Halloween Cupcake Murder

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Kensington Book Publishers is one of my favorite publishers.  It’s a family owned business, working on its third generation, and they publish a wide variety of books—including cozy mysteries.  For the last several years, they have been publishing holiday themed books with three novellas by three different authors.  I’ve found it’s a very good way to sample authors I don’t know and to be delighted by a new story from authors I do know. All the stories are standalones; no previous knowledge of a series is needed.

Halloween Cupcake Murder features Carlene O’Connor, Liz Ireland, and Carol J. Perry.  Since I love Perry’s Witch City Mysteries, picking this one up was a no-brainer. Her entry in the collection is “A Triple Layer Halloween Murder” and has Salem TV station manager and scryer Lee Barrett on the trail of a baker who disappears just before Halloween.  Aided by her beau, police detective Pete Mondello and her amazingly gifted cat O’Ryan, Lee tries to figure out just what has happened to the missing man.  The story was, as usual, well constructed, but the real appeal for me is the cast.  I like Lee a lot, in part because she actually does her job unlike some cozy heroines who can just take off at the drop of a hat; and I enjoy the peek behind the scenes at a tv station.  I also really like her aunt, Ibby, who is a reference librarian and I absolutely adore O’Ryan.  This story alone made the book worth buying for me.

I had been curious about Liz Ireland after reading reviews from Lesa Holstine’s blog, lesasbookcritiques.com.  Lesa is a retired librarian whose opinions I respect and when she said Liz Ireland’s Mrs. Claus books were a lot of fun, I took notice.  Yes, the heroine is that Mrs. Claus, married to the one and only Nicholas Claus and they live in Santaland. April was actually an innkeeper in Oregon before being swept off her feet by a man in a red suit, and now she has to adjust to elves, talking reindeer, and sentient snowmen.  I thought it sounded a bit daft, to be honest, but Lesa’s review made me want to take a look.  Having a novella seemed just the ticket.  After all, if I didn’t like it, there wasn’t too much to wade through.

Well, I found “Mrs. Claus and the Candy Corn Caper” was as delightful as promised.  In this adventure, Santaland is experiencing its first Halloween thanks to April. While the elves are trying to get the hang of candy corn, build a haunted ice castle, and put on a baking competition, elf Wink Jollyflake is found murdered in his employer’s bakery. It’s all a puzzle, including the murder weapon, but April Claus will figure it out!  And I am definitely reading more in this series.

“The Halloween Cupcake Murder” by Carlene O’Connor uses her Home to Ireland series as her basis.  Ex-New Yorker Tara Meehan has moved to Ireland and is opening an architectural salvage shop. Uncle Johnny sends her to Val Sharkey’s curiosity shop to pick up some Halloween decorations.  She finds some interesting items, but later Val turns up dead, his face smeared with a possibly poisoned cupcake.  Then someone turns up with a cupcake for Tara…. 

For me, this last one was the weakest story, even though I had read and liked the first book in the series.  The ending seemed rushed. I also suspect it suffered a bit by comparison, because I liked the other two so much.

There are other collections, including The Irish Milkshake Murder and The Christmas Cocoa Murders. Authors in the collections vary.

Irish Milkshake Murder by O’Connor, Ehrhart, and Ireland

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

This is another of Kensington Publishing’s holiday novella collections, with three stories each written by a cozy mystery author.  This collection, obviously, is in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, so each story uses that as a story element while featuring their series characters.  Often, these are stories set between books but you don’t need to be a fan to follow the action in these novellas.  In fact, I like to use them as a testing ground to see if am going to like the author’s style or not without having to try a whole book.

“The Irish Milkshake Murder” by Carlene O’Connor has her Irish Village Mystery series heroine Tara Meehan and two female friends on their way to an island for her hen party (which she didn’t want.) Her fiancé and his friends are on the same ferry for the stag party. They end up with a two dancing brothers who need transportation to the island as well. Tara manages to hang in for the choppy trip despite downing some of the boozy milkshakes provided. Unfortunately, one of the passengers gets a shake spiked with something else, and Tara realizes she’s once again in the middle of a murder investigation.  This story is long on Irish flavor, so if you need to get in the—um, spirit of the holiday, this is a good start.

Pamela Paterson is the main character of Peggy Ehrhart’s Knit & Nibble series, a widow who belongs to a knitting club. Her best friend Bettina is a reporter for a weekly newspaper, and the two of them end up solving crimes on a regular basis.  In “Murder Most Irish,” the two are enjoying lunch when another customer keels over after having a green milkshake.  It’s going to be up to Pamela and Bettina to solve the mystery before their beloved luncheonette is closed for good.  New readers may find this one a bit slow, but fans will love the descriptions of hearty and delicious food, fiber craft articles, and cameos from series characters.

Mentions of “Mrs. Claus” may make people think of a plump little old lady with white hair and apple cheeks, but April Claus is none of the above. She was swept off her feet by the handsome Nicholas Claus, only learning later that he was none other than THE Nick Claus. She has adjusted to Santaland and Santaland is trying to adjust to her, especially all the new holiday she’s brought with her—like St. Patrick’s Day.  In “Mrs. Claus and Luckless Leprechaun,” an elf is found with a head injury but whether it was from an unlucky fall or if this was a failed murder attempt.  This series is full of light-hearted fun, but the author treats it as seriously as possible so that the effect is off-beat but not silly. 

I found this collection to be quite the treat!

Christmas Card Murder by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Peggy Ehrhart

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

This is actually a collection of three novellas by established cozy mystery authors, all of which use a Christmas card as part of the mystery.  Leslie Meier is arguably the best known of the three, as evidenced by the size of the type on the cover! I was familiar with Peggy Ehrhart, so I thought this might serve as a good introduction to the other two. 

“Christmas Card Murder” by Meier is the first entry, and it features her series sleuth Lucy Stone. Lucy has finally convinced her carpenter husband to renovate their bedroom which starts with taking out part of a wall.  Tucked inside they find an old Christmas card. The placement had to have been deliberate, and when they open it, the inscription isn’t a cheery greeting but a nasty message.  Intrigued, Lucy decides to investigate amid all the holiday preparations and neighborhood upset over the possible parole of a convicted murderer.

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by Meier.  This was an intriguing mystery from the start and I enjoyed the well-developed characters.  Lucy and her husband Bill have a much more believable marriage than most cozy couples who seem to be in near perfect harmony, except when the plot needs distractions. I also liked that not everything was tied up in a neat little bow at the end, leaving space to wonder.

Lee Hollis’ “Death of a Christmas Carol” opened with three women receiving a Christmas card from Carol Waterman, announcing that she is going to run off with one of their husbands.  Unsurprisingly, Carol ends up dead.

I was less impressed with this entry.  The card gimmick – well, I guess “gimmick” says it all.  I found it all a bit stagey and I didn’t connect as well with Hayley Powell, the lead character as I did with the aforementioned Lucy Stone.  It’s possible that I would have had no trouble if I’d read any of Hollis’ previous books. (As an aside, I’ll note that “Lee Hollis” is a pseudonym for a brother and sister writing team of Rick Copp and Holly Simason.) It certainly wasn’t a bad story, but for me it was a little bit of a let-down after the one by Meier.

Finally, there was “Death of a Christmas Card Crafter” by Peggy Ehrhart.  Her sleuth, Pamela Paterson is shocked to find that Karma Karling, a popular art teacher, has been found murdered.  As usual, Pamela finds herself trying to solve the mystery, and she thinks that a clue is to be found in the last Christmas card that Karma designed.

For those who’ve read Ehrhart, this is was a solid and comforting entry in the series.  All the regulars were there and following their usual routines of knitting, going to the Co-op, and eating.  I’ll admit I found it somewhat annoying when I read the first two books in the series, but I finally entered into the spirit of the thing and now find it soothing to read about Pamela’s careful coffee preparations (which begin with measuring out the beans through the smell of fresh coffee) or the descriptions of Bettina’s outfits and brightly colored dinnerware. For a newcomer, I don’t know if that would appeal. As a long time reader, I enjoyed it.

If you’re a cozy reader looking for new authors, this is a good way to test the waters.  Meier has several of these collections with some changes in co-authors, so you may want to take a look.