Amateur Sleuth Mystery Review ~ Murder by the Seaside (Patience Price, Counselor at Large #1) by Julie Anne Lindsey @JulieALindsey #Mystery

 

Sun, Sand and … Murder?

Downsized from the FBI’s human resources department on the Virginia mainland, Patience Price is setting up shop as a Counselor at Large in her quirky island town. And she’s making the best of her reinvention, until a high school boyfriend is accused of murder, and his determined mama wants Patience to save his hide.

Local golden boy, Adrian Davis, once crushed Patience’s teenage heart, and now he needed her help? She can’t help offering a chef’s kiss to Karma.

Not that Patience holds a grudge.

Reluctantly, she agrees to look into the case, with the help of a hunky former coworker, but what she finds will rock their coastal community to its core, and put Patience on a lurking killer’s hitlist.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3uZnyLN

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60107529-murder-by-the-seaside

ASIN: ‎ B09Q1T61YS
Publisher: ‎ Cozy Queen Publishing LLC
Publication Date: ‎ January 8, 2022
Print Length: ‎ 305 pages

My Review and Rating:

Murder by the Seaside by Julie Anne Lindsey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m a huge fan of Julie Anne Lindsey. I didn’t have a chance to read Murder by the Seaside during its original release but when she re-released it this year, I jumped on board.

Patience Price lost her job in the HR department at the FBI during some downsizing. Back to her hometown on an island off the coast of Virginia, Patience hopes to open her own counseling center. Shortly after her return, there is a murder of a local resident. When she finds out her high school boyfriend is a suspect, Patience is sure he didn’t do it but doesn’t know if she wants to get involved. Ultimately, Patience calls on a colleague from the FBI to help her out.

What ensues is a cozy-esque type murder mystery with a potential romance angle. Not quite a cozy, Murder by the Seaside has some decidedly traditional mystery elements. There are twists, turns, and red herrings throughout the book. The author calls on a bit of humor at times, and it’s perfectly inserted into the scene. The book has romantic, or could-be romantic, moments, which I love in the books I read, regardless of genre (for the most part).

The author's writing style is fluid, the pacing is perfect, and the story is so easy to read that when I reached the end, I couldn’t believe I was done already. I found myself engaged and completely captivated in the story from the very beginning. I really enjoyed Murder by the Seaside and can't wait for the next book.

I was provided a copy of this book to read.

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Cozy Mystery Book #Review ~ Evil Under the Tuscan Sun (Tuscan Cooking School Mystery #3) by Stephanie Cole #CozyMystery @BerkleyMystery @BerkleyPub

Nell Valenti is at ease when managing a farm to table cooking school in sun-dappled Tuscany, but begins to feel the heat when tasked with catching a killer, in this engaging Italian-set cozy mystery series.

When a wealthy New York philanthropist pays top dollar for a private, four-day ziti workshop, Nell Valenti wants everyone at the Orlandini cooking school focused on the task at hand. But complications abound when Nell's boyfriend Pete Orlandini rushes to Rome for an unexpected business trip, Chef Orlandini is more preoccupied with a potential spot on an American cooking show than preparing for the workshop, and an uninvited woman sneaks into the villa to inspect Pete's olive grove. The last disturbance proves deadly, and when the woman's body is found in the grove, Nell must investigate before her hopes for the workshop, like the olives, are crushed.

Nell now has another item on her checklist--keep the Orlandinis out of trouble and the wealthy ziti-lovers happy while she looks into the stranger's past. When Nell discovers that for one of the Orlandinis, at least, the murder victim was not such a stranger after all, she'll learn that when a detective goes digging in Italy, she'd better be ready for truffle.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3rteqN2

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57926107-evil-under-the-tuscan-sun

ASIN: ‎ B093YQKMY3
Publisher: ‎ Berkley
Publication Date: ‎ February 1, 2022
Print Length: ‎ 300 pages

My Review and Rating:

Evil Under the Tuscan Sun by Stephanie Cole
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Orlandini Cooking School is off to a bright start. Word has spread and a wealthy New York philanthropist books the school for a ziti workshop. Four days of private pasta and marinara classes with Nell at the helm. Pete is off to Rome on business and Chef is too busy preparing to possibly win a spot on a cooking show. Organizing the workshop takes an interesting turn when strangers appear in Pete’s olive grove, and one of the strangers is found dead on Orlandini property.

Evil Under the Tuscan Sun is the third book in the Tuscan Cooking School Mystery series by Stephanie Cole. The book was an engaging story with likable characters and a believable mystery. Nell is a hard-working American employed at the Orlandini culinary school in Italy. Nell is written with realism and her interactions with everyone fit the way a professional in a less-than-perfect situation would act.

The mysterious death of a woman found on Orlandini property was well thought out. The suspects were plenty, even if unlikely and/or not plausible. The lead up to and reveal of the murderer, along with the means and motive, were plotted well. I enjoyed the additional storylines threaded through the murder mystery.

There was plentiful character development and wonderful world building. I was able to visualize every element of the story including the mouth-watering recipes. I'm excited to see what happens at Villa Orlandini in the next book.

I was provided a copy of this book to read.  

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