The Case of the Culvert Puppies (Olis)

The Case of the Grounded Ferry
by Thomas Olis (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

When I won "The Case of The Grounded Ferry" a few months ago, the book wasn't ready. The author, Tom Olis, emailed me his first two books in the series to read in the meantime. I actually wasn't planning on doing that. And after reading book three, I wasn't in a hurry to read book one. However, ...

Sometimes the stars align. I'm in between book club books at the moment. I hadn't started another Library Thing book yet. And my reading goal "scavenger hunt" type list includes two entries for two books written by the same author. I had other prospects lined up, but this one was right in front of me.

The first book, The Case of the Culvert Puppies, reads better than the third. Partially, this is because the characters are introduced better here, and partially because Olis doesn't do a good job (or any job?) reintroducing them to new readers in book three. I never got a feel for them. Once again, however, almost everyone is on a first-name basis, which gets confusing, and I forget which parent goes with which child.

Speaking of adults, they play significant roles in this book. It's not all kids saving the day. In fact, they acknowledge that there are parts of the investigation that are grown-up business.

There's a Russian plot to sow discord in the area that involves stealing a dog, which escapes long enough to give birth to puppies in an illegal culvert on a property that's illegally being developed. Then a flash drive is found that has a bunch of files in it. The police and feds step in after this.

It wasn't bad. I liked it better than book three. The back of the book lists five mysteries, but the third one just came out. I hope the author makes corrections to his writing before publishing those next two.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

The Case of the Grounded Ferry (Olis)

The Case of the Grounded Ferry
by Thomas Olis (2026)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This book was a free Advanced Reader Copy from Library Thing. I'm encouraged (but not required) to leave reviews in exchange for the free books.

I'm reviewing it late because I recieved it late. In fact, the author sent me the first two books to read while I was waiting. I did not read those. I don't remember if I realized that this was the third book in a series of mysteries. I did NOT know that the first book was only released a year ago.

Disclosure: I released five books within an 18-month timespan, but those were all about 40 pages long and most of the material had been written long before. Pumping out three 200-page books this quickly is a lot of work. I did notice quite a few typos, but this is an ARC not a final copy, so I can't ding the author for that unless it's particularly grievous.

I left the following review on the Library Thing website:

The Case of the Grounded Ferry (by Thomas Olis) starts off great with two friends on the beach when a ferry loses control and runs aground. The girls recognize someone on the ferry, who then tries to hide, and someone jumps off the ship and runs off the beach.

The girls, their friends, and their families get caught up in a bigger puzzle figuring out how all the pieces fit together while watching out for strangers out to do them harm.

Unfortunately for me, the mystery didn't really pull me in, and the ending felt a bit cut off. I never really got the feel for most of the characters. There were a lot of them, but other than a name (usually just a first name, even with the parents), there wasn't much to distinguish them.

---

I will say that the names bothered me. Everyone was a first name, except for the occasional "Mon" or "Dad". The adults are also referred to by their first names, and there are a lot of them, too. Keeping them straight and whose parents were whose might've worked better with a few last names, instead of "Mr. Jenny's Father". (Seriously.) In fact, Paul (or it might've been Pete) tells Terrence to call him anything but "sir", so he calls him by whatever name someone else called him by. The last name Stourhm, or something like that, appeared a few times in the last part of the book (once where Jenny gets called her full name by her father).

The only two kids I could keep straight were Terrence, the boy with red hair who was in the middle of everything, and Emmett, Jenny's younger brother who gets kidnapped at one point. The rest of them? I couldn't picture them at all -- maybe whatever teens and preteens I saw on some show on TV at some point. Imagine young actresses playing the parts.

The people (adults and children) behave irrationally. The police don't seem to have too much of a problem with this. (They also don't seem to use last names of the people they're talking to.) And the more I think about it, the less sense the book makes to me.

**** SPOILERS ***

And in the end, it just ends. They follow Terrence who's being kidnapped. Luckily, one of the dads works for the FBI (or was it the CIA?) and has a badge. They rescue Terrence before he's pulled onto a ship that flies a flag other than the US. The cops will not interfere, even if there might be other kids on that boat. (This make sense, but ...) And that's basically it. Sometimes, that happens.

And that's the way the story ends. Sometimes that happens. Kids get shanghaied and disappear. That happens. Less than a happy ending, and less than a satisfying one.

(End Spoilers

Oddly enough, I have nothing electronic to read at the moment. I'm waiting for books to become available, and I'm not ready to start another one of these weird sci-fi books I won. Dumb as it sounds, since Olis sent me three books, and since there's an entry on my "Reading Goals" for two book by the same author, I'll at least read the first one to see if the series got off to a decent start at least.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Cast the First Stone (Warren) -- repost

Cast the First Stone
David James Warren (2021)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a book club selection. I decided to make a separate entry rather than update the entry from June. That's the blog biz for you. And there was so much time between the two readings that this make sense. The last time (that I recall) reading after listening, it was closer in time and there were no other grand revelations to discuss.

I listed Cast the First Stone as one of my three picks for the book club. My other choices were Sea of Tranquility, which I read after, and Gods of Manhattan, which I haven't read. Gods was rejected mostly for being a kids book.

Overall, the book was well-received. A couple of people would be interested in the second book, or at least hearing about what happens next. It was a pretty straightforward book, so there weren't a lot of questions for discussion. Mostly, what did we think of the plot, characters, and situation. What do you think will come next?

We did compare it to other time travel books that we've read previously.

Also of interest is that David James Warren doesn't exist. There are three authors for this book: Susan May Warren, James L. Rubart, and David Curtis Warren. So I each of the three supplied one name even though Susan and David have the same last name.

It was just as enjoyable the second time around, and it's eassier to review what I missed or what happened while I was falling asleep, as opposed to rewinding when a loud truck or train passes by.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. The fourth book will be available by the time you see this!

Cast the First Stone (Warren)

Cast the First Stone
David James Warren (2021)

[NO IMAGE -- AUDIO BOOK ONLY]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I needed a new audiobook to listen to while I'm out walking (and I do a lot of walking). It would be nice if the library had a tag for audio duration or if I could sort by time. Cast the First Stone came up as a "short enough" science fiction novel, so I gave it a shot without knowing anything about it.

Overall, I was pleased, and during the summer, I might look for the actual book after I've caught up with some other books.

The main character is a cop named Rembrandt Stone, who receives a watch from the former Chief of Homicide, who passed away, along with a box of cold cases. The watch doesn't seem to work, so he brings it to a jeweler who tells him that the watch is working exactly as it should be. Stone doesn't understand.

Stone wakes up "the next day" and he's traveled back in time to the time of an unsolved cold case involving three bombings. He also has the young body he had back then. He believes that he's still dreaming, but he goes along with it and tries to solve the case. He starts to realize something's off when he stays in the past.

While he's there, he sees the jeweler again, or for the first time, and sets up the future meeting. He also starts talking to the woman who would later become his wife, figuring that he could speed things up, instead of waiting years to start dating.

Instead of getting information to solve the cold case in the "future" (the present), he prevents the third bombing and solves the crime "back then".

Stone returns to his present time, feeling the pain of the injuries he'd suffered many years earlier. The book ends with Stone finding else what else has changed in the intervening years. This opens the book up for a series where he can solve more cold cases -- but are they really cold cases any more? -- while trying to repair the damage he's done to his own personal life.

Would I read more of these? Maybe, but first I have to read the first one.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. The fourth book will be available by the time you see this!

A Peppermint Mocha to Die For (Valentine)

A Peppermint Mocha to Die For
Wynn Valentine (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a free ebook I download prior to Christmas but didn't get a chance to read until the new year had already begun. It was short, a novella really, with 65 pages.

Note that Good Reads and Amazon list the full title as "A Peppermint Mocha to Die For: Because Nothing Says 'Happy Holidays' Like a Murder Investigation" even though the latter half does NOT appear on the cover. It does say "A Haunted Inheritance Mystery".

The book opens with Sol hanging Christmas decorations following the very specifc instruction of her aunt while her uncle looks on. Her aunt and uncle are both ghosts.

Right here I figured that I stumbled onto the Christmas episode of a sitcom that I don't watch regularly.

The ghosts can apparently leave the house if they choose to, and other people can see them and know about them. I'm guessing that there are more ghosts to be found in town.

A mystery arises when Sol finds an old recipe card with a protection symbol on it belonging to her great aunt Edna. Aunt Prudence doesn't want to talk about it. It was a long time ago. Better to let some things lie.

But the "house" wants Sol to continue because Edna is in the house. She just isn't appearing like the other two.

There's a mystery, which really isn't a mystery, with a resolution that doesn't feel entirely satisfying. The ghosts know what happened. The older folks in town remember that Christmas party but no one wants to talk about it, until Sol finds the one woman from the original group of friends who is still alive. She finally opens up for no reason other than she's old now.

I had no interest in the characters. The story kept my interest but only because I was waited for something to happen. The writing didn't wow me but it didn't distract me either.

The book includes the recipe for the famous Mocha. I didn't try to make it.

This book doesn't check off any boxes on my Challenge checklist. I don't recall the lycanthropy being a curse. I already read a Christmas book. The title has 24 letters, unless I use the extended title frod Good Reads. (Then it would have a lot more than 25 letters!)

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. The fourth book will be available by the time you see this!

Eggs in a Casket (Childs)

Eggs in a Casket
Laura Childs (2014)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I was reading a YA book about an Elf saving Christmas and I decided that I didn't want that to be the first book I completed in 2025, so I put it aside. But what to read? Well, I recently got an email that an auidobook I had requested had become available at the library -- only to discover that I had listened to it a while back and the ebook was still not available. However, the next book in the series was. (I might've been waiting to read it so that I could read the previous installemnt instead of just listening.)

As a happy accidental bonus, this is the fifth book in the series, and on a Reading Challenge list I downloaded, reading the second or fifth book in a series (for the number 25) was one of the goals. Honestly, I'd thought about the goal of reading more "book 2" books this year since I start many series.

Eggs in a Casket opens at a cemetery on a rainy day. The weather will actually play a part in the plot with this one. It's Memorial Cemetary's 150th anniversary, and Suzanne and Toni are delivering flowers when they accidentally come upon Lester Drummond's body in an open grave right after they were almost sideswiped by Missy Langston who was speeding away.

Missy is a suspect, especially after it's discovered that Drummond had been tasered multiple times and a taser is found in Missy's house. (This is the kind of town where many people don't bother to lock their doors.)

Sheriff Doogie has his hands full, but does a competent job as always, even if it has to follow each lead wherever it goes, and if that means arresting Missy, so be it. Unfortunately, he's in a car accident and in intensive care for the last part of the book, leaving it Suzanne to figure out who did it, where Missy is, and possibly save Dr. Sam's life along the way.

I'm enjoying this series. I don't know that I'll start any of Childs' other series or any other cozy mysteries (paranormal or not) for that matter either. But I've add "Childs" as a tag, and at some point, I'll go back and add it to the others. If I start a second series, then maybe I'll add a "Cackleberry" tag, too. We'll see.

Okay, back to the elf.


If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs.

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (Carter)

The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year
Ally Carter (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a Pandemic Book Club book. It came available from the library about 3 days after I finally bought a copy of it. As it was, I didn't finish it in time for the book club meeting, but that was pushed back a week, so I haven't missed it yet. I'll update with reactions.

The book deconstructs mystery writing when a writer and her "nemesis" are suddenly invited to an event for Christmas and flown to England without a clue where they are going. Maggie Chase is a successful writer who has a horrible life -- her ex-husband now lives in the house she paid for with her ex-best friend, and Christmastime is filled with nothing but bad memories. Worse, she can't stand Ethan Wyatt, the Leather Jacket Guy author who is a relative newcomer and a bit of a rival.

Working on my assumptions, this is practically made for a Hallmark Christmas movie. (Not surprisingly, the author has written at least one of those.) It's a rom-com and a mystery as the two of them come together, partly out of self-preservation, and partly because they unravel their interwined past and start to understand what was going on back then.

The trip brings them to the estate of a reclusive fan, Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death, author of 99 best-selling novels, with rumors about number 100. She's in her 80s now, but that still means that she'd been churning them out for quite a while. Maggie (not Marcie, now) is her biggest fan. Ethan acts like he doesn't know he she is but also turns out to be a fan, having read the books with his mother before she walked out on the family.

There's a cast of characters, like someone assembled in Clue or Murder by Death, mostly relatives of some sort, along with another writer, the butler, and a police inspectror.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs.

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (Goodman)

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies
by Alison Goodman (2021)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was recommended on the Brooklyn Public Library page as something that I might be interested in. I read it and listened to most of it. If I finish reading first, I'm less likely to finish the audio before it needs to be returned.

Note that the cover is inaccurate because even though the two sisters are twins, one is several inches taller than the other.

The book is a high society amateur detective story set in the heart of Regency London. Several stories in fact. Lady Augusta Colebrook, “Gus,” is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents to rescue their friend’s goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.

Along the way, they are attacked by and manage to subdue a highwayman, who isn't exactly what he appears to be. They use the man to pose as their brother, who they claim was wounded by a highwayman, to get to Caroline. When the man awakes, he sees no choice but to continue the ruse and is instrumental in getting away. Gus is terribly smitten with him as she's never been before, but he knows that they could never be together for it would ruin her, and he would surely hang.

They eventually get reunited for another case, and Gus becomes determined to prove the man's innocence.

This was an enjoyable (though a little long) book. I would read another in the series.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs.

A Cry of Hounds (Ackley-McPhail, ed)

A Cry of Hounds
by Danielle Ackley-McPhail (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

A Cry of Hounds was a Kickstarter book, published by eSpec Books and edited by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, who also edited my book, In A Flash 2020 and the upcoming A Bucket Full of Moonlight.

A quick check of the Internet says that the paperback hasn't been released yet. However, this book was created in conjunction with the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival, which took place a couple of months ago.

The stories in this volume are steampunk or have a steampunk feel to them. And while they are not Sherlock Holmes stories, they are meant to evoke Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. And, of course, they needed to have a dog in them. That dog could be Cerberus, a giant puppy, a construct, or any mythological creature. And the fact that they don't repeat is a testament to the editor. (Note: I mean it -- I'm not kissing up.)

A couple of the stories feel like they are the "continuing adventures" of the characters contained within, but Keith R. A. DeCandido fooled me by using other Doyle characters and setting this adventure immediately after the events of one that Doyle published a century ago. (And I only know this because I was at a reading at the eSpec Book Launch party at Heliosphere, in Piscataway, NJ.)

The stories include "The Curse of the Baskervilles" by Arthur Conan Doyle (an excerpt from the novel "The Hound of the Baskervilles"), "The Night of the Howling Wind", by Ef Deal, "The Adventure of the Exploding Airship" by John L. French, "A Grecian Pawse" by Doc Coleman, "The Vampire of Rannoch Moor", by David Lee Summers, "Amber Waves of Bane" by Dana Fraedrich, "Weighed and Measured" by Bill Bodden, "Progenitor" by Keith R.A. DeCandido, "Ember Eyes" by Jessica Lucci, "The Houndstooth Affair" by Aaron Rosenberg, "A Glimpse of Death" by James Chambers, "They Who Have Lost Their Way" by Danielle Ackley-McPhail, and "Sherlock Holmes and the Stonyhurst Terror" by Christopher D. Abbott.

This is one of those times when I wish I'd been on the ball about recording my reading. I finished this book back in May, but with the end of school and real life events, this blog (and my others) took a back seat.

To highlight a few of them: Ef Deal sets the stage with "The Night of the Howling Wind" which takes place in Ireland during a historic windstorm (really, it happened) and involves werewolves and murder. "The Exploding Airship" is a "Hope and Gracie mystery" dealing with an automated plane that exploded over the banks of the Thames (bonus points for naming the airships Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace.) "The Houndstooth Affair" takes place in New York City, specifically involving the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a clockwork songbird built by Cartier. And "Sherlock Holmes and the Stonyhurst Terror" unravels the mystery of a Yeth Hound, which given that this story employed Holmes and Watson, you knew that it would have a rational explanation but you still had to wonder what it was.

An enjoyable read. Recommended. Again, for anyone who stumbled upon this blog -- it isn't private, but I don't actively publicize it -- I've written for eSpec Books and I've participated in many of their Kickstarter campaigns, so I own a lot of their books (and bonus stories), and they are a large part of my digital TBR pile.

The Skeleton in the Closet (Fox)

The Skeleton in the Closet
by Angie Fox (2015)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

Book two in the Southern Ghost Hunter Series became available for free from Book Bub, so I picked it up. I was in between book club books and I figured that this would be a quicker read than anything else I had ready since I was alredy familiar with the premise.

Verity Long is still poor, after being forced to pay off her fancy wedding after she left her cheating fiance at the altar. He still wants to get back with Verity despite or even because his mother opposes it. In the meantime, she has (maybe) a thing with his brother who is in local law enforcement, rather than being employed as a rich snob. And Frankie the 1920's era gangster ghost is still around.

Verity tries to unground Frankie (see book one) with little success. Meanwhile, it's the annual Cannonball in the Wall celebration of a Civil War battle that saw a cannonball get lodged a wall in the middle of town.

Darla, a friend of Verity's (and her sister's) is handling donations for the event, and the two oldest and most fuedin'-est families are trying to out-do each other. She makes a startling discovery and ends up dead. Her discovery is missing as well.

Verity investigates the library and all the ghosts who are stuck in time within its walls and finds some revealing evidence, but not THE revealing piece of evidence until much later.

After that, it's dodging dangers on two planes of existence until the truth about the Cannonball in the Wall is know to all.

But most people still think Verity is nuts for blowing off the wedding.

I wouldn't be opposed to reading more of these, but they aren't so great that I'll be buying them any time soon. If the libary has them, I'll borrow them.

Stake and Eggs (Childs)

Stake and Eggs
by Laura Childs (2012)

[No Image, Audiobook]

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This is the fourth book in the Cackleberry Club series. For some reason, it was not avaible in ebook form at any of the three library systems in NYC. It was not available in book form in either Brooklyn or Manhattan. (I don't have a Queens branch near me.) And it was only available as an audiobook from the New York Public Library system through the SimplyE app, but not the Libby app. It was a total accident that I found it. I'd been searching Libby, but when I searched the libaries' website catalogues, I finally found it.

SimplyE is an app that hast been on my iPad for quite a while. I don't remember downloading it and I can't say that I've ever used it. Maybe it was the app I used when I downloaded comic books many years ago. I can't say. But I put it on my phone and used it.

IT IS A TERRIBLE APP. USELESS. It doesn't always save your place, backing you up to the last time you started listening. And when my book was due, I returned it and downloaded it again, and it restarted me at Chapter 1. I had no idea exactly where I was, but it doesn't matter because THERE'S NO TABLE OF CONTENTS MENU. Actually, there is, but any time I tapped on it, it brought me to the NYPL Catalogue page.

I was so desperate that I actually asked my wife, who may have been a little miffed at me at that particular moment, if she could show me how to do something on my phone. Appealing to her sense of, not so much superiority, but of I-married-an-idiot-ity, got her to put miffed aside and try. I almost didn't get my phone back because she was working under the assumption that the interface, though primitive, made some kind of sense. It did not.

Okay, now about the book, which was fine enough, but I'm not spending money to buy a copy.

First off, I've realized that the names don't mean a thing. There are no stakes that I recall in the entire book. The murder is committed with a piece of fence wire. Previously titles also didn't seem to matter. Also, it takes place in winter, so the election that we never got to in the last book is already behind us. Spoilers, the crooked mayor and the dogged Sheriff Doogie both won.

This review has been sitting here for a few weeks, unfinished. I'd forgotten about it, honestly. And I'm forgetting more about the book, but here's what I remember.

Toni finally decides she's going to divorce Junior, after he was a hero in the last book. The other two ladies are happy about this but aren't sure if she'll actually go through with it. Junior shows up with a car that has his new invention: the car cooker, which is an oven built into the engine that cooks as the car goes. It's a running gag throughout the book, with food needing a few more miles until it's done. He says that he has investors looking into it. His cooker car will, of course, play a part in the finale, as silly as it sounds.

The Winter Fair is coming and there is a radio competition to find a medallion hidden somewhere in town. The clues are all vague and refer to ice. The initial ones of course should be vague, but they don't get any better or more specific. I mention this because one note I did leave myself from a couple of weeks ago is that where the medallion is found makes absolutely no sense for the rest of the story because the place it was in at the end didn't exist at the beginning.

So the bank president is killed on a snowmobile with a wire strung between two trees. He's head is found in the woods sometime after the snowmobile crashes into the back of the Cackleberry Club. Meanwhile, a teen runaway had seen the man who hung the wire, so he's laying low because he's afraid he'll be next. He switches jackets with the busboy who works at the cafe, and manages to sneak in for some food. He gets caught. Joey, meanwhile, gets attacked and is hospitalized. Suzanne comes to realize it's because the two boys switched jackets.

All of the regulars put in appearances, and a few people are vying to be the new bank president.

In the end, the runaway identifies the killer, who then steals Junior's car and the chase is on.

I won't say that the series is getting stale just yet, but it's almost done for me. I'll take some time off before the next book. I'm not even sure if the next book is available for loan.

Pumpkin Blend (Layne)

Pumpkin Blend
Paramour Bay #14
Kennedy Layne (2020)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a freebie from a BookBub mailing. I downloaded it and read it before Halloween, and then forgot about it. Not that it was forgettable (well, maybe a little), but I got behind in my blogging and didn't check my library for everything I'd read. On a side note, I already had book #15 in my Kindle library, which I apparently downloaded last year (or earlier), but haven't read yet. It's a Christmas mystery. There is very little chance that I will get to it by this Christmas as I have a couple of other things going already.

This will be short, and hopefully the Christmas entry will be longer. It was a little difficult to get into because it's the 14th book, so the author is free to assume that the reader should be at least somewhat familiar with the characters.

The big mystery is the disappearance of a very large, prize-winning pumpkin from a cart in town a couple of weeks before Halloween. It disappeared by magical means, but no one knows how. At the same time, the witnesses had to be convinced that they didn't see what they thought they saw. The farmers on the wagon assume that it fell off along the way.

The main character is a witch, and her mother is also a witch, but she's away and can't help with this. The witch has a cat that's a familiar and addicted to edibles and naps. The cat got confusing when he talked about his Former True Love, his New True Love, his On Again True Love, etc, mostly because at first I assumed he was talking about other cats, not actual people. Some people are aware of the paranormal, in general, and the circumstances of the main characters, in particular, but most are blissfully unaware.

The story eventually leads to a cemetery right before Halloween and the spirits trying to break through and the ones trying to prevent that from happening. Pumpkins help with that some of thing.

It wasn't bad, but two months later, it doesn't seem to be very memorable.

Here's the Good Reads synopsis, for any visitors to my site wishing more info:

Pumpkin tea blends aren't the only things that are being stirred up in the next baffling whodunit of the Paramour Bay Mysteries by USA Today Bestselling Author Kennedy Layne...

All Hallows' Eve is only a fortnight away, and the residents of Paramour Bay can't wait to get their hands on all the candy corn, caramel apples, and pumpkin tea blends this fall season. As a matter of fact, the highly anticipated Halloween Festival is about to kick off in town square with the reveal of the largest pumpkin that has ever been grown in their very own local pumpkin patch.

There's only one itsy-bitsy problem--someone has stolen the town's prized jack-o-lantern! Raven ropes Leo into solving another mystery, but he goes all in when he realizes that a pilfered pumpkin is the least of their worries!

Fill up your candy bowl, grab your favorite pumpkin-flavored drink, and get ready to solve the perplexing case of the missing prized pumpkin!

This was an ebook.

Bedeviled Eggs (Childs)

Bedeviled Eggs
Laura Childs (2010)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This is the third in the series that started with my pandemic book club selection. THe first one was interesting enoug that iI thought I'd try a couple more. This book was not available as an ebook from any of three NYC library systems, so I had to get it as a paperback, just as I did with the previous two. I also got the audiobook, as I did with the last two. It's good to listen to when I'm out for my walks.

The usual gang is back. Szanne, the recent widow, and her new boyfriend, Sam the doctor, along with Petra, whose husband is in a medical facility, and Toni, who is still married to Junior. Junior proves to be little more useful in this book. The relationship stays on-again-off-again. I'd imagined Junior as a cross between Jethro Clampett and Max Baer, Jr (who played Jethro, but could play parts that were more physical). This book describes him as a cross between Fonzie and Homer Simpson. I'm not sure I can switch that description into my head.

As luck would have it, this was another Halloween book, taking place just before the holiday and Election Day.

I enjoyed the book, because I'm getting to know the characters, but this one seemed to end abruptly. The murderer is caught but then it's over without any loose ends tied up.

The book opens wtih a Read Dating night at the Cackleberry Club, a take on Speed Dating where each person brings a favorite book. An argument ensues with one woman and a mayoral candidate about pieces of his mother's estate which apparently she was talked into donating. The moment is diffused, but afterward, as he and Suzanne walk out the back door, someone in the field shoots him between the eyes with a crossbow. More bolts him the building and the women hide inside until the police come. We meet a new, young deputy who searches the field. A couple days later, Suzanne and Petra find him deceased.

There are a couple of contrivances here. The book starts with a historical quilt trail, where places with a significant history hand up a quilt square (made of wood) and folks follow the trail to visit these places. Petra and Suzanne drive the trail, as night is falling, of course, and think they're lost. They pull over, found the police cruiser and then the deputy handcuffed to the tree and shot. Suzanne finds a hurt dog on the way home and calls Sam the doctor to come over and take a look.

Since it's almost Halloween, as well as Election Day, the Cackleberry Club is hosting a Halloween event. A guy owes Junior a favor and he can get them all the pumpkins they need for cheap. Once again, they go out at night, using a hand-drawn map of Junior's. They get lost again, and stumble upon a dog-fighting kennel, and are chased to a canoe to escape. Now we know what happened to the first dog.

And then there's a prison break that causes the Reverend Yoder to have a heart attack while his spreading the alarm. The ladies save his life, and he'll recover.

And then it all comes to a head at the Halloween event. Junior gets a good showing here, and Doogie lets him because Doogie might not trust himself at this point.

And it's over.

For all the talk of the election, we never make it to Election Day. The crooked mayor is now unopposed, so he's a shoe-in, but Doogie was afraid of his chances if he didn't close either of the murders. He got the guy to confess (off-camera, in the car) to the first killing, but not the deputy. But Doogie will work on it. No mention that, oh, there's a gun in the field behind the restaurant and it might be the same one that killed the deputy. No reelection celebration after closing the book on the murders. No followup on the prison break (other than they were rounded up) or any fallout from the dog fights. So while I enjoyed the book, it could've used a denouemnent of a half-dozen pages of so.

The other nit to pick is that Suzanne finds a clue that Doogie missed. A post-it that says only "Tortuga" on it. Now forget that this is the kind of clue you only find in Scooby Doo or other contrived mysteries, but the number of people who knew that it means "turtle" in Spanish was astounding, considering that no one has spoken Spanish yet. There was scarce mention of the island, which if you're aware of popular culture, Tortuga plays an important part in Pirates of the Caribbean, and is an actual place. This allows for a misdirection because someone happens to know that another character has a turtle tattoo. Without a spoiler, there is no reason why the word "Tortuga" on the note shouldn't have been followed by another word, except that then it would identify what it meant 50 pages too soon.

Once again, the dual media has its advantages, where I catch something in one that I miss in the other.

U is for Undertow (Grafton)

U is for Undertow
Sue Grafton (2009)

Audio only

Image withheld under the book is read.

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I needed another book to listen to while I was walking, and I selected the next Sue Grafton book. I haven't had a chance to actually read it yet. Last time, I listened and read together. I will update this entry after I read it.

I'm not sure what "undertow" refers to in this title. It's metaphorical, having nothing to do with the ocean or the beach.

Like recent books, there was a prologue taking place years ago. And like Trespass, this one has chapters that center on other characters, but in this case there are more characters to take center stage. On top of that, there are more flashbacks mixed in. It got a little confusing keeping track of all of these before they all got tied together. It's like Grafton went out of the way to leave out information so that it could be revealed at the correct time.

The story follows a man having a suppressed memory when he was a kid, he saw two "pirates" digging a hole in the vicinity of where a young girl disappeared. He thought that they might've been burying that girl. The police send him to Kinsey to look into it. She does, and miraculously finds the burial site. There's a dog buried there.

But there's more going on, and the "pirates" have grown and still live in the area. Also in the area is the young woman who was kidnapped weeks before the dead girl was kidnapped. She remembers Santa Claus and having a fun time before she was returned. Kinsey looks into her hippie parents as having something to do with it, but they did not.

It was a little convoluted and all over the place. Not one of my favorites, but not down there with "L is for Lawless", which I believe was the one where Kinsey was just along for the ride. (I might be misremembering.) On the other hand, we learn more about her family and her grandmother's attempt to actually be a part of Kinsey's life, even if it would've been a controlling part. I hope that this part of Kinsey's story gets resolved by "Y" because there is no "Z".

I do plan on reading the book at some point, at which point, I'll update this entry.

Eggs Benedict Arnold (Childs)

Eggs Benedict Arnold
A Cackleberry Club Mystery
by Laura Childs (2009)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I decided to try another one of these. I could only get it as a paperback from the Brooklyn Public Library, so I made it my pool book. It was a fun, quick read.

The Cackleberry Club is back, and only a few months have passed since the events of the first book. more to come.

Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Doidge)

Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic
(The Dowser #1)
by Meghan Ciana Doidge (2013)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I'm pretty sure that this was a freebie in a Book Bub mailing list, but it might've been a random search result when looking for free paranormal cozy mysteries. I don't remember.

It was mostly a quick read, and I rushed to finish it because a library book became availalbe and I wasn't go to be able to renew that.

As it was, I practically forgot that I'd read it, until I noticed the title again on my phone. (My iPad is loaded with a lot of recent stuff which gets downloaded automatically.)

This is the first book in the "Dowser" series. The main character, Jade, is half-witch, half-human, and she knows nothing about her father. Her mother never chose to tell her anything, and she's not around for most of the book. Neither is her Grandma, but her presence is felt, and at times, we're waiting for Grandma to arrive and save the day, since she's so powerful a witch. It turns out, that her father wasn't human, but what he was (or is?) is not revealed in this book. What is a "Dowser"? It's a person who uses a diving rod to find underground water, but in context with this book, it's a person who detects magic.

Jade runs a bakery in Vancouver, which seems to have a fair amount of magic activity despite comments that it doesn't. While working there one day, she notices a vampire lurking about outside (in daylight) looking through the window. The vampire later confronts Jade trying to get her to confess to a crime and informs her that as soon as the council clears it, he will bite her and compel her to tell the truth. Apparently, there are rules that have to be followed. A vampire has been killed and one of Jade's trinkets had been found. Jade have an assortment of odd rings that she joins together. Her adopted sister likes to use them. The rings link the crime back to Jade who has no idea what's going on.

Jade was enjoying a night out at a club when a pack out humans, who are werewolves start dancing with her. The alpha wolf tries to get her attention, but she declines. She later flees into the night to avoid all these creatures. She goes to the gym the next day, and the pack arrives and places their mats around her. Now she notices that Mr. Alpha Wolf is a bit of a hottie. They start talking and have a date. But he never shows up for it. And then he's dead, too.

Jade gets caught up in this with the pack and the vampire, until they figure out what's going on.

It was a pleasant read. There's a series. The next book has a very similar title, but I doubt it will be available from the library and it's not something that I *really* need to read and thus pay for. The series has plenty to work with, even if the author did knock off quite a few characters in this one.

T is for Trespass (Grafton)

T is for Trespass
by Sue Grafton (2007)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I freely admit that I'm backdating this review to June 30 because I read it last month, and I want it in my tally for the first six months of the year.

Back to this series for the first time in a while. It was so long that I checked out the wrong book first. I listened to the prologue and thought, I'd heard this before.

I listened for a bit and then I picked up the ebook and caught up to where I had listened to. I take walks, and I sometimes listen to books on tape during the walks, but I got to the point where I shot ahead with the text, so I abandoned the audiobook.

This was an interesting book because it has a lot of "pays the bills" work going on while there is a problem brewing right under Kinsey's nose. By the time she realizes it, it might be too late.

Kinsey's neighbor Gus takes a fall and winds up in the hospital. He needs home care. Kinsey finds a niece in New York who comes out to make arrangements. Kinsey's does an overview background check (nothing deep) and gives Solana Rojas a pass. The problem is that Solana Rojas is a fake who has assumed the identity of the real Solana Rojas who is also a nurse, but one with better qualifications, and who earns better pay because of it.

I was a little confused at first, because I thought that they were both named Solana Rojas before the identity assumption happened, but that was just an editorial way to not divulge her real name then. It also seems that there was another case where she scammed an elderly client, but it seems like she had had an assumed identity then as well, so Solana wasn't the first time she'd decided to do this. Maybe I heard it and read it wrong.

The other patient was mentioned early on, but later becomes a little "deus ex machina" for the story. Every time Kinsey thinks of something, Solana has outmaneuvered her. But then luck comes in the form of the former client's granddaughter (or daughter? I don't remember), seeing Solana at the mall. She pursues her and starts to investigate herself. After that, she runs into Kinsey and offers to help, which is vital to rescuing Gus.

One other thing that does happen: Solana Rojas gets a restraining order against Kinsey, but at no time does it come up that it isn't valid because she's not Solana Rojas. Granted, I don't know the law, and if that would invalidate a restraining order of one party against a second party.

Of the minor cases she's working to pay the bills, one is a couple that needs to be evicted for non-payment. Kinsey is supposed to do a walkthrough for the security deposit. The couple bails, destroying the apartment along the way. It will turn out that Solana Rojas lives in this complex later one.

And then there's a car accident where Kinsey is trying to locate a witness who could corroborate one driver's testimony. The car accident was definitely a setup with a car speeding up and crashing into another that pulled out in front of it. What was never mentioned was that Kinsey pulled a similar stunt in an earlier book, but not for the same reasons, and not with the same results. Again, a little bit of luck broke the case with the insurance fraud, but the kindly old gentleman turned out to not be a kind person after all.

I enjoyed this one because we get a sense of what else Kinsey does between books. And because this was another mystery that she investigated and solved that she wasn't getting paid for. If there was a downside, it was that she didn't contact Det. Nolan (or the police) because of her past relationship. She didn't want to go running to her ex-boyfriend, even though she should have. She knows this, because she mentions it in the text, basically hanging a lampshade on the mistake she made.

I have other things to read before I get to U. (As of this writing, I listened to the opening chapter, and that was about it before the audiobook went back to the library.)

Wrong Place, Wrong Time (McAllister)

Wrong Place Wrong Time
by Gillian McAllister (2022)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a Pandemic Book Club selection, but I would have read it anyway. As a matter of fact, I started it before it was actually selected by the group. (The final vote was 4-3, so I "lucked out", but I would've read the other book if I needed to.) I heard my daughter describe the book to her mother (my wife) and it sounded interesting to me, with a nice little fantasy/sci-fi twist to it. The book had been recommended by Reese Witherspoon, so there was a wait for the ebook -- about 10 weeks or so. I put the paperback on hold when I was afraid I might not finish the book in time, but I did. Still I'm curious how long it will be.

It starts on a Friday evening at the end of October 2022. Jen finished carving the Halloween pumpkin when without warning or explanation, her son Todd stabs and kills a man out the street outside the house. He's arrested and Jen and her husband Kelly are off to the police station. What caused this to happen?

Next morning, Jen wakes up confused to find that it's the same day again, and the day repeats. She does what she can to make sure that Todd doesn't leave the house and can't kill the man. Meanwhile, she wants to know what would cause her son to do this in the first place.

The next morning, she wakes up and it is a day earlier. This continues for several days where she relives those days but nothing carries over. She's getting younger, not older. She learns more about her son and and her husband's secret behavior. She also find some information about about a cop named Ryan and a poster about a missing baby.

Interspersed with these chapters, there are Ryan POV chapters. Ryan is a young cop who becomes an undercover cop and starts working on a car theft ring case. His chapters are told forward in time, but when exactly they take place compared to the Jen chapters isn't stated. Speaking of Jen chapters, looking at the chapter titles themselves is a bit of a spoiler, which I'm about to spoil.

After about a week, Jen starts jumping farther and farther back. She jumps back a year and then a few years to the day her father died and farther back than that, all measured by the number of days. She found a professor who can explain some of this to her, but she has to prove herself to him every time.

We learn more about Ryan and the secrets Kelly is keeping. There's a woman named Nicola whose number shows up on a burner phone. There's this man named Joseph who's nosing around, asking questions, who, it turns out, was in prison and who will become the murder victim. There's Joseph's daughter Clio who was dating Todd before they broke it off. And there's something connecting all of it.

It mixes Groundhog Day with Quantum Leap as Jen thinks that there is something that she needs to put right, but she doesn't know what it is. She just continues learning the pieces of the puzzles that she needs to know to eventually fix things way back in the past. (Note: the author herself admits that she conceived this after watching Russian Doll, which also has a Groundhog Day effect to it.)

I enjoyed the book but I'm not 100% on the final resolution and how things play out afterward, back in the present day. (She doesn't have relive all those years.) Whatever "science-y" explanation could be posited for the energy to cause this time travel, it doesn't explain waking up again in 2022, a leap of many years, with very little fallout. There is no "Butterfly Effect". The changes are very narrow, which works fine for the narrative (although a little too pat in one regard). Considering she went back and changed how she and Kelly first met and changed the nature of their relationship, the fact that their son was still born at the same time (and is the same person) means that there's something more to this guiding the outcome (as Sam would've said on Quantum Leap).

A minor quibble, but I can imagine some people might feel let down by what needed to be changed to not only prevent her son from becoming a murder, but all of the extenuating circumstances and ancillary factors, and then how little actually changed in the end.

I might have to check out some of Reese Witherspoon's other picks ... but the older ones, which might actually be available from the library.

Eggs in Purgatory (Childs)

Eggs in Purgatory
Cackleberry Club #1
by Laura Childs (2008)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a book club selection. The person who chose this (and two others) wanted to try a "cozy mystery" and this author had a couple of series going. To be honest, I didn't look at the publication date until I started writing this entry. I know that there are several books in the series.

I listened to this book twice. I got a copy of the paperback from the library when I was almost done the second time, so I only read a few chapters. By that point I already had the voices in my head. It's a quick read and probably reads faster than 8 hours of audio.

I gave it a second listen because I thought I'd missed a few things along the way, but it turns out that many of the others in our book club had issues with the book as well. Overall, we did enjoy it, and there was a feeling that it could rate 3.5 as a novel, and maybe a 4 as a cozy mystery.

I was one of the few who had read cozies before but, as I pointed out, this is the first one that I've read without any witches or elves or ghosts. Even some of the discussion questions were skipped because they addressed any paranormal elements of the book. I almost missed them, but it didn't need them.

The biggest complaint with the book was too many characters, not enough information about the crime/mystery, a lot of talk about food, and a "side quest". Most of us enjoyed the side quest but it didn't distract/detract from the main story. One of the reasons I listened a second time was when the murderer was revealed, I was totally "huh?". I wasn't alone. The second time through I paid more attention. Even with that, there is a confrontation in the restaurant that ends when a character named Junior comes flying through the door. Not only had I forgotten about Junior when this scene occured the first time through, I'd forgotten about him again the second time, even though I knew how the scene would turn out.

So some notes:

There are three women, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, who are all widows. Suzanne is the POV character. Her husband ran a gas station in Kindred and after he died, it couldn't stay a gas station because she was getting squeezed by suppliers. The Cackleberry Club was born. The place becomes something of a community center with a restaurant (with a prixe fixe menu), a book nook, a yarn/knitting/quilting area, etc. One morning, Suzanne's lawyer is found dead in his car with eggs in purgatory on his face and blood on his chest.

Suzanne looks into the mystery. The local Sheriff Roy Doogie is overly accomodating with spilling information at times (although the voice acting is awful). He's not an idiot, though.

Also in the cast of characters are the romance-novelist widow of the deceased lawyer, the lawyer's secretary, the former partner of the Suzanne's deceased husband and that man's wife, who is on the Library Council (yeah, it's a thing), the Rev. Yoder on the old, local church down the road, and a religious cult not far away but technically one county over. And there are some people who sell produce and folks who are of interest because of the tires on their trucks.

THere were some good characters, but it was a little too much and the ending wasn't entirel satisfying. Also, the print edition (not the audio) had a handful of recipes. I considered making Eggs in Purgatory over the Memorial Day weekend, but I was alone each morning and I had other food in the fridge. I did end up making Toad in the Hole, but the baking dish was too big and the amount of sausage required was too little. Since there were no pictures, I didn't understand how to arrange the sausage in the baking dish. I looked online after the fact and saw that a square dish might've worked better.

Anyway, it was a good book for a cozy mystery. A non-paranormal cozy mystery. I will probably read more, if not this series than of others. I know I have downloaded a few of them from Amazon (freebies) before I put a halt to it. Summer is coming and I'll have some reading time.

The Guest List (Foley)

The Guest List , Lucy Foley (2020)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

This was a montly book club selection from my Pandemic book club (which is keeping that name even if we're all back to work).

I read PDF and hardcover editions. There were wait lists at both libraries for the ebook. I've gotten used to using the dictionary with ebooks.

Updated 5/18/22

This was a murder mystery where no one is murdered until very close to the end of the book.

The first scene throws you into a stormy wedding reception (in two senses of the word) between a woman's magazine publisher and a male TV star of a survival show. Someone's screaming and people going to investigate. Then you're pulled back to the day before the wedding.

This in itself isn't bad, but the narrative is fragmented across narrators and across time.

The book switches back and forth between past and present so that by the end, the "yesterday" timeline has caught with and passed where the "now" timeline had begun. It continues to go back and forth across the wedding night.

The narrators are the bridge, her sister, the plus one of the bride's best man, and the groom's best man. It stood out that the groom wasn't a narrator until very last in the book. It's also obvious from what people think of him and all the revelations that he will either be the one killed or the killer.

I based this on the fact that Foley didn't want us inside the groom's head for any prolonged amount of time. When we finally are in it, his account of events would make him seem pathological because his narration doesn't agree with any known facts -- and this isn't when he's talking (lying) to other people.

Where the book fails (and where some might think it succeeds) is that it gets to a point where all the narratives end with the lights going out. At this point, I could liken it to a specific episode of "Matlock" or the Broadway show The Mystery of Edwin Drood where you can vote on who you want to be the killer. Several people have been set up and given motive and opportunity.

If anyone else had been the killer, the result might have been just as satisfying (maybe even more so). I get the feeling that my book club wasn't happy with the outcome.

No spoilers here, but was the ending a fair one? Not likely. Did everyone get what they had coming to them or what they deserved? Again, no. Obviously, the dead person wasn't particularly nice, but the survivors didn't exactly get justice either.