Cozy Mystery

Review of Mystery at the Masquerade by Josh Lanyon

March 20, 2021 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Blurb:

Ellery Page, aspiring screenwriter, reigning Scrabble champion, and occasionally clueless owner of the Crow’s Nest mystery bookshop, is both flattered and bemused when he’s invited to the annual Marauder’s Masquerade, the biggest social event of the season in the quaint seaside village of Pirate’s Cove, Rhode Island.

Ellery doesn’t even know Mrs. Bloodworth-Ainsley—nor, it turns out does Mrs. Bloodworth-Ainsley know Ellery. But Marguerite’s son, Julian, wants to know him. Julian, handsome, rich, and engaging, is a huge mystery buff, but he’s never quite worked up the nerve to ask Ellery out.

As his relationship with Police Chief Jack Carson seems to be dead in the water, Ellery is grateful for a little flattering male attention from the village’s most eligible bachelor. But any hopes of romance hit the shoals when Julian is accused of murdering his mother’s unlikable second husband during the spooky annual ghost hunt in the old cemetery.

Review

Murder at the Masquerade is the third book in the Secrets and Scrabble series — that follows Ellery Page, a bookstore owner and amateur sleuth who resides in the seaside village of Pirate’s Cove. Once again, Ellery is reluctantly dragged into another murder investigation — this time, at the town’s most prestigious yearly event. This time, Ellery is surprised by the attentions of Julian, the son of one of the wealthiest families in Pirate’s Cove. Paying a visit to Julian’s family crypt, they stumble across the body of Julian’s unlikeable stepfather, and Ellery is inadvertently drawn into the investigation, much to the chagrin of Police Chief Jack Carson.

Like the past two books, this was an intriguing yet lighthearted mystery populated with numerous shenanigans and quirky, oddball secondary characters. I really loved journeying along with this zany set of vibrant characters as the pieces of the puzzle slowly fit into place, and the mystery unfurled. I’ve come to love the folks of this village community, and it’s heartwarming to see them slowly begin to accept Ellery as one of their own.

Though the mystery itself is at the forefront of the story, we do see a significant step forward in Ellery’s hot and cold, push and pull romance with Police Chief Jack Carson. I look forward to future books to see where their relationship goes. But as this is a cozy mystery, there is no on-page violence, swearing, or sex, so this is the perfect story for those who don’t like their mysteries too gory or too sexy.

All in all, I found it delightfully inventive, playful, humorous and clever, with all of its creepy crypts, hidden tunnels, and over-the-top characters and situations. This tongue-in-cheek story is a treat for cozy mystery fans.

Oh, and Ellery’s lovable dog Watson, who plays a more significant part in the story this time, is the cherry on top of this fun and delightful tale.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book.

Purchase Murder at the Masquerade from Amazon

Review of The Dreadful Objects by Chris Cooper

November 26, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

The dreadful objects book cover The Dreadful Objects follows our main character Jamie Lawson who has been in a major rut and has been unable to move on with his life, following the death of his girlfriend a year earlier. He then learns that his uncle, a famous and quite wealthy horror author, has committed suicide and has bequeathed Jamie all of his possessions including a couple of million dollars and a big, creepy and spooky mansion, filled with macabre horror memorabilia.

From the cover, I thought that this might be a haunted house story, but it wasn’t. It was more about haunted objects, which made me think of the television show a few years back entitled Warehouse 13.

So Jamie inadvertently discovers that the events in his uncle’s horror books actually happened in real life. Now that might not seem all that surprising except that all of the events that took place in the books occurred after the books were written.

Jamie decides to dig a bit to see if he can discover further connections and learns that two items that are locked in glass cases appear to be linked with real-life deaths and might hold the key to figuring out why his uncle killed himself. As Jamie puts together more pieces of the puzzle, he begins to realize that the mystery may be even stranger than he’d initially thought and may, in fact, be paranormal in nature (hint: it is)

I’ve read a ton of haunted house novels, so I found the idea of haunted objects to be a refreshing change of pace from the usual haunted house trope (though I have to admit that I do have a soft spot for haunted house stories). I also really enjoyed the vivid and vibrant descriptions of the house and all of the spooky off-the-wall objects contained therein, which I felt added to the richness and the atmosphere of the story.

Though this novel is classified as a horror novel and it is a bit on the scary side, true horror fans may be tad disappointed. It’s true that the story is dark at times and definitely tells a suspenseful, spooky tale, but it does so in a more lighthearted way. As such, I felt that this novel might be better placed in the cozy mystery genre (or perhaps the cozy horror genre, if there is such a thing).

All in all, The Dreadful Objects was a twisty, wildly entertaining story with relentless pacing, rich, lifelike characters and a brilliant ending which made this novel a real page-turner for me. It’s a wonderfully mysterious thriller that I had a difficult time putting down right until the surprising and utterly satisfying conclusion. Recommended!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I won this book in a Goodreads drawing and was under no obligation to leave a review.

Purchase The Dreadful Objects at Amazon

Purchase The Dreadful Objects at The Book Depository

Review of Woof at the Door by Laura Morrigan

August 14, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Talking to the Animals

Woof at the Door is the first in a cozy mystery series revolving around Grace Wilde, an animal behaviorist or trainer who has an ability to converse telepathically with animals, both domestic animals and wildlife and she uses her skills to save animals from harm and help solve behavior issues for problem pets for her clients. Think Doctor Doolittle or Animal Whisperer.

But Grace keeps her abilities a secret from everyone except her sister. So her clients all just assume that she simply has a knack with animals.

There’s a murder and a witness

So the story starts when Grace is called out to aid the police with a traumatized and angry guard dog, a Doberman named Jax. Jax witnessed the murder of his owner, the star quarterback of the Florida Jaguars, Mark Richardson. Richardson is also the son of the current Governor, so he’s a relatively high profile person.

The poor dog is suffering from trauma and Grace knows that it’s going to take a while before the Jax’s mind allows him to fully remember who was responsible for the death of his owner. At the moment, all Grace can sense from him is his feelings of utter betrayal. So Grace takes Jax to her home to care for him – a home that she shares with her sidekick and best friend Moss, a wolf hybrid fiercely protective and loyal to Grace.

Being a veterinarian herself, Grace is able to calm the Doberman and hopes to find him a home. It’s interesting to note that the reason that Grace didn’t pursue a career in veterinary medicine, by the way, was because of constant chatter in her head from all the animals. It’s also worth mentioning that Grace’s “pet whispering” talent is handled in a realistic and entertaining way in the book, and the author does an excellent job of presenting her talent has believable.

Chatting with a Jaguar

So Grace hopes that the police will solve the case so she doesn’t have to get involved any further in such a high profile case but the crime just will not go away. In fact, Grace is next called back out to calm a Jaguar owned by a friend of hers. It just so happens that this friend also had an altercation with Richardson shortly before his murder, making him the primary suspect in the killing.

The jaguar, however, shows/tells Grace that her owner did not commit the crime and was home asleep on the couch when the murder took place. The problem is how does Grace inform the police sergeant in charge of the case without disclosing her abilities, and will he believe her?

Grace becomes an amateur sleuth

Now its up to Grace to figure out exactly what Jax has seen, so she takes it upon herself to find concrete evidence to give to the homicide detective in charge, the handsome Kai Duncan leading to some quite humorous situations, especially when giving obviously vague answers to the detectives questions, making her look guilty in the process. Not that Grace is in any hurry to let anyone else know about her ability. She was once burned pretty badly when she revealed her talents to a boyfriend, so she’s determined not to disclose her gifts to anyone else.

The Verdict

This was a lovely cozy mystery and a fun whodunnit, with plenty of suspects, along with numerous twists and surprises, that I didn’t see coming. It had a gripping multi-layered plot with a superb supporting cast of characters. I especially loved Grace’s character – she was feisty, independent and strong, an all-around lovable character. The story was also wrapped up nicely at the end with a satisfying conclusion.

If you’re an animal lover and a mystery buff then you might want to check out Woof at the Door. I give this 5 stars, and I can’t wait to read more books in this series. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

You can check out Woof at the Door here at Amazon or at The Book Depository