Secrets in a Bottle is the first in the Whodunit Antiques mystery series, by Shelly West. It does read a bit like a 'first' book, but there are many things to like ... a small town, dogs, a long lost relative ... and pirates! A phone message from her mother sends Abigail to check on her grandmother who is in the hospital ... a grandmother she didn't even know was still alive. Who broke into the antique shop? And what does the ship in a bottle have to do with it? And why haven't her mother and grandmother spoken for decades? A good "clean" cozy! (It says so, right on the back cover). :-)

It seems I either like a book by Alexander McCall Smith, or I don't (a couple I couldn't even finish!). The Department of Sensitive Crimes, first in the Detective Varg series, I did like. The crimes here are not the ones that make the headlines. Often they are minor crimes that no one wants to deal with. A man has been stabbed, in the back of his knee but no one saw anything happen. A young woman makes up a boyfriend, and then has him disappear and one of her friends worries she has killed him. There are strange things happening at a local inn. So, nothing major, but an engaging read all the same. :-) Canadian Reader has heard the author speak and said he is delightful. She and Tall Reader enjoyed this book, too.

Reading Hermit With Dog