Another day, another murder at Cressida's boardinghouse, only this time the poor victim was the 5th Earl of Mockingbird, Peregrine, who showed up with his entourage of female assistants and his driver. He's an unlikable sort of guy and it's not long before he's done in with a methanol laced shot of tequila. Mr. Buttons, who is immediately under suspicion as he had an acrimonious relationship with Peregrine, is nonplussed and mortified to be taken in several times for questioning. Cressida pulls Sibyl in to help investigate, complete with humorous capers and sleuth out the killer before the suspects can flee back to England.

I always love when I get to travel back to Little Tatterford and that dreary boardinghouse with death scene paintings on the walls. This is such a great series that really should get more attention than it does. It has everything; great plots, laugh out loud moments, characters who are delightfully offbeat and a cursing cockatoo, always entertaining and I look forward to each new book. This one had a couple of good red herrings, ones that I was leaning towards being completely unrelated to the plot but couldn't figure out why they were there unless they were related? I love when a book makes me question my thought processes while peppering me with things that make me laugh; Cressida's newest painting, Lord Farringdon's tantrum, it's hard not to giggle when reading these books. I also love the ideas Cressida comes up to snoop around. Drop bears, anyone? But the plot itself was quite good; with no information to go on other than the earl's catty entourage, I had fewer ideas on the suspects than Sibyl, Cressida and Mr. Buttons did.

After the disappointment that was the first book in the series, it sure did come roaring back. This is the Gideon Oliver I love.

While on an anthropology dig in Washington State, Gideon gets called away to another scene of an ancient Native American burial ground containing several bodies buried in native baskets - and several far more recent bones. Gideon is called in to match them to several hikers that went missing in the same area in recent years. After matching the remains to the missing hikers, another hiker, a young woman goes missing and is later found dead and Gideon comes to an impossibly improbable solution that spans centuries.

I love anthropology/archaeology and this series gives me my fill. There's no way anyone could possibly have solved this unless they're psychic, so like everyone else I was along for the ride. And what a ride it was! I was glad to see the Bigfoot angle get so little page time, although it did add a touch of humor. And I loved getting to see how Gideon and Julie met and fell in love. Along with the beautiful Pacific Northwest scenery, John Lau's child-like giggle, and Gideon's fallible hero complex, it really gave me more dimension into who he is as a character and to have it all wrapped in a stunning story made for a great read. Onto the next!

I got this one off Netgalley awhile ago but it got buried on my Kindle thanks to all the Book Bingo books I added a few months ago. I'm sorry I waited so long to finish it, it was a great book!

The second book in the Antique Bookshop series has Jenna presiding over the grand re-opening of the antique/used bookstore she inherited from her uncle. All seems to go well until one guest - Linus Talbot, an antique book expert - has several run-ins with other guests during the party. As the evening draws to a close, Jenna finds Linus dead in his car in the parking lot, murdered with his antique bookends and the only witness is his dog, Eddy. With several suspects and almost no clues, can Jenna find the murderer?

I enjoyed the first book in this series and came to really like Jenna, Mason and Rita and Keith and the juicy plot in this one (gasp THE DRAMA! clutches pearls) as it wound its way among the suspects and unraveled all the clues - which were right there all along but in the end the culprit was still surprising. Just as in the first book, I suspected and then discarded a suspect or two, only to be surprised at the end. *sigh* Fooled me again!

Another great entry into what's shaping up to be a really great series and I'm looking forward to the next book.

“I hate mourning," she said. "It always smells of moth balls because it’s been laid up somewhere."

I will admit, I was never a fan of Agatha Christie after I was disappointed by Murder on the Orient Express back in high school. But there's an Agatha Christie square on the r/CozyMystery Book Bingo, so I picked up this one because it qualified for hard mode (Not Marple or Poirot.) and because I was intrigued by the blurb. And I have to admit, I was pleasantly surprised to be drawn into it from the beginning, mostly because I liked Tuppence so much. While Tommy has good instincts, Tuppence has the detecting skills and I liked how well they played off each other, but Tuppence was definitely the star of this story.

As for the plot; possible shenanigans at an old folks home, a sophisticated crime ring, and a mysterious house in a painting all served to compel to Tuppence that something was amiss and required further detecting. It was thoroughly enjoyable and quintessentially Christie, complete with a surprise twist at the end. I was surprised to like it as much as I did, but then again, not really surprised because let’s face it, there’s a reason why Agatha Christie is the queen of cozy mystery. Overall, it was a fun, intriguing and a bit fanciful and I might just pick up the other books some time.

I always look forward to getting back to Holiday Bay and catching up with all the happenings at the Inn. This one had a novel plot (heh book pun) with the suspicious suicides of 2 successful celebrity women. It made for a great plot and I really enjoyed it but there were a few things that stuck out me. One was a character that I thought was going to be a bigger part of the plot than she did, which left me wondering what her purpose in the book was. And the other was that the plot meandered around in an unfocused way until the resolution of the plot came about suddenly, so there wasn't much sleuthing in this one, it was mostly rehashing until an aha! moment. It was a great plot though and I really enjoyed it, it just evolved in a different way than I expected.

I read this one for the r/CozyMystery Discord book club read, and I thought it was just....okay. A lot of the book was laying out the backstory for the characters, which is appreciated but rather than being woven into the story, it was more or less all dumped in the first 10 chapters or so before getting into the mystery part of the plot. The downside is that the mystery part of the plot was overshadowed by the plethora of intimate details of the family, making this feel less like a mystery and more like just plain fiction. Other reviewers commented that they felt the pace was too slow in the book and I agree completely. I skipped several chapters here and there when the story wasn't advancing and didn't miss much.

Overall, not a bad read but not good enough to want to continue in the series.

This series has the power to stick with me for a long time after I finish the latest in the series and this book is definitely no exception. Equal parts heart wrenching, terrifying, heartwarming, and compelling, Ink and Shadows is the perfect read for Women's History month. But you know what really wows me about this series? How gosh darn realistic and authentic is feels, none of the usual tropes or lazy writing. Just amazing characters, very well developed plots and the pure emotion that I feel reading through this makes each book so anticipated.

There was a lot going on in this one, which kept the pace moving quickly without sacrificing details. Celeste and her daughter are new in town and have just opened a gift shop, Soothe, near Nora's bookstore, Miracle Books. But life is anything but soothing for the newcomers, who become the target of an overzealous church group, who brands Soothe, Miracle Books and other businesses as being "unchristian". If that's not enough, Bren is found dead near Nora's house and not long after, Celeste herself becomes a murder victim. With two murders to investigate, lots of secrets and lies muddying the case, an unexpected friend of Nora's past challenging her status quo and the agony of the impossibility of being in two places at once, this made for a taut thriller that kept me turning pages.

I was scouting around looking for a book for the r/CozyMystery Online Referral book bingo square and BeachbumBookworm swooped in on Discord with this recommendation. It had all the things I like in a cozy mystery; a deftly written plot, likeable characters, secrets (I love secret anything in books!) and the absence of tropes. Perfect!

Jane Steward runs a resort catering to book lovers, Storyton Hall, in the tiny town of Storyton, VA. Looking for an event to host that will bring in loads of book lovers paying to stay at the inn, she settles on a Murder and Mayhem mystery event, highlighting (and encouraging cosplay of) famous fictional sleuths. After receiving the grand prize of a first edition book, the winner is later found dead in his room, the victim of murder. Tasked with finding a murderer in their midst, Jane has to deal with learning a big family secret while caring for her twin sons, her elderly aunt and an entire inn of guests.

There was a lot to like about this one; a delightful cast of characters, the beautiful setting and a masterfully written plot with more twists and turns than the roads leading to Storyton Hall. What more could a cozy mystery fan want? I figured out the "who" around halfway through the book, but nothing could have prepared me for the why and the how. I also liked how the world of Storyton grew as the book went on, giving enough rich detail to pull you in without being too much to make it clumsy, something the author does very well.

Overall, an enjoyable first and a big thank you to BeachbumBookworm for recommending this one, and I'll definitely be reading the rest of the series!

Not a bad book, overall I enjoyed it. I like to catch up with Avery and the gang more than the mystery, so it didn't bother me that it was pretty easy to figure out. I can't help but think that it feels like there was a lot of filler to stretch the story out. But still an enjoyable read, and a series I look forward to continuing.