A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
For a librarian there is nothing more satisfying than making a patron happy, be it by providing the right answer or by finding the perfect book. Unfortunately, that professional delight of providing public service is too often misinterpreted as personal interest, leading to dodgy situations that cross boundaries.
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Hedgewitch Katie Lightfoot’s wedding to Declan McCarthy is fast approaching, but unless the renovations on her Savannah home manage to overcome an increasing number of delays and snafus, it is very possible that her reception guests will be using the on-site porta potties. It’s why Katie is so looking forward to a visit from her father Skylar Lightfoot, who is not only a practicing Shaman but has a surfeit of home construction experience. As it turns out, his shamanic skills are needed first when local philanthropist Kensington Bosworth is murdered.
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Once the Psychic to the Stars with a celebrity client base built over thirty years, Misty Dawn’s business has diminished from its lofty status as a consultant to both the FBI and the First Lady. Relying on one of her most frequent customers Darlene Thorne, Misty takes up the realtor’s offer to housesit her late brother’s Southern California home until it can be sold.
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Considering the number of extended family members around her, it would be difficult at first to realize that Meg Langslow is not actually still in her hometown of Caerphilly, Virginia. That’s because now that Meg’s famous grandfather, television naturalist Dr. J. Montgomery Blake, has decided to start giving lectures on environmental and educational cruise line ships, he also ensures that he will be accompanied by his many family members and much-abused entourage.
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For the Asian Night Market being held in Northeast Ohio’s Asia Village, Lana Lee is helping out at a booth serving some of her family’s Ho-Lee Noodle House specialties. The event is the first of what are to be weekly summer festivities promoting Asia Village businesses and attracting new tourists.
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Here is another fun group of mysteries for your end of summer reading-Let’s Fake a Deal: Sarah Winston Garage Sale Mystery by Sherry Harris, Killer in the Carriage House: Victorian Village Mystery by Sheila Connolly, Knot on Her Life: A Quilting Mystery by Mary Marks, and Needled to Death: A Helping Hands Mystery by Annelise Ryan. Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win a copy of all 4 books, along with links you can use to purchase them. If you have ad blocker on you won’t see the Amazon links at the end of each review.
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Lara Caphart was about to see her dream come true. The High Cliff Shelter for cats was opening an official reading room, where shy children can sit and read to one of the resident shelter cats. Lara’s joy is cut short by the unexpected arrival of Evonda Fray, the new Whisker Job, New Hampshire health inspector. Declaring that the tea and cookies Lara and her Aunt Fran serve are made in an unlicensed cat café, Evonda seems to revel in her promise to shut them down before their first official “Read to a Cat” day grand opening.
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It was a trifecta of calamities that led to Kate McGuire completely upending her life and starting over in Coral Cay, Florida. In one day her New York City apartment went condo, the owner of the restaurant where she worked as a pastry chef closed due to embezzlement, and she cancelled her wedding due to her cheating fiancé.
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Witch Lily Ivory may have grown adept at wielding spells and charms, but she’s never before manifested a nightmare to the point that she wakes up covered in sea water. The new experience is not one she welcomes, especially since she’s finally planning her wedding to the mysterious Rom gypsy Sailor. Not only is Lily in the midst of scheduling a honeymoon that will include tracking down the gargoyle mother of her shape-shifting familiar Oscar, Lily’s mother and grandmother’s coven are in San Francisco to sight-see and prepare for the ceremony.
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This week we have a pair of mysteries with some unique professions that I don’t recall seeing in mysteries before (though I could be wrong)-we have a “Professional Busybody” in Jane Darrowfield, Professional Busybody by Barbara Ross, and the owner of a cookbook publishing company in Risky Biscuits: A Sugar & Spice Mystery by Mary Lee Ashford.
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What kind of mom voluntarily gives up her daughter? The complicated answer to that question is a secret Aubrey Finch has held since her divorce, when she allowed her husband Paul to assume primary custody of their daughter Charlotte. Aubrey feels the judgment of the other mothers at the park, those mysterious women who always seem to fit in and know how to raise a family.
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This week we have a trio of food mysteries for your summer fun-Sweet Tea and Secrets: A Tea and A Read Mystery by Joy Avon, Southern Sass and Killer Cravings: A Marygene Brown series by Kate Young, and Strangled Eggs and Ham: A Country Store Mystery by Maddie Day.
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Having a python wrapped around her neck is not an entirely unusual experience for Belinda Blake. It wasn’t what she planned on wearing for a first-time meeting with her landlord Stone Carrington the fifth, but as a Manhattan exotic pet-sitter she’s learned to expect the unexpected. Belinda is attempting to build up a clientele closer to her new home in Greenwich, Connecticut, but unfortunately the carriage house is looking far less appealing after the discovery of a body in the backyard flowerbed.
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So many mystery novels are coming out all the time it is impossible to keep up! So once again we find ourselves playing catch up with a wonderful group of new and fairly new mysteries-Down in Flames: A Webb’s Glass Shop Mystery by Cheryl Hollon, Guilty as Charred: A Cook-Off Mystery by Devon Delaney, Left Fur Dead: A Jules & Bun Mystery by J. M. Griffin, Seeing Red: A Red Herring Mystery by Dana Dratch, and Murder’s No Votive Confidence: A Nantucket Candle Maker Mystery by Christin Brecher.
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