Review: A Murder for Miss Hortense - Book #1 Miss Hortense Series - Mel Pennant - June 2025 Listen, I thought I knew cozy mysteries. I've devoured every Miss Marple adventure until I could practically recite them in my sleep, and I've got a soft spot for any sleuth who solves crimes between afternoon tea and garden pruning. But Miss Hortense? She's something else entirely, and I'm absolutely here for it. Meet Miss Hortense: retired nurse, cake-baking extraordinaire, and possibly the most observant woman in Birmingham's quiet suburb of Bigglesweigh. This isn't your typical English village mystery, though. Miss Hortense emigrated from Jamaica in 1960, and her sharp eye for detail extends far beyond spotting murderers—she can tell if her turmeric's been watered down before her first bite of beef patty. That's the kind of authenticity that had me grinning from page one. What absolutely hooked me was how Pennant weaves Miss Hortense's investigative prowes...

Review: What Lies in Paradise - Leah Cupps - January 2020 Anything to do with social media in a novel and I am hooked and want to read, so when this one mentioned Instagram and how the main character had 400K followers it intrigued me.  I have to admit though that the first line of the blurb " She’s got 400,000 fans. One of them could be the killer" was very deceiving as you learn pretty quick basically chapter 2 what is happening and that it has nothing to do with her fan base, but more her choice of family and friends. The novel starts off with Sydney going to Jamacia for a friend's wedding. She decided to fly separately as she has been grieving since her husband died six months ago and didn't want to spoil her friend's ride over. It's a good thing though she didn't fly the same as her friends as one of them dies in air and the next thing Sydney knows is waking up in an interrogation cell with Homeland Security - the mix of Amb...