BONES OF A FEATHER: A Sarah Booth Delaney Mystery - Carolyn Haines

From the back of the book: A missing four-million-dollar necklace makes for high stakes for PI Sarah Booth Delaney when its wealthy owner is also snatched up in the latest charming southern mystery from Carolyn Haines.

When PI Sarah Booth Delaney takes on Monica and Eleanor Levert as clients, she doesn't have much hope of solving the case. The wealthy heiresses of Briarcliff in Natchez, MS, claim that a necklace worth four million dollars has been stolen, and they think that they can hurry the insurance payout if a reputable PI investigates. Sarah Booth has her doubts, and not just about the payout. All of hte evidence suggest the sister might be committing fraud.

Then, just when she begins to scratch the surface of the Levert family's sordid past and the blood money that their wealth was founded upon, Monica goes missing. The police suspect that the heiresses are still playing, and Eleanor isn't doing anything to make them think any different. But how can she? If she says or does anything besides pass on the insurance money to the kidnappers, they'll kill Monica.

With a family history that runs deep and dark and a twisting plot where no one is exactly what they seem. Sarah Booth is the Levert sisters' best and only hope in the latest in Carolyn Haines sparkling southern mystery series.

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Oh, how I love this series!! Sarah Booth and Tinkie are some of my favorite ladies in the book world. Smart, funny, resourceful and feisty. They take on the stolen insurance case for the Leverts even though they've promised their significant others that they will be more careful with their cases. It seems innocuous enough at the beginning, but everything begins to escalate with the abduction of one of the sisters.

There is a serious Gothic texture to this, the eleventh outing for Sarah Booth and Tinkie. I love Southern humor, Southern mystery and Southern Gothic. BONES OF A FEATHER has all three to the nth degree!!

BONES OF A FEATHER comes out on 21 June, do yourself a favor and buy this fine addition to the series.

Five sparkly Southern diamonds......

MAMA RIDES SHOTGUN: A Mace Bauer Mystery - Deborah Sharp

From the back of the book:Trouble on the Trail.....

Mama's fixin' to get hitched to Husband #5. But first, she coerces her daughter, Mace, to saddle up for some country-gal bonding on the Florida Cracker Trail. The trek takes a deadly turn when Lawton Bramble---wealthy rancher and one-time beau of Mama's---keels over in his Cow Hunter Chil.

Lawton had a horde of enemies and a famously bad ticker. Could a grudge-wielding rival have "spiced" the cattleman's chow? With (or maybe despite) the help of her sisters and her sexy ex-beau, Detective Martinez, Mace sets out to corral a low-down varmint who's determined to kill again.

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What a GORGEOUS cover!! I want a fast convertible Thunderbird in this shade of turquoise! Or a silk blouse....which is probably more what I can actually afford...or cowboy boots....oooooh.....
Love love love this series!! Mama just cracks me up and Mace does the best she can with what's given her, especially where Mama is concerned. Mama means well and only wants Mace to be happy...but what she thinks will make Mace happy is pretty much different from what Mace thinks.
Mama and Mace go on the annual Florida Cracker Trail for some bonding time before Mama marries hubby #5 and stumble onto what looks like the murder of a prominent landowner.
Plenty of suspects to be had and Mace's not quite boyfriend, Carlos the yumma-rooney Miami detective, is along for the ride to help stir Mace's emotions and assist in the detecting.
Along the way the reader learns some neat Florida history, why a Cracker is called a Cracker, and get to see the Florida that doesn't get as much attention as it should.
Five turquoise sparkly diamonds!!!

ORIGINAL SIN: A Sally Sin Adventure - Beth McMullen

From the back of the book: She has a license to kill...and carpool...

Seeing Lucy Hamilton, you would think she is just like any other suburban stay-at-home San Francisco mom. She takes her three-year-old son Theo to the beach, playground, and the zoo. She makes organic applesauce, folds laundry, and plays on the floor with Matchbox cars until her knees ache. What no one knows about Lucy, not even her adoring husband Will, is that for nine years she was known as Sally Sin, a spy for the USAWMD (United States Agency for Weapons of Mass Destruction). And that's just the way Lucy wants to keep it---a secret.


Ian Blackford, a notorious illegal arms dealer and Lucy's long-forgotten nemesis, returns to the USAWMD's radar, and they are forced to call Lucy back to action to lure Blackford out into the open. As she races to unravel the mystery that surrounds Blackford's return (and get dinner on the table), she realizes that the answers she needs lie in a past that she's tried very hard to forget. In a race against time, Lucy must fight to save herself, her family --and, oh yes--the world.

Now True Lies meets I Don't Know How She Does It in a rollicking debut novel that reminds us all that "some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall" (William Shakespeare)

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Back of the book says ORIGINAL SIN is a mix of True Lies meets I Don't Know How She Does It......


I had just as much fun reading this book as I do watching a Burn Notice marathon sundae with a Long Kiss Goodnight cherry on top.

It took a bit for me to dig the story, maybe a few pages of getting used to how Lucy dealt with her life of motherhood and wifedom. Once she began telling me how this life came to be from the Phoenix ashes of her spy past, I was hooked.

Lucy/Sally tells her story in vignettes of flashbacks when her past comes looking for her in the form of Simon Still, her spy boss.

Sally/Lucy has a way with languages that had the agency come looking for her in college and soon she's off on missions in far-flung places, living it up in fab locales like Cambodia chasing down characters like The Blind Monk.

And she has a nemesis, Ian Blackford, who she can't seem to shake. He kidnaps her on a fairly regular basis, but no one can see it coming fast enough to catch him at it.

When her past comes looking for her, she becomes the mother bear protecting her den and cub. She won't have anyone taking away what she's worked so hard to have now.

Thank you, Library Thing, for sending this out to me!! Can't wait to see what happens next. ORIGINAL SIN: A Sally Sin Adventure comes out on 12 Jul 2011.

Five spy mom kickin' it pearls.......

GONE WITH A HANDSOMER MAN - Michael Lee West

From the back of the book: "All I ever wanted in life was true love, a set of copper cookware, and the perfect recipe for Red Velvet cake. The last thing I wanted was to end up on Charleston's six o'clock news, accused of murder and a slew of other crimes."

After Teeny Templeton catches her fiance playing naked badminton with two other women, she finds herself in a whole lot of trouble. When he is found dead a few days later, all fingers point to her and Teeny's only hope is an old boyfriend-turned-lawyer. With evidence mounting and the heat turning up, Teeny must figure out where tolive, how to support herself, how to clear her name, and how to protect her heart.

Hilarious, sexy, and wise, this debut mystery from acclaimed author Michael Lee West is full of surprises.

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On the back of the book, one of the blurbs states that they hope that there is going to be a sequel...I am with the blurb writer! I love mysteries of all kinds and in the tippy top are the ones taking place in the South. There's humor, food and superb characters along with the mystery solving.

I adore Teeny! She is the epitome of my vision of the strong, sassy, git'r'done Southern woman who finds herself in a pickle and goes about doing what needs doing to get out of it.

The dialogue tickled me no end, from PI Red calling Teeny 'girlie' to Teeny's way of getting through situations with imaginary recipes like Smother Your Love gravy poured over Forget Him pork chops, with a heaping side dish of He's Better Off With Her pie.

Thank you, LibraryThing, for sending this out to me for my February selection!

Five big ol' sparkly had me at nekkid badminton diamonds.....

DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE BETWEEN YOU AND MY SHOES: Domestic Equalizers #4 - Dixie Cash, narr Peggity Price

From the back of the BOCD: Dixie Cash---best-selling Texas author of MY HEART MAY BE BROKEN, BUT MY HAIR STILL LOOKS GREAT---thrills millions with the ongoing antics of Lone Star duo Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin. This rollicking tale sends Salt Lick's own sleuthing cosmetologists on a collision course with the Big Apple.

When they receive an all-expensese-paid trip to a New York City PI convention, Debbie Sue basks in the glow of validation while Edwina sets her sights on some Fifth Avenue footwear. After raising a ruckus at the Dallas airport, the Texas Tornadoes arrive in New York, where they befriend a small-town librarian. While helping the bashful gal hook up with an NYPD detective, the Domestic Equalizers stumble across a charming killer who could leave them both stone-cold in their new Jimmy Choos.

Peggity Price's spot-on narration keeps listeners laughing as the zany pair--high on hairspray, rodeo boots, and stiletto heels---confronts big-city life.

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Lordy! This one is the best one yet of the series!!! The mystery started a lot earlier and the romance was fairly mellow. I honestly don't mind when the mystery starts or how much romance goes on...so long as Debbie Sue and Edwina do their thang, this reader/listener is a happy pup.

Debbie Sue and Edwina are asked to head up to New York City to speak at a convention. There are some gaffes and snafu's, but that's to be expected. And I kept cracking up throughout. Bless their hearts, they take NYC and the NYPD and the bad guys by storm.

What they may lack in 'sophistication' they more than make up for with their common ordinary horse sense. They can read a scene and people like no one bidness and that works in their favor when they discover a likely serial killer.

I think I am getting this whole series on audio for my keeper shelf. I would love to visit with the gals any time I want.

Five big ol' NYC ain't seen nuthin' yet diamonds....

I GAVE YOU MY HEART, BUT YOU SOLD IT ONLINE: Domestic Equalizers #3 - Dixie Cash, narr Peggity Price

From the back of the BOCD: Dixie Cash novels score critical accolades while slaying readers with witty mysteries starring the Domestic Equalizers, aka Debbie Sue Overstreet and her best friend Edwina. In their third outing, the gals from Salt Lick, Texas, wrangl with a mystery involving a handsome bull-riding champeen.

It's apparent to 12-year-old Jill that her I'm-just-fine-without-a-man mom Allison has grown jaded and needs to get back on the dating scene. So she goes on the Internet and lands a catch Allison would be crazy to throw back: strapping rodeo star Quint Matthews. It seems like the perfect match, but Quint comes to town with a heap o' trouble in tow. Now Quint must turn to the spunky Domestic Equalizers to find out who's tailing him before somebody ends up dead as armadillo roadkill.

Peggity Price captures all the West Texas flavor with a narration that adds spice and sizzle to this side-splitting tale.

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Oh, how I love this series. I did have to suffer through DH's chatter about some 'anomalies' in the logic, but I know to go with the flow...anomalies schanomalies....Debbie Sue and Ed crac me the hell up!

The mystery kind of meanders and really doesn't make a show until later in the book and that's okay, too. It's also secondary to the sort of romance between Allison and Quint, then later really heats up between Allison and Tag, the best friend of Quint. Allison meets Quint via her daughter's good intentions of the online dating service. She thinks Quint is easy on the eyes, but a little full of himself. Quint takes her to a restaurant that his best friend owns and Allison meets Tag...owner of the restaurant. And they keep meeting up and falling more for each other, but unwilling to do more about it because of Quint.

Quint is in his own world of trouble and hires Debbie Sue and Edwina to help him out. Debbie Sue still thinks of Quint as a good friend and everyone else thinks Quint is an egotistical ex-boyfriend of Debbie Sue, in particular Debbie Sue's husband.

Favorite scene in the book is the 'toy' party...O..M..G!!! It has to be read or listened to, I really cannot do it justice here....but...O..M..G funny!

Please do yourself a favor, if you like a funny mystery, please get this book, this series!

Five funny funny Texas diamonds.....

REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS - Lisa Lutz, narr Christina Moore

From the back of the BOCD: Lisa Lutz's mystery series starring the hyper dysfunctional Spellman family has earned her a coveted Edgar Award nomination. The family's third adventure, REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS, has been named an alternate selection by the Literary and Mystery Guilds.

After being forced into therapy, unapologetic screw-up Izzy Spellman is taking a break from the family PI business. But that doesn't stop her from doing some investigating on her own. her brother David--the golden child--is acting bizarre. Her sister Rae--the anti-Izzy---just earned an unusually PSAT score. And for her friend Milo, she's looking into a case involving a man's suspicious wife. Izzy has her hands full juggling all of these mysteries, and as usual, trouble nips her heels as she tries to solve each one.

A Gen X detective for the 21st century, Izzy is being compared to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum. Narrator Christina Moore lends a riotous voice to Izzy's antics for a hilarious audio experience.

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Oh how I love this series. Izzy cracks me up, her whole family is a crazy bunch, especially littlest Spellman, Rae. She requires constant monitoring and leaves her family bemused every second of the day. Watching her in action with her wheeling and dealing is a joy, but I'm glad I am watching at a distance. She'd make me nuts.

Poor Izzy needs a place to live, hers is a dump. She needs a job, she got fired from her bartending job so that she'll go back to her family's PI business. All of her friends are leaving her, moving away. And she is court mandated therapy that she is resisting as only Izzy can.

It's not necessary to read the series in order. Each one is a hoot on its own and I didn't lose anything in the translation by listening to them out of order.

Do yourself a favor and get this series either in handheld or the audio version. This is how I've enjoyed the three out so far and it's been fabulous. Christina Moore is perfect!

Five snort laugh beans......