Twelveth and Thirteenth Cozy

Cozy type: Book 1 and 2 in the Deadly Past Mysteries by Marion Moore Hill. Deadly Will and Deadly Design.

What got me started with this author was her Scrappy Librarian series.

I got these books through ILL from my library.

I am again going to stray from the normal review. These two books were chock full of wonderful historical info from the early American Revolutionary time period. These books are the first 2 in a series centering around Millie Kirchner, a single Mom with a young boy Danny, who is working and trying to go to school to earn a degere in History. In Deadly Will, she finds out she is one of many relatives of Nathan Henry, who has bequeathed his legacy to his ancestors 200 years in the future. Out of 16 heirs, 10 show up in Philadelphia to claim a part of the money and a chance at a historical antique. In the span of the week they are to spend at Nathan Henry's house, heirs start getting bumped off, and panic arises.

Eleventh Cozy

Title of the book: Indigo as an Iris by Fran Stewart
Cozy Series: #5 in the Biscuit McKee Mysteries
Bought the book on Amazon and will donate it to my local library as no one seems to have a copy of it in the local area.
Why I choose this book: Again this is a series that I have sort of been following. Books are far between. This is the first one I actually bought.
Little Tidbit I learned from the book: A new concept - green cemeteries. The bodies are placed about three and a half feet deep in hand-dug graves. right among the trees. That way you don't have heavy equipment in there compacting the ground around the roots. It's all part of the natural cycle of life. The bodies feed the trees. There aren't any of those nasty chemicals that poison the soils in regular cemeteries. No caskets. The bodies are kept cold until burial and then wrapped in something of meaning, like a quilt, before burial.
Interesting paragraph from the book: Amazing Grace, as my father, a high-school music teacher, once explained to me, uses the pentatonic scale. It's a far older scale than the do-re-mi folderol. That's why the melody is so haunting. Maybe that's one of the reasons it's so overused at funerals. Just those five black keys, and all the pain, all the sorrow, all the anguish comes rolling out. Also all the hope and the wonder. Maybe not so overused at that.
My take on the book: Biscuit McKee is a librarian in a small town of Martinsville, Georgia. This book deals mostly with a case of mistaken identity involving a kidnapping with fatal results. With that as the main part of the story, a interesting family history and a side story of one lady, of the group of friends ,who decides to organize a cruise and gets a good deal on a group rate and invites close friends and relatives to go. We get letters going back and forth deciding if they can or not. On top of that, at the end of each paragraph, we have Biscuit and her cat Marmalade giving 5 things they are thankful for. Yes, the cat is reminiscent of Garfield, we can hear what he is thinking but no one else can. It's cute. I will be interested to see if more come about.
My rating on this book: Good read.
http://franstewart.com/

Tenth Cozy

Title of the book: To Hell in a Handbasket by Beth Groundwater
Cozy Type: A Claire Hanover, Gift Basket Designer Mystery #2
I bought this book from Amazon and will donate it to my library since no one else seems to have it in the area.
Why I choose this book: Really, the idea that a basket designer solves murders is novel.
Tidbit of info from the book: This book is centered on skiing. What I didn't know is making a X with your skis is the universal call for help at ski areas. I also learned quite a few terms for different slopes and skiing methods. Which I can tell you won't do me any good, as you will never get me on a pair of skis.
Great paragraph: (Claire is walking on a trail in snowshoes.) A squirrel chittered at her from a tree. Claire looked up. She promptly stepped on the back of her forward snowshoe and did a face plant in a deep snowbank.
Pride goeth before a fall. (Heh, I thought it was funny enough to laugh)
My take on this book: Claire is on vacation with her husband and daughter, really with hopes to reconnect with her husband after the result of the murder in the first book. They decided to go to Breckenridge, CO and have her daughter's boyfriend meet them there. He brings his family, too. Only it becomes too apparent after the murder of the boyfriend's sister, that this family is connected to the Russian Mafia indirectly. Quickly Claire finds a witness to the murder and sadly he gets run over by a SVU right in front of her. I may have gotten a little confused at the end with who rats on whom and their plea deals.
Beth gives a couple of ideas for 3 different baskets in the course of the book but I somewhat would of expected maybe a little more hints at the end of the book. Just a thought.
My rating: A good read and hope she writes more. But it looks like she is starting a new series so I will check that one out. Rocky Mountain Adventure series starting with Deadly Currents, March 2011
http://bethgroundwater.com/Home.html

Ninth Cozy

Title of the book: A Darker God by Barbara Cleverly
Cozy series: A Laetitia Talbot Mystery #3
Checked out of the public library
Why I picked this: it has to do with archaeology and I read her first 2
I am not going to give a favorite paragraph or tidbit from this book. My mind was overwhelmed by the full-bodied, rich-writing of this archaeology, historical mystery. These are very intense, well written and fact based novels, seemingly a cross between Elizabeth Peters and Agatha Christy. Laetitia Talbot is a young women, in the 1920's, striving to be recognized in a male dominated profession in which she is well suited and with a good head on her shoulders for. Being an archaeologist. In this third book, she has returned to her mentor, after going into the field, to rest and recover. He has translated a play of Agamennon while writing a biography of Alexander the Great. Laetitia is roped into helping with the play, only to be present when her mentor shows up dead in place of the prop she designed for the death scene. One of the actors of the play is a police detective on loan from Scotland Yard in Greece during a cultural exchange, so to speak. Anyway, he takes charge of the murder scene and accepts Laetitia's Help. The mentor's wife is on the scene and seemingly does not seem over upset of the death. But interestly, she shows up dead the next day. Lots of sexual intrigue in this book, too.
My rating: these are must read books

Eighth Cozy

Title of the book: Dark Alley by Evan Marshall
Cozy series: #3 in the Hidden Manhattan mysteries
What caught my attention: I started out with this author with his Jane Stuart series but when it appeared he was done with that, I picked up on this one.
I got this book through ILL with my library
Tidbit of Information: Mews is a street, usually private, lined with buildings that were originally stables but have been renovated as dwellings - apartments, condos, co-ops and townhouse - similar to courtyards.
Great paragraph from the book: A trash artist is heard to say: "I take what the world doesn't want and turn them into things of beauty...Most of the things we throw away should be used for something else. This would be a far more beautiful world if we did."
My take on the book: Our heroine of the story, Anna Winthrop, is a rich deb who decides that she is more interested in garbage than money. So she works her way up the ladder to become a NY Sanitation Supervisor. With her cop boyfriend, Santos, she solves this mystery of the death of one of her sanitation workers - in a mews. But he is only the beginning. Every time they turn around another body turns up in a mews or a courtyard. And they all feel something is significant with that. Lots of side stories kept the action going. I will continue to catch these books. Learn a lot about inner NY workings from these books.
My rating on this book: A should read. Next book City in Shadow Oct 2010
http://evan-marshall.com

Seventh Cozy

Title of the book: Wicked Craving by G A McKevett
Cozy series: okay technically not a cozy but... #15 in the Savannah Reid, Moonlight Magnolia Detective Agency
What caught my attention: Another series I read faithfully. Savannah is saucy.
Checked out the public library
Great paragraph: (I actually have 2 quotes from the book that made me laugh) Dr Lui, the medical examiner, says at one point at a crime scene: "I can find one stray blond hair on a brunette victim or a single carpet fiber and match it to a killer's car trunk. I think I can find a dead woman on a beach."
And Savannah is heard to say: " The only way to lose a bunch of unwanted excess weight without starving to death is to get a divorce. And even then that takes six months here in California."
Tidbit of Information from the book: This series is based in San Carmelita, CA, home to one of 21 missions that had been built along the Pacific Coast by Franciscan friars, two hundred years ago, of adobe walls that have withstood earthquakes, fires and even a tidal wave.
My take on the book: I love the curvaceous detective and her eclectic crew. And in this one, her Granny comes to visit and helps. Which is a hoot. The wife of a diet therapist, who claims you could diet just listening to his tapes, turns up dead at the bottom of a cliff. All does not seem what it seems here and there are no shortage of suspects. Including allot of the doctor's patients who have been seduced. And we have the usual sexual tension between Savannah and Dirk, which we all wish gets satisfied soon. At least Granny hopes so. I will continue to gobble these up as they come along.
My rating: A should read
www.sonjamassie.com

Sixth Cozy

Title of the book: Unzipped by Lois Greiman
Cozy Type: Ex-Bartender/Shrink/Crimes Solver Mystery (My words)
What caught my eye about this book: Found out Lois Greiman was from North Dakota and the book synopsis sounded like a hoot.
I checked it out from my public library
Tidbit learned from the book: (Okay it is a little dumb but I had never thought about it before). Sweating like a pig is a misnomer because apparently pigs don't sweat.
Great paragraph from the book: (at the beginning of every chapter are clever little one-liners quoted by different characters in the book.) Here are a few:
Some people are street-smart, some people are book-smart but most people are just dumber than dirt.
There are none so troubled as one who thinks himself perfectly sane.
Chocolate may be cheaper than a psychologist but the latter doesn't generally adhere to you ass for the rest of your natural life.
Today's problems are yesterday's mistakes come back to bite you in the ass.
What I thought about the book: Chrissy McMullen, was we assume putting herself through college as a cocktail waitress/bartender and has now worked her way from Chicago to LA to start her psychotherapy business. One of her patients was a bad boy football star who has come to her for counseling supposedly for impotency. Apparently not the case when he dies in her office with a hard on sticking out of his pants. The police suspect her of the crime, of course, and she decides she needs to clear herself as a suspect. So off she goes to interview people who knew him, with the police detective, Rivera, not far behind. The relationship between two runs hot and cold as she constantly slaughters his name. Humorous, and of course they are interested in each other in the end. I am kind of iffy on whether to read more.
My rating: It was a good read.
www.loisgreiman.com