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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Normally I don't pair fiction and non-fiction together, but given the circumstances (I read them back to back), and given the "connection", I felt the cosmos was telling to post them in the same blog. ;-)

The Railway Murders, one of the Yorkshire Murder Mystery books by J.R. Ellis was another good read from this author. It's a variation on the locked room mystery, and this time the locked room was moving! A well known (but not necessarily well liked) actor is the victim. Turns out, there are all kinds of suspects and motives ... but who could pull off killing him on a train? I figured it out. Sort of!

Tall Reader loaned me The Ellis Island Immigrant Cookbook: the Story of Our Common Past Told Through the Recipes and Reminiscences of Our Immigrant Ancestors, by Tom Bernardin. Now, I don't cook, so the recipes didn't mean too much to me, other than so many immigrants from so many different places all seem to have similar recipes for potatoes, vegetables and so on, that was fun! And, I learned that you can figure out how much to use of something by weighing eggs! Weigh nine eggs and use that weight in sugar. Weigh six eggs and use that weight in flour. Weigh three eggs and use that weight in butter. I'm told, by those who do cook and bake that it works! What really was fascinating here, though, were the stories of the immigrants. Worth a read even if you don't cook.

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Here's an interesting book about the space program: Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind's Exploration of Space, by Joe Cuhaj. It's frustrating (remember how many rockets exploded early on, and getting women into the program. Many actually tested and trained in early days, and did better than the men), it's sad (a lot more animals were used as test pilots than I knew), and also just a lot of fun. What wake up music was used for the various flights, you know, to be sure the astronaut was up and getting ready? What were favorite meals? What personal items were they allowed to take along? An nice way to spend a snowy afternoon.

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The death of the tattooed women takes Willowjean, and her boss, Lillian Pentecost, back to the circus where Will used to work. Is it coincidence that the tattooed woman was murdered shortly after returning to her home town for the first time? The main suspect seems to be the Russian knife thrower since it was one of his knives found at the crime scene. Will does not believe this is possible, from her past with the Russian and she is determined to find out the truth. There's history, though, that some, perhaps many, don't want brought to the surface. And actors (and that includes circus folks) lie for a living, so how will they figure this all out? Murder Under Her Skin is the second Pentecost and Parker Mystery by Stephen Spotswood.

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There are 'connections' in Murder at the National Gallery, by Jim Eldridge. The bodies that are found resemble those attributed to Jack the Ripper. (Some twenty years ago now). Those bodies were all models that posed for a particular artist. That artist was a suspect in the original case. He claims he is innocent (then and now). Daniel Wilson and Abigail Fenton, dubbed the 'museum detectives' are called ... can they figure out the who and the why? This is a great series!

I know you're not supposed to judge a book by it's cover, but in my defense here, I didn't care much for the blurb, either ... the cover is pink, and the blurb talked about romance and shopping! Canadian Reader thought I'd like it, so I gave The First Faux Pas, the first Lora Weaver mystery, by Katy Leen a try. Lora is a bit out of her comfort zone in Montreal, there's the language challenge after all, and then her job ... as a PI rather than a social worker ... it can lead to some confusing moments. There is a missing person, and pushy, former girlfriend of Lora's boy-friend (she moves in with them) ... and a stalker ... well, let's just say there's a lot going on in this debut novel!

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Thanks go to County Reader for this recommendation: A Peculiar Combination, by Ashley Weaver. It is the first in the Electra McDonnell mystery series. Set in London, during WWII, Electra and her uncle are safe crackers (and they are very good at it). They have been recruited by the government (shhh) to steal some plans, plans that they don't want falling into the hands of the Nazis. Instead of plans in a safe, though, they find a body on the floor ... and so the adventure begins! Great characters here, and with a twist (as County Reader said) ... not the usual 'detectives'. :-)

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