Book Review: Caught Dead Handed By: Carol J. Perry

 "She's not a psychic, she just plays one on TV."


Most folks associate the city of Salem, Massachusetts with witches, but for Lee Barrett, it's home. This October she's returned to her hometown where her beloved Aunt Ibby still lives, to interview for a job as a reporter at WICH-TV. But the only opening is for a call-in psychic to host the late night horror movies. It seems the previous host, Ariel Constellation, never saw her own murder coming. 


Lee reluctantly takes the job, but when she starts seeing real events in the obsidian ball she's using as a prop, she wonders if she might really have psychic abilities. To make things even spookier, it's starting to look like Ariel may  have been an actual practicing witch, especially when O'Ryan, the cat Lee and Aunt Ibby inherited from her, exhibits some strange powers of his own. With Halloween fast approaching, Lee must focus on unmasking a killer or her career as a psychic may be very short lived...

This book was amazing!!! Seriously, for a first in a new series; I was completely blown away!!!
The characters are great, the story is fast paced and has you running for the end to see if what you think might be true! There are so many twists to this story that you will be surprised at the end of every chapter!!! There was a point for me, in the middle of the book where I even put the book down to say; "Shut up, no way... OMG I did not see that coming!" -- true story!!! There hasn't been many books that have made me do that. It's a fantastic read and I can't wait to read Carol J. Perry's next book in this fabulous series!

Lee Barret aka Crystal Moon WICH-TV's fake... or maybe not so fake after all late night psychic will have you thinking you might just be psychic yourself! This first in a series is an amazing, gripping and thrilling Halloween roller-coaster ride through modern day Salem where sometimes the past isn't always dead after all...If you love Mysteries and are wanting a spooky read for Halloween I defiantly recommend this book, it will keep you in suspense and shock throughout it's chapters! 

Book Review: Well Read, Then Dead By: Terrie Farley Moran

 Nestled in the barrier islands of Florida's Gulf Coast, Fort Myers Beach is home to Mary "Sassy" Cabot and Bridget Mayfield, owners of the bookstore cafe, Read' Em and Eat. But when they're not dishing about books or serving up scones, Sassy and Bridget are keeping tabs on murder. 

Read' Em and Eat is known for it's delicious treats and colorful clientele. There's Miss Augusta Maddox, who enjoys lecturing tourists on the rumors of sunken treasure among the islands, and her cousin Delia Batson, a regular at the Emily Dickinson table who is painfully shy... which makes the news of her murder all the more shocking. 

No one is more distraught than Augusta. She wants Delia's killer found and she's not taking no for an answer. Now Sassy is on the case, and she'd better act fast before there's any more trouble in paradise. 

I was really excited to actually read a cozy mystery about my "hometown" of Ft. Myers, Florida. The book is very well written and has a great story line. I like a lot of the characters and reading it really did make me a bit homesick. However, in the beginning I felt a little overwhelmed with the amount of characters that were thrown at you in the first few chapters. I had a hard time keeping people straight and where they fell into the story. Once I got past those chapters though it was pretty easy to follow along. The only other thing I wished the book had was a slow build to the big reveal in the end. There were really no clues on who actually did it and I still had no suspicions even about a third of the way through the book. However, it does get really exciting at the end and you will never realize who really is the one to almost get away with murder. Overall I did like the book and I will be happy to continue the series. 

Book Review: A Spoonful of Murder by: Connie Archer

 Winter is big business in small town Snowflake, Vermont. Tourists arrive to hit the ski slopes and what could be more satisfying after a chilly day of carving powder than a steaming bowl of soup?

When Lucky Jamieson inherits her parents soup shop. By the Spoonful, she realizes it's time to take stock of her life. Should she sell her parents house or move in herself? Does she really want to run a restaurant business? And what about her grandfather Jack, who seems to be showing signs of Alzheimer's? 

But her life decisions are moved to the back burner after an icy blonde tourist is found frozen to death behind the soup shop. And Lucky is bowled over when her soup chef, Sage DuBois, is led out of the kitchen by the police. As suspicion and speculations snowball, Lucky decides that the only way to save her employee and her business is to find out herself who iced the tourist and landed her chef in the soup...

 A charming little mystery and not bad for a first edition. I loved reading about the charming town of Snowflake, it really had me wanting to visit Vermont (although maybe in the summer time instead lol!). I also quickly fell in love with the the "By the Spoonful Soup Shop" and the cast of great characters surrounding the story. The book was a little slow in the beginning but I think that might be because it's a new series and the author took time to introduce you to the characters, but once the story got going... it had my full attention and it was hard to put it down!  Unlike a lot of other first in a series mysteries I've ready, this one really had me guessing who did it all the way to the end and what a terrific twist! I would have never had guessed! All in all it was a nice cozy and I am looking forward to reading Connie Archers second book in this series; "Broth of Betrayal".

Book Review: Murder Buys a T-Shirt by Christy Fifield

Glory Martine has inherited her great uncles souvenir shop, Southern Treasures along with a super size headache. Nestled in Keyhole Bay, Florida, the shop is stuffed not only with collectibles and mementos of times gone by, but with a ghost who, like her customers, refuses to let go of the past... Glory always dismisses ghost stories-until she inherits her great uncle Louis's souvenir shop, where items seem to rearrange themselves and her pet parrot, Bluebeard, is suddenly uttering phrases he couldn't have picked up from the customers. If Glory told anyone her shop was haunted, they'd think the fresh sea air had gone to her head...

Then, at an end of the summer party, local football hero Kevin Stanley dies, and the story starts to go haywire. Glory finally shares her secret with her best friend, who takes it seriously and is convinced the ghost is trying to send a message. Kevin's death was no accident, ant it's linked to Glory's very own great uncle Louis. Now Glory must dig through the junk to find the truth, before someone leaves her with a deadly souvenir of her own...

It was a pretty good read for a first in a brand new series. I was excited to read it when I first started and it did have a good storyline, but in the end it kinda fell flat a little for me. I was happy in the end that Glory's new beau has joined her circle of friends and I'll be hopeful to read more about their prospective relationship in the next book. However I felt the actual climax of solving the mystery at the end was predicable and a little too short. I had a feeling the killer was exactly who I thought it was the whole time, it just seemed the obvious choice, given the clues about half way through the book.

I've come across first time books in a new series and then waved them off before and then I find the second and third books are much better, so I'm not going to be counting out Christy Fifield just yet! I do love the characters, the sleepy tourist town of Keyhole Bay is really quite charming and of course who could not love that crazy old parrot bluebeard!