"A Design to Die For" by Kathleen Bridge

In Kathleen Bridge's A Design to Die For, decorator Meg Barrett is invited to participate in Montauk, New York’s first annual Designer Showhouse, and great fun ensues when some well-heeled women try to one-up each other on the project. One of the owners of the showhouse winds up murdered, and the race is on to find out which of the many suspects killed the unlikable man.

Bridge’s fast-paced cozy is fifth in a series, and while I haven’t read the others, I was able to keep up with the shenanigans but did end the book with a desire to go back and read all of the others.

I enjoyed the setting of the Hamptons, a departure from the Southern-themed cozies I usually read. I also enjoyed the fact that the main character is hearing impaired, a characteristic I don’t ever remember seeing in a cozy heroine before.

Naturally, a few scenes in the book had someone preparing a cup of tea—the norm in cozies. And one tidbit in the book was memorable in light of some intrigue recently discovered here on this tea blog. One question raised in the plot was whether the home being used for the showhouse was actually designed by architect Stanford White. I kept thinking his name was familiar, and then I came across this line: “The story of how he was murdered in 1906 by the jealous husband of his mistress, actress Evelyn Nesbit, had been one of the biggest scandals of the new century.” Yes! I knew that! This picture of poor Evelyn, by then operating a tearoom in New York, garnered some fun discussion here back in May, so to come across her in a cozy mystery a few months later was quite fun.

Bridges has well-developed characters and a lively writing style that kept things hopping. Also, Meg’s growing friendship with a neighbor who is a writer was one I particularly enjoyed reading about, and I hope it deepens in a future book.

If you, too, would enjoy reading a cozy mystery set in the Hamptons, I’m happy to recommend this fun book!

Review copy courtesy of NetGalley

"Tea and Treachery" by Vicki Delany

Since I have enjoyed so many of Vicki Delany's other mysteries, I knew I would likely enjoy her new Tea by the Sea Mystery series, and I was so happy when I got an advance reader copy of Tea & Treachery from NetGalley.

Tea &Treachery has a rich cast of characters that stars Lily Roberts, a former Manhattan pastry chef who has recently fulfilled a dream of opening her own tearoom, Tea by the Sea, on the property of her grandmother's B&B, Victoria-on-Sea, in a small town near Cape Cod. Her tea-loving British grandmother, Rose, is a feisty 85-year-old who is charming when she wants to be but also quite meddlesome. Other characters include Lily's friend Bernadette (aka Bernie), a writer trying not so successfully to finish her book, and assorted helpers in the tearoom and nearby gardens.

Things seem to be going just swimmingly until Jack Ford, a local real estate developer, becomes determined to build a golf resort and convention center next door to Rose, disturbing the very serenity she most loves about the area. Alas, Lily's grandmother is unable to hold her tongue, and soon, Ford is suing Rose for slander. That should give her cause for concern, but of even more concern is the fact that Ford's lifeless body is discovered at the bottom of some stairs on Rose's property. Naturally, she is considered the prime suspect. Lily, Rose, and Bernie are determined to find the real killer, and when police don't seem to be having any luck, the three women are quite clever at conducting a shadow investigation of their own. (The B&B itself, it turns out, has a particularly delightful feature that assists the sleuths, and readers will look forward to learning more about this in future books.)

Tea &Treachery is a fast-paced cozy that has lots of suspects and red herrings that will keep readers guessing right up until the end. Tea lovers in particular will enjoy the new world Delany has created there at the seaside, and the fine sense of place makes this book a lovely way to while away an afternoon or two with a nice cup of tea at hand.

"A Sprinkling of Murder" by Daryl Wood Gerber

Over the weekend, I finished reading the first book in the new Fairy Garden Mystery series by Daryl Wood Gerber (who also writes as Avery Aames), and it was such a unique premise for a series that I just devoured it!

The storybook setting is truly a character all its own in A Sprinkling of Murder. In the charming, dog-friendly coastal town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, Courtney Kelly has opened a combination fairy garden store and tea shop called Open Your Imagination. In addition to selling fairy gardens and supplies, Courtney teaches others how to create and personalize their own fairy gardens. Perhaps she has a leg up on other fairy gardeners, though, since she has a friend-slash-muse in the form of the tiny fairy Fiona, who loves showing up at inopportune moments to surprise Courtney and her cat, Pixie. Only those who believe in fairies can actually see Fiona, and it's quite entertaining to observe which characters are believers and which are not.

Before dawn one morning, Courtney is at home in bed when Fiona dashes over to say something horrible has happened at Open Your Imagination. Courtney rushes to her shop and finds the body of the cantankerous Mick Watkins, owner of a neighboring business, lying next to the shop's backyard fountain, and he's been strangled. Courtney is immediately pegged as a prime suspect not only because Mick is found at her business but also because the two had sparred over him wanting to expand his grooming business, Wizard of Paws, into her coveted space. The body is barely cold before Courtney learns that Mick was cheating on his wife, Emily, with a local council member, an entanglement that complicates the investigation from the get-go. Lots of locals had reason to want Mick out of the picture, and not all of them have alibis that check out.

The mystery keeps readers hopping throughout the book, but the real stars of the show here are this magical town, the fairy garden business itself, and the many special teatimes, such as a book club tea held at the shop. A cozy mystery featuring a fairy as a character runs the risk of being too cute to be believable, but Gerber succeeds in making Fiona every bit as real—and with just as many foibles—as the human characters. 

Also, like many cozy mysteries, this one concludes with quite a few of the recipes mentioned in the story, and the author has included several gluten-free versions of the treats as well, which will no doubt be appreciated by those who eat gluten-free foods.