In the small village of Kilbane, County Cork, Ireland, Naomi’s Bistro has always been a warm and welcoming spot to visit with neighbors, enjoy some brown bread and tea, and get the local gossip. Nowadays twenty-two-year-old Siobhán O’Sullivan runs the family bistro named for her mother, along with her five siblings, after the death of their parents in a car crash almost a year ago.
One morning, as they’re opening the bistro, they discover a man seated at a table, dressed in a suit as if for his own funeral, a pair of hot pink barber scissors protruding from his chest.
MY THOUGHTS: This was a fun introduction to what promises to be an even more fun series. So far there are 10 books in the series. This is a very authentic Irish book written with Irish tone, accents, and history. I loved the main character, Siobhan (shuh-vawn) O’Sullivan, and her five siblings. Together they are known as the O’Sullivan Six in their small town.
Siobhan is a headstrong, redhead who has had an extremely rough year. She has to find the killer because a family member is being blamed for the death of the man found at their bistro. Combine her determination with a bit of romance between her and the local garda (police) and you have the perfect combination for a mystery in my mind.
*Heads up to those who like their cozy mysteries squeaky clean: while it has many cozy mystery elements there is some swearing, including the big ones that somehow sound nicer when written/spelled in an Irish accent.
I’m looking forward to checking out the rest of the books in the series.
I have read almost all of the 29 books in The Cat Who series by Lilian Jackson Braun and there have been hits and misses and a couple all out duds – like any series.
Originally, I had skipped The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts because when I started it it seemed to be written in first person point of view and while I read books in first person POV, all of the other The Cat Who books are written in third. I wasn’t sure I would like the change.
It turns out, however, that only a section of the first chapter of the book is written in the first person point of view. The rest of the book is written in the third person.
I opened the book on my Kindle one night after a particularly hard day when I needed a comfort read. I’m glad I needed that type of read because this turned out to be one of my favorite books in the series.
For those who don’t know about this series, it features former big city newspaper reporter Jim Qwilleran (most commonly referred to Qwill in the series), now a small town newspaper columnist living in what I believe is Northern Michigan, though it’s never really said where the fiction town of Pickax in the fictional county of Moose County is.
Braun simply says Moose County is “north of everywhere.” According to the site Novel Suspects, “Though fictitious, Pickax is generally assumed to be based on the town of Bad Axe, Michigan, where Braun lived for many years.”
The series starts with Qwilleran living in the city (probably Chicago though it never really says), writing for a newspaper, and falling into a murder investigation or two. He ends up adopting two cats during that first book – a cat named Koko Kao Kung (Koko for short) and Yum-Yum. Koko is the one who has some mysterious skills that help Qwill solve crimes. Some of those skills include opening books, knocking things off shelves, or alerting Qwill to unsavory characters who look like nice people.
This installment deals with the murder of Qwill’s former housekeeper. She calls Qwill in the middle of the night, saying she has been hearing weird, ghostly noises at the apartment she lives in at the county museum, which she is the caretaker of.
Qwill heads out for the 20-minute-drive to her apartment but by the time he arrives, Iris Cobb is already dead on the floor of her kitchen, apparently frightened to death. Qwill wants to find out who killed her and the museum also needs a temporary caretaker so it works out perfectly when the chairman of the museum board asks if he knows anyone who can fill in temporarily. Qwill packs up the cats and moves into the museum himself to see if he hears the ghostly sounds Iris said she was hearing.
During the stay, Koko does his best to lead Qwill to the killer, including literally sniffing out clues and knocking particular books off shelves. In the process of trying to find Iris’s murderer, Qwill meets some interesting neighbors – a couple from the south who have a three year old daughter and a young woman living alone on a goat farm.
Qwill is thrown into a secondary mystery when another murder occurs but seems to be separate from the first. In all honesty, the first death very well could have been an accident since the woman had a heart condition and some health issues. Qwill will have to figure it out.
One thing to know about Qwill is that he is not a huge fan of children. He has no children. He doesn’t want children. The fact that a child was written into this story and he had to interact with said child offered a new layer to his character that was both funny and endearing.
This installment turned out to be one of my favorites even though one of the regular recurring characters in the series was the victim this time. There was a totally different feeling to this book than others. There seemed to be an actual focus on the mystery while in other books there is a lot of wandering around and rambling side stories that have nothing to do with the main mystery. That can be both a comforting and annoying aspect to the books.
I love reading about the quirky characters in Moose County but in some books, I think Braun forgot she was supposed to be writing a mystery.
Luckily The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts was not one of them. It revealed more of Qwill’s character as someone who cares more for children than he realized and who actually grieved more over a victim than in other books, most likely because he was so much closer to this victim than other victims.
This was also the book where we are introduced to Bootsie, Qwill’s girlfriend Polly’s cat who is hilarious referred to as a beast of a cat in future books.
The Cat Who books really do not need to be read in order since Braun briefly catches the reader up to who Qwill and the regular characters are in each book. I would highly recommend this one for any lovers of cozy mysteries.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.
Yesterday I woke up with insane sinus pressure. More than I have had in a long time. It hurt so bad I couldn’t smile or show much emotion so I think my family thought I was mad at them all day. I had to keep explaining about how bad it hurt and that it wasn’t them. This time anyhow. Ha!
I don’t know if it is an actual sinus infection or if it is just because of allergies, the temperature drop yesterday and the rain today. Whatever it is, it stinks, but hopefully it will clear up later this week.
Little Miss had a couple of friends over and they played all around outside, briefly at the playground, and inside. After they went home we watched the movie Migration as a family.
Today, if I can get off this couch after I finish this blog post, we will have lunch at my parents. If not I will just sit here and whine for the rest of the day while sipping tea.
What I/we’ve been Reading
Currently:
Apple Cider Slaying by Jennifer Anne Lindsey
Description:
Blossom Valley, West Virginia, is home to Smythe Orchards, Winnie and her Granny’s beloved twenty-five-acre farm and family business. But any way you slice it, it’s struggling. That’s why they’re trying to drum up business with the “First Annual Christmas at the Orchard,” a good old-fashioned holiday festival with enough delicious draw to satisfy apple-picking locals and cider-loving tourists alike—until the whole endeavor takes a sour turn when the body of Nadine Cooper, Granny’s long-time, grudge-holding nemesis, is found lodged in the apple press. Now, with Granny the number one suspect, Winnie is hard-pressed to prove her innocence before the real killer delivers another murder . . .
I’m also reading The Secret Garden which I am reading aloud to Little Miss.
Just Finished:
Murder Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins (will have a review up soon).
I was surprised to find the audiobook for this available for free on Amazon this week when I went to purchase a copy of a book for a friend. I downloaded it and it helped me get through it a little faster as I listened to it while driving to pick up groceries on Friday and yesterday while puttering around the house with the aforementioned sinus pressure. Most of the time I read it though because I found the narrator a little annoying. She made every character sound afraid no matter what they were saying. It was weird. I read the last few chapters instead of listening to it.
Soon to be read:
Operation Restoration by Kari Trumbo
The Deeds of the Deceitful by Ellery Adams and Tina Radcliffe
Lost Coast Literary by Ellie Alexander
The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by Jim Wight
What We watched/are Watching
This week I watched Booktubers, as they are called, and mainly those who read cozy mysteries. I gleaned a lot of book suggestions from those videos.
I didn’t watch other shows except for an episode of Midsomer Murders with The Husband because it was nice out and I mainly read a book outside on the back porch. What I’m Writing
I am listening to Around the World in 80 Days on Audible.
I do not like the song Angels by Sarah McClaulin (spelling) at all since it has been so overplayed, but just heard a version by David Phelps and liked it a lot more with his arrangement.
Photos from Last Week
Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week
Now it’s your turn
Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.
Thank you to Erin at Still Life with Cracker Crumbs for this very nice review of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage. Be sure to follow Erin for book reviews and chats about everyday life and stories about her family and adventures in Michigan!
Today I thought I would reintroduce the books I have written since 2019.
I am leaving out my first two books since I hope to rework them soon.
The Farmer’s Daughter
Will the desire to change their lives bring two people together and will the Tanner family be able to save their family farm?
Molly Tanner thought she’d be further in life by now, but, no. At the age of 26, still living on her parent’s dairy farm in rural Pennsylvania, wondering if there is a life for her somewhere other than little Spencer Valley. While wondering, though, her family faces financial struggles, her best friend falls into a deep depression, and her brother’s best friend starts acting weird around her. Weird as in — is attractive Alex Stone flirting with her?
Alex has his own challenges to face, mainly facing past demons that make him feel like he’s not worthy of the love the Tanner family has already shown him, let alone the love of the woman he’s fallen for while working side-by-side with her in the barn each day.
Can she forgive him for what he can’t forget? The last year has been a whirlwind of trials and triumphs for the Tanner family.
With injuries, near foreclosures, and a family tragedy behind them, Jason Tanner, the oldest of the Tanner children is facing his own struggle after his longtime girlfriend, Ellie Lambert, overhears the secret he’d planned to tell her himself. Now, in addition to trying to keep his family’s dairy farm sustainable during a hard economic season, Jason is dealing with the heartbreak of Ellie’s decision to end an almost 10-year relationship.
In an effort to bury his feelings, he throws himself into his work on the farm and into volunteering with Spencer Valley’s small volunteer fire company, where tragedy strikes the foundation of his faith during an already vulnerable time.
Ellie has her own challenges to face as she tries to navigate a time of life where her expectations have been turned upside down and shaken out. As she copes with the decision to walk away from her relationship with the man she saw as her best friend, her flighty, less responsible younger sister shows up to further complicate an already complicated situation.
After becoming pregnant by her abusive ex-boyfriend, 27-year-old Liz Cranmer feels trapped in a prison of shame. Now a single mother she feels like the whole town, especially her church-going parents, view her as a trashy woman with no morals. That’s not how she used to think of herself but — could they all be right? And if they think that, then what does God think of her?
Ginny Jefferies, 53, has hit a few snags of her own in life. Her husband, Stan, barely acknowledges her, her job as the town’s library director has become mundane and stagnant, and her youngest daughter is having some kind of identity crisis. Pile on the return of a former boyfriend and you have the makings of a near-midlife crisis.
Can the two women figure out their chaotic, confusing lives together? And how will the men in their lives fit in their journey?
Beauty From Ashes is a Spencer Valley Chronicles book.
When two recovering alcoholics’ worlds collide, can they work together to leave their pasts behind?
Ben Oliver walked away from his ex-girlfriend, Angie, the moment he found out she was pregnant. Back then, a career was more important than anything.
That was four years ago. Now Ben is sober, but he’s kept away from Angie and their daughter, convinced they are better off without him. When her family moves back to the area, though, his past catches up with him.
Judi Lambert has battled her own demons. Now she’s trying to kick her party-girl lifestyle to the curb. Not far into the journey to get her life back on track, though, she’s forced to relive a traumatic experience and begins developing a relationship with an old flame.
Christmas has come to Spencer Valley and Robert and Alex are busy trying to pull of some big surprises for the women they love. If only life didn’t try to keep getting in the way and messing up their plans. Will they be able to finish their Christmas surprises in time and will there be a Christmas proposal for one of the characters from the small town readers have fallen in love with?
A little bit of mystery, a dash of romance, and a whole lot of heart
After being laid off from her job as a librarian at a small college, Gladwynn Grant isn’t sure what her next step in life is. When a job as a small-town newspaper reporter opens up in the town her grandmother Lucinda Grant lives in, she decides to take it to get away from a lot of things – Bennett Steele for one.
Lucinda has been living alone since Gladwynn’s grandfather passed away six years ago and she isn’t a take-it-easy, rock-on-your-front-porch kind of grandma. She’s always on the go and lately, she’s been on the go with a man who Gladwynn doesn’t know.
Gladwynn thought Brookstone was a small, quiet town, but within a few days of being there, she has to rethink that notion. Someone has cut the bank loan officer’s brakes, threatening letters are being sent, and memories of a jewelry theft from the 1990s have everyone looking at the cold case again.
What, if anything, will Gladwynn uncover about her new hometown and her grandmother’s new male friend? And what will she do about her grandmother’s attempt to set her up with the handsome Pastor Luke Callahan?
Find out in this modern mystery with a vintage feel.
More mystery, intrigue, and loveable characters in Brookstone, Pa.
Gladwynn Grant hasn’t been living in Brookstone, Pa. very long but already she’s been mixed up in two attempted murders and the aftermath of a jewel theft.
Just when she thinks life has settled down and her new job as a small-town reporter will begin to be routine again, the recreational director at the local retirement community is found dead.
Was Samantha Mors death an accident, or was it murder?
Since she was the second person to discover her body, Gladwynn wants to find out what really happened.
Local State Police Detective Tanner Kinney lets her know that her job is reporting the news, not investigating a possibly suspicious death. The father she barely speaks to stops for a visit and also urges her to not get involved.
When warnings to stay away from the case come from handsome pastor Luke Callahan Gladwynn wonders if he knew the victim better than he is letting on.
Quieting her inner sleuth will prove difficult for Gladwynn, though, especially when her eccentric grandmother Lucinda, and best friend, Abbie, tag along to help her solve the case.
Emily Cherry may be retired, but she’s not about to roll over and die!
Defying the doubts of her three adult children this plucky computer-shy grandma embarks on a unique path by launching her very own food blog. The only problem is thatduring her inaugural restaurant review, she stumbles upon a lifeless body.
In an instant, Emily’s envisioned future as a food blogger plunges into uncertainty – and a brand-new amateur sleuth is born!
Cozy up in your favorite chair and prepare for a thrilling first adventure in this brand-new senior sleuthing series.
You are guaranteed to fall in love with retiree Emily Cherry and giggle at her uncanny ability to stumble into one head-scratching mystery after another.
A troubling Case of Murder on the Menu (A Emily Cherry Mystery) by Donna Doyle
MY THOUGHTS: This was a very cute, very light mystery. Only about 100 pages it wasn’t hard hitting, there wasn’t much plot and there also wasn’t very much sleuthing but it was still a cute little book and it is the first in a 10-book series.
I loved the main character Emily Cherry and her cat Rosemary. I would love to see the characters and plots of the books expanded a bit into full-length novels but these are a nice little distraction from life if your mystery expectations are lowered and your expectations of loveable characters are raised.
In this first book Emily is adjusting to life after retirement. Now living alone after becoming a sudden widow (I don’t remember if the book says for how long she’s been a widow) she decides she wants to try her hand at something new – blogging. Her well-meaning, yet sometimes overprotective family, offers her all kinds of advice about what she should and shouldn’t do when she blogs. She takes some of the advice and discards the rest and decides to become a food blogger.
Things go awry, though, when a suspicious death occurs at her first restaurant visit. She suddenly finds herself thinking more about the death and less about her blog.
There are some very cute conversations and moments between Emily and investigators, who think she’s simply a little old lady who needs to sit down and rest all of the time.
She has similar cute interactions with her family, who clearly love her and care for her and are well-meaning but a little bit pushy in their opinions of what she should do with her life. When they think she believes her blog could be a money maker, she wishes they would understand that she wants to do something for fun after earning money and working her entire adulthood. Luckily, she has her friend Anita to help her navigate this new life and support whatever it is she wants to do for fun.
Through blogging Emily also reignites a love of cooking and learning new recipes.
I recently heard a reader say that what makes a good cozy mystery isn’t necessarily the mystery itself but the characters, their stories, their animals, and how they interact with their cozy world. I have to agree with this and that’s why I loved this little book so much. Emily, as I’ve mentioned already, is lovable and inviting and reading about her creates an easy going escape needed today.
I will be reading more in this series, especially when I need a light escape into a world of cute characters, caring family members, and a snuggly and curious cat.
Sidenote: This book is listed under religious fiction but there was nothing really religious about it at all. It was just a simple, clean read with no deep message and I think that’s what we all need at times.
You can find this series on Kindle Unlimited, incidentally.
One week during the winter of 1993 snow covered everything until the world was a white wonderland, but also a dangerous situation. Snow hung heavy on tree limbs and electric lines, both ready to break under the weight of it. An icy sheen of snow hid the highway that traveled in front, and slightly above our house. Electricity was on in most of our tiny village, split into two different electric companies by the creek behind our house.
My grandmother’s electricity was off so Dad started the truck, warmed it up, and headed out through three feet of snow – over the river (creek) and through the woods to Grandmother’s house he went.
He brought back my 84-year-old grandmother so she could wait until the power came back on. I don’t remember much about her visit other than her wearing a warm coat and looking out the window with us at all the insane amount of snow. I think that might have also been the year the neighbor’s teenage son was hit with a snowplow. He wasn’t killed, thankfully, but it was a nerve-wracking moment.
Here we are 20 years later and outside the air is brisk and we are piling wood up behind our garage to prepare for the cold weather we are sure to get this year. I am hearing that this could be quite a nasty winter when it comes to snowfall.
So far the trees haven’t changed color much but are just starting to and we know before long the hillsides will be ablaze with brilliant reds, orange, and yellows.
I am looking forward to the beauty, to the chilly weather, to the chance to sit under a blanket and read a book without the urgency that seems to come with summer – an urgency to soak up all the warm weather and sunshine, I suppose.
While I wait for autumn to hit us in full force, I am writing Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, which is set to release in late November or early December. My original release date was November 21 but I may need to push it off a couple of weeks to make sure the story flows the way I want it to.
I’ve considered no longer offering pre-orders simply because they can be so stressful, but there will be a pre-order for Cassie, the book I am writing as part of the Apron Strings Book Series because that is part of our agreement in being part of the project. Cassie will be released in mid-August of 2024. I’m very excited to be part of this project, which books will start releasing in January.
If you’d like to learn more about this series and the authors who are writing the books (there will be a book focused on each decade from 1920 to 2020), you can join us in our Facebook group here:
We share memories, talk about the decades our books are in, share silly and fun posts, and offer sneak peeks of the books. We’d love to have you join in the fun.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the reception of my latest book, Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing, and have really been excited to see reviews coming in from people I have never met or interacted with in my life. This happened with my other books as well, but reviews for those books sometimes came from people I had at least “met” somewhere online (and sometimes from people I never met). This time around I have people coming out of the woodwork who have read the book and reviewed it.
There is a large group of readers who think reviews on an indie author’s books come from family and friends. This isn’t the case with mine because most of my family doesn’t read my book and if they do, they aren’t really the rating or reviewing kind.
I don’t know of many real-life friends who have read my books – at least not close friends – and they certainly aren’t leaving ratings or reviews if they have.
This past week I received a review on Bookbub that I didn’t expect at all.
“This is a fun cozy mystery about a woman named Gladwynn Grant. Gladwynn moves in with her granny who isn’t the knitting parlor, baking cookies type of sweet old granny. She’s got spice. Gladwynn takes a job at the town newspaper thinking her new home in Brookstone will be a quiet life. She’s dead wrong. Her granny is also trying to set her up with the pastor in town, Luke. It had some fast moments but is easy going and the characters were fun. Very entertaining.”
I don’t know who you are Ryan, but thank you!
If you haven’t had a chance to read Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing yet, you can pick up a paperback copy on Amazon (soon to be available on Barnes and Noble too), read the ebook through Kindle Unlimited or buy it on Amazon, or you can order a paperback copy from my personal stash.
The Spencer Valley Chronicles – all four books and a novella – are back up on Kindle Unlimited, which, if you don’t know, is a subscription book service offered by Amazon. The one drawback to having my books on KU is that I can’t share them digitally anywhere while they are enrolled in KU. Amazon likes its exclusivity.
I can, however, sell paperback versions of the book in other places so this coming year I will be offering the Spencer Valley Chronicles in paperback at Barnes and Noble as well. And, as I mentioned above, you can order autographed copies of the book at the link above.
I have had people ask before if I make more money with my books in KU or with people buying them.
The answer is that I make more money when a person outright buys the book since Amazon pays less than four cents a page read now (as of this autumn) and also determines what is and isn’t a page. For example, I sell my Spencer Valley Chronicles ebooks for $2.99 and if someone buys it I receive about $2.05. If someone reads it in KU, I receive maybe $1.50.
Why stay in KU then? One, Kindle Unlimited helps my books to be seen by people they might not have been seen by because Amazon will sometimes recommend them when a person reads a book in KU that is similar to mine. Two, many readers don’t want to buy a book by an author they don’t know so KU is a way they can try an author by essentially borrowing a book, deciding if they like the author, and then returning the book without filling up their Kindle with books by authors they don’t really know or maybe even like.
I’m not a well-known author so most people wouldn’t even try my book if it wasn’t for the convenience of KU. In other words, I wouldn’t make any money at all, most likely, if it wasn’t for KU because one, no one would see my books, and two, very few would want to take a chance on my book if they had to buy it outright, even if my prices are low.
I understand number two because that’s how I am as well. I don’t want to spend money on a book by an author I don’t know until I’ve tested that author out.
Someday I would love to have enough clout in the book-writing world to release my books on any platform and know they will sell, but I’m not there yet. Hopefully a few years down the road.
That closes my writing update for now. If you would like to read about other updates you can catch up on my Sunday Bookends post from this week or simply follow my blog by subscribing below:
You can also sign up for a paid subscription where you will be able to get exclusive content, such as sneak peeks of my next book, giveaways, author interviews, etc. Paid subscriptions are $3 a month.
I post 2 to 5 times a week depending on the week and what I have going on and occasionally I’ll even post seven days a week, but this is a rarity. In other words, I hopefully won’t fill your inbox up too much with blog post notifications.
My friend Erin and I are watching comfy and cozy (and sometimes a little creepy) movies for the months of October and November and then blogging about them if you want to participate in that feature in any way. She and I often do movie-watching features, which you can find by going to my search bar at the right and typing in Classic Movie Impressions, the Spring of Cary, or Comfy Cozy Cinema.
This week she and I are writing about Arsenic and Old Lace. We will be offering a link-up opportunity this week for anyone who might want to join in and write about their impressions of the movies as well.
I snuck this September “newsletter” or writing update right in under the wire, didn’t I?
Hopefully, I will get better about offering my newsletter updates earlier in the month from now on.
Photos and blog posts of the month:
I thought I would share some photos taken in September and also a link to some of my more popular blog posts from August and September for anyone who is interested:
In my Sunday Bookends posts, I share what I am reading and right now I am reading a book called A New Leash on Life by Kathleen Y’Barbo. For this month’s giveaway, I am offering one reader of my blog and newsletter a chance to win an ebook of this book, which releases October 1. I can only gift this to someone who reads on a Kindle so let me know in the comments if you are interested.
I hope you will also let me know in the comments how you have been doing, what you’ve been up to, and, of course, what you’ve been reading lately.
