{I've Been Reading} The Pumpkin Vice Cafe

 The Pumpkin Vice Cafe by Ellie Alexander

Twenty-three books into the Bakeshop Mysteries, this felt like the perfect cozy. Jules and her friends are home in Ashland, the twins are due any day, Lance is making wedding preparations, and snow is starting to fall. There's lots of delicious baking going on (I took a break from reading to put a pan of apple cider cake in my own oven -- it was from a box, but I don't have the skills that Jules and her staff have perfected!) Then Jules discovers the body of Lance's wedding planner in an icy creek and the perfect season has a satisfying and complex murder investigation added to the mix. I loved every page!  

Monsters in the Archive by Caroline Bicks

This is everything that I wish On Writing (actually written by Stephen King, unlike this book) would have been. I loved this book so much more than I expected to! Written by a scholar who was given access to Stephen King's private archives, it compares early drafts to the published versions of his work. It's a welcome peek behind the curtain, showing what a few of my favorite King stories started as and then evolved into. Sometimes that's big changed to the plot and sometimes it's tiny word choices that made a huge different. Seeing how he played with language and explained those choices to the copy editors was really interesting, especially when you compare the idea of hand typed drafts with today's spell check and grammar editors. This reminded me of why I loved his earlier stuff so much. 

A Map to Murder by Michelle Chouinard

This time around, the tours of San Francisco are focused on the Summer of Love and Capri is helping one of her clients find out what happened to a string of missing women dating back to the 1960s. Betweeen the tours and flashbacks to one of the victims before she went missing, I felt totally immersed in the setting. Cliffhangers at the ends of the flashbacks kept me guessing and turning pages. Capri and friends have a lot going on outside of their investigation and there's just enough backstory to remind me what had happened in the two previous books. 

Witch Trial by Harriet Tyce

Wow. The end of this book is....well, I can't figure out what words to use without venturing into spoiler territory and if you're going to read this one you DON'T want spoilers. So I'll keep my mouth shut. It's an investment of time and energy to get to the payoff. I was ready to put this one down after the first thirty or so pages. That murder trial in the description? You're reading about it filtered through the eyes of a jury member, an unlikable doctor with marital and career problems. It's the slowest of slow burns. I slogged my way through to the end...and then that end changed my mind about the whole thing. I'm still not sure I enjoyed it, but I'm more impressed than I expected to be. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} #VanDeath

 #VanDeath by Brian Asman 

This road trip is the stuff of nightmares, or maybe the stuff of grindhouse films. It takes a while to get going, but once our van life couple hits the road, it doesn't slow down. I didn't particularly like either Jasper or Morgan, but by the time things started to go really bad, I was pulling for both of them.  Camping in Death Valley would be precarious enough, but every bit of safety is gradually stripped away. At one point, I was so caught up in the book I actually screamed when my husband startled me. 

I am the Monster Under the Bed by Emily Zinnikas

This book straddled the line between thriller and horror. There are familiar thriller elements -- a young woman has returned to her childhood home after years away even though she's still blamed for the unsolved murders of her friends. Then throw in the fact that she's tossing food into the forest every night and wishing she could still deciper the language of the trees. And the monster under her bed that almost has to be real because whatever it was taught her to read... I couldn't put it down. Every time I thought I understood what was going on, something made me question myself. 

Antiques Web by Barbara Allen

The Trash 'n' Treasures series always delivers plenty of entertaining fun. Vivian and Brandy are bickering. (How did I manage to miss the last book, where Brandy apparently got married?!) There are lots of details about antiques and vintage things and a section on the history of pinochle. (I'll admit that I skimmed over the rules because there's no way I'll be playing that card game anytime soon.) You'll find  recipes within the chapter and mourning jewelry and a couple of murders and a whole lot of parantheses, which I have a new appreciation for after trying to summarize all of the delightful chaos. 

And apparently there's a MOVIE that's streaming free on Tubi, which I'll be watching while I work on my latest knitting project. 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} Corpse Creek

We Already Dug The Grave by Emma C. Wells

It starts with tea leaves and psychich gifts and protective bones hung from fence posts. This is one of those books that alternates between "now" and "then." The reader knows something bad happened, but the first person narrator is keeping secrets from the reader and won't reveal what it was until much later in the book. (Actually, there are multiple things and a some are revealed sooner than others.) I couldn't put it down because I wanted to find out what had happened to one of the people from Milly's past. There's a whole lot of other, probably more important stuff going on in the plot, but it was that element that hooked me. These characters and their relationships are going to stick with me for a long time.  

Wildwood by Ashley Woo

Elinor spent her childhood summers at Wildwood, roaming the two hundred acres of land with her cousins. She never understood why contact with those visits stopped without explanation and she was cut off from her extended family. She certainly never expected to inherit the property, but when the news comes, it's a welcome lifeline. The plot unfold slowly as Elinor explores the house and grounds. Her husband is working nights at a rural hospital, so she's alone in the master bedroom surrounded by a nineteenth century mural of creepy reaching trees. I'm not sure if this truly qualifies as "folk horror" but it definitely has that vibe. Pregnant heroine in an isolated setting with a creepy history, wealthy neighbors who are obviously keeping secrets...this book was right up my alley! 

Corpse Creek by Vincent Ralph

Bad things happen to the residents of Bleak Haven. After he visits the creek with his friends on the anniversary of his brother's drowning, something follows Ethan home, watching him from the shadows. The town, with its history of serial killers and curses, provides a great backdrop for the story. The author perfectly captures that feeling of splashing in the water on a hot summer day and wondering just what's below that steep dropoff where the water gets deeper and you can't see the bottom. It's a fun, fast paced read that I enjoyed just as much as I enjoyed the first book in the series. 

Fear Farm by Vincent Ralph

I wish this settings in this book had been half as vivid as Corpse Creek. It feels like it could have been a much more captivating read, but it's a run of the mill YA slasher with lots of characters and lots of dialogue. A few times, the plot was moving so quickly, I lost track of who had just died. Sometimes I went back to check, sometimes I figured it didn't matter. The end reveal is kind of neat, but it's definitely not my favorite of the four book series. 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance review copy. 

{I've Been Reading}

The Alchemist of All Hallows Eve by Gigi Pandian

Take everything that's wonderful about the Accidental Alchemist series and then add old fashioned Halloween traditions and a seance. Zoe and Max are looking for a house to share and she's found the perfect place complete with an orchard and a backyard cottage with a full kitchen where Dorian the gargoyle can create his vegan masterpieces. One tiny problem -- it's known as the Murder House and there might be bodies in the walls. Or clowns. The urband legends are just a bit unclear. I've loved every book in the series, but this one is probably my favorite. Did you know that fortune telling bread was a thing? 

She's a Doll by Barbara Truelove

After her murder, Lucy McQuinn possesses an antique doll. She's angry and afraid and no one but the jerk who killed her even realizes she's dead. I was expecting something along the lines of Tiffany from the Chucky franchise, or maybe the China doll from that story we all told at slumber parties. Lucy is something a lot less scary and a lot more entertaining. She's small, she's broken, the only person who can hear her refuses to listen....but she's also very, very determined.  I absolutely loved this book. It's an emotional roller coaster with a killer doll as the sympathetic protagonist.  If there's a realistic way to tell the story of a murderous bride doll, this is it! (Don't skip the book group questions at the end.) 

Zero Lives Remaining by Adam Cesare

Oh my gosh -- this is the kind of horror novella I didn't know I was looking for! It starts in 1989 with Robby, making pizzas at FunCave Arcade. He loves his job, has perfected his technique for making the frozen dough and sauce come out perfectly -- and then his sleeve snags on the oven's conveyor belt and things go really bad really fast. His spirit remains in the arcade until 2014 when a series of events makes things go much, much worse. Robby was a harmless presence watching over the gamers.  That all changes in an instant. Fast paced and gory, with characters who actually feel like people, I really enjoyed this one. 

Murder on the Rocks by T. E. Kinsey

It's a murder on a country estate, but this estate is a luxuriously converted fort on an isolated island. There's no way to leave and no way to report the death until the boat returns to take them home. Set in 1913 and rich with historical detail, this is the thirteenth Lady Hardcastle mystery and the first that I've read. There's not a lot of backstory included, but it was easy enough to jump in without trying to figure out what I'd missed. I really enjoyed the chance to vicariously step back in time. The murder weapon was definitely unique and the mystery was entertaining.  Now I want to know if all of those snippets of stories that Flo and Lady Hardcastle divulged through the course of the book are from the earlier titles. 

Two Purloined Pillows by Allie Pleiter

The second book in the Nimble Needle mystery series really highlight's Shelby's effort to take over her mother's needlework shop. For decades, it's been Nina's Nimble Needle and Nina herself is having trouble stepping back. The shop is hosting two rival needlepoint designers for the town's annual arts festival and they expect their every demand to be catered to -- by Nina. Shelby is struggling to keep the situation under control...and then one of their difficult needlework designers drops dead in front of everyone at the festival's opening event. I enjoyed this one. There's lot of focus on needlepoint and the canvas and threads. The murder mystery has a satisfying conclusion. I do with the author spent a little less time telling us that needlepoint isn't for grandmas. Don't we all know that already? 

Disclosure -- The publishers provided me with advance review copies .