Harvest of Secrets

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Lucie Montgomery finds herself between two murders: one that took place 150 years ago and what that happened recently. In Harvest of Secrets by Ellen Crosby both murders interfere with the grape harvest.

Two of Lucie's vineyard employees are digging up a tree when they find a skull just outside the family cemetery. A forensic anthropologist is hired to determine the age of the skull and possibly find the rest of the skeleton. Lucie is certain this is someone to whom she is related, so she is all in on the search.

Newly arrived winemaker Jean-Claude de Marignac is the son of a wealthy winemaker in France and Lucie's family has been friends with his family for decades. But not everyone is charmed by Jean-Claude and right away he ruffles some feathers.

While the anthropologist continues her search, Lucie frets about an approaching hurricane and how it will impact their harvest. She also receives a disconcerting email from someone who found her their her recent DNA test. He claims to be her half brother and needless to say Lucie is shocked and mystified.

The two murders couldn't be farther apart in their cause. Lucie finds the name of a female relative in the family Bible with only a birth date, no other information. When the rest of the skeleton is found wrapped in an unusual quilt, Lucie decides to check with local historical societies to identify it. What she discovers is her relative was murdered by a blow to the head because she wanted to marry someone her family disapproved of.

When Jean Claude is found dead, his murder is the results of his evil deeds, but one of Lucie's vineyard workers is suspected.

As the hurricane threatens, Lucie must solve the two murders, harvest grapes and decide whether she wants include her half brother into the family.

Two excellent mysteries in one. I loved the forensic anthropologist portion. It is amazing what can be discovered with just a skeleton.

Daughter of Molokai

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This is a novel of heartbreak, joy, grief, love and forgiveness that should be read by everyone in these turbulent times. Daughter of Moloka'i is the sequel to Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. You do not have to have read the first one to understand the story line.(Daughter of Moloka'i will be released on February 19 by St. Martin's Press.)

Ruth Utagawa was one day old she was taken from her leper parents and separated from them for one year. After the year when she showed no signs of the disease, she was taken by a nun Kapi'iolani House for Girls on Oahu to be raised by other nuns. Adoptions were hard to come by because many people knew the girls were children of lepers from Moloka'i. In Ruth's case, it was doubly difficult because she was half Japanese and half Hawaiian.

As Ruth grew she wondered why her mother gave her up, but no one explained the circumstances of her separation. When she was five a lovely Japanese couple living in Hawaii with three American born sons adopted her despite the circumstances of her birth. Taizo and Etsuko Watanabe are delighted to have a daughter and they raise her to follow Japanese customs with as much love as they give their sons.

When Taizo's brother encourages the family to move to California and farm with him, they reluctantly leave Hawaii. Facing much anti-Japanese sentiment in California, their farm is successful and they are able to make a decent living for the two families, always with the underlying resentment of the white Californians.

When the stock market crashed in 1929, times are difficult for everyone and the brothers decide to sell 90% of their farm to the local anti-Japanese sheriff. They finally agree to sell the entire farm, but lease back land to farm for their own families.

After Ruth graduates from high school, she finds her job prospects are limited, but with a stroke of luck she meets Frank Harada and marries him shortly thereafter. He opens a diner in Florin and the business succeeds, then World War II ruins their lives.

When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States government rounded up all Japanese - American citizens and all others of Japanese descent and marched them off the internment camps. The families were only able to take a small number of possessions and their lands and property were sold out from under them.

For years Ruth and her family were prisoners in the internment camps and treated like they were inferior. Their accommodations at the first camp were former horse stables. There was barbed wire and armed guards surrounding the isolated camps.

The treatment of Japanese-American by the U.S. government is a blot on our history. No one of German or Italian descent (also enemies in WWII) were interned, only the Japanese. Although Daughter of Moloka'i comes full circle with Ruth meeting her birth mother, the mortifying treatment of the Japanese in American can never be erased and this kind of discrimination must never be allowed to happen again.

Nantucket Countefeit

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"Life imitates art far more than art imitates life," said Oscar Wilde. In Nantucket Counterfeit by Steven Axelrod, Police Chief Henry Kennis thinks the current play performed by the Nantucket Theater Lab seems to be imitating life. The playwright Blair Hollister has written a show entitled Who Dun It. When much hated artistic director Horst Refn is found stuffed in a freezer, it's up to Kennis to sort through the many suspects to determine who dun it.

And there are plenty of suspects. Nantucket's wealthy residents are reluctant to speak about anything personal and feel they are above the law, so Kennis struggles with interviewing them. When he does speak with them, he is sure many of them are lying some of the time.

Through his team's research, they discover Refn was blackmailing many people on the island and making a good living from it. But more importantly Horst Refn, was really not Horst Refn, but Barry Pomeroy. Prior to becoming Refn, Pomeroy participated in several scams to defraud many people of money as well as blackmailing others.

In addition counterfeit bills were found at the scene of the crime and those lead Kennis in several directions. As he begins to draw closer to arresting his suspect, several other things fall into place almost leading to Kennis arrest the wrong person and causing the death of another.

This is the fifth book in the series, but it can be read without having read the others in the series. Henry Kennis is a witty character who writes poetry to the chagrin of his ex-wife. A thoroughly enjoyable mystery.

Interview with Debra H. Goldstein

What is the title of your newest book? How many books have you published?
My new book is One Taste Too Many. It is the first of Kensington’s new Sarah Blair cozy mystery series. Should Have Played Poker: a Carrie Martin and the Mah Jongg Players Mystery and 2012 IPPY Award winning Maze in Blue were prior standalones.

For a review of One Taste Too Many, click here.

How did you develop your character and choose your location?
When I decided I wanted to write a cozy, I knew they tended to be about protagonists with culinary or craft skills. My expertise was limited in either area. Frustrated, I realized there had to be readers out there like me – cooks of convenience. Once I decided to have my protagonist mimic my own inaptness, the character flowed. Because I wanted to balance big city and small town life for my character and her twin sister, I created a small southern community fifteen minutes from one of Alabama’s major cities.

What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening?

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I write sporadically – fitting it in around my other life activities. When I was on the bench, I wrote on weekends and between midnight and two a.m. Since I walked away from my lifetime appointment, I thought I would write more in the day, but I tend to address social media first thing, outside activities next and write in the latter part of the day.

Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know?
My sister is a gourmet cook while I prefer to make things using pre-made ingredients or to bring take-out in. I thought it would be fun to create characters contrasting our kitchen styles. Because I am the mother of fraternal twins, I thought exploring the bond of being night and day twins would enhance the story.

If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?
Sarah Blair – tall, willowy, clumsy and inept in the kitchen – age 28 –younger Sandra Bullock (think Ms. Congeniality or Ya-Ya Sisterhood) or perhaps Jennifer Garner or Claire Foy

Who is your favorite author?
I read in spurts, so I don’t have a favorite author.

If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be?
I am going to make my party all female, but depending upon what theme or mood I want for the party, my guest list would be my mother, because I miss her wisdom and wit; Eleanor Roosevelt, for all she saw and did in her own right and as the eyes of her husband; Abigail Adams, for the spunk and intellect she always demonstrated; and two, who I learned during an interview at Bouchercon, are friends because I would like to see how they play off each other: Hillary Clinton and Louise Penny.

If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
Before I walked away from it to fulfill my passion for writing, I had a fulfilling legal career. I was a litigator before becoming a judge, so if I couldn’t write, that is the career I would return to.

Restaurant Weeks are Murder

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Gluten-free devotee Poppy McAllister is asked to help her former fiance Tim prepare desserts at a local contest in New Jersey. Restaurant Weeks are Murder by Libby Klein finds Poppy as the third member of Tim's restaurant team for the event. (Restaurant Weeks are Murder will be released by Kensington Publishing on February 26.)

The Restaurant Week competition is being hosted at the Cape Community College in the brand new culinary school kitchen. There are six chefs from different local restaurants as part of the event and it is being filmed for local TV and judged by well-known critics. Among the contestants is Adrian Baxter, a former classmate and adversary of Tim's at the Culinary Institute of America. Twenty years ago, he accused Tim of tampering with ingredients in a competition before they graduated. He still holds a grudge.

On the first day of the competition, someone replaces the ingredients with non-toxic replacements such as talcum powder for flour and soy sauce for vanilla. Poppy gets wind of it right away and rectifies the problem for her kitchen, but doesn't tell anyone figuring chefs would catch on themselves like she did. Unfortunately some do not catch on and most of their preparations are ruined by the mix-up. Naturally Adrian blames Tim.

Things go from bad to worse when appliances begin malfunctioning and then one of the judges dies right after eating Poppy's cannoli. An exploding oven and a deep fryer accident don't stop the competition nor Poppy as she continues to investigate. Someone has a secret they want to keep hidden and will stop at nothing to do it.

Poppy is a terrific character and her Aunt Ginny and her crazy friends crack me up.

The Colors of all the Cattle

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This lovely series continues to be delightfully warm, friendly and rich in culture. Although they are not mysteries in the traditional sense, the No 1. Ladies Detective Agency solves problems found in every day life.

In The Colors of All the Cattle by Alexander McCall Smith, Precious Ramotswe is happy operate the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. But Mma Potokwane convinces Mma Ramotswe to run for City Council. Not everyone is comfortable with the decision, including Precious.

When she discovers a developer is planning to build a flashy new Big Fun Hotel adjacent to a graveyard, she decides this is not a respectable way to treat people who are "late." Then Mma Ramotswe enters the race with gusto and finds herself running against Mma Makutsi's nemesis Violet Sephotho, who is in the pocket of the builder.


On the business side, Mma Ramotswe is asked by a friend of her father's to investigate a hit and run accident. Dr. Marang was crossing the street in Mochudi, Precious' hometown, when a car struck and injured him. Although it happened many months ago, Precious says she will investigate.

Charlie, anxious to impress his new girlfriend, offers to speak with someone he knows who is a mechanic in Mochudi. Somehow Charlie gets himself in trouble, but his information helps solve the case.

As election day draws near, Precious is anxious about the results but believes what will be will be.

I love these books because the characters respect each other and their traditions. It is something we are lacking in today's world.

The Nutting Girl

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A movie is coming to Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts and it will star the most famous actress in the world - 21-year-old Juliana Velvet Norcross. In The Nutting Girl by Fred DeVecca, VelCro as she is known, has been a problem child and the director hires retired private detective Frank Raven to protect her.

Frank has been a blind monk, a police officer for a day, a private detective and now is retired, but operating a local movie theater in the small town. He doesn't want to be hired for the job, but is coaxed by the director Nick Mooney.

He finds VelCro to be more interesting than he thought. While getting to know her, they have some deep spiritual discussions that make Frank a little uncomfortable about his previous life.  It soon becomes time to shoot the movie and two extra large football players, Frank calls Frick and Frack, are hired to be bodyguards.

While Frank is performing with the Morris Dancer troupe for the movie, he glances back at VelCro as she, her friend Sarah and the
two bodyguards are sitting on a fence near the river. Suddenly VelCro, Sarah and one of the bodyguards topple into the raging river. Frank dives into the river to try to save someone. It is Sarah he rescues, but there's no sign of VelCro or her bodyguard. Was VelCro pushed or did she commit suicide?

Sarah and Frank refuse to believe VelCro is dead and they use any means available to them to try to track her movements before and after she fell in the river. Did Frack push her as a photo seems to suggest, but she had a smile on her face when she went into the water. Is that significant?

The trail leads Frank and friends back to where it all began for him. A fascinating study of human emotions and where they lead.

Murder in an Irish Pub

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A poker tournament comes to Kilbane, but where there are poker players there are sharks. In Murder in an Irish Pub by Carlene O'Connor, Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan isn't feeling like a poker tournament in town isn't such a good idea. She keeps that feeling to herself and heads to Rory's Pub where it is being held.

Three of the most famous poker players are in town: Eamon Foley, the Octopus; Clementine Hart, the Queen of Hearts; and Shane Ross, the Shane of Spades. They beginn playing a few hands when suddenly Eamon finds himself holding the famous "Dead Man's Hand"- black aces and black eights.  Legend has it Wild Bill Hickok was holding that exact hand when he was murdered.

As Eamon leaps to his feet another deck of cards is found on his seat and everyone begins arguing. Nathan Doyle, the poker official, says he will review the video and make a decision about disqualifying Eamon the next day. There's a quarter of a million Euros at stake, so the decision is important.

When Eamon is found hanging in the bar’s storeroom the next morning, it’s thought to be a suicide, but  Siobhan thinks it was murder. Eamon's wife Rose was about to have a baby and Siobhan doesn't believe he would kill himself. The difficult with proving it was murder was the locked storeroom. As she and MacDara Flannery investigate, she begins to find clues that make it ore likely to have been murder.

Another entertaining entry into the Irish Village Mystery series

Interview with Catherine Maiorisi

What is the title of your newest book? How many books have you published?
I’ve published four books. The Blood Runs Cold, the second in the NYPD Detective Chiara Corelli Mystery series, is my newest. I’ve also published A Matter of Blood, the first Corelli mystery, and two romances.

How did you develop your character and choose your location?
Drafts of the Corelli mysteries, the first fiction I’d ever written, were completed more than ten years ago. When I started writing the series the goal was two detectives in the style of Elizabeth George’s Lynly and Havers. But over the years I rewrote the characters many times, so Corelli and Parker are very different from the original versions and not at all like George’s detectives. For example, rather than have Parker be poor and less polished like Havers, she is a private school, Yale, Harvard Law graduate while Corelli is from a working class Italian family and got her college degree at night. Also, I’ve layered Corelli and added depth to her character by having her reflect what was happening in the world around her, like the World Trade Center bombing and the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

As for location, I live in New York City and I believe it’s the greatest city in the world. The city is so varied that there many, many places to set a story besides the familiar ones like Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and the High Line. For example, the United Nations comes into play in The Blood Runs Cold. And, I’ve used Penny Park and the 79th Boat Basin, a marina in the middle of Manhattan where people live on their boats, as locations in short stories. Why make up a small town or write about a real small town, when within the five boroughs of New York City there are so many fascinating communities to set a murder investigation?

What is a day in the life of an author like? Do you write a certain number of words, do you write in the morning or evening?
My schedule is flexible. I don’t write everyday, and when I do, I don’t have a fixed time or a fixed number of words. Some days I spend on promotion, some days I just read, some days I do household chores, some days I do all of the above as the mood strikes me.

I start the day with coffee, breakfast and The New York Times. The Times can be a time suck so I’m careful to not spend the day on it. I generally sit down to work around ten thirty or eleven a.m. Depending on my mood I write either in my living room or I go out to my favorite breakfast/lunch place, Edgar’s Café, and write under a huge painting of Edgar Allan Poe. If I’m on a roll, I write until I run out of words, sometimes midnight or later. I’m the cook in my house so usually I write until around five when I start to prep dinner.

Around seven thirty or eight I may continue to write or pick up the book I’m reading. At nine I’ll watch news for an hour and then go back to what I was doing. I go to bed around midnight but if I’m really into what I’m reading I’ll stay up until the early morning to finish it.

Do you model your character after yourself or any one you know?
As I indicated earlier, I started out modeling my two main characters after Elizabeth George’s characters but as I became a better writer they changed, and with each rewrite they changed, and now they are my creations, my characters.

Occasionally, someone I’ve known will inspire a character but that’s as close as I get to real people. My characters are derived from my experience and knowledge of human nature. They come to me as I need them and evolve as I write them. It’s an amazing process that I don’t quite understand. For example, in The Blood Runs Cold a newspaper reporter just showed up out of nowhere and became an important part of the story. And then there are the hero kittens. My books aren’t cozies so I certainly never thought of including kittens, but there they were right in the middle of the action just when they were needed.

If your books were made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead character?
Right now I would say Rachel Weisz who I saw recently in The Favorite. I think she can project Chiara’s strength and her vulnerability, her warmth and her anger, and her determination. I also think she’s beautiful but unusual looking.

Who is your favorite author?
In mystery, Elizabeth George is still one of my favorites. I also enjoy Val Mcdermid, Laura Lippman, and Karin Slaughter, but there are so many new, really good mystery writers that I can’t name just one.

If you could invite five people – living or dead – to a dinner party, who would they be?
Michelle Obama – for her warmth and brilliance
Nancy Pelosi – for her political acumen
Radclyffe Hall – for her bravery in publishing The Well of Loneliness
Eleanor Roosevelt – for her activism and living her life her way
Toni Morrison – for her writing

If you could not be an author, what would like to do as a career?
I’ve already had another career in technology that I loved. I owned a small technology consulting firm for a number of years, and then worked as a management consultant myself. And now, I love writing novels. And publication is the icing on the cake.

But if I were choosing a career today I would run for political office. I believe we have an opportunity to make real change in our society and I’m inspired by the number of women jumping into the political fight at all levels of government.

A Killer at the Cult

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Reverend Annabelle Dixon finds herself in the middle of another investigation in Killer at the Cult by Alison Golden. Promising to give up her beloved baked goods to try to lose a little weight, Annabelle decides to take her mind off the promise and visit some new people in her parish,

She discovers they are called The Brotherhood, a loose collection of quirky, diverse people, and they have taken up residence in an old vacant house. As is typical in some small towns, newcomers, especially an unusual collection like this one get labeled as a Cult. Their charismatic leader Theo seems friendly and welcoming, especially turning on the charm when Annabelle shows up to their house. 

Theo invites her to stay for dinner and to watch them perform their monthly ritual in the woods. Dinner is an odd mixture of foods, but Annabelle manages to make it through the meal, though has second thoughts about the ritual.

As Annabelle watches, the men, dressed as wild animals and the women are in simpler costumes, cavort through the woods singing, chanting and chasing each other around and generally making a lot of noise. As her comfort level begins to decrease, Annabelle decides to leave the woods, but stumbles across a body -Theo, the leader - dead in the woods.

Annabelle digs deeper and learns all is not well. Theo turns out not to be the charismatic, friendly leader she assumed, but is fascinated by Nazi memorablia. The more she digs, the more unsettled she becomes.

Annabelle is a charming character and her ability to handle her non-traditional role as a female reverend in a small village make the books fun to read.