Andrews lays on the good cheer with a trowel. Even the rabbi’s wife gets a cameo.
Ornamental blacksmith/general do-gooder Meg Langslow’s Christmas activities entangle her with a fellow resident of Caerphilly, Virginia, whose domestic life is even more chaotic than hers.
Unlike Meg, who’s surrounded by members of her own cheerfully argumentative family as well as the Shiffleys, Caerphilly’s somewhat more benign version of the Snopeses, Harvey Dunlop has chosen to surround himself with stuff—objects of dubious value he can’t bring himself to throw out. So Meg, her friend Caroline Willner, Meredith Flugleman of Adult Protective Services, and other concerned members of Helping Hands for the Holidays have banded together to strong-arm, er, help and encourage him to go through his house with a shovel and relocate his treasures to an empty building Randall Shiffley owns in the hope of deep-cleaning the house and then urging Harvey to move on without moving his prized junk back in. Except for the unwelcome appearance of Morris, Ernest, and Josephine Haverhill, the cousins who seem to be Harvey’s only living relatives, the preliminaries go well. But when Meg shows up at Harvey’s for the main event in the decluttering marathon, her host is unresponsive, brained with a spittoon in his garage. As Harvey hovers between life and death, Meg plunges into his family history to uncover a motive for the murderous attack. Readers patient enough to wait for any mystery, or for that matter any significant conflict, to develop will be rewarded when their own suspicions about whodunit are proved exactly right.
Andrews lays on the good cheer with a trowel. Even the rabbi’s wife gets a cameo.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-76012-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Minotaur
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
A character-driven tale whose Christmas cheer pretty much edges out the feeble mystery.
The merriment you’d expect between Thanksgiving and Christmas is stifled by murder in Lighthouse Cove, California.
The star of the season is the Cliffs Hotel, a marvelous restored Victorian mansion overlooking the ocean. Building contractor Shannon Hammer and her crew are working on plans for a Christmas Fun Zone on the grounds highlighted by a carousel and of course Santa. Shannon is close to Bill and Lillian Garrison, who own the Cliffs, and their children, who all work there except for the eldest, Logan, who is in the Navy. Logan’s stunning but awful wife, Randi, is a close friend to Shannon’s archenemy, conniving backstabber Whitney Reid Gallagher, who ruined Sharon’s long friendship with Arabella Garrison. Soon after Logan surprises the family by leaving the Navy and taking a job as community director for Homefront, a community supporting veterans, cracks quickly appear in long-standing family relationships, and it’s clear that Logan and Randi’s marriage is on the rocks. Shannon is enjoying a fancy pre-Christmas dinner at the Cliffs with her fiance, popular author MacKintyre Sullivan, and their circle of friends when the lights go out. When Shannon goes to check the circuit breakers with Mac and their friend Police Chief Eric Jensen, she finds Randi with her throat slashed. The fact that one of Shannon’s pink tools was used to do the deed makes her determined to find the killer. Luckily, both Shannon and Mac already have some experience as sleuths, and there’s no shortage of people who hated Randi.
A character-driven tale whose Christmas cheer pretty much edges out the feeble mystery.Pub Date: Oct. 22, 2024
ISBN: 9780593637647
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
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
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