Sammy Kane is busy getting ready for the arrival of superstar crafter and author Jane Johnson in her sleepy hometown of Heartsford, Wisconsin. As the owner of the town’s Community Craft store—which she inherited under tragic circumstances after her best friend, the original owner, died in a freak accident—she’s excited not only to host Jane’s…
The third installment of the Accidental Alchemist mystery series finds our namesake alchemist in Paris following the clues unearthed in the last novel, The Masquerading Magician. Zoe Faust is convinced that coming back to the Notre Dame Cathedral will allow her to discover more clues to save the life of her best friend, living gargoyle…
Accidental alchemist Zoe Faust has found a stopgap for her living-gargoyle-roommate Dorian Robert-Houdin’s problem. Whatever alchemy—or backward alchemy—that originally brought him to life seems to be wearing off, slowly turning his body back to stone and trapping his soul within the coffin that was once his flesh. The Tea of Ashes Zoe has discovered from…
Earlier this year, I became smitten with the ongoing adventures of the French gargoyle Dorian Robert-Houdin and his roommate, Zoe Faust, via the terrific The Alchemist’s Illusion, the fourth book in the Accidental Alchemist series. I decided to come back when I had the chance and review the series from the beginning, so here we…
Seventy-something-year-old librarian Cleo Watkins is too well-bred to have a nemesis, but if she did, it would probably be the irrepressible Dixie Honeycutt. For the past four decades, Cleo has been trying to get Dixie to return one very, very overdue book to the Catalpa Springs Public Library. But Dixie has outfoxed her at every…
Cupcake bakery owner Melanie Cooper has zero interest in attending her high school’s 15-year reunion, but her best friend and business partner, Angie Harper, is not above pulling every dirty trick in the book to not only get her to go but also to cater the affair. Mel was cruelly bullied in high school for…
Sherry Oliveri is on her way home to Augustin, Connecticut, from Florida where she’s won her latest culinary victory. Her “New England Crab Cake Sliders” were the winning entry for America’s Good Taste Recipe Contest, and she’s ready to kick back and relax from competitive cooking for a little while, focusing on her other preoccupations…
In book six of the Country Store Mystery series, heroine Robbie Jordan’s biggest headache seems to be keeping the peace between her customers over plans to build a resort on a nearby Indiana hilltop. While her Aunt Adele is excited about getting back to her radical past and leading illegal protests against the resort and…
It’s opening day for country store and restaurant Pans ‘N Pancakes, and owner Robbie Jordan is understandably nervous. Since moving from California to her mother’s hometown of South Lick, Indiana, she’s been driven to make a success of the business she’s practically built from scratch, hurdling all sorts of obstacles with aplomb. Now, with the…
Cat Latimer has her hands full preparing for the latest slate of authors to attend her Aspen Hills Warm Springs Resort monthly writers’ retreat. This bunch, a group of cozy mystery writers from Chicago, comes with their own set of interpersonal dramas, but Cat is used to handling such things with aplomb—especially with the help…
