Saving Cecil (A Cleo Cooper Mystery #3)

Author:  Lee Mims
Genre:  Mystery

Four Stars

Extracting precious gas from a deposit in North Carolina is a dirty, dangerous job.  Geologist Cleo Cooper won't let the distraction of a dead body found near the drill site interrupt her focus-until the county sheriff Cleo never wanted to see again arrives on the scene.

Twenty-five years ago, tragedy fell on Cleo's family, creating a rift between her and her father that has never healed.  And Sheriff Clyde Stuckey was the cause.  Now Cleo can't help but remember the painful events she thought were buried by history as she tries to steer clear of a powerful man who's hell-bent on making her suffer.

********

Cleo Cooper has been hired by a dairy farm to do geology prep - after all, that's what she does best since she's a geologist.  While out scouting for sites one morning, she stumbles across the dead body of a young man, Clinton Baker - who has been both stabbed and shot with an arrow through the back.  After checking vitals and finding none, she reports the body immediately.  What she doesn't count on, however, is that Sheriff Clyde Stuckey would investigate, along with a young detective.

Sheriff Stuckey was the cause of the loss of Cleo's family - her mother's death and her father's incarceration (now released) for a murder he didn't commit.  And now the sheriff is doing everything he can think of to convict Cleo of the murder - never mind that she didn't know the victim, and had no stake in profiting in any way from his death.

Along with this, there is the upcoming wedding between Cleo and her ex-husband, Bud, all being planned by their now-grown children, Will and Henri.  Cleo doesn't want anything to do with a big, splashy wedding, but Bud does, and so does her daughter, the actual bridezilla, who is turning into a whirling dervish over the entire affair.

Even though Cleo is told by Detective Chris Bryant  to stay out of it, she doesn't, mainly because she's been accused, and partly because there has been an apparent attempt on her life, which she isn't sharing with anyone but the detective.  

I enjoyed the book for the most part, and I understand that Ms. Sims is a geologist; but unless you're interested in the subject, it gets boring fast.  I don't mind a little information regarding the drilling and what they're doing, but when it goes on for pages, I lose interest.  I don't go to drill sites, and unless others who read this book do, they probably wouldn't find that part interesting, either.  Give us enough information to let us know what's going on, but don't overload our senses with things we don't care about.  (The same goes for any mystery, really.)  

But back to the book:  We get to the murder almost immediately, and then it seemed to have taken a back seat to the drilling, the geology, and the information on finding the fossil.  There were a lot of back stories involved; those already mentioned and also the wedding and the hatred between Cleo's dad and Sheriff Stuckey (although it is never explained why they have always hated each other, just why it escalated, which,  I suppose, is good enough for now.  I would also have liked to have known why Cleo and Bud divorced in the first place, since they seem quite in love with each other.

The bits and pieces about the wedding that was being planned by the children really never seemed to jibe to my ears.  This was a remarriage, a second marriage, and why anyone would want a huge, expensive extremely formal affair that cost an arm and a leg (even if you can afford it) seems rather odd to me.  It somehow seemed over the top in the long run.  There was also a kind of 'ick' factor in that Cleo keeps remarking on Detective Bryant's 'hotness' when he's interested in her daughter.  A tad uncomfortable.

Four stars for the writing (very good,) and the mystery.  Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Cecil-Cleo-Cooper-Mystery/dp/0738734276/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1255889238

Bite the Biscuit (A Barkery & Biscuits Mystery #1)

WAuthor:  Linda A. Johnston
Genre:  Mystery

Four Stars

Veterinary technician Carrie Kennersly has become known for offering healthy dog treats at the clinic where she works. So when the owner of the local bakery moves away, Carrie jumps at the chance to buy the business and convert half of it into the Barkery, a shop where she can make and sell her canine delights.

But Myra Ethman, co-owner of another pet product store, hates the new competition. At the Barkery’s opening party, she badmouths Carrie’s homemade dog biscuits, insisting she’ll find a way to shut the place down. When Myra is found dead with a Barkery biscuit beside her, Carrie must prove she didn’t do it before she’s collared for murder.

********

Carrie Kennersly, a veterinary technician, bought her friend Brenda's bakery, Icing on the Cake, and decided to "halve it," by keeping one half the bakery, and using the other half (separated) as the "Barkery," a bakery for dogs.  This way she can also proceed with her real love, baking healthy treats for dogs.  On the day of the grand re-opening, she is confronted by Myra Ethman, who manages the town's resort and owns the Pet Emporium.  Myra has shown up merely to make Carrie's life miserable.  She wastes no time making big noises, telling anyone who will listen that the products are inferior and they'd be fools to buy anything; doing her best to ruin the business before it even gets started.  For the most part, Carrie manages to maintain her composure, but after Myra finally leaves, she's had enough, and makes a statement to the effect that she will do anything to keep Myra from shutting her down.

So when Myra is murdered that evening, she is found with a broken dog biscuit next to her body - one stamped with the Barkery logo, and the police are convinced Carrie killed her.  Carrie knows she didn't kill Myra, and that someone placed the biscuit there to convict her.  But who?  There were so many people in and out of the Barkery the day before, it seems impossible to decide who did it.  But that isn't going to stop our intrepid amateur investigator...

So Carrie goes about trying to figure out who the real killer is without being too obvious about it, even dragging one of her employers - Dr. Reed Storme - with her to the resort for dinner in order to question people.    Yet for all her questions and suspicions that one of Myra's family members might have done the deed, she never really gets close to the guilty party and has a lot of false starts before she figures it out.  I'm not crazy about Dr. Storme, though, even though Carrie likes him.

The thing that bothered me about this book was the cops.  The two investigating officers don't appear to be very nice people, and are probably either the densest or laziest cops I've ever read about.  She has an argument the night before, in front of tons of witnesses, and she automatically becomes not the most likely, but the only suspect.  Yes, that makes her a suspect.  But the more we learn about this woman, the more we find out people didn't even like her (no spoiler, you figure that out almost immediately.)  No one else was even considered, even though the cops say others were eliminated.  I would think the cops would know that the dog biscuit would be too convenient, and figured out immediately she was being set up and proceeded to try and find out why and who would want to do that.  They don't even suspect she was being set up.  The argument she had and the dog biscuit are enough to convict her; they just need the confession.

A good enough start to a new series, and well worth the read.  Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Bite-Biscuit-Barkery-Biscuits-Mystery/dp/0738745030/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1253986263

Dying Brand (An Allison Campbell Mystery Book 3)

Author:  Wendy Tyson
Genre:  Mystery

Five Stars

When Image Consultant Allison Campbell attends an awards ceremony to honor a designer friend, she's thrust into a murder investigation.  Only this time, it's personal.

A former boyfriend is dead, slain on the streets of Philadelphia. His widow claims he was meeting with Allison, yet Allison hadn't spoken to him in years. Nothing about his death—or life—makes sense. When compromising photos from their past arrive at Allison’s office, they raise more questions than they answer.

Driven to find justice, Allison deconstructs the image her ex had created for himself, looking for clues about the man he’d become. As her hunt for the truth unveils secrets, Allison’s past and present collide—with deadly results.

********

Allison Campbell is a successful Image Consultant.  She helps people not only look good for the job they either have or want to have, but helps them with their personal well-being; learning how to act, breathe, feel confident, etc.

While attending a former client's award dinner, she receives an odd text from the wife of an old client - and ex-lover.  It seems Scott Fairweather has died, murdered - and his widow, Leah, wants to know why Allison's name was on his calendar for that day.  She is convinced that Allison has continued her affair with Scott (even though it was ended before Scott married,) and nothing Allison says is convincing her otherwise.

But now Allison is curious as to why.  And if she wasn't sure she wanted to get involved, she soon receives an unmarked manila envelope with photos inside - photos of her and Scott in compromising positions.  Photos, that if leaked, could cause serious problems in her relationship with Jason, her ex-husband and current love.

Although Jason and Allison are divorced, they're still deeply in love and planning a new future together, although right now they're still in the 'planning stages.'  Allison had a short fling with Scott when she was newly separated, and since it's been several years since she saw him, doesn't understand why her name would be on his calendar.

Allison finds out that Scott's death was highly suspicious, and highly out of character for him, so she starts investigating on her own, and things begin to heat up.  She starts digging for the truth, and soon finds herself in a tunnel that she may not be able to find her way out of.

The more she digs, the thicker the walls seem to be; and when she receives another envelope with more pictures, she's even more sure that Scott's death wasn't as random as the police seem to think it was - a drug deal gone bad.

With the help of Vaughn, her business manager and friend, his brother Jamie, her computer expert, and Mia, Jason's mother, Allison is discovering that Scott may have been in over his head, and some things are better left alone.  Even warnings to stay out of it by both friends and enemies, Allison presses on, and by the time she finds out what she's been searching for, it may be too late to save even herself.

I also enjoyed the fact that the personal lives of not only Allison and Jason are taken into new territory, but the lives of others in her circle are affected in their lives as well.  For while Allison is trying to navigate her life with Jason yet keeping him from finding out about Scott, her absent sister Amy appears with a problem of her own and needs Allison's help.  It is here that we find out more about Allison as a human being, and how she deals with personal problems, regardless of the outcome.

As the third book in the Allison Campbell mysteries, it can be read as a stand-alone, but I also recommend you read the first two, Killer Image and Deadly Assets.  A first-class mystery and welcome addition to the series.  Kudos to Ms. Tyson.  Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Allison-Campbell-Mystery-Volume/dp/1941962599/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1249566062

Slayed on the Slopes (A Pacific Northwest Mystery Book 2)

Author:  Kate Dyer-Seeley
Genre:  Mystery

Five Stars

After talking her way into a job writing for Portland's Northwest Extreme magazine, Meg Reed may now really be in over her head. Actually, about 8,000 feet over her head. . .

She's at Mount Hood's remote Silcox Hut, covering the the seriously hardcore Ridge Rangers-- Oregon's elite high-altitude rescue team--during their four-day winter training. Sure, Meg beefed up her outdoor skills over the summer . . . but she's still hoping to cover the event with some hot chocolate by the cheery fireplace. Then, during a sudden blizzard, she swears she hears gunshots. No one stranded in the hut believes her . . . until self-absorbed Ridge Ranger Ben Rogers is found outside in a pool of frozen blood. Meg's now got to find this killer quickly . . . before cabin fever does them all in!

********

Meg Reed works for an outdoor sports magazine, even though she doesn't do any outdoor sports.  Which her boss, Greg, doesn't know, because Meg keeps answering in the affirmative every time he asks her about it.  Meg needed a job, and when Greg made the offer, she jumped at the chance, because she wanted to be a writer and reporter, just like her late father, Charlie Reed.

But Meg's learning to adapt to her environment.  She's invited to do a story on the newly-founded Ridge Rangers, a high-altitude rescue team-in-training.  She's going up 7,000 feet with them, to stay at the Silcox Hut, and watch them as they practice.  But before anyone can even start, there's a blizzard the first night and the team's financial backer Ben Rogers, goes missing and is later found under a picnic table, shot dead.

Meg at first thinks her friend Henry, who brought a gun along, might be the killer.  But having been with his former rescue group, the Crag Rats, just recently, soon banishes that thought and begins seeking clues as to who might have actually done the deed.  Even though she's warned away by Greg.  And Sheriff Daniels, the investigating officer, who also happens to be courting her Grandmother, 'Gam.'

As if that weren't enough, she's stuck with a bridezilla in the form of Malory, who's engaged to one of the rangers, Jackson Hughes, who is also a doctor.  Then there's Lola, the sort-of housemother who has a secret of her own, Clint, who left the Rats to become a Ranger, and when she finally makes it down the mountain she runs into her best friend Jill, who is there to attend a wedding, along with her boyfriend, Will, whom Meg doesn't like at all, and a surprise in Matt, her maybe-could be-wannabe friend/boyfriend.

Needless to say, it all makes for one interesting book.  From the first night when we meet the obnoxious Ben and the rest of the Rangers, and right through the end of the book, there are a lot of red herrings along the way, with Meg constantly receiving false information (inadvertently) and mixed signals from all of her 'suspects.'

Using the excuse that she's naturally curious because she's a reporter, she keeps on digging where she should have let things lie.  And soon enough, it becomes clear that someone wants her to say out of it all - permanently.

A delightful read and worthy endeavor to the second in the series.  I'm eager to read the next one as soon as it is published.  Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Slayed-Slopes-Pacific-Northwest-Mystery/dp/1617730009/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1244002157

A Terrible State

Author:  Kathryn Nelson
Genre:  Non-Fiction

Four Stars

'...The glaring fact, that this is my country, by its careless consideration with regards to journalistic control had allowed to occur, the devastation and destruction of its beloved child: Child of Ireland, lover of Ireland, now victim of Ireland's indifference.'

Kathryn Nelson had enjoyed successful careers as a teacher and then an international advisor, relishing her life and work in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.  Her world came crashing down around her when she was wrongly implicated in money laundering after the biggest bank robbery of the time, when robbers had walked out of the Northern Bank in Belfast with 26.5m pounds in cash.

********

Kathryn Nelson was accused of a crime, that being the theft of millions in pounds from a bank in Belfast, Ireland.  This book is the story of her journey towards the reclamation of her reputation, which had been shredded by the Irish media.

She tells us of her state of mind, and goes from incredulity, fear, shame, depression, and anger.  She tells of a long journey, nearly six years, to fight her way back and regain her good name.  She endures physical as well as mental and emotional pain, trying every which way she can to garner the help she needs to achieve this, asking anyone she knows for advice and a way to start her on this journey.  It is interesting to watch her travel from the lowest rung of the ladder back to the highest.

What happened to Kathryn was devastating, life-changing, and indeed, terrible.  The scariest fact is that is could have happened anywhere to anyone, not just to Kathryn.  The merest acquaintance of someone could have harsh consequences.  But Kathryn refused to be a victim, and fought back as hard as she could.

Then why only four stars:  Because of things like repeatedly calling herself "a Kildare woman," as if this had significance.  It obviously means something to her, but to those of us not of Ireland, no.  Tell us why this is significant enough to mention it several times.  And because of the repetition of words such as Garda/Gardi, which, after seeing it often, I took to mean 'police officer.'  If you're not in Ireland, unless you read Irish books or speak the language, you probably won't know what it means.  

When Kathryn finally finds justice, it is sort of an anticlimax.  Yes, she received vindication (not really a spoiler, since it's all in the blurb) but I would have liked to have known what happened to the people that actually libeled her in the press.  I would have liked to have known more about her past and what exactly an 'international advisor' does.  

At the last, I hope that Kathryn regains the joy she feels she has lost and is able to trust and be happy again.  Recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Terrible-State-Kathryn-Nelson/dp/1784551007/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1242231499

The Icing on the Corpse (A Pawsitively Organic Mystery Book 3)

Author:  Liz Mugavero
Genre:  Mystery

Five Stars

Kristan "Stan" Connor is thrilled to be invited to the Groundhog Day festivities in quirky Frog Ledge, Connecticut. Her organic, home-baked pet treats are a big hit at the annual celebration, though an important guest is curiously absent . . . 

When Helga Oliver, the town's elderly historian, is found crumpled in the basement of the Historical Museum, the close-knit town is devastated. But after some tenacious digging, Stan discovers Helga was pushed down the stairs--and that this picture-perfect New England town may hide some dark secrets . . .

Stan's dogged determination reveals Helga's ties to an unsolved death in 1948 . . . but how does that connect to Adrian Fox, who's just arrived in town to shoot an episode of Celebrity Ghost Hunters? Stan is going to have to be very careful in chasing down the killer--if she wants to live to see another winter...

********

Stan Connor is the owner of Pawsitively Organic, where she makes home-made pet food and treats for dogs and cats.   She is attending the Groundhog Day festivities in the small town of Frog Ledge, Connecticut where she lives. So when she meets Sarah Oliver, a self-proclaimed psychic, who immediately claims there's something wrong with her mother, Helga, the town's historian, and she is later found at the bottom of the stairs of the museum, Stan knows that something Just Isn't Right.  Especially when Helga's friend Betty notes that Helga's cane wasn't with her, and at 87 years old, she tells Stan Helga never went anywhere without it.

Shortly after this, Stan's friend Izzy, along with Stan's maybe-boyfriend Jake are renovating a building that just might turn out to be haunted.  When the host and crew of a television reality show called Celebrity Ghost Hunters shows up unannounced, claiming someone gave him an anonymous tip regarding the haunting, Stan finds out that it may have something to do with an unsolved murder from 1948, and something that just might connect Helga to it.

To make things worse, Helga was like a grandmother to Jake and his family, and it is causing tension between the two, especially when Stan lets the star of the show, Adrian Fox, know that she's all for going on the ghost hunt with him.  Things are also strained between her and Jake's two sisters, Breanna, and Jessie Pasquale, the trooper who is investigating the murder - not to mention that she and Jessie don't have the best relationship anyway.

As if this weren't enough, Stan is asked to cater a 'doggie wedding' for a town resident, Dede Richardson, and she wants it done Valentine's Day, with a cake and treats for the bride and groom and all their guests.  Stan is really running it close this time.

This is the third book in the "Pawsitively Organic" series, and it is just as delightful as the other two.  I really enjoyed the tie-in with an old murder (I love novels that have old, unsolved murders in them, just slightly macabre, but not too) and the way the story was written was completely believable.  An old murder that's been hushed-up, people refusing to talk about it...well, these are the things of a book that you can really dig into.  And this one was completely riveting.

When we discover who killed the dead man (and we know we will,) it was well-thought-out and precisely how things could have happened if they really occurred.  This, folks, is how it's done.  

I also implore you to read the 'end credits' as it were, because you're going to get a nice surprise about one of the characters in the book (when I read a book, I read a book.)  An admirable addition to the series, highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.com/Icing-Corpse-Pawsitively-Organic-Mystery/dp/0758284829/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1240485064

Meet Your Baker (A Bakeshop Mystery #1)

Author:  Ellie Alexander
Genre:  Mystery

Three Stars

After graduating from culinary school, Juliet Capshaw returns to her quaint hometown of Ashland, Oregon, to heal a broken heart and help her mom at the family bakery.  The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is bringing in lots of tourists looking for some crumpets to go with their heroic couplets.  But when one of Torte's customers turns up dead, there's much ado about murder;;;

The victim is Nancy Hudson, the festival's newest board member.  A modern-day Lady Macbeth, Nancy has given more than a few actors and artists enough reasons to kill her...but still.  The silver lining?  Jules's high school sweetheart, Thomas, is the investigator on the case.  His flirtations are as delicious as ever, and Jules can't help but want to have her cake and eat it too.  But will she have her just desserts?  Murder might be bad for business, but love is the sweetest treat of all...

*****

Juliet "Jules" Capshaw used to work as a pastry chef for a cruise line.  But a blowup with her husband, Carlos, made her leave and hurry home to Oregon, back to spend time with her mother and help run the family's bakeshop, Torte.

While visiting with a friend she knew from long ago, Caroline, an actress in the Shakespeare company, Nancy Hudson enters the shop and starts making snide, backhanded compliments to both Caroline and Jules.  Immediately pegging her as a troublemaker, Jules can't wait for her to leave.  

When Nancy is found one morning dead in the kitchen of the shop by Jules, she calls on her friend, Thomas; who now is a police detective, to come and sort things out.  Soon Jules finds out that there really isn't anyone in town who liked the woman, and many had a valid reason not to.  So she starts investigating on her own - the woman was found dead in her shop, after all - and what she finds isn't pleasant, nor is it easy to digest, as Jules wonderful creations are.

I started off reading this book, hoping it was as delightful as the blurb on the back proclaimed it to be.  But I found that while it could have indeed been interesting, too many things just seemed not to grab my attention.  First, we are told - in bits and pieces spanning several chapters - why she left Carlos, an executive chef on the cruise line.  I had believed it to be (and I'm probably not the only one) that he had had an affair.  I was wrong,  I thought, that's it?  The reason she left seemed to me to be something they could have sat down and talked about.  It wasn't dire; it wasn't anything that should have split up over.  Yes, it was a shock, yes, it was tragic.  But it wasn't marriage-ending by any rate.  Especially if she loved him as much as she says she does.  I could get in a huge discussion about this, but I can't, lest I give away too much.  Just my opinion...

There are also things said and implied about her relationship with Thomas, but this left me wondering as to why?  Just why?  Another thing that bothered me is that she's convinced she knows who the killer is - every time.  What do I mean by that?  The fact that she accuses practically everyone she comes in contact with of being the killer.  Really?  Why would the police even listen to her anymore?  First she decides it's this person, then it's that person.  And the last is the fact that Jules herself seems so - remote.  It's like she just walks through life, not enjoying it at all.  Most protagonists have a quality about them where you can empathize with what is happening, but not Jules.  You don't feel as if you've gotten to "know" her.  

In the end, it was a pleasant, if not enticing, read.  Decent enough plot, but Jules has a lot of things she needs to figure out if she's going to be an interesting character.  Since it is the author's first book, I am assuming it is a learning process, I will read the second in this series to see if the next book is better.  I hope you do, too.

http://www.amazon.com/Meet-Your-Baker-Bakeshop-Mystery/dp/1250054230/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1232624866