The Book of Candlelight

When you have the ability to read people and determine what is bothering them, then recommend books for them to read, it's a good thing you are bookstore owner. In The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams, Nora Pennington has just such an ability. With the constant flow of visitors to her shop during the rainy season in western North Carolina, her book store is busy. (The Book of Candlelight will be released by Kensington Publishing Corp. on January 28.)

Despite the weather, Nora bikes over to the flea market and purchases a lovely bowl from Danny, a Cherokee potter. The next day with the rain continuing to fall, a bridge collapses and in the churning water is the body of the potter. Viewed as an accident, Nora doesn't believe it and enlists her Secret, Book & Scone Society friends to help discover who killed Danny and why. 


When she discovers some of his older, more valuable pots at the renovated Inn of the Mist and Roses, she worries the new owners have taken advantage of him. Lou and Patty claim not to know Danny, but Nora is not so sure. 

While she decides to investigate, a series of troubling incidents happen to her friends. Her friend June's home is spray painted with a angry red letters making a racial slur, then someone throws a brick through Nora's shop window and she worries that her other friends might be next. 

As Nora learns more about the Inn and its history, she soon realizes why the death and the other incidents are occurring. She tries to keep anyone else from being injured or killed, especially Danny's young widow, her new employee Sheldon and her other two friends who are part of the Secret, Book & Scone Society.  

A Southern Strategy - Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia

One of my favorite authors is Ellery Adams. She is a prolific writer, managing to write three different cozy mystery series. They include The Book Retreat Mysteries, The Books by the Bay series and The Charmed Pie Shoppe. The quirkiest of these is The Book Retreat Mysteries. I stumbled on the first one entitled Murder in the Mystery Suite. It features Jane Steward, a widowed mother with twin six-year-old sons living in a reassembled English estate that is a genteel catering to book lovers located in western Virginia.

Jane decides to host a Murder and Mayhem Week, asking her guests to dress like their favorite mystery detective, but a real murder takes place and a valuable book is missing. I loved the entire concept of the Agatha Christie Tearoom, the Kipling Cafe or the Madame Bovary Dining Room, but the story takes a strange twist into family traditions and long-guarded secrets.

Another series by Ellery Adams is the Books By the Bay Mysteries. These feature Olivia Limoges, a restaurant owner living in Oyster Bay, North Carolina. In Lethal Letters Olivia is on hand when a time capsule is discovered during a church renovation. She catches a glimpse of the contents, but when the list of contents is made public, one of the items she saw is not on the list.

While taking a walk on the beach near her home Olivia and her niece discover the body of Ruthie Holcomb, someone no one wants to discuss. The missing item from the time capsule and the body on the beach lead Olivia on a hunt for the connection.

Book #1 in this series is A Killer Plot.

The third series is the whimsical Charmed Pie Shoppe Mysteries, set in Havenwood, Georgia. In Pecan Pies and Homicides,  Ella Mae Le Faye has the uncanny ability to bake her feelings into her cakes and pies, influencing the feelings and emotions of those who eat her desserts. Along with her three eccentric aunts who have special powers of their own, Ella Mae must save her magic community and the enchanted grove from an arsonist.
Book #1 Pies and Prejudice