Sunday Salon: More Books To Share

Sunday Salon is here once again and it’s time to relax with our favorite beverage and discuss what books we’ve enjoyed lately.

Yesterday I asked how do you select a book when so many are published? Many commented they have their own system for selecting the perfect book, while others look to reviews and still others look for favorite authors and search the genre they enjoy.

Dru from notes from me graciously left a link to a great website, The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, where the latest book releases can be found. Dru, thanks so much. This will be handy. Hope you are safe and sound from Hurricane Irene.

No matter how you go about selecting a book to read, enjoying the adventure it takes you on is the fun part. Today I’d like to focus on 3 more books from Berkley Prime Crime that made their debut this month. Two of the books are the first in new series.

PLEATING FOR MERCY by Melissa Bourbon

Being a descendant of the legendary Butch Cassidy was a mixed blessing on its own, but for the Cassidy women there was more. Each generation since Butch had been blessed with a special ‘gift.’  Harlow Jean Cassidy thought the gift had skipped her generation, little did she know.

When her great-grandmother passes away, Harlow leaves her job as a Manhattan fashion designer and moves back to Bliss, Texas. But when she opens a dressmaking boutique in the turn-of-the-century farmhouse she inherited, Harlow senses an inexplicable “presence”. Her old friend Josie orders a gown for her upcoming wedding, but a murder has Josie looking at wearing prison strips instead of white. Harlow sets out to find the real killer and gets some help from an unusual source.

You don’t have to have a love of sewing to enjoy this new series. The characters are zany and the suspense will keep you on pins and needles. This is the first installment in the Magical Dressmaking Mystery series. The book includes dressmaking tips and a sneak peak at the second installment in the series, A FITTING END, slated for release in February 2012.

Melissa Bourbon, who sometimes answers to her Latina-by-marriage name Misa Ramirez, can be found at http://misaramirez.com/misa-ramirez-writing-as-melissa-bourbon-or-visa-versa/

Pleating for Mercy by Melissa Bourbon, A Magical Dressmaking Mystery, Obsidian, @2011, ISBN: 9780451234360, Paperback, 320 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

TEMPEST IN THE TEA LEAVES by Kari Lee Townsend

Sunny Meadows is a big city psychic who moves to the quaint town of Divinity, NY, to make it on her own. She opens a fortune telling business in an ancient Victorian house, inheriting the strange cat residing within. She names him Morty, as he seems a bit immortal.

Sunny gives her first reading to the frazzled town librarian and discovers the woman is going to die. When the woman flees in terror, Sunny calls the police, only she’s too late. The ruggedly handsome, hard-nosed Detective Mitch Stone is a “non-believer.” He finds the librarian dead, and Sunny becomes his number one suspect, forcing her to prove her innocence before the real killer can put an end to the psychic’s future.

This is the first installment in the Fortune Teller Mystery series.

Author Kari Lee Townsend’s website is http://www.karileetownsend.com

Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend, A Fortune Teller Mystery, Berkley Prime Crime, @2011, ISBN: 9780425242759, Paperback, 304 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

HARROWING HATS by Joyce and Jim Lavene

Summers are a special treat for assistant history professor Jessie Morton as she works at the Renaissance Faire Village. Each summer Jessie takes on a different apprentice job for her dissertation at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.

This summer Jessie is working with hat maker Andre Hariot. All is going well until one of the faire’s Three Chocolatiers is found drowned in a vat of chocolate in his shop. To make matters worse, a hat pin is found sticking out of the dead man’s eye. To help her boss, Jessie must sort through a long list of knaves, knights, and wenches who might have wanted to see the chocolatier double-dipped and dead.

Authors Joyce and Jim Lavene have created an intriguing group of characters. Their descriptions of the Renaissance atmosphere places the reader among the lords, ladies and knights of the Middle Ages. 

This is the fourth installment in the Renaissance Faire Mystery series, but is a stand alone book. The book includes Renaissance facts and a recipe. The other books in the series include: WICKED WEAVES, GHASTLY GLASS, and DEADLY DAGGERS.

Authors Joyce and Jim Lavene’s website is http://www.joyceandjimlavene.com.

Harrowing Hats by Joyce and Jim Lavene, A Renaissance Faire Mystery, Berkley Prime Crime, @2011, ISBN: 9780425242773, Paperback, 304 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - This book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

Don't you just love the covers of these cozies? Have a great Sunday and be safe.