The Literate Kitty

  Most of us, when moving into a new home, have a couple of wishes when it comes to our neighbors.   We hope they’re easygoing—friendly enough to wave and say hello to (and happy to let us use their phone if we manage to lock both keys and cellphone in the car). We also desperately hope they aren’t busybodies—peeping out their window making note of everything we do and every visitor (and reporting each nitpicky thing they find objectionable).  But then there’s an anomaly like elderly Mrs. Golda Bakofsky—landlord-in-residence of the tiny Marigold Cottages—who is almost gleefully cheerful...  and  staying busy keeping tabs on every tenant on her small property like that was her job. And in  Murder on Charity Lane —Jo Nichols’ follow-up to last year’s delightful  The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective  (see review here )—she’s back in full-force... meddling, matchmaking, and, as these things happen, marshalling her troops to solve yet another murder...

If you dug out your blender... threw in a whole bunch of  Only Murders in the Building ... added a soupçon of  Friends. .. a jigger or so of  Cheers ... and a hearty dash of Mrs. Roper (from  Three’s Company )... well, you might end up with something much like the delightful tipple that is Jo Nichols’ mystery novel,  The Marigold Cottages Murder Collective .   And if you did? Oh my, how sweet it would taste, going down...     The elderly, caftan-wearing “Mrs. B” is the proud owner and landlady of a grouping of seven quaint cottages (one of which being her own domicile), in beautiful Santa Barbara, California. The cottages are a blast from the past—tiny, grouped intimately around a miniature courtyard—and constantly fighting off “progress”, in the form of fancy new multi-occupant buildings (the likes of which encroach upon all sides).    Being just a short walk from the Pacific Ocean, though, means these little homes are veritable go...

Two men, heading out separately for some ice-fishing in one of Wisconsin’s 15,000 lakes.   Neither will enjoy a frosty commune with nature, though... not this time.     In fact, only one will make it out of the forest alive ... leaving the other, savagely attacked, atop a deep mound of blood-soaked snow.   The police are quick to blame the survivor, who insists he’s innocent... and says he even caught a glimpse of the killer.    But his claim fall on deaf ears, once he describes what he saw... the small town of Rhinelander’s beloved mascot, the hodag—a mythological creature, sort of an ox-pig-lizard-dragon hybrid—scrambling  away from the scene of the crime.   Thus begins Annelise Ryan’s latest mystery,  Beast of the North Woods .     Door County, Wisconsin is well-known for many things—gorgeous lake views, outdoor recreation, and a plethora of art galleries, among them. But to a smaller group of folks, it’s also home to the unusual...

Cozy mysteries are often not really my thing, in either book or TV show. They can be too cutesy, too predictable, too convenient, and too... well, basically cheerful (for me). But plenty of other people clearly love them, and that’s cool. ( Hey, there’s more than enough room in the pond for everyone’s tastes, which is as it should be .) Every now and then, though, something “cozy” grabs my attention, and I give it a try... like I did last week, with  Mrs. Sidhu Investigates  (streaming on Acorn TV, which is easy to get through Amazon). And, just like those blue moons, once in a great while I’m pleasantly surprised and delighted... as I was with  Mrs. Sidhu .     A middle-aged catering chef—who, for much of the season, seems to be capably running a one-woman operation ( from prepping and cooking, to delivering and serving the food! )—in the smallish city of Slough, England, doesn’t seem like the obvious choice of heroine for, well,  most  thin...

I know there are plenty of folks out there who're perfectly happy staying in the small towns and communities they grew up in— actually, that describes approximately ninety-five percent of my high school graduating class —but that was never, ever gonna work for me. (I guess if you’re already pleased as punch with who you are, and have zero interest in growth or— gasp! —change, then all I can say is more power to you, but… yeah, no.) Anyway, when what sounded like a fun little mystery—featuring (what would undoubtedly be) a plucky heroine, from Tinytown, USA (in this case a Louisiana bayou hamlet), who goes to the Big Apple (mainly Brooklyn, but tomato, tomahto) and has adventures —happened across my desk, I latched onto it greedily.  But, would it be a fulfilling fish-out-of-water/young-woman-spreading-her-wings-and-finding-herself tale… or some disappointingly-schmaltzy claptrap about how much better life in the country is? Time to dive into Olivia Blacke’s Killer Content ....

I usually respond to any hint of a book being a “cozy” (or “cosy”, if you prefer the British spelling) mystery much as I approach other things which I hold in disregard. Think spiders. Liver (the food, not the body part).  Rats (not the cute domesticated variety).  Visits to the dentist. I back away, giving them a side eye (at best) or shuddering (at worst).  You see, anything that smacks of being remotely twee—which is the bucket a lot of cozies fall into—holds little interest for me. ( If, of course, the bake-shop cozies or the knitting cozies or whatever are your bag, that’s totally cool! ) So it was with some trepidation—and a really hesitant trigger finger (hovering over that “ buy now ” button on Amazon)—that I bought what was described as a (modern) cozy, John Bowen’s Death Stalks Kettle Street . And I'm ever so glad I did.   _____________________________________ Greg Unsworth is a pretty great guy. Smart, funny, considerate, responsible, good-lo...

Picture, if you will, the bucolic English countryside... traveling along a narrow road as it wends its way along verdant hills and valleys... making the occasional detour through a small, picturesque village—the sort comprised entirely of quaint buildings and... well, let’s go with interesting townsfolk, shall we? It’s all quite lovely, really.   Ah, but something vital is missing from this picture. What’s that, you say? Why, a murder, of course! (I’ve never figured out exactly why these charming little places are such hotbeds of murder most foul, but they clearly are , as anyone up on his/her Agatha Christie—or the works of any number of other British authors, not to mention rather a lot of TV shows—can attest.)  So, then... let’s say we also happen to have a recent murder to pique our avid curiosities. Surely now the stage is set, yes?    Well, not quite... at least, not in this case. The final piece of our tableau involves a bear, you see... and not ...