Ground Up
In Michael Idov’s “Ground Up,” at first I wasn’t sure I liked the writing style, but I soon found myself chuckling over situations and characters. Before long, I felt the escalation of a disaster coming and I had no idea how or if Mark and Nina would stay together. Was it the location? The marketing? Their targeted audience? Or was it the fresh dreams of a married couple hoping for a place among New York’s ‘hip’ coffee scene? Surely New Yorkers care about authentic Viennese cof...
Read more
Sweet Tea Revenge, by Laura Childs
Sweet Tea Revenge, Laura Childs The moment had finally arrived. My Gunpowder Green tea was brewed, blanket heated and ready, pillow fluffed, and a fresh new copy of Laura Child’s Sweet Tea Revenge beckoning from my night table. With a huge grin, I opened the book to the first pages and immediately tumbled into the story. Laura Childs has a way of making that happen. Sweet Tea Revenge is Laura Child’s latest episode in her Tea Shop Mysteries set in Charleston, South Carolina. As thunder rolls...
Read more
Eggs in Purgatory
Book Number One in Laura Child’s Cackleberry Club mysteries starts us “In a rehabbed Spur station outside the small town of Kindred.” A cozy little café that serves up a plethora of egg-related dishes and baked goods. By the second page, I knew there was something familiar. Couldn’t be the eggs because I don’t like eggs. I love coffee and tea. Why then am I reading a book not about coffee or tea? Answer? Laura Childs. I’ve read every one of her Tea Shop Mysteries and fell in love with the locati...
Read more
Scones and Bones
Need a little tea break? Pick up one of our brews at the library cafe, select a Laura Child’s Tea Shop Mystery, and take a short trip to warm Charleston, South Carolina, far far away from your troubles. Ms. Child’s characters are quirky, likable, and get into the right amount of trouble. The plots escalate from a mellow chamomile morning in Charleston, to a gunpowder green whodunnit, then slide nicely to a sweet jasmine finish. Each book’s title is a fun tea reference, and the information on tea...
Read more
The Anatomist’s Wife
Scotland, 1830. A widow whose husband used her artistic talents for his own macabre purposes. From the opening scream to the hushed ending, Anna Lee Huber’s The Anatomist’s Wife is a tight, historical mystery with skillful undertones of isolation, inequality, jealousy, and rules of society. Amid rustles of skirts and stirring of tea, clues are planted, lies are exposed, false leads send us along diverted trails, and characters are stripped of their proper Victorian façades. Here we see the polit...
Read more
Holiday Buzz
You are in for a freshly pulled, candy cane sprinkled steaming cup of java fun. This mystery is a real treat for a cozy night. Cleo Coyle’s Holiday Buzz whisks us back to the Village Blend, a welcoming coffee house inviting us to order the daily special, munch off the head of a gingerbread cookie, and take part in a cleverly devised murder mystery. I have read this entire series and each new release is surprising, well paced, and filled with scrumptious delights. Sure, there is a murder myster...
Read more
A Brew To A Kill
I love cozy mysteries that give you a taste of the location and local community and Cleo Coyle does not disappoint. As her characters move from one scene to the next in the 11th of her Coffeehouse Mysteries, readers are once again treated to the sounds, smells and flavors of Greenwich Village, NY. Author Cleo Coyle has taken us from the aromatic “On What Grounds” to a steaming cup of “A Brew to a Kill” delivering mocha and murder all the way. Although I’m not a fan of books in first person, Coyl...
Read more
The Embroidered Corpse
In Brian Kavanagh’s Capable of Murder (EndeavourPress.com), we are introduced to protagonist Belinda Lawrence, who is heading to the Village of Milford after receiving a letter from a relative urging her to visit. When she gets there, Great Aunt Jane has been murdered and we are plummeted into a whirlwind of suspicious neighbors, dubious circumstances, and shadowy secrets. While I wasn’t sure a garden design was enough to warrant murder, Kavanagh’s second book in the series, The Embroidered Co...
Read more
On What Grounds
One of my favorite blog subscribers recommended this mystery series so I started with the first in the series. ”On What Grounds” is a light yet fun night’s read. Lo’ and behold (does anyone say lo and behold anymore?) there are snippets of coffee information tucked inside. Here’s a tidbit: “When I make an espresso, I slow down the extraction process by using a finer grind and a very packed filter-holder cup. That way the espresso oozes out of the portaf...
Read more