Traveling Tea Ladies, Killer Sweet Tooth & Great Romance!

Review by Jeanne

Books can take you away to exotic locales, sometimes in such detail that you almost feel you have been there in person.  On the other hand, there is often a special thrill in reading a book that describes places with which you are familiar: you know that road, or that building, or that little town. You know how the sun looks rising over that mountain. Here are two new mysteries which use Southwest Virginia and/or East Tennessee as a setting:

Long time friends Amelia, Cassandra, Sarah, and Olivia are known as “The Traveling Tea Ladies.”  They’re based in Dogwood Cove, Tennessee (which sounds a great deal like Johnson City) where Sarah owns a tea shop and Amelia and her husband own a coffee, herb and tea supply business.  In The Traveling Tea Ladies:  Death in Dixie, the four end up in Jonesborough in response to a distress call from Lucy, another friend and tea shop owner.  A rival tea shop has just opened up and the owner’s stated objective is to put Lucy out of business.  To make matters worse, this new owner is a relative of Sarah’s boyfriend—a not very nice relative, but a relative all the same.  It really isn’t a surprise when she turns up dead, but now Lucy is the chief suspect.   The book is written in a casual, friendly style and local landmarks are mentioned frequently. As an added bonus, the book is set during the National Storytelling Festival.  Author Melanie O’Hara-Salyers owned a tea shop in Johnson City and is a true aficionado.  The book includes recipes (the Treasure Island Rum Raisin Scones sound fabulous!) and tips on brewing tea. This is actually the second book in the series; the first was set in Dallas.  A third book is planned.

Killer Sweet Tooth by Gayle Trent brings back Daphne Martin, a cake decorator who seems to attract murder in the same way that honey attracts flies.  This time Daphne has a friend with a dental emergency, but when they arrive at the office the dentist has been murdered.  Hearing a noise, Daphne grabs the closest thing she can find to a weapon:  a giant prop toothbrush.  The policeman who finds her wielding the “weapon” is less than amused.  Just when it seems that Daphne’s day couldn’t get any stranger, she goes home to find Elvis waiting for her.  It seems he wants a cake—in the shape of a pink Cadillac, no less.  Trent has a good sense of humor and it shines through here to good effect.  There’s a lot of local color without being condescending and the writing flows well. The book is set in “Brea Ridge, Virginia” which is nestled in Washington County, Virginia.  This book also includes recipes.  There are two other Daphne Martin books:  Murder Takes the Cake and Dead Pan.  (Note:  Trent also writes the Embroidery Mysteries under the name Amanda Lee.  These stories revolve around Maggie Singer, owner of a needlework shop in Tallulah Falls Oregon and reluctant sleuth.  There are currently three books in the series which started with The Quick and the Thread.)

Last but certainly not least, Doris was a guest on Daytime TriCities talking about romance books. She did a wonderful job! You can see (and hear!) her suggestions by clicking the following link:  Doris on Daytime Tricites

Kiss and Tell

Kisser by Stuart Woods (Main and Avoca, F Woo)
Reviewed by Doris

Kisser, the newest Stuart Woods book, continues the exploits of Stone Barrington, the NYPD detective turned attorney. Stone works for a major, prestigious law firm in New York handling cases that come under the heading of “discretion necessary.” Most of his cases are the kind the tabloids love, but with which the high-powered law firm does not want to be publicly associated. This time the client is a major art dealer whose twenty-three years old daughter has fallen into the hands of a drug-dealing Svengali. Stone’s job is to get rid of the boy friend any way he can, short of murder. With the help of his buddy Dino who is still a NYPD detective lieutenant and another contact within the police department, Stone sets motion a sting that will take down the Bernie Madoff-wannabee. As the scenario plays out, Stone realizes the police have their own agenda and the young woman he is trying to extricate from the situation is at risk of arrest or being killed. He has to play the ends against the middle to save the girl and the situation from becoming deadly and while avoiding the clutches of a former lover who happens to be the U. A. Attorney handling the case.

Meanwhile, Stone picks up an actress who has come to New York to become a Broadway star. Carrie is gorgeous, talented, cunning, and just maybe a pathological liar. She is also being stalked by her ex-husband who took her leaving him with most of his fortune in tow a bit hard. Trying to protect Carrie while finding out if she is telling him the truth, and handling the two other women with whom he finds himself in bed just exhausts the poor Stone.

Adding to the complications for Stone is the re-emergence of his ex-wife, the crazy Dolce. Daughter of a Mafia don, Dolce tried to slash Stone’s throat. Her daddy has kept her under lock and key for years since the attempted murder, but a new doctor thinks Dolce needs to get out more. Dolce’s idea of getting out is stalking Stone one more time. Filled with a sense of déjà vu, Stone knows it is only a matter of time until she tries to kill him again.

The plot involving the young woman and the drug dealing con man is actually interesting. The subplot of Stone becoming intimately involved with the female detective working the case and the female assistant to the art dealer father is overdone and distracting. Except for a little twist that comes at the end which I saw coming a couple of chapters before, the outcome is predictable. The touches of evil that waft off the crazy ex-wife are tantalizing—I was kind of cheering for her and her knife by the end of the book. As for the actress, Stone turns out to be a man easily manipulated by a beautiful woman, especially if she is smarter than he is. In this book, all the women are smarter than he is.

Stuart Woods is a very popular author with our patrons, and I have enjoyed a number of his books. His newest release Kisser just does not make the grade though. Filled with gratuitous sex scenes that detract from any plot, it took less than three hours to read because it is merely a couple of hundred pages of scenes set like a bad TV show.

If you are a devoted Stuart Woods fan, read Kisser. It won’t take long, and it won’t leave much of an impression. If you aren’t a big fan, wait. He will have a better book out soon.

Staff Christmas: Stille Nacht

By Doris

When I was ten years old, my family moved to Germany for three years. That first Christmas in a faraway country was like a fairy tale in so many ways. The Christmas Fair at Frankfurt, the toys in the windows of the little German shops, the beautiful hand blown tree ornaments, and the luscious pasties all added joy to a holiday for a very homesick child. One memory of that first German Christmas will always be with me—the music of “Silent Night” sounding in a small German church, and my first experience of hearing the song sung in German. All of us have heard the story that in 1818 the organ in a small Austrian church was broken. The priest Joseph Mohr took the words to a carol he had written in 1816 to his friend Franz Gruber and asked him to create guitar music for the carol so the children would have a song to sing for the Christmas Eve service. Thus came about the legend of one of the most poignant of our Christmas songs. Actually, the organ probably was not broken, and Mohr may have just wanted a new carol for the children, but no one can deny the absolute beauty of the gentle carol about Jesus’ birth. Did you know “Silent Night” has been translated into 44 languages and is often sung a cappella? Or that the song was sung simultaneously in English and German by troops during the Christmas truce of 1914? Just imagine being on that terrible battlefield and hearing the sweet sounds of this beloved song drifting out of the trenches. John McCutcheon did a haunting musical presentation of this incident and has a children’s book and CD called Christmas in the Trenches (CD J MCC Avoca) telling more about what happened that cold, frosty night. It reminds us that even in the worst circumstances, the spirit of Christmas lives in all of us.

May each of you have a warm, happy holiday season. Enjoy the music of the season, and remember our service personnel serving in the military all around the world.

Note: “Christmas in the Trenches” is also included on the albums "Water From Another Time" and "Live at Wolf Trap" (both CD MCC Main). Several years later, Garth Brooks recorded a song about the same incident.

Need a good laugh? Get Strangled!

Reviewed by Doris

I have this marvelously comfortable sofa. Next to it is a stack of books that call my name every time I pick up a dust cloth or get out the vacuum. Last Saturday night my husband was quietly watching a football game. I was communing with my sofa and a new book. The author was new to me, but the reviews said she is as funny as Janet Evanovich. I love Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books because they make me laugh out loud. I tuned out the football cheers and opened Laurie Moore’s Woman Strangled-- News At Ten (F MOO Main and Avoca). Move over, Evanovich, you are no longer the only author who makes me laugh out loud. In fact, I laughed out loud so much my husband moved to the other television so he could grumble in peace.

Aspen Wicklow just graduated from North Texas State with a degree in Radio and Television, and she needs a job badly. She has admitted her Alzheimer’s stricken father and her brain injured mother to a care center with the stipulation they must never know they are in the same home because they hate each other. She has $75 left to her name, and a former fiancé who left her for a stripper because Aspen was boring. Fate takes her to WBFD-TV, the lowest rated local TV station in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, where she literally stumbles into the just-opened position of investigative reporter. Without a moment to think about what she has gotten herself into, Aspen plunges into the weird and wacky world of local television with the even more weird and wacky employees at WBFD. While developing a story about the overcrowding in Texas prisons, she meets Spike Granger who is the Dirty Harry/sheriff of Johnson County. Sheriff Granger has a major problem: a jail full of the criminals who should be on their way to the state prison at Huntsville, and a governor and state legislature who have put a ban on transferring prisoners. Granger’s jail is out of money to feed the crooks, and he is determined to make Texas do its duty. In an innovative and hilarious “Adopt a Con” plan, Spike and Aspen bring the plight of the sheriff to all of Texas and CNN. (It was my snickering, giggling, and full belly laughing during this part of the book that sent my husband to seek peace in another room.) I am firmly convinced that if real sheriffs had the guts and swagger of Spike Granger, our county jails would not be full of state prisoners awaiting beds in the state pens.

While the “Adopt a Con” plan makes for most of the laughter, there are several concurrent stories happening in Woman Strangled that will keep you reading. The characters are bigger than life, but, after all, the book does take place in Texas. My favorite is Rochelle the menopausal, conniving assistant to the station manager who has a secret and many ways of making people who cross her pay in spades. She ends up being Aspen’s back-up and mentor with some of the best lines since Stephanie Plum’s Grandma Mazur burned down the funeral home.

Laurie Moore served a police officer in the Dallas area for six years. She is a practicing attorney and a reserve deputy constable in Taggart County. She uses her law enforcement experience to shade her stories with a touch of believability. Mostly she just has a great time entertaining you with her characters and a glimpse into life as big as Texas. A must read only if you want to giggle out loud.
Woman Strangled-- News at Ten is the first book in a new romantic suspense series by Moore. Moore’s other books include The Lady Godiva Murder, her Constable series and her newest, Jury Rigged.

Let’s Return to Those Days of Yore……

By Doris

When you were a kid, did you read the Nancy Drew mysteries or the Hardy Boys? I never did. I did not like Nancy Drew, and my experience with the Hardy Boys was Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy in their teeny bopper Hardy Boys TV series. So why have I developed a new interest in the Hardy Boys now? It originates with one of our patrons, of course!

Mr. F. is a charming older gentleman with a resoundingly deep voice and twinkling eyes. You can just imagine him as one of those radio announcers in the 30’s or 40’s whose voice filled the night as he spun marvelous tales. A few months ago he brought me a list of all the Hardy Boys books and asked me to find the first four for him. I made some comment about a grandchild visiting and wanting to read the books. He blushed just a tiny bit and confessed the books were for him. He decided to re-read all the books because he had loved them as a child. We laughed and talked about “second childhoods,” and I found his books for him at the Mosheim branch of the Greene County Library. Soon he was knee deep in the adventures of Joe and Frank as they solve the mysteries of The Footprints Under the Window or another of the more than one hundred titles in the series. Every couple of weeks Mr. F. would come in and request the next three or four books on the list. This week he requested the last four books. Both of us are sad. He has really enjoyed reliving a part of his youth, and I have enjoyed talking with him about the books. We both have enjoyed discovering which library in our consortium will be sending the books. Evidently the Mosheim Library has a complete set, and they have been very generous in loaning them to us.

Pause here for a commercial, please. Being able to borrow books from the other libraries in the Watauga Regional Library consortium is a real benefit for our patrons. If we do not have a requested item, chances are one of the other libraries will. Always ask us to check and see if a book is available from another library if we do not have it. The service is FREE!

Edward Stratemeyer who also created Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, the Rover boys, and dozens of other characters created the Hardy Boys in 1926. He outlined the stories and hired Canadian writer Leslie McFarlane to write the books. McFarlane wrote the books under the name of Franklin Dixon.

In case this piques your interest, I’ll tell you that the first three books are The Tower Treasure, The House on the Cliff, and The Secret of the Old Mill. These were released originally on May 16, 1927, by publisher Grossett and Dunlap.

Did you know the Hardy Boys is the best-selling and longest running series of books for boys in the world? They have been translated into more than 25 languages.

The book series morphed into comic books, television series, movies, games, video games, and all types of collectibles. Original editions of the books can be quite valuable.

Wondering what to put in a child’s stocking this Christmas? How about a vintage Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew mystery?

Or, if you have been very good, maybe Santa will bring you one of these great classics to enjoy all by yourself.

Sandra Brown Delivers a "Smash Cut!"

Reviewed by Doris

John Sandford does it with his Prey series of thriller mysteries. Thomas Harris does it with Hannibal Lector and Red Dragon. Sandra Brown does it in Smash Cut, her newest novel. What do they do? Create a villain who makes my skin crawl and the hair on my neck stand up. And you don’t even have to wait for the end of this book to know you have a sociopath at the center of the plot—he’s right there in the opening pages. A smash cut in movie idiom occurs without warning in the middle of one scene and transitions abruptly to another scene. It is used to startle the audience. Brown uses the same technique in her writing, and Smash Cut is one of her best outings.

Sandra Brown is very popular for her romantic, contemporary crime thrillers. Like Nora Roberts and a dozen other writers she has a sexy, handsome guy; the sassy, smart, beautiful woman; and, a mystery that brings them together. There’s sex, there’s conflict between them, and then everyone lives happily ever after. What sets Brown apart from her colleagues is her ability to lay down a plot. They are taut, never ordinary, and in Smash Cut, she throws in some stunning twists. Her characters also set her apart: they are rarely the clichés often used in contemporary thrillers.

The opening is a murder that occurs in an elevator in an Atlanta luxury hotel. Paul Wheeler is a powerful CEO who meets a young woman every week at the hotel. As they are leaving, a gunman enters their crowded elevator, demands money and jewelry from everyone, and then shots Wheeler in the head. When the doors open onto the lobby, the killer calmly walks away from the ensuing chaos. Robbery soon appears less a motive than a hit. Who wanted Paul Wheeler dead? Who is the young woman with whom he seems to be having a long term affair? Why does Paul’s brother Doug hire the best defense attorney in Atlanta “just in case,” and why does he think his son Creighton will need to talk to the attorney immediately?

Derek Mitchell is the hottest lawyer in town. He agrees to talk to Creighton Wheeler about his Uncle Paul’s death, but Creighton has an ironclad alibi so why does he need a lawyer? Julie Rutledge is cultured, sophisticated, and beautiful, and she was devoted to Paul Wheeler. She is convinced Creighton Wheeler—handsome, rich, obsessed with films, and very used to having his own way—killed his uncle. She is also lying about too many things, and Derek needs to know why.

Lots of questions and Brown lays down her plot fast and furiously as she answers them. Just when you think you have all the answers, she smacks you awake with another twist. I never expected the last one in this book, but it made for a very satisfying conclusion.

*Warning: As an animal lover I found a brutal detail of this plot very unsettling. I understand why the incident was there to move the characters and plot, but it was painful, and, from my perspective, not necessary.

Smash Cut by Sandra Brown is available at Main and Avoca. Main also holds a large print copy. If you don't find a copy on the shelf, we can reserve one for you.

Roberts' Formula Equals Satisfaction

BLACK HILLS by Nora Roberts

When you pick up a Nora Roberts book, you know what you are getting. There’s a smart, pretty, feisty heroine. The gorgeous hero will be someone who makes her really mad but for whom she feels this immediate “pull." There will be snappy dialogue, some kind of mystery or adventure, and some scintillating sex that only occasionally gets raunchy. Black Hills continues that formula as only Nora Roberts can.

Remember that old cliché that you never get over your first love? Roberts takes that idea, plants it in the Black Hills of South Dakota on a horse ranch, and lets nature take it course. Coop is an eleven year old New Yorker who is angry that he has been shipped off to his grandparents’ ranch for the summer because of his parents’ messed up relationship. He is also pretty sure no one really loves him. Lil is a wide-open-spaces child of two loving parents who are neighbors and friends to Coop’s grandparents, and she knows an injured critter when she sees one. In one dinner and a game of baseball, these children become inseparable friends.

Through the years Coop returns to visit his grandparents whom he has come to love deeply and the girl who is his best friend. At eighteen Coop and Lil are passionately in love, but that path is more than rocky. A horrible discovery mars their last summer together, and Coop’s strained relationship with a domineering father causes him to break things off with Lil “for her own good.” Lil goes on to become a world-renown biologist and expert on big cats who establishes a nature preserve on her family land. Coop becomes a police officer and then sets up his own security company in the wake of his police partner’s death. Yet, for both of them, something fundamental is missing from their lives.

Twelve years after leaving Lil devastated, Coop comes back to the Hills. Drawn back into Lil’s world and the only place he has ever felt loved, Coop sets out to reclaim her heart. Stalling his efforts is someone tied to that horrible discovery made years ago who may be a serial killer and deadly threats on Lil’s life. Lil and Coop find it is easy to work together to find a murderer, but very hard to get past the old hurts and misunderstandings. Will love triumph in the end? Will our hero save the girl? Come on folks, this is a Nora Roberts book! Of course it all works out: it just takes awhile to get there.

Critics haven’t particularly liked this Roberts romance. Some have felt the story lags and the characters are not up to her usual standards. The question has been raised that perhaps the Queen of Romance is turning out books too quickly to maintain her quality. My feeling is that I read Nora Roberts as an escape. If I want reality, I will watch CNN. While it may not be her best romance, I enjoyed the friendships which Roberts always does well and the animals. I like Lil better than Coop, but I can see in Coop all the reasons Lil would love him. As I said before, it is a Nora Roberts book. If you are a fan, you know what you are going to get, and you like the formula.

Black Hills is available at both the main library and our Avoca branch.

Reviewed by Doris

What’s a Few Wrinkles and Slobber Among Friends?

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My name is Doris and I am an addict.

I am addicted to Southern mysteries which feed my love for sweet tea, Paula Deen, and odd characters. I have spent large chunks of time living in other regions of the United States and in Europe, but it is the South that calls to me and is the place I feel at home. In reading some of the numerous Southern mysteries, I find comfort, laughter, a sense of the absurd and just plain old-fashioned enjoyment. For me, there’s nothing better than a comfortable chair on a screened-in-porch, a glass of lemonade, a cool breeze, and a Virginia Lanier book.

Like so many of her peers, Lanier carries on the tradition of the feisty Southern female who has an irresistible assortment of colorful friends and relatives surrounding her. Jo Beth Sidden has an ex-husband named Bubba who is determined to kill her, a streak of Southern stubbornness a mile wide, and a deep love for her unusual line of work. Jo Beth has something else very hard for me to resist—bloodhounds. Be forewarned: if you love dogs, you are going to want a bloodhound by the time you finish this book.

Jo Beth is a breeder and trainer of bloodhounds for search and rescue teams. She and her bloodhound partner cover a three county area of deep Georgia, right on the Okefenokee Swamp. Committed to helping the law enforcement agencies and individuals that contact her, Jo Beth often places herself in extreme conditions. Testing herself and her dog Bobby Lee in every search, Jo Beth is an interesting blend of stubbornness, pride and strength with a dash of quirkiness but she also has a vulnerability that shows up at times, especially when she has to face the reality that someone she once loved is planning to kill her.

Death in Bloodhound Red is the first book of Virginia Lanier’s bloodhound series. It won the 1996 Anthony Award for Best First Novel and was a finalist for both the 1995 Agatha Award and the 1996 McCavity Award for Best First Novel. Something of a late bloomer, Lanier was sixty-nine years old when she began writing. She once told an interviewer that it all started because she was reading a book she hated. She tossed the book across the room and told her husband Hoss she could write a better book anytime. He dared her to do so and five months later Death in Bloodhound Red was accepted for publication. It is a well-crafted blend of character development, fast action, introspection, and lore of the Okefenokee Swamp region. The plot in this one takes a couple of really interesting twists that will catch you off-guard, and you will absolutely fall in love with Bobby Lee. Lanier’s voice is true to the southern region she knew so well and to Jo Beth and her dogs. Unfortunately for those who have loved this skillful series of mysteries, Virginia Lanier died in 2003. Oh, how I wish she had written many more books!

Available at Main and Avoca: Death in Bloodhound Red, The House on Bloodhound Lane, A Brace of Bloodhounds, Blind Bloodhound Justice, Ten Little Bloodhounds, and A Bloodhound to Die For. Just look for F LAN.

Reviewed by Doris

Murder, They Write

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My son once asked me why I read so many mysteries. I told him I was looking for the perfect murder. I could have also said mysteries engage my mind and provide me with delightful escapes. I have a bunch of favorite mystery writers and I have grown attached to their characte4rs. I like imagining myself sitting with Sarah Beth Delaney on her front porch waiting for Jitty, her resident ghost whom I imagine looks like Halle Berry. I love laughing at Miss Juila, and I want my own ghost to communicate with me like Aunt Dimity does Lorie Spencer. I want to visit Hamish MacBeth’s village of Lockdub and meet his wildcat and dog. I want to ride to the hounds with Sister Jane and help Sneaky Pie write her next book. I like searching for familiar landmarks in Knoxville while Dr. Bill Brockton does his forensics inquiries. I am fascinated by Brother Cadfael and his knowledge of plants and how they can be used to heal or kill. And then there are the masters of mysteries: Inspector Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, and Nero Wolfe—how easy they make it seem to unravel the twists and turns of devious plots.

Recently one of our treasured patrons tipped me to the series of mysteries by Kathryn Wall featuring her heroine Bay Tanner. Bay lives in her beach cottage on Hilton Head. She’s a gorgeous redhead with glass-green eyes, healthy investments that pay the bills and an impeccable Southern lineage. Sounds perfect, doesn’t it? But, as with all good heroines, there are depths to Bay that are not readily seen. She’s just barely coping with life almost a year after a horrific explosion killed her state criminal investigator husband Rob and badly injured her. Her cherished but cantankerous retired judge father is recovering from a series of strokes and her perfect belle best friend is married to a controlling bully. Worst of all for Bay, no one has been charged with Rob’s death and no one in law enforcement seems to care.

In the fashion of many mysteries these days, Kathryn Wall has created a strong female character but with a decidedly Southern twist. The smells, foods and quirks of Hilton Head and Lowcountry South Carolina weave their way around Bay throughout the nine books in the series. Wall’s plots are just intricate enough to keep you engaged, but they aren’t so complicated that you have to turn back ten pages to see who did what to whom. Between her daddy, her friends, her partner in the “inquiry agency” she establishes, Bay’s life stays in tumult, but you know in your heart she’s going to come out on top.

These are great books to take with you on vacation. Start with In for a Penny and follow Bay as she faces life, new dangers, new loves, and mysteries just waiting off the edge of her deck. The books are available at Main and Avoca in fiction under the author’s last name. This series is best read in order:

In for a Penny

Not a Penny More

Perdition House

Judas Island

Resurrection Road

Bishop’s Reach

Sanctuary Hill

The Mercy Oak

Covenant Hall

Reviewed by Doris