The Castle Mystery

The Castle Mystery
Faith Martin



Book Blurb:
Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These charming mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is. 

Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective. 

Please note this book was first published as “AN INVISIBLE MURDER” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO.

Jenny Starling has her dream job cooking for Lord and Lady Avonsleigh in a genuine castle.

Then one of the castle’s treasures, a fabulously jewelled dagger, is used to murder a staff member. The victim is found stabbed through the heart in the conservatory.

Lady Avonsleigh insists that Jenny help the police find the murderer.

But how can Jenny solve this case when the murder was committed in front of several reliable witnesses, none of whom saw a thing?

This is the fourth of a series of enjoyable murder mysteries with a great cast of characters and baffling crimes which will keep you in suspense to the final page.

Perfect for fans of classic whodunits by authors like Agatha Christie, LJ Ross, TE Kinsey, and J.R. Ellis.


Another enjoyable book featuring Jenny Starling.  The twists aren't so twisty (in my opinion) as advertised, but still a charming read.

I've read other novels featuring Jenny Starling, and my opinion of her is still the same: I adore the character!  I love how she's extremely competent, never getting frazzled cooking and terrific at reading human nature.  She's a large woman, but that seems to be more of an issue for the writer than Jenny.

Mild Spoilers follow. . . .

But the stories she's in. . . . I think they're supposed to be more complicated than they are?  For example, in this book, there's a scene where no one can figure out how the killing occurred in one room with lots of windows with several people sitting outside those windows.  I thought it was fairly obvious - the first idea that came to mind.  But no one in the book had any idea!  Which was a little frustrating.

. . . .End Spoilers

I still enjoyed the book, still enjoyed reading more about Jenny, still am looking forward to future adventures.

Highly recommended.

Grand Slam Murders

Grand Slam Murders

R.J. Lee

Book Blurb:

After four bridge players are poisoned, newspaper reporter Wendy Winchester sets out to catch a killer who's not playing with a full deck . . .

When the four wealthy widows who make up the venerable Rosalie Bridge Club never get up from their card table, this quiet Mississippi town has its first quadruple homicide. Who put cyanide in their sugar bowl? An aspiring member and kibitzer with the exclusive club, Wendy takes a personal interest in finding justice for the ladies.

She also has a professional motivation. A frustrated society columnist for the Rosalie Citizen, she's ready to deal herself a better hand as an investigative reporter. This could be her big break. Plus, she has a card or two up her sleeve: her sometimes boyfriend is a detective and her dad is the local chief of police.

Partnering up with the men in her life, Wendy starts shuffling through suspects and turning over secrets long held close to the chest by the ladies. But when a wild card tries to take her out of the game, Wendy decides it's time to up the ante before she's the next one to go down . . .

A new series with an interesting twist on the amateur detective.

The Gin Girls are all set for another day of drinking gin and playing bridge, until someone spikes the coffee, killing them.  Enter Wendy Winchester, new junior member of the club and society writer of the local paper.  Wendy knew the ladies, and she’s looking for a way to escape the society page and use her journalism degree.  To her advantage, her father is the chief of police, and she’s dating the lead investigator.

I enjoyed this book.  Parts seemed to drag a bit, but I loved how it opened - we spend the first pages following the Gin Girls in the hour or so before their deaths, switching to other characters moments before.  I also liked the series set up: many amateur detectives can seem a little silly at times, digging into a death they have no valid reason to.  However, with Wendy, she’s a journalist and has reasons to be asking people questions.  Her connection to the police is stronger as well; while you might argue why the police might reveal something to the general public, in this case, it’s a dad talking to his daughter, something he’s done (somewhat) her whole life. 

Recommended.  I’m looking forward to others in the series.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

Past Due for Murder: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery

Book Blurb:Past Due for Murder: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery

Victoria Gilbert

Pub Date 22 Feb 2019

Book Blurb:

For fans of Miranda James and Jenn McKinlay, the third conspiratorially delightful third entry in Victoria Gilbert’s critically acclaimed Blue Ridge Library mysteries.

Has a curse fallen on the small town of Taylorsford, Virginia? After a young woman goes missing during a spring bonfire, library director Amy Webber must wade through the web of lies only to find a truth that she may not want to untangle.

Spring has sprung in quaint Taylorsford, Virginia, and the mayor has revived the town’s long-defunct May Day celebration to boost tourism. As part of the festivities, library director Amy Webber is helping to organize a research project and presentation by a local folklore expert. All seems well at first—but spring takes on a sudden chill when a university student inexplicably vanishes during a bonfire. 

The local police cast a wide net to find the missing woman, but in a shocking turn of events, Amy’s swoon-worthy neighbor Richard Muir becomes a person of interest in the case. Not only is Richard the woman’s dance instructor, he also doesn’t have an alibi for the night the student vanished—or at least not one he’ll divulge, even to Amy. 

When the missing student is finally discovered lost in the mountains, with no memory of recent events—and a dead body lying nearby—an already disturbing mystery takes on a sinister new hue. Blessed with her innate curiosity and a librarian’s gift for research, Amy may be the only one who can learn the truth in Past Due for Murder, Victoria Gilbert’s third charming Blue Ridge Library mystery.

A mixed bag for me: some parts were lovely while others were. . . Uninspired.

Amy Webber, the protagonist, is the head librarian in Taylorsford, Virginia.  She’s been helping a local professor research some of the local folklore, include the disappearance of two young girls and a bag full of gold coins back in the 1800s.  Within the first few pages, we’re told about one of the professor’s students who’s disappeared and Amy’s ex-boyfriend who’s new girlfriend had been killed a few months before.  Before too much longer, Amy’s involved in finding a missing student and a killer.

As I said above, parts of this book were lovely - the descriptions of a character’s singing voice, skill at making instruments, and how he became a hermit all give the character a lot of depth and interest.  Meanwhile, other characters - ones that seem more likely to appear in future books - are not.  Amy’s serious boyfriend’s parents show up; both Mom and Dad seem very flat in contrast.  Mom refuses bread at dinner with no explanation.  She could have become a much more rounded character with a few lines - she has celiac disease, so has to avoid gluten; she was once close to 300 pounds and is paranoid about gaining weight; or, if she’s just being vain, include a line that she thinks a woman could never been too thin or too pretty - something small, but makes the character much deeper.  Likewise, a few scenes are uninspired; during the denouement after the killer grabs Amy’s cell phone, they smash it.  Which, given most smart phones (all?) have locating on them, means that it would have been shown to last be at a place highly associated with the killer?  Just seems like there was a dozen other options that could have increased the tension instead.

All in all, I enjoyed the book except for a few places that were frustratingly lacking!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

A Pair of Jenny Starling Books: The Birthday Mystery and The Winter Mystery

The Birthday Mystery
The Winter Mystery
Faith Martin


Book Blurb for The Birthday Mystery:

Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These classic-style mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is. Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective. 

Please note this book was first published as “BIRTHDAYS CAN BE MURDER” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO. 

Jenny Starling is catering the twenty-first birthday party of a pair of posh twins, Alicia and Justin. But when she arrives at their parent’s country house, she is immediately met by the police. A young man has drowned in the pond. Was it an accident or murder? Then just after midnight everyone gathers for a champagne toast. But one of the guests falls down dead. The police are baffled and there is a whole party full of suspects. But when it comes to someone adding the extra ingredient of poison to her own precious recipes, Jenny isn't going to take it lying down. She has a reputation to protect. Jenny Starling won't stop until the murderer is found. This is the first of a series of enjoyable murder mysteries with a great cast of characters and baffling crimes which will keep you in suspense to the final page. 

Perfect for fans of classic whodunits by authors like Agatha Christie, LJ Ross, TE Kinsey, and J.R. Ellis.

JENNY STARLING In her late twenties, Jenny Starling is an impressive woman. Physically, she stands at 6ft 1inch, and has shoulder-length black hair and blue eyes. Curvaceous and sexy, she’s a modern single woman, living the lifestyle that suits her – that of a travelling cook. Her famous (and now very rich) father, is a ‘celebrity’ cook, divorced from Jenny’s mother. Jenny drives a disreputable cherry-red van, and is happy travelling the country catering events and cooking great food. She is on a one-woman crusade to bring back ‘real’ food. And definitely doesn’t like having to divert her attention from achieving the perfect Dundee cake or creating a new sauce recipe by having to solve a murder. She finds crime very distracting, especially when there is chocolate to temper or pike to poach. Nevertheless, she is very good at reading people, and with a quick and agile brain, becomes very good at unmasking killers. And her always-undaunted sense of humour goes a long way in keeping her sane when all around her people are dropping like flies.

Book Blurb for The Winter Mystery:

Discover a new series of whodunits by million-selling author Faith Martin. These charming mysteries will have you scratching your head to work out who the murderer is. 

“Classic murder mystery story with a twist at the end” Oxford Times

Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective. 

Please note this book was first published as “A FATAL FALL OF SNOW” under Faith Martin’s pen name JOYCE CATO.

Jenny Starling is spending Christmas in a snowed-in country house cooking all the traditional food she loves. But the family she’s working for are not full of the seasonal spirit. In fact, they seem to hate each other.

On Christmas Eve, someone is found dead on the kitchen table. And the head of the family is blaming Jenny!

But with an incompetent detective called in, and seemingly no motive for the murder, Jenny will have to give the police a hand.

She will stop at nothing to clear her name and find the real murderer. 

This is the second of a series of gripping murder mysteries with a great cast of characters and baffling crimes which will keep you in suspense to the final page.

In both of these books, the protagonist, Jenny Starling, is catering a special event - the first a birthday party for a pair of wealthy twins, the second, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner for a remote farmhouse.  In both of them, someone ends up murdered.  And in both of them, Jenny has already earned a reputation for solving a crime, so is engaged by the local police to help solve the case.

I really liked Jenny as a character!  She's independent and is comfortable with who she is.  In one book, she meets a woman brought up to believe a woman could never be too think or two rich, two things that Jenny appears to have never even considered needing.  She really knows her way around the kitchen, not only where to source the best food, but food safety, what type of food someone would like, etc.  Very competent, very intelligent.  

The books themselves, however, I liked much less.  At times, in fact, I got frustrated with the writer who kept referring to Jenny being a big girl; I felt like I liked her and appreciated her more than her creator did.  I also thought there wasn't much 'whodunit' in either book; in one, only one person had opportunity, and in the other, only one person had motive.  I did enjoy watching Jenny investigate (with the police's blessing), asking just the right questions in a bar, for example.   It was also interesting to see how others viewed Jenny and how skillful she was at getting answers.

Both books have been published previously under the pen name 'Joyce Cato' as Birthdays Can be Murder and A Fatal Fall of Snow back in 2010 and 2011.  There's a number of references to a previous case; I'm assuming it was published as Joyce Cato, but Ms. Martin doesn't have the rights to publish?  

All in all, I'd recommend reading them, if only to get to know Jenny.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

Murder and Metaphors: A Magical Bookshop Mystery

Murder and Metaphors: A Magical Bookshop Mystery
Amanda Flowers
Pub Date: 12 Feb 2019


Book Blurb:
USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower is back with the third in her more-charming-than-ever Magical Bookshop mystery. Fans of Sofie Kelly and Heather Blake, prepare your bookshelves!

Niagara region booksellers Violet Waverly and Grandma Daisy sleuth the slaying of a sommelier whose book signing turned into her sayonara.

January means ice wine season in the Niagara Falls region, but the festivities leave Charming Books owner Violet Waverly cold, still reeling from a past heartbreak. A past heartbreak who will be present at the annual midnight grape-harvest festival, and no magic in the world or incantation powerful enough could get Violet to attend. But Grandma Daisy, an omniscient force all on her own, informs Violet that she’s already arranged for the mystical Charming Books to host celebrity sommelier Belinda Perkins’s book signing at the party. Little do either Waverly women know, the ice wine festival will turn colder still when Violet finds Belinda in the middle of the frozen vineyard—with a grape harvest knife protruding from her chest. 

Belinda grew up in Cascade Springs, but she left town years ago after a huge falling-out with her three sisters. One of those sisters, Violet’s high school friend Lacey Dupont, attends the book signing in the hope of making amends with her sister, but Belinda and Lacey end up disrupting the signing with a very public shouting match and Lacey quickly becomes the prime suspect in the sommelier’s murder. 

Violet is sure Lacey is innocent, and to keep her friend out of prison, Violet asks for guidance from her magical bookshop. The shop’s ethereal essence points her to Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, but what have the four March sisters to do with the four Perkins sisters? If she can’t figure it out, Violet, herself, may turn as cold as ice. Violet, Grandma Daisy, Emerson the tuxedo cat, and resident crow Faulkner are back on the case in Murders and Metaphors, USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower’s enchanting third Magical Bookshop mystery.


I enjoyed this book.  I picked it up because I had read one of Amanda Flower's Magic Garden books and enjoyed it.  The framing device of this was similar to the Magic Garden books: a young woman is now the caretaker for something magical that gives her clues on how to solve the case.  In this book, the protagonist, Violet Waverly, has recently moved back to her hometown to be a caretaker to a tree watered by a magic spring which gives the bookstore the tree is located in a magical essence.  This essence gives Violet clues about what's about to happen and how to solve the case - if only she can decipher them.

Like many cozies, it involved a disagreeable person being killed, and a friend of the protagonist being suspected of the crime.  There's also a potential love interest in the form of the chief of police, but the obstacle of Violet being the caretaker: how can she explain the tree and the magic in the bookstore?  Is she going to be alone like her mother and grandmother?  (Although, I have to wonder how she's going produce the next caretaker without have some companionship?  I was also curious how she never noticed the magic of the bookstore growing up; as this is the third book in the series, maybe it was covered in an earlier book?)

As long as the reader accepts the conceit of the magic bookstore, it's a fun book.  If magic and mystery don't mix for you, then this probably isn't the book for you.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

Murder Among the Tombstones: A Clara and Iris Mystery

Murder Among the Tombstones
Kim Carter

Book Blurb:
A Clara and Iris Mystery

When Atlanta homicide detectives are called in to investigate the murder of a nineteen-year-old girl

found dumped in historic Oakland Cemetery, they immediately begin working the case. But with no leads to follow, and their case log growing larger by the day, the murder quickly grows cold.
Desperate to keep the investigation of her deceased sister going, Ginger Baines hires two novice sleuths to solve the case. Widowed, well into their seventies, and new to the world of private investigating, Clara Samples and Iris Hadley aren’t your average private eyes.
When a second body is found in a neighboring cemetery, the plot thickens. With two bodies wrapped, almost lovingly, in a soft blanket before being discarded in a cemetery, could a serial killer be on the loose?
Joined by their young apprentice Quita, Clara and Iris are determined to stop at nothing to find the killer before they can strike again. But, will their bodies be the next ones discovered among the tombstones?


This book was hard for me to judge as it felt like two different books, sort of stitched together.  One was a cozy - two retired 'grandma' types with the street wise side kick are starting off a new career as PI - and the other was a gritty police procedural - bodies, autopsies, cops getting shot and nearly killed, serial killers chasing and debating on how to hide their victims.  It was odd.

I picked this up in part because it sounded like a cute cozy and because of the reference to Oakland Cemetery  but I'm not sure I would have if I'd known it's hybrid nature.  I found myself reading the cozy parts in detail then almost skipping over the procedural pieces.  

I'd rate the cozy pieces a 5, but given that I'm not that fond of police procedurals, I'd rate it a 2 for an average of 3.5, rounding up to 4 (because I would like to see future Clara and Iris books - if they can dump the procedural parts).  

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.

Batter Off Dead

Batter Off Dead: A Southern Cake Baker Mystery
Maymee Bell
Pub Date: 21 Dec 2018

Book Blurb:
For fans of Joanne Fluke and Leslie Meier comes the second in Maymee Bell’s delectable Southern Cake Baker mysteries.

Sophia Cummings may be unlucky in love, but she knows that the way to a man's heart is through his sweet tooth. This evening, she plans to use that knowledge—and her skills as a New York City-trained pastry chef—to open the hearts and wallets of Rumford, Kentucky’s richest men. Sophia, proprietress of For Goodness Cakes, has been commissioned to cater the Heart of the Town Library charity fundraiser at Grape Valley Winery. She’s spent all her dough to make this a successful event, raise her profile, and win more plum catering jobs.

At first, the going is as smooth as an elegant chocolate ganache. After nibbling Sophia’s tasty treats, Ray Peel, the winery’s landlord, announces he will pay off Rumford’s library loan. But the evening soon turns decidedly frosty when Ray is murdered—before he can make good on his promise, and before he can pay Sophia for her catering services.

For Goodness Cakes will collapse if Sophia can’t collect what she’s owed. So Sophia once again puts on her sleuthing apron to figure out who iced Ray. A glass of your favorite red or white is the perfect accompaniment to Maymee Bell’s scrumptious Batter Off Dead―with authentic Southern recipes!


A fluffy book - much like a good cake - that wasn't demanding, but fun to read: a good book to read while one is waiting to see the doctor or on a rainy day.  The characters are interesting - it's nice to see how they have changed since the first book, Cake and Punishment .  I look forward to future books in the series and see how those relationships continue to grow and develop.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.com and voluntarily chose to review.