A Sheetcake Named Desire

A Sheet Cake Named Desire by Jacklyn Brady (Berkley Prime Crime Mystery, 2011)(A Piece of Cake Mystery)

Cake Artist Rita Lucerno visits her hopefully soon-to-be ex-husband’s New Orleans shop, Zydeco Cakes, to get his signature on the papers that will finally end their marriage two years after they separated. She discovers her ex’s body. Between her former mother-in-law, Miss Frankie, wanting Philippe’s killer caught and proving to Detective Sullivan that she is not the prime suspect, Rita starts working on her own investigation.

Jacklyn Brady is off to a good start on this series set in Big Easy.

Sentenced to Death

Sentenced to Death by Lorna Barrett (Berkley Prime Crime Mystery, 2011)(A Booktown Mystery)

Tricia Miles, owner of the mystery book shop Haven’t Got A Clue, is set on selling books during Stoneham, New Hampshire’s Founders’ Day celebration. However, Deborah Black, Tricia’s Friend and the organizer of Founders’ Day is killed while giving the opening speech when a small air craft crashes into the gazebo where she’s standing. Tricia has a feeling that it’s a little more than the tragic accident that the sheriff’s department claims. It’s up to her to prove it.

Lorna Barnett’s fifth in the line of Booktown Mysteries is as well written and drawing as the first. While there are hints to the identity of the murderer, it’s only at the very end that you will realize who it is.

Book #5 in the Booktown Mystery series

Antiques Flee Market

Antiques Flee Market by Barbara Allen (Kensington 2008) (Trash 'n' Treasures Mystery)

Tempest in the Tea Leaves

Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Kari Lee Townsend (Berkley Prime Crime Mystery, 2011) (A Fortune Teller Mystery)

First of a new series. Sunny (Sylvia) Meadows, daughter of a Doctor and Lawyer, moves from New York City to Divinity New York to be a psychic. Along the way, a house (named Vicky) and a cat she names Morty finds her. However, it's not smooth sailing. On her first week in town, one of her clients dies, and she's the number one suspect. Sunny wants to clear her name, and the Mayor decides that she is to partner with the cop investigating the murder. Skeptic doesn't describe Detective Mitch Stone's opinion of Sunny's profession. He's determined to put her in jail for the murder, and have Morty put in a pound.

The book was good, tedious in places, but it has possibilities as a good series.