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Holidays & Vacation

Review

Solid Gold Murder

by Brian Kenney

My fear of woodland creatures (read “bears”) is so great I could never imagine hanging out in the California forests. Especially overnight. In a tent. But I sure do love reading about life in Foundgold, CA and Dee Stern, the proprietor and part-owner of Motel-of-the-Mountains. It’s early in the season, and Dee is developing family-friendly activities to attract new visitors. But when her socials start to blow up, and it is reported that someone found a gold nugget in Foundgold, Dee realizes that she has a problem on her hands. Or an opportunity? That problem/opportunity is none other than Sylvan Burr—a retired tech industry billionaire, under 30—who suddenly shows up with his entourage; he’s managed to bribe his way into several motel rooms. He’s so rich, how could he be seeking even more money? This all makes for a wonderful cozy. Dee, a former Hollywood sitcom writer, brings sophistication to Byron’s (A Very Woodsy Murder) story, along with plenty of humor, while tiny Foundgold, with its mash-up of crazy residents, provides plenty of entertainment. Sure to appeal to all who love cozies or traditional mysteries.

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Review

Murder on a Scottish Train

by Danise Hoover

It’s hard to believe that Dr. Emilia (Em) McRoy has been in Sea Isle, Scotland for a year. She moved from Seattle to the village to take over as doctor and, to her surprise, as the local coroner as well. In this fourth outing (previous titles include Death at a Scottish Christmas) in the series, she and her family of friends become involved in the death of a local accountant and train fancier on the opening night of a restored historic train ride. Ewan, local Laird, constable, and her sometime nemesis, has decided it’s easier to include her in the investigation than to rescue her from the scrapes she gets herself into when she goes off by herself. With suspicion of financial skullduggery, there are plenty of suspects, but no one stands out; we have anaphylaxis, cheating spouses, and estranged siblings. The charming customs and landscape enhance the story as Em continues to settle into the folklife and tempo of the village and, of course, solves the crime. The engaging characters and tightly worked plot will leave readers eager for the next installment.

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Review

Widows and Orphans

by Henrietta Thornton

Humor, up-to-the-minute political clashes, and more humor meet in this cozy-adjacent small-town mystery. Our protagonist, Canadian journalist Cat Conway, has had it with the wellness industry, especially its craven criticism of vaccines. Her series of articles on the anti-vax movement has made her a target of right-wingers, and scared advertisers could be the kiss of death for the Quill and Packet—the struggling Port Ellis newspaper Cat works for. Still, when the industry comes to town in the form of the Welcome, Goddess event, at which insufferable influencers Bree and Bliss bring their crystals, navel-gazing, and clothes in colors like oatmeal and wheat, Cat doesn’t shy from covering it. She aims to buttonhole the two about why they’re peddling harmful advice, but plans are derailed in favor of a murder investigation when one of the influencers is found dead at the bottom of a cliff. Finding out who did it brings us into the underbelly of the wellness industry, which is perfectly and hilariously lampooned here, but also invites readers into Cat’s thorny but loving relationship with her wellness-guru mother and an enjoyable will-they-won’t-they romance with her coworker Amir. While this can stand alone, readers will want to go back to series debut Bury the Lead to spend more time with this gutsy journalist.

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Review

Molten Death

by Danise Hoover

Kristen and Valerie, long a couple, are in Hawaii on vacation, partly to help Valerie come to terms with her brother’s death. They are staying with Isaac, who’s a surfer buddy of Leslie’s, a high-school science teacher, and a lifelong resident of the islands. During an early morning excursion to see the glowing lava rolling down the landscape, Valerie sees a boot in the lava and realizes that there is a leg attached. It is quickly consumed by the lava, and as she is the only witness, all doubt the truth of what she has seen. The police report goes nowhere, so Valerie takes on the task of finding the identity of both the victim and the killer herself. With the luck and determination of the amateur, and the friendly and open nature of Hawaiians, allowing for a few glitches, she succeeds. This is a Hawaii we seldom see in TV police dramas. The locals speak a pidgin dialect, the importance of which is carefully explained by Isaac, and the customs and practices date back centuries. The landscape is of course dramatic and beautiful and the descriptions of food and produce mouthwatering. There are recipes for some of the dishes at the end, and a glossary of words and phrases. This is billed as the first in a series, so expect more to come from our interesting characters.

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Review

Death at a Scottish Christmas

by Henrietta Thornton

Christmas and cozies just go together. And the setting of this particular cozy series, Sea Isle in rural Scotland, is even more perfect than most for a Christmas tale. The seaside town where American doctor Emilia McRoy has made her home celebrates in a big and inclusive way, with traditional Christian festivities rubbing elbows with celebrations like Viking Yule and the Swedish St. Lucia Day. This year, an internationally famous band with roots in the town is visiting, adding at first to the excitement and then to Emilia’s tradition of investigating killings in Sea Isle. Taking the criminal side of the investigation is the doctor’s nemesis/crush Constable Ewan McGregor. Their future possibilities are already happening in the burgeoning, and cute, relationship between Emilia’s assistant, Abigail, and Abigail’s love interest, Henry. The four have their work cut out for them as they pry into secrets in the band’s relationships while dodging the media in a town that wants to help but is naive to the dangers afoot. The great cozy setting is matched here by the lovable but flawed characters and the tricky whodunit element. Readers won’t see the ending coming and will be eager to get Connelly’s two earlier books in the series (An American in Scotland and Death at a Scottish Wedding, both published earlier this year) while they wait for this one.

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Review

A Nutcracker Nightmare

by Henrietta Thornton

Alex Wright and her sister, Hanna Eastham, co-owners of Murder and Mayhem: Killer Chocolates and Bookshop, are hard at work preparing goodies in their Montana store for the Festive Foods Chocolates Competition. It’s just their luck that at the same time as they’re hard at work preparing sweets for the local high-school reunion they’re also smack in the middle of their busiest season, the winter holidays. Still, they’re muddling through until a murder at the reunion stops the community in its tracks. A man who was unpopular in school and has increased his enemy count by being “gropey” at the reunion (Hanna suspects he has “an octopus in his bloodline”) meets his not-so-sweet end. And unbelievably, Hanna is suspected in the killing. The elements we love in a cozy are all here: tight family relationships, romantic interests with law enforcement, off-screen killings, food, and bookstores. What’s not to love? This one has rich characterization to boot and a story that will keep readers guessing till the last Strychnine Strawberry chocolate is but a gooey memory.

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Review

Christmas Presents

by Henrietta Thornton

“Everybody knows everything about you in this stupid town. And they know nothing.” What people in Madeline Martin’s rural New York town know about her is that she’s the daughter of the town’s longtime, beloved sheriff and she owns The Next Chapter, her dream bookstore. They also know, but rarely mention, that she survived a brutal attack ten years before, one that saw her friend Steph murdered and two other friends, sisters Ainsley and Sam, disappear. What they don’t know is that Maddie’s never recovered emotionally and longs to know what happened to her friends. There’s still no word on the missing teens, and it’s a few days before the anniversary of the attack, which also means Christmas is a few days off and the bookstore is humming. Superstar author Harley Granger chooses this as his moment to visit and start his research on whether the man doing time for the crime is guilty, what happened to Ainsley and Sam, and, most urgently, where a newly disappeared exotic dancer could be. All breathlessly documented on social media, of course. Fans of Unger will know her thrillers match top-notch writing with gripping stories; this one won’t disappoint in that regard and offers the bonus of a satisfying family story in Maddie and her father.

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Review

The Christmas Guest

by Brian Kenney

A brilliantly taut novella set over Christmas in 1989 England, revisited from the perspective of present-day New York. Ashley Smith is an American college student spending her junior year in London. An orphan, she has no holiday plans, until another student, Emma Chapman—they’re barely friends—invites her to her family’s manor house in the country. For an American, it’s pretty much “cozy Cotswold heaven”: a rambling home filled with cousins and friends, pine boughs and holly, smelly dogs and board games, plenty of alcohol, nightly hikes to the village pub, and absolutely no heat. Much of the narrative comes through Ashley’s diary, which is a real hoot in its Bridget Jones-ness, especially when she’s reporting on Adam, Emma’s supremely handsome brother. Except things start to get weird. A strange, little man is seen lurking on the wooded shortcut to the pub. Then Ashley learns that Adam is suspected of murdering a local girl several months before—but proof is lacking. Despite being short enough to read in one sitting, maybe with a pot of tea at the midpoint, this skillfully constructed work of crime fiction still manages to provide plenty of shock and awe.

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