REVIEW: One Hot Murder

One Hot Murder by Lorraine Bartlett

Berkley Prime Crime (304 pages)

February 5, 2013

For fans of:  Maggie Sefton

Rating:  7 (A decent read.)

Ever since Katie Bonner inherited the failing artists' co-op known as Artisans Alley, she's had to work extra hard just to keep the place from falling into bankruptcy. The Alley needs to draw in every customer it can to stay afloat, so when one of the neighboring shops is torched by an arsonist and the police find an unidentified corpse inside, Katie worries the negative publicity associated with the crimes could do serious damage to the co-op's bottom line. Can she help the police catch the culprit and close the case before the customers start to flee, or will the criminal's next victim be the Alley, itself?

One Hot Murder is the third of Lorraine Bartlett’s Victoria Square Mysteries, and about half of it is a really entertaining read.  Unfortunately, it’s the second half of the book that’s worth your time, which means that in order to get there, you’re going to have to slog through the first 150 pages.  Not that the first 150 pages are unreadable; far from it.  But the pace is slow, there’s not much action or drama, and the drama that is there feels forced and manufactured.  Most of the scenes have little, if anything, to do with the central mystery, and instead only serve to document the petty infighting that’s taking place amongst the vendors and merchants.  As a result, being in Katie’s head for this part of the book makes you feel like you’re tagging along with someone as they progress through an incredibly aggravating workweek, and that’s not much fun for anyone involved.  Nobody really seems to care that someone’s dead or that there’s a killer on the loose, which means there’s no sense of urgency, and Bartlett never quite brings Artisans Alley to life, which makes it even harder to get caught up in Katie’s narrative.

The back half of Bartlett’s tale is actually quite engrossing, though.  The mystery is complex and very neatly constructed, and there are some genuinely clever twists and red herrings mixed in.  Bartlett’s fashioned a puzzle that will definitely keep readers guessing, and if you can make it this far, you’ll have a hard time putting the book down until you’ve reached the end.

Katie is a decent heroine; she’s definitely got gumption and isn’t afraid to take control of a situation to get what she wants, even if it means stepping on some toes or ruffling some feathers.  And I really like the way her relationship with formerly grumpy Detective Ray Davenport is progressing; it’s sweet, and it’s funny, and there’s not an ounce of romance to it, which is kind of refreshing for a traditional mystery cop-sleuth partnership.  Unfortunately, however, she shares almost no chemistry with purported love interest Andy, which makes for some awkward scenes. The couple comes off more like brother and sister than a pair of lovers, and I found myself desperately hoping some new potential suitor would appear on the scene.

The best traditional mysteries are never all about the mystery – I know that; but there should never be so much padding that one occasionally can’t even find the mystery.  Especially if said mystery is good enough to deserve center stage.

-Kat

REVIEW: Buried in a Bog

Buried in a Bog by Sheila Connolly
Berkley Prime Crime (304 pages)
February 5, 2013

Rating:  8 (Good!)

For fans of:  Nancy Atherton

When Maura Donovan agrees to grant her grandmother Nora's dying wish and travel to Ireland to visit the village of Leap (where Nora was born), she doesn't think she's signing on for anything that'll take longer than a week. She figures she'll seek out some of her grandmother's old friends, see the sights, and come home again.

Life never works out quite as one plans, though, and before she knows it, Maura's befriending the locals and lending a hand down at the village pub. It's only for a few months, she tells herself – just until the pub's managers can figure some things out, and until Maura decides what she wants to do with her life now that there's nothing keeping her in Boston. But when a body's pulled out of the bog, another villager turns up dead, and Maura starts receiving threats, she's forced to wonder if she's destined to become a permanent resident of Leap – with an address in the local cemetery.

Buried in a Bog is the first of Sheila Connolly’s new County Cork Mysteries, and if the quality of this book is any indication, Berkley has another winner of a series on their hands. Connolly’s latest is a captivating tale – sweet, nostalgic, and full of Irish charm, but also tightly plotted and full of twists, turns, and shocking reveals. There's a strong sense of place; Connolly's lush and vivid descriptions virtually transport the reader to the Irish countryside. And the book reads almost like a love letter to Irish history, culture, and genealogy; Buried in a Bog is as much a mystery as it a story of self-discovery and rebirth – of uncovering one’s history, and in doing so, stumbling across one’s path to the future.

Connolly’s characters are likable and well drawn, but I must admit to mixed feelings regarding Maura as a heroine. On the one hand, you can’t help but feel sorry for her; her father’s dead, her mother abandoned her, and the grandmother who raised her just died of cancer, essentially leaving her both homeless and penniless. And you have to admire her sense of adventure, what with her spur-of-the-moment decision to (at least temporarily) relocate to Ireland and to try and make a go of it. But neither of these things quite makes up for the fact that Maura’s about as judgmental as they come – especially considering her young age, her relatively poor upbringing, and her current station in life. Her critical nature makes it difficult to truly like her, no matter how much you may want to do so, and that’s probably my biggest knock about this book.  She does mellow a bit over the course of this first installment in her tale, and I have a feeling she’ll continue to do so as she acclimates to her new life and the people in it, but for this book, at least, Maura comes off more like a cranky, bitter old lady than she does a young woman with her whole life ahead of her.

That said, Connolly absolutely nails the book’s ending, tying up all the story's loose ends and rather nicely setting up the rest of the series. Sheila Connolly’s County Cork Mysteries have a ton of promise, and I, for one, can’t wait to see where Connolly chooses to take her readers next.

-Kat

REVIEW: Town in a Pumpkin Bash

Town in a Pumpkin Bash by B.B. Haywood

Berkley Prime Crime (336 pages)

February 5, 2013

For fans of:  Joanne Fluke

Rating:  8 (Good!)

When Maine blueberry farmer Candy Holliday agrees to help her friend Maggie tend old Mr. Gumm’s pumpkin patch through the fall season, she figures it’ll be an easy way to have some fun while making some extra cash.  She does not, however, expect that she and Maggie will stumble across a dead body buried in a pile of pumpkins just days before Halloween, or that the discovery will land her smack in the middle of yet another murder investigation.  The deeper Candy digs, the more it seems the killer meant for her to find the corpse and become involved in the case.  But if so, who?  And perhaps more importantly, why?

Town in a Pumpkin Bash is the fourth of B.B. Haywood’s Candy Holliday Mysteries, and it’s her best to date.  The previous installments in Haywood’s series have been entertaining, but historically, her attempts to make her books and her characters seem authentically Maine-y have been so over-the-top that I actually found them insulting. (Yes, I’m from Maine, so I may be a little overly sensitive about such matters, but to me, it felt like Haywood spent half of each book waving her hands and screaming, “This is what Maine people eat! This is what Maine people wear! This is how Maine people talk! Isn’t it craaazzzyyyy?” Maine is a state, people – not an alien planet; get a grip.)

I’m happy to report, however, that with Town in a Pumpkin Bash, Haywood has finally written a book that feels like it actually takes place in Maine.  The characters are quirky and colorful, but not too.  The town is small and quaint, but not nauseatingly so.  And she drops just enough Maine facts and trivia into the mix to lend context and veracity to her tale, but not so many as to disrupt the flow of the story.  

Haywood’s prose is artful and fun, her narrative style is engaging, and the two central mysteries (one past and one present) are clever, complex, and connect quite seamlessly.  The story is perfectly paced, with twists, clues, confrontations, and red herrings dropped in all the right places, and Haywood manages to keep the reader guessing until the very end.  I confess, I wish she’d spent a little more time developing her suspects (after I read the Big Reveal, I didn’t recall having met the culprit and had to page back and figure out who said culprit was in relation to the rest of the story), but in the grand scheme of things, that’s a relatively minor quibble.

If you’re sick of the cold and the snow and are yearning to escape to someplace a little more exciting and a little less bleak, look no further than Town in Pumpkin Bash by B.B. Haywood; come for the beautiful Maine foliage, stay for the intrigue and the dead bodies.

-Kat

REVIEW: Murder Hooks a Mermaid

Note:  This review was originally written for inclusion in The Season E-Zine's January mystery section.

Murder Hooks a Mermaid by Christy Fifield
Berkley Prime Crime (304 pages)
December 31, 2012

Rating: 3.5/5 (Good) (The Season's rating scale now runs from 1 to 5.)

For fans of:  Lorraine Bartlett

When Glory Martine inherited a 55% share of her Uncle Louis’ souvenir shop, Southern Treasures, she didn’t realize she’d also be inheriting the ghost of her Uncle Louis. Or that Uncle Louis’ ghost would opt to communicate with her via the shop’s mascot, a potty-mouthed parrot named Bluebird. Quirks be damned though, Glory’s proud of what she’s been able to do with her new business, and is determined to make a go of things in her old hometown of Keyhole Bay.

Spring break is right around the corner, which means Glory should be dedicating all her free time to preparing for the inevitable influx of tourists. Instead, she’s stuck trying to help her best friend Karen clear the name of Karen’s former brother-in-law Bobby, who’s been arrested for murder. It’s pretty clear Bobby’s been set up – but by who and why?

Murder Hooks a Mermaid is the second in Christy Fifield’s Haunted Souvenir Shop Mystery series, and it’s a bit of a slow burn. I actually wasn’t quite sure what I thought of this book for the first hundred pages or so; the setup is clunky, the story has no real sense of place, and Fifield doesn’t do a great job of establishing the stakes. You never get to know murder suspect Bobby (in fact, I don’t even remember meeting him), which makes it difficult to care whether he’s been wrongfully accused or will be wrongfully convicted, and the pace starts off a bit slow.  The premise is quirky and unique, though (the idea of a haunted parrot amuses the heck out of me), and in Glory, Fifield has created a heroine for whom you can’t help but root, so I stuck with it. And I have to tell you, I’m glad that I did.

Yes, some of the supporting characters feel a bit flat, but the book’s key players – namely Glory, Karen, and Glory’s love interest, Jake – are entertaining and well drawn. The friendship between Glory and Karen rings true, and Fifield does a great job fleshing out the developing relationship between Glory and Jake. The mystery is clever (if a little predictable), and once the action and drama pick up in the third act, the story really sucks you in.

Final verdict? If you’re looking for a fun and easy read (now with bonus haunted parrot!), check out Murder Hooks a Mermaid by Christy Fifield. It’s not going to change the way you view crime fiction or anything, but it’s certainly an enjoyable way to pass an afternoon.

-Kat
               

REVIEW: Fonduing Fathers

Note:  This review was originally written for inclusion in The Season E-Zine's January mystery section. 

Fonduing Fathers by Julie Hyzy
Berkley Prime Crime (304 pages)
December 31, 2012

Rating:  4.5/5 (Amazing) (The Season's rating scale now runs from 1 to 5.)

For fans of:  Diane Mott Davidson

White House Executive Chef Olivia “Ollie” Paras is no stranger to danger, drama, and intrigue; in the past few years, she’s helped foil terrorist plots, thwart assassination attempts, and has even survived a kidnapping. But none of the crazy situations she’s faced while in the employ of the First Family has sufficiently prepared her for her latest adventure:  the quest to learn the truth about her father, Anthony Paras, who died when Ollie was just a child. 

You’d think it’d be easy for someone with Ollie’s connections to gain access to the information she seeks; unfortunately, though, every answer she procures only raises more questions. Was her father really the victim of a homicide, and not an accident as she’d been led to believe?  If so, who killed him, and why? And if her father truly was dishonorably discharged from the military, how did he end up buried in Arlington? Can Ollie get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding Anthony’s death – or is she doomed to fall prey to the same criminals who claimed his life?

Fonduing Fathers is the sixth of Julie Hyzy’s superlative White House Chef Mysteries, and it’s a riveting read from cover to cover. Hyzy quickly and efficiently establishes the mood, setting, and stakes for her tale, and then goes on to build one heckuva fabulous puzzle. Twists, turns, clever clues, and expertly deployed red herrings – Fonduing Fathers has it all and then some, the end result being (as per Hyzy’s usual) an elevation of the genre and one of the best books I’ve read this year.

In a break from form for the series, Ollie actually spends most of the book outside the confines of the White House; I’m happy to report, though, that Fonduing Fathers is no less thrilling for it. Because the subject of this particular mystery is so personal to Ollie, she’s even more invested in seeing it through to its conclusion.   Ollie’s always had moxie; it’s one of her most endearing qualities. But the Ollie of this book is not only tenacious, but, for the first time, she’s angry, too, and this fire only serves to make her all the more compelling and relatable.

That’s not to say, however, that our heroine’s gone hard; to the contrary, Fonduing Fathers offers readers the chance to see Ollie at her warmest and most tender, as well. Her developing rapport with First Kid Josh will warm the cockles of even the hardest of hearts, and the chemistry Hyzy’s cooked up between Ollie and Secret Service Agent Leonard “Gav” Gavin is nothing short of stellar. The couple’s romance has been progressing for at least a couple of books now, but it really comes into its own here. Gav’s the Frank Hardy to Ollie’s Nancy Drew (oh, c'mon – they were SO TOTALLY a thing). He treats her like a partner and a respected equal, which is a refreshing change from the stereotypical cozy (but then, nothing Hyzy does is stereotypical), and I, for one, can’t wait to see what the future has in store for these two.

-Kat

REVIEW: What a Ghoul Wants

 Note:  This review originally appeared in The Season E-Zine's January mystery section.

What a Ghoul Wants by Victoria Laurie
Obsidian (352 pages)
December 24, 2012

Rating:  4.5/5 (Amazing) (The Season's rating scale now runs from 1 to 5.)

For fans of: Juliet Blackwell

Ghost hunters M.J. Holliday and Heath Whitefeather have traveled all over the world filming their reality television show, Ghoul Getters. They’ve visited some incredibly creepy locations and faced down some extraordinarily powerful spirits, but none of their experiences has sufficiently prepared them for their current project:  a shoot at Kidwella Castle in northern Wales.

Kidwella is haunted by a number of spooks, but perhaps the most legendary is the one known as the Grim Widow.  The Grim Widow is a ghost so dangerous she’s rumored to have claimed nearly a dozen lives in the past forty years – and it seems she has no intention of retiring anytime soon, as a body is found floating in the moat soon after the crew arrives. Their very first encounter with the phantom proves to M.J. and Heath that the Grim Widow's not only real, but is even more malevolent than they were led to believe. But is she actually responsible for all of Kidwella’s corpses – or is a flesh-and-blood killer using her for cover?

What a Ghoul Wants is the seventh of Victoria Laurie's fabulously entertaining Ghost Hunter Mysteries. Laurie's among my very favorite authors and this is my favorite of her two series, so I'm happy to report that What a Ghoul Wants doesn't disappoint.  I've always been a sucker for a good ghost story, and What a Ghoul Wants is certainly that.  The woman knows how to bring the creepy; the spectral encounters she writes are the stuff of nightmares – what you desperately hope for when you tune in to an actual ghost-hunting reality show, but unfortunately never get.  She has a genuine talent for creating unique spirits with compelling origin stories and then using those creations to scare the crap out of her characters and her readers, alike.

That said, What a Ghoul Wants isn’t all thrills and chills; it’s as much a cleverly plotted mystery as it is a ghost story, and there’s plenty of humor and goofy charm to be found here, as well. The setup is marvelous, the pace is quick, and the stakes are high; Laurie wastes no time plunging you straight into the center of the action and doesn't pause to let you catch your breath until she’s got you good and hooked.  This is the kind of book you consider calling in sick just to read, and it will pain you to put it down in between sittings.

The characters are fantastic to a one. I adore M.J. as a heroine; she’s strong, smart, loyal, brave, and incredibly resourceful. She’s also doggedly determined without being reckless, and that’s a rare trait amongst traditional mystery heroines. For his part, Heath is both a perfect partner and a perfect love interest (and a darned intriguing character in his own right), and the developing relationship between he and M.J. just serves to make the two of them even more likable.  Best friend, technical advisor, and all-around-scaredy-cat Gilley is, as usual, completely over the top, but he's great comic relief. And bit player Inspector Lumley very nearly steals the show. He flies in the face of everything you've come to expect from a traditional mystery cop, and his presence adds a goodly amount of heart to the tale, as well.

The upshot? Buy this book. Buy it now. Who needs Dickens and his lame assorted Christmas ghosts when you've got Victoria Laurie and her merry band of ghostbusters?

 -Kat