Review: Forget me Knot

Forget me Knot 

by Mary Marks 

Source: eARC from NetGalley 
Publication date: 07 January 2013 
Genre: Cozy Mystery 
Date read:  24 October 2013

Welcome to San Fernando Valley, California, where Martha Rose and her coterie of quilters are enjoying life on the good side of retirement--until murder pulls a stitch out of their plans. . .
Martha and her besties Lucy and Birdie are set to expand their Quilty Tuesdays by inviting newcomer Claire Terry into their group. Though at forty Claire's a tad younger than their average age, her crafty reputation could perk up their patchwork proceedings, especially as they prepare for the fancy quilt show coming to town. But when they arrive at Claire's home and find her dead inside the front door, and her exquisite, prize-winning quilts soon missing, Martha is not one to leave a mystery unraveled. Especially if she wants to stop a killer from establishing a deadly pattern. . .

My thoughts: 
I haven't read a cozy mystery in quite a while, so this was a special kind of fun for me!   

According to Wikipedia cozy mysteries, also referred to simply as "cozies," are a subgenre of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community.   

This just means that cozies are fun reads where the crime solver is not a professional detective. 

Martha Rose is our crime buster in Forget me Knot.  She and her friends, Lucy and Birdie, find Claire, a potential 4th member of their quilting group,  murdered in her own home when they arrive for the Tuesday morning quilting date.  The next day at their quilting show, Claire's quilts are stolen.  Why would someone want to steal her quilts? 

Martha starts snooping and soon uncovers some awful family secrets which makes her look at Claire's life (and her family) with new eyes.  The list of potential murderers are getting more and more interesting.

I liked Martha Rose from the start.  Even though she was nosing around in other people's business, I never felt that she was a busy-body :)  Her friends was also developed throughout the story and they turned into loveable people with a lot of heart.  Their friendship was very believable and even when her friends' husbands were introduced, it just made the story flow easier.

There was a little bit of chemistry between Martha and Lt Arlo Beavers (the homicide detective on the case) but it was just a breath of fresh air in between the break-ins and dog-poop on the stoops :)

I will definitely be keeping an eye out for the next in the Quilting Mystery series.  It was a fun being part of Martha's world for a few days.   

Thank you NetGalley!

Audiobook Review: Duck the Halls

Duck the Halls 

by Donna Andrews
 
Series: Meg Lanslow #16
Publication date: 22 October 2013
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Source: my own copy
Date Read: 09 December 2013
Narrator: Bernadette Dunne
Length: 8 hours 17 minutes

A new side-splitting Meg Langslow mystery from award–winning, New York Times bestselling author of Six Geese A Slaying, just in time for the holidays

The brilliantly funny and talented Donna Andrews delivers another winner in the acclaimed avian-themed series that mystery readers have come to love. A few nights before Christmas, Meg is awakened when Michael is summoned to the New Life Baptist Church, where someone has rigged a cage full of skunks in the choir loft. The lengthy process of de-skunking the church requires its annual pre-Christmas concert to relocate to Trinity Episcopal, where Mother insists the show must go on, despite the budget-related protests of Mr. Otis, an elderly vestryman. Meanwhile, when Meg helps her grandfather take the skunks to the zoo, they discover that his boa has been stolen—only to turn up later during the concert slithering out from the ribbon-bedecked evergreens.

It’s clear that some serious holiday pranksters are on the loose, and Meg is determined to find them. But before she can, a fire breaks out at Trinity, and Mr. Otis is discovered dead. Could this be a bit of nasty revenge from the now deposed Pruitt family? Or harassment from the Evil Lender? As Meg searches for answers she also races to finish all of her Christmas shopping, wrapping, cooking, caroling, and decorating in time to make the season jolly for Michael and the twins.

Guaranteed to put the "ho ho hos" into the holidays of cozy lovers everywhere, Duck the Halls is a gut-bustingly funny mystery, the latest from the award-winning Donna Andrews.

My thoughts: I generally enjoy cozy mysteries. They have a kind of fantasy, over-the-top feeling as I am sure these situations just do not creep up on you in real life. And more often than not, some of these situations make you want to laugh out loud. I love that!

Unfortunately I chose book 16 to enter into this chaotic Christmas mess that is the Langslow family. I wish I started at the beginning . . . I am usually very particular about starting a series at the first book but this time, this one just crept up on me and I wanted to enjoy the Christmas setting. This was a mistake. I am sure that I would have enjoyed it all much more if I had come to know the family and their friends and felt invested in what happened in their lives.

There is no time wasted introducing the family characters as I am sure everyone is loved by regular readers already. This unfortunately made me feel like an outsider looking in and not part of the story at all. I am not sure if this is the way that a small town act but it did seem a bit far fetched at times.

There is a big religious feel to the book as well. I felt some of the church activities was a bit of a clique and I could not imagine that it bore any resemblance to reality but then again this is fiction. And maybe if you live in a small town . . .

The main character, Meg, did not endear herself to me either. In fact I thought she was overly protective of her husband who is a volunteer firefighter. I am sure my husband would not have appreciated it if I acted like Meg at some of the crime scenes.

Having said all of the above, I still enjoyed the light hearted sillyness of this book but I would recommend starting at the first book . . .