Review of "Murder With Oolong Tea: A Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery" by Karen Rose Smith

 

In this sixth book in the 'Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery' series, tearoom owner/amateur sleuth Daisy Swanson investigates the murder of a schoolteacher. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

When she was left a widow with two teenage daughters, Daisy Swanson moved from Florida to her hometown of 

Willow Creek in the Amish region of Pennsylvania. There Daisy and her Aunt Iris run 'Daisy's Tea Garden', a charming eatery that serves soup, salad, sandwiches, pastries, and tea.



Daisy has a lot on her mind besides managing the tearoom. Daisy's daughter Vi and son-in-law Foster need advice about their finances and help with their 4-month-old baby Sammy;



Daisy's 16-year-old daughter Jazzi asks permission for a classmate named Brielle - a rebellious girl with a nose ring, piercings, and tattoos - to stay over for two weeks, while Brielle's parents are traveling;





and Daisy's boyfriend Jonas, a custom wood craftsman, is suffering from a friend's betrayal.



In addition, Daisy is planning a children's tea AND an event for the local high school.



Willow Creek High School is organizing a student concert followed by a teacher appreciation tea, and Daisy has been hired to cater the party. To go over the menu, Daisy meets guidance counselor Stella Cotton and principal Megan Pratt in Willow Creek High School's teachers' lounge, which is filled with faculty and staff.



While Daisy, Stella, and Megan are discussing the refreshments for the appreciation tea, sixtyish English teacher Althea Higgins - who taught Daisy in her old high school days - makes loud unkind remarks about a newly hired instructor called Claudia Moore.



Later, Althea comes to Daisy's Tea Garden and confronts Daisy because no one asked her opinion about the appreciation tea. Althea wants gluten-free choices as well as organic produce. Daisy soon learns that Althea is an opinionated, outspoken, hard-nosed woman who's always complaining about someone or something.



At the appreciation tea, which is held in Willow Creek High School, Althea has a loud confrontation with Claudia, the teacher she dislikes. Afterwards, Althea's body is found in the school pool, strangled with a rope. Claudia is an early suspect for Althea's murder, as is guidance counselor Stella Cotton, who found the body. In actuality, though, there are many possible murderers because Althea angered almost everyone she met.

Daisy has previously solved homicides in Willow Creek, and several people - who fear they or their loved ones might be accused - ask Daisy to look into Althea's murder. Daisy agrees, but emphasizes that the police are the REAL detectives.



Nevertheless, the locals tend to come to Daisy with their observations and evidence, which Daisy inevitably investigates herself, planning to tell the police if things pan out.

In between interviewing people, data mining, searching apartments, making inquiries, and so on, Daisy deals with the issues in her personal life, some of which are very serious. Daisy also serves a lot of oolong tea, blueberry coffee cake, snickerdoodles, scones, cabbage sausage soup, and other goodies to family, friends, customers, and acquaintances.



Daisy is a caring woman who helps others and sticks up for the underdog, especially if someone is unfairly criticized in her presence. Daisy also has a fine support system, including her aunt and mother; the employees at Daisy's Tea Room; friends in Willow Creek; and the town police, who appreciate her assistance.

This is a fine cozy mystery with likable characters, a good plot, and recipes at the end. Highly recommended to fans of the genre.

Thanks to Netgalley, Karen Rose Smith, and Kensington Publishing Corp. for a copy of the book.

You can follow my reviews at http://reviewsbybarbsaffer.blogspot.com/

The book includes recipes for Blueberry Coffee Cake, Cabbage Sausage Soup, and Coleslaw.


Blueberry Coffee Cake


Cabbage Sausage Soup


Coleslaw

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Artemis: A Science Fiction Novel" by Andy Weir

 

Jasmine (Jazz) Bashara has been living in Artemis, the only city on the moon, since she was six-years-old.

The daughter of Muslim master welder Ammar Bashar, twentysomething Jazz is a bit of a wild card - a brilliant young woman who refuses to take up a 'laudable' profession.



Instead Jazz works as a porter, picking up and delivering goods. Mostly, Jazz conveys products shipped from Earth. When a shuttle arrives, Jazz picks up merchandise at the Port of Entry and brings it to the appropriate buyer.



Jazz - who's an enterprising young woman - takes advantage of her job to smuggle in contraband items ordered by her 'clients.' This includes things like: expensive cigars;



Cigarette lighters;



Pure ethanol;



Electronics;



Illegal chemicals;



.....and more. The money (called slugs) that Jazz earns by smuggling augments her meager salary, but the porter is still dirt poor. Jazz's living quarters amount to a bunk in a closet.....with a shared bathroom down the hall. And her food consists of gunk - mush made from algae.

Jazz is always scheming to make more money, because she has a debt of 417,000 slugs.....and she wants a decent apartment. So when one of Jazz's customers, Trond Landvik (one of the 'richest richfucks in town') asks her to sabotage Sanchez Aluminum - so he can take over the company - Jazz agrees to do it.....for 1,000,000 slugs.



Jazz plans a complex, dangerous caper to destroy Sanchez's equipment, but things go wrong and a murder ensues. Moreover, it looks like Jazz's life is in danger as well.



Turns out Sanchez Aluminum is owned by a Brazilian crime syndicate called 'O Palácio', whose leaders don't appreciate people messing with their factory.



Moreover, O Palácio is apparently scheming to take control of Artemis's economy by hijacking the manufacture of a valuable technology called ZAFO. Artemis's administrator - a Kenyan woman called Fidelis Ngugi - wants to stop the Brazilians.....so she gives Jazz 'the wink' to do something about them.



Jazz cooks up a complicated scheme to thwart O Palácio', and enlists the help of her family and friends. The dangerous escapade - which involves a lot of cutting and welding - is described in minute detail.....but I found it hard to picture. (Maybe it will be clearer when the movie comes out. LOL) Jazz's scheme doesn't unfold quite as planned, but she's a resourceful gal who can think - and act - fast.



To me Jazz is a likable, spirited saboteur who drinks beer, curses like a sailor.....and gamely agrees to test a re-usable condom invented by a friend/client. I enjoyed Jazz's correspondence with her Earth penpal, Kelvin Otieno, who she 'met' at the age of nine. Jazz and Kelvin become close friends, exchange confidences, and become partners in the smuggling business.

Other memorable parts of the story include: the author's description of Artemis - which seems like a place that could really exist;



....the manner in which Rudy - the head cop on Artemis - administers justice to a wife beater (this is stellar!); Jazz's interest in Arabic gossip sites - which she frequently cruises on her Gizmo (a sort of smartphone/electronic wallet); 



.....and Jazz's contentious but loving relationship with her dad.....who did the best he could in difficult circumstances.

My major criticism of the book is the over-description of Artemis's construction and the (often) hard-to-understand science. This is unnecessary and tedious.....and it slows down the story at the most exciting moments.

Overall, this is an entertaining adventure story in an unusual setting - with a large array of engaging characters. I'd recommend the book to fans of science fiction/action novels.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (Andy Weir), and the publisher (Crown) for a copy of the book. 

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Dirty South: A Charlie Parker Thriller" by John Connolly

 

This is the 18th book in the Charlie Parker series, but it's actually a prequel that introduces us to the former cop turned independent investigator. The book works fine as a standalone.

*****

It's 1997 and NYPD Detective Charlie Parker, who's devastated by the horrific ritualistic murders of his wife and daughter, quits his job. Hearing of other macabre murders from an FBI source, Charlie wanders the country seeking his family's killer.



This brings Parker to the downtrodden town of Cargill, Arkansas, where two black girls were tortured and slain.



Unfortunately the county's Chief Investigator, Jurel Cade, is disinclined to look into the homicides.



Cade's family, a wealthy clan that owns most of the property in Cargill, is negotiating with Kovas industries to build factories in the area. The plants would bring prosperity and jobs to the region, and Jurel and other residents don't want to scare Kovas off.

Thus the first murder is swept under the rug and the second killing is declared an accident, though both victims were stabbed with a knife and and violated with tree branches.



When Parker rolls into town asking questions about the dead girls, he irritates the townsfolk and comes to the attention of Police Chief Evander Griffin, who throws Charlie in jail overnight. Coincidentally another dead black girl is discovered, this time in Griffin's jurisdiction, and the Police Chief DOES plan to investigate.



When the Chief learns Parker is a former NYPD detective, he asks the ex-cop to help with the murder inquiry, and Parker (reluctantly) agrees.



Cargill is a typical poverty-stricken, old-fashioned southern town with a strong racial divide, though not much overt animosity between blacks and whites.





Still, most of the white population doesn't make a fuss when the murders of black victims go unsolved.

When Parker starts looking into the black girls' homicides, the Cade family, which has a LOT to lose, takes exception....and one of them hires thugs to beat Parker to a pulp. Charlie hears about this plan and phones his acquaintances Louis and Angel, who hustle down to Cargill to watch his back. What they do when they get there made me smile. 🙂



In addition to being plagued by a serial killer, Cargill has other problems. The abutting Ouachita Forest is home to meth labs, which spawns an entire criminal industry;



the negotiator from Kovas who flies into Cargill periodically is corrupt;



and Pappy Cade (Jurel's father) bribes, threatens, cheats, and strongarms the locals to acquire their land.



The criminal elements also employ sadistic enforcers, who just add to Cargill's woes.



The story has a large cast of characters, including a troubled preacher; a sociopathic pedophile; a venal businessman; a haughty woman; and other folks I wouldn't want to meet. The novel is almost a sociological study of a poor town run by a heartless. greedy, self-serving family.

Unlike other Charlie Parker novels, this one has almost no supernatural elements, as Charlie (apparently) hasn't plugged into his paranormal abilities yet.

I liked seeing Parker at the beginning of his private detective odyssey, and his early association with Louis and Angel. A good addition to the series.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author (John Connolly), and the publisher (Atria/Emily Bestler Books) for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "The Order: A Gabriel Allon Thriller" by Daniel Silva

 

In this 20th book in the 'Gabriel Allon' series, the Israeli intelligence chief investigates the death of a pope. The book can be read as a standalone.

*****

SPOILER ALERT /  SPOILER ALERT  /  SPOILER ALERT

Gabriel Allon is an art restorer, assassin, and espionage agent who's now head of Israel's intelligence agency, called 'The Office.'



Thinking her husband needs a break from his taxing job, Gabriel's beautiful wife Chiara.....



.....arranges for a vacation in Venice, where the couple and their young twins can absorb the culture, eat delicious food, and spend time together as a family.



The Allons have just begun their getaway when a tragedy upsets their plans. Gabriel's friend Pope Paul VII - who's been working to forge a reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Jewish people - dies suddenly.



The pontiff was an elderly man with heart problems, and his death is attributed to natural causes. However the Pope's private secretary. Archbishop Luigi Donati, thinks his master was murdered.



Donati asks Gabriel to investigate the Pope's death, which Allon does with the assistance of his team at The Office, who can hack anything.



It turns out Pope Paul VII was murdered by members of a right-wing group called 'The Order of Saint Helena' - a xenophobic, anti-Semitic, neofascist organization that wants to undo Church reforms and expel immigrants from Europe.



To do this, The Order - which has its tentacles in the Vatican as well as the police, judiciary, banking industry, business world, etc. - plans to install a puppet pope. The illegitimate pontiff will take the Church in a sharply conservative direction, in collaboration with fascistic leaders across Europe.

The Order was going to wait for frail Pope Paul VII to die of old age, but their agenda was escalated when the Pope acquired a previously unknown gospel called 'The Gospel According to Pontius Pilate.'



This gospel puts the blame for Christ's death on the Romans rather than the Jews, whom the Church has been condemning for thousands of years. Numerous scholars believe the Church's execration of the Jews caused widespread anti-Semitism, and was an underlying cause of the Holocaust. Thus The Order doesn't want the Pontius Pilate book - which contradicts their teachings - to become known to the general public.

The Order learned Pope Paul VII was going to give the Pontius Pilate gospel to Allon, so its leaders had him killed. There may have been a witess to this crime, a Swiss Guard stationed outside the pontiff's apartment who's now missing.



Gabriel has to work fast to expose the Pope's murderers and stop their scheme for a puppet Pope, because the College of Cardinals - many of whom have been paid off by The Order - is about to elect a new pontiff. Thus Allon has to hurry to Rome, infiltrate the secret archives of the Vatican, search for the missing Swiss Guard, visit Switzerland, make a hop to Germany, get assistance from honest members of the clergy, etc.





The novel, which is full of corrupt and venomous clergy, and refers to Church scandals over the ages, may offend some Catholic readers. In his author's note at the end of the book, Silva emphasizes that this is a work of fiction and there's no Gospel According to Pontius Pilate. Nevertheless, Silva expands on the view that the Church is responsible for most Christian anti-Semitism, which the Church promoted on purpose and with ignominious intentions (in his view).

Silva's books are always exciting, and this is no exception. There's plenty of action, shooting, scheming, surveilling, conniving.....and even a touch of magical realism.

Recommended to readers who enjoy thrillers, especially fans of Gabriel Allon.

Rating: 3.5 stars