Blackberry Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke

Joanne Fluke is still cooking when it comes to her mysteries with recipes. The cookie and muffin recipes tucked between chapters sound excellent.

Hannah is driving her cookie truck through a rural area during a crashing thunderstorm when she spots a tree limb down in the road. As she hits the brakes to stop, the truck skids and she feels a thump. Hannah gets out of the truck to check it out and finds that she has hit a man and he's dead.

Although it was completely an accident, Hannah ends up in jail for the weekend on a charge of vehicular homicide. She sends her family, friends and coworkers in search of the man's identity, since no one in town has ever seen him before.

On top of that, Delores, Hannah's mother, has told her four daughters that they can plan her wedding. But every time they try to suggest, colors, flowers, music, or anything else about the wedding, Delores changes her mind. The end result is that there is still no plan and time is running out.

A few of the riddles posed in this book come to a satisfactory conclusion, but this book is obviously part one of two since Hannah still has to go on trial for the man's death and the wedding has not yet taken place. I have to wait (as patiently as possible) for part two.

Joanne Fluke, soon please.

Kathi Linz

The Chocolate Cupid Killings by JoAnna Carl

I admit to having a bad habit about reading mysteries. I tend to read bout 50-75 pages and then look at the end to see who did it.  If no one is dead by page 50, I'm likely to turn the book back in to the library without finishing it.

However, when I started reading The Chocolate Cupid Killings by JoAnna Carl, I got so involved in the story so quickly, that I just kept reading without peeking at the end of the book. This is the ninth book in her series, but it is the first I've read by this author.

Valentine's Day starts with a dilemma for Lee the owner of the TenHuis Chocolade shop. One of her recent employees is a woman running away from an abusive husband on the Underground Railroad. This is not approved by local law enforcement, which is another part of the dilemma, since Lee and Aunt Nettie are married to local law.

In the process of helping this woman, two people are killed and the chocolate shop ladies find themselves on the wrong end of the law - including FBI - for impeding an investigation.

I had no idea who were the good guys and who were the bad guys until the end. I didn't guess who did it and I was glad that I hadn't peeked.

Thank you, JoAnna Carl, for this engrossing mystery. I'm certain to pick up more of this series.

Kathi Linz

Grace Under Pressure by Julie Hyzy

I enjoyed Julie Hyzy's White House Chef series.  So I anticipated enjoying this first book about a curator in a private museum called Grace Under Pressure. 

Lately, I've turned in even some of my favorite authors half-read.  Not this book!  I lost several hours of sleep for reading this mystery.

On page one, Grace confronts a large man in the museum restaurant who is making a huge ruckus.  As it turns out, the man was creating a distraction while Grace's boss was murdered.  There isn't a wasted page in the whole story.  Family secrets, hidden passages, intentional misinformation, and privilege all turn the story around.

I can't wait to read part two, Grace Interrupted.

Kathi Linz