A Wytch's Book Review Blog

The Book of Candlelight (Secret, Book, & Scone Society #3) by Ellery Adams

As the owner of Miracle Books, Nora Pennington figures all the wet weather this spring is at least good for business. The local inns are packed with stranded travelers, and among them Nora finds both new customers and a new friend, the sixtysomething Sheldon, who starts helping out at the store.

Since a little rain never hurt anyone, Nora rides her bike over to the flea market one sodden day and buys a bowl from Danny, a Cherokee potter. It’ll make a great present for Nora’s EMT boyfriend, but the next day, a little rain turns into a lot of rain, and the Miracle River overflows it banks. Amid the wreckage of a collapsed footbridge, a body lies within the churning water.

Nora and the sheriff both doubt the ruling of accidental drowning, and Nora decides it’s time for the Secret, Book, and Scone Society to spring into action. When another body turns up, it becomes clearer that Danny’s death can’t be blamed on a natural disaster. A crucial clue may lie within the stone walls of the Inn of Mist and Roses: a diary, over a century old and spattered with candle wax, that leads Nora and her friends through a maze of intrigue—and onto the trail of a murderer . . .

Miracle Springs are having a top up in the form of rain ... lots of rain, the inns and hotels are full to overflowing (indeed one new inn has taken some people in even though they are still in the thick of renovations!) and for some businesses (Miracle Books owned by Nora Pennington being one) people are spending like there is no tomorrow, sadly for one person this turns out to be true, a local potter known as Cherokee Danny is found in the swollen river and both Nora and Gabe the Sheriff are sure this is no accident.

As well as this there is a strange man hanging around and vandalism to both a house and Miracle Books, although with the latter a new friend come employee has stepped up and used the vandalism to create a show stopping window display! Now the four friends need to put their heads together to solve a murder, the vandalism, another murder and a century old mystery, preferably before anyone else dies.

Murder Is a Must (First Edition Library Mystery #2) by Marty Wingate

Hayley Burke, curator of Lady Fowling's collection of first edition mysteries, is settling into her position at the First Edition Library in Middlebank House. She's even made progress with Lady Fowling's former secretary, the ornery Miss Woolgar. The women are busily preparing for an exhibition that will showcase Lady Fowling's life and letters. Hayley knows the exhibition is a huge undertaking and decides, against her better judgement, to hire Oona Atherton, her former boss from the Jane Austen Centre to help with the planning.

Oona is known for being difficult, but all seems to be going swimmingly until she and Hayley uncover a one-page letter that alludes to a priceless edition of MURDER MUST ADVERTISE signed by several Golden Age of Mystery authors. Oona feels this book could be the focal point of the exhibition and becomes obsessed with finding it.

When they find clues that appear to point to the book being somewhere in the First Edition Library, Oona is certain she's unraveled the mystery and texts Hayley the good news, but upon arriving back at Middlebank, Hayley finds her old boss dead at the bottom of the stairs. Did her discovery of the rare book get her killed or was it some angry shadow from her past? Hayley must read between the lines to catch a malicious murderer.

Hayley Burke is moving on with fundraising ideas for the First Edition Library, starting with a set of literary salons and she hopes to also have an exhibition showcasing the life and work of Lady Fowling,  The latter suddenly is brought into sharp focus when Hayley is allowed to take a cancellation at the best exhibition place in Bath. the problem being that the cancellation is only 3 months away! Luckily Hayley manages to get the board's agreement and also she manages to hire Oona Atherton, a rather irascible and yet brilliant exhibition manager.  The problems start over though when Oona is killed in a life imitating art method aligning with the killing in Murder Must Advertise, now Hayley needs to try and get the replacement manager to commit to a decent plan, help the police find the killer, oh and find a book signed by all the Detection Club members!

The fact that her male friend's twin (24 year old) daughters seem to be anti Hayley is the least of her worries at the moment! Can she keep sane, get the exhibition dealt with and have time to spend with Bunter the cat?

Plaid and Plagiarism (Highland Bookshop Mystery #1) by Molly MacRae

Set in the weeks before the annual Inversgail Literature Festival in Scotland, Plaid and Plagiarism begins on a morning shortly after the four women take possession of their bookshop in the Highlands. Unfortunately, the move to Inversgail hasn’t gone as smoothly as they’d planned.

First, Janet Marsh is told she’ll have to wait before moving into her new home. Then she finds out the house has been vandalized. Again. The chief suspect? Una Graham, an advice columnist for the local paper—who’s trying to make a name for herself as an investigative reporter. When Janet and her business partners go looking for clues at the house, they find a body—it’s Una, in the garden shed, with a sickle in her neck. Janet never did like that garden shed.

Who wanted Una dead? After discovering a cache of nasty letters, Janet and her friends are beginning to wonder who didn’t, including Janet’s ex-husband. Surrounded by a cast of characters with whom readers will fall in love, the new owners of Yon Bonnie Books set out to solve Una’s murder so they can get back to business.

When Janet disc0vers her husband is a cheating rat she gets a divorce and decides to have a change of career, so she decides to buy the bookshop in the town she and her family spent their holidays in, but she doesn't get it on her own.  There is her daughter Tallie (short for Natalie), Tallie's friend Summer and Janet's friend Christine, who is glad to be moving back to Inversgail as she needs to take care of her elderly parents. The sale of the shop goes smoothly and the current owners are staying to ease the four new owners in (oh and they have also bought the empty shop next door to open a tea shop and plan to open up the rooms above the shops as b&b rooms), so far so good ... only Janet and Tallie can't move into the house they own, and then they find a corpse, and things go downhill from there! Now the four on them need to put their skills together (Janet was a Librarian, Christine a social worker, Summer a newspaper reporter and Tallie a lawyer) to find out what the flip is happening and why!

The Murder of a Queen Bee (Henny Penny Farmette Mystery #2) by Meera Lester

Only hours after Abby’s free-spirited friend, Fiona Mary Ryan, owner of Ancient Wisdom Botanicals, missed their lunch date, her body is found in a burning car—a tragic accident until the coroner’s report points to murder. Driven by her loyalty to her friend, and her deeply ingrained skills as a trained investigator, Abby sorts through suspects who seem to be sprouting up everywhere. Luckily, Abby isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty to smoke out a killer . . .

Abby and her friend (and ex police partner)  Kat are sat waiting for a local businesswoman, Fiona Ryan, to come for lunch, when she doesn't arrive and doesn't respond to calls or texts they start to get worried and then Kat gets called into work to help with a death, only to discover that the dead woman is Fiona! Things just don't look right with the scene and before long it is classed as murder.  Now Abby starts to look into things as well, it could be that this takes her away from the fact that her ex boyfriend has turned back up and hopes to take back up where they left off!

Now with Fiona's brother and Fiona's husband wanting answers Abby will need to smoke out a murderer before she is smoked herself!