Happy Friday & welcome to First Line Friday hosted by Reading Is My SuperPowerIt’s time to grab the book nearest to you and leave a comment with the first line. Today, I’m featuring the first line of A Good Dog’s Guide to Murder (A Paws & Claws Mystery Book 8)
And The First Line is………….
“Mom?” I was busy helping our desk clerk Zelda York handle a steady stream of arrivals at the Sugar Maple Inn when I looked up and saw my mother, Nell.
About the Book
The great Gingerbread Dog & Cat House competition has come to Wagtail, along with another murder to solve for Holly and her supersmart Jack Russell terrier Trixie in the New York Times bestselling Paws & Claws series by Krista Davis!
Visitors are arriving in droves to spend Thanksgiving in the mountains of pet-friendly Wagtail, Virginia. Many of them are bringing dog and cat gingerbread houses to enter in the contest that will be held in the new convention center. Wagtail resident Orly Biffle bequeathed the land to the town in his will, provided that they not cut down the grand old oak tree on the property. Orly’s children are mighty miffed that they didn’t inherit the prime piece of property overlooking the lake.
Holly notices that Trixie and Twinkletoes, her calico kitty, are fixated on the big oak tree. Trixie barks at it as though she thinks it’s a corpse! Just as contestants are spicing up their sweet gingerbread creations, the majestic tree drops an enormous limb. The mayor declares that the tree is dangerous and must come down. When a bulldozer churns up some roots, the tree falls over on its own accord revealing a body inside the trunk! Initially, everyone suspects this unsavory trick was Orly’s doing. But it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to keep the truth under wraps. Trixie and Twinkletoes now have to help Holly sniff out some suspects and leash a conniving killer.
Entrepreneur Emma Westlake has found that starting a business can be murder in this new Friend for Hire Mystery by USA Today bestselling author Laura Bradford.
Emma Westlake, proprietor of A Friend for Hire, finds a heart-wrenching email from a prospective client in her inbox. The email is from Kim Felder, a woman struggling with empty-nest syndrome and an out of left field divorce. Emma is determined to help get this woman in a better headspace. She suggests that Kim draft a bucket list of things she has always wanted to do in life but has not because of the time she has devoted to being the best mom and wife she could be.
Together, they fill that list (baking classes, traveling, dancing in the middle of the street for no reason) with Kim adding in some hilarious items about getting even with her ex. All laughter ends though, when Kim’s ex winds up dead via one of the “funny” ideas Kim proposed. Now, Kim is the lone suspect in the murder with Emma the only person who can prove otherwise.
This is the second book in the, A Friend for Hire series by Laura Bradford. I’ve read and enjoyed the first book in this series and now this one just as much. In this series we see a woman, Emma Westlake, at the suggestion of her elderly friend Dottie starting a friend for hire service. The service is just like what it sounds like, a woman who you can hire to be your friend to go places with you, such as the gym,doctor’s appointments, to have coffee with you or just talk if needed. Now we do see some characters from the first book in this one as well which is always neat when we see characters crossing over to another book in the series. In this book Emma is hired by a lonely woman, an empty nester who feels like her children don’t need her any more and whose husband has flown the coop for a younger woman. She jokes around to Emma she is so mad that she wants to kill her husband. When said husband turns up dead she is the automatic suspect. Emma has gotten to know her and doesn’t believe the woman has committed the crime. Help Emma solve the case to try to get her new friend off the main suspect list. I am really enjoying this series and look forward to more by this author.
Pub Date 05 Jul 2022 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
Friends enjoying coffee together
About The Author
While spending a rainy afternoon at a friend’s house more than forty years ago, Laura Bradford (a.k.a. Elizabeth Lynn Casey) fell in love with writing over a stack of blank paper, a box of crayons, and a freshly sharpened number two pencil. From that moment forward, she never wanted to do anything else.
Today, Laura is the USA Today Bestselling Author of more than 35 books and stories. Her latest work includes A Plus One for Murder, the debut book in her new A Friend for Hire Mysteries, and the women’s fiction novel, Her New Story.
Laura also pens several other mystery series including; An Amish Mystery series, the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries, the Tobi Tobias Mysteries, and the Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries (written as Elizabeth Lynn Casey). She is a former Agatha Award nominee, and the recipient of an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award in romance. Laura enjoys baking, spending time with her family, and being an advocate for those living with multiple sclerosis. Learn more at: https://www.laurabradford.com
Thank you for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend!
A possible serial killer on the loose sends tea maven Theodosia Browning into a whirlwind of investigation in this latest installment of the New York Times bestselling series.
It was a dark and stormy night, but that was the least of Theodosia Browning’s troubles. As she approaches St. Philips Graveyard, Theodosia sees two figures locked in a strange embrace. Wiping rain from her eyes, Theodosia realizes she has just witnessed a brutal murder and sees a dark-hooded figure slip away into the fog.
In the throes of alerting police, Theodosia recognizes the victim–it is the daughter of her friend, Lois, who owns the Antiquarian Bookshop next door to her own Indigo Tea Shop.
Even though this appears to be the work of a serial killer who is stalking the back alleys of Charleston, Lois begs Theodosia for help. Against the advice of her boyfriend, Detective Pete Riley, and the sage words of Drayton, her tea sommelier, amateur-sleuth Theodosia launches her own shadow investigation. And quickly discovers that suspects abound with the dead girl’s boyfriend, nefarious real estate developer, private-security man, bumbling reporter, and her own neighbor who is writing a true-crime book and searching for a big ending.
I would say A Dark and Stormy Tea is my favorite of the books I’ve read in A Teashop Mystery series. Once again we have tea maven Theodosia Browning butting her nose in, err helping to investigate a murder committed by a possible serial killer. On a dark and stormy night on her way home from working at her delightful teashop ,Theodosia Browning cuts through a cemetery and witnesses a brutal murder. Because of the cloaked figure she can not identify who it was but the victim is her friend’s daughter who owns a bookshop next to her teashop, the Indigo Teashop. Her boyfriend is a police detective so we get an inside scoop on how the investigation is going which makes it interesting, I enjoyed the descriptions of the the types of tea in the shop,the china and the fancy parties taking place there. Earl Grey is a great name for her dog. There are other similar types of murders taking place at different places and times so this just may be the work of a serial killer. Theodosia Browning’s gotten herself into a bit of hot water with her investigating, see how a teakettle and a bit of tea helps her out. Recommended to fans of foodie cozy mysteries also teashops. Absolutely delightful food and drink recipes included in the book.
Pub Date 09 Aug 2022 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
About The Author
Gerry Schmitt, who writes under the pen name Laura Childs is now adding two more series that are harder-edged Wednesday February 26, 2014 in Plymouth. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)
Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, Scrapbook Mysteries, and Cackleberry Club Mysteries. In her previous life she was CEO/Creative Director of her own marketing firm and authored several screenplays. She is married to a professor of Chinese art history, loves to travel, rides horses, enjoys fund raising for various non-profits, and has two Chinese Shar-Pei dogs.
Laura specializes in cozy mysteries that have the pace of a thriller (a thrillzy!) Her three series are:
The Tea Shop Mysteries – set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She’s also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn’t rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.
The Scrapbooking Mysteries – a slightly edgier series that take place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans’ spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!
The Cackleberry Club Mysteries – set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe’s undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.
Thank you for visiting today. Have a wonderful day.
Do you have a favorite tea you enjoy? Let me know in the comments. I enjoy Orange teas,also lemon,peppermint,pumpkin spice,salted caramel and Constant Comment tea, plus more but I’m not going to bore you and list even more 🙂
Two cousins who start a food stall at their local night market get a serving of murder in this first novel of a delicious new cozy mystery series by Jennifer J. Chow, author of Mimi Lee Gets a Clue.
When Yale Yee discovers her cousin Celine is visiting from Hong Kong, she is obliged to play tour guide to a relative she hasn’t seen in twenty years. Not only that, but her father thinks it’s a wonderful idea for them to bond by running a food stall together at the Eastwood Village Night Market. Yale hasn’t cooked in years, and she hardly considers Celine’s career as a social media influencer as adequate experience, but because she’s just lost her job at her local bookstore, she feels she has no choice.
Yale and Celine serve small dishes and refreshing drinks, and while business is slow, it eventually picks up thanks to Celine’s surprisingly useful marketing ideas. They’re quite shocked that their bubble tea, in particular, is a hit–literally–when one of their customers turns up dead. Yale and Celine are prime suspects due to the gold flakes that Celine added to the sweet drink as a garnish. Though the two cousins are polar opposites in every way, they must work together to find out what really happened to the victim or the only thing they’ll be serving is time.
My Review
Death by Bubble Tea is written by a new to me author, Jennifer J. Chow. It is the first book in the L.A. Night Market cozy mystery series. I enjoy reading cozies with animals and food in them. Now while this one doesn’t have animals in it it has plenty of authentic and delicious sounding Asian foods and drinks that we are introduced to including Bubble Tea. Bubble tea most commonly is a tea accompanied with chewy tapioca balls. It has many flavors and varieties but the two most popular varieties are black pearl milk tea and green pearl milk tea, fruity flavors are very popular as well. Yale Yee and her cousin Celine, visiting from Hong Kong at the suggestion of Yale’s father run a food stand at the Eastwood Night Market. Now these cousins haven’t seen each other in over twenty years and have very different personalities Celine has the brilliant idea to add a gold garnish to the bubble tea to make it more photogenic because she is a food influencer. It works and brings in lots of customers after this. But then one of their customers turns up dead after hours at the Night Market. While every chapter is not nonstop action we are introduced to many characters. Are the cousins the guilty party or is it one of the many characters we meet who seem to have a motive for the killing? This kept me reading and guessing right to the end. I will be looking for more in this series as they release.
Pub Date 05 Jul 2022 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
About The Author
Two-time finalist for the Lefty Award. Jennifer J. Chow writes cozy mysteries with heart, humor, and heritage. Current Vice President of Sisters in Crime. She lives in Los Angeles, where she hunts for all things matcha.
Her most recent series is the L.A. Night Market Mysteries (Berkley/Penguin Random House). Learn more about her other books at http://www.jenniferjchow.com.
I’ve really been enjoying reading cozy mysteries lately.
Join in the First Line Friday fun and leave the first line of your current read then head over to Reading Is My SuperPower and find more fun first lines. My first line today is from the cozy mystery To The Tome of Murder.
And the first line is:
Addie Greyborne swiped at the condensation on the window and pressed her nose against the cold glass.
Three weeks before Thanksgiving, bookshop owner Addie Greyborne already has a full plate—and a killer on her case . . .
Addie’s determined to turn a seemingly ordinary November in coastal Greyborne Harbor into one for the books. The windows of her shop display carefully curated works by American writers, including a rare selection of traditional holiday recipes from the influential 19th-century publication Godey’s Ladies Magazine. And then there’s the town’s Civil War-era themed cooking and baking competition, with a hefty cash prize and free publicity going to the winning dish . . .
But when she finds her cousin’s boyfriend murdered, a stunned Addie reluctantly realizes she may be the only person who can blow the cover off a grisly crime. With so many unanswered questions surrounding the victim’s death, Addie must figure out the strange connection between a mysterious vintage briefcase, the disappearance of a first edition copy of Sarah Josepha Hale’s famous nursery rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and a dangerously well-read culprit . . .
Will you be reading this book? Let me know in the comments the first line from your current book.
Put Out To Pasture is the second book in the cozy mystery series Farm To Table by Amanda Flower. I’ve read so many of her cozy mysteries in many of her series and they never disappoint. I always look forward to the next. Now even though this is part of a series it can be read as a stand alone. Shiloh Bellamy has her work cut out for her trying to keep the family farm afloat. She and her dog Huckleberry the Pug are working from sunup til sundown doing chores and trying to turn it into an organic bakery business when she gets the idea of hosting a fall festival at her farm. The festival is going swimmingly and she and her assistant can not keep up with the baking supply needed of the organic foods. Unfortunately this all comes to a screeching halt when a body is found in a back field. Things go from bad to worse when the evidence all seems to point to her best friend as the main suspect. Now she not only has the farm work to do she takes it upon herself to investigate the crime so her friend won’t be blamed. I enjoyed the book a lot except for the ending when it felt kind of strange as the love interest just fizzled out. I look forward to reading about more adventures in this series.
Pub Date 22 Feb 2022 I was given a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.
A delightful new cozy mystery from USA Today bestselling author Amanda Flower!
There’s fowl play afoot on the farm
Shiloh Bellamy has saved her family’s farm from financial ruin—but now what? She’s barely scraping by on the farm’s new organic business model and the fall festival she organized to drum up business comes to a screeching halt when the body of a prominent townswoman is discovered underneath a scarecrow in a nearby field. Worst of all, the evidence points to Shiloh’s childhood best friend, Kristy, as the prime suspect.
Between cooking up delicious treats made with her farm’s produce, convincing her cantankerous father to let her do things her own way, and dealing with a newcomer in town who could be serious competition for her customers, Shiloh doesn’t have time to wade into a murder investigation. But with a killer on the loose and suspicious activity circling closer and closer to Shiloh and the people she loves, she realizes there’s nothing to do but roll up her sleeves and get down to the dirty work of finding the killer and clearing Kristy’s name once and for all.
This book is perfect for cozy mystery readers and fans of Kate Carlisle, Denise Swanson, and Bree Baker.
Baked goods and homemade preserves and jams at a farmer’s market.
About The Author
Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and Agatha Award-winning author of over thirty-five mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she had been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. She currently writes for Penguin-Random House (Berkley), Kensington, Hallmark Publishing, Crooked Lane Books, and Sourcebooks. In addition to being a writer, she was a librarian for fifteen years. Today, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their two adorable cats. Visit her at http://www.amandaflower.com
Have you read any books by this author? Which are your favorites?
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