A very fun mystery, but I had a little trouble keeping ...
340799
A very fun mystery, but I had a little trouble keeping track of the characters. Not sure why. Maybe because the story jumped around so much, which made it a little hard to follow. A little anticlimactic at the end.
4698035
H.P. Mallory knows how to create a fun, sexy paranormal mystery, and while Dulcie is not the most likable heroine, she certainly is one of the most amusing.

She's surrounded by hot men/netherworld beings, and they all seem to have the hots for her, but she doesn't quite do anything about it, except fuss and write romance novels and try to catch the thing that killed Fabian, owner of the dark arts store. (who also turned her into a giant booger!)

Though Dulcie was annoying at times, especially when it came to her romantic life, it was hard not to like her. She's very gutsy and of course, she's sexy and she's a fairy and a law enforcement officer. There just aren't many characters like her.

If only she would just give in and really go out and like some of the guys that are sniffing around her. She just seems to just take them part of the way...and these are guys that are pretty hard to resist, like Bram the sexy Vampire and A Gentlemen or Knight.

But the real focus of the story is the mystery involved, and H.P. Mallory, writes a good mystery, because you will not see who was involved in this one. In fact, the whole whodunit will leave some of the readers a bit depressed, because the bad guy, isn't really a very bad guy.

This was a quick fun read, and if you like paranormal creatures with a bit of mystery tossed into the kettle, this should be up your alley.
4520625
I like mysteries that aren't all blood and guts but takes a lot of fun twists. It also kept me guesssing.
3510354
I wasn't really sure what to expect before I read The Virgin Detective because, more often than not, so called mysteries are thinly veiled erotica/smut. In this case Kat Cazanav has written a quirky, fun murder mystery with a twist.

Poppy Rae has a unique gift and it's not something I'd particularly want (even if it does come in handy at times). She can smell dead bodies (to her it's a really strong stench of roses). This 'gift' is something of a curse for Poppy and it always seems to lead to trouble - this time she finds a body and ends up under suspicion of murder.

New detective in town, Luc, is sent to investigate the murders and solve the case. He's torn between being attracted to and intrigued by Poppy and being extremely frustrated by her illusiveness. With the evidence mounting against Poppy and her life potentially in danger, she decides to solve the case herself but is often working at odds with Luc and the police.

Poppy is definitely quirky. She's weird and awkward but really endearing. Her voice was really funny and I actually liked the weirdness. I'm hoping The Virgin Detective is part of a series because I felt there's more story to come and I want to know what lasting effect Luc has on her gift.

4 Stars in my Sky!
859291
I enjoyed the first mystery in the Stillwater General series enough that I wanted to read this one, too. However, I don't think the story was as strong this time around.

In No One Can Know, ER nurse Frankie Stapleton again encounters a mystery when a local politicians pregnant wife dies in a car accident that turns out to have been no accident. Frankie feels guilty because she had treated the likely killer in the ER and let him get away before the police arrived. So she decides to investigate the death herself, a task that gets even more complicated when the victims newborn son is kidnapped from the NICU at her hospital.

The mystery in this book wasn't very strongly plotted. It was hard for me to see why Frankie would feel it necessary to involve herself in the investigation, but thats par for the course in mysteries featuring an amateur sleuth. Her attempts to solve the crime mostly aren't very fruitful, however, and she just kind of stumbles to solution. In particular, theres one point where I just kind of had to roll my eyes when an important bit of information falls into her lap and she makes a somewhat illogical leap using that info that turns out to be correct. That kind of thing bugs me in a mystery novel.

I found myself much more interested in Frankies personal life than in the mystery. Shes always been a rolling stone, the kind of person who felt stifled in her small town and so left her family and fiance behind. Her fumbling efforts to reconnect with them and to decide whether she wants to keep moving or finally stay in her hometown were what kept me reading even after I lost interest in the mystery aspect of the book.

Readers who enjoyed the previous Stillwater General book should go ahead and read this one. Im probably going to pick up the next in the series just to see what happens in her personal life; hopefully the mystery will be stronger, too.

A copy of this book was provided through NetGalley for review; all opinions expressed are my own.
4949004
The puzzles in this game are challenging and fun!  the only problem is the characters blamer on a bit too much for me.  But the fun totally overshadows the blah blah blahs!

-J
3219226
Lady Georgiana's adventures are always fun to read and the mystery is engaging.  I did not like the ending.  The perp was unveiled but the use of some ghosts to do it was unnecessary and I think that Ms. Bowen could have gotten the same result in some other fashion
1314002
This is the first Talba Wallis mystery I've read, I liked it. The main character is very close to being overly quirky. The way some of the sentences are written is odd, I had to 're-read them to understand. But the mystery was great. Even though it ended up not being a big deal the cover-up and the lengths people went to keeping it buried were exciting and made me want to keep reading. I intend on reading more of this series and other books by this author.
1538
This was a fun read. The mystery was solid--there were lots of good clues for misdirection.
While larger troubles offered hints at the arc of the series, they didn't slow down the pace of this story.
Didn't get to see Diana & Alec from Fire, but Gia got to be more fleshed out, and lots of good hints that Serin will have one heck of a story once it's her turn.
I would have liked to see more of Connell & Logan figuring out how they work together, but this was a fun read, good characters, steady pace, strong plot. Have to give it 5 for enjoyability.
721122
Still some very funny parts, but a tad bit too contrived for my taste in mystery books.  Not sorry I  read it, because I will be reading the next 3 books in this series.  I hope the next ones are better.  I enjoy a light hearted, funny mystery now and then to break up the heavy subject matter I usually read.
4506251
Let me start by saying that I would have given this a 4.5 star rating if there was one. It missed a 5 by very little. I find that if it is a terrific story but once or twice my mind wanders, usually due to more description than I think necessary, then I cannot quite go with a 5. I had already read 3 a.m. by this author, and it was just a little better in terms of how it was written. However, that being said, the story was truly enjoyable. The murder mystery aspect kept me guessing, the characters were interesting, and the main character, Thomas, was developed right to the last sentence. There was a side story within the main story that also had hint of mystery, and the result was surprising and fun. On one level I was mentally solving the main mystery while on a more hidden level I was trying to figure out where this other thread was going. I was not disappointed. I will say, I am not fond of bad language so a few words could have been omitted to make it better. Fortunately,  there was not a lot of it. Excellent read beginning to end!
2827472
A good plot that got a little complicated towards the end ...
2232758
Interesting twists and unexpected sometimes, however I had a "little" trouble with who was who - still good.
3074775
This was the second book I've read of the Myrtle Clover series, and while it was entertaining, it did seem to move very slowly.  Although I admire the spunkiness of the main character, who refuses to be shuffled off into the "appropriate" niche for an elderly woman, I also find her a bit irritating.  She seems not just spunky, but pushy towards those she loves best.  Though the mystery was well plotted and well written, I felt as if I could not quite get to know any of the characters.

As an aside, I found one line in the book confusing.  Myrtle is washing off her recently-egged gnome statues, and the line reads: "...as she scooted off her..."  I lived in the American south for three years, and encountered much slang peculiar to the area and unfamiliar to my Yankee self, but I don't remember ever hearing the word "scooted" used in the sense of rinsing or washing.  Perhaps just a bit of the vernacular that I missed!
3236813
Great mystery! It was fun to get tangled up in this mystery with engaging characters from the previous mysteries by Patricia Wood. The foreshadowing was just enough to keep me going but not enough to make me figure out "whodunit." The best thing about a good sequel is getting reacquainted with old friends. The characters acquire more depth and interest as you go along.
869488
I enjoyed this mystery. I don't think I've read Crombie before (but I may have lost track given the amount of books I read!)
This story had several sub-plots intertwined with the main mystery, the murder of a beautiful young woman in a park. Much of the sub-plots had to do with parent-child relationships between both the primary investigator, Duncan, and his chort, Gemma. Both have children who have lost a parent for one reason or another, and both are coping with guilt over having to leave their children to perform their respective jobs. This is a real problem in today's world, and it is not easily coped with.
It is not until the mystery is solved that it become apparent that it also deals with family relationships. I got led off on several other possibilities for the woman's murderer, but they all were too pat, and I should have known better. There is a twist at the end that does make sense in some ways, though physically I wondered if the murderer had the strength to do the deed.
I enjoyed the history of the Docklands (snippets at the front of each chapter) and the history of the children in Britain who were forced from London into homes that were alien in the countryside due to the WWII Blitz by the Germans. I always like a little history with my mystery....
Karen Sadler
4814262
Great story, but maybe a little stilted in places. There were areas that didn't flow and felt like they were forced, but overall I enjoyed the book enough that I'll read the next in the series. This isn't a stand-alone book. The series does need to be read in order due to the underlying mystery. I know many people dislike that, but I live the undercurrent that ties them together. Christy's World's Worst Detective Series also has this same underlying mystery.

Overall, it's a fun read.