Mysteries Galore.com

Archive for October, 2009

Reviewed by Nancy Eaton

Faith and her family are spending the holidays at their cottage in Sanpere Island in Maine.  Her husband, Reverend Thomas Fairchild, is recuperating from surgery.  The couple really looked forward to this time in Sanpere Island because it was not too often they got to spend some family time together.  What a place to be for the holidays.  There were plenty of enjoyable winter sports to keep them busy.

It did not take long for this nice, relaxing holiday to turn into something frightening.  On a trip to the Sanpere Historical Society, Faith discovers a body in an antique sleigh that is decorated for the Christmas holidays.  The victim, Norah, was a teen drug addict.  What happened to the young girl?  Did she die of a drug overdose?  Was she murdered?

Things do not get dull as a local resident, Mary Bethany, who raises goats, finds a newborn baby in a manger in her barn on Christmas Eve.  There was a note asking her to take care of the baby.  A large amount of cash was left with the baby also.  How did the baby get there?  Is there any relation to the body found in the sleigh?

Mary asks Faith to help her find the identity of the baby’s mother.  What they discover is more than they imagined. 

Katherine Hall Page has won several awards for her cozy mysteries.  The Body in the Sleigh is one of her best to date.  This storyline has more of a deeper plot compared to your normal cozy mystery.  It’s one that will keep you reading late into the night to find out what will happen next.  Also, there are some really “yummy” recipes at the end of the book. 

A copy of this book was supplied to the reviewer by the publisher.

Reviewed by Mary Ebert

Alexis has the feel of a Sam Spade novel even though it has the tech and characterizations of today’s PI novels. It just feels like Bogart is the narrator. The fuzzy feeling of being wrapped in a warm blanket drinking something old fashioned and smoothly alcoholic just pours right off the page. All this and you don’t feel like you have to go 12 step meeting after finishing it.

Perhaps what creates this feeling is that most modern PI novels end up being more buddy-type books then actual PI novels. Does Dan have help with his case, yeah! But each person has their own life and it doesn’t feel like they are waiting for Dan to need them. There is his lover who is an erotic dancer at his favorite gentleman’s club. He shares, office space and a secretary with his friend, who is also his accountant. His secretary is a little moony over him and won’t be getting the time of day from him any time soon.

On his way back from an out-of-town job he does what any hardboiled PI would, stop by the club to enjoy the scenery and have a few drinks. And that, my friends is when things start to get interesting. He picks up a job from the owner of the club. It seems one of the new girls lives in a neighborhood that the owner isn’t fond of and he wants Dan to spend a few days just checking things over. This should be nothing but a babysitting job. That is until the baby turns up missing. But wait Dan’s problems don’t stop there.

Dan is hired by a lawyer to follow a spouse. She wants to find out what really happens on her husband’s “boy’s night on the town.” Shockingly boy’s night ends with him alone with a beautiful young lady in her house. Isn’t that where all boys’ nights are supposed to end? Anyway getting back to the lawyer, two days after Dan hands in his findings his subject is killed by the lady he spent the evening with. That just doesn’t sit well with him.

What I like about this book is that it kept me confused. It’s hard for a book to do that when you read for a living. No one in the book is simple. Everyone has a flaw or three in this book and they hit you when you least expect it. After all who would expect high class business men to hang out in the neighborhood this club is in? Who would think that the owner of a strip joint would care what his girls did after work? And most of all, who would think that a hard PI would give a damn about any of it? They all do and it makes them people you actually care about.

To purchase this book click here.

A review copy of this book was supplied to the reviewer by the author.

Reviewed by Nancy Eaton

Andrea Kane is one of my favorite authors and it is always a treat to read her latest book.

Agent Slone Burbank’s mother is attacked in her Manhattan apartment. The apartment is ransacked. It soon becomes apparent that this is no random robbery.

Thirteen years ago Matthew Burbank and his partners were witnesses to a crime that took place overseas. He now realizes that being a witness to this crime has come back to bring danger into life.

Matthew Burbank tells the whole story to his daughter, Sloane, but he does not want her to tell to anyone else. This makes it very difficult for Sloane because the man on the case is FBI Special Agent Derek Parker who is the man she is in love with. What does she do? She knows she must talk to Derek and tell him what happened but how can she do this to her father?

Danger prevails and there are so many things happening at the same time you will need a scorecard to help you keep straight.

Andrea Kane is a master at writing a suspense novel. She will keep the reader on the edge of their seat through the entire book making one wonder what is going to happen next. The story gets more exciting with the turn of each page. I have read all of Andrea Kane’s books. They are all excellent but I think this one is the best yet!