reviews

Agatha Starts a Detective Agency Author: M.C. Beaton In the 15th book of the Agatha Raisin series, our cantankerous heroine is once again bored with village life and devoid of a love interest. After a Parisian holiday gone awry, Agatha decides that it’s time to take on murder and mayhem big-time with her own detective agency. But the big time so far consists of finding lost cats and run-away teens with daddy’s car. Armed with two freelance retainers – a retired police officer recommended by Bill Wong and a video surveillance expert, Agatha soon creeps into the world of extra-marital investigation. [...]

A passion for mischief... Author:  Lyanda Lynn Haupt So Mozart had a pet bird.  It’s not a topic that sounds particularly captivating.  But in the hands of Seattle-based “ecophilosopher”, bird enthusiast and award-winning author Lyanda Lynn Haupt, the story of the 18th century’s greatest composer and an unassuming starling comes to life in ways that I didn’t expect.  Mozart’s Starling delivers a remarkable look at music, birds and everything in between. A common starling, planning shenanigans. Before Haupt can tackle the topic, however, she has to go all in and find a pet starling of her own.  As [...]

Magic Beans, Masquerades, and Murders Author: Cleo Coyle Central Park is abuzz with activity as New York’s first Storybook Kingdom festival thrills children and brings magic themed macchiatos to the tired adults. There are fantastical characters – knights and princes and princesses – everywhere, regaling children with classical stories from all over the world. Clare and her entourage (minus Tuck who is traveling with his contingent of actors), with their still fairly new coffee truck, are decked out in Jack the Bean Stalk ensembles, handing sweets to the children and dishing out coffees to an endless array of fairy-tale actors [...]