A Wytch's Book Review Blog

Pulp Friction (A Cider Shop Mystery #2) by Julie Anne Lindsey

Thanks to Winnie's new cider shop, Smythe Orchards is out of the red and folks can get their fix of the produce and other delectable products they love all year round. The locals are even booking the shop for events, including a June wedding! Winnie couldn’t be happier to see the barn filled to the rafters for the big bash—until her doting ex, Hank, is caught in a heated argument with the groom. Winnie plans to scold Hank after the party, but spots him running off instead. And when the groom turns up dead, apparently hit by the honeymoon getaway car, Hank is the main suspect. Now Hank is on the lam, and it’s up to Winnie to get to the core of the truth—before the real killer puts the squeeze on her . . .

Winona Mae Montgomery and her Granny Smythe have managed to turn the fortunes of the Smythe orchard around with the opening of the Cider House and they are glad to have it when a local family's daughter decides that instead of the huge wedding bash they were planning they want something simple and book the Cider House, the party is going well apart from a couple of things, but before the evening ends there is a corpse under a truck! Now much as Winnie would like to stay out of this (and Sheriff Colton Wise REALLY wants her to stay out of things!) her long time friend (and ex boyfriend) is in the frame for the murder, and as if that wasn't bad enough he has gone missing!

Now Winnie and her intrepid Gran need to find out the truth so that they can keep the Orchard running.

Death in a Budapest Butterfly (Hungarian Tea House Mystery #1) by Julia Buckley

Hana Keller and her family run Maggie's Tea House, an establishment heavily influenced by the family's Hungarian heritage and specializing in a European-style traditional tea service. But one of the shop's largest draws is Hana's eccentric grandmother, Juliana, renowned for her ability to read the future in the leaves at the bottom of customers' cups. Lately, however, her readings have become alarmingly ominous and seemingly related to old Hungarian legends...

When a guest is poisoned at a tea event, Juliana’s dire predictions appear to have come true. Things are brought to a boil when Hana’s beloved  Anna Weatherley butterfly teacup becomes the center of the murder investigation as it carried the poisoned tea. The cup is claimed as evidence by a handsome police detective, and the pretty Tea House is suddenly endangered.  Hana and her family must catch the killer to save their business and bring the beautiful Budapest Butterfly back home where it belongs.

Well Julia Buckley has done it again! This is a great start to a new series with some fun characters.  The main three are a Grandmother, mother and daughter who run a Hungarian tea house (with a fantastic pastry chef from France called François), on this day they are hosting a Hungarian Woman's club and as Hana (the daughter) has just purchased a stunning butterfly cup and saucer they decide to use that as the theme, the cup and saucer themselves will take pride of place on the table where Juliana (the Grandmother) will read tea leaves.  Everything seems to be going smoothly until Hana sees that her precious butterfly cup is missing, the next thing is the death of one of the ladies and the arrival of the police!

Before Hana knows what has hit her she is dragged into the murder investigation, led by the seriously distracting Erik Wolf, can Erik and Hana find out whodunit before the tea shop goes under or someone else is hurt?

The Book of Candlelight (Secret, Book, & Scone Society #3) by Ellery Adams

As the owner of Miracle Books, Nora Pennington figures all the wet weather this spring is at least good for business. The local inns are packed with stranded travelers, and among them Nora finds both new customers and a new friend, the sixtysomething Sheldon, who starts helping out at the store.

Since a little rain never hurt anyone, Nora rides her bike over to the flea market one sodden day and buys a bowl from Danny, a Cherokee potter. It’ll make a great present for Nora’s EMT boyfriend, but the next day, a little rain turns into a lot of rain, and the Miracle River overflows it banks. Amid the wreckage of a collapsed footbridge, a body lies within the churning water.

Nora and the sheriff both doubt the ruling of accidental drowning, and Nora decides it’s time for the Secret, Book, and Scone Society to spring into action. When another body turns up, it becomes clearer that Danny’s death can’t be blamed on a natural disaster. A crucial clue may lie within the stone walls of the Inn of Mist and Roses: a diary, over a century old and spattered with candle wax, that leads Nora and her friends through a maze of intrigue—and onto the trail of a murderer . . .

Miracle Springs are having a top up in the form of rain ... lots of rain, the inns and hotels are full to overflowing (indeed one new inn has taken some people in even though they are still in the thick of renovations!) and for some businesses (Miracle Books owned by Nora Pennington being one) people are spending like there is no tomorrow, sadly for one person this turns out to be true, a local potter known as Cherokee Danny is found in the swollen river and both Nora and Gabe the Sheriff are sure this is no accident.

As well as this there is a strange man hanging around and vandalism to both a house and Miracle Books, although with the latter a new friend come employee has stepped up and used the vandalism to create a show stopping window display! Now the four friends need to put their heads together to solve a murder, the vandalism, another murder and a century old mystery, preferably before anyone else dies.

Murder Is a Must (First Edition Library Mystery #2) by Marty Wingate

Hayley Burke, curator of Lady Fowling's collection of first edition mysteries, is settling into her position at the First Edition Library in Middlebank House. She's even made progress with Lady Fowling's former secretary, the ornery Miss Woolgar. The women are busily preparing for an exhibition that will showcase Lady Fowling's life and letters. Hayley knows the exhibition is a huge undertaking and decides, against her better judgement, to hire Oona Atherton, her former boss from the Jane Austen Centre to help with the planning.

Oona is known for being difficult, but all seems to be going swimmingly until she and Hayley uncover a one-page letter that alludes to a priceless edition of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE signed by several Golden Age of Mystery authors. Oona feels this book could be the focal point of the exhibition and becomes obsessed with finding it.

When they find clues that appear to point to the book being somewhere in the First Edition Library, Oona is certain she's unraveled the mystery and texts Hayley the good news, but upon arriving back at Middlebank, Hayley finds her old boss dead at the bottom of the stairs. Did her discovery of the rare book get her killed or was it some angry shadow from her past? Hayley must read between the lines to catch a malicious murderer.

Hayley Burke is moving on with fundraising ideas for the First Edition Library, starting with a set of literary salons and she hopes to also have an exhibition showcasing the life and work of Lady Fowling,  The latter suddenly is brought into sharp focus when Hayley is allowed to take a cancellation at the best exhibition place in Bath. the problem being that the cancellation is only 3 months away! Luckily Hayley manages to get the board's agreement and also she manages to hire Oona Atherton, a rather irascible and yet brilliant exhibition manager.  The problems start over though when Oona is killed in a life imitating art method aligning with the killing in Murder Must Advertise, now Hayley needs to try and get the replacement manager to commit to a decent plan, help the police find the killer, oh and find a book signed by all the Detection Club members!

The fact that her male friend's twin (24 year old) daughters seem to be anti Hayley is the least of her worries at the moment! Can she keep sane, get the exhibition dealt with and have time to spend with Bunter the cat?

Plaid and Plagiarism (Highland Bookshop Mystery #1) by Molly MacRae

Set in the weeks before the annual Inversgail Literature Festival in Scotland, Plaid and Plagiarism begins on a morning shortly after the four women take possession of their bookshop in the Highlands. Unfortunately, the move to Inversgail hasn’t gone as smoothly as they’d planned.

First, Janet Marsh is told she’ll have to wait before moving into her new home. Then she finds out the house has been vandalized. Again. The chief suspect? Una Graham, an advice columnist for the local paper—who’s trying to make a name for herself as an investigative reporter. When Janet and her business partners go looking for clues at the house, they find a body—it’s Una, in the garden shed, with a sickle in her neck. Janet never did like that garden shed.

Who wanted Una dead? After discovering a cache of nasty letters, Janet and her friends are beginning to wonder who didn’t, including Janet’s ex-husband. Surrounded by a cast of characters with whom readers will fall in love, the new owners of Yon Bonnie Books set out to solve Una’s murder so they can get back to business.

When Janet disc0vers her husband is a cheating rat she gets a divorce and decides to have a change of career, so she decides to buy the bookshop in the town she and her family spent their holidays in, but she doesn't get it on her own.  There is her daughter Tallie (short for Natalie), Tallie's friend Summer and Janet's friend Christine, who is glad to be moving back to Inversgail as she needs to take care of her elderly parents. The sale of the shop goes smoothly and the current owners are staying to ease the four new owners in (oh and they have also bought the empty shop next door to open a tea shop and plan to open up the rooms above the shops as b&b rooms), so far so good ... only Janet and Tallie can't move into the house they own, and then they find a corpse, and things go downhill from there! Now the four on them need to put their skills together (Janet was a Librarian, Christine a social worker, Summer a newspaper reporter and Tallie a lawyer) to find out what the flip is happening and why!

The Murder of a Queen Bee (Henny Penny Farmette Mystery #2) by Meera Lester

Only hours after Abby’s free-spirited friend, Fiona Mary Ryan, owner of Ancient Wisdom Botanicals, missed their lunch date, her body is found in a burning car—a tragic accident until the coroner’s report points to murder. Driven by her loyalty to her friend, and her deeply ingrained skills as a trained investigator, Abby sorts through suspects who seem to be sprouting up everywhere. Luckily, Abby isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty to smoke out a killer . . .

Abby and her friend (and ex police partner)  Kat are sat waiting for a local businesswoman, Fiona Ryan, to come for lunch, when she doesn't arrive and doesn't respond to calls or texts they start to get worried and then Kat gets called into work to help with a death, only to discover that the dead woman is Fiona! Things just don't look right with the scene and before long it is classed as murder.  Now Abby starts to look into things as well, it could be that this takes her away from the fact that her ex boyfriend has turned back up and hopes to take back up where they left off!

Now with Fiona's brother and Fiona's husband wanting answers Abby will need to smoke out a murderer before she is smoked herself!

Chocolate Covered Death (Wine & Dine Mysteries #2) by Gemma Halliday

In order to boost her struggling family winery's reputation, Emmy Oak throws a Wine and Chocolate party for the Sonoma Valley elite--featuring her delicious drinks alongside her friend Leah's decadently chocolaty desserts. But when Leah's ex-husband's new trophy wife turns up dead after the party, the police paint Leah in the role of main suspect and the only thing anyone in town can talk about is the murder at the Chocolate Bar.

In order to save face and her friend, Emmy finds herself infiltrating high society and sorting among the catty and cantankerous for her killer. Did the victim's rare-wine brokering business have anything to do with it? Or was it the hot new golf pro at the club or the frenemy with a jealous streak? Or maybe her husband found a less messy way than divorce to end their short and unhappy marriage? Emmy isn't sure, but she knows a mysterious man in a cowboy had has something to do with it, and the deeper she digs, the more trouble seems to follow her. Between crashing the country club, dodging danger, and trying to stay one step ahead of the sexy Detective Christopher Grant, Emmy has her work cut out for her to catch a killer...before hers is the next death by chocolate!

Emmy Oak is still trying to save the family vineyard, this time she and a new friend Leah have come up with the idea of a dessert and wine evening, held at Leah's bakery/cafe, it all seems to be going well until Leah spots her ex-husband's new trophy wife, Leah ducks into the kitchen leaving Emmy and her best friend Eva to hold down the fort in the front.  Other than that it seems to have been a successful evening, until Emmy stumbles across the trophy wife dead by a dumpster.  Now with everything pointing towards Leah as the killer Emmy and Eva need to channel their inner Cagney and Lacey and find the true killer before Leah's next cooking gig is in prison!

Marshmallow Malice (Amish Candy Shop Mystery #5) by Amanda Flower

With Juliet Brody and Reverend Brook tying the knot in Ohio's Amish Country's most anticipated nuptials of the year, Bailey King is determined to do everything in her power to make the event a sweet success. Except midsummer heat waves and outdoor ceremonies don't mix, and an exasperated Bailey soon finds herself struggling to fulfill bridesmaid duties and keep her stunning marshmallow-frosted wedding cake from becoming a gooey disaster. Then much to everyone's shock, the entire ceremony crumbles when a guest drops dead, and the cause isn't sunstroke . . .

Turns out, the uninvited victim came equipped with lots of dirt on the devout reverend's hidden past. As Reverend Brook tops the murder suspect list on what should have been the happiest day of his life, Bailey and her sheriff's deputy boyfriend vow to clear his name. Can the duo boil down a series of baffling clues before Juliet considers her marriage a bad mistake--or the killer whips up another deadly surprise?

I keep thinking there is no way this series can improve and yet Amanda Flower proves me wrong time after time! With this one Juliet and the Reverend are finally tying the knot and Bailey has been tasked with not only being the Maid of Honour (which involves looking after Jethro the Pot Bellied pig) but Swissman Sweets are making the wedding cake - and Juliet wants Marshmallow icing, on one of the most humid days of the year! Still things go reasonably okay (and thank you Cass for coming from New York to help out with the wedding and the shop - best friends are great!), until an inebriated woman tries to stop the wedding, oh and then Jethro starts to eat the cake and knocks it over!  That should be it, but the following day the drunken woman is found dead on the steps of the church, now Bailey and Cass need to put their thinking caps on and find a killer so that Juliet and her new husband can have their happy ever after time.

Death in an Elegant City (Murder on Location #4) by Sara Rosett

Location scout Kate Sharp is thrilled to be part of a scouting trip to the historic city of Bath, England to research the location for a Jane Austen documentary. But before Kate gets a chance to stroll the elegant boulevards where Austen once lived, murder cuts the sightseeing short. Now Kate must rearrange her itinerary and find the killer before she and the production are shut down permanently.

Kate Sharp and her boyfriend Alex are location scouts and this time they (and some other people) are headed to Bath to do another series based on the works of Jane Austen, Elise the Producer can be rather sharp but knows how to get stuff done, her assistant Paul is fairly laid back, the driver and general Gopher Felix can be grumpy, but the worst person of all is Cyrus the Director, who seems to think he is the Bee's Knees and has a habit of finding out interesting facts about people and making not so subtle digs about them.  However nobody expects Cyrus to wind up dead no more than 4 hours after they arrive in Bath.  Now with the rest of the team in the local police viewfinder, Elise wants Kate to start digging and find out the truth, .... but then there is another murder and things get worse!

Knitty Gritty Murder (A Knit & Nibble Mystery #7) by Peggy Ehrhart

Most times of the year, the tight-knit community gardens in quaint Arborville, New Jersey, overflow with seasonal vegetables and herbs. But who planted the dead body? Farm-to-table enthusiast Jenny Miller had a cookbook in the works when she was suddenly found strangled by a circular knitting needle in her own plot. Now, the pressure is on Pamela and her neighbor Bettina as they weave together clues in search of the person who kept Jenny's renowned heirloom plants--and budding career--from growing. With suspects and victims cropping up like weeds, it'll take a whole lot more than green thumbs and creative minds this spring to entangle the crafty culprit...

Pamela and Bettina get caught up in another murder, this time they think they will be staying out of it (after all it was a member of the Community Garden club called Jenny that was killed) but when they find out that the murder weapon is a circular knitting needle they get drawn in.  There appears to be a lot of potential suspects, however a lot of the time Pamela and Bettina were thinking that if the suspect was killed Jenny would have been the prime suspect so why was she killed? Then there is another murder, with the same murder weapon used and now all knitters as well as gardeners are in the firing line.  Can Pamela and Bettina knit the clues together before someone else ends up dead?