reviews

A Bitter Brew for Joy Author: Cleo Coyle When Joy’s steamy affair with her illustrious boss, the famed chef Tommy Keitel, turns deadly it’s up to Clare to spring Joy from prison and solve the mystery before it’s too late in more ways than one. Along for the ride is Detective Mike Quinn, who just might have more designs on Clare than she knows. Add into the mix an explosive and secretive Matt, and you have a brewing kettle of confrontation, bitter grounds, and a mega hit of eye-opening tension as the Keitel killings reveal a deadly thread. Meanwhile, Mike’s [...]

A Delightful, Comedic Cozy Mystery for Christmas Author: Sarah Strohmeyer In the sixth, and currently last of Sarah Strohmeyer’s screwball comedy cozy mystery series, Bubbles Yablonsky, part time hairdresser and part time reporter, is getting ready for her impending re-marriage to her blackmailing ex-husband. Meanwhile, the damped yuletide festivities are marred by the sudden murder of Debbie, the small steel town’s debutant, which leaves Bubbles’ best friend on the lam. Bubbles’ young daughter Jane is still suffering from the turmoil of her kidnapping and is changing personalities, while the psychiatrist Dan hired is pointing to Bubbles’ bad mothering as the [...]

A Toxic Panacea: A Made-Up History of the Bible Author: Karen Armstrong Karen Armstrong’s short, eight chapter opus, attempts to take in several thousand years of history, showing an evolution of the Bible from oral tradition, to written inception, to various different readings and philosophies. Karen Armstrong, respected historian now, is also an ex-Roman Catholic nun who left the faith after her horrible treatment in the pre Vatican II era. As such, readers who find out the history of the author are a little weary that her own unfortunate treatment (simply unforgivable when you read her back history) might color [...]