The Sign of Death

Title: The Sign of Death
Author: Callie Hutton
Published: April 13th 2021 by Crooked Lane Books
Format: Kindle, 327 pages
Genre: Historical Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: A Victorian Book Club Mystery #2

Reading this book, all I could think about was the lack of humor and sass. 1890's Bath, England, is conventional enough, but with the intelligence and spunkiness of Lady Amy Lovell, there should be more verbal sparring between her and Lord William Wethington. Without it, William comes across as a second to Amy’s cleverness instead of the partnership she desires.

When James Harding, William’s man of business, is found dead in the River Avon with William’s business card in his pocket, the police call him in to identify the body. With this simple request and Amy at his side, a nefarious chain of deceits unfolds. Harding was blackmailing or embezzling various citizens of their community. With so many potential suspects in Harding's murder, William and Amy are kept busy sorting it out while trying to keep William out of prison and Amy away from the killer’s grasp.

But that does not mean Amy has not found herself in a pickle since her long-held secret is about to be divulged. From the first book, A Study in Murder, the reader knows Amy is a celebrated mystery author, but as a woman, been forced by her father to write under a pseudonym since no man would want to marry a woman who writes the kind of books she does. She is not sure how she will get out of this until William comes up with an acceptable proposition.

I am enjoying this series, yet, I continue to wish the speed would pick up a bit, and the banter would have a bit more humor and tension.

Inked Out

Title: Inked Out
Author: Karen MacInerney
Published: February 28th 2021, by Gray Whale Press
Format: Kindle, 201 Pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Series: Snug Harbor Mysteries #2

Inked Out reads more like a draft meant for the editor than the final product intended for the reader. Extra words, missing words, and a great deal of redundancy made this book painful to read.

Book two in the Snug Harbor series sees Max Sayer, with assistant Bethany, hosting a new mystery writers’ group at Seaside Cottage Books. The group is barely off the ground when Reginald Blakely accuses Bethany of plagiarizing his novel involving the death of a housekeeper. When Reginald’s body is found in the bookstore, Bethany becomes the number one suspect.

What slowly evolves is that one of the founding families of Snug Harbor wants to keep their secret buried since there is a proposed land deal and millions of dollars on the line and no one knows what could happen if the truth is told. Especially a truth that could reveal a long-forgotten member of the family and an end to the cash infusion that the family desperately needs.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I have enjoyed the past books from this author, I would give up completely. Hopefully, this was only a slight glitch in her usually well-oiled machine and soon she will get back to the writing that I have enjoyed. *

The French Paradox

Title: The French Paradox
Author: Ellen Crosby
Published: April 6th 2021 by Severn House Publishers
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 256 Pages
Genre: Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Wine Country Mysteries #11

I’m used to the Wine Country series having a more factual history to go along with the murder mystery and wine parings. With this outing, I was put off with the history premise based on a made-up affair between Jacqueline Bouvier and Lucie Montgomery’s grandfather, taking place in 1949 France, when Jacqueline was spending a year abroad.

By presuming an affair, which brought the timeline together and incorporating the Montgomery Vineyards patriarch, then adding in paintings found in old bookseller’s drawers, allows for Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun and her canvases, to be brought center stage. A stage quickly moved to the background when Harriet Delacrox, a failed journalist, plans to hold a gathering to present the book she is writing based on a manuscript about Marie-Antoinette and her portraitist that Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis had left in a box given to Harriet’s mother. This manuscript coincides with journals Lucie found which calls into question her grandfather’s love for her grandmother and a secret that should remain hidden.

Because the book, in my mind, had a cohesion issue, it felt as if the author was halfway through before she realized she forgot a murder victim and threw in a celebrated landscape designer, who was also a contemporary of Miss Bouvier, and killed him off. Was it because he threatened to call Harriet out on her ridiculous book or is there more since Lucie’s sister has a new beau and said landscaper thought he looked slightly familiar or could it be that he had publicly called out a local botanist about his research on climate change and its effect on viticulture? The murder part of this mystery was a jumbled mess from beginning to end.

In my opinion, too much was going on in this book. So much so that each of the storylines was swallowed up by another and what is left was too many ideas and not enough development of any of them.

Murder By Page One

Title: Murder by Page One
Author: Olivia Matthews
Published: March 23rd 2021 by Hallmark Publishing
Format: Kindle, Paperback, 336 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for an opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Peach Coast Mystery #1

After the first couple of chapters, I was ready to put this book down. The characters did not appeal to me, the oversimplistic approach grated on me, and the feel of – let’s throw a cat in here to catch the sympathy of the readers was off-putting.

Marvey, and if she had a last name, I have forgotten it, moved from Brooklyn, New York to Peach Coast, Georgia, to take over as a librarian tasked with developing readership and community involvement. When a body is discovered and her friend Jo, which once again, I didn’t think Marvey had been in town long enough to have such close ties that she was willing to put her life on the line for, is under suspicion. Marvey and the son (how they met was never fleshed out) of a local wealthy family and newspaper owner, join forces and talents to save the day and find the true murderer.

As a Hallmark publication, I am wondering if the plan is to turn this book into a Hallmark Movie and Mystery series. If so, haven’t we already had a few too many librarian sleuths in the cozy genre? Granted, there are a few old standards that might charm a Hallmark audience, but overall, this book did not appeal to me.