Nine Lives and Alibis by Cate Conte

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

I am a very novice gardener. I will probably always be a novice gardener. This year, I have a nemesis in the garden that is not myself. There is this bunny. Of course, there are probably several but I just see one at a time, so I am pretending that there is just one. I have been calling him Peter and feel that in this plot I have taken on the role of Mr. McGregor. I feel bad complaining about a little bunny but really, it has mowed down multiple plants and seedlings. I am quite irritated about it. I have been spraying that foul smelling stuff that will supposedly keep bunnies and deer away. I am not quite sure it works but it does sometimes. I have now also fenced in the vegetable garden part of the garden in hopes that I can keep that creature off the vegetables. It is too late for my eggplant. I was going to try to grow eggplant for the first time but there is just a stub left. Also, I was trying to re-introduce coneflowers and those two plants were attacked. They might survive; we’ll see next year.

How silly to be fighting a battle against a tiny, cute bunny but sometimes that is how life goes.

I suppose if I had an outside cat then I wouldn’t have to worry about rabbits. But I don’t. Wonder why I brought up cats? It is my lede into today’s book.

Nine Lives and Alibis: A Cat Café Mystery is today’s cozy mystery. Apparently, this is the seventh book in the series. I had no idea that it was part of a series. That is the good news. This book can stand alone without any knowledge of the series.

Maddie James is our main detective. She is not with the police but on the small island where she lives, she knows them all. In fact, her grandfather used to be the chief of police. In this book, the town is getting ready for a big Halloween celebration. Maddie and her partner own the coffee and cat shop on the island. Coffee and cat shop, you ask. The coffee shop has an arrangement with the local shelter to have cats in the coffee shop with the hopes that they will be adopted.

Here might be the spot to say that I am not a cat lover like the people in the book appear to be. Cats are fine; I have even owned cats. I don’t have anything against them, but this island appears to have a serious cat problem. There are so many cats ready to be adopted!

As part of the town Halloween celebration (which was created to bring tourists to the town before it shuts down for the winter.) A celebrated medium, Balfour Dempsey, is coming to be the headliner. He is going to stay at the local inn which has two unsolved mysteries in its past along with other various ghosts. Balfour is a hometown boy; he wasn’t born in the town, but his mother raised him there. He doesn’t come back to see his mother often because he is so busy. His mother is a retired dental hygienist who is doing some part time work for the local paper.

Maddie’s good friend Becky is the editor of the local paper and is sure that Balfour will be able to solve the town’s unsolved mysteries. It seems that 40 years ago an investment banker was in town and fell down the elevator shaft from the top floor of the town’s hotel and died. It was not an accident and the police had never been able to solve the crime. A few days after the banker died, a maid from the hotel disappeared and was never found. Becky felt it would be quite a coup if the medium was able to solve the crimes.

On the first night, Balfour is in town, he shocks everyone by announcing that he is retiring from public life. He doesn’t want to be the showman any longer. He would like to use his powers to help the police solve unsolved crimes. This announcement took his staff of four by surprise and not in a good way.

As part of the weekend of festivities, there were appointments set up for the public to be able to have individual meetings with Balfour. The rich elderly town matriarch came to Maddie and told her that she needed to give her the first appointment with Balfour and that no one could know she was going to him. That she would go in via a back entrance and leave the same way. While Maddie thought it was odd, the large check from the woman convinced Maddie that it would be worthwhile to get the appointment set up and keep her mouth closed.

It is right after that appointment takes place that the alarm goes up that Balfour is missing. Maddie and his mother go looking around the cliffs behind the hotel. They see someone at the bottom of the cliffs and call the police.

Thus starts the “who done it”. Who pushed Balfour and why? Did he know the answer to the two mysteries? As the crime unfolds, Maddie finds that she didn’t know the townspeople the way she thought that she did.

I did like the story and really wanted to find out the end. I did guess correctly at various times in the story, but it was still interesting and well worth reading. There were times that I felt bogged down with some information but overall, I liked it and was happy that I read it. I suggest that you might want to check it out also.

Thanks for reading!

I was given a copy of the book in exchange for my unbiased review.  

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Verity Kent Series by Anna Lee Huber

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

I am back to talk about another mystery series. These books readily available from my local library both in book and eBook form.

I know how I found this series. (a rare event) The latest in the series came out recently and my local bookstore had an event where a local mystery writer (Erica Ruth Neubauer) was going to interview the author. I did not attend the event, but I kept a note about the author and then read the books in order.

I am, I admit, a bit of a stickler about reading books in sequence. While not always necessary, it does help to follow the character development. And, of course. In some books it makes a huge difference. (I’m looking at you, Louise Penny!)

The first book in the Verity Kent series by Anna Lee Huber is This Side of Murder. We are from the beginning introduced to Verity Kent. She is introduced as a war widow. She was told that her wonderful husband of not quite a year was killed in the war. She did not take the news well but to keep going, she worked in the British secret service helping with the war effort.

As the story opens, she is on her way to a house party to celebrate the engagement of one of her husband’s friends. She doesn’t know who is invited to the party or why she was invited. She turned down the invitation but then received an anonymous message that intrigued her enough that she decided to go. Once at the party, the guests seem oddly unhappy with each other. Then another anonymous note is under her pillow. The note tells her not to trust anyone at the party. And then guests start dying. Was it suicide? As she tries to figure out the strained undercurrent, she finds she is attracted to one of the guests. But then she receives a huge shock.

The series is entertaining. It is one of those that you can envision becoming a movie or series. The descriptions of the clothes of the day remind me of the Miss Fischer series. The descriptions are not overdone but you are given a look at what Verity Kent (and others) wear.

The series is 5 books at this point. And I think you need to read these books in order. Not only because you won’t understand Verity and her partner, but other characters carry through and some parts are not resolved in a book. There is a bad guy who is part of 4 of the books and it is not resolved in the 5th book.

The five books in order are as follows:

This Side of Murder

Treacherous is the Night

Penny for Your Secrets

A Pretty Deceit

Murder Most Fair

Thanks for reading!

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The Deja Glitch by Holly James

Posted on August 1, 2023 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

So much to read and so little time! I feel that way all the time. I see books and think “oh, I need to read that.”  But then I have such a long list of those books.

Do you get the daily email from Book Bub? It is a horrible thing is you are a book buyer! I say that because most of the books featured are $2.99, $1.99. or $0.99. So easy to spend that small amount of money, right? And that is how my Kindle reader is so full of books to read!

Just to break out of the genre “rut” I have been in lately, I have a book for you that is not a cozy mystery. I don’t think I would call it a romance novel although it might be a romantic comedy.

The Deja Glitch opens with Gemma in a bar celebrating her best friend, Lila’s birthday. Gemma is more of a homebody than her friend. She is thinking of leaving when Lila points out that Gemma has an admirer that she should talk to. Gemma does but still leaves the bar to go home to her dog.

The next morning, Gemma is in a coffee shop and this handsome stranger accidentally knocks into her and dumps her coffee order all over her. They start talking. She feels like he is familiar but isn’t sure how she would know him. But he convinces her to start talking. She is attracted to him, but he seems to know things about her. As the day goes on, he tells her that they have been replaying the same day for months and that he is trying hard to find out how to break their “Groundhog Day” situation.

I liked the book. It was different and well thought out. It was a different premise and had some plot twists that belong in romantic comedies. There is not only the romance between the couple, but we learn about Gemma’s closeness to her brother and her distance from her father.

I think that it is a good book to keep you guessing.

Thanks for reading.

I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

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The Madwomen of Paris by Jennifer Cody Epstein

Posted on July 20, 2023 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

Do you ever go to hear an author speak? I don’t go nearly enough but I do always enjoy it. Whether they are talking about their characters or their process, I find it interesting. Do they plot the entire book out in advance or start with a concept and let the characters lead the way? Are they funny in person and chilling on paper? Just what are they like? Could you be friends?

I am lucky to have a fantastic local bookstore. They have authors all the time and there is a video library of the talks available on their website. Some of the talks aren’t long but that is almost better, right? It is easy to find a little time to listen rather than a long time to listen. I urge you to check out the website, www.boswellbooks.com, and see all they have to offer. Also, buy a book or two from them to support all the things they do. And check out your own local indie bookstore. They might have the same programming.

By the way, I read recently (an elastic term) that Barnes and Noble had bounced back from extinction because they decided to let each bookstore buy and supply the market for where they are. So perhaps the store in Glendale, Wisconsinm needs a lot of books on Wisconsin native plants while the store in Evanston, IL, needs lots of books on Jane Austin. Each bookstore can now supply its customers with the books they want. What a great idea!

The Madwomen of Paris is a historical fiction book about Laure, an attendant at the Salpetiere Asylum outside of Paris. The asylum is run by the famous Dr. Charcot who treats women who have “hysteria” and lunacy. Laure was a patient at the asylum but was deemed to be “cured” but without any family to return to, she started working at the asylum. It is hard work and her direct supervisor dislikes her because she knows that Laure is smarter than she is.

Laure is assigned to help the woman that Dr. Charcot uses in his demonstrations. Dr. Charcot uses his demonstrations to show people how susceptible women who have hysteria can be. As the book opens, the patient that has become famous for being his demonstration patient makes the mistake of trying to show up the doctor. She is quickly replaced by Josephine who is very susceptible to hypnosis and beautiful, so the crowds love her. As she gets better, she is sure she had committed a crime and is afraid that she will be arrested. In the meantime, Laure is looking to reunite with her younger sister who had been placed in the French foster system and then lost.

The Madwomen of Paris is an interesting read. There is the part about how women were treated and the state of medicine at the time. Then the story of Laure and Josephine. It is a bit more complex than most beach reads but very readable.

Thanks for reading!

This book was given to me in exchange for my unbiased review.

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Cozy Case Files, Volume 18

Posted on July 18, 2023 by Carol Early Cooney

Dear Fellow Reader,

Do you often read books that you have no idea why you picked up this book?  I will get notices from the Library that I have a book to pick up and when I get it I am completely lost as to why I wanted that book.

Well, it has happened again.

I picked up today’s book and when I figured out what it was, all I could think was that I wasn’t paying attention to what I was doing. This book was given to me in exchange for my unbiased review.

Cozy Case Files, Volume 18 is the first few chapters of 11 different cozy mysteries. All the cozies are spring 2023 releases. I would think that the concept was to help you find a book that is of interest to you from the group. I don’t think this concept worked for me. Yes, I went through and read all of it. There were several that seemed interesting but not enough to get me to go and hunt down the book. When you go from one to another that quickly, they all just get lumped together.

Now, this “book” is available free as an eBook at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Kobo so if you are looking for a new cozy to read, this could be the way for you to look at the newest. Not a bad idea but if you are like me, you need to stop and get the books as you go rather than read them all and then think about going back. There were three books in the compendium that I had read and reviewed. Those three are as follows:

Hard Dough Homicide (https://cecooney.com/2023/06/27/hard-dough-homicide-a-spice-isle-bakery-mystery-by-olivia-matthews/)

Ashes to Ashes, Crust to Crust (https://cecooney.com/2023/06/13/ashes-to-ashes-crust-to-crust-by-mindy-quigley/)

The Last Drop of Hemlock by Katharine Schellman (https://cecooney.com/2023/07/10/the-last-drop-of-hemlock-by-katharine-schellman/)

So, if you are a cozy fan, I suggest that you pick up the free eBook and check out some new authors and their latest books.

Thanks for reading!

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