Review of "Easter Basket Murder: Three Novellas" by Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross

 

This book contains three cozy mystery novellas written by three authors: Leslie Meier of the Lucy Stone Mysteries; Lee Hollis of the Hayley Powell Food & Cocktail Mysteries; and Barbara Ross of the Maine Clambake Mysteries. Each story takes place in Maine around Easter and features an Easter festivity.

*****

Easter Basket Murder

Businesses in Tinker's Cove, Maine are losing sales to online shopping. To help local merchants, the Chamber of Commerce organizes a promotion in which residents who shop locally can enter a drawing for a deluxe Easter basket. The basket, which will be displayed in Seamen's Bank, contains chocolate candy, gift certificates, luxury products, and a golden egg sculpture by the famous artist Karl Klaus.





Reporter/amateur sleuth Lucy Stone is writing a story about the business promotion, and takes photos when Klaus comes to the bank to put the golden egg in the Easter basket.



Klaus is a talented artist, but he's an eccentric slob with a bad attitude.



Unfortunately, the golden egg goes missing from the Easter basket, and the brouhaha surrounding the theft leads to murder. On top of that, artist Klaus gets evicted from his home by a scurrilous con artist.

Chasing a few scoops - and being a concerned citizen - Lucy investigates the egg theft and the homicide, and tries to help Klaus resolve his dire situation.



*****

Death By Easter Egg

Hayley Powell of Bar Harbor, Maine owns an upscale eatery called Hayley's Kitchen, which is currently offering a month-long prix fixe Easter Dinner that's attracting diners in droves.



At the same time, Hayley and her husband Bruce have visitors: their son Dustin, Dustin's girlfriend MacKenzie, and the couple's toddler Eli, an adorable little boy who's a fount of energy and mischief.





In the course of her usual business day, Hayley goes to the bank to deposit the receipts from her restaurant and tries to joke around with her old friend, the bank guard Raymond Dobbs.



Raymond seems sullen, though, and things get even more tense when wealthy bank client Natalie Van Dyke discovers that someone robbed her safety deposit box. Natalie is angry and threatening to sue.



The next weekend is the annual Easter egg hunt at Emerson Conners Middle School, and Hayley's grandson Eli is very excited about the event. The toddler gets especially hepped up when the Easter Bunny (bank guard Raymond Dobbs in a bunny costume) strides into the school with a big basket of chocolate eggs. As it happens, Harold's basket also contains his EpiPen, which the bank guard always keeps close because he's deathly allergic to peanuts.



A little while later, mischievous Eli is found in a side room with Raymond's basket of chocolate eggs, which stills holds the EpiPen.



Shockingly, Raymond's dead body is found in another room, with a basket of peanut butter/chocolate eggs and no EpiPen. It seems the baskets got switched somehow.



Hayley doesn't want young Eli to be blamed for Raymond's death so she sets out to discover what really happened. It seems everyone in town knew about Raymond's allergy, so the suspect pool includes everyone at the Easter egg hunt. Thus Lucy has to suss out the motive and the means.




*****

Hopped Along

Julia Snowden works for the Snowden family clambake business, which is hosted out of Windsholme Mansion on Morrow Island, Maine.



The mansion and it's outbuildings were recently renovated, and - before clambake season starts - the grounds are being used for an Easter egg hunt.



Julia's 6-year-old nephew Jack is happily hunting Easter eggs when he gets excited about seeing the 'Easter Bunny.'



Perplexed, Julia searches the grounds and sees an unconscious man in a full morning suit - striped slacks, black tailcoat, vest, etc. - lying in the grass.

Julia hurries to get her boyfriend, Maine State Police Detective Tom Flynn, but the well-dressed gent is gone. Julia later finds the elegant man preparing a meal in the home of her friend Quentin Tupper, who's away on the Côte d’Azur.



The stranger explains that his name is Alfred Minucci, that Quentin is his former employer, and that he's been given permission to stay in the house for a few days. Alfred also confides that he has a tendency to faint.

A few days later, Alfred is murdered in Quentin's house, and Julia hears talk of ANOTHER fellow in a full morning suit roaming around the area. All this is quite puzzling and Julia helps the police investigate.

This novella is the most complex in the collection, and the most romantic, since it features Julia and her boyfriend Tom; Julia's mother Jaqueline and her beau Captain George; and Julia's friend Zoey and her fiancé Jamie Dawes. A scene where family and friends are sharing a delicious Easter dinner is charming (and mouth-watering).



The story 'Death By Easter Egg' contains several recipes, including: scalloped potatoes; French onion potato casserole; and marinated grilled lamb.


Scalloped Potatoes


French Onion Potato Casserole


Marinated Grilled Lamb

These are enjoyable quick reads featuring popular cozy mystery characters.

Thanks to Netgalley; Leslie Meier, Lee Hollis, and Barbara Ross; and Kensington Books for a copy of the book.

Rating: 3 stars

Review of "The Private Life of Spies and The Exquisite Art of Getting Even" by Alexander McCall Smith

Author Alexander McCall Smith is a Scottish legal scholar and prolific fiction author, perhaps best known for his 'No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' series and his 'Isabel Dalhousie' series. This amusing two-part book is a departure. 'The Private Life of Spies' contains tales about espionage, and 'The Exquisite Art of Getting Even' contains anecdotes about revenge.

**********

'The Private Life of Spies'

In the author's note, Smith observes that the spy stories are part fiction and part non-fiction.

📕 Nuns and Spies (England, 1943)

In 1943, Conradin Muller is a German man, fluent in English, who's recruited into the German Intelligence Service. Conradin has to take a three-month-course to learn about short wave radios and such, and to be taught 'how to behave like an Englishman.'

The behavior lessons include things like drinking tea with the little finger extended, and using the word 'jolly' as much as possible. For instance, if asked how you are, you reply 'I am jolly fine.' If asked what time it is, you say, 'It is jolly nearly twelve o'clock.' If something bad occurs, you say 'This is a jolly bad show.' And so on.



After the training course, Conradin is dropped into England with a nun's habit, and 'Sister Conradin' inadvertently finds himself the resident of a convent.



📕 Syphax and Omar (Algiers, 1924)

Syphax Brahimi and Pantaléon Dubois are rival spies in Algiers. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, Pantaléon follows Syphax. And on Tuesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, Syphax trails Pantaléon.



On their birthdays, the two spies sit down in a café and share a birthday cake.



The story explains how this unconventional state of affairs came about.

📕 Ferry Timetable

Fergus Andrew Mactavish is a Scottish farmer who's about to lose part of his best field for a new road that was approved by the town council. In anger, Mactavish performs an act of treason, which has unexpected results.



📕 Donald and Yevgeni (Shanghai, Moscow, Washington, 1934 -1947)

Due to a confluence of circumstances a British diplomat called Archibald Clark Kerr is gifted with a Russian valet named Yevgeni by Stalin.





Many years later, in Washington DC, Kerr becomes acquainted with a member of the British Diplomatic Service called Donald Maclean. Donald suspects Yevgeni might be a Russian agent....but the truth is much more complicated.



📕 Filioque (Rome, 2022)

Pierre Citroën is a student at the French Pontifical College who's written a paper about the filioque controversy - a difference of opinion about the Holy Spirit between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.



When Cardinal Tommaso di Montalfino learns of Pierre's interest in the filioque, the Cardinal invites Pierre to lunch. This leads to Pierre being offered an important position after he graduates, but there may be an ulterior motive.



**********

"The Exquisite Art of Getting Even"

📕 Vengeance Is Mine

Murdo lives on a Scottish island called Mull and has a fishing boat. When Mull isn't fishing, he uses the boat to take visitors out and about.



Mull is a placid place until a flamboyant newcomer, Robert McCoy, arrives and flaunts his big red car and fancy new house.



As the story unfolds, someone is wronged, and there are consequences.

📕 The Principles of Soap

David Thoreau is an aspiring actor who makes a friend named Henry in acting school. Henry isn't a great actor, and becomes the target of cutting remarks from a fellow pupil called Virginia. Years after acting school ends, these three people come together on the set of a television show.....and things happen.



📕 Cavalleria Rusticana

Rose and Colin marry and buy a house with a large garden in the lovely Edinburgh suburb of Balerno.



The newlyweds are taken aback when they learn their neighbors have a big, rambunctious, barking dog Monty, who has no boundaries. All this leads to a series of unfortunate actions.



📕 One, Two, Three

Sam gets a degree in English literature and goes to work for a publisher. A big part of Sam's job involves editing (rewriting) the novels of Brock Maxwell, a very successful author who can't write.



Despite his writing challenges, Maxwell is arrogant, condescending, and nasty.



In time, there's an opportunity to take Maxwell down a peg.

**********

I'm a fan of author Alexander McCall Smith and always enjoy his stories and erudite philosophic insights. In this book, Smith depicts the more lighthearted aspects of espionage, and discusses the morality of revenge vs. forgiveness. Smith prefers forgiveness. I'm probably not as kindhearted, though I might hold a grudge in lieu of full-out revenge (sometimes). 🙂

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review of "Paw and Order: A Chet and Bernie Mystery" by Spencer Quinn

In this 7th book in the 'Chet and Bernie' series, the detective team investigates a murder far from their home turf.

*****

In the Chet and Bernie stories, Bernie Little and his hundred-plus pound dog Chet run the Little Detective Agency in Arizona.



The books are narrated by Chet, whose somewhat limited vocabulary, unfamiliarity with idioms, doggie logic, and tendency to get distracted set the stage for plenty of smiles.



Bernie is a West Point graduate, war veteran, former police lieutenant, and talented private detective. Chet is Bernie's invaluable partner, always ready to clamp his jaw on perps and drag them off by the pants.

As the story opens, Bernie decides to visit his journalist girlfriend Suzie Sanchez, who relocated to Washington DC for a better job.



In the capital, Suzie lives in the carriage house of a political insider named Lizette, who hosts fund raisers for candidates running for office.



When Bernie and Chet arrive at Suzie's home, an urbane English gentleman named Eben St. John is just leaving, and he calls out 'bye love' to Suzie.



Bernie's jealousy hormones kick in, but Suzie explains that the Brits call everyone 'love,' like Ringo Starr. This gets canine Chet to musing, "Ringo Starr? Had to be some sort of perp. And not the first Ringo perp we'd run into. Who could forget Ringo Gogarnian, who liked to dress like a mailman and empty out people's mailboxes and was now dressed in an orange jumpsuit? Message to Ringo Starr: heads up, buddy boy."

Suzie goes to say St. John is the source for an important story, but she won't provide any details. Later, while Bernie's napping, Suzie and Chet go to St. John's office and find him dead. The police discover Eben was shot with a gun Bernie had in his car, and they arrest Bernie for the murder.



As things play out an enigmatic government operative named Ferretti gets Bernie released from jail, and helps out Chet as well. Later, Eben St. John's father hires Bernie to investigate his son's murder.

Bernie and Chet get on the job, and - in the course of their inquiries - the detectives come across mysterious people packing up St. John's office; happen upon a calendar with Cyrillic (Russian) writing; stop in at Lizette's fundraiser for a presidential hopeful; are offered a security job; discover that someone is lying about their background; find themselves being spied on by a drone; and more.



It appears that Eben was killed because he was about to uncover a dastardly plot, and the people involved silenced him. The story gets a bit complicated and hard to follow, but there's plenty of humor to make up for these shortcomings.

For instance, when someone jokingly tells Bernie, 'You're in the dog house at the moment', Chet thinks, 'Whoa! Stop right there. Bernie in a dog house. I'd seen that once before. But that was Bernie on a bet, and after a number - more than two - of bourbon shots. The dog house in question belonging to Spike, a buddy of mine who hadn't reacted well on finding Bernie curled up in his personal space. Were we in for another round of that?'



And when Bernie observes,'Is it time for playing your cards close to the vest? But since we haven't got any, let's go full frontal [a military maneuver]', Chet says, 'Full frontal! I hoped with all my heart that full frontal wasn't in the plans. It had only come up once in our career, the case having to do with a stolen sombrero and a nudist colony. The less said about nudist colonies the better, but clothes are a fine invention when it comes to humans. I kept a close eye on Bernie, waiting for him to start unbuttoning his shirt, but that didn't happen. Meaning maybe he'd reconsidered. Sometimes you catch a break in this business."



The story has an exciting climax, where Chet helps get the bad guys.....earning his favorite treats as usual.



The Chet and Bernie books are great for a light read or when you just want a few laughs.

Rating: 3 stars