by Cynthia Chow & Sarah Erwin

This week we are once again playing catchup on our summer cozy mystery reviews and giveaways-Kill or Bee Killed: A Bee Keeping Mystery, Book Two by Jennie Marts, The Stranger in the Library: A Lighthouse Library Mystery by Eva Gates, Dead Tired: An Expectant Mom Mystery by Kat Ailes, and Haunting License: A Haunted Haven Mystery by Carol J. Perry. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of all 4 books and links to purchase them from Amazon at the end of each review.

Kill or Bee Killed: A Bee Keeping Mystery, Book Two by Jennie Marts
Review by Sarah Erwin

Book Two in Jennie Marts A Bee Keeping Mystery series, Kill or Bee Killed is just as much fun as book one, Take the Honey and Run.

It’s time for the annual Bee Festival, sponsored by the Honeybuzz Ranch and Granny Bee, the grandmother of Bailey Briggs, a mystery writer. The small town of Humble Hills, Colorado is abuzz preparing for the festivities which includes a beauty pageant, beekeeping demonstrations, a local restaurant bake-off and a Bear Run where participants run in bear costumes. To film and emcee the bake-off, a California TV crew with a famous celebrity host arrives in town.

It’s not long, though, when a dead body turns up, and Bailey’s best friend Evie is the prime suspect. Bailey knows she can trust the handsome Sheriff Sawyer Dunn (her almost boyfriend), but she also can’t sit idly by while her friend is framed. Bailey also gets a little help from Granny Bee and her misfit friends.

Jennie Marts has this amazing ability to combine a solid mystery with some seriously laugh out loud moments. I guffawed several times as I read, and my kids kept asking what was so funny!

In addition to an excellent mystery that I did not figure out ahead of time, the characters are a treat in this series. Bailey and Evie are hilarious together and I just know they would be so much fun to hang out with. Bailey’s grandmother and aunts are wonderful too––loving and kind and so so funny. Bailey’s daughter is about the same age as mine and such a reader. Everything and everyone just fits together so nicely in the story, and I felt like I was visiting the Bee Festival with them.

The romance that slowly started in book one develops a bit more in book two and adds a warm element to the story. I was sorry when I finished the book because I wasn’t ready to leave Bailey and friends behind. Set during summertime, this book would be a perfect addition to a summer reading TBR list. It’s the perfect escape!

You can click here to purchase the book from Amazon.

Sarah Erwin started her career as a children’s librarian, later becoming a public library director and now she’s a stay at home mom. While her career might have changed, her love of reading has been a constant since 4th grade and she reads over 200 books a year. Read along with her on her blog Sarah Can’t Stop Reading or on Instagram. Sarah lives in St. Louis, MO with her two kids, her husband and a family dog and cat.

The Stranger in the Library: A Lighthouse Library Mystery by Eva Gates
Review by Cynthia Chow

To tie in with the arrival of a traveling 19th-century American Impressionism art exhibition to Nags Head, North Carolina, the Bodie Island Library Lighthouse will hosting its own, smaller event. Assistant library director Lucy McNeil has been assigned the duties of finding the imitation art pieces and displaying them alongside art history books. Since Lucy’s new husband Connor is the mayor of Nags Head, they have been invited to the catered party being thrown for the real exhibit, “American Expressionism: A Comprehensive Retrospective.” Mark Farrago is the chief organizer who planned the event, but he goes MIA during the party and leaves it to the very prepared sponsor Lisa McMahon to make the welcoming remarks. Mark’s absence is explained when Lucy finds his body floating in the conference center’s koi pond, dead not by a drunken fall but something that proves to be far more nefarious.

By now, the Nags Head police lead detective Sam Watson has become accustomed to Lucy’s talent for criminal investigations and her surprising ability to coax out information from suspects. And since it was his own art activist wife who first encouraged the library’s involvement, Detective Watson is rather resigned to the Bodie Lighthouse Library staff once again being in the middle of his case. Lucy’s co-worker and frenemy Louise Jane McKaughnan claims to be a descendant of one of the library art exhibit artists, but Robert O’Callaghan was a local artist more famous for his reproductions than any actual valuable paintings. That’s why when one of his imitation art pieces is stolen out of the Lighthouse the motives are confusing, and both Lucy and Louise Jane wonder if there was perhaps more to the painting than they previously thought. Louise Jane may be a little distracted though, as the arrival of the handsome and possibly shady Tom Reilly triggers her instincts to immediately fall for the wrong man. Besides learning of his apparent multiple identities, the two library workers encounter Mark’s not-so-mournful wife, a combative rejected artist, and Lisa McMahon’s disruptive daughter who delights in all of the chaos.

While a Bodie Island Lighthouse in the Outer Banks actually exists, it’s without the library and its enormous Tardis-like interior. Its uniqueness, and the tourist-attracting Nags Head setting, was enough to inspire this library-loving mystery series that follows the adventures of Lucy Richardson McNeil and her friends. Library cat Charles- named after Charles Dickens – carpools from their home to the Lighthouse Library every workday, and the library book club coincidentally tackles the Patricia Highsmith selection of Ripley Under Ground. The details of art verification, along with the nuances of art appreciation and valuation, are woven into the plot and prove to be as fascinating as the descriptions of the enviable Bodie Lighthouse Library. This 11th in the series builds up to a surprise confrontation and clock-ticking-down escape, making this a thrilling bibliophile mystery set in the coziest of library settings.

You can click here to purchase the book from Amazon.

Dead Tired: An Expectant Mom Mystery by Kat Ailes
Review by Cynthia Chow

Less than a year after the very pregnant Alice Nutall and her now-husband Joe left London for the picturesque – and supposedly safer – cozy village of Penton in Cotswold Hills, she is attempting to be one of those Instagram mothers picnicking on a field while eating organic foods with her one-year-old. That doesn’t take into account their notoriously untrainable dog Helen, who may be tripping out on mushrooms, nor the completely naked couple sauntering towards Alice and her friends. They are completely naked except for political statements painted on their bodies. Raven and Leila claim to be protesting a new wind farm, with plans to chain themselves to trees the following day. While Alice herself prefers to nosh on hamburgers and any prepared foods that might give her an extra 10 minutes of sleep, her vegetarian, activist friend Ailsa pressures the rest of their mom group into joining their protest that lacks bathrooms and snack breaks. Having already had one close call with a murderer, Alice is unable to accept that they’ve once again stepped into another criminal case when they find Leila, not doing an excellent job of medicating while chained to the tree, but instead being very dead.

While Alice would prefer to ignore the entire thing and instead focus on her son Jack’s overdue one-year-old birthday party, her friend Hen, being an employee of the wind farm company, makes that impossible. There’s also the fact that their fourth mom’s group member Poppy has been depressed, with only the thought of a new investigation seeming to pull her out of the doldrums. Ailsa’s sister being the disapproving investigating inspector should have made them a little more cautious, but instead the moms find themselves questioning the Aether wind farm CEO and discovering Leila’s deceptive past, somewhat surprising since she seemed to let everything hang out for all to see.

This second in the series is an absolute delight as it depicts Alice’s struggles to stay sane while rising a toddler. She’s sadly at this point using a vibrator not for its intended purposes, but instead to clear the ducts in her breasts. Joe is still a very supportive partner though, sharing their duties that include pausing Queer Eye to listen to her ramble about her confusing day or falling asleep with Jack while watching Baywatch reruns. So much of the humor comes from her judgy friends lamenting Alice’s tendency to fall into chaos and disorder, someone who no longer blinks at realizing that her boob is still out long after Jack has finished nursing. But what proves so rewarding is how she is always the one to ultimately put together the clues and solve the case, using the skills she once used to track down Instagram histories and Linked-in backgrounds.

Being constantly exhausted has forced Alice to prioritize the essentials, with providing sugar-free, organic, child-friendly snacks falling far beneath her investigation. Rambunctious Helen, a food-spewing baby, and some possible breaking and entering ensure that Alice’s dreams of a pastoral life will not be coming true anytime soon, and readers will be all the better for it.

You can click here to purchase the book from Amazon.

Haunting License: A Haunted Haven Mystery by Carol J. Perry
Review by Cynthia Chow

After unexpectedly inheriting the 100-year-old Haven House Inn in Haven, Florida, Maureen Doherty has been doing her best to update and make the inn prosperous. The mysterious Penelope Josephine Gray not only gifted the former Massachusetts sportswear buyer with an unexpected inn, she also gave her four live-in senior housekeepers and a ghost. The latter is something that seems to be common in the rest of Haven, as while locals deny hauntings to any social media ghost hunters, the town is literally a haven to a bounty of ghosts and spirits. Before Maureen’s first summer in Florida has even had a chance to begin she discovers a body on the beach, a possible drowning by one of the town’s most skilled fisherman. Officer Frank Hubbard is suspicious that Maureen will be conducting her own investigation, and despite her denials prods her for information not only about what she witnessed but about the new guests who have just arrived at her inn.

Dr. Kimberly Salter is an anthropologist/archaeologist interested in studying the ancient Indian mounds that are in town, and through her Maureen learns about the federal laws protecting the sites that were fascinating trash dumps for Native Americans. Dr. Salter also provides inspiration for Maureen’s resident ghost Lorna DuBois, a 1930s movie starlet who is able to copy the designer clothing she sees and wear them herself as she swans about town. While Lorna and the non-speaking ghost of the late fisherman Eddie Manuel give a few hints about the investigation, it’s really Maureen, and her chef and still-a-secret-boyfriend Ted Carr, who are the most effective in tracking down clues. Maureen is also inspired by photos she finds in the trunk of Penelope Josephine Gray to host the Eddie Manuel Memorial Fishing Tournament, after the supposed Haven First Annual Fishing Tournament ended in 2000 due to a tragic death. A visiting fish magazine photographer, an elusive magazine editor, and the daughter of the victim all provide clues as Maureen is reluctantly pulled into the murder case even as she attempts to organize a successful tourist-attracting event.

This third in the series continues to depict the scenic Haven, Florida town in such an enviable way that readers will be wanting to book their next flight for a visit. The paranormal element plays out in the background, adding atmosphere but the ghosts are never too intrusive or spooky. The suspense builds as the culprit threatens to endanger both Maureen and her event plans, and there are hints of romance as Maureen and Ted balance their work/personal relationships. A mama cat and her kittens lend an adorable element that actually becomes critical to the conclusion, delivering a satisfying ending that will have readers hungering for more.

You can click here to purchase this book.

To enter to win a copy of all 4 books, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “july 2024” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen August 3, 2024. U.S. residents only, and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via email please include your mailing address in case you win. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Also listen to our new mystery podcast where mystery short stories and first chapters are read by actors! They are also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify.

Cynthia Chow is the branch manager of Kaneohe Public Library on the island of Oahu. She balances a librarian lifestyle of cardigans and hair buns with a passion for motorcycle riding and regrettable tattoos (sorry, Mom).

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.