A gently paranormal setting features a story readers won’t need a crystal ball to figure out.
The connection a pair of mystical North Carolina sisters has with a shady realtor threatens to make the women suspects when he's offed during a charity festival.
Summer and Hope Bailey, the owners of Bailey’s Boutique, have talents that range from knowing about mystical herbs to reading tarot and making modest predictions about the future. The specialty shop is the perfect place to sell their New Age wares and give readings to fellow Asheville residents like patron Rosemarie Potter and her devoted pug, Percy. But making predictions outside the shop isn’t standard practice for either of the sisters, and they’re miffed when Gram signs them up to do palmistry at the upcoming charity festival. They’d refuse if Gram’s main motivation didn’t seem to be getting a little closer to Morris, her fellow festival organizer. After all, Summer and Hope would never stand in the way of potential romance. Besides, Summer wants someone to be lucky in love after her split from her cheating husband, whom both sisters have dubbed Shifty Gary. It’s hard to believe Shifty Gary could do worse than hold up their divorce and try to keep the house to himself, but now he’s hired Davis Scott, an equally untrustworthy realtor, to sell his and Summer's place, and Summer fears she’s going to lose big time. Her haunches are raised not only by her history with her ex, but by a quick tarot reading Hope gives her that shows first the Five of Coins and then Death. The reading turns all too literal when Scott’s killed during the fundraising festival, making the sisters fear that their link to the realtor will point the finger at them.
A gently paranormal setting features a story readers won’t need a crystal ball to figure out.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-7278-5095-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 11, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2022
A complex mystery and yummy grilled cheese recipes. What’s not to like?
The queen of grilled cheese proves for a third time that she’s also a pretty good detective.
Carly’s Grilled Cheese Eatery is the place where Carly Hale serves up delicious and exotic sandwiches. Her latest customers are Dawn Chapin and Klarissa Taddeo, whom she remembers from high school. Klarissa is about to marry Tony Manous, but not all is moonlight and roses. She blames Dawn, her wedding planner, for not reserving a venue for her bridal shower on time. The pair talk Carly into making grilled cheese doughnuts for the party, which Dawn’s mother will host at her mansion. Dawn and Klarissa have been best buds forever, but Dawn, who’s not fond of Tony, feels underappreciated. The shower unfolds without incident until Tony shows up, has a fight with the videographer, and turns up dead at the bottom of a staircase. Neither Carly’s boyfriend, Ari Mitchell, nor Police Chief Fred Holloway, a family friend, is happy to see Carly, who’s been entangled in murder cases before, get involved in this one. But she can’t resist a little sleuthing, and she agrees to help Dawn, who’s naturally come under suspicion. For better or worse, there’s a lot of tension between the Manous and Taddeo families, so Dawn’s not the only suspect. When town manager Gretel Engstrom, who had problems with Tony, goes missing, the case becomes even more unnerving.
A complex mystery and yummy grilled cheese recipes. What’s not to like?Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 978-1-72823-838-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The always delightful heroine and her sleuthing family do not disappoint in this mélange of mysteries.
The fearless and soignée Phryne Fisher investigates several mysteries as intriguing as they are perilous in post–World War I Australia.
In addition to excellent taste in clothes and men, the Honourable Miss Fisher has something else: a disdain for rules that’s served her well as a private investigator. She can tell that something’s bothering Dot Williams, her lady's maid and companion, who reveals that an anonymous letter reading only REPENT! was left in Phryne’s mailbox, kicking off the first of her investigations. Her two adopted daughters, Jane and Ruth, are helping out at the Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind for a school project, and one of the teachers asks Jane to use her math skills to check over the institute's books, where it seems "there's something amiss." Meanwhile, Phryne drops in on Jeoffrey Bisset, a lecturer in classics and English, who invites her to dinner at his home in Williamstown the next evening. When the time comes, they enjoy each other more than the food, but Phryne finds herself involved in opium smuggling when an after-dinner stroll reveals a man stabbed to death on the beach. Phryne’s sometime lover Lin Chung, a respected leader in the Chinese community, is called to identify the body and resolves to look for whoever’s smuggling opium, a scourge in the community. Phryne sets her adopted son, Tinker, to investigate the anonymous letter while Jane and Ruth try to sniff out an embezzler at the Institute for the Blind. Reserving for herself the dangerous job of tracking down the murderous smugglers with a little help from her friends, Phryne uncovers some surprising answers.
The always delightful heroine and her sleuthing family do not disappoint in this mélange of mysteries.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9781728279244
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Poisoned Pen
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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