The Scent of Murder

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Still reeling from the deaths of her fireman father and the dog she has been training, Jazz Ramsey grudgingly agrees to temporarily train another dog. In The Scent of Murder by Kylie Logan, we are introduced to a new series published by Minotaur Books.

While her friend Greg is away, Jazz agrees to continue to train his dog Luther as a cadaver dog. She stages a practice run in an old abandoned building and her mind wanders while Luther searches. They haven't even made it to the third floor spot where she has hidden a human tooth, when Luther barks three times - the signal that he has found something.

To her shock and horror, Luther has found the body of a young woman - a young woman Jazz knows. First on the scene is Detective Nick Kolesov, someone else Jazz is familiar with. The woman is dressed in all black with a very goth appearance including white face makeup, piercings and tattoos. She has apparently been strangled.


Florentine Allen had been a scholarship student at the prestigious St. Catherine's Preparatory Academy where Jazz works as an assistant to the school's director. A recent graduate, Florie had been a good student and was a creative photographer. Why she was dressed in goth clothes and what she was doing in the abandoned building was a puzzle.

Despite Nick's warnings to stay out of the investigation, Jazz is obsessed with finding out more about Florie since her high school graduation. Her search leads her to North Coast School of Photography where she learns Florie was struggling with her grades and her finances. And maybe wasn't the most ethical person around.

First there is an affair with a married professor and then suspicions of blackmail waft around Florie. What happened to the nice girl Jazz knew from St. Catherine's? As she pokes and prods people for answers, the picture of Florie becomes clearer.

An excellent start to a new series and I look forward to the next in the series.

Disclosure: I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Mayhem at the Orient Express - Not Agatha Christie

As a huge Agatha Christie fan, this book title hooked me immediately. Kylie Logan's Mayhem at the Orient Express takes place in Put-in-Bay in Lake Erie. New B&B owner Bea Cartwright, winery owner Kate Wilder and aging hippy cat lover Chandra Morrisey are ordered to form a book club known as the League of Literary Ladies by a local judge. They cannot get along and have been in court numerous times to the dismay of local magistrate Alvin Littlejohn.

At their first meeting they are joined by Luella Zak and they decide to read Murder on the Orient Express. When the discussion ends, they decide to walk to The Orient Express, a new Chinese in town to order everyone's favorite orange/peanut chicken. What they discover is Peter Chan, the owner, dead on the floor with a knife through his heart.

After speaking with the police, the Literary Ladies wind up back at the B&B as a snowstorm brews outside. Bea's first guest has arrived and another stranger appears out of the storm asking for a room. With the power out at most of the homes and businesses on the island and the ferries not running, the League of Literary Ladies holds up in the B&B tickled to be living through a real life murder mystery. More guests arrive and before too long their numbers parallel

those on the famous train.

Snowbound like the passengers on the Orient Express train, are the ladies in the company of a murderer? These use their wits and emulate Hercule Poirot's "little grey cells" to solve the mystery.

I enjoyed this book, mostly because of the witty play on the original book by Agatha Christie, but also the characters are funny and realistically written. This is the first in the series and I am looking forward to the other books.