Miraz Jordan

I somehow got this free: A Dealer Dead Ahead (Law & Carter Cozy Mysteries Book 1). I read it to the end but didn’t care for it a whole lot. It just wasn’t very good, in any way. I might read another if it were free. Maybe this author gets better as she goes along? 📚

Leigh Mayberry has very quirky language in her books, but still I usually enjoy them. Murderous Profits (Lost in Alaska Book 7). Looks like I skipped 5 & 6 after #4 disappointed. Perhaps I should go back to them… 📚

An OK read: Death by Windmill: A Mother’s Day Murder in Amsterdam (Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) by Jennifer S. Alderson 📚. This was free — I haven’t read the others in the series and probably won’t. Some very unlikely events.

Not great. It all seems very stuffy, old-fashioned and rather unlikely. The Death of Amelia Marsh (Sally Nimitz Mysteries Book 1) by MaryJo Dawson 📚. Just not my thing, I guess and it was a mistake to buy it.

This was an enjoyable read: Death on the Danube: A New Year’s Murder in Budapest (Travel Can Be Murder Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) 📚:

Carl, her fellow tour guide, is found floating in the Danube River. Was it murder or accidental death?

I’m surprised I finished reading Murder by the Book (A Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery 1) by Lauren Elliott. It seemed confused and rushed, had basic logic flaws and the romantic elements were annoying. I’m unlikely to read more in this series. 📚

Not too bad to while away a few hours: A Welsh Murder Mystery Box Set Books 1–4 by Cathy Ace 📚:

women of the WISE Enquiries Agency turned their backs on their previous careers to work together to help others.

‘Enquiries’ rather than ‘detecting’ is an interesting notion.

I enjoyed Murder at Sugar Rush Beach (Detectives Preddy & Harris Book 3) by Paula Lennon 📚:

Detective Preddy hoped for a quiet start to the new year. But there’s a murder at Sugar Rush Beach. A man is stabbed through the heart with an antique awl.

I enjoy this author’s books and this was no exception: Striking Range: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima 📚:

Deputy Mattie and her K-9 partner Robo are called to help investigate the death of a young woman found in a campground filled with elk hunters.

Whiled away a day with Death of a Blogger: A Lady Marjorie Snellthorpe Mystery Novella by Dawn Brookes 📚:

a gossip blogger joins a tour party with victims of her malicious words…

I’m a bit ambivalent about Murder in Midwinter (Oxford Dog Walker Crime Thrillers Book 2) by Annie Dalton with Maria Dalton 📚. An interesting concept but a few too many coincidences and some parts dragged.

… the Oxford Six. One by one, the surviving members are targeted.

Unknown Baby Girl, a short story by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, is very powerful. As always from this author, a superbly written story. Read for free before 11 April 2022. 📚

I enjoyed These Little Lies (Detective Inspector Siv Drummond Book 1) by Gretta Mulrooney 📚. A new police procedural series from a British author I like:

Detective Inspector Siv Drummond is looking for a fresh start. What she gets is two dead bodies.

Another in a series I enjoy: Close to Death by Elizabeth Gunn 📚.

Detective Sarah Burke is called out to a mass shooting in a quiet residential street … it’s nothing she can’t handle.

That’s until one of the ‘dead’ bodies wakes up. At least now Sarah has a suspect.

I had low expectations for what turned out to be an excellent book. Murder on Port Meadow (Oxford Dog Walker Crime Thrillers Book 1) by Annie Dalton with Maria Dalton 📚 drew me in immediately and held me engrossed to the end. I’ve bought Book 2.

Abandoned 40% through: A Deadly Course (Sugarbury Falls Mysteries Book 1) by Diane Weiner 📚. Amateur detectives leap to various conclusions. I think I prefer trained detectives.

I abandoned Aged for Murder (A Tuscan Vineyard Cozy Mystery—Book 1) by Fiona Grace 📚 about 33% through. The write-up didn’t make clear it’s a romance with lots of ‘chiseled jaw’ and ‘stunningly handsome’. Romance is so not my thing, especially if it’s hetero.

I quite enjoyed Murder Under the Palms (Detectives Preddy & Harris Book 2) by Paula Lennon 📚. It was a little slow though.

My neighbour and no relation, Dr Jan Jordan, has just published a huge book she’s been working on for several years: Women, Rape and Justice: Unravelling the Rape Conundrum 📚 . Eyewatering cost, intended for academia but utterly readable. Congratulations Jan!

I really enjoyed The Girl Who Killed You (The Shee McQueen Mystery Thriller Series Book 3) by Amy Vansant 📚:

Shee quickly tracks [a missing] boy to a Bahamian island playground … The job seems such a breeze, she hires her daughter to infiltrate the age-restricted compound.

Another really good read in the Goodbye series: Goodbye Lake Street by Anne Shillolo 📚:

Police and a secret group of citizen investigators are locked in a battle for child safety, and Detective Constable Holly Towns finds herself trapped between the two.

A View to Die For by Cheri Baker 📚:

When a wealthy painter is murdered at the luxurious Londonian hotel, Paul and his new partner Andrew Kim take on the case.

Another excellent story from @Cheri, with wit and humour and even the occasional Kiwi! This was a re-read for me. 👍

Enjoyed Broken Places (A Cass Raines Mystery Book 1) by Tracy Clark 📚:

Cass Raines took a bullet in the line of duty… Now, the Chicago PD has one less African-American woman on the force and Cass is the head of a one-woman private investigation agency.

I think my immediate dislike of the narrator got me off to a bad start. I so much wanted to like this Australian book 📚 but it just kind of annoyed me.

Murder in Murloo (Dusty Kent Mysteries Book 1)

I very much enjoyed Murder in Montego Bay (Detectives Preddy & Harris Book 1) by Paula Lennon 📚. Set in Jamaica and featuring Jamaican dialect was a bonus.

Local ice-cream magnate Carter Chin Ellis is shot dead. Shortly after leaving Pelican Walk Police Station.