Month: November 2024

You Feta Watch Out

It doesn’t get much cozier than Linda Reilly’s You Feta Watch Out, the fifth installment of her Grilled Cheese Mystery series.

Carly Hale, proprietor of Carly’s Grilled Cheese Eatery and amateur sleuth has front row seats in the Flinthead Opera House, to watch her best friend Gina’s dress rehearsal of A Christmas Carol. However, before the day is done, Dickens’ beloved work has a fourth ghost or rather the actor, who had been playing Marley, was found dead with Scrooge’s boss’ chains around his neck and Carly’s bestie is a prime suspect.

With the help of a local journalist, the winking knowledge of the local police chief and a cast of characters as rich as her cheeses, Carly is committed to finding the real killer, proving Gina’s innocence – not an easy task, even a dangerous one when questioning actors, not knowing if they are telling the truth or plying their trade.

There will be no pouting if you read You Feta Watch Out and I highly recommend it for cozy mystery fans looking for a festive read. I received this advanced reader copy from Beyond the Book Publishing, courtesy of NetGalley. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

*If you enjoy holiday mysteries as much as I do, be sure to check out the Second Annual More Mystery Please Santa Advent calendar, beginning December 1 as I share my new holiday favorite reads, giveaways and more.

Juniper Blume is back

What’s not to love in Daphne Silver’s The Tell-Tale Homicide? A rare books librarian/amateur sleuth, who loves to dress in vintage chic, a murder that could be somehow connected to Edgar Allan Poe, not to mention she drives a blue roadster just like my favorite girl detective.

The follow-up to Silver’s Agatha Award-winning Crime and Parchment, this second installment in the Rare Books Mystery series finds Juniper Blume back in Rose Mallow on the first day of her dream job at the Calverton Foundation, overseeing the town’s much disliked founding family’s private collection for a new museum.

Having left her post at the Library of Congress, it isn’t long before Juniper begins to question her move that she hoped would also bring her even closer with her sister, Azalea, who owns a local inn, as well as Leo Calverton, grandson to the historic family matriarch.

After discovering the body of a man clutching a rare copy of Poe, stolen from the Calverton collection, Juniper is certain the book has something to do with his death and can’t help but set out to find the murderer, even if it puts herself in jeopardy.

Silver brings readers a can’t-put-it-down mystery, with the perfect seasoning of romance, an interesting array of suspects that will keep you guessing and a rich cast of characters that makes it hard to wait for the next addition to the Rare Book Mystery Series.

I highly recommend The Tell-Tale Homicide for Poe-natics and cozy mystery fans alike. I received this advanced reader copy courtesy of the author. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

Coastal Christmas cozy

If you’re looking for a coastal Christmas cozy, look no further than Amelia Pine’s Killer Fruitcake.
In the second installment of her Sea Glass Beach mysteries, you’ll find surfing pups dressed in festive costumes, fruitcake, and of course, murder.

Milliner Paige Andrews and her friends in the Beachside Dining Club work to prove the innocence of the mother of a club member accused of killing her brother – the Avocado King, while keeping on the good side of the police chief/Paige’s mother’s boyfriend.

It’s a cute cozy with interesting characters, plenty of suspects and a few red herrings. You’ll also find a little romance in the air to go along with the holiday spirit, not to mention the spirit in Paige’s soon-to-open hat shop.

I recommend Killer Fruitcake for fans of beach cozy mysteries with a little romance. I received this advanced reader copy courtesy of the author. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

*If you enjoy holiday mysteries as much as I do, be sure to check out the Second Annual More Mystery Please Santa Advent calendar, beginning December 1 as I share my new holiday favorite reads, giveaways and more.

Can’t-put-it down holiday whodunit


Leave it to an author with a name like Noelle Albright to pen a can’t-put-it down holiday whodunit with just the right amount of lightness and dark, humor and suspense, colorful characters, red herrings and a ghost in The Christmas Eve Murders.

I read it in one sitting and absolutely loved it!

Picture the bucolic glacier valleys of the Yorkshire Dales on Christmas Eve. Then imagine breaking down there in a snowstorm en route to Edinburgh to spend the holidays with the family. You realize you don’t have a cell signal when a strange man knocks on your window. That’s how journalist Maddie Marlow finds herself spending Christmas Eve with the locals at the Merry Monarch, just in time for the annual scavenger hunt.

Despite not knowing anyone, for Maddie, choosing teams for the evening’s festivities was easy. Choosing allegiances after a murder takes place in the snowbound pub is a whole other story. Who can she trust?

I highly recommend The Christmas Eve Murders to readers who enjoy humor and suspense in equal measures. I received this advanced reader copy from Quercus, courtesy of NetGalley. Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Order online or buy now at your favorite independent bookstore. Mine is Sellers Books and Art in Jim Thorpe, PA.

Review by Di Prokop, More Mystery Please

*If you enjoy holiday mysteries as much as I do, be sure to check out the Second Annual More Mystery Please Santa Advent calendar, beginning December 1 as I share my new holiday favorite reads, giveaways and more.

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