Larkin Day is 35 and after failed careers in theater and academia she has moved in to her mother’s guest room. While she tries to finish her dissertation (suffering from the common cause topic’s too big) and figure out what to do next with her life, her mother has ‘suggested’ that Larkin join a local choir that is set to perform “Ode to Joy”.

One evening at rehearsal she finds the dead body of the accompanist and Larkin starts to wonder who could have killed him. Anything to get away from writing the dissertation, really. She soon gets help from her choir-neighbour Anni.

The story spends more time on Larkin’s musings about her life than on the actual murder investigation, and her musings are a bit dull, but Anni’s a very likeable character. There are not many people who are both honest and nice.

I didn’t like the writing style much. It didn’t have a good flow to it. There were a few instances with a nice play of words, but I don’t read cozies for their play with words. I read for the murder mystery and there wasn’t much of that.

Anyway, there’s going to be a sequel because in the aftermath of the arrest of the murderer Larkin has finally found her purpose and wants to be come an investigator.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

The Perfect Scam by Susanna Shore introduces Eliot Reed and Ada Reed - no relation - who both lead secret lives, but for different reasons. Through a series of coincidences they keep crossing paths.

The story is fast paced, but towards the end it looses some momentum for me. Or actually that happened around the point that I got a bit annoyed with the number of wigs worn in the story (at one point Eliot takes a swim with a wig).

3.5 stars, rounded up because I love the author.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Jill Madison has come back to her home town to get an art centre up and running. The centre is named after her late mother, an artist of some fame, who stipulated in her will to create an art centre as centre for the community.

Despite being the daughter of the people who left the money for the art centre (and not merely the idea, I imagine) Jill has to deal with a board of oversight that has little faith in her. Personified by token bad guy Ivan. Throughout the story I kept puzzling why this man is on a board of oversight. For one, he’s a micromanager. Board members should deal with the overall picture, not every nitty-gritty little detail. And secondly, why are neither Jill or her brothers on that board? Didn’t their parents think any of them would be interested in guarding their mother’s legacy?

Anyway, a killer deadline for opening the centre is not all Jill has to deal with: there are some questions of the structural integrity of the building (which is an issue dealt with five weeks before opening), there was a burglary at the centre where a favourite sculpture of her mother is stolen, and to top if off the builders uncover a body in the basement.

The body belongs to Carolyn one of Jill’s BFF’s in high-school. Jill has always thought Carolyn ran off with a college student, sent a few postcards and then nothing for ten years. This makes me question how close Jill and Carolyn really were. They lost touch so easily - when the age of e-mail and Facebook had already began. Jill herself reminisces a lot about Carolyn, Angie and herself to be the Three Musketeers, but barely a thought is given as to how they had just faded out of each other’s lives.

However, she wants to make amends now and bring justice to Carolyn by helping the police to investigate. After talking to a few of the people that saw Carolyn in the days before she disappeared Jill receives an envelop with pictures. It seems she has a stalker.

The story is well-written, but annoyingly follows a number of cozy tropes. I kept thinking that Jill didn’t know her friend all that well, and didn’t reflect on that point at all. It made me like Jill less than I could have liked her.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Someone to Kiss is a chicklit with a slightly older character, but the problems are mostly the same: single life, dead-end-job, boss from hell.

Though Kate is perfectly fine with being single and living alone, she does miss having someone to kiss when the clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve. So she makes a pledge, to find herself someone to kiss.

Best friend Julie helps her set up an online dating profile, and Kate tries it all: online dating, speed dating, blind date set up by a friend, running in to an ex. Each date is disastrous.

I liked the story, though I found the switch to third person for the sections on Ben and Julie confusing in the beginning.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Good fun.

Some jokes had me laughing out loud. For others I paused the audio to make a note so I can tell the joke at work sometime. All had me think for a moment about the real life situation it stemmed from.

Classic murder mystery where the murder in a play is used to cover up a real murder.

Bertie is an amicable sleuth and the author sets the scene for a theater company in the 1930's rather well.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

s feel-good, but left me feeling somewhat mhew.

Bea is months behind on delivering the manuscript for her next book to her agent. A change of scene might do her good and she goes to stay with a friend from school who owns a B&B in France. Another schoolfriend is there too, and despite the book’s title and the picture on the cover, the women do not get up to any chanannigans.

Bea doesn’t get any writing done,but she does meet a man she’s rather charmed by. He likes her too and invites her to his house for another change of scenery, that may inspire her to start writing again.

It’s feelgood. There is no conflict, only a few minor worries from Bea. Her friend Audrey experiences a lot more conflict, with an absent husband that suddenly wants to retire (and be less absent) and a television crew that has come round to catch up. If the focus of this book had been on Audrey, it probably would have been more interesting.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.

Not what I was expecting. I had expected a graphic novel adaptation of The Final Problem. Instead it was an abridged version of The Final Problem with illustrations.

I think the bare bones version bothered me most. Also, the illustrations and text were matched across the pages seemed to be off. Although that could be an eARC problem.

A little sad for having read this.

Tabby and Sage own a candle shop and have the ability to channel their energy. It’s a kind of magic. Tabby doesn’t use her ability - in fact she has put a mental block on it - because the last time she used it she nearly killed a person. This we are told many, many times. Pretty much every time the energy channeling ability comes up.

Blithe McAdam comes in to complain about a bad batch of aromatherapy candles she has bought. Sage reimburses her and gives her a complementary hand lotion. Case closed you’d think. Alas, Blithe is found dead the next day and the police come asking questions because Blithe had complained.

Now the police must be grasping at straws. A person as disagreeable as Blithe has likely made many enemies. If you interview one shopkeeper, surely, you must interview them all.

Sage and Tabby (but mostly Sage) decide that they must investigate Blithe’s death, lest it is pinned on them.

I was confused for most of the story. In one chapter Tabby and Sage engage in Twin speak, which seems some sort of telepathy. In the next they have to whisper so they won’t be overheard. What happened to the Twin speak? Same when MahMah starts explaining the family secrets of the McAdam family. Or when the evil nemesis of the story makes an appearance.

Reading this story took too much energy from me.

I read an ARC through NetGalley.