Tag: Cozy Mystery

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Review: Silent in the Grace (Lady Julia Grey #1) by Deanna Raybourn

by The Lit Bitch7 Comments on Review: Silent in the Grace (Lady Julia Grey #1) by Deanna Raybourn

Lady Julia’s husband has literally just dropped dead in the middle of her dinner party.

After being in failing health for most of their marriage, Lady Julia knows he isn’t long for this world but she is shocked when the impertinent Nicolas Brisbane suggests that it might have been foul play.

Brisbane is a private investigator who was hired by Lady Julia’s husband because he believed someone wanted him dead. Brisbane plans on continuing the investigation if Lady Julia would like….but she is reluctant to believe him and dismisses him after the funeral.

A year later, a chance discovery changes her mind and she reaches out to Brisbane for help in solving the crime. Reluctantly he agrees and they begin and unconventional investigation which takes then into a number of alternative lifestyles to try and flush out the murderer.

But somewhere in between their investigating and power struggling, a flicker of attraction sparks between the two and Lady Julie begins to wonder if there could be more to their relationship than just a dead body or two.

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Review: The Case of the Fickle Mermaid (A Brothers Grimm Mystery #3) by P.J. Brackston

by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment on Review: The Case of the Fickle Mermaid (A Brothers Grimm Mystery #3) by P.J. Brackston

This is a very quirky mystery series. I read the second book in the series last year and while it was quirky it was also pretty enjoyable. PJ Brackston is short for Paula Brackston who most famously writes what I call ‘the witch books‘.

I’m a huge fan of her witch books and her writing style, so when this series came across my nightstand for review  I agreed even though I started with the second book. I enjoyed the whole ‘Gretel as a sleuth’ idea and when I read the book I found lots of things to love about the series.

I love the whole fairy tale and murder mystery idea that the series is based on. Even though I started with the second book in the series I was able to connect to the characters for the most part and follow along with the back story without any real struggle. So when this third book came out I gladly decided to read it!

Gretel is now all grown up and working as a private investigator in 18th century Bavaria. Her professional interest is piqued when she begins to hear whispers of of mysterious goings-on off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein: sailors are disappearing, and there are rumors of mermaids and sea creatures and all manner of slippery, sea-based happenings.

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Review: Messenger of Truth (Maisie Dobbs #4) by Jacqueline Winspear

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: Messenger of Truth (Maisie Dobbs #4) by Jacqueline Winspear

So after reading the third Maisie book, I was kind of on a ‘Great War’ mysteries kick so I decided to continue on with the next book in the series, Messenger of Truth.

I was impressed with how the third book developed and the next book sounded equally as intriguing that I just couldn’t help myself.

This time Maisie is called to assist on what appears to be an accident. Up and coming controversial artist Nicholas Bassington-Hope is set to open an exhibit that has been receiving a lot of hype. The night before the big event, he takes a fall from the scaffolding, breaking his neck.

It appears to be a clear cut accident however, his twin sister Georgina, just knows it’s not an accident and enlists Maisie to help solve the case.

Maisie jumps head first into the mysterious underworld of fine art. She again uncovers the dark legacy of the Great War in a society struggling to recollect itself in difficult times. But to solve the mystery of the artist’s death, she will have to remain steady as the forces behind his death come out of the shadows to silence her.

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Review: Pardonable Lies (Maisie Dobbs #3) by Jacqueline Winspear

by The Lit Bitch2 Comments on Review: Pardonable Lies (Maisie Dobbs #3) by Jacqueline Winspear

I have had a love hate relationship with the Maisie Dobbs books over the years. I read the first one and just wasn’t overly impressed but I pressed on and read the second and again felt like I wasn’t connecting with the series in the way that I had hoped.

But I keep pushing myself to read them because not only do I love the covers but I love the time period! I love books set either during the Great War or in the years immediately following in England.

This should be a series that I fell in love with based on the setting but I struggled to really connect with Maisie as a character so I just haven’t loved this series in the way that I hoped. But I am all for foraging through….not indefinitely mind you but I decided that if I read the third book and still didn’t enjoy it then I was going to give up.

I recently binge watched the Miss Fisher Mysteries on Netflix and I was feeling like I wanted to read a mystery with a female detective, maybe a little romance, and set after the Great War…..so rather than read an actual Miss Fisher novel, I settled on the third Maisie Dobbs book….mostly because I was so in love with the Miss Fisher TV series that I didn’t want to change anything by reading one of the books so…..here we are!

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Review: The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne (Verlaque and Bonnet #5) by M. L. Longworth

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: The Mystery of the Lost Cezanne (Verlaque and Bonnet #5) by M. L. Longworth

This book combined three of my favorite things…..art, France, and mystery. Judge Antoine Verlaque is enjoying his life and work in the small town of Aix-en-Provence. Provence was once home to the art worlds most famous painters, Paul Cezanne.

A friend in Judge Verlaque’s cigar club asks him to visit René Rouquet, a man who not only lives in Cezanne’s old apartment, but thinks he found a previously unknown Cezanne portrait. When the Judge and his friend arrive at Rouquet’s apartment, they are shocked to find him dead…..and the canvas is missing.

After tracking down the canvas, the Judge and his girl friend Marine Bonnet, begin looking into the canvas’s authenticity. The woman in the portrait is clearly not Madam Cezanne, so the natural question is ‘who is the women in the portrait’?

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