Murder on Astor Place by Victoria Thompson

I'm so enthusiastic about this new series! Victoria Thompson has written a Gaslight series. the books take place in the 1890's in NYC. The main character is Sarah Decker Brandt, widow of a doctor and herself a midwife. She is from one of the 400--the NYC old money high society list of VIP families, but she's estranged from them and living on her own.

A young woman who lives in the boarding house where Sarah delivered her most recent baby is murdered and it turns out Sarah knows her from her former high society life. This leads Sarah to assist police detective Frank Malloy in unraveling the mystery of why a wealthy young woman from a good family is dead in a seedy boarding house.

The book was fast-paced and full of twists and turns. It was not light hearted--it was pretty dark and full of commentary on the social strata in that era of history in New York. Some of the dialogue was a bit heavy handed and cheesy but over all, the book was interesting and totally held my interest. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this series.

Keepsake Crimes by Laura Childs

I've read nearly every book in Laura Childs' Tea Shop Mysteries series so I was interested to try her other series about scrapbooking. Normally I am not a scrapbooker, but I like books about shop owners, and their regulars and that type of thing, so I was sure I'd enjoy more of Laura Childs' writing.

I wasn't too disappointed. The Tea Shop books take place in Charleston, SC and there is a lot of that city and its high society lifestyle outlined in each book. The Scrapbooking series takes place in another great Southern city, New Orleans. The heroine is Carmela, a woman who is currently separated from her husband who is part of one of the city's "old money" families. Her husband, Shamus, has left her and his position at the family bank to find himself and live in the bayou taking photographs of nature. Carmela isn't happy about this, but she musters on, running her scrapbooking shop.

The mystery emerges during one of the Mardi Gras parades, when a notable member of the Pluvius krewe dies on one of the floats. He was poisoned, and the cops are interested in Shamus as a suspect. Even though she's annoyed at him for dumping her for his camera, Carmela is not ready to believe Shamus is a murderer, so she starts digging into the murder to clear his name.

The relationship between Shamus and Carmela isn't resolved, although it is clear that he still cares about her and she loves him. I hope that the author doesn't drag this out forever in the series!

Overall, the mystery was kind of silly, I guessed the murder motive in the first chapter after the guy was killed, but I liked the details about the city and the colorful New Orleans characters in the book.

A Catered Murder by Isis Crawford

Thus begins the reading of another new series about food and murder. This is about two sister, Libby and Bernie. Libby's a plump, down to earth soul who runs a shop "Little Taste of Heaven" and does catering in New Jersey. Bernie is her flashy sister who lands back in town after a bad break up with her LA boyfriend. Bernie is good with food, too, having jobs on her resume like food stylist, restaurant critic, and other related employment.

Bernie seems to be back in NJ for an extended stay, so she dives in, helping Libby with the shop and catering.

The sisters cater a high school reunion dinner honoring a local author who has a cult following for his romantic vampire novels. When the author is poisoned at the dinner, Libby is first a suspect, then her best friend. Libby and Bernie's father, Sean, is a retired cop and he guides the girls in some tips at solving the crime and clearing the names of the innocent.

Sean has some kind of disease, it isn't described by name, but he's in a wheel chair and it sounds like Parkinson's/Lou Gehrig's or something like that.

I loved the book. It's funny and extremely fast to read. There were about 9 recipes from the Vampire reunion dinner and lots of other good foodie moments. The mystery solving was fun as a team effort, too. Libby and Bernie worked together and separately, adding a dimension to the mystery formula that I liked. Also the "let's go talk to Dad" parts, where Sean dispensed advice and insight to his daughters was very like able, too. I'm definitely hooked on Isis Crawford's series and am looking forward to more of the sisters' sleuthing!

Next on deck: the first in a new series by the author of the Tea Shop Mysteries.

The Chocolate Bridal Bash by Joanna Carl

The Chocoholic Mysteries series is one I began reading right after my son was born, so over 2 years on this very cute series.

It is about a woman, Lee McKinney who lives in a resort town on Lake Michigan and works as an accountant for her aunt's Chocolade, or chocolate shop. There her aunt uses classic Dutch techniques to create wonderful chocolates for customers and mail order clients.

In past books, Lee began a relationship with a man in town and in this book, she's about to marry him. But her mother is being oddly reluctant to return to the small resort town, even though it is her only daughter's wedding.

It turns out that when Lee's mother was just out of high school she ran away from town on what should have been her wedding day, never to return. The groom in question was found dead of an apparent suicide that same time and Lee's mom never looked back.

Clues indicate that her mother's groom wasn't a suicide at all, leading Lee and her fiance to hunt down the truth so that her mother can feel comfortable in Warner Pier and their wedding can be a happy occasion.

I like three main things about this volume in the Chocolate series.

a) Lee got married. I like it when books continue on in chronological time in a reasonable way--I don't like it when romances in these books are all Nancy Drew/Ned Nickerson--nobody ages, and nobody commits. I don't even care that much if couples break up and get back together a few times before living happily ever after, but just don't have stagnant beaus that don't go anywhere.

b) the focus of the mystery didn't have anything to do with the actual wedding. I love a good "closed set" mystery or small town mystery where the hero or heroine stumbles upon a dead body and solves the crime. But I would find it very upsetting and incredibly unbelievable if there were murder involving Lee's wedding and she was able to put aside grief or stress and solve a crime and blissfully marry on the last page of the book. Good on Joanna Carl for coming up with a wedding related mystery without compromising the main character's happiness.

c) the book takes place in spring and there was a chocolate mold used by the chocolatiers that I loved the description of--bunnies playing jazz instruments! How cute would that be to put in an Easter Basket?

Next on the list: another new series w/recipes I've never dipped into before!

A Farewell to Yarns by Jill Churchill

This Jane Jeffry series is new to me. A friend recommended this one to me, or it was on one of those "if you like _ you'll like _" lists. Either way, I was pleased to add a new author to my rotation. Jill Churchill has two series, and this is my first Jill C. book to read.

A Farewell to Yarns is the second in the Jane Jeffry series, our library didn't have the first one. Jane is a widowed single mother of 3. In this book, she is working on a church bazaar Christmas sale with her friend and carpooling and other domestic things.

Her friend Phyllis who Jane hasn't seen in almost 20 years appears in town for a visit, her long-lost son Bobby in tow. Phyllis is found murdered shortly after, and Jane helps her cop friend Mel solve the murder.

The book was super short and cute. I liked it. I loved the realistic nature--Jane's a normal woman. She loves her kids, hates to do housework, is active in her church, but also lets the occasional cuss word fly. Totally like able, not a "Mary Sue" who is perfect and therefore pretty annoying.

I am very much a new Jane Jeffry fan and am looking forward to reading more books about her. She's got a crush on Mel, and I think Mel returns the favor. That did remind me a bit of Goldy Bear and her cop husband Tom, but that's OK, it's a natural segue way for an amateur sleuth character to have contact with mysteries if they're not with a cop or lawyer or something.

Next on deck, another episode in the Chocoholic series by Joanna Carl!

Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy

Maeve B. has been one of my favorite authors for almost 20 years. My mom discovered her when I was in jr. high or h.s. and she read aloud on a family road trip Binchy's book Firefly Summer. After I went and got the book myself and read it, and then every other Binchy in the library. I remember when Oprah's book club picked Binchy's book, Tara Road, I was so annoyed because suddenly my sweet Irish novelist was an OPRAH LADY.

But I digress...

I normally like straight novels mostly but I will devour any short story collection written by Binchy. She has a knack for making great story collections that surround one common theme. They're almost novels, but just with break away episodes. This one, Whitethorn Woods is about a little town in modern-day Ireland where there's a St. Ann shrine and wishing well in some woods outside the town. The local priest Father Flynn doesn't really believe in the shrine's 'powers' and it kind of annoys him that the people go so willingly to the wishing well to ask St. Ann for things but they don't go to church on Sunday. But he visits the shrine at the beginning of the book and prays to hear the needs of the people there.

Thus we get this fantastic story where we hear the stories of different people who either visited the well themselves or someone in their family did. The cool thing is, the stories are little couplets--two POV's of the same situation. Then on to the next. Of course there are still mentions of the town and the priest and other little connections from one story to the next as well. What you end up with is an interwoven tale of people's deepest secrets and hopes--many being answered. There are a couple darker stories, but 85% or more of them are happy endings or "it all worked out" type of scenarios.

This book was a sheer pleasure to read, and I'm so happy Maeve Binchy is still writing her books and bringing such rich people to life on her pages.

Shoots to Kill by Kate Collins

This is the 7th or 8th book in the series about Abby, a young law school drop out who runs a flower shop. She is dating a handsome guy who owns a restaurant and is a PI on the side. She has helped solve several murders in town.

Sometimes the Flower Shop books are lame, some are good. This one was in the middle. The plot of this one is how a young woman, Libby, returns home to Abby's town after being away at college. Abby once babysat for Libby, and Libby's a little....off.

Libby comes to town and basically tries to mimic Abby's life, she dyes her hair and copies Abby's haircut. She opens a shop with a very similar name and same decorative scheme across the street from Abby's, and even buys a matching car. Abby is livid and says Libby's up to no good, but of course, nobody, not even Marco the boyfriend, believes Abby's warnings.

Due to the whole "Single White Female" scenario, I found the first 80 pages of this book stressful. I didn't like it that Marco and Abby were fighting and nobody believed Abby about Libby. But once Abby is falsely arrested for the murder of Libby's mother, well, then everybody turned around and then they got down to business finding the mother's real killer and the book vastly improved.

When I read the first couple of these Flower Shop books, I was a little bored but now I enjoy seeing what Abby's up to, I like the two women characters who work in Abby's flower store with her, and there is a funny side plot about how Abby's mother makes odd art and craft projects and enthusiastically tries to get Abby to display and sell them in her shop.

I would like it if Abby and Marco's romance would move forward in some way, though. I don't care if they get engaged, married, move in together, have triplets, or a love triangle starts with a new guy, but it is getting boring with the current status.

Next Up: a book by one of my favorite non-mystery authors! I am insanely busy with VBS at church every night this week, plus staying up late with Mr. Bookworm on his work nights means that my reading time has been vastly reduced lately, but next week I hope to resume a more normal speed.

re: The questions

I actually googled "handle bar mustache detective with siamese cats" and found out that the series is Lillian Jackson Braun's "The Cat Who..." series.

The other books are by Jeanne M. Dams. The lead character is Hilda Swenson, a scandanavian maid in the 20's in South Bend, Indiana. Ms. Dams also has a series about a retired schoolteacher who moved to England.

Happily, our library carries all three of these series, so they're all on my list now!

Question for my Readers

There are two mystery series that I cannot for the life of me remember the titles/authors for--so i'm hoping maybe somebody here has read them and can give me a hand??

1. I read 1 of these--it was about a "below stairs" maid at the turn of the 19th-to-20th Century era. She would solve mysteries on her days off or something. They were quirky and short and I'm trying to find them again.

2. The other series was about a guy with a handlebar mustache and siamese cats. He lived in a lake resort town in the Great Lakes and had inherited a lot of money and so he lived in the chi-chi lake town and solved crimes. His cats "helped" by giving him ideas or signs like walking across newspapers, things like that.

If any of you know these books, let me know!! I'll be looking in other sources as well, so I'll post if I can find them!