Old Habits Die Hard

I received a free copy of this book from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review. It is the first book in a new series called Nun the Wiser. It was published on April 2, 2025.

The publisher's summary:

When retired nun and teacher Sister Bernadette returns with her fellow residents to The Abbey: Senior Living, she is the first to discover the body sprawled in the hallway of the converted school where she once taught English and now lives. Instead of freezing with horror, Sister Bernie has questions. Lots of them. Why does Toni Travi, the bedazzled and bejeweled resident from apartment 218, have so much chest hair? Did anyone at The Abbey know Toni was a man? Was Toni’s death related to allegations that she cheated at cards? Where’s the murder weapon? Who had motive? And did someone kill Toni, or the man hiding beneath the Revlon foundation and blonde wig?

Detective AJ Lewis is in charge of the investigation though Sister Bernie acts as if he is still her student. With unholy stubbornness, she dogs his every step, eavesdrops, sneaks beyond the police tape and offers unsolicited conjecture and clues. He wants to keep her safe, but she’s determined to lend a helping hand—it’s her habit, after all!

Old Habits Die Hard is a cute cozy mystery with a retired nun as the amateur sleuth. The murder of a resident at a senior residence happened early in the story and the investigation began quickly. It was realistic with the police following protocol regardless of how fast it took them to solve the murder. Protocol prioritized over untangling the mystery. The officer charged with the investigation used to be a student of Sister Bernadette/Bernie, our amateur sleuth and he was a little afraid of engaging her with his questions. He also spent alot of time ignoring her questions about the investigation. Their relationship will make this new series unbeatable.

Several of the characters who lived at the residence will make interesting villains, or at least suspects, in future installments of the series. I can even see Bernie as a suspect. She's nosy and knows everyone's business. She also knows where all the secret nooks and crannies are in the senior building because it used to be the school where she taught for 48 years. Bernie used these spaces to eavesdrop on AJ's witness interviews. She then used the information gleaned to further her own investigation.

5 out of 5 stars. Cozy lovers should check this one out.

An Irish Bookshop Murder

Last year I read three books from Lucy Connelly's Scottish Isles series and loved them. When I found out about this new Mercy McCarthy mystery I had to get it. This series takes place in Shamrock Cove, Ireland and I love the setting. 

The publisher's summary:

Meet Ireland’s newest daring detective: she’s a bookstore owner, a coffee lover, and a crime writer. Now Mercy McCarthy needs a little Irish luck as she takes on her first case!  After receiving an unexpected inheritance from her grandfather, Mercy and her twin sister Lizzie are now the proud owners of a charming antique bookshop in the tiny Irish village of Shamrock Cove. But before they can take in the beautiful view of the sea, one of their neighbors drops dead!

Mercy finds the Judge, a well-respected man who lives next door, dying on his own doorstep. She rushes to help, but with his final words, he accuses Mercy of murder! Most of their new neighbors hear his words and, with suspicion pointing at Mercy, she decides to investigate the case to clear her name.  Searching amongst the Judge’s old books, Mercy uncovers letters proving several of the townsfolk had reason to dislike the older man—but was it the local pub landlord, the kindly cook or neighborly knitter who killed him?

Then Mercy’s chief suspect turns up dead and she receives a threatening note, typed on paper from her own bookstore… Ireland was supposed to be a fresh start for Mercy and Lizzie, but dead bodies keep turning up.  Does Mercy have what it takes to nail the culprit or will the killer close the book on her time in this charming Irish village?

Connelly has recently become one of my favorite authors. I am thrilled to have discovered her. An Irish Bookshop Murder is a great start for the series. Many times first novels have too much backstory and character information to the detriment of the actual mystery. Here, however, we have a rich mystery to solve and it has many twists. The pace is fast and with quirky characters it is an engaging story. I can see future installments of the series having a wide variety of plotlines with all of these eccentric characters. 

If there is anything negative to say about the book, it is the suspension of belief required to accept Mercy’s  investigation of the Judge’s murder. It seemed bizarre that she would investigate when she had only lived in the community for one week. Who does that? Most people would be busy unpacking and arranging their new home to their taste. Most people wouldn't be able to remember all the names of their new neighbors yet alone consider whether they are guilty of murder.

The story is a fast read. Cozy mystery lovers will enjoy it. 5 out of 5 stars.

Knife Skills For Beginners

Knife Skills for the Beginner is the first book in a new cozy culinary mystery series. It's fantastic! The plot is about a chef who is talked into substituting for a famous chef/friend who teaches a week long residential cookery course. 

The publisher's summary:

The Chester Square Cookery School in the heart of London offers students a refined setting in which to master the fine art of choux pastry and hone their hollandaise. True, the ornate mansion doesn’t quite sparkle the way it used to—a feeling chef Paul Delamare is familiar with these days. Worn out and newly broke, he’d be tempted to turn down the request to fill in as teacher for a week-long residential course, if anyone other than Christian Wagner were asking.

Christian is one of Paul’s oldest friends, as well as the former recipient of two Michelin stars and host of Pass the Gravy! Thanks to a broken arm, he’s unable to teach the upcoming session himself, and recruits Paul as stand-in. The students are a motley crew, most of whom seem more interested in ogling the surroundings (including handsome Christian) than learning the best ways to temper chocolate.

Yet despite his misgivings, Paul starts to enjoy imparting his extensive knowledge to the recruits—until someone turns up dead, murdered with a cleaver Paul used earlier that day to prep a pair of squabs. Did one of his students take the lesson on knife techniques too much to heart, or was this the result of a long-simmering grudge? In between clearing his own name and teaching his class how to perfectly poach a chicken, he’ll have to figure out who’s the killer, and avoid being the next one to get butchered.

 

Knife Skills is an entertaining story. I loved everything about it. The plot was good and the characters were remarkable. All of them were a little eccentric which made them seem suspicious. This is the first book I have ever read where every character could have been the killer, except Christian, the deceased. When the killer was revealed I was shocked. I wondered what clues I could have missed. How many of these characters return in the next book is questionable and I am wondering if Paul will be teaching classes in future books or if his setting is going to be a restaurant.

This is the author’s debut fiction novel. Orlando Murrin is a former editor of BBC Good Food, founder of Olive Magazine, a semi-finalist on Masterchef and has written seven cookbooks. I guess he knows how to write! Not every one can write fiction though but he has begun the series well. I look forward to reading more from him in the future. 

Everything Bundt the Truth

I received a free copy of this cozy mystery from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review.  It is a Dinner Club cozy mystery that was published in 2016. I thought it was OK but it didn't do much for me.

The publisher's summary:

She cheated on dessert. A murderer killed before dinner. If she doesn't dish up the solution, she'll be banned from the club. A recent widow, Jane Marsh, is determined to recapture a rich, full life. She strives for youthful fun by riding a bicycle downtown on her lunch hour in a suit and heels, smoking cigars, eating at hipster restaurants, and re-entering the dating scene, even if her dates prove to be peculiar. Her most fervent desire, though, is to join an exclusive dinner club. She auditions but is barred when her housekeeper is found murdered, and she and her guest list become the suspect list. Her, a killer? So what if her two late husbands died under suspicious circumstances. It doesn't make her a killer. Having passed off a store-bought Bundt cake as her own creation, she may have committed a culinary crime, but never murder! This first in the dinner club murder mystery series is similar to cozies written by authors Jessica Beck, Joanne Fluke, and Leslie Meier. If you like cozy mysteries, tight friendships, and gripping who-done-its, you'll love Whalen's Everything Bundt the Truth. Buy the book now to join the dinner club craze today.

My initial attraction to the book was the inviting red book cover with the bundt cake pan. The cover is gorgeous. However, the writing style was simple and didn't entertain me. There are a few positives though. I thought that the murder occurring in the first chapter was a good idea as then the rest of the book is about the investigation. The plot premise was also good. Murdering the housekeeper was a great idea but being denied entry into a dinner club because she was killed didn't make sense to me. It was a stretch too far. 

Jane was an obvious suspect since the death occurred in her home. The police were also interested in her because both of her husbands died in similar accidents. The author focused alot of attention on Jane's interactions with family and friends. I prefer a storyline that spends most of the pages on the murder investigation. . 

Many cozy lovers will enjoy this traditional cozy but it wasn't my cup of tea. 3 out of 5 stars.

No Roast for the Weary

This coffeehouse mystery series by husband and wife writing team Cleo Coyle is my favorite cozy mystery series. In No Roast for the Weary the tables are turned on protagonist Clare Cosi and her Village Blend staff after opening a Writer's Block Lounge on the second floor of the coffeehouse.

The publisher's summary:  

When the Village Blend opens a Writer's Block Lounge, a cold case crime turns up the heat on Clare and her crew in this gripping new entry in the beloved Coffeehouse Mystery series from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle.

As much as master roaster Clare Cosi adores coffee, the landmark shop she manages won't survive if she doesn't sell enough of it. So when the Village Blend's customer traffic grinds to a halt, she turns to her staff for creative ideas, and the Writer's Block Lounge is born.

Madame, the eccentric octogenarian owner of the shop, is upset by this news. Years ago, a group of accomplished writers used the shop's second-floor lounge to inspire each other, but the group disbanded when something dark occurred. Though that history is shrouded in mystery, Clare presses forward...

Soon the Village Blend tables are filled with aspiring novelists, playwrights, and poets, all happy to be coaxed, cajoled, and caffeinated by her coffeehouse crew. Clare admires the stamina of these scribes, many of them toiling at night jobs—driving taxis, tending bar, ushering for Broadway—while penning projects during the day.

Then one of their fictions turns fatal when a shocking secret leads to a deadly end. Unless Clare can untangle this mystery, uncover the truth, and stop a desperate killer, she fears more of these weary writers may be marked for eternal rest. ~ Includes a knockout menu of recipes.

No Roast for the Weary is cozy mystery perfection! I was hooked from the first chapter and loved that she incorporated current events into the story. The Village Blend is suffering financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic shut-down. Customer traffic hasn’t recovered from the pandemic. In order to increase business, the coffeehouse team brainstorms and decides to reopen the Writer’s Block Lounge, a second floor lounge that the coffeehouse hosted a few decades ago. With ads on social media sites, the crowds return.

There is an incident, though, with a regular customer who begins shouting and fighting against someone who is invisible to everyone but him. The staff call him Mr. Scrib because he spends hours every day drinking coffee and writing in a notebook. Scrib tells barrista Esther that he is writing a true crime book that will upset all the politicians and cops in New York City. The mystery to be solved concerns Mr. Scrib whose real name is Jensen Van Dyne. There is a murder to solve in the current time period but the one that happened years ago in the Writer's  Block Lounge is the main mystery.

This is another fun, fast-paced contemporary mystery. I love that this story delved into a mystery that occurred decades ago in the coffeehouse. It keeps the series fresh when the authors write about both current and former murders that happened at the Village Blend.

5 out of 5 stars. 

Two Spinsters and a Madman

Eve Tarrington's Two Spinsters and a Madman was published on March 1, 2025. It is my selection for the Calendar of Crime Reading Challenge. My initial thought about the book is that I have no idea what I just read.

The publisher's summary: 

A foundling, a murder, and a home full of people society has deemed mad. Can two intrepid spinsters save themselves and this rare refuge?

Wealthy Louisa-Margaretta Haddington is spending a London season in the company of Mr Fortescue, a notorious rake and spendthrift. She knows she should not seek him out, but she finds him intriguing. Meanwhile, her old friend Judith St Clair has left her home to work in the Home, a refuge for men and women who are thought to be mad. The resident doctor is Mr Ludlow Fortescue, who is as serious as his London brother is irreverent. Though Judith finds the Quaker beliefs strange, the work is meaningful. When a foundling child is abandoned at the Home, its residents band together to care for her.

Then Mr Ludlow Fortescue is killed.

Suspicion quickly falls on the men and women who are residents of the Home, though Judith knows that not one of them would have intentionally harmed the doctor. Louisa-Margaretta, in order to escape her suitor, promises to solve the murder. But neither of the two friends knows where to start. And when a second foundling is left outside the Home, they begin to wonder if death and new life might be connected.

I must say right off the bat that I don't normally read regency stories. This type of writing was a little strange for me but that is not what bothered me. When I reached page 85 (out of 248) there still had not been a murder. Instead there was 85 pages of characters behaving oh so proper. At this point in the story an infant had been discretely dropped off on the premises. The staff and patients of this upper class psychiatric facility decided to keep the baby instead of taking it to the foundling home. Strange. However, the resident physician and superintendent are supposed to be murdered so I stopped reading for a few days. When I picked up the book again the murder finally occurred.

The investigation was done by two main characters: Judith St. Clair and Louisa Margaretta Harrington. They are friends even though they come from different classes. Louisa Margaretta is an aristocrat who isn't sure that she wants to marry. She has left her family's London manor to stay with Judith at the facility. Strange again. Who vacations in a psychiatric hospital? Louisa offers her hand in marriage to one of the facility's superintendents who just happens to be the brother of the deceased. Louisa Margaretta made a deal with him:  if she discovered the identity of the killer first, she wouldn't have to marry. If she didn't then she would marry Mr. Fortescue. Judith is also on the lookout for a husband. Their investigation consisted of a search of the house belonging to their suspect. The identity of the whodunnit was announced but I have no idea how these two ladies figured it all out. It was surprising though.

The dialogue was particularly old-fashioned because the Quakers running the hospital insisted on everyone speaking with thees and thous. I am not opposed to reading more regency novels but if they are mysteries I want a good pace. I don't know what the standard formula is for regency stories so I don't know what to expect from them. I am not even sure what genre applies here. Initially I thought the book was a cozy mystery. After finishing the book I wondered whether it's a historical mystery. I guess it could be both. 

I enjoyed reading this novel regardless of the problems I mentioned above. I am rating it 3 out of 5 stars. 

Lava Cakes and Lies

Lava Cakes and Lies is the first book in a new cozy mystery series by Nova Walsh. It was published in December 2024 and features ex-lawyer Ginny as a bakery owner and amateur sleuth. I received a free copy of this book from Book Sirens in exchange for an honest review.

The publisher's summary: 

High-powered criminal attorney Ginny Malone never expected to swap her designer suits for flour-dusted aprons, but a twist of fate sends her fleeing to the quaint coastal town of Moonstone Bay, California. With her spirited—and mischievous—cat Shortcake by her side, Ginny sets her sights on starting a bakery on the boardwalk, armed only with her grandmother's secret recipes and a dash of determination.

But Ginny's dream of sweet success crumbles when a dead body is discovered during renovations, and her gruff yet oh-so-intriguing landlord, P.I. Vince Rinaldi, becomes the prime suspect. The ovens are cold, the drywall is crumbling, and now danger is lurking behind every display case.

With the help of her hammer-wielding new BFF Lois, a sprinkle of legal know-how, and a heaping spoonful of wit, Ginny sets out to fix more than just ovens and drywall. As she digs into the case, the quirky townsfolk begin to look less neighborly and more suspect—and Vince might need as much rescuing as her broken heater.

Between perfecting her luscious lava cakes and untangling lies, Ginny must race to clear Vince's name before her fresh start becomes a recipe for disaster. Can she serve up justice and save a budding romance before the real killer strikes again?

Lava Cake and Lies is a charming and witty cozy mystery filled with heartwarming friendships, banter-filled clean romance, cat antics, and recipes you'll be dying to try. Perfect for fans of Ellie Alexander and Joanne Fluke, this book is a culinary cozy mystery that promises to be a real treat.

Usually a new cozy mystery series opens with a long description of the setting and introduces the characters. We read about their backstories from long narratives. Not so with Lava Cakes and Lies. The story opened with Ginny signing a lease for her bakery. The next morning she meets with her general contactor Lois and they find a dead body in the space. The mystery began quickly which is how I like my mysteries.

The investigation of the murder consisted of Ginny reading old newspapers and talking with her new friends. There wasn't any big build up to the reveal of the identity of the whodunnit. It just happened haphazardly when someone confessed while Ginny and Vince visited them. Romance was a large part of the story. Ginny and her landlord Vince hit it off from the start and were soon hugging and kissing.

The book lacks twists and turns and the investigation was lackluster. However, I didn't mind. The story read well. Maybe I have the genre wrong. It might not be a cozy mystery but just a cozy. I think cozy is the right description but the book is advertised as a cozy culinary mystery.

While I found some issues with the writing I loved this novel. I am rating it 4 out of 5 stars and have pre-ordered the second book in the series which will be published on February 25, 2025.

The Pot Thief Who Studied Calvin

The Pot Thief Who Studied Calvin was published last month. It is author J. Michael Orenduff's 10th Pot Thief murder mystery. The series features an antique seller who specializes in ancient works of clay and porcelain. Each installment of the series is titled "The Pot Thief Who Studied.  . ." It’s an interesting premise for a series. 

The publisher's summary: 

An Albuquerque ceramics dealer soon turns amateur sleuth after he gets a 3D-printed pot to die for.

Hubie Schuze usually digs through the dirt—often illegally—to find the ancient ceramics he sells in his shop, Spirits in Clay. But thanks to his nephew, Tristan, a computer science student at the University of New Mexico, Hubie receives a unique 3D-printed pot. And after a photo of it runs in the local paper, it becomes a popular item.

Unfortunately, the pot is sought-after by all the wrong people, and strange characters start darkening the doorway of Hubie’s shop. They’re willing to do anything to get their hands on the pot, and after Det. Whit Fletcher summons Hubie to the morgue, he discovers that includes murder. Now, to get to the bottom of things, Hubie must uncover what's so hot about this pot, before the cold-as-ice-killer strikes again. 

I wasn't expecting this story to be a cozy mystery but that's exactly what it is. Our amateur sleuth sells ceramic pots in between telling one joke after another. He is an expert on Calvin, Ross Calvin that is, but had to learn the finer points on John Calvin's predestination theory for his soon to be father-in-law. Ross Calvin wrote Sky Determines: an Interpretation of the Southwest, one of Hubie’s favorite books. This Calvin was a real-life Episcopalian priest whose 1934 book is a classic of New Mexico literature. He also was an adherent on predestination.

The story opened with a prologue at the local Albuquerque morgue where Hubie was present to identify the body. The story then shifts backwards in time to explain how the body ended up there. The first third of the book did not include a murder and I was getting anxious for it to happen so that I could read about the investigation. However, it came more than halfway through the story. The "investigation" consisted of the big reveal where Hubie explained every part of the case to a group of all the possible suspects. 

I had never heard of 3D-printers before. The author gives a good presentation of how they work early in the story. 

"It can operate in several ways. The one I used sets the printer to run its stylus over the surface of an object you want to copy. The movements of the stylus are stored in the printer’s memory. Then you have it follow the pattern of the object it now has in its memory, but this time it’s laying down soft clay as it goes, so it makes an exact duplicate of the object it traced.”

The book ends with a discussion between Hubie and his new bride whether the deceased's death was predestined. This story began and ended with the merits of predestination, which I had originally assumed given the title of the book. Pretty interesting. 

5 out of 5 stars.