A California Online Magazine with Local Focus and Global Appeal
It’s been a scorching, waterless, and fiery summer here on the West Coast. The rest of the country is dealing with heat, floods, hurricanes, and tornados. Covid is making a deadly comeback. This is when a good book is necessary for sanity. Stay well and hydrated!
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Here are some reads to take with you. Don’t forget sunscreen!
It’s the 4th of July in Salem, Massachusetts. There’s to be a play about the historical town, and Charlene Morris is there to film, along with her housemate, Jack—a handsome ghost who shares the Victorian bed-and-breakfast with her and her Persian cat. When the star (who might be a witch) is killed by what was supposed to be prop gun, Charlene finds plenty of suspects.
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After running away from a marriage proposal and fleeing to the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Lucy Richardson finally found her dream as the Assistant Director for the Bodie Island Lighthouse Library. Lucy even met her soulmate and is now engaged to the town’s mayor/dentist Connor McNeil. While they have not yet set an exact date or made any wedding plans, their friends and family are enthusiastically throwing them the perfect engagement party on Coquina Beach. Definitely not on the invitation list but arriving late anyway are Richard Lewiston the Third, his mother Evangeline, and her very barky bichon frise Fluffy.
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Despite her declarations that she is not a Consulting detective, Gemma Doyle has proven to be remarkably successful at it. That shouldn’t be too surprising, as Gemma and her great-uncle own the Sherlock Holmes Bookstore and Emporium in West London, Massachusetts, with that same uncle adamant that they are descendants Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. It takes considerable will for Gemma to resist the plea by adorable young Lauren Tierney to find her lost kitten, but Gemma proves unable to turn off the astounding observational skills that lead her directly to the appropriately named white kitty Snowball.
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It’s always good to start a series with the first book, so this month I’m announcing four new ones by authors you might recognize. Enjoy!
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This week we have a group of Christmas mysteries for holiday reading-Dying in a Winter Wonderland: A Year-Round Christmas Mystery by Vicki Delany, The Gift of the Magpie: A Meg Langslow Mystery by Donna Andrews, Mistletoe, Moussaka, and Murder: A Kebab Kitchen Mystery by Tina Kashian, and Mrs. Morris and the Ghost of Christmas Past: A Salem B&B Mystery by Traci Wilton.
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Here is the latest installment of our new column, Top 5 Mysteries I Have Read During the Pandemic, this one from mystery author Marilyn Levinson (Allison Brook). As we continue to spend most of our time at home, we are all looking for book suggestions so we asked mystery authors and reviewers to share the top 5 mysteries they have read during this pandemic.
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Pastry chef Lily Roberts always dreamed of opening her own traditional teashop. The opportunity to help her British grandmother Rose run her own Bed and Breakfast – not to mention Lily’s boyfriend chef coming at her with a chef’s knife – spurred Lily into finally opening Tea By the Sea in Cape Cod’s Outer Cape. Rose seems to view Lily as both her favorite relative and a lowly servant, but Lily adores being able to experiment with innovative teas and traditional British pastries. It also allows her to share a tearoom experience with her best friend Bernadette Murphy, who similarly left her corporate life in Manhattan to pursue her own dream as being a writer.
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This week we have a group of mysteries set in the world of books-3 bookstores and a library-Bound for Murder: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery by Victoria Gilbert, Verse and Vengeance: A Magical Bookshop Mystery by Amanda Flower, Bookmarked for Murder: Mystery Bookshop series by VM Burns, and There’s a Murder Afoot: A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery by Vicki Delany.
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In their goal of being officially designated as “America’s Christmas Town,” the town of Rudolph, New York, celebrates the holiday throughout the year with its main street shops on Jingle Bell Lane specializing in Yuletide wares. This week before Thanksgiving marks the beginning of when business truly heats up, and Mrs. Claus’s Treasures owner Merry Wilkinson is preparing to focus entirely on work for the next six weeks.
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After an exhausting day manning her uncle’s Cape Cod Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, Gemma Doyle – well, her Cocker Spaniel Violet, to be exact – spots West London’s Scarlet House lit up in flames. As half owner of the adjacent Mrs. Hudson’s Tearoom, Gemma soon finds herself enlisted in helping to host an emergency auction in order to raise funds to repair the historical museum, as well as donating a copy of The Valley of Fear for the cause.
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This week we have reviews of 5 fun pet related mysteries-Claws for Concern: A Cat in the Stacks series by Miranda James, The Fast and the Furriest: A Second Chance Cat Mystery by Sofie Ryan, Death by a Whisker: A Cat Rescue Mystery by T.C. LoTempi, The Cat of the Baskervilles: A Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery by Vicki Delany, and Unbridled Murder: A Carson Stables Mystery by Leigh Hearon.
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Four new series are coming your way, and some of your favorite authors are back with their latest offerings. Plenty here to satisfy any cozy sweet tooth. And if you’re dieting, lots of feline mysteries as well.
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This week we have 5 more Christmas mysteries for your holiday reading-Hark the Herald Angels Slay: A Year-Round Christmas Mystery by Vicki Delany, Not a Creature was Purring: A Paws & Claws Mystery by Krista Davis, Slay Bells Ring: Caprice De Luca Home Staging Mystery by Karen Rose Smith, Yuletide Homicide>/em>: A Wiccan Wheel Mystery by Jennifer David Hesse, and The Ghost of Christmas Past: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen.
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Meet little dolly Molly, she is a kitty who has a quiet elegance, a big heart, and an undemanding personality. She is independent, sits back to observe before exploring. Such a down-to-earth attitude is probably the result of being the single sister with three lively brothers who all have easy, undemanding natures, but love playtime and each other. Like them, this pretty sweetheart does love to leap and swing at toys on a wand, is especially fond of chicken, and can’t resist a tasty kitty treat! She has also gotten along with bigger cats and small dogs. A beautiful, silky black and white ensemble has her always looking dressed for success. What a devoted and adorable addition lovely Molly will be in a home where she will be given time to adjust to a new situation. How about your home sweet home? Molly is very shy and will need a lot of time to adjust to a new home, she is a little hissy with lots of attitude she would be a great friend for a current kitty and not much of a person cat. She loves other cats. Molly is available for adoption at their Blackstone Ave Petco Adoption Center, from Cat House on the Kings.