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I SAW WHAT I SAW: A HARMONY NEIGHBORHOOD COZY MYSTERY

If you are looking for a fun read, pick up Tony Garritano’s debut novel: I Saw What I Saw, A Harmony Neighborhood Mystery. You won’t be disappointed! 

The story revolves around a crime in a small town. Sheila Sammartino – a crime reporter turned blogger witnesses the murder with her own eyes and decides to pursue the case when the police ignore her story.

Tony has done an excellent job hooking the reader from the first line and that continues to the very end, while amplifying the reader’s curiosity all at the same time. The story is narrated in the first person and moves at its own pace. It’s written in simple, plain language, and the flow of the story makes it so effortless to read.

Tony has done an excellent job hooking the reader from the first line and that continues to the very end.

Tony has used lots of sensation words, and that works to immerse the reader in this world, allowing the reader to “feel” the story. I love the way he builds the tension, subtly and smoothly, but intensifies it as the story progresses. It was not a boring and serious crime story by any means. Thanks to Tony’s excellent use of humor, it is a perfect mix of comedy and mystery.

And you will just love the characters that Tony has created. Take one headstrong ex-reporter with unreliable motor control. Team her with an old high school buddy who’s even more manic than she is. Toss in a brand-new neighbor whose moving van she side-swiped for breakfast, and you’ve got yourself a crime-fighting team that can barely stay out of jail. By the end of this book, you will have three new friends, each with their faults and foibles, and a promise of future adventures in a place called Harmony. I, for one, can’t wait.

Once I was done with the novel, I felt like I had watched a good Netflix movie, and it gave me a warm cozy feeling, which I love. Out of curiosity I read Tony’s Amazon Author Page and found him to be a winner of four outstanding book awards, which will be no surprise to anyone that has read this novel.

I’m eagerly awaiting Book 2 of this series. I hope it will be released soon. I can’t wait to read it!

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GAME OF SCONES: A SUGAR & SPICE MYSTERY

“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” is the opening line of Game of Scones by Mary Lee Ashford. The folksy wisdom is delivered by the main character, Sugar Calloway, quoting her Aunt Cricket (who is actually quoting Harry Truman, but that’s another story). Sugar has recently moved from Georgia to St. Ignatius, a small town in Iowa. She has teamed up with a local “best-in-county” cook named Dixie Spicer to form Sugar and Spice Publishing. Their company publishes community cookbooks and apparently solves a murder or two on the side.

Game of Scones is the tale of their first project: a commemorative cookbook for the St. Ignatius Founders Day celebration. The project sounds simple enough until you factor in a mixture of small-town characters, strong personalities, underlying conflicts, and secret histories.

I enjoyed the quirky characters, the descriptions of small-town life in Iowa, and even the fantasy of starting over in a new place with new friends, a new community, and a new business.

In the opening chapter, Sugar finds herself in the middle of a fight between two of the feistiest committee members over whose scone recipe to include in the book. By the end of the fourth chapter, one of those committee members is dead and the other is missing. It is a compelling set-up for a murder mystery, but the story is really much more about the quirky characters, their daily life, the problems one encounters while trying to get a community cookbook to press, and coffee; lots of coffee. We hear Sugar’s descriptions, observations, and thoughts about her new home told to us in the first person as she attempts to get to know her community and the people in it. There are pets, grouchy neighbors, a budding romance (maybe two), a new business to get off the ground, some random vandalism, and more food than anyone could eat.

Sugar is pulled into the murder mystery because she is the person who finds the dead body of the committee member, and because it was her partner Dixie’s aunt who disappeared. Weirdly, the aunt reappears after a few days and refuses to say where she has been. No mystery explained or solved there. And there are some other odd details in the story. For example, just before Sugar finds the body in the backyard, she sees someone exit the yard through the bushes. However, Sugar never mentions this to the police, nor does it ever come up in the story again. Another example, when Sugar comes home to find her cat outside and two items missing from inside her house, it never occurs to her that someone may have opened the door, stole the items, and accidentally let the cat out in the process.

I enjoyed reading Game of Scones. I enjoyed the quirky characters, the descriptions of small-town life in Iowa, and even the fantasy of starting over in a new place with new friends, a new community, and a new business. Mary Lee Ashford’s casual, folksy style of writing makes the mundane world of St. Ignatius interesting. If you are looking for a fun book with quirky characters and a murder mystery thrown into the plot for good measure, then I recommend it.

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THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY: A MISS MARPLE MYSTERY

Agatha Christie has been called, among other things, the “Mistress of Mystery” and The Body In The Library: A Miss Marple Mystery proves that she deserves this title. The Miss Marple Mysteries are often credited as the first cozy mysteries, so I couldn’t resist reviewing one for our readers here. Every lover of cozy mysteries should read at least one Miss Marple Story, in my opinion. You won’t be able to put the book down either, trust me.

Christie wastes no time at all. The book opens with the corpse in the library. The victim is a teenage girl that nobody in the house has ever laid eyes on. Who is this woman? Who killed her? And why was her body left in the library of the Bantry house? The lady of the house is eager to get to the bottom of this murder, so her family doesn’t get ostracized by the community. Gossip is a powerful thing in small towns after all.

The characters are well defined, the story is intriguing and the reveal at the end is nothing short of shocking. I must confess that I didn’t see it coming.

Who does she call? You guessed it, her friend Miss Marple. With a history of solving murders to her credit, Mrs. Bantry is convinced that Jane Marple is just the person to discover the truth of this young woman’s death, and her wishes are granted when Miss Marple agrees to investigate this whole affair.

This novel provides a play by play of the investigation. The reader is taken for the ride as the various parties, Miss Marple included sus out the murderer. The genius of Miss Marple is not her detective skills, but rather her knowledge of human nature and how she is able to see behind the words and actions of each person that she is introduced to. This woman can see into your soul after having just a short conversation with you.

I loved this novel. The characters are well defined, the story is intriguing and the reveal at the end is nothing short of shocking. I must confess that I didn’t see it coming. This is one novel that should be a part of every cozy mystery lover’s library.

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VOLUNTEER TO DIE: A DENISE REED MYSTERY

Who would have thought volunteering could be deadly? In Mary E. Koppel’s Cozy Mystery Volunteer To Die, A Denise Reed Mystery every step of the way you learn something new about the characters. Mary is a master of delivering compelling story details. This book is not only easy to comprehend but is a quick and enjoyable read.

Another thing I loved about this book is how relatable it was from the start. You can immediately connect to the main character Denise Reed and how she lives. She is unemployed and she has a shaky relationship with her mother. These dynamics sets the book up to deliver an amazing story with an amazing main character that you’re going to love.

If you love a good laugh combined with artfully crafted serious moments, I recommend this book highly!

Another character that I loved in this book was Louise Butler who introduces us to the murder. We are first introduced to Mrs. Butler as a dependent elderly woman living in a retirement home. However, we soon get to realize that Mrs. Butler not only has ties to Denise Reed’s mother, but also has information on a murder. You always can expect a hard right turn when you least expect it, which comes when Mrs. Butler is explaining the murder of her best friend Tina to Denise Reed. These continuous chains of events lead Denise Reed to set about solving the murder.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book because of the comedic sense we get right from the beginning. The combination of an elderly woman being a retired teacher and Denise Reed starting off as an unreliable detective, set up the book for instant success. Also, the poignant mother/daughter relationship depicted and religious undertones are so satisfying. As the story moves on you can see the characters develop into so much more. If you love a good laugh combined with artfully crafted serious moments, I recommend this book highly!

You Can Buy This Book On Amazon HERE

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THE QUICHE OF DEATH: AN AGATHA RAISIN MYSTERY

The Quiche of Death: An Agatha Raisin Mystery is where the story of Agatha Raisin starts. Author M. C. Beaton crafts a memorable protagonist that you will not soon forget for better or worse. The plot is out of the box, the writing style is quite unique, and the character development is oh so admirable.

The plot revolves around Agatha Raisin, a 53-year-old, tough, and very accomplished public relations officer who sets off for a peaceful retirement in the beautiful Cotswold village. Having excelled in public relations, she knows how to fit into the local community by hook or crook. To earn friends, she decides to take part in the local baking contest: a competition to select the best quiche!

If you’re looking for an unusual and exciting mystery to read, The Quiche of Death will fit your needs perfectly. Everything about it is just delicious!

Agatha, highly determined to win the contest, by any means, decides to take a shortcut: She flies to London and brings a quiche from London’s Deli, where they make the best quiche. Things go wrong unexpectedly when Mr. Cummings-Browne, the judge of the competition passes away after tasting her offering, which as it turns out includes cicutoxins, a poison. Having been convinced it’s an accident, Agatha is released from facing a murder charge. However, Agatha is convinced that it was a murder, and takes it upon herself to find the killer. The excitement starts from this point and never lets up until the murderer is finally revealed.

The scene-setting and development of the plot is excellent. The story flows in a natural style, and the characters are highly detailed. The protagonist, Agatha is portrayed in a dislikable manner in the beginning, but immediately wins the empathy of the reader once she is accused of the murder, which is an excellent plot twist, in my opinion.

If you’re looking for an unusual and exciting mystery to read, The Quiche of Death will fit your needs perfectly. Everything about it is just delicious!

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THE CINDERELLA MURDER: AN UNDER SUSPICION NOVEL

True Crime meets fiction in “The Cinderella Murder” by Mary Higgins Clarke and Alafair Burke. As an updated version of a sleuth, protagonist Laurie Moran is neither a P.I. nor a police detective. She’s a television producer trying to sell her boss on the next episode of her investigative series “Under Suspicion,” a program which attempts to solve cold cases by interviewing all the suspects together in one setting. Despite the success of her pilot episode which both solved the murder and got good ratings, her boss still needs to be convinced.

For her second episode, Laurie has chosen a 20-year-old cold case: the murder of a brilliant and beautiful college student. Salacious details and big-name suspects make the case a great choice for ratings and viewership, but Laurie’s real motive is compassion for the victim’s mother, Rosemary, who has had to live with both the loss of her daughter as well as the heartache of not knowing what happened to her.

There are enough hints and threads revealed along the way to allow the reader the pleasure of trying to solve the case right along with Laurie.

As the pre-interviews get underway, Laurie is unaware that she has stirred the hornet’s nest. We are introduced to creepy, skin-crawling characters that Laurie and the crew of “Under Suspicion” do not know about. The reader has more than one “he’s behind the curtain” moment as they worry and wait for Laurie and her crew to discover the shadowy characters. The production team barely notices when a second murder takes place. It’s only when one of the production staff is beaten that Laurie and her team start to understand that there is more going on than they realized, and that they are in danger.

Higgins Clarke and Burke take their time unfolding the contours of this murder mystery, suspect by suspect, all the while introducing us to the permanent cast of characters for their new “Under Suspicion” mystery series. The slow roll-out gathers steam as Laurie works her way through each character, uncovering their secrets. There are enough hints and threads revealed along the way to allow the reader the pleasure of trying to solve the case right along with Laurie.

If you like your murder mysteries fast paced and gritty, your sleuths stylized and charismatic, this one might not be for you, but cozy mystery readers will love this approach. Laurie is an average working single mom rather than a superstar. Her own painful history – the murder of her husband at the hands of a stalker – sets the emotional background for all of her choices, relationships, and motivations throughout the book. Like the rest of us, she is trying to juggle work and home-life, worried about her son, struggling with her personal and professional decisions, trying to manage her staff, and hoping that everything will work out. She achieves her success through nothing more glamourous than hard work and determination. Like working parents everywhere, she is one of the true superheroes of our time.

Personally, I prefer my mysteries a little more “cozy”; more charm and less worry, more quirk and less mundane care. After all, I spend enough time trying to manage my own life and I pick up a book to escape all that. That said, I will read the next book in the series. Higgins Clarke and Burke have caught my attention enough to want to see where Laurie goes next in her career, but not enough to bump their book to the top of the pile on my nightstand.

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