It's Your Party, Die If You Want To (A Liv and Di in Dixie Mystery #2)

Author:  Vickie Fee
Genre:    Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496700643
Kensington Publishing
329 Pages
$7.99; $4.99 Amazon
September 27, 2016

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Between a riverboat gambler-theme engagement party and a murder mystery dinner for charity, Dixie, Tennessee, party planner Liv McKay is far too frenzied to feel festive.  Add to the mix her duties at the annual businesswomen's retreat and the antics of a celebrity ghost-hunting diva, and Liv's schedule is turning out to be the scariest thing about this Halloween - especially when the ladies stumble across a dead body in a cemetery...

Morgan Robison was a party girl with a penchant for married men and stirring up a cauldron of drama.  Any number of scorned wives or frightened philanderers could be behind her death.  As Liv and her best friend, Di, set out to dig up the truth, they'll face the unexpected and find their efforts hampered by a killer with one seriously haunting vendetta...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Liv McKay is an event planner in Dixie, Tennessee.  She's got her hands full with planning a riverboat-themed engagement party, a Halloween bash with three separate parties for children, teens, and adults; and is a member of a women's business association, which is giving her the most grief.

The president of the association is banker's daughter Morgan Robison, and she's nothing if not trouble.  She's enlisted Liv to be chauffeur/gofer for a local who's become a worldwide celebrity due to her ghost hunting show.  The diva, Lucinda Grable, treats everyone the same - like they're beneath her, so Liv, while annoyed, doesn't feel singled out.

But the first night of the retreat Morgan is murdered, and Liv is pretty sure it's poison from the horrific look on Morgan's face.  When another member is accused and arrested, Liv's friends try their hardest to convince her that the woman can't be guilty.  Now it's up to Liv and her best friend Di to try and find a killer who has no remorse and may not be done killing...

I really like this series, even though I haven't read them in order.  I was saddened to discover that it appears there isn't another available, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the author will keep writing them. 

Morgan was thoroughly unlikable with a penchant for married men and controlling everyone around her, so it's no surprise to anyone when she's murdered.  It seems nearly everyone had a reason, but finding the guilty party isn't an easy task, and not one Liv is happy about. 

The mystery was done very well, and I will say that while Liv's character is fully fleshed out, along with her family members, I just honestly don't care all that much for Di.  I get that she has a past she's not happy about, but she's a little too closed off to be interesting.  Basically all she does is work and drink, and help Liv in her 'escapades' (although to be fair, she does instigate one or two).  I would like to see her take control of her life and refuse to allow her past to define who she is right now.

Anyway, while there's plenty of suspects abounding, I was surprised at finding out the murderer.  We weren't privy to the truth until it actually came out, and that's always a good thing.  Liv's mother is a hoot and seems like the kind of woman you'd actually have fun with.  Liv herself has a happy marriage, is good at her job and with people, and her friends are interesting, to say the least.

When all is said and done, I've read every one of these, and I loved them all.  My only hope is that Ms. Fee continues with this series.  I'll be the first to buy the new book.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Your-Party-Want-Dixie-Mystery/dp/1496700643/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2884244655

More on Vickie Fee's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/vickie-fee/

Ditched 4 Murder (A Sophie Kimball Mystery #2)

Author:  J. C. Eaton
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496708571
Kensington Publishing
352 Pages
$7.19; $5.99 Amazon
November 28, 2017

⭐⭐⭐

 

Moving from Minnesota to Arizona was a big change for Sophie "Phee" Kimball.  She's much closer to her mother's retirement community now - which can drive her a little crazy, but at least her mom, Harriet, has her book club and her chiweenie dog, Streetman, to keep her company.  And now there's even more activity, with Aunt Ina's upcoming wedding.  The seventy-four-year-old bride has roped Phee into working on the tent, the pastries, and even her headpiece in preparation for the ceremony.  But it's Harriet who really gets demanding when a dead body turns up yards from her front door.

Aunt Ina's fiancé is acquainted with the victim - a local millionaire restaurateur murdered at the golf course.  Working for a private investigator, Phee is drawn into the case - not just professionally but personally, since Harriet is in a panic about her safety.  With a killer on the loose, Phee vows to figure out the plot - that is, if her side job as a wedding planner doesn't kill her first...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Sophie "Phee" Kimball moved from Mankato, Minnesota's dreadful winters to sunny Arizona to work for a private investigator she's known for years.  In fact, when he was a police officer, she worked with him in the department, and he coaxed her to take a year off and see if she liked it enough to stay.

Her life is settling in nicely when she finds out her 74-year-old aunt Ina is getting married and needs her help.  Ina's aflutter with the wedding and wants Phee to help with the pastries.  But it doesn't end there.  Then she's roped into one more thing, and one more...

Her boss Nate has taken the case of a dead golfer that the police have deemed suspicious, and Phee discovers that  Ina's fiancé Louis knew the man. Then the chef who's catering the meal is murdered, and Phee stumbles across the body.  While that should be the end of it, it isn't.  When an item belonging to the chef turns up in Louis's garage and Louis goes missing, her aunt becomes frantic, the police are interested, her mother's getting hysterical, and all Phee wants to do is get sleep...

I read the first in the series and really liked it, even with Harriet being an overbearing mother.  But this second one, while amusing in the beginning, has begun to turn sour in the middle of the book.  Phee has no backbone.  None at all.

She's roped into helping with the wedding preparations, even though she doesn't want to - it begins as merely helping with the pastries and before she knows it everyone is coming to her to make decisions, because Ina is "just too unsettled" to do it herself.  What I get out of it is the fact her aunt wants to get married, has an idea of what she wants, but doesn't want to do anything to get there.

Phee won't tell anyone 'no'.  When her mother says jump, she asks 'how high?'  When her mother's friends call for help, she gives up her own private time to do as they ask.  When it got to the point that Aunt Ina woke her at 3 am and demanded she show up at Louis's home (regardless of the reason it could have been done after 10 pm and before midnight) - I was completely pissed.  Let someone - anyone - try that with me and see how far it goes.  She should have told her that she had a job and needed sleep, and wasn't going to do it.  She also should have told her that to take her mind off of Louis being gone she could take over planning her own wedding.  But she didn't.

I honestly had to put the book down after this.  You read to enjoy, to relax - and it's difficult to relax when you're disgusted with the characters in a book.  I didn't even care who the murderer was at this point; I just wanted to see Harriet and Ina falling off a cliff.  Seriously.  I needed time to decide if I wanted to continue with this book, because I absolutely detest women who have no backbone.

I was so perturbed I just wanted the book to end.  I also wanted Phee to go back home and get away from her family.  You've heard of mama's boys?  Well, Phee is a mama's girl.  And that's not a good thing.  Not only when her mother and aunt tell her to do stuff, but her mother's friends, she does them - even when she has plans of her own.  How spineless is this woman?  Also, how do all these women have Phee's number - they're not relatives! - and why are they calling her for problems?  They should be calling Ina, not expecting Phee to be their personal emissary and wedding planner.  Are they all like Harriet, expecting Phee to do things for them with no return? 

Truthfully, I can't stand her mother nor her aunt.  What kind of people are they that they're treating Phee like she's a slave?  What nice things have they done for her?  As a matter of fact, what have Harriet's friends ever done for Phee that's nice?  What does Phee's mother do that shows she loves Phee?  Nothing.  She treats her like unpaid help.  Is this supposed to be hilarious?

After writing down these thoughts, I decided to let the comments stand (I've never been shy about the truth) and finish the book.  I will say that while I don't like any of these obnoxious people - who, I believe, are supposed to be hilarious as "old people" - I am glad I finished it.  Once we got to the day of the wedding the real plot finally picked up.  I say 'real' because most of the plot centered on Ina's wedding that she wasn't doing anything for and Phee having to take care of it because obviously, these people are all afraid of Ina going off the deep end and have no problem pushing everything onto her niece.  This is not humorous, it only shows that these women are not people you'd want to spend any time with for fear they'd have you walking their dogs or taking out their trash.  Luckily, I know older people who are a real delight to be around; they can handle problems on their own.

Anyway, once we got to the gist of the story - the wedding - things started to come together and add up.  Phee and her boss Nate are lucky enough to be around when the truth comes out, and even though the wedding turns out to be a disaster (you'll see if you haven't read the book; it's another episode that's supposed to be funny but really isn't) it all ends well and Phee can get back to her life and relax for awhile. 

All in all, it wasn't a bad story and I will probably read the next just to see if Phee ever stands up to her mother or remains an invertebrate.  A decent story (if frustrating) that can be read in an evening.

https://www.amazon.com/Ditched-Murder-Sophie-Kimball-Mystery/dp/1496708571/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2150282052

More on J. C. Eaton's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/j-c-eaton/

A Dark and Stormy Murder (A Writer's Apprentice Mystery #1)

Author:  Julia Buckley
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780425282601; 9781977353177
Berkley Publishing
304 Pages
$7.99; $22.81; $7.99 Amazon
July 5, 2016

⭐

Camilla Graham's bestselling suspense novels inspired Lena London to become a writer, so when she lands a job as Camilla's new assistant, she can't believe her luck.  Not only will she help her idol craft an enchanting new mystery, she'll get to live rent-free in Camilla's gorgeous Gothic home in the quaint town of Blue Lake, Indiana.

But Lena's fortune soon changes for the worse.  First, she lands in the center of small-town gossip for befriending the local recluse.  Then, she stumbles across one thing that a Camilla Graham novel is never without - a dead body, found on her new boss's lakefront property.

Now, Lena must take a page out of one of Camilla's books to hunt down clues in a real crime that seems to be connected to the novelist's mysterious estate - before the killer writes them both out of the story for good...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Lena London is a recent grad-school graduate with no job, no boyfriend, and nothing to look forward to.  That is, until her friend Allison calls her and tells her that Lena's idol, writer Camilla Graham, is in her knitting class and needs an assistant.  Lena is over the moon, and after a telephone interview with the author, is hired on the spot.

But Lena's not going to find it all peaches and cream.  She meets a reclusive, rude neighbor, and later on finds a dead body on the beach in front of Camilla's home.  Now she's stuck in the middle of a murder investigation and wondering what it is that makes the neighbor so attractive to her.  But will she find out before the killer finds her?...

I should have known right away about this book when the author (no offense intended) mentioned she loved Mary Stewart books.  Mary Stewart, for those who do not know, wrote Gothic mysteries.  To wit:  a young, innocent woman stumbles into suspense and terror, and there is always a dark, brooding stranger that's hiding secrets but turns out to be 'the one' when All Is Discovered.

So...this is just like that.  The 'dark, brooding stranger' turns out to be Sam West, who may or may not be married because his wife just...disappeared, and everyone in town (including the hunky Chief of Police) think he's guilty.  So of course, Lena decides that romance with Sam would be so much better than the upstanding, cute, loyal, Doug.  Why would you even get involved with someone who might still have a wife somewhere?  Lena is stupid.

Not to mention, Sam was extremely rude to her when they met.  That's his personality.  If a man has it in him to be nasty to a perfect stranger (regardless of his past) then who's to say he's not going to snap at you at some point in the future?  No thanks.  I also didn't like Sam at all.  Doug seemed so much nicer, and more realistic.

Unfortunately, I lost interest in the book right about the time Lena is having breakfast in a crowded cafe and Sam, seeing she's alone, just goes over to her table and sits with her, knowing how the town feels about him.  For some reason he doesn't care that she's new in town, and association with him could taint her with the same brush (if these people are that nasty, they would think the worst of her, too).

Also, why were people calling everyone else by their first and last names?  Did the author need the word count?  It got annoying fast.  Since there was only one Sam and one Lena, did she think we’d get them confused with other characters?  One can only hope Sam’s wife comes back and they move somewhere else, but I don’t think so.  I’m honestly sorry I even started this book.  There’s two hours of my life I’ll never get back.  

But the worst part was - this is the first in the series and the author ends on a cliffhanger!  Or as I call it, holding the reader hostage.  It’s as if authors think they won’t sell the second in the series if they don’t do this.  This isn’t a TV show where you can see what happens next week - it’s a freaking book, and you might have to wait a year to see what happens.  Then, what’s to stop the author from doing it in the next book?  Or the next?  Nope.  I not only won’t read any more in this series, I won’t read any of the author’s other series, either.  Once you pull the 'you-have-to-buy-the-next-book-to-find-out-what-happens' at the end of a book, you’ve lost this reader for good.

Luckily, I don’t care enough about the characters to even care what happens to them.  Lena's an immature idiot (throwing nuts at Doug because she's upset?); Sam's boring and too broody, Camilla's only there as a plot point, and the poor cat Lestrade is just there - Lena spends very little time with him, and he has practically no reason to be in the book at all.  The only one remotely interesting is Doug, who's halfway intelligent, and Lena’s too dumb to figure it out.

https://www.amazon.com/Stormy-Murder-Writers-Apprentice-Mystery/dp/0425282600/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2873042271

More on Julia Buckley's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/julia-buckley/

Murder By the Book (A Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery #1)

Author:  Lauren Elliott
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Audio CD; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496720191; 9781977365217
Kensington Publishing
286 Pages
$7.99; $16.50; $5.99 Amazon
October 30, 2018

⭐

Addie Greyborne loved working with rare books at the Boston Public Library - she even got to play detective, tracking down clues about mysterious old volumes.  But she didn't expect her sleuthing skills to come in so handy in a little seaside town...

Addie left some painful memories behind in the big city, including the unsolved murder of her fiancé and her father's fatal car accident.  After an unexpected inheritance from a great aunt, she's moved to a small New England town founded by her ancestors back in colonial times - and living in spacious Greyborne Manor, on a hilltop overlooking the harbor.  Best of all, her aunt also left her countless first editions and other treasures - providing an inventory to start her own store.

But there's trouble from day one, and not just from the grumpy woman who runs the bakery next door.  A car nearly runs Addie down.  Someone steals a copy of Alice in Wonderland.  Then, Addie's friend Serena, who owns a nearby tea shop, is arrested - for killing another local merchant.  The police seem pretty sure they've got the story in hand, but Addie's not going to let them close the book on this case without a fight...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Addie Greyborne moves from Boston to a small town after a couple of tragedies in her life.  First, her fiancé David is murdered, then her father has a fatal car accident, and she believes it wasn't really an accident.  It seems fortuitous when she receives an inheritance from a recently deceased relative and is given the means to move away.

After finding many rare editions and used books in the Victorian home she's inherited, she decides to open a bookstore.  But on her first day, her back door has nearly been forced open, someone has taken a copy of Alice in Wonderland (non-valuable), there's a car following her, she's nearly run down, and someone breaks into her home.  The 'accidents' don't stop, either.  Her keys go missing, a car is parking in her driveway at night...well, you get the idea.  She's also met two of her new business neighbors, one doesn't like her and the other, Serena, takes to her immediately.

It seems someone in this town wants her gone, and even if the police don't take it seriously (they think it's just "coincidences"), she knows it's true.  It doesn't help when Serena is arrested for murder, and Addie knows her new friend couldn't be guilty so is determined to find the killer.  But with someone obviously out to get her, will she have time to prove Serena's innocence?

I really wanted to like this book because I thought the premise sounded good.  But it's never good if you fall asleep out of boredom while reading...during the middle of the day.  Yeah.  It's unfortunate, but there it is.

First, I don't understand why the police couldn't put two and two together about David and her father.  One murdered and another has a fatal accident a short time later?  Her father was run off the road.  There would be indications he didn't leave the roadway voluntarily, and the police should have noticed that right away.  But they didn't.  Then, her business and her home is vandalized, and there's a car watching her every move.  The police should have found this odd.  But they didn't.

Then, when Serena was arrested, Marc, the chief of police, should have turned the case over to someone else, because he was her brother.  But he didn't.  Addie had a rich relative in a town named after her family, and she should have known something about her heritage.  But she didn't.  It seems to me there are an awful lot of "didn't's" in this story.

Also, why didn't (there's that word again) Addie know any of the other business owners?  She never went and introduced herself?  She also didn't spend any time at her business, so how did she stay open?  She was always off doing something else.  I also thought Addie was unlikable.  With all the tragedy in her life, she acted like she wasn't grieving at all.  It had been a short time and she was just going to move on with her life, even be ready for a new romance.  This didn't ring true.

When Addie explains to Marc how Blain must have died, and that Serena couldn't have committed the murder, it makes sense.  So I have to wonder - again - why the DA's office and the investigating officers couldn't have figured this out and realized that Serena must have been telling the truth.  No DA's office worth their salt would have prosecuted her if the defending attorney could show how ridiculous it looks in a court of law (and, after reading it, it does sound ridiculous).

Honestly, I got as far as the petition to revoke her business license because 'she brought crime with her' and threw up my hands.  What kind of morons live in this town?  Not even the criminals were very smart - they couldn't find what they'd been looking for, but Addie found it almost immediately after thinking about it for a few minutes. 

In the end, I feel I need to say it:  1) if you see someone looking at where you put the keys to your shop, don't leave them there again.  2) if someone is breaking into your home/business, get the locks changed.  Now.  Install a security system.  Today.  3) Keep your phone charged - if you can see a car, you can probably take a picture of it to show the police.  Shouldn't someone from the "Big City" have more common sense than this?  She sure didn't. 

All in all, this isn't a series I will be seeking out again.  Unfortunately I read it.  I wish I didn't.

https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Bookstore-Mystery-Lauren-Elliott/dp/1496720199/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2871841582

More on Lauren Elliott's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/e/lauren-elliott/

Full Bodied Murder (A Rose Avenue Wine Club Mystery #1)

Author:  Christine E. Blum
Genre:   Mystery

Mass Market Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781496712103
Kensington Publishing
291
$7.99; $5.99 Amazon
November 28, 2017

⭐⭐

Leaving behind a failed marriage, New Yorker Annie "Halsey" Hall is ready to begin the next phase of her life in coastal Southern California.  From the moment she arrives at her new digs on cozy Rose Avenue, she looks forward to joining the neighborhood ladies for their weekly Wine Club gathering. With only a rambunctious yellow lab puppy to keep her company, Halsey could really use a confidant - and a glass or two of her favorite white wine...

Unfortunately, she finds nothing but red at the Wine Club meeting - and judging by the dead woman lying face down in the backyard, it's not spilled Merlot.  Halsey accidentally stumbled into the wrong address at the wrong time, and with suspicions about her past on the rise, she must prove that she isn't a killer.  Enlisting the eclectic talents of the Wine Club ladies, Halsey searches for the true criminal at large.  But separating friends from foes isn't easy on Rose Avenue, and as she racks up a suspect list, Halsey can't shake the feeling that someone in her inner circle has a taste for murder...

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

Annie "Halsey" Hall has just made major changes in her life:  she's left her husband behind in New York and packed up her vehicle with her belongings and her lab Bardot for sunny California.  She's happy (mostly) to be starting a new life.

But when she accidentally walks in a home and finds a dead body in the back yard, the police are watching her very closely because they think she's a killer.  Now she's hoping that her hostile neighbor will leave her alone and her new friends will help her figure out who killed Rosa so she can start her life, not wind up in jail before it begins...

Okay, I should have known when the tone of the book was set almost immediately - the fact that 'Halsey' wanted to move in on a Wednesday so she could get started with her drinking in her new wine club.  If this had been stated on the blurb, I would have passed the book on by.

Now, there's nothing wrong with a glass or two of wine, and I know many people drink.  But these women have made a job of it.  They drink.  A lot.  Yet for some weird reason, they have no health problems.  They don't have hangovers (except in a minor reference), no slurred speech, etc.   I kept waiting for one of the older women to show loss of brain function or tell us that she needed a liver transplant. Geez, have a glass of water or iced tea once in a while.  I also didn't much care for the fact that Halsey had no problem spending money on booze but wouldn't shell out for a few bags of candy for kids on Halloween.  I guess she has her priorities.

Also, who just walks into a home with an open door if you’re not sure you have the right address?  What will you say if you encounter some guy sitting on the sofa in his underwear, or a couple of kids playing on the floor?  What will you say when they scream that a stranger is in the home?  (Especially if you're holding a couple of bottles of wine).  Stay outside, put the bottles down and check the address.  What a nimrod. No wonder the cops are suspicious.

Then, the police are suspecting her after only a few hours of being there (again, she moved here so she could have drinking buddies and hasn't even really moved in) of killing someone?  A quick check on her background - which could be done in a matter of hours - would show that she didn’t have time to kill anyone, didn’t know the woman, had no motive.  Move on, officers.  Find the real killer.

I didn’t like any of the women.  All they did was drink.  Just.  Drink.  We never got to know them as people.  None of them seemed to have anything in common except drinking; there didn't seem to be any camaraderie at all, no connection.  Surely there could have been a better plot line than women who like to sit around and get drunk.  Where is it?  Because it wasn't in this book.  Two stars for the writing, but I won't be continuing the series.

https://www.amazon.com/Full-Bodied-Murder-Avenue-Mystery/dp/1496712102/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2138736635

More on Christine E. Blum's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/christine-e-blum/

A Legacy of Murder (A Kate Hamilton Mystery #2)

Author:  Connie Berry
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781643851549
Crooked Lane Books
$26.99; $12.99 Amazon
October 8, 2019

⭐⭐⭐⭐

It's Christmastime and antiques dealer Kate Hamilton is off to visit her daughter, Christine, in the quaint English village of Long Barston.  Christine and her boyfriend, Tristan, work at stately-but-crumbling Finchley Hall.  Touring the Elizabethan house and grounds, Kate is intrigued by the docent's tales of the Finchley Hoard, and the strange deaths surrounding the renowned treasure trove.  But next to a small lake, Kate spies the body of a young woman, killed by a garden spade.

Nearly blind Lady Barbara, who lives at Finchley with her loyal butler, Mugg, persuades Kate to take over the murdered woman's work.  Kate finds that a Burmese ruby has vanished from the legendary Blood-Red Ring, replaced by a lesser garnet.  Were the theft and the woman's death connected?

Kate learns that Lady Barbara's son fled to Venezuela years before, suspected of murdering another young woman.  The murder weapon belonged to an old gardener, who becomes the leading suspect.  But is Lady Barbara's son back to kill again?  When another body is found, the clues point toward Christine.  It's up to Kate to clear her daughter's name.

✽✽✽✽✽✽✽✽

It's nearing Christmas and Kate Hamilton, an American antiques dealer, is visiting England to see both her daughter Christine and her new boyfriend Tom Mallory, a DI with the Suffolk police.  She's staying in a private room on the Finchley estate where her daughter works as an intern, and she, too, is housed there.  On this day she's taking a tour of the estate while Christine is in orientation.  But the tour is cut short when a young boy - who is on the tour along with his mother - discovers the body of a young woman in the pond.

It turns out the woman is Tabitha King, who also worked as an intern.  She was designing and preparing an exhibit on the estate - an exhibit of The Hoard, the Finchley treasure - which had only been seen as partial items on exhibit throughout the years.  This was to be the first time that the entire Hoard would be shown.

When Kate finally meets Christine's new boyfriend, Tristan Sorel, she takes an instant dislike to him, but says nothing to Christine, having realized that Christine was always attracted to men who were less than she thought they were, and she believed Tristan to be another of this ilk.

But then the lady of the manor, Barbara Finchley, is determined that the Hoard will be shown, because they've already sold tickets and the estate needs the funding.  When she discovers Kate's background in antiques, she eventually gets her to agree to take over Tabitha's job.  But it's not too long before Kate finds Tabitha's notes and discovers discrepancies; it seems pieces that should be in the group are not, and no one seems to know where they've gone to.

But there's more drama afoot when Tristan is pursued by Alex, who works at the estate.  She makes an overt play for him, and he doesn't resist very much.  Now, with Christine angry at both Tristan and Alex, a dead girl that's turned out not to be a suicide, and missing pieces from the collection, how will Kate find time to be with Tom while he's investigating a murder?  And is the murderer among them - one of the interns, an employee, or a mysterious stranger who's been traveling through town?  Kate's up to her ears in intrigue, and she needs to find out the truth before she's due to return home to spend Christmas with her mother...if she ever does...

This is the second book in the series and I have to say that I did like it much better than the first.  The author is finding her way and honing the characters, and we have more depth and feeling out of Kate than we did in the first book, so that's a good thing.

Following are a couple of plot points that bothered me, but I have hidden them in a spoiler for those who have not as yet read the book:

However, I'm still of two minds: on the one hand I loved the plot and thought the mystery was well done, but on the other hand I couldn't stand Christine. How could Kate have raised such a selfish, immature, self-centered daughter, and then make excuses for her bad behavior?

To wit: Christine is not passionate, she's immature. What adult throws things at another woman she's angry with, pouts and buries her face in her blankets to cry? This is pre-teen behavior, not that of an adult. She refuses to discuss the situation with her mother (who could at least offer her another point of view) and is extremely rude to Kate.

She's upset that Kate is dating Tom and is rude to him (more childish behavior) because her father has been dead only three years and she tells Kate that she's still in mourning and shouldn't be seeing anyone. Three. Years. How long is Kate supposed to wear the black before her daughter deems it "acceptable" that she has a life? How long is she supposed to be lonely, living by herself? Let's face it, people aren't spending all their time mobbing antique shops, either, so she's probably even there by herself a lot.

It seems she doesn't want her mom to be happy - doesn't care if she's lonely, considering both she and her brother live overseas and don't make an effort to come home; and her mom doesn't even have pets. (It reminds me of that old '50s movie, All That Heaven Allows with Jane Wyman. Jane's daughter and son throw a fit because she's dating Rock Hudson and their father has only been dead five years - and breaks them up; then buy their mom a TV set for Christmas so she won't be lonely. Earlier in the film, having a TV was mentioned as being for people whose life was pretty much over and they spent their time sitting in front of it. These were two selfish kids, and Christine reminds me of that.

Everything about her screams spoiled child, and I certainly wouldn't want to spend time with her. I disliked her immensely because of this and how she treated her mother - she hated the fact Kate was dating Tom, but wouldn't listen to her mother's reservations about Tristan. Does that sound very adult to you? She also acted like a teenager around him - fawning over him, etc. - and didn't spend any time at all with Kate. She never even apologized to her mom for her behavior, and I didn't understand why she'd go to jail for Tristan after the way he treated her, or that he would allow her to. He never went to the police and said Christine didn't try to kill Alex. What a weasel. She should have told him to man up.

I also didn't like the fact that Kate didn't seem to care that Tom lost a promotion because of her anger. She couldn't see that he was trying to do his job and that he was doing what he could to keep Christine comfortable. She'd rather fill herself with hate - no matter the reasons why, she still cost him a promotion. I'm sure it won't keep her up at night, but I consider it a crappy thing to do. And just like her daughter, she never apologized or tried to make it right.

Then Kate, for some odd reason, decided to "talk British." Americans don't say 'packet of paper', we say 'ream of paper'. We don't say 'crisps', we say 'potato chips'; 'baked potato' not 'jacket potato'; 'tennis shoes' not 'trainers' - well, you get the idea. Just because you're visiting England you wouldn't talk like them. A British person visiting the USA isn't going to suddenly start saying 'sweater' instead of 'jumper' or 'cookies' instead of 'biscuits'. (She could have put the British terms in parentheses or vice versa and it would have made more sense). That's like saying a person from New York visiting Texas is suddenly going to be saying "y'all" after a couple of days there. They won't. They're on vacation, just like Kate. So I didn't get the "Brit talk" at all; it was starting to get on my nerves. I actually wanted to tell her to knock it off, that she was American, for goodness' sake. (I travel, and I certainly don't start speaking like the natives after a few days).

However, once I got past the annoying things, the book took a decent turn and I followed the clues along with Kate right down to the end of the book.  When the killer was revealed it was actually a bit of a surprise, but even in its being necessary, there is no excuse for murder to keep secrets hidden.

I will say of all the characters introduced in this book, I liked the one of Ivor Tweedy the best.  Although I knew from the beginning where the ending was going to go, he was such a whimsical character, full of exuberance of life.  I hope to see much more of him in later books.  All in all, I really did enjoy this book and hope to see the next in the series arrive soon.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Legacy-Murder-Kate-Hamilton-Mystery/dp/1643851543/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2870311960

More on Connie Berry's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/connie-berry/

Remembering the Dead (A Penny Brannigan Mystery #10)

Author:  Elizabeth J. Duncan
Genre:   Mystery

Hardcover; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9781643851136
Crooked Lane Publishing
$26.56; $12.99 Amazon
September 10, 2019

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Artist and spa owner Penny Brannigan has been asked to organize a formal dinner to mark the centenary of the armistice that ended World War One.  After dinner, the guests adjourn to the library for a private exhibition of the Black Chair, a precious piece of Welsh literary history awarded in 1917 to poet Hedd Wyn.  But to the guests' shock, the newly restored bardic chair is missing.  And then Penny discovers the rain-soaked body of a waiter.

When Penny learns that the victim was the nephew of one of her employees, she is determined to find the killer.  Meanwhile, the local police search for the Black Chair.  The Prince of Wales is due to open an exhibit featuring the chair in three weeks, so time is not on their side.  A visit to a nursing home to consult with an ex-thief convinces Penny that the theft of the Black Chair and the waiter's murder are connected.  She rushes to Dublin to consult a disagreeable antiquarian, who might know more than he lets on, and during the course of her investigation confronts a gaggle of suspicious travelers and an eccentric herbalist who seems to have something to hide.  Can Penny find the chair and the culprit before she is laid to rest in the green grass of Wales?

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When Penny is asked by her friend Emyr to help plan a dinner party in order to show a select few the famed Welsh treasure, the Black Chair, she agrees.  With the help of several locals, everything seems to be going swimmingly.  She's also pleased that her young friend Lane is able to help as a server, and seems to be doing well, until he falls in the back pantry and spills drinks.  Although he insists he's fine, Penny's not so sure when Lane disappears.  And when the showing finally arrives, so does the Black Chair. 

But it doesn't stop there - a young waiter is found fatally injured, and so the house becomes a crime scene, and everyone is a suspect.  Worse still, they need to find the chair in three weeks' time, when the Prince of Wales is going to dedicate it where it will stand in a museum.  Penny also discovers that the dead waiter is the nephew of one of her employees, and the woman asks her to help find the killer.

Now Penny's on the trail of a missing chair, a missing young man, and a missing killer.  With the clock ticking against her, will she find the murderer or will he or she get away with stealing a national treasure and a killing?

This was basically a closed-door mystery without actually being closed-door.  To wit:  the murderer had to be someone in the home at the time of the theft of the chair, or a person who allowed the murderer to enter.  Thus, we set the stage for Penny to eliminate guests and decide who the murderer might be.

When she acknowledges that she knows nearly all the guests, we have it narrowed down quite quickly.  But then there's the sticking point of figuring out why the chair was targeted, and why the young man was murdered.  Thus begins the investigation.

However, a couple of things irritated me.  The host, Emyr, was an idiot.  He should never have allowed his guests to leave, instead telling them that the police would, in all likelihood, wish to speak with them before they went home.  But nooo  ---  he didn't want to inconvenience his guests, of course, so he'd rather lose a national treasure and possibly allow a murderer time to escape somewhere else.  I ask you, does this make any sense at all?  Anyone with any sense would know to keep their guests in the home, inconvenience be damned.  After all, it was a matter of time, and if any of them - including the servers - knew anything, one would think that the police would be able to tell from body language.  Honestly, the police didn't even seem to be really concerned that Lane was missing, which seemed odd as well. 

Even if they were townspeople, time is of the essence in a murder, and I have never known the police to be happy when people were just allowed to leave and go their own way - nor a host who would rather them do so than be upset with him.  I also didn't understand when, later on, he was upset that the forensics team was combing his house and grounds when a murder occurred.  What did he expect them to do?  Just say, 'oh, well, he'll be upset, and the killer may turn up eventually.'  One would think he'd want to be helpful to find the killer and the Black Chair, not be annoyed.

I have several of the Penny Brannigan mysteries, and while I admit that Penny is intelligent and knows what she's about, she's well, rather dull as a person.  There's no spark to her.  She was perfect to organize the evening as she's methodical, but she doesn't have any real life within her.  I can't imagine us being friends as she'd more than likely put me to sleep on a regular basis.  (Which is why I am glad the mysteries are well written!).

I also didn't understand why we were told that Penny was a 'fulfilled, independent woman' but then admitted how it would be nice to come home to someone; if she wants that, all she has to do is put herself out there and date once in a while.  Also, why was Gareth even in the book?  If she had no regrets about losing him, it seemed odd that he should appear in a couple of scenes.  There was also another person Penny was once fond of who showed up here, but this book seemed a bit to be about Penny burning bridges behind her.  Maybe others didn't notice, but I certainly did.  Either that, or the author was trying to show us how much better off Penny was 'without a man in her life.' 

Other than that, I felt the book was written well, and the plot was done nicely, too.  There weren't a lot of red herrings; but then there probably wasn't meant to be.  It was more that there were a number of threads which, when pulled upon, lead to even more threads, and all those threads finally wound up together to weave the story into a final fabric that came together in one piece. 

Once we discovered the reason for everything happening, you have to wonder why people think the way they do.  Every action has a consequence, and every consequence leads to another action on someone else's part.  It's an inescapable part of life; and in this case it lead to a tragic outcome that could have been prevented but wasn't.

All in all, the story kept me reading throughout the night, and I do like that; Penny is very clever and is able to hear one bit of information that leads her to several 'aha' moments, which is a good trait to have; and I liked the fact that she didn't run headlong into situations that could cause her danger.  She actually thought about her course of action before she decided to take it.  In the end, I liked the resolution to the story, and everything, of course, was tied up nicely.  Recommended.

https://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Dead-Penny-Brannigan-Mystery/dp/1643851136/ref

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2862999941

More on Elizabeth J. Duncan's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/elizabeth-j-duncan/