysteries #1

With the most recent book in the Gray While Inn Series, Anchored Inn, Karen MacInerney introduced her readers to a new character, Max Sayers, and her dream of a fresh start in opening a bookstore in her beloved Snug Harbor, Maine. With this branching off, the author introduces the reader to a new tourist community full of old friends where Max had spent many summers as a child and holds memories of a kinder and gentler life.

Being a cozy mystery, you know certain things are going to take place, Karen MacInerney brings them all to Seaside Cottage Books. Beginning with the body found with a doorstop in his head, an ex-husband and his new love interest, neighborhood gossips, hostility from the sister of the previous owner, and deeply buried secrets and maneuverings to take Max’s dream away.

There are a few continuity issues, but since Karen MacInerney has taken the self-publishing route, that is to be expected. Overall, Killer Ending is a vacation book that introduces the reader to new characters and a place that will eventually grow on her long-time followers. Especially those that love when book titles and authors seamlessly weave through the narrative and mesh as well as a nice cup of tea and a freshly baked cookie.

Killer Kung Pao

Title: Killer Kung Pao
Author: Vivien Chien
Published: August 25th 2020 by St. Martin's Paperbacks
Format: eBook, Paperback 304 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: A Noodle Shop Mystery #6

I had a hard time keeping all the characters straight, between the Mahjong Matrons, the owners of Yi’s Tea and Bakery (and which sister was older), the society ladies, and the myriad of women at the hair salon, I found myself going back chapters at a time trying to remember names and relationships.

By now, you would have thought that Lana Lee, manager of her family's Chinese Restaurant in Asia Village, would be tired of putting her life at risk, but death does seem to find her. Tensions are already high when there is a slight fender bender in the parking lot outside the shopping area. No one could foresee the accident leading to Millie’s electrocution death at the salon a couple of days later. Now everyone suspects June Yi, but Lana is not so sure. Taking her boyfriend Detective Adam Trudeau's advice and knowing that she should let the police do their job is not Lana’s style. With her notebook in hand, Lana sets out to discover what people know and why they are so reluctant with the truth.

I enjoy this series. Vivien Chien twists her narrative with just the right amount of layering and adds humor where it is needed. She does not over-explain, and knowing when the reader needs a break from the goings-on, throws in the delicious tastes and aroma of Lana’s much-loved donuts and delicacies coming out of the noodle house.

Find Me

Title: Find Me
Author: Anne Frasier
Published: July 1st 2020 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Kindle Edition, 286 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Series: Inland Empire #1

After a slow start, and more than a few similarities to Joanna Schaffhausen’s Ellery Hathaway series, Anne Frasier finally takes the reader down the road to a confrontation with the one character that should not have been a surprise.

FBI Profiler Reni Fisher thought she had put the past behind her. Her father, the Inland Empire Killer, Benjamin Fisher, is behind bars, and she has moved on. What she did not expect was the flashback that almost put her partner in the grave and started her life on a spiral thirty years after her father's incarceration. Now Ben Fisher wants to show the investigators where the bodies are hidden. With the original investigator retired, Daniel Ellis has taken over the case. The only fly in the pudding, before Fisher will divulge his hiding spots, Reni must agree to be part of the unit, setting in motion a nightmare that will not end until each character is laid bare.

Though laying the deliberate groundwork, Anne Frasier dawdles through most of the first half of the book. There could have been more spice and subterfuge, yet we plod our way through until that one moment where everything changes, and the reader cannot race to the end quickly enough.

Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody

Title: Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody
Author: Barbara Ross
Published: June 30th 2020 by Kensington Publishing Corporation
Format: eBook, Paperback, 272 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Jane Darrowfield #1

When I first started this book, it read as if it were a second or third book in the series. The mentioning of past experiences implies the reader should have known what was going on, but in time, it was all explained, leaving the reader ready to find out what Jane Darrowfield is all about.

A year into her retirement, Jane is bored senseless, and if it were not for the problems her bridge club friends found themselves in, Jane would have completely lost her mind. When out of the blue, the director of a local seniors only condominium complex contacts her. It appears there are escalating hostilities amongst the residents, and he was wondering if Jane could move in, in an undercover capacity, maybe she could soothe nerves and get everything back on an even keel. What she didn’t expect were that seniors are no different than high schoolers with their cliques, bullying, and open warfare, resulting in a living nightmare for all involved. Now with a dead man on the golf course, and a growing list of possible suspects, Jane has her hands full, and with the help of a person that no one trusts, Jane sets off on her first official who-done-it, complete with business cards.

The first couple of chapters left me a little uninterested, but within time, and a couple of humorous moments, the characters of Walden Spring caught my attention. Once you allow your mind to accept that seventy-year-olds and seventeen-year-olds are pretty much the same, and can find any number of things to get into, Jane Darrowfield will grow on you.

The Queen's Secret

Title: The Queen's Secret
Author: Karen Harper
Published: May 19th 2020 by William Morrow
Format: eBook, 384 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

I should have known. When an author feels a need to outline the who’s who of a novel, even if it involves the royal family, the reader knows that they are in for a long drawn out narrative with overlapping names, this time nicknames, locations, and repetition. With historical fiction, the reader never knows what to believe. Did Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, keep a life-long secret from her husband regarding his brother, or was it the dossier that may not be truthful, or even the secret surrounding her birth, or was there something else that the reader lost sight of when the repetition took over?

Covering Elizabeth Bowles Lyon’s marriage to King George IV, the abdication of her brother-in-law, the raising of the future Queen, and living through WWII, Karen Harper takes the reader through the treachery, rewards, and battles that surrounded the royal family and the country. As the woman behind the man, Elizabeth with the help of Winston Churchill, takes on the role of a soft-spoken spine of steel matriarch that guided the King, and the country, to victory.

I wouldn’t call the book riveting or even fascinating, but it did bring a character, which I had dismissed, to the forefront and presented facets of her life that I had never known existed. Elizabeth was a woman of strength and secrets that was feared by the most powerful men of her day and who could hold her own during the most trying of times.

The Lantern Men

Title: The Lantern Men
Author: Elly Griffiths
Published: February 6th 2020 by Quercus
Format: HeBook, ardcover, 368 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Ruth Galloway #12

This book boiled down to three parts for me. The first and last were thought-provoking, cemented relationships, atmosphere, and reasoning. The middle was nothing but redundant over twisting and retelling of characters and relationships, to the point I was beginning to wonder if the author, Elly Griffiths, needed to recap the story so she could keep it straight herself.

Ruth Galloway has made changes in her life. She has moved from the Saltmarsh to Cambridge with her daughter and partner. Thankfully, her new teaching position means she will have minimal contact with DCI Harry Nelson. Kate will still see her father, but Nelson and Ruth are keeping their distance. All that changes when Ivor March, recently convicted of two murders, is ready to admit that there are more. He will only speak to Ruth, and she must agree to the excavations. As Nelson is the lead investigator, Ruth will once again find herself in an uncomfortable situation. With March’s stories unfolding, and the tale of the Lantern Men, which was an interesting piece of folklore, Ruth, Nelson, and the old team are once again together to find the remains of the women that Ivor had once called friends.

With the Saltmarsh and the Norfolk coast, there is a creepy atmospheric feel to Elly Griffith’s Ruth Galloway series that I love. Yet, I do wish the next book in the series isn’t so overdrawn, and the author lets the reader connect the dots without complicating the obvious.

A Body in the Village Hall

Title: A Body in the Village Hall
Author: Dee MacDonald
Published: June 29th 2020 by Bookouture
Format: ebook, 238 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Kate Palmer #1

What happened to the humor?

I have enjoyed the past wit and plotting of Dee MacDonald’s books and was eager to see that she is branching out into the cozy genre - a genre that needs more mature sleuths and less bouncing red curls. Unfortunately, the author let me down with slow pacing, very little humor, and the all too familiar “let me find a man” maneuvering.

Kate and her sister Angie have left their city lives behind and have taken to the Cotswold’s where things move at a slower pace. What Kate didn’t anticipate was the dead body in the Village Hall with a rather large and ominous knife sticking out of Fenella, the town floozy. Determined to mind her own business and not get involved, Kate the new practice nurse receives an earful from her patients as to the carryings-on in Lower Tinworthy. Once the murderer feels that Kate is asking too many questions, and getting to close, she must be dealt with. But Kate has other ideas which involve her clandestine relationship with the local detective inspector.

There is great potential for this series if only for a little more humor and a little less repetition, and with this, the Kate Palmer series could be enjoyed for years to come.