Review: Coral Conspiracy by Rosalie Spielman

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Aloha Lagoon Series

4****

Blurb: Recent graduate Nelly O’Hare was looking forward to studying the picturesque coral reefs of Aloha Lagoon, Hawaii, expecting her new job to be full of sun, surf, and satisfying work. What she wasn’t expecting was a pair of arguing professors, an attraction to the resort’s hot golf pro, and a totally dysfunctional academic study…ending in murder!
When one of her new bosses is found dead, not only is her ocean study in jeopardy, but the local police are also suddenly asking questions that Nelly doesn’t have answers to. Luckily her best friend, Kiki Hepburn, is no stranger to murder investigations, and along with Auntie Akamai and the loud-mouthed Paulie the parrot, she vows to help Nelly find the true killer. From the professor’s mousy assistant, to the suspicious man and his weird crabs in the next office, to the impressive ex-wife with a new boyfriend and pampered pooch, there are no shortage of suspects who might have wanted the victim dead. Especially when Nelly discovers that someone seems to have been sabotaging the study findings. With danger lurking just below the murky surface, Nelly is finding out not everything in Aloha Lagoon is as sunny as it seems. As Nelly closes in on the killer, someone is closing in on Nelly…and if she’s not careful, the coral won’t be the only thing endangered in Aloha Lagoon!

Thoughts: This was a good addition to the Aloha Lagoon series. In case you haven’t read any of them, each story is a stand alone, which I love. But they also have recurring characters that show up – like Auntie Akamai and Kiki. I really enjoyed the descriptions of dive equipment and underwater animals. In this book, you get an education as well as a good mystery.

In this one, Nelly has moved to Kauai as an intern working on her doctorate. Unfortunately, things don’t work out quite the way she hoped as the head of the research ends up dead and she loses her only source of income. With the help of Auntie Akamai and Kiki, she gets a new place to live, a new job, and catches the killer. Oh, and gets a cute boyfriend too.

The book is full of interesting information, great imagery and details, and a good story with a satisfying ending.

Recommended.

Fiction, Paranormal Cozy Mystery

4****

Blurb: Paranormal and perimenopausal? Amelia’s got double trouble. When hot flash–prone cookie shop owner Amelia inherits a spooky Florida inn, she plans to sell it fast. But the place is haunted by an unsolved murder, and her dead aunt tasks her with using her newfound psychic powers to crack the case. Armed with nothing but a cat named Freddie Purrcury and a posse of supernaturally-gifted locals, Amelia taps into the spirit world to unravel clues about the decades-old crime. She expected creaky floorboards, not messages from the other side. Between misbehaving ghosts, a slow-burn attraction to her ghost hunting guide, and her deepening connection to her estranged aunt, this midlife paranormal adventure isn’t what Amelia bargained for. But if she can’t embrace her emerging psychic gifts and solve the mystery, the spirits may sink her hotel sale for good.

Thoughts: I enjoyed this story. Amelia is the perfect main character. Older (47), divorced, displaced… She travels from California to Florida when she inherits her aunt’s old hotel. But she’s inherited a lot more—like a restless ghost. Billy was killed in the hotel decades ago, and he’s usually been a “nice” ghost, but lately, he’s been causing a lot of problems and it’s up to Amelia to find out who killed him and find his lost love.

While there, she finds good friends who are so much better than the acquaintances she had in California and discovers her latent abilities as a psychic, like many of the other residents of the small town. But the best part for me was when her new best friend took her to the special cemetery where every tombstone has a recipe carved into the back of it! I loved that. Add in the hot college professor and her huge cat and you have all the makings of a great series.

Recommended.

Fiction, Cozy Mystery

3***

Blurb: A pile of money. A mystifying law firm. A dead best friend. Can Libby figure out what the mob is really doing in Black Ridge Cove before Grammie ends up in jail, or worse?Libby follows in her Gramps’ footsteps by re-opening the town paper, The Cove Post. But before she can get a staff together, Grammie becomes the lead story! Dastardly Deeds and Possible Parricide is the second book in the paranormal Libby Foster Cozy Mystery series. If you are a fan of whodunits, paranormal amateur sleuths, and charming – albeit secretive – small towns, then you will love this cozy mystery by Ana Bisset.

Thoughts: his was a good story with good characters.
BUT… very badly edited. There are tense issues – past and present – sometimes in the same paragraph. There are grammatical issues – capitalization, wrong word choice, etc. And the cap for me was that there were way too many threads left hanging. Yes, this particular murder got solved, but there were still too many questions at the end. I know that is a marketing ploy to get you to buy more books to find the answers, but it just irritates me. Still, I did find the story intriguing and loved the characters. I especially loved that the entire quilting guild showed up in jail to confess to the murder and spend the night. Though I knew who the villain was early on, and knew what the background reason was, I still enjoyed the twists and turns to get to the end.

So… recommended with the caveat of needing better editing.

Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Danger Cove Series

4****

Blurb: Maura Monroe came to Danger Cove, Washington to forget the past and start over. Her newly-found spontaneous side thinks buying the Cinnamon Sugar Bakery is the perfect way to both indulge her passion for baking and gain a fresh start. But her practical, business-savvy side isn’t sure it’s the safest move—for her heart or her pocketbook! While her two sides duke it out, Maura decides to rent a short-term cottage to feel out the quaint little town. Only things are anything but quaint when her search for a temporary home uncovers a dead body instead of the perfect rental. And when fingers start to point at Maura’s handsome new landlord, she finds herself smack in the middle of a small town mystery. The more Maura digs, the more she realizes that secrets abound in this sleepy coastal burg…and someone is willing to kill to keep them buried. Can Maura get to the truth before the killer strikes again? Or will the next body in Danger Cove be hers?

Thoughts: Maura is looking for a new start. After her husband died, she decided she was done with the high stress sales job and fancy house and cars, so she sold them all, bought an older vehicle and drove around the country, finally landing in Danger Cove. The name of the town should have been her first clue. Finding a dead man in a house she was thinking of renting should have been the second.

But… she also finds a bakery for sale. And friends. And a hot guy who jump starts her heart. Although I would have been out of there faster than my car could have moved after all that happens to Maura, she stayed and pushed through. Good for her.

I love that even though these books are written by different authors sometimes, some of the same characters show up. Like police detective Lester Marshall. I really do not like him at all. But he is the perfect foil for our amateur sleuths. I also like that some of the same places show up so it’s like going back home.

These are great cozy mysteries that satisfy and always have good endings.

Recommended.

Blurb: This dramatic, fast-paced memoir traces a woman’s search for a story to explain sudden losses she experienced as a young child, including her sister’s cancer death, her father’s disappearance, and her overnight move away from home, events that fractured her relationship with her mother and thrust her into a life-long pattern of abandonment and loss. Juggling professional success with unresolved grief, she follows a career path as a writer, journalist, professor, and spiritual director, traveling from West Texas to the plains of Spain, the forests of Pennsylvania, and the Alps in southern France trying to find a mysterious tale carried for generations in her family. Resisting the pull to either condemn or quickly forgive those who hurt her and avoiding the temptation to fall into the trap of spiritual bypassing, she chooses, instead, to follow the story’s call across thresholds of time and space, where she discovers a family legacy that illuminates the lives of all the women in her family. A universal story that speaks into the often-troubled relationship between mothers and daughters. Blending ancestral storytelling with spirituality and mystery, this is a memoir that will inspire the reader to believe in the power of story to transform the storyteller into a story carrier, where the magic of healing can begin.

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 BIOGRAPHY: Jane Hollinger Clark is a retired college teacher of composition, literature, and journalism, who worked for a major northeastern university and a small, private liberal arts college. She was employed as a site director for the National Writing Project in Berkeley, CA, to administer the Capital Area Writing Project at Penn State University, Harrisburg. Before entering academia, she spent years chasing legislative stories as a journalist for the Associated Press and Radio Pennsylvania. She now devotes her time to facilitating writing workshops aimed at leading others to discover the stories they carry, as well as traveling and gardening with her husband in their home near the Appalachian Forest in Pennsylvania. 

 social media links include:

Story Carriers: The Movement  (website)

(2) Facebook

Instagram

Join the Story Carrier Community (mailchi.mp)  (My Newsletter, Story Carrier)

(3) Story Carrier, The Movement (substack.com) (My Substack Page)

National Writing Project | Writers Council (nwp.org) (Writer’s Council, NWP)

janeclarkauthor@gmail.com

Merry Wrath Mysteries book #34
It’s not news that the Iowa towns of Bladdersly (Home of the Raging
Bladders) and Who’s There (the Fighting Who-rish) are rivals and have
been for more than a century. And as everybody knows—the best way to
deal with a rivalry is to exploit it! So Who’s There’s youngest mayor
creates The WhoBla Olympics to settle things once and for all!

Everyone is going to compete, including ex-CIA agent turned Girl Scout
leader Merry Wrath Ferguson and her troop. The events are a bit
strange, with Extreme Hide & Seek and Dodge Archery, but all’s fair in
the spirit of competition, right? Sure, there’s a little cheating and
sabotage going on, but it’s nothing…until a body turns up with Merry’s
arrow in its chest. And what could go wrong when you have two police departments taking the spirit of competition too far in seeing who will solve the crime first? Will Merry and her teammate, Hilly, medal in Dodge Archery? Will the event heal the rift between these two towns? Can Merry solve the crime
before Chief Magnum of the Bladdersly PD locks her up? Get your nachos and take your seat in the stands to see who comes out on top…and who is going down!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/221243998-medal-for-murder

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