Gunpowder Green (Tea Shop Mysteries #2) by Laura Childs

The second book in Laura Childs' Teashop Mystery series, this book finds Theodosia and company investigating another murder in historic Charleston. On the day of the annual yachting race between two exclusive yacht clubs, an antique pistol used to mark the end of the race explodes, killing a 60-year-old mover and shaker. This leaves his 20-something bride a very rich (and not altogether grief-stricken) widow.

Once again, the characters are richly drawn and the plot moves forward at a just-one-more-chapter pace. The reveal is satisfying and well played. The only off notes are the coda at the end that read a bit like the tag from 80's detective shows and the overabundance of unusual names. I understand it's set in the South, but someone must be named Mike or George or Mary or Kate.

Little quibbles with an otherwise fun read.

Which Person--First or Third?

A lot of cozies are now written in first person. It keeps you tied to the protagonist. You know what she knows and only what she knows. For some readers, it heightens the suspense and makes it feel like they are the one solving the mystery.

The earlier cozy authors (Christie, Sayers) used third person. They usually stayed fairly close to the main character, but there are exceptions. In Christie's first Miss Marple mystery, she doesn't show up until almost halfway through the book. We're with the local vicar.

What do you think? Any preference?

Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco

Three bored editors make up "The Plan," an explanation connecting all things occult and determining where the point of all power on Earth is located: under the titular pendulum in Paris. The story covers how they developed The Plan and the unexpected events that follow its creation. Think "DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" combined, well-written and with a bit of actual scholarship behind it.

Eco is a master of language, story and history and of weaving them all together into a ripping good yarn. The book definitely kept me turning pages (the relatively short chapters helped with that as well). But Eco also never met a list he didn't like. Lists that go on for paragraphs. Lists that the reader knows contain some tidbit she'll need later, but longs to skip. He also took one pivotal conversation between the three editors and broke it into six or seven chapters. While long chapters can be daunting to some, this just broke the narrative tension too much and made it easier instead of harder to put the book down.

I also think the length was unnecessary. Eco may have reached the rarified status of an author no editor wants to cut. An editor should have cut. The aforementioned lists could go. So could a secondary story set in South America of about 75 pages that gave us one somewhat key piece of information that could be related in another place. There are long forays into Belbo's (one of the editors) past that really add nothing to the main storyline. The focus should remain on Casaubon, the editor who starts as a student writing a thesis on the Knights Templar. He sets everything in motion.

Still, I felt it well worth powering through the 623 pages in order to get to the satisfying end.

Are The English Better At Cozies?

I think it’s safe to say that the British invented cozy mysteries. Famous Author, who was offended by the term, said that the name comes from tea cozies, “like the English use.” So, are cozy mysteries penned by British authors better?

My own introduction to mystery novels was courtesy of three British authors: Agatha Christie, Mary Stewart and Daphne du Maurier.

Ms. Christie wrote both the Hercule Poirot mysteries (which I would not classify as cozy since he is a professional detective) and the Miss Marple books. Between my mother’s book collection and the local library, I read just about every one of Agatha Christie’s books before I graduated from high school. She is, not surprisingly, a big influence on my choice of genres.

Mary Stewart is probably best known for her Merlin series (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, etc.). However, she wrote many other books that fall into the mystery/suspense genre. The ones I remember reading are Madam, Will You Talk?, My Brother Michael, Touch Not the Cat, and Airs Above the Ground. They are all a bit darker than most cozies, with elements of the supernatural, but the construction of the mystery was always strong.

Daphne du Maurier’s books can’t really be called cozies either. But, again, there is that supernatural undercurrent with a strong mystery at the heart of her stories. Rebecca, The House on the Strand, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, My Cousin Rachel, and Don’t Look Now are all stories that I can go back to time and time again--and still have nightmares.

Dorothy L Sayers, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Margery Allingham, Jo Bannister, M.C. Beaton, Rhys Bown, Simon Brett, and Jonathan Gash are just a few of the other well-known and respected British cozy authors.

Then we have the American authors who set their mysteries in Jolly Olde England. Sometimes literally in Olde England.

-Nancy Atherton writes the Aunt Dimity mysteries

-Stephanie Barron’s novels feature Jane Austen as the sleuth

-Carrie Bebris uses Austen’s characters of Mr. & Mrs. Darcy to solve mysteries

-Susan Wittig Albert writes a series featuring Beatrix Potter

-Emily Brightwell writes the Mrs. Jeffries mysteries

-Margaret Frazer pens the Sister Frevisse medieval mysteries

-Laurie R King’s sleuth is Mary Russell, a protégé of Sherlock Holmes

-Elizabeth Peters writes the Amelia Peabody mysteries

I leave it to you. Are the British better at writing cozies? Or are we Yanks just as good?

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse, Book 2)

In the second installment of the Sookie Stackhouse books, Sookie and vampire boyfriend, Bill, fly to Dallas to investigate the disappearance of a member of a Dallas vampire family. She is quickly in over her head, but manages to get herself out of as much of the trouble as Bill does. I like that in a female lead. With a boyfriend as powerful as a vampire, the write could be tempted to let him solve everything. Kudos to Harris for not doing that.

We don't really learn anything new about our main characters, with possibly the exception of Sam, Sookie’s boss and friend. But that's nothing major and could have been thrown into a different story. It's a quick, fun read that's not at all taxing on the brain.

Sometimes you just need one of those.

Too Many Cats?

When Jenny conducted her study of cozies, she reviewed a book by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown (her cat). Ali recently posted about a cozy I loaned her. It's called Curiosity Killed the Cat-Sitter.

You may notice a theme. Cats. Lots of cats. A cat (or a couple of them) feature prominently in the following series, sometimes solving the murders:

The Cat Who . . . Mysteries by Lillian Jackson Braun

Cat Lover's Mysteries by Susan Conant

Midnight Louie Mysteries by Carole Nelson Douglas

Cats & Curios Mysteries by Rebecca M. Hale

Cat in the Stacks Mysteries by Miranda James

Jane Stuart & Winky Mysteries by Evan Marshall

Jacques & Cleo, Cat Detectives Mysteries by Gilbert Morris

Joe Grey Cat Mysteries by Shirley Rouseau Murphy

Biscuit McKee & Marmalade Mysteries by Fran Stewart


You get the idea. In addition to these, a LOT of cozy mystery protagonists own a cat or two.

So, are mysteries over-saturated with cats? Or do you think, the more the merrier? I, personally, love cats, but probably won't give any of my protagonists one as a pet.

Needled to Death (Knitting Mysteries #2) by Maggie Sefton

Kelly Flynn is still staying at her late aunt's cottage in Fort Connor, Colorado while telecommuting to her job in DC. She's waiting to see how all the estate tangles play out since she is the only living relative of both her aunt and her aunt's late cousin. When she drives a carload of tourists to a friend's house so they can see the friend’s alpaca herd, Kelly finds the friend dead. Another death for her to figure out, with the help of the gang at the House of Lampspun knitting shop.

This installment of the series has the same strengths and weaknesses of the first with one addition--everyone says, "Ohhhhhh" and "Okaaaaaaay" a lot. But I have to admit that all the talk of knitting and using ribbon yarn have me wanting to pick up my needles again. Yarn shops should definitely carry this series.