mystery

Mid-year Book Round Up or Freak Out or Whatever it is Called

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

I saw this prompt for a Mid-Year Book Round-Up (Freak Out) on Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs’ blog a few weeks ago but also saw another version online where the blogger listed more than one book for certain questions so I decided to combine the two.

Best Book (s) You’ve Read In 2024

Little Women by Lousia Mae Alcott and Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

I know. I know. I went for the classics, but I had never read either of them and ended up loving them both. I started Little Women in December but finished it in 2024, so I am counting it for 2024. I listened to Around the World in 80 Days and maybe it was the narrator that made it so interesting for me, but I really did enjoy it.

Best Sequel You’ve Read In 2024

The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes

My daughter and I loved this middle-grade book and, I think, it was the only sequel I read all year so far. It was such a cute book, following the adventures of – well, the middle Moffat, Jane. Her adventures with the Oldest Inhabitant (a 99-year-old Civil War vet) was the cutest part of the book to me. It was also cool that we read the chapter about the Eclipse at the same time the eclipse was happening.

Most anticipated release for the second half of the year?

There are a lot of these (and you can read more of mine here) but for now, I will go with Tracking Tilly by Janice Thompson and I haven’t read it because it actually doesn’t release until August 1.

This one is a mystery that seems pretty cozy so I am looking forward to it.

Here is the description:

Who Stole Tilly from the Auction Block? Breathe in the nostalgia of everything old red truck in book one of a new cozy mystery series. The Hadley family ranch is struggling, so RaeLyn, her parents, and brothers decide to turn the old barn into an antique store. The only thing missing to go with the marketing of the store is Grandpa’s old red truck, Tilly, that was sold several years ago. Now coming back up on the auction block, Tilly would need a lot of work, but RaeLyn is sure it will be worth it—if only she can beat out other bidders and find out who stole Tilly after the auction ends. Hadley finds herself in the role of amateur sleuth, and the outcome could make or break the new family venture.

Biggest disappointment.

I have two for this one:

Hell is Empty: A Walt Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson

I’ve enjoyed almost all of the Walt Longmire series I’ve read so far but this one was ridiculous and predictable and I was terribly disappointed in it. My husband has suggested I read more books in the series because the rest of them were very good, so I will.

Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jaime Jo Wright

This was my first time trying this author and not only was the book repetitive (the woman grew up in a house of death by a cemetery full of death and death was all around her. Yes, got it. Stop repeating it every chapter) but it was extremely, extremely disturbing to me and I didn’t feel it should have been listed under Christian Fiction.

Biggest surprise.

I picked up How To Plan Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin on Netgalley and wasn’t sure what I would think of it but ended up really enjoying it and getting swept up in the twists and turns of this mystery.

Favorite new author. (Debut or new to you)

Isabella Alan would probably be a new favorite for me. Her real name is Amanda Flowers but she writes as Isabella Alan as well and I really enjoyed her book Murder Plainly Read and plan to read more books by her later this year.

Newest fictional crush.

Theo Goodnight in Sharon Peterson’s The Fast Lane. He’s so swoony and sweet and funny and (a small spoiler here!) writes romances that I actually wouldn’t read but we’ll just go back to him being sweet and funny and dreamy.

Here is a little snippet of the book with Theo in it:

Bracing a hand on the table, he leaned close. “I’m beginning to think you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

My breath caught at the low, gravelly sound of his voice.

He shifted closer, his mouth stopping an inch from my ear. His warm breath on my skin sent a zing of awareness through me. “And I’m definitely not your brother.”

Swoon.

This is a clean romance by the way, so there is a bit of steam, small level of spice but no open door scenes or even medium spice.

Newest favorite character.

I know he isn’t new to others, but he’s new to me: Hercule Poirot. I’ve watched him on TV in the shows, but never realized how savage he was – even more so in the books than the show. The way he slams Hastings, putting him in his place, is just so funny.

From Lord Edgware Dies:

“I have noticed that when we work on a case together, you are always urging me on to physical action, Hastings. You wish me to measure footprints, to analyse cigarette ash, to prostrate myself on my stomach for the examination of detail. You never realize that by lying back in an armchair with the eyes closed one can come nearer to the solution of any problem. One sees then with the eyes of the mind.”

“I don’t,” I said. “When I lie back in an armchair with my eyes closed one thing happens to me and one thing only!”

“I have noticed it!” said Poirot. “It is strange. At such moments the brain should be working feverishly, not sinking into sluggish repose. The mental activity, it is so interesting, so stimulating! The employment of the little grey cells is a mental pleasure. They and they only can be trusted to lead one through fog to the truth…”

Book that made you cry.

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen. ‘

So much of this book was just so sweet and touching. It’s the story of a family who travels to the mother’s grandmother’s former home in the Pennsylvania countryside to try to help the father overcome PTSD. While there they meet a lovely couple, help the couple make maple syrup, meet a man who they thought was weird, but was actually sweet and just grow together as a family. Maybe it is because I am from Pennsylvania that it gave me sentimental feelings, I don’t know, but it really had me teary-eyed.

Book(s) that made you happy.

I’m picking two for this one:

The Cat Who Talked To Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun.

This book didn’t make me happy because a side character in the series I’ve been reading since high school was tragically murdered, but because I saw so much more of the main character, Jim Qwilleran’s, personality in this book. There were funny moments and touching moments and it was just such a departure from the other books in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  

Murder In An Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor

This one was just a fun ride and I really enjoyed learning about Irish culture while also being taken on a journey through an interesting mystery. Plus, I fell in love with the characters.

What books do you want to read by the end of the year?

Here are a list of books I want to read by the end of the year:

The Blue Castle by LM Montgomery (already reading it)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (because I’ve never read it

Live and Let Chai by Bree Baker (I’ve heard a lot about this one and have it on my Kindle and Audible right now so I am looking forward to it)

The Extraordinary Deaths of Mrs. Kipp by Sara Brunsvold (I started this one but it got a bit heavy for me so I would like to finish it)

An Old Fashioned Girl by Louise Mae Alcott

The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

Are any of these books on your mid-year round-up? Any of them you want to read? Let me know.

Book review/recommendation: Lord Edgware Dies: A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie and some thoughts about Agatha’s possible antisemitism

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 3 Comments

Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie is a wild ride full of Hollywood starlets, mistaken identities, greed, trickery, and hilarious verbal sparring between Arthur Hastings and Poirot.

This is the second Poirot book I’ve read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is the story of the death of Lord Edgware, whose wife – American actress Jane Wilkinson — declares she’d like to kill him – maybe hit him with her car so she can marry another man. The focus on the suspect flies right to her when he is found dead in his library the next day – stabbed in the neck.

There are other suspects in the play too, though – his nephew Ronald Marsh who wants his uncle’s fortune, his daughter who Lord Edgware wasn’t very nice to, an actress named Carlotta Adams who does an amazing impression of Jane Wilkinson, and even Lord Edgware’s secretary.

Jane is the obvious suspect, though, because she asked Poirot if he would go to her husband and ask him for the divorce she’s been asking for so she can remarry.

Originally, she wanted a divorce to marry an actor but now it is a duke. Poirot agrees to meet with Lord Edgware, who informs him that he’s already told Jane she could get a divorce.

The problem with Jane being the suspect is that she was seen at a dinner party the night her husband was killed and there is a witness who says he heard and saw her receive a phone call at exactly the time of the murder.

This spins the case right on its head.

Before the book is done there will be more than one murder, more than one suspect, and a big reveal scene at the end that twists and turns the reader to the answer.

Hastings reveals his affectionate aggravation with Poirot during the book, including how Poirot constantly talks about how he (Poirot) needs to go sit and use his “gray matter.”

“I have noticed that when we work on a case together, you are always urging me on to physical action, Hastings. You wish me to measure footprints, to analyse cigarette ash, to prostrate myself on my stomach for the examination of detail. You never realize that by lying back in an armchair with the eyes closed one can come nearer to the solution of any problem. One sees then with the eyes of the mind.”

“I don’t,” I said. “When I lie back in an armchair with my eyes closed one thing happens to me and one thing only!”

“I have noticed it!” said Poirot. “It is strange. At such moments the brain should be working feverishly, not sinking into sluggish repose. The mental activity, it is so interesting, so stimulating! The employment of the little grey cells is a mental pleasure. They and they only can be trusted to lead one through fog to the truth…”

While I enjoyed this book very much, I was bothered by the many negative or stereotypical references toward Jewish characters in the book. I apparently downloaded a copy to my Kindle where they hadn’t taken these references out since such references were edited out from some versions years ago.

A quick search online revealed a complicated relationship between Agatha and her views on Jews – views that partially came from the attitudes toward Jews of the wealthy class of people she was a part of in Great Britain. Agatha did indeed have some antisemitic views but also wrote about Jews being wealthy in a good way in her books – like that they were bright so that is how they were able to be so wealthy. She used a seriously disturbing number of tropes against them in this particular book, often calling them shrewd and money-hungry – but then seeming to say being shrewd was a good thing.

At one point in Lord Edgware Dies Poirot says, “Misfortune may always be waiting about to rush upon us. But as to your question, Miss Adams, I think, will succeed. She is shrewd and she is something more. You observed without a doubt she is Jewish?”

Hastings says he hadn’t but now that he thinks about it he does “see the faint traces of Semitic ancestry.”

Poirot continues, “It makes for success – that. Though there is still one avenue of danger – since its danger we are talking of.”

“You mean?” Hastings asks.

“Love of money,” Poirot tells him. “Love of money might lead such a one from the prudent and cautious path.”

So while we have a stereotype here, we also have a compliment, making it confusing what Agatha is really trying to say about  Jews. The fact she continues to negatively reference Jews throughout the book (one has the traditional big Jewish nose, one character comments), is awkward but she also seems to assign some positive elements to those characters, as well as showing admiration of those who are Jewish from other characters in the book.

According to information I read online, an autobiography about Agatha details a few stories that point to her apparent antisemitism, including one during World War II when a high-ranking British official involved with the Nazi party commented that all Jews should be killed. This is said to be a moment when Agatha was shocked at the idea of killing anyone based on their ethnicity or faith and she was appalled at the comment. Her portrayal of Jews changed some after that incident. Nothing I read can definitively say that Agatha didn’t like Jews, blacks, or any other race she described in a stereotypical way in her books, plays, and short stories. Some critics, and even her own family members, feel that she was writing about how certain groups were described at that time, not that she herself felt hatred toward any group.

There are, however, repeated negative references to Jewish people in this particular novel and I struggled to be simply entertained by the story because of them. After feeling uncomfortable with the continued references, I did read a very interesting article by a writer named Benjamin Ivry on Forward.com. Forward.com is a site focused on Jewish culture. In summary, Ivery said that some of the language against Jews Agatha used in her writing was wrong and stereotypical but that many Jews still enjoy Agatha’s work, seeing it as a product of a time when many ethnicities were not respected. May of Jews can still see the brilliance in Agatha’s plots, while recognizing her propensity to overgeneralize Jewish stereotypes, he said.

In his article, he wrote: “Christie specialist Gillian Gill was unequivocal:

‘A kind of jingoistic, knee-jerk anti-Semitism colors the presentation of Jewish characters in many of her early novels, and Christie reveals herself to be as unreflective and conventional as the majority of her compatriots… Christie’s anti-Semitism had always been of the stupidly unthinking rather than the deliberately vicious kind. As her circle of acquaintances widened and she grew to understand what Nazism really meant for Jewish people, Christie abandoned her knee-jerk anti-Semitism. What is more, even at her most thoughtless and prejudiced, Christie saw Jews as different, alien, and un-English, rather than as depraved or dangerous – people one does not know rather than people one fears.”

Jane Arnold likewise observed that in Christie’s writings, “No particular Jewish characteristic is completely negative.” This ambiguity may have been due in part to an incident recounted in Christie’s autobiography. In 1933, she accompanied her husband, an archaeologist, to the Middle East for an excavation. There they met Julius Jordan, Germany’s Director of Antiquities in Baghdad. When someone mentioned Jews, Jordan retorted: “Our [German] Jews are perhaps different from yours. They are a danger. They should be exterminated. Nothing else will really do but that.”

Christie’s reaction was to stare at Jordan “unbelievingly” and observe to herself: “There are things in life that make one truly sad when one can make oneself believe them.” The UK National Archives website further explains that Julius Jordan was Nazi Party leader and propaganda director for Iraq. So Christie had encountered the local equivalent of Joseph Goebbels.

While Christie was shocked at the idea of Jews being killed, a Jewish journalist, Chrisopher Hitchens, later said when he attended a dinner with Christie and her husband in the 1960s the conversations about Jews was still “vividly unpleasant.”

Ivry says for many Jews, Agatha remains “a recreational delight.”

Indeed, in an article in the Canadian Jewish News, journalist Michael Taube writes: “Was Christie a racist or an anti-Semite? Her family and friends always denied it. They argued that most of the characters who made intolerant remarks were, in fact, seen in a negative light in her works. That’s true, which means she was more likely a product of her times than a hateful soul.”

As for my personal opinion, I enjoy Agatha Christie’s novels and plan to keep reading them. Since I was never able to speak to the woman herself and will never have the chance I will hold on to hope that the negative references she made toward Jews and other ethnicities were simply what others have said they were – ignorance or a reflection of the character saying them.

Top Ten Tuesday: Most Anticipated Books for the Second Half of 2024

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 26 Comments

|| Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. ||

This week the topic is: Top Ten Tuesday Anticipated books for the second half of 2024.

This one is hard for me because I read a lot of older books and because I am always behind on finding out about new releases, even though I am on Netgalley. I don’t have ten books here, but I have seven, and many of these I either have an ARC of (through Netgalley) or hope to get ARC copies of. I also haven’t read books by most of these authors yet, but the plots sound good or I have heard a lot about them.

1. The Gardener’s Plot by Deborah J. Benoit (November 5)

I was approved for this ARC and it looks very good.

Description:

A woman helps set up a community garden in the Berkshires, only to find a body in one of the plots on opening day.

After life threw Maggie Walker a few curveballs, she’s happy to be back in the small, Berkshires town where she spent so much time as a child. Marlowe holds many memories for her, and now it also offers a fresh start. Maggie has always loved gardening, so it’s only natural to sign on to help Violet Bloom set up a community garden.

When opening day arrives, Violet is nowhere to be found, and the gardeners are restless. Things go from bad to worse when Maggie finds a boot buried in one of the plots… and there’s a body attached to it. Suddenly, the police are looking for a killer and they keep asking questions about Violet. Maggie doesn’t believe her friend could do this, and she’s going to dig up the dirt needed to prove it.

The Gardener’s Plot takes readers to the heart of the Berkshires and introduces amateur sleuth Maggie Walker in Deborah J. Benoit’s Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award-winning debut.

2. The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams; Lauren Willig; Karen White (November 5)

This just sounded very good to me. I have not been approved for the ARC, but I’ll read it eventually.

Agatha Christie meets Murder, She Wrote in this witty locked room mystery and literary satire by New York Times bestselling team of novelists: Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White.

There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead—under bizarre circumstances—in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems, the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists. 

The prime suspects are Kat de Noir, a slinky erotica writer; Cassie Pringle, a Southern mom of six juggling multiple cozy mystery series; and Emma Endicott, a New England blue blood and author of critically acclaimed historical fiction. The women claim to be best friends writing a book together, but the authors’ stories about how they know Brett Saffron Presley don’t quite line up, and the detective is getting increasingly suspicious. 

Why did the authors really come to Castle Kinloch? And what really happened the night of the great Kinloch ceilidh, when Brett Saffron Presley skipped the folk dancing for a rendezvous with death? 

A crafty locked-room mystery, a pointed satire about the literary world, and a tale of unexpected friendship and romance—this novel has it all, as only three bestselling authors can tell it! 

3. Murder, She Wrote: A Killer Christmas by Jessica Fletcher; Terrie Farley Moran (October 8, 2024)

I have never read one of these but I’ve heard good things about them. I may end up hating it. Ha!

Description:

It’s Christmastime in Cabot Cove, but there’s more homicide than ho-ho-ho in the newest entry in the USA Today bestselling Murder, She Wrote series.

Christmas is not an easy time to sell a house, but in Boston tycoon John Bragdon, Cabot Cove Realtor Eve Simpson has found a buyer for the old Jarvis homestead. Unfortunately, Eve gets a lump of coal in her stocking in the form of Kenny Jarvis, who has been missing for years and presumed dead but has now come back to stop his sister from selling their childhood home.

Eve presses on, organizing a welcome dinner for Bragdon and his wife, Marlene, to meet the leading citizens of the town, including Jessica Fletcher. Dinner is interrupted by an uninvited guest—not Santa but Kenny, who threateningly promises Marlene she will never live in his house.

When Marlene is found dead a few days later, Kenny is the natural suspect. But Jessica isn′t so sure he′s on the naughty list . . .

4. Tracking Tilly by Janice Thompson (August 1)

I just received my approval for this ARC and I am looking forward to it!

Description:

Who Stole Tilly from the Auction Block? Breathe in the nostalgia of everything old red truck in book one of a new cozy mystery series. The Hadley family ranch is struggling, so RaeLyn, her parents, and brothers decide to turn the old barn into an antique store. The only thing missing to go with the marketing of the store is Grandpa’s old red truck, Tilly, that was sold several years ago. Now coming back up on the auction block, Tilly would need a lot of work, but RaeLyn is sure it will be worth it—if only she can beat out other bidders and find out who stole Tilly after the auction ends. Hadley finds herself in the role of amateur sleuth, and the outcome could make or break the new family venture.

5. Queen of Hearts: A Gripping Psychological Thriller with a Twist by Heather Day Gilbert (July 23)

I may regret it because this is not really the genre of books I read, but I was approved this morning for this ARC.

Her readers love her…but one has gotten a little too attached.

Alexandra Dubois, a NYT bestselling author, has made a name for herself by crafting twisted serial killers in her romantic suspense series. When threatening notes from an “invested reader” escalate into violence, Alex has to admit she’s not safe in her own home. Although her autism makes any changes to her routine difficult, she reluctantly accepts her editor’s advice to fly to his sprawling vacation home in West Virginia so she can focus on her looming deadline.

Fighting paranoia that the stalker has discovered her mountain hideaway, Alex still forces herself to write several chapters in her novel. But when a thunderstorm leaves her stranded and she hears a knock at her door, she’s about to discover that life truly is stranger than fiction.

Fans of Alfred Hitchcock, Mary Higgins Clark, and Misery are sure to be hooked by this clean, fast-paced domestic thriller by RWA Daphne Award-winning author Heather Day Gilbert.

6. The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne (Sept. 3)

I’ve always wanted to read some of A.A. Milne’s work beyond Winnie The Pooh. I know I’ve read that it drove him nuts that Winnie The Pooh took off and none of his more serious work.

A classic Golden Age locked-room cozy mystery by the author of Winnie-the-Pooh — hailed as one of the “20 Best Classic Murder Mystery Books of All Time (Town & Country, 2023)

“Has the pacing equivalent of perfect pitch . . . and spiced with funny comments on the clichés of the mystery novel” — Molly Young, The New York Times (2024)

In a quaint English country house, the exuberant Mark Ablett has been entertaining a house party, but the festivities are rudely interrupted by the arrival of Mark’s wayward brother, Robert, home from Austalia. Even worse, not long after his arrival the long-lost brother is found dead, shot through the head, and Mark is nowhere to be found. It is up to amateur detective Tony Gillingham and his pal Bill to investigate.

Between games of billiards and bowls, the taking of tea and other genteel pursuits, Tony and Bill attempt to crack the perplexing case of their host’s disappearance and its connection to the mysterious shooting. Can the pair of sleuths solve the Red House mystery in time for their afternoon game of croquet?

The Red House Mystery marked Milne’s first and final venture into the detective genre, despite the book’s immediate success. Praised by Raymond Chandler and renowned critic Alexander Woolcott, this gem of classic Golden Age crime sparkles with witty dialogue, an intriguing cast of characters, and a brilliant plot.

7. Sticks and Scones: A Bakeshop Mystery by Ellie Alexander (August 20)

I have read one of the others in this series so this one might need to wait for me but I hope to read it eventually anyhow.

Another delicious installment in the Bakeshop Series set in Ashland, OR!

It’s late spring in Juliet’s charming hamlet of Ashland. Spotted deer are nibbling on lush green grasses in Lithia Park, the Japanese maples are blooming, and Torte is baking a bevy of spring delights—lemon curd cupcakes, mini coconut cream pies, grapefruit tartlets, and chocolate dipped almond Tuiles.

Meanwhile, Juliet’s friend Lance, the artistic director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, is taking center stage with his new theater troupe—the Fair Verona Players. Their performance in Uva’s vineyard promises to be a modern, gender-bending twist on “The Taming of the Shrew,” but as the curtain rises, so do the strange occurrences. Stage mishaps and internal bickering threaten to derail the production. But the real show begins when the leading actor, Jimmy Paxton, meets his final curtain call. Now, Jules is not only in the mix, but she’s going to need to craft the perfect recipe for solving this theatrical whodunit.

What books are on your list for the most anticipated books for the second half of the year? Let me know in the comments.

Fiction Friday. Book Recommendation: Murder in An Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 3 Comments

BRIEF DESCRIPTION:

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.

Sunday Bookends: Lots of mysteries and warm temps coming up

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 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.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.


What’s Been Occurring

 I rambled about what’s been occurring in my post yesterday if you want to read that.

Today I have to drive 45 minutes one way to pick up The Boy from his friend’s house and then we will have lunch at my parents afterward. Then I’m bringing him home to mow our lawn which is crazy high from all the rain we have been having.

The temps are supposed to be hotter this week which I am not actually looking forward to because I don’t enjoy the heat and our AC isn’t ready to go yet. We have to install an extra pipe into the window and set up this whole contraption because we have odd vertical windows. It’s a whole process.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Just Finished:

The Mysterious Affair At Styles (The first book in the Hercule Poirot series) by Agatha Christie.

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

Do the New You by Steven Furtick

Operation Restoration by Kari Trumbo

This week I read that The Secret Garden was written by Burnett after her son died of tuberculosis. This helped me appreciate the book more because I just finished it for the first time with my daughter and I didn’t like the ending. I didn’t hate it but I wanted more. Now that I know the story behind the book I like the ending more because for Frances Colin being able to walk and be alive – like her son couldn’t be – was all she needed us to know.

To be started today or tomorrow:

The Fast Lane by Sharon Peterson (a romance)

And

Murder At the Rusty Anchor by Maddie Day

Soon to be read (or eventually at this point):


The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of my Father by Jim Wight

The Deeds of the Deceitful by Ellery Adams and Tina Radcliffe

Lost Coast Literary by Ellie Alexander

The Husband is reading London Rules by Mick Herron

The Boy just finished listening to 1984 by George Orwell (nope, I didn’t make him), is almost done with Horus Rising and is also listening to Around The World in 80 Days.

What We watched/are Watching

This week I watched episodes of Newhart, Midsomer Murders, and Brokenwood Mysteries – some with The Husband and some alone.


What I’m Writing

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

I am still listening to Around the World in 80 Days.

Photos from Last Week

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.

Book review/recommendation: Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 3 Comments

TITLE: Murder Always Barks Twice

AUTHOR: Jennifer Hawkins

GENRE: Cozy mystery

Murder Always Barks Twice by Jennifer Hawkins follows a tea shop owner in England and her excitable and cute talking Corgi Oliver. Yes. The dog talks.

I was a little leery of the book at first because I don’t usually read cozy mysteries with magical elements (except the Magical Flowe Shop Mysteries by Amanda Flower).

When I realized that only the main character Emma could understand Oliver I liked the idea a little bit better.

The talking dog doesn’t overshadow the story at all. In fact, it seems pretty natural to the entire book which otherwise is completely realistic and doesn’t feature supernatural or magical elements. I think it also helps that the dog talks like you might imagine a dog talks. He’s a smart dog but not too smart. He’s just smart enough to know that there’s certain things he should tell Emma that he’s seen or smelled but not smart enough that he’s the one solving the mysteries.

Everything he wants to say is exciting to him. So he’s not sitting there and talking like a proper gentleman you might say. He’s sort of adorable really.

The supporting characters in the book are plentiful and that can make things a little confusing at times. Sometimes I had to go back and remind myself who someone was. Emma either works with or knows all the characters in some capacity and even though the town is small there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of people who Emma interacted with throughout the book.

I can’t say any of the supporting characters were that memorable to me other than Oliver. The three women she spoke to most all sounded the same to me in my head. They were sort of interchangeable sounding boards for her, even though one was supposed to be her best friend and the others more like co-workers. They offered a way for Emma to work things out clues in her mind but I part of me feels a couple of them could have been removed and the story still could have carried on just as well. At the same time, having a lot of support rallying around the main character was nice as well.

To clarify – just because I thought some of the supporting characters could have been cut out, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like the characters. I really liked the co-owner of the tea shop – Angelique – and her daughter Pearl but they weren’t super important to the plot for me, other than when Emma helped find some clues.

Emma’s friend Genny offered even more support but I lost track of what her job actually was — I think she owned a restaurant in town. It wasn’t really important to the plot.

I really enjoyed how this book was built around a festival celebrating author Daphne DuMaurier’s book Rebecca, which was made into a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The plot of that book/movie was skillfully tied into the mystery of this book, adding to the complexity of the plot. I was impressed with how much history the author knew about the DuMaurier and the area she lived in.

After a quick search online I learned there is a literary festival in Fowey, England that is inspired by DeMaurier, who wrote many books besides Rebecca.

Rebecca was, however, her most famous, partially because of the movie version of it.

I felt like the amount of red herrings thrown out in this one was enough to keep me guessing and second-guessing right up until the end. I had figured out the culprit toward the end but I still wanted to be sure and see how the author wrapped up how they committed the crime.

I would definitely read future books by this author.

What I Read in April and What’s Coming Up in May

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 14 Comments

I am a little late on this one but oh well. Life gets in the way of blogging. Gasp! I know. Shocking. *wink*

But seriously, I forgot that I wanted to write a post about what I read in April and what I “plan” on reading in May last week so I am doing it this week instead.

To explain, I always write what I plan to read in a certain month, but I almost never stick to my list of what I will read, as you can see if you ever look back on blog posts where I have shared what I plan to read.

First up, what I read in April:

The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun

I offered a longer review of this on the blog yesterday. You can find that HERE.

The short version, though, is that I liked this book and it became one of my favorites of the series for the different version of Jim Qwilleran, the fact they were investigating the death of a close friend (which made me sad) and just the humor offered between Qwill and a child and then Qwill and his girlfriend Polly’s new kitten.

The Mystery at Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene

Oh Nancy Drew, I do love you.

Even though so much of these books are completely unbelievable and silly. I can’t help reading them, though, because even with some silly plot points mixed in, the overall plots actually do hold up and are interesting. The books are like fluffy Angel Food Cake. They just melt in  your mouth – a quick and sweet treat that makes you roll your eyes and giggle and then reach for another one.

This one involved a mystery at an inn (obviously, by the title), Nancy’s identity being stolen, and missing jewels. And as always Carson Drew, Nancy’s father, gave her permission to chase after dangerous people and be nearly killed as long as she was “careful.”

A Troubling Case of Murder on the Menu by Donna Doyle

I shared a review of this one last week. It was cute and sweet without much bite or plot at all. And that was just fine with me. Sometimes we need something like that. The book was only about 100 pages and I’m sure I will read others in this cute and short series.

For a shortened version of the plot: a retired, older woman, decides to start blogging as a  hobby to fill her days now that her husband has passed away. In the process of visiting restaurants to blog about them she stumbles onto a dead body. Emily Cherry is a cute main character and her supporting characters include curious cat Rosemary and her overprotective family and a good friend, Anita.

Night Falls on Predicament Avenue by Jaime Jo Wright

I did not like this book. Let’s just get that out of the way. I liked parts of it and it moved along fast to start with.

Then it got repetitive.

The main character lives in an inn that is known to be haunted and has a history of death. There is a cemetery behind the old Victorian-house that houses the inn. Her sister was found dead near the inn. She is surrounded by death and constantly feels like the bony fingers of death are strangling her (we are told this at the beginning and end of almost every chapter after all) and her life is sad and hopeless because of her sister’s death. She has become almost a recluse. We are reminded of all these things about ten to twenty times throughout the book – in case we forgot the other ten or twenty times it was mentioned.

This is a dual timeline book so there is a mystery in the past and that got a little weird for me because the girl in the past seemed to be falling in love with a married man or a murderer or … who even knows at some points which is the good part of the mystery.

I might  have been able to push a 3.5 stars out for this one if it hadn’t been for the sick and twisted ending that made me want to throw up and gave me the ickiest feeling.

All of this might not have bothered me so much if it wasn’t for the book being promoted as Christian Fiction. I got scolded by a reader for having a long kiss but this book was demented and that same reader gushed over it. Christian readers can be really, really weird at times. Kissing bad. Demented murder and assault good. Ha. Ha. Weird, right?

The Divine Proverb of Streusel by Sara Brunsvold

This book was about a woman (Nikki) who finds out her father has cheated on her mother and is divorcing her and sort of has a mental breakdown.

Her entire foundation of what her family was and what love means is shaken. She is engaged to a man and worries the same could happen to their relationship one day. She takes off to her late grandmother’s house a couple of states away and stays with her uncle who she barely knows to try to find herself. Her uncle (who is her dad’s brother) is in the process of cleaning out his mother’s house. She finds an old cookbook filled with recipes but also wisdom and begins cooking her grandmother’s recipes as a way to distract herself. In the process she begins to learn about her family, including the difficult relationship that her father had with his father.

The bottom line is that I enjoyed this one and it had me thinking about it a couple days later even.

I will have a full review of it up tomorrow.

Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O’Connor

This book follows the story of an Irish family who lost their parents a year before and are working hard to keep the family bistro/café running. The story is told from the perspective of Shioban O’Sullivan, the older sister who was going to go to college but couldn’t when her parents died and she was left to care for her siblings. While they are all trying to adjust to life without their parents, she walks downstairs one morning and finds a dead body in the bistro.

Shioban already has feelings for the Guarda (which is essentially a town cop in Ireland) and things get awkward when she decides she has to help solve the murder after her brother is accused.

I really enjoyed this one, which is the first in a series. The characters are either hilarious, sweet, or obnoxious in a good way and the Irish sense of humor is one I can relate to. There was some swearing in this one but no graphic violence or sex at all.

The Middle Moffat by Eleanor Estes

I read this middle-grade book in March and then read it again with Little Miss. The book is about Jane Moffat, the middle child in the Moffat family. She is a little girl who is being raised with her three other siblings by her mom. Her father has passed away.

The book begins with Jane deciding she would like to be introduced to people as The Middle Moffat. She meets the oldest inhabitant in town that day and a friendship forms when she slips and calls herself the Mysterious Middle Moffat. The oldest inhabitant is a 99-year-old Civil War veteran and thinks it is so funny that she calls herself mysterious and even when she tries to explain that she misspoke (she’d actually been trying to think of additional titles to add to the Middle Moffat) he continues to call her mysterious.

Each time he sees her he taps his nose and calls her mysterious. Jane, in turn, becomes concerned that something might happen to the man before he turns 100 and begins to try to protect him, including spending a day with him one day when it is really foggy because she is concerned he will walk out into the fog and be injured.

Each chapter is a type of story of it’s own, but there are always a few aspects that carry over, including the interactions with the oldest inhabitant.

We ended up reading this book around the same time as the solar eclipse and it worked out perfectly because there is also a chapter about Jane trying to see the solar eclipse with her friend Nancy. We also read a chapter about Jane having friend problems with Nancy around the same time Little Miss was having some issues with her friends.

There was only one chapter we didn’t like as much as felt like it dragged a bit.

I hope to read the other books in this series soon.

Coming up in May

I am already reading two books: Apple Cider Slaying by Julie Anne Lindsey and Operation Rescue by Kari Trumbo.

Apple Cider Slaying is a cozy mystery.

I don’t know that I really want to read Operation Rescue, to be honest, but I agreed to read it to review for Clean Fiction Magazine so it may surprise me and become one I like. It is a Christian Fiction book about a rehab center for people who have been rescued from human trafficking and I think there is going to be some romance mixed in between staff at the rehab center – not with any of the victims who are there for healing, thankfully.

I am reading The Secret Garden with Little Miss and we will finish it this month because we are more than halfway through it already.

I also plan to read The Mysterious Affair of Styles by Agatha Christie. It is the first Hercule Poirot book.

I don’t know if I will get to other books this month since I am a slow reader and am also listening to Around the World in 80 Days on Audible with The Boy but other books, I have on my list this month or next are:

Lost Coast Literary by Ellie Alexander

The Deeds of the Deceitful by Ellery Adams and Tina Radcliffe

Death At A Scottish Christmas by Lucy Connelly

The Women of Wyntons by Donna Mumma

The Real James Herriott by Jim Wight

And

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Right before I published this, though, Little Miss and I went to the library and I picked up The Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski and Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes so those two will probably get bumped in front of some of those in the above list.

How was your reading in April and do you have ideas of what you will read in May or will you just figure it out as you go (which is what I will probably do in the end because I am such a mood reader).

Book recommendation: The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 8 Comments

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.

Sunday Bookends: Under pressure – sinuses that is – lots of cozy mystery love, and lovely warm days

/ Lisa R. Howeler / 15 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.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, Deb at Readerbuzz, and Kathyrn at The Book Date.



What’s Been Occurring

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’m working on book three of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series – Gladwynn Grant Shakes the Family Tree.

What I’m Listening to

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.