Secrets in the Stacks

Title: Secrets in the Stacks
Author: Lynn Cahoon
Published: November 1st 2022 by Kensington Publishing
Format: Kindle, Paperback, 212 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Survivors' Book Club Mystery #2)

First Sentence: Rarity Cole stood beside the fireplace in her bookstore, surrounded by the chattering women of the Tuesday night Survivors’ Book Club.

Blurb: After an ominous Tarot reading, Sedona bookstore owner Rarity Cole must find a killer to keep her friend safe from harm—even if the cards are stacked against her.

Following her recovery from breast cancer, Rarity has embraced a life of healing and service in her Sedona, Arizona, community. She welcomes the opportunity to participate in the annual summer healing fair with her fittingly named new-age bookstore, The Next Chapter. The members of the Tuesday Night Survivors’ Book Club are also volunteering, maintaining a cooling station for overheated festivalgoers, and hosting a Tarot card reader for entertainment.

But one member, Darby, is anything but entertained when the Tarot reader pulls a Death card. With a mammogram coming up, she’s freaked out and goes home—only to walk into a crime scene where someone near and dear to her has been murdered. Despite the objections of Detective Drew Anderson, Rarity is determined to help her friend and protect her from being the killer’s next victim. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: Though it was nice to revisit the Survivor’s Book Club, the plot was slow-moving. Then again, when it comes to this book, I am confused. Is Secrets in the Stacks women’s fiction with a murder on the side, or is it a murder mystery that puts the women of the book club as a priority?

The first three-quarters of the book puts the women’s stories first, then in the last quarter, Lynn Cahoon must have realized that she had a mystery to solve and gave it a disappointing mad dash race to the finish.

Granted, I read an ARC, but there were a few continuity issues that need clearing up, which I hope were taken care of before publication.

Bleeding Heart Yard

Title: Bleeding Heart Yard
Author: Elly Griffiths
Published: November 15th 2022 by Mariner Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 352 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Harbinder Kaur #3

First Sentence: Is it possible to forget that you’ve committed a murder?

Blurb: When Cassie Fitzgerald was at school in the late 90s, she and her friends killed a fellow student. Almost twenty years later, Cassie is a happily married mother who loves her job--as a police officer. She closely guards the secret she has all but erased from her memory.

One day her husband finally persuades her to go to a school reunion. Cassie catches up with her high-achieving old friends from the Manor Park School--among them two politicians, a rock star, and a famous actress. But then, shockingly, one of them, Garfield Rice, is found dead in the school bathroom, supposedly from a drug overdose. As Garfield was an eminent--and controversial--MP and the investigation is high profile, it's headed by Cassie's new boss, DI Harbinder Kaur, freshly promoted and newly arrived in London. The trouble is, Cassie can't shake the feeling that one of them has killed again.

Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies? It's in Cassie's interest to skew the investigation so that it looks like it has nothing to do with Manor Park and she seems to be succeeding.

Until someone else from the reunion is found dead in Bleeding Heart Yard.

My Opinion: Unlike other mysteries, the who-done-it is not evident from the start. The plotting is reminiscent of the game where you must pick which cup hides the marble. Each character is brought to the front, and then just as quickly, they are replaced by another suspect. You have your suspicions, but then again it could be someone else.

With less than a hundred pages to go, I was narrowing it down to the most likely suspect. I kept returning to an overhead conversation -- where a comma could have made all the difference. And by the end, I was still wrong. You can’t call it an easily looked-over suspect since there were no clues. What you can call it is a master storyteller leading her audience down a path, and when you get to the end, you realize you had forgotten to keep track of one person.

I love Elly Griffiths’ writing; she has me running to dictionaries, taking notes, and making me wish I had paid better attention when studying the classics.

A Body at Lavender Cottage

Title: A Body at Lavender Cottage
Author: Dee MacDonald
Published: November 7th 2022 by Bookouture
Format: Kindle Edition, 251 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Kate Palmer #6

First Sentence: Kate Palmer, feeling all of her sixty-one years, yawned and rubbed her eyes as she stumbled into the kitchen of her Cornish Hillside cottage at six o’clock on a grey Sunday morning.

Blurb: Nurse Kate Palmer is Cornwall’s answer to Miss Marple! But when a body turns up in her own garden can Kate solve the crime? Or is the murder a bit too close to home?

Kate Palmer is stunned when she wakes up one morning to discover the body of a man in the beautiful garden of Lavender Cottage. She’s spent the last few years renovating her cozy, clifftop cottage with its gorgeous views of the sparkling Cornish sea. And a death right under her nose is more than a little unsettling…

When Woody Forrest, Kate’s new husband and the village’s retired detective inspector, takes a closer look he realises the victim is none other than Frank Ford – Woody’s old nemesis. Now, Frank is lying dead amongst the daisies… strangled with Woody’s blue police tie.

Kate is certain the man she loves is not a murderer and is determined to prove his innocence. But who would want to kill Frank and frame Woody? As Kate investigates, Frank’s family seem to be the obvious suspects. Could it be Jason Ford, the youngest son, who has an odd obsession with birdwatching? Sid Kinsella, the angry father-in-law? Or Sharon Mason, the troublesome daughter?

When another member of the Ford family bites the dust while Woody is tending his allotment, it’s clear the killer is determined to bury Woody’s reputation. But when a chance conversation on Bluebell Road provides Kate with a clue, she must find a woman named Rose, who could hold the answers Kate is looking for.

But Kate needs to dig up the truth – and fast! – before poor Woody is thrown behind bars. Can she solve the case and save her husband before it’s too late?

My Opinion: Anyone following this series will enjoy A Body at Lavender Cottage, and for those who are new, the author does a good job of quickly catching readers up.

Not a deep or twisty mystery series, but I love visiting Kate, Angie, and Woody. Unfortunately, the secondary storyline did not appear until a third of the way in, and once it emerged, the “who done it” part was apparent. There were no red herrings or misleading the reader since the overall story marched in a straight line.

The only downfall was the ending. Though the reader figured out early who the killer was, after the official reveal, the book was suddenly over. There was not the usual rehashing and putting on a final bow or even a tidbit that would entice the reader into eagerly anticipating the new book in the series.

A Trace of Poison

Title: A Trace of Poison
Author: Colleen Cambridge
Published: October 25th 2022 by Kensington Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 304 pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Phyllida Bright Mystery #2

First Sentence: “I just don’t see any way around it. He’s simply got to be done away with”, said a hushed voice.

Blurb: Phyllida Bright, housekeeper for Agatha Christie, must uncover a killer among a throng of crime writers.

In England’s stately manor houses, murder is not generally a topic for polite conversation. Mallowan Hall, home to Agatha Christie and her husband, Max, is the exception. And housekeeper Phyllida Bright delights in discussing gory plot details with her friend and employer . . .

The neighboring village of Listleigh has also become a hub of grisly goings-on, thanks to a Murder Fête organized to benefit a local orphanage. Members of The Detection Club—a group of celebrated authors such as G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Agatha herself—will congregate for charitable events, including a writing contest for aspiring authors. The winner gets an international publishing contract, and entrants have gathered for a cocktail party—managed by the inimitable Phyllida—when murder strikes too close even for her comfort.

It’s a mystery too intriguing for Phyllida to resist, but one fraught with duplicity and danger, for every guest is an expert in murder—and how to get away with it. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: Disappointing. The beginning of the book is full of excessive names and drawn-out descriptions, leaving the reader to wonder what is important and what is filler fluff.

A lover of mysteries will have the perpetrator figured out early on since it was obvious after the first few chapters. Having reached my fill of monotony, I had to give up and jump to the end to confirm my suspension and then marked this book as a DNF.

I enjoyed Murder at Mallowan Hall, the first book in the series, and was let down with this book since A Trace of Poison did not equal Colleen Cambridge’s earlier novel.

Devil's Delight

Title:Devil's Delight
Author: M.C. Beaton, R.W. Green
Expected Publication: December 13th 2022 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, Hardcover, 256 pages
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Agatha Raisin #33

First Sentence: He was naked. Some people are easily shocked. Agatha Raisin would never count herself as one of those people.

Blurb: Toni and Agatha are in the car on their way to Officer Bill Wong’s long-awaited wedding when, much to their shock, a naked young man bursts through a hedge on the side of the road and comes running toward them.

Terrified, he explains that he has just seen a dead body in the woods. Toni lends him an old t-shirt to cover himself, Agatha calls the police, and the young man takes them to the spot where he saw the body, across from a meadow where the Mircester Naturist Club is due to have its annual summer barbecue.

The young man, Edward, explains that he is the club’s social convenor and had arrived early to set things up. He says he found the body at the edge of the woods, near an ancient stone known as The Lone Warrior and said to have once been used as a sacrificial altar.

When they reach the spot, however, there is nothing on the large, flat rock except a small wet patch. Even that has dried up by the time the police arrive, and Chief Inspector Wilkes accuses Agatha of wasting police time on a prank.

But Agatha and Toni grow suspicious after meeting some of the club’s members, whose diverse interests range from artisanal ice cream to ancient curses. And when another disappearance occurs, it’s up to them to put together the pieces…or end up on the altar themselves.(GoodReads)

My Opinion: R.W. Green has had some mighty large Beaton shoes to fill -- his first book, Hot to Trot was a disaster, Down the Hatch was closer to M.C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, and now Devil’s Delight seems to be closing in on the books I enjoy.

The paragraph structure is not my favorite, with an extra sentence here and there that doesn’t belong and reads more along the lines of talking down to his audience or a lackluster form of humor; we get it R.W.; we can read between the lines.

I am unsure if Agatha is finally coming into her own since she has always been a force of nature, but there is a change in her. Will this change continue? The reader certainly hopes so, but time will tell if she will fall back into her usual of chasing the wrong men -- at least the newest isn’t named James, Jim, or Jimmy. Then again, how will Agatha handle a relationship with a mature man and not the usual man-child she seems to be attracted to?

The Zero Night

Title: The Zero Night
Author: Brian Freeman
Published: November 1st 2022 by Blackstone Publishing
Format: Hardcover, 350 pages
Genre: Police Procedural
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Jonathan Stride #11

First Sentence: The man with the briefcase sat on a bench in the drowning rain.

Blurb: A woman has been kidnapped.Now Jonathan Stride must decide if her husband wants her back ... dead or alive.

After nearly dying of a gunshot wound, Jonathan Stride has been on leave from the Duluth Police for more than a year. When his partner, Maggie Bei, gets called about a suspicious abduction involving a local lawyer, she tells Stride it's time for him to come back.

Attorney Gavin Webster says he paid $100,000 in ransom money to the men who kidnapped his wife. Now they've disappeared with the cash, and she's still missing. Gavin claims to be desperate to find her--but Stride discovers that the lawyer had plenty of motive to be the mastermind behind the crime.

Even as Stride digs for the truth about Gavin Webster and his wife, he must also deal with a crisis in his own marriage.

His wife, Serena, is struggling after the death of her mother, the abusive woman she hadn't seen in twenty-five years. When she loses control at a crime scene and draws her gun on a fellow cop, Serena finds herself kicked off the Webster case. Alone at her desk, she begins hunting through old police files and starts to ask questions about a mother's death that was written off as suicide. That death haunts Serena like an echo of her own childhood--but her obsession with it takes a terrible toll.

As Serena shuts him out of her despair, and his own investigation grows increasingly tangled, Stride wonders whether going back to his detective work was the right decision. But all he can do is keep moving forward. Because Stride fears the Webster kidnapping may be only one part of a horrific murder conspiracy.

And it's not over yet. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: What is there not to love about a Brian Freeman novel? Anyone familiar with the author’s work knows there will be two or more differing storylines, as unrelated as they can be, which will soon converge; you don’t know when or how.

For me, Strider’s storyline took a backseat, and Serena took centerstage. While reading this book, you discover that you will not like all the characters, but they play their part in bringing Serena long-deserved peace.

While Serena may have to begin again, with her support team in place, she will thrive.