Pies and Prejudice Not bad, but not particularly good. The overly descriptive writing became monotonous and annoying after awhile. By the time she described whisking eggs as a storm blowing in, I was pretty much done.Also, in one scene, Ella Mae is talking to her husband on her cell and throws her phone in the lake.  A few pages later, she is awakened by her phone ringing. Could be easily explained, but isn't.  And that's my issue with this book - overly descriptive language on unimportant things, but continuity, character and plot points don't have enough. 

An Early Wake is the third installment of the County Cork mystery series. Although enjoyable, there were aspects I didn't care for and I was a little disappointed.
 
There wasn't much of a plot with this one.  College kid comes to town wanting to know about local music. Suddenly, a concert happens. Someone dies.  Someone is eventually apprehended, although we're just given theories about the murder and motive. No messy confession to bog things down.
 
As with the other books in the series, Maura worries.  A lot.  This hasn't bothered me in the previous books, but this one, it was a little much. She spends most of the book worrying about whether she should offer live music at Sullivans.  Really? Let me get this straight: you're making money hand over fist because a few musicians showed up and you're agonizing over whether it's a good idea? WTF?
 
Also, deducted half a star because there's a god damn love triangle birthed at the end of the book.

Overall, not the best in the series but not terrible.  I look forward to the next in the series.

Fun read, it moved right along quickly.  It was nice to see Minnie finally get out of the Pacific Northwest and into another locale.  The plot in this one, the death of an OK Corral shootout reenactor, was suspenseful and kept me guessing until the end. 
 
Have to say, the flirting with the ghost is still kind of creepy.

I picked this up as a free Kindle book.  I thought it was going to be a paranormal mystery, but it wasn't. And that was the beauty of the plot; as the murder unraveled, it ingeniously revealed what made it a ghost murder.
 
Enjoyable short story set at an English estate, reminiscent of an Agatha Christie novel. The quick pace moved the story along nicely and kept me turning pages.  The plot, concerning the murder of a gentleman during a dinner party, had twists and turns that I didn't see coming and I really enjoyed the AHA! moment when I figured things out. Not too much in the way of character development, but that didn't hinder the story at all, and in such a short book (104 pages) more detail would've bogged down the plot.
 
  I hope this is the start to a new series, I look forward to seeing more of Jon and his family.
 

Hilarious! Fun, interesting and laugh out loud funny

Deducted half a star because there wasn't a lot of Cathbad. *sigh* I love Cathbad. #CharacterCrush

So the plot in this book, the 7th in the Ruth Galloway series, was very Shakespearean. Fathers, sons, brothers, a dash of crazy, a scant teaspoon of biblical floods, a dollop of romance and a pinch of marital infidelity. All that was missing was the where-fore-art-thou's. A WWII plane is uncovered in a field with skeletal remains inside, which leads Ruth, Nelson and the team to an eccentric area family with skeletons in the closet. Well, one less skeleton, as it was in the field.

Of course, I love getting back to King's Lynn and catching up with the gang. I love the characters in this series, and the location is a character in itself. An interesting plot woven around a lot of action, just the right pacing to keep it interesting without getting bogged down.

What I didn't like was that the plot took a backseat to all the soap opera-y things going on. Ruth has steadily degenerated from a strong, independent woman to one that simpers after the man she can't have and agonizing about the one that she can. The storyline with Judy going into labor at the house was a little much. Also didn't care for the whole infidelity storyline. It didn't add to the story and I guess it was only there to set the stage for a future plot. There also wasn't a lot of forensic-y things for Ruth to do. And I pity her poor students, who probably never get their tests back in a reasonable amount of time.

Overall, the minuses are just nit-picky things that bothered me but didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book. It was still an enjoyable read in one of my favorite series and, of course, leaves me pining for the next.

I don't think it's fair that reviewers must give books at least 1 star. There should be a negative rating. This book screams for it.

The author apparently has little knowledge of police work (and didn't bother to research it.) That much is obvious because the police don't "take people into custody" for reporting a dead body. There's a little something called "reasonable cause" that means, unless the police catch you in the act of killing someone, they have to at least determine that the death was, in fact, a homicide, and that there's a reasonable assumption that you've done it. Therefore, calling 911 to report a dead body might get you escorted to the police department to give a statement but that is not the same thing as being taken into custody. Second, no news reporter who wanted to keep their job would report that someone was taken into custody when they weren't, and also wouldn't report that the whole town thinks you did it.

I'm not even a cop and I know these things. FFS, do some bloody research before you write.

The dialogue was wooden and relied on entirely irrelevant descriptions of things. Couldn't just say they were going to go watch TV, no, it had to be explained that it was a 32 inch television bought within the last year or some such. What?

I made it through about a quarter of the book and gave up. It wasn't going to get any better. DNF

DNF

I don't even know where to begin. I made it through a chapter and a half and couldn't read any further.

Author attempted to write the vernacular of an upper class Brit, but came off sounding like an American who watched season 1 of Downton Abbey and decided to write in the vernacular of an upper class Brit.

I know a few Brits. I also watch a lot of Brit TV. Never heard anyone from the UK say they were taking their dog for a perambulation. Never heard a Brit call a napkin a serviette either.

Oh, and Americans know what Oxford is, without referring to it as, "yes, THAT Oxford."

Ugh.

I think with some polish and editing, this could be a cute series. The characters were likeable and the plot was intriguing.

That being said, it reads like a first draft, not a finished work. The writing was disjointed and choppy, there were few clues to help the reader solve the murder (although I figured out the who fairly early on. With so few suspects, it was easy to narrow down.) The romance came on a bit strong, it could've used a little more subtlety to add more dimension to the book. Instead, the main character was going at it like a drunk at last call.

Overall, there are wrinkles that, if ironed out, could turn this book into a a great start to a new series.

Really enjoyed this one. Funny, full of action, great plot and interesting, likeable characters.