Pierced Peony is the second instalment in the Motts Cold Case Mysteries.

On the first trek out of the coastal path that runs along her cottage Motts spots a body in the sea. The body belongs to a woman that has been missing for three years. Motts find this hard to believe because the woman looked like she had been dead only a few days.

Motts soon learns that the woman’s family own a cold storage and that most of her family members didn’t like her much (it seemed to have been a mutual thing). You’d think that this would be enough for the police to detain one or several members of said family for questioning.

It appears that the police took the family’s word for it that they didn’t do it and didn’t know what had happened. Ugh, what is the police to do if they can’t even take people’s word at face value?

Meanwhile, accidents happen to Motts when there’s an O’Connell around. More evidence, you’d say? Again, after denial and stating ignorance, no further questions are asked.

This prompts Motts to investigate herself. And there is always a friend or family member around to accompany her (or coax her, if the case may be).

Don’t read this story for the mystery. The only mystifying thing is why the police didn’t solve this case in a day or two. (Or how much every one weighs, considering the amount of calories consumed.) Read because you want to get into the inner workings of an autistic mind.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Cute, but I had a hard time engaging with the characters. It was like I was constantly at the Etheral level: there, but not quite.

I think the book was perhaps too descriptive and I didn't feel mich of an emotion. It lacked some punch for me. Then little things start too irritate, such as that all blouses seemed to be silk.

I received an ARC of this book from booksirens in exchange of an honest review.

Great story.

I very much liked the way Miranda interacted with the spirit of the dead. Though in this story that skill didn't seem to contribute much to finding the killer. Dedicated police work did that (though I am curious how the police found Eliza - and so quickly).

I didn't care much for the conversations Francesca had with her killer. They lacked the flow and urgency the rest of the story had. Possibly because these chapters were narrated by Francesca, and like many self-absorbed people, she's not very good at self-reflection.

This was a stand-alone book, but if it ever became part of a series, I'd like to read that.

I read an ARC theough Booksirens.

Flora Steele runs the bookshop she inherited from her aunt. Business is not well, but she manages. That is until one morning she finds a young man in her bookshop. He's broken in in the night and then died. Despite his young age, his death is ruled natural cause. The pathologist recons he died of a heart attack.

Flora doesn't believe this, and what's worse, neither do the villagers. Rumours start the young man was killed by a ghost hunting the old building. Flora doesn't believe that either, but the villagers seemed to as they start to avoid her shop. With no customers Flora imagines she's going out of business soon. She decides to find out what the young man was doing in her shop. She's sure it is what got him killed and equally sure that if she finds out her customers will return.

The historic setting (1950's Britain) of the story is its main attraction. What a different story it would have been if the characters had had smartphones or cars. Other than that, the story didn't really grab me. The clues all fitted together too neatly, and there was a lack of red herrings and barking up wrong trees. And what's most important: I didn't care about finding the killer, nor was I impressed by the reveal.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Met glimlachgarantie.

Geglimlacht heb ik zeker. Hardop gelachen zelfs een paar keer. Nu het geleerde in de praktijk gaan toepassen. Bijvoorbeeld in boekrecensies.

Loved it.

After Phoebe finds a mysterious package at the door of the antique’s shop / gallery where she works, she accidentally curses herself: all her wishes come true. But with magic there’s always repercussions.

Lucky for Phoebe, her boss is a mage and her two new landladies are no strangers to magic themselves. With their help, Phoebe sets out to find out who cursed her and why, but most importantly, to have the curse lifted, before she accidentally makes another wish.

Loved the story, loved the characters.

It reads as a stand-alone, but apparently it’s part of a series, so I’m curious about that.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Great fun. Light-hearted fantasy.

Poppy Romano is from a wicked witch coven, but born with a pink aura she is their designated good witch. A position Poppy very much resents. She wants to be wicked. One night she strikes a deal with the devil and gets a chance to move away from the family.

She thought the deal was just in jest, until the devil calls in his IOU. But her end of the bargain sounds simple enough: keep two ghosts from leaving her shop.

But the devil loves to make deals and call in his IOUs. He's also made a deal with author Devlon Thorne and his task is to get the two ghosts out of Poppy's shop.

When they find out they have been pitted against eachother Poppy and Devlon decide to join forces and see if they can outwit the devil.

This story is the third in the series about Single Town, and there are many recuring characters. The book can be read as a stand-alone.

I read an ARC through Booksirens.

Yawn-fest. The title has really good rhythm to it, but that’s about all that has rhythm to it.

Recently moved back from New York to Miami, stay-at-home mom Miriam Quiñones-Smith is settling into her new life of getting to know her new neighbours and wondering why her husband seems to have forgotten he has a family at home. Meanwhile, her old friend Alma Diaz drags her along to all her networking events and exercise classes. Guess Alma has missed her all these years.

Though the first death in the book happens pretty soon, the story drags on a bit after that with Miriam visiting the park with her son and cooking a meal for her husband. Well, Miriam has no reason to get involved, yet. She only sat next to the woman, barely spoke to her and everyone else seems rather unsurprised the woman just collapsed.

Then another woman collapses and dies at a seminar of a witch doctor / tea pusher. Miriam gets a little concerned, if not curious. The next morning she has a gig at a Latin breakfast show, where she catches a brief glimpse of the witch doctor. He denies he knew the woman that collapsed the previous day. Miriam is sure he is lying.

Meanwhile, there is another man behaving suspiciously in her life: her husband. When he finally gets home to spend time with his family, he also starts spending money like water. When asked about it, his reply is ”I can’t tell you the details.” and ”You have to trust me.” Seriously? The only reason you can’t tell your wife where the money is coming from is if it’s trough criminal activities. A really good pay-package that comes with the new job is no reason for secrecy.

Then Alma is arrested for involvement in the death of the first woman and finally, finally, the snooping can start. Or could start. Because Miriam has also gotten into her head that her husband is having an affair and that they are getting divorced.

*Eye roll*

Biggest redeeming factor of this book is that the police manage to solve the murder of the first woman too. For some reason, the death of the second woman is neglected. Miriam figures it out, but she never share this with the police or confront the person responsible.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

My eye fell on the rating for this book before I started reading. It was well below 3.5 starts. That’s very low for a cozy, particularly one that’s only available as an ARC. That was not very promising.

The plot sounded promising: Shakespeare scholar returns home after the death of her mother only to find her mother was receiving threats. With the help of her aunt and her mother’s book club the scholar starts digging for the truth. (Book club members are a curious lot.)

I don’t think I have ever been less impressed with a book. I didn’t hate it, though. It just left me feeling very mwah.

In a way I was prepared for a not very well-written book. This is surprising as the author has already penned quite a few cozy mysteries under another penname, but this story seems to have been written by someone flexing their writing muscle for the first time. At the very least it lacked a good editor. (There’s an editor receiving thanks in the acknowledgements; makes me wonder how they earned their keep.) There are inconsistencies throughout the story.

For instance, Summer remembers never having hung out at the arcade, though earlier she remembered being told off by the owner for running through the arcade. In a later chapter, Summer, Piper and Agatha leave the house together, but only Summer and Piper arrive at their destination. What happened to Agatha in the mean time is not mentioned.

Another editing issue is the misuse of names. Agatha is called Hildy several times, and the name of the island is Brigid, St. Brigid or St. Bridget. This issue gets particularly annoying when new names are mentioned, such as Loretta and Abbey, but it’s unclear who is meant. I can understand that a galley proof is not perfect, but this galley is not even fit to be submitted to a publisher, let alone to be published.

Editing issues aside, what about the story? After finding a threatening note, Summer is convinced her mother was killed. After all, a healthy woman doesn’t just die of a heart attack. (Fact is that many people don’t realise that signs for heart failure are different in women than in men. They could quite easily be mistaken for ‘feeling a little bit under the weather’.) And she suspects everyone she comes into contact with. I like characters that are a little more subtle about their suspicions. And also characters that have a stronger case for their suspicions. How can she be so sure that Hildy did not have an underlying hearth condition? Hildy was a healthy living hippie. That doesn’t sound like the kind of person that goes for an annual full-body scan.

Yet, the police have ordered an autopsy on Hildy. This bothered me throughout the book. Summer asks them for the results a few times, but the police also believe Hildy died of a heart attack (i.e. natural causes). They don’t consider her death suspicious. Then why have an autopsy done? Makes no sense. Only Summer, as next of kin, could have requested an autopsy, but it’s quite obvious she didn’t.

Summer is a hard person to like or even feel sympathy for. She seems to think she is a better person because she reads classical literature rather than anything else: “Summer had never read a commercial romance in her life. She was a classics person all the way around and had been vocal about people filling their brains with trashy books.” Now, how would she know the quality of commercial fiction if she’s never even tried it?

I have the distinct feeling the author was writing for word count rather than for plot development. The story drags on. Many scenes have the same structure. Summer is talking to someone about something insignificant then someone else (usually Piper) walks in. A rule of writing is: every scene should do something for the story. It either should establish character or further the conflict. Most of the scenes in this book did neither. Really, how many scenes are needed to show that the five women Summer talks to most are pretty much interchangeable? Perhaps some of them could have been deleted from the story altogether or merged with others. (For instance, keep Agatha, but merge Piper with Marilyn and Glads. Loose the teenager.)

After reading I believe this book’s low rating is well-deserved and should actually be even lower. This is not the quality I expect from a previously published author.

I received an ARC from NetGalley.