I was looking for a simple cozy mystery with lovable characters and a straight mystery recently and that’s what I found in Stolen Past by Tara Randel.
The book is part of the Amish Inn Mysteries from the now defunct Annie’s Attic.
The books were written by a few different authors, but all feature the same characters: inn owner Liz Eckhardt and her friends Mary Ann and Sadie, mayor (love interest but subtle) Jackson Cross and lazy bulldog Beans.
This time around the town of Pleasant Creek is set to celebrate a special anniversary but someone in town is stirring up trouble by stealing historically-related items and threatening to make trouble if a play about the signing of the town charter isn’t presented the way we want it.
This series includes a very slow burn romance between Liz and the mayor with just a few mild hints made here and there but very secondary to the mystery itself.
Liz’s friends Sadie and Mary Ann are “older ladies” who often pop up in the mysteries and in this one Sadie plays a bigger role than usual as a former friend comes out as the front runner for being the possible town thief.
This one may not have you on the edge of your seat, but it will have you pondering who the guilty party is while enjoying reading about the connections between Liz and her friends.
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
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Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no, you don’t have to drink tea to participate) and you can find a link to it at the top of the page.
The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday, if you want to link your top ten there too!
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is: Books with Handwriting on the Cover (Or fonts that look like handwriting. Titles, subtitles, covers with letters on them, etc.)
So I went to my shelves and pulled ten books out with covers with handwriting, or script that looks somewhat like handwriting at least.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month : https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
Notice: This post may contain affiiate links. If you purchase the product from these links I will receive a small compensation at no extra charge to you.
I’ve been participating in the Read Christie 2026 Challenge, and for May, I read The Labors of Hercules.
It is a collection of short stories featuring Christie’s Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.
The stories all connect and follow the theme of Poirot sharing twelve cases to close his career as a private detective. Because he was named after Hercules (though his name does not have the “s”), he decides his final cases will be those that follow the Greek myth of the 12 Labors of Hercules.
I don’t really know a lot about Greek mythology, but I figured it out along the way.
Agatha wrote these as serialized stories in The Strand magazine from 1939 to 1940, with the last one being written for the collection in 1947.
I wasn’t too sure about this one when I started it, but the book, with each chapter focused on a short mystery, grew on me as I kept going. Some of the stories were more serious than the others.
I almost gave up after the second story, since the first couple were not written well to me, but I’m glad I didn’t give up because the stories got better – especially the final one where Poirot ran into a woman he used to have an attraction to – Countess Vera Rossakoff.
There was a lot of humor and just a good story in that one, which was entitled The Capture of Cerberus.
Here are a couple of quotes I enjoyed from that story:
“It is the misfortune of small precise men to hanker after large and flamboyant women. Poirot had never been able to rid himself of the fatal fascination the Countess held for him. Though I was something like twenty years since he had seen her last, the magic still held. Granted that her makeup now resembled a scene-painter’s sunset, with the woman under the makeup well hidden from sight, to Hercule Poirot she still represented the sumptuous and the alluring.”
When Poirot first sees her again after so many years, it is on an escalator and she shouts back at him to meet her in hell. He later learns from his secretary, Miss Lemon, that Hell is a nightclub, and he later learns the countess owns it.
At first, though, he is totally baffled.
“But what had she meant by it? Had she meant London’s Underground Railways? Or were her words to be taken in a religious sense? Surely, even if her own way of life made Hell the most plausible destination for her after this life, surely—surely her Russian Courtesy would not suggest that Hercule Poirot was necessarily bound for the same place?”
Then, when he finally does get to the club…
“The place was full and it had about it that unmistakable air of success which cannot be counterfeited. There were languid couples in full evening dress, Bohemians in corduroy trousers, stout gentlemen in business suits. The band, dressed as devils, dispensed hot music. No doubt about it, Hell had caught on.
“We have all kinds here,” said the Countess. “That is as it should be, is it not? The gates of Hell are open to all?”
“Except, possibly, to the poor?” Poirot suggested.
The Countess laughed. “Are we not told that it is difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Naturally, then, he should have priority in Hell.”
I was surprised by how much Agatha wrote about cocaine use and its destruction in these stories. Sometimes I am very naïve and forget that cocaine and drug abuse was a very real thing even back then.
If I didn’t think it would bore both you and me, I would go through each story and tell you why I did or didn’t like it, and share some quotes. Instead, I will simply reiterate that there were good stories and not as good stories, in my opinion, but that I would read them all because what one person doesn’t like, another person might like.
My mom and I share a Kindle/Goodreads account and I noticed when I finished it that she gave it a three star. I bumped it up to a four, but without that last story I might have given it a three too (or 3.5), even though the idea behind it was very ingenious.
Have you read this collection yet?
Up next for me for the Read Christie 2026 challenge is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no, you don’t have to drink tea to participate) and you can find a link to it at the top of the page.
The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday if you want to link your top ten there too!
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is: books I can’t believe I’ve never read
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
I’ve been interested but just haven’t got there. Hopefully one day.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Another one I just haven’t gotten to.
Or anything by Jane Austen. I got halfway through Mansfield Park at least. I will get there!
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas
Have you seen how big this thing is?!
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
I tried! I tried! *sobbing* It beat me!
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Whales. Sailing. Ocean. Didn’t think it would interest me and now I feel bad I haven’t read it yet.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scot Fitzgerald
Seems like it might be my thing but I’ve never read it.
The Diary of Anne Frank
Just couldn’t do it. Too emotional. Too sad thinking of the future she never had and should have had.
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
I am one step closer. I bought the book a couple of months ago. Similar to Anne Frank, though, it’s a difficult one to read. I know enough about it to know that.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham
I don’t know why I haven’t read this one. Again, it sounds like my thing … I need to do it already.
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Like most, I’ve seen the Disney cartoon but never read the book.
Have you read any of these?
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month : https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
Welcome to the A Good Book & A Cup of Tea (A Monthly Bookish Link Party)!! This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!).
1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. They can be older posts or newer posts. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to the bookstore, etc. You get the drift.
2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not just your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.
3. Please visit at least two other bloggers on this list and comment on their posts. Have fun! Interact! Get some book recommendations.
4. Readers can click the blue button below to visit blog posts.
5. If you add a link you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no, you don’t have to drink tea to participate), and you can find a link to it at the top of the page.
The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday if you want to link your top ten there too!
Now, on to today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt, which is: My Favorite Books by My Favorite Authors (Pick your ten favorite authors and your favorite book written by each one of them.) (submitted by Cathy @ WhatCathyReadNext)
I’ll be honest, I don’t know if these authors are all “favorites,” but they are authors I enjoy.
Jan Karon
Jan’s book A Light In The Window is my favorite because it is the one where the romance between Father Tim and Cynthia begins.
If you have not read this series, it centers around an Episcopal priest in his 60s who finds love and fatherhood late in life. The 15-book series features sweet, challenging, and thought-provoking stories of faith with a myriad of quirky, fun, and lovable characters.
Lilian Jackson Braun
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts is my favorite in Lilian’s The Cat Who series. The series is about journalist, and later former journalist, Jim “Qwill” Qwilleran, and his two Siamese cats, Koko and Yum Yum, who help him solve various mysteries.
In this one, a close friend of Qwill’s passes away and he travels to where she lives to find out what happened to her. During the visit he meets a precocious little girl (he is older and in a relationship but has no interest in children), an abused young woman, and other interesting characters.
C.S. Lewis
I still have a lot of C.S. Lewis to read so this book could change, but I really liked The Magician’s Nephew from the Chronicles of Narnia series.
The Chronicles of Narnia are about a magical land called Narnia where children disappear into from the modern world and become kings and queens and meet magical creatures. There is much more to it than that, but that is the short version. The Magician’s Nephew is very magical and where the story of the chronicles really begins.
Agatha Christie
Why Didn’t They Ask Evans is my favorite book so far from Christie.
I know that this is not one mentioned as much when someone talks or writes about Agatha Christie but it is one of my favorites because there is a little bit of romance in it and a lot of humor between the main characters Bobby and Lady Frances “Frankie” Derwent.
A body is found at the bottom of a cliff by the ocean and when Bobby reaches the man, he isn’t in good shape but manages to utter five words: “Why didn’t they ask Evans?”
Bobby decides to find out who “they” are and who in the world was/is Evans and why no one asked this person whatever they were supposed to ask him.
Craig Johnson
I have a lot more to read of Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series, but so far my favorite book is The Dark Horse.
Here is a quick description of it from Goodreads: “Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past and a gift for making enemies, burned his wife Mary’s horses in their barn; in retribution, she shot him in the head six times, or so the story goes. But Sheriff Walt Longmire doesn’t believe Mary’s confession and is determined to dig deeper. Unpinning his star to pose as an insurance investigator, Walt visits the Barsad ranch and discovers that everyone in town–including a beautiful Guetemalan bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquor–had a reason for wanting Wade dead.”
Anthony Horowitz
Moriarty is my favorite book of Horowitz’s so far, but I have a lot more of his to read. Moriarity takes place after Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis, Moriarty, have plunged over the Reichenbach Falls.
Now Pinkerton detective agent Frederick Chase arrives in Europe from New York to find the man who wants to take Moriarity’s place as the most sinister criminal in Europe. Horowitz was given permission by the Arthur Conan Doyle Trust to write this and another book, Silk, using Sherlock Holmes’ character.
L.M. Montgomery
The Blue Castle, which I wrote about in a series of posts earlier this spring, is my favorite of L.M. Montgomery’s books for a variety of reasons. It is poetic, thought-provoking while also being sweet, romantic, and enchanting
Nancy Drew: The Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes is my favorite Carolyn Keene book so far.
The Nancy Drew books were written by several different authors under the same pseudonym and this one, about a trip Nancy takes to Scotland to investigate a theft at her great-aunt’s house. This one was not only fun but it was full of interesting facts about Scotland.
P.G. Wodehouse
A Damsel in Distress is my favorite read by P.G. Wodehouse so far. Full disclaimer, I have only read three of his books, but this one, featuring many romantic misunderstandings, is so much fun and full of hilarious moments, if you can push through the old style writing.
Here is a quick description from online: “When Maud Marsh flings herself into American George Benson’s cab in Piccadilly, he believes he has met a damsel in distress. George traces his mysterious travelling companion to Belpher Castle, home of Lord Marshmoreton, where life is hilariously muddled.”
Francine Rivers
A Voice in the Wind (from the Mark of the Lion series). This first book in a series that takes place in Jerusalem during Roman rule fascinated me and kept me on the edge of my seat. It follows the story of a young Jewish girl named Hadassah who is made a slave in the home of a Roman leader.
Have you read any of these? And who are some of your favorite authors?
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month : https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no you don’t have to drink tea to participate) and you can find a link to it at the top of the page or here.
The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday if you want to link your top ten there too!
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is: Favorite Secondary/Minor Characters
I had to think pretty hard about this one as I haven’t read as many books as others have, so I don’t have as many books to choose from, and I know I will think of others after I publish this, but here goes.
Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien
In some ways Sam is a main character in Lord of the Rings and to me he is one of THE main characters, but he is considered as a secondary character too since he is Frodo’s “sidekick.”
Let’s all be honest, though, Frodo never would have made it to destroy the ring if it wasn’t for Sam supporting him, and sometimes even carrying him, on his journey. Frodo gets the credit for destroying the ring, and he did withstand the temptation of it the longest, but he would have been completely lost without Sam.
2. Diana Barry from the Anne of Green Gables books by L.M. Montgomery
Diana Barry is Anne Shirley’s best friend in the Anne of Green Gables series and especially in book one when they first meet.
She is Anne’s best friend, loyal at all costs, and just so sweet to Anne — even after Anne gets her drunk and disapproves of the man she’s going to marry. Ha!
3. Huck Finn from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Huckleberry Finn is one of the most fun side characters ever. He’s in the middle of all the drama in Tom Sawyer and then he gets his own book in the sequel. I haven’t read Tom Sawyer all the way through since I was in junior high but I plan to do so this summer.
My son and I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a few years ago for school.
4. Polly Duncan in The Cat Who book series…by Lilian Jackson Braun
Polly is the main character Jim Qwilleran (Qwill)’s girlfriend and the town librarian. She is mild mannered, most of the time, sweet and very smart. I don’t like that Lilian describes her as boring and mundane at times and I also don’t like she often comments on her weight (though Qwill doesn’t seem to mind it) and eventually has her have a heart attack, but I do like Polly and how she handles the sometimes rude, maybe a bit chauvinistic Qwill (the books are a product of their time in some ways), and how she likes to take care of Qwill without pushing him toward marriage.
5. Dr. John Watson from the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Dr. John Watson is Sherlock Holmes’s right-hand man, confidant, and co-sleuth. Sometimes he is as smart as Sherlock and many times he leads an investigation and puts himself in danger while Holmes is working on another area of the case (like in The Hound of The Baskervilles).
As an aside, I was sad to see that David Burke, the actor who played Watson in the first season of the 1980s Sherlock Holmes opposite Jeremy Brett, passed away this past week.
6. Dill from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I have to be honest and admit that I did not think of this one on my own. I’m surprised I didn’t since To Kill A Mockingbird is my favorite book. I saw it on a list online about secondary characters, which I looked up to refresh my memory of some of my favorites when my brain started drawing blanks.
Dill is the best friend of main characters Jem and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. He spends his summers in their town after essentially being abandoned to his aunt’s every summer by his parents. Eventually he begins choosing to visit his aunt so he can see Jem and Scout, who make him feel like he belongs.
He is the catalyst for getting another great secondary character, Boo Radley, to come out of his house and also instigates several other pivotal scenes and moments that make the reader think about a wide variety of issues — one being children and people who feel neglected.
7. Bess Marvin in the Nancy Drew Mystery series by Carolyn Keene
Bess Marvin is one of Nancy’s friends and the cousin of George Fayne, who incessantly picks on Bess.
Bess is described as pleasantly plump in the early Nancy Drew books and her weight is pointed out often, but she’s portrayed, mainly, as the sometimes nervous friend of Nancy’s who gets dragged into many mysteries she’d rather stay out of.
While Nancy’s other friend, and Bess’s cousin, George, is more adventurous and outgoing, Bess prefers to wring her hands a bit and say things like, “Can’t we just go back home? It’s dark in there.”
I can relate to Bess. I’m heavy, not pleasantly, plump, but I am the one in a group who would be suggesting we all go home and let the police handle it.
8. Fairlight Spencer from Christy by Catherine Marshall
When Christy Huddleston moves to the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee to be a teacher at rural school in Cutter Gap, she meets Fairlight, an abused mother who wants an education and to improve herself. The two become fast friends and Fairlight teaches Christy about nature and how to communicate with the people of Cutter Gap. Fairlight is just about my favorite character in the book besides Miss Alice. Fairlight loves to pause and admire God’s handiwork by watching a sunset or looking at flowers.
I won’t say much about the end of the book other than I felt Marshall was very unfair to her character. It’s why I doubt I’d read the book again.
9. Eustace Scrubb from The Voyage of The Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Eustace is the cousin of the children we know so well from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (if you’ve ever read it) — Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy. When he gets pulled into a painting in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader he becomes a central character, but still a secondary character (to me) in the Narnia series.
Eustace starts out miserable, mean, and a little brat. Things definitely change as the book goes on and he is changed by the traumatic experiences that happen to him throughout the book.
10. Marmee March from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The mother of the ‘little women’ (Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth) truly isn’t a secondary character. She is the character that holds the book together, in my opinion, even more than Jo. She holds the family and the book together, the guiding light for the little family who faces so many trials, heartache, and also joy. But, I suppose, the girls are the main characters and she would be considered a very, very important secondary character.
How about you?
Do you have some favorite secondary characters?
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
Aloha Betrayed, a Murder, She Wrote book by Donald Bain and “Jessica Fletcher,” is the 41st book in the 63-book series. Bain wrote 47 of those books.
This is the fifth book I’ve read from this series and, no, I have not read these books in order, and I don’t feel you need to.
This was a fun, slower paced mystery and my only complaint is that there were a couple of plot points left hanging at the end and that Bain seems to have done that on purpose.
He left us not totally sure if the victim was a totally good person or not but mainly making us think she was being manipulated in some way, while not totally confirming if that was true or not.
Here is a quick description of the book from the publisher:
Jessica is on the Hawaiian island of Maui, giving a lecture at Maui College on community involvement in police investigations—a subject she knows well. Her co-lecturer is legendary retired detective Mike Kane, a behemoth of a man who shares his love of Hawaiian lore, legends and culture with Jessica.
Sadly, all the talking stops when the body of a colleague is found at the rocky foot of a cliff.
Mala Kapule was a botanist and popular professor at the school, known for her activism and efforts on behalf of the volcanic crater Haleakala. The high altitude crater is already the site of an observatory, but plans to place the world’s largest solar telescope there split the locals, with Mala fiercely arguing to preserve the delicate ecology of the area. Was someone trying to muffle the protestors? Or was Mala’s killer making a more personal statement?
Now, it’s up to Jessica, along with Mike, to uncover who was driven to silence the scientist…and betray the true meaning of Aloha.
I read some reviews of this book that said the Hawaiian history mixed in with the story slowed the book down but I actually thought the history was naturally woven into the story with information being given to us through conversations between Jessica and the other characters.
It was not an “info dump” by any means.
Donald Bain wrote Jessica very naturally. He was a ghost writer for many years, and he clearly learned how to write from the point of view of a woman very well. All the books are in first person (from what I have read so far) and I often forget that Jessica is being written by a man.
He writes Jessica as tender, but not too tender, sensitive and concerned, but not too much of either, and more concerned about the feelings of victims and the perpetrators than a male sleuth would most likely be — or at least show.
He also wrote her as someone who thinks deeply about the issues of the world.
“I’ve had many discussions with Seth Hazlitt, and other friends in Cabot Cove about how today’s frenetic lifestyle, fueled by all the technology that surrounds us, takes away from precious time to think. I needed think time. We all need think time to avoid making some of the mistakes we humans are prone to.”
This is a good one to read if you are looking for a quick escape and not anything super deep — similar to the show.
