Murder at the Blarney Bash

Title: Murder at the Blarney Bash
Author: Darci Hannah
Published: January 23, 2024 by Kensington
Format: Kindle, 352 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Beacon Bakeshop #5

First Sentence: “Wellington!” My adorable, fluffy Newfoundland dog was still on the groomer’s table as I entered Peggy’s Pet Shop and Pooch Salon.

Blurb: Lindsey is baking up a storm—shamrock sugar cookies, Guinness chocolate cupcakes, Irish soda bread—for the well-timed grand opening of the Irish import gift shop, the Blarney Stone, owned by her boyfriend’s uncle, Finnigan O’Connor, recently relocated from the Emerald Isle.

But it’s Uncle Finn himself who seems full of blarney when he gleefully reveals a pot of real gold he claims he stole from an actual leprechaun. And Finn’s fortune takes a turn for the worse when he’s arrested for the bludgeoning of a small unidentified man dressed as a leprechaun—the murder weapon alleged to be his now-missing shillelagh.

Eccentric Uncle Finn may enjoy believing he’s outwitted a leprechaun, but he would never be so deluded as to clobber one with his walking stick. Now Lindsey will need more than the luck of the Irish to seize a golden opportunity to catch the real killer

My Opinion: A quirky storyline that falls short. Cozy mysteries do not always have depth, but Murder at the Blarney Bash is too superficial and the plotting is repetitious and slow. There is a blend of humor yet the mystery element feels forced and I began to wonder if Darci Hannah had any idea where she was going with the plotting since it culminated in an out of nowhere conclusion.

I have enjoyed the previous book in this series, but I should have DNF’d this one.

Meet Me in the Margins

Title: Meet Me in the Margins
Author: Melissa Ferguson
Published: February 15, 2022 by Thomas Nelson
Format: Kindle, Paperback 309 Pages
Genre: Romance

First Sentence: Prologue: Savannah, Have you made any more progress on that book idea you brought up to me at conference last year?

Blurb: Savannah Cade's dreams are coming true. The Claire Donovan, editor-in-chief of the most successful romance imprint in the country, has requested to see the manuscript Savannah's been secretly writing while working as an editor herself—except at her publishing house, the philosophy is only highbrow works are worth printing and commercial fiction, particularly romance, should be reserved for the lowest level of Dante's inferno. But when Savannah drops her manuscript during a staff meeting and nearly exposes herself to the whole company—including William Pennington, new publisher and son of the romance-despising CEO herself—she races to hide her manuscript in the secret turret room of the old Victorian office.

When she returns, she's dismayed to discover that someone has not only been in her hidden nook but has written notes in the margins—quite critical ones. But when Claire's own reaction turns out to be nearly identical to the scribbled remarks, and worse, Claire announces that Savannah has six weeks to resubmit before she retires, Savannah finds herself forced to seek the help of the shadowy editor after all.

As their notes back and forth start to fill up the pages, however, Savannah finds him not just becoming pivotal to her work but her life. There's no doubt about it. She's falling for her mystery editor. If she only knew who he was.

My Opinion: I remember reading about this book a while back and thought it sounded cute. It has its moments, but also had me shaking my head when a mystery character (which isn’t a mystery) leaves editorial comments on a manuscript Savannah is writing letting her know that her scenes read like a Hallmark movie. Duh, this whole book reads like a Hallmark movie with all the usual tropes. The only parts missing were the returning to a small town and having a dog, but still, it’s a Hallmark movie.

As the story drones on, I found myself checking the page count wondering when it would be over. And just when I thought we hit the final mediocre scenes, Melissa Ferguson added an epilogue. Romance books do not need epilogues. That is the part where the readers design their own happily ever after.

Night Owl

Title: Night Owl
Author: Andrew Mayne
Published: December 1, 2023 by Thomas & Mercer
Format: Kindle, 321 Pages
Genre: Thriller
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Trasker #1

First Sentence: Prologue: Her smile was made sincere by her remarkable restraint.

Blurb: After three decades in counterintelligence, Brad Trasker is retired, disillusioned, and dealing with a tragic loss. Spy games are behind him until he attends the launch of a next-generation aircraft. When the project of innovative aerospace CEO Kylie Connor explodes on the tarmac―nearly killing her in the process―Trasker is pulled back into the line of fire.

The mystery of the sabotage quickly deepens. All Kylie’s data has been wiped from the server. One of her engineers has disappeared. A seed investor has died in a suspicious car accident. And a cold-blooded murder raises the stakes even higher.

To discover who’s pulling the strings behind a dangerous conspiracy, Trasker needs to find a motive. Corporate espionage, revenge, or something he can’t yet see? Targeted by assassins, he finds himself overmatched when he realizes he can’t trust anyone―including Kylie. Too long out of a game he no longer understands, Trasker must adapt or die. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: Theo Cray has always been my favorite Andrew Mayne character, but Brad Trasker is a close second. Well, maybe his mother is second and Brad third, but it’s close. He is unfailingly human and his mother is an interesting onion to peel.

A captivating thriller that thrusts retired spy Trasker into the middle of a deadly conspiracy. The intense plotting, with just-in-time tangents, added to cold-blooded murder, keep readers on edge.

Unexpected twists, gasps, and laughter make this a must-read for fans of espionage and suspense.

Ill-Fated Fortune: A Magical Fortune Cookie Novel

Title: Ill-Fated Fortune: A Magical Fortune Cookie Novel
Author: Jennifer J. Chow
Published: February 20, 2024 by Minotaur Books
Format: Kindle, 320 Pages
Genre: Amateur Sleuth
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.
Series: Magical Fortune Cookie #1

First Sentence: It only took twenty-eight years and one bad take-out meal to unlock my superpower.

Blurb: Felicity Jin grew up literally hanging onto Mom’s apron strings in their magical bakery in the quaint town of Pixie, California. Her mother’s enchanted baked goods, including puffy pineapple buns and creamy egg tarts, bring instant joy to all who consume them. Felicity has always been hesitant in the kitchen herself after many failed attempts, but a takeout meal gone wrong inspires her to craft some handmade fortune cookies.

They become so popular that Felicity runs out of generic fortunes and starts making her own personalized predictions. When one customer’s ill-fated fortune results in his murder, Felicity’s suspiciously specific fortune has the police focusing on her as the main culprit. Now Felicity must find a way to turn her luck around and get cleared from suspicion.

My Opinion: I was disappointed by this novel written by Lefty Award-nominee, Jennifer J. Chow. The premise sounded promising, but the execution was lacking. The characters were flat, the plot was predictable and full of holes and inconsistencies, and the writing was bland and repetitive. The magical element was interesting but felt forced and inconsistent, and the killer was obvious too early and easily.

Holmes, Marple & Poe

Title: Holmes, Marple & Poe
Author: James Patterson, Brian Sitts
Published: January 8, 2024 by Little, Brown and Company
Format: Kindle, 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: Holmes, Margaret & Poe #1

First Sentence: The vacant industrial space that realtor Gretchen Wik was trying to unload was located in a recently gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood called Bushwick.

Blurb: The three detectives make a formidable team, solving a series of seemingly impossible crimes which expose the dark underbelly of the city; from priceless art theft, a high-stakes kidnapping, and a decades-old unsolved murder, to a gruesome subterranean prison, and corruption and bribery at the highest levels of power. But it's not long before their headline-grabbing breakthroughs, unconventional methods - and untraceable pasts - attract the attention of the NYPD and the FBI. After all, it's no surprise that there's a mystery or two to unravel in the city that never sleeps . . . not least, who really are Holmes, Marple and Poe? (Goodreads)

My Opinion: New York City has its fair share of unique personalities, but a trio of mysterious private investigators opens Holmes, Marple & Poe Investigations. Their names evoke legendary detectives and a bit of side-eye, while their pasts remain a mystery.

Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple, and Auguste Poe. Their methodology and headline-making cases attract the attention of NYPD Detective Helene Grey. As she investigates the shadowy newcomers, the echoes of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, and Edgar Allan Poe resonate through the pages. The stakes rise, secrets unravel, and the line blurs between fiction and reality.

“Holmes, Marple & Poe” weaves classic mystery elements with modern-day strategies, promising a thrilling nonlinear ride through multiple storylines.

Fatal First Edition

Title: Fatal First Edition
Author: Jenn McKinlay
Published: February 13, 2024 by Berkley
Format: Kindle, 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: Library Lover's Mystery #14

First Sentence: "How's the windy city?: Nancy Peyton asked.

Blurb: Briar Creek Library director Lindsey Norris and her husband, Sully, are at a popular library conference in Chicago to hear book restoration specialist Brooklyn Wainwright give a keynote address. After the lecture, Lindsey looks under her seat and finds a tote bag containing a first edition of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train , inscribed to Alfred Hitchcock. Brooklyn determines the novel is one of a kind and quite valuable, so Lindsey and Sully return the book to the conference director, not wanting to stir up any trouble.

But just hours after the pair boards the train back to Connecticut, rumors that the Highsmith novel has gone missing buzz amongst the passengers, and they soon find the conference director murdered in his private compartment. And worse—the murderer planted the book in Lindsey and Sully’s room next door, making them prime suspects. Now, they must uncover the murderer and bring them to the end of their line, before they find themselves booked for a crime they didn’t commit.

My Opinion: Though the story surrounds a missing first edition of Stranger on a Train by Patricia Highsmith with notes from Alfred Hitchcock, Fatal First Edition begins with all the usual characters and feelings of Murder on the Orient Express. This book could have been a closed-room mystery, but Jenn McKinley conveniently brought the train to Briar Creek Station so her friends could be part of the adventure.

The second crack in the story was that Sully had gone missing while delivering groceries to people on the surrounding islands during a blizzard -- in his water taxi. Nope. That didn’t work. Islanders would know to be prepared and not need a last-minute grocery run. That part didn’t sit well with me. But how else could McKinley throw in a subplot?

Is the who-done-it obvious from the beginning? Not necessarily, I had my suspicions, but there was a slight twist and a convoluted explanation. Good thing reliable Robbie was there to re-explain it.

By the end, this could have been a novella. The story contained too much fluff, backstory, and twisty conclusion. By the 14th book in a series, followers already knew a quarter of what was on these pages.

The London Bookshop Affair

Title: The London Bookshop Affair
Author: Louise Fein
Published: January 16, 2024 by William Morrow
Format: Kindle, Paperback 416 Pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Source: My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book.

First Sentence: Prologue: Jeannie. London 1942: The air was chocking, thick with a heady mix of cologne, sweat, liquor, and smoke from the hundred Lucky Strikes.

Blurb: London, 1962: The world is teetering on the brink of nuclear war but life must go on. Celia Duchesne longs for a career, but with no means or qualifications, passes her time working at a dusty bookshop. The day a handsome American enters the shop, she thinks she might have found her way out of the monotony. Just as the excitement of a budding relationship engulfs her, a devastating secret draws her into the murky world of espionage.

France, 1942: Nineteen-year-old Anya Moreau was dropped behind enemy lines to aid the resistance, sending messages back home to London via wireless transmitter. When she was cruelly betrayed, evidence of her legacy and the truth of her actions were buried by wartime injustices.

As Celia learns more about Anya—and her unexpected connection to the undercover agent—she becomes increasingly aware of furious efforts, both past and present, to protect state secrets. With her newly formed romance taking a surprising turn and the world on the verge of nuclear annihilation, Celia must risk everything she holds dear, in the name of justice. (Publisher)

My Opinion: Though there are early sparks, the book doesn’t get interesting until the final third. I was hoping that “The London Bookshop Affair” would have grabbed me in the way “The Hidden Child” had, but this novel was missing the fascination that had me turning pages in Louise Fein’s previous book.

Historical fiction that tries to combine romance, mystery, and espionage but fails to deliver any of them in an interesting manner. The plot is slow and the writing is dull and clichéd. Unfortunately, the book should have done more justice to the historical context of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and it wasn’t until the end and the author’s notes that a more fascinating story unfolded.

Weyward

Title: Weyward
Author: Emilia Hart
Published: March 7, 2023 by St. Martin's Press
Format: Hardcover, 329 pages
Genre: Historical Fantasy

First Sentence: Prologue. Altha 1619. Ten days they’d held me there. Ten days, with only the stink of my own flesh for company.

Blurb: 2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from a great aunt she barely remembers. With its tumbling ivy and overgrown garden, the cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great aunt had a secret. One that lurks in the bones of the cottage, hidden ever since the witch-hunts of the 17th century.

1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer who was stampeded to death by his herd. As a girl, Altha’s mother taught her their magic, a kind not rooted in spell casting but in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But unusual women have always been deemed dangerous, and as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom.

1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Straitjacketed by societal convention, she longs for the robust education her brother receives––and for her mother, long deceased, who was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.

Weaving together the stories of three extraordinary women across five centuries, Emilia Hart's Weyward is an enthralling novel of female resilience and the transformative power of the natural world. (GoodReads)

My Opinion: I can’t be the only person who wishes there was a family tree spelled out somewhere in this book. Altha, Violet, and Kate. The Weyward women and where they descend from. Their stories overlap and draw the reader in with the very first words on the page.

When I was down to the final 100 pages, I wanted to put the book down. Walk away. I didn’t want it to end. The power of the Weyward women is palpable. They will stay with you. As you fall into the final words, you will want to go back to the beginning to reread their stories and relive the trials that had made them the women they were.