Theodosia “Theo” Browning is one of my favorite leading ladies from a cozy mystery series. She’s spunky but refinedFull review on my blog: PhDiva.blog
Theodosia “Theo” Browning is one of my favorite leading ladies from a cozy mystery series. She’s spunky but refined, and has a knack for investigation that perturbs the police (including her boyfriend) to no end.
The book opens on the set of a movie, where Theo and her tea sommelier (and Watson to her Holmes) Drayton Conneley are providing craft services for the crew. Director Josh Morro asks Theo to film a scene with loos leaf tea. Just as she is performing her part with the cameras rolling, everything goes dark and a series of loud pops and bright flashes fill the set. When the lights are back on, the director Josh Morro has been electrocuted and it’s clear it’s a murder! Who would want to murder the famous director?
The mystery takes plenty of twists and turns along the way. Theo has a knack for detective work, and she had no problem questioning people she thinks may be suspects or digging for information. One of my favorite aspects to this series are the ties to the historic city of Charleston. The filming location is the Brittlebank Manor. In addition to rumors of hauntings that plague the historic mansion, there’s also a legend that a woman was held prisoner in the manor’s attic.
There are plenty of motives to go around, and the key is figuring out which one fits the murders. I always enjoy following the investigation and trying to figure out which leads I’d follow if I were Theodosia.
I will never turn down a chance to enjoy one of the Tea Shop Mysteries. With a creepy setting, a film production in town, links to a haunted mansion, and plenty of suspects—this is a winner!
Thank you to Berkley Publishing for my copy. Opinions are my own....more
The first book in Jennifer J. Chow’s new cozy mystery series—A Magical Fortune Cookie—absolutely charmed me! In Ill-Fated Fortune, a young woman findsThe first book in Jennifer J. Chow’s new cozy mystery series—A Magical Fortune Cookie—absolutely charmed me! In Ill-Fated Fortune, a young woman finds her family magic just before a dead body turns up with one of her fortunes.
In a book focusing on how the emotions put into baking can bring joy to those that eat them, Ill-Fated Fortune is the type of book that fills the reader with joy. The magic element is a lot of fun and relates to the central character’s family lineage with a special emphasis on her and her mother working together. At it’s core, this is a book about family, finding your passion, and believing in yourself. And of course a side of murder mystery!
Felicity Jin works at her mother’s bakery in Pixie, CA. While many cozy mysteries begin with a character losing something and looking to start over, this book opens with Felicity finding something—her magic! The women in Felicity’s family have been blessed by one of their Jin ancestors to bestow the gift of spreading joy through baking on all the daughters in their lineage.
Felicity has always worried that her magical gift has never shown up. She works the cash register at her mother’s bakery and fears she’ll be the first woman in her family history to not have the magic inside of her. But as the book opens, a mediocre take-out meal with her best friend Kelvin and two rancid fortune cookies prompted Felicity to make her own, and suddenly the magic flowed through her and into the cookies. It seems the customers can taste the magic too, because the fortune cookies start selling immediately after the bakery opens.
While most of the cookies have a generic fortune inside, a customer asks for one after Felicity hands him a cookie that she forgot to put a fortune in, and something unexpected happens. Felicity feels dizzy and scribbles down a fortune, but she has no memory of what she wrote. It felt like the fortune was pulled from somewhere inside of her. Even stranger, the fortune she wrote quickly comes true.
When Felicity experiences the magic fortune writing ability with a second customer at the end of the day, she wonders what she wrote down on the fortune. She doesn’t have to wait long for the answer, though. The customer (who happens to own a fortune cookie factory) is found murdered in the dumpster behind the bakery with Felicity’s hand-written fortune on him. It appears the fortune eerily predicted his death in a rather specific way, causing the police to look at her as a suspect. Can Felicity learn to harness her magic and hone her sleuthing skills to find the murderer?
The mystery is engaging and I realize that so far I’ve spoken more about the magic element, but the mystery truly isn’t secondary in terms of time devoted to it. I think there was balance and since the mystery revolves around fortune cookies, the Gold Bakery, and how Felicity predicted the murder, most of what happens in the book directly relates to the central mystery.
The victim, Charlie, is not a sympathetic figure. He’s rude when he comes in to get a cookie, and it all makes sense when Felicity learns that he is known as the Fortune Cookie King because he has cornered the market on fortune cookies locally. However, it seems something has taken a turn with his product and the clients are unhappy with the cookies. This naturally transitions to them wanting to increase stock in Felicity’s cookies. The challenge is that Felicity’s cookies are all handmade and she still works at her family’s business.
As Felicity’s mother cautions, mass-producing cookies may technically taste good, but they won’t have the magic that the Jins pour into each cookie. I loved the relationship between Felicity and her mother. They seem to both draw happiness from working together, which is part of what makes their family so magical.
There is quite a roller coaster when it comes to Felicity’s ability to seemingly predict the near-future with her fortunes. When the talent initially emerges, Felicity is caught off guard. None of her family has shown this specific talent before. While she goes to test it, it seems that she needs to figure out the trick that triggers the fortunes—she can’t force it. Over the book it was fun hearing more about how she is able to strengthen and use her ability.
The list of suspects is relatively small, but there were still clues that pointed in different directions and kept me guessing. In addition to Felicity’s relationship with her mother, I enjoyed her friendship with Kelvin (who I predict may be a love interest in future books, but it hasn’t gone there yet). Kelvin works in a floral shop in the same cul-de-sac and he’s one of the only people who know about the Jin magic outside of the family. He’s a supportive friend and tags along for a lot of the sleuthing—ever detective needs a sidekick after all! Of course, a rabbit Felicity finds outside their bakery named Whiskers is making a strong play for sidekick after displaying the ability to help Felicity focus in on her visions…
A charming debut cozy mystery that will have you believing in magic (and craving one of those pineapple buns)!
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for my copy. Opinions are my own....more
I was excited to read the second chapter in Chef Charlie Hunter’s journey to become a notable chef from her own restaurant, the Old Forge Café in HampI was excited to read the second chapter in Chef Charlie Hunter’s journey to become a notable chef from her own restaurant, the Old Forge Café in Hampden Green. In DEATH IN NONNA’S KITCHEN, Charlie catches the eye of a celebrity chef and gets the opportunity of a lifetime! Or does she?
Chef Matteo McLeish hosts the popular cooking show, Nonna’s Kitchen. He makes the trip from London to Hampden Green to ask Charlie to do a guest stint in his kitchen. Charlie is thrilled her talent has been noticed! Only it turns out it isn’t her cooking that drew him to her, it’s her knack for solving mysteries.
Matteo shares that he is being blackmailed over some sex work his wife had done before he got famous. He doesn’t want her videos to come out for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the family brand they promote. Matteo is certain the blackmailer is one of his own team, and Charlie agrees to take a turn in his kitchen and try to catch the blackmailer.
But a stake out at an adult entertainment shop where the drop off should be puts her in the path of someone unexpected. And it’s not long before he winds up dead. It appears that whoever is blackmailing Matteo may also be a murderer! Can Charlie help catch whoever is responsible before anyone else dies?
Coombs writes with the dry humor and rough-and-tumble, quirky characters I came to love in Murder on the Menu. His books have a bit more edge than is common in cozy mysteries, but I think that is part of the charm. This series isn’t overly dark or gruesome, but his characters get into some scraps throughout the book on the quest to find the blackmailer and murderer.
There are plenty of leads to follow. I liked that there was a finite group of suspects and people that could have access. I did miss the crew at the Old Forge Café, though they make plenty of appearances during the mystery. Expect some good red herrings along the way. Coombs has some surprises up his sleeves that make this a twist-filled mystery.
Thank you to Anne at Random Things Tours for my spot on the tour! ...more
Odessa Dean left behind her job at the Crawdad Shack in the tiny town of Piney Island, Louisiana, to head to the big apple. Why is she moving to BrookOdessa Dean left behind her job at the Crawdad Shack in the tiny town of Piney Island, Louisiana, to head to the big apple. Why is she moving to Brooklyn from small town, Louisiana? Her Aunt Melanie is headed to Europe for several months and asked her to housesit (and catsit) in her Williamsburg apartment for free rent.
Odessa gets a job at Untapped Books & Café, a far cry from the local, fried seafood she was serving at the Crawdad Shack. Now she mostly serves hipsters their overpriced appetizers, craft beer, and whatever high-priced food item is trendy that week. Chef Parker Reed has a great talent and does his best to offer a range of food that is vegan, gluten-free, keto, pescatarian, and any other dietary preference you can think up.
Odessa is enjoying her job, but it’s been difficult to make friends in such a large and fast-paced city. It doesn’t help that Odessa is essentially a Brooklynaire due to her fancy, rent-free home, while most of her colleagues are struggling to afford places a fraction of the size. Odessa doesn’t have time to wallow in her own woes when her coworker Bethany asks her to take over her customers during the busiest time of the day.
Bethany is not just a waitress, she’s a youtuber who aspires to one day go viral for her artisanal soaps. Odessa happens to catch a viral video on YouTube that day. While it doesn’t feature any artisanal soaps, it does show a woman falling off the elevated pedestrian walkway in Domino Park in a recognizable neon green shirt—the uniform of Untapped Books & Café waitresses. Though the detective assures Odessa that Bethany’s death was an accident, she’s suspicious that something more nefarious happened to her colleague and sets out to prove it.
Odessa is a fun leading character—she’s sarcastic and relatable. Her coworkers are less-likable (at least at first). Her boss often asks her to do tasks that aren’t exactly in a waitressing job description, and her coworkers gossip about her behind her back (only she can hear them). A true Southern belle, Odessa continues to be nice to them despite their behavior.
And all of us non-hipsters can find some fun in the absurd and sometimes pretentious patrons and staff who would rather die than do something uncool (bad joke, given what happens to Bethany). I liked that Blacke reversed what would usually happen in a cozy mystery, where we’d see a woman leave behind New York City and move to a small town like Piney Island, Louisiana. Blacke has her heroine doing the opposite. This was such a fun change!
Odessa feels like all of her experience listening to true crime podcasts and scrolling the internet has given her all the skills she needs to help solve the mystery of what happened to Bethany. I wish the mystery had been more present in the story. There isn’t even a hint of a viable suspect or motive until about three-quarters of the way through the book.
As much as I loved Odessa, this did detract a bit from the “mystery” aspect of a cozy mystery. It did lead to a very character-driven mystery, as we learned much more about Odessa than the usual cozy lead. I also liked that she didn’t have a romance in this book—a trope that every cozy mystery peddles like their heroine can’t live a fulfilling life if she’s single.
Odessa is also funny, but she’s almost too nice sometimes (don’t get me started on the roommate situation with Izzy). That does feel authentic to a small town girl moving to NYC, but it made me doubt her credibility as a detective just a smidge.
Overall this is a fun start to a mystery series with some fresh takes on the genre. It was a bit light on the mystery for me, but an enjoyable read....more
Mackenzie - PhDiva Books
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