Hollyberry Homicide (A Berry Basket Mystery #5)

Author:  Sharon Farrow

Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book

ISBN #:  9781496722621

Kensington Publishing

288 Pages

$7.99; $6.89 Amazon

September 29, 2020

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Considering her name, Marlee Jacob is an obvious choice for the role of Jacob Marley in Oriole Point's production of A Christmas Carol.  It's just sad that the role has opened up because of the death of the elderly actor who'd originally been cast.

But Marlee, the proprietor of The Berry Basket, will do her best to keep spirits high -- that is, until clues start mounting that there's danger behind the scenes.  There are accidents on set, the tree in the village square topples over, and worst of all, a body is found with a sprig of holly draped over it.  If Marlee can't wrap up the case, she may not have a berry merry Christmas...

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Marlee Jacob lives in Oriole Point, Michigan, and owns The Berry Basket, a shop with all things connected to berries of all varieties.  It's nearing Christmas, and she's decorated the shop to within an inch of its life -- leaving barely enough room for employees and customers to move through, much to the consternation of her employees.  

Marlee is attending a model train show with her boyfriend Kit, a homicide detective, when her employee Gillian runs up to her to tell her that she's found a dead man.  When Marlee investigates, she discovers that the elderly man is indeed dead, holding a bag of gingerbread men, with crumbs around his mouth.  While everyone agrees that he died of old age, Marlee isn't sure about that...especially when she discovers that his relatives might have wanted him out of the way and his attorney thinks so, too.  

It seems Everett Hostetter was not a likable man.  Unfortunately, he also played Jacob Marley in the local production of A Christmas Carol for years in return for funding the theater.  When Marlee is pressed into accepting the role, she suddenly becomes a target.  But is it due to the fact that she's asking questions, or the fact that she might actually be getting closer to the answer?...

This is the fifth book in the series and in my estimation the best of the lot.  Marlee has a temporary house guest in Natasha, her Russian friend, who sold her home and is awaiting her condo to be finished, and is a hoot in this book.  Piper is back to being her usual self, obsessed and crazed, but for some odd reason I still enjoy having her around.  But being the holiday, everyone is is busy, and Marlee more so with her added 'appearance' in the play and being nagged by the other actors to learn her lines.

But what's bothering her most is that she knows Everett was murdered, and now she needs to find out why, considering he was ninety-five and probably didn't have many years left anyway.  What ensues is a tale of greed and more greed, all perpetrated by several people who may have been the sole heir to his considerable fortune.  But finding out the correct person may not be as easy as she thinks, and when she starts looking into their pasts, she discovers they all had a reason to want him gone.

We still have the Christmas season interspersed in the story, so it feels like the holiday along with the mystery itself.  I really enjoyed this story and the direction that it's taking everyone's lives, and I do like all Marlee's friends as well.  When the murderer is discovered, it comes as a bit of a surprise, but a good one at that (and I won't say why but anyone who's read my reviews will figure it out soon enough).  In the end, everything comes together nicely and I look forward to the next in the series.  Highly recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Hollyberry-Homicide-Berry-Basket-Mystery/dp/1496722620/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3504282754

More on Sharon Farrow's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/sharon-farrow/

Mulberry Mischief (A Berry Basket Mystery #4)

Author:  Sharon Farrow

Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book

ISBN #:  9781496722614

Kensington Publishing

339 Pages

$7.99; $6.99 Amazon

August 27, 2019

⭐⭐⭐⭐

With the Harvest Health Fair in full swing, Marlee makes sure to stock up on elderberry products for cold and flu season.  But this year there's also a run on mulberry when an eccentric customer wants to use the dried berries to ward off evil forces.  True, it's almost Halloween, but something else seems to be spooking Leticia the Lake Lady, Oriole Point's oddest resident.  She believes someone plans to kill her -- and the ghost.  Only mulberries can protect them.  Marlee doesn't take her fears seriously until a man named Felix Bonaventure arrives in the village, asking questions about a mysterious woman.

The next day, Marlee finds Bonaventure dead on Leticia's property -- shot through the heart with an arrow made of mulberry wood.  And Leticia has disappeared.  Marlee soon learns the Lake Lady has a deadly past that is connected to the famous Sable family who are in town for the health fair.  A bunch of clues start to come together -- and figuring out what's going on puts Marlee in a real jam...

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Marlee Jacobs owns The Berry Basket, a shop in town that deals with all things having to do with berries, including bakery items which are created by her pastry chef, Theo.  She's gearing up for the Harvest Health Fair -- organized by the mayor's wife Piper, who's also asked Marlee to give a speech at the fair about the health benefits of her berries.  But more important, Piper has managed to snag the famous Sable family to give talks, who have a line of books and health items that have created an empire.

But then Marlee gets a strange visit from a local eccentric - Leticia the Lake Lady.  She lives in the woods and rarely ventures out this far, but insists on meeting Marlee by the lighthouse.  What she asks her seems odd - she wants Marlee to get her as many mulberries as she can to ward off the evil of the 'shadow people', telling her that she and the ghost are in danger.  Even though Marlee doesn't understand, she agrees.  But then a man enters her shop looking for Ellen Mulberry and tells her that his name is Felix Bonaventure.  While Marlee isn't sure that Ellen and Leticia are the same woman, she wants to know.  And when she delivers the berries to Leticia's house the next day she doesn't find Leticia, but she does find Felix...shot through the heart with a mulberry arrow.

Now Marlee needs to find Leticia and see if she killed Felix; but when she starts looking for answers, she only finds more questions.  One that lead to a long-ago murder that may have to do with Leticia, and now that she's missing, Marlee finds herself in the middle of another murder investigation, and she might not come out alive from this one...

This is the fourth book in the series and is a very good one.  Although a little more than a third way through the book I knew who the murderer was and, for the most part, the reason why (I read a lot of mysteries); it was still interesting to watch Marlee go through the stages of trying to figure everything out with a little help from her friends Andrew and Dean, brothers who work for her.  

When Marlee finds out the connection she's warned away by more than one person, but when she discovers that an injustice was done, she knows that she needs to set things right, even if it causes her problems.  But she doesn't realize what exactly she's walked into and when she starts to put it together she's warned away.

What I did like about the book this time is that Piper, who's normally concerned with only herself and what she thinks is best for the town, shows that she cares about Marlee in a strange twist later on in the story.  It makes her more likable as a person, and what she did was a very nice thing to do.  As for the other characters, in the same scene they also show that they care about Marlee, and it brings them all closer together.  It was probably one of the best scenes in the book.

When the murderer was discovered, there was, of course, the scene where Marlee was in danger, but this time she was in a very heavy Halloween costume, so that could have caused problems for her, but in the end everything came out right even if there was sadness along the way.  I look forward to the next in the series.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Mulberry-Mischief-Berry-Basket-Mystery/dp/1496722612/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3500777580

More on Sharon Farrow's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/sharon-farrow/

Killed on Blueberry Hill (A Berry Basket Mystery #3)

Author:  Sharon Farrow
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496704900
Kensington Publishing
288 Pages
$7.99; $5.99 Amazon
October 30, 2018

✮✮✮

The Blueberry Blow Out festival has begun and it's time for Marlee Jacob, owner of The Berry Basket, to shine.  Unfortunately it's also bringing out the worst in her fiancé Ryan Zeller.  Ryan's rivalry with Porter Gale, owner of Blueberry Hill Farm, spills over into a very public and very ugly fight.  And after they compete in the pie-eating contest and a raucous tug of war, their orchard blood feud takes a deadly turn...

The death of the king of Blueberry Hill is a shock but not too surprising - he was a diabetic whose last pig out meal was deliciously fatal.  But when authorities discover that someone tampered with Porter's insulin, a tragic accident is looking like murder - and Ryan is the key ingredient.  Now Marlee's investigation to clear his name is taking her deep into the Gale family secrets, and she's being shadowed every step of the way by a killer whose sweet revenge is just beginning...

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Marlee Jacobs is the owner of The Berry Basket in Oriole Point, Michigan, a store that sells all things related to berries.  She's participating in The Blueberry Blow Out festival, not only having a booth for her wares, but also sponsoring one of the carnival rides, a bounce house (although technically, this isn't a ride, is it?)

She's also having second thoughts about her upcoming marriage to Ryan Zellar, never more so than when she watches his behavior with rival grower Porter Gale, who manages to push Ryan's buttons.  When Ryan attacks Porter, Marlee leaves to cool off and rethink everything that's occurred.  When she returns to the fair, she finds Ryan.  Not too long after while they're walking they hear screams, and realize that something is wrong with Porter's young wife Sloane.  But it's not Sloane that's in trouble - Porter is taken off the ride they've been on and it turns out that he's dead.  What shocks Marlee is Ryan's reaction to the death, and it's not good.

But she soon learns that Porter was murdered, and Ryan is the main suspect.  While Marlee may be having regrets about her engagement, she knows Ryan's not a killer.  She also finds out that more people than Ryan had problems with Porter, including his own sister, who hated him since she discovered that their father left everything to Porter and nothing to her and her children.

Now she needs to clear Ryan's name, and in order to do so must try and discover who has the most to gain, and who hated Porter the most.  Will she find a killer before a killer finds her?...

This is the third book in the series, and I have to say that I enjoyed it much more than the other two, which fell mostly flat for me.  Marlee has finally developed a backbone where Ryan is concerned; in the previous books she allowed him to push her around and control her and I hate that.  Unfortunately, Marlee is still very much just walking up to people and questioning them.  I'm honestly surprised no one has turned on her yet.  If she hounded me with questions the way she does everyone else, when I saw her coming I'd cross to the other side of the street.  She's not subtle, and she's invasive.  Marlee needs to learn that she's not a police officer, or change the way she questions people.  Seriously.

I also still don't care for the fact that the author compares people to actors and book characters rather than describing them.  The reason for this is, as a reader, I prefer to picture characters in my imagination.  If I'm told they look like an actor or an animated character, I can't picture them any other way.  It's not pleasant to imagine the cartoon character of Alice in Wonderland walking down the street next to Sandra Bullock.  Rather disturbing, actually.  So my personal preference is for the author to describe the character, not tell us someone they look like.

Anyway, I did like this story a bit more than the previous ones, and there weren't as many issues with it, which is always a good thing.  The plot was interesting, and there were enough twists to keep one interested throughout.  A decent book to read for an evening.

https://www.amazon.com/Killed-Blueberry-Berry-Basket-Mystery/dp/1496704908/ref=

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2725682870

More on Sharon Farrow's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/sharon-farrow/

Blackberry Burial (A Berry Basket Mystery #2)

Author:  Sharon Farrow
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496704887
Kensington Publishing
320 Pages
$7.99; $3.99 Amazon
October 31, 2017

✮✮✮

As owner of The Berry Basket, Marlee Jacob has learned a thing or two about surviving the summer tourist season in Oriole Point.  So she gladly agrees to help run the annual road rally in honor of the local Blackberry Art School's centenary celebration.  While alumni arrive from around the country, Marlee hopes the expansive Sanderling farm will make an appropriate starting point for the race - despite rumors that the land is cursed...

But when Marlee surveys the property, she stumbles upon a long-dead body hidden in the bramble.  It's a horrifying mystery to everyone except her baker, who's convinced the skeletal remains belong to a former student who had gone missing twenty years earlier.  As the Fourth of July activities heat up, Marlee must rush to catch an elusive murderer - before the next 'blackberry victim' is ripe for the picking!

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Marlee Jacobs owns The Berry Basket, a store centered around berries (obviously) in Oriole Point, Michigan.  She's helping Piper Lyall-Pierce with the Blackberry Road Rally; the person who owns the land where they were going to start has backed out and they need a new place, so with Marlee's suggestion of using the Sanderling place, the two of them - along with Piper's Great Dane - head out to see if it will be suitable.  But when they arrive, the Great Dane escapes and heads to the woods, with Marlee in chase.  But when she finds him, he's digging at something and she sees that he's unearthed a skeleton.  With a call to the police, they're stuck where they are for the moment.

After returning to town, it's not long before the remains are identified - by an unlikely source - and the hunt is on for who buried the woman in the woods and why.  As Marlee starts to dig for answers, she doesn't realize that the closer she gets the more some people are noticing, and one of them wants her out of the way...permanently...

While I really wanted to like this book, I found myself rolling my eyes several times.  Some scenes were just unbelievable.  When her friend Natasha leaves a Yorkie puppy at Marlee's shop (in Natasha's handbag), somehow the little dog escapes and manages to terrorize the people in the shop.  A Yorkie puppy?  A Yorkie?  Really?  Also, this tiny thing also manages to jump into the display window.  Are Marlee's windows only a foot off the ground?  Because the ones I've seen are higher than that, and a puppy couldn't jump into them.  I also have to note that the dogs portrayed in this book are not trained.  They do whatever they want with the owners merely accepting it.

Marlee's also not the brightest bulb in the box.  At one point she asks one of the detectives if they think more bodies were buried in the woods.  Is this place a hot spot for murders to get rid of bodies?  Find one, there must be more?  Just bring your unwanted bodies to Oriole Point and dump them in the woods!  Honestly?  She's also unlikable as a person, and invasive in asking questions of people.  She walks right up to them and wants answers, like she thinks she's a police officer.  Her boyfriend Ryan is just as unlikable, and he never spends any time with her; he seems awfully controlling.

Then there's the fact that somehow Marlee's driving can rival Jeff Gordon's.  It's a wonder she's not out on the track along with Danica Patrick.  Another eye roll.  It's amazing no one was thrown, no one was hurt.  Not realistic.

In the end, the mystery was just so-so; probably because I got tired of Marlee's behavior.  Maybe I expected a better reason for her to involve herself in the investigation, I don't know.  But the book just never drew me in the way others do.  However, I try to give authors the benefit of the doubt, and will read the third in the series before I decide whether to continue on with it or not.

Also, as a bit of trivia in response to something Dean mentioned in the book as to Goya's Naked Maja (which was actually titled The Nude Maja and is coupled with another Goya painting, the Clothed Maja; the Naked Maja was a film based on it) her identity is unknown.  The film took liberties to showcase Ava Gardner.

https://www.amazon.com/Blackberry-Burial-Berry-Basket-Mystery/dp/1496704886/ref=

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2721996645

More on Sharon Farrow's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/sharon-farrow/

Dying for Strawberries (A Berry Basket Mystery #1)

Author:  Sharon Farrow
Genre:  Mystery

Mass Market Paperback: Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496704863
Kensington Publishing
288 Pages
$7.99; $4.99 Amazon
October 25, 2016

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Much has changed for Marlee Jacob since she returned to Oriole Point, Michigan, three years ago.  Between running the Berry Basket, dodging local gossip, and whipping up strawberry muffins, smoothies, and margaritas to celebrate the town's first annual Strawberry Moon Bash, the twenty-nie-year-old hardly has time for her fiancé, let alone grim memories of her old life in New York...

But unfortunately for Marlee, Oriole Point is muddled with secrets of its own.  First her friend Natasha disappears after an ominous dream.  Next the seediest man in town threatens to crush her business.  Then an unknown person nearly kills her on the night of the Bash.  When she discovers a dead body while searching for Natasha, Marlee realizes she'll have to foil a killer's plot herself - before the past permanently stains her future.

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Marlee Jacob owns The Berry Basket, a business in the touristy town of Oriole Point, Michigan, selling berry-related items.  After a run-in with the town's bully, Cole Bowman, who has promised he won't renew Marlee's lease, effectively closing her business, she's stunned; as are the rest of the townspeople, but for a different reason:  it seems Cole has come into ownership of Strawberry Fields, a parcel adjoining the town, and plans to turn it commercial, allowing chains into their little village that will probably put the local businesses out of business.  What Marlee doesn't understand is how the four members of the council could approve such a move, since they are also local business owners; and blurts out at the meeting that they were either bribed or blackmailed into agreeing to it.

When Marlee is attacked on the night of the Strawberry Moon Bash, and no one will believe her, she's determined to find out who wants her dead.  And when Cole's wife Natasha goes missing, she's convinced he's killed her, and decides to investigate on her own.  She doesn't find Natasha, but she does find Cole...dead in his home.

Now she's convinced that he was killed by one of the members of the council, and learns that Piper and Lionel have hired detectives to dig up secrets.  So Marlee decides to question each of them on her own, hoping to find out first if one of those secrets were terrible enough to cause one of them to kill Cole, and attempt murdering her.  But it just might get her killed instead...

I don't like giving mediocre reviews, but I will tell you right off that I'm not compromising myself by giving a great one just to make everyone happy.  Sometimes a book isn't a stinker, but it still makes it hard to slog through.  This, unfortunately, was one of those books.

It almost lost me at the beginning when Marlee apparently carries around an EpiPen because her boyfriend Ryan is allergic to bees.  He works at his family's orchards, but allergic to bees - right.  I carry one, but my husband doesn't because I'm not always with him.  After all, he's not the one having an attack, so why would he need it?  It's one thing to carry one for your minor child, but for another adult?  It's also illegal.  How stupid is Ryan that he would "forget" to carry it?  I've never forgotten - not once.  It just didn't make sense.  And therein, folks, lies the problem.  Beginning a book with something that just doesn't make any sense can skew the rest of the book for the reader.

Just because she was attacked she thinks it's perfectly fine to go around investigating peoples' pasts?  Pasts that have nothing to do with her and she has no business knowing at all?  At least it will be interesting in future books with the enemies she's made by doing that (surely these people can't be so forgiving that they ignore the fact she's forced them to tell her things they never wanted anyone to know.)  If I had even one of these secrets, I'd keep her out of my life forever.  A person like this has no boundaries.

Not to mention that Ryan is a royal jerk.  I was hoping he was the murderer (sorry, he's not.)  Why on earth she's interested in him is beyond me.  Just because a guy's 'hot' doesn't make him a keeper.  I have news for Marlee: if a man is hiding his past from you when you're going to be his wife, run as fast as you can in the other direction...because he'll do things in the future that he wants to hide from you, too.  (One can only hope he "forgets" his EpiPen in a future book and actually does bite the dust.)  He treats her like a child, acts like her business isn't as important as his, and isn't around when she needs him.  It also kind of seemed like she just capitulated when he wanted her; there was no sizzle between them, no connection, no real reason they're together at all.

And at the last, why would a reputable news source keep revisiting a TV chef's murder every single year?  It wouldn't happen.  It's not that riveting.  There were also little things like comparing every character to anther person/book character (Ryan Gosling, Jasmine from Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland, etc.), and calling Drake a witch (a male witch is a Warlock) - Drake should have corrected her - better yet, the author should have known this fact before adding it to the story (yes, I know some male witches find it derogatory, but it still is a fact).

When the murderer was revealed, the killer wasn't really a revelation, and I had figured it out long before, but I will say that the reason for the murder was unexpected.  Since this is the first in a new series, I have given leeway that the author is still honing her craft, and I will probably read the second one.

https://www.amazon.com/Dying-Strawberries-Berry-Basket-Mystery/dp/149670486X/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28814310-dying-for-strawberries

More on Sharon Farrow's Books:            https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/sharon-farrow/