Fun New Cozy Series

51.
Title: [How to Murder a Millionaire]
Author: Nancy Martin
Pages: 272
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition:
Date Completed: June 28, 2013
Rating: ****

Although Nora Blackbird is a daughter of a highly distinguished Pennsylvania family, she is on a blacklist: her coke-snorting husband is murdered by his drug dealer, and her parents have left the country as tax evaders after blowing through the family fortune, taking some of their friends' fortunes with them. Faced with needing a job for the first time, she turns to a sympathetic family friend who owns a newspaper, and gives her a job writing for the society page - a place she knows well. When this same family friend is found murdered the police find themselves floundering in a world of manners and social decorum grounded in old bloodlines, and turn to Nora to help them work through the niceties. 

This cozy mystery grounds itself more in parties, couture, and gossip more than actual mystery, and I was shocked to find myself 90% through the book - and facing the murderer - before much was really discovered.  Apparently accessories can be very telling.  Still, I enjoyed some of the eccentric characters, and look forward to seeing the mess of the next book. 

52.
Title: [Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds]
Author: Nancy Martin
Pages: 272
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition:
Date Completed: June 30, 2013
Rating: ****

The second in the Blackbird Sisters series, Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds features the murder of a high society kleptomaniac, with missing jewelry, abusive relationships, and high society drama galore. The pacing is improved, but still requires some practice.  The relationship between Nora and Mick progresses, but still seems to come out of nowhere - for someone who is supposed to be "all wrong" and whose actions are so offensive from the first, Nora falls too easily and too quickly, making a suspension of disbelief overly difficult.  Still, he proves a likeable character, so I'll overlook the hasty beginning in favor of a little more consistent development later. 

48.
Title: [Priceless]
Author: Shannon Mayer
Pages:
Genre: Paranormal ... romance?
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Kindle Library Book
Date Completed: June 20, 2013
Rating: ***

Amazon had this filed under "Paranormal Romance," although the latter part of the genre was suspiciously missing.  It's actually a stronger book for its lack of "romance," although it's very clear where the series is heading. I found the plot - about a quasi-supernatural searching for missing children, after the disappearance of her own sister - interesting, but the lack of character development or sympathy will keep me from digging further into the series. 

49. 
Title: [Marked]
Author: Elisabeth Naughton
Pages:
Genre: actually Paranormal Romance
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition:
Date Completed: June 22, 2013
Rating: ***

I'm pretty sure I've read this story nearly fifty times before. A bookish and overlooked woman, who waits tables at a strip club to keep her bookstore afloat, finds out that she's "actually special," meets a "god-like" brute of a man, etc etc etc. It's exactly what you'd expect from the genre, but didn't hold singular interest for me. So, again, not a series I'll dig back into.

50. 
Title: [A Mating Dance]
Author: Lia Davis
Pages:
Genre: actually Paranormal Romance
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition:
Date Completed: June 25, 2013
Rating: ***

OH THE ERRORS! In this case, Ms. Davis cannot even get away with the excuse of typos - not only are there whole words missing from sentences, but there are endless homonym errors, of the high school freshman variety.  The final line of the book reads: "...to help keep me sane threw it all."  Also, something or other may not be "full proof."  Apparently Lia Davis is a "co-owner to Fated Desires Publishing, LLC," and I only hope someone steps up and tells the boss that she needs a good editor - spell check just won't catch these things. 

The book itself is about a "triad" of shapeshifters. There's a conflict with "rogues" and dying or missing people, and the kind of mistakes that leave you staring at the page for several minutes, because there's no way these kinds of mistakes can slip into professional publications with such regularity. 


Now I've started a new cozy series, and I have a few preorders coming this summer. In-between I think it may be time to actually read something with some history behind it.

45. 
Title: [The Death of Sweet Mister]
Author: Daniel Woodrell
Pages: 240
Genre: Fiction
Medium: Hardback
Acquisition:
Date Completed: June 10
Rating: *****

Daniel Woodrell's The Death of Sweet Mister is as poetic as it is repulsive. Though the jacket informs readers that the narrative takes place in the Ozarks, apparently like Woodrell's other works, there is an every-place feel to the story that allows the reader to imagine the events in a time and place of want and need that may be more familiar. It is a story of poverty, crime, and abuse, with a startling conclusion that fully emphasizes the impact of the title.  This is an ugly and at time horrifying LT friend recommendation that moved me as much as promised.


46.
Title: [Dead Men Do Tell Tales]
Author: William R. Maples
Pages: 304
Genre: Nonfiction
Medium: Paperback
Acquisition:
Date Completed: June 11
Rating: *****

In one chapter of Dead Me Do Tell Tales, Dr. Maples recounts being asked if his job was anything like a particular television program I've never heard of.  No, he would say, and expressed desire for the protagonist's brilliant assistant that helped the scientist solve cases in mere days.  As such, the good doctor wouldn't likely appreciate a comparison between his life's work and "Bones," but it's just this which first drew me to the book, and I was not disappointed.  Maples is an actual forensic anthropologist, and his book shares his thoughts on the development of the science, its successes, and where he hopes it will go in the future, supported by often gruesome professional anecdotes. I found the former-English-major's narrative to be entertaining and informative, without surging too far above my head.  I've had this on my shelf for some time now, and I'm very glad I finally got around to reading it.  

47. 
Title: [Death on Demand]
Author: Carolyn G. Hart
Pages:
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Medium: Kindle
Acquisition: Library Book
Date Completed: June 13, 2013
Rating: ***

Just another cozy mystery, which I'll likely forget in another week.  It wasn't the worst I've read, but it's largely unremarkable. The plot seems to borrow elements from other cozies just like the characters borrow quips from mystery novels I've never read.  I suppose I'm just not enough of a mystery devotee to sympathize with mystery shop owners solving alarmingly frequent murders in very small communities.