Judge Thee Not - A Review

Review

JUDGE THEE NOT by Edith Maxwell
The Fifth Quaker Midwife Mystery

Over the years Rose Carroll has come across her fair share of prejudice. Not only is she a Quaker, she is a midwife who runs her own business in the 1880s. Rose is still surprised when Mayme Settle won't allow the postmistress to serve her. While Bertie's lifestyle is nontraditional, what does it have to do with buying some stamps? When one of Rose's clients tells her that Mrs. Settle is not only dead, but murdered, Rose can't help but wonder who killed her. Could it be her henpecked husband, who Rose saw give a look that could kill after she berated him in front of the Ladies Circle? Or perhaps her gardener who blames her for his daughter's death? There's also the banker who had a run in with the woman, and who may have killed before. It's certainly not her friend Bertie, who police consider a prime suspect. Rose is not about to let Bertie get railroaded merely because of her proclivities, so between caring for her pregnant clients and pondering her upcoming marriage, she decides to make some discrete inquiries. Will she be able to discern the truth, or will prejudice win the day? 

Edith Maxwell once again pens a historical novel that is as relevant today as the year in which it takes place. Sadly, prejudice and bigotry still exist in our world. Fortunately, there are people like Rose Carroll today, who continue to speak up against it!

I really appreciate Rose's style of investigation. She still went about her daily business, caring for her pregnant clients, planning her upcoming wedding, and dealing with concerns in both of those matters, all the while keeping her eyes and ears open, as well as he mind, as she sleuthed. This case was incredibly complex, yet woven into Rose's life seamlessly.

JUDGE THEE NOT is an expertly crafted mystery with social significance. It is also a fun read with a surprising conclusion that kept me engaged from the start.

Currently Reading...

I'm currently reading A Sprinkling of Murder by Daryl Wood Gerber. This book is the first in the Fairy Garden Mystery series and will be released June 30, 2020.

Courtney Kelly wanted some magic back in her life, as well as a measure of independence. So she left her father's landscaping business to start her own gardening shop, one that specialized in fairy gardens. Hard work and a positive attitude, along with a little something special, have helped Open Your Imagination thrive, but when she discovers her business neighbor dead in her shop, Courtney finds her store in trouble and herself a suspect. While Courtney never had a problem with the dead dog groomer, several other people did, including his wife and his landlord. Did they have something to do with his untimely death? Or was Courtney's neighbor, who decries that fairies aren't real and has been trying to undermine Open Your Imagination, behind the murder? With a sneaky reporter, an overprotective father, and a nosy councilwoman trying to get involved it's a good thing that Courtney has a very unique helper.

The Angel Makers - A Spotlight

Today I'd like to shine a spotlight on a book on my TBR pile. The Angel Makers by Tessa Harris is the second book in the Constance Piper Mystery series. You can check out my review of the first book in the series here.

From the back cover:

In Victorian England, flower seller Constance Piper goes searching for the truth behind a new rash of murders in London’s East End . . .
 
In November 1888, the specter of Jack the Ripper instills fear in every woman who makes her living on the streets of London. But there are other monsters at large, those who shun fame and secretly claim their victims from among the city’s most vulnerable . . .

Options are few for unmarried mothers in Victorian England. To avoid stigma, many find lodging with “baby farmers”—women who agree to care for the infant, or find an adoptive family, in exchange for a fee. Constance Piper, a flower seller gifted with clairvoyance, has become aware of one such baby farmer, Mother Delaney, who promises to help desperate young mothers and place their babies in loving homes. She suspects the truth is infinitely darker.

Guided by the spirit of her late friend, Emily Tindall, Constance gathers evidence about what really goes on behind the walls of Mother Delaney’s Poplar house. It’s not only innocent children who are at risk. A young prostitute’s body is found in mysterious circumstances. With the aid of Detective Constable Hawkins, newly promoted thanks to Constance’s help with his last case, Constance links the death to Mother Delaney’s vile trade. But the horror is edging closer to home, and even the hangman’s noose may not be enough to put this evil to rest . . .

Lavender Blue Murder - A Review & Giveaway

Review

LAVENDER BLUE MURDER by Laura Childs

The Twenty-First Tea Shop Mystery

Theodosia Browning and her friend and tea sommelier, Drayton, decide to do something different and enjoy a shooting party at the home of an anglophile friend. Upon hearing what sounds like a pistol shot among the gunfire, Theo goes to investigate, only to find their host bleeding out. As Theo calls for help, the remaining guests gather round, stunned, as Reginald Doyle dies before their eyes. When his high strung wife asks Theo for her help, the curious tea shop owner can't resist getting involved. Will Theo be able to sort through the various suspects and help the grieving widow?

There's lots to love in this long running series. The mystery here in intriguing and complex. There are several legitimate suspects, many of whom are nasty and unpleasant, all with good motives. As she investigates Theo uncovers very interesting family dynamics, a needy wife, an angry son, and a mousy daughter-in-law...each one suspicious in their actions.

I appreciated how Theo went about the business of running her shop and didn't go overboard in her sleuthing...until the end. As for the penultimate scene, I understood the first step Theo took, and don't fault her for following the car. I had a problem when, once again, her adrenaline rush apparently stopped her brain and she continued to follow, chase, and confront the murderer. That being said, her actions did make for a pulse pounding, page turning, finale.

The special tea events held during each of the Tea Shop Mysteries are always so special, and generally also relevant to the plot. I am a huge lavender fan and really enjoyed the attention it received. Although I still consider Delaine more an annoying frenemy than anything else, I do thank her for bringing Madame Emilia and a séance to the story. I hope to see more of the medium in the future.

LAVENDER BLUE MURDER is an intricately plotted mystery imbued with Southern grace, exemplary food, and fine tea. Sit back with a lavender scone and a cup of steaming Asaam and prepare for a delightful read.

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Lavender Blue Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery) by Laura Childs

About Lavender Blue Murder

 

Lavender Blue Murder (A Tea Shop Mystery)  

Cozy Mystery 21th in Series  

Publisher: Berkley (March 3, 2020)  

Hardcover: 336 pages 

Tea-Maven Theodosia Browning brews up trouble in the latest Tea Shop Mystery from New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs.

Tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier Drayton Conneley are guests at a bird hunt styled in the precise manner of an English shooting party. Which means elevenses (sloe gin fizzes), gun loaders, the drawing of pegs, fine looking bird dogs, and shooting costumes of tweed, herringbone, and suede.

But as gunshots explode like a riff of Black Cat firecrackers, another shot sounds too close for comfort to Theodosia and Drayton. Intrigued but worried, Theodosia wanders into the neighbor's lavender field where she discovers their host, Reginald Doyle, bleeding to death.

His wife, Meredith, is beside herself with grief and begs Theodosia and Drayton to stay the night. But Theodosia awakens at 2:00A.M. to find smoke in her room and the house on fire. As the fire department screams in and the investigating sheriff returns, Meredith again pleads with Theodosia for help.

As Theodosia investigates, fingers are pointed, secrets are uncovered, Reginald's daughter-in-law goes missing presumed drowned, and Meredith is determined to find answers via a séance. All the while Theodosia worries if she's made a mistake in inviting a prime suspect to her upscale Lavender Lady Tea.

INCLUDES DELICIOUS RECIPES AND TEA TIME TIPS!

About Laura Childs

 
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 fundraising 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.  

Laura’s Links:  
Website – http://www.laurachilds.com/  
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/laura.childs.31

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Murder at the Marlowe Club - A Review & Giveaway

Review

MURDER AT THE MARLOWE CLUB by Kate Parker

The Second Milliner Mystery

Taking a shortcut through a private park, milliner Emily Gates discovers the dead body of a woman. Lady Kaldaire soon joins the scene and recognizes the woman as the notorious Lady Roxanne, wife of the equally reprobate Lord Theodore who died mere weeks before. Although Emily just wants to return to her business and make more hats, Lady Kaldaire has other ideas. The murdered woman was the daughter-in-law of her good friend and Lady Kaldaire is determined to make Emily help her solve the murder. With Lady Kaldaire threatening to tell all of Emily's clients that her family is comprised of criminals, thereby ruining her, Emily reluctantly complies. Will Emily's new friends be able to help her survive the debauchery found at the Marlowe Club? Or will she encounter something even more sinister? 

MURDER AT THE MARLOWE CLUB has more twists and turns than rosettes on one of Emily's millinery creations! The perceptions of various characters colored everything and I love how the truth was slowly revealed. The book proves a good reminder not to believe everything you hear!

Emily Gates makes a wonderful protagonist. She's loyal, smart, and truly doesn't want to get involved in another murder. Emily is also well able to take care of herself, as we see in a few scenes! Her criminally inclined family provide a great counterpoint to the aristocracy, with Emily caught in the middle. We also meet some great new characters in this second Milliner Mystery. The Duke and Duchess of Blackford are actually characters from the Victorian Book Shop Mysteries, another series written by Kate Parker. While readers familiar with that series will enjoy seeing these characters again, previous knowledge of them is totally unnecessary as they are unfamiliar to Emily as well and we learn about them as she does.

MURDER AT THE MARLOWE CLUB is an exciting twisty ride through the seamier side of Edwardian London at a time when cocaine was still legal and private clubs held all manner of secrets.

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Murder at the Marlowe Club (The Milliner Mysteries) by Kate Parker

About Murder at the Marlowe Club

Murder at the Marlowe Club (The Milliner Mysteries) 

Historical Cozy Mystery 2nd in Series  

Publisher: JDP Press (February 24, 2020)  

Print Length: 209 pages 

A corpse in a corset. A dangerous gambling den. A perilous path between safety and peril.

London, 1905. Leading milliner Emily Gates' illegal shortcut through a private park in the rain brought her straight to a scantily clothed corpse. Then her route took her straight into the hands of the indefatigable Lady Kaldaire, who recognized the body as a relative of her longtime friend, the Duchess of Wallingford. Lady Kaldaire blackmailed Emily before to find Lord Kaldaire's killer. Why not this murderer, too?

Emily has plenty of reasons why not, but finding links between her father's nefarious family of crooks and conmen and the debauchery of the secretive Marlowe Club involves her in the investigation led by the handsome Inspector Russell of Scotland Yard. Emily discovers more than she expects about the licentious world of the corpse through her aristocratic customers, including Georgia, heroine of the Victorian Bookshop Mysteries, now the Duchess of Blackford.

Are the scandal rags correct, or has the victim been maligned by a mastermind who'll stop at nothing to gain everything?

This is a historical cozy mystery with no graphic violence, sex, or foul language. Just exciting action, mysterious events, and surprising endings.

About Kate Parker

 
Kate Parker grew up reading her mother’s collection of mystery books and her father’s library of history and biography books. Now she can’t write a story that isn’t set in the past with a few decent corpses littered about.  

Author Links:
Website - www.KateParkerbooks.com,  
Facebook - www.facebook.com/Author.Kate.Parker  
BookBub - www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-parker  

Purchase Links - Amazon - B&N - Apple -Kobo

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Currently Reading...

I'm currently reading Murder at the Marlowe Club by Kate Parker. This book is the second in the Milliner Mystery series and was released last week.

Taking a shortcut through a private park, milliner Emily Gates discovers the dead body of a woman. Lady Kaldaire soon joins the scene and recognizes the woman as the notorious Lady Roxanne, wife of the equally reprobate Lord Theodore who died mere weeks before. Although Emily just wants to return to her business and make more hats, Lady Kaldaire has other ideas. The murdered woman was the daughter-in-law of her good friend and Lady Kaldaire is determined to make Emily help her solve the murder. With Lady Kaldaire threatening to tell all of Emily's clients that her family is comprised of criminals, thereby ruining her, Emily reluctantly complies. Will Emily's new friends be able to help her survive the debauchery found at the Marlowe Club? Or will she encounter something even more sinister?

Here Comes the Body - A Recipe, Review, & Giveaway

I'm pleased to welcome Maria DiRico to Cozy Up With Kathy today. Maria writes the Catering Hall Mystery series. HERE COMES THE BODY is the first book in the series and was released last week. Maria also writes the Cajun Country Mystery series under the name Ellen Byron. 

 SHRIMP ETOUFFEE

 

“Etouffee” literally means “smothered” in French. In Cajun cooking, that translates to a delicious dish of shrimp or crawfish smothered in a veggie-laden sauce.

Ninette’s version is more Cajun than Creole because she doesn’t include tomatoes, a staple of many Creole dishes. Her recipe really lets the flavors of the “Holy Trinity” of Cajun cooking – onions, green pepper, and celery – stand out.

Ingredients:

½ lb. butter or light butter

1 cup chopped onion

½ cup chopped green bell pepper

¼ cup chopped celery

2 T. minced garlic

2 T. dried parsley flakes

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. Cajun Seasoning, like Tony Chachere’s

1 T. flour (or 2 T. if you want to thicken the sauce more)

1 cup either shrimp stock, crawfish stock, chicken stock, or water

1 lb. peeled shrimp or peeled crawfish tails

6 cups cooked white rice

Instructions:

Using medium to high heat, melt the butter in a heavy, large skillet. Add the onion, pepper, celery, garlic, parsley, salt, and Cajun seasoning. Stir well to combine all the ingredients, then reduce the heat a bit and cook until the onion softens. Add the flour, stirring well. As soon as the flour begins to stick to the bottom of the skillet, add the stock slowly until you’ve added it all to the mixture, stirring well to combine. Simmer the mixture until it bubbles, add the shrimp or crawfish, and stir well. Bring the mixture to a bubble again,  then reduce the heat to low. Cover the skillet and simmer the etouffe for ten to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.

Serve over 1 cup of white rice per serving. Or…

This recipe is pretty low-calorie. If you want to make it even more so, served it over riced cauliflower instead of rice.

Serves 6.

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Review

HERE COMES THE BODY by Maria DiRico

The First Catering Hall Mystery

When her cheating husband goes missing, Mia Carina becomes a person of interest, partly because she's the aggrieved wife and even more so because of her mob connections. Once out from under suspicion this Queens girl leaves Florida and returns home to Astoria and her Family. While Belle View Catering Hall is under the auspices of the Boldano Family, her father is running it as a legitimate business and Mia aims to help him keep it that way. But when a dead body turns up during a bachelor party, police immediately suspect Ravello. Mia will have to use her street smarts and Family connections to keep the business afloat and prove her dad's innocence.

I'm not sure what it is about the mob that's so fascinating, but its appeal can't be denied. I absolutely love this book! Mia is a fantastic protagonist, she's tough and no nonsense, but also shows a vulnerability. One of my favorite things about the book is the Astoria neighborhood. Mia's nonna and her army of aging residents are a delight from their holiday decor one-upmanship, "traditional" furnishings (plastic slipcovers, anyone?), and food, plenty of home cooked food, be it Italian or Greek. Mia's brother is also a hoot, trying to be a viral hot con, while doing another prison stint. Add her father's soft side and his intimidating boss, and you have a Family to die for.

From wacky characters with heart, villains you love to hate, and comedic touches to keep you laughing HERE COMES THE BODY is the crème de la crème of cozy mysteries.

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Here Comes the Body (A Catering Hall Mystery) by Maria DiRico

About Here Comes the Body

Here Comes the Body (A Catering Hall Mystery)  

Cozy Mystery 1st in Series 

Publisher: Kensington (February 25, 2020)  

Mass Market Paperback: 304 page

After her philandering husband’s boat went down, newly single Mia Carina went back to Astoria, the bustling Queens neighborhood of her youth. Living with her Nonna and her oversized cat, Doorstop, she’s got a whole new life—including some amateur sleuthing . . .

Mia is starting work at Belle View, her father’s catering hall, a popular spot for weddings, office parties, and more—despite the planes that occasionally roar overhead on their way to LaGuardia and rattle the crystal chandelier. Soon she’s planning a bachelor party for a less-than-gentlemanly groom. But it goes awry when the gigantic cake is wheeled in and a deadly surprise is revealed . . . Since some of her family’s associates are on the shady side, the NYPD wastes no time in casting suspicion on Mia’s father. Now, Mia’s going to have to use all her street smarts to keep him out of Rikers Island . . . Italian recipes included!

About Maria DiRico

Maria DiRico was born in Queens, New York, and raised in Queens and Westchester County. She is a first-generation Italian-American on her mother’s side. On her father’s side, her grandfather was a low-level Jewish mobster who disappeared in 1933 under mysterious circumstances. She also writes the award-winning, bestselling Cajun Country Mystery series under the name Ellen Byron.

Website - https://www.ellenbyron.com/catering-hall-mysteries  
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CateringHallMysteries/  
Twitter - https://twitter.com/ellenbyronla  

Purchase Links - Amazon - B&N - Kobo - Google Play - IndieBound

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