Two FREE Juniper Junction Books!

For a limited time, you can get the first two ebooks in the Juniper Junction Cozy Holiday Mystery Series FREE! Just click here to grab yours!

Need a refresher? Here’s what they’re all about:

The Worst Noel

On the busiest shopping day of the year, Lilly opens her jewelry store to discover it’s been burgled. Then she trips over a body. Talk about a Black Friday.

When a second victim is murdered, Lilly finds herself squarely in the crosshairs of suspicion. The clock is ticking as Lilly tries to unwrap the mystery of the real killer’s identity.

As the bodies pile up like so much snow, Lilly is shocked to discover her ex-husband has returned to town after a fifteen-year absence. Could his reappearance have anything to do with the murders? One thing is sure: Lilly doesn’t want him anywhere near their two teenage kids, neither of whom remember him, or her mom, whose mental health is declining.

Can she figure out who killed the victims before she becomes one herself?

Find out if Lilly is about to have herself a merry or scary little Christmas in this cozy, small-town mystery. Recipes included!

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Dead, White, and Blue

It’s bad enough when the owner of the new bistro in town drops dead at the Independence Day celebration, but when Noley, Lilly’s best friend, is charged with the murder, things start to heat up.

And speaking of heat, there’s a firebug on the loose in Juniper Junction. Houses in town are going up in smoke and when the fires hit a little too close to home, Lilly is pulled into the investigation to uncover the identity of the arsonist.

Can Lilly clear Noley’s name and figure out who’s starting the fires before she becomes a victim herself?

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire in this cozy holiday mystery. Find out if Lilly gets burned as she deals with murder, mayhem, her mother’s dementia, and a coming-of-age issue under her own roof.

Recipes included!

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I am trying to spread the word FAR AND WIDE for this sale! Please help by forwarding this to anyone who might enjoy reading the books! Thanks in advance for your support.

One more time—here’s the link! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SV5593Q

The Body in the Water

The Maid’s Diary by Loreth Anne White

This book is billed as “psychological suspense,” but that description doesn’t fully capture the incredible layers of suspense—and psychological twists and turns—the story offers.

The plot of the book is complex and involves an intermingling of the past and the present in a way that’s shocking and totally satisfying for lovers of psychological thrillers. There is a tight cast of primary characters: a former Olympic gold-medal skier, his pregnant wife, the wife’s pregnant friend, an elderly lady with dementia, the lead investigator on this mind-bending case, and, of course, the maid.

Trying to summarize the plot of the book would be giving away too much of it, so I’ll just reiterate what the Amazon blurb says: the story is about a maid, Kit, with a snooping problem and a client with a past the color of onyx. Kit is about to get herself into a very dangerous situation, one from which she knows she might not survive. Because someone will stop at nothing to keep that dark past hidden.

There’s a lot to unpack in the book. At its heart is the notion that things are never as they seem. People offer carefully curated illusions of themselves and present those illusions to the world as fact. The rest of the world is drawn in by the beauty and perfection and fairytales people create, and don’t bother (or perhaps don’t want) to look further, to see the beast hiding behind the beauty or the ogre hiding in the fairytale.

The book is written from multiple points of view: an unknown person, the maid, the elderly woman, the lead investigator, the skier, his wife, and a photographer. I found the head-hopping easy to follow because the characters are all so different, but people who do not love head-hopping should be aware of this. There are scenes that address brutal sexual assault, though not in graphic detail. Readers who are particularly sensitive to this topic also need to be aware of it.

There are enough twists in this book to give one whiplash, and I loved it. The story unfolds at just the right pace, with bits of backstory being tantalizingly fed to the reader as the chapters progress. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves psychological suspense, to people who like mysteries told from various points of view, and to anyone who wonders what really goes on in the lives of people we follow online.

Spellbinding Historical Mystery

Murder in Old Bombay by Nev March

Happy 2023! I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.

Out with the old….

Last year I had a hard time keeping up with the schedule of reviewing and recommending a mystery every Tuesday. There were two reasons for this. First, I didn’t feel I could recommend some of the mysteries I read. And when that happened, I felt pressure to read another one so I could recommend that one, and I didn’t have time for it. Second, I read lots of other things, too, and since this is a mystery blog, there were weeks I didn’t read a mystery and I would have nothing to recommend come Tuesday morning. I hope I’m making sense.

In with the new…

Thus, my goal this year is to review and recommend a mystery every other Tuesday. My blog posts will alternate with my newsletter, which also goes out every other Tuesday.

So without further ado, my first recommendation of 2023 is Nev March’s beautiful and engrossing mystery, Murder in Old Bombay. This is the first book in March’s Captain Jim and Lady Diana Mysteries (no, not that Lady Diana).

Full disclosure: I have spent time with Nev on several occasions. She is an absolute delight. We belong to a couple of the same writing groups, we have had dinner together, and we have attended at least one reading together. But she doesn’t know I’m writing this review, and everything I say here is the truth. If I didn’t love the book, I wouldn’t recommend it.

When the book opens, we meet main character Captain Jim Agnihotri, a young man recovering from serious wounds sustained in battle. The British maintain control over much of India, and many Indian people harbor deep resentment toward the British. Captain Jim is caught between two worlds: his mother, who died when Jim was very young, was Indian; his father, whom Jim never knew, was British. This was a time in history when one’s pedigree and the color of one’s skin mattered very much, so Jim doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere.

While still in the hospital, Jim has little to read except newspapers and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. When he reads a newspaper story about the deaths of two women from a high-society Bombay family, he is struck by the horrific manner in which they died and by the sorrowful dignity of the man who lost his wife and his sister in the tragedy.

When he is finally released from the hospital, he takes a job as a journalist and one of his assignments is to interview the man whose wife and sister died. When Jim meets the man, Adi Framji, he is immediately drawn to Adi’s calm demeanor, intelligence, and determination to prove to himself and society that his wife and sister did not commit suicide, as the public has been told. The Framjis are an upstanding Parsee family and Jim has an instinctive notion that someone who means the family harm is behind the deaths. It is important to note that Parsees are a subset of the Indian people, having fled persecution in Persia centuries before. They are a relatively small part of the population, so they keenly observe the custom of marrying within the group—this will come into play later in the book.

Adi hires Jim to help him find out what really happened the day Adi’s wife and sister fell from the top of the university clock tower in broad daylight. As Jim soon discovers, his investigations have threatened someone (or more than one!) and that person intends to stop Jim at all costs.

This story is filled with British Raj history, excitement, and well-paced twists and turns. The author describes Bombay and the Indian countryside in vivid color. There’s enough romance to satisfy even the most jaded reader. More importantly, the main character’s pedigree forms the basis of a fascinating and unsettling look at racism and the social structure at that time in Indian history.

And, of course, there’s the mystery. The whodunit weaves complex (in a good way!) and dastardly motives to bring forth a page-turner that will have readers rooting for the Jim as he makes his way forward at a time when personal and professional stagnation might have been the destiny for people with his parentage. Readers are treated to a graceful and powerful arc of Jim’s character as he moves from self-loathing to self-confidence. And the ending…well, it’s highly satisfying. No spoilers.

I loved this mystery and I would highly recommend it to other lovers of historical mystery. I am looking forward to the second book in the series, Peril at the Exposition.

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Small Town Suspense

We are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

This book is told from the perspectives of three people: Wyatt Branson, whose sister, Trumanelle, disappeared ten years before the beginning of the story; Odette Tucker, a police officer in the tiny Texas town where Trumanelle went missing; and Angel, a character we meet on page one.

Wyatt, Odette, and Angel have suffered tragedy. Their lives are thin threads (thin, but made of titanium) that hover between life and death, that hold untold secrets from everyone—and in one case, I think, even themselves—and that become inextricably linked by the events that led to the disappearance of Trumanelle.

With the exception of a few really low-down characters in this book, I felt sorry for almost everyone. The town has kept people, and not just the main characters, in the grip of an almost manic level of mystery surrounding Trumanelle’s disappearance, and no one seems able to escape or let go. Feelings of anger, rage, frustration, and violence run rampant even ten years after the disappearance, and distrust of Wyatt, especially, is a constant undercurrent in the book.

I would describe this novel as a slow-burn psychological suspense, with enough revelations and dirty laundry to make readers keep turning the pages. Though I knew who the villain was (or at least, who the WORST villain was) before the end, I didn’t know why that person did it and I enjoyed the little-by-little unfolding of the tale.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes psychological suspense, small town mysteries, and dark themes.

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What I’m reading:

2 ARCs (Advance Reader Copies) that I am LOVING and can’t wait to share with you

Audiobook: Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

A Storm Hits Valparaíso by David Gaughran

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Until next time,

Amy

A Cryptic Mystery

Murder in the Crypt by Irina Shapiro

Jason Redmond, a physician and Captain in the Union Army during the American Civil War, has seen his fair share of horrors and atrocities—and experienced some of his own as a prisoner of war. When the war ends and Captain Redmond is freed, he discovers that during his absence, his love, Cecilia, has married his best friend. Crushed in spirit and not knowing what to do next, Jason receives word that his English grandfather has passed away, leaving Jason as the heir to his estate and the title that goes along with it.

Accompanied by a young boy (Micah) he met while in prison, Jason goes to England to settle the affairs of his grandfather. His arrival at the manor is the subject of great interest in the village of Birch Hill and its environs, and Jason and Micah haven’t been in residence for twenty-four hours before becoming the subjects of an investigation into a murder that occurred in the church crypt concurrent with their arrival.

The victim, a young man from a disreputable part of London, was discovered by the church pastor inside the tomb of a great ancestor of Birch Hill. A trail of blood led to the tomb, suggesting someone dragged the victim to that spot.

Who was the young man and why was he murdered?

The village constable, Daniel Haze, needs answers to these questions, and he needs them before the inquest, which is scheduled to take place not long after the discovery of the body. After a rather inauspicious beginning to their friendship, Daniel and Jason join forces to figure out who committed the murder and why.

The cover of this book is what attracted me first. It’s spooky and delightfully atmospheric. And the story is every bit as good as the cover. Both Jason and Daniel (and Micah, too) have experienced tragedy; as the story unfurls, the author reveals bits of backstory that continue to haunt the three characters.

The red herrings in this book are intriguing and subtle, and there were enough surprises to keep me turning pages well into the night to reach The End, where everything was explained and where there are tantalizing hints of the next mystery to embroil the team of Captain Redmond and Daniel Haze. I look forward to reading Book Two.

I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves historical mysteries (particularly those set in England during the Victorian Era), anyone who loves mysteries with complex yet relatable characters, and anyone who loves a good, old-fashioned mystery set in an English village.

Delightful Cape May Cozy

Scones and Scofflaws by Jane Gorman

Following the death of her great-aunt Louise, Anna McGregor—the main character in this first-in-series cozy mystery—has inherited Climbing Rose Cottage, a bed and breakfast in Cape May, New Jersey (don’t you love the name “Climbing Rose Cottage”??). Anna, a medical anthropologist, has arrived in Cape May with some emotional baggage, a must for all great main characters. She has recently broken up with someone who not only hurt her romantically, but also destroyed her career.

Anna is in the process of fixing the B&B up a bit and is eager to welcome her first guests, though with that eagerness comes some trepidation about this new venture. The trepidation turns to dismay and horror when her first guest drops dead at the breakfast table, having eaten one of Anna’s blueberry scones.

Talk about killer scones.

Now Anna has to convince the people in the charming south Jersey town, as well as any future guests of her fledgling new business, that she’s not a killer. Luckily, she’s not alone—she has the help of her hunky handyman, a certain police officer (a big plus, since the police are mostly not on her side), her best friend (a Wildwood bakery owner), a young Irish visitor, and a keen kitty.

Anna is an intriguing main character and I enjoyed the way she puzzled through the clues and red herrings in this book. She has a hot temper and manages to alienate people in the closely-knit town because of the way she approaches them with questions, but she’s strong and determined to exonerate herself without becoming a damsel in distress. I like her spunk.

The pacing of the book is great and the potential for relationships between and among the various characters is ripe. I look forward to reading the next two books currently in the series and seeing where the author takes these possible storylines. I also love Cape May, so it was fun to read a story set in the area and recognize some of the places the author mentions. And bonus: if you like a good cocktail, the Scofflaw recipe in the back of the book is terrific!

Special note: for anyone living in or visiting the Cape May area, author Jane Gorman will be at the Cape May Fall Festival on October 15, 2022, at Cape May Convention Hall.

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I’ve got a great deal to share with you this week. Sixty authors have gotten together to offer sixty free stories to readers! I picked up a few of them myself. Follow the link below to take a look at the books!

Twisty Tales and Cozy Crimes

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What I’m reading:

Murder in the Crypt by Irina Shapiro

We are All the Same in the Dark by Julia Heaberlin

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Until next time,

Amy

A Riveting Read…Plane and Simple

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

I was intrigued by this book from the moment I read the blurb on the back cover: two women, each running from dire circumstances, switch tickets at the airport. Claire, the wife of a politician, gets on a plane headed to California and Eva is going to Puerto Rico.

When the plane bound for Puerto Rico crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, Claire knows the media is going to erupt with news of her supposed death. She has no choice but to adopt Eva’s identity … and along with it, the secrets Eva left behind.

I read this book at every opportunity I had: in line at the post office, waiting at the doctor’s office, and sitting in parking lots. It moves at a quick clip and had me turning the pages as fast as I could devour the words.

The characterization in this book is what makes it so good. The author does a great job of developing these two women and the reader feels sympathy for both of them (though Eva has made her fair share of bad choices, even when alternatives were available to her, and tends to blame others for her misfortunes). I was rooting for both of them. There are a few spots in the book where the reader has to suspend belief a little bit, but because the story is so good, that is easy to do.

I think, in the end, the book is really about strong women, the consequences of telling one’s story in the face of abuse, and having the courage to take the actions that can bring about personal empowerment. Claire and Eva are not without fear and doubt, but they do what they have to do to save themselves.

And the epilogue…you’ll just have to read it for yourself.

I would recommend this thriller to anyone who loves a story featuring strong and well-written female characters, a unique and twisty plot, and stories that explore serious social issues.

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If you are one of my newsletter subscribers, you’ll know that I have tweaked the format of my newsletters. One of the changes I’ve made is to share deals and releases by other authors here on my blog instead of in the newsletters.

So with that in mind, I have two books to share with you this week. Both are by Laina C. Turner, each one is the first book in a series, and they’re both just 99 cents (and free if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited). I have not had a chance to read either of these books yet, but I have both on my Kindle. I’m looking forward to reading them soon.

Friends and Foes: A Read Wine Bookstore Mystery

Stilettos and Scoudndrels: A Presley Thurman Cozy Mystery

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Until next time,

Amy

Collect them All!

A Fatal Collection by Mary Ellen Hughes

A Fatal Collection is the first book in the Keepsake Cove Mystery series by Mary Ellen Hughes. Don’t you love the cover? It just radiates cozy mystery vibes.

Keepsake Cove is a charming community in the town of Mapleton, located on Maryland’s eastern shore. Filled with adorable shops selling everything from toys to candles to glass, the area holds a special place in the hearts of the people who call it home and the hearts of the people who love to visit. Callie Reed has gone to Keepsake Cove to reconnect with her aunt, the vibrant, smart, and fascinating owner of a music box shop. The two haven’t seen each other in ten years, though they’ve corresponded and their ties are strong.

When Melanie dies shortly after Callie’s arrival, Callie is numb with shock. And when Callie learns that Melanie has left everything to her—her shop, her cottage behind the shop, her inventory, and even her cat—Callie is left reeling.

But once in Keepsake Cove, Callie has some time to think over some of the choices she’s made. She discovers that maybe the inheritance and the new responsibilities as owner of the music box shop are just what she needs to take her life in a new direction. And then there’s that one incredible music box that … well, you’ll just have to read the book to know what I’m talking about.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. There were plenty of juicy red herrings, hidden secrets, and conflicts among friends and foes in this vibrant and engaging story. There was a complex and rich set of characters, many of whom I hope to see in future books in the series. The author did a great job setting out the clues, most of which went unnoticed by me. As far as I’m concerned, that’s the best kind of mystery.

I highly recommend this to cozy and traditional mystery readers, as well as people who enjoy a good story set along the Atlantic seaboard.

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What I’m reading:

The Postscript Murders by Elly Griffiths

The Last Flight by Julie Clark

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Until next time,

Amy

Follow Me…for Murder

#FollowMe for Murder by Sarah E. Burr

#FollowMe for Murder is the first book in Sarah E. Burr’s Trending Topic Mystery series. It’s actually the only book in the series right now, but I’m hoping there are more on the way.

Coco (Cordelia) Cline is a young entrepreneur and the savvy owner of a social media consulting business in her hometown of Central Shores, Delaware. She got her start as part of a small team of people who sold their lifestyle-centric tech startup to Facebook, netting millions of dollars apiece. She kept the rights to her lifestyle blog, though, and continues to post to hundreds of thousands of social media followers who hang on her every word.

Sean and Olivia Chen are the owners of a high-end consignment shop in town and they’ve hired Coco to handle the social media campaign associated with the shop’s grand opening. Coco has lots of great ideas, if only Olivia would quit posting impulsively (and to no effect) on social media. Coco and the Chens agree to meet at the shop to discuss the online ramp-up before the big day, but the Chens are late. Coco has her own key to the shop, and when she lets herself in she finds the dead body of the Chens’ assistant, a young woman named Stacy.

Suspicion, naturally, focuses on Coco almost immediately. After all, she found the body. And the police are looking at the Chens, too, since Stacy’s body was found in their shop. Coco needs to clear her name for obvious reasons, but she has to clear the Chens’ name, too, or else their shop is going to fail before it even gets up and running. With the help of her boyfriend and two of her best friends, Coco sets out to find the killer. Along the way she finds that Stacy was hiding some secrets and behavior that could be potentially explosive in the little town of Central Shores.

I loved that this cozy mystery has a lot going on. Besides the mystery of who killed Stacy, there are also hints of political intrigue going on in the little town and Coco’s insecurity about the state of her relationship with her boyfriend of four years, Hudson, whose star is rising quickly as a local television news personality. There’s the high school enemy-turned-voracious follower of Coco’s blog, and a new relationship between one of Coco’s best friends, Charlotte, and a guy working for the county crime lab.

The pacing of the book was spot-on. It moves just as quickly as a cozy should. The characters were fun, too—Coco’s friend Jasper was one of my favorites. And the idea of an amateur sleuth using social media to dig for clues in the case is great. Why? Because it’s a double-edged sword, just like social media in real life: Coco is trying to keep people in town and her minions of followers from finding out she’s the person who discovered the body, so she has to watch everything she says and does. She has to be careful about appearing in photographs that will find their way onto social media. On the other hand, she is a social media expert, so being able to find clues buried in suspects’ profiles and elsewhere online is a great asset for someone with her skill set.

This was a fun read and I’m eager for the second book in the series to come out. I would highly recommend #FollowMe for Murder to anyone who likes a good cozy, mysteries set in beach towns, anyone with a love-hate relationship with social media *raises hand*, and anyone who likes a great cast of characters.

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What I’m reading:

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

The Crate by Deborah Vadas Levison

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Until next time,

Amy

Another Christie Classic

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

There’s a reason Agatha Christie is the best-selling mystery author of all time. She’s that good.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is the fourth Hercule Poirot novel, and features the inimitable Belgian detective at his best. He’s moved to the town of Kings Abbot to pursue the growing of vegetable marrows, but soon finds himself embroiled in the investigation of a most perplexing murder. There are suspects aplenty, so Monsieur Poirot’s famous little gray cells are put to the test in sussing out the culprit.

The characters in the book are expertly drawn, as one would expect from Dame Agatha, and each of them harbors a secret (some more shocking than others). M Poirot makes it his mission to uncover each character’s secret, and he does so (as he does in all his appearances in Christie’s stories) with an abundance of well-earned self confidence and faultless logic.

The solution to the mystery of who killed Roger Ackroyd lies in that faultless logic, and it makes the path to figuring out whodunit especially fun for readers. Many of you have no doubt read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (as I have, but I’m on a mission to reread all the Christie novels) but I urge you to read it again and pay special attention to the way in which Christie lays out the clues. It’s ingenious. Even more ingenious is the twist at the end, one of the most famous plot twists in modern literature.

The British Crime Writers’ Association has voted The Murder of Roger Ackroyd the best crime novel ever written. I wholeheartedly recommend it to every reader who appreciates a good mystery.