Book Review: An Ear for Murder
Posted: May 17, 2024 Filed under: Book Review, Books, cozy mystery, Fiction, Mystery, Review | Tags: An Ear for Murder, Book Review, cozy mystery, Diane Weiner, Writing to be Read Leave a comment
About the Book
Oboist Sara Baron agrees to cat sit for a childhood friend but instead of being greeted by a meowing fluff ball, she walks into a ransacked house and stumbles over her friend’s dead body. Frantic, she runs next door and enlists the help of a mysterious stranger who knows more than he admits. His charm, not to mention his deep chestnut eyes, is balanced by his guardedness, unexplained absences, and seemingly nonexistent past. Is he helping her expose the murderer, or covering his tracks? Meanwhile, Sara battles a career threatening affliction, and helps keep the family music business afloat all while looking for instrumental evidence to put the murderer behind bars.
Purchase Link: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Sara-Baron-Tuned-Mystery-ebook/dp/B08716ZSSX/
My Review
An Ear for Murder, by Diane Weiner, is A Sara Baron Tuned in Mystery, which is to say the protagonist and ametuer slueth is a musician. This is a cute cozy in which the protagonist falls into the middle of a murder mystery and is driven to solve it. This one is slow paced as the clues are uncovered, but it contains plenty of climactic moments.
Sara Baron makes a visit to her hometown when an affliction threatens to end her career as an oboist. But the friend she is staying with is murdered, and Sara sets out to find out who did it, and why, throwing her into the killer’s sites. Who the killer is remains a mystery, and the list of suspects grows, as the tension rises as each strange occurance becomes more dangerous. Then there’s the mysterious next door neighbor guy whose strange behavior makes him suspect, even though she wants to believe he’s one of the good guys. If she’s wrong, it could mean her life.
An Ear for Music contains all the right notes to create a cozy mystery in the tune of murder. I give it four quills.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.
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Book Review: Undercover on the Calypso
Posted: June 9, 2023 Filed under: Book Review, Books, cozy mystery, Fiction, Mystery, Review | Tags: Book Review, cozy mystery, Lizzie Josephson, Undercover on the Callypso, Writing to be Read 1 Comment
About the Book
Adrianne Chrisander inherited a small cruise line from a great uncle she hadn’t seen since she was two. Exciting, huh? But there were problems..
Somebody was occupying the Owner’s Cabin on The Cosmos Calypso, and the crew seemed to think he was their new boss. Who was he? What was his game?
And was the famous Contessa Cosmetica owner Sylvie Marconi telling the truth about the theft of her fabulous rejuvenating skin cream, or did she stage the incident for publicity?
Adrianne and her friend Carol needed to get to the bottom of it all before the reputation of The Cosmos Cruise Line was severely damaged!
Purchase Link:
https://www.amazon.com/Undercover-Calypso-Book-Cruise-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0892QDZS2
My Review
Undercover on the Calypso, by Lizzie Josephson is a cozy mystery aboard a luxury cruise ship. There is plenty of light-hearted antics, which move the story along, but there isn’t enough conflict to make me buy into this story. For one thing, the cruise line is inherited in a surprise revelation, and the heroine, Adrianne, seems to take all in stride, when an inheritance such as that would knock most people off their feet, or at least cause them to stop and catch their breath. She immediately decides, for no apparent reason, to check out her new cruise line undercover, before it becomes public knowledge that she is the new owner. In fact, everyone in this story seems to just accept that things are what they are, without expressing any doubt or resistance, and nothing really stands in the way of the mystery being solved.
That being said, it would be a great read for someone looking for a light read with a plot that runs smoothly, for a warm summer day, although it is not the book for me. I give Undercover on the Callypso three quills.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.
