New Year's Resolution Book Review: A Wee Dose of Death by Fran Stewart

My New Year's resolution regarding books is to write a review, no matter how short, of each book I finish reading in 2016. Here's my first: a cozy in a new series.

A Wee Dose of Death: A Scotshop Mystery #2 by Fran Stewart, to be released January 5, 2016 by Berkley
Source: publisher, for review
Objective rating: 4/5

ScotShop owner, Peggy Winn, sells kilts and tartans, scarves, socks and other Scottish items to tourists that visit her little Vermont town of Hamelin. Peggy and her best friend Karaline both have a secret - they can see and talk to a fourteenth-century Scotsman, a ghost that came with an old shawl Peggy had bought on a trip to Scotland.

Dirk the ghost can be made to disappear if Peggy should fold up the shawl, which she does whenever Dirk becomes bothersome. He doesn't like it but reappears again when she spreads out or wears the shawl over her shoulders. Dirk comes in handy as an advisor and a keen observer, and may even have healing powers in his cold hands. He helps Peggy solve the mysterious death of Karaline's old college professor, who was found murdered in a mountain cabin in the woods.

This was a fun read. The Scotsman ghost is a great addition to the plot and is very likable, as are the main characters, Peggy and Karaline. The Vermont woods in winter is made very atmospheric, as is the cross country skiing involved in getting through them.

There are many red herrings in the story, so it's great that it's hard to guess the outcome and the culprit(s). I did get a bit confused at the end when the mystery was unraveling and the people's names and identities became confusing to me. I think the final pages could have used some more editing, just a wee bit.

Overall, though, this cozy was very entertaining and makes me eager to read the first in the series.

Sunday Salon: Books to Start Out the New Year

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer and It's Monday: What Are You Reading by Reading Date. 

I haven't gotten much read over the holidays, but am into at least three different books that I pick up at random, in between chores. 

Had to drive in to Chicago at 3 a.m. the other day to get our guests to their connection at O'Hare Airport. The sleet storm that followed canceled all or most flights, so we stayed over and cocooned indoors looking out at the Windy, Sleety City that had suddenly gotten cold, as winter is supposed to be. Our visitors finally made it out of Chi Town on New Year's Eve.

No new books in the mail....I did get to the library and found two books with an Asian theme to start out the new year.

The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes, published July 7, 2015 by Sourcebooks Landmark.

Inara Erickson is exploring her deceased aunt's island estate when she finds an elaborately stitched piece of fabric hidden in the house. As she peels back layer upon layer of the secrets it holds, Inara's life becomes interwoven with that of Mei Lein, a young Chinese girl mysteriously driven from her home a century before. 

Through the stories Mei Lein tells in silk, Inara uncovers a tragic truth that will shake her family to its core — and force her to make an impossible choice.
Inspired by true events, Kelli Estes's brilliant and atmospheric debut serves as a poignant tale of two women determined to do the right thing, and the power of our own stories. (goodreads)

Sisters of Heart and Snow by Margaret Dilloway, published April 7, 2015 by Putnam.
The award-winning author of How to Be an American Housewife ( see my 2011 review) returns with a story of estranged sisters, forced together by family tragedy.
Rachel hasn’t returned  home since being kicked out by her strict father after an act of teenage rebellion. Drew, her younger sister, followed her passion for music but takes side jobs to make ends meet. When their deferential Japanese mother, Hikari, is diagnosed with dementia and gives Rachel power of attorney, Rachel’s domineering father, Killian becomes enraged.

In a moment of lucidity, Hikari asks Rachel for a book in her sewing room, and Rachel enlists her sister’s help in the search. The book—which tells the tale of real-life female samurai Tomoe Gozen, an epic saga of love, loss, and conflict during twelfth-century Japan—reveals truths about Drew and Rachel’s relationship that connects them in ways that turn their differences into assets. (goodreads)

I missed Dilloway's second book, The Care and Handling of Roses With Thorns, a novel about the art of rose breeding, published in 2012, but am adding this to my list of books to read in 2016.

These are the new books I'm starting out with this new year. How about you?

Sunday Salon: New Mystery Series for 2016

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. Also visit Mailbox Monday, and It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date.

Spring-like weather and rain lately, no white Christmas this year. We are getting spoiled till the end of the year, it seems.

Three new cozy series for the new year:

Daisies for Innocence by Bailey Cattrell, first in a new series, to be published January 5, 2016 by NAL

The first Enchanted Garden Mystery featuring custom perfume maker Elliana Allbright...

Ellie’s life has blossomed in Poppyville, California, since she opened Scents & Nonsense, a custom-made-perfume store. Her skills with aromas and botanical essences—some from her very own garden—seem almost…supernatural. Her perfumes can evoke emotions,  bring about change, or simply make people happy. But when she learns that her part-time assistant Josie is dating her ex, she finds Josie dead in the Enchanted Garden. Now the prime suspect in Josie’s murder, Ellie must search for the real culprit in Josie’s past. (goodreads)

One Foot in the Grove by Kelly Lane, an Olive Grove mystery, to be published January 5, 2016 by Berkley

First in a new mystery series about Eva Knox and her family’s Georgia olive plantation.
In the sweet Southern town of Abundance, Georgia, home of the Knox family’s olive farm,...A death on her family’s farm soon makes Eva the lead suspect in a murder case—and the sheriff investigating is none other than Eva’s old flame Buck.

It’s up to Eva and her sisters, Pep and Daphne, to figure out who could have possibly left a dead body in their olive grove. (goodreads)

To Helvetica and Back by Paige Shelton, to be released January 5, 2016 by Berkley
The New York Times bestselling author introduces readers to Star City, Utah, and a little shop called the Rescued Word...Star City is nestled in a ski resort town in a side street full of shops that specialize in earlier eras. In the Rescued Word, Chester Henry and his granddaughter Clare repair old typewriters and restore old books. Who ever thought their quaint store would hold the key to some modern-day trouble? (goodreads)

Any new books for January on your desk?

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays 2015

Best wishes for the holidays, and Happy Reading to you! May there be many books under your holiday tree.

First Chapter: Suspicion at Seven by Ann Purser

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers. Also share a teaser from the book with Teaser Tuesday at A Daily Rhythm.

Suspicion at Seven: A Lois Meade Mystery by Ann Purser, published December 2, 2015 by Berkley.
Lois Meade has done enough buffing and polishing over the years with her cleaning business, New Brooms, to know that all that glitters is not gold. So when a bag of costume jewellery is the main clue in a murder, she has a strong suspicion that appearances may be deceiving…

First chapter, first paragraph:

Lois Meade, businesswoman and unpaid amateur detective, sat on the low wall of a millpond and watched the flow of water in the tailrace, where ducks and drakes were flapping about in the antics of courtship. It was spring, and love was in the air. Oddly enough, murder was also in the air. 

What do you think? Does the beginning make you want to read on?

Sunday Salon: Books Before Christmas

Welcome to the Sunday Salon where bloggers share their reading each week. Visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer. 
Also visit Mailbox Monday, and Stacking the Shelves, hosted by Tynga's Reviews. Visit It's Monday, What Are You Reading? hosted by Book Date. 

Three new books but not much time to read this week....

What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross, to be published January 5, 2016 by Gallery Books.
The heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore—and gets away with it for twenty-one years.

Water on the Moon , a win from the author Jean P. Moore, published June 3, 2015 by SheWrites Press.
Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) for Contemporary Fiction (Gold Medal) (2015)

The Good Liar by Nicholas Searle, to be released February 2, 2016 by Harper
Roy is a conman living in a small English town, about to pull off his final con. He is going to meet and woo a beautiful woman and slip away with her life savings. But who is the man behind the con? 

Currently reading: 
a borrow from the library, The Nature of the Beast, the 11th in the mystery series by Louise Penny. Quite a suspenseful story, set in the idyllic village of Three Pines, Quebec.

I am almost finished with a new cozy, A Wee Dose of Death by Fran Stewart, A Scotshop mystery to be released January 5, 2015. I don't normally take to ghosts in novels, but a thirteenth century Scotsman who spices up this shop adds a lot to the mystery. 

What books are you reading right now, before Christmas? 

I am still adding to the number of books I have read in 2015, but so far, this is what I've read on Goodreads: Books Read in 2015

Two Christmas Mystery Novels

Keeping in mind these are only Christmas cozies and just for fun, don't mind the titles! I'm saving them for the holidays and hoping I will have the reading time!

Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen: A Year-Round Christmas Mystery #1 by Vicki Delany, published November 3, 2015 by Berkley
In Rudolph, New York: As the owner of Mrs. Claus’s Treasures, Merry Wilkinson knows how to decorate homes for the holidays. That’s why she thinks her float in the semi-annual Santa Claus parade is a shoe-in for best in show. But when the tractor pulling Merry’s float is sabotaged, she has to face facts: there’s a Scrooge in Christmas Town.

Opening sentence: The tips of the tall turquoise and green hats bobbed in the snow as elves weaved through crowds of painted dolls, toy soldiers, shepherds with their sheep, reindeer, poultry,  clowns, sugarplums, gingerbread people, and candy canes. 

and

Trimmed With Murder: A Seaside Knitters Mystery #10 by Sally Goldenbaum, published November 3, 2015 by NAL
All Izzy Chambers Perry wants for Christmas is to keep her brother Charlie out of jail—in this holiday yarn from the national bestselling author of A Finely Knit Murder…But Izzy and the knitters soon have to clear Charlie of a hitchhiker's murder.

Opening sentence: Charlie hadn't yet reached the bridge that crossed over onto Cape Ann proper when he decided it was all a terrible mistake. A cruel joke his conscience had played on him, punishing him for all the wrongs in his life. 

What holiday books are you planning to read?