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

In this 7th book in the 'Daisy's Tea Garden Mystery' series, tearoom owner/amateur sleuth Daisy Swanson investigates the murder of a lawyer. 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's older daughter Vi is now married with a baby.....



.....and Daisy's younger daughter Jazzi is getting ready for college.



Daisy's romantic life had some ups and downs but she's now in a serious relationship with Jonas Groft, a former police detective who now makes custom wood furniture.



As the story opens, the Willow Creek Town Council is holding a fundraiser for a proposed homeless shelter. Daisy and Aunt Iris provide the refreshments, including orange pekoe tea, snickerdoodles, chocolate espresso cookies, various flavors of whoopie pies, and more.






Whoopie Pies

The fund-raising event is going well until a group of protestors in inhalation masks show up, shouting "No homeless shelter in Willow Creek, No homeless shelter in Willow Creek" again and again.



The police round up the protestors, most of whom go quietly. However the protest leader Eli Lapp - who grew up in the Amish community but left as a teenager - is uncooperative. Eli refuses to take off his mask.....



......and insists on being represented by his lawyer, Hiram Hershberger, who isn't thrilled about the protest.



As it happens Hershberger is also the attorney for the Hope Clinic, a fertility center that accidently destroyed its frozen eggs and embryos, dashing the hopes of many would-be parents. The devastated patients are talking about suing the clinic - which refuses to return their money - and are furious with Hershberger for being on the wrong side.

Hershberger is soon found dead, and the main suspects are Eli Lapp, who was known to clash with Hiram on occasion.....



..... and Piper and Emory - a couple whose embryos had been destroyed by the fertility clinic.



Emory had argued with Hershberger at the fundraiser, and the clash was caught on camera and shown on the news.

Daisy knows the prime suspects because Eli works at Jonas's woodworking shop and she'd spoken to Piper and Emory about adoption, since she'd adopted a daughter herself. Daisy fears one of these acquaintances might be wrongly arrested for Hiram's murder, and she involves herself in the investigation.

Daisy garners clues both by overhearing conversations at Daisy's Tea Garden and by speaking with community members, who trust Daisy more than they do the cops.



Daisy shares her investigative findings with Detective Morris Rappaport, but not always in a timely manner.....thus putting herself at risk from the killer.



Meanwhile, in Daisy's private life, she visits with her daughter Vi, son-in-law Foster, and grandson Sammy; helps Jazzi's friend Brielle deal with family issues; counsels members of the Mommy Group who suffered losses at the fertility clinic; plans a July 4th bash at Daisy's Tea Garden; helps her boyfriend Jonas adopt a dog; and more.

;

The plot doesn't make complete sense, since the clinic would surely have insurance and settle with the affected parents. Nevertheless, this is an entertaining cozy with likable recurring characters.

Recipes in the book include corn chowder, crunchy slaw, and chocolate espresso cookies.


Corn Chowder


Crunchy Slaw


Chocolate Espresso Cookies

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

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "Mummy's Little Secret: A Novel of Suspense" by M.A. Hunter

This review was first posted on Mystery and Suspense. Check it out for features, interviews, and reviews. https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/mu...

Jess - who lives in the London suburbs - has been wheelchair-bound for six months, since an epidural needle slipped and paralyzed her legs just before she gave birth to a stillborn son. Jess is still reeling from the double tragedy, but tries to keep life as normal as possible for her four-year-old daughter Grace. Thus Jess is watching Grace frolic at the playground.....





.....when a little girl grasps the arm of Jess's wheelchair and nervously whispers "She's not my mum."

A moment later a fifty-something woman with a Scottish accent trots into view calling "Daisy? Daisy?"



The woman apologizes to Jess for her daughter being a nuisance, and introduces herself as Morag. Grace and Daisy run off to play, the mothers start to chat, and they discover that Grace and Daisy will be starting school together next week.



Morag, apparently eager to help Daisy make friends, asks about arranging a playdate. She then says she's parched and suggests they all go to a nearby refreshment stand for juice and cake. Jess, whose husband Charlie has been pushing her to get out more, reluctantly agrees.

However Jess can't forget Daisy's four little words - She's not my mum - and views Morag with deep suspicion. Morag is old to be Daisy's mother; evades explaining why she, her husband Angus, and Daisy recently moved to London; and appears anxious. Moreover Daisy is quiet and subdued, almost as if she's afraid to speak.



For Morag's part, she's uncomfortable with Jess's questions and senses that Jess views her with mistrust. Worse yet, Jess keeps looking at Daisy askance, as if she senses something is wrong.

After this initial encounter, Jess and Morag meet repeatedly, either by design - when Morag invites Jess's family to her home for a barbecue; or accidently - when the women are dropping their children off at school, shopping for groceries, or in a boutique shop. Jess becomes increasingly uneasy about Morag, does research online, and concludes Morag abducted Daisy.



Jess confides in her husband Charlie, but Charlie - who's often harried and working late - thinks Jess is just being paranoid.



Actually Morag IS hiding something and trying to evade someone. Morag is uncomfortable with her repeated 'accidental' encounters with Jess and becomes convinced Jess has been hired to spy on her.



The tension between Jess and Morag escalates, there are further developments, and a homicide occurs.



The story switches back and forth between Before and Now, and is told in the alternating voices of Jess, Morag, and Detective Inspector Mike Ferry, who's investigating the homicide.

In the Before chapters we see what led to the murder. In the Now sections, DI Ferry is probing the crime with the Chief Super on his back to make an arrest. Ferry's unit had a recent run-in with Professional Standards and barely escaped with their jobs. Now the boss wants things done fast and by the book. But Ferry is having difficulty making sense of the death, and working with his detective ex-girlfriend just makes things harder.



The story is cleverly constructed, and tension builds as Jess and Morag's secrets are slowly revealed, and the details of the crime are unearthed bit by bit.

A positive aspect of the book is the depiction of Jess as a recent paraplegic who gets around on her own.



Jess and Charlie can't afford an electric wheelchair and Jess has to hand push her chair's wheels to bring Daisy to school, do the shopping, take a train, bring Daisy to the playground, etc. Manipulating the wheelchair is painful and exhausting, and Jess's determination to be a good wife and mother - and perhaps get back to her job as a journalist - is encouraging.

Part character study and part police procedural, this novel will intrigue mystery lovers and armchair detectives.

Thanks to Netgalley, M.A. Hunter, and One More Chapter for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Brat: An '80s Story" by Andrew McCarthy

 

Andrew McCarthy

Andrew McCarthy, born in 1962, is an American actor, travel writer, and television director. McCarthy grew to prominence in the 1980s, when his boy-next-door good looks, acting chops, and a bit of luck got him cast in movies like Class, St. Elmo's Fire, Pretty in Pink, Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Less Than Zero, and more.













Starring in '80s teen/young adult movies, McCarthy was dubbed one of the 'Brat Pack', along with Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. When a journalist first coined the term Brat Pack, he meant arrogant young actors who drank and partied too much. Over time, however, the phrase morphed into an affectionate label for the popular celebrities.


The Brat Pack

In this memoir, McCarthy writes about his young years, his road to success, and the difficulties he experienced along the way.

McCarthy grew up in New Jersey, with a fast-talking bad-tempered father, affectionate understanding mother, and three brothers. When McCarthy was in elementary school, his mother would occasionally take him out of class to see a Broadway show or go to an amusement arcade, usually after mornings when timid Andrew wept about going to school.

In high school, McCarthy had the usual adolescent crushes, but no luck with girls. He was equally unsuccessful academically, and did poorly in his classes.



Things got worse when Andrew discovered marijuana in the 9th grade, and his subsequent and substantial use did nothing to improve his studies. McCarthy was also late to mature physically, and - with his small delicate stature and lack of body hair - was concerned he'd never become a man.


Young Andrew McCarthy

Though McCarthy was too embarrassed to sing well in an audition for the high school Glee Club, he sneakily joined the Drama Club by just showing up and singing along with the chorus. Andrew got a tiny part in the school production of Hello Dolly, followed by the role of the artful dodger in Oliver. McCarthy had found his vocation.....acting.





McCarthy attended college at NYU, which had a drama program, but - other than acting classes - Andrew generally skived off school.



Living in offbeat Greenwich Village, near NYU, was a kind of education in itself though, and lower Manhattan became McCarthy's lifelong home base.




Greenwich Village

Many of McCarthy's acting teachers dismissed his 'talent', but it only takes one. McCarthy writes, "That one for me was a teacher named Terry Hayden. While just in her early sixties at the time, to a 17-year-old kid, Terry seemed ancient....She was wildly insightful....She saved me." Terry sensed Andrew's passion for acting, told him to stick around, and taught him 'The Method' - which trains actors to use their personal experiences to elicit authentic emotion in their performances.


Acting teacher Terry Hayden

McCarthy writes about the friends he made during his early years in college, especially an older roommate named Eddie, whose eclectic wardrobe from thrift stores - baggy olive drab army fatigues, a vintage suit jacket, a long camel hair overcoat, and bowling shoes - informed Andrew's dress code in both real life and movies. McCarthy's drinking in a dive bar with Eddie also laid the foundation for the actor's later alcoholism.

McCarthy admits to being subsumed by his own self-interest during this time, during which he brushed off the outside world and immersed himself in movies and Broadway shows. Being unable to afford tickets to Broadway productions, McCarthy would sneak in after intermission and watch second acts.


Intermission crowd at Broadway show

On Broadway, Andrew was thrilled to see actors like Elizabeth Taylor, Al Pacino, David Bowie, Lauren Bacall, Katherine Hepburn, Lena Horne, Amanda Plummer, and more. Andrew tended to crush on young actresses, but - once again - no luck.



McCarthy started to get small roles, joined SAG, and - as a college sophomore - was cast in the movie Class, where he played a prep school boy who has an affair with his classmate's mother.


Andrew McCarthy and Jacqueline Bisset in Class

This was the real beginning of McCarthy's career, and he was soon out of school and pursuing acting full time.

McCarthy's reminiscences about wanting to act despite being shy and insecure; attending drama school; going to stressful auditions; making his first film; getting help from acting teachers; and rising in the profession feels honest, and can probably inform young people who want to enter show business.

With McCarthy's first (very modest) financial success, his father started asking for money. As McCarthy's career blossomed, his dad asked for funds again and again and again, always promising to pay Andrew back and never doing so. This became a sore point between father and son, and it weakened their already strained relationship. This part of the story makes uncomfortable reading, but McCarthy and his dad had something of a rapprochement when Andrew's dad was dying.

Andrew is honest about his drug and alcohol use, and admits he sometimes showed up on movie sets hung over, unprepared, and ashamed. McCarthy recalls a simple reshoot for the movie Class, which required 50 takes because of his hangover, and still wasn't right.



McCarthy constantly feared unemployment, and was always chasing the next job....even if it was a Pepsi commercial or an afterschool TV special.


Andrew McCarthy and Elizabeth Shue in a Pepsi/Burger King commercial

In time McCarthy did many movies and plays, and philosophizes about the perils of fame.

In the midst of his movie career, McCarthy was drinking to excess on an almost daily basis, and his work started to go downhill. McCarthy managed to stop drinking for a while, but fell off the wagon, and Andrew's final three years of drinking - in his late twenties - were lost painful years to his career and to himself personally.

Eventually McCarthy hospitalized himself for a medical detox, then went to rehab and straightened himself out. McCarthy's career took a different path after that, which is the subject of his first memoir, The Longest Way Home: One Man's Quest for the Courage to Settle Down.



For folks interested in the mechanics of show business, McCarthy writes about technical aspects of film-making; hitting your mark; meshing with fellow actors; doing love scenes; promoting movies; and more.

Being a Hollywood actor meant McCarthy met bigwigs in show business, such as Robert Redford, Sammy Davis Jr., Jimmy Stewart, and Warren Beatty - and McCarthy even lived with Jacqueline Bisset and her boyfriend Alexander Godunov for a time.


Actress Jacqueline Bisset with ballet dancer Alexander Godunov

Readers looking for juicy gossip won't find it in this book, though, as McCarthy is respectful about almost everyone.

Though I've seen many of McCarthy's films, my most enduring memory of the actor is his appearance in a 2003 episode of the TV series Monk (Monk Goes Back To School), where McCarthy plays a devious science teacher who kills a colleague.


Andrew McCarthy in TV episode 'Mr. Monk Goes Back To School'

Since then, McCarthy has gone on to a very successful career as a travel writer, TV actor, and TV director.



McCarthy may have been an indifferent student in high school and college, but he's matured since then, and this memoir is insightful, well-written and enjoyable.

Rating: 4 stars