{I've Been Reading} All Shell Breaks Loose

 All Shell Breaks Loose by Molly MacRae

The Haunted Shell Shop books are some of my favorite new cozy mystery titles. Maureen Nash inherited a shell shop on Okrakoke island that came with a resident pirate ghost and a lot of questions. This time they're about a haunted sword that appeared on the beach after one of her least favorite islanders claimed he was about to buy it. I've been reading this series since the first book and enjoyed them all, although this one didn't feel like it included as many details of the island setting that kept me coming back. I wouldn't recommend jumping in mid-series -- definitely start with the first book so you won't miss any of the fun! 

Murder in Miniature by Katie Tietjen

Inspired by Frances Glessner Lee and her miniature crime scenes, this book was right up my alley. I do wish I'd read the first one in the series first, because I was missing some important bits of backstory, but it works well enough as a stand alone. I loved the 1940s setting and the dollhouses and the fact that this one is a little darker than most of the cozies I read. 

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

en Reading} The Video Store Massacre

The Video Store Massacre by Michael Grimala

A group of middle school students secretly meets in the projection booth of an abandoned drive in theater to watch tapes from the local video store. Their imaginations fueled by gory movies and back issues of Fangoria, the four kids hope to film nightmares of their own and once they find an old film camera buried in the woods, there's nothing to stop them. This is a fast paced, nostalgic read that feels almost straight out of the 1980s (except it's actually set in 1994, which explains a few of what I thought were anachronisms.) It captures the era without overdoing it and there are some genuinely creepy scenes throughout the book. It's fun horror that never gets actually scary. 

Essense of Foul Play by Daryl Wood Gerber 

The grand opening of Emma Brennan's new spa, cafe, and gift shop is only days away and she's busy making sure that every last detail is perfect. Another local spa owner has expressed her unhapiness with the new competition, but that doesn't faze Emma at all -- until the woman turns up dead. Conflicts between local business owners mean that there's no shortage of suspects or motives. The first in a new series, this mystery is set in Carmel, California, the same community as the author's Fairy Garden series of mysteries and features some of the same characters. If you want an extremely detailed setting and lots of information about sound baths and meditation, along with an occasional fairy flittering past, this is the series for you. 

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

{I've Been Reading} The View from Here

The View From Here by Rachel Howzell Hall 

Nicole and Truman's marriage was struggling before the diving accident and, unlike the relationships in so many of the domestic thrillers I read, the two of them feel like really people with real conflict simmering between them. After Truman's body isn't discovered from the dive site after an extensive search, Nicole clings to the hope that he somehow might still be alive...and to the fear that he may be haunting her. Suspenseful and filled with increasingly unsettling apparitions, this book is an entertaining read that I tore straight through. A lot of the author's titles, including this one, are available on Kindle Unlimited so I'm adding them all to my TBR! 

Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with adance review copies. 

{I've Been Reading} Purple Blame Game

 Joanna Campbell Slan (who, full disclosure, is a friend of mine) has a new book out in the Kiki Lowenstein series! I stumbled across her books when I found the third one available for Kindle Unlimited, immediately headed to the library to catch up on the first two, and have read every single one that came out soon. And absolutely oodles of the short stories because I love spending time in the world of characters she's created. 

Purple Blame Game, the latest, has Kiki and her friends at Time in a Bottle scramblikng to crochet a hundred bunnies for hospitalized children. The book opens with the discovery of a murder victim in the alley behind the store, then the plot doubles back to the conflict filled days before the event, a tactic I think works really well in cozy mysteries. We're not spending the whole book waiting for the shoe to drop, and we still get all of the important information when we need to get it. There's a lot more I'd like to praise, but I'm avoiding spoilers here. There's lots of crafting, a situation that gets misinterpreted and causes problems, friction between the charcters. And Myrt is back -- which I love because I missed her when the was gone from the series!  

And then there at the books by people I don't know that publishers sent me to review....

A Cultivated Corpse by Debra Sennefelder

I've manged to miss one or two of the Food Blogger mystery series over the years, but I've enjoyed every one that I've read. This time around, members of the local garderning club are clashing over how to restore the grounds of a historic house. The conflict quickly escalates to murder and Hope and her friends are drawn into the investigation. The mystery is compled and satisfying. I enjoyed this one, but it felt like a couple of characters were absent. One of the biggest draws for me has always been Hope's bustling day to day life.