Tag: mystery

Murder, She Wrote and Jesus

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon19 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

My blood pressure was high this week. It’s been an on and off issue for a few years now but seems to get better when I relax and take my time to take the reading the correct way.

It doesn’t want to go down at all when I am anxious, however, no matter what I do.

I’ve been anxious a lot lately, for a variety of reasons, one being the fact I needed to go to the doctor this week.

Long story short, I canceled the appointment when I found out a doctor I’ve heard very good things about actually takes my insurance. I’ll probably end up on medicine but at least I’ll feel like I can talk to this doctor about it unlike the other doctor I had the appointment with.

That appointment is a couple of weeks away, so I plan to monitor my blood pressure until then and do all I can do reduce stress (that might not be possible with a couple of situations going on but I’ll see). I started monitoring it off and on in June.

This week I couldn’t get it to an acceptable level until Thursday night after I’d been praying about it and after I sat down to watch Murder, She Wrote.

That’s right, readers.

 I am crediting the significant drop in my blood pressure Thursday night (more than 15 points on top!) to Murder, She Wrote and Jesus.

I was so wrapped up in the mystery I didn’t focus on my worry about my blood pressure. It’s almost as if Jesus reminded me that I hadn’t watched Murder, She Wrote in a few days simply so I would finally stop worrying about everything all of the time and finally relax.

That’s my tip for any of you with high blood pressure: Pray to Jesus and watch Murder, She Wrote. (*Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I only play one on my blog. Do not actually consider this medical advice. Please consult your actual doctor. *wink*)

I just finished Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner. It was a Cool and Lam Mystery and I didn’t like it as much as the first book in the series I read a couple of years ago. Getting it through it was a bit of a slog actually. I will try another book in the series, but this one was not a favorite of mine.

I’m reading Murder She Wrote: Killer in the Kitchen by Donald Blain, The 100-Year-Old man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, and Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.

The 100-Year-Old man Who Climbed Out a Window and Disappeared is . . . uh . . . weird, but I have to find out what happens.

I hope to finish Dave Berry Is Not Taking This Sitting Down at some point, but I like reading a chapter here and there and I haven’t read it in a while because I’ve been wrapped up in mysteries.

Books I want to read soon include My Man Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse, A Penny Parker Mystery: Whispering Walls by Mildred A. Wirt (Benson), and another Nancy Drew book but I haven’t decided which one.

Little Miss is reading The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery).

This past week I watched Please Murder Me with Angela Lansbury and Raymond Burr. I also watched three very good Murder, She Wrote episodes, a movie with William Powell called The Canary Murder, and an episode of Scarecrow and Mrs. King. I never watched Scarecrow and Mrs. King when I was younger so it’s fun to discover the show, even though I’ve heard of it and seen parts of episodes in the past.

I’m actually progressing on Gladwynn Grant’s fourth book. It’s a miracle. I know.

This week on the blog I shared:

I am listening to The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondragon on Audible.

I have also been listening to a lot of Harry Connick Jr. songs, including this one:

The piano solo that starts at 1:50 is absolutely brilliant.

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Hardy Boys Episode Recap: Wipe Out (Did the Hardy Boys just rob the hotel?!)

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries8 Comments

Here I am with another recap of an episode from The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries show from 1977.

As I’ve mentioned before, in the first season of this series, the episodes switched back and forth from Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew episodes and in the next season, they started to join together. Eventually, they began to phase out the Nancy episodes and focus more on The Hardy Boys. A new actress also started as Nancy when Pamela Sue Martin became disenchanted with the parts that were being written for her character.

This week I watched a Hardy Boys centered episode called Wipe Out.

This episode was one of the better ones, which I seem to be writing a lot more as I continue through the show. It seems the show got a lot better as it went on. Episodes still have some cheesy moments, sure, but the mysteries are better than in the beginning.

I spent the entire first half of this episode thinking our boys might have gone rogue and had become criminals. Luckily, things started to make sense at the halfway point.

We open this episode with a surfing competition underway and soon learn that Frank is in the competition and the boys are in Hawaii.

They aren’t only in Hawaii, they have found two girls who are hanging all over them and going to luaus with them. Of course Joe (Shaun Cassidy) is asked to sing at one of them and of course Frank wanders off to investigate something while Joe is singing. Frank’s wandering off continues a series-long inside joke.

After Frank’s competing, which brings him accolades and a chance to compete for a bigger prize, the boys head back to their hotel room and find out they’ve been robbed. This sends them to the police station where a cop sort of brushes them off because he says their stuff is long gone by now.

This will mean the boys will to call their dad, Fenton Hardy, and see if he can wire them some money for the rest of their trip. Joe says Frank has to call him because he’s the one that wanted to come and be in the surfing competition.

Frank has a better idea and the next thing we now the guys are breaking into a room after swiping the key of a couple at the hotel. I watched in horror as our heroes started loading up bags with the jewelry and money of the people and even more horror as they went to dinner and ordered big ticket items, telling the waitress they were fine on money.

She knew they’d been robbed, though, so she was pretty horrified like me, suspicious of how they got the money to pay for their meal.

This episode did a very good job of keeping us guessing what was going to happen next and tossing in characters we thought were going to bust the boys somehow.

We had hotel cops and town cops coming after them and suspecting them of theft. Then we eventually discover there is a burglary ring, and we wonder how the boys got themselves wrapped up in it. Or did they? What is going on?

Even the girls they are seeing are starting to ask questions, like why they have a pair of fancy binoculars that look like some stolen by a couple at the hotel.

Usually I give spoilers in these posts but today I won’t because it might be fun if you want to watch it later on your own and find out what was really going on.

If you like listening to Shaun Cassidy sing you’ll get your chance a few times in this episode, especially at the beginning and end when he is singing Beach Boys songs.

The joke about Frank never hearing Joe sing continues on as Joe keeps trying to play a cassette for Frank so he can finally hear the performance. That was  a fun gag but less fun was having to see Shaun’s short-shorts and hair leg every single time they focused on the cassette player in his hand.

The surfing scenes were a lot of fun to watch and I have a feeling that young ladies back then just loved to see Parker Stevenson running in and out of the waves. I will say that they kept the show very chaste because he always wore a shirt. There was one scene where Shaun was shirtless while he was rescuing Parker …er.. Frank and I’m guessing the young ladies would have liked that.

You can find the posts I’ve written about other Hard Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries shows by searching on the search bar to the right.

Up next I’ll be watching a Nancy Drew centered mystery, The Mystery of the Ghostwriter’s Cruise.

Little, used bookstores are the best and an anniversary outing

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon20 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks, I share what I am listening to.

Today is my husband’s and my 23rd wedding anniversary, and we went to a used bookstore near us because we are both serious nerds.

Then we visited a small café across the street for lunch.

Dinner and a book. That’s us, although it wasn’t always me. I read some but not as much, or as much variety, as I do now.

My husband has always been a big reader — sometimes a book a day or 3 to 5 a week.

I’m a much slower reader.

At the bookstore, I found three new (to me) Nancy Drew books, three Murder She Wrote books, and a cozy mystery by an author I am not familiar with — Betty Rowlands.

The Nancy Drew books I brought home were Mystery of the Tolling Bell, Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk, and The Clue of the Broken Locket.

The Murder She Wrote books are Killer in the Kitchen, Murder in Red, and The Murder of Twelve. I have a feeling they might be awful and I’m here for it. I started Murder in Red to see what I thought, though, and the first few pages was good.

The other cozy mystery was A Melissa Craig Mystery: A Little Gentle Sleuthing by Betty Rowlands.

There are so many variety of books there. I could have stayed there an hour but The Husband, alas, was hungry so we had to head out for some food which was odd because I am usually the one who needs to leave places for food.

After the bookstore and the dinner we headed home and watched a Frank Sinatra/Gene Kelly movie called Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Yesterday I shared a bit about our week last week on my Saturday Evening Chat post.

A couple of quick reminders:

I have a monthly book-related link party if you are interested. You can find the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or here.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one Saturday, July 19 at 1 p.m.

The Crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on (usually from about 1 to 3 p.m. EST US time). No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

I finished The Imitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse this past week and really enjoyed it. It was so much fun and exactly what I needed right now.

I started The 100-year-old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared and I don’t know if I am exactly enjoying it but it’s different. I’ll see what I think.

I also started Spill the Jackpot by Erle Stanley Gardner. It’s a Cool and Lamb Mystery. I am not enjoying this one much at all so I’ll see if I finish it. There were three pages of a guy describing how to use slot machines! Why??? Ugh! The first in the series was so much better. This is number four.

I started Memory Lane by Becky Wade to see what I thought because I have wanted to read a light romance but have not enjoyed the two I tried by Courtney Walsh. I just think she isn’t my cup of tea but I’ve read Becky’s before and have enjoyed her so I thought I’d try this one and … I liked the beginning so I am going to read that when I need a light read.

Before bed I am enjoying Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.

I plan to read one of the Murder She Wrote I picked up soon.

Last week I watched The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982), The Pirates of Penzance, and A Hole in the Head.

I don’t recommend A Hole in the Head. It’s a Frank Sinatra/Edward G. Robinson film and it has some cute and fun moments but fell apart hard toward the end and didn’t resolve well at all. It’s like they just ran out of time and said “welp, that’s it! We’re done!”

I also watched an episode of The Dick VanDyke Show and The Husband and I watched Take Me Out to the Ballgame and the Canary Murder Case, a Philo Vance Mystery from the 1930s.

Last week on the blog I shared:

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Book review: The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, books and reading10 Comments

I know I talk a lot on here about Agatha Christie, but I actually have not yet read a ton of her books. Quite a few, but not a ton.

Most of the Agatha Christie books I have read have been either Poirot or Miss Marple mysteries. I decided to read The Pale Horse, which is not about either of those sleuths when the Agatha Christie official website suggested it a few months back as one of the challenges for their 2024 reading challenge.  I have not kept up on that challenge this year but might try for the remainder of the year.

This month they are suggesting Come, Tell Me How You Live, which is a memoir of Agatha’s travels with her husband Archie. This is perfect timing because I have been watching Travels with Agatha Christie with Sir David Suchet and though he isn’t talking about this book in the show, it would still tie into her traveling. The book he actually mentions would have focused on her trip with her husband Archie and this book was written after she remarried years later. It’s actually listed under Agatha Christie Mallowan. I will probably have to order it new or through Thriftbooks, but I think it would be a fun read.

Anyhow, on to The Pale Horse.

I didn’t actually read the description of this book before I started it but as I was getting into it I saw a review of it and became a little nervous. The review mentioned that it deals with the occult and seances, etc., and that is just not my thing. I decided to plow forward, though, and in the end the book did mention those topics but — without giving too much away — that is not where the story landed, shall we say.

The story is written in both third and first person, which threw me off a bit.

We start with a man named Mark Easterbrook trying to write a mystery and switch to an actual mystery when a dying woman asks for a priest to come so she can tell him something before she dies. We don’t know what she tells him, but we know that he is murdered shorty before she does tell him.

Eventually we are led back to the man we met in the first chapter and he finds himself trying to figure out why the priest was murdered and what three creepy women living together in an old inn called The Pale Horse, might have to do with his murder and the mysterious deaths of several others in the community.

When the priest died, he had a list of last names in his shoe and the police are eventually joined by Easterbrook to find out who the people on the list are or were. Sadly, some of them are in the past tense and Easterbrook is worried that if he doesn’t hurry up and figure out what is going on, more of them will be in the same tense.

One of Mark’s friends is a mystery writer, Mrs. Oliver, and she is friends, sort of, with the creepy women but she doesn’t enjoy the way they talk about occult and seances, etc. In this scene I am Mrs. Oliver:

Thyrza shot her a quick glance.

“Yes, it is in a way.” She turned to Mrs. Oliver. “You should write one of your books about a murder by black magic. I can give you a lot of dope about it.”

Mrs. Oliver blinked and looked embarrassed.

“I only write very plain murders,” she said apologetically

Her tone was of one who says, “I only do plain cooking.”

“Just about people who want other people out of the way and try to be clever about it,” she added.

I wasn’t sure where the book was going part of the time and that made me a bit nervous and I got even more nervous when Mark and a new friend of his decided they would set up the people they thought might be involved in the murders. I was also caught up in it all before that but was biting my nails (literally) once the plot moved to entrapment.

I’ve mentioned before that one thing I am not a fan of when it comes to Agatha is how she doesn’t add a lot of description of surroundings or characters. I don’t like a ton of description in my books but a little more than what she offers sometimes would be nice. Her lack of description was not an issue for me in this book, which felt like a more well-rounded novel to me than some of the ones from the series.

A description example I don’t remember reading much in other of her novels I have read (which remember is very few):

The vicarage sitting room was big and shabby. It was much shaded by a gargantuan Victorian shrubbery that no one seemed to have had the energy to curb. But the dimness was not gloomy for some peculiar reason. It was, on the contrary, restful. All the large shabby charis bore the impress of resting bodies in them over the years. A fat clock on the chimneypiece ticked with a heavy, comfortable regularity. Here there would always be time to talk, to say what you wanted to say, to relax from the cares brought about by the bright day outside.”

A couple of other quotes I enjoyed from the book:

“My husband’s a very good man,” she said. “Besides being the vicar, I mean. And that makes things difficult sometimes. Good people, you see, don’t really understand evil.” She paused and then said with a kind of brisk efficiency. “I think it had better be me.”

“People are so proud of wickedness. Odd, isn’t it, that people who are good are never proud of it? That’s where Christian humility comes in, I suppose. They don’t even know they are good.”

I considered Hermia disapassionately across the table. So handsome, so mature, so intellectual, so well read! And so — how could one put it? So — yes, so damnably dull!”

“Yes,” I said. “The supernatural seems supernatural. But the science of tomorrow is the supernatural of today.”

Have you read this one? What did you think?

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

The day Thriftbooks sent me a book I did not order, and it turned out to be a collectible

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon30 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Sometimes, I share what I’ve been listening to.

Thursday I received a package from Thriftbooks and inside was supposed to be a copy of Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis (check), a copy of The Nancy Drew Scrapbook by Karen Plunket-Powel (check), and a Murder She Wrote Mystery (no check). Instead of the Murder She Wrote mystery, I found a very old book with a crumbling dust jacket and more dust than this mild-asthmatic with allergies was comfortable with. I barely looked at the book but I thought the title looked French.

Later that night after sending off an annoyed email to Thriftbooks to tell them they sent me the wrong book, I decided to take a closer look at the book, to at least find out the name.

I had never heard of the book, but it was called Murder A La Stroganoff by Caryl Brahms and SJ Snow. Inside the cover, it had a stamp that said it was from the Newberry Library, had been retired from their shelves, and was part of the Barzel Dance Collection. I searched a little more online and these books are fairly rare because it is a first edition from 1938 and the book is no longer in print. They did issue a paperback copy in 1985, but there are not a ton of the hardcovers published by The Crime Club, Doubleday & Co, New York out there.

Sadly, the book isn’t necessarily worth a ton without the dust jacket, which crumbled in my hands when I opened the package, but I couldn’t find one online being sold for less than $20 so, hey, if I ever do decide to sell it, I could make at least $20 off something I was shipped for free. With the dust jacket it could be worth up to $150. Apparently there aren’t a ton of these first editions out there and it’s a bit of a cult classic among mystery readers.

Thriftbooks did get back to me, by the way, and didn’t get the point that they sent the wrong book. Instead, they said they were sorry the book didn’t show up the way I wanted it to and that they didn’t have any other books with that title (they still think it is the Murder She Wrote book I first ordered) so to just keep the book and do what it with I wanted. They then issued me a refund for the book.

The book is a mystery and crime book with some satire mixed in about the ballet industry and is the second book in a series. I can not find a description of the book line but I think I actually want to read it so I might get a copy of the paperback instead of trying to read this older book which might bother my allergies.

I will be writing a blog post in the future about the book and its authors, though, because I fell down a rabbit hole researching what the book might be worth. I suppose that in the end getting the wrong book wasn’t such a bad thing.

Last week I finished The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie and The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene (A Nancy Drew Mystery).

I’ll have reviews of both of them soon but I did enjoy them both. The Pale Horse was obviously more adult — I mean, not like “adult-adult” but more mature themes. But not like … mature-mature. *wink*

I’ve been enjoying some leisurely reading of P.G. Wodehouse’s The Imitable Jeeves.

The book is so funny and witty. It’s been a very nice escape. The Jeeves books are comedic books about Bertie Wooster, a British gentleman from London, who is always getting into somewhat weird situations where he has to be bailed out or helped by his valet Jeeves.

This book is exactly what I have needed this week.

I think I’m going to have to give up on The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh before I even really get too far in it. I pushed through the first chapter wondering why the author was giving me so much information at once and when she was going to get to an actual story. The first chapter is entirely Isadora standing in a supermarket, thinking about her life with very little interaction with anyone else or action. It looks to me like the whole book is mainly her thinking about things and dumping a lot of info on the reader all in one go. I just can’t get into it, in other words.

I might try again this week, but otherwise I am going to move on to Prince Caspian and then But First Murder by Bee Littlefield.

This week I watched Gaslight (1944) as part of my Summer of Angela movie watching event and really enjoyed it. It isn’t a movie I’d watch over and over because it is pretty dark in some ways, but I did enjoy it.   I also watched The Rains Came, a 1939 movie with Myrna Loy and Tyrone Powers and Abbott and Costello in The Jack and The Beanstalk.
This morning I watched church with Lisa Harper as the guest pastor and followed it up with a couple episodes of Just A Few Acres Farm.

I’m working on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School and wrote a little more this past week. I hope to have more time to write this week since Little Miss is going to VBS and I’ll probably wait at the church for her to save gas.

On the blog I shared:

Saturday Evening Chat: Fourth of July and prayers, not blaming, for Texas

Summer of Angela: Gaslight (1944)

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot July 4th!

A Good Book And A Cup of Tea Link Up for July

Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Books I’ve Read

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Sunday Bookends: Hot weather and a pretty Little Women book plus what I’m reading

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon18 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

The heat this past week was awful. Just awful. We couldn’t get out house to cool down part of the time. But we survived and are experiencing much nicer and cooler temperatures now.

I haven’t been adding a lot of books to my shelf lately, but I thought I’d share this lovely Little Women book I recently bought from an online used bookshop.

It is an illustrated copy from the 1970s and I absolutely love the feel of the book overall, the illustrations inside, and the beautiful outside of the book, under the outside cover.

I know I will be rereading Little Women this year and other years. I might not read it all the way through again, but there are favorite sections I will definitely read over and over after I finally read it for the first time last year.

When I posted about this edition on my Instagram, several people commented that they had the exact same copy. Do any of you have a copy like this too?

I am still reading The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie but will have it done later this week. I’m not sure what I think of this one, but will probably go for a Miss Marple book for my next Agatha read.

I am also reading The Clue in the Diary by Carolyn Keene. It is a Nancy Drew mystery and it is the first book where she meets Ned Nickerson, who readers of Nancy Drew will know is her boyfriend throughout the series.

I am reading The Imitable Mr. Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse off and on.

I just started The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh. It is too soon for me to decide if I will like it or not.

Up next I hope to read Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis.

Little Miss and I are listening to Prince Caspian at night but she can hear it better because the phone is closer to her and I am closer to the air conditioner, which means I really can’t follow the story at all. That’s why I am glad I am going to be reading it soon.

The Husband is reading Glitz by Elmore Leonard.

The Boy is listening to Perturabo by Guy Haley. It’s a Warhammer book.

Little Miss just started the fourth book in The Harry Potter series, Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling.

I rewatched The Manchurian Candidate with The Boy last night. I picked up even more than I did when I watched it. Earlier in the week I watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks and an episode of Ludwig. This week I hope to watch Agatha and Me With David Suchet, more Ludwig, and Gaslight with Angela Lansbury for my Summer of Angela.

This week on the blog I shared:

Newsletter for June: Gladwynn books on sale and a update on book four

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot June 27 (In memory of Patrick Weseman)

Hodge Podge: What is adventure?

Episode Recap: The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Mystery of the Fallen Angel

I’ve been listening to old Jack Benny radio programs before bed.

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Newsletter for June: Gladwynn books on sale and a update on book four

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn everyday musings, Newsletter6 Comments

Welcome to my June newsletter! That’s right. I’m going to try to do this once a month again and here on my main blog instead of Substack. I’ll have a page set up for you to find past newsletters.

All three Gladwynn books on sale

All three ebooks in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series are on sale this week on Amazon.

Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing is free until Sunday night: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage is 99 cents until Monday: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CB74L7TQ

Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree is on sale for $1.99 untl Monday: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DW1VCWDD

You can read descriptions of each of the books at the links.

Update on book four in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series

I’m working on book four of the Gladwynn Grant series but I wouldn’t say I am working on it steadly.

Alas, I am working on it here and there, but I have plenty of ideas. I hope to release it in October and will have a cover reveal by the end of July.

The book will be called Gladwynn Grant Goes Back To School. There will be a mystery, of course, since this is a mystery series. I can tell you that it will involve the local superintendent and that another family member of Gladwynn’s might show up for a visit. One we haven’t met yet.

There will be, of course, just a touch of romance like the other books.

I’ll have a description of the book by next month’s newsletter.

Admiring my roses

I always look forward to when the flowers bloom in our yard and this year was no different. The roses were beautiful this year but didn’t seem to last as long. The heatwave we had this week and the fact I failed to water them didn’t help.

Here are a few photos of them while they were blooming.

A Giveaway

I always had fun doing giveaways on my Substack Newsletter so I thought I’d do that with this newsletter. I would like to send one person a paperback copy of Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing.

If you are interested in a copy you can simply tell me what your favorite book genre is in the comments and I will randomly choose a winner by next week.

Find me on social media:

I wanted to close by reminding readers of my newsletters that I am on YouTube now (still figuring it out and only doing shorts for now). You can find my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@goodbooksandtea

I am also on Instagram at http://www.instagram.com/lisarhowelerhttp://www.instagram.com/lisarhoweler

I am on Facebook, but my page is never shown to anyone so I don’t post there often.

I also host a Facebook group called A Good Book and a Cup of Tea where we discuss clean and Christian Fiction. You can find that here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/goodbooksandtea

I want to thank everyone who supports my writing, whether here on the blog or by borrowing or buying my books, or just reading them at all. It really means a lot to me since writing is a distraction for me from other stresses in life.

Sunday Bookends: Link parties, finished two books, & watching Angela movies

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon15 Comments

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

I shared what I did last week in my Saturday Afternoon Chat yesterday. It was actually my Saturday Evening Chat because I got it up so late.

After I posted that, The Husband took Little Miss and her friend swimming at the local YMCA, which we had never visited before. Now that we know the pool exists we will probably visit it more this summer.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one Saturday, July 19 at 1 p.m.

The crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. There is one woman who creates with beads, another who colors, I sometimes draw or color, and Erin does a variety of art, including embroidery. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on. No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

If you are looking for a link party to participate in, I co-host one with three lovely blogger ladies that goes live on Thursday nights. The Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot goes live about 9:30 p.m. each Thursday and if you scroll on my right-hand sidebar you should find the link to the latest one.

I also have added a link to parties I participate in at the top of my page.

I am going to leave up my monthly link-up for all things book-related. You can find a link to the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or click here https://lisahoweler.com/2025/06/08/a-good-book-a-cup-of-tea-june-2025-party/

What I am reading – I finally finished All Things Wise and Wonderful the week before last and really loved it – especially a story at the end of the book involving Tristan, the date he tossed into the rose bushes, and a missing dog.

I also finished A Midnight Dance by Joanna Davidson Politano. I would give it about a 3.5. I didn’t like how the mystery part wrapped up or how the main character had this huge secret she dropped at the very end but never really resolved. Politano’s writing is very good, though, and I am sure I will read another one by her at some point in the future.

Right now I am reading The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie and switching off with The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse.

I plan to start The Happy Life of Isadora Bentley by Courtney Walsh sometime this week.

I hope to start Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis soon as well.

The Husband is reading A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Little Miss is finishing up the third Harry Potter book after a long break, and she and I are reading Magical Melons by Carol Ryrie Brink together and listening to The Moffats at night.

I didn’t add any new books to my shelves recently, other than a couple I found on Project Gutenberg and will be sending to my Kindle to read.

Last week I watched National Velvet for my Summer of Angela. I also rewatched The Sound of Music for a comfort watch and a few episodes of Travels with Agatha Christie & Sir David Suchet.

Last week on the blog:

Summer of Angela: National Velvet (1944)

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot June 20

Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Books I want to read this summerSummer of Angela: The Manchurian Candidate

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.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

Book review: The Wishing Well by Mildred Wirt Benson

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn book reviews, everyday musings3 Comments

Mildred Wirt (later adding Benson to her names) was the original Carolyn Keene, who wrote 28 of the first 30 Nancy Drew books. Mildred also wrote other books for other companies under her own name, including the Penny Parker Mysteries.

She once called Penny more Nancy Drew than Nancy Drew and after reading the eighth book in the series, The Wishing Well, I have to agree with that statement, especially the Nancy Drew that Harriet Adams created when she rewrote Mildred’s books years later.

I didn’t actually research what the first book in the series was before reading this one, my first Mildred book other than Nancy Drew. I just snatched it up to try and I ended up really enjoying it.

Teenager Penny Parker is rebellious, snappy, smart, bold, yet also cares about people. She might be even a bit more pushy than Nancy and she’s certainly more mouthy. In this book she pulls her friend Louise into her investigations and shenanigans.

According to Wikipedia, “Penny is a high school student turned sleuth who also sporadically works as a reporter for her father’s newspaper, The Riverview Star.  . ..On her cases she is sometimes aided by her close friend, brunette Louise Sidell, and occasionally Jerry Livingston or Salt Sommers who are, respectively, a reporter and photographer for her father’s paper.”

In The Wishing Well, Penny is pulled into the mystery of a boulder with “odd” writing on it that appears in a farmer’s field, as well as the mystery of a wishing well on the property of a wealthy woman, Mrs. Marborough, who recently moved back into her family’s old mansion.

Tied into it all are two foster children who are living at a campground with their foster parents and who become the focus of a blackmail plot.

Here is a quick description from Project Gutenberg, where I found the book available to download for free:

“The Wishing Well” by Mildred A. Wirt is a novel written in the early 20th century. The story follows Penny Parker, an enterprising and spirited high school girl, as she embarks on an adventure surrounding the mysterious old Marborough mansion and its wishing well. With her friends, Penny explores themes of friendship, kindness, and intrigue as they uncover secrets of the past and the potential to grant wishes.

The opening of the story introduces Penny and her friends at Riverview High School, where they eagerly anticipate exploring the Marborough place and its famous wishing well. After making a thoughtful wish for the restoration of the property, Penny invites a lonelier classmate, Rhoda, to join their outing.

The group encounters a light-hearted adventure as they discover a possible chicken thief in pursuit. This sets the tone for the unfolding plot where friendships are tested, and unexpected events arise, including deeper mysteries tied to the characters’ lives, particularly Rhoda’s connection to the Breens and the arrival of two strangers from Texas. As Penny’s curiosity propels her into the adventure, readers are drawn into a world of mystery and the promise of fulfilling wishes.”

I find it interesting that like Nancy, Penny does not have a mother but only a father and a live-in housekeeper, Mrs. Weems. I am beginning to wonder if Mildred had some mother issues herself. She sure liked to kill off moms.

The wit and banter between characters in the Penny Parker series is much stronger than in the Nancy Drew books. There are also so many funny sayings or phrases that were probably used by teens at the time these books were written (1939-1947).

“We’re the same as absent right now,” Penny laughed, retreating to the doorway. “Thanks for your splendid cooperation.” (Oof! The sarcasm!)

________

“You’ll be home early?” her father asked.

“I hope so,” Penny answered earnestly. “If for any reason, I fail to appear, don’t search in any of the obvious places.”

___

“In case you slip and fall, just what am I to do?”

“That’s your problem,” Penny chuckled. “Now hand me the flashlight. I’m on way.”

_____

“What do you see, Penny?” Louise called again. “Are there any bricks loose?”

“Not that I can discover,” Penny answered, and her voice echoed weirdly. Intrigued by the sound she tried an experimental yodel. “Why, it’s just like a cave scene on the radio!”

“In case you’ve forgotten, you’re in a well,” Louise said severely. “Furthermore, if you don’t work fast, Mrs. Marborough will come our here!”

“I have to have a little relaxation,” Penny grumbled.

___

Neither Louise nor Rhoda approved of interfering in the argument between Mrs. Marborough and Mr. Franklin, but as usual they could not stand firm against Penny.

_____

As I mentioned above, I downloaded this one from Project Gutenberg. They have quite a few of the 17 book series.

The books from the series are:

Tale of the Witch Doll (1939, 1958)

The Vanishing Houseboat (1939, 1958)

Danger at the Drawbridge (1940, 1958)

Behind the Green Door (1940, 1958)

Clue of the Silken Ladder (1941)

The Secret Pact (1941)

The Clock Strikes Thirteen (1942)

The Wishing Well (1942)

Saboteurs on the River (1943)

Ghost Beyond the Gate (1943)

Hoofbeats on the Turnpike (1944)

Voice from the Cave (1944)

The Guilt of the Brass Thieves (1945)

Signal in the Dark (1946)

Whispering Walls (1946)

Swamp Island (1947)

The Cry at Midnight (1947)

Have you read any of the Penny Parker Mysteries series?

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.