Peril in Paris, by Rhys Bowen, is part of the Royal Spyness Mystery series. Lady Georgianna (now pregnant) has joined her husband in a trip to Paris. It's supposed to be a nice holiday for her, but a working vacation for him (WWII is brewing). Her friend is working for Coco Chanel (who creates a rather ghastly maternity dress for Georgianna) getting ready for a fashion show. While attending a gathering where she meets Gertrude Stein (and Hemingway), she encounters a most obnoxious American tourist. Now, an important contact will be attending that fashion show had Darcy asks his wife to meet her and gather the important information she is carrying. Instead of that contact, however, the American tourist is found ... dead ... in the chair the contact had been assigned ... so ... was it a case of mistaken identity, or not? Lots of interesting twists and turns, just a great read!

The Ginger Gold Mystery books, by Lee Strauss, are always a fun read, and Murder in France is no exception. The family is in France, Ginger is holding a party, one which includes people from the fashion industry. The adventure begins when the body of one of them is found in the swimming pool the next morning. There was a lot of drinking going on, might it be an accident? Lots of fun twists here ... Ginger remembers a blue glass, but only one, and now it is missing. The man who was supposed to tend bar got sick at the last minute so other staff, some from the establishment where he works fill in. Rivals in the fashion industry were at the party and a big show is coming. Someone from Ginger's past shows up and recognizes her from her, um, war time job and name. How is this all connected? A one day read!

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It seems books have been banned since, well, even before the printing press. Folks can always find something about which they feel they need to complain! Learn about these, as well as more recent titles (2021) in Banned Books: the World's Most Controversial Books, Past and Present. (No one author here, it's from the DK Press). You'll find common themes: religion, sex, politics, integration, lifestyle ... I keep hoping we'll get more tolerant and accepting, but sadly, it seems not.

I found In Praise of Good Bookstores, by Jeff Deutsch to be a bit more ... philosophical (?) perhaps than I expected ... more reflective ... something like that. Not a bad read, maybe I was expecting more of a celebration of bookstores? It was still a good read, and I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the different sort of browsers that show up in bookstores. :-)

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It's back to the not-so-quiet town of Sinful for the second Miss Fortune Mystery by Jana Deleon, Lethal Bayou Beauty. A former (and not well liked) resident is returning to her home town and the only one happy to see her is her mother. She is heading up the beauty contest part of the Summer Festival so Fortune (hiding out as a former beauty queen, remember?) has been enlisted to help. Needless to say, she is soon dismissed as not knowing much about make up and so on, but then, Pansy turns up dead and Fortune, as the newest resident, is blamed. If not by law enforcement, then certainly the townsfolk. Enter again the Geritol Mafia (two women who are more than they appear to be) to help prove her innocence (and find the real killer). Sort of a cross between Miss Marple and the Keystone Kops ...

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In a bag of books I recently received from another reader was one of the Phryne Fisher Mystery books: Death in Daylesford, by Kerry Greenwood. It was fun getting back to the character! It's supposed to be a holiday ... a nice, relaxing holiday, but you know that can't happen! There some murders ... done in public and in plain site, there are missing wives (loved the result here!), and one missing person. The local sheriff is pretty much useless so Phryne steps in to help out. And remember Phryne's three adopted kids? They solve a mystery, too!

Canadian Reader discovered another series by Jodi Taylor, author of the Chronicles of St Mary's books. Time travel has become, well, almost common place, and almost anyone has the means to do so. Mostly, it seems, it's used to go a week or so ahead and find out winning lottery numbers. Recruits start at the academy. Training ends where the finalists are put into teams and given a six month probationary period. This is supposed to give the teams time to learn to work together. Alas, our three are each at the academy for personal reasons, none of them the usual for wanted to become a Time Police Officer. Becoming a team is ... rough! Tag along as they make various jumps to resolve issues in the time line of history (the jump to Australia to retrieve a pregnant rabbit is hysterical). Doing Time is the first in her Time Police series.

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Although Penny can no longer actually hold down a job (she is married now), her editor often hires her to write a story because she is good! This time it's not something Penny likes ... a spiritualist show ... she knows it is fake! When the show is interrupted by a protestor, it becomes more interesting. And even more so when that woman shows up dead two days later. Her husband hears the shot that kills her, and takes off in pursuit ... or so he says (he's the only one to see the shooter). Penny's husband works at Scotland Yard, so he is doing the formal investigation, but at every turn there are more suspects with motives. (Think affairs, inheritance and more). The Camden Spiritualist is one of the Penny Green Mystery books by Emily Organ.

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Here's the second Electra McDonnell mystery by Ashley Weaver: The Key to Deceit. The body of a young woman has been pulled from the Thames wearing a locked bracelet. An unusual cameo bracelet. Ellie is able to open it, only to find film. It's a camera! Clearly this person was a spy, but for whom? then there are keys, one for a mantle clock, one that doesn't work, and has a rare pink face. And just as Ellie and Major Ramsey (and a host of others) are planning a bank robbery, the bombing of London begins. Plan on staying up late to finish this!

Author Pip Williams read and loved a book about words and dictionaries she read years ago, and that lead, eventually, to The Dictionary of Lost Words. Esme grew up around words, her father, and others, are working on the first complete edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Some words are not included ... they are not 'proper' words because they have not been written down, that is, they are mostly used by folks that cannot read. Or they are considered vulgar. Or (gasp) they are considered women's words. Esme starts collecting these words. An interesting read, if a bit slow moving, it was this theme (comes along around page 100 or so) that kept me reading.

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It was fun getting back to a mystery set in an area I love ... the Pacific Northwest! On Spine of Death, by Tamara Berry, is the second in her By the Book Mystery series. While repairs are being made on the old hardware store she inherited (it's going to be a book store), not one, but two, sets of remains are found. And so it begins ... the remains are female, and identified as women who went missing ... one from decades ago, one more recent. What is the connection? And then there's the odd book, one that Tess had been asked to write a review for, (which she did) but she never read ... turns out, it's not all that well written, but is much, much too close to these murders. So, why did a copy of it show up now? Oh, and it also mentions a third body.

From Canadian Reader comes a recommendation for a wild, crazy, and delightful cozy: Louisiana Longshot, the first in the Miss Fortune Mystery series by Jana Deleon. In an assignment gone wrong for the CIA, Fortune Redding now has a price on her head. Her boss has 'stashed' her in the small town of Sinful, Louisiana, where things should be quiet. Think again! She, or rather the dog in the house she is sitting, finds a bone, a human bone, on her very first day. It belongs to an unsolved mystery from some years back. Enter a group of elderly ladies (known as the Geritol Mafia). Just a hoot!

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Some time back now, Canadian Reader recommended Coffin Cove, by Jackie Elliot, and this past week I finally read it ... it was good! Set somewhere on the Vancouver coast, the settings and descriptions of the weather felt very familiar. :-) Andi (Andrea) Silvers has been fired from her last job and is looking for a new start. She gets a job at the newspaper in the small town of Coffin Cove expecting a quiet place to begin again. Then two dead sea lions wash up on shore ... they've been shot ... and so it begins ... dark secrets, events (including an unsolved murder) from the past and more all begin to surface again. As an outsider Andi hopes to bring a new perspective to things, but will that be welcome? This is the first in the Coffin Cove Mystery series.

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