Book Review: Boiled Over by Barbara Ross

Boiled Over is the second book in the Maine Clambake Mysteries by Barbara Ross. In the first book, Clammed Up, we met Julia Snowden and her family. Her family has run the clambake on Morrow Island for generations, and is in financial trouble. She relocates to Maine to help out her family and ends up solving a murder. In the second book in the series it seems that someone else in town has murder on their mind, when a charred body is discovered in "The Claminator", a contraption they use to bake clams on the pier for the Founder's Weekend celebration. When one of her employees is accused of murder, Julia decides it's time to investigate a murder again.

I'm not a seafood person. This might sound weird since I grew up in Australia and eating seafood is as natural as breathing to Australians, but I've never liked the flavour. However, this hasn't stopped me from enjoying this series! I love the way Barbara Ross describes the clambake and I think one year I need to journey down to Maine to try it for myself! With the mouth-watering recipes at the back of the book and the delicious mystery, Barbara Ross certainly is going to have a lot of readers wanting to discover Maine and clambakes.

I liked the murder mystery a lot. With Cabe Stone, who works for the Snowden family, running away from the scene of the crime, and the victim not being who they thought he was, it was a very tangled web to unweave. Julia sticks to it like a dog with a bone, and eventually solves the murder and even provides a few other answers that were left hanging in the air.

Boiled Over was a very good mystery, but I have to give Barbara Ross credit for something other than the mystery and the delicious food descriptions. She takes the reader back over the last few months between Clammed Up ending and Boiled Over beginning. While most of the flashbacks involve the mystery, she has given the reader a more detailed view of the residents of Busman's Harbour. Between these two books I feel like I know these characters better and I absolutely can't wait to set foot back there again and dive into whatever mystery Julia Snowden has to solve next!

If you enjoy culinary cozy mysteries don't hesitate to add Clammed Up and Boiled Over on your summer reading list.

Book Review: Dorothy Daisy by Una Tiers

The third book in the Fiona Gavelle Mysteries sees Fiona dealing with a difficult elderly lady who wants to create a trust for her assets. Dorothy Daisy is more than a little strange. When Fiona first meets her she seems like any normal elderly lady, but she starts acting weird and one day Fiona gets a call that Dorothy has been kidnapped!! It's going to take all of Fiona's best sleuthing and lawyer skills to try and untangle this one.

I try not to judge a book by its cover but when I first picked this one up I wasn't sure if I would like it or not. Well let me say I won't be ever judging a book by its cover again, because this delightful story thrilled me from beginning to end. I liked Fiona Gavelle a lot. Most lawyers wouldn't be bothered in trying to track down Dorothy. After all Dorothy had already paid her bill and it isn't up to Fiona to be responsible for the elderly lady's welfare. However, she does her best to try and unravel the mystery and make sure Dorothy is okay.

I really liked this story. It kept me guessing the entire time. Even though it was only a novella length (71 pages on my ereader), Una Tiers certainly packs a punch within this length. I didn't have a clue as to the real mystery behind Dorothy's disappearance, and thoroughly enjoyed reading the conclusion to the events.

Una Tiers is now on my list of indie authors to watch, and eagerly await for more books in this series.

Book Review: Jailhouse Glock by Lizbeth Lipperman

Jailhouse Glock is the second book in the Dead Sister Talking Mysteries. I really fell in love with this series when I read the first book in this series, Heard It Through the Grapevine. For readers that haven’t read this series yet, I highly recommend starting with the first book so they can discover this great town of Vineyard and find out why the Garcia’s sisters have their dead sister, Tessa, as their own friendly ghost.

In Jailhouse Glock, we get an adventure featuring Maddy. Maddy is a widower and a cop. She’s alarmed to see Tessa one day, who says she is here to help Maddy out, but Maddy’s not in trouble… yet! One night on her shift a prisoner is shot with her own gun and of course suspicion falls on her! With the help of her sisters, both dead and alive, they must clear Maddy’s name before she receives life in jail!

I love, LOVE, LOVE this series. The five sisters are all fabulous, and I love seeing each book featuring a different sister. In the first book it is Lainey’s story and now we get Maddy’s story. Each sister is unique and has their own baggage, and we learn more about Maddy’s life, as the girls try to clear her name.

Lizbeth Lipperman packs a powerful punch with this adventure. It kept me on the edge of my seat and when I thought I had everything figured out, she swung a storyline I wasn’t expected. I love when a story keeps me guessing and this one definitely did! Jailhouse Glock was everything I was wanting and more, and I can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

Book Review: Words with Fiends by Ali Brandon

In the latest instalment of the Black Cat Bookshop Mysteries, Ali Brandon tantalizes readers with an action-packed mystery featuring karate, cat whispers and even the Mob!

Hamlet is feeling a little blue following his last entanglement with a murderer. In an attempt to feel more confident against further attacks, Darla, owner of Pettistone’s Fine Books, and Robert, a goth teen working at the store, have taken up karate at the local dojo. All is going well until they discover the dead body of their beloved Sensei. What first looks like suicide turns out to be murder, and finding a killer might be just what Hamlet needs to bring him out of his funk!

I’ve been singing the praises of this series since Double Booked for Death first hit the shelves. Since I love cats and mysteries, this has always been the perfect combination in a cozy mystery series for me. I’ve enjoyed each book in this series more and more, and always anxiously await the release of the next book. With her latest book I think Ali Brandon has hit it out of the park. There is more of Hamlet to adore in this one, more mystery to try and solve, and lots of interesting happenings in the bookstore and the dojo!

I enjoy watching characters progress as a series develops, and I like how Ali Brandon does this so well. It’s not just solve a mystery and done with it. She really brings the fictional characters to life with their own problems and events, just like any real-life person. Professor James might have a romance on the horizon, and Darla is battling her feelings for Reese. Not to mention the fact that Hamlet gets a visit from a “cat whisper” and makes a new friend in a fellow animal, and not of the feline persuasion!!! When you add in the mystery you’ve got one of the best cozy mystery series that is currently on the shelves!

If you haven’t visited Pettistone’s Fine Books yet, I highly recommend you take a visit. Pick up Double Booked For Death and get to set to enjoy three fabulous mysteries, with hopefully more to come!

Book Review: Read It and Weep by Jenn McKinlay

In her fourth Library Lover’s Mystery, Jenn McKinlay tantalizes readers with books, mysteries and Shakespeare! The town is putting on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Violet La Rue has enlisted popular actor and close friend, Robbie Vine, to play the cheeky Puck! With a wife and girlfriend in tow, Robbie certainly seems to have his hands full, but this doesn’t stop him from flirting with Lindsay, our favourite town librarian. With her relationship with Sully on hold (at Sully’s request) Lindsey takes a shine to Robbie and is devastated by Robbie’s death and puts her sleuthing skills to work to find a killer!

When I first started this series I was not expecting to like it as much as Jenn McKinlay’s other series. How can she top cupcake mysteries and bargain shopping mysteries (two of my favourite activities), but she’s taken my love of books and cozy towns and has made me a huge fan of this series too! Four books in and I’m thoroughly addicted and like a good cozy mystery addict, I was ready to scoop up her latest offering!

Read It and Weep is immersed within books, from Lindsey’s job as town librarian, to her involvement behind stage on the set of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and her crafternoon group, who is reading Pride and Prejudice. For a book lover like me, I can’t get enough of books within books and Jenn McKinlay’s certainly satisfied my inner booknerd with Read It and Weep.

Over all of her series, Jenn McKinlay doesn’t just create a murder mystery, she creates a reading experience. Every time I visit Briar Creek I feel like I’m shadowing Lindsey, eating with her at the Blue Anchor, taking her adorable pup, Heathcliff, for a walk and getting to know all the patrons of the library. There is so much life between the pages of each story and I can’t wait to take another visit when On Borrowed Time is released.