Series Review: The Knitting Mystery Series by Maggie Sefton

I can just hear the eyes rolling out there. Knitting? Seriously?
And I going to say, yes! But while there may be a knitting pattern at the end of the book, this mystery sleuth is not one to be trifled with.
Enter Kelly Flynn, self-employed accountant, softball player, property owner and murder investigator.
Sure she knits, but only learns to do so when she moves to Fort Connor and starts a new life.
Meet Kelly's circle of friends who supports her through the good and bad of life and its relationships, to say nothing of applying their considerable combined brainpower (lawyer, architect, therapist, real estate agent, computer programmer, and more) to help her solve murders happening in and around their town.
But real life happens too and the difficulties of the farmers, a down turn in the economy, changes in relationships are brought to life in this very entertaining series.
The stories follow a timeline and I would recommend that you read them in order. And being the romantic at heart, I am forever holding my breath to see if Kelly finds the love that she deserves. :)

A series well worth reading, even if you don't care for knitting! Lots of interesting facts about alpaca farming, wool dyeing and spinning are woven into the story without being just dry facts to make up the page count.

In my book this series deserves 5 stars all the way!

Series Review: A Books by the Bay Mystery series by Ellery Adams

May it not be said that having money solves all your problems. Meet Olivia Limoges. Millionaire. Aspiring author. Orphan. Business owner. And amateur sleuth.
Accompanied by her canine companion Captain Haviland and her ever helpful Oyster Bay writers group, murder crosses her path more often than she would like.
Of course it helps that one of the writers and a close friend is the local police chief Rawlings.

After years of being away Olivia returns to her home town to finally settle down and get some closure to all the things haunting her - hopefully.
What she did find were new friends, maybe a boyfriend, and murder happening on her doorstep!
Not the kind of homecoming anyone would wish for herself.

Linzé's Comments: I have read several books in the series and I really hope that Ms Adams will write many more. I love the characters and the interaction in the writers' group as they struggle with their novels, their daily lives and of course, putting their collective intellects together to solve the murders plaguing their town.
As the series progresses you learn more about Olivia and her difficult childhood and while she is an intensely private person, I constantly hope that amidst all the murder and mayhem there would be someone waiting in the wings to love her. Hey, I am a sucker for romance!

There is no label on the cover to show that Ms Adams is a best-selling author, but to my mind she should be. I love the books and can highly recommend the series to any mystery lover.

The series earns 5 stars from me :)

Series Review: Hamish MacBeth Mystery series by MC Beaton

A few years ago I found out that I have Scottish ancestors. Scotland is also one of the places that I want to visit before I die.
So reading this mystery series falls right into my "bucket list" if you want to call  it that.

While the sleuth is not an amateur, he is a police officer, the location and isolation of the village requires his investigative skills to rely on more than forensics and science.
Hamish MacBeth is not you average police officer. People call him lazy and the lord of the manor is of the opinion that he is not good enough to be considered for the dinner guest list. But underneath that veneer of society's perceptions, Hamish is a man that understands people and the things that make them tick, or is that what drives them to murder?
A series with very likeable characters, Hamish is not liked by all, the least of which is another officer who believes that Hamish's ambition is to take his job.
With his dog, hens and sheep to care for, a girlfriend of whom he is not always so sure of, and villagers who are perpetually up to no good, life is never the laid back, lazy thing that he is often accused of.
Set in the Scottish Highlands, in the village of Lochdubh, the reader experiences the life and love and investigations of Hamish MacBeth through the series of 25 books (so far).
Ms Beaton has written several series of books under various pen names, of which the Hamish MacBeth Mystery series is the longest running.

I always look forward to the next book on my reading list, and it is always one of the first that I would read when my order is delivered.

Worth its rave reviews and five stars? Definitely!

Series Review: The Cat Who Series by Lilian Jackson Braun

This is the first of the promised amateur sleuth series reviews I mentioned in August. I deferred the posts until the Follow Me Tour was over.

If you are a mystery fan and cat (or animal) lover this series will grab your attention straight away.
The sleuth of the series is a Siamese cat called Kao K'o Kung (Koko for short). He meets his human assistant James Qwilleran in the first book when he is left homeless after his first owner is murdered.
Of course a male needs companionship, and Yum Yum is the perfect female to fit into his domain. They have Qwill well trained when it comes to their choices in food, nothing so ordinary as canned tuna, thank you very much!
These three characters, Qwill, Koko and Yum Yum, will steal your heart and before you know it you will be as addicted as I am. Fortunately, there are many still for me to read. Ms Braun wrote 30 books in the series before she passed away in 2011.
I read the books in order, and find that it is best to do that. The mystery in each book stands on its own, but the backstory is better understood if you read them in order. Aside from the mystery to be solved in each book, you follow the path of James Qwilleran (Qwill to his friends), a middle aged, recovering alcoholic newspaper reporter, who also wants to write a novel. His return to the world of newspaper ink, also brings some really weird, funny and interesting people crossing his path to give added colour to the stories.
Life events, interesting women (read sometime girlfriends), cats with attitude and murders make for an entertaining series with the three companions as they dig up (or dig out) clues to find the murderers.
If you love character driven stories, old fashioned murder mysteries, and cats that have their own personalities, this series is definitely for you.