I’m home! I drove in yesterday. Terrific visit with Mom and family members. Last Thursday, we went to President Harding’s home, museum, and tomb. Friday evening, my sister Christie’s family came for dinner. During the week, we visited, walked, spent time with my husband’s aunt, who is 95, had freshly picked sweet corn. Oh, that sweet corn was good! We did what I call cemetery hopping, doing some family genealogy. And, we had gorgeous weather for the two weeks, comfortable enough most days to sit out on my Mom’s porch and watch the world go by. I think we only used the air conditioner twice whe ..read more

M.S. Greene’s background in the theater is obvious in this excellent debut cozy mystery, There’s No Murder Like Show Murder. He takes us behind-the-scenes with his amateur sleuth, Tasha Weaver, who is the costume shop head at Connecticut’s Eastbrook Playhouse. Tasha knows everyone on stage and backstage, so she’s an excellent sleuth who does try to keep the police in the loop. No one was happy with Kurt Mozer, the leading man for the theater’s “Annie Get Your Gun”. He and the director were always at odds, and he deliberately ripped a costume in front of Tasha and the entire cast during a tech ..read more

Scott Lyerly’s debut mystery, The Last Line, is set in the world of community theater. It’s not unusual for a body in such a mystery to be a disliked cast member. What is unusual, and what you’ll remember, is the owner of the theater, Ellie Marlowe, the amateur sleuth who has Tourette syndrome. “Murder in a Teacup”, the latest production at the Kaleidoscope Theater in Avalon, Massachusetts, might just save Ellie from financial ruin. Tickets are selling fast. Unfortunately, the cast and crew has to put up with the leading man, Reginald Thornton IV, who is making everyone miserable. He has a wa ..read more

Ellen Byron is the author of a number of mysteries including her award-winning Cajun Country mysteries, the Vintage Cookbook mysteries, the Catering Hall mysteries, and, now, the first in her Golden Motel Mystery series, A Very Woodsy Murder. Tuesday is release date for that one. Ellen was also kind enough to give away two bears here since a bear is integral to her new book. You can find out more about her at her website, https://www.ellenbyron.com/. Today, though, we’re lucky enough to have her here for a Sunday Spotlight. Thank you, Ellen, for taking time to answer a few questions. Ellen, W ..read more

Delia Pitts introduces private investigator Vandy Myrick in Trouble in Queenstown. It’s hard enough to be a black woman and a cop, but once Vandy Myrick’s world was shattered she moved back to her hometown of Queenstown, New Jersey to become a private investigator. She handles a lot of divorce cases, and Leo Hannah, the mayor’s nephew, asks her to spend a week following his wife, Ivy. He provides several excuses; she might have a lover; he’s thinking about a divorce; she has a stalker; no, maybe Leo is the one with the stalker. The morning Vandy is to turn in her report to Leo, she walks in o ..read more

Congratulations to the winners of Ellen Byron’s bears. Ellen is sending them to Autumn T. from Portland, OR and Carol K. of Omaha, NE. I’ll be home next Friday to kick off a new contest ..read more

It’s Thursday! I’m still visiting my Mom, although I have been reading for Library Journal‘s Saturday deadline for this month. Today, Mom, my sister, Christie, and I are heading to Marion, Ohio where we have tickets to go through President Harding’s home and Presidential library. So, I won’t be around mid-day. I’ll catch up in the evening. By next Thursday, I’ll be back at my place, and I’ll have the whole day to spend here. I’m currently reading a November release, Elizabth Hobbs’ Misery Hates Company for Library Journal. Here’s the book blurb. A young woman is invited to a mysterious relati ..read more

Bruce Borgos follows The Bitter Past, with another fast-paced, unrelenting thriller. Shades of Mercy is intense, with unforgettable characters, beginning with Sheriff Porter Beck. As a government RPA, Remotely Piloted Aircraft, is hijacked and explodes over a seventeen-year-old’s birthday party in the high Nevada desert, Sheriff Beck and his new deputy, a dog named Columbo, are rushing to the scene of an emergency. He’s not in time to save one of his childhood best friends from a drug overdose. He shouldn’t even have been driving at the time, due to the continued onslaught of his Retinitis Pi ..read more

I actually had a review written and scheduled for here today, but the book was delayed at the printer’s so the publisher changed the release date to August. I’m sorry. However, I messaged the author, and now we may all benefit. She asked if I wanted to review her historical mystery collection that comes out in September. So, there will be two reviews of books I’m sure are enjoyable. I’ve read the first, and can guarantee that. There will be a review tomorrow unless the Internet crashes. I probably shouldn’t tempt fate ..read more

You all know I’m up at my Mom’s. My friend, David, called it my “summer residency”. Huron is a pretty town on Lake Erie in northern Ohio. This weekend is the annual Riverfest, celebrating the town and the Huron River. So, last night, we watched fireworks from Mom’s house. And, today, we walked down to the end of her street where she had parked our chairs at 6 this morning. We went at 10:30 for the 11:00 parade which was fun to watch. Small-town parades. Nothing like it. I finished a book today, but it doesn’t come out until September. Thanks for reading. I had two reviews scheduled for next we ..read more